Josephine "Joey" Potter

Joey Potter lives across the creek from her best friend Dawson Leery, and their easy, bickering closeness is the first thing you notice about her — sharp-tongued, guarded, and quick to needle Dawson about his movie obsessions. She's smart, prickly, and carrying more responsibility at home than she lets on, watching the world with wary, assessing eyes.

The writing hands Joey the show's driest lines and lets her use them as armor, and Katie Holmes plays the defensiveness as intelligence rather than sourness — you sense the calculation behind every deflection. What sticks is how unresolved she seems even in scenes of pure banter, a girl clearly bracing for things she won't say out loud yet.