Scenes of Capeside, punctuated by the sultry stylings of the ovary du jour, before we come to rest in the Sanctum Dawsonorum, where Dawson is working at his state-of-the-art computer with its expensively giant monitor. Gale "Fighting Weight" Leery knocks and comes in: "Busy?" Dawson throws the Ford Exposition into overdrive, telling her that he's editing the Brooks thing to send it to USC; if he wants to get into the summer program out there, he has to send the film out the next day. Gale gets to the point, asking if he's "talked to Gretchen yet." "Yet"? She dumped him. There's no "yet" here. Dawson says more or less the same thing -- "there's not really much to talk about" -- but Gale keeps at him, asking if he's okay with the way he and Gretchen left things. He's "not doing cartwheels," he shrugs, but "what do you expect?" He adds that he's sure they'll eventually "find a way to restore" their friendship. Gale points out that it's hard to restore a friendship "when you're not speaking," and Dawson says mildly that it's his friendship, so he'll handle it. Ordinarily, I'd bitch about Dawson giving his mom tone here, but he's not as smug as usual, and besides, my brother has blocked our mother's end runs with "Ma -- you're on a need-to-know basis" a hundred times, so I'll leave it alone. Gale, unconvinced, nods and takes her cue to leave, but she's walking so slowly that you just know she's got something else to say. Sure enough, she turns around all conflicted and frowny to say, "Gretchen's leaving town." Dawson, irritated: "When? How do you know?" Duh, Dawson; she's Gretchen's boss. Read the script. Gale says that Gretchen gave notice a couple of days before: "Today's her last day at the restaurant." Dawson, miffed, guesses Gretchen's leaving "soon, then," and Gale thought he'd want to know, in case he wanted to say goodbye. Dawson sulks that Gretchen didn't tell him herself that she's leaving, so obviously she didn't want him to know, and I actually see where he's coming from, but Gale tells him that he doesn't know what Gretchen's thinking; she adds too-innocently that he could "go over there and find out." Dawson snorts dismissively, but Gale suggests that he bring Gretchen his yearbook to sign: "It's a good way to start a conversation." Not a bad point, but still -- step back, Gale. Dawson snorts again all "you've gotta be kidding me" and says that he appreciates what Gale's trying to do, but calls the idea "painfully lame" and adds that it's "such a thinly-veiled attempt at reconciliation" that he's not even sure "there's a veil there." Heh. Gale rolls her eyes and says that maybe he can think of something better, then, but if Dawson wants to keep Gretchen in his life, he'll have to talk to her, and he'll have to "do it soon." Gale leaves. Dawson sighs and stares absently at his yearbook.