Gossip Girl: Thanksgiving Drama, In Lieu of Turkey

Whoa. After a couple lackluster weeks, Gossip Girl is back and every storyline is kicking anew. It’s hard to know where to start. We’ll start at the Humphreys, who for one reason or another end up with everyone invited to their house for the holiday dinner. Everyone. Even Dorota (Zuzanna Szadkowski).

First, the mundane. Eric (Connor Paolo) and Jenny (Taylor Momsen) have a lame fight when Blair (Leighton Meester) tells Jenny it was Eric who planned to sabotage her at the debutante ball. He tells her he hates her now, and blames her for his breakup with Jonathan. Which is, of course, not her fault as much as I would love to blame her. Pretty boring, but at least the writers are trying to breathe life back into these characters. Also, Blair and Serena (Blake Lively) are friends again. Whether or not they manage to stay friends for more than one episode remains to be seen. Basically, Blair sees how hard it is for Serena to keep her distance from Tripp (Aaron Tveit) and feels badly for making her friend go through the heartbreak alone. Sweet. But I’m getting ahead in the episode.

Tripp and Serena kissed – that’s all. Since he is still technically married, Serena refuses to go further and insists that if he leaves his wife it has to be over her betrayal and not his feelings for her. Tripp says that leaving Maureen (Holley Fain) has nothing to do with Serena, and no one believes him for a second. Nate (Chace Crawford) is still all moony-eyed and angsty about Serena as well, and his chances are renewed as she assures him she will not pursue anything with Tripp while he’s still married. But she has plans to spend Thanksgiving with Tripp. In the hotel room. Alone. But they are just going to watch movies and eat dinner, swear. Tripp calls it off when Maureen arrives and insists they spend Thanksgiving together, of course at the Van Der Woodsen/Humphrey home.

Blair’s mother (Margaret Colin) arrives home (I told you everyone was at the Humphreys) with news for her daughter that she won’t reveal until they are back in Paris. Blair, being both impatient and industrious, sees mail from her mother’s estate attorney and assumes she’s changing her will. When Dorota arrives home with a bag of supplies for her mom, Blair demands to see its contents. When Dorota insists the contents are private, we get the Awesome Blair Quip of the episode: “You know what’s not (private)? The tip line at the INS.” Blair finds a pregnancy test in the bag and is suddenly faced with the possibility of having to compete with a sibling for parental affection. Which really, she gets little of anyway, but….this is Blair. She spends the next twenty minutes of the episode trying to get her mother to admit she’s pregnant and finally explodes and demands to know the truth. The truth – her mother is not pregnant but she and Cyrus (Wallace Shawn) are moving to Paris for good. So whose pregnancy test? OMG Dorota. And the Russian doorman from the Humphrey’s building. Ha! Dorota is freaking out because she’s not married, but in the end tells him the truth and they celebrate their good news together.

Dan (Penn Badgley), Vanessa (Jessica Szohr), and Vanessa’s mother (Gina Torres) provide the comic relief. Dan begins the show by talking to Nate (his go-to advice giver) about whether or not he might actually have feelings for Vanessa. He tells Nate Olivia said he made a face during their threesome. Dan is trying to figure out his feelings for Vanessa when she shows up, intent on staying with him for the holidays to escape her do-gooding bad-parenting mother. Vanessa keeps insisting Dan is making a new face, which she can’t figure out, and Dan is vexed. More vexing arrives when her mother also informs Dan he is in love with Vanessa, she can see it on his face. Dan, for his part, is back to best friend mode as he helps Vanessa and her mother reconcile for the holidays. Her mother tells him not to say a word about his feelings unless he is sure, because if he breaks her daughter’s heart again then his friendship with Vanessa will be through. Sage advice, and Dan wisely holds his tongue. I think he’s learned his lesson about not letting it all hang out from the threesome. I just wanted to type threesome again. Threesome.

Maureen and Nate work together to try and break Serena and Tripp up after Nate steals footage of the couple making out in the elevator at Chuck’s (Ed Westwick) hotel. Awesome Chuck Moment: “You two ever play grabass in my hotel elevator again, Serena’s going to be staying at an airport Marriott. Happy Thanksgiving.” Maureen threatens to go to the press with the real reason for their separation and Serena decides to stay away from Tripp for the good of both his marriage and his career. Tripp, after talking with Nate, grows a set and tells Serena he’s getting divorced, and even if it means losing his Congressional seat he wants to be with her. Even Blair can’t help endorsing the guy after that Grand Gesture, and tells Serena to go with him. On her way out to his limo, Nate stops her and tries to tell her he loves her. It doesn’t quite come out right, and Serena chooses to go with Tripp. I fully support this, because Nate has been with everyone on the cast and, to be honest, is starting to seem like a bit of a desperate loser. He needs someone new, a fresh story or goal…anything. Serena does look conflicted regarding her choice, though, so I’m positive we’ll be revisiting this love triangle in the weeks to come.

Something is finally brewing with Rufus (Matthew Settle) and Lily (Kelly Rutherford), though little of the story was revealed this week. Rufus finds out that Lily lied about when her mother went into remission. She could have come home sooner, but chose not to. When he confronts her about it, she says she was actually enjoying time with her mother and didn’t want to leave. She’s lying, a fact that’s confirmed by her mother, but we don’t find out where she went or who she went to see. This is going to end badly, perhaps demolish her 5^th marriage. Ouch. Serena finds the letter from her father that Lily hid in the safe and throws it in her mother’s face after reading it. Lily is hiding the letter when she gets busted by Rufus and shoves it in a coat pocket. She puts it in the wrong place though, and Maureen finds the letter (from Serena’s father to Serena) in the pocket of her coat on the way out. Guess we’ve not seen the end of Maureen. We have no idea what’s in the letter, but apparently it’s ripe with blackmail potential.

Whew. See what I mean? They left no stone unturned in search of new and revitalized plot lines Monday night. It was a well crafted episode, tightly written and fast-paced. It makes me love Gossip Girl again, and look forward to next week.

For another take on this episode, check out A Turkey Stuffed With Awkwardness by Matt DeGroot.

Season 3, Episode 11: The Treasure of Serena Madre (originally aired November 30, 2009)

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Photographs courtesy of The CW, Giovanni Rufino