Gossip Girl S2E07 - Chuck in Real Life [w/Michael Ross]

Leif: 00:00:00

Happy anniversary, Robin. It is our six year Anna

Leif: 00:00:03

wedding anniversary.

Michael: 00:00:04

Happy anniversary very much.

Leif: 00:00:05

Thank you. Surely said that

Leif: 00:00:08

sooner at school.

Leif: 00:00:11

Yeah, she's not even gonna listen this far at the episode.

Michael: 00:00:14

That's any of the editing's for. You can edit and

Michael: 00:00:17

put it at the beginning.

Leif: 00:00:19

Yeah, well, yeah, she's not even able to say the beginning, I don't think.

Leif: 00:00:22

Yeah, well, it's okay. It just became a TikTok cut.

Leif: 00:00:44

Hey, uprise siders and all you scandal loving listeners out

Leif: 00:00:47

there, you just tuned into the non judging breakfast

Leif: 00:00:49

pod where the coffee is strong, the waffles

Leif: 00:00:52

are fresh, and the gossip is hotter than ever.

Leif: 00:00:55

My name is Leif and I'm your seasoned gossip girl veteran.

Michael: 00:00:58

I.

Leif: 00:00:58

And I'm Steve. You're a newbie. You're a greenhorn.

Leif: 00:01:01

You're, I don't know, Leif, what do you call the season

Leif: 00:01:04

two gossip girl newbie?

Leif: 00:01:06

I'm not sure, but, how you doing on bouncing, the ball

Leif: 00:01:09

on your knee thing?

Leif: 00:01:11

I mean, I'm still learning new

Leif: 00:01:14

tricks every day on the soccer field, I guess.

Leif: 00:01:16

Sounds good.

Leif: 00:01:17

So here's the deal, folks. Leap has been a fan of

Leif: 00:01:20

Gossip Girl since the beginning and I'm watching for the first

Leif: 00:01:23

time. And together we're your dynamic duo, bringing you

Leif: 00:01:26

all of the glamour and drama

Leif: 00:01:29

and sometimes questionable fashion choices of

Leif: 00:01:31

this iconic 2007 series.

Leif: 00:01:34

That's right. Each week we're going to go through

Leif: 00:01:36

episode one, episode at a time. We're going to

Leif: 00:01:39

analyze all the storylines, the

Leif: 00:01:41

obscure references, parallels, and of course, the couture

Leif: 00:01:45

catastrophes. Also, we're going to take a look at

Leif: 00:01:47

fandom and stories, behind the scenes along the

Leif: 00:01:50

way.

Leif: 00:01:50

And since we're all about inclusivity here at the non judging

Leif: 00:01:53

breakfast podesthe, there is always a seat for you at our

Leif: 00:01:56

non judging breakfast table. So go ahead and grab your

Leif: 00:01:59

coffee, a mimosa or some of Nate and Chuck's special

Leif: 00:02:02

medicine if it's that kind of day. And let's go ahead and get

Leif: 00:02:05

into this.

Leif: 00:02:07

And we are not alone today, Steve. We are here

Leif: 00:02:09

with a guest.

Leif: 00:02:10

Yes, hello. We are here with Michael

Leif: 00:02:13

Ross.

Leif: 00:02:14

Yes, he is the forever host from the Farm, the Fable

Leif: 00:02:17

podcast, as well as the RPG

Leif: 00:02:19

Academy.

Leif: 00:02:20

Hey, that's very cool.

Leif: 00:02:22

Hey, how's it going, Michael?

Michael: 00:02:23

I'm doing very well. Thank you both for having me on today. I'm excited to be

Michael: 00:02:26

here.

Leif: 00:02:27

Thanks for coming on the show. So, I'm going to ask you something. We

Leif: 00:02:30

asked all our guests, what is your history with Gossip

Leif: 00:02:33

Girl?

Michael: 00:02:34

So the sum and total of my experience is the

Michael: 00:02:36

one episode I watched for your show three times.

Leif: 00:02:40

Nice. You watched it three times? Wow.

Leif: 00:02:42

Impressive.

Leif: 00:02:44

Honestly, it's a really informative episode, though.

Leif: 00:02:48

From this episode,

Leif: 00:02:51

who are your favorite and least favorite characters?

Michael: 00:02:54

Eric is my favorite. He is precious

Michael: 00:02:57

boy and should be protected at all costs. And no matter what

Michael: 00:02:59

happens, I hope at the end of the show, he is in a good

Michael: 00:03:02

place. everyone else is. Lesser

Michael: 00:03:05

degree. I mean, Dan's obviously. So, again, I have

Michael: 00:03:08

no history with the gossip girl, but Dan, to me, was the Rory Gilmore.

Michael: 00:03:11

Is he, like, the person who's not wealthy, but he's hanging out with the wealthy

Michael: 00:03:14

kids?

Leif: 00:03:14

He. I mean, that wealthy is

Leif: 00:03:17

relative, right?

Michael: 00:03:18

I mean, not, like, billionaire. He seemed like he was

Michael: 00:03:21

on slightly lower status than ever.

Leif: 00:03:23

Yes, yes. They're. They're. They're Park Avenue princesses,

Leif: 00:03:26

and he lives it. He lives at a

Leif: 00:03:29

dumbo, you know?

Michael: 00:03:30

Okay.

Leif: 00:03:30

Okay.

Leif: 00:03:30

Yeah. His loft only costs, like, a million, 2 million. Their places

Leif: 00:03:33

cost 50 million.

Michael: 00:03:34

Gotcha. Okay, so I felt like obviously, he was sort of almost like

Michael: 00:03:37

the audience character. Like, he's the most normal kind of

Michael: 00:03:40

person.

Leif: 00:03:40

Self insert for the writer Josh shorts.

Leif: 00:03:42

Yeah. So he's meant to be what

Leif: 00:03:45

you're saying.

Michael: 00:03:46

Okay, so. So I connected with Dan a little

Michael: 00:03:49

bit for that. I hated Chuck from the moment I

Michael: 00:03:52

saw him. I continue to hate him every moment

Michael: 00:03:55

of this episode. And Blair.

Leif: 00:03:59

Yeah, yeah.

Leif: 00:04:01

yeah. Chuck. Chuck.

Leif: 00:04:02

Chuck.

Leif: 00:04:05

So I've listened to a few episodes

Leif: 00:04:08

of far defable, and I. One of them. I heard you talking

Leif: 00:04:11

about the d 20 cruise. Did you actually go on it or

Leif: 00:04:13

nothing?

Michael: 00:04:14

So, I did not go on it, but I am signed up for the next

Michael: 00:04:17

one. So, you know, I've been doing podcasting for role playing games

Michael: 00:04:19

for, like, 13 years now. It's a big part of who I am. I even

Michael: 00:04:22

run a small gaming convention myself,

Michael: 00:04:25

and a couple of my. A couple of my friends are

Michael: 00:04:28

professional GM's, and they went on the d 20

Michael: 00:04:31

cruise last year, which is, like, basically, it's. It's a cruise

Michael: 00:04:34

completely separate to itself. And then these. This

Michael: 00:04:37

group hosts, like, a small gaming convention within the cruise.

Michael: 00:04:40

So they are connected, but not the same. Like,

Michael: 00:04:42

the cruise line isn't putting the convention on.

Leif: 00:04:45

Right.

Michael: 00:04:45

They host it. so, anyway, so I'm going next year

Michael: 00:04:48

in April, and, a buddy, a friend of mine who's a podcaster with me

Michael: 00:04:51

on the show, and our wives there was. My wife's not

Michael: 00:04:54

a gamer at all. His wife is some, but they're not gonna do the gaming stuff. It

Michael: 00:04:57

just he and I. So I will be going on the d 20 cruise next

Michael: 00:05:00

year. I think it's an April, so I'm very excited about that. Plus

Michael: 00:05:03

it's cruise, but it's also like role playing games together. So like

Michael: 00:05:05

awesome stuff.

Leif: 00:05:06

Yeah, I've been looking at it. It's definitely seems interesting. We're

Leif: 00:05:09

both, big gamers.

Leif: 00:05:10

Yeah, I was the know each other.

Michael: 00:05:12

The episode you sent me to listen to is like an example. I noticed your,

Michael: 00:05:15

your guest at the time, you were talking about playing dd together. I was like, oh, I

Michael: 00:05:18

didn't even realize that you guys were all gamers too, because that's like my

Michael: 00:05:21

wheelhouse, obviously. Even even more so than farm to fable

Michael: 00:05:24

really is the role playing games, though. Farm day was my more

Michael: 00:05:27

active show currently.

Leif: 00:05:28

That's, that's actually the same with us, that we, we met

Leif: 00:05:31

playing Pathfinder. We we both. I played D and

Leif: 00:05:34

d. I played several times a week.

Michael: 00:05:37

Nice.

Leif: 00:05:37

and but also I want to hear more about your gaming convention.

Leif: 00:05:40

what, where and when do you do that?

Michael: 00:05:43

So, it is in Dayton, Ohio each year in November.

Michael: 00:05:46

It's usually the first or second week. It just kind of depends on schedules

Michael: 00:05:48

and availabilities and that kind of stuff. so this year it is the 8th,

Michael: 00:05:51

9th, and 10th. it is called a

Michael: 00:05:54

catacon, which is an objectively terrible

Michael: 00:05:56

name. No one understands what it means. Everyone

Michael: 00:05:59

assumes it's r katacon. Like their brain just puts the r in

Michael: 00:06:02

there. So they think it's like video games, but it's not the.

Michael: 00:06:05

My original show is called the RPG Academy,

Michael: 00:06:08

so it's a shortened version of the rpg academy

Michael: 00:06:11

convention. And it just kept getting shortened down to now it's a

Michael: 00:06:14

catacon. So once you know, that makes total sense. But if

Michael: 00:06:17

you just see it on a board somewhere. No,

Michael: 00:06:19

but it's like we're open to get like 600 people this year.

Michael: 00:06:22

Very focused on RPG's and

Michael: 00:06:25

specifically not the big two. Like, I love D and D, but

Michael: 00:06:28

most of our games are not d and D or path or their

Michael: 00:06:31

gurps and savage worlds and numenera

Michael: 00:06:34

and indie games that haven't been released yet.

Michael: 00:06:36

Dread, like you name it, if you've seen it somewhere, we

Michael: 00:06:39

probably have it at one of our tables.

Leif: 00:06:41

Yeah, we're. I'm in a, Delta. What's it

Leif: 00:06:44

called? Delta Green. Delta Green, yeah,

Leif: 00:06:47

we've only done, I think, three sessions so far,

Leif: 00:06:50

but I'm in one of those and I've played a bunch of

Leif: 00:06:53

other systems too. I've played seven sea back

Leif: 00:06:55

many years ago. Deadlands, the weird

Leif: 00:06:58

west, that. Those stuff. Those games as well.

Leif: 00:07:01

I love that. Little more polyamorous than I am. Ah, I'm kind of

Leif: 00:07:04

a one system kind of guy.

Michael: 00:07:07

No, I like to dabble. I've been playing

Michael: 00:07:10

D and D since I was like twelve, so for me that's been like

Michael: 00:07:12

37 years. but I really enjoy

Michael: 00:07:15

trying different games and every. Every game I play I steal something

Michael: 00:07:18

from. So even when I run D and D, it's. It's sort of like

Michael: 00:07:21

a hodgepodge of all these other things that I've kind of melded together.

Michael: 00:07:24

So I think it makes me a better game master for D and D.

Michael: 00:07:27

When I play other games. I'll play anything at least once.

Leif: 00:07:29

Yeah, I completely agree with

Leif: 00:07:32

that.

Leif: 00:07:33

I agree. I just don't have the time. So if I'm going

Leif: 00:07:36

to play, I'm going to play what I know I like.

Michael: 00:07:39

Again, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that as

Michael: 00:07:42

well. I would like to quickly mention if I can, I know this

Michael: 00:07:45

episode won't be out until after the announcement, but I

Michael: 00:07:48

actually wrote my first game last year. I kick

Michael: 00:07:51

started it, got it published and it's up for an any,

Michael: 00:07:54

which is kind of like the premier, you know,

Michael: 00:07:57

awards recognition for rpg games. Not

Michael: 00:07:59

necessarily streams and podcasts, there's a bunch of those that have come out recently, but

Michael: 00:08:02

as far as like actual books, games, maps,

Michael: 00:08:05

supplements, the enies are kind of the thing.

Michael: 00:08:08

And I'm nominated in two categories. It's an open voting, but

Michael: 00:08:11

again, this won't be out till too late to vote. But it's still very

Michael: 00:08:14

exciting that the first game I ever actually wrote and published is up for an

Michael: 00:08:17

any for best rules. I'm very proud of it. It's, a

Michael: 00:08:20

GM less game about bad

Michael: 00:08:22

action movies and uses nothing but d twelve

Michael: 00:08:25

s, which I think is objectively the best polyhedral to roll is.

Leif: 00:08:28

The I'm sold, you've got

Leif: 00:08:31

me.

Michael: 00:08:32

So you action twelve cinema anywhere games are

Michael: 00:08:35

sold. You should be able to find it PDF, physical copies, it's out in

Michael: 00:08:38

the world, but hopefully you will be in any winning

Michael: 00:08:41

game by the time this comes out. And so just simply

Michael: 00:08:43

nominated?

Leif: 00:08:44

Yeah. Make sure to send us any links or anything

Leif: 00:08:47

that you want us to share. It will share it when you're

Leif: 00:08:50

posting everything from the episode too.

Michael: 00:08:52

Absolutely. I would happily do that. Thank you.

Leif: 00:08:55

Oh, absolutely.

Leif: 00:08:56

And before we get into the episode, a little, sad

Leif: 00:08:59

bookkeeping today. Last night I was not a huge

Leif: 00:09:02

fan of the show, but since it is part of

Leif: 00:09:05

the genre, rest in peace, Shannon Dougherty, who,

Leif: 00:09:08

lost her battle.

Leif: 00:09:09

Yeah. Very sad.

Michael: 00:09:10

Didn't know that.

Leif: 00:09:11

Yeah. Oh, gee. Queen of this. Of

Leif: 00:09:14

this genre. To 920 and

Leif: 00:09:16

charmed.

Leif: 00:09:17

Yeah. We were actually debating before, show if you were a fan of

Leif: 00:09:20

charm, because I know you're a fan of Smallville.

Michael: 00:09:22

So I had definitely watched a

Michael: 00:09:25

few, like, handful of episodes, but it's not something I watch

Michael: 00:09:28

regularly now. Buffy, supernatural. I'm there.

Michael: 00:09:31

But charm just didn't hit.

Leif: 00:09:33

Yeah.

Leif: 00:09:34

The number of times people have said, wait, why are you doing

Leif: 00:09:37

gossip girl? Not a Buffy podcast to me

Leif: 00:09:40

is that comes up a lot because everyone knows that

Leif: 00:09:43

I a huge Buffy fan.

Michael: 00:09:45

Oh, yeah.

Leif: 00:09:46

Which. Which, unfortunately, we don't, fortunately.

Leif: 00:09:49

Unfortunately, we don't have Michelle Trachtenberg in this

Leif: 00:09:52

episode.

Leif: 00:09:55

Having a buffy fan on. She makes appearances

Leif: 00:09:59

on the show.

Michael: 00:09:59

Nice.

Leif: 00:10:00

So I had, not yet.

Michael: 00:10:02

Okay. Never.

Leif: 00:10:03

She's hugely popular in fandom, but I. Yeah, she's

Leif: 00:10:06

not.

Leif: 00:10:06

Okay. yeah, at least her first. Her first

Leif: 00:10:10

stint on the show, she was terrible.

Michael: 00:10:12

Okay, so I have a couple, like, general questions,

Michael: 00:10:15

but I don't know if we better ask them at the top or, like,

Michael: 00:10:18

as we go through the episode. Do you have a preference?

Leif: 00:10:21

Whenever you want. Go. Go for it.

Michael: 00:10:23

Okay, so I just. So I

Michael: 00:10:26

understand through cultural osmosis that Gossip

Michael: 00:10:28

Girl is an actual character

Michael: 00:10:31

that somehow has information about the lives of these

Michael: 00:10:34

people. But how much is that

Michael: 00:10:37

actually public knowledge? Because, like, every time there was a voiceover,

Michael: 00:10:40

I kept asking, well, is this information that is

Michael: 00:10:43

being given to the public? Because no one seems to know the things

Michael: 00:10:45

that Gossip Girl is commenting on.

Leif: 00:10:48

And I was like, yeah, there's two different things.

Leif: 00:10:51

So, first of all, it is Gossip Girl is a

Leif: 00:10:54

person, but it was not planned in the

Leif: 00:10:56

writing.

Michael: 00:10:57

Okay.

Leif: 00:10:57

The very end of the show. so that's one

Leif: 00:11:00

thing to take a cat, but also there's. There is, like,

Leif: 00:11:03

there's a difference between, like, this is, like, way out of

Leif: 00:11:06

his time with, like, social media. Like, there's, like, there's blasts that

Leif: 00:11:09

go out and everyone sees them on their phone. But then

Leif: 00:11:12

also, Kirsten Bell is also just doing, like, an

Leif: 00:11:15

over omnipresent narrator.

Leif: 00:11:17

Okay, so. So you kind of have to

Leif: 00:11:20

decipher between what is.

Leif: 00:11:21

Yeah, he's got a hot.

Leif: 00:11:23

And. Yeah, right.

Michael: 00:11:25

That was. It seemed

Michael: 00:11:28

like, you know, and I did recognize Kristen Bell's voice again. I've,

Michael: 00:11:31

also, Veronica Mars, one of my favorite shows. so I recognize

Michael: 00:11:34

the voice but I was like, no one seems to be

Michael: 00:11:37

reacting to this information. If it is, that is somehow getting

Michael: 00:11:40

public. So I was a little confused about that.

Leif: 00:11:42

And then, yeah, usually when it's what? It's just narration. That.

Leif: 00:11:45

That's just narration. When it's. It's getting out to the public, it's

Leif: 00:11:47

when, like, you see, I'm, like, looking at their phones or their computer.

Leif: 00:11:50

Okay.

Leif: 00:11:51

Yeah.

Michael: 00:11:52

So then my other question is, was that part of the

Michael: 00:11:54

fandom? Like, in the scene where v shows

Michael: 00:11:57

Blair the picture, like, she has blackmail photo

Michael: 00:12:00

as a watcher, should I have been like, oh, is v gossip girl?

Michael: 00:12:03

Like, is that something that throughout the show, constantly you're,

Michael: 00:12:06

like, reevaluating who you think it is?

Leif: 00:12:08

I mean, can I take this one?

Leif: 00:12:10

Go for it.

