Samantha | Chuck needs to go on the Maury show so this whole business can be straightened out once and for all. But seriously, why are the only storylines the writers can give him either him pining after Blair or trying to figure out who his family is? Can’t we do something new?
Elodie | OK… as a girl, I know it’s a little weird that I’ve never really seen the appeal of Ed Westwick… but OH MY GOD, that picture of Jack and Chuck on some beach or other was too cute! I now understand his appeal. Also, I’m glad Chuck’s realized that this discussion is actually about who his father is. Obviously Bart never died in the car crash and the whole thing was a front for a sex change. (Diana only ‘existed’ three years ago, huh?)
Camila | The fact that this is the only storyline Chuck gets is ridiculous. Last episode it was Diana, now it’s Elizabeth again. And Diana isn’t her real name (because she’s Bart, of course). But hey, after this thing with who’s the mom solved, now it’s who’s the father.
Monika | Gossip Girl actually surprised me with this one! Did not see that coming. Then I thought about how Chuck’s ex-girlfriend has had sex with his dad. Poor Chuck! Too bad Nate hasn’t actually had sex with his real mother. That would have completed the polygon of dysfunctional Bass family relationships.
Michael | Well, obviously it’s about his father—because that’s Diana since she’s Bart, so. Second, what was up with that creepy photoshopped picture? Oh, my goodness—that was creepy. And third, why would Elizabeth respond to Nate? I’m so very confused. Anyway, beyond that, I’m glad that Chuck is getting a storyline, since he had about zero in the beginning of this season, but the real problem with this one is that it’s not “twisty” and it’s not “shocking.” It’s just mainly deceitful. Every episode has ended with them revealing some truth that then isn’t even the truth in the next episode. That’s not a good twist in the least. It’s starting to become The Killing.
Samantha | Rufus is obviously going through a househusband crisis. He’ll come crawling back. He has gotten used to the lifestyle. And Lily has taken the WASP matriarch throne that Cece left for her and is ruling like a champ. I love her more than ever!
Elodie | I got excited seeing the amount of Ivy in the “previously” clips! It was great to see her again, but Lily is kind of a bitch. It’s not even interesting, when’s she going to die or move to California?
Camila | Bitch!Lily is back! Finally, she was so boring before. Her scheme was really good, to be honest. I’m just sorry for her that this may cost her her wedding. Not that I beliebe Rufus will actually ask for a divorce, but who knows…
Monika | I kind of love Evil Lily. She’s not even trying to pretend like she’s a good person anymore. That was a cold bitch move when she called her own husband a kept man (even though it’s true). I look forward to her impending downward spiral. Also, Ivy why would you rip up the million dollar check!?!! C’mon! These people are the worst! Take the money and just gooo. You can buy yourself a better family!
Michael | Like Elodie, I was excited to see so much Ivy in the “previously” recap because I knew it meant she’d be in this episode! (I mean, I guess I could have read the episode descriptions or something.) This storyline is really working for me. I can understand why Lily decided to scheme—because she was hurt and lashed out—and I even love the tension that has grown with Lily and Rufus. I think she offered the “divorce” solution way too soon, but whatever. I also love that they’re bringing these jokes we’ve been making about Lily and Rufus’ setup all season long to the forefront and giving them some dramatic edge.
Samantha | Serena was her usual self-centered self, but she was a bit too self-aware about her own daddy issues. Serena would never own up to such a thing, though I do think that scene with her dad at the end was Blake’s best acting on this show.
Elodie | The perfect Serena reaction to finding out she’s not an only child. (Eric doesn’t count, he’s basically been emancipated, right?) I kind of feel for Serena and her daddy issues, one of the few compelling, but long running, story lines. I usually never feel sad for Serena, but when she made that comment about her dad walking Lola up the aisle, yeah her dad is kind of a dick. I love you Serena! But I mean, for all you may not be his favorite anymore, at least you’re not Eric.
Camila | I felt sorry for Serena. Her dad never cared about her and when he finds out he was another daughter he’s all about her. You can go away now, William.
Monika | Aww, that scene with Serena and her dad made me kind of sad. It was the first time in a while that I felt bad for S. But a small part of me was also thinking “So what you’re basically is saying is that you had a shitty relationship with your father so Lola should too?”
Michael | So, perhaps Serena didn’t have much of a right to be so bitchy towards Lola…but I also loved the payoff with Serena’s storyline. Much of this whole William is Lola’s father story (which at this point, I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s not her father given the Chuck “twists”) has relied on what it means to Lola and William and Carol, all three characters I could not care less about. So I’m very glad that there was a push for what it all meant for Serena more than any of those people. And I just knew William would skip town! Oh, well. (Oh, and obviously Eric is irrelevant now.)
