with a storyline success rate of about 96%, that's a whole lot of awesome in a relatively short amount of time.Awww, eases the pain.
Unlike some shows that experience your typical "sophomore slump" in their second season, GG started off strong, got even stronger, then hit a bit of a snag, then ended back at awesome. From a show like this, it's exactly the kind roller coaster I'd expect.
It's truly difficult to comprehend that it was only a few months ago that Blair was dating a British lord, Little J was homeless, and Serena has mysteriously grown attracted to greasy hair and scraggly goatees. Aw, memories. Although overall this show kicks just as much ass as ever, some storylines were more successful than others. It's honestly hard to quantify so much information...
Over the course of the season, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find many viewers who weren't the most invested in the trials and tribulations of Chair (or Bluck--neither portmanteau really works for them...). Chuck and Blair have long been my favorite characters and they're the primary reason I tune in every week. Unlike the insanely dull and eventless back and forth of Dan and Serena (which Leighton Meester calls "Derena" and says it sounds like some snack food--you know, "I could sure go for some Cool Ranch Derena right about now..."), the every changing relationship of Chuck and Blair was never dull, never prosaic or overdone, and even in their briefest and most seemingly humdrum of interactions, the pair was always a joy to watch and squee-worthy at every turn.
Leighton Meester and Ed Westwick somehow manage to imbue every scene with a whole lot more than you'd ever think possible. They have always had great chemistry, no matter how their relationship was defined at the given moment. Chuck and
Blair make for devilish enemies, passionate lovers, the most loyal of friends, and ruthless competitors, and they do so all at once. It's really quite impressive. Their feelings and motives in season 1 were usually veiled and only occasionally naked and honest, but in season 2, with the unremitting horribleness that happened to them both, they each had to shed the facade more and more often, in spite of their desperate attempts to keep the charade going. I think Gossip Girl herself hit it on the head during graduation when she labeled Blair a weakling (which belies her ruthless, unrelenting Queen B routine), and Chuck a coward (who has built himself up as this amoral playboy who isn't afraid of anything). Chuck's father dying threw a wrench into the game they play (you know, the "you say it first" nuclear assault they'd been engaged in for so long). Chuck fell apart, and Blair quickly followed. After going through something so traumatic, it's hard to think they could put the masks back on, but that's only mode in which Chuck and Blair know how to operate...Which brings us to the season finale where Blair, once again, tells Chuck how much she loves him, and he's too much of a coward to handle it. Being the spoiler hound that I am, I had it on good authority that it wouldn't end like that again, but it was still damned distressing to watch. The revelation that Blair had hooked up with Uncle Jack didn't play out how I had anticipated at all. In fact, it's pretty clear that the writers decided to seriously overhaul the storyline before it had all played out. Back during the episodes with Jack, there was a promo that aired with Chuck confronting Jack about Blair saying, "Blair wouldn't touch you."
That scene never aired in the actual episode. It would seem that Chuck was supposed to have found out ages ago, but they decided against it. In fact, even the nature of Blair's and Jack's New Year's secret seems to have been revamped (or else Blair simply isn't providing the horrible details--which is definitely a possibility). If you watch the scene at the opera where Jack tries to assault Lily in the ladies room, you can hear Blair's voice yelling/commanding/almost screaming for Jack to stop (see below, about 4 minutes in).
