Episode 14
Gossip Girl S2E14 - In the Realm of the Basses
Summary
In this episode of the Non Judging Breakfast Pod, hosts Leif and Steve dive into Season 2, Episode 14 of Gossip Girl, "In the Realm of the Basses." After a brief hiatus, the duo is back to explore the aftermath of the Upper East Side's holiday season. As Chuck spirals into self-destruction, Blair struggles with her feelings after confessing her love to him. Meanwhile, Rufus and Lily grapple with the revelation of their long-lost child, leading to tension and secrets that threaten to unravel relationships. The hosts unpack the complexities of family dynamics, the weight of secrets, and the ever-present drama that defines the lives of Manhattan's elite. With their signature humor and insight, Leif and Steve navigate the intricate web of emotions and power plays that make this episode a standout.
Keywords
Gossip Girl, Chuck Bass, secrets, family drama, podcast, analysis, Upper East Side
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
02:30 Catching Up: Hawaii and Bronchitis
05:00 Patreon Announcements
08:30 Discussing "In the Realm of the Basses"
15:45 Chuck's Downward Spiral
25:00 Rufus and Lily's Secret Child
35:30 Blair's Emotional Turmoil
42:00 Jenny and the Mean Girls
50:00 Episode Highlights and Reflections
58:30 Stock Watch: Characters Rising and Falling
1:05:00 Best Outfits and Fashion Highlights
1:10:00 Predictions and Closing Remarks
Produced by Leif Capicola and Steve Marchion.
Edited and mixed by Leif Capicola.
The Gossip Girl Theme Performed By Steve Marchion.
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Transcript
Rufus is the one.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:Who's now keeping a secret from Lily. Yeah,
Steve:that Dan knows. What a fucking
Steve:asshole.
Leif:Hey, Upper east siders, and all you scandal loving listeners out
Leif:there, you just tuned into the non judging breakfast
Leif:pod. Where the coffee is strong, the waffles
Leif:are fresh, the gossip is hotter than ever.
Leif:My name is Leif and I'm your seasoned Gossip Girl veteran.
Steve:And I'm Steve, the newbie, the greenhorn,
Steve:the, I don't know, leaf. What do we call the Season 2
Steve:newbie?
Leif:Enough of this high school nonsense. I'm hosting a selection
Leif:committee for the Colony club tonight, Steve.
Steve:Well, then you can.
Steve:Well then you can go ahead and
Steve:cast, my submission for it and
Steve:we'll get on with this podcast.
Leif:Sounds good.
Steve:So here's the deal, folks. Leap has been listening to.
Steve:Leap has been watching Gossip Girl since it first came out.
Steve:And I am diving in for the very first time.
Steve:And together, we are your dynamic duo, bringing you all
Steve:the drama, romance, and sometimes
Steve:questionable fashion choices of this iconic
Steve:2007 series.
Leif:That's right. Each week we'll be taking a deep dive into the show
Leif:one episode at a time. Analyze all the
Leif:parallels, obscure references, and of course,
Leif:couture catastrophes. Plus, we'll also be touching on
Leif:all the behind the scenes gossip and some stories from
Leif:fandom and M. Since we.
Steve:Are all about inclusivity here at the non judging
Steve:breakfast pod, there is always a seat for you at the
Steve:non judging breakfast table. So go ahead and grab your
Steve:mimosa, a cup of coffee or maybe some
Steve:of Nate and Chuck's special medicine, and let's get into
Steve:it.
Leif:Sounds good. So we've had, a
Leif:bit of a break. you went to Hawaii? I got
Leif:sick with bronchitis for three weeks.
Leif:And so we kind of caught up to our release schedule
Leif:because this episode will be coming out a week from Monday on
Leif:November 18th.
Steve:We actually need to cut that out about Hawaii because it was a
Steve:big secret trip in, case his family
Steve:hears it. His family doesn't know about it.
Steve:I went on vacation. We could say.
Steve:Did you mind retaking that because, well.
Leif:We didn't say where, who you went with.
Steve:No, but, like, if anyone knows where I went to
Steve:Hawaii, if they, if they hear it, they know why
Steve:I went there. Like, he very
Steve:specifically asked me not to. until he tells
Steve:his family he doesn't want me to say anything.
Leif:Your friends family listens to our podcast?
Steve:Probably not. Yeah. But
Steve:if they do, too bad.
Leif:so we did get some requests for Patreon, so We did set
Leif:one up, and you can support us for as little as $1 a
Leif:month. There are several tiers available.
Leif:you can, do some watch parties with us. We're going to watch some cast
Leif:movies, and you can get shouted out on the
Leif:podcast. So, check it
Leif:out@patreon.com nonjudging
Leif:breakfast pod. And we are here to talk
Leif:about season two, episode 14, in the
Leif:realm of the Passes. Original air
Leif:date was January 5th, 2009. First
Leif:episode of the New Year.
Steve:Yeah, 2009. So what was going
Steve:on around then?
Leif:I, mean, we're in the heart of the Occupy Wall street in the
Leif:recession.
Steve:Oh, yeah. Yep.
Leif:So I really don't know who
Leif:the writers are writing to with these title references.
Leif:This was based on the movie. I know,
Leif:Kurita, also known as in the Realm of the
Leif:Senses, but It was a
Leif:1976 Japanese slash
Leif:French erotic art film with
Leif:unsimulated sex scenes in it. And they're expecting
Leif:teenagers to go watch this.
Steve:Yeah. I wonder if
Steve:they expected
Steve:the teenagers to know the
Steve:titles that well, though keep in mind that back
Steve:then, when you're watching it, the
Steve:actual title episode is something that
Steve:wasn't really made public unless you're
Steve:looking online or if you're. It's not like on
Steve:Max.
Leif:This is the age of TV Guide channel,
Leif:and it was right on there.
Steve:Oh, would they. Would they post the episode?
Leif:If anyone was a fan, like, you know, in fan, and was
Leif:getting the episode a few weeks ahead of time, and
Leif:TV Guide magazine would come out, like, three weeks ahead with the
Leif:episode titles.
Steve:Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Leif:It was definitely a thing.