Samantha | I have never seen a more immature, regressive character than Blair Waldorf. She needs to stop blaming everyone else for her own shortcomings and examine her own life choices. SHE was the one who decided to marry a prince so she could fulfill her princess fantasies. SHE was the one who dropped out of college to be a socialite. Although, I thought it was hilarious that she claimed that she lost herself sometime after she was with Chuck in season 3 (don’t even get me started on bringing THAT up again, when Blair has forgiven him and gone back to him multiple times already), but Dan said he knew the ‘real’ her when they worked together at W. Um…….both of those things can not be true, timeline-wise. Just saying. Also, in season 3 we did learn that apparently she has no respect for those she uses her in schemes. So, perhaps her true feelings about Dan have been revealed?
Elodie | That was really painful to watch. I’m really sad about how Dan and Blair have turned out, it feels like a huge anti-climax. I really like Dan in this relationship, but Blair – dear god. Kill me I can’t watch this! Better yet, kill her.
Camila | I thought it was kind of ridiculous. I mean, Blair is insecure and needs to feel like all is right in the world, like she said, but this is way more immature than everything she’s done. I really don’t like what they are doing to her. It needs to stop. And I thought the same as Samantha, I even said it to a friend. How does she mention the hotel incident as an exemple of something that make her lose herself if Dan talked about a girl who he “met” after the incident?
Monika | This was so stupid beyond belief. I have no words. I think I even yelled at my computer screen at one point: “JUST GO TO COLLEGE, YOU IGNORANT DUMBASS”. Though thumbs up for Dan supporting her afterwards. Good man.
Michael | Geez. We’re pretty harsh here in the roundtable. So I may get shot for saying this in this roundtable, but I kind of loved this storyline as well. Disregarding the timeline issues, because we can say that about any current storyline to be honest, I once again admire the writers for taking this glaring issue (and sometimes joke) of the out-of-character Blair Waldorf during season 5. Now, the scheme was a bit grade C, but at least they’re trying. I found Blair’s speech absolutely hilarious (anonymously, of course)…and change for the Blair character from wherever she’s been all season can only be a good thing. I remember last year when she told Chuck she wanted to be Blair Waldorf before being his girlfriend, and I like that they’re bringing this up again. I can only hope it goes somewhere this time and she doesn’t find some uncharismatic magical genie who grants her four wishes and runs off to Aladdin land or something.
Samantha | DIANA HAS ONLY EXISTED FOR 3 YEARS! SHE IS BART! Nate is so pretty. But how the heck was HE the one who figured out that Jack might be lying? Nate. Nate Archibald. Resident golden retriever and idiot. I can’t with this show.
Elodie | As I already suggested, obviously she has had a sex change to become Diana rather than Bart and the whole death thing was a rouse. BUT, the real question is, how far did the sex change go? Personally I like the idea that Diana (aka Bart Bass) still has a penis, but Nate hasn’t realized that this is peculiar yet and actually quite likes it. I anticipate that the ‘Diana is Bart’ story line will play out when Nate begins to mention some of his and Diana’s kinky games to Chuck.
Camila | I need to see more shirtless Nate on this show. It’s a fact. Now, about the storyline, Nate was actually pretty smart on the whole situation. Diana didn’t suspect a thing and he had sex. I bet his face when he finds out that Diana is Bart will be priceless.
Monika | LOL Nate and Lola just broke up like two seconds ago. The guy just cannot keep it in his pants, especially around guest stars.
Michael | So Bart and Nate go at it again. It’s an awkward storyline…during the time that we thought Diana was Chuck’s father. But it seems Diana has caught actual feelings for Nate (or is that another rouse?). We all know that Nate was destined to be with a 40 year old woman or Chuck’s father. True love.
Samantha | FINALLY Carol is forced to take some of the blame for the Ivy thing! Anyone who reads New York Magazine knows that Dan’s book would NEVER be considered highbrow. Never. (But Blair and her Kardashian-length marriage would totally be lowbrow). Also, the return of Jack next week is so glorious and wonderful and I can’t wait for it.
Elodie | Dear God, the writers were on form! The joke about Dan trending on twitter (good one) and then Nate’s gem of Lola’s problems being “not related” to Serena… I’m still laughing.
Camila | It took Lily a secret daughter to do something about Carol, but she did it anyway. And I love Ivy, she needs to stay on the show! When is Dan going to have a haircut by the way? And according to the next episode’s promo, Blair is finally having scenes with the other characters on the show. So that’s good!
Monika | I’m going to use this spot to complain about CW’s online streaming. Seriously, it took me two hours to watch a 45 minute episode. The number of commercials is ridiculous, as well as the constant lag. Has anyone else had problems with it?
Michael | Lola is going to become the new Gossip Girl!? I predicted she was Gossip Girl previously—so I’ll take it! Maybe it’ll make her interesting. Also, by association, everyone has slept with everyone on this show now…even both pairs of siblings. Yay! When is Lily and Nate going to happen? I kid…but only because of Rufly.
