December 16, 2024 • 62 mins
Summary
Welcome back, Gossip Girl fanatics! This week on the Non Judging Breakfast Pod, Leif and Steve dive into the whirlwind of Gossip Girl Season 2, Episode 18, "The Age of Dissonance." As the Upper East Side students step into the spotlight for their senior class play, tensions flare and secrets unravel. Blair battles to maintain her social standing amidst the chaos, while Serena's latest crush leads to unexpected complications. Meanwhile, Dan finds himself entangled in a controversial relationship with Ms. Carr, prompting a series of explosive confrontations. Join our hosts as they dissect the drama, intrigue, and questionable decisions with their signature humor and insight. Don't miss this deep dive into the tangled lives of Manhattan's elite!
Produced by Leif Capicola and Steve Marchion.
Edited and mixed by Leif Capicola.
The Gossip Girl Theme Performed By Steve Marchion.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Leif (00:00):
If that school expelled him every lawyer in
New York would be banging on their door.
Steve (00:05):
Yeah, yeah, they would be moving to the Upper east
side.
Leif (00:09):
They would know in the school.
Steve (00:10):
Yes, they would.
They would have the Humphrey wing.
Imagine Blair having to sit in
the Humphrey auditorium.
Leif (00:31):
Hey Upper East Siders and all you scandal loving listeners out there, you just
tuned into the non judging breakfast pod where the coffee
is strong, the waffles are fresh, and the
gossip is hotter than ever. My name is Leif, and I'm your
seasoned Gossip Girl veteran.
Steve (00:45):
And I'm Steve, your newbie, your
greenhorn, your. I don't know, Leif. What are we calling
the season two Gossip Girl newbie this week?
Leif (00:53):
I don't have time for this when all my enemies just keep changing.
Steve (00:57):
Hey, that's fair enough, but, you know, just don't
shatter my image of you in the process.
So here's the deal, folks. Leif has been watching Gossip
Girl since it first aired, and I'm diving in for
the first time. And together, we're your dynamic duo,
bringing you all of the drama, romance, and
sometimes questionable fashion choices of this
(01:17):
iconic 2007 series.
Leif (01:20):
That's right. Each week we're going to take a deep dive into the
show one episode at a time. We'll analyze all the
hidden parallels, obscure references. Along
the way, we're going to look at some behind the scenes gossip
and phantom stories.
Steve (01:33):
And, since we are all about inclusivity here at the non judging
breakfast pod, there's always a seat for you at the non judging
breakfast table. So please pull up a,
mimosa, grab a cup of coffee, or roll up
some of Nate and Chuck's special medicine. And let's get
this going.
Leif (01:49):
This episode is going to be coming out on December
16, which will be the last episode of
the year for us. It'll be a two week release
break.
Steve (01:58):
Okay.
Leif (01:59):
For Christmas and New Year's and then we'll
be back after the new year. I think we got our first
Quebecois listener, from the providence of
Quebec.
Steve (02:09):
Hey, welcome. Hello.
Leif (02:12):
Ah.
Steve (02:15):
I wish I had something that I could say in French
right now that was appropriate.
Leif (02:20):
Bonjour, Bonjour,
Bonjour, Bonjour, Bonjour.
Steve (02:25):
And hello.
Leif (02:28):
I got my French, teachers to let us watch
Beauty and the Disney's Beauty and Beauty and the Beauty's just based
on that opening song.
Steve (02:39):
When I was young, my family went
on a vacation every year. And one year I met, like, I
had this crush on a girl from Quebec and we couldn't
like, talk to each other at all. And it was
cute.
Leif (02:51):
Did you meet her at the Niagara Falls,
Steve?
Steve (02:56):
Not. No, it was. It was in the Poconos.
Leif (02:59):
So this episode we're here to talk about is
season two, episode 18 of the Age
of Dissonance. Originally aired on
March 16, 2009. That
was, six weeks after the previous episode,
season break.
Steve (03:15):
I noticed that when I was reviewing
for the Vulture recap. Do we know
why? Did something happen?
Leif (03:25):
I don't think so. They would just take breaks
in the spring a lot.
Steve (03:29):
Yeah, I guess I'm used to shows
taking a month off. Short high
six weeks seems like a longer hiatus than most would
take it. Also, it's also an
interesting time to take that long of a hiatus
after what was arguably,
kind of train wreck of a show of an episode.
Leif (03:52):
Yeah. Kind of a cliffhanger ending, too.
Steve (03:54):
Yeah, exactly. Cliffhangers that
weren't really, well,
hungry.
Leif (04:01):
So, of course, the title is based on the Age
of Innocence.
Steve (04:05):
Yeah, I've never. I've never seen it. Good
book.
Leif (04:09):
Good movie.
Steve (04:09):
I've never read it either.
Leif (04:11):
Interesting line that, Ms. Carr decides to quote at the
end. I didn't really see how it made sense for
their relationship, but, yeah, I.
Steve (04:18):
Think we'll get to that. Yeah. Needed to pull
something out.
Leif (04:23):
Episode was written by Jessica
Queller. She has previous written the
Serena Also Rises Bonfire, the
Vanity, Blair Waldorf Must Buy,
Roman Holiday and the Handmaiden's Tale.
Steve (04:36):
Yeah, they brought, both her.
And as we'll get to in a second, Norman Buckley.
Leif (04:42):
Clearly.
Steve (04:42):
I really felt like they were like, we need to clean up
the mess.
Leif (04:46):
Yeah.
Steve (04:47):
Of that was left behind from last week. They
brought in big hitters and, that. That I really
felt did a decent
job salvaging what they were given.
Leif (04:57):
Yes. And as you said, directed by Norman
Buckley, who previously did work with.
With her on Handmaiden's Tale, but also did A Thin Line
between Chuck and Nate and Much Ado About Nothing
and New Haven Can Wait.
Steve (05:11):
And. And Norman Buckley is also such a
pro.
Leif (05:15):
Yeah.
Steve (05:15):
With these teen dramas to begin with. I mean, he's
worked. I know he was on. Worked on Pretty Little Liars.
He worked on something before this.
Leif (05:24):
He's worked on pretty much every Josh Works show.
Steve (05:26):
Yeah. I was going to say. Oh, yeah. Because it was the O.C. when
we were watching the O.C. we saw his name come up there.
Leif (05:32):
It's always a big episode, too.
Steve (05:33):
yeah. Yeah. Norman Buckley is a very
competent teen drama
director.
Leif (05:39):
Yeah, sure.
Steve (05:41):
Accomplished is the word.
Leif (05:43):
Why don't you go, ahead and read Us. That vulture. Recap?
Steve (05:45):
Sure thing. Like a crocus
poking out of the late winter snow,
last night's new episode of Gossip Girl was a
welcome arrival to the cold and barren
television landscape. As its
petals slowly unfolded, it stirred
the life that has lain dormant inside our
souls since the show went on unexpected
(06:08):
hiatus in February and gave
us a glimpse of colorful spring
ahead. And how colorful it was. Last
night's plot, The Constance Billard St.
Jude Performance of the Age of Innocence,
required with required everyone
be dressed in ridiculous costumes.
(06:28):
Everyone except Jenny, Chuck, and Vanessa,
who were not in the play, but who, let's face
it, always wear ridiculous costumes.
Blair was tragic and noble in black,
while Serena was luminous and white.
Her creamy breasts nestled like eggs in the
feathered Easter egg Easter basket of
her dress. I did not write this. Nelly
(06:51):
Yuki was forced to wear a fat suit to play
Mrs. Manson Mingott. And when Blair
spat at her. My problem is a two faced, four
eyed, devious little snipe in a fat suit.
It was like the first balmy spring
breeze blew across our faces,
but it didn't last. Gossip Girl's
(07:12):
plot, like the weather, is unpredictable.
And while one moment we are basking the sun,
we were soon boiling hot.
Then the weather changed again.
The sweat congealed on our forehead, and suddenly
we were freezing in our unseasonable clothes,
holding desperately to our arms and trying
(07:33):
to keep warm.
Leif (07:35):
That says a lot.
Steve (07:36):
It does.
Leif (07:37):
Well, let's see what else we can add to it.
Steve (07:39):
Yeah, that really mirrors
a lot of how I felt about it.
Leif (07:44):
So let's get into Act 1.
We open with a Gossip Girl monologue.
On the Upper east side, all the world's a stage,
and the men and women merely players. But once
a year, constant St. Jude students shed their
usual roles and take on new ones for the senior
class play. This year's pick, the Age of
(08:05):
Innocence. Before Gossip Girl, there was Edith
Wharton and how little has changed.
The same society snobs still reign
only in corsets and horse drawn carriages.
Steve (08:17):
Yeah, I thought it was an interesting choice for
a high school play. I don't know a whole lot about
it. but what I do know, I always
thought it was a more adult
themed. I thought it was more adult
themed. I don't mean that sexually. I mean
that as in. And who would be in a.
Leif (08:37):
Definitely. There's definitely a lot of passion and
subtext, but it's all subtext. Yeah.
Steve (08:43):
Yeah. And I guess that's what I. What I mean is that it?
That. And they even Allude that to that
in the. In the episode that it is the
subtext that the passion is in what isn't
happening.
Leif (08:55):
Isn't that, like, almost every Shakespeare play?
Steve (08:58):
I mean, it is, but in Shakespeare,
I feel like you often get the release, too,
you know? and theater kids all want to
do Shakespeare, right? Not that any of
these are actual theater kids, because it's just. No, you all
have to be in a play unless you're diagnosed with
stage fright. Yeah.
Leif (09:18):
The students are prepping for a play. More
bro time. As Nate is complaining to Dan about having
to do a play. Chuck got his doctor to diagnose
him with a case of acute stage fright.
Steve (09:30):
Yeah, I found that to be really funny. I thought it was
a great Chuck thing to
do.
Leif (09:36):
At least they're trying to explain why he's not connected to anyone
else here.
Steve (09:40):
Yeah. I also feel like
they've, in the past few episodes, really been
giving Chase Crawford the direction of
smiling more. And I get, it's
probably very character driven that
he's on the upswing. His
family's financial problems are taken care
of. His dad has done the right thing. He has
(10:02):
a girlfriend. So I
feel, like it's a good character
thing. I feel like he's smiling all
the time now, and I like seeing Nate
happy.
Leif (10:14):
I'm sure that'll last so long.
Ha. Jesus Christ.
Steve (10:20):
Even if it's with Vanessa,
Blair, per.
Leif (10:24):
Usual, is not so subtly insulting Serena with
nice sounding words. Serena is attempting her own
age inappropriate fling to get even with Dan.
Steve (10:32):
Yeah, great. Serena has a
crush, so what is she going to
inappropriately eat and or lick
by the end of this episode?
Leif (10:45):
And I love Dorota to see. She's, like, holding the
player's extensions up to her own ears and also looking
in the mirror.
Steve (10:51):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Leif (10:54):
Serena and Blair's banter is interrupted by a
celebration from Nelly, who just got early
acceptance to Yale. Blair runs off to
find Queller.
Steve (11:04):
Yeah, that was
neat. I kind of liked this whole
celebration because once it happened,
they were just like, yeah,
sorry, B. Yeah, a lot.
Leif (11:16):
Of people, like, they were totally agree with Nelly
when she said, a lot of people want to take you down.
Steve (11:21):
Yeah. Yeah.
Leif (11:24):
Serena's new crush Julian is berating both
Humphrey siblings out in the auditorium. And Dan
sees Ms. Carr enter at the theater and is
distracted as the other teachers are seen gossiping
about her.
Steve (11:36):
why are they gossiping about you?
Oh, because of the really inappropriate thing you were
accused of doing, and then you got your job back,
idiot. Why Are you in that
rehearsal? Why did you walk in? Are you
directing the play? Do you have anything to do with the play? Or are you
just going into the place near the one
exact person that you have been instructed to stay the
(11:59):
fuck away from?
Leif (12:01):
Vanessa is, of course, forcing her way into another
Constance event by filming a documentary about
Constance hiring a hot Broadway director for the
school play.
Steve (12:11):
It's really funny because I actually sat there
thinking, well, they found a way to shoehorn
Vanessa into this one. How
can we force her in? Oh, we're going to make a
documentary about this play that we're doing
at the school.
Leif (12:27):
Sure. Well, no, she's gonna do the.
Steve (12:30):
Right.
Leif (12:30):
Yeah, she's gonna show up.
Steve (12:33):
Well, they. She did say she got permission to do it
from the director because the
director is so full of himself.
Leif (12:43):
Chuck enters a busy restaurant and is greeted by a
former associate of his father's. However, the
real meat of the scene is Carter
Basin having lunch with the mysterious L from last
week. Carter and Chuck trade jives while Al
sneaks out through the kitchen. We all see
the same business associate from earlier get up
and leave at the same time.
Steve (13:04):
I like the Carter shake Up.
It's not the Michelle Trachtenberg
shakeup. It's. Remind me his name.
Who plays Carter? Sebastian. Stan
Sebastian. Stan is a
pro. Yeah. When he comes
in and he does this shake up, it's always.
He's a piece of shit. And you always kind of see him, even
(13:27):
though the one time he really wasn't, he just got punched in the
face for not being a piece of shit.
But, like, you know, he's a piece of shit.
And yet it's a
fun shake up. Whereas I think to
the. To the Michelle Trachtenberg shake Up and
the Aaron shake up, where they just weren't
good shakeups, you know,
(13:50):
Car's the.
Leif (13:51):
Character that Chuck should have been.
Steve (13:53):
Yeah.
