Gossip Girl: Rufus Getting Married

Rufus Getting Married was a surprising and twisty episode that managed to wrap up some plotlines in a satisfying way. Starting off on a lovey dovey note we see a montage of how into each other all our young couples are: Serena and Carter have breakfast, Chuck and Blaire make out, Nate and Bree try to look interesting and Dan Humphrey texts or twitters or something with Hillary Duff. It’s just poor Rufus and Lilly that aren’t feeling the love yet, but this is the Upper East Side and things never stay the same for long.

Georgina, somewhat inadvertently, drives a good chunk of the plot this week. After returning home from Boston with the truth about Scott, Georgina uses the secret to blackmail Vanessa into getting Dan Humphrey to dump his new love interest and come back to her. I didn’t really buy this part of the story, I love Georgina and liked her with Dan Humphrey but having her go this nuts over him so soon is a little silly. Georgina may be many things, but I don’t think a girl who is hung up on Dan Humphrey would ever be one of them. Of course Vanessa’s morals can never be compromised, so she only tries to get Dan Humphrey to dump Hillary Duff for a while before she tells him Scott’s secret she promised to keep.

After some back and fourth, some angry words and nights spent on the couch Rufus asks Lilly to marry him the next day. Of course she accepts and soon Serena, Jenny and Blair are spearheading the attempt to pull off the perfect wedding in less than a day. This leads to some good stuff with Little J finally ruling the way Blair wants her to by commanding the minions and dismissing the poor. And of course it creates the wedding will serve as a great setting for big confrontations and drama.

Bree meanwhile uses Chuck’s rivalry with Carter to get revenge for her family. Chuck lets on that Carter needs to prove his devotion to Serena by attending the wedding. Bree invites her stereotypical, football playing cousins from Texas to get some “Southern Justice”. Carter confesses to Serena that her promised to marry Bree’s cousin, but ran off after the Buckley family paid off his debts. And because this is Gossip Girl, this is a conversation he decides to show up at the wedding to have as opposed to using one of the cell phones they’re never without. Well, have fun with those Buckley boys Carter, hopefully you live to see future episodes!

When it is time for the wedding to start Lilly has a case of cold feet (I guess Rufus won the coin toss in the writers room this week). Georgina plays her master-stroke by inviting Scott along when she crashes the wedding. Right after Lilly acts like a grade A bitch to Scott, Georgina reveals that he is the not so dead Rufus/Lilly love child. Scott has already taken off and Lilly and Rufus set off to find him, reaffirming their love in the process. This was a bit schmaltzy but I was surprisingly happy to have them actually go through with the wedding in the end. Even if it was bizarrely officiated by Sonic Youth in a cameo I wouldn’t have noticed had we not be informed of their presence several times throughout the episode.

And that’s the way they be came the Rufus Bunch! I seriously hope they start putting all the Humphrey/van der Woodsen/Bass/Ronsson family in a grid at the beginning of the show. Georgina’s warped plan for revenge ended up bringing everybody together, instead of driving them apart. It is pretty hilarious how many people are now related thanks to Lilly and Rufus finally getting married. Dan Humphrey and Jenny, half & half brother Scott, Serena and Eric and sometimes step-brother Chuck, hypothetically throw in cliché baby (you know it’ll come in a season or two) and it’s one big happy family. I’m not sure how I feel about the implications of this yet, it all seems sort of creepy and incestuous, Dan Humphrey and Serena dated multiple times, and Chuck once tried to force himself on Jenny, that whole aspect is pretty icky. And also, did Blaire just sell Georgina into white slavery?

Gossip Girl: Dan de Fluerette

Hilary Duff isn’t the only celebrity guest, also preposterously playing a serious actress is Tyra Banks. After Lily finally returns. Serena is determined to get her approval on her decision to find herself instead of going to Brown, so she sets out to find a job. After a brief montage Serena manages to snag herself a publicists job after impressing Olivia’s rep at a restaurant. Soon she is tending to the diva ways of an emotional actress played by Tyra, somehow though Tyra just doesn’t pull off being a diva when she’s acting, ah sweet irony. Serena’s PR job get really ridiculous really fast and I found it pretty hilarious. Being a publicist means being able to have a slumber party one night, and then make tough ethical decisions the next, it’s a really good fit for Serena who likes talking about trying to do better more than actually working at it. Serena manages to loose the job by being too ethical but Tyra gets it back for her because they forged such a strong bond in those two crazy days.