Steve:Okay. And then there's also the question of who
Steve:is it do you think is titling it? Do you think that
Steve:each, you know, whoever gets the writing credit, is that
Steve:the person who's titling it?
Leif:no, I think it was a group effort. And, like, I know,
Leif:like, at least one episode was titled
Leif:by an intern. Not an intern,
Leif:Josh. Saffron's assistant.
Steve:Okay.
Leif:And then obviously the strike
Leif:episode, this Thin line between Chuck and Nate was
Leif:titled by the crew because.
Steve:Because they weren't allowed to. The writers were striking and
Steve:couldn't name the episode, which. I actually love
Steve:that. And it's actually one of the best
Steve:titles in reference to
Steve:the episode itself.
Leif:Yeah. So this episode was written
Leif:by John Stevens, who had
Leif:previously written the Dark Knight and There
Leif:Might Be Blood, both pretty good episodes.
Steve:Yeah. Yeah.
Leif:Directed by Tony Warmby. directed
Leif:Victor Victrola. So he comes back to the club,
Leif:school. He must have liked shooting there.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:school Lies, Women on the Verge, and
Leif:Chuck in real life.
Steve:I remember during Victor Victrola, I
Steve:actually asked if this was if it was going
Steve:to be a regular place,
Steve:and you had to think about it. You weren't quite
Steve:sure. But I'm really glad now to see it
Steve:still be a recurring place
Steve:in the show. And I'm glad he bought it
Steve:back. Like, I think that's really cool. But we'll get to
Steve:that.
Leif:The Vulture recap. After the
Leif:long break, Gossip Girl kicks us off with a lot of nice
Leif:exposition about what everyone did over their not
Leif:so happy holidays. Chuck was in
Leif:Thailand, sucking on a long red hookah.
Leif:Serena banned coconuts in Argentina. Sons
Leif:Aaron, whom she broke up with on the plane.
Leif:Apparently, she was as revolted as we were by his
Leif:stammering, I think I'm falling in love with you
Leif:in the last episode. Dan, meanwhile,
Leif:pied at home alone. Because the writers forgot that
Leif:way back at the beginning of the season, they imbued him
Leif:with magic pussy powers he could use to forget.
Leif:Serena. Vanessa was with her parents. Man
Leif:Bangs was mia And Cece, it seems,
Leif:wisely fled the scene after revealing the
Leif:big secret to Rufus, which was,
Leif:yes, a baby, a live one.
Leif:But it appears Rufus and Lilly didn't even have
Leif:the most rudimentary of conversations about
Leif:the fruit of their coupling. She even kept him
Leif:waiting two weeks to hear the answer to his
Leif:question. We even know, or think
Leif:we know, what Blair and creepy Uncle Jack got up
Leif:to, and it's definitely no good.
Leif:Although he is kind of sexy in a willfully
Leif:idiotic, soon to be fat, former jock cognitive
Leif:way.
Steve:Loved the casting of Uncle Jack.
Steve:Absolutely loved the casting.
Leif:Yeah, has been. I forget what his last name is.
Steve:From Dexter. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Steve:Like, I thought he was great. Scumbag,
Steve:fantastic and just great.
Steve:Like, it just felt like such
Steve:an a split between Chuck and Bart,
Steve:you know? Like, I really thought that that really
Steve:explained so much of Chuck that he had this
Steve:uncle that he also looks up to. So,
Steve:anyway, we'll get to all that.
Leif:We move into act one. Gossip Girl
Leif:here, welcoming you to the new year when my hat knights who
Leif:flew south for the sun returned to their Park Avenue
Leif:purchase. Which means I have a lot of catching up to
Leif:do. Word is Serena Vanderwoodson Ango to
Leif:the new year in the plazas of Buenos Aires.
Leif:Yes, that means Lonely boy was all alone when the clock
Leif:stole 12. And what of little J?
Leif:Rumor is she's trading runways for Always so
Leif:Long High Fashion. Hello, high school. Blair
Leif:Waldorf has been spotted making inroads to the Colony
Leif:Club, with high school nearing its end
Leif:as queen bee found a new social ladder
Leif:to climb. So the only real question
Leif:remaining. Where in the world is Chuck Pass and
Leif:is he ever coming back?
Steve:I thought that I liked the montage at the beginning of
Steve:this. I liked the way
Steve:that we went from character to
Steve:character. We saw what everybody was up to.
Steve:I like that we saw what.
Steve:I like that. we
Steve:got a glimpse of Chuck. We see that
Steve:he's in this opium den
Steve:somewhere in Thailand.
Steve:So we know that Chuck freaked out, which
Steve:we know we knew he was going to go away. I
Steve:kind of expected not to see him for a couple episodes,
Steve:so I was really glad that it was. We're going to get right
Steve:back to the resolution of this, and we got.
Leif:A little time jump.
Steve:Yeah, yeah, there's that time jump.
Leif:Dan is cyber stalking Serena's trip to Buenos Aires
Leif:and tells Sjeti to learn something as she
Leif:leaves the law for her first day back to school.
Leif:Then Jenny and Eric are walking together discussing Jenny's
Leif:return to school, and Blair is looking to
Leif:find a new secret society to join.
Steve:Jesus Christ.
Leif:Number two.
Steve:This is her. This is her second one or the.
Leif:Show'S second show's second one.
Steve:Yeah, the show's second one. Because the skull and crossbow.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:Is. Is this a real secret society? The Colony
Steve:Club.
Leif:you Google it. Okay, some live
Leif:Googling.
Steve:I'll do some live Googling.
Leif:Eric mention his Uncle Jack is looking for the still
Leif:missing Chuck. We get a shot of Chuck and what
Leif:looks like an opium den. And then Dan
Leif:is looking at Serena's vacation pics when Rufus walks
Leif:in. Dan lies about what he was doing.
Leif:Rufus is getting nostalgic and decides to walk
Leif:Dan to school on the first day of his
Leif:final semester.
Steve:Yeah, Rufus is just
Steve:a fucking asshole from
Steve:the start. This is going to be a
Steve:shit on Rufus episode. I'll warn you now,
Steve:because Rufus is shit.
Leif:Nothing new there.
Steve:Nothing new there and just
Steve:worse. Just, I have so
Steve:much to say, but I will do it.
