April 28, 2025 • 54 mins
This week on the Non Judging Breakfast Pod, Leif and Steve are back to unravel the tangled web of Gossip Girl Season 3, Episode 8, titled "The Grandfather: Part II." As political ambitions rise and friendships falter, our favorite Upper East Siders find themselves navigating a landscape filled with betrayal, scandal, and unexpected alliances.
Join Leif and Steve as they dissect the fiery showdown between Blair and Serena, which escalates to cake-throwing proportions! Meanwhile, Nate grapples with loyalty and ambition as he takes the fall for a scheme gone awry, and Chuck steps up as the unlikely voice of reason amidst the chaos. With a new congressman in town and a high-class call girl stirring the pot, the stakes have never been higher.
Expect plenty of laughs, insights, and a sprinkle of nostalgia as our dynamic duo serves up the latest gossip from the show that defined a generation. So pour yourself a mimosa, grab a slice of cake (if you dare), and settle in for another deliciously dramatic episode that you won't want to miss!
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):
Congressman, why are you hoarding drinks for this miner?
Steve (00:06):
Now that I am in. Now that I am in
office, I will make my first
move.
And so, uh, the stuff immediately becomes like a
Kennedy creeper the second he wins the election.
Hide that blondie.
Leif (00:30):
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. I'm the newbie, the
greenhorn, the, uh, I don't know, leaf. What are we calling
me now in season three?
Leif (00:52):
I don't know, but I need a friend, stat.
Steve (00:54):
Oh, I'm your friend.
Leif (00:56):
Please. I'm not friends with staff.
Steve (00:59):
Um, so here's the
deal, folks. Leif has been watching Gossip Girl
since it first started, and I'm diving in for the
first time. And together, we're your dynamic duo,
bringing you all the drama, romance, and
sometimes questionable fashion choices of this
iconic 2007 series.
Leif (01:19):
Bring your magnifying glasses because each week we're
discussing 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 fandom moments too, because what's a
deep dive without a little drama?
Steve (01:37):
And since we're all about inclusivity here at the non
judging breakfast pod, there's always room for you at the
non judging breakfast table. So go ahead and grab
a coffee and grab your mimosa or
go talk to Chuck's dealer and let's go ahead and get this thing
started.
Leif (01:53):
Let's do it. As of this recording, the
good cop, bad cop season is over.
Steve (01:59):
Okay, so that was the season finale. I
just watched it for one an eight episode
season on a network I thought was interesting. Is
CW doing that regularly?
Leif (02:11):
I think everyone's doing that now, uh, at this point.
Steve (02:13):
Yeah, I guess so. It
just felt like it's funny.
Last a couple days ago, we talked before the
show about how you're kind, you're. You're
off that you're not really
liking it that much anymore.
Leif (02:29):
Yeah, it's not really bad, but just nothing
new. And yeah, for an eight episode
season, there's a bit, quite a bit of filler it felt
like.
Steve (02:38):
Yes.
Leif (02:39):
And it was written like a 22 episode show.
Steve (02:42):
Yes, exactly. And
the last episode just kind of
tried to wrap everything up, but then leave
this Cliffhanger that kind of takes the
whole show in a new sort of
direction.
Leif (02:57):
Yeah.
Steve (02:58):
So I was. I did find the
most recent episode to be a little more. What the fuck. I
was enjoying it because like I said last time,
shows like Psych and Burn
Notice, those sort of
similar vein shows, I really enjoy
them. This last episode really kind
(03:18):
of was a turn. A weird
turn.
Leif (03:22):
Yeah, uh, it was just kind of boring. The last two episodes
I took more than one sitting to watch.
Steve (03:27):
Yeah, you had mentioned that, but.
Leif (03:30):
So we haven't seen it yet. But as of this, when you
guys are listening to this, the final season
of Yule have been released. So some of
you uh, have already binged the complete
season by now, which.
Steve (03:43):
I'm waiting to watch you until we're
done. This because I'm gonna operate under the
headcanon of Dan
Humphrey post. Gossip Girl
going crazy.
Leif (03:55):
Yeah, I know a lot of people subscribe to that.
I'm not a big fan of that, Harry.
Steve (04:00):
I'm just going into it with that headcanon.
I also, I wanted uh, to take a second.
This past week we lost uh, a friend
of ours, Nolan Garner, he
plays in the band. He played in the band Turtle
Ridge for a while. A really good friend of
ours. And we just really wanted
(04:21):
to make mention and give
a. Our moment of memorial
to Nolan. Super sad. Um,
died in a parachuting accident.
Leif (04:32):
Definitely sad. And ah, definitely thoughts out to his
family.
Steve (04:36):
Yes. And his family and his friends. One
thing that I always say about him is that I didn't
know the guy super well. I knew him
more through these friends of mine. But anytime you
would talk to Nolan, he would treat you like your best friend.
Leif (04:50):
Yeah, he was the nicest guy in the world.
Steve (04:51):
Yeah. And it's funny because our friend
Colin said to me, you know, people
always say that they're such a great guy when someone dies.
But with Nolan, it's the God's honest
truth that he really was just
this shining. And he always
made you feel like he was your biggest fan.
Leif (05:11):
I mhm.
Steve (05:11):
Would get done playing and he would just
pick through everything I did and all the bright
spots and so great loss to the
Philadelphia music community and
to music in general.
Leif (05:25):
Indeed.
Steve (05:26):
And our thoughts with the families and
friends.
Leif (05:30):
On a more positive note, we are here to talk
about Gossip Girls Season 3 Episode
8 the Grandfather Part
Do.
Steve (05:40):
Part 2 Part Du Part D
Part 2 yes.
Leif (05:45):
Original air date was November 2,
2009 the Deuce. Yes, and of
course it was based on The Godfather Part 2.
Steve (05:54):
Right.
Leif (05:56):
No explanation necessary. I Think.
Steve (05:58):
No.
Leif (05:59):
Ah. So this episode was written by Len K.
Rosenfeld, who did two episodes in season
two, episode seven, Chuck in Real
Life, and episode 17, Carnal
Knowledge. So, uh, one good episode and one not so good
episode.
Steve (06:14):
Which one was the not so good one? The Carnal Knowledge.
Leif (06:17):
Yeah, that was right in the middle of the Miss Car plotline.
Steve (06:20):
Yeah. Right. Yes.
Yes. And then.
Leif (06:24):
And yeah, Chuck and not the good
episode. We got Blair and Dan fighting in
the carriage.
Steve (06:30):
Right?
Leif (06:30):
Yeah, it was the first episode. It was not good at all.
Steve (06:33):
Right. Yes. When. When she first
gets fired and.
Leif (06:38):
But then Chuck in real life was the episode
where Dan and Chuck go out on their
little play date.
Steve (06:44):
Yes. Uh, the Charlie Trout. Yes.
Dinner. Yes.
Leif (06:50):
Uh, this episode was directed by Mark Pisnarski's
Back Again pilot maker.
Uh, last episode he directed. Is this the second episode of
season three already? Uh, he did a 304. Dan de
Floret.
Steve (07:02):
Okay, all right. It was
fine.
Leif (07:06):
Why don't you give us that vulture recap?
Steve (07:08):
All right, let's go. Serena and Blair
are at each other's throats in a way they haven't been since
the first season. Why? We
don't actually remember, but that's fine. Whatever it
is was a, uh, red herring. The hatred
these two feel for one another is so passionate it
nearly resembles love, as evidenced by the way
(07:29):
Serena spontaneously pushes Blair
face first into a cake. And the
powerful shot at the end wherein Blair comes
out of the hotel for no other reason
than to make meaningful eye contact with
Serena before turning on her heel
and storming away in a gesture that's
meant to signify how far they've grown
(07:51):
apart. Their other friends are growing
and changing too. Nate has become
cold and politically calculating, but
not so cold and calculating that he pushes Vanessa
into the Hudson river when she threatens to thwart
his cousin's campaign for Congress.
Chuck, oddly, has developed into
a compassionate, bridge building adult. And
(08:14):
Dan Humphrey has come to enjoy dating a rich,
famous person. Although other than
that, he's still pretty much
an awkward dork.
Leif (08:24):
Poor bathroom boy.
Steve (08:25):
Yeah, poor bathroom boy.
We'll get to that. I
have thoughts.
Leif (08:35):
Let's go ahead and get into it then. Uh, act one begins
with a little montage and a Gossip Girl
monologue. In
Manhattan, some parties are VIP
only. Others are strictly private. But
some parties are political. And those
lines are drawn by the most established of
establishment. And once those lines are drawn,
(08:57):
they can never be crossed.
Steve (09:00):
I felt like the Gossip Girl monologue was
sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. This was one of those
forced ones where it's like. But some parties
are m. Political.
We've got to fit this in.
Leif (09:13):
That's the ticket, you know, like the political
ticket.
Steve (09:16):
Like the political one.
Leif (09:20):
So, uh, we get the opening montage of
happy couples sleeping in and Blair snapping at
bellboys. We start the episode with Serena having a
phone conversation with KC Serena needs to
get Patrick into the Vanderbilt party or else she's
fired. At this point, Casey's one
redeeming quality is she hasn't fucked any of these teenagers
yet. Facts.
Steve (09:42):
It's funny because Casey threatens to fire people
like the Dread Pirate Roberts.
Good work, Serena.
Leif (09:49):
Sleep well.
Steve (09:50):
I'll probably fire you in the morning.
Leif (09:52):
Yes.
Dan and Olivia wake up in the dorm room.
I smell trouble brewing because Olivia clearly doesn't
want Dan to see her interview on Kimmel. As Dan is
walking to the bathroom to brush his teeth, a random student
refers to a confused Dan as bathroom
boy.
Steve (10:11):
Fallon, you got your jimmies backwards in
the write up.
Leif (10:14):
Oh, uh, yeah.
Yep. I said Kimmel, didn't I? Yeah, it's Fallon.
Steve (10:21):
But.
Leif (10:21):
But they're the same thing.
Steve (10:25):
They're not too different. But yes,
it was.
Leif (10:28):
Kimmel's a lot more ashamed of his past.
Steve (10:31):
Yes. Facts.
Uh, oi, oi, oi.
Leif (10:36):
He really likes to hide his time on the man show.
Steve (10:41):
Meanwhile, Adam Crolla is like, what?
Yeah. Olivia clearly doesn't want him seeing
this. And it is already
just silliness.
Leif (10:54):
And, uh, normally I wouldn't necessarily bring this up, but it's.
It's such. It was so noticeable.
Steve (11:00):
Yeah.
Leif (11:00):
That we have, uh, you know, the last couple. I feel like there's.
There was a note from the network. You got to diversify the
casting here. You get Horace last
episode, and then you have. You actually had two
African, uh, Americans speaking parts of this episode.
Steve (11:14):
Yeah, yeah.
Leif (11:15):
The random student and also the woman from the
TV network.
Steve (11:19):
Yeah. Yes.
Leif (11:21):
Uh, good for them.
Steve (11:23):
Yeah.
Leif (11:24):
Finally. But it was just so noticeable.
Steve (11:26):
Yeah.
Leif (11:26):
Because it's normally just so white.
Steve (11:28):
Yes. Yes. With a couple with the
occasional Vanessa thrown in.
Leif (11:33):
Yeah, maybe.
Looks like the Vanderbilt victory party will be the
first hosted. In the ballroom of the Empire
Hotel, Chuck is meeting with Nate, the
grandfather, Trip and Maureen to discuss the
details. It looks like Vanessa is parlaying
her connections with Nate to get some great footage of Trip's
(11:54):
campaign. However, thanks to Serena blowing up their
plans to defraud the Buckleys, trip is an
extreme long shot to win.
Steve (12:03):
Oh, Vanessa is in this episode
at the beginning, uh,
when Dan and Olivia are in bed and they're
like, wow. Well, we keep getting the room to ourselves. Vanessa's never
around because she's doing this thing with Trip. And I was like,
sweet. No Vanessa for another episode. And then
no. Yeah. Um, they teased us.
