Episode #5: The Serena Also Rises

This week on Gossip Girl, it’s fashion week and Eleanor Waldorf is getting ready for her fashion show in the tents.  (But her show really wasn’t at the tents.  You thought we didn’t notice huh writers?) Blair is making the seating chart for the fashion show and Eleanor makes says something funny.  Hold on to that thought because I’ll talk about it later.  Blair asked if it was ok she sat her friends from school in the second row and confirmed her and Serena would be backstage.  After all it is tradition.

Dan talks to Jenny about being invisible boy now that Serena has crumbled what little social status he had.  He also talks about how Noah Shapiro was helping him work on his essay for Yale.  Looks like Dartmouth has been put on the back burner.  I think there is some foreshadowing for the upcoming seasons here. Jenny asks how come she didn’t know about him changing his mind and Dan tells her it’s because he hasn’t really seen her.

Lily is redecorating, but I’m confused if it is an apartment or the hotel suite.  Can someone clue me in on this point? This is where we find out that Serena has a new socialite friend, Poppy Lifton.  Poppy is a good name.  I once wanted that to be my nickname. It never caught on though.  We also learn that Serena has deemed her mom the coolest on the Upper East Side because she posed nude for Mapplethorpe.

Blair and Chuck talk about getting her throne back.  Blair is using her connection to Fashion Week as leverage with the girls.  But this backfires because Serena who was in Women’s Wear Daily with Poppy outshines her.  Blair leaves and says something about leaving Serena to her fans.  Chuck is enjoying watching Blair fail.  Blair goes for the jugular and tells Chuck there’s only person who has less friends than him and that’s Dan.  But at least Dan’s dad likes him.

Dan meets with Mr. Shapiro and he says Dan’s stories are no good.  They are all about a boy living in Brooklyn with his dad and sister and are going through girl troubles.  He challenges Dan to get out of his comfort zone or find someone who does go outside his zone.  Otherwise, Yale won’t be impressed.

Meanwhile, Laurel isn’t happy with the seating chart Blair made up because no A-list stars are there. Eleanor says everyone is going to see Marc Jacobs.  Looks like she pulled the wrong time for a fashion show.  But Jenny comes to the rescue and suggests Serena and her new friends.  They will definitely pull press.

Dan decides he wants to hang out with Chuck to experience new things.  Chuck is surprised and is wondering if Dan is gay.  My question to Chuck would have been, no…but are you?  Dan wants to live the life of Chuck Bass for one night. Surprisingly, Chuck agrees to it.

Blair is jealous of Serena, again.  She tells Darota that she shouldn’t ever go to high school because the girls are mean and ungrateful. More on that later too. Blair notices that someone changed to seating chart and Darota tells her Jenny changed it.  Blair is furious and says Jenny learned nothing from last year.  Blair talks to her mom about the seating chart and tells her none of Serena’s friends would agree to miss Marc Jacobs.  But Eleanor bursts her bubble when she says everyone already agreed.  Eleanor dotes on Jenny, because it was her idea.  Blair then finds out Jenny told everyone had an independent study this year.  And it’s the same drill.  Blair gets mad, concocts a plan, and puts it into action.

Chuck and Dan hang out at a bar and drink shots.  Dan doesn’t want to but Chuck tells him he’s either in for the ride or he’s out.  Chuck then gives Dan some pills, matrix style meaning he won’t tell him what they are.  Dan should have been afraid he was taking some Viagra.

Poppy and Lily meet and Serena asks about the plans for the fashion show.  Serena really doesn’t want to do it because it will take her away from backstage and ruin the Blair/Serena tradition.  Serena knows Blair is going to be upset.  As a consolation prize, Poppy said Serena should invite Blair to the Marc Jacobs after party.

Blair brings chicken soup to Jenny and Rufus is suspicious because he knows how vindictive Blair is.  Blair said she talked to Headmistress Kweller and she said Jenny has been out sick for 10 days with mono.  Rufus is surprised to hear this.

Dan is in the back of Chuck’s limo talking about sex clubs, twins, and beer before liquor.  He’s obviously trashed.  Chuck tells Dan to take off his shoes.  Then he kicks him out of the limo.  Dan is left to walk home.  But from everything I’ve read it wasn’t that far of a walk.  Supposedly Dan has walked longer to meet with friends.

