Pacey Witter
Pacey John Witter (born January 1983) is a fictional character and one of the lead roles from the WB television drama Dawson's Creek, portrayed by Joshua Jackson.[1][2][3]
| Pacey Witter | |
|---|---|
| Dawson's Creek character | |
 Joshua Jackson as Pacey Witter | |
| First appearance | "Pilot" (episode 1.01) |
| Last appearance | "...Must Come to an End" (episode 6.24) |
| Created by | Kevin Williamson |
| Portrayed by | Joshua Jackson |
| In-universe information | |
| Full name | Pacey John Witter |
| Nickname | Pace, Witter |
| Occupation | Professional :
Academic : Cooking school (formerly; graduated) Capeside High School (formerly; graduated) |
| Family | John Witter (father) Mrs. Witter (mother) Gretchen Witter (sister) Kerry Witter (sister) Douglas Witter (brother) Unnamed older sister Unnamed nephews and nieces |
| Significant other | Love interests :
Joey Potter (wife) Jennifer Lindley (former best friend, deceased) Andrea McPhee (best friend) Jack McPhee (best friend) Danny Brecher (mentor) William Krudski (friend) |
| Hometown | Capeside, Massachusetts |
| Residence | New York City, New York Formerly: Capeside, Massachusetts |
Fictional biography
Background
Pacey Witter is a sarcastic underachiever 15-year-old boy when the show first starts. Constantly labeled by his family as a "black sheep", he has a distant relationship with his emotionally abusive parents. He's been friends with Dawson Leery since his childhood. Pacey has also known Joey his whole life, though they had a bickering relationship until they fall in love as teens.[4]
Season 1
In season one, a 15-year-old boy Pacey is introduced as Dawson's inconsequent best friend and somewhat the "Bad Boy" type. He falls in love and loses his virginity to his English teacher, Tamara Jacobs (Leann Hunley). When Pacey relays the details of his sexual encounter with Ms. Jacobs to Dawson in a school bathroom, the conversation is overheard by another boy smoking marijuana in the next stall. Rumors quickly begin to spread about the nature of Pacey's relationship with the 36-year-old teacher and the ensuing scandal eventually forces Ms. Jacobs end their relationship and leave town.
Following his relationship with Tamara, Pacey spends most of his time hanging out with Jen, Dawson and Joey, with who he always had an antagonistic relationship. Forced to partner on a biology project, Pacey and Joey spend a whole day together and Pacey finds himself romantically interested in Joey. He realizes that maybe he could like her and asks Dawson if he can ask Joey out, which forces Dawson to assess his own feelings toward Joey. Pacey kisses Joey, but she turns him down. Pacey also comically enters a beauty pageant and performs a skit from Braveheart.
Season 2
In season two, Pacey wants to reinvent himself, dying his hair and trying to get close to his longtime crush, Kristy Livingstone, which unfortunately does not work out. He decides to throw his 16th birthday party at the docks in an effort to change the general perception of him, but is dismal as nobody knows it's his party and Dawson forgets his birthday all together – luckily Dawson realizes this and later makes up for it. Pacey goes through a radical change when he meets Andie McPhee, an academic overachiever who is new to Capeside. They come out of the gate sparring and slowly develop a romance, though this progress is halted when Pacey's ex-girlfriend, Tamara, returns to Capeside. Pacey and Tamara kiss, but ultimately part ways and Pacey is able to finally get some closure on his first love. Pacey's low self esteem is boosted by the support and encouragement Andie gives him, and he slowly starts believing that he can do whatever he wishes in life and is able to improve academically.
Pacey and Andie get together and she offers to help Pacey reform his study habits and Pacey begins to do well in school, achieving his first-ever A. The two grow closer, embarking on a sexual relationship as well. Pacey is, at first, overcome with emotion by all of these changes to his life and the lack of predictability that had become the only stable force in his life, but though it terrifies him, comes to terms with how important Andie is to him and how much he loves her. His recent inspiration for changing his life also makes the psychological abuse of his family all the more straining, which culminates in a fishing trip Pacey and Dawson take with their fathers – and Jack, who Pacey invites along in spite of Dawson's jealousy and subsequent ire. Pacey spends the entire trip doing his best to do as his father tells him and stay out of harms way, but is constantly berated for his efforts. At the end of the trip Pacey catches a big fish and wins a competition upon their return to Capeside, but his father manages to ruin the victory by telling Pacey that he probably won't have many more moments like that.