Leif: 00:12:11

So this is kind of my take on it, as the guy watching for

Leif: 00:12:13

the first time that when I. When I

Leif: 00:12:16

episode one, I was making my guesses

Leif: 00:12:19

and I was really kind of diving into that

Leif: 00:12:22

train of thought. And then the more I learned,

Leif: 00:12:25

the more I found out that there is no

Leif: 00:12:28

figuring it out because they didn't know.

Leif: 00:12:31

Sure. So I've kind of. So

Leif: 00:12:34

as the person that dove in with that

Leif: 00:12:36

in mind, in fact, when I, you know, that was what made

Leif: 00:12:39

Bridgerton so fun for me. The first season

Leif: 00:12:42

I watched, Bridgerton was like, it was six

Leif: 00:12:45

episodes in. I was like, that's. That's who

Leif: 00:12:48

it is. and, and so I

Leif: 00:12:51

had that attitude. But then the more I found

Leif: 00:12:54

out that they don't even know who Gossip Girl is until

Leif: 00:12:57

the last season or the last few episodes.

Michael: 00:12:59

That's okay.

Leif: 00:13:00

So they're really. So they. Any clues

Leif: 00:13:03

that they do give you are all not

Leif: 00:13:05

really given. It's all retro added.

Leif: 00:13:08

I guess they did have someone in mind at this point, but

Leif: 00:13:11

it changed because it was like, I think it was the New York Post

Leif: 00:13:14

put out an article, like, basically pointing out how it was that

Leif: 00:13:17

person. They got salty about that.

Leif: 00:13:22

Was it Chuck?

Leif: 00:13:23

Nah, it was Eric.

Leif: 00:13:24

Oh, okay.

Michael: 00:13:25

That would have been my guess. Just this episode alone, I would

Michael: 00:13:28

have assumed it was Eric was younger brother.

Leif: 00:13:30

He's quite quiet and he sees everything.

Michael: 00:13:33

Yeah.

Leif: 00:13:33

I've been thinking Eric for a while. I've been thinking

Leif: 00:13:36

Eric ever since Eric said they

Leif: 00:13:39

even think I'm gossip girl. Although.

Leif: 00:13:41

Yeah, that was basically them that was commenting on the

Leif: 00:13:43

article that, like, at that point, the article, like, a few

Leif: 00:13:46

episodes back, they made, like, a comment like, oh, message boards

Leif: 00:13:49

we're talking about. Oh, it was. It's Eric. It's Eric.

Leif: 00:13:52

Yeah.

Michael: 00:13:52

I mean, he is the choice.

Leif: 00:13:54

Yeah, the. Yeah, the showrunner Josh

Leif: 00:13:57

Schwartz's famous for reading message boards about

Leif: 00:13:59

shows.

Michael: 00:14:01

And then my last question is how old are these

Michael: 00:14:04

characters supposed to be? I assume high school based off of what I

Michael: 00:14:07

saw.

Leif: 00:14:07

But yeah, the main ones are. Yeah, the main

Leif: 00:14:10

ones are now seniors this year in high school

Leif: 00:14:13

and Eric and Jenny are software. Yeah.

Michael: 00:14:15

Okay. All right I'm ready to go.

Leif: 00:14:18

1718 and then, 16.

Leif: 00:14:22

All right, so we are going to be talking about season two,

Leif: 00:14:24

episode seven, chuck in real life.

Leif: 00:14:27

It was. Original air date October 20,

Leif: 00:14:29

2008 it was based on Dan in real life

Leif: 00:14:33

came about the year earlier, 2007 with Steve, Carell and Dane

Leif: 00:14:35

Cook. Oh, yeah. Underrated

Leif: 00:14:38

movie, I think.

Leif: 00:14:39

I never saw it. I remember it coming out.

Leif: 00:14:42

I remember thinking Dane Cook's in a movie.

Leif: 00:14:45

It's a cute little rom.com.

Leif: 00:14:47

Yeah.

Leif: 00:14:47

And Dan Cook plays the asshole younger brother.

Leif: 00:14:50

Yeah, it works for him.

Leif: 00:14:52

I did see it. No, I don't feel like

Leif: 00:14:55

I did.

Leif: 00:14:57

This episode was written by Len K.

Leif: 00:15:00

Rosenfeld, back again for Alaska. did

Leif: 00:15:03

school lies and before that, daredevil in first season.

Leif: 00:15:07

Both, we both gave them like a b range in that

Leif: 00:15:10

reversed on the episodes.

Leif: 00:15:12

Yeah. Yeah.

Leif: 00:15:14

And it was directed by Tony Warmby, who,

Leif: 00:15:17

previously did Victor Victrola school

Leif: 00:15:19

lies and woman on the verge of. So they're,

Leif: 00:15:22

they're team and Tony Warmby up and when Rosenfeld here quite a

Leif: 00:15:25

bit.

Leif: 00:15:26

Yeah, and that. Yeah, and that. That's

Leif: 00:15:29

a. That first one that the victor.

Leif: 00:15:31

Yeah, we both gave that ace. Yeah, that's it.

Leif: 00:15:34

And so this is also the 7th episode again.

Leif: 00:15:37

And the show loves to do

Leif: 00:15:39

the numbers become significant. So seven

Leif: 00:15:42

7th episode is always like a big Chuck and Blair.

Leif: 00:15:45

Okay.

Leif: 00:15:46

Okay. That's interesting. Speaking m of the

Leif: 00:15:49

directors, though. I was, I was watching pretty little liars the

Leif: 00:15:52

other day and Norman Buckley was the director

Leif: 00:15:55

of the episode.

Leif: 00:15:56

He's everywhere.

Leif: 00:15:56

Yeah.

Leif: 00:15:59

The Gossip Girl Wiki episode description

Leif: 00:16:01

reads, vanessa blackmails Blair to

Leif: 00:16:04

help him with her cause, which leads to Blair seeking

Leif: 00:16:07

revenge along with Chuck. Meanwhile, Lily

Leif: 00:16:10

Bart throw an extravagant housewarming

Leif: 00:16:13

party with rebellious Serena is not ready to play by

Leif: 00:16:16

the rules. Also, Dan and Jenny

Leif: 00:16:18

discover a big secret Nate has been keeping from his

Leif: 00:16:21

friends.

Leif: 00:16:23

Yeah. Port Nate.

Michael: 00:16:28

So I watched the boys. So I couldn't. Every time

Michael: 00:16:31

Nate was on screen, I'm like the beep. Like, I just couldn't help

Michael: 00:16:34

it.

Leif: 00:16:34

Yeah. Yeah. I also saw boys before.

Leif: 00:16:37

What, the white watching big episode.

Michael: 00:16:40

Yeah.

Leif: 00:16:41

Have you seen the most recent episode?

Michael: 00:16:42

Yes.

Leif: 00:16:43

Oh, man. what's

Leif: 00:16:46

the octopus name? Yeah, I know,

Leif: 00:16:49

he went dark again.

Leif: 00:16:51

Yeah. Oh, real dark.

Leif: 00:16:53

So we begin act one with a gossip girl

Leif: 00:16:56

monologue. There's nothing quite like

Leif: 00:16:58

autumn in New York, but it's not the only one that leaves the

Leif: 00:17:01

change. Something in the air brings out true colors

Leif: 00:17:04

in everyone. The episode opens at the

Leif: 00:17:07

Vanderbass penthouse for breakfast. It looks like Bart and

Leif: 00:17:10

Lily are laying down the law and this new fat on

Leif: 00:17:13

this new family arrangement.

Leif: 00:17:15

Yeah.

Michael: 00:17:15

so how new is this? So I get that, like, Chuck

Michael: 00:17:18

is stepbrother Bart. Stepfather

Michael: 00:17:21

was this.

Leif: 00:17:22

Bart and Lily got married in the season one

Leif: 00:17:24

finale. Okay, this is what, the 7th episode?

Leif: 00:17:27

So. But, like, Bart was not in every

Leif: 00:17:30

episode. He was away on business.

Leif: 00:17:32

And Lily, too.

Leif: 00:17:33

Yeah, Lily's away for a few episodes, as well at the beginning of the season.

Michael: 00:17:36

So where they're at, is that Bart's penthouse that the

Michael: 00:17:39

other kids we've been to? No, no, no.

Leif: 00:17:40

It's actually. It's actually Lily's pen.

Michael: 00:17:42

Okay, so Bart and Chuck are now the. Okay. Okay.

Leif: 00:17:45

Yeah.

Leif: 00:17:45

Cause this. This is now Lily's fifth

Leif: 00:17:48

husband or fourth husband.

Michael: 00:17:49

Yeah. I got the feeling that she has a lot of

Michael: 00:17:52

relationships that don't go well.

Leif: 00:17:53

Yeah.

Michael: 00:17:54

Yeah. Very prevalent.

Leif: 00:17:55

Yeah.

Michael: 00:17:55

Yeah. And the moment Chuck is on screen, he does this sort of,

Michael: 00:17:58

like, duck face. I hated him.

Leif: 00:18:00

Yeah.

Leif: 00:18:02

Yes. He is the batman of the

Leif: 00:18:04

epic.

Michael: 00:18:06

He's the guy brooding in the corner.

Leif: 00:18:08

Yeah.

Leif: 00:18:10

The actor is british.

Michael: 00:18:11

Smoldering, maybe.

Leif: 00:18:13

So he's kind of hiding his accent by whispering.

Leif: 00:18:16

Yeah. I've always kind of felt that it's

Leif: 00:18:18

like.

Leif: 00:18:19

And the first season, he didn't do it as much, and the accent kind

Leif: 00:18:22

of came through a little bit.

Leif: 00:18:25

And the second season, he really just went into the whispering for

Leif: 00:18:28

the rest of the run of the show.

Michael: 00:18:30

Blue stealing it up.

Leif: 00:18:32

Yeah.

Leif: 00:18:33

At the loft, Dan and Vanessa, and Jenny are.

Leif: 00:18:35

I did want to bring up that, like, dropping new rules

Leif: 00:18:38

on teenagers is just never

Leif: 00:18:41

a good idea.

Leif: 00:18:42

Yeah.

Leif: 00:18:43

It never works.

Michael: 00:18:44

But at the same time, I thought they were all very reasonable.

Michael: 00:18:47

Like, one night a week, we have dinner as a family, don't

Michael: 00:18:50

go out on a school night, and 01:00 a.m. curvy on the weekend.

Michael: 00:18:52

Like, okay, nothing about that

Michael: 00:18:55

sounds outrageous to me.

Leif: 00:18:57

And, ah, you're right. Like, none of it was

Leif: 00:18:59

outrageous.

Leif: 00:19:00

But they're going from no rules to sully having.

Leif: 00:19:03

Yeah. And. And it's also they're going from no

Leif: 00:19:06

rules to suddenly hearing rules from the new

Leif: 00:19:09

stepdad. Yeah. Which was really the thing that,

Leif: 00:19:11

like, who takes

Leif: 00:19:14

that well.

Michael: 00:19:15

Oh, yeah. Nobody. Well, Eric, actually. Eric does, because

Michael: 00:19:18

Eric is a good Eric.

Leif: 00:19:19

Well, I think Eric knows where it's coming from.

Leif: 00:19:22

Yeah. Eric and Bart have a much

Leif: 00:19:25

different history, which. Which, again, it's.

Leif: 00:19:28

You don't see a whole lot of it, but you see that they have a

Leif: 00:19:30

different history than Serena and Bart. And

Leif: 00:19:34

especially, like, there's a friendship that is

Leif: 00:19:37

brewing with Eric and Chuck, where Chuck is

Leif: 00:19:40

really being a really good big

Leif: 00:19:42

brother to Eric, who,

Leif: 00:19:45

again, like, as they point out later in the episode, was raised by his

Leif: 00:19:48

sister. so it

Leif: 00:19:50

was. Yeah.

Michael: 00:19:52

Okay, I got apologies if I keep interrupting you. You

Michael: 00:19:55

can tell me to m shut down.

Leif: 00:19:56

Please. That that's what you're here for.

Leif: 00:19:59

At the loft, Dan and Vanessa and Jenny are

Leif: 00:20:02

discussing saving a historical bar,

Leif: 00:20:04

and also, Dan is trying out for the soccer

Leif: 00:20:07

team.

Leif: 00:20:08

Yeah. Why are teens

Leif: 00:20:11

saving a bar?

Leif: 00:20:14

You're a teenager.

Leif: 00:20:16

It's something Vanessa would do.

Leif: 00:20:18

It is. But there is a very big

Leif: 00:20:21

thread of teen drinking throughout this series.

Leif: 00:20:24

Oh, like, they do just go to bars.

Michael: 00:20:27

Yeah. I mean, there's one part where Chuck. I

Michael: 00:20:30

get his house. I think he's drinking scotch. Like,

Michael: 00:20:33

that's why I said, how old is Carrie? He's, like, drinking scotch in a smoking

Michael: 00:20:36

jacket. That is not. No 17 year

Michael: 00:20:38

old does that.

Leif: 00:20:40

Yeah.

Leif: 00:20:41

Yeah, Chuck does.

Leif: 00:20:43

Except for Chuck bass.

Michael: 00:20:44

Except for Chuck.

Leif: 00:20:45

Yeah.

Leif: 00:20:47

And now here is. This is a kid who does

Leif: 00:20:50

idolize people, like Joe Kennedy, and,

Leif: 00:20:53

you know, who does idolize these,

Leif: 00:20:56

like, smooth womenizer.

Leif: 00:20:59

he has an aesthetic he's trying to project, and

Leif: 00:21:02

he sleeps with his.

Leif: 00:21:03

Staff at his father's hotel.

Leif: 00:21:05

Yeah, he sleeps with his staff at his father's

Leif: 00:21:07

hotel.

Michael: 00:21:09

Now that sounds about right.

Leif: 00:21:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Leif: 00:21:12

Serena and Eric are walking down the street. Serena is

Leif: 00:21:15

putting all the blame on Bart for the new rules.

Leif: 00:21:18

Who watches tv anymore? who watches tv on a

Leif: 00:21:21

tv on tv anymore?

Leif: 00:21:23

Right?

Michael: 00:21:23

Yeah, he just. He's so centered.

Michael: 00:21:26

Like, nothing bothers him. Like, he's an

Michael: 00:21:29

aspirational figure, just like, yeah, let's go with the

Michael: 00:21:32

flow.

Leif: 00:21:33

He's the one character that's actually been in therapy on the show.

Leif: 00:21:35

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Michael: 00:21:37

That makes total sense.

Leif: 00:21:38

So at the beginning of the very first episode,

Leif: 00:21:41

sarita's coming back to New York because Eric had

Leif: 00:21:43

attempted suicide.

Michael: 00:21:45

Oh, okay.

Leif: 00:21:46

So that's like, the inciting, incident of the show.

Michael: 00:21:49

I got you. Okay. Yeah. So I had no. No context for

Michael: 00:21:52

that at all. But just within the show, I was like, I like this kid.

Michael: 00:21:55

He's got a stuff together.

Leif: 00:21:57

And since that, since you meet

Leif: 00:22:00

Eric, this is what you see really

Leif: 00:22:02

grounded, really, like, new perspective

Leif: 00:22:05

and just, you know, really just tries

Leif: 00:22:08

to see the best and everything. And he's the most mature

Leif: 00:22:11

person in the van der Woodson bass family. Robin pointed that

Leif: 00:22:14

out later in the episode. Robin's my

Leif: 00:22:17

wife. I will be talking about her a lot. Happy anniversary,

Leif: 00:22:20

Robin. It is our six year Anna wedding

Leif: 00:22:22

anniversary.

Michael: 00:22:24

Anniversary very much.

Leif: 00:22:25

Thank you. Should have said that

Leif: 00:22:28

sooner at school.

Leif: 00:22:31

Yeah, she's not even listening as far.

Michael: 00:22:34

That's one of editing, sport. You can edit and

Michael: 00:22:37

put it at the beginning.

Leif: 00:22:38

Yeah, yeah.

Leif: 00:22:39

She's not even listening to the beginning, I don't think.

Leif: 00:22:41

Yeah, well, it's okay. It just became a tick tock cut.

Leif: 00:22:46

At school, Nate tells Dan that the coach was

Leif: 00:22:48

impressed. The pair bump into Chuck, who trades

Leif: 00:22:51

insults with Dan. Chuck makes a weak attempt at

Leif: 00:22:54

reconciliation with Nate, who proceeds to just brush

Leif: 00:22:57

Chuck off in favor of Daniel. Blair is, of course,

Leif: 00:23:00

waiting in the wings to rub it in Chuck's face.

Leif: 00:23:04

Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Leif: 00:23:07

yeah.

Leif: 00:23:08

At the start of the series, Chuck and Nate were best friends, if you

Leif: 00:23:10

couldn't tell.

Michael: 00:23:11

Okay, yeah, I had some context because I didn't know

Michael: 00:23:14

the timing of when that relationship fractured, but that seemed

Michael: 00:23:17

fairly clear.

Leif: 00:23:18

It was basically just an episode or two ago.

Leif: 00:23:21

Yeah.

Leif: 00:23:21

when they visited Yale together, they all visited Yale. And

Leif: 00:23:24

Chuck basically pointed these, skull and bones guys to beat

Leif: 00:23:27

up, Dan instead of Nate. No.

Leif: 00:23:30

And they were. They were mad at Nate because his father screwed him out a bunch

Leif: 00:23:33

of money, because that's why Nate's now poor, because

Leif: 00:23:35

his dad was, like, a financial advisor who

Leif: 00:23:38

did, like, posey skins and.

Leif: 00:23:40

Yeah, and now he's hiding out in

Leif: 00:23:43

Barbados.

Leif: 00:23:44

M Dominica.

Leif: 00:23:45

Oh, Dominica. He's hiding out in Dominica.

Leif: 00:23:47

Ah, it's a whole big thing.

Leif: 00:23:49

Yeah, but that. So they've seized all

Leif: 00:23:52

the assets of that, including the house. That's why Nate

Leif: 00:23:54

is living like he is, squatting.

Michael: 00:23:57

Yeah. Okay.

Leif: 00:23:58

I do love the line. We're inevitable,

Leif: 00:24:00

Walter.

Leif: 00:24:03

We're inevitable.

Michael: 00:24:04

He's like thanos.

Michael: 00:24:08

So I feel like Blair.

Michael: 00:24:11

I mean, I guess, not to jump to it, but, like, on stock watch,

Michael: 00:24:14

she's down for me because it seems so

Michael: 00:24:17

clear that she's transparent. Like, ah, everything she's

Michael: 00:24:20

trying to do, everyone sees through her. I don't think anyone at

Michael: 00:24:23

any point is ever confused about what her intentions are. And

Michael: 00:24:26

even in that scene where she's so much trying to put up this front

Michael: 00:24:28

that her and chuck are over, I'm like, no, you have the odds for him.