Rufus goes to find Jenny at her internship and tells her she has to leave immediately.  Of course he is upset that he spends that much money to send his kid’s school and one of them isn’t going.  Jenny tries to explain but he asks why he should believe anything she has to say.  Blair was there for the whole thing…and she’s pretty pleased with herself.

Back at home, Rufus isn’t talking to Jenny.  Finally Jenny says she’s been keeping up with her work because someone has been e-mailing her the assignments.  She apologizes for cutting school but she really wanted to help Eleanor during fashion week.  Rufus says she has an appointment with the headmistress that afternoon (which just happens to be Saturday).

Serena and Blair talk.  Blair complains that Serena took over the girls at school and is upset that Serena is sitting front row at the fashion show instead of being backstage with her.  They fight.  Serena says she was there to invite Blair to hang out with her and Poppy at the Marc Jacobs party.  This fuels Blair more…she says sarcastically it was so nice of Serena to include her in her group of friends. Needless to say, I don’t think Blair really wanted to go to that party.

Dan goes back to Mr. Shapiro with his story and he doesn’t like it.  He says it’s just a story about a boy going through firsts.  He tells him to write from the point of view of Chuck. Find his humanity, find out his secret and use it against him…for story purposes we must remember.

Lily finds out the photograph of herself she was trying to find was bought by her own husband.

At the fashion show, Serena and her new socialite friends are supposed be sitting front row.  Everyone I guess except Serena, because Blair moved her card to the back row.  Jenny tries to step in the fix but Blair gets mad.  Eleanor joins the conversation and realized that Blair changed to cards.  She scolds Blair in front of everyone.

Chuck talks to his dad on the phone and he seems sad.  He wants to have a drink with Bart, but he doesn’t want to.  He asks what kind of trouble Chuck is in, but Chuck really just wanted to see his daddy.

Blair is trying to sabotage Jenny.  She asked the assistance what Jenny’s last job is for the fashion show and learns it is getting the models to and from the runway. It looks like Blair has something up her sleeve.

Dan and Chuck are hanging out.  Dan asks what it’s like to be Chuck Bass.  He also asks about when he started drinking in bars alone and about his father.  Chuck says his father is a like him but older and meaner.  Chuck then socialites a woman for sex; the only problem is she’s not a prostitute.  The woman’s boyfriend then approaches Chuck and he shares some choice words about the woman.  But Dan is the one who ends up punching the guy out.

Rufus is at home expecting to see Jenny there.  But she’s gone to fashion week.  There is a message on the answering machine from headmistress Kweller saying the situation has gotten out of control.

At the show, Jenny ignores the call from Rufus and goes on about her business.  She finds out that Blair sent all the models away and is forced to fix the situation.  Jenny has a good idea in using Serena and her friends as the models.  Blair is less than thrilled about this.

Dan and Chuck are in jail for the little fight they had at the bar.  Dan is worried about what his dad is going to think.  Chuck says his father expects this from him.  Chuck then confides his father has been standoffish since he was born.  He says his dad blames him because his mother died during childbirth.  Dan says that isn’t his fault and Chuck seems to appreciate that.  He offers Dan some help with the situation by offering up his lawyers when they bail him from jail.  But Dan turned right back into the asshole with Shapiro when he said he had a new idea for a story about an egomaniacal writer who tries to manipulate his protégé. But it this case, I think it was warranted.  Dan, you just need to learn when to be asshole Dan that’s all.

Bart returns home and is with Lily.  He gives her a present; it’s a very pretty expensive necklace.  She is happy to have it, but she was expecting something else more along the lines of a nude photograph of herself. Bart admits to buying the photograph but won’t let Lily have it.  He says he’s a powerful man and doesn’t want anything to jeopardize him or the family.  Lily is joking around about him hiring a private investigator then it turns serious.  She wants to see the dossier the private investigator collected.  She’s looking through it and she’s not really surprised until Bart hands her an envelope with some papers in it.  But we don’t know what it is.

The society girls walk the runway for Eleanor, but Serena is backstage still not wanting to do it because she knows Blair is going to be upset. Poppy says if Blair were a true friend she would support her and says Serena has spent too much time backing off so Blair could shine.  Serena then decides to walk in the show.

