Pacey Witter

Pacey is Dawson's best friend, the quick-mouthed screwup of Capeside High, always ready with a joke to cover for the fact that his family and teachers have already written him off. He's smart in ways nobody bothers to notice, restless, a little reckless, and secretly tender underneath the class-clown act.

Joshua Jackson finds the ache under the wisecracks before the scripts ever spell it out, so Pacey's humor plays as armor rather than comic relief. He's the friend who seems like the sidekick until you realize he's quietly the most emotionally honest person in the show.