Headscratchers / Gossip Girl (2007)

• I still don't understand why Chuck and Vanessa sleep together in "Remains of the J." One moment Vanessa's rebuffed from Nate, the next she's getting up from Chuck's bed, trying to put on her dress. Granted, their actors were in a Real-Life Relative relationship at the time, but there was no logical buildup to Chuck and Vanessa's one-night stand. I also still wonder if Chuck and Vanessa slept with each other prior to Jenny's birthday party, since Vanessa mentioned their relationship was "strictly physical" to Nate. Or maybe I should really just relax.
• Why is Vanessa still on this show? Never mind the fact that she's portrayed by an actress who can't act, she's pointless as a character on the show. Basically only a female Dan, who is also starting to get quite superfluous by now, but at least he's got his ties to the rest of the Humphreys, Serena and Nate. Vanessa rarely interacts with the rest of the cast (just with Dan) and it's obvious that they have no idea what to do with her. Heck, she's missing from several episodes every season (and the episodes are usually better for it). Her last good storyline was... well, never. The fans hate her, the actress can't act, they have no ideas for storylines for her... Write her out already.
  • All the main actors have long-term contracts to stay on the show for six or seven seasons (provided the show doesn't get canceled before then) and Jessica Szohr has done nothing drastic to warrant a sudden exit. I personally think ALL of the actors are terrible (then again, it is a show on the CW). Finally, Vanessa does have some fans.
    • "All" of the actors are terrible? Between them, female leads Leighton Meester and Blake Lively have won five reasonably prestigious awards, and Meester's performance especially is critically acclaimed. Your mileage may definitely vary, and it seems yours is nothing like the majority opinion.
• In the season two episode Pret-A-Poor-J how come Blair's phone beeps like three separate times when she gets one text? And why does Chuck automatically get suspicious just because someone decided to send Blair a text? This always stands out to me and it seems like they could have figured out a better way to have Chuck and Blair not have sex.
• What happened to Emma Boardman? She was shown transferring to Constance in the season two finale and was all set up to be the next foil to Jenny. But come season three, she was nowhere to be found. Jenny's minions could have defected to her instead of Blair during Jenny's "attempt at Perestroika".
• I don't see how what Chuck did in the season three finale was so heinous. Fine, given his history with Jenny it was a bit iffy, but she consented (even though she kind of played the victim later). Chuck and Blair were broken up so he wasn't being unfaithful. She hadn't shown up at the ESB, he took that to mean she really was done with him, and for all he knew she was still out on her date with Cameron. It wasn't his best move by any means, but I don't see what he did that was such a deal breaker.
  • I agree. It really confused me that Blair could forgive him for whoring her out to his evil uncle but couldn't forgive him for sleeping with another girl when he was sad and alone and thought that she was never going to forgive him.
  • I saw it more as the straw which broke the camel's back, really. He'd done so much to her already, and then he slept with the girl who was, at the time, the person she was angriest with. If he'd slept with a hooker or something she might be okay, given past behaviour, it was just that he slept with the person guaranteed to hurt her the most (well, besides Serena, maybe). Plus, proposing to a girl hours after you've slept with another one is skeevy as all hell. Though I did think that Jenny was actually the one most to blame - just hours before Blair was listing people who loved each other and listed her and Chuck, so Jenny knew there was still something there. And then she went after and boo-hooed to Eric and Dan, when, let's face it, if you choose to sleep with Chuck you should know what you're getting into. What was she expecting, love and flowers?
    • I think that somewhere deep inside, Jenny was hoping to upstage Blair by having Chuck develop feelings for her, just as he did with Blair after taking her virginity. When that didn't happen she felt angry with Chuck, and with herself for having lost her virginity in that way. Note that this is just speculation on my part, but it does make some sense.
• Dan and Serena in season 4. Seriously, why is it that everyone (including their parents) is okay with the possibility of them dating? They are step brother and sister, and if that's not enough for you, they share a sibling (Rufus and Lily's son). It was a problem back in season 2 when they found out about him, why is it ok now? Did they just forget?
  • I don't see what's wrong with this. Serena and Dan were dating before their parents got married and they found out about their half-brother. They aren't related, and they didn't grow up together. The half-brother is a bit of a problem, but I assume they had time to get over this factor.
  • Values Dissonance. Some people just find this very, very creepy.
• Eric turning against Chuck in season four. For the first three seasons they were brothers and now he hates Chuck? For having consensual sex with Jenny? Even if Jenny regretted it afterward and Chuck probably should have known better it's not like he raped her, and Eric apparently already knew about Chuck assaulting Jenny in season one and didn't hate Chuck for that. It makes no sense that he would turn his back on Chuck, wanting him out of the family, out of loyalty to Jenny. Chuck has always been there for Eric while all Jenny does is betray Eric, time and time again.