Leif (13:54):
he's Chuck without the whole rapey vibe.
Steve (13:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. That is so. That is
so accurate.
Leif (14:03):
Dan continues to be distracted, but asks
Jenny to deliver a note to Ms. Carr because he feels
bad about how the other teachers are treating her.
Steve (14:12):
Dan, you fucking
idiot.
Leif (14:16):
He just doesn't care. He's.
Steve (14:17):
He's.
Leif (14:18):
Yeah.
Steve (14:18):
And he's just so dumb. Like, he's such
a teenage boy, which I get. There's
so much of it that I would probably be acting
the same way. But I'm, as an adult watching this.
It's. You're an idiot. And I also.
I do love that Jenny
is like, all right, I'll help you. That she's
(14:39):
reluctant but she'll also. She's always
there for her big brother and
it's one of those character things that I really love about
Jenny and when she gets
torn with you know, she tries to
cover before Rufus can get a hold of
it.
Leif (14:56):
Which why is he like he doesn't know whose
note that is? Why is he just going into the note?
Steve (15:02):
I mean it's Rufus, It's
Rufus doing. There is a. There is
a metal object. There is a metal key shaped
object in it which I think is a little. Would. Could be a
little sus.
Leif (15:13):
It wasn't in there though because Jenny hands him the key.
We'll get to that.
Steve (15:17):
Yeah, yeah.
Leif (15:19):
So Jenny delivers The notes to Ms. Carr who gives a response with
a key back to Jenny, which she does initially
in that scene. They put it in. But yeah, so that's a
just like another thing scene where we can see the note going back and
forth. Blair finds Queller who
explains that the anonymous tipster gave Yale the reason for
Blair's previous detention. And Yale
subsequently rescinded Blair's
(15:41):
acceptance.
Steve (15:42):
My first thought was that it could
be Harold that made that call. That when
Harold, because of his disappointment and what he saw and
that that he wanted to basically send the message to
Blair of being a good person is more
important than impressing me. So my first thought
was how did Harold do this?
Leif (16:02):
Yeah, I would have never gone there. We
know Harold's that could, that could have a person you.
Steve (16:08):
I. And I also.
Leif (16:09):
He's a nice guy, but he's not. I mean
he basically lied to his wife for 20 years
and then cheated on her and then left her.
Steve (16:18):
Yeah. There's definitely. Yes, you are.
You are correct that Harold is not a
beacon of morality.
Leif (16:25):
So yeah, my, my head never all that there. But Interesting thought.
Steve (16:28):
Yeah. Well and I think it's a matter of. Although
he is. He has shown these bad things. He does
love his daughter. There's no doubt that he. Well but he also like
fucking moved to another country and was like Deuces,
like I love you Deuces.
Leif (16:41):
I. Yeah, I.
Steve (16:43):
When my ex wife and I first
split, I had friends that flew me out to California and one
of my friends said, you know, if you didn't have kids
you'd be right back here. And I was like I can't. What
if my kids out of this scenario?
The thought never occurred to me to
move across the country from my kids, let
(17:03):
alone across an ocean.
I could not fathom being
that Far away from my kids because
I chose to. If my kids decided
to move to Europe, then I will
support them. But I couldn't
be that far away.
Leif (17:22):
And that's why, my head never went to
Harold. Just like Blair, I immediately went to
Nelly. We end the act with a
little Gossip Girl narration.
Every actress eventually finds the hook into her
character, even if sometimes life has to give her a little
push. But don't worry, Bea. When God
(17:42):
closes the door, he opens a play.
Steve (17:46):
I like that.
Leif (17:47):
We move into Act 2. Chuck
arrives home to find Elle waiting for him. She
tells him she needs his help.
Steve (17:55):
Okay,
next.
Leif (18:00):
Yeah, not. Not much going on there.
At rehearsal, Rufus bumps into Jenny, and
she drops a note from his car to Dan. Rufus picks
up the note and immediately snoops. Looks like
a different Humphrey is about to show up to dan's
rendezvous with Ms. Carr.
Steve (18:16):
Now, if I'm correct, when
they bump and they drop the note, I think
you can hear the key.
Leif (18:23):
Yeah, he fried fall. Yeah.
Steve (18:25):
And so I'm wondering if it was
a mess up on their part
that the key wasn't supposed to fall out in the first place. And
when it did, and they gathered the letter, Jenny was
like, And Jenny was the one who got it.
Leif (18:39):
They would reshoot that.
Steve (18:41):
You would think. But it
just. It was an awkward exchange,
but at the same time, I was glad he found the letter.
Like, I was like, yeah, get her, Rufus.
Leif (18:54):
Any chance Rufus just decides to stay and has sex
with Ms. Carr?
Steve (19:00):
My son is too young for you. But
me,
sir, I'm too young for you. Didn't my
dad have your poster on his wall?
Leif (19:14):
They talk about, ver is, like, 27.
Steve (19:18):
He had Dan at 12.
Leif (19:22):
Blair bursts into the dress room in an attempt to bully
Nelly Yuki. But Nelly points out that there are
about a thousand people that would love to take Blair down.
The argument is interrupted by a Gossip Girl finally
outing Marcus's affair with his stepmother.
Looks like Blair has a new V for
vendetta.
Steve (19:40):
Yeah, I loved Nelly here. I
loved Nelly's takedown of
Blair. I also.
Then Penelope chimes in, and
you're. You're just struck by the fact that
Blair really has lost control
of the menu.
Leif (19:58):
Yeah. Serena is trying to flirt with
Julian, who is ignoring her. Serena uses
Vanessa's documentary as an excuse for the three of them to
grab lunch together.
Steve (20:09):
Serena had nothing to lick
nearby.
Leif (20:12):
That's because she understood.
Steve (20:14):
Yeah. Yeah, she. She
can't flirt this way. She can't flirt out in the open.
Someone give her some strawberries.
Leif (20:23):
Blair comes up to the pair, guns blazing. But
Serena and Vanessa both laugh it off.
Blair is really unraveling here.
Steve (20:32):
I liked V. I liked Vanessa
in, in a lot of this episode. I thought
Vanessa was pretty good and I really.
Leif (20:40):
I don't have time for this.
Steve (20:41):
Yeah, I loved how she was. Yeah, she was just
like. No, just walked away.
Just took her shot and walked
away. I loved it. She did. She
did well.
Leif (20:53):
At the Vander Woodson penthouse, Elle is explaining her
situation to Chuck Savior, a woman
everywhere.
Steve (21:02):
Chuck.
Leif (21:03):
Chuck promises to get her a new identity so she can escape
to the powerful men from parts club.
Steve (21:08):
Chuck, you are a multi
billionaire. You have had contacts
for all kinds of shit throughout this entire
show. And now you only know one
guy that you
hate
and don't trust at
all.
Leif (21:28):
Remember a couple episodes where he. He was ready to just crash the
bass plane. You have a fly with private
chat, Chuck.
Steve (21:35):
Yeah. Yeah.
Leif (21:37):
You don't ask for it.
Steve (21:38):
Yeah, you can
disappear her anywhere you want.
Leif (21:45):
It looks like Nate got roped into lunch with. With
Serena, Vanessa and Julian. However, Nate and
Serena look on in annoyance at it looks the
only. Because it looks like the only ones connecting are Vanessa and
Julian. Vanessa is desperately trying to help
Serena get this older douchebag to notice her.
And Serena comes up with a plan for Vanessa to play
Serena to her and get said
(22:08):
douchebag a lot of things.
Steve (22:10):
Again, I'm going to. I'm going to be very kind to
Vanessa this episode. The fact that Vanessa
from the get is like, why are you into this
guy? This guy is full of himself.
Because Vanessa doesn't have
the time of day
for rich assholes to begin
with and pretentious people. Even though she's
(22:32):
pretty pretentious, she doesn't really
like.
Leif (22:35):
She even says later, he's annoying. I know because
basically I am.
Steve (22:39):
Yeah, yeah. She says that. And
when Nate gets up and leaves
and then shortly after,
Julian is like, yeah, I'm done here too. That's
when I was like, is he into Nate?
That would make sense. But
also why. Why
(23:00):
is Serena into this guy?
Leif (23:02):
Like she's just trying to get even with Dan.
Yeah, that's like the only explanation.
Steve (23:07):
Yeah. Yeah.
Leif (23:08):
In Brooklyn, Dan is asking Jenny about Ms.
Carr. Jenny admits Rufus intercepted the note.
Steve (23:14):
Yeah, I love Jenny's whole thing
here, which is like, Yeah. Uh-huh.
Leif (23:20):
About that.
Steve (23:21):
Yeah, dad. Dad has it.
I love, love, love when. When Taylor
Mumpson does the little sister. Shit. She's
so good. Is she an only
child? I think we. She is Right. Didn't we discuss
that at some point?
Leif (23:38):
Possible.
Steve (23:39):
I don't know for sure, but she does the little sister shit
so. Well.
Leif (23:43):
Ms. Carr is prepping for a
romantic rendezvous when Rufus comes in
and hands her the key.
Steve (23:50):
Yeah. You gave his kid a
key, and you're lucky that all he did
was come in and give it back. What are you.
Leif (23:59):
What? I don't get what the whole point of the key is. Isn't she gonna be
there?
Steve (24:02):
Yeah. Yeah.
Why do.
Why do you even need a key?
Leif (24:05):
And who carries a spare key around with them, too?
Steve (24:07):
Yeah. To give to high
schoolers.
Leif (24:11):
To give anyone.
Steve (24:12):
Yeah. Why do you have keys to your own
house on you right now?
Leif (24:17):
And why do you need to give him a key? To meet you there at
the place.
Steve (24:20):
Where you already are. Where you already have a key to.
Leif (24:23):
Unless there was more to that nose. Like, I'm going to show up tied
to my bed naked.
Steve (24:27):
Yeah.
Leif (24:28):
Just come right in.
Steve (24:29):
Yeah.
Leif (24:30):
Maybe not kink
shaving, but yeah.
Steve (24:34):
but even then. Even then, she was
lighting candles, so, like, she was clearly getting ready
for dinner first. And that's the other
thing. I could not imagine
being a dad, walking in there and seeing
the person, seeing this predator lighting
fucking candles, waiting for my
kid to show up. Just the fact that he
(24:57):
just gave you the key and left. I don't
know how he doesn't torture. I don't know how
he doesn't at least
immediately call the school
and be like, get. Get her gone
before she bangs my son on school property.
Leif (25:17):
Poor Miss Iowa. Caught playing Mrs.
Robinson. Looks like the teacher just got
schooled. Cuckoo Kaju,
back from commercial. Dan is being pissy of because
his dad fucked up his booty call. Ms. Carr should
obviously be fired for actions, but I'm confused on why Dan
would be expelled or punished at all for this.
(25:38):
Yeah, Dan, if that school
expelled him, every lawyer in New York would be banging
on their door.
Steve (25:44):
Yeah. Yeah. They would be moving to the Upper east
side.
Leif (25:48):
They would own the school.
Steve (25:50):
Yes.
They would have the Humphrey wing.
Imagine Blair having to sit in
the Humphrey auditorium.
But, Dan, you're an idiot.
Leif (26:05):
Spell your kid. Because his teacher.
Teacher at our school.
Steve (26:09):
Yeah. Seduced him.
What? Made the first move on
him, then gave him a key.
So, yeah.
Leif (26:22):
Julian is at Serena's penthouse helping her
rehearse as usual, being quite
pompous. However, it looks like Serena's
Serena idea is working. That is, until Nate
catches Vanessa talking on the phone. He
thinks directly to Julian. The date ends as
another Gossip Girl blast. Adding the real reason why
Serena got accepted to Yale. Not to be
(26:43):
mean, but did anyone actually think Serena got into
Yale based on her grades?
Steve (26:48):
Yeah. And I. I've gotten the impression
Serena gets good grades
now, but she didn't.
They.
They've said earlier that she has.
She was not a good student before this year, and.
Leif (27:02):
Yeah. So her GPA can't be that
great.
Steve (27:05):
Yeah. And no extracurriculars other than this
play.
Leif (27:09):
She played field hockey that one day.
Steve (27:11):
Oh, yeah, but that. I thought that was P.E.
Leif (27:13):
maybe. Next we find Chuck
handling L off to handing L off to
Carter, who, as we know, is an expert at crossing
borders. However, as the Lima pulls away,
Carter reveals the wrist tattoo showing that he is part of
Bart's club.
Steve (27:29):
Yeah, Chuck, you're an idiot. Like you. You don't trust
this guy to begin with. And I
did. There is the part of me that was like. That was pretty
fun. Like, I did kind of like that,
but I also was like, chuck, you're an idiot.
Leif (27:42):
And Carter was clearly just fucking with Chuck because they were just
taking her to sign an NUA and hold her hand. Her case of money.
It's like, yeah, he totally
made it seem way worse than it was.
Steve (27:53):
Yes.
Leif (27:53):
With that move.
Steve (27:55):
I also love that Carter is in the club that Chuck
wants to get into.
Leif (28:01):
Dorota is coaching Blair to use her real
life pain to fuel her acting on stage.
However, they are interrupted when a pissed off Serena enters
the dressing room and accuses Blair of sending the tip about
Serena and Yale. Blair's new target
is Dan.
Steve (28:17):
I loved Dorota giving the acting
advice to Blair, and it
shows this more rounded
character of Dorota that you
only see her as this live in
maid to this brat all the
time, but she has her own
life beyond it. You see that she understands
(28:39):
the theater and things like that. I just.
