"Gossip Girl": Poison Ivy

Published: October 4, 2007 at 08:19 PM GMT
Last Updated: October 16, 2007 at 08:19 PM GMT

By Karen Woodward

Blaire and Serena make up; Dan learns high society types aren't all bad

I'm becoming addicted to this show, and I wonder if I should be ashamed of that since I'm not exactly its target demo, which is probably tweens, teens and early 20-somethings. Gulp. But it's so entertaining.

It's Ivy League week and the kids are vying for usher spots at the Ivy League Mixer. At first, I had no idea what they were talking about, having never been Ivy League material myself. But apparently an usher hangs out with the school's rep at the party, introducing, making small talk, and getting drinks. Sounds awful, but its clearly prestigious. So, Dan wants to go to Dartmouth, and he wants that usher spot. Nate doesn't want to go to Dartmouth, but his dad insists that he does, so guess who gets the usher spot? That's right, the legacy. Dan is pissed and he takes it out on Serena.

Dan and Serena bumped into each other earlier in the day after the "This Mixer is the Most Important Day of Your Life" assembly. She was late, and runs into him just as the assembly is ending. "Don't tell me it's over!" she implores. He's stunned. "You were there. Yeah, it's over." Dan! She's talking about the assembly, not your "break-up" last week! She clarifies. He feels foolish. Perhaps I'm wrong, and these two really do have chemistry. Anyway, later, he takes his anger out on Serena by snidely commenting that life must be tough when everything you want can be bought - even college. She feels bad. Penn Badgely looks sexy when he's angry.

Meanwhile, Blaire and Serena's feud has escalated from name calling to cat fights in P.E. Yikes. Blaire plans "total social destruction" and asks Chuck (has he trimmed his eyebrows?) to follow Serena. He spots her coming out of the Ostroff Addiction Center and Mental Facility. (Or something like that. I'm still chuckling that The CW's President of Entertainment is Dawn Ostroff. Way to get that clearance, legal department!) We know that she is visiting her brother Eric, who getting treatment there following a suicide attempt. But Chuck - and later Blaire - assumes that Serena was the inmate.

The Mixer. Serena commandeers the Yale rep (where Blaire wants to go to school) and Blaire returns the favor with the Brown rep. But here is something cute - Dan and Nate helping each other. Nate is at a total conversational loss with the Dartmouth guy, an English Lit professor. When Nate approaches the drinks table, where Dan is serving, they exchange barbs, but then Dan helps him out. Gives him some background on the professor and his book The Petting Zoo, (a book we see Dan reading later. I googled it, and the only book I could find by that name is by Bret Singer, published in 1979, about family relationships. Ha!) Nate returns the favor (although is it really a favor since Nate doesn't want to go to Dartmouth anyway?) and let's Dan bring the drinks to the professor.

Meanwhile, Jenny and Eric run into each other at the mixer. They met briefly before when Serena introduced them in the pilot. So I wouldn't exactly call them best friends, yet he proceeds to tell her all about the Ostroff Center and his attempted suicide. Okay. But this becomes important later when Blaire stands up and makes an announcement. She's on a community outreach committee and this year they want to honor the Ostroff Center, and would Serena van der Woodsen like to come up and say a few words? Serena is determined to protect Eric, so she goes onstage and acts as if she really was the patient.

Dan is stunned. Serena was an addict? But Jenny tells him the truth. He goes after Serena when she leaves the mixer, and apologizes for being a jerk. She accepts and asks him to call her. It's sorta sweet. Meanwhile, Eric tells Blaire that he was the one at the Ostroff Center, and shows her where he slit his wrists. She looks stunned, but will she eventually use this as ammo?

Final scene. Blaire (cool it on the make up, Leighton Meester!) approaches Serena in Central Park. (Oooh, I love that hat.) She reads her a letter she wrote when Serena was away at boarding school. In it, she writes that she is falling apart because her father has left her mother for another man, she has no one to talk to, she doesn't understand why Serena left without saying goodbye, and she misses her. Blaire and Serena quietly cry and Serena says, "I didn't know how to be your friend after what I did." I assume she's talking about sleeping with Blaire's boyfriend, but is she?

All seems well for now. But only time will tell.

'Til next week!

XOXO
Gossip Girl Fanblogger

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