S3E07 - "How to Succeed In Bassness" - Non Judging Breakfast Pod

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Leif (00:00):
Yeah, the person who says that, uh, Jenny looks like she's smiling for
arts has clearly never been to a warhammer
convention.

Steve (00:11):
I was thinking I've played in enough game
stores to know what someone smells like.
Smells like farts. Looks like.

Leif (00:25):
Hey, Upper east siders and all you scandal loving listeners
out there, you just turned 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 (00:40):
And I'm Steve the rookie, the new
guy. The what am I now, Leif? We're
partway through season three.

Leif (00:47):
Well, I think you know what happens if you sit on a step higher than
mine.

Steve (00:51):
Oh, uh, absolutely. And I guess it means
that I just wouldn't make you float anymore.

Leif (00:56):
Not at all.

Steve (00:59):
So here's the deal, folks. Leaf 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, uh,
bringing you all the drama, romance, and
sometimes questionable fashion choices of this
iconic 2007 series.

Leif (01:16):
Bring your magnifying glasses, because each week we're
dissecting every juicy detail of the show one
episode at a time. We'll connect the dots,
uncover those sneaky little Easter eggs, and of
course, serve up some piping hot behind the scenes
tea. And expect some iconic fan moments too,
because what's a deep dive without a little drama?

Steve (01:35):
And since we are all about inclusivity here
at the non judging breakfast pod, there's always
room for you at the non judging breakfast table. So go grab
your Halloween candy or a cup of coffee
and come pull up a seat next to us and
we will get right into this.

Leif (01:51):
Yes, we will. But before that, let's talk a little good
cop, bad cop.

Steve (01:56):
I caught up last night. Um, I
enjoy this show immensely.
I have a lot of fun with it.

Leif (02:04):
The show itself is kind of wearing thin on me.
Yeah, not a lot there.

Steve (02:09):
No, no. But you know me, I don't
always need a lot there.

Leif (02:14):
Blatant is really the only thing that's bringing me back at this
point. We did just get to see Adam Brody's
character.

Steve (02:21):
Yes, we saw Adam Brody on the
latest episode, and yeah,
he seems so greasy.
I mean, yeah, he was kind of.
He seemed to be cast
that way, though, a little bit.

Leif (02:39):
But he always does.

Steve (02:40):
Yeah, yeah, he always. He's. Yeah.

Leif (02:43):
And I like Adam Brody.
That tragic. I mean, he's very
charismatic and funny, but he is not
nearly the character actor that Layton is.

Steve (02:54):
No, no.

Leif (02:56):
And, uh, he's always just Adam Brody.

Steve (02:57):
Yes. Yeah.
Which is.

Leif (03:01):
Which is great because Adam Brody's hilarious.

Steve (03:03):
Right. And we talk about that a lot about, like, the good
actors on this show and just good acting and bad
acting. And there is that.
That those actors
that aren't great that just play themselves
every time you see them, but that's what
you're there for. And I mean, Tom
Cruise has. In my. In my

(03:26):
estimation, Tom Cruise has always just been Tom Cruise. And
everything he did, the very first movie he
did was this innocent kid
that gets in, starts this
business, and ends up being, uh, a dick in the
end. And then every movie since was pretty much
this dick trying to be a good guy.

(03:46):
And. And that's not all of his movies.
But I never. I can't divorce
Tom Cruise from who he is in movies because I just
don't think he's a great actor. Do I like
some of his movies? Absolutely. Doesn't make
him good. Then you have the flip side of
it, where I watched two episodes
of Good Cop, Bad Cop, and then I

(04:09):
watched Gossip Girl all back to back
last night. And you don't. She's
unrecognizable as the same person.
There is no trace between
the two characters that she's playing.
And it's sometimes jarring
that I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right. Like, oh, yeah,
this is the same actor who's

(04:31):
Blair Waldorf, who is
this 100% opposite.

Leif (04:37):
Now, I will say that it is a little bit
similar to the Blair of the later
seasons.

Steve (04:45):
Oh, okay.

Leif (04:46):
But, yeah, I definitely see traces of
Blair and Lou, but, uh, she
is creating a new character.

Steve (04:54):
Yeah. And very well.
And there are
other things that I like on the show, though. I like the
father son dynamic as, uh, somebody who. With a troubled
father son dynamic. I like that.
I like the
siblings that are completely different
and are kind of ride or die for

(05:16):
each other, even though they can't stand each other half the
time. I really
connect with that.

Leif (05:22):
I don't dislike any of that. It's just. There's
not a lot of story to tell.

Steve (05:27):
No, no. And it's funny, I had the thought
in the last one where the,
uh, not the last one, but the two weeks ago when they were
blowing up the cell phone towers and stuff like that,
and they barged into the old lady's house and knocked her
over. And then when she was alive, I
was like, okay, good, because this is supposed to be a
small town. They're gonna run out of people.

Leif (05:50):
Yeah. Eventually I was about
to say the crimes seem to be getting a little more
ridiculous each week.

Steve (05:57):
Yes. Yeah. And I
feel like that's really the nature of
this type of show.
In the line of Psych. Or,
uh, there's another one right on the top of my head that I.

Leif (06:13):
And there's a reason I don't watch those shows.

Steve (06:15):
Burn Notice. Burn Notice.

Leif (06:16):
Psych. I didn't watch.

Steve (06:18):
Yes. And I love those shows.
I absolutely loved both of those
shows.

Leif (06:25):
So we are here to talk about Gossip girl today.
Season 3, Episode 7, how to
Succeed in Basness
Original Air Date was October 26, 2009
so right before Halloween.

Steve (06:38):
Mhm. And, uh, a play
on how to succeed in business without even trying.

Leif (06:43):
Yes. 1967
film Armed with the
Tititular Manual, an ambitious widow
watcher seeks to climb the corporate
ladder. It was directed by David Swift, who
also wrote, uh, the 1961 and 98
versions of Parent Trap, and with stars
Robert Morse. I, uh, know him as

(07:05):
Bert Cooper from Mad Men. And
Michelle Lee was, uh, the mom and Along
Came Polly.

Steve (07:12):
Was there a remake of this movie? I thought there was like
a 90s remake. I. I thought this
movie was from the 90s. Was the.

Leif (07:21):
So when I saw the title, I thought it was
the movie with Michael J. Fox.

Steve (07:26):
That's, that's what I thought.

Leif (07:27):
But it's not. It's a completely different movie.

Steve (07:29):
What's the movie with Michael J. Fox?

Leif (07:32):
Something else.

Steve (07:38):
That movie, right?

Leif (07:39):
Yes, that's what I thought it was.
But it's apparently some other movie in
1967.

Steve (07:47):
I'm having one of those. What's it called? When
Mandela.

Leif (07:52):
Mandala.

Steve (07:52):
The Mandala Effect. I could
have sworn I was thinking Matthew Broderick at
first.

Leif (07:59):
Uh, the movie with, uh, him is called the Secret to
My Success.

Steve (08:03):
Oh, yes, that is correct. The Secret to
my Success. Yeah. Okay.

Leif (08:08):
But yes, originally that's what I kind of thought they were. I
had that same thought that there was that. But then when I looked it up. No, it's some
other movie in the 60s.

Steve (08:15):
And that's really funny because I knew it was a
movie. Did I wonder, did they do a
Broadway. Did they. Did
they do a Broadway adaptation of the
movie?

Leif (08:27):
Not that I saw.

Steve (08:28):
Okay. Because that's the other thing that I thought it could have
been because I, um, My
first thought was Matthew Broderick, but
it was the Michael J. Fox movie.
Like, I put Broderick's face on
Michael J. Fox in my weird memory
place.

Leif (08:46):
But if you do want to watch the movie, how to Succeed
in business. You can see it on Pluto tv.

Steve (08:51):
Oh, nice.

Leif (08:53):
This episode was written by Sarah
Goodman. This is her second of 13
episodes on the series. She is a
longtime producer, and the previous episode she did was the
Wrath of Gone, the 23rd episode of last
season.

Steve (09:08):
23Rd. So near the end,
that's what Georgina officially like.

Leif (09:13):
Uh, the episode before that was Southern Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes, and at the end.

Steve (09:17):
Of the episode, they went to find.

Leif (09:19):
Georgina, and then she comes back in the rat to con.

Steve (09:21):
Okay.

Leif (09:22):
She does the whole plan to get Poppy by being, like,
an innocent person.

Steve (09:26):
I like. I liked that episode.

Leif (09:28):
Yeah, we both gave that a. Yeah. This episode was
directed by Joe Lazarov. Uh, this is the second
of eight episodes. Once again, a longtime producer
on the show, and his previous episode was O
Brother Ware Bart thou. Which was the funeral.

Steve (09:43):
Yes.

Leif (09:43):
Yeah, why don't you go ahead and read us
that rather short vulture recap.