  • Clearly all his time with her has given him stockholm syndrome
• What the writers have done to Chuck and Blair. While I was one of those who loved the way they were written in the first 16 episodes of season three I can still agree with those who say we should have seen more sexiness, more scheming and more brilliance. But fine, the writers decided they needed to break them up to cause drama. How about writing a plausible plotline for this to happen? Such as the reason we got in season four why they can't be together right now (Blair wanting to be more than just Chuck Bass' girlfriend and needing to be on her own to accomplish that). Anything would have been better than what we got (except for cheating). Chuck trading her for the Empire? Seriously? Then the whole season finale fiasco, what was the point of that? And why is Blair constantly mentioning the Chenny sex as the reason why she can't forgive Chuck when the IP thing was so much worse? I still adore this pairing but I hate what they have done with them. I dislike the writers for their stupid storylines, not the couple they subjected this stupidity to. Chair is epic when the writers don't screw with them. And what is even the point of throwing so much crap at the couple they have already said is endgame and the heart of the show?
• It just bugs me that Serena has become such a wishy-wash romantically. She's obviously enjoyed sleeping around all along given her reputation in season one but she had never been in love before Dan and it was treated as a big deal for her and she really took that relationship seriously. Why is she now bouncing from twu wuw to twu wuw every three episodes/fifteen minutes? I used to think it had to do with her never really getting over Dan but with what we've been getting in season four that doesn't seem to hold up.
• Chuck and Nate used to be just as close as Blair and Serena. What happened to that? Yeah they live in the same penthouse but you never really see them hanging out anymore. I miss the days of Chate glory. Instead we get the monumental snore that is Dan and Nate hanging out. I don't mind Dan and Nate being friends per se but can we please get to actually see Chuck and Nate together? Nate keeps referring to Chuck as his best friend but they never show it anymore.
• Does anyone else give a fuck about the Serena/freaky ex-con plotline/pairing? Thought not.
• Eric, the suicide survivor, starts taking drugs, and this gets swept under the rug? No one even brings up the fact that he tried to kill himself once before and taking this extremely seriously? Lily's not been a model parent, but even she should SAY something, and Rufus, who may not be perfect but is at least a decent parent, just gives him a pep talk and forgets about it?
• The Dan/Blair pairing bugs the hell out of me. The way they have written these two characters for the first 3½ seasons makes a romantic relationship impossible without betraying one or both their characters. All the stuff they're doing with how many shared interests they have fall flat when you remember that Chuck shares all those interests with her too. Even Leighton Meester has said in interviews that she finds the idea of Blair and Dan as a couple a sacrilege. And finally, Word of God have already said Blair is ending up with Chuck (the fact that they said "I love you" to each other when they went their separate ways was supposed to be an affirmation to the fans that they still are endgame) so what is even the point? Dan and Blair as friends is a fun storyline but beyond that it's just annoying. It would be nice if there could be at least one platonic friendship on this show.
  • You're not alone in disliking Dan/Blair. The fact is that while the show promotes them a lot right now and they have a very vocal fanbase online they aren't a popular pairing. Polls show that around 20% of the fans who are still watching want Dan and Blair to be together, which is a pretty low number (I believe Chair has a 70-something percent rate). A look at the ratings shows that the Dan/Blair arc has cost the show 700 000 viewers in the biggest ratings drop in the show's history. Meanwhile a vast majority of fans still claim that Blair needs to end up with Chuck (even many who enjoy the Dair arc say Chair should be endgame). A lot of Dair fans are saying they believe Dan and Blair are going to be remembered as the couple that won the fanbase over and became the OTP of the show but the reality is that they're much more probable to be remembered as the pairing who brought on the show's cancellation.
    • Remember Pacey and Joey from Dawson's Creek? (I don't.) Apparently, they were also written originally as completely detesting each other and unsuitable. By the end of the series, they had become of the show's biggest couples. I could go on and on why Dan/Blair is a legitimate pairing and why Blair has a much better relationship with Dan than with Chuck, but I just want to say that we Dan/Blair shippers have good reasons for shipping the way we do. I've actually never seen a pairing generate such good press by fans, and apparently, it's been well recieved in the manstream media too. Also, how in the world has this pairing generated a drop of 700k viewers? Remember "correlation doesn't imply causation?" This pairing hasn't even been such a big deal until the most recently aired episode of the show and it's basically been the two of them hanging out since November. Is it really that big of a turnoff for those Chair-stans? I could definitely think of some other reasons for this supposed drop other than having two characters spending time with each other. Actually, IJBM that people think that the Chuck/Blair pairing hasn't been damaged beyond repair by now, with or without Dan in the picture.
