I missed this week's Gossip Girl because my trip abroad prevented me from watching American TV and prevented access to the internet, which has made me crankier than when I miss Brothers & Sisters. (Picture me with crazy eyes and shaky fingers finally checking emails!) Life without Serena, Dan and the blogs is no life for me! But thankfully, our trusted man-in-the-know, Francis over at Arclight in Hollywood was around to catch this week's fiery episode. Catch Francis' great recap while I catch up on the episodes I am missing out on at Fancast!
Warning: Slight spoilers ahead! The title says it all. School Lies. Obviously this is a reference to 'School Ties' which starred Brendan Fraser and Matt Damon. That film definitely tried to illustrate the stark differences between two perceived "classes." This episode of GG tries to do the same, albeit without the racial/religious undertones. The episode starts off with another voice over by the magnificent Kristen Bell AKA Gossip Girl and several kids sneaking in to the pool of the Constance School for Girls. Of course they all jump into the pool start drinking, start doing drugs - you know, the usual fun stuff. There's great love triangle stuff between B, Nate, and Chuck. B incidentally is Blair, but if you're reading this, you probably watch the show and already know that. Anyhow, I've got to say that Chuck Bass was an annoyance to me. I understand his character and why he's always in the mix, but he annoyed me. Chuck reminded me of how Ryan Phillipe played Sebastian in 'Cruel Intentions' - at least in the beginning. Annoying. Now I have to say that I sort of really dig him. He's good stuff.
Eventually we cut to Lonely Boy (again, if you're watching the show, you know who this is) studying and being oddly video taped by Vanessa. Apparently she's doing a documentary that she plans on entering into a showcase so she can hopefully get rent money. Yes. Rent money. It's sort of great because Vanessa gets all Michael Moore on everyone with her camera. Brilliant really. So of course calls and invites Dan (there, threw you a bone) over to the slippery soirée. When they arrive, there are two random boys fighting over a bottle of vodka. One boy attempts to get the vodka and somehow hits his head squarely on a pole and falls face down into the pool. Nate gets all Baywatch and pulls him ashore, err, to the deck, and there are freak-outs and CPR administered. Everyone leaves in a frenzied pace and someone leaves their cell phone. From said cell phone the school administrators get photos (password lock much?) which detail everyone at the pool. Of course they are all brought into assembly and told that luckily random bloody head boy will be fine, but unless someone fesses up to getting them in there, they'll all be expelled. Now here's where they force the rift between the have and have nots. Of course B tells everyone that if they all stay quiet nothing will happen. Lonely boy says that this is all "skull and bones" to which B says "it works EVERY TIME." The rest of the episode goes over who may have broken in to the pool, who didn't, and how certain people could get expelled and simply donate a wing to the library and get reinstated. Great line was, "... what do you Humphrey's have to offer? Used Metro cards? Your dad's cassingle?" Ha. Eventually we find out who the perp was. Interesting play on how they wrap up the whole rich and middle class thing. It was sort of predictable, but good drama. If you missed it, tune in to The CW on Sunday for an encore showing.
There were other great parts to the episode. Docu-girl/Michael Moore/Vanessa was great. What she did with the money from "the tape" was classic (creating a medical grant for teens with genital herpes in his name). Finally, you can discount the Lily/Rufus storyline. I have to say that Josh Schwartz does well by the parental units. Remember 'The OC?' Great parents in that one. Anyhow, my fellow GG fiend, grrlywhirl and I were trying to liveblog (umm, dvrblog?) the ep. Didn't quite work out, but her comments on the Lily/Rufus arc were great:
grrlywhirl8 (12:52:12 AM): can a mom really date her daughter's boyfriend's dad?!
shdowchsr5 (12:50:22 AM): i know, right?
grrlywhirl8 (12:52:42 AM): i mean, could they date and just none of them get married?
grrlywhirl8 (12:52:55 AM): does that make it okay? or is it incest from the get go?
Yeah, go watch the ep on Sunday. Find a friend who's got them all locked in the depths of his Tivo and hasn't admitted it to anyone. There are only two episodes left. Better get cracking.
xoxo,
Gossip Boy.
LOL.