Samantha | I give it a C+. It was basically the same recycled storylines, but with too much Blair and not enough Chuck. That plus is for BAMF Lily and shirtless Nate, basically.
Elodie | C-, it was ok, but kind of like waffles without syrup.
Camila | C because of Blair’s behavior and the thing with Chuck’s mother.
Monika | I would give it a B-. It was vastly less annoying than last week’s episode but Blair was still being stupid.
Michael | Screw it — I’m giving this one an A. It’s one of the more entertaining episodes this season. I think everyone had a well-balanced part in the episode, there were plenty of meta/inside jokes, there was movement forward (save for the millionth twist in the Chuck storyline), emotional payoff for most characters, and there was even hot sex. All that’s missing is some drug use and someone plotting to kill someone else and we might be back at at least season 4 levels.
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Wow, it's painfully obvious how most of you are not Dan and Blair fans (Just look how you guys talk about Blair when she's in a relationship with Dan. I've seen this pattern in other roundtables). I'm not on any side of the ship wars, but geez if I was, and I was blogging, I would try to stay neutral in these petty wars. Come on guys you can be better than that.
LMAO I'm going to start putting everyone's shipper preferences before the roundtable answers.
Aw everyone's entitled to their own opinion. No reason they shouldn't express it openly. Although there used to be a couple of Dair shippers in the mix to balance it out, which was nice. Still, I thought Michael provided a pretty good counter to many of the comments in this one, and I actually agree with him wholeheartedly. :)
Some people should take note of the "everyone's entitled to their own opinion. No reason they shouldn't express it openly." part. Nice comment.
So what if they ship something other than you do? You wouldn't mind if they were all pro Dair, would you? Plus, I've seen people at this roundtable give episodes an A and I quote 'because of my Dair shipper heart', 'because of all the pretty Dair scenes' and other extremely obvious reasons like that, so if that didn't bother supporters of other ships, why would this bother you? Plus, since when is 'not being a Dair fan' a crime? People are free to ship whoever they want, it's not like they gave the episode a bad grade simply because of the presence of Dair.
Um... I ship Dair... just saying. If Chair were together I'd be bitching on them too.
HAHA I love the theory that Diana still has a penis and Nate hasn't noticed. He's going to be more natefused than ever when he finds out.
I agree with Michael about the Dan/Blair storyline this episode. The writers finally said what the audience has been thinking. Blair's character kind of peaked when she was working at W; it was after she broke up with Chuck and before she met Louis, so she was strong and independent and all the things Dan described her as. Also, I like that Blair had to leave Chuck to be herself but now needs Dan to help her find herself.
And in a way she did own up to selling herself out to be a princess.
Side note - does no one on this show use phones or lock doors?!
Plus, I think Blair meant that she was traded for a hotel and kept going back to Chuck anyways.
She wasn't actually that strong and independent at W- we found out in 3x16 that the reason she was working so hard was so that she could go back to Chuck as fast as she could before he fell for someone else. Not very strong and independent there, was she?
Also-she met Louis before W. In 4x01. Dan schemed against her in 4x07, too. And she and Chuck had a "no-strings" relationship in 4x08 and 4x09. She didn't need to break up with him to be independent because he was dragging her down, it was because of her own unresolved issues. xo
Thanks for clarifying! I still think Chuck and Blair are unhealthy for each other but Blair does blame him for a lot that she willingly agreed and wanted to do (not talking about the hotel incident btw).
But that also begs the question - was she ever strong and independent after high school? :/
"Also, I like that Blair had to leave Chuck to be herself but now needs Dan to help her find herself. "
I have to disagree here and it has nothing to do with a shipping preference or anything either (I don't ship anyone together). Blair desperately needs to be single in order to find herself and become independent- she uses romantic relationships as a crutch. She understood this in season 4 and now she's regressed even more. I didn't like GG's implication that a woman "needs" the help of a man to "find" herself.
As someone who's father was barely in her life, I really feel bad for Serena. Her dad is a douche.. If you have a good or OK relationship with your father, you can't really understand how she feels. Didn't Lola want nothing to do with Serena and the rest of the family before? First Lola blew off Serena, now Serena s doing the same to her. Blair is ridiculous as always. Chuck....dude needs to just buy him a family, the story line is ridiculous now.
This whole thing with the round table people showing preference to a couple (intentional or not)....like who cares? I've noticed the same thing on other RTs and I just ignore it.
Lol I love your Diana/Bass theory! Somehow I think, given the storylines of this season, that the writers might just be able to work that one into the script and Ed's acting will make it totally believable.
Ive really hated the whole Blair scenario in this script. I've always loved her character: strong, smart and independent, so I hate seeing her deal again and again with her self worth having been in the shadow of Serena, Chuck, Louis etc etc. hearing her say "i love reading bad things about my friends, it makes me feel better about myself", pissed me off soo hard. I'd like to see something big fall into her lap, career wise.