    • Since when does losing one third of the viewers mean a pairing is successful or popular? Popular pairings keep the viewers watching no matter what the other crappy storylines (case in point: Chair in seasons one, two and most of three). Yes there has been positive press for Ban but the ratings drop is a clear indication that it's not working for the show. And there's been negative press for the pairing also (not to mention Leighton Meester has complained about the pairing in interviews on more than one occasion). It appears that they need the Chair fans back or they won't survive another season, though I might of course be wrong. How is Dan even a good match for Blair? He's a complete ass to the women he dates. Just look at how he treated Vanessa and Serena (Vanessa especially). He has no respect for the Serena/Blair friendship. In addition he could never accept Serena's faults which were a lot milder than Blair's so without a personality transplant he's not going to be able to accept Blair. I'm not saying Chuck is necessarily the best match for Blair but Dan isn't any better IMHO. Besides, I thought IJBM was a place to vent about things you didn't like. I'm sorry you don't agree that the Ban storyline is bad and I'm sorry if you've been offended. People are free to love Dan and Blair together but they are also free to dislike them together. Peace and goodwill =)
    • It's not betraying either character, it's getting some much, much needed growth and development for both, in particular Blair. I guess I'm just tired of seeing the abusive Chuck and Blair relationship being glamourised and romanticized. It's boring and played out, and the Dan/Blair pairing is a breath of fresh air. That's the main reason why the audience has responded so strongly to it. They just want good storytelling to be entertained by. Also, I don't really like rooting for pairings in which one half of them is an attempted rapist. Dan is awful to women? As opposed to Chuck, who has tried to rape every single young female lead apart from Vanessa, who has physically assaulted Blair, emotionally manipulated her, sold her for a hotel? Gee... yeah, I really wonder why Dan/Blair has become so popular...
  • I just want to point out, Gossip Girl, as long with every other show on the CW, has nothing to do with ratings. Apparently, the CW is all about having shows ready for syndication. The actors have all been signed on to do six seasons anyways. And also, why be so quick to blame Dan and Blair for the ratings when they make up only a part of the show.
• Where are these people's lives outside of the same people they hanged out with in the 11th grade? These people are in their second year of college now. I guess it's kind of been done already, but why can't we see more of the supposed upper class social scene at Colombia? Shouldn't Blair be trying to get into some sort of secret society by now?
• Why is Bart Bass's ghost such an utter Basshole? In Season 1, he was thrilled that Chuck was interested in Blair, and thought a committed relationship was a wonderful idea. He also made the decision to choose Lily over his work multiple times. However, Ghost!Bart is against love and tells Chuck he's weak for dating Blair. Why does Chuck believe his father would be like that?
  • Because Ghost!Bart is in Chuck's head, and despite the fact that Bart did have some compassion, in life he spent most of his time being a complete asshole to his son. Remember that the last conversation Chuck and Bart ever had was Bart berating his son for contributing to his marriage with Lily falling apart. Chuck's predominant memory of his father is a cold man who would find his son weak for not successfully following in his father's footsteps.
    • I guess the Season 5 finale proved Chuck's view of his father was completely, horribly right.
• Does anyone know when Serena and Dan find out that Chuck swapped Blair for the Empire? They both refer to it in the next season, but it can't have been on Gossip Girl's blog because that would have created a giant scandal. Did Nate tell them? (Because it's hard to see Blair sharing that with Dan) At the very least, they should have shown the OMG WTF reactions she got when she told them... didn't anyone else want to see that?
• IJBM that it should appear that Juliet is "in need". Sure, she does not have the same kind of (insane)money the other characters get to spend, but she still seems to have your average big house in another state and whatnot. Scraping by to pay for expensive clothes does not seem to me to be reason enough for complaining...
• In episode 5x14, why does Blair call Dan and NOT Chuck, even though Chuck owns a private jet?
  • Because she doesn't trust Chuck anymore and Dan has been there for her, time after time?
  • Because as far as she knew, Chuck had just betrayed her by sending that video to everyone?
• Why is there so much Blair hate lately? Yes, I get that she's not exactly being the good guy here by falling in and out of love with three people in rapid succession (Louis, Chuck, Dan), but Blair is getting more hatred from Chair fans than Chuck did for selling her to his uncle. Why would fans be willing to give the show another chance after Chuck enters the human flesh trade, but immediately decide to quit watching the show because Blair and Dan have hooked up?