Leif: 00:24:31

Like, you.

Michael: 00:24:32

You clearly want this to happen, and you're trying to manipulate things just

Michael: 00:24:35

so that you, like. It's so clear from the

Michael: 00:24:37

beginning. And I don't know if that's supposed to be intentional or not, but. Or

Michael: 00:24:40

if it's, good or bad writing, but I was like, okay, you definitely want this to happen,

Michael: 00:24:43

right?

Leif: 00:24:44

There's an episode. There's a scene, a few

Leif: 00:24:47

episodes where she goes to Dan and Jenny's

Leif: 00:24:50

house to basically tell on Jenny for

Leif: 00:24:53

doing something. And

Leif: 00:24:56

Rufus's response to her is, basically,

Leif: 00:24:59

you don't have my daughter's best interest at heart

Leif: 00:25:01

when you're coming to me, telling me this thing. and her

Leif: 00:25:04

response is, yeah, well, that doesn't matter. Yeah, I'm

Leif: 00:25:07

telling you anyway. So everybody knows

Leif: 00:25:10

that if Blair is talking to you, she's probably

Leif: 00:25:13

scheming to either get something from

Leif: 00:25:16

you or get you.

Leif: 00:25:20

yeah. Then we go to her disciplinary meeting.

Leif: 00:25:23

Yes.

Michael: 00:25:23

Okay. This was. I hated that out of everything I

Michael: 00:25:26

was. I hated that more than anything. It felt so out of place. Like,

Michael: 00:25:29

I get the mean girl sort of thing, but the

Michael: 00:25:32

one lone fake tear on the girl, I just like,

Michael: 00:25:35

what is this in the middle of this episode?

Leif: 00:25:37

Yeah. Blair.

Leif: 00:25:39

Yeah.

Leif: 00:25:39

Blair leaves Chuck to join the minions and castigating the

Leif: 00:25:42

underclassmen, but is interrupted by vanessa.

Leif: 00:25:44

Vanessa blackmails Blair to helping with her

Leif: 00:25:47

save a bar project.

Leif: 00:25:49

To be fair, this kind of clip, though, is,

Leif: 00:25:52

like, when she says a disciplinary hearing, and then

Leif: 00:25:55

you flip, flash to her berating a girl.

Leif: 00:25:58

It is very much in line with

Leif: 00:26:01

the show. Like, to me, it was such a. Didn't

Leif: 00:26:04

skip a beat moment, honestly, because

Leif: 00:26:06

of.

Leif: 00:26:07

Yeah, it was almost just like a transition scene.

Leif: 00:26:09

Yeah, because of the way these. These.

Leif: 00:26:12

This clique of girls

Leif: 00:26:15

behave other times throughout the show. Right.

Michael: 00:26:18

But my question is, was it that she wore

Michael: 00:26:21

pants when she should have worn tights or she wearing tights when they were

Michael: 00:26:24

supposed to be wearing pants? I need to know the context.

Leif: 00:26:27

This is actually, Could you ask that? Because this is actually becomes the

Leif: 00:26:30

iconic line in fandom, and it's the

Leif: 00:26:33

fact that she's, you know, this. This wouldn't be a thing

Leif: 00:26:36

that it's become so popular now, but the.

Leif: 00:26:39

The problem is wearing tights just as pants, not

Leif: 00:26:42

underneath your skirt, like,

Michael: 00:26:43

Oh, okay, so tights as pants is

Michael: 00:26:46

bad.

Leif: 00:26:47

Yeah. Cause now it's yoga pants

Leif: 00:26:49

everywhere. Yeah, but, you know,

Leif: 00:26:52

the. Blair is, you know, on the modest side,

Leif: 00:26:55

and at least in public.

Leif: 00:26:56

Yeah.

Leif: 00:26:57

And so. Yeah, so you don't. You don't wear tights as

Leif: 00:27:00

pants, and they weren't.

Leif: 00:27:01

And that whole thing wasn't in fashion yet. Yeah.

Leif: 00:27:04

Like. Yeah.

Leif: 00:27:05

Oh, we didn't even talk about the Vanessa part of it.

Leif: 00:27:07

Oh, yeah.

Leif: 00:27:08

So, yeah, Vanessa is suddenly

Leif: 00:27:11

hypocrite number one.

Leif: 00:27:12

Yeah, she's.

Leif: 00:27:13

They're definitely leading into her villain now. Cause, you know, they

Leif: 00:27:16

realize that everyone hates her already, so might as well just make her a full

Leif: 00:27:19

villainous.

Leif: 00:27:20

Yeah. Vanessa has always been

Leif: 00:27:23

the most self righteous character on this

Leif: 00:27:26

show, and she's always, you know,

Leif: 00:27:29

rubbing it in everyone's face how, you know, being

Leif: 00:27:32

rich makes you a bad person, and I'm a poor

Leif: 00:27:35

person, and so I'm a

Leif: 00:27:38

better.

Leif: 00:27:38

Yeah. Out of the blue, she comes in, and black

Leif: 00:27:41

blackmails for. Yeah. Just. Just to. Just to help, you know, her a little

Leif: 00:27:43

project.

Leif: 00:27:44

Yeah.

Michael: 00:27:45

Right.

Leif: 00:27:46

And. And also, that's the worst blackmail.

Leif: 00:27:49

Like, everyone knows you broke up, but they don't know why.

Leif: 00:27:52

You're not blackmailing Blair. You're blackmailing

Leif: 00:27:54

the incest judge couple.

Leif: 00:27:56

No, because the blackmail is that she was basically

Leif: 00:27:59

being cucked, and she allowed it. She was going to allow it for a little

Leif: 00:28:02

while.

Leif: 00:28:03

Yeah.

Michael: 00:28:03

yeah, yeah. I had no idea who those people were. I just

Michael: 00:28:06

didn't demon trying to figure it out.

Leif: 00:28:08

At the beginning of season two, Blair was dating a

Leif: 00:28:10

british lord who was also

Leif: 00:28:13

sleeping with his stepmother.

Michael: 00:28:14

Oh.

Leif: 00:28:15

Who was also sleeping with Nate.

Leif: 00:28:17

Yes.

Leif: 00:28:20

And paying him money for it and.

Leif: 00:28:22

Yeah, and paying him money for it.

Michael: 00:28:23

I mean, it's a good gig if you can get it.

Leif: 00:28:29

yes.

Leif: 00:28:32

He would have rathered Vanessa. Oddly enough.

Leif: 00:28:37

Serena is home reading, and Chuck taunts her about

Leif: 00:28:40

how the new rules don't apply to him. He said the

Leif: 00:28:43

new rules are just to close a business deal, and Serena's

Leif: 00:28:46

notoriety is working against her.

Michael: 00:28:50

So one of the things about this episode

Michael: 00:28:52

that I almost felt like I was going through a fever

Michael: 00:28:55

dream at certain points. Like, if you

Michael: 00:28:58

would have talked to me the moment the first episode was over or, the first time I watched

Michael: 00:29:01

it and said, oh, you actually went into a fugue state

Michael: 00:29:04

and watched three episodes. I would have

Michael: 00:29:07

believed you because so much stuff

Michael: 00:29:10

happens. Every storyline has the

Michael: 00:29:12

introduction, a complication, a

Michael: 00:29:15

redoubt, a twist, and then a resolution. You get,

Michael: 00:29:18

like, seven storylines.

Leif: 00:29:19

Yeah.

Michael: 00:29:19

All in episode. I'm like, how fast is this going?

Michael: 00:29:22

And so, like, the thing with Chuck, like, it's very clear to me. And all this

Michael: 00:29:25

new stepdad's coming in, laying down the law. Turns out that's

Michael: 00:29:28

not actually the case. And then Chuck says

Michael: 00:29:31

that it's about this business dealing, but then based on what they say later. I

Michael: 00:29:34

don't know if that. Like, I don't know if Bart's a.

Leif: 00:29:36

Good guy or bad guy, and that's pretty much

Leif: 00:29:39

every episode of Gossip Girl.

Leif: 00:29:41

Yeah.

Michael: 00:29:41

Okay. Art fair.

Leif: 00:29:42

Yeah.

Leif: 00:29:43

Yeah, they just bird through storylines,

Leif: 00:29:46

and.

Leif: 00:29:47

I think we'll probably touch more on the Bart thing later. But, like,

Leif: 00:29:50

you do see some different sides of

Leif: 00:29:53

Bart from episode to episode that you

Leif: 00:29:56

go, oh, he's not as bad as he. Wait,

Leif: 00:29:59

that's dark. Like, there are some.

Leif: 00:30:01

Yeah, like, he's good with Eric.

Leif: 00:30:04

He's great. Yeah. He's, been a great dad to Eric,

Leif: 00:30:07

and he actually hasn't been a terrible stepdad to

Leif: 00:30:10

Serena. Ah. You know, and again, like, we'll talk

Leif: 00:30:13

about, like, his confronting her later,

Leif: 00:30:15

which I think he did a great job. You know, he

Leif: 00:30:18

hasn't been really terrible to

Leif: 00:30:21

them. It's Serena just, you

Leif: 00:30:24

know, we will get to that, but,

Leif: 00:30:27

yeah, you make a good point.

Leif: 00:30:29

In typical teenage rebellion, Serena puts on

Leif: 00:30:32

a scandalous dress and waits for bar to get home, so she

Leif: 00:30:35

can flaunt her lack of respect for his authority.

Leif: 00:30:39

Yeah.

Leif: 00:30:40

And you see him seeing what she's

Leif: 00:30:42

doing, and he doesn't

Leif: 00:30:45

say, get back here, young lady. He doesn't say, you

Leif: 00:30:48

get in here right now. He doesn't say, I'm going to tell. He

Leif: 00:30:51

doesn't say anything. He. He

Leif: 00:30:54

has the conversation with her. She gets onto the

Leif: 00:30:56

elevator. She makes the comment to her

Leif: 00:30:59

stepdad about not wearing underwear.

Michael: 00:31:02

Yeah. I mean, it. It

Michael: 00:31:05

landed as. As the joke. I'm sure it was intended, but there is

Michael: 00:31:08

that dynamic that just. Yeah, I

Michael: 00:31:11

could have done without that.

Leif: 00:31:12

They do that sometimes.

Leif: 00:31:13

Yes. Serena, though, is very

Leif: 00:31:18

sexualized, and she. And, you could tell from her

Leif: 00:31:20

character it's never really spelled out completely,

Leif: 00:31:23

but she's been sexualized from an

Leif: 00:31:26

extremely young age.

Leif: 00:31:28

Yeah.

Leif: 00:31:28

And she's just used to old men creepy on her, I

Leif: 00:31:31

think.

Michael: 00:31:31

Yeah.

Leif: 00:31:32

Yeah.

Michael: 00:31:32

Is she, like, the main character? Like, is the show kind of built around

Michael: 00:31:35

her?

Leif: 00:31:36

It was supposed to be about a friendship between her and

Leif: 00:31:39

Blair. I think it was original, but, yeah, Chuck

Leif: 00:31:42

and Blair kind of stole the spotlight with their

Leif: 00:31:45

relationship.

Michael: 00:31:45

Gotcha.

Leif: 00:31:46

Yeah. I actually, just

Leif: 00:31:49

saw blurb recently that said something about

Leif: 00:31:52

how. How Blake lively went into this show thinking

Leif: 00:31:55

she was gonna be the star.

Leif: 00:31:57

Well, she was the highest paid.

Leif: 00:31:58

Yeah. Yeah. And then.

Leif: 00:32:01

But the show itself took the turn to

Leif: 00:32:03

make Blair a bigger, more of the

Leif: 00:32:06

star of the show. Because of the

Leif: 00:32:09

romance.

Michael: 00:32:10

Yeah. And I don't know if I mentioned it, but when Chuck

Michael: 00:32:13

was wearing the ascot. I actually hated him more.

Leif: 00:32:17

We refer to that as his Fred look.

Michael: 00:32:20

Yes. Yeah, exactly. The only two people I've ever

Michael: 00:32:23

seen with an ascot is Chuck bass and Fred

Michael: 00:32:26

from, Scooby Doo.

Leif: 00:32:28

And it fits both of them.

Leif: 00:32:29

It does.

Leif: 00:32:33

At the Waldorf penthouse, Blair is waiting for

Leif: 00:32:35

Chuck with drinks. Blair proposes a takedown

Leif: 00:32:38

of Vanessa. I sense some cruel

Leif: 00:32:41

intentions. I literally.

Michael: 00:32:42

I wrote cruel intentions in my notes. Like, that is the absolute

Michael: 00:32:45

vibe I was getting from that whole thing.

Leif: 00:32:48

she also. I feel like gossip girl references

Leif: 00:32:51

Shakespeare, and I want to say Macbeth, but I don't know

Leif: 00:32:54

if that's right. because when she says that, everyone

Leif: 00:32:57

ends up dead.

Michael: 00:32:58

Yeah, I didn't get that reference.

Leif: 00:33:00

I've seen this before, and it made me think.

Leif: 00:33:03

I got the whole quote here if you want to read it.

Leif: 00:33:05

Yeah.

Leif: 00:33:05

So, yeah, this is the end of the act. gossip girl

Leif: 00:33:09

blast. Is this just in? Blair

Leif: 00:33:11

Waldorf and Chuck bass placing a wager on the takedown of

Leif: 00:33:14

lonely boys BFF. We think we've heard this

Leif: 00:33:17

story before, and we're pretty sure it ended up with

Leif: 00:33:20

everyone dead. Yeah, I mean, that's

Leif: 00:33:23

pretty much every Shakespeare.

Leif: 00:33:24

I mean, it's every Shakespeare tragedy is somebody.

Leif: 00:33:27

Yeah. But I felt.

Leif: 00:33:30

I felt like it was a Macbeth reference because they try

Leif: 00:33:33

so hard to make the two of them

Leif: 00:33:36

the world. The king and queen.

Leif: 00:33:39

Yeah.

Leif: 00:33:42

So we move into act two. The next day,

Leif: 00:33:45

Serena and Blair are at a restaurant. Serena

Leif: 00:33:48

catches the fact that Blair smiles when mentioning

Leif: 00:33:50

Chuck. Eric enters the introduce Blair and Serena

Leif: 00:33:53

to his new boyfriend Jonathan.

Michael: 00:33:55

Yeah, this is where I mentioned that, like, blair's so

Michael: 00:33:58

transparent. Like, Serena, who, doesn't come

Michael: 00:34:01

across as the most perceptive person, you

Michael: 00:34:03

know, instantly realizes that Blair, there's

Michael: 00:34:06

a chuck thing going on.

Leif: 00:34:08

Yeah.

Michael: 00:34:08

And so.

Leif: 00:34:09

Yeah, yeah.

Leif: 00:34:10

But you did kind of ask earlier, and I don't. We kind of rush past, but, yes, I

Leif: 00:34:13

think that is intentional in the writing.

Leif: 00:34:15

Yeah. Yeah. And

Leif: 00:34:18

directing, for that matter. Yeah.

Leif: 00:34:22

Dan has. Oh, and Eric has a

Leif: 00:34:25

boyfriend, so that's. That's.

Leif: 00:34:25

Yeah, I love development. I love development. Yeah.

Leif: 00:34:28

I loved Serena and Blair meeting the

Leif: 00:34:31

boyfriend and. And the, instant

Leif: 00:34:33

approval. Yeah. And, you know, it's one of those things where it's

Leif: 00:34:36

like, you know, Eric's a. Ah, good judge of character, so they're,

Leif: 00:34:39

like, happy for him, and I

Leif: 00:34:42

loved, you see a lot of.

Leif: 00:34:45

When you see a lot of the Blair and Eric

Leif: 00:34:48

interactions, they're some of my favorites because

Leif: 00:34:50

they don't have many, but you always just

Leif: 00:34:53

kind of see this history

Leif: 00:34:56

of these. This, you know, growing up your

Leif: 00:34:59

older sister's best friend, you know, you're

Leif: 00:35:02

all. That relationship between them is

Leif: 00:35:05

always really heartwarming to me.

Leif: 00:35:08

you did say.

Leif: 00:35:08

Yeah.

Leif: 00:35:08

Eric is a good judge of character. Although,

Leif: 00:35:11

I guess, boy, you know, like

Leif: 00:35:14

many smart people, we're not always the

Leif: 00:35:17

best judge of partner, because his last boyfriend.

Leif: 00:35:20

Yeah, his last boyfriend was a piece of shit.

Leif: 00:35:22

Yeah.

Michael: 00:35:22

Well, again, you gotta have drama from somewhere. So

Michael: 00:35:25

again, this was the only episode I've ever watched. I had no

Michael: 00:35:28

context. And so I won't say that I

Michael: 00:35:31

read Eric as gay, even though,

Michael: 00:35:33

like, sort of the softness of his character did sort of, like, lean

Michael: 00:35:36

that way. But the moment he introduced the boyfriend, I was like, okay, yeah, that totally

Michael: 00:35:39

tracks with everything I've seen so far. So it wasn't shocking at all

Michael: 00:35:42

to learn that, but I, too, was, like, very happy to see

Michael: 00:35:45

that this is just accepting. Tell us all about it. You know, it was

Michael: 00:35:48

just. Which, again, 2007. I don't know. The world keeps changing.

Michael: 00:35:51

But I'm glad that this wasn't, like, a scandalous

Michael: 00:35:54

sort of thing.

Leif: 00:35:55

Yeah, well, and he was

Leif: 00:35:57

outed in an earlier

Leif: 00:36:00

episode.

Leif: 00:36:01

He had a season one, and it.

Leif: 00:36:02

Looked for a second like it was gonna be sort of a scandal. And

Leif: 00:36:05

then they end up having a really great moment with his mom

Leif: 00:36:08

because Lily, the mom, really reacted badly at

Leif: 00:36:11

first, but it was because it was just kind

Leif: 00:36:14

of dropped in her lap and she didn't know

Leif: 00:36:16

how to react. But it. But it was a really great how it

Leif: 00:36:19

played out. They've always been super accepting of

Leif: 00:36:22

him.

Michael: 00:36:23

Good.

Leif: 00:36:24

Dan has suddenly become the Lax bro from

Leif: 00:36:27

episode five, regaling Jenny of

Leif: 00:36:30

tales of glory from the soccer field. Dan

Leif: 00:36:33

response to some teasing about his lack of guy friends from

Leif: 00:36:35

Jenny and Rufus calls Nate to

Leif: 00:36:38

ask him about a mandate. They aren't the

Leif: 00:36:41

Kents, but I do love the Humphrey family dynamic when

Leif: 00:36:44

they are happy. I wrote the

Leif: 00:36:47

Kents in there.