(12:23):
She is here. Well,
I doubt she does anything to ruin anything.
Leif (12:31):
I don't blame her.
Steve (12:32):
I don't blame her. This is not a.
Vanessa did the wrong thing.
Leif (12:37):
Serena comes to the dorm to deliver a DVD of
the Fallon interview. Before the two women can
reveal, uh, to us what was said in the interview,
Dan gets back from the bathroom and points out the
awkward and incestuous nature of the three of them standing and
talking together.
Steve (12:52):
And again, the terrible lies.
The. Oh, Serena, what are you doing here? Oh, she
came over to tell us how much she likes this guy
that.
Leif (13:01):
I used to date.
Steve (13:02):
That I used to date. She came
down to NYU from the Upper east
side just to tell us
that she likes my ex boyfriend a
lot.
Leif (13:14):
Well, uh, you know, Serena is the new Vanessa.
Steve (13:16):
Yes. Also, I. And I. I
hate going backwards, but I meant to bring this up with the
previous scene. The look that grandfather gives
to Nate when he basically is
like, I don't know if he is going to win. And he gives Nate
this knowing look, but Nate doesn't
know stuff. I just feel like throwing
(13:37):
knowing looks at Nate is a really
confusing thing. Nate gives a look back of like,
oh, I'm nodding to grandpa,
yes, I.
Leif (13:47):
Will eat lunch today.
Steve (13:52):
There is gas in the car.
Leif (13:56):
As she's leaving the dorm, Serena bumps into
Blair. The two trade barbs. And as Serena
leaves, Blair tells Amalia she needs to find some friends
before the party tonight.
Steve (14:06):
Yeah. These two butting heads
and being on the outs again. It
was sort of. Sort of like the vulture report
said. Their argument last
week was so surface
level.
Leif (14:21):
Yeah.
Steve (14:22):
That them still bickering was a little
strange. Although the look on
Amalia's face when Blair's like, I'm
not friends with staff.
When Amalia realizes she's staff.
Leif (14:36):
Yeah, that's gonna.
Steve (14:38):
Yeah, it's gotta hurt. Hey,
yeah.
Leif (14:44):
Nate is walking with Trip on a pier and ignores a call
from Serena. Trip is explaining that he doesn't want the
grandfather's dirty favors. When someone calls for help.
A man appears to be drowning, and Trip heroically jumps
in to save him. Vanessa catches everything
on her camcorder, and Gossip Girl has this to say.
It looks like Trip's prayers have been answered with another
(15:06):
miracle on the Hudson. Are the Vanderbilts bl
blessed with good luck or good timing?
Steve (15:14):
On. On the rewatch you can
see him climb in. Yeah, you.
Leif (15:19):
You.
Steve (15:19):
You see. Which kudos to them to
not hide it from us
that they showed us the first. The. The first
time that it. Because it feels fake,
right?
Leif (15:31):
Yeah.
Steve (15:31):
It feels like, oh, this is so staged that
he can rescue someone, but they tell
you. Gossip Girl.
The.
The director tells you it's
staged if you can catch it. And I really
appreciated that little Easter egg to.
Leif (15:48):
But in fairness to Trip, he. He did not know.
Steve (15:51):
No, Trip clearly didn't know.
Leif (15:53):
That was an impressive move there.
Steve (15:55):
He.
Leif (15:55):
He dived over the fence. That was like a foot or
a foot and a half away from the edge.
Steve (16:00):
Yeah. And you. You never
go. Is the last one reach. Throw,
row, go. That's to help a drowning
person. You're supposed to reach first, then throw
something. If you can't reach them, then row for them.
Go. Shouldn't be the first thing. Then two people drown. But
good job, Tripp. You did it. You saved the guy who
(16:20):
was pretending to drown. But yeah, again,
he did it without thinking, too. And it was a
heroic. Yeah.
Leif (16:29):
We move into Act 2. We come back
to the Vanderbilt campaign headquarters, and the news story
about trips heroics is already making the
rounds. However, not everyone there seems to
be happy about the big turn events. Nate is
highly suspicious of the grandfather.
Steve (16:45):
The news interview where someone off camera
said, now give your best New York accent
to the guy that was drowning. So
I fell into the water there, and, uh,
hey, I was walking there.
Leif (17:01):
Serena shows up at the headquarters and says hello to Vanessa,
whose footage is going to be on the news tonight.
Serena is still begging Nate for a party invite.
Nate is just about to turn her down when an unaware Trip
walks up and casually invites Serena.
Steve (17:15):
It was twice in this scene. You see Serena
interact with Triple, and you kind of
realize they have history, that
they at least that familial. They
all know each other. They've all grown up together.
Leif (17:29):
They run in the same circle.
Steve (17:30):
Yeah. So. So clearly they know
each other, which. Well, we'll get to that
later. I wonder if he'll need a publicist after all of
this.
Leif (17:41):
Well, she's not a publicist anymore.
Steve (17:43):
Yeah, well, I mean, unless she branches out on her own.
Was because you know her.
Go getteredness.
Leif (17:51):
Blair is at a restaurant holding court with her
minions. One minion suggests that
Vanessa Garl as a potential friend. Blair
claims she has never heard that name before in her life and dismisses
the minion who suggested it. However,
not all is lost because Blair spots a pretty blonde
woman with good fashion sense and Invites her to
the party.
Steve (18:12):
Brandeis is not a real name.
You should have known it. Brandeis. What, uh, you are
getting into Blair?
Leif (18:19):
It's the name of a college. Is it at
Brandeis College?
Steve (18:23):
Yeah. So again, even more so Blair.
Okay, when your supername is your college and
the street you grew up on.
Leif (18:33):
Dan and Olivia are at the penthouse
helping Lily and Rufus entertain a sick Jenny with a
competitive game of scrabble. Jenny tips off
Olivia. Uh, off an incoming Gossip
Girl blast about Dan's bathroom boy antics, and
Olivia, quiet. Quickly deletes the message from Dan's
phone.
Steve (18:51):
My first thing here is, is
Jenny sick, or is she
faking to stop going to school because
of how bad she feels about what happened with
Eric?
Leif (19:02):
Uh, I think she's faking, but I don't think has anything to do with
Eric.
Steve (19:06):
Yeah, I. I think she's faking because she doesn't. She.
The. After the end of last episode, she really hated
where. Uh, maybe not, but I feel
like she's faking it to not go to school.
It's tough to be queen.
Leif (19:20):
Yeah, but I. I definitely wouldn't want to play
scrabble. And I'm sick.
Steve (19:25):
Yeah. Yeah. That's too
much thinking and reading.
Leif (19:29):
Yeah. Vanessa is reviewing
interview footage from earlier, and the. And in the background,
sees the man that tripped. Supposedly saved.
Really jumped into the water intentionally.
Steve (19:40):
Dude, you couldn't sell the fall.
Like, it could have just been really easy to just. Whoa.
Whoa. But no, you just
climbed in foot.
Leif (19:50):
By foot, and then he, like, took a couple strokes, so he's
further away. Yeah, like, perfect
swimmer.
Steve (19:57):
Yeah, he, like, swam out.
Leif (20:00):
Serena goes to Patrick's hotel room to pick him up
for the. For the party. Patrick is a bit
belligerent and fixing to get more so as he begins
downing a bottle of Jack.
Steve (20:10):
Yeah, this guy's a train wreck. We
knew at the end of last week that he was going to be.
And it's also one of those.
Casey, maybe it's better if this
guy's career just goes away. Like,
maybe.
Leif (20:25):
Well, she's evil, so she doesn't. She doesn't care about moral. She just
wants to get more money.
Steve (20:29):
Yeah. Facts.
Leif (20:32):
Vanessa, uh, gets Nate to meet in a private. In
private so she can reveal the truth about the events at the Hudson.
This morning, Vanessa is going to show her footage to the
producers on at channel one, but she wanted Trip to
get a heads up first. However, Nate has other plans.
As Vanessa walks away, he calls the producer at
channel one. Gossip Girl brings us to the act
(20:52):
break with
this election may be too close to call.
What? It's his family's honor or his own.
Um, Nate Archbold has the number on speed
dial.
Steve (21:04):
Good for Vanessa for going to Nate first.
I. Honestly, Vanessa did nothing wrong
here. She found. Yeah.
Leif (21:12):
Except for the slightly hypocritical nature of, you know,
taking advantage of her rich friends connections.
Steve (21:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, but that's
the whole premise of her documentary.
Leif (21:23):
Yeah.
Steve (21:23):
Is doing that.
Leif (21:25):
And we move into Actual 3.
Patrick is still ignoring Serena's attempts to
steer him towards the political thriller. Blair's
new friend is extremely popular with the politicians.
Blair slut shame Serena. And then sees
Patrick taking a piss on a potted plant on the side of the
party.
Steve (21:43):
Patrick is that new person playing
a bard that you don't want to play with after the first
game that you play D and D with them, that they're
just the most obnoxious person
and do absolutely everything to
ruin the entire game from
session one. That's Patrick.
Leif (22:03):
Yeah. At the penthouse, Dan is
looking for a dictionary. In another room, he goes for the
laptop, which is conveniently left open to Olivia's
Fallon interview.
Steve (22:13):
Yeah, she's cute.
I loved that.
Leif (22:19):
That he was like, oh, she's so pleased with himself.
Steve (22:22):
Yeah.
Leif (22:24):
At the campaign headquarters, Vanessa discovers that
Nate set her up and she sold her footage to the fake
Caroline Low.
Steve (22:31):
Vanessa, why did you go to that party?
Why did you go to the party when you thought you
just sold them out and then you went to the.
Leif (22:40):
Party Anyway, so this scene
opens where they, like, zoom in on Chuck's
creepy artwork. And at this point,
I thought, why are they having the campaign headquarters in his
personal suite? He has a whole hotel.
Steve (22:54):
Yeah, yeah. That is funny, because
they've done that before. Remember when
Serena had to stay in his penthouse instead
of any number of rooms?
Leif (23:04):
Dan awkwardly exits family board game night.
Jenny and Olivia quickly realize the jig is up and
Rufus is an adorable doofus.
Steve (23:13):
This is how I want to see you
use Willy and Rufus now.
Leif (23:18):
Yeah. That was perfect.
Steve (23:20):
This is. Yeah. This is a perfect way to use Lily and
Rufus. Let them just be the
parents and let them just.
Leif (23:29):
And of course, Lily knew so
immediately.
Steve (23:32):
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Of course.
Leif (23:34):
Takes takes Rufus five hours to figure it out.
Steve (23:36):
Yeah. Yeah.
Leif (23:38):
Blair finds Serena and tells her that she did what
she had to in order to protect Chuck and Nate. She
had Patrick escorted back to his suite for being a drunk
ass. Blair also reveals she knows that Patrick
is just Serena's fake boyfriend for
work.
Steve (23:52):
Shots fired at Paula Abdul to
m. More Hammered than Paula Abdul during
Hollywood week. Damn.
I mean, you're not wrong, but. Shots
fired.
Leif (24:09):
We finally get the story behind bathroom boy as
Jenny and Olivia rewatch the video. All in all, pretty
same story. Olivia leaves an apology
voicemail for Dan.
Steve (24:19):
Yeah, not that deep. She. She's
freaking out over this thing where
his shirt was on inside out.
Cute. Uh, it's a cute story.
You're freaking out. It's not like he. Like
himself.
Leif (24:37):
Serena finds Patrick passed out in his room and
splashes him with liquid to wake him up.
Steve (24:42):
Patrick, did you have to write liquid?
Leif (24:44):
Well, I didn't know what it was. It could have been. It could have
been. It looked like an alcohol glass.
Steve (24:49):
It did look like. Yes, it could have been, but
just. Just the ambiguous use of
liquid.
