If you grew up in the nineties or early aughts, Dawson’s Creek was probably a big part of your young adulthood. The hugely popular series catapulted its young cast into stardom and kicked off the teenage drama series trend of the 2000s, running for 128 episodes over six seasons. Here are six of the episodes where Dawson made out with the titular creek.
1. The one where Dawson asks the creek to prom, but it can’t go because it’s a creek, so he skips prom to open-mouth kiss the creek and feel it up
Prom episodes are a staple of teen dramas, and Dawson’s Creek was no exception. In the opening scene of the Dawson’s Creek pilot episode, aspiring filmmaker Dawson Leery, dressed in a tuxedo, sits on the bank of the creek fidgeting nervously as he builds up the courage to ask it something. Finally, he blurts out, “Do you have a date for prom tonight? Because I’d love to take you!” The creek flows silently, giving no response. Dawson waits patiently, but all he hears are the gentle sounds of the creek’s waters trickling over the rocks in its bend. As it grows dark, all of Dawson’s friends are shown shuffling into prom and having the time of their lives, but Dawson waits diligently on the bank of his true love. Finally understanding the limitations of where a creek can and cannot go, Dawson whispers, “It’s okay. We can dance right here,” and bends over and opens his mouth to dip it into the water. Swirling his tongue around on the creek’s surface while cupping his hands and feeling it up as Heather Nova’s London Rain (Nothing Heals Me Like You Do) plays on the soundtrack, Dawson finally stops and says, “The sun is coming up. You should get to bed. But that was incredible.”
2. The one where Dawson discovers Pacey swimming in the creek and mistakenly thinks the creek is cheating on him, then realizes his mistake so he jumps into the creek and romantically strokes some of its vegetation
What’s a teen drama without some drama? In this episode, when Dawson catches his friend Pacey taking a dip in the creek, he assumes the worst. Dawson storms off before Pacey has a chance to explain, and doesn’t speak to Pacey or the creek for days. But Joey finally clears things up by telling Dawson, “He was just swimming, Dawson! He was wearing trunks! His mouth didn’t go anywhere near the water.” Dawson sets out to the creek to apologize, finding its water levels lower than usual and its flow weak. “I know you’re a creek, and that means other guys are going to swim and fish in you,” Dawson says with tears in his eyes. “I’m going to have to accept that…I hope you can accept me for who I am too.” Dawson then hops down into the creek and gently caresses a big handful of milfoil.
3. The one where Dawson contracts giardia after making out with the creek near water contaminated by a beaver dam
Dawson’s Creek gave the “STD episode” TV trope its own spin in this episode where Dawson contracts a parasite commonly associated with beaver droppings after a makeout sesh with the creek. Dawson is seen having to attend class with severe stomach cramping and bouts of diarrhea, really hammering home the consequences of both careless physical intimacy and beaver overpopulation for the show’s mostly preteen and teenage audience. Luckily, Dawson is able to get his giardia cleared up with some pills and find a beaver trapper to clear up the creek’s giardia as well, and the two of them promptly return to making out safely.
4. The one where Dawson hears a rumor that the creek has flowed away, shows up in the middle of the night to investigate, and then takes the creek’s virginity after discovering it is still there
Teenage rumor mills can disseminate some pretty dubious information, and Dawson learns that lesson firsthand in the episode where he hears a rumor that the creek has flowed away to Europe. After overhearing some kids from another school at a party saying, “That ol’ creek down by the railroad tracks is gone. Flowed over to Europe to study abroad for a semester,” a panicked Dawson rushes into the woods in the dark, calling out, “Creek! Creek!” Relieved, he finds that the creek is still right where he’d last seen it, and he calls out, “I knew you’d never flow away from me. And I’ll never flow away from you.” With emotions running high, Dawson embraces the creek and slowly lies down with its flowing waters held between his arms, tenderly making love to it for its first time in millions of years of existence.
5. The one where Dawson and the creek play spin the bottle and Dawson ends up kissing three frogs, four mussels, a catfish, and four handfuls of creek scum
Not all moments between Dawson and the creek are high drama, such as in this more lighthearted episode where Dawson and the creek decide to play spin the bottle with an old beer bottle that washes up on the creek’s bank. With every spin, Dawson kisses whatever the bottle ends up pointing at in the creek, and he ends up locking lips with all sorts of aquatic creatures and flora. Whenever it’s the creek’s spin, however, Dawson quickly rearranges the bottle so it’s pointing at him, saying, “Haha, me again!” to avoid the creek making out with any of the nearby trees or abandoned appliances.
6. The one where Dawson catches people dumping their old tires into the creek so he beats them up and then dry humps the creek to make it feel better
Perhaps the darkest and most controversial episode of Dawson’s Creek finds a pair of ne’er-do-wells rolling their old truck tires off of a bridge into the creek as Dawson and the creek are cuddling together below. “Hey, what are you doing up there?” Dawson cries out as the tires splash down and begin polluting his creek’s pristine waters. An enraged Dawson confronts the litterbugs, throwing an uppercut into one of their jaws and knocking the other over by tossing a tire at him. After the men scramble away, Dawson takes off his shirt and lugs all of the tires up out of the creek, then comforts it by dry humping its deepest pool. These classic WB shows really had it all!
