Over at Poinsettia Plaza, formerly Reconciliation Ranch, formerly the No-Fault Hacienda…okay, you get the idea…Jen and Jack enter the Leery party and Jen oohs and aahs at Gale's pregnancy pad; in the foreground, Gretchen scans the party looking for Dawson. She has a sequined split-neck top on, and it's loud, but I actually kind of like it; the wardrobe department should put Gretchen in way less pink from now on, because light blue suits her a lot better. Anyhow, she weaves her way through the guests…

…and upstairs to the Sanctum, where Dawson fiddles with a camera and sulks. Gretchen says she thought she might find him up there, and when he asks how the party's going, she chirps, "Somewhat lacking in cute high-school boys at the moment." The entire viewing audience wonders aloud, "And Dawson coming downstairs would change that…how, exactly?" Gretchen urges Dawson to come try her eggnog. Oh, so that's what the kids -- all right, ew, I can't even finish that thought. Dawson says he'll come down in a minute. Gretchen turns to go, then stops to ask, "You okay?" Dawson's "just thinking." About? About what Gretchen said to him the other night; about the fact that he's applying to "one of the best film schools in the country," and he's not even sure he wants to go, or deserves to go. Gretchen tells him that he sounds "like a guy who just broke up with this girl." Flush! Symbolism comes out of the bathroom and asks if I have any matches as Gretchen goes on to say that "the guy" is happy he broke up with the girl, or says he's happy, and he goes on and on about how he's better off without her, "but the thing is, he can't stop talking about her. Everything comes back to this girl. You loved this girl, Dawson." Dawson grumbles that that hasn't kept "her" -- filmmaking? Joey? Call it. I have to go buy toilet paper, because Symbolism used the last of mine -- from breaking his heart "time and time again." Gretchen says that that doesn't matter; there isn't one right answer. Dawson just has to admit that he loves movies, and then maybe "the geek will resurface" blah blah he won't accept cynicism blah blah people will "respond to" that "great big thumping heart" of Dawson's blah blah blah fruitcakes. "Now come try my eggnog!" Dawson smiles at her fondly, basking in the compliments he considers his birthright.