As Andie's mental health begins to suffer due to the strain of caring for her mother and the death of her eldest brother Tim, Pacey becomes concerned for her as well as their future and struggles with what he can do to help Andie. Eventually the pressure starts getting to Andie and she breaks up with Pacey, who is adamant that he not push her away at a time where she needs him and he tells her that he loves her for the first time. Andie suffers a nervous breakdown when she begins to hallucinate that she is seeing her deceased brother, and takes a leave of absence at the end of the season for a stay in a mental health facility. The strained relationship Pacey has with his neglectful and alcoholic father is further explored this season, as well as the effect Andie has on that relationship. When Andie leaves for the mental health facility to get better, Pacey misses her terribly and his abrasive father makes a snide comment about Andie being crazy, for which Pacey hits and scolds him. Near the end of the season, Andie tells Pacey's father over the phone to give Pacey a hug for her, and his father does. This ultimately leads to a touching moment — it seems that they can start to put their past behind them and, for the first time, Pacey looks for some support from his father and actually gets it.
Season 3
After a summer apart, Pacey is anxiously awaiting the return of Andie, all the while encouraging Dawson to make things happen with Eve. After Dawson rejects Joey he asks Pacey to look out for her for a while. Wanting to surprise Andie, Pacey brings Joey along to pick Andie up early at the facility where's she has been treated over the summer. Andie acts very distant from Pacey from the moment she sees him and eventually tells him that she had an affair and, devastated, Pacey breaks up with her. Pacey buys and works on restoring a wrecked boat, occupying himself with the project to get over Andie. While Andie dating a guy who she says attacked her briefly bring her and Pacey together, he tells her that they cannot get back together. He doesn't love her like that anymore.
After Pacey is deemed the failure again by his family, he pursues a purely sexual relationship with Jen. Both agree that there will be no emotion involved whatsoever. While trapped on Witch Island with Joey, Dawson and Jack, the two proceed to make out in the condemned church, which seems to be haunted by the spirits of thirteen girls who were burned alive there in the 1600s. They keep trying to hook up in the following days, but something always interrupt them.
Pacey and Jen are nearly caught having sex in Dawson's room after he returns home from a dentist appointment. He finds Pacey on his bedroom floor apparently playing a video game, while Jen is gone.Dawson finds a condom on his bedroom floor and gets suspicions about who Pacey is seeing. Meanwhile, Pacey and Joey start to take dancing lessons to win a schollarship. Dawson and Jen later join Joey and Pacey in ballroom dancing, and Dawson automatically assumes that Pacey is sleeping with Joey. When he and Joey find Pacey and Jen making out in the coat closet of the ballroom studio, everyone is shocked. Joey overreacts and Jen suspects she likes Pacey. Pacey tells her that there's nothing going on between Joey and him, but still they decide that the fling is not working and they are better off as friends.
Also suffering falling grades, Pacey has to complete an English Class project – starring in a school production of Barefoot in the Park. Coincidentally, Andie is the Assistant Director on the play and they eventually manage to work well on the project together. Although semi-coerced into doing the play, Pacey eventually finds that he enjoys it and has fun playing the character of Paul. After the show, he and Andie talk a bit and mend fences, deciding to start anew as friends.
As the season progresses, Pacey realizes he may have feelings for Joey, which desperates him. He gets into a fight with a bully who admits to vandalizing a mural Joey paints for the school and as punishment he is assigned to mentor a young, neglected boy with a rebellious attitude not unlike Pacey's.
To encourage Joey's art Pacey rents her a wall. He eventually acts on his feelings and kisses Joey. She kisses him back but gets very angry with the possible implications of the kiss.
During a spring break visit to Dawson's Aunt Gwen in Stolen Kisses, Pacey's childhood friend Will Krudski, who used to live in Capeside and also knows Joey and Dawson, comes to visit and comes along on the trip. While at Aunt Gwen's, Pacey and Joey feel tense and uncomfortable. Joey tells Pacey that she feels alive when he's next to her and Pacey counts to 10 and kisses her. However, Dawson's aunt interrupts the kiss. Later the night they both confess their feelings for each other, telling that even though it's tearing them apart they can't get rid of it.
When Dawson learns of Pacey and Joey's relationship in the episode The Longest Day, he gets furious and gives Joey an ultimatum. His friendship or Pacey. Joey breaks up with him, in the hope of mending things with Dawson, and they both cry.
