S3E14 - "The Lady Vanished"

This week on the Non Judging Breakfast Pod, our dynamic duo, Leif and Steve, are diving headfirst into the whirlwind of Gossip Girl Season 3, Episode 14, titled "The Lady Vanished." And let me tell you, if you thought the Upper East Side was all about brunching and shopping, think again! With Chuck's mother making a jaw-dropping comeback, you can bet the drama is thicker than a New York bagel. The tension between Chuck and Blair is reaching boiling point, and Serena is tangled up in her own emotional mess thanks to her estranged father. Yikes!

Join Leif and Steve as they unravel the deliciously twisted plotlines of love, betrayal, and the all-seeing Gossip Girl. From Jenny's wild escapades with Damien to the explosive parenting battles between Rufus and Lily, this episode is jam-packed with the kind of scandalous antics that keep fans glued to their screens. Expect sharp commentary that’ll make you chuckle, some eye-rolling at the outrageous decisions of our favorite characters, and a few heart-pounding moments that will have you gripping your breakfast burrito in suspense. So, grab your favorite morning treat, whether it’s pancakes, avocado toast, or just a good ol’ cup of coffee, and settle in for another episode that’s serving up all the juicy gossip you can handle!

Episode Transcript

Steve (00:00):
Rufus, you fucking noob, you left your
scarf at her house. And also the
best part, I mentioned earlier about
wondering if there was history with Holland and
Lily that Holland slept with one of
Lily's husbands or something like that, or. Or Lily.
Actually, no, it was. I had the suspicion that
Lily slept with Holland's husband

(00:23):
because she says early on about like, you know, the husband cheating
and whatnot. And so for her to take that
scarf to Vanya and be
like, rufus.

Leif (00:33):
Left this at my place definitely feels purposeful.

Steve (00:35):
She knew what she was doing. Yeah. Ah, she was sending a
message to Lily that your man's hanging out with
me. That was a shot. That was not a
message. That was a warning shot.

Leif (00:53):
Hey, up residers and all you scandal loving listeners out
there, you just tuned in to 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 (01:08):
And I'm Steve, the new kid on the block.
The greenhorn, the fresh meat, the.
I don't know, Leif. What do you call the newbie
here in Gossip Girl terms?

Leif (01:18):
I don't know. I'm just glad I got my couch scotchgard before you
and Robin came over.

Steve (01:23):
Oh, no need, Leaf. I'm an expert in the kitchen.
So here's the deal, folks. Leaf has been watching
Gossip Girls from the very beginning, and I'm
diving in for the very first time. And together, we're
your dynamic duo, bringing you all the drama,
romance, and sometimes questionable fashion

(01:43):
choices of this iconic 2007
series.

Leif (01:47):
Bring your magnifying glasses, because each week we're
dissecting every juicy detail of the show. We, one
episode at a time, we'll connect the dots, uncover, uh,
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 (02:06):
And since we are all about inclusivity here at
the non judging breakfast pod, there is always
room for you at the non judging breakfast table. So go ahead
and grab a mimosa, a cup of coffee, or. Or
pass a joint to your bassist, and let's go ahead
and get into this.

Leif (02:22):
Let's do it. Anything going on this week?

Steve (02:26):
Um, not too much, other than my
obsession with baseball has now grown
into an obsession with the Lehigh Valley
Iron Pigs as well. Uh, I took
the kids to the doubleheader yesterday and
had an awesome time. I love going to that
stadium. It's our Third. My third game this year so

(02:46):
far.

Leif (02:48):
That's enough sportsball talk for now.
Uh, everyone's turned off their podcast now.

Steve (02:53):
That everyone stopped listening.
Here's the other thing that's going on.

Leif (02:58):
Uh, there's more.

Steve (02:59):
This isn't baseball. This isn't baseball. This is actually
relevant because this is something that I wanted to talk to you
about, because I think that you and I might see eye to eye here.
I heard some stuff come up about the
Lively Baldini case.
Right. There's this whole angle of
them trying to subpoena records from

(03:20):
Deadpool, making the claim that
Ryan Reynolds was making fun of Justin
Baldini in Deadpool
with the character Nice pool.
And that they've been trying. They're trying to add that as
a defamation piece of this case.
And here's my thing.

Leif (03:39):
I had not heard this.

Steve (03:40):
Yeah. Oh, this. I heard it a long time ago, and then I've
heard it a couple times since. I'm surprised you
haven't, because this has stood out to me.

Leif (03:49):
It definitely makes sense, though.

Steve (03:50):
Well, it completely makes sense.
And Disney and Marvel are like, we
can't give you trade secrets. We can't give you
our character development details, because those are
trade secrets, and we can't just offer those
up. And so that's part of this lawsuit.
And where I'm coming from, this.

(04:13):
Whatever the relationship, whatever actually
happened here between Lively and
Baldini, you're
allowed to make fun of people. How can you sue
someone for making fun of you in a film?
How. How can you sue someone for defamation
for that? Because it

(04:33):
happens all the fucking
time. That's 25.

Leif (04:38):
Fair Use Act.

Steve (04:39):
Yes. Uh, absolutely. And
90% of Hollywood is
making fun of one thing or another
or trying to get you to think about something. It's
all metaphor and it's all allegory.
So, like, oh, he hurt my feelings. But you can't
sue for that.

Leif (05:00):
I guess if it's a pattern,
I guess that's. I mean, that's what a defamation case
is. Is here.

Steve (05:07):
I.

Leif (05:08):
Yes, it's part of a pattern. I guess they
could work it in. I guess it's not
like it's not a case on its own, but.

Steve (05:16):
Right. And since they're suing on a bigger
case, I think that that angle
is childish,
Especially because no one knew this.
No one knew that Nice Bull was making fun of
him until he brought it up. Until, uh,
he brought it into this lawsuit.

(05:37):
I never thought. I didn't know anything about it. And I don't think
most people said, oh, I Bet he's making fun of him.
I think he did, but I think.

Leif (05:45):
Maybe people who know him realize it
was making fun of it.

Steve (05:49):
Yeah, that. That. That makes sense.

Leif (05:52):
Anyways. Gossip Girl Season 3
Episode 14 the Lady Vanished
Original Air Date March 15, 2010
Based on the Lady Vanishes
directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Steve (06:06):
Yeah, and you sent me the link. I didn't get a chance to watch the
movie, and I'm bummed because I've never seen an Alfred
Hitchcock movie I don't like. So did
you. Did you get to watch the movie?

Leif (06:17):
I watched a bit of it. The quality was just. It was really
bad.

Steve (06:20):
Oh, yeah. And that's the.

Leif (06:23):
It's on, like. It's on several streaming services for free
as well.

Steve (06:26):
Okay. Yeah. I still want to go back and look at it.
I also want to see. I want to try to get Emily
watching Hitchcock because she loves horror movies,
and I think it'd be fun to watch some. She has an
appreciation for that kind of thing sometimes.

Leif (06:41):
I think it was like 240p resolution or something.

Steve (06:43):
Oh, geez.

Leif (06:46):
Like watching a potato.
But, yeah, the story, uh, it really has very little
to do with the. This episode. But the story was.
While traveling in continental Europe, a rich, young
Playgirl realizes that an elderly lady seems to have
disappeared from the train. So,
missing, uh, person.

Steve (07:05):
Yeah, very Hitchcock. Yeah, very.
I love Psycho. I love the Birds.
I love.

Leif (07:11):
I think Rear Window.

Steve (07:13):
I can't remember if I saw all of Rear Window or not.

Leif (07:16):
Anyway, this episode was written by
Robert hall and. And also by
Amanda Lasher, so there's a co production here.
Robert, uh, hall did previously
season two, episode four, the X Files, season two, episode
12, It's a Wonderful Lie, and season two,
episode 19, the Grandfather. And

(07:37):
from this season, he also did the Lost Boys
and the Treasure of Serena Madre, which.

Steve (07:42):
The Thanksgiving episode. Yes.

Leif (07:44):
And then Amanda Lasher had previously done
in season two, Predator, Poor J. Gone with the
Will Sat or anything. And then in
season three, the Freshman. And they
shoot Humphreys, don't they?

Steve (07:58):
Yeah, they mostly.

Leif (08:01):
I feel like Robert hall maybe wrote
like. So I'm not sure who did. I'm just guessing.
Robert hall did the Vanessa Dan stuff, and
then Amanda Lasher did the
rest of it. The NJBC and
the Jenny Damian stuff.

Steve (08:17):
That. That makes sense.

Leif (08:18):
The. Yeah, because, like, the. The Dan and Vanessa stuff seem
very Male. Gazy.

