Dawson returns to Boston after working as an assistant director in Los Angeles over the summer and reunites with Joey who has spent a relatively angst-free summer in Capeside. Audrey and Pacey return from L.A. with a surprise passenger, Audrey's childhood friend Jack Osborne.

Joey accidentally sends an emotional email addressed to Dawson throughout the Worthington campus; Pacey's first week on the job gives him a hard lesson in corporate greed and ambition.