Michael: 00:36:48

Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yeah. The one

Michael: 00:36:51

character that we get, like, nothing from, I think, is that Dan's

Michael: 00:36:54

sister Jenny.

Leif: 00:36:55

Yeah. This is a, small episode for her,

Leif: 00:36:58

but, yeah, the next string of episodes are going to be very Jenny

Leif: 00:37:01

heavy.

Michael: 00:37:01

Okay. Yeah, she was, like, kind of like a nothing character. And then the father, I

Michael: 00:37:04

guess, Rufus, again, my Gilmore girls

Michael: 00:37:07

analogy. He's the Luke type, but not really. But

Michael: 00:37:10

I guess that's the closest I could get.

Leif: 00:37:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's

Leif: 00:37:14

generally the moral compass of the show.

Leif: 00:37:17

Yeah.

Leif: 00:37:18

He's a former nineties, rock guy.

Leif: 00:37:20

He's from the number nine on the

Leif: 00:37:23

top ten list of most forgotten bands of the nineties.

Leif: 00:37:26

Oh, Rolling Stones

Leif: 00:37:28

magazines. top ten forgotten bands of the night.

Michael: 00:37:30

I mean, better than the 11th place.

Leif: 00:37:32

Yeah. And also, I love

Leif: 00:37:34

just something you probably would

Leif: 00:37:37

have heard about. Cedric is a cabbage patch

Leif: 00:37:40

kid.

Michael: 00:37:40

I googled it. Oh, my m. What's going on? I was like, who is

Michael: 00:37:43

Cedric? And then.

Leif: 00:37:45

Yeah, so Cedric is. Cedric is

Leif: 00:37:47

the. Is Dan's cabbage patch kid. That has

Leif: 00:37:50

been a running joke since

Leif: 00:37:53

season one.

Leif: 00:37:54

Have you watched the OC at all.

Michael: 00:37:57

When it first came on? I think I watched, like, part of the first

Michael: 00:38:00

season, but I have not kept up with it. I don't remember

Michael: 00:38:03

anything about it.

Leif: 00:38:05

And that. So that's also by the same

Leif: 00:38:07

showrunner. Okay, do you remember the Seth

Leif: 00:38:09

character?

Michael: 00:38:12

Sort of.

Leif: 00:38:13

And Adam Brody?

Michael: 00:38:14

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I remember Adam Brody character.

Leif: 00:38:17

He's on Gilmore Girls as well.

Leif: 00:38:18

Yes. Yeah.

Leif: 00:38:19

So he's kind of Josh Schwartz's insert on that show.

Michael: 00:38:22

Okay.

Leif: 00:38:22

His love interests on that show,

Leif: 00:38:25

they both had, like, plastic dolls.

Leif: 00:38:29

Ah.

Leif: 00:38:29

Plastic horses. And so I think on this

Leif: 00:38:32

show, they're trying to set that up with him and Blair, but

Leif: 00:38:35

then Blair and Chuck got really popular, so they didn't do

Leif: 00:38:38

that.

Michael: 00:38:38

Gotcha. Gotcha.

Leif: 00:38:39

Okay, so, like, yeah, it's a

Leif: 00:38:42

weird thing about the show. The overall writing is not

Leif: 00:38:45

great, but they do put all these

Leif: 00:38:48

little teeny things in there. Like, they're almost good

Leif: 00:38:50

writers.

Leif: 00:38:51

Yeah.

Michael: 00:38:51

Right. Yeah.

Leif: 00:38:52

Like, they put all these little nuggets. They have obscure

Leif: 00:38:55

references, and, they.

Leif: 00:38:57

Should be writing teachers

Leif: 00:39:00

because they know the tricks of writing.

Leif: 00:39:03

You know, they know that they. They know the.

Leif: 00:39:07

The game of writing, and they have

Leif: 00:39:10

moments of greatness. There are moments of

Leif: 00:39:13

greatness, but a lot of it really is,

Leif: 00:39:15

like, when they start trying to write smart characters, it

Leif: 00:39:18

gets. It gets a little

Leif: 00:39:21

dicey.

Michael: 00:39:22

Yeah.

Leif: 00:39:24

Vanessa is at the bar that she is trying to save,

Leif: 00:39:26

along with Horace, the owner of the bar. They are discussing the

Leif: 00:39:29

situation with Chuck, who pulls, up in his limo.

Leif: 00:39:32

Chuck says he is here to save the day. When someone throws

Leif: 00:39:35

a slushy at Chuck, he gets at his limo and

Leif: 00:39:38

hightails it out of Brooklyn.

Michael: 00:39:41

Yeah, that. That whole scene was kind of

Michael: 00:39:44

weird. Like, I did. Look, you know, I looked up a few things about the

Michael: 00:39:46

show, the. The budgets, and, you know, they filmed in New York.

Michael: 00:39:49

It's very expensive to film there, but that scene

Michael: 00:39:52

felt cheap. And I think it's.

Michael: 00:39:55

Horace comes out, he goes, oh, good turnout, v. There's, like, six

Michael: 00:39:58

extras just sitting there with, like, I don't. Nothing about that

Michael: 00:40:00

felt big or even real. It felt

Michael: 00:40:03

all staged. And it felt was more like a play than a

Michael: 00:40:06

show. That that scene, for some reason, just stood out to me as

Michael: 00:40:09

weird.

Leif: 00:40:09

they do tend to try to make

Leif: 00:40:12

Brooklyn feel poor,

Leif: 00:40:14

like, they. They try to

Leif: 00:40:17

make all. Any scenes in Brooklyn feel

Leif: 00:40:20

a little more drab.

Leif: 00:40:23

Drab, yeah.

Leif: 00:40:24

And the next scene, we get Lily and Serena arguing about the

Leif: 00:40:27

new rules. Serena says she won't be coming to the party

Leif: 00:40:30

tonight. Still thinking it's from

Leif: 00:40:33

Bart.

Leif: 00:40:34

Yeah. Lily and, ah, Lily should have

Leif: 00:40:37

started parenting a long time before

Leif: 00:40:39

this. And it kind of goes back to what I

Leif: 00:40:42

said in the first scene about dropping new rules is that you

Leif: 00:40:45

just can't start parenting, like,

Leif: 00:40:47

now, you know? And I don't know if

Leif: 00:40:50

you have kids. I do. Yeah. I

Leif: 00:40:53

have three teenage plus I

Leif: 00:40:56

have a 20 year old, 18 year old and a 17.

Leif: 00:41:00

and I also taught for many

Leif: 00:41:03

years. And this kind of brings my teacher brain

Leif: 00:41:05

around to where it's, like, the middle of

Leif: 00:41:08

October, and you realize that you have some kind of

Leif: 00:41:11

routine that is way off, and you go to try to fix

Leif: 00:41:14

it. If you tell 30 teenagers,

Leif: 00:41:17

no, we're doing something different starting tomorrow,

Leif: 00:41:20

they're. They're not going to respond well to that.

Leif: 00:41:23

You know? You know, you coming in and being like, this is

Leif: 00:41:26

a new thing starting right now, and you're going to change your

Leif: 00:41:29

behavior now. No teenager

Leif: 00:41:32

responds well to that.

Leif: 00:41:33

Dan shows up at Nate's house and finds an

Leif: 00:41:36

eviction notice. For some reason, dad decides to just go

Leif: 00:41:39

right in and sees evidence that Dan or Nate might be

Leif: 00:41:42

squatting in his own home.

Leif: 00:41:44

Yeah.

Michael: 00:41:44

In a show that is sort of based around the idea that

Michael: 00:41:47

somebody somewhere has access to information that people don't

Michael: 00:41:50

want to know, and he gets out publicly. There is no way that

Michael: 00:41:53

Nate's situation would not be known in that school in 12

Michael: 00:41:56

hours like that. That was, like, the most unrealistic thing in this episode to

Michael: 00:41:59

me, is that no one knows this yet.

Leif: 00:42:01

Wow. That's. I it's really funny that I didn't even

Leif: 00:42:04

think of that, but that is so true. A

Leif: 00:42:07

notice on his door. Like, no one is not going

Leif: 00:42:09

to notice. A sign on

Leif: 00:42:12

his door. Yes.

Leif: 00:42:14

No one is visiting Nate.

Leif: 00:42:15

Yeah.

Leif: 00:42:16

Chuck goes to Blair and tells her that the deal is

Leif: 00:42:19

off. Blair ups the stakes to keep Chuck

Leif: 00:42:22

in the game. Careful, b. One

Leif: 00:42:25

thing about making a deal with the devil, he always comes to

Leif: 00:42:28

collect.

Michael: 00:42:29

I think this is where I wrote cruel intentions in my head. It's

Michael: 00:42:32

like that with the, I will put my body on the

Michael: 00:42:35

line for this other thing. It's straight out of that.

Leif: 00:42:38

Yeah. Yeah. And this is also where you

Leif: 00:42:40

really see, you know, that first

Leif: 00:42:43

interaction where Blair's like, my body wants you, but my

Leif: 00:42:46

brain is too smart for that. So now you

Leif: 00:42:49

see that blair. I mean, scheming

Leif: 00:42:52

is Blair and chuck's

Leif: 00:42:55

foreplay. Breathing. Yeah, and

Leif: 00:42:57

foreplay. and so for Blair

Leif: 00:43:00

to be like, hey, if I make this

Leif: 00:43:02

transactional, you know, it's. It's

Leif: 00:43:05

her brain finding the way to give her body what it

Leif: 00:43:08

wants.

Michael: 00:43:09

I mean, it's like any addiction sort of thing. Like, you're

Michael: 00:43:11

justifying. Well, I I'm out with my friends, so I

Michael: 00:43:14

will engage in this activity or, you know,

Michael: 00:43:17

whatever the excuse is that our bodies will. Our minds

Michael: 00:43:20

will find a way to give us what our body wants again. Therapy.

Michael: 00:43:23

Go to therapy. Therapy's good.

Leif: 00:43:26

Blair has been in therapy.

Michael: 00:43:28

She needs to go more.

Leif: 00:43:29

Oh, yeah. For her bulimia.

Leif: 00:43:30

For bulimia, yeah.

Leif: 00:43:32

Yeah. Specifically for eating disorder.

Leif: 00:43:34

Yeah. Yeah. That just made me think of it.

Leif: 00:43:37

And in the previous season, we learned that Blair

Leif: 00:43:40

has an eating disorder, so she does see a therapist for

Leif: 00:43:43

that.

Michael: 00:43:44

Well, I'm very happy about that.

Leif: 00:43:45

Yeah.

Michael: 00:43:46

I don't make light of that.

Leif: 00:43:47

No, no. And it actually. And it actually makes her a

Leif: 00:43:50

very sympathetic character in certain. When

Leif: 00:43:53

you see certain lights of it.

Leif: 00:43:55

A lot of pressure from her mom and also from just

Leif: 00:43:58

not intentionally from Serena, but just Serena being

Leif: 00:44:01

who she is.

Leif: 00:44:02

Yeah.

Leif: 00:44:03

Which is the person everyone loves.

Michael: 00:44:05

Exactly.

Leif: 00:44:05

Yeah.

Michael: 00:44:06

Just, like, effervescently beautiful.

Leif: 00:44:08

Yeah. Yeah.

Michael: 00:44:09

Naturally, no effort. And that's not true either,

Michael: 00:44:12

but.

Leif: 00:44:13

And her family was wealthy, whereas

Leif: 00:44:15

Blair's mom has had to, you know, well,

Leif: 00:44:18

they're Waldorfs. But she did have to, like, build up this and the

Leif: 00:44:21

show.

Leif: 00:44:21

They're not the Waldorfs.

Leif: 00:44:23

Oh, okay. All right. They're just Waldorfs.

Leif: 00:44:25

Yeah. Just random name.

Michael: 00:44:26

So, have a question about that, because when Chuck goes to

Michael: 00:44:29

visit Blair, I was a little bit confused about where

Michael: 00:44:32

that was. That was Blair's house, home

Michael: 00:44:35

apartment. Because the way it was staged, it was like it was

Michael: 00:44:38

in a hallway, but there was a table set up with

Michael: 00:44:41

drinks, and there was no one there. It felt

Michael: 00:44:44

really weird.

Leif: 00:44:45

Yeah, that's just, that's one of the sets that. It's a recurring

Leif: 00:44:48

set for Blair's house. Like, it's like a foyer,

Leif: 00:44:51

essentially. They do a lot of, like, a lot. A lot of times

Leif: 00:44:54

when people, like, come to, like, confront her or something,

Leif: 00:44:57

the show loves that. Like, people just show up at

Leif: 00:45:00

a place to, you know, have a conversation. Gotcha.

Leif: 00:45:03

Okay.

Leif: 00:45:03

And then, it's always off an elevator.

Leif: 00:45:06

They all have elevators.

Leif: 00:45:08

They're penthouses, which is really the

Leif: 00:45:10

epitome.

Michael: 00:45:11

Of rich is when you have an elevator that goes to

Michael: 00:45:14

your house.

Leif: 00:45:14

Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know how people stay

Leif: 00:45:17

mad that long on an elevator. Like, I mean, like, I get

Leif: 00:45:20

if you're, like, standing upstairs, like, you can keep that

Leif: 00:45:23

momentum going, but if I'm sitting still that long in an

Leif: 00:45:25

elevator, I'm not hot by the time it dings.

Leif: 00:45:29

It's just. What was I here for?

Leif: 00:45:31

Yeah. Blair and Serena are

Leif: 00:45:34

discussing Lily's past husbands. We hear Lily

Leif: 00:45:37

was married to german class with a k but

Leif: 00:45:40

dated. Dated class with a C. Longer.

Michael: 00:45:43

Yeah, I do think, again, talking about the writing, that's actually

Michael: 00:45:46

pretty good writing, and I don't know if, like, if we ever saw

Michael: 00:45:49

that in other episodes.

Leif: 00:45:50

This was just all pre show.

Michael: 00:45:52

Okay, so the idea that they're.

Leif: 00:45:54

Yeah.

Leif: 00:45:54

Introducing lore to the world.

Leif: 00:45:56

Yeah.

Michael: 00:45:57

Two Klaus's KFC. Yes.

Michael: 00:46:00

I really like the writing of that scene. It sells exactly what

Michael: 00:46:03

we need to know. Tells us everything we. We should

Michael: 00:46:05

learn, does it in a funny and interesting way. So

Michael: 00:46:08

that actually very good writing, in my opinion.

Leif: 00:46:10

Yeah.

Leif: 00:46:11

Throughout the show, we get little bits and pieces about Lily's

Leif: 00:46:14

past relationships. They just get. You drop little

Leif: 00:46:17

blurbs like that throughout the show.

Leif: 00:46:19

Yeah. And this is the most that we get in

Leif: 00:46:21

one. Yeah, in one sitting,

Leif: 00:46:24

too, because we've also gotten it throughout the show.

Leif: 00:46:27

We also got the conversation with Blair at one point,

Leif: 00:46:29

and Dan and Nate.

Leif: 00:46:31

Are walking in the park and discussing the Vanderwitson

Leif: 00:46:34

party. Dad discovers that Nate is all alone in

Leif: 00:46:37

the city. Or Nate all alone.

Leif: 00:46:39

yeah. I feel so bad for Nate.

Leif: 00:46:41

He didn't know that Dan and Serena were done, too.

Leif: 00:46:45

I remember thinking that was kind of.

Leif: 00:46:47

So that actually kind of makes sense why people don't

Leif: 00:46:49

know, because he's kind of been keen into himself

Leif: 00:46:52

and staying low on the radar in the

Leif: 00:46:55

social circles.

Leif: 00:46:56

Well, and, I just thought because of the public shunning a few

Leif: 00:46:59

episodes ago that. But,

Leif: 00:47:02

yeah, I was a little surprised about it,

Leif: 00:47:05

but, yeah, that makes sense.

Leif: 00:47:06

Nate's not the most observant guy.

Leif: 00:47:08

No, he is not. Sweet, sweet, cutie

Leif: 00:47:11

Nate.

Leif: 00:47:13

we get a quick needle drop as the scene shifts back

Leif: 00:47:16

to Brooklyn, and we see Vanessa introduce Chuck to

Leif: 00:47:19

horace. They look to be getting along.

Michael: 00:47:22

So is Horace a regular on the show?

Leif: 00:47:24

He's a new character, so. Yes.

Michael: 00:47:26

Okay.

Leif: 00:47:26

Yes. It's actually nice that we actually get a person of

Leif: 00:47:29

color because I was, like, gonna be a real

Leif: 00:47:31

felt he comes. One more episode.

Leif: 00:47:34

Okay.

Michael: 00:47:35

Okay. he felt like he came out of nowhere to me, so I wasn't

Michael: 00:47:37

sure.

Leif: 00:47:38

This is his first appearance, and he comes in one more time

Leif: 00:47:41

in, I want to say, season

Leif: 00:47:43

four.

Michael: 00:47:46

So I know you told me that we don't do spoilers, but can

Michael: 00:47:49

I ask, do they save the bar?

Leif: 00:47:50

I don't think it's ever brought up again, as far as they.

Michael: 00:47:52

Okay, perfect. That's actually the best answer to that

Michael: 00:47:55

question that drags.

Leif: 00:47:58

Yeah, I don't think it's measured again.

Leif: 00:48:01

As far as I can recall, they.

Leif: 00:48:04

Do that a lot, too. They get you really invested in things,

Leif: 00:48:07

and then they're just like. That's all.

Michael: 00:48:10

Yeah. I mean, that, bar styles, like a cool place. It's got a cool

Michael: 00:48:12

history. I hope it's still there. And not a. An arab

Michael: 00:48:15

bread or whatever they called.

Leif: 00:48:16

It, the la palm quintillion.

Michael: 00:48:20

I also googled that it's a bakery.

Leif: 00:48:22

Yeah. Yeah. When we were watching it, my. My wife,

Leif: 00:48:25

Robin, she said. She said, oh, I did that. So that's how

Leif: 00:48:27

you pronounce that.

Michael: 00:48:29

Yeah, I would. Got nowhere near that.

Leif: 00:48:33

Next scene, we see Dan calling Jenny to hatch a

Leif: 00:48:36

plan to get Nate some good home cooking.

Leif: 00:48:39

Yeah. Dan doing some hardcore friending here.

Leif: 00:48:42

Yeah, they're. They're gonna parry trap Nate.

Leif: 00:48:48

Don't. Don't tell dad, or he might handcuff him to the

Leif: 00:48:51

couch.

Michael: 00:48:52

Yeah.

Leif: 00:48:53

yeah. Serena arrives

Leif: 00:48:56

home to find out that Bart disinvited Eric's new

Leif: 00:48:59

boyfriend, or so she thinks.

