Moon. Water. Pier. A.J. College talk. Joey says that she doesn't know if she wants to go to an Ivy League school, but that if she doesn't try, she'll always wonder if she's good enough, blah di blah, wrong side of the Creek, whatever, no one cares anymore. A.J. says she sounds pretty driven. Joey scoffs that she's only driven "by fear of failure." A.J. apparently got the memo up at non-Harvard and manages to work Joey's dead mother into the conversation, by saying that ambition like Joey's is common in girls who lose their mothers when they're young. Joey looks grateful that, for once, she doesn't have to mention her mom herself, and offers Madonna as another example of a driven, motherless girl. A.J. says he was thinking more of the Brontë sisters (who, at the sound of their name being uttered on Dawson's Creek, pirouette in their graves). Joey says that for a while she thought she liked art, and she still does, but "it's like there's this person that you want to be for other people, you know -- to make them happy, and to make them proud of you -- and then there's yourself, and sometimes it's really hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Does that make sense?" No. Do you still draw, or what? Because I haven't seen you pick up a sketchpad in, like, a year. A.J. says it makes perfect sense, but he just wants to do her. Then he non sequiturs that in mediaeval Europe, they used to think the northern lights were the spirits of dead warriors. Damn, no wonder this guy's dating a high-school girl; no college-aged girl would put up with his boring, pretentious ass.

Anyway, Joey says, "And now?" A.J. says that now scientists know that the northern lights are "charged particles of the sun interacting with the earth's upper atmosphere." Joey says, "Charged particles. Not too romantic." A.J. says, "Think about it from the particles' point of view." Wing Chun says, "HA HA HA HA!" I would hate to have to choose the single most inane line of DC dialogue, but that would certainly be in the top ten. He goes on to think like a particle (which shouldn't be too hard for him) and point out that they're inexplicably drawn, blah blah blah, and somehow this causes Joey's panties to melt and they kiss. When they part, A.J. looks like he's trying for an expression that says he's "moved," but he looks more like he's going to throw up. Joey laughs nervously and says she just remembered that she "promised to meet someone somewhere." A.J. incredulously asks, "Now?" like "Now? After my Ivy Lips have deigned to brush against yours?" She nods with fake regret and they start back.