I watched all six seasons of Dawson's Creek, right up to and including the final episode(s) (622–23), where the triangle between Dawson, Joey, and Pace, which had been circulating in an open-ended teenage version of Jules & Jim, finally resolves itself and the series comes to an end. That's 128 episodes later. After that, I felt I could rest. In preparation for this chapter, I had borrowed the entire series on DVD from my friend Brad Smilanich, and had started watching them, right from the opening pilot, all mercilessly free of the dreaded commercial breaks. The characters grew on me. I began to care, to suffer with them in their love affairs. I watched as other characters moved into their lives, left, and came back again, and I watched them grow up, leave high school, and enter college. I was hopelessly hooked. How could I fall for such shallow pap?