Steve (09:48):
Yes, it's Halloween, but the
masks our characters are wearing aren't just
festive strips of silicone donned for a
night of carousing. The kabuki
makeup Jenny Humphrey has plastered on to
obscure her ordinary Brooklyn features has
been seeping into her skin,

(10:09):
and whatever is in it has been
poisoning her personality. Actress
Olivia, a master of disguise, wears a
mask of innocence when questioned by her new boyfriend
Dan about a realistic seeming orgasm
she had on screen in front of millions
with her ex. But underneath, the real
story is different. And as usual, Blair

(10:31):
maintained a confident, bitchy veneer
until the mask cracked, exposing the
vulnerability beneath.

Leif (10:40):
Have you ever seen a girl levitate when they orgasm?
Because that doesn't sound real estate to me.

Steve (10:45):
Every time. Uh, that. What do
you mean? I thought that was normal.

Leif (10:50):
Okay. Uh, wow. I guess I'm doing it wrong.

Steve (10:52):
Wow. I mean,
I thought nothing of it. I'm sorry to
hear that, Leif.
She barks, she drools, she sleeps above
the covers. Four feet above
the covers. That was my thought
throughout all of that.

Leif (11:15):
We begin the episode with a Gossip Girl
monologue.
All Hallows Eve, the one day a year
it's socially acceptable to play dress up. The
only question is, who do you want it to be?
There are costumes to make men feel like boys again
or turn little girls into queens.

(11:37):
Rufus is making a kiss themed Jack
o'lanterns and Lily has encouraged Jenny to get rid of
some old. Her old dresses, but Jenny is
having none of it.

Steve (11:47):
Yeah, the kiss pumpkins were
funny. I. I don't really see
Roop as much as a kiss guy, but I really appreciated
the. The gesture.
I also Think that they. That it makes for a
great pumpkin. It's great.
Yeah, it is.

Leif (12:05):
It works.

Steve (12:05):
I hate kiss, but I think that that would be a neat
thing. And the Jenny thing, just, you know, not
wanting to let go. Mhm. It's
very symbolic in
this, in this episode that
Jenny.

Leif (12:21):
Did you recognize the dress she held up too?

Steve (12:23):
Yeah, that was the one that she made.

Leif (12:25):
Kind of started it all.

Steve (12:26):
Yeah, exactly. And
Jenny, her whole arc
in this episode really
starts here with her knowing
she's. Knowing she's losing
herself and knowing that she's in this
role that she doesn't really like
being in and it's taking

(12:48):
over. Mhm. And so her
holding on to the past here and like, no, I'm still
that innocent kid designing
clothes. She. She's really hanging on to
that still.

Leif (13:01):
Chuck and Blair are discussing Chuck's new hotel
and club within. Blair wants to be
supportive and help Chuck with his business venture. However,
Chuck is reluctant. Blair immediately ignores
Chuck's boundary and makes a call to book someone named Mark
for the club opening.

Steve (13:17):
Yeah. And Chuck's response?
I don't want a high school party. And
Blair has not divorced herself from high school
entirely yet. She's made steps,
but she's still high school Blair. She's still trying to
run minions around.
She's still doing her high school fair.
Chuck.

Leif (13:37):
Yeah. At the loft,
Nate delivers in a super shady
paper bag the Endless Nights DVD box set. Uh, for
Dan to finally watch. Like Kirsten Stewart and
Robert Pattinson, Olivia dated her co star for the movie.
And it is rumored that the sex scenes were not
simulated. Nate is mocked for reading
Endless Nights blogs and we find out Dan and Olivia have

(13:59):
yet to do the deed. However, Gossip Girl
sends a timely blast with a picture of Olivia grabbing
free condoms from the student center.

Steve (14:08):
Um, once again, we have a really fun
chase scene where Nate gets to
be funny and he's digging.
Don't they have the Internet down here in Brooklyn?
And you know, gets to banter and joke
around and poke fun
at Dan in this episode. It
was nice.

Leif (14:29):
That was fun.

Steve (14:30):
Yeah, that. That's the Nate I want to see. M.
Forget romantic Nate.

Leif (14:36):
Serena is at the office with Casey. Casey wants
Serena to get Olivia and Dan to break up so Olivia
can get back together with co star Patrick
Roberts. Writer's definitely not subtle with the
Twilight references. Serena tries to refuse,
but Casey plays hardball by threatening her with
potential sexual assault from James Franca.

Steve (14:56):
Yeah, you think he
would.

Leif (14:59):
He forces the person who delivers them. You know, he models
models to watch.

Steve (15:02):
Him Put them on and take them off.

Leif (15:05):
Yes.

Steve (15:08):
And he's like, hold on, I'll turn around.
But there's a mirror there. So he's.
So he knows you're still seeing everything. I
also like the. You mean the guy from Star
wars that's not Harrison Ford. When she said
he's on the road to Mark Hamilton
being a phenomenal voice actor and great voice

(15:31):
acting career from.

Leif (15:32):
But not. He's not Harrison Ford.

Steve (15:34):
He is not Harrison Ford.

Leif (15:37):
But he's not Bill Winters either.

Steve (15:39):
Yeah.

Leif (15:41):
Or Alex Winters.

Steve (15:43):
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Leif (15:45):
So later in the season they also kind of
take a shot at Harvey Weinstein. And this is. This is
well before me too. So was this, uh, was
this.

Steve (15:55):
Yeah.

Leif (15:55):
Did they know about James Franca, the writers,
before it came out?

Steve (16:00):
This would have been 09.
Franco. When did Franco. When was
Pineapple Express? That would have been like
05 06, I think
like early, early 2000s.
And so this stuff doesn't happen
in a vacuum and this stuff happens from
the availability for it. So I

(16:22):
would imagine he started showing his
creepiness.

Leif (16:26):
Mhm.

Steve (16:26):
Early.

Leif (16:27):
Yeah.

Steve (16:28):
I know that there was a point that Seth Rogen was
like, I won't work with him anymore. And
when I was reading that I really got the impression that it was
sort of. Ah, yeah. I realized how much of
a creepy was. And also that I grew
up and realized that shit's not okay. And
I, um, often question. I'll always say that people that

(16:49):
get to certain levels of
celebrity don't get there without
stepping on necks and without
shitting on people. Other people. And then you
have that whole predatory
nature behind the power you get
with celebrity. And I can
only imagine that starts early and

(17:11):
the, the that people that had worked with
Franco by now probably seen some
stuff.

Leif (17:17):
Yeah. Eric is back and bonding
with Jenny over his mutual parental induced
embarrassment. Eric goes to sit with Jonathan
while Jenny puts her minions to task. After the minions
run off, Jenny notices Eric and Jonathan are sitting above
their station on the Met steps. Eric and Jonathan
agree to vacate, but Jonathan is not happy about

(17:38):
it.

Steve (17:40):
Yeah,
I felt kind of two different ways
on this scene. You're
vacating your friends. That's grimy. Eric
also knows the position she's in.

Leif (17:55):
Yeah. They saw what happens when she tries to
ignore being queen.

Steve (17:59):
Yes. It just goes bad.

Leif (18:01):
Yeah.

Steve (18:02):
And so Eric is the one
not, uh. Jonathan is really the one pushing the
challenging this. Eric is trying to just let it
be. And there's really this
developing beef between Jonathan and
Jenny and Eric is trying
to maintain this
balance And Jonathan

(18:25):
makes the point of, like, that mask is becoming her face.
And you see that side of it when she's
like, are there skins on these almonds?
Fix it and get it back to me.
So.

Leif (18:37):
But we know that's what the minions want. They want. They want to be
ordered around like that.

Steve (18:42):
Uh, yes, it's true. It's a matter
of how long can you do it before you enjoy
the power that you have.

Leif (18:49):
Yeah.

Steve (18:49):
And Jenny is
reluctant in having this power, but
she has zero problem wielding
it with authority.

Leif (19:01):
Dan and Nate are watching the sex scene from
Olivia's movie, and Dan is becoming increasingly
uncomfortable. Nate, on the other hand, is
sitting back and giggling with glee. Dan gets
a call from Olivia and fakes being sick to get out of
tonight's planned activities.

Steve (19:16):
Dan, um, it's a fucking movie.
And Olivia says it out.

Leif (19:21):
It's love, man. It's totally love and lust
and gratitude.

Steve (19:25):
Yeah, it's acting. And. And even
if they did do it on screen, even if
all of that is true, dude, she's still
an actor.

Leif (19:34):
And it was before you met.

Steve (19:35):
And it was before you met. And no
matter how good it was, she had to act like it was
even better. You know,
just starting, uh, this whole, like, oh, I'm
sick, I don't want to see you lies thing. I really thought
Dan would be better than this. He was better than
this with Serena, wasn't he?

Leif (19:54):
He actually went through this exact same thing with. With Nate
and Serena.

Steve (19:58):
Oh, you're right. You're right.

Leif (20:00):
He kept picturing Nate and Serena having sex.

Steve (20:02):
That's right.

Leif (20:03):
How great it was.

Steve (20:04):
Yeah, I. I remember that now.

Leif (20:06):
Ah, he has an actual visible or a visual
representation of it.