Leif (24:56):
I. I put some thought into that.
Steve (25:00):
I could tell. That's why I. That's why I mentioned
it.
Leif (25:03):
Patrick reveals that Blair's new friend is a,
quote, high class call girl.
Steve (25:08):
Uh, fantastic. The
needle drop. The needle drop here. When he
calls her the, uh, high
priced call girl.
Beautiful.
Leif (25:20):
It was just at, uh,
the campaign headquarters. Vanessa confronts
Nate about setting her up. Nate counters that
Vanessa was just out for herself. Vanessa points
to the TV that is conveniently just now playing the story that
the rescue was a setup. Gossip Girl brings us to
the end of the act with
(25:41):
the polls are closed and Gossip Girl is calling
this election dirty
again.
Steve (25:48):
Why are you there, Vanessa? Uh,
Nate sucks throughout this, but,
Vanessa, why are you still at the party
like you sold them out? And
again, I'm not blaming her for selling them out.
I feel like she did the right thing selling them out. They
should have been sold out. I wouldn't go to the
party of the person I just sold out.
Leif (26:11):
Well, if she didn't go, she would never have, uh, been out.
Meet Carol, the real Caroline Low, right?
Steve (26:16):
True, true.
Leif (26:18):
They go into Act 4. The news is
still speculating on who orchestrated the setup, when Nate
calls for the room to be cleared so he, Trip, and the
grandfather can discuss it. Nate and Trip
accuse the grandfather, who categorically denies
it. Tripp says he's going to go to talk to Maureen
before withdrawing from the race.
(26:38):
Uh, Trip is a really. He's a good guy, Trip.
Steve (26:41):
Yeah, Trip has been
demonstrably good
this whole time. It is.
Especially the way that Gossip Girl
tells you how to believe about
people. Dan's a great writer. Jenny's
a great designer. Tripp is a great guy.
Leif (27:00):
He's the most honest guy in the family.
Steve (27:02):
He is the most honest guy in the family.
Leif (27:04):
I'M sure that's going to last.
Steve (27:06):
I'm sure that bar is really high
and is going to last for a long time.
Leif (27:12):
I'm sure his marriage is just perfectly safe.
Steve (27:15):
It seems that way to me. Uh, it seems like he
has someone that really looks out for him and watches his
back and there's no one.
Leif (27:21):
He could possibly cheat with.
Steve (27:23):
No, no, no. I think that he is
definitely a one woman guy
with blinders on to any
other young blondes.
Leif (27:33):
Vanessa calls a petulant Nate out for losing
his moral compass.
Steve (27:38):
Why are you there?
You're still there.
Leif (27:45):
Cuz, uh, she's fucking Blair. She is Blair.
They're the same person.
Steve (27:50):
And, and she, and, and Blair.
More to the point, she's Vanessa and is always at the
party she doesn't belong at.
We're back into season two form.
Vanessa.
Leif (28:03):
Serena finds her and confirms Patrick's story
about Brandeis being a working girl.
Steve (28:08):
Trapped. Trapped her.
Leif (28:11):
It was five hours. Two bloods. Make a right.
Steve (28:14):
Yeah, well done, Serena.
But that was. And it was just so
the Serena est way to do it too.
Oh, I can totally pretend like I want to sleep with that guy
for money.
Leif (28:29):
Chuck is being interviewed about the hotel
and expertly diverts the reporter's attention from a
pantsless Patrick walking around on the overlooking
balcony.
Steve (28:39):
Yeah, fucking mess.
It's so, so over the top.
The whole Patrick thing of him being that
wasted at this party and walking around with his
pants off. It's just so over the
top.
Leif (28:55):
Serena lets Blair know that she had her friend
escorted out of the hotel. Chuck tries to get in
between their bickering but Blair fires back and points out that
the only prostitute here is actually Serena.
Serena has had enough at this point and pushes
Blaire's face into a cake. Gossip Girl
quips
Blair and Serena are at war again.
(29:18):
Yummy.
Steve (29:19):
Uh, yeah. We see
Chuck throughout this episode
and this season so far. Being the grown
up and I uh, loved
when he walks up. She had my friend
kicked out of here. The prostitute. Yeah. She
can't be here. I love how Chuck is like,
(29:39):
yeah, obviously I'm kicking out the high priced call
girl.
Leif (29:44):
Act 5 begins at the party. Nate
takes the fall and says he is the one who planned the
setup.
Steve (29:50):
Yeah, trying to bail out Trip
and grandfather. Really? He feels
grandfather isn't going to step up and take the heat so
he's going to do it for him
and take one for the team.
Which of course won't be great for Nate's
political prospects. If anyone
remembers four years later, it's not like people
(30:13):
really remember four years later the
horrible things that somebody does while
they're in office. They often forget four
years later.
Leif (30:23):
Yeah. Yeah.
Chuck chases down Serena and warns her that if she
isn't careful, she is going to lose Blair
forever.
Steve (30:32):
Again, Chuck being the grown up, why.
Leif (30:35):
Is he blaming Serena?
Steve (30:37):
I didn't think that. I didn't take it that
way. I took it the way of,
you know, Blair. You know that this is just
what she goes through. I didn't really feel like he was
blaming her, but he's putting on her.
Leif (30:51):
To make it right.
Steve (30:52):
Uh, yes. And I feel like he was putting
it on her because Blair isn't going
to. Which I'm not saying that's the
right thing either.
Leif (31:02):
Maybe they just shouldn't be friends.
Steve (31:03):
Maybe they just shouldn't be friends. Too bad. Blair's
in love with her.
Leif (31:08):
Olivia goes to the loft to apologize to Dan.
However, Dan apologizes and reveals he wasn't mad about the
story, which wasn't exactly true. He just
came home to set up a last
minute one month anniversary date.
Steve (31:22):
Sweet. Yeah, it was cute. The resolution
to this whole thing was cute, but it was also a kind
of a dumb storyline in
general.
Leif (31:32):
It's just because unlike Jenny and
Eric, they can't go an episode without having Dan with the
storyline. Yeah, he's too high on the call sheet.
Steve (31:40):
Yeah. And they have to
keep this relationship going and
they're not shaking it up quite
yet. It's nice that Hillary Duff
got this much time on the show too.
I mean, a lot of the
extra relationships
are usually around three episodes.
(32:03):
Maybe four in some cases. I think. Like, I think
Aaron had four maybe,
but it's often around three.
Leif (32:11):
Feels like. Feels like 50, but, uh, feels felt
like 50.
Steve (32:15):
No, I'm talking about the number of episodes, not his
age.
Leif (32:21):
Trip. Thanks Nate for taking the fall. And it appears
it worked. In another timely news broadcast that it's announced
that Tripp has won his bid for a congressional seat.
Nate congratulates Trip and tells him he's the only
honest one in the family. Uh, what a
jinx.
Steve (32:36):
Good old Nate. Good old Nate. Just be
the best representative that district has
ever seen. Trip.
Leif (32:45):
Serena offers Blair the olive branch of a towel
to clean her face. However, Blair calls her out
for drifting. While everyone else is building a future,
Blair declares the friendship over and walks away.
Gossip Girl closes the act with.
Steve (33:02):
Who.
Leif (33:02):
Would have thought that S&P's friendship had a term
limit? Sorry, ladies. Party's over.
Steve (33:09):
Blair isn't wrong, but she's
also lying to Herself about
herself. She's right that Serena is
kind of in this weird
spiral thing, but so is Blair.
Blair doesn't have any friends.
Blair thinks she has one M friend who is using
her to get clients.
Leif (33:32):
So we move into the epilogue. Blair
apologizes to Brandeis for Serena trying to get her kicked
out. However, Brandeis admits that she is, in fact,
a prostitute. Blair is grossed out at first, but
then seems to come around to the idea of having her as a friend.
Steve (33:46):
Her mixed reactions throughout
this when she's horrified and she
goes, well, yeah, um, are you even a
student? Well, yeah, this is how I pay.
Leif (33:56):
For college in Kotor. And
Blair's like, huh, I'll talk to
my people about it.
Steve (34:03):
Yeah, I'll talk to my people about it.
Leif (34:05):
Maybe we can still shop together.
Steve (34:08):
She's like, sure, but I need to go work
now. And then that's when Blair really
realizes, uh, she's been
played.
Leif (34:17):
Serena finally realizes that what Blair said
while mean was ultimately correct. She
stuffs a handsy Patrick into a limo with a
resignation letter written on his pocket
square. Blair and Serena stare
longingly at each other from across the street.
Steve (34:34):
Power. Move to quit that way.
Leif (34:35):
Yeah, uh, it was, it was a.
Steve (34:37):
It'S I, I, I. First time I watched,
I thought she wrote it on his shirt, which I thought would have been
even cooler. Like, right across the shirt. Get
in the car, Take him to her house.
Leif (34:49):
But now Serena is jobless and
homeless because she was living at
Blair's.
Steve (34:55):
Oh, yeah, she was.
Yeah.
Leif (34:58):
I'll see. Maybe she get a good job as an
intern, uh, for her
politician.
Steve (35:05):
Yeah.
Leif (35:06):
Maureen and the grandfather are having a private drink,
and Maureen reveals she is the evil genius
that planned everything.
Steve (35:14):
So Robin called the wife, doing
it way early, way early in the
episode when Vanessa was first. I, uh,
think it was when Vanessa confronted Nate. Robin had
the. I wonder if the wife did it. And
when Nate and Trip are
having the conversation and Trip wins and they're just having
(35:35):
a casual conversation, and you see the
wife step down into the shot
at the end. Uh, that's when I turned to her. I said, you're
right. That shot in the previous scene with
them like, that red dress.
Yeah. And then here she sits down with
grandfather and fucking
power move.
Leif (35:57):
Power. Yeah.
Steve (35:58):
Uh, and how all that time you thought
that blah, blah, blah. Honestly, I didn't
think of you much at all.
Leif (36:07):
Yeah, like, he skipped the beat for a second, but then he was right back
on.
Steve (36:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I, I can, man.
Now that I know what I'm dealing With. I can handle
this.
Leif (36:17):
I didn't think of much of you at all, darling.
Chuck comes back to his suite and finds
Blair. Chuck comforts and cuddles with Blair.
Steve (36:27):
The only person she has. Yeah. The only
person she has in this world. Hang on
to him, Blair. Hang on to him, because
you need him a lot more than
he needs you right now.
Leif (36:41):
Vanessa is looking at her name being
attached to the news story about Trip. Gossip Girl
begins her end of episode monologue.
Sometimes it's hard to see the lines we've drawn
until we cross them. She just look at her on
their name in the. On the website.
Steve (36:58):
Did she. Did she smile? I forget.
Leif (37:00):
Yeah, she does.
Steve (37:01):
Yeah. Does feel good, Vanessa.
Leif (37:04):
Dan and Olivia are, uh, watching Olivia's second appearance
on Fallon. Olivia made Fallon apologize to
Dan, and Gossip Girl continues. That's when we
rely on the ones we love to pull us back and give
us something to hold on to.
Steve (37:18):
Yeah, that was cute, too. Like, why are you so worried about this?
Olivia? Chill. Like, I. I hate when they
write the tension just for tension, when there doesn't need
to be. Give them. Have her say something
that was actually insulting.
Leif (37:31):
Well, uh, it wasn't even her. I mean, Jimmy
Fallon was the one. Yeah, like, insulting.
Steve (37:36):
Yeah.
Leif (37:37):
Caught him like a creep or something.
Steve (37:38):
Like. Yeah. The red flags. Check, please.
Yeah.
Leif (37:42):
We transition to Chuck and Blair asleep and
spooning. Oh, and
in the final scene of the episode, Trip finds
Serena sitting alone at the bar. The
two flirt and order more drinks.
Gossip Girl opines, then
there are clearly marked lines. The
(38:02):
ones that, if you dare cross, you may
never find your way back. Xo.