During the Anti-prom, Pacey goes with Andie as his date, and Joey goes with Dawson. She gets uncomfortable with situation and Jack encourages her to look for Pacey. She asks him to dance with her and they both look heartbroken about having to hide their feelings.
Pacey decides to leave Capeside and spend the summer sailing, but not before making one last grand gesture to Joey. He paints on Joey's wall "Ask me to stay". She doesn't ask him to stay, but after Dawson tells her he knows she loves Pacey and that she should go live that love she decides to tell Pacey. Joey races to meet him before he sets sail and tells him she is in love with him. Pacey and Joey then leave Capeside for the summer on his boat, the True Love.
Season 4
Pacey and Joey return from their summer at sea and are still madly in love. At this point it seems that Pacey's relationship with Dawson has been irrevocably altered. Pacey's older sister, Gretchen, returns to Capeside from college and they move in together into a beach house that Gretchen rents.
Pacey and Joey adjust to life back in Capeside as a couple. Pacey continues to struggle with school as he and Joey ponder their futures beyond Capeside. Throughout the majority of the season they re-affirm their commitment to one another and are chosen "Class Couple".
On the senior class ski trip, Pacey and Joey consummate their relationship. Pacey is later hurt to learn that Joey lies to Dawson about this at first, though she eventually tells him the truth. Towards the end of the season, Pacey and Joey begin having difficulties stemming from the future beyond high school. Believing that he's holding Joey back and growing frustrated with himself and what he sees as his lack of prospects beyond high school, Pacey eventually breaks up with Joey at the Prom. Despite their strong feelings for each other, both sadly go their separate ways.
The season ends with Pacey graduating high school and taking a job on a yacht and leaving Capeside once again.
Season 5
After working as a deck hand on a yacht all summer following graduation from high school, Pacey settles in Boston and takes a job working as a chef in a fancy restaurant, Civilization. When Jen discovers that he's in town Pacey asks her not to tell the others, but Joey sees him at the restaurant. They share a sweet reunion on Pacey's boat, as friends. Pacey has a relationship with one of the waitresses at Civilization, Karen. This turns out to be problematic as she is having an affair with the head chef, Danny, a married man that Pacey considers a mentor.
He also tries to help out Dawson after the death of Mitch Leery. He and Audrey (Joey's roommate) become interested in each other and quickly embark on a physical relationship. During the gang's spring break trip to Florida, Audrey and Pacey decide to make their relationship official. Pacey's mentor, Danny, leaves Civilization and a new manager, Alex Pearl (Sherilyn Fenn), takes over. Alex alienates the restaurant staff causing Pacey leads a walk-out en masse during a meeting with local investors to protest Alex's management policies. As a result, the restaurant is shut down and both Pacey and Alex are fired. As summer approaches, Pacey returns to Capeside to work as a security guard at the Capeside Yacht Club, but leaves to attempt to rekindle things with Audrey. He eventually convinces her to take him back and the two drive cross-country to Audrey's home in L.A.
Season 6
Pacey finds financial success as a stockbroker in Boston, which is set up by Audrey's father. He moves in with Jack and a girl named Emma. Audrey breaks things off with him, after she hears him confessing to Emma that he doesn't think he ever loved her. Later in the season, during Christmas in Capeside, Audrey confronts Dawson, Joey and Pacey for never dealing with their past and by consequence never growing up.
Joey and Pacey share a drunk kiss at his apartment during a party. After being locked overnight in a K-Mart together, they discuss their past and current relationship. How they feel uncomfortable talking about sex with each other or how they never discuss their past and how the fact they never had closure impacts them. In an intimate moment Joey shaves his beard. When they go to sleep she tells him a fantasy she had when she was a teenager. In the fantasy they would be castaways in an idyllic island, living their love away from everyone. They share a bittersweet kiss after her confession. Each admits that they miss the other. However, they don't stay together because Joey's boyfriend comes back from a trip. She tells Pacey the timing doesn't feel right and decides to not pursue her feelings for him. Soon, she realizes things are not working with Eddie and the best thing for her is to spend sometime alone thinking about her life, what leads to her going on a personal journey as an independent woman and finally going to Paris.