Steve (20:10):
Yeah.

Leif (20:10):
So it's definitely in character for Dan.

Steve (20:13):
Yes. And. And later, Olivia makes the point of, like,
there's lighting, there's makeup, there's. There's all of
this stuff that no matter and. But it's also
d. This. You're being stupid. Why are you
lying to. You're being so insecure about something
so dumb.

Leif (20:28):
Yes, but.

Steve (20:29):
But he's also a teenager, and. Yeah, I would have
probably been just as bad.

Leif (20:33):
Yeah, I. I told. It's not the right move, but I. I
totally get it.

Steve (20:37):
Yes. Shame on you, Dan. I get it.

Leif (20:40):
Blair is lounging while Serena does busy work for
Casey. They are discussing Chuck's club.
Serena gets a call from Chuck and conceals that Blair is
listening. Chuck wants to hire a publicist for his club opening
tomorrow. One catch. He doesn't want Blair to
know or be involved with it. Yeah,
you fucked up, B. Yeah.

Steve (21:00):
And uh, yeah, you fucked up B. And now
Serena, you're fucking up.
Chuck clearly does not want. When Chuck says,
are you alone? Who do you think
think he is asking, is there with you,
Casey? No, he's
asking, is Blair there?

Leif (21:18):
Yeah, I mean I, I can get sidey with the best friend
over. Over.

Steve (21:22):
Well, and then Serena, that's kind of what
irked me is that Serena. And not irk me
now, but irk me later. Serena does the best friend
thing. I'm going to let you hear what he's saying to me.
And then he says that Serena does the best
friend thing and Blair, I feel,
takes advantage of it. This whole episode

(21:42):
really takes advantage of their
friendship and Serena giving her
the in and the information on
this.

Leif (21:52):
And we go into the act break with the Gossip
Girl blast.
Looks like someone's ghosts of Trick's past have
come back to haunt this Halloween.
And we moved into Act 2.
Everyone's favorite bartender, Horace is back.

Steve (22:10):
Horace.

Leif (22:11):
Chuck explains the club's speakeasy theme to
Nate. Nate comments on Blair not being
involved. Chuck claims detached
distrust.

Steve (22:22):
Yes. First of all, great to
see Horace. Yeah, I was so glad to see him back
and working for Chuck again. Yeah, I thought we'd never see him
again. And here he is working for Chuck.
Loved it.

Leif (22:35):
The casting director only knows one black person.

Steve (22:42):
That's
especially since, uh, what's
her name left. The minion from, uh,
is left.

Leif (22:54):
Uh, I wonder if she got it to college.

Steve (22:58):
Well, they were smart, remember? Or at least Caddy was
really smart. Uh, but I got the impression
that two of them were and were just putting up
with Blair to go to college. I
also wanted, I liked how Chuck when he
said fights, um, include
time and energy.

Leif (23:17):
Yeah.

Steve (23:19):
Right before he said the thing about detached
distressed. Yeah, that.
Yeah. I'm not putting any time and energy
into what upset me about her. I'm
focused here.

Leif (23:32):
Good for it.

Steve (23:33):
Good for him. And that. Man, that
is even more of a
statement than fighting with someone.
Uh, there was a time a few years
ago that I, you know how I
don't get along with my ex wife. And there was a time a few
years ago that I was like, I'm just

(23:54):
not going to respond
anymore and I'm not going to engage and I'm not going
to fight. And if there's a one word answer, I'll send a one
word answer because
the fight was what she was going for.
She wanted my time and energy and I'm not giving
that back at the Office.

Leif (24:13):
Blair is pissed that Chuck chose Serena over
her. Serena tells Blair to give Chuck some
slack. Blair claims she
agrees. She agrees and is going home. Guess
who has two thumbs and ain't buying it? This
guy.

Steve (24:28):
Don't be suspicious. Don't be
suspicious. Don't be suspicious.
When I saw her face, that's
exactly what goes through my head.

Leif (24:41):
Rufus is excited to dress up and give out candy.
He shames Lily for wanting to go to the club opening and
supposedly embarrassing the kids. Vanya and
Lily feel bad for Rufus because they know kids don't
trick or treat in this building.

Steve (24:55):
Act happy, Matt.
Just when Rufus is
acting. When Matt Settle is acting,
it's so bad.
I'm so happy.

Leif (25:10):
Yes, I am so
happy. So, uh, happy. So happy.

Steve (25:16):
He just did not match the energy of
that scene. And Lily and
Vanya did. I thought that
this whole sort of plot line was just,
how do we keep Rufus and Lily involved? And there's that
part of me that's like, they don't have to have a big part in
every episode. They don't need a
storyline.

Leif (25:36):
Yeah.

Steve (25:36):
Uh, in every episode. Nate doesn't get a storyline in
every episode, and he's a star. So
these two parents don't need a
storyline in every episode. In fact, they didn't
always. There was a time when they would
just be supporting
characters on, uh, some episodes. Let's get
back to that.

Leif (25:57):
Jenny is discussing costume choices for the party
tonight. The Minions ask if Jenny designed her
own costume. Jenny says it's vintage.
So in a previous episode, you mentioned the headcanon
of Jenny still making her dresses. And I kind of fought
back about it. I immediately. I was kind
of looking forward a little bit, but now it's kind of

(26:18):
confirmed that Jenny is no
longer making clothes.

Steve (26:23):
Yeah. Yeah.

Leif (26:25):
Jonathan and Eric once again decide to openly
challenge Jenny's authority by going on a higher step than
her. Jenny gives the silent command for her
minions to dump yogurt on Eric's head.

Steve (26:36):
Yeah. Jonathan,
why are you doing this?

Leif (26:42):
Yeah.

Steve (26:42):
Why are you starting
this war between your boyfriend
and his best friend
Sister?

Leif (26:52):
For the most part, I was more on Jenny's side.
The one thing I will disagree on is why didn't she just
go after Jonathan instead of Erika?

Steve (27:00):
Yeah, that was. That should have been dumped
on Jonathan.

Leif (27:05):
It's also a weird power play to kind of leave a
whole flight of steps above you
empty.

Steve (27:10):
Yeah.

Leif (27:11):
And say, no, I could sit there.

Steve (27:13):
Yeah. And that's the other thing.
Why. Why aren't you just sitting higher on the steps? But
like you said, it's a power play. It is like no one can sit up
there. I'm going to sit on the bottom step today. You're all
standing.

Leif (27:26):
Olivia brings some soup to Dan at the loft. She.
She quickly figures out the real reason Dan blew her
off. Olivia assures Dan that her relationship
with Patrick Roberts was just a publicity
stunt. Looks like Dan and Olivia are going to the club
after all.

Steve (27:42):
Yeah. Oh, what scene was
it? No, you think I'm a bad actor. What scene was
it? Going through all of these things that she hits the
button is like, oh, yeah,
you think I'm a really good actor.

Leif (27:56):
But it's just funny because that's initially what
Dan was afraid of watching her.

Steve (28:02):
Being a terrible actor.

Leif (28:03):
Uh, the bad dialogues, what he mentions.

Steve (28:05):
Yes.

Leif (28:06):
Yeah, of course. Nate said, oh, the dialogue's
awesome. I have my
doubts.

Steve (28:14):
Nate.

Leif (28:15):
Sorry if I don't take your word for it.

Steve (28:17):
I feel like Dan and Nate watching a movie together would be
like you and me watching a movie together.
Oh. Uh, because we've done. You know, we both
walked out of the first Star wars
movie where you were like. And I was like,
oh, that was fun. That
was awesome. And you were like,

(28:40):
I've got notes.

Leif (28:43):
Yeah, the Force Awakens. I was.

Steve (28:46):
Yeah.

Leif (28:48):
Different podcast.
Serena tells Casey that Olivia is coming to the party
alone and just needs to get Patrick Roberts there as
well.

Steve (29:00):
Serena's such a bad liar.
We've seen this before. That she can't look you in the
eye when she lies, so she just lies to you
and then looks around. Don't be
suspicious. Don't be suspicious.

Leif (29:15):
Chuck is leaving a voicemail for the liquor board, still waiting
to hear about his license. He and Horace are
discussing what Bart would do in this situation, and Chuck
gets a convenient call saying his liquor license
was granted.

Steve (29:28):
That's convenient that it just happened right now
when you were talking about it.

Leif (29:33):
And as we see, Blair gets a text from
Jack Bass saying that he handled the liquor license.
And Gossip Girl takes us to the act break.
Seems like Chuck finally stepped out from big bad
Bart's shadow. Too bad his girlfriend's
still playing on the dark side.

Steve (29:52):
Uh, why? First of all, Jack was,
like, deported.
What pole does he have that
you would go to him? Blair, you're a fucking
Waldorf. You can.
You have contacts other
than Jack, I would assume. Or at

(30:12):
least your parents probably have that poll or
Lily or something. You know, I guess Serena offered
to go to Lily, but Lily might.

Leif (30:20):
I don't think her. I don't think Blair's Parents would.