  • It's mostly Chuck's Draco in Leather Pants status, so he will be forever forgiven for everything. Some, though, feel that the writers have lost focus of Blair as a character and that bothers them more than the hook up itself.
  • The Chair fans have stopped with the Blair-hate after the finale... only for the Dair fans to hate on her even more. Apparently what Blair did is unforgiveable, although Dan cheating on her as well, with her best friend, in the exact place that Nate did years before, is completely understandable and only fair. Fan Dumb at its best.
  • This is not entirely true. By the finale, a lot of us hate every character (no, we aren't just singling out Blair/Chuck). Every character has been derailed and has become completely unlikeable thanks to the incompetence of the writers.
• Why is Chuck sending the wedding video to GG a horrible thing to do, yet when it turns out it was Dan who sent it-it's amazing, just trying to make Blair happy? Also, why was Dan all Chuck is so awful for sending that and ruining Blair's big day, especially since there are so many other things Chuck is actually guilty of?
• Why the hell would Chuck sign away his hotel? If a CEO is considered incompetent he can step down and keep his shares. Chuck could have simply stepped down for a few months and let someone else be the manager.
• So Dan signs Milo's birth certificate because Georgina brought a DNA test that said that he was the father? What? What makes him so sure that it wasn't someone else's DNA? After the problems last season with doctors you would think he would redo the test or at least go speak to the doctor in person to confirm his identity instead of taking the word of someone on a phone. Did everyone lose their minds?
• How much of the "Gossip Girl" blog that we see on the show is real in-universe? Because if the GG blasts we see at the beginning of each episode are real, then Gossip Girl is taking pictures inside people's houses, witnessing big moments that she could not possibly be present for, etc. And a lot of her narration deals with things she could not possibly know, or things that would change the course of events completely if they were actually revealed on the blog.
• “Thank you for never sleeping with Serena.” “You’re welcome.” Uh, does anyone remember he tried to rape Serena? I can’t decide if that scene is inappropriately funny or just sick. She’s basically saying “Thanks for being a failure as a rapist!” Even if Blair doesn’t know the writers should realize the audience remembers.
• "Dad, I'm guilty." Of fraud. A few scenes later Nate is released. What. He's guilty! They would have the evidence otherwise they couldn't arrest him! How does he get out? He should be facing years in prison no matter what happens to anyone else.
• Dan is Gossip Girl. What. Let us list the ways this makes no sense or is completely stupid:
  • The blasting talking about Chuck raping Jenny and 'loving parties' at the end. For fucks sake, that's just sick.
  • Dan sends in video of Chuck & Blair's confession while he's in a church, standing as the best man.
  • Dan being shocked about Serena's pregnancy test GG blast.
  • Jenny sent a picture of Dan cheating with Serena and it was published instantly.
  • Dan nearly gets himself expelled by sending out a GG blast about his tryst with Miss Carr. This also caused major problems with Rufus, causes Miss Carr to get fired and her career likely ruined and got Serena mad at him.
    • Then spends the entire 2x18 episode struggling to eventually work out that Miss Carr was sending tips into Gossip Girl.
  • Dan takes Serena to Prom after being on good terms with her, then next episode Gossip Girl declares war on Serena and calls her irrelevant.
  • Gossip Girl was said by Blair and Serena to have existed while they were in 8th grade. Before Dan was even going to the same school.
    • This is also contradicted within the show, however. In a late season 2 episode Blair mentions that the first blast was about Serena, and occurred in grade 9
  • He calls himself the "Ultimate Insider" along with all the other members of the NJBC getting their own epithet, when he said he always felt like the "Ultimate outsider".
  • Dan once got mad at Nate for telling Vanessa about him and Serena but it was actually Dan who did it.
  • Dan is shocked in the 2nd episode about Serena fucking Nate.
    • In that episode he also kinda dumps Serena because she's too much in the UES world... that was the apparent reason for creating Gossip Girl in the first place, let alone being with Serena as his primary goal.
  • Dan helped Serena escape from rehab because he believed that she didn’t try to overdose. Yet once they were home and she was talking to Blair, he sent out a blast comparing her to Lindsey Lohan.
  • At the White Party Dan got mad because of Serena and Nate making out... when he'd been reporting on them the entire summer.
  • GG has posted blasts about Dan making out with Serena while he was making out with her, and also once about Dan making out with Blair again while in the process of making out with her.
  • Dan & Blair had to wait around while Gossip Girl found information about where Juliet was.
  • He would have known Sarah was Georgina.