XO Gossip Girl.
Steve (38:11):
And, uh, Serena's licking a martini glass.
Fantastic.
Leif (38:16):
Why are you. Congressman, why are you ordering drinks for this
minor?
Steve (38:20):
Yeah.
Now that I am in. Now that I am in
office, I will make my first
move.
And. Ah, so the fifth immediately becomes like a
Kennedy creeper the second he wins the election.
Hide their blondie.
Leif (38:41):
So the full. The full, uh, end of the episode
is.
Sometimes it's hard to see the lines we've drawn until
we cross them. That's when we rely on the ones we
love to pull us back and give us something to hold on
to. Then there are clearly marked
lines. The ones that if you dare
cross, you may never find your way back.
(39:04):
X.O.X.O. gossip
Girl. And that is our episode.
What's coming next?
Steve (39:12):
I do wonder. I did have the thought of,
although Serena's not a publicist for KC
Anymore, that there'd be a job open
for Trip for someone in her Position.
I do believe there's something going on with her and
Trip. Uh, that's set
up. Pretty obvious, pretty obviously.
I wonder what that then leaves
(39:34):
for Trip's wife. I forget her name.
Leif (39:36):
Maureen.
Steve (39:37):
Maureen. I forget where that leaves M. I don't know where that
leaves Maureen. I don't know where that leaves
Grandfather. I feel like Grandfather is going to get back on
top and get his reigns back around
Trip and Nate. Uh, I don't.
Grandfather doesn't seem like the type to lose
for long. For good.
(39:57):
I, uh, foresee some tension coming.
There's gotta be some real tension with Dan and Olivia
eventually. Unless she's just
going to be around for a while. I just. I
don't see how that's really sustainable. Or maybe
I also. I really like Hilary
Duff. I really like her a lot. I
don't think she's a very good actor.
(40:20):
I think it's sort of like she's charismatic. Yes,
she's charismatic. I think it's sort of how
I feel about Eliza Dushku. Eliza Dushku
is Faith and played Faith and Was. And
that's.
Leif (40:31):
They got that Riz.
Steve (40:33):
Uh, yeah, but, like, I don't think she's a
good actor, and I don't think that Hilary
Duff is a really good actor. I think that
she plays a cute girlfriend for Dan
on the show, but I have a hard time
often seeing her not as just Lizzie
McGuire.
Leif (40:51):
Well, uh, she's, uh, basically playing a version of
herself.
Steve (40:55):
Yeah, she really is. And. And
I guess I'm also. Because she had that How I Met yout
Father show where she also kind of
played this character.
And I just feel like she does just kind of
play herself. And I feel like she is one of
those actors who has the luxury of doing
that because she was a successful child
(41:17):
star who isn't a complete train
wreck child star who has grown
into now having a,
I would say, successful career as an
adult. You know, she's working, and
I don't think that she's someone that needs to be
a good actor to get work.
Leif (41:38):
So let's go ahead and get. Or, uh, do you have any more
predictions? Anything on Chuck and Blair?
Steve (41:44):
Mostly it's more and more evident that Chuck
needs Blair needs Chuck,
and Chuck doesn't need Blair. Chuck, uh,
loves Blair. I believe that. And Chuck likes this.
But I also feel that we often see Chuck getting tired with
the high school shit.
Leif (41:59):
Yeah.
Steve (42:00):
So I think that is going to start boiling
over more that Blair
or could Chuck.
Leif (42:08):
He's been pretty healthy
this season.
Steve (42:12):
He's been a grownup like he has been.
Leif (42:14):
Can that last? Could something come and shake that
up? And then maybe he does need
Blair.
Steve (42:20):
Yeah, I. I could see that, you
know, Jack could come back. Some other
relative.
Leif (42:27):
We just had a mention of him last episode.
Steve (42:29):
Yeah, we had a mention of him two episodes ago. So there's
definitely things that could do that to
Chuck. And it could also. I.
I could see Blair not rising
to the occasion when Chuck needs him. Chuck
has, in their own creepy, weird
way, risen to the occasion for Blair.
There was the one time when she used him and he said,
(42:51):
I can't. So it could be that
Blair won't rise to the occasion when Chuck needs her.
Needs him. Needs her.
Leif (42:59):
Let's go ahead and get into some segments.
This week in fandom, we jumped into the
Wayback Machine to travel to the fan forums of
2009. Hello
there, Peabody here. And this is the
Wayback Machine. We're traveling through time. And this is
my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman.
Steve (43:19):
Hello.
Leif (43:20):
Good boy. Not a very.
Not a lot of chatter this week. Overall, uh,
opinion was the episode is kind of weak.
Several people, like, apparently a lot of people are
New Yorkers watching this show because several people thought they actually
turned to New York Shadow one.
Apparently, that's what it actually looks like.
Steve (43:41):
Oh, it's funny.
Leif (43:43):
Tripp is hot.
Steve (43:45):
Is he? I mean, he's not. I. I don't
see him as being any hotter than anyone else.
I don't see him as a standout. I guess
the fans disagree when you have
Chase Crawford on the screen. Ow.
Leif (44:00):
For once more, people are team Serena over team
Blair. I agree.
Steve (44:05):
I do, too. But I'm just surprised because usually the
loyalists to, uh, queen bee,
I started calling my cat. We have a new cat,
Parissa Tomei. And I started calling her queen
Bee.
Leif (44:18):
And finally, like the vulture recap, they were
definitely kind of confused on why Blair and Serena are
fighting.
Steve (44:24):
Yeah, it was a dumb fight to begin with.
Leif (44:30):
Moving over to episode grades, you went
first last time, so I'm going to go first this time.
Yeah. Like the fan forum people, I did
not think this episode was that great. The writing was kind of
boring. Nothing really
happened. The directing was good,
but overall, I gave it a C minus.
Steve (44:51):
Yeah, I'm going a C.
I was in the B range at first.
But it's, uh, funny because sometimes when we're here
and we're going through it and we're actually talking about it,
the grade will take a hit. And
things like the Olivia
storyline being weak,
(45:12):
the tension between
Blair and Serena though the tension
itself wasn't weak. The
story behind it, again, was weak.
Leif (45:23):
Yeah, the directing and the acting was fine. The writing
was weak.
Steve (45:27):
The writing was definitely weak. And
it seemed like the episode went somewhere, but
nowhere necessary. Like there
was a huge win for a minor, uh,
character.
Leif (45:39):
I mean that, uh. Yeah, the one big setup
is you got Serena and Tripp.
Steve (45:45):
Yeah, yeah. The congressman. The
congressman and the teenager.
Leif (45:50):
Yes. They did actually state his age, which.
Steve (45:52):
Is 26, so eight years older
than Serena.
Leif (45:59):
On to Stockwatch
going up. I had Dan and Olivia because
they were just had your little silly storyline were
cute at the end. Tripp because he's now
a congressman. Maureen because
she schemed out skeeved the
grandfather. And then also
Vanessa. I mean she did the right thing and she
(46:21):
got her footage on the news and so good for
her.
Steve (46:25):
Yeah, yeah. I actually had all of them.
Tripp, Dan, Olivia,
Vanessa and Mrs. Trip. I
also had Chuck going up. He threw
this successful campaign event. His
hotel is still doing well. I had
Rufus and Lily going up for having a storyline that
(46:45):
wasn't stupid. And I
had Brandeis going up because she was working that
party.
Leif (46:52):
Nice. I'm actually going to add Brandeis.
Steve (46:56):
She deserves it. I mean she
out schemed Blair.
Leif (47:00):
Yeah.
Steve (47:00):
Ah, yeah.
Leif (47:02):
I had Chuck neutral also Rufus and Lily neutral
because I didn't like the way Chuck treated Serena. So I
kept him as neutral.
Steve (47:09):
That's fair. That's fair.
Leif (47:10):
Rufus and Lily were just there.
Steve (47:11):
I liked that Chuck was being the closest thing
to a grown up of the non judging breakfast
pod going down.
Leif (47:19):
I had Serena because she, like I
said, is now jobless and potentially homeless.
Uh, Blair because she still has
no real friends. Just not much going for
right now. Nate because he was a dick
and still got fucked over. And uh, the
grandfather because he got out positioned.
Steve (47:41):
I had all of the same. But I also had Patrick
going down for just being a complete and
total train wreck.
Leif (47:48):
Fair enough.
Steve (47:50):
But here's the best outfits from the.
Last episode we've seen.
Leif (47:58):
So moving over to best outfit.
I did not recognize her originally in the stock watch,
but the woman who's getting paid to look good,
I gave her the best outfit. Brandeis.
Steve (48:09):
Brandeis.
Leif (48:10):
Their turquoise dress.
Steve (48:12):
Fair. Yeah.
Leif (48:13):
Was not a great fashion upset.
Steve (48:14):
No, no, My outfit actually
was when Blair met Brandeis, the.
Leif (48:20):
The gold.
Steve (48:21):
The gold and brown outfit she wore
to court. Uh, that was my
favorite outfit of the episode.
Leif (48:29):
That is it for segments
for plugs this week. What do you got?
Steve (48:35):
First of all, I've been
watching, I keep talking about the New Daredevil, which
is awesome. I've been watching that.
And outside of that, you can go ahead and
follow me on Instagram or TikTok
@Steve Marshon M A R
C H I O N. I'm on threads as
well so you could follow me there as well.
(48:57):
And you can find me on bluesky
Headwizard.
And I'm pretty sure that's what I'm plugging
as of right now.
Leif (49:06):
For me, I'm going to recommend checking out still
the podcast. That's still
the podcast. It's a couple of women who
are uh, talking about issues that women
identifying artists are still facing in Iowa
today. And one of the co hosts is
actually, uh, was involved in Gossip Girl.
Steve (49:26):
Oh nice.
Leif (49:27):
So check that out. And then if you want to follow me on
social media, you can find me on bluesky
and Instagram. Hotcappicola. That's
hot. C A P I
C O L A. You can follow the
podcast on threads, TikTok and
Instagramnjudgingbreakfastpod.
(49:48):
And if you're interested in finding links to our uh,
Discord server, Patreon, subreddit,
et cetera, you can find them on our website
nonjudgingbreakfastpod.com
and if you would.
Steve (50:01):
Like to get in touch with us, we would love to hear what you have to say
and maybe even read the email on
the show here. Please send us an email
to
nonjudgingbreakfastpodmail.com
and we'd love to hear your thoughts. Also while
you're listening, if you could go ahead and hit that like
button, hit the subscribe or follow button and
(50:22):
go ahead and leave a comment on Spotify or
Apple ipod or Apple podcasts. That really
helps with our visibility. And also while you're
at it, tell a friend what you're listening to,
make us your water cooler talk and get
other people to share in the non judging
breakfast pod. Fun for sure.
Leif (50:43):
And we will be back next week to discuss
season three, episode nine. They
shoot Humphreys, don't they?
Steve (50:50):
Damn.
Leif (50:51):
The Max episode description reads
jenny wants to be the ultimate queen
bee.
Steve (50:58):
Uh oh. I, I mean, oh,
then is she going? She going for
now.
Leif (51:04):
Well, there's more than one private school in New
York.
Steve (51:08):
Yeah. Wow.
Leif (51:10):
And they all get together for something.
Steve (51:13):
What did they get together for before.
Leif (51:15):
Season one, episode ten.
Steve (51:17):
Oh man, I'm drawing a blank. But I
remember it. I know that they all got together
coming out.
Leif (51:25):
Debutante. Oh,
cotillion.
Steve (51:28):
The cotillion. Oh,
uh, uh, it's funny cause I wouldn't think of jenny.
I would imagine her always wanting to but not
really thinking she'd have the chance. But she's a bass now
and she's a junior. Yeah, she's a junior and she's got that
bass, cash. So, yeah.
Also, our next episode will be recorded on my favorite
(51:49):
holiday. No, not easter. It is
4:20.