Steve (30:23):
You don't think so? Yeah, I guess. I guess they're just
more ultra wealthy but
not politically connected the way Lily
is.

Leif (30:31):
And not, uh, to mention her. Her dad's not even in the
country.

Steve (30:34):
That's true.

Leif (30:36):
So Act 3 begins. Lily is trying
to let Rufus down easy about no trick or treaters,
but Rufus is still convinced they will come because he told everyone
in the building they would be home this year. Eric
comes home from school early, hair wet and without his
uniform. Lily is concerned, but Eric tells her
to ask Jenny what happened.

Steve (30:57):
Poor Eric. He did not deserve that.

Leif (31:00):
No.

Steve (31:00):
And I always love Eric.
It was shitty. Also, again, the,
uh, the Rufus. Lily's storyline
just doesn't match the energy of anything else
happening. And this was billed in the beginning as
a Halloween episode, sort of.
And this is really the only Halloween

(31:21):
anything that we see is just this Rufus,
Lilly weird stuff.

Leif (31:27):
Well, the party was a costume party.

Steve (31:30):
Yeah, but were people really wearing a lot of costumes?

Leif (31:32):
Everyone's wearing a costume.

Steve (31:34):
I guess I wasn't. I guess I was just looking at.

Leif (31:35):
Like, it was a thing. It was a themed costume party.

Steve (31:38):
Oh, yeah, yeah.

Leif (31:40):
Roaring twenties.

Steve (31:41):
Oh, right. So they were all wearing, like, gangster stuff. That's
right.

Leif (31:44):
Flappers.

Steve (31:45):
Yeah, you're right.

Leif (31:45):
Yeah.

Steve (31:46):
Um, I wasn't. I wasn't thinking of that.
But now.

Leif (31:49):
So the Rufus story definitely
reminded me of Freaks and Geeks, the Halloween
episode of that show with the mom
and dealing with the kids growing up and
not really wanting to share Halloween anymore.
Yeah, So I definitely felt that, like,
reminiscent of that.

Steve (32:07):
Yeah, they did it better. But
yes.

Leif (32:11):
Blair and Dorota are in the dorm getting mani pedis
when they are interrupted by Chuck, who arrives with a costume
for Blair and an invite to tonight's event.

Steve (32:20):
The foot bothering.
When Mr. Chuck. When you don't speak with
Blair, she brings me for the foot bother.

Leif (32:32):
At the loft, Dan and Olivia are debating over
gangster or musician for Dan's costume.
Serena is also there and comes up with a
compromise that will get Kayce off Olivia's
back. Olivia reluctantly agrees,
but Dan is less understanding of the business
of Hollywood.

Steve (32:51):
It feels dumb again. It feels like a
dumb plot.

Leif (32:56):
No way this could possibly go wrong.

Steve (32:58):
Yeah. No way this is gonna
backfire. I did like Dan in this
scene. I thought Dan was funny throughout most
of this scene.

Leif (33:07):
This little. This little toy gun.

Steve (33:09):
Yeah.

Leif (33:10):
Jenny is trying to deflect regarding the yogurt
dumping incident. However, Lily sees right through
it. Jenny will still be allowed to go to the party,
and Lily won't tell Rufus If Eric still
wants to go, Jenny and the minions apologize to
Eric.

Steve (33:25):
This is where you really. We've
known all along. This is where. You see,
Lily was a queen. Yeah. That Lily sat
on those steps, and we've never.

Leif (33:37):
She was a mean girl.

Steve (33:38):
She was a mean girl and probably sat on the highest
step and was probably the queen when she was there.
That's m. That's what I took away from this.
When Jenny said, I can't control every girl in the school.
And. And Lily said. I think we both know that's not
true. And Lily is not like, you did
this horrible thing to my son. It was.

(33:58):
Ooh, Okay. I. I
see what he did.
I don't love it. There has to
be consequences. But I get it.
And I just imagine. I remember
Lily was kicked out of school at one point,
and Was it Constance that she was kicked out of?

Leif (34:18):
She was in California at the time.

Steve (34:19):
Okay. And I don't know if
we ever really get much of what happened
after that, but I could very much see
her winding up at Constance and sitting on
the Met steps as queen and
this hierarchy going back that far,
the way that it has been presented, sort of.

(34:40):
That's just sort of maybe my headcanon.

Leif (34:42):
I don't think it really fits timeline wise.

Steve (34:44):
Probably not.

Leif (34:45):
But I think she's still queen of
New York social scene. And, uh, she's still the mean
girl.

Steve (34:51):
Yes. And she,
more than anything, really understands the
role that Jenny has. And maybe
she wasn't the queen at Constance, but she was a queen
somewhere. And she. Aside, uh, from being. Now
she's still the queen. Yes. Obviously, she still
is.

Leif (35:10):
Going back to. I think might have been the very first
episode when Rufus shows up at the school and,
like, is trying to find who's in charge.
Episode three, where she. He's trying to find who's in charge
and, like, the person, like, oh, you don't want to talk to her when she's a bit. When
she's mad.

Steve (35:25):
Yeah. People are afraid of Lily.
Uh, Eric later on when he's
like, I wouldn't. I wouldn't want to face my mom.

Leif (35:33):
Yeah.

Steve (35:34):
Lily is a scary person to
have against you. And
I. I really feel, for the most part,
Lily has become a very good
person in many ways, a much better person than
when she was abandoning her kids in the beginning when we
first met her.

Leif (35:51):
Yeah. Now I really wish we could have seen Serena react in
the situation.

Steve (35:56):
Yeah. Yeah. Because I feel like Serena may have punched
Jenny in the face and then slapped Eric for
defying her Because Serena also is
someone who has been on both ends of
this.

Leif (36:08):
At the club, Chuck receives his liquor license
and the guy dropping off lets slip that it was a favor
for Jack Bass. Blair plays dumb at first,
but when pressed reveals that she is the one who called Jack.
Chuck says he still can't trust Blair and
disinvites her from the opening. Tonight, Serena
chooses to stay and help Chuck rather than go help

(36:29):
Blair lick her wounds.

Steve (36:31):
And this is where I say that Blair,
uh, it's also more later. Serena obviously is
going to stay here and do her job to help
Chuck. Yeah, that's. That's what her job
is right now. Not to make you feel
sorry for yourself for
betraying Chuck in the first
place. And again, how does

(36:54):
Jack still have these fucking contacts?
Which, uh, as we find out. Well, you know,
he doesn't.

Leif (37:00):
Yeah, he just apparently has one, at least one friend that
can.

Steve (37:04):
With a printer.

Leif (37:05):
Yes.

Steve (37:06):
And it just goes to the fact that Blair. Why would you even
trust him in the first place? Why would he
be the person you would go to. To try to
save Chuck? He hates Chuck.

Leif (37:18):
Not a good move.

Steve (37:19):
Yeah, not a good all around episode for
Blair in her scheminess.

Leif (37:29):
And we move it to Act 4. The party has
begun and we get a grainy filter as we pan the
crowd outside the club. Nate is the first to
arrive wearing a suit and fedora. He trades
barbs with Serena who is working the door. She
tells the bouncer to text her when Patrick
arrives.

Steve (37:47):
I. So last
episode when I made my
predictions, I said Nate and Serena are going for each
other. And then this episode came on
and dropped all of it. They
didn't mention anything about
the Nate Serena stuff.
And I was a little bit like, oh, uh, are they just letting that

(38:09):
go? So this scene I
thought was
fantastic. Just that one.
Just two lines to remind everybody. There's
still tension here. There is a beef between Nate and
Serena and the way Serena. Oh, uh,
run out of friends to stab in the back. Well, at least I'm going inside
and not working the door. Damn.

(38:31):
Just shots fired from both of them.
And so I'm glad that they kept that
tension for that episode. I
still think that there's a, uh, that there is a ship
there in the future at some
point. I feel like they've
flirted with it a couple times. There
is the Nate being in love with her in the beginning of the

(38:53):
series. And then there was
the. Was it the season
two finale where they.

Leif (39:01):
Season one finale.

Steve (39:02):
The season one finale where they both seemed to
be Going off together. And there was the rumors of
them dating. And I also feel
like there was sometime near the end of season
two that they did something together.
But maybe I'm just thinking of season one.

Leif (39:18):
Well, beginning of season two, they kiss at the party.
They. End of season two,
Blair and Nate were dating.

Steve (39:26):
Right. That's right. Okay, my, um,
overall point, I just, I do think that they have
a chemistry and I've always felt like
there's something that has to happen with
them at some point. Yeah.
So I think that those things often start from a
place of tension, and I like to see that
tension.

Leif (39:46):
In this scene, Jenny and the minions
arrive. Jenny tells them that Eric ratted her out to
their parents and they have to pretend to be nice
for now.

Steve (39:56):
Jenny, it sounds like you're gonna get caught
when you're like, oh, I have a new
plan and it's one that won't get me caught.
You're gonna go egg his boyfriend
without masks in front of
him.

