Gossip Girl – 1×04 Recap | MuchMusic.com

Gossip Girl – 1×04 Recap

October 11th, 2007

1×04 – Bad News Blair

So straight from the title of the ep you can tell that this week ain’t gonna be a cakewalk for Miss High and Mighty. It starts out well though when her mom, Eleanor (now played by the awesome Margaret Colin), picks her be the face of the new Waldorf Designs ad campaign. Mother and daughter bond more than we’ve seen so far, hinting at the fact that there used to be a tight-knit relationship there where there is now a giant, frigid gap. And as they are now BFFs and since it’s all part and parcel of that title, Serena tags along to the photo shoot the next day to give Blair some moral support. The photog bitches his way around the room, complaining that Blair doesn’t have what it takes – she’s too stiff, she’s too prim, she’s too everything he doesn’t like. Serena overhears and adorably tries to help Blair loosen up…big mistake. The photog loves Serena’s loose, bohemian, devil-may-care look and is convinced only she can make the campaign work. After a bunch of wheeling and dealing, Eleanor agrees and chooses Serena over Blair…not only destroying any chance of rekindling a relationship with her daughter but effectively striking another giant blow to the BFFs. Serena agrees to do the shoot but does so only because she thinks she will be joining Blair, not doing it on her own…but Blair doesn’t buy it for a second and freaks out over the fact that, once again, Serena has stolen something from her.

Meanwhile, Nate befriends this new guy whose name I totally forget but who is a dead ringer for Dan…let’s call him Faux Dan (or Fan for short). Fan is not a major player, money-wise, so Chuck has no use for him and gets majorly jealous when Nate would rather spend time with Fan then him. As an aside, this plot has more HoYay than anything I’ve seen on TV recently, leading me to crown Nate and Chuck as the Couple Most Likely to Last the Season. Chuck ends up being right – for the first and possibly last time – as it turns out Fan is a con man. Unfortunately, they find that out after they’re out a bunch of dough. Nate then discovers, when he tries to access some replacement funds, that his Dad cleared out his trust fund. Ouch…someone’s so not money, he doesn’t even know it.

The Dan Fam has little to do this week (Jenny doesn’t even make an appearance) but we do see Rufus (looking like he discovered how a shower works) sell one of his estranged wife’s paintings to Lily by mistake. AWKWARD. Meanwhile, Dan tries his best to get a solid date with Serena but keeps losing out in her priorities to Blair, whom he decides represents everything he loathes about rich people. When he overhears her going off on Serena over the photoshoot debacle, he sees a side of her he can somewhat relate to – parental abandonment, apparently…and they bond. Blair and Serena then make up (again) but this time, it looks genuine! They end up stealing the clothes from the shoot and going out on the town to take their own pictures…leaving Eleanor in the lurch (yay!)

Okay – so I want to say that this show finally seems to be getting it’s footing and I actually really enjoyed this episode. I also get the feeling that the improvement might be that they are actually using character pieces set out in the books?

What did you think? Is it getting better? Are you seeing an improvement?

Episode Rating: B

To watch the full episode online, go here.

ETA: Also check out Rogers On Demand – channel 100 – for all show episodes :)

Tags: devon soltendieck