Leif: 00:49:01

Yeah, it's a really bad look for Bartley

Leif: 00:49:04

in this moment, and it all

Leif: 00:49:07

is like. Like it. I I felt

Leif: 00:49:10

like the writing did a really great job of making

Leif: 00:49:13

Bart look like an over controlling,

Leif: 00:49:16

demanding dad. And like you

Leif: 00:49:19

said, it wasn't that they were putting unreasonable

Leif: 00:49:22

expectations on it, but they just give you this

Leif: 00:49:25

vibe of him is

Leif: 00:49:27

asserting this control, playing with

Leif: 00:49:30

the expectations.

Michael: 00:49:32

Media literacy teaches us that the new stepfather with

Michael: 00:49:35

the new rules is going to be overbearing, and so he gives

Michael: 00:49:38

us just enough through the eyes of another character that we

Michael: 00:49:41

make assumptions, and then when we learn the

Michael: 00:49:44

truth, it's not, like, perfect, but it's different enough

Michael: 00:49:47

to be like, oh, okay, my expectations have been subverted. This

Michael: 00:49:50

is more interesting than just a clear one way or the other.

Michael: 00:49:53

So. Yeah, I also think that's pretty. Pretty elegant writing,

Michael: 00:49:56

actually, the way that worked out of.

Leif: 00:49:57

Yeah, and. And, you know, as.

Leif: 00:50:00

As a dad with a. With

Leif: 00:50:03

kids with a stepdad, I don't think Bart

Leif: 00:50:06

ever actually oversteps

Leif: 00:50:09

again. We'll get to that. But, like, in this case,

Leif: 00:50:12

in this very specific case

Leif: 00:50:15

now.

Leif: 00:50:15

So both of you are watching this episode for the

Leif: 00:50:18

first time. Did you guys pick up

Leif: 00:50:21

on it at all before the reveal?

Leif: 00:50:23

No. No.

Michael: 00:50:25

I pretty much believe that Bart was controlling,

Michael: 00:50:28

this because of the investment. Based on what Chuck had said, I

Michael: 00:50:31

believe that.

Leif: 00:50:32

Yeah.

Leif: 00:50:32

I honestly don't remember if I picked up or not. But the one

Leif: 00:50:35

clue, I think, is Eric, because he's always kind

Leif: 00:50:38

of like, no, I don't think it's Bart.

Leif: 00:50:41

Well, yeah, he's all. He's. The entire time,

Leif: 00:50:44

he's championing. Championing Bart.

Leif: 00:50:47

And so you have those clues there.

Leif: 00:50:50

It's also, in a previous episode,

Leif: 00:50:53

Bart has shown Lily that he has

Leif: 00:50:56

some kind of information on her that

Leif: 00:50:59

is scandalous, that Lily doesn't want to

Leif: 00:51:02

get out and that Bart doesn't want to get out.

Leif: 00:51:05

So we know that Bart has, like.

Leif: 00:51:07

He does like to control information.

Leif: 00:51:09

Yeah. He controls information, and he has

Leif: 00:51:12

had a private investigator

Leif: 00:51:15

look into his fiance

Leif: 00:51:18

now. Wife.

Michael: 00:51:19

Sure. I mean, when you're talking billions of dollars and

Michael: 00:51:22

mergers, like, yeah. You're going to do your due diligence unless you're on

Michael: 00:51:25

Smallville.

Leif: 00:51:29

Yeah.

Leif: 00:51:29

So this is all, like, this is.

Leif: 00:51:32

Yeah. Bart Bass is basically Trump before Trump

Leif: 00:51:35

was a politician.

Leif: 00:51:37

Yeah.

Leif: 00:51:37

Because this is 2008 Trump. So he's kind

Leif: 00:51:40

of like a a version of Trump.

Leif: 00:51:44

Yeah. And often, there are many times

Leif: 00:51:47

that he gives off,

Leif: 00:51:49

like, supervillain Lex Luthor.

Leif: 00:51:52

Lex Luthor vibes, you know?

Michael: 00:51:54

Right.

Leif: 00:51:55

He gives you those Lionel

Leif: 00:51:57

Luthor vibes.

Leif: 00:52:00

Outside of the bar, Chuck and Vanessa are connecting,

Leif: 00:52:03

but Chuck gets a text from Blair and appears to

Leif: 00:52:06

refocus on his mission.

Leif: 00:52:09

Looks like they were, He was wavering a little bit. He's actually kind

Leif: 00:52:12

of. Yeah, he liked. He, like. He definitely

Leif: 00:52:15

likes the attention and

Leif: 00:52:17

reinforcement.

Leif: 00:52:19

Yeah. And I feel like. I feel like

Leif: 00:52:22

Brooklyn could do a little good for Chuck.

Leif: 00:52:24

You know? I think that, like, and we see

Leif: 00:52:27

this in a lot of characters, it's almost like they get to Brooklyn, and

Leif: 00:52:30

then they have, like, a soft side to them

Leif: 00:52:33

sometimes, you know, like, the show

Leif: 00:52:35

in.

Leif: 00:52:36

Yeah. This show definitely goes out of its way

Leif: 00:52:39

to tell us that the upper 80 side is

Leif: 00:52:42

clearly a corrupting influence.

Leif: 00:52:44

Yeah.

Leif: 00:52:44

The longer you're in contact with, the worse person you become.

Leif: 00:52:47

yeah. And if you're only way upper middle class

Leif: 00:52:50

and not upper class, then you can be a good

Leif: 00:52:53

person.

Michael: 00:52:53

Well, yeah.

Leif: 00:52:55

At the Vanderbass party, Lily is telling her

Leif: 00:52:57

guests about her art collection. Serena confronts

Leif: 00:53:00

Bart about Eric and Jonathan

Leif: 00:53:03

each says it was Eric's decision, and

Leif: 00:53:06

I believe him.

Leif: 00:53:08

So at that point, when Serena says

Leif: 00:53:12

that a billionaire to a teenager,

Leif: 00:53:14

a real even playing ground.

Leif: 00:53:17

That moment, I was still

Leif: 00:53:20

siding with Serena. That moment, I

Leif: 00:53:23

still was like, oh, yeah, you had a

Leif: 00:53:26

conversation with him. Like, yeah.

Leif: 00:53:28

Yeah.

Leif: 00:53:28

Ah. Like. Like, How did that

Leif: 00:53:31

conversation go? How. You know,

Leif: 00:53:34

I. So I was still firmly,

Leif: 00:53:37

like, oh, yeah, you had a conversation with him.

Leif: 00:53:40

Chuck and Blair have a quick scene. Blair asked for

Leif: 00:53:43

a progress report, but Chuck now seems

Leif: 00:53:45

disinterested in the mission.

Michael: 00:53:48

Is this the scene where she was wearing the dress that

Michael: 00:53:51

Chuck had bought her? Cause I think there was a scene where she was putting it

Michael: 00:53:54

on with Serena earlier. Cause I. There's one I'm trying to find myself in

Michael: 00:53:57

my notes here. I know there's a scene where it's very clear she's upset that

Michael: 00:54:00

Chuck didn't respond to the dress she was wearing. I think

Michael: 00:54:03

that's the scene that may be mixed up.

Leif: 00:54:04

Yeah, I think. Yeah. Yeah, I think it is.

Leif: 00:54:07

Yeah.

Leif: 00:54:08

So as we see, like, Chuck is starting to

Leif: 00:54:10

waver a little bit, but, yeah. Blair's trying to reel him

Leif: 00:54:13

back in. Chuck goes to greet Vanessa.

Leif: 00:54:16

The chemistry is a bit awkward, but they definitely seem

Leif: 00:54:19

friendly.

Leif: 00:54:21

Yeah. I think Chuck

Leif: 00:54:24

kind of saw an avenue to becoming a real

Leif: 00:54:27

boy through Vanessa and,

Leif: 00:54:30

like, being a. I think that Chuck hit

Leif: 00:54:32

Brooklyn and was like, wow, I could maybe be a little more

Leif: 00:54:35

human. And I think that he's

Leif: 00:54:39

kind of seeing that with Vanessa.

Leif: 00:54:41

Well, when he says to Horace, that might be the

Leif: 00:54:44

nicest thing someone's ever said to him, I think he

Leif: 00:54:47

was.

Leif: 00:54:47

I think that was genuine.

Leif: 00:54:50

100%. Yeah.

Leif: 00:54:53

Bart interrupts and pulls Chuck aside. Blair

Leif: 00:54:55

and Vanessa stare daggers at each other from across the

Leif: 00:54:58

room.

Michael: 00:54:59

Yeah. This was again where Bart as bad

Michael: 00:55:01

guy, that we have made these

Michael: 00:55:04

assumptions that he has been the bad guy in returns

Michael: 00:55:06

to the other kids and the rules, but with his

Michael: 00:55:09

own son, he does seem to pretty much a jerk here. I mean, I

Michael: 00:55:12

don't know. Business opportunities.

Leif: 00:55:13

Maybe he was a bad investment pre

Leif: 00:55:16

series.

Leif: 00:55:17

Yeah. And they have. There are

Leif: 00:55:20

these. Chuck is constantly looking for his

Leif: 00:55:23

father's approval and

Leif: 00:55:26

Chuck's. We learned in a previous episode that

Leif: 00:55:29

Chuck's mom died in childbirth

Leif: 00:55:31

or shortly after, because I don't know which one was the lie and

Leif: 00:55:34

which one was the truth. But we do know

Leif: 00:55:37

that there is hostility from

Leif: 00:55:40

Bart towards Chuck. He is always

Leif: 00:55:42

disappointed in him, and he's there. There's an

Leif: 00:55:45

episode where Serena is getting into

Leif: 00:55:48

trouble after trouble after trouble, and she says, it's not me. It's Chuck.

Leif: 00:55:51

And Bart immediately goes, yup. It's got to be.

Leif: 00:55:55

So. So that's kind of the relationship he has with them. He's

Leif: 00:55:58

constantly disappointed and always expecting

Leif: 00:56:00

Chuck to just be a fuck

Leif: 00:56:03

up.

Michael: 00:56:04

That's. Yeah.

Leif: 00:56:05

Shifting back to the loft, it looks like Humphrey game night

Leif: 00:56:08

is in full swing. Nate is a poor lost

Leif: 00:56:10

puppy, and the Humphreys all want to save him.

Leif: 00:56:13

I know. I have a little note that just says, heart

Leif: 00:56:16

freeze with Humphries. With a heart.

Leif: 00:56:19

Just so sweet. Did you recognize

Leif: 00:56:22

Jenny?

Michael: 00:56:23

Hi. There's a flash of memory. She's

Michael: 00:56:26

a singer, right? Yeah, she's in a band.

Leif: 00:56:28

Taylor Mumpson.

Michael: 00:56:29

Okay.

Leif: 00:56:30

She was. She's singer for the pretty reckless. She

Leif: 00:56:33

was also, Lucy, Cindy

Leif: 00:56:35

Lou, Cyndi Lou who? In the Jim

Leif: 00:56:38

Carrey Grinch that stole Christmas.

Michael: 00:56:41

Gotcha. Okay. Yeah. All right. Okay.

Leif: 00:56:44

Yeah.

Michael: 00:56:44

Again, spoilers, but I get the feeling that there might be

Michael: 00:56:47

a Jenny Nate situation brewing if he's gonna

Michael: 00:56:50

be staying there. I don't know. Don't have. Tell me. But that would be my

Michael: 00:56:53

guess. I wouldn't be surprised if there's at least some sort of fling in the future.

Leif: 00:56:55

They've definitely had a few moments so far in the show.

Leif: 00:56:58

Yeah, there's some history there that.

Leif: 00:57:00

Nothing really romantic yet, but definitely, like.

Leif: 00:57:03

Yeah. Some intimate conversations and. And.

Leif: 00:57:06

And in clings of Jenny at least

Leif: 00:57:09

having a crush. I feel. I feel like Jenny has

Leif: 00:57:12

a, one of those. She doesn't know she has a

Leif: 00:57:15

crush on him, but has a crush on him. Okay,

Leif: 00:57:18

also, the actors are, what, like

Leif: 00:57:21

15 and 20 something?

Leif: 00:57:24

Yeah. Taylor bumps is the character's actual age,

Leif: 00:57:26

and Chase Crawford is several years

Leif: 00:57:29

old.

Leif: 00:57:29

Yeah.

Michael: 00:57:30

Okay. Aren't he?

Leif: 00:57:31

Yeah. Most of them were, like, 18 to 22,

Leif: 00:57:34

I think, when they started shooting, except,

Leif: 00:57:36

I think Eric. Yeah.

Leif: 00:57:38

Now the youngest was

Leif: 00:57:39

1919.

Leif: 00:57:41

Blake was 19. Right.

Leif: 00:57:43

Latent meester.

Leif: 00:57:43

Oh, Layton.

Leif: 00:57:44

All the other ones were 20 or 21.

Leif: 00:57:46

Yeah, but Eric and Jenny were their actual ages, right?

Leif: 00:57:49

Yeah.

Leif: 00:57:50

And their characters are, again, two years younger than the other

Leif: 00:57:53

characters, so.

Leif: 00:57:54

Yeah.

Leif: 00:57:54

Yeah, there's definitely a gap

Leif: 00:57:56

there. Vanessa comforts Chuck,

Leif: 00:57:59

and sparks are flying. Blair sees the interaction, and

Leif: 00:58:02

she knows Chuck isn't just pretending anymore.

Leif: 00:58:05

Yeah, I mean, like, Chuck had a good

Leif: 00:58:08

proposal, like, Chuck did the work.

Leif: 00:58:11

And, just shut it down.

Leif: 00:58:13

Yeah, just to shut it down. Like,

Leif: 00:58:16

just to make him disappoint people.

Leif: 00:58:19

Serena is talking to eric, and Eric is not nearly as

Leif: 00:58:22

anti Bart as her. Some reporters come

Leif: 00:58:25

over and start asking Serena and eric questions about the

Leif: 00:58:28

family. Lily comes over for some spin. C.

Leif: 00:58:31

And I think the light bulb is starting, finally starting to go

Leif: 00:58:34

light over Serena's head.

Michael: 00:58:36

So Lily doesn't seem to be the best mom,

Michael: 00:58:40

but she's also terrible at public relations.

Michael: 00:58:43

If she thinks for a moment that this was a

Michael: 00:58:45

good idea, like, that should have been a more

Michael: 00:58:48

controlled environment. You don't let reporters just ask your

Michael: 00:58:51

kids questions like that. Yeah, no, that was

Michael: 00:58:54

a failure in so many regards.

Leif: 00:58:56

Yeah. Yeah, I do. Like, they get the resolution to the

Leif: 00:58:59

Eric conversation here where eric's like, no, this

Leif: 00:59:02

was. This was my choice. Like, this isn't how I

Leif: 00:59:05

wanted this to go down. Like, I, you know, I wanted

Leif: 00:59:08

this to come out on my terms and not on mom's terms,

Leif: 00:59:11

and. And that was a very mature decision.

Michael: 00:59:15

Very. Yeah. when. When you hear that side and you see that it

Michael: 00:59:18

was like an he had agency in that decision.

Leif: 00:59:20

Yeah.

Michael: 00:59:21

It is such a much. It's like, that's beautiful in a

Michael: 00:59:24

way. Yeah, it's great. Versus the overbearing, dominant, you

Michael: 00:59:27

know, midwestern value.

Leif: 00:59:28

You're gonna make things look bad. Yeah.

Michael: 00:59:30

Yeah.

Leif: 00:59:31

Looks like the best housewarming just got a little

Leif: 00:59:34

colder. Serena walks down memory lane, has

Leif: 00:59:37

her heading out the door, and we move into act

Leif: 00:59:40

three. Blair is trying to call off the bet with

Leif: 00:59:42

Chuck. Blair's passion for Chuck lays dormant for a few

Leif: 00:59:45

episodes while she's feuding with Serena, but they appear to be

Leif: 00:59:48

fully awakened again. Chuck seems to be catching

Leif: 00:59:51

on to as Blair is being fully transparent

Leif: 00:59:54

in her feelings

Leif: 00:59:57

again. the show goes through storylines fast. Like, yeah, the last few

Leif: 01:00:00

episodes, this was not really brought up at all because she was in

Leif: 01:00:03

the middle of a fight with Serena, but they made up in the last

Leif: 01:00:06

episode, so now she can go back to the, last thing after Chuck.

Michael: 01:00:09

Oh, got you. But, you know, everything's Cartman

Michael: 01:00:11

alive now that.

Leif: 01:00:13

That's.

Michael: 01:00:13

Yeah.

Leif: 01:00:13

And then I love that she gets jealous of

Leif: 01:00:16

Vanessa and doesn't really need to be. I don't

Leif: 01:00:19

think that there was really sparks there. There was just.

Leif: 01:00:22

Chuck was like, someone was actually talking to me like a human.

Leif: 01:00:25

Right. And, yeah, I think the show is trying

Leif: 01:00:29

to write it. There was sparks, but I just think.

Leif: 01:00:31

The actors didn't have the chemistry fair that.

Michael: 01:00:34

Yeah, it came across as I thought you were a

Michael: 01:00:37

disgusting piece of garbage, and it turns out you're just

Michael: 01:00:40

a bad human being like that. That's the progress

Michael: 01:00:43

that went.

Leif: 01:00:44

Yeah.

Michael: 01:00:44

It's not romance in this, you know, on

Michael: 01:00:47

the horizon.

Leif: 01:00:48

Yeah. I've been saying since the

Leif: 01:00:51

end, like, when Leif is asking predictions, and

Leif: 01:00:54

I've been pretty much saying since the end of season one

Leif: 01:00:56

that my number one prediction is that they're all gonna

Leif: 01:00:59

bang at some point.

Michael: 01:01:01

Some point. At some point, it

Michael: 01:01:04

transitions to euphoria.

Leif: 01:01:05

At some point, Eric

Leif: 01:01:08

helps Lilly realize she is oblivious and an

Leif: 01:01:11

absentee motherhood.

Leif: 01:01:13

He's the most mature Vander woods.

Leif: 01:01:15

This is. This is actually my scene of the episode. yeah, the

Leif: 01:01:17

acting scene was really good.

Leif: 01:01:19

Yeah, this is. It may be his best that he's

Leif: 01:01:21

done.

Leif: 01:01:22

Yeah.

Leif: 01:01:23

Yeah.

Michael: 01:01:23

The since you've been gone was your ringtone was

Michael: 01:01:26

like shit's kiss.

Leif: 01:01:28

And I love. Because Lily goes to

Leif: 01:01:30

Eric because she knows that Eric will tell the

Leif: 01:01:33

truth, right. And, you know when

Leif: 01:01:36

she pushes back and he's like,

Leif: 01:01:39

hey, I'm like, I'm going to show you

Leif: 01:01:42

why it's funny because I forgot to mention

Leif: 01:01:45

that earlier scene where they mentioned how

Leif: 01:01:48

they said that they would go to the Waldorfs or

Leif: 01:01:50

the Archibalds and they would

Leif: 01:01:53

alternate so they wouldn't figure

Leif: 01:01:56

it out. And she's like, we figured it out, but we say anything.