I think in it's original incarnation, Jack was to have raped or assaulted Blair in some manner and she agreed to keep her mouth shut if he brought Chuck back. Although that would have been a much more powerful story arc, I'm kind of relieved they scrapped it. Blair has quite e
nough horrible in her life without adding that to the mix. After it was clear that the writers had tossed out that idea, I was still certain that it would be revealed that she had slept with Jack as a means of persuading him to go get Chuck. I was sure when it was all revealed, Blair would have told Chuck that it was the only way Jack would go get him, or something like that. Alas, the big secret, although still damning, barely caused any waves at all in the finale. I really enjoyed that Blair likened her tryst with loathsome uncle Jack to Chuck's dalliance with Vanessa though. Heh.Anyway, as a final note on Chair, I have to admit that the closing scene of the finale was delightful. I'm not of the opinion that they should stay together as a happy couple for long (we all know how boring that is), but it's nice to see them happy once and a while. There are fans out there who want nothing more than for the two of them to live happily ever after, and I just don't understand that at all. How dull would that be? Ugh. Chuck and Blair are at their best when they're at odds, and fortunately, for a show
like this, it shouldn't be long for that to be the case once again. :) If it makes the Chair-shippers happy, I'm supremely confident that they can be at odds even more effectively while they're together than when they're apart. So really, it's a win-win (like goose grease). It was only fitting that the closing scene of the season had Chuck finally tell Blair that he loves her. It hasn't been a secret for ages and ages, but that he got up the gumption to admit it to her was fun to watch and extremely satisfying after all we've been through. I especially liked that Blair asked him to say it again. And again. Even when she finally gets what she wants, she likes to hold the reins. It's just so very Blair it's delightful. At first I thought that the scene should have been set in a more intimate space, but after thinking about it, out in the open was much more meaningful. Chuck really had been a coward, heretofore, and telling Blair he loved her in public was a lot braver.As much as I would love for Chuck and Blair to be the entire show, there actually are other characters to keep track of. Sadly though, they are generally the aspects of the show that led to some less-than-stellar storylines (the 80s weren't quite as awesomely 80stacular as one would have hoped, for example). Serena's fling with Aaron Rose was unpleasant, don't g
et me wrong, but her back and forth with Dan got very old, very fast. Part of the reason for Serena hooking back up with Dan for the 87th time was that the writers decided to write Aaron off the show well before his story arc was supposed to be over. The fans hated him, the storyline wasn't really working, and the actor they had cast was about as unappealing as possible. As such, while Aaron was supposed to come back from Argentina with Serena, the writers just decided to leave him there (and I can't says I blame them). I think the problem with Aaron mostly came down to unfortunate casting. He was just bland, unkempt, and charmless from beginning to end. Anyway, curtailing that storyline left a void the ultimately led back to Dan. Again. They only mostly worked for me as a couple the first (and possibly second) time around, so this was overkill that really dragged for a few episodes and was clearly a patch job with the overall arc.Another storyline that didn't really work out was Rachel Carr. I'm confident in saying the episode titled "Carrnal Knowledge" was my least favorite of the series (not season, series). Although her character served an important purpose, the way it all played out fell a little flat. I
was glad to see the writers wrap that up as soon as possible and send her back to Iowa or wherever she was from. But, once again, cutting one storyline short led to some sloppy recovery. Add to that the fact that the brass at the CW ordered 3 additional episodes out of no where, and the writers were left with fewer stories to fill more episodes. Henceforth with the filler... Not that I don't enjoy the filler in a way, but it all just detracts from more important things. There were a few episodes toward the latter quarter of the season that were fun and all, but didn't have a whole lot of substance in the end. I was glad to see the show really rein things in at the very end and wrap up a lot of loose ends and terminate a lot of filler storylines.Among the stories that didn't really work for me were the Eyes Wide Shut escapades in which Chuck inexplicably found himself mired. Elle was never really established as a real character, so she came across as a random obstacle between Chuck and Blair. As lackluster as the arc was, I thought they wrapped it up quite well. A lot of guys have a savior complex where the thought of rescuing some poor damsel (read: hooker) from the depths is appealing, and to see that Elle was the one taking the advantage the whole time really put Chuck in his place. He
was being played by the very person he was trying to save, and the whole fantasy just fizzled as a result. It smacked him in the face with a few realities that he had been too stubborn to acknowledge which was something that needed to happen, one way or the other. I have to hand it to the show that even the most frivolous of storylines have a purpose, and even if they aren't executed brilliantly, they're almost never true throw-aways and always seem to matter (even if they only matter in so much as they lead characters to something that actually matters). Clear as mud, eh?Peeps on the web had a whole lot of anger to express about Blair and Nate getting back together, but I was generally okay with it. That's not to say that I like them together as a couple (I'm not sure it would be
