* Another illustration of the breakneck pace that makes Gossip Girl so satisfying a serialized-narrative experience despite having so much less going on than Lost, let alone your great HBO show of choice: Amount of screentime that passed between learning Gabriel was a double-agent last episode and having Chuck and Blair discover it in this episode? One segment. They didn’t even let a commercial break pass this ep before Blair snapped Gabriel and Poppy canoodling on her cellphone. When they keep things moving at that rate you feel like you’re getting your money’s worth.
* Of course that also necessitates hitting certain beats over and over and over again, just because you need something to do. So by the end of the hour I was wondering if Nate and Blair would almost break up in every single episode.
* But back in the plus column, it means that predictable plotlines move along so quickly they don’t have time to get too annoying. It was easy to see that poor, well-meaning, ineffectual Rufus was gonna get rooked by Gabriel and further fuck up Dan’s chances at getting into Yale and his own ability to hang on to his art-gallery dreams, but I imagine all those cards will be on the table before the next episode is halfway over.
* I liked Georgina’s return, which surprised me! I thought they’d play it for too-easy laughs more than they did, but her conversion was treated semi-sincerely, and she actually articulated a rationale for her newfound faith that made sense given what her experiences were. Plus it makes her essentially a new character, and it should be funny to see where she ends up.
* The cast-wide team-up against an archnemesis teased in the promo for next week’s ep must mean we’re getting close to the end of the season, huh?
* What was in that six-pack Dan and Vanessa split that laid them both out like that, grain alcohol?
* Oh, there’s another case in point about the show’s speed: Vanessa coughed up the truth about her Chuckfucking right quick.
* Speaking of Chuck, Ed Westwick had some priceless reaction shots in this episode. I particularly liked when he orchestrated the big Gabriel-Serena-Poppy confrontation, then sat down on the bed to watch the show. But he hasn’t said “I’m Chuck Bass” in a long time, has he? I guess they don’t want to overdo it. He’s the best there is at what he does, but what he does isn’t very nice.
* “Serena getting changed” scenes could fit alongside “Blair wears lingerie” scenes quite nicely. I’m just sayin’. Now we just need to add “Nate and Chuck finally make out” scenes to the mix.