Television

Why Aren’t You Watching: Gossip Girl Recap

Anya Trent

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Gossip Girl gives us the usual drama as scandals unfold. Cheating husbands, altered (mislabeled) medications, and a troubled man trying to break up a happy home is just your typical day in the Upper East Side.   Gossip Girl never seems to disappoint. My eyes glued to the television as the Rat pack (Blair, Chuck, Nate, Jenny, and Dan) come together for one last search to find the truth.

Since Serena’s father came back into her life, she has had the stable father/daughter relationship she’s always wanted and the perfect family.  But not all is as picture perfect as it seems on the surface. As Lily and Rufus go through a rough patch fueled by lies and time spent apart, it seems too much of a coincidence that her ex-husband William van der Woodsen, played by Billy Baldwin, comes in at the perfect time to bring this broken family together.

With Lily healing from an illness that she first tried to hide from her family, she seeks support and medical help from her ex-husband, who happens to be a doctor. Their medical relationship which started the summer before has spun out of control when William moves in to give his ex-wife around- --the- clock medical attention. This ruffles a few feathers with Rufus, Lily’s current husband. The family tiptoes around her, trying not to stress her out, scared that it will only make her illness worse. Little do they know, that Lily has been “cured” all along and that the medication she has been taking is just antibiotics. 

Holland Campbell, an attractive tenant that Rufus has befriended at a co-op meeting during his time of separation and loneliness from his wife, is his refuge. She becomes an adult companion to shares his problems with. He doesn’t know that she has been working to break up his marriage all along while giving him advice on how to save it. She plays both sides, throwing Rufus under the rug saying they had an affair in front of his entire family, but is eventually found out. No one can escape the detective work of the Rat pack, who eventually unfolds the truth. William knowingly continues to give Lily medication she doesn’t need and pretends like she requires his constant care so he can be the perfect man that saves the day. He tries to get closer to her so he can get back into their lives, gain the trust of his children, and get her to fall in love with him. Lily is leaning towards it, almost giving in to this picturesque fantasy but not completely. She doesn’t want to call it quits just yet. Five marriages, four divorces, two sets of kids, and one man trying to save his shaky marriage make Gossip Girl dynamic and wonderful.

A library ball is the perfect opportunity to humiliate Holland so she can admit to being an accomplice to William’s sneaky plans. Blair and Chuck distract her, resurfacing their own hurtful memories in order to get her attention. They rekindle an old spark while scheming together. Chuck uses this time to reconcile differences with Blair but she stubbornly refuses.  They eventually get Holland to admit her involvement in the whole marital mess. She doesn’t reveal too much, but tells them all the answers they need they can get from William van der Woodsen.

Jenny is unhappy with her new family. Her Upper East Side lifestyle is wearing away at her. Constant fights, surfacing secrets, and confusion are all that she sees with her father, Rufus and Lily’s marriage. She wants the normal life she had in Brooklyn before all the drama and vows. Jenny helps William escape his fate so he’s one step ahead of everyone else.

William pretends to be stepping away for a brief second but leaves for good, leaving behind a heart-broken Serena who has to say good bye to a relationship with her father. Serena catches up to her troublesome father but does what we expect; she forgives him and allows him to escape the police. Serena is losing trust with Nate and seeks Dan, her ex-boyfriend/ step-brother by marriage in her toughest hour. He is a temporary shoulder to lean on.

Jenny, who is the only one who doesn’t want Rufus and Lily’s marriage to work, seeks refuge in Nate, Serena’s boyfriend. With tears in her eyes and hate in her heart, Nate may be just the one to comfort her but at what cost? 

Why aren’t you watching?