/// MISSION BRIEFING

With its series-finale episode, Dawson's Creek summed up its six-year run on the WB Network with a sweet and sad tale of reunion and farewell for old friends, soul mates, and lovers. The friends are now 25 and living new lives: Dawson (James Van Der Beek) is in Hollywood executive-producing The Creek, obviously based on his own life and considered "the new hit teen soap at the WB"; Joey (Katie Holmes) is a book editor in New York with a serious beau; Jen (Michelle Williams) is a single mother; Pacey (Joshua Jackson) is the relatively respectable owner of the reborn Icehouse Restaurant; and Jack (Kerr Smith) is teaching at the high school and struggling with his relationship. A wedding brings everyone together in Capeside, but tragedy strikes, and the remaining friends are left to consider their lives and what they want to do with them. Whether or not you agree with the final choices, of course, probably depends on who you've been rooting for.