S3E09 - "They Shoot Humphreys, Don't They?" - Non Judging Breakfast Pod

Episode Transcript
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Leif (00:00):
Which is what being a debutante is all about, so.

Steve (00:02):
It is.

Leif (00:03):
I mean, if you're going to ignore the whole fact that.

Steve (00:08):
Is a. Is. Is a. Yes.
Is a feminist.

Leif (00:14):
So. Yeah, it's kind of. It's kind of hard to get up on my high horse
about her needing the right guy.

Steve (00:19):
Yeah. Okay. That is cotillion in
general. Is.

Leif (00:24):
Yeah. So if you're going to accept cotillion as
a plot line, you know, he's kind of got to roll with it.

Steve (00:29):
Yeah, I' I got it. I got
it.

Leif (00:39):
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 Leaf, and I'm your seasoned Gossip Girl veteran.

Steve (00:54):
And I'm Steve, the newbie, the
greenhorn. I don't know, Leif,
when am I now in season three?

Leif (01:01):
Well, you know, you really put yourself on the radar tonight. You
better not make that mistake again or you'll pay. For real.

Steve (01:07):
I just wanted to be your friend.

Leif (01:11):
We'll see.

Steve (01:13):
So here's the deal, folks. Leaf has been
watching Gossip Girl since it first aired, and I'm tuning
in for the very first time. Together, we're your
dynamic duo, bringing you all the drama,
romance, and sometimes questionable fashion
choices of this iconic 2007
series.

Leif (01:31):
Bring your magnifying glasses because each week we're
dissecting every juicy detail of the show
one episode at a time. We'll connect the
dots, uncover those sneaky little Easter eggs, and
of course, serve up some piping hot behind the scenes
tea. And expect some iconic fandom moments
too, because what's a deep dive without a little
drama?

Steve (01:51):
And since we are all about inclusivity here at the non
judging breakfast podcast, there is always room for you at the
non judging breakfast table. So go ahead and grab your
coffee, a mimosa OR hey, it's
4:20. Go ahead and call up Chuck's dealer
and let's get into this and let's get started.

Leif (02:09):
Indeed. And
joining us at the breakfast table, we get to continue that email
from our friend Eden because we are on the episode she
discussed. So let's get right back into
that.

Steve (02:21):
Uh, let's get into it.

Leif (02:25):
She writes. And I did confirm that it is
she. Now that you're
on season three, one episode in particular I'm excited
about is, uh, they shoot Humphreys, don't they?
I hope this message reaches you before that one.
To me, this episode taps into something extremely
Inherent in the ethos of Gossip Girl, the

(02:45):
interactions of wealth, social hierarchy,
friendship and portrayal, as well as the cost of
ambition and the search for identity. How does it do
this? With a classic Jenny storyline, of
course. I'm so glad this podcast is Jenny
positive because I truly believe she's one of the most
compelling characters, as I'm sure you
research advanced. The title is based on the

(03:07):
1969 film they shoot Horses,
don't they? And referenced in a beloved episode
of Gilmore Girls. I've seen this film
and episode for as much as the
Gilmore one does. I do think there are
some interesting and perhaps unintentional thematic
crossovers. For one,

(03:27):
Jenny's metaphorical dance with the Upper east side
mirrors the physical and emotional toll that the
dancers in the film experience. The film
also explores how, when pushed to your limit,
survival can lead to sacrificing
one's humanity, essentially doing whatever it
takes to win. I see a similar concept in
Jenny's storyline. Her desperate need for

(03:49):
validation puts her in a moral gray area,
blurring the lines between who she is and how
she presents herself to the world. One of my
other favorite episodes was Daredevil back in season
one, which feels very linked to this one in terms of
Jenny's arc. Jenny must prove herself to survive,
and she does, but at what cost?

(04:10):
This is why Jenny and Blair and Dan are my favorites.
I love their authenticity and
complexity, both in performance
and writing. I think the show's strongest
moments are the Jenny Blair storylines. I wish they
gave us some more of them.

Steve (04:26):
Great email. We really appreciate
this. First of all. Thank you very much.
And this show.
We've discussed how this show
handles wealth and how wealth
is just kind of everywhere. And even the poor
people on this show
are pretty wealthy. Yeah.

(04:48):
That. There really is no
one in poverty on this
show. The poorest person we've
probably seen is Horace. You know
that. But
for the most part, they view
somebody who is in a lower
wealth class still as being in

(05:10):
poverty. And Jenny has this feeling
of being in poverty
despite never once in her
life wondering where her next meal
is coming from, never wondering if she's
going to have a roof over her head.
And yet

(05:31):
she sees all of this luxury and
glamour coming from the people above
her and then marries into it.

Leif (05:40):
Having recently, uh, some discussions on, uh, the
Mad Men subreddit about how
back in the 60s there was
levels to being white.

Steve (05:52):
Yes. Yeah.

Leif (05:54):
And that still exists at this high end even
today.

Steve (05:57):
Yeah. My dad. Right.
There was a hierarchy to
everything, including
being in the right religion, the Right
church and the right type of
white person that
my dad would make. My dad who is

(06:18):
who grew up in the 50s, he
was born in 1940, grew up, really came of age in the
50s and 60s and
still would talk about Italians
and the Irish
at times, especially
the Catholics. The
Catholic was such a uh,

(06:40):
lowly thing to my dad
that in his hierarchy
being Catholic was below being Jewish.
Because at least being Jewish you just
didn't know the right stuff. But being
Catholic you knew it, but you were just doing it
wrong. So
yes, you are absolutely right.

Leif (07:02):
So uh, as you might have guessed, we are here to talk about
season three, episode nine, they
shoot Humphreys, don't they? Original air date
November 9, 2009 and based on, as
Eden mentioned, they Shoot Horses don't
they, the 1969 film. I actually
watched it yesterday. Takes place in the
midst of the Great Depression. A

(07:24):
manipulative MC Rocky enlist contestants
for a dance marathon offering a fifteen hundred
dollar cash prize. Among them are a
failed actress, a middle aged sailor
and a delusional blonde and a pregnant girl.
Jane Fonda plays the uh, failed
actress. And have you

(07:45):
seen it?

Steve (07:46):
No, I have not. But she does mention that it's very
depressing.

Leif (07:50):
Yes. Uh, so the opening sequence of the movie is
this young boy watching what I'm guessing is either his father,
his grandfather shooting a horse after
it breaks its leg. So that's the
whole. And then he.

Steve (08:03):
They shoot horses. Okay. Yeah.

Leif (08:05):
And I believe that young boy is
the main guy who pairs up with Jane
Fonda's character.

Steve (08:12):
Okay.

Leif (08:13):
And so in the Gilmore Girls
episode, it is very much also a dance
marathon episode. It's a one night affair.
This marathon lasts like two months
in the movie. Yeah.
It's insane.

Steve (08:29):
Yeah. I could not dance that long.

Leif (08:32):
And then spoilers at the end
she. Jane Fonda is so depressed that
she lost that
she asked the guy to shoot him. Shooter.

Steve (08:43):
Because they shoot horses when they fail.

Leif (08:45):
Because you know, she's 30, an actress, so she's, you know.

Steve (08:48):
Yeah.

Leif (08:48):
Might as well just put her out the pasture, just.

Steve (08:50):
Yep, her life is done.

Leif (08:52):
So. Yes, it is a very depressing movie.

Steve (08:55):
I mean she's a 30 year old actress. There
are parts for grandmothers that I'm sure that
she could find.

Leif (09:04):
Uh, yeah, yeah. This
episode was written by Amanda
Lasher, previously wrote in season
two, Predipoor J, Gone
with the Will, Satyr Anything.
And in season three she also wrote the
Freshman. Mhm.

Steve (09:22):
Yeah, she does a decent job. Yeah.

Leif (09:24):
She's a good writer.

Steve (09:24):
Yeah. And she has some good
Jenny stuff too.

Leif (09:28):
And I think she is, like, an executive producer on.

Steve (09:32):
Yeah. So what happened in this one?

Leif (09:34):
Wait, you didn't like this episode?

Steve (09:36):
I did not like this episode.

Leif (09:37):
Oh, wow. Okay.

Steve (09:38):
Yeah.

Leif (09:38):
That's interesting.

Steve (09:40):
Ultimately, what I really
hated was
the theme of if you have the
best man, then you're the
best girl. And that
really, I felt like that it could have
been a power moment, and we'll get to that. But, like, it could have
been so much else.

Leif (10:01):
I mean, that's not a great. It's definitely not a great message,
but I still love the episode.

Steve (10:06):
Okay.