Leif (51:54):
But until, uh, next time, you know you love us.
Steve (51:56):
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
(52:17):
oh, it seems I'm walking.
Right to your door
my heart's still.
Resting looking for something more.
Are m.
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
(52:39):
piece of m 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
never feels right when I'm out here on
my own
(53:02):
I 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 meat with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
(53:24):
piece 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
(53:47):
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
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
(54:09):
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me you with 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
(54:32):
Every time you walk away or run away m you take a
piece of me with you m there.
Congressman, why are you hoarding drinks for this miner?
Steve (00:06):
Now that I am in. Now that I am in
office, I will make my first
move.
And so, uh, the stuff immediately becomes like a
Kennedy creeper the second he wins the election.
Hide that blondie.
Leif (00:30):
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. I'm the newbie, the
greenhorn, the, uh, I don't know, leaf. What are we calling
me now in season three?
Leif (00:52):
I don't know, but I need a friend, stat.
Steve (00:54):
Oh, I'm your friend.
Leif (00:56):
Please. I'm not friends with staff.
Steve (00:59):
Um, so here's the
deal, folks. Leif has been watching Gossip Girl
since it first started, and I'm diving in for the
first time. And together, we're your dynamic duo,
bringing you all the drama, romance, and
sometimes questionable fashion choices of this
iconic 2007 series.
Leif (01:19):
Bring your magnifying glasses because each week we're
discussing 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 fandom moments too, because what's a
deep dive without a little drama?
Steve (01:37):
And since we're all about inclusivity here at the non
judging breakfast pod, there's always room for you at the
non judging breakfast table. So go ahead and grab
a coffee and grab your mimosa or
go talk to Chuck's dealer and let's go ahead and get this thing
started.
Leif (01:53):
Let's do it. As of this recording, the
good cop, bad cop season is over.
Steve (01:59):
Okay, so that was the season finale. I
just watched it for one an eight episode
season on a network I thought was interesting. Is
CW doing that regularly?
Leif (02:11):
I think everyone's doing that now, uh, at this point.
Steve (02:13):
Yeah, I guess so. It
just felt like it's funny.
Last a couple days ago, we talked before the
show about how you're kind, you're. You're
off that you're not really
liking it that much anymore.
Leif (02:29):
Yeah, it's not really bad, but just nothing
new. And yeah, for an eight episode
season, there's a bit, quite a bit of filler it felt
like.
Steve (02:38):
Yes.
Leif (02:39):
And it was written like a 22 episode show.
Steve (02:42):
Yes, exactly. And
the last episode just kind of
tried to wrap everything up, but then leave
this Cliffhanger that kind of takes the
whole show in a new sort of
direction.
Leif (02:57):
Yeah.
Steve (02:58):
So I was. I did find the
most recent episode to be a little more. What the fuck. I
was enjoying it because like I said last time,
shows like Psych and Burn
Notice, those sort of
similar vein shows, I really enjoy
them. This last episode really kind
(03:18):
of was a turn. A weird
turn.
Leif (03:22):
Yeah, uh, it was just kind of boring. The last two episodes
I took more than one sitting to watch.
Steve (03:27):
Yeah, you had mentioned that, but.
Leif (03:30):
So we haven't seen it yet. But as of this, when you
guys are listening to this, the final season
of Yule have been released. So some of
you uh, have already binged the complete
season by now, which.
Steve (03:43):
I'm waiting to watch you until we're
done. This because I'm gonna operate under the
headcanon of Dan
Humphrey post. Gossip Girl
going crazy.
Leif (03:55):
Yeah, I know a lot of people subscribe to that.
I'm not a big fan of that, Harry.
Steve (04:00):
I'm just going into it with that headcanon.
I also, I wanted uh, to take a second.
This past week we lost uh, a friend
of ours, Nolan Garner, he
plays in the band. He played in the band Turtle
Ridge for a while. A really good friend of
ours. And we just really wanted
(04:21):
to make mention and give
a. Our moment of memorial
to Nolan. Super sad. Um,
died in a parachuting accident.
Leif (04:32):
Definitely sad. And ah, definitely thoughts out to his
family.
Steve (04:36):
Yes. And his family and his friends. One
thing that I always say about him is that I didn't
know the guy super well. I knew him
more through these friends of mine. But anytime you
would talk to Nolan, he would treat you like your best friend.
Leif (04:50):
Yeah, he was the nicest guy in the world.
Steve (04:51):
Yeah. And it's funny because our friend
Colin said to me, you know, people
always say that they're such a great guy when someone dies.
But with Nolan, it's the God's honest
truth that he really was just
this shining. And he always
made you feel like he was your biggest fan.
Leif (05:11):
I mhm.
Steve (05:11):
Would get done playing and he would just
pick through everything I did and all the bright
spots and so great loss to the
Philadelphia music community and
to music in general.
Leif (05:25):
Indeed.
Steve (05:26):
And our thoughts with the families and
friends.
Leif (05:30):
On a more positive note, we are here to talk
about Gossip Girls Season 3 Episode
8 the Grandfather Part
Do.
Steve (05:40):
Part 2 Part Du Part D
Part 2 yes.
Leif (05:45):
Original air date was November 2,
2009 the Deuce. Yes, and of
course it was based on The Godfather Part 2.
Steve (05:54):
Right.
Leif (05:56):
No explanation necessary. I Think.
Steve (05:58):
No.
Leif (05:59):
Ah. So this episode was written by Len K.
Rosenfeld, who did two episodes in season
two, episode seven, Chuck in Real
Life, and episode 17, Carnal
Knowledge. So, uh, one good episode and one not so good
episode.
Steve (06:14):
Which one was the not so good one? The Carnal Knowledge.
Leif (06:17):
Yeah, that was right in the middle of the Miss Car plotline.
Steve (06:20):
Yeah. Right. Yes.
Yes. And then.
Leif (06:24):
And yeah, Chuck and not the good
episode. We got Blair and Dan fighting in
the carriage.
Steve (06:30):
Right?
Leif (06:30):
Yeah, it was the first episode. It was not good at all.
Steve (06:33):
Right. Yes. When. When she first
gets fired and.
Leif (06:38):
But then Chuck in real life was the episode
where Dan and Chuck go out on their
little play date.
Steve (06:44):
Yes. Uh, the Charlie Trout. Yes.
Dinner. Yes.
Leif (06:50):
Uh, this episode was directed by Mark Pisnarski's
Back Again pilot maker.
Uh, last episode he directed. Is this the second episode of
season three already? Uh, he did a 304. Dan de
Floret.
Steve (07:02):
Okay, all right. It was
fine.
Leif (07:06):
Why don't you give us that vulture recap?
Steve (07:08):
All right, let's go. Serena and Blair
are at each other's throats in a way they haven't been since
the first season. Why? We
don't actually remember, but that's fine. Whatever it
is was a, uh, red herring. The hatred
these two feel for one another is so passionate it
nearly resembles love, as evidenced by the way
(07:29):
Serena spontaneously pushes Blair
face first into a cake. And the
powerful shot at the end wherein Blair comes
out of the hotel for no other reason
than to make meaningful eye contact with
Serena before turning on her heel
and storming away in a gesture that's
meant to signify how far they've grown
(07:51):
apart. Their other friends are growing
and changing too. Nate has become
cold and politically calculating, but
not so cold and calculating that he pushes Vanessa
into the Hudson river when she threatens to thwart
his cousin's campaign for Congress.
Chuck, oddly, has developed into
a compassionate, bridge building adult. And
(08:14):
Dan Humphrey has come to enjoy dating a rich,
famous person. Although other than
that, he's still pretty much
an awkward dork.
Leif (08:24):
Poor bathroom boy.
Steve (08:25):
Yeah, poor bathroom boy.
We'll get to that. I
have thoughts.
Leif (08:35):
Let's go ahead and get into it then. Uh, act one begins
with a little montage and a Gossip Girl
monologue. In
Manhattan, some parties are VIP
only. Others are strictly private. But
some parties are political. And those
lines are drawn by the most established of
establishment. And once those lines are drawn,
(08:57):
they can never be crossed.
Steve (09:00):
I felt like the Gossip Girl monologue was
sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. This was one of those
forced ones where it's like. But some parties
are m. Political.
We've got to fit this in.
Leif (09:13):
That's the ticket, you know, like the political
ticket.
Steve (09:16):
Like the political one.
Leif (09:20):
So, uh, we get the opening montage of
happy couples sleeping in and Blair snapping at
bellboys. We start the episode with Serena having a
phone conversation with KC Serena needs to
get Patrick into the Vanderbilt party or else she's
fired. At this point, Casey's one
redeeming quality is she hasn't fucked any of these teenagers
yet. Facts.
Steve (09:42):
It's funny because Casey threatens to fire people
like the Dread Pirate Roberts.
Good work, Serena.
Leif (09:49):
Sleep well.
Steve (09:50):
I'll probably fire you in the morning.
Leif (09:52):
Yes.
Dan and Olivia wake up in the dorm room.
I smell trouble brewing because Olivia clearly doesn't
want Dan to see her interview on Kimmel. As Dan is
walking to the bathroom to brush his teeth, a random student
refers to a confused Dan as bathroom
boy.
Steve (10:11):
Fallon, you got your jimmies backwards in
the write up.
Leif (10:14):
Oh, uh, yeah.
Yep. I said Kimmel, didn't I? Yeah, it's Fallon.
Steve (10:21):
But.
Leif (10:21):
But they're the same thing.
Steve (10:25):
They're not too different. But yes,
it was.
Leif (10:28):
Kimmel's a lot more ashamed of his past.
Steve (10:31):
Yes. Facts.
Uh, oi, oi, oi.
Leif (10:36):
He really likes to hide his time on the man show.
Steve (10:41):
Meanwhile, Adam Crolla is like, what?
Yeah. Olivia clearly doesn't want him seeing
this. And it is already
just silliness.
Leif (10:54):
And, uh, normally I wouldn't necessarily bring this up, but it's.
It's such. It was so noticeable.
Steve (11:00):
Yeah.
Leif (11:00):
That we have, uh, you know, the last couple. I feel like there's.
There was a note from the network. You got to diversify the
casting here. You get Horace last
episode, and then you have. You actually had two
African, uh, Americans speaking parts of this episode.
Steve (11:14):
Yeah, yeah.
Leif (11:15):
The random student and also the woman from the
TV network.
Steve (11:19):
Yeah. Yes.
Leif (11:21):
Uh, good for them.
Steve (11:23):
Yeah.
Leif (11:24):
Finally. But it was just so noticeable.
Steve (11:26):
Yeah.
Leif (11:26):
Because it's normally just so white.
Steve (11:28):
Yes. Yes. With a couple with the
occasional Vanessa thrown in.
Leif (11:33):
Yeah, maybe.
Looks like the Vanderbilt victory party will be the
first hosted. In the ballroom of the Empire
Hotel, Chuck is meeting with Nate, the
grandfather, Trip and Maureen to discuss the
details. It looks like Vanessa is parlaying
her connections with Nate to get some great footage of Trip's
(11:54):
campaign. However, thanks to Serena blowing up their
plans to defraud the Buckleys, trip is an
extreme long shot to win.
Steve (12:03):
Oh, Vanessa is in this episode
at the beginning, uh,
when Dan and Olivia are in bed and they're
like, wow. Well, we keep getting the room to ourselves. Vanessa's never
around because she's doing this thing with Trip. And I was like,
sweet. No Vanessa for another episode. And then
no. Yeah. Um, they teased us.
(12:23):
She is here. Well,
I doubt she does anything to ruin anything.
Leif (12:31):
I don't blame her.
Steve (12:32):
I don't blame her. This is not a.
Vanessa did the wrong thing.
Leif (12:37):
Serena comes to the dorm to deliver a DVD of
the Fallon interview. Before the two women can
reveal, uh, to us what was said in the interview,
Dan gets back from the bathroom and points out the
awkward and incestuous nature of the three of them standing and
talking together.
