photo: cw
Gossip Girl
Valley Girls
Original Air Date: May 11, 2009
Valeria – Sr. Reviewer
valeria@thetwocentscorp.com
The whole point of the latest episode of Gossip Girl was to serve as a back-door pilot for the much-talked about spin-off show about Lily Rhodes Van Der Woodsen Bass (the more names, the more money you have). But to be perfectly honest, I cared more about the Constance-Billiards/St. Jude’s High School Prom. But, since I have to recap the episode anyways, I’m going to get the painful part over with first.
We’re taken back to Malibu, California in 1983. Lily Rhodes is wearing some tweed and pretty sweet Ray-Bans and driving a convertible on her way to see her dad to give her the news about her expulsion from boarding school. She wants to come live with her dad in California. Her dad, Richard, the epitome of 80s, because he’s played by Andrew McCarthy (Pretty in Pink!), is pretty distant and doesn’t really want Lily to live with him. Lily’s daddy issues explain her multiple marriages. Also, the writers/creators have done a good job of foreshadowing Lily’s future as a music photojournalist. Richard Rhodes is the owner of a prestigious record label, and her older sister Carol is pursuing a career as an actress by starting out in her non-boyfriend’s bands music video. Well, long story short – Lily disobeys her mothers orders and ends up meeting up with her absentee sister, and together they embark on a journey that is paralleled by the journey that Blair and Serena have taken together (mostly because it’s the blonde/brunette duo combination). Also, the whole background story of Lily in the valley works into the current-2009 storyline with Lily and Grandma Cece attempting to reconcile their issues with each other. I think I should also mention, that I’m disappointed that a hottie-young Rufus was not in this episode, and instead we’re stuck with the poor-mans Chuck (this Owen guy that Lily is flirting with). But at least, we get a glimpse of Papa Van Der Woodsen, and he is … pretty darn sleezy, but very rich. He’s like James Spader from Pretty in Pink.
Now, onto what matters: PROM.
Last we saw Serena, her mother had her arrested. The episode takes place four hours into Serena’s arrest, and The Non-Judging Breakfast Club is being awesome and waiting for her. Serena gets into an argument with her mother about the bad-parenting skills she has shown, and to spite Lily, Serena calls Cici for help and decides to spend the night in jail, purposely missing out on her senior prom. Dan finds out, and he’s not feeling in, so he enlists a plan to spring his former love, and together they reconcile (as friends!) and dance together at prom.
Blair has a scrapbook about her fairy tale life, which she obviously forgot existed. In this scrapbook are little drawings of what her prom with Nathaniel Archibald will be like. But it seems that her prom is being sabatoged. Blair’s Limo gets rented out to a Jersey Bachelorette Party, the corsage disappears, the hotel room got canceled, and her dress is ruined by the dry cleaners. But, Dorota has brought a replacement dress, delivered this morning from Paris – and it’s an exact match to the one in her scrapbook. As for the limo, corsage, and hotel room, not much can be done. Nate confronts Chuck about this, convinced that he’s sabotaging the Archibald-Waldorf relationship. Chuck reiterates that Nate won, Blair is his.
For the first time ever, The Constance-Billiards/St. Jude’s High School Prom is crowning a Prom King & Queen. It’s not just for suburban high schools and the lame teen comedies that are set in them. Blair is determined to win the tiara and have the perfect prom. But the Mean Girls have another plan, to sabotage Blair’s prom, commit election fraud and crown Nelly Yuki as Prom Queen. Obviously, Chuck overhears this conversation. So, he ends up voting for Blair and Nate 150 times, replacing each ballot that was for Nelly. Turns out, he was the one that “ruined” the dress, “canceled” the hotel room, and made the corsage “disappear.” He reveals what he did to Serena and Dan and hands them the key to the Penthouse at the Plaza to give to Blair at the end of the night. Chuck knew all about Blair’s scrapbook, and wanted to make sure that she got her fairy tale prom. The best part of the whole thing? He’s perfectly fine that she never finds out it was all him. THIS IS WHAT TRUE LOVE LOOKS LIKE PEOPLE! TAKE NOTE!
In the end, Blair and Nate get crowned King and Queen. But even better news (depending on which pairing you root for) Blair and Nate break up at the end of prom. The youngest Waldorf realizes that her fairy tale prom with her fairy tale boyfriend has come to an end, she’s ready to move on to what exists beyond the fairy tale. As much as I was hoping the episode would end with Serena giving Blair the key to the Penthouse at the Plaza with Chuck waiting for her with a declaration of his love. Alas, I did not get my wish. The episode ended with Blair and Serena sitting on the steps outside of their prom, excited to continue growing together.
My feelings on this episode? Too much 1983. Not enough Chuck/Blair/Prom. I don’t think I’ll be watching the spin-off show, but I will be glued to my television screen next monday to witness the final high school drama of Gossip Girl.
TheTwoCents 