Gossip Girl: The Coronation

Gossip Girl: "The Ex-Files"

• Blair: "Where did you summer?"
  Girl: "The Adirondacks."
• Blair: "Break ups are easy. It's having to see them dating someone else that's hard. Why do you think I rub it in Chuck's face every chance I get?"
  Serena: "Because it's your twisted version of foreplay."
• Wow, Vanessa is making a killing off her run-ins with the rich. $10,000 from Chuck, a year's rent from Blair, $5,000 from Catherine...
• Dan waved at Serena again. Shades of their first date.
• Why is Chuck skulking around? Just to be mean, I guess ;-)
• Chuck: "Who'd have thought that Humphrey would be the first one to move on. They're sweet together. Did I overhear something about a lunch?"
• Wow, Lily has no willpower. She's back from her honeymoon for less than a day, and she's already going on dates with Rufus. Bart's gonna love this.
• Blair: "Lunch. As in the meal before dating."
• OMFG! Marcus is banging his step mom! I called it weeks ago! Guess that explains why he's in no rush to sleep with Blair. Catherine, however, can't seem to get enough of the boys.
• Props to Vanessa for having the presence of mind to snap the money shot of Marcus and Catherine.
• Chuck really has developed quite the interest in the Dan/Serena break up saga.
• Dan (about the pic of Marcus and Catherine): "Why can't I look away?"
• Geez, Dan, just cut Serena a break for once. Who the hell cares that she let Blair invite Amanda to lunch before she told Blair to cut it out. (Actually, I think Serena was telling Blair all along not to do it, but Blair wasn't listening. B can be a little headstrong.)
• Serena: "Just so you know, if this were a competition, I wouldn't need Blair and the posse to win."
• Wow, ice queen Blair took the Marcus/Catherine reveal hard! Because she really liked him, or because she didn't want Chuck to have the satisfaction of knowing what happened?
• Is Amanda really worth all this trouble? I think she's kind of annoying.
• Jenny: "I'm talking about you and Miss Hannah Montana on Gossip Girl."
• Wow, Jenny has to be Dan's conscience. It's not a good sign when social climber Little J is the moral compass of the family.
• LOL at Chuck poking Serena with the flower to wake her up. Hilarious.
• There's no other solution than Serena/Dan/Amanda all going out together? Really? I'd imagine that there are any number of other solutions.
• Blair: "I thought my family was twisted, but you people take the cake."
• Leave it to Blair to handle things. Noooo, Vanessa, let Blair deal with it.
• Serena: "Yeah, he likes poets, and letters to poets."
• Dan: "Well you certainly picked a winner."
  Serena: "Yeah, he's fun, non-neurotic. I thought it'd be a nice change."
• Dan missed the point (again). This time, the point was that he hurt Serena's feelings by rebounding so freaking fast and that he should apologize. He is such an asshat.
• Dan: "You should wear a bell."
  Chuck: "Kinky. I'll think about it."
• Blair (to Nate): "Hold that non-thought."
• What is Chuck doing? Why is he going to so much effort to bring back the old Serena? He needs hobbies that don't involve arbitrarily messing with people!
• Oh my God! I missed some of what Chuck was saying about the purple-ish goo. What is that stuff? And why does it burn people's hair off? And why does Chuck just carry it around?
• Serena: "Never again. From now on, everything goes through me." (Hey, I'm finally starting to like Serena.)
• OMFG--Chuck put Amanda up to it all along! Finally, his endgame is revealed, and--no surprise here--it's all about Blair. He's trying to instigate a second coming of the Blair/Serena feud. So he thinks that if Blair is knocked off her pedestal, she'll come and slum it with him. (There is precedent; after he had her humiliated last year in the two-guys-in-one-week incident, she did come to hang out with him.)
• Chuck: "I had to create a monster if I was going to dethrone a queen."
• My sister made the astute observation that all the follower girls switched from wearing headbands (Blair) to boho head scarfs (Serena) overnight. Does this mean I have to change Headband Monday to Headscarf Monday? Because I'm not cool with that.
• Serena putting her head scarf around Blair's neck was bizarre. Perhaps it was a hint that she's supposed to be wearing a scarf now too?
• Chuck: "Hey, look who's back on top. I wonder how that happened? Wait, now that I think about it, I know exactly how that happened."
• Wow, Serena is no joke. She rules with an iron fist. Awesome.
• I can't say I'm heartbroken to see Dan Humphrey get shunned.
• Gossip Girl: "Bow down or bow out."
• Holy moly, the politics and power plays of Gossip Girl put Machiavelli to shame! They really played up the theme tonight, and the whole show can be viewed as a modern day tale of intrigue in a royal court (a la The Tudors and the myriad of other royal court dramas). Amazing. Tour de force episode.

It's Headband Monday... (off-white with a bow from Forever 21):

(Gossip Girl photo: cwtv.com)