Afterwards, Pacey somewhat makes amends with his estranged father when he visits him in Capeside after his father suffers a mild heart attack. With Pacey's father too sick to work anymore because of multiple health problems from his life-long alcoholism, Pacey's brother, Doug, takes over as acting police chief of Capeside. While working as a stockbroker, Pacey clashes several times with his slick, arrogant boss, Rich Renaldi (Dana Ashbrook).
Pacey loses his job following a significant financial loss after a bio-tech stock bust. Unfortunately, he also loses a all of Dawson's savings, as Pacey had invested them for him. This causes a serious argument between them, spilling over into them reconsidering their friendship. Joey decides it is about time for Pacey and Dawson to work out their issues without her in the middle and sets the two up to meet following their argument. Pacey returns to Capeside and temporarily moves in with Doug, all the while raising what money he can with the help of community members to start paying Dawson back. Pacey and Joey meet one last time before she goes to Paris and say good-bye to each other. At least for now.
Series finale
Five years later, a 25-year-old Pacey is now the proprietor of The Icehouse, a successful restaurant in Capeside bearing the same name as the one Joey's family used to operate. Even though he's a successful chef, he feels empty and he's still unhappy. He is having an affair with a married woman and is still the same lost boy.
In the occasion of Gale Leery's wedding, everyone returns to Capeside. The five friends reunite at Pacey's restaurant to reminisce about the past. Dawson did a TV series about their teen years. Joey is now a junior editor living in New York and she is in a serious relationship with a writer.
During Gail's wedding reception, Joey and Pacey kiss (reigniting lingering feelings between the two), but the moment is interrupted when Jen collapses. It is later discovered that Jen has a deadly heart condition. The two spend time together in Capeside while Jen is hospitalized. In the midst of their romantic entanglements, Joey, Dawson, Jack, and Pacey are brought together at the Ice House, to say goodbye to Jen, who dies from pulmonary congestion.
At the same time, Joey ends her relationship with her boyfriend after Jen tells her that her dying wish is to Joey to stop running of her true love. Though she loves Dawson, she acknowledges that he is her soulmate who is tied to her childhood, a love that is pure and eternally innocent. She also cannot deny she is still in love with Pacey. After Jen's death, she decides to stop running and declares herself to him, telling him she always loved him and for most of her life that love scared her.
In the epilogue, Joey and Pacey watch Dawson's semi-autobiographical television series The Creek in their apartment before calling up Dawson together, where they discover he is going to meet his hero, Steven Spielberg. They have renewed their romantic relationship, and the series ends with them as a couple living together in New York.
Notable relationships
- Tamara Jacobs
- Fling
- Beginning: "Pilot" (1.01)
- Broke Up: "Baby" (1.06)
- Reason: It was an abusive relationship as Tamara was at least 20 years his senior, Pacey was a minor and Tamara was his teacher.
- Fling
- Andie Mcphee
- Girlfriend
- First Relationship:
- Beginning: "The Dance" (2.06)
- End: "Homecoming" (3.02)
- Reason: Andie cheated on Pacey while at the clinic.
- First Relationship:
- Kiss
- "Secrets and lies" (3.06)
- Reason: Pacey doesn't love her like that anymore. But they continue to be friends.
- "Secrets and lies" (3.06)
- Girlfriend
- Jen Lindley
- Fling
- Beginning: "Escape from Witch Island" (3.07)
- Broke Up: "Four To Tango" (3.09)
- Reason: They feel they're better off as friends. Jen thinks Pacey and Joey like each other but haven't realized yet.
- Fling
- Joey Potter
- Kissed
- "Double Date" (1.10)
- Reason: Joey had never considered Pacey and was still obsessed with Dawson.
- Kissed
- "Cinderella Story" (3.17)
- "Neverland" (3.18)
- Reason: She kisses him back but gets angry with the possible implications of the kiss.
- Boyfriend
- First Relationship:
- Beginning: "Stolen Kisses" (3.19)
- End: "The Longest Day" (3.20)
- Reason: Dawson gives her an ultimatum and she feels coerced to break-up.
- Second Relationship:
- Beginning: "True Love" (3.23)
- End: "Promicide" (4.20)
- Reason: They're still in love but Pacey feels lost and that he doesn't deserve her.
- Third Relationship:
- Beginning: Castaways" (6.15)
- End: "Love Bites" (6.18)
- Reason: Joey's boyfriend comes back.
