DAWSON LEERY

'Dawson Wade Leery' is the fictional lead character on an American primetime television drama called "Dawson's Creek". The character is played by American actor James van der Beek.

Contents

Biography

Season One

Season Two

Season Three

Season Four

Season Five

Season Six

Series Finale

Biography

Dawson is the only child and son (at first) of Mitch Leery and his college sweetheart, Gail Leery. His two best friends are Joey Potter, the girl across the creek, whom he considers his soulmate, and Pacey Witter, Capeside High's class clown. Dawson is joined by a sister, Lily, who is born when he is 18-years-old.

Season One

Dawson and Joey did have a serious relationship, and they considered themselves soulmates, but on a level which transcended romantic ties. Joey would last be seen romantically engaged with Pacey Witter. He originally lived in Capeside and went to Capeside High School with Joey, Pacey and his first girlfriend Jen Lindley.
An eternal optimist (at least originally), Dawson believes in the good old fashioned values of romance and honesty, and he also believes that you can find all of life's answers in a Steven Spielberg film. He was a keen filmmaker and made several low cost and amateur films, which were entered into film festivals across the country, and in some festivals his films won top prize.
He joins Joey on a birthday visit to her father in prison and tells Mike Potter all about the daughter he doesn't know. While Joey restles with the idea of spending a year in France, Dawson realizes that he can no longer hold back his romantic feelings towards her. The season ends with Dawson and Joey kissing in front of his bedroom window.

Season Two

Joey dumps Dawson and he embarks on a romance with Jen Lindley. After spying Joey's father selling drugs again, Dawson goes to his parents for help with the situation. In the meantime, Dawson's romantic relationship with Joey seems to be escalating. When Mitch and Gail catch the two in a heavy make-out session on Dawson's bed, they do their best to educate the duo about the responsibilities and risks of sex. But Dawson, and especially Joey, are already aware of the risks that sex involves, unbeknownst to his parents.
During a study session with Pacey, Joey, Jack, Jen and Andie at the Ice House, Dawson discovers Mike Potter trying to conceal his addiction to drugs, yet again. In order to keep his secret, Mike sets the restaurant on fire, endangering everyone inside. Dawson bravely rescues Mike, while Jack prevents Jen from stepping directly into the flames. While she thanks Dawson for saving her father, Joey still is unaware of Mike's failures as a recovering drug addict.
Mitch advises Dawson to explain the situation to Joey, even if she won't believe him at first. In the end, Dawson convinces Joey to help the police get a confession from her father. She succeeds, and Mike is hauled off to prison yet again. Because of this, Joey vows to never speak to Dawson again.

Season Three

After a summer spent with his aunt in Philadelphia, Dawson returns to Capeside still reeling from his split with Joey. On the bus ride home, he meets Eve, a mysterious, blonde femme fatale that seems intent upon luring Dawson with her sex appeal. After make out scenes in the janitor's closet and in front of the entire school at a pep rally, Eve convinces Dawson to go for a ride in his dad's boat. He does, but wrecks it on the way in and is told he must pay $3,000 to repair the damage to the dock he crashed into. Pacey then convinces Dawson to throw a stripper party at his parents' house to earn the money to pay for the dock. Although they successfully gather enough money, Mitch catches everyone leaving the house and Dawson knows he's in trouble.
When Dawson, Pacey and Joey join Jack and his ex-girlfriend Kate at a party hosted by Matt Caufield, the entire group, except Joey, gets drunk. Dawson, fighting to have a life separate from Joey's, nearly kisses Kate. When Pacey's brother, Deputy Doug crashes the party after finding Pacey lying in a tree, the group all end up spending the remainder of the evening behind bars. While Dawson tells Joey that she cannot be his keeper, Jack confesses to Kate that he's gay. Meanwhile, Mitch turns from friend to parent, and as a result of having to bail his son out of jail, enlists Dawson to help out at his mother's new restaurant.
In the meantime, Dawson finds Eve snooping around in Grams' house one night, and calls Deputy Doug to the scene. He brushes it off afterwards, not wanting to get Eve in trouble. He later discovers an old photograph of a blonde lady in the house-boat that Eve has been living in. Doug informs Dawson that the boat belongs to an elderly couple.
Eve later reveals that she is adopted and that the woman in the picture is her biological mother and that she is searching for her. While helping Grams at her house, Dawson notices the same woman in a picture sitting on a nightstand. He asks who the woman is and Grams reveals that it's her daughter, Helen, Jen's mother. Dawson decides against telling Jen of his discovery, instead leaving it to Jen's mother, who visits her mother and her daughter at Thanksgiving.
Towards the end of the season, Dawson discovers that his friend and former girlfriend, Joey, has developed feelings for Pacey and that the two of them are now romantically involved. Dawson flies off the handle because he thinks that Joey still belongs to him and that Pacey had no right to pursue her, despite the fact that Joey and Dawson had not been a couple for almost a whole year. He punishes Joey by giving her an ultimatum that tells her if she chooses to be with Pacey, she will lose Dawson's friendship. Dawson eventually comes to his senses, realises that he is wrong to hold her back, and frees her to go to Pacey.

