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Gossip Girl: Blaire Waldorf Must Pie!

Published: November 30, 2007 at 08:25 PM GMT
Last Updated: November 30, 2007 at 08:25 PM GMT

By Karen Woodward

 
It’s Thanksgiving this week on Gossip Girl on the CW and as is the grand tradition of holiday episodes, secrets come out, feelings are hurt, and back stories abound. The best thing about this episode? It’s heavy on the Rufus/Lily/Alison storyline. The worst: No Chuck.
 
What? Chuck doesn’t eat turkey?
 
Spotted: Dan and Serena chatting on their cell phones as they go to their respective family Thanksgivings. It’s all very nauseating (“Call me between every course!”) and I think the producers put these two together too soon. I would have preferred a slow burn. Longing looks. Fighting. Anything but this disgusting happiness.
 
We flash back to last year’s Thanksgiving, featuring a very drunk Serena with Blaire helping her walk, keeping track of her things and covering for her in front of her mom. It’s very unattractive, but not necessarily surprising, given what we already know about Serena.
 
Back to the present. Things are very different between Blaire and Serena now that the secret is out that Serena and Nate slept together. When Serena scolds Blaire for sleeping with Chuck, Blaire is a little put off by the judgmental attitude. Glass houses, missy. So Blaire and her headband (what is it with all those headbands?) un-invite Serena and her family from Thanksgiving at the Waldorfs’.
 
Perhaps not such a bad thing since a Waldorf Thanksgiving is really a large business party hosted by Eleanor Waldorf. And if that wasn’t horrible enough, Blaire finds out that Eleanor lied to Blaire’s father, telling him that Blaire didn’t want to see him. We already knew that Mr. Waldorf (perfectly cast with John Shea) left Eleanor for another man. What we didn’t know was what a daddy’s girl Blaire was. She seemed so happy in the flashbacks. The entire family did. Perhaps the secret is not wearing headbands. Perhaps they give Blaire a headache and that pisses her off. Actually, I suspect they have something to do with hair extensions. Flashback Blaire’s hair is a lot shorter than present day Blaire’s.
 
Spotted: The van der Woodsens in Brooklyn, having Thanksgiving with the Humphreys. But oops, Alison (Susan Misner) didn’t know that Lily is Serena’s mom, and Lily didn’t know that Alison is back. Awkward! At first, they pretend for the kids’ sake that they don’t know each other. But Lily lets slip that she once owned a horse named Rosewood, and Jenny says that Rufus wrote a song called ‘Rosewood’ about her mom. Except Alison has figured out that ‘Rosewood’ was never about her, and she gets angry and storms out. No way is Alison old enough to be the mother of a 16-year-old. No. Way.
 
Meanwhile, Serena has received an urgent call from Blaire, and despite their fight, she goes to her. I’m a little unclear on this, but it appears that Blaire was once bulimic, and her anger at her mother (and perhaps father) and loneliness since the divorce, has driven her back to her old habits. She and Serena have a nice little scene on the floor of the bathroom and Serena brings her back to the Humphreys’.
 
But things aren’t going so well at the Humphrey abode. While the kids compare genes in Jenny’s room, the adults are hashing it out in the living room. “Is this how I deserve to find out that Alison is back?” Lily wants to know.
 
Uh, last time I checked, Lily was a) the other woman, and b) not dating Rufus. So what right does she have to be talking like this? Rufus assures Lily that she will always be one of his “oldest friends” – ouch!– and Lily points out that he wasn’t treating her like a friend when he kissed her at Eleanor’s party a couple of episodes ago. Cue Alison’s entrance. Needless to say she’s a little put out, and she later tells Rufus that if he wants to make it work, then they have to spend time together and he has to want it to work. A good point, with the minor flaw that Alison left her family to be with another man. If I were Rufus – hell, if I was the entire Humphrey family – I don’t know that I’d forgive that.
 
Spotted: Nate in Central Park looking depressed as he gazes at his cell’s phone book. His father attempted suicide this Thanksgiving and Nate’s feeling a little blue. (But on the plus side, I think Chace Crawford must be taking acting lessons.) He scrolls through his phone book, stopping on Serena’s name, but doesn’t actually call her.
 
He probably wouldn’t have reached her, because Serena is laughing over French fries with her mom and brother, listing to stories of Lily’s days as a groupie. Meanwhile, the Humphrey’s are playing touch football in the requisite musical montage. It’s corny, but gives me the warm fuzzies. Kind of like Thanksgiving.
 
‘Til next week,
 
XOXO
Gossip Girl Fanblogger
 

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