Gossip Girl: Secrets, Lies, Schemes, and a Basseectomy (My thoughts on episode 4x08: Juliet Doesn’t Live Here Anymore)

I have to say that I absolutely loved this episode. Although, I’ve basically decided that whenever I’m trying to decide exactly how I feel about an episode of Gossip Girl, I pretty much have to ignore my thoughts on anything Serena does in an episode because I pretty much always hate her storylines and find myself getting annoyed with Serena’s behavior. Anyway, back to my thoughts on the episode.

One of the things that I loved about this episode is that it focused a lot on Juliet’s ongoing vendetta against Serena. It was really cool to see how almost all of the characters became involved with trying to expose Juliet in this episode. Since I absolutely loathe Serena, I have loved the character Juliet since the first episode that she appeared in and the writers made it clear that she was out to get revenge on Serena for something that had happened in the past. The writers revealed a lot about Juliet in addition to what we already knew. She’s poor, and she depends on Colin for money to pay for her college tuition and the rent for her apartment, which appeared to be fairly run down and cheap in terms of rent. In the past few episodes, Nate had been becoming increasingly frustrated with Juliet for lying to him and keeping secrets from. In this episode, Juliet finally told Nate all of this. She also told Nate that she does her own hair, and that she feels like she has to keep up the illusion that she’s rich in order to be accepted by her fellow members of the Hamilton house. One thing that has really frustrated me with Juliet’s storyline and the reveal that she depends on Colin for money is the lack of explanation as to what the deal is with Juliet and Ben’s parents and why they don’t appear to be in the picture. They didn’t explain whether their parents had died and they didn’t leave any money to Juliet and Ben for them to pay for their expenses. I really want to know why it is that Colin, who is Juliet and Ben’s cousin, is very rich and successful as a both a business and a guest lecturer at Columbia, while Juliet and Ben are both poor.

A part of me can understand why Juliet feels the need to get revenge on Serena and therefore defied Colin when he told her that she had to forget about her vendetta against Serena if she wanted him to continue to support her financially; the other part of me doesn’t understand why Juliet didn’t listen to Colin’s warning when she clearly needs his money. However, Colin’s really cold attitude toward Ben being in prison really frustrates me. I think he should stand by both Juliet and Ben, regardless of anything that has happened in the past with their family.

My other favorite thing about this episode was the whole storyline with Blair and Chuck trying to end their fling once and for all. I love that both of their approaches to the situation were completely different from the others. Blair’s line about getting a “Bassectomy” was hilarious, which basically meant that she was going to try and avoid Chuck at all cost. Chuck thinking that the best way to handle things was to engage in emersion therapy, which would basically consist of them having as much sex with each other as they possibly could until they were sick of each other, was classic Chuck.

I also loved seeing Vanessa basically being a villain and helping Juliet take down Serena, but she also had the ulterior motives of trying to prove that she hadn’t sent the email trashing Serena like everyone thought she did. Although, the downside of having the writers making Vanessa be a villain has caused the other characters to shun her and she is becoming increasingly pointless to have on the show. It was nice to see Nate working with Vanessa to figure out what Juliet is up to by asking Juliet to have coffee with him while Vanessa snooped in Juliet’s apartment for information about Juliet’s plans. I can see more and more why Jessica Szohr isn’t coming back as a series regular for season five and will just be a guest star. That’s the right decision in my opinion since Jessica already kind of feels that way to me whenever I watch her season four anyway.

Serena pissed me of yet again in this episode as she and Colin continued their affair and were planning to go on a romantic getaway together until she came to her senses and decided to end things with Colin. I also can’t believe that Colin actually resigned from teaching at Columbia so that he and Serena could be together. I don’t think Serena is worth all of that.

Dan also ticked me off in this episode. I hate that he once again found himself being attracted to Serena and considering trying to get back together with her. Luckily, Dan changed his mind after he saw Colin and Serena together and realized that they were romantically involved with each other. I really hope Dan will be able to one day no longer even be tempted to consider getting back together with Serena. I’m so glad that he told Serena off for being romantically involved with Colin, not that it had any long-term affect on Serena and how she conducts herself in terms of her sex life.

I loved the part of the episode where Dan saw Colin and Serena getting into a cab together and Blair and Chuck going their separate ways after one of their hookups all without any of them knowing that he had seen what they were doing.