Leif (40:11):
Well, I think the point is she knows Lily won't give a fuck about
Jonathan.

Steve (40:15):
Oh, uh, it's funny because I wouldn't.

Leif (40:18):
She barely gave a fuck about Eric.

Steve (40:20):
That is true. Like she.

Leif (40:23):
She will give. Not a. About
Jonathan. Yeah,
Rufus probably would, but.

Steve (40:30):
Right. That's. And Jonathan is
the one who deserved it in the first place. Yeah.
Mhm.

Leif (40:36):
Blair and Dorota are back in the dorm room playing chess.
Dorota is also multitasking by vacuuming at the
same time. Blair cheats and Dorota pretends not
to notice. Blair gets some flowers from someone
not Chuck, and calls for her address.
Now she has her.

Steve (40:53):
Her maid in the dorm room
vacuuming. It's just
so Blair and I. Also,
the thing that I probably love the most about it
is that it keeps Dorota an active
character on the show when there's
no need or reason for her to be

(41:13):
there. And it really establishes that
she's not the Waldorf's
mate, she's Blair's.

Leif (41:21):
Yeah.
Rufus is happily handing out candy to kids that
have been escorted into the penthouse for.

Steve (41:29):
By Vanya, who then gets paid by
Lily, which this seems
weird, a little. A little creepy, but
I get it.

Leif (41:38):
I assume they're relatives of Vanya's,
like his nephews or nieces.

Steve (41:43):
Oh, my impression was that it was kids that they
knew from the building that he
was like going to the building kids
and bringing them.

Leif (41:53):
Well, it's the same kids every time. And they were Lithuanian. That's
why I think they're like related to Vanya.

Steve (41:58):
Okay, I. I knew that they had
repeated kids. I didn't know that they were like
necessarily the same kids
because he says the thing about the Gaga coming
with the. The different hair.

Leif (42:12):
Albert Hammond Jr. Of the Strokes is performing in
his song in Transit. At the party,
Blair finds Chuck and apologizes. It
turns out the liquor license was a fake and Jack is the one who
sent the flowers. Blair and Chuck still have more
to discuss, but they are now working in simpatico
to take advantage of the situation.

Steve (42:31):
Yeah, Chuck going to use the cops
for publicity. It feels very
Gossip Girl. It feels very
tv. The. I know I'll have the
cops and then the party. It is very. Because
the actual consequences
of doing this, the actual
consequences of the raid would be

(42:54):
so detrimental to that
business.

Leif (42:58):
I mean, yes, I know I am m.
Basically financial and if you can eat
the financial loss, it does make sense that it would work
out.

Steve (43:07):
So I guess if you. If booking goes
up, 50% will cover all the
fines. And I
guess I feel like it's a very TV
solution.

Leif (43:18):
Oh, yeah. Uh, but at the same
time they would be like have to call
someone's uncle that hates him to get a liquor license in the first.

Steve (43:27):
Right?

Leif (43:28):
Yes, that would. That wouldn't happen.

Steve (43:30):
That was also very tv.

Leif (43:34):
Jenny is an evil genius. She sells a
fake makeup with Eric with a
stumble. And however, at the same time, we see that the
minions are outside egging Jonathan.

Steve (43:46):
Yeah, I thought Jenny. I was
kind of hoping she'd just kind of let this shit go
again. And I know she can't, but it was also.
This is the point where you're becoming shitty. This is
now when you're fake to your best friend and
really being a shitty person.
You're no longer pretending or

(44:07):
you're no longer sincere in this friendship because you're just
shitting on it right now.

Leif (44:11):
Yeah. And we also see. We see
Chuck in the background going up and patting Albert Hammond Jr.
On the back in the middle of his song.

Steve (44:18):
Yeah.

Leif (44:20):
What do you think? Do you appreciate that? If someone
comes up on stage and like pat you in the middle of.

Steve (44:25):
The song, I would.
I would be irked. I get mad when
people ask me to join me on stage.
I get mad when there is
somebody who has. A couple times
I'd be playing and they would come up
and join in on a drum

(44:46):
pad and it drives me
insane. And the guy is a super nice
guy. He runs an open mic. He's an
extraordinarily talented musician. When he
does that, when he comes up and he plays a Beat
behind me without me asking.
It's never out of time. It is
never bad. I hate

(45:08):
it because I have not rehearsed it. I
am not prepared for it. So if somebody comes up
and pats me on the back mid
song, I'm going to be
like, what the fuck is that?
If it's one of my best friends and
they're the owner of the place,

(45:28):
maybe. But if it's just the owner of the place and
I've never met him before, I'm going to be like,
what the fuck? What the fuck, dude? I'm working here. Like you
hired me to do a job and I'm doing it. What? Can
I help you? Yeah. That would drive me
absolutely insane on
so many levels. I had a guy give me the finger once

(45:49):
because he kept asking to come sing a song with
me and I said no,
because I'm not going to let you come up here and sing Semi
Charmed Life because I don't know that you know the
words other than the chorus. And you're going to sit up
here and look like a drunk asshole. And I know the words, so
I'm going to sing it.

Leif (46:09):
Serena meets Patrick, who aggressively starts
flirting. Casey is pissed to see Olivia here with
Dan. Chuck pushes through the crowd to greet the police
who just arrive. Gossip Girl drops this
line and the best
costume award goes to New York's finest. This
party is a bust.

Steve (46:29):
Yeah, uh, again, I don't
think Chuck, I don't think it's a good idea
to call the cops on yourself. I think you should
have just shut the shit down. But you
do you, Chuck. And I'm sure it's going to work out for
Chuck.

Leif (46:46):
Act five begins. The police
identify the fake liquor license and start boxing up
the booze. Serena questions why Chuck
isn't trying to stop them. Chuck admits he called the
police and Blair explains the plan.
Unfortunately, the plan makes Serena look like even
more rip flop to Casey. Blair smugly
declares, remember when you chose Chuck?

(47:09):
Now I did too.

Steve (47:10):
Yeah, and that's where she's really.
Remember when I took advantage of our best friendship to be
able to pull all this bullshit? And then you stayed
and did your job. Now I'm gonna
screw you over. Also, I think that Serena's a little
overreacting that Chuck called the
cops. Like your people aren't in any trouble.

(47:31):
They're just at this super hot party that just got
busted the other side of it.
Why aren't any of the cops worried about all
of the underage people drinking here?
Blair, Serena and Chuck, right
there, the owner of this establishment,
who probably has alcohol on his breath, was
clearly being served here at his bar.

(47:54):
Underage. Do you think Chuck didn't talk
to the cops at all during that and didn't have a drink
all night?

Leif (48:00):
You know, uh, age is just a concept
construct.

Steve (48:06):
And nowhere is that more evident
than in Gossip Girl, where you have
characters like Aaron dating
high school girls who are at
bars getting drunk.

Leif (48:21):
Back at the penthouse, Rufus reveals he figured out
the trick or treaters were the same kids going back with different
costumes after the third time. Rufus,
for once, doesn't get mad at being schemed.
He instead suggests starting some new,
more adult Halloween traditions.
Good for Rufus.

Steve (48:39):
Maybe I just want to knock on one door.
Rufus. Did you just call her vagina a, uh, door
portal? Maybe.

Leif (48:50):
But yeah, good for Rufus for not overreacting
for once.

Steve (48:53):
Yes. And it was cute. Yeah. Lily.
Lily wanted you to have the holiday that you wanted
to have. I don't know why you guys just didn't
go to the loft and hand out candy
there like you've done every year. Because it's still there. And you
still could. You could make a, uh, tradition of chilling in
Brooklyn. Dan wasn't

(49:13):
there, so all those kids that would go there
depending on you year after year,
nothing.

Leif (49:20):
Those poor Brooklyn kids just can't get catch a break.

Steve (49:23):
Also, I feel like
Rufus at this point being
the Rufus Bass. Come on. King
size bars. If you really love Halloween the way
you say you can afford the king size bars for those
kids.

Leif (49:37):
He's worried about childhood diabetes.

Steve (49:39):
That's okay. You know what? Hell, I'm worried about adult
diabetes. I, uh, just came out
to my mom yesterday about my
diagnosis.
Uh, I held that for a couple months
because I didn't want to hear about it. And then someone else in the family,
my mom was like, one of
my siblings is on, uh,

(50:01):
Wegovy, I think, or one of the
weight loss medications. And
my mom said, yeah, it's pre diabetic. I'm like, oh, shit.
I'm not letting her go through this alone. So I was like, yeah, me too.

Leif (50:17):
Yeah. Dan and Olivia are making
out in the empty club. But before they leave,
Olivia admits Patrick wasn't her fake
boyfriend. And although she feels bad about how things
ended with Patrick, she really cares about
Dan.

