The title says it all: Nate Archibald is back and ready for the requisite Thanksgiving episode. Things are a little different than last year, but happiness must prevail on such a family-friendly holiday, right? Want to know what I’m thankful for? The fact that the omnipresent narrator “Gossip Girl” always takes Thanksgiving off, giving my ears a break from her often painful commentary. Silence is blissful indeed.
Summary
Lily, Rufus and Jenny cook Thanksgiving dinner. Photo courtesy of the CW.
- Blair’s miffed that Cyrus and the Roses are overtaking her Waldorf Thanksgiving. When Dorota lets it slip that the couple’s gotten secretly engaged and plans to reveal it over turkey dinner, she runs away and forsakes her favorite holiday. She’s feeling fairly unloved but realizes she was wrong when her mom’s surprise turns out to be Daddy, come for a surprise visit.
- Aaron the artist, who just won’t go away, has decided to commit to Serena and be a “one-woman man.” Huge sacrifice I’m sure, since a guy of his caliber could date a number of gorgeous rich girls. Turns out one of his deal-breakers is a girl who is “wild, parties, drinks,” since he has decided to be sober. No bad influences. Serena panics and lies, trying to hide her past from the new BF. Too bad Aaron runs into Dan in the store, and the two discover they have conflicting ideas of who Serena is. I wonder who’s right? Aaron confronts her, but she panics again and says Dan’s just a jealous liar. When Aaron confronts Dan (so confrontational), Dan plays along and apologizes for lying, cause he’s the nice guy Serena needs to get back with now kthx. Serena’s conscience gets the better of her, and she leaves Aaron her file (getting to that later), letting him read all about her past and then decide what he wants to do. In an uncharacteristically nice move, he returns the file unread and says he only wants to hear what she wants to tell them. Boo for the happy couple.
- Eric discovers Bart has a PI keeping tabs on the entire family. Chuck shows him the secret files, and let’s just say it’s fairly creepy. Eric reveals the files, which pisses off Lily and makes her take the kids to the Humphreys for Thanksgiving, sans Bart of course. They stop at their now traditional diner, where Eric says he read Lily’s file and saw that she was institutionalized when she was 19, like he was. Lily doesn’t want to talk about it though, which must mean it’s something big. So after cutely calling the Humphrey loft “the place that most feels like home,” Lily pairs up with Rufus to have a cutesy Thanksgiving after all. While Bart, sitting creepily outside, sends in a call to find out exactly why his wife was put in a sanitarium. There will be drama.
- Jenny’s been secretly crashing with Eric, who goes with her to get the emancipation papers. She seems reluctant to do so, since it means her family will have to be investigated. Lily finds out and tries to arrange a reconciling meeting between Rufus and Jenny, which becomes urgent after she finds the papers. Rufus realizes he needs to be kind and understanding and tells Jenny he loves her and wants her home. Although she’s distressed, a run-in with Blair and Eleanor Waldorf convinces her that Rufus really loves her, and she should go home. And so, the cycle of bitch-nonbitch Jenny proceeds to the nonbitch stage. She finally washes off her raccoon eyes, reverting her back to a normal person. And the Humphrey family is reunited and happy once more.
- Nate and Mommy Archibald are back in town, although Nate appears to have no friends, having alienated everybody with the whole Humphrey situation. Well Mommy has a holiday surprise for Nate — Fugitive Daddy’s back in town! And he wants the Archibalds to move down to his Caribbean paradise together. An FBI agent contacts Vanessa (of all people, how would the FBI connect Vanessa to Nate?), and she brings him and Chuck down to talk with the man. The FBI believe that the Captain is planning to hold Nate and Mommy for ransom, since Mommy is a Vanderbilt whose parents have lots of money. Nate confronts his dad and gives him an ultimatum: turn himself in or escape and lose his son forever. The Captain finally chooses the honorable thing, although Mom’s devastated. But they get the house back, Nate kind of asks Vanessa out, and him and Chuck are back to BFFs. BUT WAIT. Although Vanessa and Jenny reconcile (Jenny says she doesn’t think Nate ever really liked her), V finds the letter Nate sent before he left town. She steals it, reads it, then keeps it from Jenny. Behind-the-back what?
Thoughts
- Jenny’s hair looked weird again this week. When she was wearing her red-checkered flannel, she strongly resembled a hick-lumberjack. You don’t know how much I rejoiced when she washed off her eye makeup, although since she’s been wearing it for a while she looked a bit odd. Still, so much more wholesome and cute, hair looked better too. Now what have we learned little J?
- Bart Bass is a total creeper. End.
- Aaron’s Serena-face collage/montages are also totally creeper.
- I love the Thanksgiving episodes. So many happy feelings, warm fuzzies. It seems that balance in the GG-verse has been restored. Families reunited, friendships rekindled. Now we just need some normal relationships, and all will be well.
- I sense a Nate/Vanessa/Jenny love triangle coming. This does not please me. How does Nate so nonchalantly ask Vanessa out again? What a pimp.
Quote
Blair: Remember, Serena doesn’t share.
Serena: Remember, Blair should learn to.
Next Time
Unfortunately, we must wait two weeks for the next episode. Looks good though, there appears to be some sort of winter ball and relationships galore. I believe the quote was “if you only had one night left to live, who would you spend it with?” Prepare for Nate/Vanessa/Jenny, Serena/Aaron/Dan, Chuck/Blair and Rufus/Lily/Bart. Good stuff.