In the dining room, Andie oh-so-non-casually mentions that Joey and Pacey have become pretty good friends of late. Joey calls Pacey "a doofus," but says, smiling, that he has his moments. Pop! Fizzle! What's that now? Oh, it's chemistry! Get 'em together! Andie asks shyly if Pacey talks about her. Joey looks uncomfortable: "Not really, Andie." She tries to sugarcoat it a bit, saying that if Pacey "can't come up with a clever quip about something, he goes stoic. The way he feels about you -- he keeps that close to his heart." Andie nods, but she isn't convinced. Joey adds, "It's really precious to him, Andie."

Cut to a swamp in Degobah -- oh, no, cut to the Thanksgiving dinner table (outside. On Cape Cod. In November) and Grams asking everyone to stand up and join hands around table and give thanks one by one. She tells Dawson to start. Dawson gives thanks for the food they've just eaten. Um, don't people usually give thanks before the meal starts?

Anyway, The Flash elbows Pacey and says, "Great cranberries," then rolls his eyes at someone across the table. Shut up, Flash. Dawson also gives thanks for friends and family, "who in the best of all worlds are one and the same." A significant look again passes between Gail and The Flash. Pacey goes next, thanking the Ryan women for good food and company, since he has neither of those things to look forward to at his own family's dinner in about forty-five minutes. Andie thanks Grams for her hospitality, and gives thanks for her friends and their help. Jack gives thanks "for the kind of people that take strays into their life -- the kind of person to whom it doesn't matter whether or not you're family, just that you have a home." Grams nods at him. Aw. Joey gives thanks for absent friends and family: "Just because they're not here doesn't mean we love them any less." Bessie, with Alexander "Who's Your Daddy" Potter on her lap, smiles at Joey. Grams prompts Jen, who gives thanks for "second chances; for the opportunity to try and [sic] rebuild bridges that were once thought beyond repair -- and for the promise of many more Thanksgivings to come." A graceful, well-turned, utterly appropriate speech -- from Jen? Well done! Helen, going for "upset" but only getting as far as "I smell something bad," excuses herself abruptly from the table. Grams starts to follow her, but Jen says she'll go.

Jen catches up to her mother and says she didn't mean to upset her, she was "just being honest." Helen says that Jen didn't upset her, then says that maybe she did something right for a change. Jen asks what she means, and Helen says she did the right thing sending Jen to live with Grams. "'Sending' isn't the way I'd put it," Jen says flatly, and Helen acknowledges, "Fair enough, Jen, but I don't think you realize how lucky you are. I've been searching in vain for friends like that my whole life." Jen observes pointedly, "Well, I'm glad it makes you feel better, but as good friends as they are, they're not family." "No, you're right, Jen," Helen says. Jen goes into her overly-self-aware "I Will Survive" shtick, saying she's had "no safety net" for the last year, and Helen says she knows she should have been there for Jen and should have written or called, and Jen half-sobs, "So why didn't you?" Helen, in a tone most people use for discussing the weather, says she doesn't know, but she kept wanting to. Jen asks if she has any idea how much that hurts, and Helen, in the same disengaged tone, says she knows. Jen wants to know what she did "that was so bad," and Helen says Jen didn't do anything so bad, and Jen says, "Then what?" and Helen says, "Let me try and [sic] explain this," and Jen follows her, and we fade out. Dear writers: the verb "to try" takes an infinitive. "To," not "and." Learn it, love it, live it. Signed, English majors around the globe.