25 of TV’s best (and worst) on again off again couples
By Sundi Rose
Joey and Pacey – Dawson’s Creek
Their love story: Like so many of the iconic couples on this list, they started out as adversaries. Then friends. Then part of a complicated love triangle that left one, two, or sometimes all three of them crying. Before Katie Holmes went all goddess from another planet on us, she was playing girl-next-door, plain-Jane, Joey Potter. She just so happened to live next door to her (inexplicable) crush, Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and they talked their feelings to death every episode.
Dawson’s best friend, Pacey (Jonathan Jackson) the obvious better choice, constantly dipped her pigtails in the ink but became a reliable escape from Dawson’s whiny entitlement and overwrought self-analysis. Pacey was fun and cute and not as mind-numbingly annoying as Dawson. They complimented each other in just the right ways.
Did they or didn’t they: Joey painfully bounced back and forth between these two for a long time. She even bounced to other guys here and there. But when everything was said and done, Dawson’s Creek knew with which man she belonged. In a tear-jerking and heart-breaking series finale, and a time jump of half a dozen years, we learn that Joey and Pacey are together in New York.
How to watch it unfold: If you’re too young to remember this show when it first aired, it might lose a little bit of its nostalgic luster. In some ways, it doesn’t hold up, but you can find out for yourself by watching all six seasons on Netflix.