That was 45 minutes of my life I'm not getting back. Seriously, between the terrible acting, awful writing, and groaning attempts at both humor and serious message-making this episode was like the Olympics of Terrible.
Taking the bronze was Chuck and Blair, for what will hopefully be the conclusion of their will they-won't they storyline. At first, the idea of pairing Chuck and Blair was delightful, but its been THE SAME STORYLINE FOR FOUR WEEKS. However, this wasn't a complete failure for two reasons. First, I thought the idea of getting Dan involved in this storyline was a stroke of genius. It was nice to see him do the wrong thing for once too (although that being said, I disagree wholeheartedly with Serena and thought it was pretty shallow of her to dismiss what Blair and Chuck did to Vanessa). I also liked the resolution, largely because I agree with Chuck. The reason I've never fully been on the Blair/Chuck train is that getting them together just wouldn't work, either for them as characters or for the show as a whole. That being said, the scene on the rooftop was so cringe-inducingly terrible that I can't grade this storyline as good.
In the silver was Serena, who had her first post-Dan flirtation with an artist who wears thick frames that presumably have no lenses (that's how I will choose to explain the fact that he just takes them on and off at random). He seemed pretty bland to me until he asked out Serena, and then he came off extremely douchey. I get that he knew her earlier, but he wasn't being charming, he was just being a tool. Meanwhile, Dan and Serena are now friends again, so Dan can go back to not having scenes with any other character on the show.
But taking the gold this week was little J. Its not that I don't buy that she's that naive and impressionable (because I do. I really do). Its just that the whole good girl falls in with the wrong crowd thing is such a boring cliche. This show does a lot wrong, but by and large they've done a good job of not going for the easy storyline. The bad model was tired. The sketchy photographer dude was tired. And, honestly, since he didn't look any older than the actors who play Nate, Chuck, or Dan I never realized that he was supposed to be much older than Jenny. Speaking of Nate, the whole thing with him and Jenny really came out of nowhere, didn't it? Did they interact at all this season? Have I missed the clues because I'm not examining this show frame by frame, like Lost?
Ultimately there were enough little things to keep this episode from being the worst thing I've ever seen. But we spent far too much time wading into maudlin sentimentality and uptight moralizing; neither of which really fit well with a show this scandalous and amoral.
D+
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