Season Four

Dawson discovers that his best friend, Pacey has feelings for Joey. After saving Pacey and Jen from a storm at sea, Dawson is forced to white wash a fence for old-time film director A.I. Brooks, as punishment for putting a hole in his boat.
In the meantime, he is confronted with the idea of Pacey and Joey as a couple. While they experiment with sex during the class ski trip, Dawson must make a life-or-death decision about Mr. Brooks. He chooses to let him go. When Dawson asks Joey if she slept with Pacey during the ski trip, she lies, telling him that nothing happend.
Earlier, during the Leery Christmas Party, Dawson and Gretchen share a kiss, which ignites old feelings from his pre-teen years when he had a crush on her. Gretchen, Pacey's 21-year-old sister, has arrived back to Capeside to take a break from college, or so everyone thinks, but she later reveals that she is there to recouperate from a miscarriage that took place during her previous semester. The baby's father was her ex-boyfriend, pig-headed Nick, whom Pacey admired at first.
After Lily's birth in May 2001, Dawson and Gretchen part ways and she returns to college and he heads off to USC to pursue his dream of becoming a film maker.

Season Five

After graduating, he studied film at USC, but soon dropped out and moved to Boston to be with his friends and to be with Joey. During his first year in Boston his father Mitch Leery was tragically killed in a car accident. Where he then out of anger and numbness ends all ties he has with Joey. Dawson is then reunited with his old girlfriend, Jen Lindley.
During their trip to the Hookset Film Festival in New Hampshire, Dawson loses his virginity to Jen. It is at this festival that Dawson wins first prize for his documentary about A.I. Brooks. There, Dawson meets Oliver Churchkirk, an aspiring film director from Boston Bay College who fancies himself the best in the business. After being asked to read his script, Dawson agrees to direct Oliver's first major film. He casts Joey's bubbly roommate Audrey Liddell as the female lead, and Oliver casts himself as heartbreaker, Gage. After several flubbed lines and mistakes, Dawson concludes that Oliver is not the right person for the role. He then asks Jen to bring in her cheating ex-boyfriend, Charlie Todd, to play the part. Charlie agrees when Jen tells him that he gets "to make out with a really hot girl."
In the meantime, while Dawson and Oliver journey to New Jersey for a meeting with a film agent, the rest of the gang takes to the beaches of Florida for spring break; Pacey is hit on by Norwegian singer Marion Raven while working on his relationship with Audrey, while as Dawson later discovers, Joey embarks on a summer fling with Charlie Todd. Following his heart, Dawson hijacks the car with Oliver and drives down to Florida to tell Joey that he loves her. To Dawson's disappointment, Pacey tells him that Joey is with Charlie.
When their film is finished, Dawson learns that Oliver set up to have the film screened by cast, crew and friends. When Dawson finally agrees, he discovers that Oliver also invited a film critic, Amy Lloyd, who writes for The Boston Weekly. Dawson, not knowing who she is, stumbles upon Amy in the midst of a nasty break-up and tells her that she is a "sentimental drama queen with really crappy taste in movies." Angry, Amy leaves, unwilling to review the movie. In order to get her back to the audotorium, Dawson makes out with Amy at a local coffee shop in order to prevent her ex-boyfriend from seeing her; it turns out the man she was trying to avoid was not her ex-boyfriend. After running into Amy at a movie theatre in Boston, Dawson's spends the night at Amy's house and the two make love. He spends the remainder of the next day with her as well.

Season Six

After not talking all summer, Dawson has a one night stand with Joey, and the two seem to have rekindled their all-too-perfect romance. But when Dawson's girlfriend from L.A. continues calling his cellphone, Joey feels betrayed. The day after, Joey and Dawson argue and he returns to California.
After breaking things off with Joey, Dawson reunites with Hollywood actress, Natasha; she is presumed to be a few years his senior. In the meantime, when Joey shows up to deliver food to the movie set at which Dawson works, Natasha, drunk and angry, explodes on Joey; subsequently, the director, Todd Carr, fires Dawson. Realizing she made a mistake, Natasha helps Dawson get his job back. After a few months and little white lies, Dawson assumes that she is having an affair with Todd for whom Dawson now works. Natasha and Dawson reunite and he brings her to Capeside for Christmas. Knowing that she cheated on him with a fellow actor (Max Winter), Dawson questions Natasha's intentions, to which she becomes angry. Realizing that he's not in love with Natasha, he breaks up with her, and the two part on good terms as Natasha returns to Hollywood.

Series Finale

In 2008, Dawson is the director and chief writer of the television program ''The Creek'', a self-referential coming of age teen drama. While a young blonde boy portrays Dawson himself under the name "Colby", his two best friends appear as the neurotic "Sam" and heartbreaker "Petie." Dawson helped a dying Jen Lindley leave a video message for her young daughter, and revealed to Joey that he will always love her beyond friendship, sex and romance.