Leif (10:09):
This show is not known for sending a good moral message.

Steve (10:12):
No, no,
I would not accuse it of such.
It was advertised as don't let your kids watch
this.

Leif (10:22):
And it was, of course, directed by Allison
McLean. And this is her only
episode of Gossip Girl. She does a mix of
other things that she does. She directed for TV
like Carnival, the L Award, the
Tudors, Sex in the City,
movies like Crush Jesus's
son. And she also did two music

(10:44):
videos for Natalie and Viru, including Torn, her
big hit.

Steve (10:48):
Yeah. Cool.

Leif (10:49):
So why don't you give us that vulture
recap?

Steve (10:53):
It's time for cotillion again. Only this year,
everything is different. Instead of the virginal white
gowns this year, nearly everyone is
draped in color. Blood red, icy blue,
dark black colors that indicate the character's
compromised virtue. Instead of sweet
violin music, a neo riot grrrl band
wails a song about being a bee, spelling out

(11:16):
the letters. In case you missed it, the steps the characters
take, however, are the same. Once again, Jenny
Humphrey realizes that she shouldn't step on people
and act like a giant bee, then promptly forgets her
realization. Once again, Eric's heart
softens toward his half sister, then promptly
hardens again when she acts like a

(11:36):
giant bee. Once again, Blair believes
Serena when she promises she won't act like a
wild slut. And once again,
Serena is completely unable to prevent
herself. Oh, let's face it. She didn't
even really try this time. Like
Lily said, they've all been
practicing this dance for years now. It's their

(11:57):
natural rhythm.
Man, Serena could have licked anything in
this episode. I was worried she's going to stick a stapler in her mouth
at one point.

Leif (12:10):
Oh, uh, Rufus in his natural rhythm.

Steve (12:12):
Rufus.
I loved Rufus in this episode.
He's just so out of his element.

Leif (12:22):
So before we get into the episode, last
week after we recorded, I showed you the promo, the
OM M3. Did you have any idea
who it was gonna be based on the promo?

Steve (12:32):
Uh, no, I didn't.

Leif (12:34):
Who did you think it was gonna be?

Steve (12:36):
Well, from the promo, they put up a few
different options, right? And they put up
the. They put Jenny and Nate together.
I forget who else was with them.
They put.

Leif (12:48):
Chuck was there?

Steve (12:50):
Yes. Yeah. Yeah, it was Chuck, Nate, and Jenny.
There was, I think. Was it Serena, Blair, and
Trip?

Leif (12:56):
Possibly.

Steve (12:57):
And then there was Dan, Olivia,
and Vanessa. And I just knew it
was going to happen with someone. My
inkling, for some reason, was that it was going to
be Nate somehow in this.
And then once the
episode started, I remembered that you had showed me that,

(13:18):
and I was like, oh, Robin, you should see the trailer for
this episode. And she said, why do I need to watch the trailer?
I'm watching the episode. I'm like, okay. And I didn't show
it to her, but the whole episode, every
time. So the Lost Weekend thing,
I'm like, oh, is it. Oh, okay.
Is something going to happen here? And. Or. And

(13:38):
then the pairing.

Leif (13:40):
Well, to be fair, I think they probably did have a threesome off
screen.

Steve (13:43):
Probably.

Leif (13:44):
He probably did, and we'll get into that.

Steve (13:47):
Yeah. Um, but they did
do a decent
job of splitting, uh, people into
threes early in the episode.
But it quickly became obvious what
direction it was going to go when it's like, well, we got to do all the
crazy college things we're going to do.
Okay. I

(14:09):
missed out on my college experience.

Leif (14:10):
I guess Act 1
begins with a Gossip Girl
monologue.
Have you been so busy that you've forgotten what time of year it
is? Let me give you a hint. Couture,
quadrilles and cutthroat competition.
That's right. It's time for cotillion.

(14:32):
We open the episode with Jenny walking in
Manhattan flanked by her minions. It looks like we're getting
a, uh, redux of the season one storyline of Jenny looking
for that perfect stud. However, this time,
she needs an escort for cotillion. Little Jenny is
coming out. Jenny rules Constance with an iron
fist. But what about the other private schools of Manhattan that

(14:52):
will be attending the cotillion?

Steve (14:54):
From the start, I hated the premise of
Jenny needs to find the perfect man
again. M. That we already did
this in season one,
and now
I just found it to be. Again,
redundant. And I found it to just
be. Why do you need a man? The

(15:15):
whole thing about Jenny is that she carries herself
and rules with this iron fist. The
man shouldn't matter. And I wish, uh, that
was the storyline that we were
going for, that Jenny is the queen
and any man on her arm is
eye candy, is just a dressing and

(15:36):
doesn't matter. It could be anybody.

Leif (15:39):
Well, that's what it kind of was. But it has to be the right
accessory. Yeah, but he was just
there as an accessory.

Steve (15:46):
Yes, but it also had, uh,
to be the perfect accessory. I
just felt like it took power away from her. I felt like this whole
episode, I feel like the premise of
looking for a man to declare
your power doesn't set
with me.

Leif (16:05):
To me, it's no different than picking the right
dress.

Steve (16:10):
I get that. I do get that.

Leif (16:12):
And it is just.

Steve (16:13):
Yeah.

Leif (16:13):
Uh, so, uh, that, you know, your version would be a
better. Again, a better moral lesson.
But this is just a typical
cotillion.

Steve (16:22):
If I was writing this, they'd all be a couple billion dollars
for.

Leif (16:28):
At the Empire, Chuck encourages Blair to use
cotillion as an opportunity to mend fences with
Serena. That's where they also set up the Lost
weekend.

Steve (16:36):
Yes. And if I remember correctly,
the first Lost Weekend, we didn't see Chuck
and Nate. I don't think they. I think they were written
out of that one. Or is that the Carter Basin?

Leif (16:47):
That was the first Carter episode.

Steve (16:49):
That was the first Carter Basin episode. I believe there's
another Lost Weekend. Is there a Lost Weekend that the two of them are
written out of? I feel like there was an
episode where we had no Chuck and Nate because they were
off.

Leif (17:00):
Yeah. Sounds. I think, season two, probably.

Steve (17:03):
Yeah, that makes more sense. Uh, but
I liked that Lost Weekend is
now this established canon, sort of like the
other parallels that we see from season
to season. I like the Lost
Weekend and how that is just the
Nate and Chuck Brogue weekend
that everybody just. No questions asked. We

(17:25):
accept that this is going to happen. And
I just really liked it. Yeah.

Leif (17:31):
Serena and Tripp flirt in an interview that appears to
be just a formality. Serena gets the
job and leaves to go plan her cotillion dinner. We
find out that Trip was not planning on hiring someone, but
specifically asked Serena to interview. My
skin was crawling.

Steve (17:48):
Oh, my God. First of all, it was a pretty
easy interview for this
teenage intern that you just
hired. Please don't lick the stapler.

Leif (17:59):
She's not even in there. She's the media relations
person.

Steve (18:02):
Yeah. Uh, yeah.
That they're not hiring for.

Leif (18:09):
Yeah. Not. Yeah.

Steve (18:11):
Trip went from being the best
Archibald to being the
creepiest fucking Archibald. And he has
grandfather to contend with. He was
so fucking creepy. This
whole. And so groomy.
And so that. That
whole, like, oh, I just can't help myself when you're

(18:33):
Around. Oh, my God, you disgusting
pervert.

Leif (18:37):
Dan and Olivia are at the NYU Cafe
with Vanessa. It sounds like Olivia might
be making endless nights 4. Even though it has
been shown since Olivia's first episode. It seems out of
character that Vanessa is such a big fan of these movies.

Steve (18:52):
This is the first time that we see the three
of the. A, uh, three pair.

Leif (18:57):
Yeah.

Steve (18:58):
And it is those three that franchise
sounds awful.

Leif (19:02):
Well, yeah, it's making fun of Twilight.

Steve (19:04):
Yes. I love it.
Well, it at least sounds a little better
than Twilight because it sounds like it's at
least like, you know, a fantasy
setting, but it still sounds so
awful. I loved Vanessa getting into
it with the nerds when they all come up and they're
blaming Dan and she's like, you don't honestly

(19:27):
think that they could take the.
I really liked that.

Leif (19:32):
I could see Vanessa being, uh, having it as
a guilty pleasure, but I just don't see a person like
Vanessa bragging about liking Endless Nights. She's
way too pretentious.

Steve (19:42):
She is. And especially if you compare it
to Twilight. And Twilight's an
awful book. I don't know. Have you
read the Twilight books?