Steve (12:52):
And again, the terrible lies.
The. Oh, Serena, what are you doing here? Oh, she
came over to tell us how much she likes this guy
that.
Leif (13:01):
I used to date.
Steve (13:02):
That I used to date. She came
down to NYU from the Upper east
side just to tell us
that she likes my ex boyfriend a
lot.
Leif (13:14):
Well, uh, you know, Serena is the new Vanessa.
Steve (13:16):
Yes. Also, I. And I. I
hate going backwards, but I meant to bring this up with the
previous scene. The look that grandfather gives
to Nate when he basically is
like, I don't know if he is going to win. And he gives Nate
this knowing look, but Nate doesn't
know stuff. I just feel like throwing
(13:37):
knowing looks at Nate is a really
confusing thing. Nate gives a look back of like,
oh, I'm nodding to grandpa,
yes, I.
Leif (13:47):
Will eat lunch today.
Steve (13:52):
There is gas in the car.
Leif (13:56):
As she's leaving the dorm, Serena bumps into
Blair. The two trade barbs. And as Serena
leaves, Blair tells Amalia she needs to find some friends
before the party tonight.
Steve (14:06):
Yeah. These two butting heads
and being on the outs again. It
was sort of. Sort of like the vulture report
said. Their argument last
week was so surface
level.
Leif (14:21):
Yeah.
Steve (14:22):
That them still bickering was a little
strange. Although the look on
Amalia's face when Blair's like, I'm
not friends with staff.
When Amalia realizes she's staff.
Leif (14:36):
Yeah, that's gonna.
Steve (14:38):
Yeah, it's gotta hurt. Hey,
yeah.
Leif (14:44):
Nate is walking with Trip on a pier and ignores a call
from Serena. Trip is explaining that he doesn't want the
grandfather's dirty favors. When someone calls for help.
A man appears to be drowning, and Trip heroically jumps
in to save him. Vanessa catches everything
on her camcorder, and Gossip Girl has this to say.
It looks like Trip's prayers have been answered with another
(15:06):
miracle on the Hudson. Are the Vanderbilts bl
blessed with good luck or good timing?
Steve (15:14):
On. On the rewatch you can
see him climb in. Yeah, you.
Leif (15:19):
You.
Steve (15:19):
You see. Which kudos to them to
not hide it from us
that they showed us the first. The. The first
time that it. Because it feels fake,
right?
Leif (15:31):
Yeah.
Steve (15:31):
It feels like, oh, this is so staged that
he can rescue someone, but they tell
you. Gossip Girl.
The.
The director tells you it's
staged if you can catch it. And I really
appreciated that little Easter egg to.
Leif (15:48):
But in fairness to Trip, he. He did not know.
Steve (15:51):
No, Trip clearly didn't know.
Leif (15:53):
That was an impressive move there.
Steve (15:55):
He.
Leif (15:55):
He dived over the fence. That was like a foot or
a foot and a half away from the edge.
Steve (16:00):
Yeah. And you. You never
go. Is the last one reach. Throw,
row, go. That's to help a drowning
person. You're supposed to reach first, then throw
something. If you can't reach them, then row for them.
Go. Shouldn't be the first thing. Then two people drown. But
good job, Tripp. You did it. You saved the guy who
(16:20):
was pretending to drown. But yeah, again,
he did it without thinking, too. And it was a
heroic. Yeah.
Leif (16:29):
We move into Act 2. We come back
to the Vanderbilt campaign headquarters, and the news story
about trips heroics is already making the
rounds. However, not everyone there seems to
be happy about the big turn events. Nate is
highly suspicious of the grandfather.
Steve (16:45):
The news interview where someone off camera
said, now give your best New York accent
to the guy that was drowning. So
I fell into the water there, and, uh,
hey, I was walking there.
Leif (17:01):
Serena shows up at the headquarters and says hello to Vanessa,
whose footage is going to be on the news tonight.
Serena is still begging Nate for a party invite.
Nate is just about to turn her down when an unaware Trip
walks up and casually invites Serena.
Steve (17:15):
It was twice in this scene. You see Serena
interact with Triple, and you kind of
realize they have history, that
they at least that familial. They
all know each other. They've all grown up together.
Leif (17:29):
They run in the same circle.
Steve (17:30):
Yeah. So. So clearly they know
each other, which. Well, we'll get to that
later. I wonder if he'll need a publicist after all of
this.
Leif (17:41):
Well, she's not a publicist anymore.
Steve (17:43):
Yeah, well, I mean, unless she branches out on her own.
Was because you know her.
Go getteredness.
Leif (17:51):
Blair is at a restaurant holding court with her
minions. One minion suggests that
Vanessa Garl as a potential friend. Blair
claims she has never heard that name before in her life and dismisses
the minion who suggested it. However,
not all is lost because Blair spots a pretty blonde
woman with good fashion sense and Invites her to
the party.
Steve (18:12):
Brandeis is not a real name.
You should have known it. Brandeis. What, uh, you are
getting into Blair?
Leif (18:19):
It's the name of a college. Is it at
Brandeis College?
Steve (18:23):
Yeah. So again, even more so Blair.
Okay, when your supername is your college and
the street you grew up on.
Leif (18:33):
Dan and Olivia are at the penthouse
helping Lily and Rufus entertain a sick Jenny with a
competitive game of scrabble. Jenny tips off
Olivia. Uh, off an incoming Gossip
Girl blast about Dan's bathroom boy antics, and
Olivia, quiet. Quickly deletes the message from Dan's
phone.
Steve (18:51):
My first thing here is, is
Jenny sick, or is she
faking to stop going to school because
of how bad she feels about what happened with
Eric?
Leif (19:02):
Uh, I think she's faking, but I don't think has anything to do with
Eric.
Steve (19:06):
Yeah, I. I think she's faking because she doesn't. She.
The. After the end of last episode, she really hated
where. Uh, maybe not, but I feel
like she's faking it to not go to school.
It's tough to be queen.
Leif (19:20):
Yeah, but I. I definitely wouldn't want to play
scrabble. And I'm sick.
Steve (19:25):
Yeah. Yeah. That's too
much thinking and reading.
Leif (19:29):
Yeah. Vanessa is reviewing
interview footage from earlier, and the. And in the background,
sees the man that tripped. Supposedly saved.
Really jumped into the water intentionally.
Steve (19:40):
Dude, you couldn't sell the fall.
Like, it could have just been really easy to just. Whoa.
Whoa. But no, you just
climbed in foot.
Leif (19:50):
By foot, and then he, like, took a couple strokes, so he's
further away. Yeah, like, perfect
swimmer.
Steve (19:57):
Yeah, he, like, swam out.
Leif (20:00):
Serena goes to Patrick's hotel room to pick him up
for the. For the party. Patrick is a bit
belligerent and fixing to get more so as he begins
downing a bottle of Jack.
Steve (20:10):
Yeah, this guy's a train wreck. We
knew at the end of last week that he was going to be.
And it's also one of those.
Casey, maybe it's better if this
guy's career just goes away. Like,
maybe.
Leif (20:25):
Well, she's evil, so she doesn't. She doesn't care about moral. She just
wants to get more money.
Steve (20:29):
Yeah. Facts.
Leif (20:32):
Vanessa, uh, gets Nate to meet in a private. In
private so she can reveal the truth about the events at the Hudson.
This morning, Vanessa is going to show her footage to the
producers on at channel one, but she wanted Trip to
get a heads up first. However, Nate has other plans.
As Vanessa walks away, he calls the producer at
channel one. Gossip Girl brings us to the act
(20:52):
break with
this election may be too close to call.
What? It's his family's honor or his own.
Um, Nate Archbold has the number on speed
dial.
Steve (21:04):
Good for Vanessa for going to Nate first.
I. Honestly, Vanessa did nothing wrong
here. She found. Yeah.
Leif (21:12):
Except for the slightly hypocritical nature of, you know,
taking advantage of her rich friends connections.
Steve (21:18):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, but that's
the whole premise of her documentary.
Leif (21:23):
Yeah.
Steve (21:23):
Is doing that.
Leif (21:25):
And we move into Actual 3.
Patrick is still ignoring Serena's attempts to
steer him towards the political thriller. Blair's
new friend is extremely popular with the politicians.
Blair slut shame Serena. And then sees
Patrick taking a piss on a potted plant on the side of the
party.
Steve (21:43):
Patrick is that new person playing
a bard that you don't want to play with after the first
game that you play D and D with them, that they're
just the most obnoxious person
and do absolutely everything to
ruin the entire game from
session one. That's Patrick.
Leif (22:03):
Yeah. At the penthouse, Dan is
looking for a dictionary. In another room, he goes for the
laptop, which is conveniently left open to Olivia's
Fallon interview.
Steve (22:13):
Yeah, she's cute.
I loved that.
Leif (22:19):
That he was like, oh, she's so pleased with himself.
Steve (22:22):
Yeah.
Leif (22:24):
At the campaign headquarters, Vanessa discovers that
Nate set her up and she sold her footage to the fake
Caroline Low.
Steve (22:31):
Vanessa, why did you go to that party?
Why did you go to the party when you thought you
just sold them out and then you went to the.
Leif (22:40):
Party Anyway, so this scene
opens where they, like, zoom in on Chuck's
creepy artwork. And at this point,
I thought, why are they having the campaign headquarters in his
personal suite? He has a whole hotel.
Steve (22:54):
Yeah, yeah. That is funny, because
they've done that before. Remember when
Serena had to stay in his penthouse instead
of any number of rooms?
Leif (23:04):
Dan awkwardly exits family board game night.
Jenny and Olivia quickly realize the jig is up and
Rufus is an adorable doofus.
Steve (23:13):
This is how I want to see you
use Willy and Rufus now.
Leif (23:18):
Yeah. That was perfect.
Steve (23:20):
This is. Yeah. This is a perfect way to use Lily and
Rufus. Let them just be the
parents and let them just.
Leif (23:29):
And of course, Lily knew so
immediately.
Steve (23:32):
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Of course.
Leif (23:34):
Takes takes Rufus five hours to figure it out.
Steve (23:36):
Yeah. Yeah.
Leif (23:38):
Blair finds Serena and tells her that she did what
she had to in order to protect Chuck and Nate. She
had Patrick escorted back to his suite for being a drunk
ass. Blair also reveals she knows that Patrick
is just Serena's fake boyfriend for
work.
Steve (23:52):
Shots fired at Paula Abdul to
m. More Hammered than Paula Abdul during
Hollywood week. Damn.
I mean, you're not wrong, but. Shots
fired.
Leif (24:09):
We finally get the story behind bathroom boy as
Jenny and Olivia rewatch the video. All in all, pretty
same story. Olivia leaves an apology
voicemail for Dan.
Steve (24:19):
Yeah, not that deep. She. She's
freaking out over this thing where
his shirt was on inside out.
Cute. Uh, it's a cute story.
You're freaking out. It's not like he. Like
himself.
Leif (24:37):
Serena finds Patrick passed out in his room and
splashes him with liquid to wake him up.
Steve (24:42):
Patrick, did you have to write liquid?
Leif (24:44):
Well, I didn't know what it was. It could have been. It could have
been. It looked like an alcohol glass.
Steve (24:49):
It did look like. Yes, it could have been, but
just. Just the ambiguous use of
liquid.
Leif (24:56):
I. I put some thought into that.
Steve (25:00):
I could tell. That's why I. That's why I mentioned
it.
Leif (25:03):
Patrick reveals that Blair's new friend is a,
quote, high class call girl.
Steve (25:08):
Uh, fantastic. The
needle drop. The needle drop here. When he
calls her the, uh, high
priced call girl.
Beautiful.