Blair is still pissed about it and tries to sabotage Serena by giving her Jenny’s after party dress instead of the dress she is to wear on the runway.  But to Blair’s surprise, the crowd loves it.  Eleanor gets wind of this and blames Jenny.  She thinks Jenny did it on purpose to get one of her designs out there.

Jenny asks Blair why she would do this, but quickly realizes it’s not about her…it’s about Blair and Serena.  Jenny says that Blair has worked for everything she has like herself, but Serena just glides on through.

When Chuck is picking up his stuff in jail, he gets the wrong wallet.  It’s Dan’s and he sees all the notes Dan made for his story.  He goes back to confront Dan about him writing about him.  He tells Dan to watch is back and says the story about his mother was lie.  She died in a plane crash.

Eleanor is all in a tizzy about Jenny’s dress.  She doesn’t want to take credit for it.  Jenny tells her she used scrap fabrics and just changed one of Eleanor’s patterns so it’s basically her dress.  Blair and Jenny encourage Eleanor to take credit for it.  Blair takes up for Jenny saying she saved the show many times too.

An assistant comes to Jenny to tell her there is a guy outside saying he is her father. She asks if she should put him on the list and Jenny says no because her father is out of town.

Mr. Shapiro picks Dan up from jail and asks him if he got the back-story on his character.  Shapiro tells him he is proud he got Charlie Trout’s secret and he will have a hell of story.  Dan says he’s not going to use it because he doesn’t want to exploit people to be a good writer.

At the after party Eleanor thanks Jenny for everything she did to save the show and Jenny is thrilled.  Serena and Blair talk and Blair tries to apologize.  But Serena tell Blair to get over herself and that she’s tired of holding herself back so she won’t outshine Blair.  She also calls Blair out for being insecure.

Blair tries to apologize to Serena but she’s over it because Blair tried to publicly humiliate her.  In fact, she tells Blair to get over herself.  She calls Blair insecure and that her whole life she’s been bending over backwards to protect Blair’s feelings. She said she is tired of holding herself back so she doesn’t outshine Blair.  She says from now on she’s going to be who she is and hopes that Blair can support that so they can be friends.

Rufus is at the after party and hears what Eleanor says about Jenny.  But he still demands that she quit the internship.  She also tells him she told the headmistress that she’s not going back to school.  Jenny says she is talented and Rufus should respect that.  He says he does but Jenny must finish school first.  They argue back and forth and Jenny basically tells Rufus she is more talented than he was.  She then tells Rufus she told the headmistress she wasn’t going back to school.  Rufus stands there astonished.

Commentary:

This was a very good episode. This is probably my favorite episode thus far this season.  The first thing I want to talk about is Jenny!  She’s about to explode onto the Gossip Girl scene.  She’s been hiding in the back of storyville, but now she’s back.  So I called it last week, do you remember?  Jenny is quitting school.  The crazy thing is, I’m not opposed to it.  I think she could stay in school and do her design work, but Jenny isn’t happy at school.  She’s happy working with Eleanor.  I just have one name for you Kira Plastania.  She designs, travels all around the world, and still goes to high school though. So now she just needs to convince Eleanor to pay her and maybe Rufus won’t be so mad about it.  And you know that must have sucked for Rufus to hear his daughter almost say she was more talented than him.  I think Jenny should get her GED or going to one of those special high schools for the arts.  Then while all her friends are going off to the Ivy League she can go to FIT!

What’s up with Dan growing some balls?  But is he really growing some balls are just being his true self.  I think Dan is just being himself; allowing him to be the undercover asshole he is.  Yes, I would still like to date Dan…but lonely boy Dan.  Not I’m so into myself Dan.  It was kind of fun to watch Dan live the life of Chuck.  And he seemed pretty comfortable with it too.  And what’s up with Dan wanting to go to Yale?  I really don’t like that, but I guess they have to find someway to keep the group together.

Serena’s deal breaker must be public humiliation.  That seems to be the only reason she is getting mad.  Last week, Dan was trying to humiliate her in front of her friends.  (But I really didn’t know Serena was friends with those girls.  We never ever saw them talk to each other, much less hang out until last week.)  This week, Blair is trying to humiliate her…and finally Serena gets her backbone back.  If you’ve been listening to the podcast regularly, you know I love Blair, but it’s about time someone told her off.  How many evil things do you think you can get away with without someone saying something about it?  And Blair’s streak of evil has been going on for a long time.  I don’t see how Serena and Blair are going to be friends after that tell-off though.  Serena was pretty brutal and those are words that you can’t exactly take back.  Even though we know Serena is going to try to take them back down the line.  I think this is going to be the end of Blair and Serena for a while.