Steve (50:32):
Yeah, I thought this was kind of
silly of her and. Kind of silly
writing to lie right off the bat, but then to be
like, it was a lie and I'm caught.
Now I feel like honesty from the start.
Like, yeah, we were dating but that's acting. That isn't
real. That's still a movie. We had

(50:53):
our private time when we were private. But
that's acting and lighting and movie.
Which she does explain in this scene,
uh, to which he also brings up
the. Now, I don't know. At the
time, I don't recall
when Caitlyn Jenner came out
as trans, but he does mention the Bruce

(51:15):
Jenner biopic.

Leif (51:17):
Crashing Patrick's career.

Steve (51:19):
Crashing his career. Yes. So
I. And I meant to look that up and forgot,
but was that.
Were they dead? Naming Caitlyn Jenner,
or was that not a thing yet? Or was that just
starting to reveal?

Leif (51:36):
I feel like there was. She
was public. He publicly came out
April 2015.

Steve (51:43):
Okay. So I was thinking, okay, six years later,
okay, so, no, it's just he had. He was
terrible in a Bruce Jenner biopic,
which is even better.

Leif (51:55):
Serena interrupts Dan and Olivia and pulls them into
another room and tricks them into kissing in front of the
paparazzi. In the spur of the moment,
Serena tells the press that she is dating Patrick
Roberts. Patrick seems to be all in for it and
pulls Serena in for a dramatic kiss.
Gossip Girl narrates.
You really proved yourself with this one, S.

(52:18):
Looks like your work troubles have just turned into a
labor of love.

Steve (52:23):
I don't remember if we addressed it, but when they
first met, Patrick says, oh,
if I knew who I was talking to, I would have been on the phone longer.
Some kind of sexual harassment to
Serena about how beautiful
she is, which Serena, of course, ate up.

(52:43):
But, uh, you guys should kiss now.
Okay. Oh, well,
all right. Obviously. Oh, what's
that curtain doing there? It was
just so laid out and
so goofy. And
Serena. It's just,
again, the narcissism of

(53:04):
Serena. I'm dating him. He'll
obviously just go along with this, because look at
Serena. He'll obviously want to date Serena
Vander Woodson. And there's also
the thing that really struck
me. Well, if they're not together, who's
Patrick dating? Who fucking
cares?

Leif (53:26):
Obviously, the press does.

Steve (53:28):
Uh, and more so that's
the whole point of this
episode. It's just, wow, that
celebrity's nothing if he's not dating anybody.
Maybe he just isn't a good actor.

Leif (53:43):
I think that is the point.

Steve (53:45):
Yeah. Uh, I, uh, mean, exactly. Some
careers should fade.

Leif (53:50):
Also, it seems like a conflict of
interest that Casey is representing both of them.

Steve (53:56):
Yeah, it really is.

Leif (53:59):
She's, like, sacrificing the more popular client
to bring up the less popular one.

Steve (54:03):
Yeah. Which is really Bad
for Olivia.

Leif (54:08):
Yeah. We move into the
epilogue. Perez Hilton gets his second
name drop of the episode as Blair and Chuck are celebrating
their win. Cher has seemingly passed this
hurdle, but they both admit they each will
always have a duplicitous nature.

Steve (54:25):
Perez Hilton. How long
were they around before
this? I feel like I first started
hearing about. Is it a him?
Yeah, I feel like I first started hearing about
him around
this time.

Leif (54:44):
So I actually did look this up and, uh, he officially
started blogging in 2005, but I think this is
around when he started getting popular. Okay.

Steve (54:53):
Yeah, I know that now he
is a, uh, celebrity gossip
go to. So I didn't
know at that time. Okay,
that makes sense. That's the same timeline that I would
have anticipated.

Leif (55:10):
Apparently, Vanessa is in Albany for her
sister's gig, so Dan and Olivia have the dorm to
themselves. Although even when Vanessa comes back, Dan
has a whole ass loft to himself.

Steve (55:21):
Why go to the dorm? You live alone?

Leif (55:26):
I like the connective tissue that Vanessa's band. Her
sister's band is still a thing.

Steve (55:30):
Yes, that Her.

Leif (55:32):
The lesbian.

Steve (55:32):
The lesbian punk band. Which I believe they're just calling punk
bands.
Uh, but again, like, this show is
laid out many times. Didn't they also have the lesbian
taco bar or something like that? At
one point, Nate and Vanessa were talking about it.

Leif (55:50):
Yeah, something about lesbian tacos.
Jenny gets a confirmation text from Sawyer as she is
arriving home. Eric is already hurt as
well. Jenny tries to apologize and
wants to keep their home and school life separate.
Eric sets a justified boundary that he no longer
wants to be around her in either world.

Steve (56:10):
Yeah, yeah, Jenny, you fucked
up. You sat there, made
nice while you knew his
boyfriend was getting egged and you didn't have to do anything.
You really could have found another alternative that just
didn't do anything.

Leif (56:27):
For once, Casey is actually praising
Serena. However, she does point out
that her job now includes publicly dating Patrick
Roberts. Serena, he turned down Brown to
be a literal escort.

Steve (56:44):
And she's like, oh, it doesn't sound like it's much work to
me.

Leif (56:48):
Uh, yeah, You've known.

Steve (56:51):
You've known this guy for 30 seconds.

Leif (56:54):
And he already sexually harassed you.

Steve (56:56):
Did. He already sexually harassed you in his opening
bid to meet you, he sexually
harassed you. And you're like, well, this guy doesn't seem too
bad to date.

Leif (57:06):
Uh, poor Serena.

Steve (57:10):
I. I'd say that. Only she's. Again, it's
the narcissism that. It's just.
I can. I'm
so invaluable to
everybody. Uh, that Obviously this
man is going to want me and, and be the perfect
person for me.

Leif (57:28):
Chuck and Blair are still being affectionate.
Chuck and Horace discuss plans for getting around the
ABC's restrictions. Serena comes
back, uh, into the club and gets Casey's
purse. Blair tries to hire Serena to be the
club's publicist. But Serena is still pissed off at ah,
Blaire choosing Chuck despite having benefited

(57:48):
from it. Gossip Girl begins her
monologue. Like all good things,
the witching hour must come to an end. True
natures are revealed.

Steve (57:58):
First of all, Chuck, your idea is pretty innovative. I
love the. The key. The key to
entry speakeasy.
It's neat, it's cool. Keep the
front door locked and everyone comes in through the back door.

Leif (58:12):
It's not very intimate because he actually mentions what? He's copying it.
He's copying it from something.

Steve (58:17):
Oh, is he? Yeah, I guess he did. I like the idea.
I like the gumption behind
that idea.

Leif (58:24):
The other thing, it also would not work in the 21st
century at all.

Steve (58:28):
You don't think key card.

Leif (58:32):
Yeah, but people would talk about it and oh yeah.
Pictures and.

Steve (58:36):
Yeah. And be all over the Internet, you
know.

Leif (58:39):
Huh.

Steve (58:39):
You have like check phones at the door and stuff like
that. The other thing was
Serena. They need a publicist. Your shit with
Blair has nothing to do with it. And yes, I know
you're mad that Chuck called the cops, but that worked in your favor
too, so.

Leif (58:55):
Oh yeah, she. I think it was more
Blair wanted to hire her away from Casey. She
didn't want to hire Casey. She want to hire Serena to
be a publicist just for Chuck.

Steve (59:07):
And better yet, Serena,
because Casey sucks.

Leif (59:12):
Yeah, but it kind of defeats the purpose of getting a
real job and.

Steve (59:16):
The fact that she does even say Casey sucks.
But she's my boss. Mhm.

Leif (59:21):
You're supposed to be my best friend.

Steve (59:23):
Yeah. And Serena does love her
job. She seems to really like what she's doing,
despite hating her boss who sucks.
That's a note in here somewhere.

Leif (59:34):
Dan and Olivia are under the covers getting hot and heavy. And
Gossip Girl continues. Tricks are turned
into treats.

Steve (59:42):
Good for them.

Leif (59:43):
Chuck and Blair are also turning up the heat while
Gossip Girl states. And taking off
costumes is as much fun as putting them
on.

Steve (59:52):
Yeah. Good for them.

Leif (59:54):
Yeah. Jenny takes a long
look at herself in the mirror before opening her closet and
starting the purge that Lily wanted her to do at the beginning of the
episode. She even reluctantly tosses her
sewing machine aside, metaphorically cutting
the last ties to her former self.
Gossip Girl concludes with everything
returns to the way it was. Except for little

(01:00:17):
girls who forget that Halloween only lasts
one night. They wear their costumes for so
long, pretty soon they can't even
remember who they were before they put them on.

Steve (01:00:29):
Yeah. Jenny tossing your
sewing machine that you drug out of the house
with you when you ran away.

Leif (01:00:37):
Yeah, uh, that was rough.

Steve (01:00:39):
And so there's a big part of this I blame on
Rufus. Had Lily, had Jenny
had been allowed to follow
her dreams last season
and actually fulfill all of the
stuff that she was on her way to
doing. She right now would still be making
clothes, even as, uh, she would have a

(01:01:01):
job doing that. She would be working
while finishing high school
homeschooled, but would be doing all of this
stuff. Jenny would still be making
clothes and still love making clothes
and wouldn't need to be running a school.