Leif: 01:01:59

Yeah. Yeah.

Leif: 01:02:02

Dan and Rufus are having a conversation aloft.

Leif: 01:02:05

I am so surprised that Rufus is giving good advice to

Leif: 01:02:08

Dan. Total shocker.

Leif: 01:02:10

Solid dadding. Some solid dadding.

Michael: 01:02:13

Yep.

Leif: 01:02:14

The phrasing was a little, kind of off.

Leif: 01:02:16

Yeah, but, I mean,

Leif: 01:02:19

he didn't write it.

Leif: 01:02:25

Back.

Leif: 01:02:25

At the party, Blair has stolen Vanessa's phone and

Leif: 01:02:28

deleted the blackmail evidence. Blair also

Leif: 01:02:31

haughtily reveals her the bet.

Leif: 01:02:34

Vanessa momentarily defends Chuck before realizing she

Leif: 01:02:37

has egg on her face. After Vanessa leaves, Blair

Leif: 01:02:40

admits defeat and tells Chuck to come claim his

Leif: 01:02:43

prize. So this. This is kind of what I was

Leif: 01:02:46

saying how, I thought Vanessa.

Leif: 01:02:47

They.

Leif: 01:02:47

They were trying to write it as Vanessa was attracted

Leif: 01:02:50

to him.

Leif: 01:02:51

Yeah.

Leif: 01:02:51

It just wasn't reading on the chemistry.

Leif: 01:02:54

Yeah.

Michael: 01:02:54

Yeah, I agree. I didn't thought there was any chemistry there. I

Michael: 01:02:57

also, again, this was what, 2007,

Michael: 01:03:00

2008? The cloud

Michael: 01:03:02

existed. Right? So just because Blair

Michael: 01:03:05

deleted that picture off of beast phone

Michael: 01:03:08

doesn't mean that picture doesn't exist in seven other

Michael: 01:03:11

places. So I just thought that was such. I mean, it's not as goofy

Michael: 01:03:14

as, like, I'm rerouting through the subnet hacking you see on tv,

Michael: 01:03:17

but that's also nonsense.

Leif: 01:03:18

That.

Michael: 01:03:19

That take your phone and now the picture's gone. That's

Michael: 01:03:21

silly.

Leif: 01:03:22

Well, I mean, it is. The, they don't

Leif: 01:03:25

have iPads. That technology was

Leif: 01:03:28

out. Was out the real world, but the writers hadn't

Leif: 01:03:30

really discovered it yet, so.

Michael: 01:03:33

Maybe v didn't know, but there were kids in

Michael: 01:03:35

2007 would know how to.

Leif: 01:03:37

Get that picture on the Internet.

Michael: 01:03:39

On the Internet. It would be there forever or something.

Leif: 01:03:42

The real estate was just foreplay. I like that quote from

Leif: 01:03:47

poor Chuck Bass. You made your Bethenne, and now you have

Leif: 01:03:50

to lie in it.

Leif: 01:03:51

Yeah. And, also we, What you had brought up

Leif: 01:03:54

earlier, Mike Michael, about. About

Leif: 01:03:57

Blair's transparency. And here she gets to the point where it's like,

Leif: 01:04:00

well, I have to change the rules of the bet

Leif: 01:04:03

to sleep with you.

Michael: 01:04:05

Right?

Leif: 01:04:05

So, like, now your goal has just all

Leif: 01:04:08

been, you know, shown.

Leif: 01:04:11

You showed your cards.

Leif: 01:04:13

And we move into the epilogue.

Leif: 01:04:16

Dan finds Serena sitting alone outside of

Leif: 01:04:19

Nate's place. Maybe these two can finally find

Leif: 01:04:22

some common ground.

Michael: 01:04:24

Yeah, I was confused on this to begin with. I thought

Michael: 01:04:27

that Blair or that

Michael: 01:04:30

not Blair, Serena was outside, like, her apartment,

Michael: 01:04:33

like, just on the street, but that's. They were at

Michael: 01:04:35

Nate's. Like, I was confused of where that took place.

Leif: 01:04:37

Yeah, that's how it's Nate's.

Leif: 01:04:39

So Serena and Nate have probably

Leif: 01:04:42

the closest thing to an honest friend friendship

Leif: 01:04:45

between any of these

Leif: 01:04:47

characters. They slept together

Leif: 01:04:50

before the series started, and that was

Leif: 01:04:53

a bit. Another big piece of the pilot

Leif: 01:04:56

episode and the early episodes of the

Leif: 01:04:58

series, and. And it has

Leif: 01:05:01

come to a point where they have just become two

Leif: 01:05:04

people that can actually talk to each other, that

Leif: 01:05:07

they. And they don't always have that from the other people in

Leif: 01:05:10

their life.

Michael: 01:05:11

Okay. Okay. So, yeah, I watched the episode three

Michael: 01:05:14

times, and I was, like. Each time, I thought it was a different place, but

Michael: 01:05:17

I never felt secure in what I knew. So I was a little bit confused as to

Michael: 01:05:20

where that happened, but I did. I could tell there was

Michael: 01:05:23

a history between those two characters, Serena and Nate.

Michael: 01:05:26

But m without the context, I didn't know for sure what was

Michael: 01:05:29

going on.

Leif: 01:05:29

Yeah.

Leif: 01:05:30

Now this, this watch through, I've found

Leif: 01:05:33

that I've been more annoyed by Dan

Leif: 01:05:36

than ever before.

Leif: 01:05:37

Really? Yeah.

Leif: 01:05:39

Cause I'm, like, going through scene by scene because, like, in this

Leif: 01:05:41

scene, like, initially, he's, like, super pissed

Leif: 01:05:44

off at Serena and, like, being all prissy and

Leif: 01:05:47

to her. And then the sooner she seems sad, he's like,

Leif: 01:05:50

oh, let me save you, Serena.

Leif: 01:05:51

Let me.

Leif: 01:05:52

Let me save you.

Leif: 01:05:53

Oh, go on. Well, but let's

Leif: 01:05:56

also. Let's also just flip to

Leif: 01:05:58

Dan. Dan tries to be a good dude.

Leif: 01:06:01

Serena really did fuck with

Leif: 01:06:04

him by having the entire school

Leif: 01:06:08

ignore him. Right.

Leif: 01:06:10

Like, he was addicted to her, though.

Leif: 01:06:11

he was, but they have reason to. He has reason

Leif: 01:06:14

to be upset with her. And she has reason to be upset with him,

Leif: 01:06:17

and so for him to see her and be irritated, I get that. But

Leif: 01:06:20

also to see someone that you loved, that you were in a

Leif: 01:06:23

relationship with, who is, who does

Leif: 01:06:26

say to you, like, go ahead, go ahead, give it to

Leif: 01:06:28

me. it can't get any worse. That that's

Leif: 01:06:32

gonna shake you. You know, I would have done the same

Leif: 01:06:34

thing. I would have been as

Leif: 01:06:37

annoying as Dan. Yeah.

Leif: 01:06:39

It's, just kind of illustrating his tendency to

Leif: 01:06:42

want to be a white knight.

Leif: 01:06:43

Yeah. I mean, yeah,

Leif: 01:06:46

that's always been in his.

Leif: 01:06:49

Yeah. Past. Watch. When I'm not paying

Leif: 01:06:52

such quite attention to this thing, that annoys me

Leif: 01:06:55

as much just because I enjoy Anne's acting.

Leif: 01:06:59

And I find him witty.

Leif: 01:07:00

Yeah.

Leif: 01:07:01

I've been more annoyed with Dan than I've ever been before.

Leif: 01:07:04

Chuck comes to the Brooklyn bar to apologize to Horace,

Leif: 01:07:07

who isn't having none of that. A despite Chuck

Leif: 01:07:10

leaves, however, we see Vanessa lurking in the shadows, a

Leif: 01:07:13

clear signal that this storyline isn't over yet.

Michael: 01:07:16

Or, I mean, you said they don't go back to the bars.

Leif: 01:07:19

May not be.

Leif: 01:07:19

The.

Leif: 01:07:20

The bar storyline is nowhere but the Chuck and, Chuck

Leif: 01:07:23

and Vanessa. okay.

Leif: 01:07:24

It's not like this was Chuck's fault. Like.

Michael: 01:07:26

No.

Leif: 01:07:27

Like, his dad pulled the deal. Yeah.

Leif: 01:07:30

And Horace is just shitting on him. Yeah. yeah.

Leif: 01:07:33

Serena and Dan have an honest conversation. If only they

Leif: 01:07:36

could have done this when they were dating. Nate catches a

Leif: 01:07:38

stray from Serena. Bart pulls up in a limo

Leif: 01:07:41

to give Serena a ride home.

Leif: 01:07:43

Yeah. I love. I love that she gives this deep

Leif: 01:07:46

advice, and she responds with, I thought you were going

Leif: 01:07:49

to pretend to be nate.

Leif: 01:07:53

Nate has been repeatedly shown as

Leif: 01:07:56

just being a himbo on the show. Oh,

Leif: 01:07:58

okay. He gets great

Leif: 01:08:01

grades, but he's not, really the smart

Leif: 01:08:04

character.

Michael: 01:08:05

He's not a scholar.

Leif: 01:08:06

Yeah. Yeah. Like, they're.

Leif: 01:08:07

He hates. Yeah. He's just not observant.

Leif: 01:08:09

He's not observant. Well, he's also not a scholar in this.

Leif: 01:08:12

He hates reading. He hates, you know, that

Leif: 01:08:15

kind of stuff.

Leif: 01:08:16

Another little consistent piece of writing from the

Leif: 01:08:19

show here we see when Bart, pulls up.

Leif: 01:08:22

Hello, Daniel. All the upper east side parents of the

Leif: 01:08:25

show, throughout the run, they always use the full names.

Leif: 01:08:28

Yeah.

Leif: 01:08:29

The only one who says Dan.

Leif: 01:08:31

Nate. Yeah.

Leif: 01:08:33

The upper CI east side parents are always Nathaniel.

Leif: 01:08:36

Daniel. Yeah.

Michael: 01:08:37

Charles.

Leif: 01:08:37

Charles. The first time lily said, oh,

Leif: 01:08:40

Charles.

Leif: 01:08:42

Little, we rip on the writing a lot, so I'll give him some props

Leif: 01:08:45

on that one.

Leif: 01:08:46

Yeah. Yeah.

Michael: 01:08:46

Nice.

Leif: 01:08:47

Yeah.

Leif: 01:08:47

Back at the vanderbat bass apartment.

Leif: 01:08:50

Lily apologizes to Sarita and Eric for abetting them

Leif: 01:08:53

for large chunks of their childhood. Serena

Leif: 01:08:56

also apologizes to Lily and Bart for her behavior over the

Leif: 01:08:59

past few days. Looks like we have a happy Brady

Leif: 01:09:01

bunch moment. Everyone's here and accounted

Leif: 01:09:04

for, except.

Leif: 01:09:06

Except someone's business. Yeah.

Leif: 01:09:09

Yeah. No check in the scene.

Michael: 01:09:11

Yeah, he's got other things to take care of. The whole

Michael: 01:09:14

sitting on the floor, eating the cake, it felt like an

Michael: 01:09:17

after school special sort of thing, like, you know, like all

Michael: 01:09:20

the problems have been solved. I know they aren't, but the way it

Michael: 01:09:23

felt. But the one thing that really stood out to me

Michael: 01:09:26

was the way they kind of laughingly joked about Bart

Michael: 01:09:29

killing the story. Like, the idea of, like, catching

Michael: 01:09:31

and killing stories to keep you out of the public eye is not, like,

Michael: 01:09:34

a ha ha knee slap. That's not, you know, that's not

Michael: 01:09:37

a good thing to be laughing about. I thought it was weird.

Michael: 01:09:40

Right, right.

Leif: 01:09:41

And, it's funny because in. In 2008,

Leif: 01:09:44

the attention wasn't there on. On something

Leif: 01:09:47

like that, you know? Like, I feel like

Leif: 01:09:50

today there's such a heightened

Leif: 01:09:52

awareness for that type of

Leif: 01:09:55

activity just because of

Leif: 01:09:58

the, you know, different media.

Leif: 01:10:01

Yeah. This is just like killing a magazine article.

Leif: 01:10:03

Yeah, well, I'm just saying in general, the.

Leif: 01:10:06

The thought of, like, rich people killing

Leif: 01:10:09

an article didn't, you know,

Leif: 01:10:13

I don't think that was really, like, I

Leif: 01:10:15

don't. I can't buy my words for it, but.

Michael: 01:10:17

No, but I mean, I agree with you. Like, you know, at a high level, it's sort

Michael: 01:10:20

of, like the funny thing, but if you think about it granularly, there are

Michael: 01:10:23

reporters that it's their job to write a story, and they are

Michael: 01:10:26

now probably being pressured by an editor. We will

Michael: 01:10:29

fire you if you run this story. So this

Michael: 01:10:32

party you went to, you got free food, but now you got to do a different story.

Michael: 01:10:35

Like, it's actually kind of awful what the reporters would have

Michael: 01:10:38

gone through in that real experience to so make it so light

Michael: 01:10:41

hearted. At least in 2024, that stuck out to me like a

Michael: 01:10:44

sword thumb.

Leif: 01:10:44

well, and getting that kind of pressure

Leif: 01:10:47

often is very, you know, you're right. It's.

Leif: 01:10:50

It's really putting people in a very bad

Leif: 01:10:53

position, and they are just laughing it

Leif: 01:10:55

off.

Michael: 01:10:56

Right. Yeah. It's just. Ha ha. So,

Michael: 01:10:59

yeah.

Leif: 01:10:59

Oh, we're so rich we can control the

Leif: 01:11:01

mediaev.

Leif: 01:11:05

One thing we've actually been talking about a lot in the first, the middle

Leif: 01:11:08

of the first season was the 2008 writer strike, which

Leif: 01:11:11

also happened on small delta.

Leif: 01:11:12

Yeah.

Michael: 01:11:13

I'm right in the middle of the writers strike season right now.

Leif: 01:11:15

Oh, wow. Yeah. I'm sorry.

Leif: 01:11:19

It ruined so many.

Leif: 01:11:20

what is that on smallville?

Michael: 01:11:21

Seven.

Leif: 01:11:22

Seven. Ooh.

Leif: 01:11:23

Yeah. So in.

Leif: 01:11:26

So that was a big change, but the other big change

Leif: 01:11:29

that kind of happened in the real world that's affecting the

Leif: 01:11:32

writing, I think, also is the

Leif: 01:11:34

recession. 2008.

Leif: 01:11:39

So Josh Schwartz's first show, the OC,

Leif: 01:11:42

kind of brought in a wave of shows like that.

Leif: 01:11:45

Yeah.

Leif: 01:11:45

Laguna beach and a bunch of other shows

Leif: 01:11:48

glorifying the rich. But now suddenly,

Leif: 01:11:51

people are not really thinking as highly as the rich

Leif: 01:11:54

because you got occupy Wall street starts around that

Leif: 01:11:56

time. So I think they kind of shifted into showing

Leif: 01:11:59

these people just as being horrible people,

Leif: 01:12:02

and let's just be. Let's just watch the be horrible

Leif: 01:12:04

people destroy each other.

Leif: 01:12:06

Yeah.

Leif: 01:12:08

Where in the first season, they were trying to, like, lean into the heart of

Leif: 01:12:11

the show, and, you know, Dan, Serena's relationship

Leif: 01:12:14

was the focus, and, you know, Serena was trying to overcome her

Leif: 01:12:17

troubled past. But, yeah, now in season two,

Leif: 01:12:20

they're really kind of just leading into the craziness

Leif: 01:12:23

of doing horrible things.

Leif: 01:12:24

Yeah. And there's a lot of, like, we've mentioned

Leif: 01:12:27

before that they. They have this juxtaposition of,

Leif: 01:12:30

if you're rich, you'll do terrible things, and if

Leif: 01:12:33

you're less rich, you won't.

Michael: 01:12:37

Or you'll do less terrible things.

Leif: 01:12:38

Yeah. Or you'll do that. And you even see Jenny's

Leif: 01:12:41

character, the more she tries to get

Leif: 01:12:44

in with the rich crowd, the more

Leif: 01:12:47

terrible she becomes. And

Leif: 01:12:50

that was, like, she got to be diabolical in the

Leif: 01:12:53

first season because of that, going from

Leif: 01:12:56

being, like, this super sweetheart. Now she's back to a sweetheart.

Leif: 01:12:59

So I'm waiting for her to be diabolical again because that was fun.

Leif: 01:13:01

Wait till you see the preview for next week.

Leif: 01:13:04

Looks like Nate is coming to stay at the humphries after

Leif: 01:13:07

all. yay.

Michael: 01:13:08

Good for Nate. though I will say two players

Michael: 01:13:11

categories is terrible. Never, ever plays categories of two

Michael: 01:13:14

player. You need at least three, because otherwise, you know,

Michael: 01:13:17

the whole game is built upon the uniqueness of answers. If you only

Michael: 01:13:20

have two people, it just doesn't work.

Leif: 01:13:21

Right, right. Well, I also. I'll get

Leif: 01:13:24

the guitar in the eighties fake book.

Leif: 01:13:27

Yeah. How about wham?

Leif: 01:13:31

Rufus?

Leif: 01:13:33

And that's kind of. I was trying to figure the

Leif: 01:13:36

wham reference, like, wake me up before you go

Leif: 01:13:39

or the other. Like, I can't see why wham would have

Leif: 01:13:41

been.

Leif: 01:13:42

They're just happy.

Leif: 01:13:43

Yeah. Yeah, that's fair.

Leif: 01:13:44

That's fair, happy music.

Leif: 01:13:46

The eighties fake book.

Leif: 01:13:48

Chuck and Blair start to go at it, but Chuck

Leif: 01:13:50

demands, and I love you. But now Blair

Leif: 01:13:53

is the one who isn't ready to say it. So Chuck puts on his

Leif: 01:13:56

coat and leaves. Just like the

Leif: 01:13:59

seasons, people have the ability to change.

Leif: 01:14:02

It doesn't happen very often, but when it does,

Leif: 01:14:05

it's almost always right. Sometimes it takes

Leif: 01:14:08

what's broken to becoming whole again. Sometimes it

Leif: 01:14:11

takes opening up to a new people and letting them in.