Leif:Blair and Dorota are discussing the Colony Club
Leif:and Chuck when Blair gets a text from
Leif:Jack, causes her to belt for the
Leif:elevator.
Steve:I will say that when I googled the Colony
Steve:Club, I got a website that says
Steve:Colony Club and it said Colony Club New York. And
Steve:when you go to it, oh, there is a page for guest
Steve:information, but there is also just a member
Steve:login and an address, and that is it.
Leif:Secret society.
Steve:Ah, secret society.
Steve:Ah, secret society.
Steve:Yep.
Leif:Jenny and Eric arrive at school. Jenny is nervous
Leif:about the mean girls, but Nelly surprisingly welcomes
Leif:Jenny back. Jenny's relief is short
Leif:lived as Penelope and Hazel, backed by Iz,
Leif:give Nelly a hard time for daring to speak to
Leif:Jenny.
Steve:yeah, the whole Nelly thing.
Steve:This whole Nelly thing.
Steve:I, yeah, I, I, I, I'll save
Steve:for a lot of what I have to say about it for later, but
Steve:I, but dumb.
Leif:We get our first glimpse of Jack as his limo pulls
Leif:up in front of Blair and Dorota. Jack is forced to carry
Leif:an inebriated Chuck out of the limo. Blair and
Leif:Dorota look both distraught over Chuck, but
Leif:Blair sends Dorota off to prep for her
Leif:party.
Steve:Instant tension between Blair
Steve:and Jack.
Leif:Yeah, yeah.
Steve:that was really, that was really
Steve:interesting to see that these
Steve:characters clearly had history
Steve:without ever really communicating that.
Steve:It was really well done.
Steve:It's one of the few writing
Steve:pieces in this episode that I think stood
Steve:out as good. And even then it's more directing
Steve:than writing.
Leif:Dan and Rufus arrive at school. Dan
Leif:enters as Rufus takes a call from an adoption clinic.
Leif:But it's another dead end.
Steve:And this is when we first hear that
Steve:it's adoption. Because last week you and I talked about.
Steve:My first impression was, was abortion.
Steve:Which yes, it doesn't make a lot of sense for her to go away
Steve:for an extended period of time for that.
Steve:Except in my mind for the fact that this is
Steve:Lily Van Der Woodson or Lily, whoever she was at
Steve:the time. I forget CC's last name,
Steve:but who could just go away
Steve:for a few months to recover from
Steve:the trauma of having an
Steve:abortion. So m, that's where my mind went the last
Steve:time. But now here it's an adoption
Steve:and Rufus is now going all over the place.
Steve:Rufus is going to make sure that he abandons his children
Steve:to find his child.
Leif:Yes.
Leif:Serena is waiting for Dan at school and tells him
Leif:that she broke up with Aaron on the plane ride. But now
Leif:the dust is settled and their parents aren't getting
Leif:together. She's still down to get down.
Leif:Serena asked Dan if if he's, if
Leif:his. Serena asked Dan if his
Leif:if he's still in. And his response is to lay
Leif:a big old smoocharoo on the blonde
Leif:bombshell.
Steve:Good fucking bye,
Steve:Aaron. Goodbye
Steve:forever. Right?
Leif:Ceremoniously forever.
Steve:Right, right.
Steve:But good fucking bye. Didn't even get
Steve:an on screen exit.
Leif:Which that she is. He, is Blair's stepbrother
Leif:now.
Steve:Yeah, yeah. that tells
Steve:me that breakup
Steve:felt more like, oh shit, we're going to
Steve:resume Shooting and the actor isn't available, so we have to
Steve:cut him. Combined with message
Steve:boards being like, get this fucking guy out of
Steve:here. Can we just have Dan and Serena
Steve:back?
Leif:Spotted ass and Lonely boy kicking off
Leif:the new year like it's last year. Who
Leif:knows, Maybe third time's a charm.
Leif:Let's not break out the bubbly just yet. We move
Leif:into Act 2. Serena and Blair have
Leif:a happy reunion in the hallway. Blair has
Leif:shamefully admits to telling Chuck that she loved him, only to
Leif:have him disappear for a month. It seems like
Leif:Blair was going to reveal something else when
Leif:Dan comes up and hugs Serena from behind. This
Leif:causes player to write off to vomit.
Steve:A postcard would have been fine.
Leif:Lily shows up the gallery to talk to Rufus
Leif:and finally reveals that their child was a son,
Leif:but that she doesn't want Rufus to interrupt his
Leif:life.
Steve:So this is where I have m. A
Steve:little more to say on the Rufus thing because he's
Steve:just so fucking selfish that it
Steve:is all about, I need this kid. I need
Steve:to find him when. When Lily said
Steve:he has the right to his own
Steve:life.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:What if this kid doesn't know he's
Steve:adopted? What if this kid doesn't
Steve:know? What if this. What if you are
Steve:completely upending this kid's life because
Steve:Lilly specifically said, no, I
Steve:won't have the right to it. Yeah,
Steve:so. So Rufus is actively
Steve:looking to possibly derail
Steve:an entire family just so he can meet
Steve:a kid who may not want to know any fucking thing
Steve:about him, who may be sitting there like,
Steve:wait, you're in that lame 90s band? Fuck
Steve:off. We don't. So he's just
Steve:upending people's fucking lives. And then he says the
Steve:thing of Lily. I could have been a rock star, but I
Steve:chose to be a dad. Being a dad is what I
Steve:am. So don't take this from me. You have
Steve:two fucking kids, are clearly troubled in
Steve:other ways at home right
Steve:now. So why don't you be a dad to
Steve:them?
Leif:Yeah, I mean, I. I get that he's upset that she did
Leif:tell him.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:But it's. It's too. It's.
Steve:Yeah, it was wrong. What Lily did was
Steve:wrong. And later in the episode, the one
Steve:moment of credit I will give to
Steve:Rufus is when he's like, you've had 20
Steve:years to process this. I need time
Steve:too. That. Sure, Rufus,
Steve:that's acceptable. Yeah. You are allowed to
Steve:be angry and you're allowed to take time to be angry,
Steve:but you're talking about meddling in people's
Steve:lives. That you don't fucking know.