Let’s take a look at what Serena said.  Do you think it’s true?  I think Blair got what was coming to her.  She’s always had this hang up about Serena; we remember the first few episodes of Gossip Girl.  They all focused on Blair and Serena. She always seems to get upset when people pay more attention to Serena than her.  I don’t think Serena was wrong for telling Blair this because it was true.  Serena is at fault the way she told her.  She could have been a little nicer about it so they could salvage their friendship. For now, I think the friendship is on DNR, DO NOT RESUSITATE.

Besides, Serena has new friends.  Can someone tell me how old Poppy is supposed to be?  Yes, I know I’m obsessed with age.  I know Poppy is supposed to be older than Serena, but she looks like she could do the high school thing with the rest of the gang.  I was just wondering’.

Now maybe Blair will start her own clique and we can see that street battle I talked about last week.  But Blair might need to pick up the Adirondacks girl…it’s all about street cred!  There is definitely going to be a Jenny and Blair friendship though.  You can tell because Blair finally put up that white flag in this episode.  It was nice to see Blair being nice. I don’t want to see it too often, but every girl needs a sidekick and I think Jenny would fit the bill right now.  Serena needs to go off and find herself again.

I don’t understand why Blair gets so upset about her being in the fashion show.  She should be happy for Serena. Didn’t Serena use to be a model? And at what cost will Blair go to get what she wants?  I know Eleanor and Blair don’t have the greatest relationship, but she’s still her mother.  She almost ruined her fashion show twice.  Blair should recognize where she gets her Upper East Side cred.

Let’s take another flash back to last week’s podcast episode:  When do you sleep Blair Waldorf? Blair is genius to come up with these plans on a whim.  She just works her magic and usually the plans work out.  This week it didn’t happen so much.  She was a little off her game, but I know good things will happen for Blair again.

On a side note about the posse that Serena now owns; why is Nelly Yuki apart of that clique?  I swear Blair tried to destroy her before SATs and now all of the sudden they all pals.  That Nelly Yuki is smart, but not smart enough when she picks her friends.  Maybe she didn’t realize that Blair was trying to take her down!  Plus, I thought Hazel was a permanent fixture in the group.  But she hasn’t been around all season, until she was reading Women’s Wear Daily.  I thought for sure she would have been apart of the whole Nairtini incident.  Plus, what was she wearing this episode?  Were those shorts?  And they weren’t like the tailored shorts Isabel seemed to be wearing.  They looked like gym shorts.  And with the way they were cut on the side, the looked like Sofe shorts.  Blair should help her friend out.

Eleanor Waldorf is supposed to be this great designer right? Then how come a teenager saved her show?  It’s like she can’t do anything for herself and she depended on teenagers to help her out. They saved the show and made that fabulous looking dress.  I think Eleanor should fire Laurel and hire Jenny.

Lily and Bart are just weird to me.  Or maybe it’s just that I can’t picture Bart Bass loving anyone.  He just seems wound way to tight and he can’t find joy in anything.  Lily is prim and proper, but she knows how to let her hair down and have a good time.  I think Lily might be looking for another husband soon enough.  I wonder if Bart made her sign a pre-nup. I know he’s not that stupid, but she’s still going to get out with a lot of dough.

This episode we met the softer side of Chuck.  Do you like it?  The jury is still out with me.  It was good to find some back-story on Chuck because we know very little about him.  Chuck made himself vulnerable to right person because Dan isn’t going to use his secret against him.  I just wish Chuck knew that.  Dan and Chuck should be friends because I think they could balance each other out.  Dan needs someone to remove that corkscrew from his ass and Chuck needs someone who will make him more self-aware.  I think this would be a good bromance.

There was something that was different about Blair Waldorf in the opening scenes of the show.  I couldn’t put my finger on it until I was doing the recap.  I thought maybe it was her hair being straight.  It’s very rare we see her with straight hair (and it looks great on her), but that wasn’t it. Blair wasn’t wearing a headband.  When have we seen Blair without a headband?  I think never.  But it’s funny how that made such an appearance difference.  Did you notice?