Gossip Girl: The Sting

Gossip Girl:

"The Wrath of Con"

Well, now we're talking. This episode was much better than last week's sub-par effort. Gossip Girl is at its best when some sort of group scheme is afoot, and tonight's scheme not only included Serena, Blair, Chuck and Nate but also Georgina, who I enjoy so much more this year than I did last year.

I don't think it's any coincidence that this episode was great and that there was no Vanessa in it. And, as a bonus, we got to see Eric for the first time in weeks! Well, we saw him for about 2 whole minutes anyway... We weren't given any more of an explanation as to where he was all this time, but if I had to live with Lily, Serena and Chuck, I'd probably need to flee on occasion too.

And for you trivia buffs out there, "The Wrath of Con" was also the name of Veronica Mars episode 1.04, in which Veronica has flashbacks to going to the Homecoming dance the year before with Lily, Logan and Duncan.

The episode:

• Chuck: "Well, his suits never did fit right."
• Poor Chuck is having a rough time riding in this cab. It's almost as bad as the thought of Blair on the subway.
• Geez, Nate, needy much? Blair's not allowed to do anything but sit around with you in the tiny apartment?
• Here's Rufus, or "Dupe of the Year" as Ashley has termed him, in fine form: acting creepy to random people on the street, singing in the subway, etc.
• Dan: "I'm pretty sure whatever that lady said was, 'Stoooooooooop!' in her own language."
• Serena: "You brought Nate?"
  Blair: "I'm just as flummoxed as you are. I got out at 53rd and made a run for it, but he's faster than he looks."
• Blair: "The only way her plans going to work is by an act of God." Cue Georgina. Ha ha!
• I loved everyone's reactions to Georgina's appearance, esp. those of Blair and Dan.
• Dan: "Ok, we need to get this crazy girl out of here!"
• Oh, Dan, just shut up for once in your freaking life! You don't have to go tell Lily everything.
• My sister's take on the situation: "It's sweet that Dan thinks he actually has a parent now (in Lily) instead of just whatever Rufus is..."
• Poppy's a fauxcialite!! Ha, that's a great word. (But is there an official spelling? Do we hyphenate it: faux-cialite?)
• Ugh, Blair's got a real Sophie's choice here: go with Nate and talk or stay with Georgie and talk.
• Yep, Gabriel, you should go. Good job, van der Woodsen, you do know how to pick 'em.
• WHOA! Eric looks completely different? Where was he? Makeover camp? His blond tips are all gone.
• I kind of buy earnest Georgie more than I bought evil Georgie. If this is an act, she's good.
• Blair: "If you look at it, Jesus drove you here."
  Georgie: "Actually, I think you pronounce it 'Hey-Zeus.'"
• Blair: "She's so evil, she makes the old Georgina look like the new Georgina."
• Poppy's got some nerve, showing up at the van der Woodsen's apartment!
• Lily: "Well, we can only hope that those people will be smarter than we were." (I'd say the odds are pretty good that they are.)
• Serena (to Dan): "I don't know, why don't you call my mom? You seem to like to talk to her these days."
• Jenny gives such sage marriage proposal advice for a 16-year-old.
• Ok, whiny Nate has stumbled onto a good point: if Chuck still wants Blair, it's time to man up and tell her.
• Hahahahahahaha! Jenny rattling off the whole plot of Twilight to stall Lily was hilarious! Little J can be so entertaining when she's not staging guerrilla fashion shows or dropping out of high school... (My sister wonders when Jenny found the time to read/watch Twilight, what with all her marathon all-night sewing sessions.)
• Dan! Shut up, shut up, shut up!
• Lily just left the financial papers in a drawer for Rufus to find?! Didn't she learn from the time she left her list of lovers in her purse and he found it? The dude goes through your stuff, Lily! You need to hide these things better!
• Georgie: "Are you a Carrie? I'm a Charlotte!"
• Blair: "Maybe you just want me to be as unhappy as you are."

  Chuck: "I would never wish that on anyone."
• Holy intense conversation we're having here in the middle of an epic sting operation, Chuck and Blair!
• Serena: "Chuck, why did you just do that?"

  Chuck: "Because I love her. And I can't make her happy."
• Ohhh, Chuck :-(
• Georgie (brainstorming things the African kids can do with the wireless internet): "They can read Bible stories. Oh! They can download Kirk Cameron movies!"
• That Kirk Cameron joke would have killed if everyone had the work-related distaste for Fireproof that I have.
• I can't say there haven't been times that I would have welcomed seeing Serena carted away by the police, but this isn't really one of them...
• That Poppy Lifton is craftier than they give her credit for. Now she's made off with the camp's Bible money too!
• I totally knew that Lily called the cops on Serena. Wow, that's real nice. The only thing standing between Lily and the Mother of the Year award is Eloise Hawking. (Luckily for Serena and Eric, Lily's still got a ways to go to get into Eloise territory.)
• Rufus: "I have raised my kids just fine without your help!" (Really, Rufus? Really?)
• Rufus: "This coming from the same woman who wouldn't even let me put Jenny in the back of a squad car!" (This is a strange argument Rufus and Lily are suddenly having here. How many parents have such recent experience with having their own children incarcerated?)
• Blair: "I don't think that Jesus would approve of that..."
• What is Georgie going to do to Poppy? I'm actually kind of concerned for the fauxcialite.
• Chuck: "I need you to dig up what dirt you can on the 55th precinct."
• Wow, the inside of the 55th precinct is really dark! How do they take mugshots with such poor lighting?

(photo: cwtv.com)