Steve (08:23):
Yeah. Oh. Oh, completely.
Absolutely. And
I completely hear that. I almost feel
that the Jenny storyline could even
have been, uh, the place where they collaborated the
most because it really
had some of the line of, like,

(08:43):
I remember being a teenage boy. The
worst part about having a teenage daughter is remembering what it's
like to be a teenage boy.

Leif (08:50):
We'll get to that.

Steve (08:51):
Yeah, I know. So, like that.
That feels so.
Yeah.

Leif (08:58):
Episode was directed by 80s teen star
Andrew McCarthy.

Steve (09:03):
Oh, I saw that and in the credits
and thought to myself, oh, that can't be Andrew McCarthy.
And then it's just now occurring
to me, Andrew McCarthy was
her dad. Was Lily's dad.

Leif (09:16):
Yeah. Which goes on to a tradition at Josh
Swartz throws where the dad
character kind of gets written off and becomes a director. Uh, that
happened with, uh, what's his name? Who played Merce's dad
in the O.C. oh,
uh, who played, um, Tate Donovan.

Steve (09:34):
Yeah. Okay.

Leif (09:35):
He became a director. And so this was one of Andrew Carcy's first
gigs, as he did, like, a couple of things before that. Like, uh,
he did two episodes of something called Lipstick Jungle and
a short prior to this. But now he's
going on to a pretty decent, uh, directing career. He's
did episode of, uh, Halt and Catch fire. He
did 15 episodes of Orange is the New Black,

(09:55):
26 episodes of the Blacklist.

Steve (09:57):
Interesting. Wow, that's. I, I, I
only watched the first season and a half of
Blacklist. I think the first season of Blacklist was
amazing television. And then they were like,
well, what do we do now? And kind of
went off the rails, but I just like James
McCarthy and James Spade or Andrew McCarthy and James

(10:17):
Spader working together. That, that
feels like an 80s hole somewhere.

Leif (10:24):
Why don't you give us that vulture recap?

Steve (10:27):
All right. The world rotates
on its axis. Time marches on.
Seasons change. One crop shrivels while the new
seedlings pop up in its place,
just as it is on Gossip Girl. Sometimes
the winds from the inevitable storms draw our fair
characters close together. Other times, it

(10:48):
takes them far apart. Last night's episode
saw both Blair and Chuck started out
feeling disconnected and untrustworthy of one
another, but quickly came together to deal with the
reappearance of Chuck's mother. Nate and
Serena bent their blond heads together when talking
about the problem of Serena's father, as
if they were sharing one mind, and they might as well

(11:10):
have been. And downtown, in a cramped
room at nyu, Dan and Vanessa came
together at last. Maybe literally,
but at the same time, uptown, all
was not well with the rest of the Humphries. Rufus
and Lily, so happy just last season,
had become completely alienated from one another.

(11:31):
Now with the advent of Damien, Jenny's
drug dealing Quasi boyfriend Jenny and
her father are also having a falling out.
I think she needs to be back in Brooklyn to
feel the, uh, ground under her feet. Rufus
explains to Lily when she quite reasonably
suggests they deal with the problem as a family.

(11:52):
And I think I might need that too. Too bad for
Rufus. The world never stops turning.

Leif (11:59):
Indeed.

Steve (12:01):
Fuuuufus.

Leif (12:02):
Yeah. Rufus, Rufus, Rufus. So bad.

Steve (12:06):
Uh, like the acting's as bad as the parenting, too.

Leif (12:09):
Well, act one begins with a Gossip Girl monologue.
Get up and go at it, Upper east side. I hear little
J. Is having foreign relations with a handsome
attache. We always knew she had
friends in high places, but how low will she
go? Jenny and
Damien appear to be getting cozy in a room, but Damien is

(12:31):
really there to store his drugs. The two lovebirds are
interrupted by a call from Damien's father, and Jenny gets a
big bit miffed when he refers to her as
just a friend.

Steve (12:43):
First of all, Jenny, this is a business, and you're
just. She's trying to mix business
with pleasure and
looking for that relationship. Come on,
Jenny. Pick a lane.

Leif (12:58):
Nate and Serena are, uh, in the honeymoon phase and
can't keep their hands off each other. We get an
extended foreplay scene that they were hoping was giving Top
Gun but is actually hot shots.

Steve (13:12):
Yes. Yes.
Yeah, they. They. They wanted. They
wanted seven and a half weeks.

Leif (13:20):
And ended up with hot shots.
Oh, so over the top.

Steve (13:27):
It was so. Yeah, it was so bad.
Uh, I didn't, uh, I didn't. Nate
cooking breakfast. I liked that. I didn't know he had
a kitchen.

Leif (13:36):
But he was toasting waffles.

Steve (13:38):
He was toasting waffles. And Serena was
so impressed with his cheffery.

Leif (13:45):
Well, I guess it's probably as good Nate didn't burn the place
down because they wouldn't toaster
put his knife in there.

Steve (13:52):
Yeah, yeah. Up against.

Leif (13:53):
It's not coming out.

Steve (13:54):
Yeah, hold on. Let me. Let me try to get this. Let me try
to get this knife with this, uh, curtain here.

Leif (14:03):
In their post coital bliss, Nate and Serena
hear what they think is Chuck and Blair going at it in the
bedroom. However, at that moment, Nate gets a call
from Chuck. Chuck asks Nate to grab his cell phone out of
the bedroom before Blair goes snooping.

Steve (14:17):
This was. I love that because
you hear her from the start and you're like
that. She's not actually having
sex with Chuck right now.

Leif (14:26):
Yeah, she'd be way too embarrassing.

Steve (14:28):
Yes. She's way too proper, but
you know that she's just trying to now them
feel uncomfortable. Also, this is where Nate has that.
I told you I was good in the kitchen.
Indeed. It was slick.

Leif (14:44):
Chuck is stalking his possible mother and exchanges
a wad of cash for a room key.

Steve (14:49):
Yeah, we see Chuck stalking Evelyn
and.

Leif (14:53):
Apparently has, like, a second sense and like he somehow
knows she's behind that
elevator.

Steve (14:59):
When the elevator dings and he's
look, she's near me, I feel a
presence. A presence I haven't felt
since earlier today.

Leif (15:12):
Serena goes into the bedroom to find Blair reading a
magazine while letting out, quote, unquote cries of
passion. Serena presses Blair on. What's
wrong? Blair admits she isn't connecting
with Chuck anymore and that he is shutting her
out.

Steve (15:28):
Yeah, toxic besties.
Adorable. I always
talk about how much I love their relationship, but I also
can't ignore how toxic it is too.

Leif (15:39):
Why? Are these people friends?

Steve (15:40):
Yes. You know, Serena's in
there and Blair is just. I love that Blair is
just nasty to Serena and
throws a few barbs and Serena's like, oh,
Blair needs to talk. Goes
in, puts the pillow down. Come on, Blair.

Leif (15:58):
Dan is walking in the dorm hallway in full
winter dress, but everyone else seems to be in beach wear.
Dapper Dan avoids the advances of a comely
co ed.

Steve (16:09):
Yeah, Dan just has these horny
freshmen throwing themselves
at him on a daily
basis. There's two more later, and
he's hung up on
Vanessa. What the fuck, Dan?

Leif (16:26):
Dan knocks on Vanessa's door and immediately goes into
apology mode about the whole I love you thing. He
ropes Vanessa and Paul into a classic double date with
the X setup. But first, Dan needs to find a girlfriend.
He name drops the coed from earlier. Melissa
is a good name.

Steve (16:41):
Yeah, and why not? Well, I have a date instead of, oh,
I've been seeing someone. If he checked your messages that
don't say that, you would know. But why
not just say, oh, yeah, I met someone and I'm taking a date to it,
and then go find her and make up for it?

Leif (16:56):
Chuck is rummaging through Elizabeth's room and
luggage. He finds something hidden in a wrapped cloth, but the
scene cuts before it's revealed.

Steve (17:04):
Yeah, just rummaging through this
stranger's room. That not
complete stranger, but also just a little
light B and E. And.

Leif (17:14):
Uh, this is just another scene where I just. I
question what I. Look, I know he's
dark, he's brooding, he's sexy, he's got
daddy issues, but Ed Westbrook is just not
a good actor. No, he was
acting like someone searching a room. He did not. It was not
natural at All.

Steve (17:32):
Yes, yes.

Leif (17:33):
So, like going through the motions of.

Steve (17:35):
Searching a room, and I felt that there was one place that
he can't.

Leif (17:39):
Even blame it on the accent. Because he wasn't even talking.

Steve (17:41):
Yes, yes. Because there were times that he
was looking in things. Are you
looking for something or are you opening drawers?
That there was no. I know exactly what
you're talking about.

Leif (17:54):
It didn't feel natural.