Steve:And that's shitty.
Leif:I agree. Jenny and Eric are watching the mean
Leif:girls bully Nelly at the yogurt shop. Despite
Leif:Eric begging her to stay uninvolved. Jenny can't
Leif:help but stick up for Nelly and ends up dragging
Leif:her out of the shop.
Steve:I'm not Little Jay anymore. I feel like they
Steve:still call her Little Jay, like throughout the episode. I don't think
Steve:she shed the Little Jay the way
Steve:she wanted to.
Leif:Even though she is getting taller.
Steve:She is, she, she's taller than most of them. And I
Steve:can't always tell if she's she's actually tall. Right. It's
Steve:not lit.
Leif:She's not, she's not as tall as Blake Lily, but she has, she's, she's.
Steve:Tall, but she's taller than Penelope and,
Steve:and Blair. Yeah. Yeah.
Leif:Well, Blair's tiny.
Steve:Oh, is she? I, I, yeah, I don't, I guess I
Steve:only see them in relationship to the show, so I don't
Steve:really think of them outside of Wallace Shawn. I
Steve:don't.
Leif:Who, who, as you see, she's not that much taller than Wallace
Leif:Shawn.
Steve:True. Yeah, you're right.
Leif:Like Ed Westwick's only about five, nine.
Steve:Okay, that makes sense.
Leif:That makes sense. She's probably like five, six, I would say.
Steve:Yeah. The other like the
Steve:Hazel clean my shoe thing where it
Steve:was, where it just.
Steve:First of all it skipped is.
Leif:That's coming up.
Steve:Yeah. Oh, I thought that was that scene.
Leif:No, this is the yogurt. That's when, they're doing the
Leif:judgment part when
Leif:Blair's judging. This is the scene at the yogurt shop.
Steve:Yeah. At the end of the yogurt shop, she turns to
Steve:Hazel and says, hazel, clean my shoe.
Steve:Because Nelly goes. Because she had take. Because Nelly was
Steve:supposed to do it. And Jenny grabbed Nelly and left.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:And she goes, hazel, clean my shoe.
Leif:Chuck is lighting up a J at school. Blair
Leif:tries to talk some sense into an apathetic Chuck to
Leif:no avail. Headmistress Queller walks
Leif:up and busts Chuck.
Steve:Blair fishing for
Steve:an I love you is.
Steve:That's sad. It's so, it's so
Steve:beneath you, Queen. It is
Steve:so beneath you.
Steve:Yeah, it feels thirsty.
Steve:And she's not like she doesn't come across as
Steve:thirsty, but thirsty for that. And
Steve:how could you even expect it the first time
Steve:Rufus.
Leif:Comes back to the loft to find Dan and Serena
Leif:kissing. Rufus gets all pissy and kicks
Leif:Serena out. Dan follows right behind
Leif:her.
Steve:Yeah, like, what are you thinking?
Leif:What? Yeah, it's like I would totally get why
Leif:Dan's confused.
Steve:Yeah, I'm just going to walk in and
Steve:dump all my shit on
Steve:you because I'm mad at her mom and,
Steve:like, just fucking
Steve:unloads all of his shit onto his
Steve:kid and their relationship and it's just super
Steve:shitty to this teenage girl who
Steve:doesn't know fucking shit about what's going
Steve:on.
Leif:Remember from season one? Ruth's, like, told
Leif:Dan to change his sheets, but he's, like, fine with them having sex
Leif:in his house.
Steve:Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Leif:I was, like, implied, essentially.
Steve:Yeah, he was. He was all in favor of Dan and
Steve:Serena until he was mad at Lily.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:Fucking yeah. What? What is this fucking
Steve:Romeo and Juliet?
Leif:Blair, Jack and Chuck meet with Headmistress
Leif:Queller. There is definitely some kind of tension between
Leif:Blair and Jack. Chuck promises not to do it again as
Leif:he is pulling out another spliff.
Steve:I loved the casting of Jack
Steve:and. Yeah. Oh, so it was a split because he was like,
Steve:oh, I was smoking hash because she. Because I got the
Steve:impression it was a joint. But if he's smoking,
Steve:like straight hash out of a joint, that would
Steve:be. That. That's not going to give.
Leif:I assume it's mixed with tobacco.
Steve:Yeah, that makes a lot more sense. I never do
Steve:that, so that's never my instinct. I'll.
Steve:I don't touch tobacco. The
Steve:occasional cigar is
Steve:it, but I'm not inhaling it.
Leif:Pop quiz. What do you get when you
Leif:cross Chuck Bass a billion dollars and
Leif:bark? Cold in the ground. Free
Leif:fall at the loft. Rufus
Leif:continues to act like a petulant child
Leif:towards his child. Jenny finds out about Dan and
Leif:Serena, and as always, she is her number one
Leif:fan.
Steve:Yeah, she's smart, she's. She's
Steve:funny, she's 10 times hotter than she is. And
Steve:Dan's like, she's right.
Steve:And Rufus is just all about being a
Steve:dad, no matter how bad he is at it.
Leif:Jenny is pleading Nelly's case to get out from under the mean
Leif:girls. Blair sits in judgment. Blair is
Leif:too distracted by her plans to join the colony club to care
Leif:enough about high school drama, so she dismisses
Leif:Nelly. However, it looks like the mean girls are
Leif:prepared to act on their own.
Steve:Tone down the crazy. P.
Steve:She.
Steve:Yeah, just, just the nutty
Steve:escalation that she was prepared to
Steve:go to. Yeah, tone down the
Steve:crazy.
Leif:Penelope makes me want to explore my subside.
Leif:Dan and Serena decide they need to figure out what happened
Leif:between Lily.
Steve:I like this. I like that they're.
Steve:That they're kind of now on the case on the
Steve:case. Yeah.
Leif:Dan hightails it, out of there. When Blair shows up to discuss
Leif:the Chuck situation with Serena. Blair fights back to
Leif:tears before calling Dorota to let her know that
Leif:Blair needs to make a stop before the Colony Club
Leif:park.
Steve:Yeah, I don't really have much
Steve:on that. Just sort of
Steve:sets up stuff that's happening.
Leif:Good acting by Lane, as usual.