The way that Juliet’s plan for revenge against Serena, or at least most of it was revealed to all of the characters when Vanessa was going to tell the dean of Columbia about Serena and Colin’s romantic relationship and show her the pictures of Serena and Colin together that were on Juliet’s flash drive, only to have Juliet decide to somewhat come clean on her own was all very clever and funny. I loved it when Blair dropped Juliet’s flash drive into her glass of champagne so no one could see the pictures. That really made me laugh.

At the same time, I couldn’t help but kind of feel sorry for Juliet when Colin told her that he was cutting her off financially after he found out that she secretly took pictures of him with Serena. I also have to admit that I’m kind of impressed with Juliet for still being determined to finish her plans for revenge against Serena even after she’s been shunned by all of the people she had kind of been friends with and was cut off financially by her cousin. I love that Juliet is now working with both Vanessa and Jenny to carry out her plan. I still think that was a pretty clever twist even after watching this episode several times.

All in all, I really loved this episode a lot for the most part, so I give it a rating of an A.

Gossip Girl: War and Peace-Blair and Chuck Style (My thoughts on episode 4x07: War At the Roses)

I have to say that absolutely loved this episode for so many reasons. For starters, I loved the whole thing with Serena and Nate making Blair and Chuck formalize their truce by having a legal document be drawn up and written by a stenographer. That was hilarious. :)

The other thing that I loved about this episode is that Dan let his inner schemer side come out when he was working with Eric to break the truce between Blair and Chuck. Dan has always been my favorite of the guys on the show, mostly because unlike Serena and Nate his storylines don’t all revolve around his love life. Blair has always been my favorite of the girls on the show for similar reasons. I love that Blair’s storylines are often about her ongoing quest to elevate her social status in some way or find her real life prince charming, which has involved actually dating a prince in the past. Blair’s schemes are always a lot of fun to watch as they unfold, and her constant need to scheme against someone is definitely one of the most interesting things about Blair as a character.

One thing that bugged me about this episode is how Rufus lectured Dan about how he plotted to get revenge on Blair and Chuck. That’s always bugged me because Rufus always lectures Dan whenever he does something somewhat devious, but Lily almost never calls Serena out on her never-ending antics, which almost have something to do with her love life. To be fair though, Lily did call Serena out on her dating Colin in the previous episode, which I absolutely loved watching.

I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the fact that Juliet continued to mess with Serena and made her feel insecure about her relationship with Colin since they have to wait until the semester is over before they can officially begin their romantic relationship. As I go back and watch season four again, I really wish that the producers had made Katie Cassidy a series regular.

As for Serena, she is way too easy to manipulate. After all, as soon as she saw Colin with another woman, she immediately assumed that he was cheating on her. However, Serena quickly found out that the woman she saw Colin with turned out to just be his housekeeper. In the end, Serena and Colin managed to not completely give into passion. They only kissed at the end of the episode and Serena told Colin that it was something to look forward to. I suppose that’s progress for Serena since she didn’t end up sleeping with Colin. Serena is still my least favorite character on the show though.

The fact that Blair basically banished Jenny from the upper east side continued to annoy me in this episode, and in my mind kind of warrented Dan plotting against Blair and Chuck. It’s always bugged me that Rufus has never confronted Blair about her banishing Jenny from the Upper East Side. Although, I’m not sure that he knows that Blair basically banished Jenny from the Upper East Side.

As for the video of Blair singing the song “Stand By Your Man” while she was drunk that Dan arranged to have played at her birthday party was absolutely hilarious. Leighton Meester was brilliant with the way she sang that song drunk. I also loved the part where the chocolate fountain fell on that lady at Blair’s birthday party. That was priceless!

 

To me the M.V.P.s of this episode in terms of both the actors and the characters were definitely Penn Badgely/Dan, Leighton Meester/Blair, and Katie Cassidy/Juliet. If you ask me, they all really shined in this episode.

The character Vanessa seemed pretty extraneous in this episode, as well as most of season four. I’m pretty sure she was only in one scene in this episode, which was at the very end of the episode. The only reason she was in this episode was basically so that Dan would have someone to vent to about what he did to get back at Blair and Chuck. I can see why the producers decided to not bring Jessica Szohr back as a series regular for season five.