Steve (17:55):
Yeah, and I felt the exact same way. And then
goes for the purse or
attache. Uh, there was something like that
that he went through. And if the thing he was looking for wasn't
right on top, he wasn't going to see it. And then when he finds
the thing that he finds. Why would you even open that?
Because you haven't been concerned with any other piece of cloth

(18:15):
you've found so far. Of course, it's wrapped in
gauze. For some reason.

Leif (18:20):
Nate enters the bedroom but is unable to get
past Serena and definitely not Blair when he tries to
sneak out Chuck's phone. Blair quickly
sees through Nate's attempt at thinking on the spot, and she has a
moment of nostalgia for dating someone that is a
horrible liar.

Steve (18:36):
I love Nate getting caught and trying
to. Oh, well, uh, I just wanted to, uh, check a
tweet and then. Serena, you fucking asshole. Wait,
didn't Chuck just call you and ask you to get him his
phone and not tell Blair about it?

Leif (18:50):
Fucking Serena froze before us.

Steve (18:53):
Yeah, yeah. I mean, um.
Yeah. Yeah.

Leif (19:00):
Jenny and Damien are counting pills in the bedroom when Lily
walks in. The pair manages to hide the drugs, so Lily
assume they are getting into some hanky panky.

Steve (19:08):
Instead, LJ gets busted
and not for doing what she's busted for.
Yeah, she should be busted for the other thing, but that's
not what she's busted for. So I also think
Lily kind of overreacts. And
according to what they're saying, it's like noon.
Why is the assumption that this boy stayed over and

(19:29):
not came over this morning?

Leif (19:31):
Well, they're surprised that she's up early,
so it's presumably before noon today.

Steve (19:36):
Okay, you're right. Yes, you're
right. You're right.

Leif (19:40):
Nate recognizes the missed calls on Chuck's phone as the
same number that Chuck called him from earlier.
Blair plays the message and discovers that it was from
Elizabeth and that she was trying to see Chuck before she
left town. As Nate, Blair and Serena are trying
to figure out the message. Chuck returns,
revealing that her name is Evelyn and
that she is his mother. Gossip Girl leads us

(20:02):
into the first act break with.
And just like that, we get the mother of
all questions.
Yes, a lot going on that scene.

Steve (20:14):
Yeah, uh, yes, there was a lot
going on. And I also feel like it
didn't do a whole lot
in the sense of we know now
that the non judging breakfast pod now has all the
info, which was a big reveal to
them. I really
also more than anything, like what

(20:37):
this starts setting up. And it's a little more in
the next scene, but I like what this sets up for Serena
and Chuck for their juxtaposition of what they're
going through.

Leif (20:47):
So Act 2 begins. We come back from the commercial and
we see that Chuck has found the other half of the locket
showing a picture of Elizabeth Evelyn
presumably holding an infant Chuck. He explains that
Bart just manipulated him into believing what Bart wanted
him to. Chuck says that now that he knows for sure,
he wants nothing to do with his mother, ever the

(21:08):
narcissist. Serena projects her daddy issues onto
Chuck and she can't understand why he wouldn't want a
relationship with a long lost parent. Chuck
storms off and Blair tells Nate and Serena to honor
Chuck's wishes.

Steve (21:20):
I'm sure they will. Like I said, I like the dynamic
this sets up between Chuck and Serena.
Of ch. Serena has
this longing that she's actively looking for this
person. And now Chuck finds out that he
might actually have the thing Serena is looking for
and doesn't know if he really wants it and doesn't know how to

(21:40):
handle it. I also the
Bart says that suits are appropriate to
wear to kindergarten and that blue chip stocks
are an appropriate gift for a child.

Leif (21:52):
Yes, Father of the
year.

Steve (21:55):
Bart, could you imagine being
a five year old and getting stock
for your birthday? Like, what do I do with this?
Actually, that kind of happened. I got a savings bond at one
point. Oh, it's.

Leif (22:09):
I definitely got savings bonds a couple times when I was a kid.

Steve (22:11):
Yeah. Oh, it's a hundred dollars.
Eventually, one
day, if you wait that long.

Leif (22:19):
Back at the penthouse, Damian is getting bored when
Rufus arrives. Rufus, also showing some
narcissism, assumes Lily's emergency was
a ploy to get him to come over because of the relationship.
He is, however, shocked to find Jenny had a boy
over.

Steve (22:35):
Rufus just bursts in like an asshole.
Oh, what are you tricking me over here for? Lily, what's
so important? Don't you remember that your kid
lives here? Uh, but it's not Dan.

Leif (22:48):
Now, to be fair, I think you mentioned
Lily's overreaction earlier. I think she
part of her did kind of use the get rupus to come
up that.

Steve (22:57):
That scans. That scans. But it was a valid.

Leif (23:00):
Yeah, he should be there to do that.

Steve (23:03):
But it is valid.

Leif (23:05):
But Lily uses the truth to lie. Yes,
she is a master.

Steve (23:09):
Yeah, she's. Lily is also a
narcissist. She is the tree. The apple
did not fall far from.

Leif (23:17):
We get a montage of Beachbots as we are back in the dorms.
The cliche of exes on a double date pays off in
the expected way. Paul and Melissa are
starting to realize they are both third wheeling on this
date.

Steve (23:28):
I thought it was kind of funny. I thought
Vanessa was actually the funnier one in this
scene. And Dan just looked awkward and out of place. Dan
has just looked awkward and out of place for three episodes
now. Yeah, and I don't like it.
I don't like it, Pen. But I like the whole. And um, then
he was my prince Charming. Dan was Prince Charming.

(23:51):
Yeah.

Leif (23:52):
I like the actor plays Paul. He's really sassy.

Steve (23:54):
Yeah. Yeah. He's such a theater kid.

Leif (23:57):
Yes.

Steve (23:57):
He is such a.

Leif (23:58):
Such a stereotype.

Steve (23:59):
Yes. And being a theater
kid, I fucking love it because I feel
seen.

Leif (24:06):
Blair finds Chuck at the bar and apologizes and offers
to be there for him whatever he wants. She
then gives him the locket and suggests it's time to leave it at
Bart's grave.

Steve (24:17):
I love how Blair's whole thing here is this is your
trauma, this is your thing you're dealing with.
I'm here for whatever you need.
And the whole apology without a caveat,
that it's no, I'm just letting you know
I am here for you.
That's what this is about. I liked her
support of him here and. Okay, you want her out,

(24:39):
let's go. Let's put this at the grave and let's never think about it again.
Cool.

Leif (24:44):
Rufus is yelling at Lily for allowing a boy to
stay over and ignores Damien's lame excuse.
Rufus demands that Jenny pack her things because they
are both going back to Brooklyn. Lily is
beside herself.

Steve (24:58):
Robin referred to Rufus as a drama queen
in this scene.

Leif (25:03):
And he's also, uh, kind of tallying on himself for being
a shitty to women as a teenager.

Steve (25:07):
Yes. Yeah, he's telling on
himself for being a shitty kid. And the way
he immediately blames Lily
that like, this is your fault. That this
boy Jenny is not Sarita. Yeah,
fuck you, Chris. Fuck you.
You are not Lily.

(25:29):
Uh, I don't know where I was going with that. But
he's. And also just. Can we talk about the
acting? Matt, settle. Like
you can't do angry. He can't
do angry. He can
barely manage disappointed.
And it's just always so.

(25:51):
It's always so dramatic
and not. It doesn't feel like real
emotion. It feels acted.
Whenever he shows that emotion,
it's like they cast him for season one,
Gossip Girl. And then they're like, oh, shit, we have a season two.
We need to make him more dramatic and make him

(26:11):
fight with Jenny more. And then they're like, oh,
he's not very good at that.

Leif (26:17):
Let's just do it anyways.

Steve (26:18):
Yeah. So stop writing him in these stupid drama
roles and the whole Lily fight. Just
stop. Oh, and it's gonna get worse.

Leif (26:27):
Yep. Yep. At the party,
Vanessa points out to Dan that things are still
awkward between them. Um, Dan suggests a mock photo
to get back in the friend groove. However, the two
hot bodies pressed up against each other in such a
confined space leads to the inevitable
spontaneous makeout.
Really? Uh, I thought they were fucking hot.

(26:49):
I hate it from a writing standpoint because it just
segregates the show. Yeah, but they were fucking hot
together.

Steve (26:55):
Only because it's Dan and Vanessa.
And to your point, even more, this
whole scene is one of the
best, almost, I want to say,
cinematic moments of Gossip
Girl. And they don't do a lot of
film tricks and a lot of cinema

(27:16):
tricks. They tend to be very much.
This is what you're looking at. It's a multi
camera show and they just kind of set up their cameras.