Leif (25:20):
It was just at, uh,
the campaign headquarters. Vanessa confronts
Nate about setting her up. Nate counters that
Vanessa was just out for herself. Vanessa points
to the TV that is conveniently just now playing the story that
the rescue was a setup. Gossip Girl brings us to
the end of the act with
(25:41):
the polls are closed and Gossip Girl is calling
this election dirty
again.
Steve (25:48):
Why are you there, Vanessa? Uh,
Nate sucks throughout this, but,
Vanessa, why are you still at the party
like you sold them out? And
again, I'm not blaming her for selling them out.
I feel like she did the right thing selling them out. They
should have been sold out. I wouldn't go to the
party of the person I just sold out.
Leif (26:11):
Well, if she didn't go, she would never have, uh, been out.
Meet Carol, the real Caroline Low, right?
Steve (26:16):
True, true.
Leif (26:18):
They go into Act 4. The news is
still speculating on who orchestrated the setup, when Nate
calls for the room to be cleared so he, Trip, and the
grandfather can discuss it. Nate and Trip
accuse the grandfather, who categorically denies
it. Tripp says he's going to go to talk to Maureen
before withdrawing from the race.
(26:38):
Uh, Trip is a really. He's a good guy, Trip.
Steve (26:41):
Yeah, Trip has been
demonstrably good
this whole time. It is.
Especially the way that Gossip Girl
tells you how to believe about
people. Dan's a great writer. Jenny's
a great designer. Tripp is a great guy.
Leif (27:00):
He's the most honest guy in the family.
Steve (27:02):
He is the most honest guy in the family.
Leif (27:04):
I'M sure that's going to last.
Steve (27:06):
I'm sure that bar is really high
and is going to last for a long time.
Leif (27:12):
I'm sure his marriage is just perfectly safe.
Steve (27:15):
It seems that way to me. Uh, it seems like he
has someone that really looks out for him and watches his
back and there's no one.
Leif (27:21):
He could possibly cheat with.
Steve (27:23):
No, no, no. I think that he is
definitely a one woman guy
with blinders on to any
other young blondes.
Leif (27:33):
Vanessa calls a petulant Nate out for losing
his moral compass.
Steve (27:38):
Why are you there?
You're still there.
Leif (27:45):
Cuz, uh, she's fucking Blair. She is Blair.
They're the same person.
Steve (27:50):
And, and she, and, and Blair.
More to the point, she's Vanessa and is always at the
party she doesn't belong at.
We're back into season two form.
Vanessa.
Leif (28:03):
Serena finds her and confirms Patrick's story
about Brandeis being a working girl.
Steve (28:08):
Trapped. Trapped her.
Leif (28:11):
It was five hours. Two bloods. Make a right.
Steve (28:14):
Yeah, well done, Serena.
But that was. And it was just so
the Serena est way to do it too.
Oh, I can totally pretend like I want to sleep with that guy
for money.
Leif (28:29):
Chuck is being interviewed about the hotel
and expertly diverts the reporter's attention from a
pantsless Patrick walking around on the overlooking
balcony.
Steve (28:39):
Yeah, fucking mess.
It's so, so over the top.
The whole Patrick thing of him being that
wasted at this party and walking around with his
pants off. It's just so over the
top.
Leif (28:55):
Serena lets Blair know that she had her friend
escorted out of the hotel. Chuck tries to get in
between their bickering but Blair fires back and points out that
the only prostitute here is actually Serena.
Serena has had enough at this point and pushes
Blaire's face into a cake. Gossip Girl
quips
Blair and Serena are at war again.
(29:18):
Yummy.
Steve (29:19):
Uh, yeah. We see
Chuck throughout this episode
and this season so far. Being the grown
up and I uh, loved
when he walks up. She had my friend
kicked out of here. The prostitute. Yeah. She
can't be here. I love how Chuck is like,
(29:39):
yeah, obviously I'm kicking out the high priced call
girl.
Leif (29:44):
Act 5 begins at the party. Nate
takes the fall and says he is the one who planned the
setup.
Steve (29:50):
Yeah, trying to bail out Trip
and grandfather. Really? He feels
grandfather isn't going to step up and take the heat so
he's going to do it for him
and take one for the team.
Which of course won't be great for Nate's
political prospects. If anyone
remembers four years later, it's not like people
(30:13):
really remember four years later the
horrible things that somebody does while
they're in office. They often forget four
years later.
Leif (30:23):
Yeah. Yeah.
Chuck chases down Serena and warns her that if she
isn't careful, she is going to lose Blair
forever.
Steve (30:32):
Again, Chuck being the grown up, why.
Leif (30:35):
Is he blaming Serena?
Steve (30:37):
I didn't think that. I didn't take it that
way. I took it the way of,
you know, Blair. You know that this is just
what she goes through. I didn't really feel like he was
blaming her, but he's putting on her.
Leif (30:51):
To make it right.
Steve (30:52):
Uh, yes. And I feel like he was putting
it on her because Blair isn't going
to. Which I'm not saying that's the
right thing either.
Leif (31:02):
Maybe they just shouldn't be friends.
Steve (31:03):
Maybe they just shouldn't be friends. Too bad. Blair's
in love with her.
Leif (31:08):
Olivia goes to the loft to apologize to Dan.
However, Dan apologizes and reveals he wasn't mad about the
story, which wasn't exactly true. He just
came home to set up a last
minute one month anniversary date.
Steve (31:22):
Sweet. Yeah, it was cute. The resolution
to this whole thing was cute, but it was also a kind
of a dumb storyline in
general.
Leif (31:32):
It's just because unlike Jenny and
Eric, they can't go an episode without having Dan with the
storyline. Yeah, he's too high on the call sheet.
Steve (31:40):
Yeah. And they have to
keep this relationship going and
they're not shaking it up quite
yet. It's nice that Hillary Duff
got this much time on the show too.
I mean, a lot of the
extra relationships
are usually around three episodes.
(32:03):
Maybe four in some cases. I think. Like, I think
Aaron had four maybe,
but it's often around three.
Leif (32:11):
Feels like. Feels like 50, but, uh, feels felt
like 50.
Steve (32:15):
No, I'm talking about the number of episodes, not his
age.
Leif (32:21):
Trip. Thanks Nate for taking the fall. And it appears
it worked. In another timely news broadcast that it's announced
that Tripp has won his bid for a congressional seat.
Nate congratulates Trip and tells him he's the only
honest one in the family. Uh, what a
jinx.
Steve (32:36):
Good old Nate. Good old Nate. Just be
the best representative that district has
ever seen. Trip.
Leif (32:45):
Serena offers Blair the olive branch of a towel
to clean her face. However, Blair calls her out
for drifting. While everyone else is building a future,
Blair declares the friendship over and walks away.
Gossip Girl closes the act with.
Steve (33:02):
Who.
Leif (33:02):
Would have thought that S&P's friendship had a term
limit? Sorry, ladies. Party's over.
Steve (33:09):
Blair isn't wrong, but she's
also lying to Herself about
herself. She's right that Serena is
kind of in this weird
spiral thing, but so is Blair.
Blair doesn't have any friends.
Blair thinks she has one M friend who is using
her to get clients.
Leif (33:32):
So we move into the epilogue. Blair
apologizes to Brandeis for Serena trying to get her kicked
out. However, Brandeis admits that she is, in fact,
a prostitute. Blair is grossed out at first, but
then seems to come around to the idea of having her as a friend.
Steve (33:46):
Her mixed reactions throughout
this when she's horrified and she
goes, well, yeah, um, are you even a
student? Well, yeah, this is how I pay.
Leif (33:56):
For college in Kotor. And
Blair's like, huh, I'll talk to
my people about it.
Steve (34:03):
Yeah, I'll talk to my people about it.
Leif (34:05):
Maybe we can still shop together.
Steve (34:08):
She's like, sure, but I need to go work
now. And then that's when Blair really
realizes, uh, she's been
played.
Leif (34:17):
Serena finally realizes that what Blair said
while mean was ultimately correct. She
stuffs a handsy Patrick into a limo with a
resignation letter written on his pocket
square. Blair and Serena stare
longingly at each other from across the street.
Steve (34:34):
Power. Move to quit that way.
Leif (34:35):
Yeah, uh, it was, it was a.
Steve (34:37):
It'S I, I, I. First time I watched,
I thought she wrote it on his shirt, which I thought would have been
even cooler. Like, right across the shirt. Get
in the car, Take him to her house.
Leif (34:49):
But now Serena is jobless and
homeless because she was living at
Blair's.
Steve (34:55):
Oh, yeah, she was.
Yeah.
Leif (34:58):
I'll see. Maybe she get a good job as an
intern, uh, for her
politician.
Steve (35:05):
Yeah.
Leif (35:06):
Maureen and the grandfather are having a private drink,
and Maureen reveals she is the evil genius
that planned everything.
Steve (35:14):
So Robin called the wife, doing
it way early, way early in the
episode when Vanessa was first. I, uh,
think it was when Vanessa confronted Nate. Robin had
the. I wonder if the wife did it. And
when Nate and Trip are
having the conversation and Trip wins and they're just having
(35:35):
a casual conversation, and you see the
wife step down into the shot
at the end. Uh, that's when I turned to her. I said, you're
right. That shot in the previous scene with
them like, that red dress.
Yeah. And then here she sits down with
grandfather and fucking
power move.
Leif (35:57):
Power. Yeah.
Steve (35:58):
Uh, and how all that time you thought
that blah, blah, blah. Honestly, I didn't
think of you much at all.
Leif (36:07):
Yeah, like, he skipped the beat for a second, but then he was right back
on.
Steve (36:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I, I can, man.
Now that I know what I'm dealing With. I can handle
this.
Leif (36:17):
I didn't think of much of you at all, darling.
Chuck comes back to his suite and finds
Blair. Chuck comforts and cuddles with Blair.
Steve (36:27):
The only person she has. Yeah. The only
person she has in this world. Hang on
to him, Blair. Hang on to him, because
you need him a lot more than
he needs you right now.
Leif (36:41):
Vanessa is looking at her name being
attached to the news story about Trip. Gossip Girl
begins her end of episode monologue.
Sometimes it's hard to see the lines we've drawn
until we cross them. She just look at her on
their name in the. On the website.
Steve (36:58):
Did she. Did she smile? I forget.
Leif (37:00):
Yeah, she does.
Steve (37:01):
Yeah. Does feel good, Vanessa.
Leif (37:04):
Dan and Olivia are, uh, watching Olivia's second appearance
on Fallon. Olivia made Fallon apologize to
Dan, and Gossip Girl continues. That's when we
rely on the ones we love to pull us back and give
us something to hold on to.
Steve (37:18):
Yeah, that was cute, too. Like, why are you so worried about this?
Olivia? Chill. Like, I. I hate when they
write the tension just for tension, when there doesn't need
to be. Give them. Have her say something
that was actually insulting.
Leif (37:31):
Well, uh, it wasn't even her. I mean, Jimmy
Fallon was the one. Yeah, like, insulting.
Steve (37:36):
Yeah.
Leif (37:37):
Caught him like a creep or something.
Steve (37:38):
Like. Yeah. The red flags. Check, please.
Yeah.
Leif (37:42):
We transition to Chuck and Blair asleep and
spooning. Oh, and
in the final scene of the episode, Trip finds
Serena sitting alone at the bar. The
two flirt and order more drinks.
Gossip Girl opines, then
there are clearly marked lines. The
(38:02):
ones that, if you dare cross, you may
never find your way back. Xo.
XO Gossip Girl.
Steve (38:11):
And, uh, Serena's licking a martini glass.
Fantastic.
Leif (38:16):
Why are you. Congressman, why are you ordering drinks for this
minor?
Steve (38:20):
Yeah.
Now that I am in. Now that I am in
office, I will make my first
move.
And. Ah, so the fifth immediately becomes like a
Kennedy creeper the second he wins the election.
Hide their blondie.
Leif (38:41):
So the full. The full, uh, end of the episode
is.