Leif (28:42):
I love that Dan pulls Ms.
Carr into the costume closet and uses moves from the
play to seduce her. They are now having
sex on school property.
Steve (28:54):
Yeah. I realize
as somebody who did theater all throughout high school,
all throughout college, that the actual costume
shop. Not. Not the costume shop, but the actual
costume closet for one, is a. Is a place
where sex often happens,
but also during a
(29:15):
play is where there. There's not a
lot of traffic during a play because the costumes are already
created and you're not going into the closet or anything,
but there's traffic still
to
risk having sex
on school property in the.
(29:35):
In the vicinity of where
everybody is,
all of the seniors, all of
the teachers who have come for the play, your
Boss, who told you to stay away from this person?
The dad who just told you to stay away from
this person, for fuck's sake. And
Dan using the fucking blocking from the
(29:58):
play. Like
with the oh shit, this is working look on his
face. Yeah, that was
good.
Leif (30:07):
Moving into Act 3, opening night is here.
We get a scene showing the very students doing some last minute
rehearsing. V asks us about why she
hung up earlier. Blair gives Dan a
dirty look.
Steve (30:20):
I really liked this scene despite not having a
lot to say about it. I liked the pre show
chaos and everything that was
happening.
Leif (30:30):
Chuck is meeting with his father's friend from earlier,
trying to gain access to the club. However,
Mr. Campbell completely shuts it down and plays dumb about
the whole thing. As the man leaves, Chuck gets
a text with a meeting spot for later tonight.
Steve (30:44):
Is this where he says, I care about
this person? I think it is. Which is
funny because he's talked to her like three times and most
of the conversations are leave me alone or give me
money. I care about
her.
Leif (31:00):
Backstage, Julian is giving additional, perhaps
unwanted advice to his actors during their first act
break.
Steve (31:07):
Every douchebag theater person.
I just, I've
worked with that, before and it
just, it just rang.
Leif (31:17):
So true in, the audience. Queller
is thanking Julian's critic friend, Christopher
Isherwood for attending. If you didn't guess that person
is actually playing themselves as Chris
is a real person and a well known theater
critic.
Steve (31:32):
I didn't know at this point, I didn't
know the name, but as soon as
he was on m stage I was like, oh, that's a real
person. This is a cameo.
Yeah, he's got them cameo
chops. Those cameo acting
chops.
Leif (31:51):
Vanessa is confused as to why Nate is being
cold to her. Julian is mocking Nate
and laughing at his own jokes. Does Julian
not read the newspaper?
Steve (32:02):
Yeah, I, I thought about that too. Of
how do you not know that this kid
has literally lost everything
and you're berating him and like, not that you would ever know what
it's like to lose anything. you
idiot.
Leif (32:18):
Dan and Blair are doing a remarkable job of
carrying on two conversations without the audience
noticing. Much to everyone's surprise,
Blair pins Dan down into the carriage and mounts
on top of him and then berates him.
However, from behind, it looks like they are sharing a rather
passionate makeout session. It looks like Dan
might know the real culprit behind the recent
(32:40):
string of Gossip Girl blast.
Steve (32:43):
There's some chemistry here.
Leif (32:45):
I thought so.
Steve (32:47):
I, I said that Robin was like,
no, but
I Caught something from Blair
and Dan there.
Leif (32:57):
Their comedic chemistry, if anything, is
stellar.
Steve (33:01):
Yes.
Leif (33:02):
They bounce off each other so well.
Steve (33:04):
They always do. But that whole
scene seemed a little intimate
almost.
Leif (33:10):
Yeah.
Steve (33:10):
And I mean, I know it's supposed to be like a make out scene
from the audience's perspective, but
I felt like there was a little bit of something there.
Leif (33:19):
I don't disagree. Maybe it's just, we
know Leighton Meester's taste in men.
Steve (33:24):
Yeah.
Leif (33:25):
And I. Dan does look a lot like her
eventual husband.
Steve (33:29):
Oh, yeah. She's married to Adam Brody,
right? Yeah. Seth
Cohen. She's got a type.
It's the Josh Ford stand in.
Let's keep her away from Benjamin Levi.
Leif (33:46):
The play continues, and the students stumble over their
lines. And Nate explodes in rage because he thinks
Julian is after Vanessa. Blair and
Serena and Nelly use this as an excuse to go off
script as well. Poor Dan tries to
awkwardly keep playing it straight.
Steve (34:02):
This is why you never force kids
to do theater. Theater is fun
for people that really enjoy it. I
understand having classes where you
do scene work
in an English class and understanding
theater and understanding those sorts of things, but
forcing kids into a play is
(34:24):
a really bad idea
because anyone that hates it is
ready to just blow the whole thing up at any given time.
Leif (34:32):
So right before Nate comes out on stage, there's like a
quick little scene with him and Jenny.
Steve (34:38):
Yes.
Leif (34:38):
And Jenny, like, has a little throwaway line
about, you know, basically gotten Nate's head about
Vanessa and the director. I, wonder if there's another deleted
scene somewhere of Jenny seeing Nate
being jealous about.
Steve (34:52):
Oh, and pushing that a little bit,
because I felt like Jenny was kind of
downplaying it.
Leif (34:59):
Yeah. It came off as like a throwaway line. But that
could have just been Jenny acting.
Steve (35:04):
Yeah. Yeah.
Leif (35:06):
And then.
Steve (35:06):
Yeah.
Leif (35:07):
But who knows?
Steve (35:08):
Because I actually liked that they were friendly,
you know, I. I. Because I, feel like the last
time the two of them really talked was
the dance. The dance. Right. I know
Vanessa and Jenny have talked since then, but I don't know if Nate
has.
Leif (35:23):
Shakespeare says, all is well that ends
well. And sometimes it just ends.
After the commercial, everyone is backstage and Julian
is berating the cast. However, the critic says he loves
the show, and Julian attempts to roll with the punches
and take credit. This finally allows Serena to
see who Julian really is.
Steve (35:45):
This is, for one, this is when I was like, oh, that's a
cameo. But
yeah, Serena, this director being
such a. Such an asshole the whole time. That
was really funny, the taking credit. Like.
It was.
Yeah, it was Dumb, but in a fun
kind of way.
Leif (36:06):
Nate finally learns about Vanessa playing Serena,
but it still appears this relationship might not last
much longer.
Steve (36:13):
What's, ah, really bugging you, Nate? Let's talk
about it. Because, which he does. I
mean, he does say they have nothing in common. Yeah, we have
nothing in common. And
it's funny to me because Robin and
I, as you know, Robin and I have very little
in common, traditionally speaking.
(36:33):
And we really like that. We really like
that we have that. There's Steve's world
and Robin's world and then our world, you know,
that I go out and play D and D,
and she watches garbage reality
TV shows or goes to fun restaurants with
friends that then she tells me about and takes me to
later there, we. We have our own stuff
(36:56):
that we do separately, and then we have our stuff that we do together.
And I find that that's why
we work so well.
Leif (37:03):
It's harder in high school, though.
Steve (37:05):
It is in high school. You just always. And back.
You know, you just want to be around each other all the time and want to just
do everything together.
Leif (37:12):
Yeah. Chuck finds L
leaving the hotel. Who admits you just using
Chuck for his money. It's been a couple episodes since we
got in a poor Chuck moment, but this one definitely
stings a bit.
Steve (37:24):
You don't know this woman.
Leif (37:26):
Chuck the hooker was using you for
money.
Steve (37:29):
what?
And he not only falls for it, but
then is still reeling over it.
Leif (37:38):
Yeah, definitely overacted a little bit there.
Steve (37:40):
Yeah, I did find it cute. Give your heart to
someone. You know, you have a good heart. Give it to
someone.
Leif (37:48):
There's just so many different stories they could have done with.
Chuck just moved back into lilies. What about a story with him and
Eric?
Steve (37:54):
Yeah, yeah.
Leif (37:56):
They go off on a little adventure while everyone else doing the
play.
Steve (37:59):
Yeah, this entire
new secret cult. Did we ever get a name for this one?
Leif (38:05):
No, I'm just calling it Barts Club.
Steve (38:06):
Barts Club. Yeah, because the other two were
actual, like, secret societies. They were
actual known secret societies, but I guess
the prostitute secret society, they
don't really advertise.
Leif (38:21):
Dan confronts Ms. Carr, who gives her a much
deserved verbal smackdown for acting exactly like
Blair. The coup de grace is Dan telling
Blair that he and Ms. Carr just had sex in the
costume closet.
Steve (38:34):
Yeah. I love that you see Dan
in real time, realize that
Rachel is just as catty as Blair
is. And that line walking
away. Oh, and we had sex in the costume
closet. So do with that, which you will. That's
yours.
Leif (38:51):
Now, as Weird
as I'm much more bothered by
Ms. Carr's relationship with Serena and Blair than the one
with Dan. She wasn't his teacher. He's
18. This relationship with Blair and
Serena was much weirder.
Steve (39:08):
I. All of it
is.
Leif (39:11):
I mean, the whole thing with that is not great, but
whatever. It happened.
Steve (39:16):
Fireable.
Leif (39:17):
Yeah, definitely fireable, for sure. But
the ones with the. It was the balance.
Predatory. I wouldn't really say it's predatory.
Steve (39:25):
I agree. Even though I've called her a predator and I've
said the relationship with flair.
Leif (39:31):
And Serena was just wrong from the.
Steve (39:33):
Start, and she had no
boundaries. Yeah. And that was the thing. As this teacher.
She never had any boundaries
with anybody.
Leif (39:43):
Ah. At all.
Blair's look and lie to Ms. Carr
absolutely slays. However, Dan's
behemoth has clearly already broken Ms.
Carr, and Blair, in a moment of relative
empathy, declares Ms. Carr's punishment is to live
with the consequences of her own actions.
Steve (40:02):
Yeah. You see, Blair realizing
that what Serena said really
rattled her, that betrayal is in her
nature. And when she
sees this sort of reflection of herself
that she created because
Rachel didn't come into this
(40:23):
ready to fight, she started getting
attacked and went and went on the
offense. She was wrong about all of
it. But I think Blair saw that
reflection of what she had
caused as well, and it really gave
her that moment to pause.
And I thought that was really good of Blair. I thought she
(40:44):
was really cold but
strong.
Leif (40:48):
And Blair's line, by the way, was student sex in
the costume closet. Is that what they mean by heartland
values?
Steve (40:54):
Yeah.
Leif (40:57):
We move into the epilogue. Dan,
being a good guy, admits to Serena that he is indirectly
responsible for the Gossip Girl blast. And Serena leaves
to apologize to Blair.
Steve (41:07):
Yeah, and that was sweet. That was a cute
little bang.
Leif (41:11):
Yeah. He had no. There's no real reason for him to admit
that. I mean, he could. He could have just got away with it.
Steve (41:16):
Yeah.
Leif (41:17):
No one would have known.
Steve (41:18):
but. But Dan always seems to want to
make things right. With Serena especially. He always wants to make things
right, but especially with Serena.
Although Serena at this
point doesn't know that he's slept with
Ms. Carr. In fact, she doesn't
know that there's been anything beyond them.
Leif (41:38):
Having that one picture be interesting who Blair actually
tells.
Steve (41:41):
Yeah, if anyone.
Leif (41:44):
Vanessa shows up at Nate's house to apologize for
earlier. However, Nate is finally watching the Age of
Innocence and actually loves it. Perhaps rumors
of Natesa's imminent demise were somewhat
exaggerated.
Steve (41:55):
Yeah, I liked this. You, know, I.
I liked Nate being happy With Vanessa again at
the end. I also found it to be the most
mature relationship. This is,
I believe, the longest
running relationship without
a huge problem
(42:16):
so far. That, you know, Dan and
Serena from the start were always
one or two episodes, and then something would get in the way. One or
two episodes, something gets in the way.
Leif (42:26):
They would have miscommunication similar to this for the first
season. They were together basically from
episode four through
almost the end of the season.
Steve (42:36):
Were they okay?
Leif (42:37):
Yeah. it's just this season where they get together for like two episodes and they break
up.
Steve (42:40):
Yeah. Yeah. So the. So I guess this is. This is
more the longest of the. Of the season. Yeah, this
is probably the longest running relationship of the
season without a
breakup, without a shake up, without
parents fucking.
Leif (42:56):
Rufus and Dan actually have a nice quick scene.
Dan admits that Rufus is right, but that he needs space to
make his own mistakes.
Steve (43:04):
He's right. Yeah. that's a real big
thing about parenting is that you have to let your
kids grow up and make mistakes. And if
you shelter them from them, it's.
They're not going to know how to handle mistakes when they're.
When they do make them, when you're not there to prevent
it.
Leif (43:23):
Serena finds Blair drinking alone at the bar.
Serena apologizes for not believing Blair, but
Blair admits Serena was justified for not
trusting her. Gossip Girl narrates. And
life as an art. Some endings are
bittersweet.
Steve (43:38):
We see this core friendship
again, and the, you're still my best friend,
you know. Love that, Serena. But you.
We've talked before about this being the core
friendship of the show. And I like that
Serena made. Tried to make things
right. Yeah, I feel like made things right.
Leif (43:57):
But, yeah, Polaris just wants to be alone.
Steve (43:59):
Yeah. Which I get. She's pretty mad
at herself.
Leif (44:03):
Next we see Dan sitting on his bed, and Jenny delivers a
final Goodbye note from Ms. Carr. Gossip
Girl continues. Sometimes fate throws two
lovers together only to rip them apart.
Steve (44:14):
Boom. Go. Get out of here.