Leif (27:25):
Absolutely. They just don't have time for that kind of thing.

Steve (27:27):
Exactly. And here we have
this really great one shot
scene of them going behind,
squeezing behind, doing the makeout, being
like, oops. And then taking the
picture with no emotion on their face and
coming back around the other side. I

(27:47):
was, I loved the shot. It
was a great shot. You're right, they were hot.
The, the, the makeout scene was great.
It was also just. I,
I, I, uh, didn't want this to happen anyway. I knew,
I knew this was going to happen.

Leif (28:04):
Yeah. It had to happen eventually.

Steve (28:06):
It had to because they're all gonna fucking, uh. For my
theory to hold, this had to happen.
Yeah.

Leif (28:12):
My problem with it. Yeah. Is it segregates the
storylines. This episode was a great example. The
three storylines were completely separate.

Steve (28:20):
Yeah. Yeah. This. Yes. And
the party of the week had Vanessa
and Dan.

Leif (28:26):
Yeah.

Steve (28:27):
No one wants to go to a party with Dan and
Vanessa. The parties were always.

Leif (28:32):
Well, actually, every girl at NYU was.

Steve (28:34):
To go to Party Fair. Fair. Every girl
at NYU wants to get on the
Dan Express.

Leif (28:42):
The Humphrey Ponies express yeah.

Steve (28:45):
The Humphrey Express.
Pronounced with an umpty.
My name is home free. Pronounced with an
home free. I bet he gets
busy in a Burger King bathroom.

Leif (29:02):
At some point, Nate and Serena pretend
to wave the white flag and invite Chuck and Blair to
dinner. It appears it might be a setup, and Serena is
dragging Nate along on his scheme, kicking and screaming.
Gossip Girl cautions.
Careful, S. You may think you know what's best,
but this time you might be pushing your Chuck.

Steve (29:25):
Pushing your Chuck was. Was good. I, I
actually. I actually really. That one stuck out.

Leif (29:31):
It's all part of the Chuck glove this season. You know, he's no longer
being compared to fuck words. Now he's.

Steve (29:36):
He's luck. Yes,
it's true. It's true in the episode where
Chuck tries to find his mother. He's not a mother chucker,
but. And Serena,
you fucking narcissist. It's just,
oh, well, I know what he must be going through
because of my daddy issues, so I'm going to solve it

(29:56):
all. Yeah.

Leif (29:59):
We move into Act 3 at the
restaurant. Nate and Serena are stalling for time.
Eventually, Evelyn, uh, arrives and they reveal their ruse
to Chuck. Serena pushes Chuck to talk to her
so the not knowing doesn't haunt him forever.

Steve (30:13):
Yeah, the meddling is so annoying.
Uh, that's my big thing there.
It works out. It was in the long
run.

Leif (30:23):
I hate that Serena was right.

Steve (30:24):
Yeah, it was the right thing. She was right.
And I hate that she was. And she
was right, but she wasn't. And we'll even get to that
because when we get to the Serena Evelyn
conversation. But you're right. I hate that
she was right. I hate that this was sort of the right
thing to do because none of it's for the right reason.

Leif (30:45):
She doesn't deserve to be right.

Steve (30:46):
Yes. Thank you. Thank you.

Leif (30:49):
At the beach party, Paul and Melissa have figured it out and
basically tell Dan and Vanessa to fuck off with their drama.

Steve (30:56):
Yeah, busted.
Just bang already. Paul's just basically like, go,
Go fucking bang already. And the fact that they
already broke up, that you have to wonder if they
broke up because of Dan,
that because of Paul's irritation
at other times, even if he didn't know it was
Dan, but knew that there was a

(31:18):
friend out there that was that
person keeping you from that connection.

Leif (31:24):
Just listen to Bismarck, B. Fellas.

Steve (31:26):
Yeah, just listen. Never trust a girl
when she says he's just a friend.

Leif (31:32):
Chuck is talking with Evelyn while Blair and Serena
and Nate watch from across the restaurant. Chuck
assumes all she wants is money and writes Evelyn a
check. Blair stops Serena from going over to them.
Chuck tells Evelyn that the money is hers if she never
tells him her story and leaves forever.
Evelyn hesitates before ultimately taking the check.

Steve (31:52):
Chuck is really defensive. And Chuck,
completely in character all along, um, has always put
up big walls and has always used his
money to hide from feeling things.
And this completely makes sense. And
it felt also like he says later that it felt like a
test and she fucking fails.

(32:13):
Okay? And clearly, you know, she even
has like a, okay, this must be what you want.
I'll take your money and go. But you're the
grown up here and you should recognize that
I feel like she, that Evelyn should have recognized
that this is a test, that no, I don't
want your money. But she failed. But

(32:33):
of course then we would have wrapped up this episode 20
minutes too early.

Leif (32:38):
Jenny is packing and is surprised Damien is
still there, but only to retrieve his drugs.
Jenny admits that she was upset that he referred to her as just
a friend. Damien turns it back on Jenny that
she's still in high school and their father isn't wrong to be
mad. As Damien goes to leave,
Jenny stops him and purposely dumps the pills on the floor for
Rufus to see. Gossip Girl jibes.

(33:04):
Watch your step, little J. Damian may be your
drug of choice, but it looks like this love could
be bad medicine.

Steve (33:12):
I have a couple things here. The first being that
Damien saying that Rufus isn't out of line
I think is one of the most mature things that
someone has said on this show. That
the self awareness of Damien in this
moment to say, uh, Jenny, you're in
high school. Your dad isn't out of line for not

(33:33):
wanting us together. I'm going to, I'm going to, going to head
out that. Yeah. I
for a moment had an inkling of
respect for Damien for
when I thought he was going to bow out of this whole thing.
And then. Jenny, what the fuck
are you thinking? Jenny, this isn't

(33:53):
I want to start a fashion show.
This is drugs, Jenny.

Leif (33:59):
We move into Act 4.
Rufus is once again accuses Lily of being a
bad parent. Rufus enters stern
dad mode and sits Jenny down for a talk.
Damien, despite his aversion to drama, has seen enough and
admits the drugs are his or rather his father's.

Steve (34:17):
Yeah, like Rufus. Yeah. Lily just
knew she was selling drugs out of the
apartment. Did you know about this? Of course she
didn't fucking know about this.

Leif (34:27):
We.

Steve (34:27):
Wouldn't that have been the first thing she told you if she knew about
this, do you think Lily would Keep that from you.

Leif (34:33):
Like so. Such a dick.

Steve (34:37):
He just wants to be mad at Lily
and wants the fight to be about her.
What terrible parenting that
you want this fight. You're just trying
to pick this fight with your wife. It's about your
kid who is clearly troubled, who
is clearly holding tons of
drugs, of narcotics, for fuck's

(34:59):
sake, for more than would be in someone's
pill closet. And you're like, I'm
gonna use this opportunity to fight with my
wife, who probably used this opportunity
to try to work things out with me. So I'm gonna
make it even worse. And meanwhile, Jenny is just
not being parented because they just make it

(35:20):
about each other. Disgusting. And. And I mean it
kind of for personal reasons. That
really bothers me because,
uh. And I won't get into it on here, but it really
bothers me when parents make the
relationship about them hating
each other more important than

(35:40):
their kids. Well, being and using the kids
to fight. I hate it. And again, I want to
point out, but Lil, Little Jenny, Lil, Lil
J. This isn't a guerrilla fashion
show. This isn't something that someone's
just going to be like, oh, I don't want to press charges. This
is jail time. This is

(36:01):
intent to distribute. This is
when Rufus is. When she says, what, are you going to send me to
military school or ground me for life? And he's like, maybe both.
I was like, yeah, like, that's the one thing I almost
agreed with. Like, yeah, if you're selling
drugs, like, this isn't a
little you're grounded thing. This is

(36:22):
fucking serious.

Leif (36:23):
Again, uh, it's a cry for help. Her
parents have given her endless money and
zero supervision.

Steve (36:31):
Zero parenting at all.
Yes, it is absolutely
a cry for help. She's bored and
over and over went from having to
fight for her position to just
being privileged and not knowing how to handle that.
And they didn't do shit to help her

(36:51):
with this transition. They just dropped her in the
house and then split up. Yeah.

Leif (36:57):
The non judging Breakfast Club is arguing, uh, uh,
in the street outside the restaurant. First, Chuck storms
off, followed by Serena. Blair recognizes why
Serena was so interested in Chuck's reunion and
also leaves. And only Nate is left
alone and clueless.

Steve (37:13):
Poor Nate. I love.

Leif (37:16):
Yeah, like a dog
sitting on the porch waiting for his master to come home.

