* Now that was an episode! One thing I’d forgotten to mention about last week’s installment was that it was the first one I could think of to end on a series of cliffhangers in a long, long time. Because Gossip Girl moves at three times the speed of any other show, usually storylines more or less get wrapped up by the end of the hour, and then some tease-y thing is appended to the end to hook you for next week. But last time out, almost nothing was resolved. It was all gonna play out here. And it sure did!
* I can’t exactly remember the details anymore, but I seem to recall some elaborate scheme last season being screwed up by Vanessa’s ill-timed intervention. This time around it was down to Dan and Lily to blow up the spot. Which was frustrating insofar as it was repetitive, but also fitting: It took Dan’s self-righteousness and Lily’s status-fixated meddling and made them real liabilities for the characters.
* As far as the Lily end of that point goes, that was part of what made this such an effectively emotional episode. Kelly Rutherford doesn’t get a whole lot to do on this show other than be rich and MILFy, but I really liked the way she slowly revealed the various aspects of the investment-payback and get-Serena-arrested schemes to Rufus, as though with each new sentence she had to redouble her efforts to deny that what she was doing was completely fucked up.
* Lily’s go-along-to-get-along mentality also made her a more fulfilling antagonist for Serena’s scheme than what I thought was going to happen, which was Lily trying to get the police involved and Serena trying to dodge responsibility by taking Poppy and Gabriel down herself. Instead, the roles were reversed, and Lily was the sketchier of the two. Well done writers.
* Getting back to the emotional bit, Chuck and Blair’s exchange at the Russian Tea Room was interesting in that I really had no idea how it was going to go down. It was a good choice on Ed Westwick’s part to smile when he lied to her about it all being a big game to him, because for serious, does he ever really smile on this show? Seeing his teeth made it seem like this was a really unique moment, somehow. I’m not sure I buy his reasoning for letting Blair go, however. Doesn’t it seem like she’d be totally happy with him at this point, particularly if he was prepared to be honest and tell her he really has feelings for her, which is what he could have done at that very moment? The Missus and I were convinced he did it to spare Nate. I was really, really hoping that when Serena asked him “Chuck, why did you just do that?” his answer would be a gravelly whisper of “Bros before hoes.”
* So they played Georgina’s Jesus stuff strictly for laffs this time around, which is how I thought they were going to go the whole time. That’s fine I guess. A good excuse to paraphrase Pulp Fiction‘s made-up Ezekiel verse.
* Speaking of pop-culture references, there was much rejoicing in the Collins househould when Jenny distracted Lily by explaining the plot of Twilight. ‘Round these parts, you could keep me busy for a solid hour just trying to convince me that vampires in Twilight sparkle in the sunlight instead of burning up. “Wait, they sparkle? You’re making that up.”
* Another Vanessa-less episode! Woo! Actually, The Missus rightly said tonight “I’m glad Vanessa slept with Chuck. I don’t hate her anymore!” It’s true! She became more interesting through genital osmosis.
* Meanwhile you’ve got a lot of other interesting characters floating around who you could work into the mix on a more permanent basis. Well, mostly Eric Van Der Woodsen, whose not-a-main-cast-member status is inexplicable. But Georgina and Gabriel both have potential in a reformed-villain and/or anti-hero kind of way. Like Hawkeye in the early Avengers, or Venom.
* I’ll give the ’80s flashback/spinoff a try, sure. But god help us was that No Doubt covering “Stand and Deliver”? Fuck that noise. Gwen Stefani isn’t fit to do Marco Pirroni’s make-up.
Am I the only one who gets flashbacks to high school insecurities because Dan has to be the narc rather than a member of the “fix it by being nefarious and awesome” crew? I know I’m a bigger fan of the character than most, but c’mon, let him be a little cool. At this point I have trouble seeing why Serena or Nate would ever want to hang out with him again.
Great ep otherwise though.