Leif (44:17):
And yeah, they do show. The note says,
dan, I'm going back to Iowa, as you must have
known. I'm sorry for everything. As
Edith Wharton wrote, there is no one as kind as
you. No one who gave me reasons I understand for doing
what at first seemed so hard.
Steve (44:33):
Thank you, R. what at first seemed so hard? You
know, not banging my student.
It was really tough. But then I got over it by banging
my student and crossing other
inappropriate lines
and, you know, jeopardizing the future of
a student.
Leif (44:52):
The scene shifts. Chuck is let into the
Waldorf foyer by Dorota, who informs him
Ms. Blair is out. Chuck declares he is m
ready to wait. Gossip Girl states,
sometimes the hero finally makes the right choice,
but the timing is all wrong. And as they
say, timing is everything.
Steve (45:12):
Hero, though. Are we calling Chuck a
hero?
Leif (45:16):
He's the savior of all women that.
Steve (45:18):
He doesn't sexually assault.
Leif (45:21):
He say, lily, you try. He say, at least try
to save Elle, you know?
Steve (45:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
How about Jenny? How about Jenny
who we'll get?
Oh, she's from the, she's a, she's from the Upper east side.
She's poor.
Leif (45:39):
It's crazy. Like how like
central to the show she was at the beginning of the
season and how little she has been
in these last few episodes.
Steve (45:49):
Yeah, yeah.
Leif (45:50):
Finally Carter has shown up in the same Blair
where Blair is wallowing. His flirtations
are not rebuffed. And Gossip Girl closes the
episode. Looks like this story might have a
second act. Let's hope it's not a
tragedy. Xo. Xo
Gossip Girl.
Steve (46:08):
Yeah, Carter's moving in on, Queen B.
Leif (46:11):
And they are dating at this time.
Steve (46:13):
Oh, are they?
Leif (46:14):
Yeah.
Steve (46:15):
Yes. Because as I've talked before, my.
After they break up, he gets fired
and break. They break up around the
same time because my
friend's late wife saw
this man crying in a coffee shop and. Or,
asked if he was okay and it was Sebastian.
Stan.
Leif (46:36):
So predictions for next week.
Steve (46:38):
Something's going to happen with Carter and Blair.
I'm. I'm pretty sure I'm very
curious as to what Blair does with the information about
Dan and Rachel because Dan didn't
hide it. And Dan told Blair, the person
who's the most likely to tell anybody, that it'll give
her an advantage. So he knew what he was doing when he told
(46:59):
her. So I'm not seeing any kind of
Dan Serena thing. So I'm. And I'll
be honest, I'm waiting.
I'm waiting for Michelle Trachtenberg to show up. I don't know
if she will this season, but I, think it's the
PTSD from last season that when we get into a late
season now, I'm.
Leif (47:17):
Kind of expecting episodes. Yes. Like six episodes.
Steve (47:20):
Yeah, we have like six episodes left. She had what, three
episode arc last time? Three and a half. Because she
was not in the one
that she was introduced.
Leif (47:30):
So we got seven episodes left.
Steve (47:32):
Yeah, yeah. Because episode 19.
Yeah, this was 18 and. It goes to 25.
Leif (47:39):
That is it for our episode. We can go
ahead and get into some segments.
This week, we jumped into the Wayback Machine to visit the
Television without pity forums from 2009.
Hello there. Peabody here. And this is
the Wayback Machine for traveling through time. And this
is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman.
Steve (47:59):
Hello.
Leif (48:00):
Good boy. So New Yorkers were
excited to see Park Avenue winter.
Steve (48:05):
Oh, okay.
Leif (48:06):
Do you know what that is?
Steve (48:08):
No.
Leif (48:09):
You sounded like you did.
Steve (48:10):
No, I just. I figured they were excited.
Leif (48:13):
Yeah, a couple of people mentioned it, so I did look it
up. It is a historic Park Avenue restaurant.
it's no longer there anymore. It was there for 22 years. Now
it's currently in Gramercy, Park. But
every autumn, winter, spring, and summer, they
completely changed the decor and the menu.
Steve (48:30):
Oh, that's cool. Neat.
Leif (48:32):
Most people didn't like the episode. Not
a very popular episode.
Steve (48:36):
I felt like this episode was cleaning up the messes
of the last episode more than anything.
Leif (48:42):
A lot of shade was thrown in the actress playing
Ellen. Not. Not the best actress.
Steve (48:47):
Yeah, I. I don't know that she had a ton to
work with, but yeah, I, she
was. I felt like she was on par for
a Gossip Girl extra, but she.
Leif (48:57):
Was like a central character to the play. Sure.
Well, she's supposed to be.
Steve (49:03):
Sure.
Leif (49:04):
Maybe would be better if she was a better actress.
Steve (49:05):
Maybe she. Maybe she would have been if she was a better
actress. Fair.
Leif (49:09):
Maybe we actually cared. I don't think a single
person enjoyed the Chuck storyline. Why
was she suddenly so important to him after one
drug addled night?
Steve (49:20):
I had mentioned a couple times you've spoken to this woman, like
three times. And he's. And he sat there with that one meeting. He's
like, I care about her.
Why I care about people in general. And
I wouldn't want some rando prostitute that I hooked
up with to be murdered by, a gentleman's
culture. But I also don't
understand his whole
(49:41):
obsession.
Leif (49:43):
Yeah.
Steve (49:43):
With her. Although he did say the sex was
really good. Like it was like life changing
before he passed out.
Leif (49:51):
Definitely. we weren't the only ones that noticed Pen and Layton's
chemistry.
Steve (49:55):
Oh, did other people point that out too?
Oh, and I do know that
at some point they. That Pen and
Layton date. I do. They don't.
Leif (50:07):
Nah. that would have been dangerous after Pen and Blake
dated. That been out of his reason.
Steve (50:12):
I always thought that I had heard that the two of
them dated.
Leif (50:16):
Now they just. They've always been friends.
Steve (50:18):
Oh, okay. Maybe that's what it is.
Leif (50:20):
She was the first guest on his podcast.
Steve (50:22):
Or maybe I'm thinking about it being about Carter,
about Sebastian, Stan and.
Leif (50:27):
Then Adam Brody and then Adam Brody and ah,
there's a lot of, Nate and slash Chase love.
Steve (50:33):
Yeah, I love happy Nate.
Leif (50:35):
And they like, they like Chase's acting in this one.
Steve (50:38):
Yeah, yeah. I don't think it stood out, but
I like this.
Leif (50:41):
I like this little dance that he did with the hat.
Steve (50:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think Chase
is fun. I love when he smiles
more. As we've said many times. I
wish they would write him funnier.
Because he has the chops to be really
funny.
Leif (50:59):
Why don't we go ahead and get into some episode
grades?
I really like this episode. I mean, the Chuck storyline
was boring, but it was not, you know, a huge part
of the episode. I think it's good to judge
the episode by the party of the week. And for me the play
was hilarious. The whole play was m great.
(51:20):
So I gave this episode a B plus.
Steve (51:23):
I'm not too far off from you. I gave it a B.
I felt like the aspects that I
didn't like about this show were
things like the parts of the
plot that I had complained about
previously. But ultimately,
like I said before, I felt like this was an episode
to clean up a real mess of an
(51:46):
episode the week before and that they
really did the best they could. They
brought in two of the best.
One of the best team ups that they've had and
really did a great episode. So I gave it a B.
Leif (52:02):
On to stockwise for me. Going up,
I had Nate, he just, doing his
thing all episode and ended happy with
Vanessa. I had Dan going up because he was a good guy
and he was, you know, stick. He was the only one
who kept to his lines during the play. And well, he
did get laid. So I also had Rufus going up because
he was actually a good dad for once.
(52:25):
Nelly I had going up because she got it to Yale. L
going up because she got paid and that's what hookers want to
get. That's what they want to do.
And I had Carter going up because he was screwing over Chuck
all episode and looks like he's going to get.
Steve (52:41):
I had a lot of the same and I'm going to add a couple that you
did as well. I had Nate and Vanessa.
I had Nelly as well. Congratulations
Nelly. I had Julian the
director going up because as much of
a complete fucking asshole he was,
he's going to get this amazing review
from a critic. So this could actually have
(53:04):
been good for his career. I had Carter Going
up as well. I'm going to add Rufus
as well. I'm going to send Dan
into neutral because I had him going down. But then you
made some good points. So I'm going to see. I've got Nate,
Vanessa, Nelly, Julian, Carter,
Rufus.
Leif (53:22):
for me, going down, I have Chuck
Blair, Ms. Carr. Chuck and
Blair obvious. Ms. Car is obvious. And I had Julian
going down because he was just a douchebag. Side, I didn't like him.
Steve (53:34):
That's fair. That's fair. Otherwise, I had the
same Chuck Blair and Rachel and Ms.
Carr all going down.
Leif (53:41):
And I had Serena and Jenny neutral.
Steve (53:44):
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, Serena
largely had a non episode. Same with Jenny
at, the.
Leif (53:50):
At the end of the episode, she didn't get what she realized she didn't want anymore.
Steve (53:53):
Yeah. Yep.
Classic Serena.
Leif (53:57):
Yeah, she's got to go.
Steve (54:00):
But here's the best outfits from the last
episode we see.
Leif (54:08):
Best outfit for me, I had
Blair's black lace, Marchessa gown
from the play. It was paired with a black hat and
some great accent jewelry.
Steve (54:18):
Yep, that's what I had to the
I. Because also at the end when you see it
when she's at the bar and you see almost like the
landscape pattern on the lace
top, that's m. Fucking awesome.
Leif (54:32):
And of course, you know it's a Marchessa gown in their
other school's wardrobe.
Steve (54:37):
Yeah, yeah,
I will say that, of course there is at
the Constance Billard. Like, of
course I will say that it is
not a complete unheard of thing
to find some ridiculous designer
clothes in a costume
shop because I remember we. I forget
(55:00):
which if it was college, it's probably high school that we
found some kind of. I don't even remember who it was because
I didn't give a shit. But they were. But everybody was
like freaking out that they found this
designer suit just in our costume shop. And it's
because people would donate clothes to the
theater or things like that.
Leif (55:19):
So I also. Blair's hair looked great
opposite. And the dress. They're the. Like the
blouse she was wearing at the end was really cool too.
Steve (55:27):
Her makeup too. Her makeup was really great. Which is
kind of funny that the whole thing was about them doing a
play and they didn't have them in stage makeup. They had
them just in normal stuff. Would have been
really a, really funny touch to have them
in stage makeup for it because of how.
How bad high school kids are at
(55:48):
applying stage makeup.
Leif (55:50):
Well, that is it for segments. You have anything you want to
plug.
Steve (55:53):
In January and I'LL have the exact date next
time in January, early January. I will
be featuring at the open
mic at Dawson Street Pub in
Roxboro Maniunk. So come on out, to
the open mic, play some songs and check
out my set. You can also find me
(56:14):
on TikTok or Instagram @
Steve Marchand M A R C
H I O N so follow
my fun stuff on those platforms. And
I'm also on BlueSky at theweedwizard,
so follow me there too.
Leif (56:30):
Later this week I will be on an episode of the Farm to
Fable podcast. It is a Smallville
retrospective fan cast. Similar to our
podcast, Michael is doing a deep dive in the TV
show one episode at a time. My
episode releases on December 19th. It is season
eight, episode seven, titled
Identity. I'll, put a link to the show notes, but Farm
(56:52):
to Fable can be found wherever you listen to podcasts
and you can follow me on bluesky
and Instagram hotcapicola. That's H o
T C A P I C
O L A. You can follow the podcast
at nonjudgingbreakfastpod. That's on
Threads, Instagram, TikTok
(57:13):
and on Facebook. And you can find our, Discord
server and our Patreon by visiting our website,
nonjudgingbreakfastpod.com and if
you'd like to.
Steve (57:22):
Send us a message, we'd love to hear what you have to say and
maybe even read it on the air. Our
email address is
nonjudgingbreakfastpodmail.com
Also while you're listening, please, please, please
hit that like that. Subscribe that
follow the Rate us, please leave
(57:43):
a comment. It really helps with our visibility on
Apple, on the Apple podcasts.
And also while you're at it, tell a friend,
let people know what you're listening to and get other folks to
listen. I'll even say, I hope,
Katie, if you decided to listen, I know
Robin's friend that she was just talking to the
other day is rewatching Gossip Girl.
(58:05):
So I hope that you have come and joined us as
well.
Leif (58:08):
Right in. Let us know, Katie. And we
will be back in the new year to talk about season two,
episode 19, the
Grandfather. The Netflix
episode description reads,
devastated by the recent plot twists in her life,
Blair turns her back on her predictable existence
in favor of a wilder lifestyle.
Steve (58:32):
Oh, this. This will be fun.
Oh, Blair. Blair Going wild.
Leif (58:37):
Yes. Blair Carter coming up.
Steve (58:40):
Oh, yeah, I'm. I'm definitely. I'm m. I'm here for
this. I'm here for it.
Leif (58:45):
Until next time, you Know you love us.
Steve (58:47):
XOXO Every time you
walk away run away you take a piece of me
with you there Every
time you walk away or run away you take a piece of
me with you there
every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there
(59:09):
oh it seems I'm walking right to
your door
my heart's still resting looking for
something more
are you ever gonna see everything you mean to
me I'm trying really hard to believe
every time you walk away or run away you take a
(59:31):
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there
every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there m
never feels right when I'm out here on
my own.
Leif (59:53):
I.