Steve (37:22):
It's like Arrested Development when the Peanuts theme, when
the Charlie Brown theme would come on,
just drops his head and walks, um, home.
I also, I love that that Blair calls
out Serena on this and is like, you know, this isn't what it's about.
That's not why you're doing this. And then
she leaves, and Nate's like, well, what is it about? Not

(37:44):
my place to tell, kiddo.
I think right m. Now, one of my favorite
parts of the Serena
Nate relationship are the Blair Nate
interactions. That they're not interested in each other
but have so much history
that they just know each other so well, and it just

(38:05):
leads to such great banter
that Nate's not gonna push back on Blair there.
Nate hasn't pushed back on Blair for 11 years.

Leif (38:16):
Dan and Vanessa are arguing about who lied to
whom. Vanessa says she wishes Dan never
confessed his feelings. So, uh, he leaves to get another drink.

Steve (38:24):
It's nice that they're finally honest
with each other here.

Leif (38:29):
Well, not totally.

Steve (38:31):
Is this. Am, um, I thinking in the wrong place?

Leif (38:32):
Yeah, this is where Vanessa says, I just wish you never had
said anything. And then Dad's like, shit, and
walks off. Well, I gotta go get another drink.

Steve (38:40):
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But this conversation, it
does show a little bit of, like,
that history that, uh, Nate,
Vanessa, we've known each other a long time.
History.

Leif (38:52):
Damian is explaining how his father went on
escalating benders after his mother left them.
Eventually, his father got clean. But this morning, Damian
found the bag of pills and came to Jenny for help.

Steve (39:04):
Dude, great cover. Great story.
I'd buy it. Why'd you bring the drugs here? I don't know,
dude. I panicked and didn't know what to do, and I brought him
here.

Leif (39:13):
Yeah.

Steve (39:13):
Yeah, that. Scans, no notes,
like you. Sure thing, dude. Like, I buy
your story. Came in for the save. And
of course, then Rufus is still an asshole. Yeah,
just. Still a fucking asshole.

Leif (39:27):
Blair finds Chuck lying in bed and offers
talking or sexual. Chuck chooses sex.

Steve (39:33):
Nice to, uh. Nice to reconnect.
There. Blair and Chuck, that was this thing
that was really bothering Blair and
now Chuck, you know, reconnecting. Great.

Leif (39:46):
Jenny thanks Damien for the crazy story,
but he admits it was true, except for the part about his dad
getting sober. Jenny is even more touched
that he actually opened up to her. Rufus,
having flushed the pills, comes down and tells Damien and
it's time for him to leave. And Rufus and Jenny to go back to
Brooklyn.

Steve (40:04):
I like that they've made Damien a little bit
of a sympathetic character here. And what I.
I, uh, mean by that, I think Damien's a piece of shit.
Obviously, he's another fucking predator
on this show.

Leif (40:18):
Uh, just enough daddy issues to make him
sympathetic.

Steve (40:21):
But. But he came with just enough daddy issues.
I Think what I'm saying is I felt
Aaron and Gabriel and Trip
for Serena were all very one
dimensional. That they were all very much,
I'm an older dude taking advantage of a younger girl.
Yeah, very much. That there was. I

(40:41):
mean, we saw Aaron's parent
dad. He has a healthy relationship with his
father who is all about like, you know, getting his
son some. At times you don't
see the damage side of those
characters.

Leif (40:57):
Yeah.

Steve (40:57):
And so to finally see one of these assholes
be a little damaged, it at
least made it make a little more sense.

Leif (41:06):
Mhm.

Steve (41:07):
It made him more real of a person.

Leif (41:09):
I agree.

Steve (41:09):
And Rufus was an asshole again.

Leif (41:15):
Serena just can't let things go and finds
Elizabeth before she can leave town.
Gossip Girl ends with the act with,
well, s. Looks like Chuck's mom isn't the
only one with baggage.

Steve (41:31):
So, Evelyn, this whole time, I've got something I need
to tell you. I never wanted you
and never wanted to be a mom. And
really I wanted you to believe I was dead
your whole life. That's what she tells
Serena.

Leif (41:46):
I thought, yeah, but that's next.

Steve (41:48):
Oh, I'm sorry. I thought that that was awful.

Leif (41:50):
That's after the act break.

Steve (41:51):
Oh, I forgot there was an act break there.

Leif (41:54):
Yes. Yeah. This is where she just kind of shows up and says,
you know.

Steve (41:58):
Yeah, because it's super shitty. It makes. It
makes so much sense. It's shitty, but it
makes so much sense. I need to know for
me. So I'm gonna do the thing.

Leif (42:09):
So as we get it to the final act, Serena wants to hear
Elizabeth's story to possibly find a reasonable explanation
on why her father left her. Elizabeth
admits that she was a young, unwed mother. And when
Bart saw his son for the first time, he wanted to be a father and
a husband. Elizabeth turned down the proposal and
instead took payments from Bart to stay away. It was
her request that Bart tell Chuck that she

(42:32):
was dead.

Steve (42:33):
Yeah. The truth is, I just never wanted the little.
I wanted him to think I was dead. That, uh.
So what story are you hoping to
tell him with?

Leif (42:44):
Well, I got the impression that she wanted to get an abortion and
Bart forced her to have the kid.

Steve (42:49):
Yes. And because we agreed, we'd put it up for
adoption. Like, okay, fine, I won't have the
abortion. We'll put it up for adoption. And then
Bart couldn't go through with it after seeing his little boy.

Leif (43:01):
Mhm.

Steve (43:01):
But then also the whole, like, every day I look at
you, I see your mother.

Leif (43:06):
What the was that?

Steve (43:08):
I didn't. That I Didn't really that
that's still alive out there somewhere. And I pay
her regularly to keep away from you
so that you can think she's dead.

Leif (43:18):
That kids, is what we call a retcon.
Florence the Machine's dog days are over. Please.
As Vanessa admits she has feelings for Dan
too. They realize that they are on a no man's
land between friends and lovers and decide to
throw down and save. See what happens.

Steve (43:39):
I think what happens is they bang.
This was also. I liked this when they had
this sort of, uh.

Leif (43:46):
She admitted to being scared.

Steve (43:47):
Yeah, yeah. She admitted to being.

Leif (43:49):
Scene was great.

Steve (43:50):
Uh, yes.

Leif (43:51):
I mean one of my all time favorite songs.

Steve (43:53):
First of all, it's. It's a fantastic song and
it really has that like we don't know what we're doing
energy. Yeah, we were. It has that. I'm
diving into something blind energy
to it and it really
brought that whole thing together. I. I agree
that that was a really good scene.

Leif (44:13):
Back at the penthouse, Jenny begs Rufus to allow
Damien visitation rights. And Lily begs for him
and Jenny to stay so they can work out their issues.
Rufus ignores both their pleas and takes Jenny
back to Brooklyn.

Steve (44:26):
When I was a kid, I had a
friend who went into
friends hospital, was checked in to
a psychiatric facility
for a few weeks. And I remember I was afraid to
tell my parents because I was afraid of them
not wanting me to be friends with someone who had

(44:47):
these kinds of problems. And I hid
it from my mom and I told my dad
again, nervous that my dad was going to end up with,
you're not going to be friends with him anymore. And my dad's
response was, I'm glad
someone who's this troubled has a friend
like you to help them out. And

(45:08):
Rufus's whole, I don't want you
anywhere near this troubled boy and the problems
that he's having I think is so
fucking ignorant. And there's two huge
things that you're doing here as a parent. For one, when
you tell your kid you're not allowed to hang out with that person,
what are they going to do? They're going to hang out with that fucking

(45:29):
person. No doubt. But
to tell your kid this person
is troubled and their family is
troubled, so I want you to
shut them out is a terrible
lesson. Emily has a friend who
sometimes gets who. Who has some

(45:49):
what I would call troubling behavior. And Emily
is like, I don't deal with that shit. I don't put up with that shit.
If she's doing that when I'm around, I'M out.
But she's still there for her to be her
friend, the friend that she needs. And
I find Rufus just to be so ignorant and
judgy on the. Wow. Your
friend's dad has a drug problem. Yeah. No

(46:12):
more friends. You're not going to be friends with someone whose dad has
a drug problem. There's more layers to this.
Of course, the actual relationship is
more nuanced than that. And Rufus is again,
like, I don't want to be rewarded for being right. He's right
to keep her away from Damien because he's a shady piece of
shit. But not on the evidence he has.

(46:33):
Which is what really bothers me. Yeah. Is
that he's just ignorant, judgy, and then just fights
more with Lily. And what are the men
on this show when they're really fighting with someone that they're
with? What is the real reason that they're really
doing that most of the time? Because they're trying to bang someone
else.