possible for a pair to have less spark), but in terms of the characters, it felt more organic and natural than I was expecting. Nate's always just kind of along for the ride, looking pretty and staring off into space, so when Blair comes up with a plan, it makes sense to me that they would both fall into it. Again. They were both totally lost and nothing was turning out as it should, so why wouldn't they happily jump back into a setting that was safe and comfortable. I also quite enjoyed the dynamic it made between Nate and Chuck, with Chuck trying to be the friend, but presented with a situation that he genuinely cannot be objective. Not that I was sorry to see them break up, but I seem to have enjoyed that little detour more than most.In any season of any show, there will be things that worked and things that didn't. This season had a good few that didn't really do it for me, but overall, the goods outweigh the bads by a significant margin. Little J's fashion line turned homeless train wreck was completely awesome (and it was a sheer delight to see a former O.C.er on board), Cyrus Rose (unlike his son) is inconceivably delightful and exactly what Blair needed in so many ways, Chuck's odyssey to the brink, beyond the brink, and back again made for the most powerful and devastating story arc of the series so far, and the Chuck and
Blair emotional arms race was riveting from beginning to end. Even Lufus van der Humphrey turned into a more interesting plot twist than I would have expected. I think we all knew there was no way he was dead from the very beginning and had to assume he'd be making his way onto the show eventually, but I genuinely don't know what his motives are at this point, and quite frankly, can't wait to find out. The Lily and Rufus relationship lost all of its spark and interest over the season (at least for me), but I'm intrigued enough with their long lost son that it kept me going.Lufus was just one of the many twists the finale had to offer. Front and center, the kiddies try to unmask Gossip Girl. Quite frankly, I'm kind of surprised they never did this before... Especially after being completely demolished with her gossip, I think I'd be trying to nail down who GG was, how he/she came to know what he/she knew, and where I could hide a body. I guess it speaks to the nature of the conceit that they never really pursued this in the past. Rumors, gossip, and intrigue form the basis of their little cutthroat society. Gossip Girl acts as more of a framework for how people interact with one another than as a person. Plus, as Gossip Girl points out, everyone on the show is Gossip Girl. They are the ones sending tips; they are the ones
spreading and receiving rumors. They aren't just subject to the machine's wrath, they are the machine. They keep it going. It's a burden and a tool. A social structure and a menace. They love it, and they hate it. And it seems that only when Gossip Girl decides to make some truly incisive and accurate assessments does anyone stop to think of Gossip Girl as a person. No one sent Gossip Girl a tip saying that Chuck is a coward, Blair is a weakling, Nate is a whore, Dan is the ultimate insider, and that Serena is irrelevant. That wasn't a function of the machine at work. That was someone firing a shot across the bow, independent of the tipsters and gossip-mongers. All those monikers are accurate and that's what makes them powerful. I thought each assessment was perfect, correct, and just the thing to say to set each of those people off. The only person who would really worry about being an insider is Dan, who has pretended to be the lonely outsider for the past two years, even though he's been right in the middle of everything. Nate's moniker is just obvious, but still packs a punch. Blair's and Chuck's were addressed earlier and Serena's, while it likely won't actually happen, it's one of Serena's biggest fears. Does Serena matter if there's no Gossip Girl to write about her? Does she have anything to offer besides tabloid fodder? She doesn't really know, and that scares her to death. The finale had its weak points, but the titles doled out by Gossip Girl d
id a really nice job of boiling down who these people really are at the end of the day (or at least who they're afraid they are).This show is based on perceptions, facades, secrets, reveals, and masks, so having Gossip Girl out everyone on everything leaves everyone dazed, confused, but ultimately... free. For the moment, anyway. I really loved the scene where Gossip Girl got them all to go to that bar only to realize that they are all cogs in the machine, but that for the moment, the machine isn't running. All the gossip there was to tell has been told. And in spite of Gossip Girl's assurance that she'll be following them to college, for the moment, no one really knows what to do with themselves. For the first time, they can just relax. There's no threat of nuclear attack, no worry that your darkest deepest secret will be revealed. For once, they're all out of nukes and secrets. It's a nice moment. And it sets up a clean slate for next season, although not without some teases...
The big finale set up a fair set of little cliffhangers, but nothing insanely huge, much like last season. The show is good at leaving things up in the air so that they can go just about anywhere with it. Serena and Carter (whom I hated at first, but after watching Kings, really quite enjoy him now) are apparently off to look for Keith van der Woodsen, Georgina made an awesome return to tie up the Ponzi scheme storyline (yet another that peeps had a lot of issues with, but that I thought worked pretty well) and will apparently be rooming with Blair next season (!), Lufus may or may not be up to no good, I'm still not sure where some people are going to school, Lily and Rufus got engaged, but under dubious circumstances (or shall I say, "doobie-ous"), and Little J took over the high school (!!). I, for one, can't wait. I don't know where season 3 will take us, but it'll surely be somewhere crazy. :)
Count. Me. In.
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