Steve:Yeah, throughout this there's so many. I.
Steve:I actually kind of stopped writing that
Steve:down every time because it's just sort of a given.
Steve:There's a couple times that, like, there. There is one.
Steve:And later in this episode that it was, just
Steve:a goddamn kind of moment.
Leif:The mirror scene.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:When the mean girls arrive for frozen yogurt, they
Leif:find Jenny, Eric and Nelly at the their
Leif:table, quote unquote. The tables
Leif:all fill up and the mean girls have to leave with nowhere
Leif:left to sit. In an ironic twist,
Leif:Penelope calls her dad to complain about
Leif:being bullied.
Steve:She's the worst.
Leif:And it's kind of genius though. as Eric points out, it is.
Steve:And I can't stand her. But like,
Steve:I've had that student in my
Steve:class. Like, I've taught
Steve:Penelope's. I as a
Steve:teacher, I've taught a lot of versions of these. Never
Steve:the rich versions of these kids.
Steve:I've taught some rich kids, or at least
Steve:relatively rich kids to the rest of their classmates.
Steve:And I've taught kids exactly like
Steve:Penelope that will just try to
Steve:stomp on somebody and when they can't, they'll go
Steve:and run and tell that
Steve:they're the victim. drives me
Steve:nuts.
Leif:Blair finds Chuck at the recently repurchased
Leif:Petrola. however, her efforts to pull him back fall
Leif:on deaf ears. Bart's final words to his
Leif:son continue to haunt Chuck.
Steve:Blair's composure here. This was one of
Steve:those scenes. Blair just walked in to
Steve:find the man she loves in
Steve:between two women that he is
Steve:tongue deep in both their
Steve:throats. And she
Steve:is visibly upset and visibly
Steve:hurt, but composes herself and makes
Steve:it about helping Chuck and not about
Steve:her own feelings. And it's just more
Steve:of that brilliant
Steve:Layton acting. And then on top of
Steve:that, you watch Chuck spiral
Steve:as and being a complete asshole, but you also
Steve:really feel for him. There is that. There is
Steve:that sympathy like of where that is coming
Steve:from.
Leif:Dan and Serena are back in the loft looking for evidence of
Leif:what happened with Rufus and Lily. Serena gets an
Leif:SOS from Blair and runs off to help. After
Leif:Serena leaves, Dan finds the number for an
Leif:adoption agency.
Steve:I thought the detective work was adorable. I loved
Steve:finding the ring and being like, oh, he proposed and my
Steve:mom said no. And it's like, no, that's not it.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:Another thing that I pulled away from this
Steve:scene. We talk about Dan and Serena
Steve:and will they make it? Obviously they haven't
Steve:everybody yet. And my idea is that everyone
Steve:fucks. But as
Steve:far as them evolving their
Steve:relationship, Dan
Steve:here clearly is starting to accept that
Steve:Serena will at times say, blair
Steve:needs me. Gotta go. No more
Steve:info. That's it. Peace
Steve:out. That used to bother him a lot more.
Leif:I think he figured that out from the first season. Remember the I
Leif:love you episode? He kind of figured that out.
Steve:Yes. Yeah. I feel like there
Steve:were times still in that. In that
Steve:second run of the relationship. I
Steve:think he still struggled with Serena
Steve:and Blair's relationship at times. And I think
Steve:that this is showing another. I'm just saying that this
Steve:is showing him evolving
Steve:in the acceptance of the parameters of
Steve:their relationship that I. That I hadn't
Steve:noticed before, anyway.
Leif:Yeah, I feel like that that's been since the
Leif:first season. Yeah, that's the I love you episode.
Steve:That. That's fair. This is the first time that I
Steve:really saw him just. Yeah, cool.
Steve:Like, just when they're in the middle of
Steve:something that. It
Steve:really occurred to me
Steve:that specifically.
Leif:Happened in the I love you episode. And that's one of the reasons why he
Leif:said he loved her. You have a friend that's crazy, but
Leif:you got guilty of her no matter what.
Leif:New year, same old story. The
Leif:darkest secrets are always the
Leif:ones that hit closest to home.
Leif:As a response to the finding, there was an adoption
Leif:agency.
Steve:Yeah. Oh, that's right. He finds out that it's the adoption
Steve:agency.
Leif:Act three begins. Blair arrives home
Leif:and rushes past Dorota to sit in front of her
Leif:mirror, nearly breaking down,
Leif:containing herself to a single
Leif:tear.
Steve:Bea is the kind of boss that
Steve:knows that I've got to cry this
Steve:out, I've got to cry it
Steve:out, and I've got to get myself together
Steve:before these ladies show up to do
Steve:this colony club. And she says to
Steve:Dota, I need 10 minutes.
Steve:And the first thing she does is she sits
Steve:down, she looks herself in the mirror, and she
Steve:gives it all the time. She has to give
Steve:it right now to cry and
Steve:locks it down and gets to
Steve:work. It is just so
Steve:phenomenal in how she
Steve:moves through that so quickly and
Steve:how when she locks it down, she's clearly not done. She's
Steve:clearly not over it. She just knows she has to move on,
Steve:but she is just that kind of Boss.
Leif:We see a frustrated Jenny coming out of
Leif:Queller's office who has reprimanded Jenny for
Leif:bullying. However, Nell reveals that she
Leif:has a lot of secrets, which Jenny, of course,
Leif:jumps all over.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:This is where Eric points out that it's very genius.
Leif:Penelope.
Steve:Yeah. Yeah.
Leif:Dan confronts Rufus about what he was looking for
Leif:in Boston. But Rufus begs for just
Leif:one more day. Oh, I need one more
Leif:day.
Steve:Yeah. You. You're going to keep pushing your kids away for
Steve:a kid you never met. For a kid, once
Steve:again, for a kid that may not want to have
Steve:fucking anything to do with you.
Steve:For a kid that's going to hear, wait, my real, my.
Steve:My biological father
Steve:was actually a rock star.
Steve:And then he finds out that you're not
Steve:really a rock star. Like, you're just a
Steve:disappointment.
Leif:Serena shows up at Blair's penthouse and learns about
Leif:Chuck's spiral and insists that they help him.