Little J and Blaire both also struggle with their identity this week as one queen bee fades away and another starts to rise. Jenny and Eric finally go back to school and are shocked to find a bunch of raccoon eyed Jenny wannabes with punked up uniforms (though none as punk as Jenny who has a skirt about an inch long and leather vest over a wife-beater and tie! LOL). Blair still can’t win over NYU so she decides to meddle in high school business again, I’m glad Chuck agreed with me that this was really pathetic on her part. Chuck pulls off a mini-coup, taking Jenny to Olivia’s movie premier and getting Blair good and pissed off. I was really happy to see this wind up so well with Blair starting up a new monarchy of her own, NYU is a huge school she just had to look harder for her followers. Jenny didn’t fare as well as the raccoon pack was back, but at least they’re not wearing headbands! Like Serena last week Chuck really shines with very little screen time. He manages to light a fire under Blair and Jenny’s asses and get them to take back what’s theirs. Bonus points for his hilarious Dumbo metaphor.

And also, Scott makes an appearance at the end talking to Vanessa on the phone when he gets an incoming call…from Georgina. Dun dun dun!

Gossip Girl: The Lost Boy

The biggest storyline of The Lost Boy is Vanessa finding out the truth about Scott, the Single White Humphrey, previously revealed to be the (presumed dead) love-child of Rufus and Lilly. [sidebar, I’ve missed Lilly so far this season] Vanessa grew suspicious of Scott after his purported class schedule didn’t match actual courses, so she Nancy Drewed out the truth that Scott isn’t even enrolled at NYU and confronts him. Scott is surprisingly forthcoming about the whole thing and admits that he is Dan and Serena’s half brother, he asks her sincerely to give him a day to talk to Rufus about it first. In true Vanessa form she immediately calls Dan to discuss what she just promised not to tell anyone for one whole day. However, Vanessa misses her chance to go back on her promise when Georgia shows up at the coffee shop where she met Dan. I was a little annoyed, I thought Vanessa was the one who was supposed to actually be giving Georgina a chance, but then again they also imply Vanessa has morals which she generally proves she doesn’t.

Why exactly is Georgina there? Because she’s fallen crazy in love with Dan Humphrey of course! I am actually really enjoying the Dan/Georgina casual dating/hooking up/maybe I’m crazy in love with your plotline. And I don’t think its just because I have loved Michelle Trachtenberg since Pete and Pete and all through Buffy (I know, not hating Dawn is Whendonverse blasphemy, by I thought she served her purpose well). To me this plot just seems like your typical college fling with all the uncomfortable and too comfortable moments that happen in dorm life. It is one of the most relatable plotlines of the season, regardless if you’re rich or poor, Ivy League or Jr. State, any time you get a bunch of college kids living together this type of thing happens. And it’s even juicier when you add in Georgina’s plot to take down Blaire. And also, it’s nice to see that Dan Humphrey seems like much less of a tool in a college setting than in high school, he was way too pretentious for high school, but just about freshman average at college.

This week Chuck and Blaire’s games center around a struggle to obtain a photograph from a famous artist (an imitation Helmut Newton, I was pretty ticked that they dissed Newton while so blatantly ripping him off). Blaire needs the painting to get an invite to Thee Elite Table (but in French), a secret society of to best the best, upper class academic women the Ivy league has to offer. Chuck needs it because of his on-going, boring, goal of wanting to open a club. They weren’t too remarkable this week in any of their games, but currently they’re sort of like a sitcom that is in a really good stride, so I don’t think they need to rush this plot it‘s still pretty fun. Serena and Carter are really just on the outskirts of this plot, Serena is suspicious and untrusting of Carter who is being framed by Chuck and Blaire who just don’t like him. Serena was good tonight though, given how little screen time she actually had. She out-bid both Chuck and Blaire for the photograph, and was the one to realize that both Blaire’s invitation and Chuck’’s business contact were fabricated by Georgina. I was impressed with Serena, but even more with Georgia!

Other people in small roles were Nathan and Bree, who now only talk to each other outside of a hotel toom. I do like Joanna Garcia, but this is trying my patience, hopefully the surprise ending of her being related to Carter gives her character the spark that it needs. Jenny and Eric were on screen, like seriously I’m about 95% sure they were there. Aren’t they in school yet? High school usually starts earlier in the year that college. Rufus attends the same Sotheby’s auction at the end and is almost told the truth by Scott. who ends up copping out and says he is the brother of Rufus’s son. This leads Vanessa to dump him because she can’t keep a secret this big, but apparently she will if he is gone because lying is OK if you don’t have to be reminded about it too often, good call Vanessa. Georgina manages to eavesdrop the truth about Scott, because Vanessa talks on her cell phones with the door to her dorm open. So it does seem to only be a mater of time before the whole truth is revealed to everybody. Yeah and also, I’m glad somebody finally went all Mean Girls and told Nate, “you look sexy with your hair pushed back”.