I love Dan and Blair and dont mind how boring the relationship seems. Blair is finally being urged to forge her own pathway in life, with support she can actually count on and no danger of someone's drama knocking her down (I'm looking at you Serena and Chuck). I love how Dan wants them to be equals and not living in each others shadow- its a show of maturity and love on his part, something that she hasn't been (consistently) shown in the past.
Overall I agree with Michael, I like where the stories are going this part of the season.
Um, to be fair to Chuck, he wanted her to be his equal too. Once again, it's HER issue, not the person she's with. She needs to be strong and secure in HERSELF. Otherwise its just needing a man to make her feel like she's a worthy equal, and that's not feminist or independent at all.
I agree with you about Dan/Blair/Chuck. Compare a conversation between Chuck and Blair...
Chuck: I'm Chuck Bass. And I told you I love you. You're saying I'm easier to win over than a bunch of pseudo-intellectual homesick malcontents. You really insult me like that?
Blair: That's not how it is.
Chuck: It's exactly how it is. The next time you forget you're Blair Waldorf, remember I'm Chuck Bass. And I love you.
...with the one she had with Dan last episode. Blair was just an extension of Chuck, whereas Dan is telling her not to rely on any man for power.
I don't see the conversation like that, at all. Chuck was only telling her that she is Blair, she won him of all people, the most difficult one. if she can do that, she can do anything. and that he loves her.
Remember when Chuck said 'We can build our futures together'? Remember 'Don't let anyone tell you you're not powerful; you're the most powerful woman I know'? There are many other examples where those came from. Plus, remember Serena? 'You're Blair Waldorf, people don't tell you who you are, you tell them.' And they were all before Dan, so he's basically just telling Blair what everyone else and their mom already told her and she apparently forgot, because Safran is an inconsistent idiot. Just sayin'
So.. this is vintage Blair Safran?? I only saw a whiny season five Blair... I was really in to Dair, but now I´m bored,,... and Serena gets dumped again now by her Dada...I miss old gg
ps.i want a hot nate dressing down in to my hotel room!!!!
If your hunch that Diana = Bart doesn't pan out, I have some questions for the writers. Mainly, if Diana isn't in fact related to Chuck (which she appears not to be judging by the promo of her on the phone saying, "he thinks I'm his bloody mother" or whatever), I'd like to know why that nurse flat out told Serena that Diana gave him blood. I'm going to laugh if we find out later that Chuck's blood type isn't all that rare to begin with and he received blood from a bag...like everyone else in the world.
I felt for Serena. After all of the time and effort she put into trying to have a relationship with her dad and all of the time and effort he put into avoiding her, it was pretty harsh for him to immediately accept Lola. Also, was a blood test ever performed? Because what's stopping Carol from telling William that he's Lola's father in order to get money out of him? I would say that I don't believe Lola is actually Serena's half-sister based on Lola's character not coming back next season, but hey - Serena's two other siblings have been MIA for a while now too (Eric and Scott).
As for Blair, I'm honestly surprised she would do that to Dan. Blair has always been insecure and at times, crazy, but she usually puts that aside for the people she cares about. She appeared to have no qualms about using her boyfriend as a social stepping stone and the disparity between Dan's feelings for Blair and her feelings for him is glaring.
I would not put it past this show to reveal that William in fact is not Lola's father.
Also, Lola's not back next season?! Good. The writers need to focus on the core characters and their problems instead of introducing new guest stars every week and creating twisted plot lines that seem to never end.
You know they tried something different when Nate steals the show from everybody else.
just loved all the dan and blair stuff, and I think nate is gonna be seriously natefused when he realised that he banged chucks mom/dad.
This was one of the better episodes, honestly. Even though I feel like we are just going around in circles. Like, come on. Lily and Rufus have been through everything under the sun. Either let them be together or kick them off the show. I really wish they would give Ed more screen time because at this point, he is the only character I care about. And I'm sick of the back and forth about his family, too. I thought after he found out Diana was his mom, that was going to be it. I was cool with that because they way she explained it (which obviously was a lie) seemed like it made sense. Kind of. I feel bad for S, too. I wish she would stop being Gossip Girl, though. I don't like it. I'm not even going to start on Blair. They are maiming her. I've never seen a character be so mangled before. How did B go from being the most ambitious, conniving, vindictive schemers on the UES to her best shot being to steal the spotlight from Dan Humphrey at a party where nobody gives a fuck about her? This is NYU all over again, just WORSE. Her edge is gone. I feel like the real Blair Waldorf died in the car accident. This is an impostor. She's at Penelope status at this point. Sad. *sigh*. The episodes are getting better though. So I'm just going to hang on to see what happens.