Again With This

Dawson's Creek, Melrose Place & Beverly Hills, 90210

Dawson's Creek  \\  S03.E01

Like A Virgin

Dawson gets touched for the very first time by the mysterious new girl in town.

Dawson, returning from spending his whole offscreen summer in Philadelphia with Gale, ends up on a bus next to a very confident pixie-cut blonde. When she disappears after he apparently bores them both to sleep yammering about Joey, he assumes he’ll never see her again. He assumes wrong, and is no match for her aggressive come-ons. Her sexual overtures while Dawson’s out driving them around in Mitch’s boat lead Dawson to make some reckless choices with expensive consequences; knowing this girl works at the local exotic dance establishment, Pacey gets the idea to knock off Risky Business with a stripper party at the Leery house. Through all this, Joey has alternated between parrying the unwanted attention of Rob Logan, her new boss at the marina, and regretting the way she told Dawson off in the Season 2 finale. Roomies Jen and Jack have reached a new level of platonically intimate friendship and are so adorable even Grams seems like they’re giving her a cavity — but in a fun way! Less fun: the tyranny of cheer captain Belinda McGovern, who is terrorizing her classmates with slut-shaming and fatphobia. Jen notices, apparently for the first time, and decides to fight back by trying out for the cheerleading team. But what you really want to know is whether her hair has grown back out: we’re thrilled to let you know it has. You made it through the wilderness of our two-week holiday break: welcome back to our episode on “Like A Virgin”!

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