Gossip Girl 3×02 – The Freshmen

Now THIS was a Gossip Girl episode. Georgina makes her return and gets more than she bargained for, Blair learns that you can’t buy friends in college, Serena has a mini meltdown, Dan and Vanessa somehow become the cool kids, and… where are Eric and Jenny and Lily (well she’s having a baby, but where are the others!?)

Georgina makes her appearance, much to Blair’s and Dan’s and Vanessa’s collective horror. Georgina is definitely getting back at Blair, though doing it in a much smarter way than B who’s still stuck in old Queen B mode. Blair is old school and rather set in her ways, while Georgina recognizes her allies and zooms in on them like a homing beacon.

I did love Vanessa’s totally ‘awesome’ and eye roll when she found out Blair and Georgina were down the hall from her room. Isn’t she a New Yorker though? Why’s she staying in the dorms? Dan lucked out by suddenly being rich and now has the old Brooklyn loft for his dorm room, how awesome is that.

I loved how they turned the tables and now Dan is suddenly really cool and popular. I am liking this new Dan, and perhaps he’s more comfortable in this skin, he’s a much cooler character who’s less preachy and judgemental. Good for him. But still… that last bit where we find out he’s hooking up with Georgina?! Oh man! You know that’s just not good news at all.

Poor Blair though! Seeing her embarrass herself like that in front of everyone was rather painful, it really made me wince. It was alright when she’s on top back in Constance and getting her way, but when you see her try so hard and not get anywhere and be completely oblivious to the fact that she’s the weird one now… ouch! Blair Waldorf has been relegated to the status of nerds and geeks, and even they have their own friends. Hope B finds some friends, stat! It is interesting to see if she’ll ever claw her way to the top, or will she just put her head down and find her own niche (though she totally wouldn’t be Blair Waldorf if she did that, yah?). Also, they played the Good Girls Gone Bad song which Leighton Meester cameoed and sang in, awesome.

Blair pulling out the Christian converters on Georgina was pure genius. I was wondering who she had invited? Maybe some really cool band to steal some hype, but no… Blair Waldorf takes you down, hard! Well she nearly succeeded until Dan Humphrey use his new cool kid cred to steal her thunder, poor dear. Blair had some great quotes though, to Georgina about “Jesus dumped you because he found out you were satan!” and “Dan’s a writer?!”, hee!

Love love love Chuck-Blair loveydoveyness. Blair just crawling under the sheets with Chuck (asleep in the Bass Cave, haha) after admitting defeat was so sweet. And him saying things were ok because she was there…. awww!! We’ll see how long this lasts for though.

Anyway the long lost Lily-Rufus love child Scott? That dude is WEIRD. His vibe is totally like omg, and doesn’t he talk too much about Dan and Rufus to make Vanessa at least a little suspicious of his orientation, if not his motives? Would be interesting seeing how both Dan and Vanessa react when the truth does emerge (and you know it will, in dramatic UES fashion). We’ll have to wait till Lily is back though.

Serena freaks out about Brown and decides not to go. Rufus tries to order her back to school at first, and she rebels in typical Serena fashion, by tossing her pretty hair, calling Bad News Baizen and being the train wreck Chuck accused her of being. She may be nicer than Blair is most of the time, but man you don’t want to piss off the girl who can call all the paparazzi down on her (where were they when she was kissing Carter Baizen in the streets though? Or has Rufus’s investment paid off?)

Still, she repents and shares a nice father-daughter moment with Rufus (whose other daughter and step son have mysteriously vanished), though you wonder if that will stop her from her Daddy VDW chase, or spur her on to try even harder. I liked the S-B moment on the met steps too. Loved Blair’s side braid, but is Serena wearing a pink acid washed denim vest? come on S!

And in their own little world, cute Nate is still hooking up with his Juliet, Bree Buckley, and apparently they’re still googoogaga over each other. Stop hiding from the world and come on out! Doesn’t Nate have to go to college too? Or did he conveniently forget? I hope they don’t keep him too wrapped up in this Archibald-Buckley drama, it would be good to see how Bree fits in with everyone else. 

Overall, this was defintitely a more kick-ass episode than the premiere, and very much more GG style. Perhaps they needed the first episode to set up some things, but here’s hoping Gossip Girl stays awesome!