Dawson's Creek
Cigarette Burns
TV Flash files “Cigarette Burns” as hour 99 of 128 in the TV Flash guide — Dawson's Creek (1998–2003) on The WB, season 5, episode 18, aired 2002-04-10, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E18: listed hour 99 of 128 in the Dawson's Creek guide, hour 18 of 23 in season 5. It aired 2002-04-10 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “Highway to Hell” (S05E17). Next is “100 Light Years from Home” (S05E19).

Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Oliver tells Dawson he's arranged a screening for their movie, which is yet to be finished. Dawson freaks out, but Joey comforts him saying the movie is brilliant. Everybody attends to the screening and solve their conflicts while waiting for it to start. Dawson meets a handful woman, and after exchanging insults she reveals herself to be Amy Lloyd, movie critic for Boston Weekly, whom Oliver secretly invited for the screening. She storms out of the theater, and it's up to Dawson to bring her back. They go out for coffee, have a heart-to-heart talk and even make out! Meanwhile, Joey is scared about her feelings towards Charlie and goes to Jen for advice. Jen says it doesn't matter if the guy is a jerk; at the end of her life there might always be a Clifton Smalls (the new African American boyfriend of Grams). Pacey asks Audrey how many men she's slept with, and she tests him by saying 27, then 57, when it was really only 5. Pacey passes the test and tells Audrey he's in love with her.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Cigarette Burns sit in the Dawson's Creek guide?
S05E18 is listed hour 99 of 128 — hour 18 of 23 in season 5, season 5 episode 18.
When did Dawson's Creek S05E18 air?
Cigarette Burns aired 2002-04-10 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Who are the main four?
Dawson (James Van Der Beek), Joey (Katie Holmes), Pacey (Joshua Jackson), and Jen (Michelle Williams) — the creek's gravitational square.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Capeside teens who talk like grad seminars: Dawson, Joey, Pacey, and Jen negotiating love triangles while the soundtrack does half the crying. Kevin Williamson's WB flagship made frank sex-and-feelings talk a network brand. Van Der Beek, Holmes, Jackson, Williams — late-1990s faces of a creek that launched a channel.
Flash: January 20, 1998, The WB, Capeside, teens talking like a grad seminar while the soundtrack does half the crying. Dawson, Joey, Pacey, Jen navigate friendship triangles, parental wreckage, and dialogue dense enough to leak. Kevin Williamson made teen TV frank about sex and feelings and called it a network brand. James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Joshua Jackson, Michelle Williams — late-1990s faces of a creek that launched a channel. Someone already called Dawson the worst. **The group chat was not…
Filed against
- James Van Der Beek as Dawson Leery
James Van Der Beek’s Dawson Leery talked Dawson's Creek like a grad seminar with a camcorder — Capeside love triangles, Kevin Williamson frankness, the WB flagship that made sex-and-feelings talk a network brand. Late-1990s face as a…
- Katie Holmes as Joey Potter
Katie Holmes made Joey Potter the still center of Dawson's Creek — Capeside teens talking like grad seminars, WB frankness as a network brand, soundtrack doing half the crying. Love triangles with homework in the dialogue. TV Flash files…
- Joshua Jackson as Pacey Witter
Joshua Jackson’s Pacey Witter made Dawson’s Creek the triangle you actually rooted for — Capeside teens talking like grad seminars, Dawson, Joey, Pacey, and Jen negotiating love while the soundtrack did half the crying. Kevin Williamson’s…
- Michelle Williams as Jen Lindley
Michelle Williams’s Jen Lindley talked like a grad seminar on Dawson’s Creek — Capeside triangles, soundtrack crying, WB frankness as a brand — then turned a terminal diagnosis into Dying for Sex’s funny, horny selfhood. Late-1990s face;…
- Busy Philipps as Audrey Liddell
Busy Philipps’s Audrey Liddell needled Dawson’s Creek like a Capeside grenade — 1990s catalog WB seminar-talk, then Freaks and Geeks’ Kim Kelly proving the same voltage could do a real lunch period. TV Flash files her as the friend who…