Leif (01:01:18):
Yeah. She wouldn't even be at school.

Steve (01:01:19):
She wouldn't be at school. None of this would be, uh. This
whole thing was the problem in the
first place. And Jenny said to Rufus over and over
that this is the problem with this school.
Jenny laid it out why she didn't want to be
there, and now she has to be,
because Rufus refused to listen and

(01:01:39):
burnt all of her opportunities to do the
thing she loved. And now here she is,
shoehorned into this role
that she doesn't want to be in. Losing her
friends and not having any real friends anymore.
Because our minions aren't friends. They're just minions.

Leif (01:01:57):
Yeah. The good music streak continues. The scene
is scored, uh, by delta spirits. People.
Come on.

Steve (01:02:03):
Mhm.

Leif (01:02:04):
And the full kind of quote there from the Gossip Girl
is like all
good things, the witching hour must come to an
end. True natures are revealed,
tricks turn into treats, and taking out
costumes is as much fun as putting them on.
Everything returns to the way it was, except for little

(01:02:24):
girls who forget that Halloween only lasts
one night. They wear their costumes for
so long, pretty soon they can't remember
who they were before they put them on
exo. Exo.
Gossip Girl. And that is our
episode. So what's coming next?

Steve (01:02:44):
I mean, Jenny's exit is
barreling towards us at this point. I feel
that she's escalating in her
behavior and
drawing a bigger wedge between her and
Eric. I feel like that is going
to snowball into
Taylor's exit, because I know it happens this

(01:03:06):
season.

Leif (01:03:07):
At some point you say so.

Steve (01:03:10):
That's. I thought that's what you said.

Leif (01:03:12):
I never said that.

Steve (01:03:13):
Oh, uh, for some reason, I thought at one point you told me that she
left this season, But I Said.

Leif (01:03:17):
She did leave the show, but I've never said when it is.

Steve (01:03:20):
Oh, I guess I just always assumed it was this
season. But all that aside,
I know her exit is sending her to boarding school
and her behavior is escalating. So I
feel like there's going to be a big
explosion coming here with Jenny
specifically. I. I can't imagine
this Dan Olivia thing goes on

(01:03:42):
too, too much longer. I
mostly say that because Hilary
Duff, I'm sure isn't a full cast
member now and is only
going to be around for so long. That tends to be
how this show operates.
I feel like she's definitely had her three
episodes, which they often do

(01:04:05):
sort of three episode arcs with a lot of
the guests, I've noticed.
So I feel like that's kind of wrapping up. I thought
Blair and Chuck, I thought this was going to bring them
down between last week and this week.
But then they end off like, look, we just can't scheme against
each other. This is why we work.
Let's trust each other. Even though I'm never fully

(01:04:28):
going to trust you. But I guess that's just where we are. Here we go.
Now we're back together again. So I'm
really thrown by the
longitude. I'm really thrown by
how long Chuck and Blair have
lasted. I don't think any relationship on the
show has lasted this
long. This is what, six

(01:04:49):
episodes now of them.

Leif (01:04:52):
Dan and Serena were basically together for the.
Basically, uh, all season one.

Steve (01:04:57):
Oh, I guess so. I kept feeling like they were together than
not then.

Leif (01:05:02):
Weird like that. They had a lot of like false
starts but they were always going
trending towards dating at the beginning of the season
one. And then work together until
they broke up at the end.

Steve (01:05:15):
Yeah. And then got back together a couple times
too in season two also.

Leif (01:05:20):
Mhm.

Steve (01:05:21):
Definitely for Blair though. Well,
Blair and Nate were together for the whole first half of
the first season too. I guess that
Blair and Nate were together.

Leif (01:05:31):
I think they basically broke up as
episode seven officially. And then
they got back together for a couple episodes
and then broke up again at episode uh,
thirteen.

Steve (01:05:44):
Yeah, I thought thirteen is the one that I
remember them. That's where she sleeps with Chuck.

Leif (01:05:49):
Yeah, she sleeps with chuck in
episode seven.

Steve (01:05:53):
Oh, Nate finds out about it in 13. That's
thin line between nut, uh, chicken.

Leif (01:05:58):
Yeah. Because they break up and she immediately
goes and fucks Chuck.

Steve (01:06:03):
Yeah. And then.

Leif (01:06:04):
And then, but it's a secret. And they get back
together at Tellia, which I believe is episode 10.
And then they're together for three episodes. Again.

Steve (01:06:12):
And then the Nate finds out. Yeah. And
they break up for good.

Leif (01:06:16):
Yeah.

Steve (01:06:17):
Yes. Yeah. So again, they were together for.
So.
Yes. Those relationships were longer,
I feel like since season
one then maybe. No. Nothing has lasted
more than two or three episodes. Even the ones
that seemed like they were, like a couple times when Dan and
Serena started trending back together. And then it would be

(01:06:37):
like the next episode. Oh, well, this is why we can't date.
Whereas we've had a few
this season of this is why we can't date. But
we're going to anyway. The whole Chuck,
I'm Chuck Bass, and you need to be better than this to
deserve me. When Blair was spiraling. High
school spiraling. And then last week with

(01:06:58):
Blair and the kiss and
the scheming against Chuck and. And, you know,
needing Blair needing to hear, it's not about the kiss, it's
about the scheming. But I. I'm
now no longer just waiting for them to blow
up, because now I see that they keep finding
ways to make it work, if that makes sense.
So I think that they've got more time left than I

(01:07:20):
originally anticipated.

Leif (01:07:22):
So how do you think they're going to break out, Dan and Olivia?

Steve (01:07:26):
I feel like that's an easy thing. Olivia has to
go away somewhere. Olivia has a shoot
somewhere. There are
many different ways Dan gets judgy about
something in the Hollywood profession,
like he started to in this episode. That
could have spiraled for Dan.

Leif (01:07:46):
I mean, I think that's something to rightfully be kind of
judgy about.

Steve (01:07:49):
You're not wrong. You're not wrong. I'm not blaming
Dan, but the Hollywoodness
of it all is gonna get to him. It has to.

Leif (01:07:58):
Well, uh, let's go ahead and get into some segments
this week in fan. And we jumped into the wayback machine
to travel to the fan forum from
2009. Hello
there, Peabody here. And this is the
wayback M machine for traveling through time. And this is
my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman.

Steve (01:08:18):
Hello.

Leif (01:08:18):
Good boy. Overall, more
positive than negative.
Yeah, Most people liked it.
They, too, also noticed the obvious Twilight
references.

Steve (01:08:30):
Oh, yeah. All over the place.

Leif (01:08:33):
Patrick Roberts or Robert Pattison.

Steve (01:08:34):
Yeah, yeah. Patrick Roberts was.

Leif (01:08:39):
Dan and Olivia are actually cute.

Steve (01:08:42):
Yeah, I. I agree.

Leif (01:08:44):
They're fun.

Steve (01:08:44):
Yeah.

Leif (01:08:45):
Dan and Nate are also fun.

Steve (01:08:47):
Yeah. Oh, always. Always.

Leif (01:08:50):
Everyone looked great this episode.
Sure.

Steve (01:08:54):
I. I can't think of anyone who
didn't. Chuck's hair was good. This episode, too
Pretty, even mix between.

Leif (01:09:02):
Eric and team Jenny. Although one user
did say that Jenny looks like she smells like
farts.

Steve (01:09:10):
I don't get that. I don't think she
does.

Leif (01:09:15):
I've seen people with smell like farts. They don't look like Jenny.

Steve (01:09:17):
Yeah. I feel
like I'm pretty evenly split
between Eric and Jenny for this
episode as a whole. That
I feel like Jenny is in a tough position
and being shitty because of the position
she's in. I feel like Eric

(01:09:39):
let things take place that forced this
issue and rocked the boat for
Jenny. Jonathan didn't need to do
what he did.

Leif (01:09:48):
Yeah. They were intentionally provoking a, uh,
reaction.

Steve (01:09:51):
Yeah. And got one. And then they were mad about it.

Leif (01:09:54):
And I was definitely more team Jenny. The one thing I
would say, I would have gone again after Eric. I mean, after
Jonathan. From the beginning.

Steve (01:10:01):
From the beginning. Yes. That it was Jonathan who did
it, not Eric.

Leif (01:10:05):
Yeah. The. The person who says that, uh, Jenny looks like she's swallowing
farts has clearly never been to a warhammer
convention.

Steve (01:10:16):
I was. I was thinking, you know, I've played in
enough game stores to know what someone smells
like. Smells like farts looks like.

Leif (01:10:25):
And last note was Serena has pretty much
forgotten about Eric, you know, the whole reason she returned to New
York.

Steve (01:10:31):
Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And
now, once again, Eric. At least Eric
has Jonathan. He doesn't have Lily.
Lily's like, oh, damn. Well, you should apologize to my
kid that you did that to. But I get it.
But how dare he?

Leif (01:10:50):
Going on over to episode grades. I went
first last time, so you were up first this week.