Leif (19:53):
No. I saw the first
movie and I was out.

Steve (19:57):
Yeah. In the fading days of my first
marriage, my ex wife read the
Twilight series and was obsessed. And I was like,
oh, you know what? It's getting all these young
kids to read, especially young girls.
It was sucking them into the hobby of
reading. So I thought, okay, I'm going to read this
book. I read the first

(20:18):
two. When I handed the second one
back to her, I said, if you have me read another one of
these, I'm going to use my red pen
as, uh, my. My English teacher red pen.
I'm going to rip whole pages out
and hand you back a better version. Because
these books are so

(20:38):
awfully written. The
writing is
terrible. The setting is
good. Certain other elements
are. Literary elements are present
and good, but for the most part, the
storytelling is
awful and the writing is

(21:00):
awful. I hated that
book. I thought the movies
were better than the books and the movies
were terrible. I thought the movies were like, well, this
is the best we can do with what we were given.
They were better.

Leif (21:17):
Uh, that tracks.

Steve (21:18):
Yeah. They were better than the
books that were terrible.
And I've only seen the first two because I also was not going
to put myself through any more of that
horrendous bullshit
at the. We just lost half our viewers, half our
listeners.

Leif (21:39):
Why does Stephanie Savage quit?

Steve (21:43):
Well, if only she would have quit writing.

Leif (21:48):
At the debutante rehearsal Jenny is a
bit intimidated when Lily informs her that the other
girls have been taking lessons for years and
that Jenny might be a bit behind. A
distracted Jenny doesn't notice a girl trying to say hello
to her as she goes for a drink of water.

Steve (22:06):
Yeah, I don't like insecure Jenny. I
feel like she, uh. Of course, she's
always only insecure in private.

Leif (22:14):
And this has been a running theme the whole season.

Steve (22:16):
It has, it has that she's not comfortable
in her position.

Leif (22:20):
But this is where we hear about Rufus's natural
rhythm.

Steve (22:24):
Yeah. Yeah.

Leif (22:26):
Which I don't know if the writers were going for it to be
sound sexual, but Lily. Kelly. Kelly
Rutherford definitely made it sound sexual.

Steve (22:33):
Yeah. Yeah. Yes. And
it's funny. And it is funny
because it could be very innocent.
It is.

Leif (22:43):
You know, he is a, um, he is a musician.

Steve (22:45):
He's a musician. He has natural rhythm.

Leif (22:48):
But we've never seen him dancing. Really.

Steve (22:51):
Never? Never once
we. Yeah, we've seen him play guitar.

Leif (22:57):
Usually sitting down.

Steve (22:59):
Usually sitting down. Every,
ah, time, um, I walk away Run, uh, away. Take a
piece of me with you there.

Leif (23:07):
The girl that Jenny ignored is greeted instead by
Eric, who announces that he will be her court appointed
escort for the night. The girl's name is Kira, and
it turns out both she and Eric have inroads with
the guy. Jenny has her eyes on Graham
Collins. Eric advises Kira to stay out of
it, though.

Steve (23:26):
Eric, what are you doing?

Leif (23:29):
Yeah, I mean, uh, fans still
definitive in this episode. I thought he was shit. This episode, he
was shitty.

Steve (23:35):
This. This is the first.

Leif (23:37):
He deserved to get down.

Steve (23:38):
Yeah, this is the first time Eric was
really shitty. I mean, you teamed up
with Blair.

Leif (23:45):
Vanessa and Dan are discussing ways to convince Olivia to stay.
While Olivia is on the phone, it looks like a list of things to
do before you leave. School is just a ticket.

Steve (23:55):
She has a much better explanation for
why she has to do the movie
later on. Right now, when it's.
When she's saying, oh, I have to do this movie, it just
seems so, like, why don't you
have autonomy? But the bigger thing
to recognize is that people's careers balance on

(24:15):
one person. A lot of times
in Hollywood that if she
says no to this, hundreds of people are out of
work.

Leif (24:26):
I'm, uh, wearing a Garcia handpicked
shirt right now. And that is
somewhat of the story of Jerry Garcia.
He really would have liked to quit the Grateful
Dead.

Steve (24:38):
Oh, yeah.

Leif (24:38):
It could have saved his life. But there's just so
many people and families and everything depended
on the whole business. Of the Grateful Dead.

Steve (24:46):
Yes. Yeah. Such a good point.
That, that. That it ended up driving him to the.
To the ground. Yeah. Uh, and he
had his outlets, like the Jerry Garcia
project, to try to at
times at least get that vacation. Mhm.
But yeah, you're right. That I remember

(25:07):
reading about the Europe 72 tour when
they're like, well, who do we take with
us for this tour? And Jerry's like,
everyone. They're all part of the family and they
all need to be part of this.
So he was so,
so oriented around keeping everybody fed

(25:28):
in his circle. And it is that
same sort of thing here.

Leif (25:32):
Uh, getting back to this, uh, the
prefab list here. Do we think
there's a chance that Vanessa planned this whole
thing? Because she's the one that had it,
like, ready to go. She pulled it right out.

Steve (25:45):
Yep. And
there has been the building tension with her
and Dan that they
shucked off at the one point
a few episodes ago when, uh,
Georgina was trying to break them up.

Leif (26:03):
But everyone was very quick to believe Vanessa was in love with
Dan.

Steve (26:07):
Yes. Yes. Yeah, I
mean, the way Eric and Jenny were like, oh, because she's in love with
you.

Leif (26:13):
Of course. As a matter of fact,
Eric catches Jenny practicing out of the view of her
peers. The two share a moment, and Eric convinces
Jenny to take Jonathan as her escort. Jenny
walks off, and Eric reads an incoming text from Graham Collins
asking Jenny if she still needs an escort. Eric
replies back that she already has one. And Gossip

(26:34):
Girl takes us to the first act break with.

Steve (26:38):
Uh.

Leif (26:39):
In the complicated world of, ah, debutante balls, one
must choose her dance partner wisely. You never know when
a hand on a hip can lead to a knife in the back.

Steve (26:50):
Jenny trying to do the dance alone
just looked silly and
completely arrhythmic. She
didn't have that rhythm, which I thought was
really strange just for Taylor.

Leif (27:05):
I think it fit for her
age and her body type because
she's definitely grown.

Steve (27:13):
Yeah. And she's kind of grown awkwardly.

Leif (27:16):
Yeah. She's definitely gagged up.

Steve (27:18):
Yes. And she's tall and, you know.

Leif (27:21):
Teenagers.

Steve (27:21):
Yeah.

Leif (27:22):
Ah, I've definitely been around plenty of teenagers in that
tie point. They're, uh, just kind of.
They don't know how their body works right now. Yeah, they're not used to it yet.

Steve (27:32):
Yeah, exactly.
And, uh, like we said, she had that big growth
spurt between
sometime during season two. I'd say that she just kind of
shot up. And now she
towers over a lot of the other women,
except for Serena.

Leif (27:49):
Yeah. Serena and Kelly basically
Uh, as we see in that opening
scene there, one of the guys they were trying to
offer up who was a foot shorter than her.

Steve (28:01):
M. Yeah.

Leif (28:03):
We move into Act 2. At the
party, Serena and Blair come face to face,
and neither is willing to budge on apologizing first.
Instead, they fight over who gets to mentor Jenny.
Jenny doesn't want to be in the middle of their war. And
then Serena feigns Grace by ceding the mentorship
to Blair because she works for Trip Vanderbilt
now and is above all this high school stuff.

Steve (28:26):
Yeah. I'm gonna stop doing this party that I do every
year and go to work right now
at nine. Uh, o'clock at night.

Leif (28:35):
Yeah. Serena, I agree. You should be above
this high school stuff. I don't think you are.

Steve (28:39):
I don't think you are.

Leif (28:40):
I don't think you are.

Steve (28:44):
She's. She's that person. Blair's that person
that's, like, doing the high school stuff.
Serena's that person. It's like, I'm so sick of this high
school stuff.

Leif (28:53):
I'm only doing it for my mom.

Steve (28:55):
I'm only doing it for my mom. Yeah.

Leif (28:57):
Jonathan isn't really interested in forgiving Jenny,
but Eric convinces him that they can still stop Jenny from
becoming Darth Vader to her. Anakin.

Steve (29:06):
Yeah. He brings in the Star wars
reference to woo Jonathan, which I
appreciated.

Leif (29:12):
And yeah, you lied to your
boyfriend. She was not excited about this.

