Hey, remember how Serena used to have a brother? No? Well he's back this week, with a new boyfriend who got a cursory mention. The true focus in Van Der Woodsen-land was on Lily, however, who attempted to make up for 17 years of absentee parenting by becoming Supermom. This seemed like the kind of storyline that I would get excited about, but for whatever reason I just wasn't feeling it. Part of the problem may be that this show doesn't really do earnest sincerity very well, but I think my bigger issue is that this storyline kind of came out of nowhere. Serena and Lily haven't been clashing very much recently, and they got over a lot of these issues in season one. More interesting to me is how out of control Serena seems to be getting. Going full Britney Spears seems a little beyond normal teenage rebellion (in all likelihood that was a joke, but it doesn't make Serena any more responsible). I'm not entirely clear on where they're taking her. Is Serena collapsing back to pre-season one Serena? It seems like it, but they're stopping short of turning her fully into a mean girl socialite. My question is why? It would change things up to make Serena the show's evil one for a while, but every time they try it, they always back off before she goes too far.
Meanwhile, in bromance world, Nate and Dan had their first fight when Dan saw the dire conditions Nate is living in. But one off-screen Humphreys guilt trip later, everything's okay and Nate has moved to Brooklyn. I liked the Dan/Nate friendship in theory (both of them are in dire need of something to do on this show), but in practice this episode just didn't work for me on that level.
Ah, but let's not forget about the episode's real A-story, as the Constance Billard Players decided to stage a revival of Cruel Intentions. Blair challenged Chuck to seduce Vanessa and in exchange, Chuck could have Blair. This was vintage, season one level evil calculation. So why wasn't it more fun? I think because it was all just too easy. Vanessa has seemed like a smart and capable girl, so I'd have thought it would take a little more effort for someone as irredeemably awful as Chuck to win her over. But apparently, buying her speakeasy was all it took. While there were three or four points where it seemed painfully obvious that everything from Chuck's bonding with the old speakeasy guy to the argument he had with Bart was part of his elaborate Chuck-plan for victory, but I was wrong. It turns out Vanessa's earnest Brooklynness melted the icy heart of Mr. Bass (if only a little), so Blair stepped in and put an end to the game herself before things went further between Chuck and Vanessa. Then Chuck turned the tables on Blair and tried to get her to admit she loves him.
Unlike most Gossip Girl fans, I can't say I'm rooting for Chair (you like that? I prefer it to Buck, although either way its pretty stupid) in the same way I'm rooting for, say, Robin and Barney. I think they're both too immature and destructive to really have something that would work (I picture any sort of future looking closer to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf). But its hard to deny they're an interesting pairing.
So all in all, I still liked this. However, I liked it less than last week's which, thinking back on, I feel like I graded a little low. I just wish there was more than one interesting thing per week.
B-
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