The series opens with Dawson Leery (James Van Der Beek), a good looking 15-year-old who
aspires to be Steven Spielberg, and his lifelong friend, Josephine "Joey" Potter (Katie Holmes),
ending one of their many summer nights spent together. Joey brings up the fact that they are
growing up and shouldn't be spending the night in the same bed. Dawson states that their
friendship is too good to let sexual tension make a difference. Joey agrees and stays over. Joey
has lost her mother to cancer and her father to prison, so Dawson and her sister are all that
Joey has in the world.

Jennifer Lindley (Michelle Williams), a beautiful girl from New York moves in next door to
Dawson. He and his bud, Pacey Witter (Joshua Jackson) are both taken with her, but Dawson
seems to have a keener interest in her, chatting with her later on the dock and showing her his
"studio," a.k.a. his bedroom. Joey overhears the two innocently talking and is not at all happy
about it.

While working at the local video store, Pacey waits on an attractive older woman who asks him if
they have "The Graduate" while overtly flirting with him. Pacey is smitten and quickly becomes a
man on a mission. He later finds out that she is one of his new teachers at Capeside High, but
that does not deter him from pursuing her. He asks Dawson to come to the movies with him to
"conveniently" run into her. Dawson is talked into it and asks Jen to come along. To make it less
awkward, he talks an unwilling Joey into coming along.

Jen has moved to Capeside to help her grandmother care for her ailing grandfather. Something
happened to Jen in her hometown of NY to make her reject God and organized religion, which
infuriates her Bible thumping grandmother.

The night at the movies is a disaster for all involved. Joey makes several embarrassing remarks
to Dawson and Jen, letting her envy get the better of her. Pacey seeks out Tamara, his teacher
and video vixen. He ends up getting punched in an altercation with Tamara's date. He later runs
into Tamara at the marina and accuses her of using him to prove her attractiveness despite her
years. She kisses him passionately and runs off in embarrassment.

Dawson returns home and finds Joey in his closet. They both admit that they find one another
attractive, but aren't attracted to each other. Joey is convinced that the time has come that they
can't talk about everything and asks him how often he masturbates to prove her point. He bids
her good night, but then shouts out to her that he takes care of business in the morning with
thoughts of Katie Couric. Just as the show is about to end happily, Joey sees Dawson's mother
kissing her co-anchor, confirming an affair that Dawson had suspected throughout the episode.