- Fourth Relationship:
- Beginning: ...Must Come To An End" (6.24)
- Note: Jen tells Joey her final wish is for Joey to stop running of her true love. Jen's death motivates Joey to declare her love to Pacey.
- First Relationship:
- Audrey Liddell
- Girlfriend
- Beginning: "Guerilla Filmmaking" (5.14)
- Broke Up: "Living Dead Girl" (6.06)
- Reason: She overhears Pacey telling Emma that he doesn't think he ever loved her.
- Girlfriend
Reception
First introduced as Dawson's best friend and comic relief, Pacey starts to appear as a romantic hero through the course of season two. The season explores Pacey's relationship with his abusive father and the impact it has on his self-loathing complex. But it's his relationship with new girl in town, Andie Mcphee that brings depth to his story. Creator Kevin Williamson says that "was sort of An Officer and a Gentleman storyline where the show really became Pacey's Pond" and "he started to care about himself and made an effort to be a better person for the love of a good woman and ultimately for himself".[5]
But in season three, the course of Dawson's creek and Pacey' story changes completely. Pacey and Andie break-up in the second episode "Homecoming", and so does Joey and Dawson. Through the course of the first half of the season, Pacey and Joey starts to build a friendship. But what becomes clear after a while is that the slow- burn plot is actually a love story. They fall in love and it's forbidden. They both love Dawson and don't know how to deal with the situation. Season three's showrunner Greg Berlanti says "I would get Pacey with Joey and have a King Arthur–esque story — Dawson being King Arthur — exploring what happens when Lancelot and Guinevere fall in love," Berlanti said. "[Joey and Pacey] always had such wonderful chemistry, the two of them — they have a Tracy and Hepburn quality that I liked writing for.".[6] The story restored the show and the love triangle would only be resolved in the last episode, when Joey tells Pacey she aways loved him and can't keep running from it.
Joshua Jackson was acclaimed for his charismatic performance. In a review of The Guardian a critic said "not only did Joshua Jackson have more credible chemistry with Katie Holmes, whom he briefly dated in real life, but Pacey quickly eclipsed Dawson as both the series’ most relatable character and its moral centre.".[7] Jezebel said "their screwball dynamic, coupled with actors Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson’s untapped chemistry and an intricately plotted courtship subverted everything expected of the show. It unsurprisingly still resonates with so many millennial women who grew up watching the series. There was a time when we had come for the angst, but now we were staying for the romance.".[8] For the role, Jackson was the only member of the cast to win 3 Teen Choice Awards for Best Actor in a series.[9]
His relationship with Joey is usually listed as one of the best love stories in any show ever. They were included in TV Guide's list of "The Best TV Couples of All Time" and Harper's Bazaar placed them in 7 in their "70 of the Best TV Couples of All Time" list.[10][11] They are also in MsMojo's lists "Top 10 Cutest Teen Drama Couples" and "Top 10 Iconic TV Couples of the 2000s". And also featured on the Buzzfeed's "19 Friends-To-Lovers TV Couples That Stole Fans' Hearts" list.[12]
References
- Michael Krantz. "The bard of Gen-Y." Time. December 15, 1997. 105
- Chris Nashawaty. "Teen Steam". Entertainment Weekly. Issue 405. November 14, 1997. 24.
- Lewis, Jennifer (January 3, 2012). "TV's Best '90s Teen Power Couples". Flavorwire. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
- "Couples Pictures, Dawson's Creek Photos – Photo Gallery: The Best TV Couples of All Time". TV Guide. Retrieved June 20, 2012.
- "'Dawson's Creek' Turns 20: Kevin Williamson Reveals the Teen Drama's Deepest Secrets". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
- "'Showrunner Greg Berlanti Explains How Joey and Pacey Found Love on Dawson's Creek". Vulture. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
- "'Cheers for tears! How Dawson's Creek helped teen TV get emotional". The Guardian. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
- "'Joey and Pacey Made Dawson's Creek the Deepest Show on Television". Jezebel. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
- "'Dawson's Creek awards". IMDb. Retrieved November 26, 2020.
- "Couples Pictures, Dawson's Creek Photos – Photo Gallery: The Best TV Couples of All Time". TV Guide. Retrieved June 20, 2012.
- "70 of the Best TV Couples of All Time". Harper's Bazaar. Retrieved January 2, 2021.
- "19 Friends-To-Lovers TV Couples That Stole Fans' Hearts". Buzzfeed. Retrieved June 20, 2012.