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I’m what you would call a lapsed “Gossip Girl” viewer. And when I say lapsed, I mean I watched one episode last season and swore I’d never tune in again. But when I heard that the series was wrapping up with one final 10-episode season, I decided that I wanted to see how it all ended and more importantly, I wanted to make sure that Blair (Leighton Meester) and Chuck (Ed Westwick) ended up together.
On Thursday, I watched the screeners for the first two episodes of Season 6, “Gone Maybe Gone” and “High Infidelity.” While both episodes had their dull moments, overall, I was surprised by how engaged I was in the show and not just the parts that featured Chuck and Blair.* The overall theme of the season seems to be growing up as the characters move on from school (did any of them finish college?) and make decisions about their careers, relationships, friendships, etc. But it’s not always easy to let go of the past or the immature, spoiled rich kid living inside most of the characters.
ICYMI: ‘Gossip Girl’ Season 6 Promo: OMSG
When we last left the Upper East Side in the May season finale, Blair had chosen Chuck over Dan (Penn Badgley) and had tracked Chuck down in Monte Carlo, promising that she was all in. Dan had turned to Georgina (Michelle Trachtenberg) for help with his plan to write a tell-all book about all the people that he’d been friends with for five seasons and some of the ones he was related to. Nate (Chace Crawford) had taken over running The Spectator and was on a mission to bring down Gossip Girl once and for all. Meanwhile, Serena (Blake Lively) had hit rock bottom, alienated everyone that she was close to, took a nosedive off the sobriety wagon and jumped on a train out of New York City without telling a soul.
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
“This fall could be my last season.” – Gossip Girl’s (Kristen Bell) opening voiceover.
Season 6 picks up right where the finale left off with Chuck and Blair in Monte Carlo. If you’ve seen the ‘OMSG’ promo, then you know that the two are getting hot and heavy in the hotel room. If you remember the scene from Season 4 where they had sex on the piano, I can tell you that this scene is way hotter than that one.
But after that, there’s a time jump straight to the end of summer and Chuck and Blair are in separate countries. Don’t panic. The two have made a very mature decision in regards to their relationship and while they aren’t together, they are together. I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but the episode will make things much clearer. Also, there’s a fantastic moment in the back of the limo that is guaranteed to have fangirls melting into piles of goo.
Dan is still with Georgina, trying to find the right ending for his book. I’m not generally a fan of Dan (or anyone named Humphrey on this show), but the scenes between Dan and Georgina are hilarious. Dan is bitter; not only about Blair choosing Chuck, but over what Serena did to him with the threatened sex tape and he’s also mad about what happened to Jenny (that seemed a little random to me since Dan supported his sister leaving New York as much as the audience did, but I suppose when you’re angry, you just look for excuses to get angrier. I get that).
Lily (Kelly Rutherford) and Bart (Robert John Burke) return from their summer vacation and realize that Serena hasn’t been home all summer. Lily sends out the SOS to the non-judging Breakfast Club members and Blair calls Dan to let him know that Serena’s missing. Georgina answers the phone since Dan is ignoring her calls and once she hears that Serena is MIA, Georgina thinks she has the perfect ending for Dan’s book. The two set out to find Serena before Blair, Chuck and Nate do.
Speaking of Nate, he’s got a clue to Gossip Girl’s identity. He’s also got a new girlfriend, Sage (Sofia Black-D’Elia), a college student who came to interview him about The Spectator. But Sage plays a bigger role in the second episode than that first. As for Nate’s clue, he ends up using it as a bargaining trip to help the gang track down Serena.
If you’ve seen the promo or any of the pictures released from the episode, you know that the group ends up at a large event that looks suspiciously like a wedding. You also know that Serena is now going by the name ‘Sabrina’ and she’s cozying up to a character played by Barry Watson. The CW does not want any specific details about the storyline revealed other than that so I’m just going to say that it’s good, it’s twisty, it’s not what I was expecting and for the first time in a long time, Serena’s got an interesting storyline.
OTHER TIDBITS:
-For the Dan and Blair fans, the two have a conversation about their relationship and how upset Dan is about Blair choosing Chuck, especially once he learns that Blair and Chuck are not technically together.
-Ivy (Kaylee DeFer) makes an appearance in the first episode. Since I didn’t watch last season, I don’t know much about her, but Lily is not amused by what she’s been up to.
-Chuck and Blair are both trying to prove themselves to their parents; Blair wants to show her mother she can take over as head of Waldorf Designs and Chuck wants to prove that Bart is still a manipulative schemer.
-Rufus (Matthew Settle) makes very poor choices.
-Dan and Nate strike a deal that is going to cause waves among the group
-There are a lot of inside jokes besides the ‘fall being Gossip Girl’s’ last season reference including a “Country Strong” reference and Lola landing a pilot on NBC.
“Gossip Girl” premieres Monday, Oct. 8 at 9:00 p.m. on The CW
*In case it’s not clear, my Chuck and Blair favoritism is my own opinion and does not reflect the opinions of TV Source Magazine as a whole. Some of our staff is Team Dan.
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