Steve (59:54):
Left last night and it feels like way
too long
are you ever gonna see everything you mean to
me I'm trying really hard to believe
every time you walk away run away you take a piece
of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a piece
(01:00:16):
of me with you there
every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there.
Come.
Back to me
smile and you'll make my life
complete
(01:00:39):
every time you walk away I run away you take a piece
of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
(01:01:01):
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away run away you take a piece
of me with you there
Every time you walk away and run away you take a
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there
(01:01:23):
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there.
If that school expelled him every lawyer in
New York would be banging on their door.
Steve (00:05):
Yeah, yeah, they would be moving to the Upper east
side.
Leif (00:09):
They would know in the school.
Steve (00:10):
Yes, they would.
They would have the Humphrey wing.
Imagine Blair having to sit in
the Humphrey auditorium.
Leif (00:31):
Hey Upper East Siders and all you scandal loving listeners out there, you just
tuned into the non judging breakfast pod where the coffee
is strong, the waffles are fresh, and the
gossip is hotter than ever. My name is Leif, and I'm your
seasoned Gossip Girl veteran.
Steve (00:45):
And I'm Steve, your newbie, your
greenhorn, your. I don't know, Leif. What are we calling
the season two Gossip Girl newbie this week?
Leif (00:53):
I don't have time for this when all my enemies just keep changing.
Steve (00:57):
Hey, that's fair enough, but, you know, just don't
shatter my image of you in the process.
So here's the deal, folks. Leif has been watching Gossip
Girl since it first aired, and I'm diving in for
the first time. And together, we're your dynamic duo,
bringing you all of the drama, romance, and
sometimes questionable fashion choices of this
(01:17):
iconic 2007 series.
Leif (01:20):
That's right. Each week we're going to take a deep dive into the
show one episode at a time. We'll analyze all the
hidden parallels, obscure references. Along
the way, we're going to look at some behind the scenes gossip
and phantom stories.
Steve (01:33):
And, since we are all about inclusivity here at the non judging
breakfast pod, there's always a seat for you at the non judging
breakfast table. So please pull up a,
mimosa, grab a cup of coffee, or roll up
some of Nate and Chuck's special medicine. And let's get
this going.
Leif (01:49):
This episode is going to be coming out on December
16, which will be the last episode of
the year for us. It'll be a two week release
break.
Steve (01:58):
Okay.
Leif (01:59):
For Christmas and New Year's and then we'll
be back after the new year. I think we got our first
Quebecois listener, from the providence of
Quebec.
Steve (02:09):
Hey, welcome. Hello.
Leif (02:12):
Ah.
Steve (02:15):
I wish I had something that I could say in French
right now that was appropriate.
Leif (02:20):
Bonjour, Bonjour,
Bonjour, Bonjour, Bonjour.
Steve (02:25):
And hello.
Leif (02:28):
I got my French, teachers to let us watch
Beauty and the Disney's Beauty and Beauty and the Beauty's just based
on that opening song.
Steve (02:39):
When I was young, my family went
on a vacation every year. And one year I met, like, I
had this crush on a girl from Quebec and we couldn't
like, talk to each other at all. And it was
cute.
Leif (02:51):
Did you meet her at the Niagara Falls,
Steve?
Steve (02:56):
Not. No, it was. It was in the Poconos.
Leif (02:59):
So this episode we're here to talk about is
season two, episode 18 of the Age
of Dissonance. Originally aired on
March 16, 2009. That
was, six weeks after the previous episode,
season break.
Steve (03:15):
I noticed that when I was reviewing
for the Vulture recap. Do we know
why? Did something happen?
Leif (03:25):
I don't think so. They would just take breaks
in the spring a lot.
Steve (03:29):
Yeah, I guess I'm used to shows
taking a month off. Short high
six weeks seems like a longer hiatus than most would
take it. Also, it's also an
interesting time to take that long of a hiatus
after what was arguably,
kind of train wreck of a show of an episode.
Leif (03:52):
Yeah. Kind of a cliffhanger ending, too.
Steve (03:54):
Yeah, exactly. Cliffhangers that
weren't really, well,
hungry.
Leif (04:01):
So, of course, the title is based on the Age
of Innocence.
Steve (04:05):
Yeah, I've never. I've never seen it. Good
book.
Leif (04:09):
Good movie.
Steve (04:09):
I've never read it either.
Leif (04:11):
Interesting line that, Ms. Carr decides to quote at the
end. I didn't really see how it made sense for
their relationship, but, yeah, I.
Steve (04:18):
Think we'll get to that. Yeah. Needed to pull
something out.
Leif (04:23):
Episode was written by Jessica
Queller. She has previous written the
Serena Also Rises Bonfire, the
Vanity, Blair Waldorf Must Buy,
Roman Holiday and the Handmaiden's Tale.
Steve (04:36):
Yeah, they brought, both her.
And as we'll get to in a second, Norman Buckley.
Leif (04:42):
Clearly.
Steve (04:42):
I really felt like they were like, we need to clean up
the mess.
Leif (04:46):
Yeah.
Steve (04:47):
Of that was left behind from last week. They
brought in big hitters and, that. That I really
felt did a decent
job salvaging what they were given.
Leif (04:57):
Yes. And as you said, directed by Norman
Buckley, who previously did work with.
With her on Handmaiden's Tale, but also did A Thin Line
between Chuck and Nate and Much Ado About Nothing
and New Haven Can Wait.
Steve (05:11):
And. And Norman Buckley is also such a
pro.
Leif (05:15):
Yeah.
Steve (05:15):
With these teen dramas to begin with. I mean, he's
worked. I know he was on. Worked on Pretty Little Liars.
He worked on something before this.
Leif (05:24):
He's worked on pretty much every Josh Works show.
Steve (05:26):
Yeah. I was going to say. Oh, yeah. Because it was the O.C. when
we were watching the O.C. we saw his name come up there.
Leif (05:32):
It's always a big episode, too.
Steve (05:33):
yeah. Yeah. Norman Buckley is a very
competent teen drama
director.
Leif (05:39):
Yeah, sure.
Steve (05:41):
Accomplished is the word.
Leif (05:43):
Why don't you go, ahead and read Us. That vulture. Recap?
Steve (05:45):
Sure thing. Like a crocus
poking out of the late winter snow,
last night's new episode of Gossip Girl was a
welcome arrival to the cold and barren
television landscape. As its
petals slowly unfolded, it stirred
the life that has lain dormant inside our
souls since the show went on unexpected
(06:08):
hiatus in February and gave
us a glimpse of colorful spring
ahead. And how colorful it was. Last
night's plot, The Constance Billard St.
Jude Performance of the Age of Innocence,
required with required everyone
be dressed in ridiculous costumes.
(06:28):
Everyone except Jenny, Chuck, and Vanessa,
who were not in the play, but who, let's face
it, always wear ridiculous costumes.
Blair was tragic and noble in black,
while Serena was luminous and white.
Her creamy breasts nestled like eggs in the
feathered Easter egg Easter basket of
her dress. I did not write this. Nelly
(06:51):
Yuki was forced to wear a fat suit to play
Mrs. Manson Mingott. And when Blair
spat at her. My problem is a two faced, four
eyed, devious little snipe in a fat suit.
It was like the first balmy spring
breeze blew across our faces,
but it didn't last. Gossip Girl's
(07:12):
plot, like the weather, is unpredictable.
And while one moment we are basking the sun,
we were soon boiling hot.
Then the weather changed again.
The sweat congealed on our forehead, and suddenly
we were freezing in our unseasonable clothes,
holding desperately to our arms and trying
(07:33):
to keep warm.
Leif (07:35):
That says a lot.
Steve (07:36):
It does.
Leif (07:37):
Well, let's see what else we can add to it.
Steve (07:39):
Yeah, that really mirrors
a lot of how I felt about it.
Leif (07:44):
So let's get into Act 1.
We open with a Gossip Girl monologue.
On the Upper east side, all the world's a stage,
and the men and women merely players. But once
a year, constant St. Jude students shed their
usual roles and take on new ones for the senior
class play. This year's pick, the Age of
(08:05):
Innocence. Before Gossip Girl, there was Edith
Wharton and how little has changed.
The same society snobs still reign
only in corsets and horse drawn carriages.
Steve (08:17):
Yeah, I thought it was an interesting choice for
a high school play. I don't know a whole lot about
it. but what I do know, I always
thought it was a more adult
themed. I thought it was more adult
themed. I don't mean that sexually. I mean
that as in. And who would be in a.
Leif (08:37):
Definitely. There's definitely a lot of passion and
subtext, but it's all subtext. Yeah.
Steve (08:43):
Yeah. And I guess that's what I. What I mean is that it?
That. And they even Allude that to that
in the. In the episode that it is the
subtext that the passion is in what isn't
happening.
Leif (08:55):
Isn't that, like, almost every Shakespeare play?
Steve (08:58):
I mean, it is, but in Shakespeare,
I feel like you often get the release, too,
you know? and theater kids all want to
do Shakespeare, right? Not that any of
these are actual theater kids, because it's just. No, you all
have to be in a play unless you're diagnosed with
stage fright. Yeah.
Leif (09:18):
The students are prepping for a play. More
bro time. As Nate is complaining to Dan about having
to do a play. Chuck got his doctor to diagnose
him with a case of acute stage fright.
Steve (09:30):
Yeah, I found that to be really funny. I thought it was
a great Chuck thing to
do.
Leif (09:36):
At least they're trying to explain why he's not connected to anyone
else here.
Steve (09:40):
Yeah. I also feel like
they've, in the past few episodes, really been
giving Chase Crawford the direction of
smiling more. And I get, it's
probably very character driven that
he's on the upswing. His
family's financial problems are taken care
of. His dad has done the right thing. He has
(10:02):
a girlfriend. So I
feel, like it's a good character
thing. I feel like he's smiling all
the time now, and I like seeing Nate
happy.
Leif (10:14):
I'm sure that'll last so long.
Ha. Jesus Christ.
Steve (10:20):
Even if it's with Vanessa,
Blair, per.
Leif (10:24):
Usual, is not so subtly insulting Serena with
nice sounding words. Serena is attempting her own
age inappropriate fling to get even with Dan.
Steve (10:32):
Yeah, great. Serena has a
crush, so what is she going to
inappropriately eat and or lick
by the end of this episode?
Leif (10:45):
And I love Dorota to see. She's, like, holding the
player's extensions up to her own ears and also looking
in the mirror.
Steve (10:51):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Leif (10:54):
Serena and Blair's banter is interrupted by a
celebration from Nelly, who just got early
acceptance to Yale. Blair runs off to
find Queller.
Steve (11:04):
Yeah, that was
neat. I kind of liked this whole
celebration because once it happened,
they were just like, yeah,
sorry, B. Yeah, a lot.
Leif (11:16):
Of people, like, they were totally agree with Nelly
when she said, a lot of people want to take you down.
Steve (11:21):
Yeah. Yeah.
Leif (11:24):
Serena's new crush Julian is berating both
Humphrey siblings out in the auditorium. And Dan
sees Ms. Carr enter at the theater and is
distracted as the other teachers are seen gossiping
about her.
Steve (11:36):
why are they gossiping about you?
Oh, because of the really inappropriate thing you were
accused of doing, and then you got your job back,
idiot. Why Are you in that
rehearsal? Why did you walk in? Are you
directing the play? Do you have anything to do with the play? Or are you
just going into the place near the one
exact person that you have been instructed to stay the
(11:59):
fuck away from?
Leif (12:01):
Vanessa is, of course, forcing her way into another
Constance event by filming a documentary about
Constance hiring a hot Broadway director for the
school play.
Steve (12:11):
It's really funny because I actually sat there
thinking, well, they found a way to shoehorn
Vanessa into this one. How
can we force her in? Oh, we're going to make a
documentary about this play that we're doing
at the school.
Leif (12:27):
Sure. Well, no, she's gonna do the.
Steve (12:30):
Right.
Leif (12:30):
Yeah, she's gonna show up.
Steve (12:33):
Well, they. She did say she got permission to do it
from the director because the
director is so full of himself.
Leif (12:43):
Chuck enters a busy restaurant and is greeted by a
former associate of his father's. However, the
real meat of the scene is Carter
Basin having lunch with the mysterious L from last
week. Carter and Chuck trade jives while Al
sneaks out through the kitchen. We all see
the same business associate from earlier get up
and leave at the same time.
Steve (13:04):
I like the Carter shake Up.
It's not the Michelle Trachtenberg
shakeup. It's. Remind me his name.
Who plays Carter? Sebastian. Stan
Sebastian. Stan is a
pro. Yeah. When he comes
in and he does this shake up, it's always.
He's a piece of shit. And you always kind of see him, even
(13:27):
though the one time he really wasn't, he just got punched in the
face for not being a piece of shit.
But, like, you know, he's a piece of shit.
And yet it's a
fun shake up. Whereas I think to
the. To the Michelle Trachtenberg shake Up and
the Aaron shake up, where they just weren't
good shakeups, you know,
(13:50):
Car's the.
Leif (13:51):
Character that Chuck should have been.
Steve (13:53):
Yeah.
Leif (13:54):
he's Chuck without the whole rapey vibe.
Steve (13:56):
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah. That is so. That is
so accurate.
Leif (14:03):
Dan continues to be distracted, but asks
Jenny to deliver a note to Ms. Carr because he feels
bad about how the other teachers are treating her.
Steve (14:12):
Dan, you fucking
idiot.
Leif (14:16):
He just doesn't care. He's.
Steve (14:17):
He's.
Leif (14:18):
Yeah.
