Get Ready for Gossip Girl Season 3!

13 09 2009

We’re days away from Gossip Girl’s season 3 premiere!

Here’s what you need to know about last season:

After a summer apart, Serena and Dan rekindle their romance but it doesn’t last and Serena begins dating Aaron.  Throughout the relationship, the bond she shares with Dan remains strong and she ends things with Aaron.  Dan and Serena *again* get back together and *again* split up, allowing Dan to have a fling with one of the teachers at Constance and Serena to briefly date the scheming Gabriel.  Dan and Serena attend prom together just as friends.

Serena’s friendship with Blair is off-and-on as well, with Blair jealous as Serena becomes an Upper East Side socialite and gets in to Yale.  The season ends with them reaffirming their bond as best friends (or is it frenemies?).

Serena and her mother Lily have a similar trajectory: their relationship is drama-free periodically but when it’s bad, it’s really bad with Lily purposefully having Serena arrested and Lily slowly owning up to her own wild past.

Lily’s past comes back to haunt her in more ways than one.  Despite being married to Bart Bass, she can’t hide her feelings with Rufus.  Bart unexpectedly dies, clearing the way for a Lily-Rufus reunion.  The joy is shortlived, however, when Rufus finds out they had a child years ago who Lily gave up for adoption.  Rufus, feeling betrayed, refuses to be with her and instead tries to track the boy down.  With Lily’s help, they find his family but are saddened to find out he died years earlier.  Lily and Rufus slowly find their way back together, with Rufus ready to propose.  The plans come to a halt, however, when Rufus finds out Lily was secretly funneling money into his account to help with Dan’s tuition.  Again feeling betrayed, Rufus ends things.  In the season finale, however, they both put their pride aside and get engaged.

Rufus spends a lot of the season struggling with daughter Jenny, who rebels against not only her family but also Constance and her friends.  She moves out of the Humphrey loft, has a fling with Nate, makes a questionable friend in Agnes (The O.C.’s Willa Ford) and faces off against Blair’s minions.  Blair hands down her Queen B title to Jenny, putting her in a position of power she never had before.

Chuck is surprisingly devastated when Bart dies, feeling abandoned by everyone.  His downward spiral includes plenty of girls, drugs and tears.  He inherits his father’s fortune which he briefly has to wrestle away from his uncle Jack.  He later finds both a mother figure and a business partner in Lily.

Blair comes back from her summer in Europe with a new boyfriend–Lord Marcus–but still nursing her broken heart from Chuck’s abandonment.  The two dance around their feelings all season, with Blair willing to say those three little words but Chuck refusing to.  In fact, Chuck insists his flirtation is just a game, devastating Blair.  But she doesn’t mope for too long, briefly getting back together with Nate.  She soon realizes that Nate is her “high school” boyfriend and she needs to move on.  Around this time, Chuck realizes he needs to admit his feelings or he’ll lose her forever–and he does.  The two finally exchange those three little words.

Nate starts off the season dating a married woman (who happens to be Lord Marcus’ step-mother and sometimes lover!) but the fling soon ends and Nate is left to tackle family problems.  He finds himself homeless after the government seizes his family’s assets since his father remains on the run from the first season.  When his father returns, Nate refuses to run away with him and instead convinces him to turn himself in to the FBI.  During the trying time, Vanessa’s there to help and the two end up getting back together.  The differences in their lifestyle become glaringly obvious when Nate’s grandfather exerts his influence over him, and things end between them, allowing him to briefly get back together with Blair (as mentioned above).  Nate and Vanessa salvage their friendship, agreeing to backpack across Europe together–but not before briefly meeting someone who happens to be Rufus and Lily’s long-lost son.

Everyone’s thrown for a loop when Georgina returns to the fold as a Born Again Christian.  She seeks forgiveness for her past transgressions but soon the evilness that lies within her is brought to the surface again.  She enrolls in NYU, where Blair and Dan will be going in the fall, and requests to be Blair’s roommate.

Serena, instead of preparing to go to Brown, takes off with Carter on a search for her father.

Does Serena find him?  Will Georgina and Blair end up as roommates?  Will Chuck and Blair last? And will Rufus and Lily find out their son is alive?

Come back tomorrow at 9pm eastern for my live-blog of the season 3 premiere!





Love Triangles Pt. 5: Gossip Girl

30 01 2009

MONDAY: BEVERLY HILLS, 90210

TUESDAY: DAWSON’S CREEK

WEDNESDAY: THE O.C.

YESTERDAY: ONE TREE HILL

TODAY: GOSSIP GIRL

SERENA-NATE-BLAIR

How It Started: Everyone on the Upper East Side is shocked when “it girl” Serena suddenly leaves town.  Then when she returns a few months later, her best friend Blair is even more shocked when she finds out why Serena left town in the first place: because she slept with Blair’s longtime boyfriend, Nate.

How It Ended: Upon Serena’s return to the city, Nate–who is still with Blair–struggles with his feelings for both girls.  Serena isn’t interested in him, though, and works to repair her friendship with Blair.  Meanwhile, Blair and Nate work things out and continue to date.