Steve (29:17):
Not at all. I also,
I need to tick back to the previous thing
because of one of Blair's best comments
of cotillion is not like weddings.
You only get one. This only
happens once.
Sorry. But yeah, then he uses Star

(29:37):
wars to woo Jonathan and lies to
Jonathan because he's trying to, like, protect
Jenny from this other guy that he's willing to set someone
else up with. Eric, what is up with you,
Eric?

Leif (29:50):
Not a good episode for Eric.

Steve (29:52):
Not a good episode for Eric.

Leif (29:54):
Serena shows up to bring Trip a late
dinner. Sparks are starting to fly when they are
thankfully interrupted by someone on the staff. The
interruption causes Trip to realize where things were headed
and asked Serena to come back on Monday where she will be
reporting to someone else in the office.

Steve (30:10):
Thought she was going to lick his tie. At one point,
the tie came in to K that.
Serena, what the fuck are you doing?
And you, Trip,
what are you thinking?
This is. You're. You're supposed to
be the noble, upright politician and you're in office

(30:30):
for five minutes and you're like, well, uh,
where can I find myself an intern?
Where can I find myself a Nice young
teenager to work on my staff.
Sorry. My Kennedy is pretty terrible.

Leif (30:44):
But back at the party,
Kira introduces herself to Jenny and lets her
know about Graham texting Jenny earlier.
Jenny goes after Eric, and Jonathan
immediately becomes disgusted and leaves.
Jenny then takes out her samurai sword and
metaphorically guts both Eric and Blair in front of
the whole party. Jenny stalks off in

(31:06):
triumph. And it looks like a new trio of Eric,
Blair, and Kira has formed. Gossip Girl
has this to say.
Uh, oh, little J, you stepped on Eric's
toes too many times. Now he's found a new
partner. Who knows what would happen when these two start to
tango.

Steve (31:25):
First of all, Kira looks and dresses
like a little girl. She looks
young, like, tiny.

Leif (31:33):
Well, I think she's probably the actual age of the characters,
possibly, which Jenny is too.

Steve (31:39):
But Jenny looks older.

Leif (31:40):
Yeah, she's tall.

Steve (31:41):
She. She got tall and looks older. I. I think
that a big reason Jenny was cast was because she's so
perfectly fit. The teenage girl that she
was then she grew up, and everyone's like,
what do we do? But. Well, of course, she also
kind of.

Leif (31:56):
I think they. The makeup ages her as well.

Steve (31:59):
Yes.

Leif (31:59):
Yeah. The last episode when she was quote, unquote sick,
she looked younger.

Steve (32:03):
Yeah. I also
wanted. When she dismisses,
uh, Blair and
takes a shot at the headband too,
it was like, oh, Blair, I thought we already were. We
thought we already learned about this Blair. But now
the high school kids are shooting at you.

Leif (32:24):
She just. She slayed the scene.

Steve (32:26):
Oh.

Leif (32:30):
And we go into Act 3.
Blair comes back to the Empire to find Chuck sipping
coffee amongst the ruins of the lost weekend.
After advising on lingerie removal techniques,
Blair goes into the bedroom to grab a dress.
Both Chuck and Nate notice something is off with Blair, and
Chuck swipes Blair's phone.

Steve (32:50):
Only time I've seen her this calm was
when Serena left,
which we know was the pinnacle of
the Blair Serena
meltdown. I thought that
was so great, because Blair comes in.
Blair knows it's the Lost weekend. She knows that

(33:11):
she doesn't get to. That she's
not supposed to be there, that she's not at her. In
her place. She just comes in to get a few
things, does not get mad about the
woman wearing her lingerie.
She compartmentalizes.

Leif (33:27):
See, I think that's what to do with the Lost weekend. I think normally
she would have been pissed off here. That's why they
noticed that something was off, because she was not pissed off.

Steve (33:36):
Uh, right. That's what I'm saying is that, like, she
saw that she got into the lost weekend, saw
the things that would have made her mad.

Leif (33:44):
But I had nothing to do with accepting that this is the lost weekend.

Steve (33:47):
No, I get what you're saying. That it's all
that calm from being mad at Serena, which
they don't even know is also she's mad at. She's
mad at little J too. I.
Yeah, I completely get what you're saying. My point
is just that Blair walking into the lost weekend,
almost like she's not paying attention

(34:08):
to anything that's going on. Notices
the. The person in her lingerie, but
compartmentalizes that because she has more important things to be mad
about and moves on. I
just. I loved this scene. And I love
Nate and Chuck being best
friends. Accepting that they both at one
point love the same woman and know her that

(34:30):
well. And I love it.

Leif (34:32):
I do like that Blair trust. Has total trust in
Chuck, which I do believe. In this case, he was not sleeping with those
presumably prostitutes.

Steve (34:39):
Yeah.

Leif (34:40):
And I presuming they are prostitutes because I
think think that normal non
sex workers probably not be too
keen on wearing someone else's underwear that they
don't even know.

Steve (34:52):
Yeah. Yeah.

Leif (34:54):
But I guess it's part of the job if you're a sex
worker.

Steve (34:58):
Yeah, could be.

Leif (34:59):
Yeah. Uh, and
in real life, I wonder how much they paid the woman who just
laid on the couch passed out in underwear the whole scene.
How much do you think she got paid?

Steve (35:10):
Do you think Nate
requested her to wear
Blair's
lingerie?

Leif (35:19):
Uh, that's pretty fucked up.
No, I think I have a feeling Chuck just
brought.

Steve (35:26):
Just throw that on. Just throw this on.

Leif (35:31):
At the office, Trip is now being distant from Serena,
who picks up on it. Serena is rightfully confused.
And Trip admits to feelings of attraction.
Serena is saved by the bell when she gets an
apologetic text from Blair. Of course we know Chuck
has Blair's phone. And then Serena brushes off Trip's
declaration and makes a quick exit.

Steve (35:51):
I don't even know where to begin. Trip, you are
such a fucking creeper. The only reason to
say any of this shit out
loud is to test the waters.

Leif (36:02):
Yeah.

Steve (36:03):
And to set it up and to groom her.
It is not innocent. It is
not. Oh, I can't be around you.
Because you can if you are a fucking
grown up. You can be around
women who are beautiful
and not sexually
harass them. It is. It's

(36:25):
actually quite easy. I've. I've
worked in many jobs with many beautiful
women that I did not try to
fuck.

Leif (36:36):
I think the problem here is that Tripp hired Her specifically to
flirt with her.

Steve (36:40):
Yeah, he hired her because he wanted to flirt with her. And then when she started
flirting back and he's like, oh, this could be a really bad
idea. But it. But I don't.
But if he really thought it was a bad idea, he would have been like,
you're fired.

Leif (36:52):
Yeah.

Steve (36:53):
But he wants her there because he's a creep.

Leif (36:55):
Indeed. Blair is mentoring Kira
on how to take down Jenny and become queen. We get
a montage of the devs prepping for cotillion
set to the questions and panthers by one for the
team. Gossip Girl chimes in
with.
We hear Jenny Humphrey has landed Graham Collins as her

(37:16):
escort. Better put on that lip gloss,
ladies. Looks like you'll be kissing Jenny
Humphrey's ring by the end of the night.
And we get another montage. This one the
classic college party, complete with keg
stands. Dan and Vanessa are doing
shots with Olivia, and Olivia steps away to
take a call. Dan's credit score is threatened by

(37:38):
the masters of the universe fake up for keeping Olivia from taking the
movie. However, Olivia comes back and says
she has to take the movie.

Steve (37:46):
And this is where when she says she has to take
it, she makes it make more sense that she
actually says, people's jobs
depend on me doing this. And
that's a fair argument, if you ask
me. I can come. I can finish this semester
online and come back next semester

(38:06):
and. Or next year
whenever the movie's finished.

Leif (38:11):
Yeah.

Steve (38:13):
But, yeah, you kind of have to do
this. Also, there's a scene here where we
have Dan and Vanessa alone kind
of dancing, which. It's like
on the rewatch.

Leif (38:25):
I was like, uh, uh, you mentioned the
dancing. This is the season of Memeable Dan
Humphrey because we had a couple episodes. The
typing on the newspaper stand, and
then this episode, this dancing, this
little goofy dance there. It's definitely been.
I've seen that around quite a bit in gif
form. Blair has completed

(38:48):
her makeover of young Kira, and Eric presents
her escort, none other than Graham Collins.
Wait, wasn't he going with Jenny? Gossip
Girl quips on the subject.
Uh, spin your partner round and round.
Looks like little J is going down.

Steve (39:07):
Yeah.

Leif (39:08):
So we find out what the scheme is here.