Leif (46:52):
Chuck and Blair are basking in the afterglow. And
Chuck admits that he hoped Elizabeth would turn down the check.
Just then, the front desk calls up to tell Chuck that
Elizabeth is downstairs and waiting to see him.

Steve (47:04):
I kind of thought it was a test. I think I said that
earlier. I don't know. I felt like this was kind of a
lay, uh, it all out kind of thing. Alright.

Leif (47:13):
Rufus comes down to find Jenny missing.
Did that crazy kid run away again?
Gossip Girl seems to think so. And she has this to
say.
There comes a time when every father learns you can't
keep a bad girl down.

Steve (47:31):
And that's when Jenny ran away
again.

Leif (47:37):
Took something with her too.

Steve (47:39):
Yep. Yeah, because Rufus flushed the drugs. You
don't flush narcotics like that. You're just
adding them to the water stream Now, Rufus, there are
disposable places for those things.
There are ways to dispose of that. That is not
dumping narcotics into
the water, into the sewer system.

(48:00):
Public service announcement. If you're trying to get rid of a whole bunch
of narcotics, take them to a pharmacy and they'll get rid of
them for you. Or get like they had. They sell like
disposal, like bags. Or I think they give
away my one pharmacy gave away bags. Like if
you have old pills, don't flush them. Put them in here and
toss them.

Leif (48:19):
We move into the epilogue. Serena
comes back to the Waldorf apartment to find Nate there
waiting for her. Serena finally tells Nate about
her failed attempts to find her father. Talking
to Elizabeth has finally convinced Serena that her father
just doesn't want to see Her. Nate tells Serena that
he wants to be there for her and know about her.

(48:39):
The two embrace again.

Steve (48:42):
I like them together. I feel like. I feel
like they are a, uh, good,
stableish couple, as, like,
sort of in their own
I again, I want them handcuffed together
so that neither of them can be around any other pretty
people, so that if they are. If they see

(49:03):
another pretty person, they're with each other. I just want them handcuffed
eternally and to run off into, uh,
until they retire to a farm up state, like
good golden retrievers do.

Leif (49:14):
I'll give you that. This was a cute scene.

Steve (49:19):
As of right now, I'm a big Nate, Serena,
they're fine.
Well, it's also not
as boring as Nate's other
relationships. This is probably the least
boring Nate relationship thus far.

Leif (49:36):
We come back to Elizabeth just having told Chuck, we
have to assume is the same story she told Serena.
However, Elizabeth has decided that she wants Chuck to know
her, and she gives back the check and declares she is
staying in New York.

Steve (49:50):
I think Chuck is right to be defensive in the beginning of
this. I like that Evelyn takes the
lumps and kind of
fights through to the, no, here's the money. No, I don't
want the check. No, I want to actually know my son.

Leif (50:04):
So, first of all, I get not wanting to repeat the
same story twice for brevity, but why do you
give the story to Serena and not to Chuck? Why don't
you get to see Chuck's reaction to the story?

Steve (50:15):
Yeah, and it's funny because I almost
feel like she gets away with it
by saying, I want to know
you. Right. And doesn't bring up
the why did I give you up? It's just right to
look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look, look. I was wrong. I knew I was
staying away. I was staying away, but now I want to know my son.

Leif (50:37):
And then my second point for the scene was
Leighton just carried the scene, as
always, breaking through Blair's cool exterior with those.
Just a little twinge of a smile
and then just comparatively, you know,
added. And I forget, the woman's Laura Harrer,
maybe, I think is her name.

Steve (50:55):
I think that sounds right.

Leif (50:56):
Um, she's such a soap opera
actor. And I looked it up, and she indeed had a
recurring role in General Hospital and also on Young and the Restless
that scans.

Steve (51:06):
Scans really hard.

Leif (51:08):
She also is in two different TV versions of
Moha and Drive as the same character.

Steve (51:14):
And in the movie. Right. The. Wasn't she in the actual movie?

Leif (51:17):
Yeah, in the movie, uh, and then also a TV
version of the movie.

Steve (51:20):
Wow, that's funny. I didn't know there was a TV version of the
movie.

Leif (51:25):
Speaking of the afterglow, Dan and Vanessa are
also in it. They both want to take things slow because
once the family's nose, the pressure will be turned way
up.

Steve (51:35):
Yeah.

Leif (51:35):
Cute little scene.

Steve (51:36):
The cute little post coital.

Leif (51:38):
Yeah.

Steve (51:38):
Dan and Vanessa showing a lot more.

Leif (51:40):
Skin than Chuck and Blair did.

Steve (51:43):
Yeah, they. They. Yes. Also, um,
they have the whole, like, their trajectory of
being friends and stuff. And I always
say that I married my best friend.
Robin is my. Is my best friend.
And so I like that little bit
that these best friends and how they're like, okay, well,

(52:03):
let's just, like, be friends that do this
and. Because that means that they won't do it for too long until
they get mad and break up.

Leif (52:11):
Jenny chases down Damien on the nightless streets of
Manhattan. She snags some, um, oxycodone from
Lily for them to sell at the party. Damien says they
should blow off the party and pulls Jenny in for a
kiss.

Steve (52:24):
Yeah. So now little. Little Jenny
is stealing Lily's
oxycodone, and Damien goes full predator.
Great. Again.

Leif (52:34):
Uh, he's supposedly
presumably the same age as Nate and Serena and
Dan, and we were fine with Nate because he went to school
with Serena.

Steve (52:43):
Right, right, right. No, no, no. I thought there was something
else that made him older than
Serena, too, but I guess.

Leif (52:50):
So. Characters, we're gonna presume. 17
and 19.

Steve (52:55):
Yeah.

Leif (52:55):
Okay, now, chemistry between
Pen and Jessica was tough. Hot.

Steve (53:00):
Yeah.

Leif (53:01):
These two. This kid.

Steve (53:02):
There's nothing.

Leif (53:02):
So not.

Steve (53:03):
There's nothing.

Leif (53:04):
And. And. And it's understandable because, uh, I looked up
Kevin Zigers would have been either 25 or
26 when they filmed this.

Steve (53:11):
And Jenny's like, 17.

Leif (53:12):
17.

Steve (53:12):
17.

Leif (53:13):
Yeah.

Steve (53:14):
So. Okay, yeah, you're right that they're. That he went to school with
Serena, So the age thing really isn't
as bad. In fact, it makes the you're in high school
thing even more condescending.

Leif (53:26):
Dude, you're a freshman.

Steve (53:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're a freshman. You're barely
out of, uh, high school because Jenny's. What, a
junior now?

Leif (53:35):
Yeah. Lili is swilling
wine alone at the penthouse. The elevator
dings as Vanya arrives to deliver Rufus's
scarf that was left at the lost and found by
Holland.

Steve (53:48):
Rufus, you noob,
you. You left your scarf at her
house. And also the best part.
I mentioned earlier about wondering
if there was history with Holland and Lily
that Holland slept With one of Lily's
husbands or something like that or. Or Lily. Actually,

(54:08):
no, it was. I had the suspicion that Lily
slept with Holland's husband because
she says early on about, like, you know, the husband cheating and
whatnot. And so for
her to take that scarf to Vanya
and be like, rufus.

Leif (54:25):
Left this at my place definitely feels purposeful.

Steve (54:28):
She knew what she was doing. Yeah, she was sending
a message to Lily that your man's hanging
out with me. Yeah, that was a shot.
That wasn't. That was not a message. That was a warning
shot.

Leif (54:41):
Yeah, otherwise, you just hang on to the scarf until you see him again.

Steve (54:44):
Exactly. Exactly.

Leif (54:47):
Nate sits in silent support as, uh, Serena
leaves a voicemail for her father, stating that she
is no longer looking for him and doesn't want to know
him.

Steve (54:57):
Yeah, it's nice that Serena is getting closure, but
not therapy. She needs
therapy. Like, I'm glad you're getting closure.
Please get therapy.

Leif (55:08):
Were you paying attention to Nate at all in the scene?

Steve (55:11):
Uh, very little. He was just there.

Leif (55:14):
Looked like he was about to fall asleep because he just didn't know how
to react.

Steve (55:18):
Yeah, that. That scans.

Leif (55:21):
Blair kisses Chuck goodbye so he can spend
some quality time with dear old mom. Blair
watches Chuck getting to know his mother as Gossip Girl
closes with
spotted Chuck Bass breaking bread with his
mother. Looks like our little boy lost
is finally found. For now, at least.

(55:43):
X.O. x.O. Gossip
Girl, Chuck's.

Steve (55:48):
What do you want to know? I thought was
interesting. It felt very tv.
Yeah, I think is what it was. But also
just Chuck just taking this bait of, like,
let me talk about me, and then I'll never ask you why
you left. Neither of us want to
know.

