4.05 – Goodbye, Columbia
A GOSSIP GIRL BLAST STRIKES OUT AGAINST SERENA – An anonymous Gossip Girl blast starts a very damaging rumor about one of Columbia’s new students, Serena (Blake Lively). On her path to greatness, Blair (Leighton Meester) decides to take a class with a powerful businesswoman, Martha (guest star Marilyne Barrett), who is guest-lecturing at Columbia, but a mysterious fellow student thwarts her plans to secure the prized position as Martha’s assistant. Penn Badgley, Chace Crawford, Ed Westwick, Jessica Szohr, Kelly Rutherford and Matthew Settle also star. Jeremiah Chechik directed the episode written by Robby Hull (#405).
The Recap:
This week Gossip Girl takes us into The Battle of Columbia…and Dan and Vanessa are even involved, which is strange because they go to NYU. Chuck really steps up his war and brings back his old self and proves he’s “cunning and devious than date night.” And Serena fights the battle of public opinion when Gossip Girl blows the lid off SVW claiming that our young Serena has an STD. And Juliet, she’s really ready to take Serena down and doesn’t matter who is caught in the middle…that is unless your name is Nate. Could Juliet be falling for our Nate Archibald? She didn’t want him to take part in any Serena take down, so that must me something on the battlefield of love.
1. Chuck is upping the ante. Blair thought she would be safe in the hallowed halls of Columbia, but she was wrong. Blair is on the road to becoming a powerful woman so it’s only natural that she would want to be an assistant to Ms. Chamberlain, a powerful business woman. (In the real world, no sophomore would be allowed to be a teaching assistant or an assistant of any kind for a visiting professor. That’s what graduate student are for, especially at Columbia.) But Chuck has made his mark on Columbia by offering to build the Bart Bass Memorial Rotunda which pretty much gives him access to anything at the school he wants. But the only thing Chuck wants is what Blair wants and he’ll stop at nothing to get it. In the end, Chuck ends up bringing one of Blair’s minions on his side to take her down. But neither of them get the assistant job because Ms. Chamberlain ends up quitting after she gets stuck in the Chair crossfire of manipulation and deceit.
2. Juliet is putting out the land mines. Ben and Juliet are working hard at bringing Serena down for whatever Serena did to him that left him with nothing. Juliet is very proud that she separated Nate and Dan from Serena, but Ben thinks Juliet is falling for Nate…and she could be. Juliet starts a nasty rumor to Gossip Girl about Serena having an STD that should could have passed around to the group. This lays the foundation for a very ugly scene of friction between Serena and Nate, Dan and Vanessa, and Vanessa and Serena. Nate wants to get tested because he wants to have sex with Juliet, but she won’t go all the way until she knows that it’s safe. Serena doesn’t want Nate to get test that day (but eventually because of his summer of love with Chuck’s black book) because it will confirm the rumor.
3. Vanessa believes the worst in everyone. Vanessa wants to know that Dan and Serena did not sleep together, but she doesn’t believe a word either one of them says. Vanessa has some insecurities and she’s not handling them the right way. Gossip Girl didn’t make things any easier because she posted a picture of Dan checking in at the student health center at Columbia. Oh Vanessa, you should have taken that as a clue that it wasn’t Dan’s appointment. He doesn’t even go to Columbia. But that doesn’t stop her from falling into ranks with Juliet. At a Hamilton House mixer, Juliet persuades Vanessa to steal Serena’s phone to find out the truth. And the truth is what she found out, Dan e-mailed Serena about how he was ready to cut Serena out of his life to show Vanessa how much he cared for her. Now Vanessa feels guilty.
4. Serena wants to take school seriously. Let’s back up for a moment. Serena is really trying to make this college thing work, but she’s constantly late for her English Lit class. Late = absences and that’s not good for her class standing. Serena is desperately trying to get back in her professors good graces, but she keeps missing the meetings she sets up with him. Serena finally finds the time to talk to him at the Hamilton House mixer, but Juliet struck first. After Vanessa steals Serena’s phone, Juliet takes the phone from Vanessa and sends Serena’s English Lit professor an e-mail suggesting they trade sexual favors for a reduction in her absences. When the Dean hears of the e-mail, she is ready to expel Serena from school and naturally Serena denies everything because she has no clue what happened. Vanessa over hears this conversation and tries to admit about stealing of the phone. Juliet stops her because she doesn’t want to get expelled from school, but Vanessa keeps on pushing for them to tell the truth. In the end, Juliet sneaks Serena’s phone into Vanessa purse and sets her to take the fall for what she did. In the end, Dan and Vanessa split because she didn’t trust Dan enough to recognize that he was telling the truth.
5. The Jenny Humphrey grenade. Chuck brings up that Blair hasn’t told anyone about the Jenny Humphrey incident. Blair claims she is glad that it happened because it allowed her to really get over Chuck. But why has Blair not told? Well Chuck is playing the game because he’s setting up an opportunity that Jenny can not turn down. What will Blair do when she finds out that Chuck was behind it all? Blair says Chuck wouldn’t bring it up because it would ruin him too. He may be “homicidal, but he’s not suicidal.”
Side notes:
- Nate and Juliet finally seal the deal. It looks like the Humphrey playbook of talking and Scrabble really worked out for Nate this time. But there’s still one question, how did Juliet know those people she was apartment crashing even had a Scrabble board?
- Chuck almost forgot how much he loved Blair’s pie. Was there a lot of pie making going on between them?
- The Dean tells Serena she needs to get her priorities in order because she doesn’t like the drama Serena has brought to this school. That’s odd that one student can bring that much drama…but has Serena really done that much?
No episode of Gossip Girl next week. The show will take a one week break and return with 4.06 – Easy J! Yes, Jenny Humphrey will be back.
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