Steve (39:10):
Yeah. And Blair and Eric. We have baby's first
scheme with Eric. Is this Eric's first
scheme?

Leif (39:17):
I'm sure it can't be.

Steve (39:18):
I don't think. I can't think of any other scheme.

Leif (39:21):
That he's participated
in, but we move into Act
4. Nate walks into cotillion
dressed like James Bond. And draws a few
stairs. Jenny walks in with Lily and
Rufus. Rufus and Lily. Tell Jenny she looks
beautiful and wish her luck.

Steve (39:40):
I appreciated the appropriate use
of Lilfas in this episode.
Once again, two in a row that Rufus and Lily
are just being parents.

Leif (39:50):
I don't think that's going to continue based on the final scene of this
episode.
But why is Nate at
this party? Serena and Blair at least have the
semi legitimate excuse that they are mentors. Yeah,
Nate, you just spent the last night getting trash and partying
with prostitutes. Why are you at a high school party?

Steve (40:12):
Why are you here? Date?

Leif (40:15):
Guess it just runs in the family.

Steve (40:16):
Yeah. Yep.
I'm just looking for someone to groom.
Oh, good for you. Oh,
well done, chap.

Leif (40:31):
Nate asked Jenny if she has seen Blair.
She hasn't. She is looking for Graham.
Nate also wishes her luck.

Steve (40:39):
Yeah.

Leif (40:41):
Blair is giving Kira some last minute dance
lessons. Nate interrupts and hands Blair an invite
with Anna key to a private lounge, courtesy of
Chuck. Eric, in his hubris, says he and
Kira have it under control and that Blair should go.
Eric admits that he blackmailed Graham into ditching
Jenny for Kira. Yeah, so it could be
something else here, but I think it's sort of implied

(41:03):
that Eric and Graham fooled around.
It could be something else.

Steve (41:08):
Oh. Oh my God. I can't believe I
missed that.

Leif (41:12):
So, uh, is this another guy that.

Steve (41:15):
Eric has been with? Another he's gone for?
Eric has plowed his way through
like the elite men of the Upper
east side.
Eric is your like. I'll help you find out,
buddy. Yeah. What
happens at stay away camp?

Leif (41:35):
Doesn't stay away from Camp Suisse. And again,
we're mentioned at Camp Suisse.

Steve (41:40):
Yeah. Yeah.

Leif (41:42):
What's going down at Camp Suisse?
Eric and
Serena. Serena on camp
counselors.

Steve (41:56):
Has Eric slept with Aaron?

Leif (42:03):
Uh, at the NYU
party, Olivia says she wants to continue dating
Dan long distance. While she is filming the movie,
the three friends decide to take the party back to the
loft. She really liked those, uh, sushi
puns.

Steve (42:17):
Yeah.

Leif (42:20):
But yeah, she is really self sabotaging
herself here.

Steve (42:24):
Yeah. Yeah.

Leif (42:26):
Blair arrives upstairs to find Chuck set, uh,
both her and Serena up. They both
scoff and get onto the elevator to leave. However,
the elevator gets stuck and Chuck is on the other end of the emergency
line. Chuck has left them with some single malt
scotch and macaroons, but they are stuck until they can
work things out.

Steve (42:44):
I love that Chuck did this. Chuck has been trying
to fix this for two episodes now. He doesn't
want them fighting. He knows they're both better when they
have each other. I also help. I'm
stuck in the elevator with someone who sucks all the air out of the room.
And if you don't come to me soon, I might die.

Leif (43:05):
At Cotillion, the debs are making their debut.
Kira is escorted by Graham, and Jenny is left
hanging at the gallows. Gossip Girl tightens the
noose.
Jenny Humphrey went to a ball. Jenny
Humphrey had a great fall, and none of her
minions, mentors, or friends want to put

(43:25):
Jenny together again.

Steve (43:28):
Jenny's caught without a plan, and
Jenny plays better from
behind. Whenever she's
caught, she has that moment of panic
and then thinks it through, finds her plan
and executes. And that
moment of panic I felt lingered a little longer in this one

(43:48):
than usual. But Jenny plays better
from behind. Jenny plays better when
she's on her heels and has to
gain ground. I feel like that's part of why
she struggles so much at the top
that she's there. And now she's
constantly looking for the battle.

Leif (44:07):
We go into Act 5. The plasticines are
performing their song Bitch on stage at
Cotillion. Jenny is floundering and searching for
Blair, who she thinks is solely to blame for
her humiliation. Eric advises that she should
just let it go. But it looks like Jenny has other
plans in mind. She calls someone and asks if
they are still there.

Steve (44:29):
I love Rufus. Just not getting it.
Like Rufus just, well, why don't you get someone else there,
sweetie? And again, I just felt like
Rufus really played well in this
episode. Also Eric
being manipulative. Eric blackmailing people.

Leif (44:46):
Eric and not even having the balls to admit that
he did it.

Steve (44:49):
And not even. Yeah, not even owning up to it did.
Uh, to Jenny.
Bad look, Eric.

Leif (44:57):
In the elevator, Serena reveals that she found
her father, but he wouldn't see her. The ladies
finally make up, and Blair advises Serena to stay away
from Trip.

Steve (45:07):
Good idea.

Leif (45:08):
Yeah. Chuck chimes in with a lurid remark
about. After having creepily listened to the whole.

Steve (45:13):
Conversation, we always talk about best
friend moments. That this was another
really great working it out. The
best friends having that moment stuck in
an elevator, understanding each other,
giving each other the advice. I really
loved it. I also really loved
that glimmer of old Chuck

(45:35):
because of how much Chuck has kind of grown up this
season and tends to be a
little less Louis. I
guess to have him then throw in his
old creepiness. It felt
nostalgic, I guess.
It felt so Char, you know, if you guys want to kiss and
make up. And honestly, I can't say that it's not something

(45:58):
I wouldn't say honestly, in certain
situations to Robin. If it was Robin and one
of her friends, I'm sure I would say something like that.
And she would tell me I'm disgusting.

Leif (46:10):
At the loft, Olivia finds out that their night of
fun has been guided by a pre planned list.
They only did 14 out of 15 things on the list, and
Olivia finds that unacceptable. She
grabs the list from Dan and sees what is missing.
Oh, my. It's a threesome.
Olivia pushes in and everybody
kisses everybody.

(46:32):
This is where I was talking about how Olivia is self sabotaging.

Steve (46:35):
Mm m. First of all, she.

Leif (46:37):
She really pushed that. She's the one that definitely pushed this. Oh, yeah.

Steve (46:40):
The. The. The. Yes. This threesome is because
Olivia made it happen.

Leif (46:45):
I know you. You know, you trust your boyfriend, but I mean,
you're about to go a long distance and you.
The night before you leave, you're gonna hook up with him
and his best friend who they have history.

Steve (46:56):
Yeah.

Leif (46:57):
Not. Not a good move.

Steve (46:58):
No, no, no. I
also.
Oh, Dan and Vanessa just Robin and
I for days. This afterwards, we'd
just be driving down the road. Oh, you remember when
Vanessa and Dan had that threesome?

Leif (47:18):
Oh, uh, I do love
Dan's smirk when Olivia
Vanessa kiss. I don't know if he caught that. He
has a little smirk on. He's like, this is the best
thing that ever happened.

Steve (47:30):
Yeah. Yeah. I mean. I mean, if I. Uh.
Yeah. But yeah. Lizzie mc three
way in here. Forcing this
whole thing to happen.

Leif (47:41):
Serena and Blair arrive in the ballroom just in
time for Jenny's plan to come to fruition.
Jenny is escorted by none other than Nate
Archibald, which is of course, epic.
Even Blair shows Jenny some
admiration. However, there is one person that
isn't happy that Jenny has triumphed and that it's
Eric. Since all eyes are on Jenny,

(48:03):
only the all seeing Gossip Girl seems to notice
and has this to say.
O e you tried to play dirty at the
dance, but you should know nobody puts
Jenny in a corner now. She's having the
time of her life.

Steve (48:21):
First of all, when Rufus is like, why don't you just find someone
else? She's like, it doesn't work that way, dad.
Oh, but unless it does.

Leif (48:30):
But unless it's a college guy.

Steve (48:32):
Yeah, unless it's a college guy. And then I can make it
work and again, score.
The best guy to be queen is
so problematic.
I get it in the context of
the show. I get it in the morality
of the universe we are watching, but it is

(48:52):
fingernails on the chalkboard of my soul.

Leif (48:55):
Just think of it as another accessory.