Leif: 01:14:14

But most times, it's just one person

Leif: 01:14:16

who is truly afraid to show what they feel,

Leif: 01:14:19

getting an opportunity they never thought possible. And some

Leif: 01:14:22

things never change. Let a new game

Leif: 01:14:25

begin. Xoxo, gossip

Leif: 01:14:28

girl. And that is the episode.

Leif: 01:14:32

Say those three words to me. Are you

Leif: 01:14:34

kidding?

Leif: 01:14:38

I loved that. Yeah.

Leif: 01:14:40

So, yeah, the beginning of the season, Blair. Blair demanded that

Leif: 01:14:43

Chuck say, end of season one. It looked like they're going

Leif: 01:14:46

to get together, but Chuck, the last minute, ditches her.

Leif: 01:14:49

And so, at the beginning of season two, Blair like

Leif: 01:14:52

to get like she wants. If he wants to be with her, he has to

Leif: 01:14:55

say, I love you.

Michael: 01:14:56

Oh, okay.

Leif: 01:14:58

He doesn't. She goes off with the dude, the

Leif: 01:15:00

lord.

Michael: 01:15:01

Gotcha. Gotcha. The, the line, if

Michael: 01:15:04

you thought that was long, you have no idea what you're in for.

Michael: 01:15:07

Made me hate Chuck worse. Yeah, I hated him more

Michael: 01:15:10

as the episode went on.

Leif: 01:15:11

Yeah. So, again, watch the pilot.

Leif: 01:15:15

He's. He's awful from the get.

Leif: 01:15:18

Okay, but, I mean, those type of lie, like, yeah,

Leif: 01:15:21

the pilot is not pretty, but those type of lies are actually what makes him a

Leif: 01:15:24

popular character.

Leif: 01:15:25

Yeah, but I think he's. I

Leif: 01:15:28

think one of the reasons he's popular is that

Leif: 01:15:30

he's fun to hate. But there's. Then the other

Leif: 01:15:33

reason he's popular is because it's the sexy bad boy.

Leif: 01:15:37

Dark.

Michael: 01:15:38

Yeah. You want to fix him. like, even in this

Michael: 01:15:40

episode, like, it turns out he did kind of want to help the bar.

Michael: 01:15:43

He did get some, like, maybe fulfillment from this

Michael: 01:15:46

father figure in some way, like treating Emma court like an

Michael: 01:15:49

equal. You know, he doesn't get that from Bart, but it's not

Michael: 01:15:52

enough. He didn't change his character, but there's enough for

Michael: 01:15:55

someone who, if you're really into the show, to think, well, maybe there is

Michael: 01:15:58

a trajectory wherever, you know, it's very much a

Michael: 01:16:00

Lex luthor situation where, like, yeah, we know he's a bad boy. We know

Michael: 01:16:03

it's going to go wrong, but maybe. Maybe we

Michael: 01:16:06

could fix it.

Leif: 01:16:07

Yeah.

Leif: 01:16:08

So, any predictions?

Leif: 01:16:10

I, have a question.

Michael: 01:16:11

First.

Leif: 01:16:11

Was Victor Victrola episode seven.

Leif: 01:16:14

Yes.

Leif: 01:16:14

Okay. That.

Michael: 01:16:16

That.

Leif: 01:16:16

That lines up so well. So Victor

Leif: 01:16:19

Victrola is an episode where Bart does buy a

Leif: 01:16:21

bar. It also has very similar

Leif: 01:16:24

Bart and chuck themes going

Leif: 01:16:27

through it with Chuck. And so it's not

Leif: 01:16:30

just. It's interesting that it wasn't just the chuck and Blair

Leif: 01:16:33

thing, but also the chuck and

Leif: 01:16:36

Bart thing as well, a little bit. I

Leif: 01:16:38

am predicting Jenny's about to get her hat back

Leif: 01:16:41

in the ring. It sounds like. I'm also

Leif: 01:16:44

predicting some more back and forth between

Leif: 01:16:47

Chuck and Blair. yeah. And I'm interested to

Leif: 01:16:50

see what happens with Jenny and Nate now that they're

Leif: 01:16:53

cohabitating.

Leif: 01:16:55

That, would be my big prediction.

Michael: 01:16:56

Is that there will be a romance, at least if

Michael: 01:16:59

not kindled, hinted at with those two. If they're in the same.

Michael: 01:17:02

Same house.

Leif: 01:17:03

What about Dan, Serena? Are they going to get back together again?

Leif: 01:17:07

Honestly, I think they will eventually, but I don't feel like

Leif: 01:17:10

it. I feel like it would be a mistake to do it

Leif: 01:17:13

this soon. I don't think that there,

Michael: 01:17:15

How many seasons did this show run? Six. Okay.

Michael: 01:17:18

Yeah, they're not getting better. They will get back together, but not till, like, season five

Michael: 01:17:21

or something.

Leif: 01:17:22

Yeah.

Leif: 01:17:22

Well, they broke up at the end of season one, and they got back together.

Leif: 01:17:25

The second episode.

Leif: 01:17:27

Kind of the first episode of season two.

Leif: 01:17:29

yeah, the very end of the episode, they got back together. They were

Leif: 01:17:32

together for, like, two episodes, and they broke up again.

Leif: 01:17:34

Yeah. I, feel like both

Leif: 01:17:37

of them need to sleep with someone else before they get back together.

Leif: 01:17:41

Nate, love triangle now.

Leif: 01:17:43

Dan and Nader permits now.

Leif: 01:17:47

Oh, get a three love trial going on.

Leif: 01:17:50

Yeah, but that is the episodes.

Leif: 01:17:53

We will move into some segments.

Leif: 01:17:56

We jumped into the wayback machine to check

Leif: 01:17:59

out this week in fandom. hello there. Peabody

Leif: 01:18:02

here. And this is the wayback machine for traveling

Leif: 01:18:05

through time.

Leif: 01:18:06

And this is my boy Sherman. Speak.

Michael: 01:18:08

Sherman. Hello.

Leif: 01:18:10

Good boy.

Leif: 01:18:11

Welcome back to the television without pity forums from

Leif: 01:18:13

2008. Get some very positive first positive

Leif: 01:18:16

reactions to the Humphries in a while. Everyone. Everyone kind of

Leif: 01:18:19

liked when they said set.

Michael: 01:18:21

Okay.

Leif: 01:18:22

They're normally kind of hated in fandom.

Michael: 01:18:24

Really?

Leif: 01:18:24

Yeah.

Leif: 01:18:25

The fandom tends to lean into

Leif: 01:18:28

the rich folks and tend

Leif: 01:18:30

to just kind of go along with

Leif: 01:18:33

the rich folks.

Leif: 01:18:37

Except for the most hardcore of Chuck

Leif: 01:18:39

boys, people like Nate and dad's

Leif: 01:18:41

interactions. I can almost hear the patter

Leif: 01:18:44

of keyboards typing up slash fanfic.

Leif: 01:18:50

Yeah. A lot of people were talking about, like, is this a romance or a

Leif: 01:18:53

bromance?

Leif: 01:18:54

Right?

Leif: 01:18:54

Yeah, because, yeah, they were very

Leif: 01:18:57

cute.

Leif: 01:18:58

Together? Yeah.

Leif: 01:18:59

But, yeah, like, a few. Like, the few Chuck boys were like,

Leif: 01:19:02

oh, Dan doesn't deserve it.

Leif: 01:19:04

Nate needs to go back and worship the altar of Chuck,

Leif: 01:19:07

basically.

Leif: 01:19:11

Vanessa is still the worst, so no shocker there.

Leif: 01:19:14

Yeah, always. She got worse.

Leif: 01:19:16

She. Blackmail.

Leif: 01:19:18

Yeah, this is. This is her.

Leif: 01:19:19

This is her work or actually being.

Leif: 01:19:21

A bad person before, she was just kind of annoying

Leif: 01:19:24

because. So she was just kind of forced

Leif: 01:19:27

into the show because she's. She has no real

Leif: 01:19:30

reason to interact with all these fridge kids other than she was

Leif: 01:19:32

childhood best friends with Dan. Okay.

Michael: 01:19:35

Yeah, that was a. I guess a question I had is I wasn't sure

Michael: 01:19:38

how she circled everything because she seemed to be an outsider.

Leif: 01:19:41

Yeah, she is so, like, right, right from the

Leif: 01:19:44

beginning, even though, like, at the beginning, she seemed like she's kind of a good

Leif: 01:19:47

person. Or at least they're kind of trying to say

Leif: 01:19:50

she was. But everything was forced with her

Leif: 01:19:53

because she had no real place in this world, so she was

Leif: 01:19:56

automatically hated by the audience. Now they're going to

Leif: 01:19:59

just lean into it because

Leif: 01:20:02

she doesn't start being bad to hypocrite.

Leif: 01:20:05

Yeah. One of the things that

Leif: 01:20:08

came up a lot is when Michelle Trachtenberg was on

Leif: 01:20:11

the show, she actually made Vanessa

Leif: 01:20:14

look better.

Michael: 01:20:15

Oh.

Leif: 01:20:16

Like, that's, that's where Michelle Trachtenberg was on

Leif: 01:20:19

the show because she was playing. She was pretending to be

Leif: 01:20:22

someone she wasn't and

Leif: 01:20:25

lying to Vanessa and Dan. And Vanessa

Leif: 01:20:28

was super likable in the scenes where they were

Leif: 01:20:30

together, and then she'd leave and be like, oh, I hate

Leif: 01:20:33

her.

Leif: 01:20:35

People were very happy that Eric has a boyfriend.

Leif: 01:20:38

Yes. Yeah.

Michael: 01:20:39

Yes.

Leif: 01:20:42

And they're glad they're avoiding the same sophomore slap

Leif: 01:20:45

the OC had. so the OC, they decided to try

Leif: 01:20:48

and shake things up by bringing new characters, but on this

Leif: 01:20:51

show, they're kind of shuffling. We got

Leif: 01:20:53

or not romantic.

Leif: 01:20:56

Well, it's early. It's early. Oh,

Leif: 01:20:58

God.

Michael: 01:21:00

I mean, Lily, it's only a matter of time before she goes somewhere

Michael: 01:21:03

else.

Leif: 01:21:03

Yeah. Lily is going to need another husband eventually.

Leif: 01:21:06

Yep.

Leif: 01:21:07

I wasn't the only one that knows Chuck missing from the

Leif: 01:21:10

family moment at the end there.

Leif: 01:21:12

Sorry, I need to add that that's not the Brooklyn bone she's looking

Leif: 01:21:15

for. Yeah.

Leif: 01:21:17

So, yeah, they didn't really touch on it on this episode, but Lily and

Leif: 01:21:19

Rufus have a past. Oh,

Leif: 01:21:22

yeah, they dated, like,

Leif: 01:21:25

before any of the kids were even born. Well,

Leif: 01:21:28

and then they have. They also questionable. Oh, yeah. I

Leif: 01:21:31

mean, yeah, they did.

Leif: 01:21:32

Like, they dated in.

Leif: 01:21:34

Before the show. Before the show start? Like,

Leif: 01:21:36

yeah, before the show start. Well, before the show, when.

Leif: 01:21:39

When his band was touring. They were dating.

Michael: 01:21:41

That's it.

Leif: 01:21:43

But. And then they had a little kind of thing last

Leif: 01:21:45

season for the night before the wedding.

Leif: 01:21:47

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Leif: 01:21:49

That she decided to marry for anyways because he only. Yeah, it's really

Leif: 01:21:52

weird, because Rufus wanted to date her but didn't want to get married, but she

Leif: 01:21:55

really wants to get married. Right. then.

Leif: 01:21:58

And Bart.

Leif: 01:22:00

And Bart, we were pretty sure knows. Yeah. Like,

Leif: 01:22:02

Bart went there the next day and was basically like, hey, I have this

Leif: 01:22:05

old apartment that I keep for

Leif: 01:22:08

nostalgia, and I'm thinking I should let it go. What do you

Leif: 01:22:11

think? And she's like, yeah, I think you should let it

Leif: 01:22:14

go. And, like, as if to say, like, I'm ready to

Leif: 01:22:17

move on. Right, right. Yeah.

Leif: 01:22:19

People were wondering, since Lily was such an

Leif: 01:22:22

absentee mother, where was the dad?

Leif: 01:22:25

Why couldn't he have come back and take care of the kids?

Leif: 01:22:28

We've never heard anything about the

Leif: 01:22:30

actual father. Sperm donors.

Leif: 01:22:33

M. Are they related to my

Leif: 01:22:36

wife?

Leif: 01:22:38

Have they given us Lily's real last name yet?

Leif: 01:22:41

Her maiden name?

Leif: 01:22:41

No.

Leif: 01:22:42

Okay.

Leif: 01:22:42

Oh, wait. Has Cece.

Leif: 01:22:44

Yes, Cece's name. So. Yeah, because they

Leif: 01:22:47

introduce cc as Rhodes.

Leif: 01:22:49

They do? Yeah.

Leif: 01:22:49

So we know that's that.

Leif: 01:22:52

So Vander woods and his daughter, her.

Leif: 01:22:56

I'm gonna. I'm gonna have to make an assumption here

Leif: 01:22:59

now that I'm just putting that together. I'm gonna assume

Leif: 01:23:02

that their father is dead, because if their dad

Leif: 01:23:04

is dead, that gives more reason for her not

Leif: 01:23:07

to change her name. And,

Leif: 01:23:11

like, even after being married several times, she kept

Leif: 01:23:14

her name.

Leif: 01:23:14

Well, I think we've talked about this because we talked about your mom, how she

Leif: 01:23:17

never changed her name.

Leif: 01:23:19

Right. But she was never married again, too, so she married

Leif: 01:23:21

it. After she married, she changed her name

Leif: 01:23:25

to Krutzyk for her first husband in March on.

Leif: 01:23:28

But after the divorce, she never changed it. And

Leif: 01:23:31

the fact that Lily has. I mean,

Leif: 01:23:34

because, like, never went back, though. Yeah, she never. Lily never.

Leif: 01:23:37

But Lily never went to any other name

Leif: 01:23:39

other than Vander Woodson. So

Leif: 01:23:42

that kind of tells me that the dad died and left the

Leif: 01:23:45

estate to

Leif: 01:23:48

them and that a lot of the money is in that estate, not

Leif: 01:23:51

that Cece doesn't also have her.

Michael: 01:23:54

I was also curious about the money. Like, is. Is

Michael: 01:23:57

Lily. Does she have money, or is it from the other?

Leif: 01:24:00

Yes. Marriage.

Leif: 01:24:01

She was rich from birth. her

Leif: 01:24:04

mother. We met in season one.

Leif: 01:24:06

That's who we're talking about.

Michael: 01:24:08

Is. Okay, okay.

Leif: 01:24:10

She's. She's really rich. And then she's

Leif: 01:24:13

also married three other guys who are presumably rich

Leif: 01:24:16

as well.

Michael: 01:24:17

The thing is, like, if you know just the big picture, if you have

Michael: 01:24:20

this widower who is very wealthy and she

Michael: 01:24:22

keeps marrying other guys, I feel like she's being fleeced.

Michael: 01:24:25

Like, people are seducing her, trying to get married, taking their cut of the

Michael: 01:24:28

billions and then running. But she obviously has enough money that

Michael: 01:24:31

either that's not the case or those people have their own money, too. I don't know.

Leif: 01:24:34

Yeah, I think it's kind of implied that all our husbands have been

Leif: 01:24:37

wealthy.

Leif: 01:24:37

Yeah. And Lily. And mostly

Leif: 01:24:40

because Lily left

Leif: 01:24:43

Rufus in the first place. Well, she left him for Trent

Leif: 01:24:45

Reznor, but.

Leif: 01:24:46

Well, not really that that was just the excuse she

Leif: 01:24:49

gave. But, yeah, we find. We. That's what. That's what

Leif: 01:24:52

Rufus always thought.

Leif: 01:24:53

Yeah.

Leif: 01:24:53

Early in season, we find out that actually, she was threatened

Leif: 01:24:56

to be. No, cC, threatened to

Leif: 01:24:59

disinherit her.

Leif: 01:25:00

Yeah. and

Leif: 01:25:03

then after that, she only dated billionaires. Like,

Leif: 01:25:06

they make many comments about how she only marries

Leif: 01:25:09

billionaires.

Leif: 01:25:12

And then the last point from this week, Chuck, and Blair

Leif: 01:25:15

are hot. Everyone liked their

Leif: 01:25:17

Stevie scene.

Leif: 01:25:20

Yeah.

Leif: 01:25:20

So we can go ahead and move into some episode

Leif: 01:25:23

grades.

Leif: 01:25:27

Steve, you are up first this week.

Leif: 01:25:28

So I actually really liked this episode

Leif: 01:25:31

a lot. I really liked the storytelling and

Leif: 01:25:34

the backstories that we got in it. I

Leif: 01:25:37

actually gave this one an a minus.

Leif: 01:25:40

The big knock for me was

Leif: 01:25:42

Vanessa suddenly just being a

Leif: 01:25:45

blackmailer. Like. Like, just Vanessa

Leif: 01:25:48

completely shifting her character

Leif: 01:25:51

to being just as bad as everybody

Leif: 01:25:54

else. I really didn't like that. But outside of that, I

Leif: 01:25:57

really like the way that these stories

Leif: 01:26:01

were told in this episode. So I went a

Leif: 01:26:04

minus. I usually don't go into the a's, but I went a minus on this

Leif: 01:26:07

one.

Leif: 01:26:08

How about you, Michael?

Michael: 01:26:09

So, obviously, I have nothing to compare it to as far

Michael: 01:26:12

as this is the only episode of this show I've ever watched.

Michael: 01:26:15

hard to compare it to other shows and other genres, so I want to go with

Michael: 01:26:18

just a straight down the line. B. I did

Michael: 01:26:20

enjoy parts of the episode. There were parts that were pretty

Michael: 01:26:23

well written. I like how quickly it

Michael: 01:26:26

moved. Like, that was one of my fears that, you know,

Michael: 01:26:29

nothing ever actually changes. It seems like things change a lot in this show,

Michael: 01:26:31

so I could see how it would become compelling, but without

Michael: 01:26:34

anything else to grade it against.

Leif: 01:26:36

B for me, I actually went a little bit lower on this one.

Leif: 01:26:39

It was a good episode. It was slightly, but it was

Leif: 01:26:42

not a great episode, so I gave it a b minus. The

Leif: 01:26:44

directing was pretty good. The writing was solid. The acting was

Leif: 01:26:47

solid, but it just definitely wasn't a standout

Leif: 01:26:50

episode for me.

Leif: 01:26:51

That's fair.

Michael: 01:26:53

It was.

