I have to say that for the most part I absolutely loved this episode. It was great to see the writers do an episode that didn’t revolve around some party or benefit for a charity organization that all of the characters are going to for a change. Instead, this episode dealt with Dan telling all of his friends and family about his book Inside and their reactions to his book, almost all of which were negative. I really wish the writers would do more episodes like this that don’t revolve around some fancy party, because I personally found this episode very refreshing and enjoyable.
My favorite thing about this episode was definitely the fantasy scene with Dan and Blair’s alter egos from the book reenacting their kiss from last season, but in Dan’s book their kiss apparently led to them having sex. This of course pissed Blair off, and it also caused Louis to get upset and wonder if there really was something going on between Dan and Blair. This led Blair to basically give Louis an ultimatum that either he learn to trust her and trust that he’s the one she wants to be with, or they should just break up. Usually, I think it’s wrong for people to give others ultimatums, but Louis is acting way too jealous and I don’t like the person he’s becoming this season. Blair really needed to tell him that. In the end, he apologized, but it was obvious at the end of the episode that he still has doubts about Blair’s love for him.
So far this season Serena hasn’t really annoyed me all that much compared to how much she did in seasons two through four, but she absolutely pissed me off in this episode. Serena started off by telling a guy she works with at the movie studio who had apparently read the book that she was Sabrina in the book and how she and Dan used to date and are now friends. She was pretty much bragging and acting pretty narcissistic when she was talking about it, but she hadn’t read the book yet so she had no idea that Dan wrote the character Sabrina as being very shallow, self-absorbed and flaky, which is pretty much exactly how I see Serena as a character.
Serena was furious with Dan after she learned about the way he had actually portrayed her in the book and was insisting that she and Dan talk about the book, but he was busy trying to work things out with Blair and wanted to assure Louis that he didn’t have to worry that there was something going on between him and Blair. I’m so happy that Dan told Serena that maybe she was more like Sabrina than even he thought if she thought her feelings about the book were more important than the problems that the book was causing between Blair and Louis. Serena totally deserved that. I also love that her boss, Jane, told her that not everything is about her when she was talking about how upset she was about the book. In the end, Jane told Serena that she wanted her to convince Dan to sell the movie rights to his book to their movie studio. I’ve seen every episode that’s aired so far this season, so I know what happens after this episode, but when I watched this episode for the first time, I knew right away when I watched that scene that Serena would pretend to not be upset about the book anymore just to manipulate Dan into selling the movie rights to his book to the movie studio that she works for. That’s yet another reason why I absolutely hate Serena. She really is a manipulative bitch.
Nate was upset about Dan’s book because he apparently didn’t have a character of his own. Dan merged some of his personality traits with some of Serena’s brother, Eric’s, personality to create the character “Derek” who, like Eric, is gay. Nate was okay with the character being gay at first, but he was really hurt that Dan apparently hadn’t viewed him as being a significant enough part of his life to warrant his own character. I have to say that I do feel bad for Nate, and I can see why he would be hurt by not having a character of his own, but his storylines are frequently stupid and pointless. I loved Lily’s reaction to reading a part of the book where “Derek” is meeting with his secret boyfriend, and she starts laughing about it. That was hilarious. I just Lily in this episode as a whole, not just that scene
Rufus was upset with Dan, because he apparently portrayed his character in the book as a failed musician who only married Lily for her money. I’m totally with Rufus on that aspect of the book. That was pretty harsh of Dan to write his father’s character like that after everything his father has done for him. I’m glad that Rufus told Dan off and told him that he never regretted giving up on his music dreams, at least for a while, in order to raise him and Jenny. That really was a slap in the face.
Surprisingly, Chuck was the only one of them to read the whole book and actually like it. All of his other friends just read the parts of the book with their characters. I thought it was really ironic that Chuck was the only one to read the entire book and like it considering the fact that he and Dan have never really gotten along very well, and besides his character, Charlie Trout, who Dan also wrote stories about in season two, apparently commits suicide at the end of the book and nobody finds out about it for several days since Charlie was all alone when he died. Despite Chuck initially saying that he liked the book, the more he thought about it, the more he started to wonder if he was a self-destructive mess, which I definitely think he is, who will die alone. I loved the conversation that Chuck had with Lily about the book and his own life, and I’m glad that Lily told Chuck that he has a family that cares about him. I’m hoping that throughout the rest of the season that Chuck will realize just how messed up he is as a person and will try to redeem himself to a certain extent. Based on all of the episodes that have aired so far, I think he really is trying to change his ways. I still don’t want him to get back together with Blair though. No matter what happens, I’ll never be able to get past the fact that he pimped Blair out to his uncle in order to try and get his hotel back in season three.
Despite the fact that Dan pointed out that he was harder on himself than everyone else in the book and that his character, Dylan Hunter, ends up all alone, everyone was still mad at him and refused to come to his book signing where his agent revealed to everyone that he’s the anonymous author who wrote Inside and was ultimately all alone at the end of the episode like his character was in the book.
What I loved about the whole storyline surrounding Dan’s book is that it was like the writers were acknowledging many of the viewers’ biggest complaints about the show: Serena’s self-absorbed and flaky personality, Chuck’s self-destructive behavior, the fact that Nate often times seems like a pointless character that doesn’t have all that much significance to the show, etc.
Other than all of the drama regarding Dan’s book, Charlie/Ivy was still looking for her phone that she couldn’t find after the party at the end of the previous episode, not knowing that Diana and Nate have it and have been trying to figure out whose phone it is. She called her cell phone, which Diana answered, and ultimately led to Ivy/Charlie unwittingly revealing to Diana that she’s actually a con artist posing as Charlie.
Diana then proceeded to basically blackmailing Ivy into working for her at The Spectator in exchange for her not revealing Ivy’s secret. I have to say that I’m loving Charlie/Ivy, and I really am thrilled that the writers decided to make Kaylee DeFer a series regular. I’m also really excited to see how and when everyone will find out that the person that everyone thinks is Charlie is actually a girl named Ivy who’s also a con artist.
The whole thing with Dan’s book Inside becoming an instant hit and Jane wanting the movie rights to it when he’s pretty much a nobody in the writing community reminds me a lot of The L Word when they did a storyline with Jenny where she publishes a book that’s a thinly veiled account of her friends’ lives that quickly becomes a movie. Both storylines seem fairly ridiculous to me, but they were still pretty interesting.
All in all, I absolutely loved this episode for the most part. This really was a very fun and interesting episode. The only thing that bothered me about this episode was Serena’s behavior, but I’m glad that both Dan and Jane put her in her place and told her that not everything is about her. All that being said, I give this episode a rating of an A-.
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