Leif (56:06):
So that is our episode. What is coming next?

Steve (56:09):
First of all, Jenny's in big trouble.
I don't know how Jenny's. This runaway
feels like it's going to end. I think Jenny thinks it's going
to end the way the previous one did. I don't think it's
going to. I had the thought that
Serena's dad is not in the picture
because of Cece.

Leif (56:28):
Is this really a runaway, or is it just sneaking out to go to a party?

Steve (56:31):
Jenny, uh, she didn't have any stuff.

Leif (56:34):
With her or anything.

Steve (56:35):
Yeah, it's. Well, I mean,
maybe it's sneaking out to go to a party. It just feels like running
away because that's what Jenny does when she's mad.

Leif (56:43):
But, uh, like, last time, they made it, like, a point of showing her,
like, pouring the suitcase and the sewing machine and
stuff.

Steve (56:49):
Yeah, Exactly. But I feel like we're
supposed to think she's running away. And who knows, maybe it is
just ditching to go to a party. Which. How do you go
home from that? Like, you know that going home from that, your dad
is just going to do all the same shit and you're just going to run away anyways. Just run away
now. Yeah. I have this feeling that Serena's
dad is away because of cece. That Cece

(57:09):
the meddler meddled there.
And that's why she kind of
let Rufus know. Uh,
she didn't tell Rufus anything, but she definitely
upended the timeline for Rufus.
And I think that we've seen cece come
around on Rufus and you got to wonder why,

(57:30):
why she didn't want her with Van Der
Woodsen. So I kind of feel like that is
a thing in there. I have a prediction and you can.
I'm probably. I might be wrong on this, but my one prediction
is we'll never see Evelyn again. Now that
the storyline is resolved,
it feels like, oh, now that you know who I am,

(57:51):
it feels very Scott to me. And
we. And now that's resolved, I
think that shit's gonna blow up with Lily and Rufus and
Holland and I'm not excited
about it. Uh, I think we continue to
go towards Blair being there for
Chuck. Being there for Chuck. Being there for Chuck. Being there for

(58:11):
Chuck. When's Chuck gonna be there for Blair again?
So I'm waiting for that shake
up to happen. I feel like
again, they've been so comfortable for so long.
They've been such a, like the longest
running relationship in a while.
So I feel like there's something gonna happen

(58:32):
here. Yeah.

Leif (58:33):
Let's go ahead and get into some segments
this week in fandom. Ah, we jumped into the
Wayback Machine to travel to the fan forums from
2010. Hello
there, Peabody here. And this is the
Wayback Machine for traveling through time. And this
is my boy, Sherman. Speak, Sherman.

Steve (58:53):
Hello.

Leif (58:54):
Good boy. Overall,
the impression was this was a good to great episode.

Steve (59:00):
Really good to great.

Leif (59:03):
This is what people want. They want Dan and
Vanessa separated from the non judging Breakfast Club.

Steve (59:09):
Yeah. But it becomes two
shows.

Leif (59:12):
Yeah, look, I, I agree. Like I, this is better
than previous ones because I thought all three story lines
were good storylines.

Steve (59:20):
I didn't like the Chuck storyline. I, I thought it
was executed fine, but I didn't like
it.

Leif (59:26):
It's. Yeah, it's definitely a stupid soap opera. But yeah, I,
I think it was well developed. This episode.

Steve (59:32):
I, they, they have.

Leif (59:33):
It was definitely better than the last episode.

Steve (59:35):
Right. And. Well, and I guess that's kind of. To me,
they just kind of. I have, uh, trouble
delineating between. When you
have such a continuous storyline. It's. I'm already annoyed
with it from last week. I was further annoyed
with it this week because it was more of. Last week. It was
more of. It was a Ross and Rachel thing. Will they.

(59:56):
Won't they. Are they gonna. Are they gonna talk? Oh, I give
you the check. She walks away and just baiting back and
forth instead of. And I
realize they need to like stretch through an episode, but
if you need to do that, then do it in one. Mhm.
And I know that today it would have been.
If this was made. If Gossip

(01:00:17):
Girl was Never made in 2007 and they
made Gossip Girl starting off
today, that they would probably be
12 episodes long and that
would have been one episode because they wouldn't have needed to
catch people up next week and the week after.
But it just because of that. Because this was
three episodes of this bullshit.

(01:00:39):
I'm bored. And I. And I'm done with it.
I. And especially for the whole reveal to be.
Oh yeah. I just didn't fucking want the kid. Yeah, just
fuck him, kids. No, fuck him. Fuck his
dad. I'm glad I'm dead.

Leif (01:00:52):
The, uh, fans also love, uh, this is a good Chuck and
Blair episode. They loved how protective Blair is of Chuck.
But like, some are wondering when we're going to see the
reverse.

Steve (01:01:01):
Yes. Yeah.

Leif (01:01:04):
Uh, why do they keep cutting away from Chuck and Blair?
Sexy times.

Steve (01:01:08):
Do you think they hate each other?

Leif (01:01:10):
That's because I just can't take his shirt off.

Steve (01:01:12):
Oh, is he pasty?

Leif (01:01:14):
That. And like, unlike the other boys, he refuses to
shave or starve himself for two weeks before
they shoot.

Steve (01:01:20):
Oh yeah.

Leif (01:01:22):
And he has tattoos.

Steve (01:01:23):
Oh, that's. That's an easy fix.

Leif (01:01:26):
It takes a few hours.

Steve (01:01:28):
Yeah, I, I guess I'm, um. Yeah, it does.

Leif (01:01:30):
It's. It's easy, but it takes. It takes a few more hours
to do your day.

Steve (01:01:34):
Yeah.

Leif (01:01:35):
Every day.

Steve (01:01:35):
Yep.

Leif (01:01:37):
Happily surprised that we got NJBC action
this early in the season because normally that's like an end of
the season kind of thing.

Steve (01:01:44):
Mhm. That. I'll give you that. It's nice to have them
together.

Leif (01:01:48):
A lot of people seem to think Evelyn slash
Elizabeth is a fake.

Steve (01:01:52):
Oh, Jesus Christ. I don't. Ah. Uh.
Jesus Christ. I don't. I don't want more of this.
I don't want more of this.

Leif (01:02:01):
They are shipping both Danessa, uh, and
Jamie in Really, Jamie?

Steve (01:02:06):
First of all, we're going with that. And second of all,
really, I think Jennian would have been better
because, like, you get more of her name in it. But anyway.

Leif (01:02:15):
Does Lily have a problem? Ox used for headaches
and sleeping till noon.

Steve (01:02:20):
I feel like this sleeping dill noon thing is a
recent thing. Right. We haven't seen
her with oxy all along.
I could see her being someone that has oxy
in the cabinet in case they want it. I don't think she has
a problem. I don't. I don't feel like that's a storyline they
want to do.

Leif (01:02:38):
They did Kirsten's an alcoholic storyline in the
O.C.

Steve (01:02:42):
Yeah. Yeah.
Uh, I feel like that would just be really springing something on us because
there's been zero evidence. Yeah,
zero. This entire time. Of course, there wouldn't be
any of the money stuff. She can just get money. Like, she's. That.
That's not her problem. But I just. I don't

(01:03:03):
like it.

Leif (01:03:03):
Well, that is it for this week in Phantom. Um, let's move
over to episode
Grand.
You went first last time, so I'm gonna go first this
week. So, like I said, the individual stories
were. I like them. I mean, I don't really like
where it's going, but I thought they were well developed

(01:03:24):
this episode, and the directing was good. Like you said. You
had that cool scene with the. The photo
behind there. So, uh, I thought this would be
episode.

Steve (01:03:33):
Yeah, I thought it was a C episode. I, uh,
wasn't really feeling any of the
storylines that much. I, uh. Because I haven't been really
shipping Danessa at all
so far. So even though I knew it was going to happen and knew
it was coming, I didn't really want it to.
So I liked the scenes. They were. Some of the

(01:03:54):
scenes they were in, especially that one. But I
didn't like how a lot of it played out to
begin with. I really wasn't a big fan of
the Jenny storyline. Like, it's this whole
drugs thing and the whole, like, I'm gonna drop drugs on the floor to start
a fight with my dad.

Leif (01:04:10):
See, you're looking at it from the dad point of view, I think.

Steve (01:04:13):
I think you're right.

Leif (01:04:14):
Um, from the kid point of view, it's exciting.

Steve (01:04:18):
I get that. I get that. But I'm a dad
and I'm always. I can't not be.

Leif (01:04:24):
Um. Yeah.