Leif: 01:26:53

It was definitely a midseason kind of transition on

Leif: 01:26:56

Mary because we kind of went through the whole

Leif: 01:26:58

Sereno Blair fight in the beginning of the season,

Leif: 01:27:01

and I think now we're kind of transitioning to this. What's going

Leif: 01:27:04

to happen through the mid season? Okay,

Leif: 01:27:08

moving into Stockwatch, steve, who do you got going

Leif: 01:27:11

up this week?

Leif: 01:27:12

Okay, going up, I had Dan and Nate

Leif: 01:27:14

for, you know, the brohood. You know, the Humphries in

Leif: 01:27:17

general should just get a nod, but I'm really giving it to Dan and

Leif: 01:27:20

Nate. Then I'm also giving it to Eric. Eric

Leif: 01:27:23

really deserves a lot of up stock here for

Leif: 01:27:26

just being the solid brother for, you know,

Leif: 01:27:29

eric has a boyfriend. Like, that's awesome for

Leif: 01:27:32

eric. so I had those three. Those three are

Leif: 01:27:35

my only ups, actually.

Leif: 01:27:37

Michael, what about you?

Michael: 01:27:38

So up, Eric again. Precious boy. Protect him at all

Michael: 01:27:41

costs. I have up for Nate.

Leif: 01:27:43

Yeah.

Michael: 01:27:43

Because asking for help can be hard,

Michael: 01:27:46

particularly if you are in a slightly different socioeconomic

Michael: 01:27:48

stratosphere. So kind of like going down

Michael: 01:27:51

maybe to Dan's level. I'm sure that was hard for him. He

Michael: 01:27:54

rejected it initially, came around.

Michael: 01:27:57

So I think he's on the, up.

Leif: 01:27:58

no.

Michael: 01:27:58

And then come back down.

Leif: 01:28:00

Do you want to do.

Leif: 01:28:02

You didn't really see this. Nate's mom

Leif: 01:28:05

is currently staying in their, their Hamptons estate,

Leif: 01:28:08

so it's not as bad as it's paying.

Leif: 01:28:12

Yeah, it's really funny because there's an earlier

Leif: 01:28:14

episode, like, you know, where

Leif: 01:28:17

Nate's like, oh, I'm going to fix this. And, like, all this stuff is

Leif: 01:28:20

happening, and it's like, yeah. Like,

Leif: 01:28:23

it's so horrible that you have been,

Leif: 01:28:26

you know, sent to the Hamptons, to the family

Leif: 01:28:28

estate instead of your upper east side

Leif: 01:28:31

home. Like, you poor thing.

Leif: 01:28:33

His. His name is Nate Archibald, but his

Leif: 01:28:36

mother is a vanderbilt of the

Leif: 01:28:39

real life Vanderbilts. And, this is before they actually lost all their money.

Michael: 01:28:42

So.

Leif: 01:28:42

Okay, that's actually fairly recent.

Michael: 01:28:45

Oh, yes.

Leif: 01:28:46

I didn't know they did.

Leif: 01:28:47

they're still wealthy, but they've

Leif: 01:28:49

lost. They're not generational wealthy anymore.

Leif: 01:28:52

Oh, I didn't know that.

Leif: 01:28:53

Yeah, they didn't teach their, their kids good. They did a lot of

Leif: 01:28:56

gambling and other stupid stuff.

Leif: 01:28:58

Money and.

Leif: 01:28:59

Yeah, after, you know, five or six generations, that,

Leif: 01:29:02

yeah, that goes away, but it did take a

Leif: 01:29:04

while.

Leif: 01:29:05

Yeah, they were stupid for was

Leif: 01:29:08

generational.

Leif: 01:29:08

Well,

Leif: 01:29:11

so moving on to dad. What do you got? Actually, about my

Leif: 01:29:14

ups?

Leif: 01:29:14

Yeah, you're up.

Leif: 01:29:15

Yeah, my upsa. So I had Nate, Dan, Jenny,

Leif: 01:29:17

rufus as well. I had Bart going up

Leif: 01:29:20

because it looked like he was being a bad guy, but he was

Leif: 01:29:23

actually being a good guy. And I know you,

Leif: 01:29:26

Michael. You didn't like, he killed the story, but that just kind of part

Leif: 01:29:29

of the show is we're supposed to accept that

Leif: 01:29:32

that's not really a bad thing. That's not a good thing.

Leif: 01:29:34

I almost gave Barton up, but the chuck stuff.

Leif: 01:29:37

Yeah, right.

Leif: 01:29:39

I just. I just hate shots.

Leif: 01:29:42

Eric, obviously, he goes up, and I also gave Horace

Leif: 01:29:44

an up, even though he looks like he's got loose the bar.

Leif: 01:29:47

I mean, this is good at him on the show. I thought he was a

Leif: 01:29:50

cool guy.

Leif: 01:29:51

Yeah. My only backup to what you said, though, is,

Leif: 01:29:54

like, maybe Chuck wouldn't be such a piece of shit if

Leif: 01:29:57

his dad would just hug him. Yeah,

Leif: 01:29:59

just give the kid a hug, right?

Leif: 01:30:03

You're falling for it. That's the show's right at the eddie.

Leif: 01:30:06

Yeah, I know.

Leif: 01:30:06

I know.

Leif: 01:30:07

Well, I mean, well, you know, it's not like I

Leif: 01:30:10

don't have my daddy issues,

Leif: 01:30:14

so. Going down, right? going down. I have

Leif: 01:30:17

Serena. You made yourself look like an asshole.

Leif: 01:30:20

I have both Chuck and Blair going

Leif: 01:30:23

down for losing it.

Leif: 01:30:26

Yeah, I.

Michael: 01:30:28

Sorry.

Leif: 01:30:28

Literally at some point, but, currently I had

Leif: 01:30:31

Lily also is on my down

Leif: 01:30:34

list, and then Vanessa. I

Leif: 01:30:37

actually forgot to write her down. But then, yeah, Vanessa should.

Leif: 01:30:40

Is, like, my major.

Leif: 01:30:41

Yeah, michael, what about you?

Michael: 01:30:43

So I have Blair again, just so

Michael: 01:30:46

transparent. Everything she's trying to do is everybody

Michael: 01:30:48

sees what's happening, and then she ultimately doesn't get what she wants.

Michael: 01:30:51

So I definitely had her on stock watch going

Michael: 01:30:54

down. I didn't have Vanessa originally, but with the

Michael: 01:30:57

context you have added to this episode, I will add her

Michael: 01:31:00

because I didn't know what the context was for her. I just thought that's who her

Michael: 01:31:03

character was. But if you're telling me that this is, like, departure, that she's

Michael: 01:31:05

just suddenly doing, like, the blackmail stuff, then I will put her on

Michael: 01:31:08

down.

Leif: 01:31:09

In an earlier episode, someone was

Leif: 01:31:12

tried to, like, buy a different tape off of her,

Leif: 01:31:15

and she had the access to blackmail. I

Leif: 01:31:18

guess she kind of did blackmail Blair, but not really because she just gave her

Leif: 01:31:21

the tape. Yeah, like, she had evidence of

Leif: 01:31:24

Blair doing something, and she just gave Blair the

Leif: 01:31:27

tape after Chuck paid her, like,

Leif: 01:31:30

$50,000 for it.

Leif: 01:31:32

He gave her a fake tape, and he.

Leif: 01:31:33

And, yeah, she gave him a fake tape and then

Leif: 01:31:36

gave Blair the real one and donated the money to

Leif: 01:31:39

a, herpes charity for women who have slept with Chuck bass.

Leif: 01:31:42

No, for me going down, I had Chuck and

Leif: 01:31:45

Blair because they both were scheming

Leif: 01:31:48

and it kind of blew up in their faces and they didn't get

Leif: 01:31:51

what they wanted.

Leif: 01:31:51

Vanessa, for the same reasons you guys had, she's

Leif: 01:31:54

taking a turn for the dark side

Leif: 01:31:57

and also Serena because. Yeah, she was just kind of

Leif: 01:32:00

stupid throughout the episode.

Leif: 01:32:01

Yeah, yeah, all of that. But here's the

Leif: 01:32:04

best outfits from the last

Leif: 01:32:06

episode we see.

Leif: 01:32:11

Moving on to best outfit. Steve, who you

Leif: 01:32:14

got?

Leif: 01:32:14

my. The slushy suit was. I love that.

Leif: 01:32:17

That. The green shirt, that mint

Leif: 01:32:20

shirt. I just thought it really popped. I love that first

Leif: 01:32:23

outfit, the non ascot outfit of

Leif: 01:32:25

Chuck's. I also want to give a shout out to Horace's

Leif: 01:32:28

shirt. I, loved that shirt.

Leif: 01:32:30

Yeah. What about you, Michael?

Michael: 01:32:32

So just a quick word again. I hated everything that Chuck wore,

Michael: 01:32:35

especially the ascot and the smoking jacket. But

Michael: 01:32:38

I actually thought Vanessa's, outfit at the

Michael: 01:32:41

party.

Leif: 01:32:42

Yeah, I think that for me, though, it

Leif: 01:32:45

was, ah, Blair's black polka dot dress from the. With

Leif: 01:32:48

the pearls, that she wore.

Leif: 01:32:50

In the first act. I almost picked that one.

Leif: 01:32:53

That was actually one of the ones that I started to

Leif: 01:32:56

pick. I love that dress. Ah, and

Leif: 01:32:59

again, part of it is the

Leif: 01:33:02

accessories. They always

Leif: 01:33:04

accessorize her so well.

Leif: 01:33:06

And, of course, Blake's dress or, Serena's dress for horny

Leif: 01:33:09

reasons.

Leif: 01:33:11

Yeah.

Michael: 01:33:13

Like the opening scene where she's wearing, like, a pequ.

Michael: 01:33:16

A, purple sequins vest, a,

Michael: 01:33:18

loose tie, and then, like, It was

Michael: 01:33:21

the weirdest thing.

Leif: 01:33:23

They're allowed to accessorize, like, as much as they want, it seems like.

Leif: 01:33:26

Yeah.

Leif: 01:33:27

Not that they ever go to class.

Leif: 01:33:29

Yeah.

Leif: 01:33:29

Yeah.

Leif: 01:33:31

Well, when Serena shows up. Right. Clearly

Leif: 01:33:33

not without the. Without anything under it,

Leif: 01:33:36

you know? And I loved that. we didn't really. I kind of started

Leif: 01:33:39

telling Bart's reaction to that. I was like, hey, I'm glad the suit

Leif: 01:33:42

fits. Like, I'm not trying to change

Leif: 01:33:45

you.

Leif: 01:33:48

That is it for some segments, all we have left is some

Leif: 01:33:51

plugs. But first of all, Michael, thank you for joining us

Leif: 01:33:53

today.

Michael: 01:33:54

Thank you for having me.

Leif: 01:33:55

It was a great time plug for us.

Michael: 01:33:57

So the Ennis will have already been over before this comes out,

Michael: 01:34:00

but if anyone is interested in a GM less role playing

Michael: 01:34:03

game about bad action movies and d twelve dice, you

Michael: 01:34:06

can look for action twelve cinema. I

Michael: 01:34:09

have the podcast, the RPG

Michael: 01:34:11

Academy. It's all about role playing games we've been running for over

Michael: 01:34:14

twelve years. We do segments where we interview people, we do live

Michael: 01:34:17

play, we do reviews, interviews. If it's anywhere in

Michael: 01:34:20

the rpg space, we probably have episodes talking about it

Michael: 01:34:23

somewhere. And then I. Oh, I'm

Michael: 01:34:26

on TikTok now. I just recently started. if you search the

Michael: 01:34:28

RPG academy, you'll find me. But my actual account is like

Michael: 01:34:31

MKR 22. But either way

Michael: 01:34:34

you'll get there. And if you have the misfortune of being in

Michael: 01:34:37

Dayton, Ohio, in November, come to a catacomb because

Michael: 01:34:40

it's a really great convention.

Leif: 01:34:41

It'd be like a twelve hour drive.

Leif: 01:34:44

We're in eastern Pennsylvania.

Michael: 01:34:46

Where are you guys at?

Leif: 01:34:47

I think it's, I think it's more.

Leif: 01:34:49

Okay, eastern, eight to ten, maybe to Dayton.

Leif: 01:34:52

Dayton's like dead center, Ohio, sort of

Leif: 01:34:55

northeast.

Leif: 01:34:56

We're right outside of Philadelphia.

Leif: 01:34:57

I feel like it took me 10 hours to get Sleeto. Maybe it

Leif: 01:35:00

was twelve to twelve.

Michael: 01:35:01

Okay, according to the map, 8 hours.

Leif: 01:35:05

Yeah, I went to, I went to Alabama

Leif: 01:35:08

for a weekend on a road trip a couple

Leif: 01:35:11

weeks ago, so Ohio sounds lovely.

Leif: 01:35:13

Well, if you want to drive.

Leif: 01:35:15

Yeah, yeah.

Leif: 01:35:17

Okay.

Michael: 01:35:18

Let me know. I know a guy. I can hook you up.

Leif: 01:35:20

Anything you want to plug. Steve?

Leif: 01:35:22

I don't have anything going on

Leif: 01:35:25

right now because I played my gig last

Leif: 01:35:28

night. I would like to shout out to the

Leif: 01:35:30

woman that I met after the show last night because I played every

Leif: 01:35:33

time because it's a regular set. We, see Rufus

Leif: 01:35:36

play a song in season one, and I've

Leif: 01:35:39

learned that song and I now play it whenever I play

Leif: 01:35:42

music, whenever I play a set.

Michael: 01:35:44

Oh, nice.

Leif: 01:35:44

and so shout out to the person who came up to me last night. I wish I

Leif: 01:35:47

caught your name, but thank you for hanging out with us. Good.

Leif: 01:35:50

We got a new fan.

Leif: 01:35:51

Yeah, we, we've got a new fan. She promised to

Leif: 01:35:54

listen. I should have told her pick up around, like, episode four,

Leif: 01:35:57

but I forgot.

Steve: 01:36:00

We have.

Leif: 01:36:01

We definitely had our learning curve. But, I do want to

Leif: 01:36:03

just, plug my TikTok, Steve Marshawn,

Leif: 01:36:06

and Steve dot Marshan, tick tock, and,

Leif: 01:36:09

Instagram Marchion.

Leif: 01:36:10

And,

Leif: 01:36:13

I think that's all for my plugs.

Leif: 01:36:15

Well, if you want to follow me, you can follow me on Instagram.

Leif: 01:36:18

I'm hot capicola. You can follow

Leif: 01:36:21

the podcast on Instagram, TikTok, and now

Leif: 01:36:24

threads non judging breakfast pod. And

Leif: 01:36:27

we are on Twitter as well as

Leif: 01:36:29

jbpod. We also have a Facebook group

Leif: 01:36:32

and page. Just search for nonjudging breakfast

Leif: 01:36:35

pod. And, you can also check our website,

Leif: 01:36:37

notjudging breakfastpod.com and you can find links

Leif: 01:36:40

to our discord server.

Leif: 01:36:42

And if you'd like to give us some comments,

Leif: 01:36:45

questions or remarks on the

Leif: 01:36:47

episode, please feel free to email

Leif: 01:36:49

us@nonjudgingbreakfastpodmail.com.

Leif: 01:36:52

dot we'd love to hear what you have to say. We'd love

Leif: 01:36:55

to read it back, here on the podcast and

Leif: 01:36:57

we'd love for you to contribute to the conversation, so

Leif: 01:37:00

please do so and get involved with us. We'd love

Leif: 01:37:03

it.

Leif: 01:37:04

So we will be back next week to talk about

Leif: 01:37:07

season two, episode eight. Pret a

Leif: 01:37:10

poor j the Max episode

Leif: 01:37:13

preview reads, a young model

Leif: 01:37:16

encourages Jenny's wild side.

Leif: 01:37:18

oh, Jenny is a designer.

Michael: 01:37:21

yeah, I throw that one

Michael: 01:37:22

liners.

Leif: 01:37:25

Mom'S fashion designing company.

Leif: 01:37:28

Yeah, yeah.

Leif: 01:37:30

So yeah, we'll be back next week. Until next time.

Leif: 01:37:33

You know you love us.

Steve: 01:37:34

Xoxo every time you

Steve: 01:37:37

walk away run away you take a piece of me

Steve: 01:37:40

with you there every

Steve: 01:37:43

time you walk away or run away you take a piece of

Steve: 01:37:46

me with you there

Steve: 01:37:49

every time you walk away or run away you take a

Steve: 01:37:52

piece of me with you there

Steve: 01:37:56

oh it seems I'm walking right to your

Steve: 01:37:59

door door.

Leif: 01:38:02

My heart.

Steve: 01:38:03

Still resting looking for something

Steve: 01:38:05

more.

Leif: 01:38:08

Are.

Steve: 01:38:09

You ever gonna see everything you mean to me I'm

Steve: 01:38:12

trying really hard to believe

Steve: 01:38:15

every time you walk away or run away you take a

Steve: 01:38:18

piece of me with you there

Steve: 01:38:21

every time you walk away or run away you take a piece

Steve: 01:38:24

of of me with you there

Steve: 01:38:28

every time you walk away or run away you take a

Steve: 01:38:31

piece of me with you there

Steve: 01:38:34

never feels right when I'm out here on

Steve: 01:38:37

my own

Steve: 01:38:40

I left last night and it feels like

Steve: 01:38:43

way too long

Steve: 01:38:47

are you ever gonna see everything you mean to

Steve: 01:38:50

me I'm trying really hard to believe

Steve: 01:38:54

every time you walk away run away you take a piece

Steve: 01:38:57

of me with you there

Steve: 01:39:00

every time you walk away or run away you take a

Steve: 01:39:03

piece of me with you there

Steve: 01:39:06

every time you walk away or run away you take a

Steve: 01:39:09

piece of m me with you.

Leif: 01:39:11

There.

Steve: 01:39:15

Come back to me

Steve: 01:39:19

smile and you'll make my life

Steve: 01:39:22

complete

Steve: 01:39:26

every time you walk away or run away you take a piece

Steve: 01:39:29

of me with you there

Steve: 01:39:32

every time you walk away or run away you take a

Steve: 01:39:35

piece of me with you there

Steve: 01:39:38

every time you walk away or run away you take a

Steve: 01:39:41

piece of me with you there

Steve: 01:39:45

every time you walk away or run away you take a

Steve: 01:39:48

piece of me with you there

Steve: 01:39:51

every time you walk away or run away you take a

Steve: 01:39:54

piece of me with you there

Steve: 01:39:58

every time you walk away I'll run away you take a

Steve: 01:40:01

piece of me with you there

Steve: 01:40:04

every time you walk away run away you take a

Steve: 01:40:07

piece of me with you there

Steve: 01:40:10

every time you walk away run away you take a

Steve: 01:40:13

piece of me with you there.

Michael: 01:40:21

Close.