Steve (48:58):
And, uh, I just think of my daughter,
who I would
die if she had that mentality of
like, oh, I need a guy. Where my daughter is very much
like. One of my favorite stories was when
she was in elementary school and a boy was trying to
flirt with her and said, hey, you can copy off my work.
And she turns to him and goes, um, I get better grades

(49:21):
than you do. That's.
And, yeah,
Jenny.

Leif (49:27):
The only time she's pursued a guy for
herself was Nate. Both in season one and now
in season three. She is just looking for an
accessory.

Steve (49:36):
Yes. Yes.

Leif (49:38):
She doesn't really care who it is, and
as long as it's the right image.

Steve (49:44):
Yeah, yeah. She doesn't care about who they
are, their sexuality,
sexual orientation.

Leif (49:54):
She just wants to create the perfect image.
Yeah.

Steve (49:58):
Yeah.

Leif (49:59):
Which is what being a debutante is all about. So.

Steve (50:02):
It is.

Leif (50:02):
I mean, if you're going to ignore the whole fact that
debutante.

Steve (50:06):
Debutante is a. Is. Is
a. Yes. Is a
feminist.

Leif (50:13):
Yeah. It's kind of. It's kind of hard to get up on my high horse about
her needing the right guy.

Steve (50:18):
Yeah. Okay. That is cotillion in
general. Is.

Leif (50:23):
Yeah. So if you're gonna accept cotillion as
a plot line, you know, you just kind of gotta roll with it.

Steve (50:29):
Yeah. Um, I'm on. I got. I got
it.

Leif (50:32):
So we go into the epilogue. The Plasticines are still
performing. This time, they are playing a slower number. I
am down. Tonight, Jenny is dancing with
Nate and thanks him for saving her. Yet again,
Serena and Blair congratulate Jenny in their own different
ways. The minions tell Jenny that the other queens
are ready to pay their respects.

Steve (50:53):
I can't remember 100% for sure,
but if I remember correctly, that second song
they played was not
in three quarter
time. It wasn't Walt's time. Whereas
the dance that they learn is a
waltz. The season one
cotillion, when you have the Pretty Little

(51:16):
liars theme, it's in 3, 4.
And I don't think this one was. I think that
they just kind of ignored that
this whole cotillion. Remember, the first one is
on this grand staircase at a hotel, and this
one's, like, on a stage at the local rec
center.

Leif (51:34):
Well, no, this is at the Empire Hotel.

Steve (51:36):
Oh, was it okay? Uh, it
seemed less glamorous.

Leif (51:41):
Well, I think it was less formal, but I would say it's
more Jenny style, if
anything.

Steve (51:47):
Yeah, yeah.

Leif (51:48):
You got the punk rock band going. Yeah.

Steve (51:51):
Yes, it was much more Jenny's cotillion
than Blair's cotillion.

Leif (51:54):
Yeah, for sure.

Steve (51:56):
And.

Leif (51:57):
And Jenny is now the Queen of
Queens. I also should have got a, uh,
Motorhead out there.

Steve (52:03):
Yeah.
Bow down to the.

Leif (52:07):
Bow down to the. Bow down
to the queen.

Steve (52:12):
Fucking love Motorhead so much.
I also. The way that
Blair and Jenny make up,
also how it's like, well, I learned from the best.
Good answer. And how Blair. It just really
shows that Blair's whole thing with Jenny, this
episode was not Jenny. Uh, she
wasn't trying to get at Jenny.

Leif (52:33):
She.

Steve (52:33):
Even when she corners Kira earlier on
is like. And then she's just going to do the Serena stuff. You mean
Jenny. Details aren't important.
And so here we have those
two made up again.

Leif (52:47):
And I also think Blair realized that she really doesn't care
about this anymore.

Steve (52:51):
Yeah. Yes. That she does
recognize that this is kid shit.

Leif (52:56):
Yeah.

Steve (52:57):
And she has her best friend back. And I, uh,
also just appreciate this about Jenny and Blair
in general, that they have this
frenemy sort of relationship.

Leif (53:08):
Serena and Blair are going to get something to eat right
after Serena turns in her resignation. And while
it's probably the right choice, Serena is m. Really
making a habit of quitting things this season.

Steve (53:20):
Yeah.

Leif (53:21):
Third time she's quit something already. Season.

Steve (53:24):
Yeah.

Leif (53:24):
Not even halfway over.

Steve (53:25):
Yeah, but she doesn't actually. She's just going. Says she's going to
quit.

Leif (53:29):
Yeah, true. I guess she doesn't actually quit.

Steve (53:30):
She doesn't actually quit this. She was going to quit her.

Leif (53:32):
You're right.

Steve (53:33):
Her third job of the season, Jonathan.

Leif (53:35):
Shows up the ball, only to promptly dump Eric
because Eric has changed.

Steve (53:41):
Jonathan, this is your fault.
Jonathan. You are the one that decided I'm
going to challenge Jenny and sit on a higher step.
In a previous episode, you started the
bullshit with Jenny because you didn't like
it when Eric was just going with the
flow. And then you kind of prompted
Eric to go against Jenny.

(54:03):
And then when he goes against Jenny, you're like, I don't
like you anymore.

Leif (54:08):
And also, he claims to be above the drama. Why are you reading
Gossip Girl?

Steve (54:11):
Yeah, why are you reading Gossip Girl if you're above the drama?
The other. There is one other Eric scheme, and it's
all off camera. And it's the Jonathan
Eric trying figure out who Gossip Girl
is. Yeah, but that's even more Jonathan. But also,
fuck you, Jonathan. Eric's too
good for you. He's having a moment. But Eric in general, unless
this trend. Unless Eric stays on this

(54:33):
trend. Fuck you, Jonathan. Yeah,
Eric can do better. Eric.

Leif (54:38):
And Jonathan's also cheating in season one.

Steve (54:40):
Jonathan was cheating in season one. And
Eric can pretty much land any dude on the Upper
east side as.

Leif (54:48):
Long as it's on the DL.

Steve (54:49):
As long as it's on the DL. Yeah.

Leif (54:52):
Um. He wants to be out of the closet.

Steve (54:54):
Yeah.

Leif (54:55):
Blair is dancing with Chuck and says his punishment
for scheming against her is a night without her.

Steve (55:01):
Yeah, that. It was sweet. Yeah, it
was a sweet makeup scene and a sweet.

Leif (55:06):
And if you ever let my lingerie again, prepare
to see me in a lot of flannel.
Jenny is still oblivious to Eric's involvement.
Invites him to come to the after party with her
and friends. Eric fights back his rage to
politely decline and Jenny then mean mugs

(55:27):
Kira before giving her the old shoulder check.
Eric and Kira seem more determined than ever to take Jenny
down.

Steve (55:34):
Honestly, I don't think
Jenny would have been mad
at Eric for scheming against her when
they met up at the end. Because
Jenny is so quick to compartmentalize
and so quick to be like, this is part
of being queen and the shitty stuff that goes

(55:55):
along with that. And this is being my
friend that she on many
occasions is just like, well, come on, Eric, we're just
friends. Right? Like, this is. It's not queen stuff,
it's friend sibling stuff.
And I don't know for sure that she wouldn't care,
but I think that Jenny
respects game like the way she was with Blair at the

(56:17):
end. She knew it was Blair and she was
instantly like, no, we're cool.

Leif (56:22):
The only fight back I would have is that earlier in
the episode she was upset at Erryk for hiding that he knew
Graham.

Steve (56:30):
You're right, she was upset. But
once she wins is when I feel like she.
I think she would have been, oh, you made that harder for me. But I don't
think she would have been mad
because she won because I
believe that she really sees the game
as.

Leif (56:47):
I don't think she would have invited him, though.

Steve (56:50):
Maybe not. Maybe not. Uh, she
should have invited Kiera. Kira. Kira's whole thing
was she just wanted to be Jenny's friend and.

Leif (56:59):
But.

Steve (56:59):
Yeah, but Jenny just.

Leif (57:01):
She let herself be used as a pawn against Jenny.

Steve (57:04):
Yeah. Uh, and now.

Leif (57:04):
And, you know, have some pawns.

Steve (57:06):
Yeah.

Leif (57:08):
Poor Kira.

Steve (57:09):
She, uh. I don't think. Now are
we going to see Kira and Eric plotting further
or is she done and we just had set up.

Leif (57:17):
That's. That's. Here's what it looks like.

Steve (57:19):
Yeah. Well, I don't know if she's another Scott. That we have this whole
cliffhanger. You're going to be a part of our
family forever.