  • Jenny once said this about Gossip Girl, to Dan: "You think you’re so different and so good. Well guess what, Dan. The minute you start sending tips to Gossip Girl you’re in the game with the rest of us."
  • Dan and Jenny have several conversations in private (ie. not staged for throw anyone from the track) about posts on Gossip Girl which kill the possibility of them being in it together. One of them contains Jenny being surprised that her brother reads Gossip Girl at all and Dan acting as if he learned something from this site... Oh, and the subject of the post was Jenny supposedly losing her virginity to Asher. So much for the cooperation and getting Jenny's approval before he posts something sensitive about her.
  • Dan knew Bart Bass was alive the ENTIRE TIME, just chillaxing with Diana Payne.
  • Several times throughout the show Dan reacts in shock to things he reads (and apparently already knows) on Gossip Girl. This makes sense when someone else is in the room with him, however he does this even when there's no one else in the room with him.
• The ending of season 6. WHY is Lily back together with William?! Did she forget that he gave her FAKE CANCER and framed Rufus as a cheater,all in an attempt to manipulate her into coming back to him?! Speaking of,wasn't he wanted by the police by the end of S3? Yet just a little while later he waltzes back to town and everyone acts like season 3 never happened! WTF is going on here?!
• Gossip Girl sends out a blast saying that Serena has an STI and Serena reacts by saying that GG NEVER posts lies. Um...since when? Not all Gossip is true you Know!
• So if Dan is Gossip Girl it means that he has essentially been stalking Serena since 9th grade and Serena isn't bothered by this AT ALL?
• So the series ends with Georgina and Jack Bass as a couple. While I don't have a problem with the pairing,what happened to Georgina's husband and Baby Milo? They just sort of vanished...
• Why is it that the people who keep calling Chuck an abusive misogynist never criticise Dan for being far worse in that regard? During the entire show's run Dan keeps belittling female characters, oftentimes his love interests. He judges Serena (and later Blair) harshly for failing to live up to his fantasy images of them, oftentimes telling them he's "disappointed" and he "thought [they'd] changed". That serves no purpose other than to let them know they're not good enough the way they are and that they ought to strive to be the way he wants them to be. When he sleeps with Serena in the season five finale he puts the entire blame on her and lets her know what an awful person she is and how he could not possibly want her. The fact that nobody forced him to have sex with her never seems to occur to him, nor does he stop to think that he should have spoken to Blair instead of assuming she had dumped him because of a Gossip Girl blast. Then he gives Blair the silent treatment even though he's cheated on her and her worst crime was wanting to end the relationship to be with Chuck (not very noble of her but cheating is definitely worse). If memory serves he also promised Blair he would always be there for her, yet soon thereafter tells her that if she doesn't date him he won't be her friend anymore (this shortly after her wedding). When it comes to Vanessa he actively sabotages her acceptance into Tisch for no other reason than that she got in and he didn't, assuming she must have cheated in order to get in ahead of him. Later that season he cheats on her with Serena yet labels Vanessa the bad person in the equation. Next season he leads her on and lets her think he still wants her, merely so that she will babysit his child with Georgina while he runs after Serena (Milo turned out not to be his child but he didn't know that at the time). She never does anything half that bad to him, yet he still tells her she is not good enough for him and decides he no longer wants to be her friend. The reveal of him as Gossip Girl also means he's stalked, publically shamed and humiliated Serena, supposedly in order to make her love him, which is anything but healthy. I'm not saying Chuck doesn't behave badly but Dan most definitely fits the profile of a misogynist and an emotional abuser more than Chuck does yet he not only gets a free pass for it, many of the fans who hate on Chuck hold Dan up as an example of a good romantic lead.
  • To be frank, the guy who starts off the show trying to rape two characters (and who is implied to have raped others before) is always going to be more misogynistic than the guy who is kind of a douche. The Gossip Girl example is a poor one, because the entire reveal is a contradictory ass pull. Also, the writing for the show is inherently sexist, so really non of the characters come off as particularly feminist or not misogynistic.
• So, Allison (Dan and Jenny’s mom) is told by Dan that Jenny is in a school populated by “date rapists (...) and could really use her mother,” and Allison herself can see and has noted that Jenny had been acting in a way that is different than how her daughter used to behave, and expresses absolutely zero concern for those very troubling facts? Mother of the year if there ever was one.
• “I always thought it was Dorota!” Right, Blair that explains why you’ve confided in and trusted Dorota so deeply, and why you’ve never shown any resentment or anger towards who you thought has been personally responsible for ruining (or mirthfully mocking the ruining) of your life and your friend’s lives, makes sense.

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