Steve (01:04:25):
And I guess having said that, I get
very irked with Rufus. Bad
parenting with him just not getting out of
his own fucking way. And again, I
Was a little triggered by him going at
Lily and blaming and trying to
pick fights with her using his

(01:04:46):
kid. That is something that really.
It, uh, triggers me. It really bothers me. And so I really
didn't like a lot of that stuff. So, yeah, I went with a C for
this episode.

Leif (01:04:56):
Fair enough.
Over to stockwatch.
Going up. I had Blair because she's once
again being a good girlfriend. Chuck, because he's got a
mommy now. Nate and Serena because
they were cute and had a lot of sex.
Dan and Vanessa because they finally got together and

(01:05:19):
they were pretty sexy together. Uh, so these
last three might not normally be
ups, but because Rufus is just so bad,
he makes all three of them go up. Jenny,
Damian, and Lily.

Steve (01:05:35):
Wow. So I had
some of the same. I had Blair and Chuck for the same
reasons. I had Nate and Serena for the same
reasons. I had Paul and Melissa
as it looks like they're getting together. I
had Damien going up, and that is my
last one going up because Damien

(01:05:56):
doesn't get busted for his drug ring
and continue on, and now it gets the
girl. So I had Damien going up.
I'm going to send Lily j. I'm going to send. Not
Lily, uh, Jenny up. I am going to give her the up
because at this moment, I
feel like she has the upper hand. She. I think it's. I think the

(01:06:16):
carpet is going to get ripped out hard
from under her, But I feel right now she's kind of floating
and thinks that she's really up there. False inflation
of stock.

Leif (01:06:26):
She got the business and the boy.

Steve (01:06:28):
Yeah, exactly.

Leif (01:06:29):
Going down. Rufus.

Steve (01:06:32):
Rufus.

Leif (01:06:34):
Elizabeth. Once again, Bart, just
because he was men.

Steve (01:06:39):
Yeah.

Leif (01:06:40):
And you gave them going up. But I had them going down.
M. Paul and Melissa because they were just getting used.

Steve (01:06:46):
Oh, I see. I had them going up because they got together
in the end and got rid of the dead weight.

Leif (01:06:51):
Did they get together? They just kind of go off and we.

Steve (01:06:54):
Oh, I kind of got the impression that they hit it off.
If they hit it off up. If they just were
annoyed and walked off down. So I guess
that's really open to interpretation here.
All. Uh, right.

Leif (01:07:06):
Who do you got going down?

Steve (01:07:08):
Uh, you said Elizabeth. I had her written down as Evelyn, but
Evelyn. Elizabeth definitely going down
like her. She's a terrible
person. Rufus is going down. I have Lily
going down because I also feel like,
although Lily was trying to keep
the family together and trying to.

(01:07:28):
Can't we just work this out as a family?
One, I still, uh, as you pointed out earlier,
it's just as much using Jenny to get her
her way as she, as Rufus is trying to use
Jenny to pick a fight. She's trying to use Jenny to solve
a fight. The other reason for Lily
going down is because she doesn't have

(01:07:48):
Rufus anymore because Rufus again stormed
out and she lost her pills.

Leif (01:07:52):
She'll just get more pills.

Steve (01:07:53):
So just get more pills.

Leif (01:07:55):
Anyone else? I.

Steve (01:07:57):
Yes, I had Dan going down because
it's Vanessa.

Leif (01:08:04):
But he loves Vanessa.

Steve (01:08:05):
He does, but it's Vanessa. I have Dan.
Okay. Dan goes down again for loving
Vanessa.
That's even worse. Uh, and then
finally I have Holland m going down because she picked
a fight with fucking Lily. And I don't
see how that ends well for Holland.
But here's the best outfits from the last

(01:08:27):
episode we see.

Leif (01:08:32):
Moving over to best outfits.
Not a lot to choose from.

Steve (01:08:37):
Yeah. Again, it's because of the party
thing. Right? It's usually the party outfits that
really stand out. But here it was Dan in
the tank top and Vanessa in uh, whatever that was.

Leif (01:08:49):
So because of that, I actually I'm going to give it to
Paul for his little neckerchief and popped collar.

Steve (01:08:54):
Oh, okay. That's fair.
That's actually. I can appreciate
that I went with Blair with
that black top that she's wearing throughout most of the show.

Leif (01:09:05):
And that neck, the big necklace.

Steve (01:09:07):
Necklace. And was it like with a leopard pant,
a leopard skirt or a tan skirt?

Leif (01:09:12):
I don't think it was leopard.

Steve (01:09:14):
Looked brown. It looked like it had some kind of pattern on it, but I
couldn't quite make it out.

Leif (01:09:19):
I don't think Blair would wear leopard print.

Steve (01:09:20):
I don't either, which is why I thought it was.
Which is why I didn't assume leopard. But it had
some kind of something on it.

Leif (01:09:29):
Well, that is it for segments. Do you have anything you
want to plug this week?

Steve (01:09:34):
Um, I'm not really plugging anything there this week
unless it's the Iron Pigs, apparently.
But I would like to say that if
you want to see more of what I am doing,
I. You can find me on TikTok or
Instagram @ Steve Marshon.
At Steve Marshon. M A R C
H I O N And I'm posting

(01:09:57):
stuff there. Uh, other than that, you can also find me on
bluesky at the Weed.

Leif (01:10:01):
Wizard and nothing really for me to plug either. So,
um, you can follow me on Instagram and
Threads and bluesky at
hotcapicola. That's H O T
C A P I C O L A
And you can follow the podcast at Non
Judging breakfast pod on Instagram

(01:10:21):
threads, TikTok and you can also
check out our website non judging
breakfastpod.com for links to our
discord, Patreon and other
stuff.

Steve (01:10:33):
And if you'd like to get in touch with us, we would love to hear what
you have to say. Please feel free to send us an
email@nonjudging
breakfastpodmail.com we'll
listen to your thoughts and probably read them here
on our podcast. And we'd
love to have you contribute to that conversation.
And while you're at it, and while you're listening, if you, if

(01:10:55):
you could go ahead and click that follow button or the
subscribe the like and leave us a comment
on really helps us with our visibility, especially
on Apple podcasts and Spotify.

Leif (01:11:07):
And we will be back next week to talk about
season three, episode 15,
the 16 Year Old Virgin.
The episode description reads, Jenny
and Damian consider taking their relationship to the next level,
but Serena is determined not to let that happen.
Meanwhile, Dan and Vanessa are trying to figure out what their

(01:11:28):
relationship actually is.

Steve (01:11:30):
Oh boy, Serena's gonna meddle.
I can already predict, but I,
I can already say it's the party episode.

Leif (01:11:39):
All over again from last year.

Steve (01:11:41):
Well, yes, and Serena
is once again probably going to be a
total fucking narcissist and be right
about what she's doing. Like she's
probably gonna be breaking them up for
her own stupid, superficial
reasons. But they shouldn't be together.

(01:12:03):
Or should they? I kept thinking of him
as another much older
predator, the way that Sarita
is attracted to. And when you pointed
out that they went to school together, in my
headcanon he was older, so that
would. It would have been her sophomore year that
she was there. And my head cannon had him as a senior,

(01:12:25):
but that was never established. It was just established that they
went to school together. And so the fact that
the age disparity isn't as bad
as I thought. And even if he was a senior
when Serena was a sophomore, that's, that's a little
worse. That's. That's worse.

Leif (01:12:41):
That's definitely worse.

Steve (01:12:42):
That's like senior to eighth grade. Yeah, so
that is bad. But if he's Serena and
Nate's age, like you said, we had no problem with Nate.
Nate had a bigger problem with Nate.
But so yeah, do they not belong together? They are just two
rich, entitled kids selling drugs.

Leif (01:13:00):
Selling drugs. Hardcore drugs.

Steve (01:13:03):
Hardcore drugs. Narcotics.

Leif (01:13:07):
That's a lie from the last of us. I sell hardcore
drugs.
Well, until next time. You know you love us.

Steve (01:13:15):
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

(01:13:36):
oh it seems I'm walking right.
To your door.
My heart still resting looking for something
more
Are you ever gonna see everything you mean to
me I'm trying really hard to believe
Every time you walk away, run away you take a

(01:13:58):
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
Never feels right when I'm out here on
my own

(01:14:21):
I left last night and it feels like
way too long
are you ever gonna see everything you mean to
me I'm to trying 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 piece

(01:14:43):
of m me with you there
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there.
Come.
Back to me
smile and you'll make my life
complete

(01:15:06):
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
Every time you walk away or run away take a piece

(01:15:28):
of me with you there.
Every time you walk away or run away and take a piece
of me with you there
uh. Every time you walk away or run
away you take a piece of me with you
there mhm Every time you walk
away or run away you take a piece of me
with you there.

(01:15:51):
Every time you walk away or run away you take a
piece of me with you there.