Leif (57:29):
Gossip Girl begins. Some people
think that when the party ends, the night is over.
But I've found it's when the music stops
and the lights come up that the real trouble
begins. We transition to Trip's
office, and Serena tries to quit, but
Trip convinces her to stay. They agree to stay
friendly and professional, but their handshake

(57:52):
definitely lingers. Blair tries to get
Serena to leave, but Serena blows her off.

Steve (57:58):
All of this first. Why the fuck
wasn't this an email sent tomorrow?
Why did you go directly to the office at
night when no one should fucking be there
anymore? And then the whole
conversation is completely unprofessional.
And then Blair gives you an out, and you're like,

(58:18):
no, it's fine. No, it's fine. We're definitely not gonna
bone. See you tomorrow, best friend who came here to hang out with
me tonight. Yeah, like,
you fucking, like, why not just. Okay,
yes, I'll steal. Still work here. I'm gonna go out with my
friend. Who is gonna be where. I'm not
having sex with you. Fucking stupid.

Leif (58:39):
Lily and Rufus are back at the penthouse, and Lily
does the whole explain it like I'm, um, five cotillion
edition. Rufus thanks Lily for getting
the society to let Jenny in. However, Lily
has something to sign for. Before she joins Rufus in bed,
Lily finds a letter from Dr.
Daddy addressed to Serena.

Steve (58:59):
I thought that was interesting that he's
finally reached out.
I hope Lily gives the letter
to Serena, but I'm not optimistic. And
it makes me wonder if there have been other
communications that Serena hasn't
seen.

Leif (59:16):
And, uh, then we move to the final scene of the episode.
We see a shirtless Dan sleeping between
Olivia and Vanessa. Olivia has an unread text
message from Casey stating that the movie is canceled.
Gossip Girl brings us home with you.
Better get your beauty rest now, because it looks like
things could get ugly in the morning.

Steve (59:36):
I mean, just be a throuple. Just be a throuple.
Just end the jealousy.

Leif (59:41):
That's all we'll get.

Steve (59:42):
Polyamory. Hey, you know
what? I'd be down for that, uh,
better polyamory take than the last one. They kind of
did.

Leif (59:52):
But the full final quote from
Gossip Girl is,
some people think that when the party ends,
night is over. But I found when the music
stops and the lights come up, that the real trouble
begins. You better get your beauty rest now, because it
looks like things could get ugly in the morning.

(01:00:12):
Xo, xo Gossip
Girl. What's coming
next?

Steve (01:00:19):
Well, like I said, I. I'm assuming
Kiera and Eric are going to scheme to try to take down
Jenny and Eric looks like he's out
for blood now Eric is mad.
I think Eric's going to take out the Jonathan thing on
Jenny, which isn't fair. Jonathan is his
own asshole and you're too good

(01:00:40):
for him anyway. Eric, I feel like, oh,
I mean 100%, no doubt.
Trip and Serena are going to bone.
That's gotta happen. There
is obviously going to be a huge
tension between the three way
that now every time Olivia
looks at Dan, looking at Vanessa and all that

(01:01:02):
shit, who knows who moaned the wrong
way in. In Sexy
Time. And
all the other Chasing Amy, all
the other Chasing Amy problematic
things in there, that's going to be
a problem. I don't know how

(01:01:22):
Lily's going to handle this letter. I don't know
what it's going to do to her and Rufus or what
it's going to do to her and Serena.
I'm assuming she's going to open it and read it. I
really hope she just gives it to Serena, but I don't
think that's. That wouldn't be good tv.

Leif (01:01:39):
It's definitely not a Lilly move and.

Steve (01:01:41):
It'S definitely not a Lily move.

Leif (01:01:44):
What about Chuck and Blair?

Steve (01:01:46):
I think at this point they're solid
enough that I feel like the writers really want them to coast
for a little while and I feel like they're doing that
by not pairing them. They haven't
really paired them together
other than passing moments and
scenes. They haven't had a plot together
in weeks.

(01:02:08):
Maybe, uh, not this season. Since they've been together,
I feel like they start and end every
episode together but they're
not together together. You know what I
mean? They don't have a plot line that
runs through an episode together and so
I think that the writers are just kind of letting them coast
and finding tension elsewhere. So I'm going to let

(01:02:31):
them coast on that for a little longer. I'm thinking
maybe mid season. We'll see that shake up. We're at
what, episode seven.

Leif (01:02:38):
Now this is episode nine.

Steve (01:02:41):
Nine. We're about to hit Thanksgiving, I
believe. Is Thanksgiving next or is it two
weeks away?

Leif (01:02:47):
Two weeks.

Steve (01:02:47):
Two weeks. So yeah, I mean Thanksgiving
tends to be a big shake up. Dan Serena tends
to be around here sometime too, doesn't it?
Is that 9 or 10?

Leif (01:02:58):
10 is, uh, sometimes a Dan Serena episode
or definitely a Serena centric episode.

Steve (01:03:03):
Okay. Okay. So yeah, I'm, I
Feel like we're gonna see drama with
chair mid season.
That's when that shakeup is gonna happen. I'm wondering
if Jenny and Nate are gonna.

Leif (01:03:18):
That was my next question. What's next for Nate? Is he just
gonna spend the rest of the season banging sex
workers?

Steve (01:03:24):
Well, I'm. I'm curious as to whether or
not he and Jenny will have a furthering thing.
Maybe obeying high school girls. Um, that
doesn't. That family.
I think that the family would
approve. I also.
Because there's going to be tension between Nate and
Trip too. Trip, Nate's going to be

(01:03:47):
like, you're the good one. Why are you banging my friend
who I hate right now? So I'm also wondering what
Nate. Uh, Nate and Serena still haven't worked their shit out
either.

Leif (01:03:56):
No.

Steve (01:03:57):
And now Nate and Vanessa have shit too.
So I don't.

Leif (01:04:00):
Nate. Vanessa?

Steve (01:04:02):
Yeah, from the. From last week, from
the video. Vanessa. Well,
it's more Vanessa and Nate than Nate and Vanessa because
Vanessa was like, you know, who are you? And who is this person
you've become?

Leif (01:04:14):
I guess. But they. They don't really have any reason to
interact anymore.

Steve (01:04:18):
Yeah. Yeah.

Leif (01:04:20):
Anything else?

Steve (01:04:21):
I think those are my big ones. I'm wondering
what's going to happen with Rufus and Lily. I think I said that.
I wonder what that letter will do with Rufus and Lily.

Leif (01:04:30):
Well, I mean, this is continuing to point to
Dr. Daddy coming back at some point.

Steve (01:04:35):
Yeah.

Leif (01:04:36):
Well, let's go ahead and get into segments.
This week in fandom, we jumped into the
Wayback Machine to visit the fan forums from
2009.
Hello there, Peabody. Here. And this
is the Wayback Machine for traveling through time. And
this is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman.

Steve (01:04:56):
Hello.

Leif (01:04:57):
Good boy. Overall, they thought
this is a really good episode.

Steve (01:05:01):
Yeah, I. I wasn't feeling this episode the way
I do other ones.

Leif (01:05:06):
And, uh, I was reminded of the expression
Nate fused.

Steve (01:05:10):
Nate fused.

Leif (01:05:11):
Yeah. Which is like this confused look.

Steve (01:05:17):
Nate fused the look when granddad said.

Leif (01:05:20):
It was definitely an expression. That's used a lot in the
forums back in the day.

Steve (01:05:24):
That's so funny. It just takes me right to
grandfather last week when he's like, unless
something does happen. And Nate looked at him like,
oh, I should know what he's talking
about.

Leif (01:05:37):
Fan forum was very anti
Jenny. She
kind of.

Steve (01:05:43):
Kind of an asshole. I got where she was coming from.

Leif (01:05:46):
I mean, but it's the same kind of stuff that people love Blair for.

Steve (01:05:49):
Yeah. She was basically doing what Blair did
all season one.

Leif (01:05:54):
Yeah. Threesome was weird and not
hot.

Steve (01:05:57):
Not hot.

Leif (01:05:59):
And there's people who are glad the Brooklynites are
segregated away from the extravagance of the Upper east side.
The who are the Brooklynites.
But like, Jenny was right in the middle of everything, so I don't get that.

Steve (01:06:14):
So, uh, because Jenny's not really a Brooklynite
anymore. Jenny is
morphed.

Leif (01:06:20):
And finally Serena Tripp is gross.

Steve (01:06:24):
Mhm. Yeah. So fucking gross.
Yeah.

Leif (01:06:31):
Well, let's move on over to episode
grades. I went first last time. So what do you got this
time?