Steve (14:18):
And he's just so dumb. Like, he's such
a teenage boy, which I get. There's
so much of it that I would probably be acting
the same way. But I'm, as an adult watching this.
It's. You're an idiot. And I also.
I do love that Jenny
is like, all right, I'll help you. That she's
(14:39):
reluctant but she'll also. She's always
there for her big brother and
it's one of those character things that I really love about
Jenny and when she gets
torn with you know, she tries to
cover before Rufus can get a hold of
it.
Leif (14:56):
Which why is he like he doesn't know whose
note that is? Why is he just going into the note?
Steve (15:02):
I mean it's Rufus, It's
Rufus doing. There is a. There is
a metal object. There is a metal key shaped
object in it which I think is a little. Would. Could be a
little sus.
Leif (15:13):
It wasn't in there though because Jenny hands him the key.
We'll get to that.
Steve (15:17):
Yeah, yeah.
Leif (15:19):
So Jenny delivers The notes to Ms. Carr who gives a response with
a key back to Jenny, which she does initially
in that scene. They put it in. But yeah, so that's a
just like another thing scene where we can see the note going back and
forth. Blair finds Queller who
explains that the anonymous tipster gave Yale the reason for
Blair's previous detention. And Yale
subsequently rescinded Blair's
(15:41):
acceptance.
Steve (15:42):
My first thought was that it could
be Harold that made that call. That when
Harold, because of his disappointment and what he saw and
that that he wanted to basically send the message to
Blair of being a good person is more
important than impressing me. So my first thought
was how did Harold do this?
Leif (16:02):
Yeah, I would have never gone there. We
know Harold's that could, that could have a person you.
Steve (16:08):
I. And I also.
Leif (16:09):
He's a nice guy, but he's not. I mean
he basically lied to his wife for 20 years
and then cheated on her and then left her.
Steve (16:18):
Yeah. There's definitely. Yes, you are.
You are correct that Harold is not a
beacon of morality.
Leif (16:25):
So yeah, my, my head never all that there. But Interesting thought.
Steve (16:28):
Yeah. Well and I think it's a matter of. Although
he is. He has shown these bad things. He does
love his daughter. There's no doubt that he. Well but he also like
fucking moved to another country and was like Deuces,
like I love you Deuces.
Leif (16:41):
I. Yeah, I.
Steve (16:43):
When my ex wife and I first
split, I had friends that flew me out to California and one
of my friends said, you know, if you didn't have kids
you'd be right back here. And I was like I can't. What
if my kids out of this scenario?
The thought never occurred to me to
move across the country from my kids, let
(17:03):
alone across an ocean.
I could not fathom being
that Far away from my kids because
I chose to. If my kids decided
to move to Europe, then I will
support them. But I couldn't
be that far away.
Leif (17:22):
And that's why, my head never went to
Harold. Just like Blair, I immediately went to
Nelly. We end the act with a
little Gossip Girl narration.
Every actress eventually finds the hook into her
character, even if sometimes life has to give her a little
push. But don't worry, Bea. When God
(17:42):
closes the door, he opens a play.
Steve (17:46):
I like that.
Leif (17:47):
We move into Act 2. Chuck
arrives home to find Elle waiting for him. She
tells him she needs his help.
Steve (17:55):
Okay,
next.
Leif (18:00):
Yeah, not. Not much going on there.
At rehearsal, Rufus bumps into Jenny, and
she drops a note from his car to Dan. Rufus picks
up the note and immediately snoops. Looks like
a different Humphrey is about to show up to dan's
rendezvous with Ms. Carr.
Steve (18:16):
Now, if I'm correct, when
they bump and they drop the note, I think
you can hear the key.
Leif (18:23):
Yeah, he fried fall. Yeah.
Steve (18:25):
And so I'm wondering if it was
a mess up on their part
that the key wasn't supposed to fall out in the first place. And
when it did, and they gathered the letter, Jenny was
like, And Jenny was the one who got it.
Leif (18:39):
They would reshoot that.
Steve (18:41):
You would think. But it
just. It was an awkward exchange,
but at the same time, I was glad he found the letter.
Like, I was like, yeah, get her, Rufus.
Leif (18:54):
Any chance Rufus just decides to stay and has sex
with Ms. Carr?
Steve (19:00):
My son is too young for you. But
me,
sir, I'm too young for you. Didn't my
dad have your poster on his wall?
Leif (19:14):
They talk about, ver is, like, 27.
Steve (19:18):
He had Dan at 12.
Leif (19:22):
Blair bursts into the dress room in an attempt to bully
Nelly Yuki. But Nelly points out that there are
about a thousand people that would love to take Blair down.
The argument is interrupted by a Gossip Girl finally
outing Marcus's affair with his stepmother.
Looks like Blair has a new V for
vendetta.
Steve (19:40):
Yeah, I loved Nelly here. I
loved Nelly's takedown of
Blair. I also.
Then Penelope chimes in, and
you're. You're just struck by the fact that
Blair really has lost control
of the menu.
Leif (19:58):
Yeah. Serena is trying to flirt with
Julian, who is ignoring her. Serena uses
Vanessa's documentary as an excuse for the three of them to
grab lunch together.
Steve (20:09):
Serena had nothing to lick
nearby.
Leif (20:12):
That's because she understood.
Steve (20:14):
Yeah. Yeah, she. She
can't flirt this way. She can't flirt out in the open.
Someone give her some strawberries.
Leif (20:23):
Blair comes up to the pair, guns blazing. But
Serena and Vanessa both laugh it off.
Blair is really unraveling here.
Steve (20:32):
I liked V. I liked Vanessa
in, in a lot of this episode. I thought
Vanessa was pretty good and I really.
Leif (20:40):
I don't have time for this.
Steve (20:41):
Yeah, I loved how she was. Yeah, she was just
like. No, just walked away.
Just took her shot and walked
away. I loved it. She did. She
did well.
Leif (20:53):
At the Vander Woodson penthouse, Elle is explaining her
situation to Chuck Savior, a woman
everywhere.
Steve (21:02):
Chuck.
Leif (21:03):
Chuck promises to get her a new identity so she can escape
to the powerful men from parts club.
Steve (21:08):
Chuck, you are a multi
billionaire. You have had contacts
for all kinds of shit throughout this entire
show. And now you only know one
guy that you
hate
and don't trust at
all.
Leif (21:28):
Remember a couple episodes where he. He was ready to just crash the
bass plane. You have a fly with private
chat, Chuck.
Steve (21:35):
Yeah. Yeah.
Leif (21:37):
You don't ask for it.
Steve (21:38):
Yeah, you can
disappear her anywhere you want.
Leif (21:45):
It looks like Nate got roped into lunch with. With
Serena, Vanessa and Julian. However, Nate and
Serena look on in annoyance at it looks the
only. Because it looks like the only ones connecting are Vanessa and
Julian. Vanessa is desperately trying to help
Serena get this older douchebag to notice her.
And Serena comes up with a plan for Vanessa to play
Serena to her and get said
(22:08):
douchebag a lot of things.
Steve (22:10):
Again, I'm going to. I'm going to be very kind to
Vanessa this episode. The fact that Vanessa
from the get is like, why are you into this
guy? This guy is full of himself.
Because Vanessa doesn't have
the time of day
for rich assholes to begin
with and pretentious people. Even though she's
(22:32):
pretty pretentious, she doesn't really
like.
Leif (22:35):
She even says later, he's annoying. I know because
basically I am.
Steve (22:39):
Yeah, yeah. She says that. And
when Nate gets up and leaves
and then shortly after,
Julian is like, yeah, I'm done here too. That's
when I was like, is he into Nate?
That would make sense. But
also why. Why
(23:00):
is Serena into this guy?
Leif (23:02):
Like she's just trying to get even with Dan.
Yeah, that's like the only explanation.
Steve (23:07):
Yeah. Yeah.
Leif (23:08):
In Brooklyn, Dan is asking Jenny about Ms.
Carr. Jenny admits Rufus intercepted the note.
Steve (23:14):
Yeah, I love Jenny's whole thing
here, which is like, Yeah. Uh-huh.
Leif (23:20):
About that.
Steve (23:21):
Yeah, dad. Dad has it.
I love, love, love when. When Taylor
Mumpson does the little sister. Shit. She's
so good. Is she an only
child? I think we. She is Right. Didn't we discuss
that at some point?
Leif (23:38):
Possible.
Steve (23:39):
I don't know for sure, but she does the little sister shit
so. Well.
Leif (23:43):
Ms. Carr is prepping for a
romantic rendezvous when Rufus comes in
and hands her the key.
Steve (23:50):
Yeah. You gave his kid a
key, and you're lucky that all he did
was come in and give it back. What are you.
Leif (23:59):
What? I don't get what the whole point of the key is. Isn't she gonna be
there?
Steve (24:02):
Yeah. Yeah.
Why do.
Why do you even need a key?
Leif (24:05):
And who carries a spare key around with them, too?
Steve (24:07):
Yeah. To give to high
schoolers.
Leif (24:11):
To give anyone.
Steve (24:12):
Yeah. Why do you have keys to your own
house on you right now?
Leif (24:17):
And why do you need to give him a key? To meet you there at
the place.
Steve (24:20):
Where you already are. Where you already have a key to.
Leif (24:23):
Unless there was more to that nose. Like, I'm going to show up tied
to my bed naked.
Steve (24:27):
Yeah.
Leif (24:28):
Just come right in.
Steve (24:29):
Yeah.
Leif (24:30):
Maybe not kink
shaving, but yeah.
Steve (24:34):
but even then. Even then, she was
lighting candles, so, like, she was clearly getting ready
for dinner first. And that's the other
thing. I could not imagine
being a dad, walking in there and seeing
the person, seeing this predator lighting
fucking candles, waiting for my
kid to show up. Just the fact that he
(24:57):
just gave you the key and left. I don't
know how he doesn't torture. I don't know how
he doesn't at least
immediately call the school
and be like, get. Get her gone
before she bangs my son on school property.
Leif (25:17):
Poor Miss Iowa. Caught playing Mrs.
Robinson. Looks like the teacher just got
schooled. Cuckoo Kaju,
back from commercial. Dan is being pissy of because
his dad fucked up his booty call. Ms. Carr should
obviously be fired for actions, but I'm confused on why Dan
would be expelled or punished at all for this.
(25:38):
Yeah, Dan, if that school
expelled him, every lawyer in New York would be banging
on their door.
Steve (25:44):
Yeah. Yeah. They would be moving to the Upper east
side.
Leif (25:48):
They would own the school.
Steve (25:50):
Yes.
They would have the Humphrey wing.
Imagine Blair having to sit in
the Humphrey auditorium.
But, Dan, you're an idiot.
Leif (26:05):
Spell your kid. Because his teacher.
Teacher at our school.
Steve (26:09):
Yeah. Seduced him.
What? Made the first move on
him, then gave him a key.
So, yeah.
Leif (26:22):
Julian is at Serena's penthouse helping her
rehearse as usual, being quite
pompous. However, it looks like Serena's
Serena idea is working. That is, until Nate
catches Vanessa talking on the phone. He
thinks directly to Julian. The date ends as
another Gossip Girl blast. Adding the real reason why
Serena got accepted to Yale. Not to be
(26:43):
mean, but did anyone actually think Serena got into
Yale based on her grades?
Steve (26:48):
Yeah. And I. I've gotten the impression
Serena gets good grades
now, but she didn't.
They.
They've said earlier that she has.
She was not a good student before this year, and.
Leif (27:02):
Yeah. So her GPA can't be that
great.
Steve (27:05):
Yeah. And no extracurriculars other than this
play.
Leif (27:09):
She played field hockey that one day.
Steve (27:11):
Oh, yeah, but that. I thought that was P.E.
Leif (27:13):
maybe. Next we find Chuck
handling L off to handing L off to
Carter, who, as we know, is an expert at crossing
borders. However, as the Lima pulls away,
Carter reveals the wrist tattoo showing that he is part of
Bart's club.
Steve (27:29):
Yeah, Chuck, you're an idiot. Like you. You don't trust
this guy to begin with. And I
did. There is the part of me that was like. That was pretty
fun. Like, I did kind of like that,
but I also was like, chuck, you're an idiot.
Leif (27:42):
And Carter was clearly just fucking with Chuck because they were just
taking her to sign an NUA and hold her hand. Her case of money.
It's like, yeah, he totally
made it seem way worse than it was.
Steve (27:53):
Yes.
Leif (27:53):
With that move.
Steve (27:55):
I also love that Carter is in the club that Chuck
wants to get into.
Leif (28:01):
Dorota is coaching Blair to use her real
life pain to fuel her acting on stage.
However, they are interrupted when a pissed off Serena enters
the dressing room and accuses Blair of sending the tip about
Serena and Yale. Blair's new target
is Dan.
Steve (28:17):
I loved Dorota giving the acting
advice to Blair, and it
shows this more rounded
character of Dorota that you
only see her as this live in
maid to this brat all the
time, but she has her own
life beyond it. You see that she understands
(28:39):
the theater and things like that. I just.
Leif (28:42):
I love that Dan pulls Ms.
Carr into the costume closet and uses moves from the
play to seduce her. They are now having
sex on school property.
Steve (28:54):
Yeah. I realize
as somebody who did theater all throughout high school,
all throughout college, that the actual costume
shop. Not. Not the costume shop, but the actual
costume closet for one, is a. Is a place
where sex often happens,
but also during a
(29:15):
play is where there. There's not a
lot of traffic during a play because the costumes are already
created and you're not going into the closet or anything,
but there's traffic still
to
risk having sex
on school property in the.
