Gossip Girl - Episode 17 Recap & Review

Television

Gossip Girl - Episode 17 Recap & Review

By our guest blogger, Gita Gupte

For weeks now, our favorite Upper East Siders have made us yawn, check our wrists for the time, and wonder 'when will "Gossip Girl" get good?' This week was no exception, save the last five minutes of the episode. With betrayal as the theme, Episode 17 unfolded into a mix of backstabbing, love wars and unhappy endings.

With Nate's birthday being the main focal point of the day, Serena plans to surprise him with an "Assassin"-themed party, using the decoy of them attending a toad fundraiser in the evening. Yes, toad, as in the hopping little froggie look-alike. This does not a good girlfriend make, because the entire day goes by without anyone caring that our dear Nate Archibald is one year older. Feeling jilted, he ends up taking refuge in claws-out Jenny, who is secretly vying for his emotions.

This storyline irritates me because Jenny has turned into a heinous witch. Case in point would be when she steals a kiss from Nate in this episode. The fact that she would go after her step-sister's boyfriend is beyond me, especially since Serena has always played the role of the caring older sister to her. Anyway, I shouldn't expect anything less from this overly-made-up, angst-seeking teen. She's always looking for a way to be the center of attention.

Next we have Vanessa and Dan. Their plot this week was actually good. Dan is applying to a super-competitive writing program at Tisch. In the process, Vanessa talks him into sharing his script with her (since when is he a screenwriter?). We all know this can only lead to bad things, and it does. Next thing we know, Vanessa is sharing her script with him (why does she randomly have a script? We aren't told) and each is finding a way to tell the other that their writing sucks, but can't find the polite way to do this. Finally, they get past this hurdle and Vanessa reveals that she finds Dan's script cliché. And we all think she is such a good friend (not), until the last few minutes of the episode, which reveal that she secretly applied to the Tisch program and we are fairly certain she screwed Dan over in the process. Will this mean an end to the Dan and Vanessa relationship? I certainly hope so.

Last, but certainly not least, was the most compelling plot of the night, Blair/Chuck/Jack love triangle. While Jack is looking for endless ways to tear apart Chuck Bass, he finds the straw that will ultimately break the camel's back--Blair. He reveals to Chuck that he will relinquish ownership of his hotel if he can have one night with Blair. Stealing from indecent proposal much? Yes, but we are willing to overlook this and the fact that this creepy 30-something wants to prey on an 18-year old, to find out if Blair will give-in.

Ultimately, Blair decides to do this for Chuck without his knowing, because she loves him and wants him to have the one other thing that ever meant something to him, his hotel. When she gives in to Jack's seduction scheme and get's the hotel signed over to Chuck, she learns that this was all Chuck's idea. That he knew that if Jack approached her behind his back, that she would give-in to the plan. We are all shocked and appalled, and I for one was disgusted. The love of his life was willing to prostitute herself for the sake of a hotel and he was quite willing to throw her into the lion's den.

What we learn from this situation is that Chuck is incapable of true love. He misguidedly thinks that Blair and him will get through this -- but we all know that will not happen. The only good that can come of this is that we will now see some of that old-school boy chases girl plot that made the show vibrant in its early days.

While everyone is out to get each other and this is bad in terms of morals and ethics, it makes for great television -- I am still hanging on for a good episode this season.