Steve (01:06:36):
Um, I gave this one a C. I
thought the threesome, whole threesome
storyline was kind of
lame. The, oh,
we're together, but I've got to go do this movie. And
it just kind of drug along. I thought the
cotillion theme of I need the best
man to make it work. I know, I

(01:06:59):
understand in the context of the show,
I still don't like it.
And just in general, I thought that
the big shining moment in this was Rufus being
clueless. And ultimately I didn't
hate it. But not one of my favorites.

Leif (01:07:16):
Yeah, I mean, I'm um, completely opposite. This is one of my
favorite episodes of the season. I thought the writing was really
good. It was very tight. The dialogue was good. All the schemes kind
of came together and
typical Jenny fashion, she looks like she's
dab. It comes up at the end. I like the
band playing. I like the I. You said it looked cheap, but
I like the Italian desier is very, very

(01:07:39):
Jenny. So I actually gave this episode an A.

Steve (01:07:41):
All right, these are subjective.

Leif (01:07:47):
Let's move over to Stockwatch. Who
you got going up?

Steve (01:07:51):
So I have Jenny going up. Obviously she won
in the end. I had Serena and Blair going up
for making up and being friends and Serena
getting a job.
I had Chuck going up for solving
the Blair Serena problem. I had
Rufus and Lily going up
for being appropriately written in

(01:08:14):
this episode as parents. I had
Kira going up. She lost,
but she also got on the radar and
now made some m headway. So for right
now, I had her going up. Oh, and she also got
to go to cotillion with Graham, which
she got the best guy to go with. And

(01:08:35):
then I had Vanessa
going up, although she may have gone down.
And I also had Nate going up for doing
a solid for Jenny. And Nate hasn't had many ups
lately, so I felt I'd give him an up.

Leif (01:08:51):
I had a lot less people going up. I had
Jenny, of course, because she is now the queen of Queens.
I had Dan going up because,
yeah, he's looking up.
And Vanessa because She finally got Dan
and Rufus and Lily because, yeah, they were
nice and supportive and.

(01:09:11):
Yeah, that's it. You got
going down.

Steve (01:09:15):
I have Eric going down. Uh, Eric, uh,
man, bad episode. I have Jonathan
going down. Fuck you, Jonathan. I actually had
Dan going down because, yes, he had a threesome,
but it was with Vanessa and so I also had
Olivia.

Leif (01:09:30):
Dan likes Vanessa, though.

Steve (01:09:32):
Yeah, but I. But it's gross,
I guess. And so I had Dan and Olivia
going down because, yes, they both had a threesome, but it was with
Vanessa and because here's
the other thing. The other reason why Dan and Olivia
go down and Vanessa goes up is that
Dan and Olivia are in a happy relationship. And this

(01:09:52):
is. This is a bad move. This is
a dumb idea.

Leif (01:09:56):
It's a dumb idea, but it hasn't gone bad yet.

Steve (01:09:59):
No, no, but I'm still
giving them the down for me.

Leif (01:10:04):
I had Eric because obviously Eric,
uh, Jonathan also because he's Sucks. Yeah.
Kira because she. I don't think
getting on the radar is going to be good for. Good for her.

Steve (01:10:16):
I kind of. And that's kind of where you
said it hasn't happened yet. That's where I am with
her. But I get it.

Leif (01:10:23):
But she also got the shoulder. Check this episode.
So she trip
because.

Steve (01:10:30):
Oh, please add trip to mine. I meant to put
trip because.

Leif (01:10:35):
And uh, finally Olivia, because she, uh, as I mentioned, is self
sabotaging by initiating this threesome.

Steve (01:10:41):
Yes, she did. Self sabotage. But
here's the best outfits from the last
episode we seen.

Leif (01:10:51):
Who do you have for best outfit?

Steve (01:10:54):
I gave Chuck's robe. I really like
that Lost Weekend look on
Chuck. And I feel like I'm so
often focused on the couture and
glamour stuff. And then I forget. Some of the
casual stuff is really nice too. So I gave it to
Chuck.

Leif (01:11:12):
Yeah, I could not give it to Jenny. Black
Italian dress from Blue Marine with the black
forefinger gloves. But also honorable
mention to Blair's dress, the red side bow dress from
Marchesa.

Steve (01:11:23):
Yes. I actually really. That would have been
the dress if I went with a dress.

Leif (01:11:29):
What are you plugging this week?

Steve (01:11:32):
So a bunch of us started a new game called Trench
Crusade. Don't know if anyone. I don't know what the Venn
diagram of tabletop wargaming and
Gossip Girl is, but many of us,
some of our friends have started that. So, uh, that's a lot of
fun. Started painting some minis. Other than that, you
can follow me on my instagram
or my TikTok or

(01:11:55):
my threads. Steve Marchon,
M A R C H I O N. I'm also on
bluesky at the Weed wizard and
that's pretty much what I've got going on for me right
now.

Leif (01:12:07):
Uh, for me I started watching the
studio on.

Steve (01:12:11):
I was going to watch that. Are you enjoying it? Yeah.

Leif (01:12:13):
The first two episodes are really funny. Uh, written and directed
by Seth Rogen, who is. And Evan Goldberg.
Seth Rogen is also the star. He plays
a studio head in the vein of the
Larry David, George Costanza.
What's name?

Steve (01:12:29):
Garry Shandling.

Leif (01:12:31):
No. Um, Woody Allen.
Duh.

Steve (01:12:34):
Woody. Oh, okay.

Leif (01:12:36):
In that mold. And then it also has
Bryan Cranston. He's like the money guy, like
over top of the studio head. And then Catherine
O'Hara is the former studio head. And
you got uh, Catherine Hans in there also and a
bunch of other people you probably recognize.

Steve (01:12:51):
That's Apple tv, right? No, because I was gonna
say if you have Apple TV and you're not watching Mythic Quest, then
you've got to go back and, and fix that.

Leif (01:13:00):
And if you want to follow me on social media,
you can find me on Blue sky and Instagram
at Hot Capicola. That's H o
T C a P I C
o L A. You can follow the podcast
on Instagram threads and
TikTok at non judging breakfast
pod. And if you would like to find links to

(01:13:22):
our subreddit, our discord server,
patreon, etc. Uh, you can find it on our
website
nonjudgingbreakfastpod.com
and if you'd like to.

Steve (01:13:32):
Get in touch with us, we would love to hear what you have to say. And
as we did today, we'd love to read your email here
on the air. Please send us an
email@nonjudgingbreakfastpodmail.com
we'd love to hear your thoughts. Also if
you could please hit that like or subscribe
button or leave a comment

(01:13:53):
and that really helps us in our visibility in
Spotify and Apple podcasts.
And more than anything else, please go ahead and let
your friends know what you're listening to get other people to
join onto the non judging breakfast pod
and make us your water cooler talk.

Leif (01:14:11):
Indeed. And we will be back next week
to Talk about Season 3, Episode
10, the Last Days of the
Disco Stick. The Max
episode description reads,
blair is hoping to impress the elitist
theater kids at nyu. Dan, um, and
Olivia sign up to write and star in a school

(01:14:33):
play.

Steve (01:14:34):
It said Blair was doing something with the theater kids.

Leif (01:14:36):
Yeah, uh, Blair is hoping to impress the elitist theater kids at
NYU and.

Steve (01:14:41):
Then they're going to do a play. Okay.
So there's going to be some. Probably some Blair
dan Olivia
crossover here.

Leif (01:14:50):
And Vanessa, too.

Steve (01:14:52):
And Vanessa.

Leif (01:14:53):
Yeah.

Steve (01:14:54):
Yep.

Leif (01:14:55):
But I kind of like the Blair Vanessa stuff.

Steve (01:14:57):
Oh, I do. I do like Blair vanessa stuff because
they're the same person from different places.

Leif (01:15:04):
But that's it for now. Until next time. You
know you love us.

Steve (01:15:08):
XOXO Every time you walk away
run away you take a 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

(01:15:28):
oh it seems I'm walking right to
your door.
My heart's.
Still resting looking for something
more.
Are.
You ever gonna see everything you mean to me
I'm trying really hard to believe
every time you walk away or run away you take a

(01:15:51):
piece of me with you there huh
piece of me with you there
never feels right when I'm out here on
my own

(01:16:13):
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

(01:16:35):
Come back to me.
Smile and you'll make my life
complete

(01:16:58):

(01:17:21):
piece of m me with you there

(01:17:43):

All Episodes

S3E09 - "They Shoot Humphreys, Don't They?"

Episode Transcript

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}S3E09 - "They Shoot Humphreys, Don't They?"