Leif:However, Blair's putting on a brave face and
Leif:says it's not her problem anymore.
Leif:Serena leaves with a disapproving look on her
Leif:face.
Steve:I loved this scene. It is
Steve:so classic Blair and
Steve:Serena. It is
Steve:so the inner
Steve:workings of the non judging Breakfast Club here
Steve:where it is. We all need to help them out.
Steve:And Blair. I tried. I
Steve:tried. I can't do this. I've got something else I need
Steve:to worry about right now. I need to take care of me
Steve:first. And
Steve:it just.
Steve:I really thought that
Steve:they brought that
Steve:dynamic together, that classic
Steve:Serena, Blair. Even when there's
Steve:tension, there's love. I really like the
Steve:way that they did that scene.
Leif:Dan shows up at F and gets the
Leif:truth from Chuck. Chuck mocks Dan with the
Leif:fact that once Serena finds out, Serena
Leif:is finished.
Steve:I liked that Chuck was like, we're even
Steve:now. You buried that story from my dad.
Steve:So I'm going to give you this.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:I also really love the. If you're planning
Steve:to inherit the family estate.
Leif:You'Re not the first born Humphrey.
Steve:You're not the first born Humphrey.
Leif:Spotted in Petrola, lonely boy and Chuck
Leif:Bass having a heart to heart. What for?
Leif:Who do they have to talk about?
Leif:Blair meets with the Colony Club, who proceeds to gossip
Leif:about and belittle everyone Blair knows.
Leif:They slut, shame Serena, mock
Leif:Lily for marrying Bart Bass, and decree that
Leif:it was a mercy that Bart was hit by that
Leif:car. However, the final straw
Leif:was insulting Chuck. This causes Blair to
Leif:promptly get up, presumably to go to
Leif:Vetrola.
Steve:These awful women,
Steve:this whole secret society which is what,
Steve:six people? I guess that's like the selection
Steve:committee but just
Steve:come in and just lay down
Steve:gossip and just be like, oh, was that Serena
Steve:Vander Woodson? She's
Steve:a little show.
Leif:A little. But she here.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:Making the boo motion.
Steve:Yeah. and
Steve:I would think that Cece would
Steve:be in these. In the circle with
Steve:these people, so.
Leif:And Lily would be too.
Steve:Yeah. And Lily probably would be too, so.
Leif:Yeah. How weird.
Steve:either that or this
Steve:secret society isn't as
Steve:influential as the people that
Steve:she's already with.
Leif:Yeah.
Leif:These are the, Mormon secret society.
Steve:I also love Dorota's smirk
Steve:at the end when
Steve:she says. Yeah. When Blair gets up
Steve:and she's like, dorota will get their coats or
Steve:whatever. And Dorota just
Steve:smiles at them.
Leif:Chuck is barely able to stay conscious when
Leif:Eric shows up to make a last ditch effort to
Leif:reconnect with Chuck. However, Chuck,
Leif:albeit, nicer than he was at the funeral, grabs a
Leif:bottle and bids Eric a very
Leif:final sounding good goodbye.
Steve:I liked that he acknowledged his
Steve:relationship with Eric. It was. Eric
Steve:needed to hear that. And so I'm very
Steve:glad that Eric survived the holidays
Steve:to hear that from Chuck. I
Steve:also feel like someone should follow
Steve:Chuck.
Leif:Yeah, I was. I was really surprised that Eric
Leif:didn't really pick up on that because he's
Leif:usually so insightful.
Steve:Yeah. And honestly, I feel like that's really bad
Steve:writing.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:I feel like that's the writers not tapping into the
Steve:characters that, like, even if Eric didn't follow
Steve:him, Eric should have. Then
Steve:the next scene
Steve:where Blair and Jack and
Steve:Eric all get together, that should have been Eric
Steve:seeking them out.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:That would have solved that huge hole in
Steve:this. Yeah.
Leif:Eric exits the club and meets up with Jenny
Leif:and Nelly to confront the mean girls. Jenny
Leif:lays the smackdown, causing the mean girls to humble
Leif:themselves. But Jenny no longer wants
Leif:Queen in her first love fortune.
Leif:Nelly ditches Jenny when she finds out there's
Leif:nothing to gain by following her.
Steve:I loved this. As much as
Steve:I hated this storyline,
Steve:I loved the resolution with. So what are we
Steve:doing about the party? What?
Steve:Well, you're queen now. You got it.
Steve:No. No, I don't want to be a part of this.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:And all of the dumb shit that I didn't like
Steve:about Nelly in this episode, it
Steve:turned out that Nelly really was just playing
Steve:4D chess.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:And winning
Steve:only to Sashi.
Leif:Just didn't read, Jenny's motives correctly.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:Rufus goes to Lily to warn her that Serena will likely
Leif:soon know about their love child.
Leif:Lily is scared that Serena and Eric will hate her,
Leif:but Rufus can't Help but reassure her it'll
Leif:be okay. And that even he doesn't hate her.
Leif:He just needs more time.
Steve:Rufus can't resist being shitty.
Steve:Fair point on needing more time. I said that
Steve:early in this episode. But every, whenever
Steve:Rufus is mad, he takes
Steve:every opportunity to be as shitty
Steve:as possible. He takes every dig to make
Steve:the other person feel as small and shitty
Steve:as they. As he can. Whether it's Lily
Steve:or his kids or anybody else
Steve:that he argues with.
Leif:Very self righteous. Very sanctimonious.
Steve:Yeah. Even. Even when he's wrong about
Steve:it. Like this. And there's. I feel like there's
Steve:an element of
Leif:Or anything to do with Jenny.
Steve:Or anything to do with Jenny. I feel like there's
Steve:an element of the
Steve:writing here that almost wants us to feel like
Steve:Rufus has been wronged and
Steve:is in the right to want to find this
Steve:kid. I feel like they, they want us to
Steve:feel that way and I can't.
Leif:But they, they clearly point. Have Lily point
Leif:out why he's wrong. Yeah, that's true.
Leif:Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's very in
Leif:character for Rufus to be self righteous.
Steve:Yeah. I mean always.