Steve (01:10:55):
All right, Episode grade. I gave this one a solid B.
I didn't really love the Rufus
Lilly storyline. I thought there were a few
other points that it would just be. There were
just kind of holes
maybe. But overall, I was entertained, so I
gave it a B. I didn't buy.

Leif (01:11:15):
In the Rufus and Lily storyline. It was only, what, three scenes out of
40 some.

Steve (01:11:19):
Yeah. Yeah.

Leif (01:11:20):
Overall, it was a good episode. Wasn't
one of the top tier, so I, uh, kept it, uh, at a B
plus.

Steve (01:11:26):
Yeah. Yeah. I feel like this is a real middle of the
road. They. They did. They gave us everything
we wanted from a Gossip Girl episode. But it
wasn't thin line between Chuck and Nate
or it wasn't Poison Ivy.

Leif (01:11:42):
Let's get on over to stock watch. Who do you got
going up, Serena?

Steve (01:11:47):
I have Chuck and Blair both going
up by the end. Dan and Olivia
both going up. I have Rufus
going up. Got his Halloween.
And late Patrick
has a new girlfriend. His career is back on track.
I have Horace having a nice new job.

(01:12:07):
Uh, and that is everyone. I have Going up, I
had pretty.

Leif (01:12:11):
Close to the same list. I did not have Patrick. I just
didn't really think of him. Uh, but I did have Chuck and Blair
because they were, they worked things out. The end. I
had Jenny going up because she is taking
power. And you know, even though
I didn't like everything she did, she is definitely
making a power play. Rufus

(01:12:31):
and Lily, they go up because they had, you know, cute little
thing going on and no one freaked out and everything worked
out. Dan and Olivia for the same thing. They added their little bump
in the road, but it worked out fine.
Serena, because she's finally starting to impress
Kayce.

Steve (01:12:46):
Mhm.

Leif (01:12:47):
Don't know how long that's gonna last. But now that she's dating
Patrick and then yes, I also had Horace as
well because Horace is awesome.

Steve (01:12:53):
Horace is awesome. Uh,
so I actually did have Jenny going
down. And for me it
was, uh,
your take is completely accurate that she has
now taken control and
is the boss now. I
kind of saw it as the old Jenny

(01:13:16):
is done. Uh, the old Jenny is dead.
And so that's sort of a rock bottom in a way for
me. So I had Jenny going down
because of that because the old Jenny is now
gone. At least all
the symbolism is there of getting rid of that
Jenny. So I feel like this is her

(01:13:37):
reboot starting from a new zero.
Sort of that. I. Oh
no. I also had Eric and Jonathan going down because
they got, uh, bullied hard.

Leif (01:13:47):
So I, I did have Eric and Jonathan because yeah, they,
they got bullied hard. I also had Jack Bass because his
scheme failed. Oh, and
originally I had Nate as neutral,
but on second watch I had to give him down because he
shamed Serena just for having a job.
Check your privilege, Nate. Check your privilege.

Steve (01:14:08):
Check your privilege, guy. Guy
who. Guy who didn't have a home
a season ago, who
only. Who only had a house in
the Hamptons.
But here's the best outfits from the last
episode we've seen.

Leif (01:14:31):
That is it for Stockwatch. Who do you have for
best outfit?

Steve (01:14:35):
Um, that party, the Blair's party dress
that Chuck got her. I loved that. The white
and the frills on it. And then
of course tied together with the rest of her flapper gear.
I thought she looked fantastic.

Leif (01:14:50):
So I also had Blair, but her pre
party outfit where she was at the bar and a couple
other scenes. It uh, was like a salmon colored
belted skirt with a, uh,
pattern blouse from Millie.

Steve (01:15:03):
Yeah, yeah. Also really cool.
And shout out to Serena's dress. And I feel like she had
the same thing on throughout most of the episode.
But that dress she was wearing, at least throughout the first
half, it was really, it was a nice dress.

Leif (01:15:19):
Her party dress. Uh, the
mandatory cleavage recommendation keeps me upset.

Steve (01:15:25):
Yep. Uh, we were reviewing your contract
and we realized there's only 3.5 inches of
cleavage in all of these dresses you've been wearing. So we're going
to need to make this next 110 so that the average
cleavage length ends up at the 7 that we agreed
on. Yes.

Leif (01:15:42):
That is it for segments, though. What do you got
to plug this week?

Steve (01:15:47):
I don't have a whole lot to plug
right now. I was watching I'm trying
to get into Invincible. My kids are trying to make me
get into Invincible. I loved the first season, was
okay with the second and now I'm just kind of
detached, so I'm trying to
watch that. But I'm also really into the Daredevil. The
new, uh, Daredevil born

(01:16:09):
again. You can also find me on
Instagram and TikTok Steve
Marshon M A r C H I O n
Or you can find me on bluesky at the Weed
Wizard. And I believe that's all
I'm plugging for me.

Leif (01:16:26):
I was a last minute fill in on Far in the
Fable. So that episode is already out. It is
season eight, episode 20 titled Beast.
So that was a fun time on it. It's a, uh,
podcast. Talking about Smallville is my second time on
the podcast and yeah, we had a fun
time.

Steve (01:16:44):
Nice.

Leif (01:16:45):
And if you want to follow me on social media, you can
find me on Instagram and bluesky
hotcapicola. That's H o
t C a P I c
o L a And if you want to follow the
podcast, we're on threads TikTok and
Instagram. Um, at non judging Breakfast Pod. You
can also find links to our

(01:17:06):
Patreon and our Discord server on our
website nonjudging breakfastpod.com
and if you'd like.

Steve (01:17:13):
To get in touch with us, we would love to hear your thoughts. So
please go ahead and send us an email at non
judging breakfast
podmail.com we would love
to hear what you have to say and read your thoughts on air.
Also while you're listening, if you don't mind
hitting that like button, hitting the subscribe or
follow and then even leaving us a comment, especially

(01:17:34):
in Spotify or Apple podcasts because that really
helps our visibility and gets more people
to listen. And also while you're at it,
go ahead and tell your friends what you're listening to. Let us
Be your weekly conversation about
the things you listen to about Gossip Girl that
you never caught the first six times you watched the show.

Leif (01:17:55):
And we will be back next week to talk about season
three, episode eight, the
Grandfather Part two.

Steve (01:18:03):
Yeah, I'm excited
when I saw the name of it. The
Grandfather Part two. I
low key love grandfather
just because of how
horrible and unrepentant
unrepentant he is.
He's Emperor Palpatine

(01:18:25):
in New York and I
love that.

Leif (01:18:30):
And the Max episode description reads,
olivia appears on the Jimmy Fallon's talk
show.

Steve (01:18:36):
I actually did see that
blurb when just on
hbo. The. And I'm
excited for that too. I'm not a
huge Fallon talk
show fan.

Leif (01:18:50):
I can't stand him.

Steve (01:18:52):
I. I loved him at a
time and then he just, he
really wore on me. So at this
point, and it, uh, was even a
few years before the whole thing, that he apparently treats his
staff like shit. Which when that stuff comes out, I'm like, really?
A talk show host treats their staff like shit? I only

(01:19:12):
thought that was all of them.
Again, like I said earlier, I don't feel like you get to a
certain level of fame without treating people like
shit.

Leif (01:19:22):
And I mean
a talk show and, you know, it's their
assistance, you're supposed to order them.
That's part of the job description.

Steve (01:19:32):
It really is. And you have a
show that has to meet certain
quality and certain time. And
I've worked in theater, only
high school and college theater. But even in those
situations when it's at
a certain level of expectation,
you get yelled at.

Leif (01:19:54):
It's high pressure.

Steve (01:19:55):
It is. You get yelled at. And again, I'm not making
excuses for him being shitty. I'm
more saying I'm never
surprised when someone says a
celebrity, especially someone who's on a
show that that is recorded five days
a week, that has to be recorded and aired
that night. That's high

(01:20:17):
pressure. And shitty people get those jobs
because they are shitty to people. Yeah.

Leif (01:20:23):
Well, until next time. You know you love
us.

Steve (01:20:27):
Xoxo.
Every time you walk away, run away you take a
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away run away you take a
Every time you walk away, run away you take a

(01:20:47):
oh, it seems I'm walking right to
your.
Door.
My heart 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

(01:21:10):
piece of me with with you there
never feels right when I'm out here on
my own

(01:21:32):
I left last night and it feels like
way too long m
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 you there

(01:21:54):
every time you walk away or run away you take a
come back.
To me.
Smile and you'll make my.
Life complete.

(01:22:17):
uh Every time you walk away or run away you take
a piece of me with you there

(01:22:40):
piece of me with you you there
uh Every time you walk away or run
away you take a piece of me with you
there mhm Every time you walk
away or run away you take a piece of me

(01:23:00):
with you there every
time you walk away or run away you take a piece of
me you with you there.

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S3E07 - "How to Succeed In Bassness"

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}S3E07 - "How to Succeed In Bassness"