(29:35):
In the vicinity of where
everybody is,
all of the seniors, all of
the teachers who have come for the play, your
Boss, who told you to stay away from this person?
The dad who just told you to stay away from
this person, for fuck's sake. And
Dan using the fucking blocking from the
(29:58):
play. Like
with the oh shit, this is working look on his
face. Yeah, that was
good.
Leif (30:07):
Moving into Act 3, opening night is here.
We get a scene showing the very students doing some last minute
rehearsing. V asks us about why she
hung up earlier. Blair gives Dan a
dirty look.
Steve (30:20):
I really liked this scene despite not having a
lot to say about it. I liked the pre show
chaos and everything that was
happening.
Leif (30:30):
Chuck is meeting with his father's friend from earlier,
trying to gain access to the club. However,
Mr. Campbell completely shuts it down and plays dumb about
the whole thing. As the man leaves, Chuck gets
a text with a meeting spot for later tonight.
Steve (30:44):
Is this where he says, I care about
this person? I think it is. Which is
funny because he's talked to her like three times and most
of the conversations are leave me alone or give me
money. I care about
her.
Leif (31:00):
Backstage, Julian is giving additional, perhaps
unwanted advice to his actors during their first act
break.
Steve (31:07):
Every douchebag theater person.
I just, I've
worked with that, before and it
just, it just rang.
Leif (31:17):
So true in, the audience. Queller
is thanking Julian's critic friend, Christopher
Isherwood for attending. If you didn't guess that person
is actually playing themselves as Chris
is a real person and a well known theater
critic.
Steve (31:32):
I didn't know at this point, I didn't
know the name, but as soon as
he was on m stage I was like, oh, that's a real
person. This is a cameo.
Yeah, he's got them cameo
chops. Those cameo acting
chops.
Leif (31:51):
Vanessa is confused as to why Nate is being
cold to her. Julian is mocking Nate
and laughing at his own jokes. Does Julian
not read the newspaper?
Steve (32:02):
Yeah, I, I thought about that too. Of
how do you not know that this kid
has literally lost everything
and you're berating him and like, not that you would ever know what
it's like to lose anything. you
idiot.
Leif (32:18):
Dan and Blair are doing a remarkable job of
carrying on two conversations without the audience
noticing. Much to everyone's surprise,
Blair pins Dan down into the carriage and mounts
on top of him and then berates him.
However, from behind, it looks like they are sharing a rather
passionate makeout session. It looks like Dan
might know the real culprit behind the recent
(32:40):
string of Gossip Girl blast.
Steve (32:43):
There's some chemistry here.
Leif (32:45):
I thought so.
Steve (32:47):
I, I said that Robin was like,
no, but
I Caught something from Blair
and Dan there.
Leif (32:57):
Their comedic chemistry, if anything, is
stellar.
Steve (33:01):
Yes.
Leif (33:02):
They bounce off each other so well.
Steve (33:04):
They always do. But that whole
scene seemed a little intimate
almost.
Leif (33:10):
Yeah.
Steve (33:10):
And I mean, I know it's supposed to be like a make out scene
from the audience's perspective, but
I felt like there was a little bit of something there.
Leif (33:19):
I don't disagree. Maybe it's just, we
know Leighton Meester's taste in men.
Steve (33:24):
Yeah.
Leif (33:25):
And I. Dan does look a lot like her
eventual husband.
Steve (33:29):
Oh, yeah. She's married to Adam Brody,
right? Yeah. Seth
Cohen. She's got a type.
It's the Josh Ford stand in.
Let's keep her away from Benjamin Levi.
Leif (33:46):
The play continues, and the students stumble over their
lines. And Nate explodes in rage because he thinks
Julian is after Vanessa. Blair and
Serena and Nelly use this as an excuse to go off
script as well. Poor Dan tries to
awkwardly keep playing it straight.
Steve (34:02):
This is why you never force kids
to do theater. Theater is fun
for people that really enjoy it. I
understand having classes where you
do scene work
in an English class and understanding
theater and understanding those sorts of things, but
forcing kids into a play is
(34:24):
a really bad idea
because anyone that hates it is
ready to just blow the whole thing up at any given time.
Leif (34:32):
So right before Nate comes out on stage, there's like a
quick little scene with him and Jenny.
Steve (34:38):
Yes.
Leif (34:38):
And Jenny, like, has a little throwaway line
about, you know, basically gotten Nate's head about
Vanessa and the director. I, wonder if there's another deleted
scene somewhere of Jenny seeing Nate
being jealous about.
Steve (34:52):
Oh, and pushing that a little bit,
because I felt like Jenny was kind of
downplaying it.
Leif (34:59):
Yeah. It came off as like a throwaway line. But that
could have just been Jenny acting.
Steve (35:04):
Yeah. Yeah.
Leif (35:06):
And then.
Steve (35:06):
Yeah.
Leif (35:07):
But who knows?
Steve (35:08):
Because I actually liked that they were friendly,
you know, I. I. Because I, feel like the last
time the two of them really talked was
the dance. The dance. Right. I know
Vanessa and Jenny have talked since then, but I don't know if Nate
has.
Leif (35:23):
Shakespeare says, all is well that ends
well. And sometimes it just ends.
After the commercial, everyone is backstage and Julian
is berating the cast. However, the critic says he loves
the show, and Julian attempts to roll with the punches
and take credit. This finally allows Serena to
see who Julian really is.
Steve (35:45):
This is, for one, this is when I was like, oh, that's a
cameo. But
yeah, Serena, this director being
such a. Such an asshole the whole time. That
was really funny, the taking credit. Like.
It was.
Yeah, it was Dumb, but in a fun
kind of way.
Leif (36:06):
Nate finally learns about Vanessa playing Serena,
but it still appears this relationship might not last
much longer.
Steve (36:13):
What's, ah, really bugging you, Nate? Let's talk
about it. Because, which he does. I
mean, he does say they have nothing in common. Yeah, we have
nothing in common. And
it's funny to me because Robin and
I, as you know, Robin and I have very little
in common, traditionally speaking.
(36:33):
And we really like that. We really like
that we have that. There's Steve's world
and Robin's world and then our world, you know,
that I go out and play D and D,
and she watches garbage reality
TV shows or goes to fun restaurants with
friends that then she tells me about and takes me to
later there, we. We have our own stuff
(36:56):
that we do separately, and then we have our stuff that we do together.
And I find that that's why
we work so well.
Leif (37:03):
It's harder in high school, though.
Steve (37:05):
It is in high school. You just always. And back.
You know, you just want to be around each other all the time and want to just
do everything together.
Leif (37:12):
Yeah. Chuck finds L
leaving the hotel. Who admits you just using
Chuck for his money. It's been a couple episodes since we
got in a poor Chuck moment, but this one definitely
stings a bit.
Steve (37:24):
You don't know this woman.
Leif (37:26):
Chuck the hooker was using you for
money.
Steve (37:29):
what?
And he not only falls for it, but
then is still reeling over it.
Leif (37:38):
Yeah, definitely overacted a little bit there.
Steve (37:40):
Yeah, I did find it cute. Give your heart to
someone. You know, you have a good heart. Give it to
someone.
Leif (37:48):
There's just so many different stories they could have done with.
Chuck just moved back into lilies. What about a story with him and
Eric?
Steve (37:54):
Yeah, yeah.
Leif (37:56):
They go off on a little adventure while everyone else doing the
play.
Steve (37:59):
Yeah, this entire
new secret cult. Did we ever get a name for this one?
Leif (38:05):
No, I'm just calling it Barts Club.
Steve (38:06):
Barts Club. Yeah, because the other two were
actual, like, secret societies. They were
actual known secret societies, but I guess
the prostitute secret society, they
don't really advertise.
Leif (38:21):
Dan confronts Ms. Carr, who gives her a much
deserved verbal smackdown for acting exactly like
Blair. The coup de grace is Dan telling
Blair that he and Ms. Carr just had sex in the
costume closet.
Steve (38:34):
Yeah. I love that you see Dan
in real time, realize that
Rachel is just as catty as Blair
is. And that line walking
away. Oh, and we had sex in the costume
closet. So do with that, which you will. That's
yours.
Leif (38:51):
Now, as Weird
as I'm much more bothered by
Ms. Carr's relationship with Serena and Blair than the one
with Dan. She wasn't his teacher. He's
18. This relationship with Blair and
Serena was much weirder.
Steve (39:08):
I. All of it
is.
Leif (39:11):
I mean, the whole thing with that is not great, but
whatever. It happened.
Steve (39:16):
Fireable.
Leif (39:17):
Yeah, definitely fireable, for sure. But
the ones with the. It was the balance.
Predatory. I wouldn't really say it's predatory.
Steve (39:25):
I agree. Even though I've called her a predator and I've
said the relationship with flair.
Leif (39:31):
And Serena was just wrong from the.
Steve (39:33):
Start, and she had no
boundaries. Yeah. And that was the thing. As this teacher.
She never had any boundaries
with anybody.
Leif (39:43):
Ah. At all.
Blair's look and lie to Ms. Carr
absolutely slays. However, Dan's
behemoth has clearly already broken Ms.
Carr, and Blair, in a moment of relative
empathy, declares Ms. Carr's punishment is to live
with the consequences of her own actions.
Steve (40:02):
Yeah. You see, Blair realizing
that what Serena said really
rattled her, that betrayal is in her
nature. And when she
sees this sort of reflection of herself
that she created because
Rachel didn't come into this
(40:23):
ready to fight, she started getting
attacked and went and went on the
offense. She was wrong about all of
it. But I think Blair saw that
reflection of what she had
caused as well, and it really gave
her that moment to pause.
And I thought that was really good of Blair. I thought she
(40:44):
was really cold but
strong.
Leif (40:48):
And Blair's line, by the way, was student sex in
the costume closet. Is that what they mean by heartland
values?
Steve (40:54):
Yeah.
Leif (40:57):
We move into the epilogue. Dan,
being a good guy, admits to Serena that he is indirectly
responsible for the Gossip Girl blast. And Serena leaves
to apologize to Blair.
Steve (41:07):
Yeah, and that was sweet. That was a cute
little bang.
Leif (41:11):
Yeah. He had no. There's no real reason for him to admit
that. I mean, he could. He could have just got away with it.
Steve (41:16):
Yeah.
Leif (41:17):
No one would have known.
Steve (41:18):
but. But Dan always seems to want to
make things right. With Serena especially. He always wants to make things
right, but especially with Serena.
Although Serena at this
point doesn't know that he's slept with
Ms. Carr. In fact, she doesn't
know that there's been anything beyond them.
Leif (41:38):
Having that one picture be interesting who Blair actually
tells.
Steve (41:41):
Yeah, if anyone.
Leif (41:44):
Vanessa shows up at Nate's house to apologize for
earlier. However, Nate is finally watching the Age of
Innocence and actually loves it. Perhaps rumors
of Natesa's imminent demise were somewhat
exaggerated.
Steve (41:55):
Yeah, I liked this. You, know, I.
I liked Nate being happy With Vanessa again at
the end. I also found it to be the most
mature relationship. This is,
I believe, the longest
running relationship without
a huge problem
(42:16):
so far. That, you know, Dan and
Serena from the start were always
one or two episodes, and then something would get in the way. One or
two episodes, something gets in the way.
Leif (42:26):
They would have miscommunication similar to this for the first
season. They were together basically from
episode four through
almost the end of the season.
Steve (42:36):
Were they okay?
Leif (42:37):
Yeah. it's just this season where they get together for like two episodes and they break
up.
Steve (42:40):
Yeah. Yeah. So the. So I guess this is. This is
more the longest of the. Of the season. Yeah, this
is probably the longest running relationship of the
season without a
breakup, without a shake up, without
parents fucking.
Leif (42:56):
Rufus and Dan actually have a nice quick scene.
Dan admits that Rufus is right, but that he needs space to
make his own mistakes.
Steve (43:04):
He's right. Yeah. that's a real big
thing about parenting is that you have to let your
kids grow up and make mistakes. And if
you shelter them from them, it's.
They're not going to know how to handle mistakes when they're.
When they do make them, when you're not there to prevent
it.
Leif (43:23):
Serena finds Blair drinking alone at the bar.
Serena apologizes for not believing Blair, but
Blair admits Serena was justified for not
trusting her. Gossip Girl narrates. And
life as an art. Some endings are
bittersweet.
Steve (43:38):
We see this core friendship
again, and the, you're still my best friend,
you know. Love that, Serena. But you.
We've talked before about this being the core
friendship of the show. And I like that
Serena made. Tried to make things
right. Yeah, I feel like made things right.
Leif (43:57):
But, yeah, Polaris just wants to be alone.
Steve (43:59):
Yeah. Which I get. She's pretty mad
at herself.
Leif (44:03):
Next we see Dan sitting on his bed, and Jenny delivers a
final Goodbye note from Ms. Carr. Gossip
Girl continues. Sometimes fate throws two
lovers together only to rip them apart.
Steve (44:14):
Boom. Go. Get out of here.
Leif (44:17):
And yeah, they do show. The note says,
dan, I'm going back to Iowa, as you must have
known. I'm sorry for everything. As
Edith Wharton wrote, there is no one as kind as
you. No one who gave me reasons I understand for doing
what at first seemed so hard.
Steve (44:33):
Thank you, R. what at first seemed so hard? You
know, not banging my student.
It was really tough. But then I got over it by banging
my student and crossing other
inappropriate lines
and, you know, jeopardizing the future of
a student.