Leif:Dan finds Serena at Vitrola and ushers her out of
Leif:the club, presumably to tell her about their
Leif:shared half sibling.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:Little awkward at Thanksgivings.
Steve:Yeah. But you're not related.
Steve:So like. And this is like mystery
Steve:sibling out there somewhere.
Leif:Like you know he's going to show up eventually.
Steve:Oh yeah, of course, of course.
Leif:And then what happens if Rufus and Lily do get together
Leif:and they're step siblings with a shared sibling.
Steve:They are. But even then it's like
Steve:I see on paper why it's bad, but
Steve:their coming together was
Steve:100% legit and they
Steve:were first. They beat Lily and
Steve:Rufus to the second
Steve:punch. yeah, I, I
Steve:hope they can.
Leif:Blair shows up and finds Jack partying with high
Leif:schoolers.
Steve:Is he partying with high schoolers?
Leif:Eric tells Blair what Chuck said to him and
Leif:Blair rushes for the stairs. Jack Cancers
Leif:drink to Eric and follows after her.
Steve:I didn't even put together the Jack
Steve:partying with high schoolers at first.
Leif:Doesn't Blair say something about it?
Steve:But yeah, well, but.
Steve:And ah.
Steve:I mean when I first like saw him at the club, it
Steve:didn't really occur to me. But then when she said it, it's like,
Steve:yeah, why are you there? Like what?
Steve:Fucking weirdo Creed.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:We don't know how old
Steve:he is. We just know that he's Bart.
Steve:I would assume much younger
Steve:brother, but still
Steve:inappropriately older, I'm
Steve:going to say at least 30s, I would
Steve:think. 30s. That was my
Steve:impression.
Leif:Like, I know we used to we ragged on Aaron's age a
Leif:lot, but I think the show intended to be about
Leif:21 to 22.
Steve:I, I, I, I believe that,
Steve:that you are correct that the show
Steve:wanted him to be older,
Steve:but made a miscalculation in the
Steve:writing to explain
Steve:Cyrus.
Leif:Just had another wife they didn't mention,
Leif:which maybe.
Steve:But then that also kind of detracts from the whole
Steve:other love story, you.
Leif:Know, and all that aside, the woman in
Leif:Vietnam died.
Steve:Right. No, no, I, Yeah, I know. And all
Steve:that aside, I do believe that you're right that the intention
Steve:for Eric was not or for Aaron was not to
Steve:be this 30 some year
Steve:old person. Jack,
Steve:I don't see how you avoid it.
Leif:Yeah, he's definitely at least 30.
Steve:Yeah, probably. Like, even if he's. I would assume
Steve:Bart was mid-40s
Steve:to maybe 50 at
Steve:the most. I would, I would kind of assume, I
Steve:assume the parents are about my age,
Steve:despite Rufus looking
Steve:10 years younger than me. But then again,
Steve:people my age look 10 years younger than me.
Leif:Well, I think Lily and Rufus are younger than the other
Leif:parents.
Steve:Yes, I, I think so too.
Leif:Including Bart.
Steve:Yeah. But I would still put bart at between
Steve:45 and 50. I wouldn't really put
Steve:Bart too much older over 50.
Steve:because I wouldn't see him
Steve:waiting that long to have kids. I
Steve:would see him having the type of personality that
Steve:wanted to have an empire and wanted
Steve:to have.
Leif:But if his wife was having trouble having kids, possibly.
Steve:Yeah, that's true too.
Leif:That's possible too, because presumably we,
Leif:we've heard she died in childbirth.
Steve:She may, yeah. Ah, she may have died in childbirth,
Steve:which is the more likely. She died in
Steve:childbirth. Yes.
Leif:Chuck is doing a drunken tightrope
Leif:walk on the edge of the roof and drops the bottle when he almost
Leif:slips off. One thing about being on
Leif:top of the world, it gives you a long, long way
Leif:to fall back from commercial
Leif:break. Blair arrives on the roof in time to literally talk
Leif:Chuck off the ledge. Very emotional
Leif:scene. And with no Vanessa in this episode,
Leif:Jack is my number one most hated character right
Leif:now. Yeah, don't surprise someone
Leif:on the edge of a building.
Steve:And I didn't put it together until the last
Steve:scene, so I want to talk about that. I want to talk about that in
Steve:a little bit because I didn't, I didn't
Steve:catch that then. I didn't
Steve:piece anything together there. But with
Steve:Blair, this is also another one of Those
Steve:scenes where I
Steve:loved how she just poured everything out there. I
Steve:loved her acting.
Steve:I thought the writing was kind of
Steve:lame. Some of the actual lines that
Steve:she was giving seemed very
Steve:worn. But I thought
Steve:that her portrayal was just
Steve:phenomenal.
Leif:And then we move into the epilogue. Dan is
Leif:about to tell Serena the secret when he gets a call from
Leif:Rufus. Rufus is once again retconning
Leif:morality by telling his son the right thing to do
Leif:is to lie to his girlfriend.
Steve:Yeah. Way too big a. Way
Steve:too big of an ask. Yeah, this is way too big of an ask.
Leif:Absolutely. You could take, you know, half an hour to talk
Leif:to three before your trip.
Steve:Yeah. You don't have to leave right fucking
Steve:now. You could plan this trip. You could
Steve:go in 24 hours and
Steve:have the exact same result.
Steve:No, no rush. It
Steve:has been 20 years. There's no rush. You can all
Steve:sit down right now, have the
Steve:talk and then go.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:It was just so fucking selfish. Wait
Steve:one day. Give your kid. You told your
Steve:kid one day. So here's your one day.
Steve:Go tell him. But no, you're going to go off on this trip
Steve:to try to fucking find this kid. How long are
Steve:you going to have to make them wait
Steve:now? Because what if. What if you only find a lead
Steve:that takes you somewhere else, you fucking
Steve:asshole.
Leif:Lair is helping, Jack put Chuck in a limo,
Leif:who promises to keep an eye on Chuck. Jack
Leif:also agrees to not tell Chuck about what
Leif:happened with him and Blair on New Year's.
Leif:Dun, dun, dun.
Steve:I'm enjoying
Steve:the character of Jack. It was this scene
Steve:where I started piecing together where Blair said she
Steve:doesn't trust him. I put together
Steve:Don't Scare Someone on the ledge. Is he trying to
Steve:get Chuck to fall?
