Trivia: This scene where Jack finally kisses Ethan, was originally longer. The part not aired included Jack walking away, going back over to Grams and Jen and breaking down emotionally. Unfortunately, the added footage had to be cut due to time constraints. According to Paul Stupin in this commentary, scripts for "Dawson's Creek" always came in long. The running time was only approximately 42 minutes long for each episode, but they had cuts coming in up to 55-60 minutes long. Therefore, a lot of editing had to be done including cutting out this portion of Jack's scene. (00:30:05)
Trivia: Joey is standing in front of the wall Pacey has rented for her, with his painted message on it. In actuality, that same wall still exists in Wilmington, NC. There was a production issue about not being allowed to actually paint on the wall itself. So in order to film this scene; they had to build a smaller, phony brick 'wall' over the real wall for Pacey's message. If you look closely, you can see the phony wall sticking out from the original wall. (00:19:15)
First Encounters of the Close Kind - S3-E10
Trivia: When Joey and Dawson are lying on his bed talking, Joey has army-style boots on and Dawson has no shoes on, wearing only his socks. The reason for this odd arrangement is probably due to the fact that the director for this episode, James Whitmore Jr., wanted Katie Holmes to keep her shoes on so she could make a fast exit out of the room. He wanted to keep the scene short and sweet. (00:42:15)
First Encounters of the Close Kind - S3-E10
Trivia: The Train Station shown in this scene was not a real Train Station. It was actually a building located in downtown Wilmington. (00:33:00)
First Encounters of the Close Kind - S3-E10
Trivia: Meredith Monroe was known for clowning around on the set while filming to raise morale. When morale on the set was low, she would run into the wardrobe truck and put on her red tights and homemade yellow cape with a big "F" printed on the front. She was "Captain Fun", and would jump around on the set making everyone laugh to get energy up again. (00:04:15)
First Encounters of the Close Kind - S3-E10
Trivia: When Joey walks up to AJ's dorm room at Harvard, there is a large number 381 shown on his door. This may not be intentional, but it's interesting that the number could be broken down into 8+1=9 times 3, which equals 27. 27 has been a number used a few times on "Dawson's Creek", including two room numbers; and seems to have some signifance to the show. (00:06:15)
First Encounters of the Close Kind - S3-E10
Trivia: When Dawson and Nikki are walking along the outside corridor, the scene was actually filmed at the local college in Wilmington; the University Of North Carolina, Wilmington. Also, the big beautiful vista shots of the University in a number of scenes in this episode were filmed at the University of Richmond. As Paul Stupin points out in the Commentary, the College environment is constructed with a mixture of a lot of different locations. (00:31:20)
Answer: It's only explained once in the series. Jack says to Andie "I tried to start kindergarten without you", meaning Andie was smart enough to start school early.