Television: "Gossip Girl" – Episode 13 Recap & Review

Television Review

Gossip Girl – Episode 13 Recap & Review

By our guest blogger, Gita Gupte

This week marked the return of "Gossip Girl." As noted in a previous review, this season has been quite unremarkable, unbelievable, and anything but unpredictable. Though the writers have thrown us a few glimmers of hope in between excessively painful and forced scenes, it seems to me that the "Gossip Girl" of 2008--with its witty banter, strong-willed characters, and believable love matches--has fallen by the wayside.

Going into its hiatus in December 2009, the show promised that perhaps when it returned in 2010, it would bring back what we once loved about it. So, when a new episode finally aired on Monday, I approached it with an open mind and a bit of excitement. Sadly though, after watching the show for about five minutes, my high hopes were deflated and I was forced to endure another 55 minutes of pathetic-ness by everyone but Chuck (yes, I still love Chuck).

Let’s start with Miss Van der Woodsen--Serena is now dating Nate. I will overlook the fact that the last time we saw her she was enraptured by his cousin, Tripp, and move on to the fact that Nate and Serena are more like brother and sister than boyfriend and girlfriend. Watching them sneak around making love in coat closets at State dinners seems wrong and is awkward to watch. Additionally, I wasn’t fully able to buy into the idea that two teenagers having sex on a couch amid a sea of coats is something the coat check girl would be completely oblivious to when she is shuffling through coats right and left every five minutes. Also--why are a bunch of teenagers invited to a State dinner?!

Now onto Little J and her Danish drug-dealer pal. It turns out that Danish drug-dealer pal went to boarding school with Serena and, oh, happened to have a crush on her! What are the chances?! Apparently, pretty high. He quickly dumps Little J for the opportunity to escort Serena to the dinner. He then gets Serena to unknowingly smuggle drugs into the party. We know that Danish drug-dealer has no chance with Serena and Serena is only using him to make Nate jealous (which we know worked, as noted by the inappropriate coat closet fornication mentioned above). When push comes to shove, Danish drug-dealer is unable to finish-up his drug deal and needs to enlist the help of Little J to complete it. The episode ends with Jenny and Danish drug-dealer tossing around the idea of making their friendship something more than drugs. Fascinating--but not really. I miss wide-eyed Jenny, who was full of good, but so desperate to be popular. Drug-dealing, attitude-ridden Jenny is just no fun to watch.

Next we have Blaire and Chuck. I was disappointed to see that Blaire is yet again on a mission to social climb. Can’t we just see her at the top already? Her groveling is annoying everyone. She was much more likeable as the Queen B. I miss her having people to order around, making snarky comments, and doing evil in the name of good. Then there is Chuck, who for the last few episodes has been on a deep emotional journey. He spends the episode in search of a woman he believes may be his mother. Although the actual interaction with this woman is lame and unbelievable, Chuck continues to deliver as a man that sticks to his guns and follows through on his missions. Why can’t all the characters be like this?

Rufus and Lily faced marital problems again this week, which causes Rufus to run-off on a mancation to hide from his problems instead of face them. Can Rufus ever act like the man in the relationship? Clearly not. He also flirts with the idea of adultery by furthering a friendship with someone on his co-op board. I am so over this plot line. No one cares. I wish the writers would just let Rufus and Lily be secondary characters and get on with it already. I like Lily, but I am not a fan of Rufus. He really is the washed-up '90s musician that he claims to be.

Last and certainly least, Dan was in the episode for a hot second. He spent his five-minute cameo mulling over his love for Vanessa and giving out advice to Nate. Vanessa was not even in the episode. Do I care? Not really because her and Dan are two of my least favorite characters.

This show has taken a nose-dive and we are all just along for the ride. I have no hope that next week will be any better than this week, but I like to think that Chuck can keep the show afloat just long enough for us to endure the remainder of the season.

At this point, I have no desire to see a Season 4.