One last thing that I loved about this episode was the camera work for the scene where Serena and Colin are talking in Colin’s office and are trying to resist the urge to kiss each other. The camera work for the Blair and Chuck love scene at the end of the episode was also pretty impressive in my opinion. That scene was a whole was pretty hot and sex-charged, in my opinion, and I absolutely loved it, mainly because of the dialogue leading up to the actual love scene itself. I’m still completely over Blair and Chuck as a couple though.

All in all, I absolutely loved this episode for the most part, so I give it a rating of an A-.

Gossip Girl: The Bitch is Back! (My thoughts on episode 4x06: Easy J)

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any thoughts posts on Gossip Girl, because I’ve gotten distracted by watching other shows and DVD sets that I’ve bought over the course of the past few months. I’m really going to try to be better about writing blog posts for my blog, especially for Gossip Girl since I’ve been missing the show a lot lately. Anyway, this episode really frustrated the hell out of me in so many ways.

The main thing that bugged me about this episode is Blair. I thought that it’s extremely rude and immature for Blair to think that she has the right to banish Jenny from the Upper East Side, who came back to get some things for an interview she had with Tim Gunn, and tell her when she can and can’t come back to the upper east side to visit her family. Usually, I love Blair’s schemes and bitchy behavior, but in this case Blair went too far with Jenny. I’ve also never liked Jenny, so I haven’t really minded Taylor Momsen not being in very many episodes this season, but I still think Blair took things too far when it comes to dealing with Jenny’s return and sabotaging Jenny’s interview with Tim Gunn. I have to say that Blair’s horror movie style nightmare at the beginning of the episode was brilliant.

Blair and Chuck’s war with each other continued. Part of the reason for Jenny’s return was Chuck’s doing and he also got her the interview with Tim Gunn; he did it to get back at her. I loved them in seasons 1, 2, and most of 3, but I’m absolutely over them. However, they did decide to call a truce at the end of the episode. That still doesn’t make me like them.

To get back at Blair, Jenny sent an email revealing that she lost her virginity to Chuck, not Damian like everyone thought she had to Gossip Girl, which left Blair feeling humiliated after Gossip Girl posted the news on her website. Personally, I thought that Blair deserved to be humiliated like that.

Serena discovered that Colin Forrester was the professor who was teaching a business class that she had signed up for, which was a big problem since they are romantically involved, so they had to keep their relationship a secret. Of course, Lily quickly learned about their relationship after Colin started hitting on Serena right in front of Lily, not knowing that Serena’s mother was standing right in front of them. This whole storyline is beyond stupid, because it’s yet another Serena storyline that involves her love life. I really wish the writers would do something else with Serena, because I hate all of her storylines that involve some guy. I did love it when Lily called her out on her constant bed hopping. She totally had it coming, in my opinion.

I loved Nate’s storyline because it was centered mostly around his family drama with his dad being in prison and it tied into Juliet’s mysterious vendetta against Serena. Sometimes I get really annoyed with Nate’s storylines, because like Serena’s storylines, they are frequently centered around his love life, but even then it doesn’t annoy me as much as Serena’s since his romantic storylines usually have a twist of some kind to make them interesting, such as his fling with an older woman at the beginning of season 2, or in this case, he’s dating Juliet so their relationship is constantly filled with drama due to the fact that she’s lying to him about her true motives behind her actions since she’s carrying out her vendetta against Serena. I like Nate’s storylines the best when they involve his family drama instead of storylines just about his love life. Nate’s family drama is the most interesting thing about him as a character, in my opinion.

Juliet continued her vendetta against Serena, and her plan for revenge was almost discovered when Nate found her outside the prison getting ready to go visit Ben while he was there to visit his dad. She lied and told him that she was a part of a prison literacy program. Nate told her that his dad was in prison, and Ben arranged to have Nate’s dad attacked by some inmates. Juliet once again pushed Nate away, which led him to believe that she had a problem with his father being in prison, so he got mad at her since she wasn’t able to tell him the reason for her behavior.

Juliet’s storyline had yet another twist to it. It turns out that Colin Forrester is hers’ and Ben’s cousin and her family is poor, so he’s been supporting her financially. Honestly, in retrospect I think that the whole storyline with Juliet and her vendetta against Serena was one of the best things about season 4, because it revisited Serena’s reasons for returning the Upper East Side at the start of the series. Juliet’s storyline also helped Gossip Girl recapture the vibe that the show had in season 1, which is a big part of why season 4 is my second favorite season of Gossip Girl.

All that being said, I give this episode a rating of a C-.