Joey decides to help throw a surprise 18th birthday party for Pacey at his parents house, not knowing about Pacey's 'birthday curse'. The party goes haywire from the start as Joey finally sees why Pacey hates his dysfunctional and annoying family so much; his domineering, drunkard father; his overbearing, delusional mother; and his divorced sister Kerry and her three children, make everyone feel uncomfortable, and Doug later joins in and gets them to embarrass Pacey with stories from his past. Meanwhile, Dawson becomes upset when he feels that Gretchen doesn't want anyone to know about their growing romantic relationship and postpones their first real date to go to the party. Also, Jen is paired with Tobey for a community service project that evening of being the town's designated driver for drunken college kids.