Key Episodes: 1.1-1.2, 1.6-1.7, 1.17

YouTube Evidence: Gossip Girl–Blair/Nate/Serena; Blair/Nate/Serena–Leave (Get Out)

NATE-BLAIR-CHUCK

How It Started: While briefly broken up from Nate during season one, Blair loses her virginity to his best friend, Chuck.  Blair manages to keep her indiscretion secret, even as Chuck tries to hook up with her again.  Blair and Nate reunite, angering Chuck.

How It Ended: When Blair has a pregnancy scare a few weeks later, someone tells Gossip Girl that Nate might not be the babydaddy.  Blair isn’t pregnant, but the damage is already done: Nate finds out about their one-night-stand, breaking up with her and ending his friendship with Chuck.  Chuck, likewise, rejects Blair telling her, “I don’t want you anymore and I can’t see why anyone else would.”  Blair and Chuck spend the rest of the season inching towards a relationship and then pulling back.  In the season finale, Nate and Chuck repair their friendship and he gives Chuck his blessing.

Key Episodes: 1.7-1.8, 1.10-1.13, 1.17-1.18

YouTube Evidence: Nate, Blair, Chuck–There’s No I In Team

SERENA-DAN-GEORGINA

How It Started: While dating Serena, Dan makes friend with a girl named Sarah–unaware that she’s really Georgina, Serena’s frenemy.  Georgina, masquerading as Sarah, wedges herself in the middle of Serena and Dan’s relationship.  Dan, upset with Serena for cheating on him (though she really didn’t), hooks up with Georgina.

How It Ended: With help from Blair, Dan learns Sarah/Georgina’s real indentity.  He does not get back together with Serena, though, feeling that the damage has been done and the whole situation put way too much distance between them.

Key Episodes: 1.15-1.18

YouTube Evidence: Dan/Serena/Georgina–Cry; Georgina Sparks Is Back!

BART-LILY-RUFUS

How It Started: Long-ago sweethearts Rufus and Lily connect again when their kids (Dan and Serena) begin dating.  Lily contemplates seeing Rufus again but doesn’t after Serena asks her not to, as it would complicate her own love life.  Lily, intead, gets engaged to business mogul (and Chuck’s dad) Bart.

How It Ended: Rufus tries to stop Lily from marrying Bart, and they even sleep together on the eve of the wedding.  Lily decides, however, to go through with the wedding.  Within a few months, though Lily becomes unhappy in her mariage and plans to leave Bart and, presumably, get with Rufus.  Before she can do that, though, Bart dies in a car accident.  Following his death, Rufus and Lily head towards a relationship.

Key Episodes: 1.6, 1.9, 1.12, 1.16-1.18, 2.5, 2.7, 2.11-2.13

YouTube Evidence: Gossip Girl: Loose Ends; Iris–Lily and Rufus Fanvid

AARON-SERENA-DAN

How It Started: After getting back together and then breaking up again, Serena and Dan plan to see other people.  Serena meets Aaron, a budding artist, and they soon begin to date.  Throughout the relationship, Aaron is threatened by Dan and Serena’s continued friendship with him.

How It Ended: Dan realizes how much he still loves her, and asks Serena to give him another chance.  Serena turns him down and takes Aaron up on his offer to spend winter break in Argentina.  When she returns, she reveals to Dan that she broke up with Aaron, and they get back together.

Key Episodes: 2.8-2.9, 2.11-2.14

YouTube Evidence: Serena/Dan/Aaron–The Way I Loved You; Gossip Girl 213: Serena (Dan or Aaron)

OTHER TRIANGLES TO CONSIDER

Allison-Rufus-Lily

Vanessa-Dan-Serena

Vanessa-Nate-Catherine

Vanessa-Nate-Jenny





No new episodes this week!

26 01 2009

Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill and 90210 are all airing repeats this week.

GG: O Brother, Where Bart Thou? (Bart’s funeral)

OTH: Messin’ With The Kid (Jamie faces a school bully)

90210: The Bubble (the show’s second episode where Brenda returns)





Spoiler: Watch with Kristin Chat

6 01 2009

RELEVANT QUESTIONS–DON’T READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW!!!

Gretchen in Litchfield, Conn.: Did you hear? Your frenemy Ausiello says they are going to bring that be-yotch Georgina back to Gossip Girl!
Shut the front door! Back in early December, I also reported plans to bring back Georgina toward the end of this season, and FYI, that’s what I’m still hearing—and not just from my sworn frenemy. I still think she’s the most solid candidate for the spinoff, BTW. But you didn’t hear that from me!

Gregory in Overland Park, Kan.: Any word on Gossip Girl?
Lily gets attacked—by someone she knows. Guesses? Also, Bart’s will will be read and stir up trouble.

Randall in Tucson, Ariz.: How about some dish on One Tree Hill! Give it up, sister!
Yes, brotha. According to sources, Brooke and Julian go on a date. Also, Millicent tells Brooke she slept with Owen.