Leif (44:52):
The scene shifts. Chuck is let into the
Waldorf foyer by Dorota, who informs him
Ms. Blair is out. Chuck declares he is m
ready to wait. Gossip Girl states,
sometimes the hero finally makes the right choice,
but the timing is all wrong. And as they
say, timing is everything.
Steve (45:12):
Hero, though. Are we calling Chuck a
hero?
Leif (45:16):
He's the savior of all women that.
Steve (45:18):
He doesn't sexually assault.
Leif (45:21):
He say, lily, you try. He say, at least try
to save Elle, you know?
Steve (45:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
How about Jenny? How about Jenny
who we'll get?
Oh, she's from the, she's a, she's from the Upper east side.
She's poor.
Leif (45:39):
It's crazy. Like how like
central to the show she was at the beginning of the
season and how little she has been
in these last few episodes.
Steve (45:49):
Yeah, yeah.
Leif (45:50):
Finally Carter has shown up in the same Blair
where Blair is wallowing. His flirtations
are not rebuffed. And Gossip Girl closes the
episode. Looks like this story might have a
second act. Let's hope it's not a
tragedy. Xo. Xo
Gossip Girl.
Steve (46:08):
Yeah, Carter's moving in on, Queen B.
Leif (46:11):
And they are dating at this time.
Steve (46:13):
Oh, are they?
Leif (46:14):
Yeah.
Steve (46:15):
Yes. Because as I've talked before, my.
After they break up, he gets fired
and break. They break up around the
same time because my
friend's late wife saw
this man crying in a coffee shop and. Or,
asked if he was okay and it was Sebastian.
Stan.
Leif (46:36):
So predictions for next week.
Steve (46:38):
Something's going to happen with Carter and Blair.
I'm. I'm pretty sure I'm very
curious as to what Blair does with the information about
Dan and Rachel because Dan didn't
hide it. And Dan told Blair, the person
who's the most likely to tell anybody, that it'll give
her an advantage. So he knew what he was doing when he told
(46:59):
her. So I'm not seeing any kind of
Dan Serena thing. So I'm. And I'll
be honest, I'm waiting.
I'm waiting for Michelle Trachtenberg to show up. I don't know
if she will this season, but I, think it's the
PTSD from last season that when we get into a late
season now, I'm.
Leif (47:17):
Kind of expecting episodes. Yes. Like six episodes.
Steve (47:20):
Yeah, we have like six episodes left. She had what, three
episode arc last time? Three and a half. Because she
was not in the one
that she was introduced.
Leif (47:30):
So we got seven episodes left.
Steve (47:32):
Yeah, yeah. Because episode 19.
Yeah, this was 18 and. It goes to 25.
Leif (47:39):
That is it for our episode. We can go
ahead and get into some segments.
This week, we jumped into the Wayback Machine to visit the
Television without pity forums from 2009.
Hello there. Peabody here. And this is
the Wayback Machine for traveling through time. And this
is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman.
Steve (47:59):
Hello.
Leif (48:00):
Good boy. So New Yorkers were
excited to see Park Avenue winter.
Steve (48:05):
Oh, okay.
Leif (48:06):
Do you know what that is?
Steve (48:08):
No.
Leif (48:09):
You sounded like you did.
Steve (48:10):
No, I just. I figured they were excited.
Leif (48:13):
Yeah, a couple of people mentioned it, so I did look it
up. It is a historic Park Avenue restaurant.
it's no longer there anymore. It was there for 22 years. Now
it's currently in Gramercy, Park. But
every autumn, winter, spring, and summer, they
completely changed the decor and the menu.
Steve (48:30):
Oh, that's cool. Neat.
Leif (48:32):
Most people didn't like the episode. Not
a very popular episode.
Steve (48:36):
I felt like this episode was cleaning up the messes
of the last episode more than anything.
Leif (48:42):
A lot of shade was thrown in the actress playing
Ellen. Not. Not the best actress.
Steve (48:47):
Yeah, I. I don't know that she had a ton to
work with, but yeah, I, she
was. I felt like she was on par for
a Gossip Girl extra, but she.
Leif (48:57):
Was like a central character to the play. Sure.
Well, she's supposed to be.
Steve (49:03):
Sure.
Leif (49:04):
Maybe would be better if she was a better actress.
Steve (49:05):
Maybe she. Maybe she would have been if she was a better
actress. Fair.
Leif (49:09):
Maybe we actually cared. I don't think a single
person enjoyed the Chuck storyline. Why
was she suddenly so important to him after one
drug addled night?
Steve (49:20):
I had mentioned a couple times you've spoken to this woman, like
three times. And he's. And he sat there with that one meeting. He's
like, I care about her.
Why I care about people in general. And
I wouldn't want some rando prostitute that I hooked
up with to be murdered by, a gentleman's
culture. But I also don't
understand his whole
(49:41):
obsession.
Leif (49:43):
Yeah.
Steve (49:43):
With her. Although he did say the sex was
really good. Like it was like life changing
before he passed out.
Leif (49:51):
Definitely. we weren't the only ones that noticed Pen and Layton's
chemistry.
Steve (49:55):
Oh, did other people point that out too?
Oh, and I do know that
at some point they. That Pen and
Layton date. I do. They don't.
Leif (50:07):
Nah. that would have been dangerous after Pen and Blake
dated. That been out of his reason.
Steve (50:12):
I always thought that I had heard that the two of
them dated.
Leif (50:16):
Now they just. They've always been friends.
Steve (50:18):
Oh, okay. Maybe that's what it is.
Leif (50:20):
She was the first guest on his podcast.
Steve (50:22):
Or maybe I'm thinking about it being about Carter,
about Sebastian, Stan and.
Leif (50:27):
Then Adam Brody and then Adam Brody and ah,
there's a lot of, Nate and slash Chase love.
Steve (50:33):
Yeah, I love happy Nate.
Leif (50:35):
And they like, they like Chase's acting in this one.
Steve (50:38):
Yeah, yeah. I don't think it stood out, but
I like this.
Leif (50:41):
I like this little dance that he did with the hat.
Steve (50:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I think Chase
is fun. I love when he smiles
more. As we've said many times. I
wish they would write him funnier.
Because he has the chops to be really
funny.
Leif (50:59):
Why don't we go ahead and get into some episode
grades?
I really like this episode. I mean, the Chuck storyline
was boring, but it was not, you know, a huge part
of the episode. I think it's good to judge
the episode by the party of the week. And for me the play
was hilarious. The whole play was m great.
(51:20):
So I gave this episode a B plus.
Steve (51:23):
I'm not too far off from you. I gave it a B.
I felt like the aspects that I
didn't like about this show were
things like the parts of the
plot that I had complained about
previously. But ultimately,
like I said before, I felt like this was an episode
to clean up a real mess of an
(51:46):
episode the week before and that they
really did the best they could. They
brought in two of the best.
One of the best team ups that they've had and
really did a great episode. So I gave it a B.
Leif (52:02):
On to stockwise for me. Going up,
I had Nate, he just, doing his
thing all episode and ended happy with
Vanessa. I had Dan going up because he was a good guy
and he was, you know, stick. He was the only one
who kept to his lines during the play. And well, he
did get laid. So I also had Rufus going up because
he was actually a good dad for once.
(52:25):
Nelly I had going up because she got it to Yale. L
going up because she got paid and that's what hookers want to
get. That's what they want to do.
And I had Carter going up because he was screwing over Chuck
all episode and looks like he's going to get.
Steve (52:41):
I had a lot of the same and I'm going to add a couple that you
did as well. I had Nate and Vanessa.
I had Nelly as well. Congratulations
Nelly. I had Julian the
director going up because as much of
a complete fucking asshole he was,
he's going to get this amazing review
from a critic. So this could actually have
(53:04):
been good for his career. I had Carter Going
up as well. I'm going to add Rufus
as well. I'm going to send Dan
into neutral because I had him going down. But then you
made some good points. So I'm going to see. I've got Nate,
Vanessa, Nelly, Julian, Carter,
Rufus.
Leif (53:22):
for me, going down, I have Chuck
Blair, Ms. Carr. Chuck and
Blair obvious. Ms. Car is obvious. And I had Julian
going down because he was just a douchebag. Side, I didn't like him.
Steve (53:34):
That's fair. That's fair. Otherwise, I had the
same Chuck Blair and Rachel and Ms.
Carr all going down.
Leif (53:41):
And I had Serena and Jenny neutral.
Steve (53:44):
Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, Serena
largely had a non episode. Same with Jenny
at, the.
Leif (53:50):
At the end of the episode, she didn't get what she realized she didn't want anymore.
Steve (53:53):
Yeah. Yep.
Classic Serena.
Leif (53:57):
Yeah, she's got to go.
Steve (54:00):
But here's the best outfits from the last
episode we see.
Leif (54:08):
Best outfit for me, I had
Blair's black lace, Marchessa gown
from the play. It was paired with a black hat and
some great accent jewelry.
Steve (54:18):
Yep, that's what I had to the
I. Because also at the end when you see it
when she's at the bar and you see almost like the
landscape pattern on the lace
top, that's m. Fucking awesome.
Leif (54:32):
And of course, you know it's a Marchessa gown in their
other school's wardrobe.
Steve (54:37):
Yeah, yeah,
I will say that, of course there is at
the Constance Billard. Like, of
course I will say that it is
not a complete unheard of thing
to find some ridiculous designer
clothes in a costume
shop because I remember we. I forget
(55:00):
which if it was college, it's probably high school that we
found some kind of. I don't even remember who it was because
I didn't give a shit. But they were. But everybody was
like freaking out that they found this
designer suit just in our costume shop. And it's
because people would donate clothes to the
theater or things like that.
Leif (55:19):
So I also. Blair's hair looked great
opposite. And the dress. They're the. Like the
blouse she was wearing at the end was really cool too.
Steve (55:27):
Her makeup too. Her makeup was really great. Which is
kind of funny that the whole thing was about them doing a
play and they didn't have them in stage makeup. They had
them just in normal stuff. Would have been
really a, really funny touch to have them
in stage makeup for it because of how.
How bad high school kids are at
(55:48):
applying stage makeup.
Leif (55:50):
Well, that is it for segments. You have anything you want to
plug.
Steve (55:53):
In January and I'LL have the exact date next
time in January, early January. I will
be featuring at the open
mic at Dawson Street Pub in
Roxboro Maniunk. So come on out, to
the open mic, play some songs and check
out my set. You can also find me
(56:14):
on TikTok or Instagram @
Steve Marchand M A R C
H I O N so follow
my fun stuff on those platforms. And
I'm also on BlueSky at theweedwizard,
so follow me there too.
Leif (56:30):
Later this week I will be on an episode of the Farm to
Fable podcast. It is a Smallville
retrospective fan cast. Similar to our
podcast, Michael is doing a deep dive in the TV
show one episode at a time. My
episode releases on December 19th. It is season
eight, episode seven, titled
Identity. I'll, put a link to the show notes, but Farm
(56:52):
to Fable can be found wherever you listen to podcasts
and you can follow me on bluesky
and Instagram hotcapicola. That's H o
T C A P I C
O L A. You can follow the podcast
at nonjudgingbreakfastpod. That's on
Threads, Instagram, TikTok
(57:13):
and on Facebook. And you can find our, Discord
server and our Patreon by visiting our website,
nonjudgingbreakfastpod.com and if
you'd like to.
Steve (57:22):
Send us a message, we'd love to hear what you have to say and
maybe even read it on the air. Our
email address is
nonjudgingbreakfastpodmail.com
Also while you're listening, please, please, please
hit that like that. Subscribe that
follow the Rate us, please leave
(57:43):
a comment. It really helps with our visibility on
Apple, on the Apple podcasts.
And also while you're at it, tell a friend,
let people know what you're listening to and get other folks to
listen. I'll even say, I hope,
Katie, if you decided to listen, I know
Robin's friend that she was just talking to the
other day is rewatching Gossip Girl.
(58:05):
So I hope that you have come and joined us as
well.
Leif (58:08):
Right in. Let us know, Katie. And we
will be back in the new year to talk about season two,
episode 19, the
Grandfather. The Netflix
episode description reads,
devastated by the recent plot twists in her life,
Blair turns her back on her predictable existence
in favor of a wilder lifestyle.
Steve (58:32):
Oh, this. This will be fun.
Oh, Blair. Blair Going wild.
Leif (58:37):
Yes. Blair Carter coming up.
Steve (58:40):
Oh, yeah, I'm. I'm definitely. I'm m. I'm here for
this. I'm here for it.
Leif (58:45):
Until next time, you Know you love us.
Steve (58:47):
XOXO Every time you
walk away run away you take a piece of me
with you there Every
time you walk away or run away you take a piece of
me with you there
every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there
(59:09):
oh it seems I'm walking right to
your door
my heart's still resting looking for
something more
are you ever gonna see everything you mean to
me I'm trying really hard to believe
every time you walk away or run away you take a
(59:31):
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there
every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there m
never feels right when I'm out here on
my own.
Leif (59:53):
I.
Steve (59:54):
Left last night and it feels like way
too long
are you ever gonna see everything you mean to
me I'm trying really hard to believe
every time you walk away run away you take a piece
of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a piece
(01:00:16):
of me with you there
every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there.
Come.
Back to me
smile and you'll make my life
complete
(01:00:39):
every time you walk away I run away you take a piece
of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
(01:01:01):
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away run away you take a piece
of me with you there
Every time you walk away and run away you take a
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there
(01:01:23):
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there.
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