Sometimes it's hard to see the lines we've drawn until
we cross them. That's when we rely on the ones we
love to pull us back and give us something to hold on
to. Then there are clearly marked
lines. The ones that if you dare
cross, you may never find your way back.
(39:04):
X.O.X.O. gossip
Girl. And that is our episode.
What's coming next?
Steve (39:12):
I do wonder. I did have the thought of,
although Serena's not a publicist for KC
Anymore, that there'd be a job open
for Trip for someone in her Position.
I do believe there's something going on with her and
Trip. Uh, that's set
up. Pretty obvious, pretty obviously.
I wonder what that then leaves
(39:34):
for Trip's wife. I forget her name.
Leif (39:36):
Maureen.
Steve (39:37):
Maureen. I forget where that leaves M. I don't know where that
leaves Maureen. I don't know where that leaves
Grandfather. I feel like Grandfather is going to get back on
top and get his reigns back around
Trip and Nate. Uh, I don't.
Grandfather doesn't seem like the type to lose
for long. For good.
(39:57):
I, uh, foresee some tension coming.
There's gotta be some real tension with Dan and Olivia
eventually. Unless she's just
going to be around for a while. I just. I
don't see how that's really sustainable. Or maybe
I also. I really like Hilary
Duff. I really like her a lot. I
don't think she's a very good actor.
(40:20):
I think it's sort of like she's charismatic. Yes,
she's charismatic. I think it's sort of how
I feel about Eliza Dushku. Eliza Dushku
is Faith and played Faith and Was. And
that's.
Leif (40:31):
They got that Riz.
Steve (40:33):
Uh, yeah, but, like, I don't think she's a
good actor, and I don't think that Hilary
Duff is a really good actor. I think that
she plays a cute girlfriend for Dan
on the show, but I have a hard time
often seeing her not as just Lizzie
McGuire.
Leif (40:51):
Well, uh, she's, uh, basically playing a version of
herself.
Steve (40:55):
Yeah, she really is. And. And
I guess I'm also. Because she had that How I Met yout
Father show where she also kind of
played this character.
And I just feel like she does just kind of
play herself. And I feel like she is one of
those actors who has the luxury of doing
that because she was a successful child
(41:17):
star who isn't a complete train
wreck child star who has grown
into now having a,
I would say, successful career as an
adult. You know, she's working, and
I don't think that she's someone that needs to be
a good actor to get work.
Leif (41:38):
So let's go ahead and get. Or, uh, do you have any more
predictions? Anything on Chuck and Blair?
Steve (41:44):
Mostly it's more and more evident that Chuck
needs Blair needs Chuck,
and Chuck doesn't need Blair. Chuck, uh,
loves Blair. I believe that. And Chuck likes this.
But I also feel that we often see Chuck getting tired with
the high school shit.
Leif (41:59):
Yeah.
Steve (42:00):
So I think that is going to start boiling
over more that Blair
or could Chuck.
Leif (42:08):
He's been pretty healthy
this season.
Steve (42:12):
He's been a grownup like he has been.
Leif (42:14):
Can that last? Could something come and shake that
up? And then maybe he does need
Blair.
Steve (42:20):
Yeah, I. I could see that, you
know, Jack could come back. Some other
relative.
Leif (42:27):
We just had a mention of him last episode.
Steve (42:29):
Yeah, we had a mention of him two episodes ago. So there's
definitely things that could do that to
Chuck. And it could also. I.
I could see Blair not rising
to the occasion when Chuck needs him. Chuck
has, in their own creepy, weird
way, risen to the occasion for Blair.
There was the one time when she used him and he said,
(42:51):
I can't. So it could be that
Blair won't rise to the occasion when Chuck needs her.
Needs him. Needs her.
Leif (42:59):
Let's go ahead and get into some segments.
This week in fandom, we jumped into the
Wayback Machine to travel to the fan forums of
2009. Hello
there, Peabody here. And this is the
Wayback Machine. We're traveling through time. And this is
my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman.
Steve (43:19):
Hello.
Leif (43:20):
Good boy. Not a very.
Not a lot of chatter this week. Overall, uh,
opinion was the episode is kind of weak.
Several people, like, apparently a lot of people are
New Yorkers watching this show because several people thought they actually
turned to New York Shadow one.
Apparently, that's what it actually looks like.
Steve (43:41):
Oh, it's funny.
Leif (43:43):
Tripp is hot.
Steve (43:45):
Is he? I mean, he's not. I. I don't
see him as being any hotter than anyone else.
I don't see him as a standout. I guess
the fans disagree when you have
Chase Crawford on the screen. Ow.
Leif (44:00):
For once more, people are team Serena over team
Blair. I agree.
Steve (44:05):
I do, too. But I'm just surprised because usually the
loyalists to, uh, queen bee,
I started calling my cat. We have a new cat,
Parissa Tomei. And I started calling her queen
Bee.
Leif (44:18):
And finally, like the vulture recap, they were
definitely kind of confused on why Blair and Serena are
fighting.
Steve (44:24):
Yeah, it was a dumb fight to begin with.
Leif (44:30):
Moving over to episode grades, you went
first last time, so I'm going to go first this time.
Yeah. Like the fan forum people, I did
not think this episode was that great. The writing was kind of
boring. Nothing really
happened. The directing was good,
but overall, I gave it a C minus.
Steve (44:51):
Yeah, I'm going a C.
I was in the B range at first.
But it's, uh, funny because sometimes when we're here
and we're going through it and we're actually talking about it,
the grade will take a hit. And
things like the Olivia
storyline being weak,
(45:12):
the tension between
Blair and Serena though the tension
itself wasn't weak. The
story behind it, again, was weak.
Leif (45:23):
Yeah, the directing and the acting was fine. The writing
was weak.
Steve (45:27):
The writing was definitely weak. And
it seemed like the episode went somewhere, but
nowhere necessary. Like there
was a huge win for a minor, uh,
character.
Leif (45:39):
I mean that, uh. Yeah, the one big setup
is you got Serena and Tripp.
Steve (45:45):
Yeah, yeah. The congressman. The
congressman and the teenager.
Leif (45:50):
Yes. They did actually state his age, which.
Steve (45:52):
Is 26, so eight years older
than Serena.
Leif (45:59):
On to Stockwatch
going up. I had Dan and Olivia because
they were just had your little silly storyline were
cute at the end. Tripp because he's now
a congressman. Maureen because
she schemed out skeeved the
grandfather. And then also
Vanessa. I mean she did the right thing and she
(46:21):
got her footage on the news and so good for
her.
Steve (46:25):
Yeah, yeah. I actually had all of them.
Tripp, Dan, Olivia,
Vanessa and Mrs. Trip. I
also had Chuck going up. He threw
this successful campaign event. His
hotel is still doing well. I had
Rufus and Lily going up for having a storyline that
(46:45):
wasn't stupid. And I
had Brandeis going up because she was working that
party.
Leif (46:52):
Nice. I'm actually going to add Brandeis.
Steve (46:56):
She deserves it. I mean she
out schemed Blair.
Leif (47:00):
Yeah.
Steve (47:00):
Ah, yeah.
Leif (47:02):
I had Chuck neutral also Rufus and Lily neutral
because I didn't like the way Chuck treated Serena. So I
kept him as neutral.
Steve (47:09):
That's fair. That's fair.
Leif (47:10):
Rufus and Lily were just there.
Steve (47:11):
I liked that Chuck was being the closest thing
to a grown up of the non judging breakfast
pod going down.
Leif (47:19):
I had Serena because she, like I
said, is now jobless and potentially homeless.
Uh, Blair because she still has
no real friends. Just not much going for
right now. Nate because he was a dick
and still got fucked over. And uh, the
grandfather because he got out positioned.
Steve (47:41):
I had all of the same. But I also had Patrick
going down for just being a complete and
total train wreck.
Leif (47:48):
Fair enough.
Steve (47:50):
But here's the best outfits from the.
Last episode we've seen.
Leif (47:58):
So moving over to best outfit.
I did not recognize her originally in the stock watch,
but the woman who's getting paid to look good,
I gave her the best outfit. Brandeis.
Steve (48:09):
Brandeis.
Leif (48:10):
Their turquoise dress.
Steve (48:12):
Fair. Yeah.
Leif (48:13):
Was not a great fashion upset.
Steve (48:14):
No, no, My outfit actually
was when Blair met Brandeis, the.
Leif (48:20):
The gold.
Steve (48:21):
The gold and brown outfit she wore
to court. Uh, that was my
favorite outfit of the episode.
Leif (48:29):
That is it for segments
for plugs this week. What do you got?
Steve (48:35):
First of all, I've been
watching, I keep talking about the New Daredevil, which
is awesome. I've been watching that.
And outside of that, you can go ahead and
follow me on Instagram or TikTok
@Steve Marshon M A R
C H I O N. I'm on threads as
well so you could follow me there as well.
(48:57):
And you can find me on bluesky
Headwizard.
And I'm pretty sure that's what I'm plugging
as of right now.
Leif (49:06):
For me, I'm going to recommend checking out still
the podcast. That's still
the podcast. It's a couple of women who
are uh, talking about issues that women
identifying artists are still facing in Iowa
today. And one of the co hosts is
actually, uh, was involved in Gossip Girl.
Steve (49:26):
Oh nice.
Leif (49:27):
So check that out. And then if you want to follow me on
social media, you can find me on bluesky
and Instagram. Hotcappicola. That's
hot. C A P I
C O L A. You can follow the
podcast on threads, TikTok and
Instagramnjudgingbreakfastpod.
(49:48):
And if you're interested in finding links to our uh,
Discord server, Patreon, subreddit,
et cetera, you can find them on our website
nonjudgingbreakfastpod.com
and if you would.
Steve (50:01):
Like to get in touch with us, we would love to hear what you have to say
and maybe even read the email on
the show here. Please send us an email
to
nonjudgingbreakfastpodmail.com
and we'd love to hear your thoughts. Also while
you're listening, if you could go ahead and hit that like
button, hit the subscribe or follow button and
(50:22):
go ahead and leave a comment on Spotify or
Apple ipod or Apple podcasts. That really
helps with our visibility. And also while you're
at it, tell a friend what you're listening to,
make us your water cooler talk and get
other people to share in the non judging
breakfast pod. Fun for sure.
Leif (50:43):
And we will be back next week to discuss
season three, episode nine. They
shoot Humphreys, don't they?
Steve (50:50):
Damn.
Leif (50:51):
The Max episode description reads
jenny wants to be the ultimate queen
bee.
Steve (50:58):
Uh oh. I, I mean, oh,
then is she going? She going for
now.
Leif (51:04):
Well, there's more than one private school in New
York.
Steve (51:08):
Yeah. Wow.
Leif (51:10):
And they all get together for something.
Steve (51:13):
What did they get together for before.
Leif (51:15):
Season one, episode ten.
Steve (51:17):
Oh man, I'm drawing a blank. But I
remember it. I know that they all got together
coming out.
Leif (51:25):
Debutante. Oh,
cotillion.
Steve (51:28):
The cotillion. Oh,
uh, uh, it's funny cause I wouldn't think of jenny.
I would imagine her always wanting to but not
really thinking she'd have the chance. But she's a bass now
and she's a junior. Yeah, she's a junior and she's got that
bass, cash. So, yeah.
Also, our next episode will be recorded on my favorite
(51:49):
holiday. No, not easter. It is
4:20.
Leif (51:54):
But until, uh, next time, you know you love us.
Steve (51:56):
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
(52:17):
oh, it seems I'm walking.
Right to your door
my heart's still.
Resting looking for something more.
Are m.
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
(52:39):
piece of m 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
never feels right when I'm out here on
my own
(53:02):
I 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 meat with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
(53:24):
piece 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
(53:47):
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
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
(54:09):
piece of me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me you with 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
(54:32):
Every time you walk away or run away m you take a
piece of me with you m there.
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