Steve:So he appears.
Leif:He would be the next in line.
Steve:Yeah, he would probably be the next in line for the. For the
Steve:Empire. That's. Yep.
Steve:And clearly he banged B.
Steve:Yep, yep.
Leif:Dan tells Serena that their parents are going
Leif:away together. Serena says they will make it
Leif:work. Dan doesn't look as sure.
Steve:Yeah, fuck Rufus. The whole rest of
Steve:this episode is just, fuck Rufus.
Leif:Rufus and Lily, bags in hand,
Leif:get into a cab, fuck
Leif:them.
Steve:And fuck Lily, too. Here. Usually I'm
Steve:almost always on Team Lily. And
Steve:Lily, this is also out of character for
Steve:her. It's not out of character for her to just jump
Steve:up and leave, but
Steve:she. Since
Steve:Serena has come back, right,
Steve:since this, since the start of Gossip
Steve:Girl, Lily has been making a
Steve:better effort at trying to be a better
Steve:parent to her kids. And I feel like, this
Steve:scene.
Leif:Not counting last episode where she was about to. About to ban
Leif:Eric for the holidays.
Steve:True. Or the time that she was gonna. That she
Steve:was going to send Serena away
Steve:for being sexually assaulted on a, On a
Steve:tape, on a. On a thumb drive that she watched.
Steve:I feel like she's, like I said, making an effort to
Steve:be better. And I feel like this is also sort of
Steve:a, What is she thinking running off before
Steve:having this conversation with her kids.
Leif:So just to defend her a little bit. We don't
Leif:really know exactly what Lily knows,
Leif:Reena knows, or what Dan knows.
Leif:Rufus just said she's probably gonna find out soon.
Steve:Yeah. yeah, yeah, that's true.
Leif:She doesn't know that Dan's like having to keep the secret
Leif:for.
Steve:That's true. Yeah. which. Okay, so for
Steve:just Rufus and Lily to just go away
Steve:without Eric or Serena knowing there's a secret out
Steve:there, that isn't a big deal. You're right. Rufus is
Steve:the one.
Leif:Yes.
Steve:Who's now keeping a secret from Lily.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:That Dan knows.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:What a fucking asshole.
Leif:So the, the last three scenes get. Have a Gossip
Leif:Girl narration over it and it
Leif:goes, ah, me.
Leif:The year scarcely turned and
Leif:already secrets have begun. Where will it end
Leif:this time? The new year isn't about what
Leif:happened, it's about what's to come. But the
Leif:past is always with us, just waiting to
Leif:mess with the present. And when it does, I'll
Leif:be watching
Leif:XOXO Gossip
Leif:Girl. And that is the episode
Leif:what's Next.
Steve:I feel like there's going to be another
Steve:couple episodes of Chuck spiraling.
Steve:Maybe not completely spiraling, but like
Steve:Chuck resisting Blair's
Steve:help. And it is going to also
Steve:coincide with Jack really cozying
Steve:up to Chuck. I see that happening
Steve:and really trying to
Steve:outplay Chuck.
Steve:And I don't think Chuck's going to see it coming. I think Blair's going to
Steve:be all over it. I think
Steve:that Dan and Serena are going to
Steve:really struggle. I really hope that. I really hope that we
Steve:don't have episodes
Steve:of Rufus and Lily looking for this kid, because that's really
Steve:shitty for Dan. I'm hoping that this. Get
Steve:that, that little bit of it gets resolved quick
Steve:enough that Dan doesn't have to keep this secret so we can
Steve:figure out if they can work this out. You
Steve:know, I want to. I want to skip that and get
Steve:to. I want to see if Dan and Serena can work this
Steve:out. I also think that this leads
Steve:to Rufus and Lily working it
Steve:out. I. I think that Rufus and Lily get
Steve:Together out of this. I don't see how that's
Steve:really avoidable at this point.
Leif:And when will Chuck find out about Jack and
Leif:Blair?
Steve:Oh, I think we've got a couple
Steve:episodes. I think that there needs to definitely
Steve:be. I'm going to. I'm going to say at
Steve:least three episodes. when, ah, I say that
Steve:this is episode one. So two more
Steve:episodes and then I
Steve:think he'll find out.
Steve:It could be. It could be two episodes from
Steve:now if they wrap that up
Steve:then. But I think that it's going to go on
Steve:a little bit longer than that. I think they need
Steve:to really play it up and drag out that something
Steve:happened.
Leif:Okay, well, let's get into some segments.
Leif:Yes, we jumped into the Wayback machine
Leif:to visit the Television Without Pity forums from back in
Leif:2009.
Steve:Hello there, Peabody here.
Leif:And this is the Wayback machine for traveling through time.
Steve:And this is my boy, Sherman.
Leif:Speak, Sherman. Hello. Good boy.
Leif:This week in fandom. Nothing like a
Leif:quasi incest to get the fan base back on board for a
Leif:ship. And yes, I'm serious about
Leif:that.
Steve:Yeah. I mean this.
Leif:People were pretty bored of dancery at this point, but
Leif:this made it a little more interesting. Yeah, apparently.
Steve:Yeah. I mean, how many
Steve:TV shows have an incest storyline twice in
Steve:one season?
Leif:So Uncle Jack is
Leif:hot.
Steve:I mean. Yeah. Yeah.
Leif:Good looking guy.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:Eric and Jenny are back together.
Steve:Yeah. I love. Yep.
Leif:Love that most people are convinced
Leif:Jack and Blair hooked up.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:And then also poor Chuck. Poor
Leif:Blair. CB are epic.
Steve:Yeah. Yep. They'll.
Leif:They'll.
Steve:They'll find each other. I'm not worried about
Steve:that. If there's no way we're
Steve:going another three and a half
Steve:seasons without them banging
Steve:episode grades.
Leif:You went first last time. So I'm up this week.
Leif:So. Yeah. The writing was not that
Leif:it was okay. I guess. The acting by
Leif:Leighton was especially good, as usual. And
Leif:even though I hated Rufus, Matt Settle actually did a good job,
Leif:I think.
Steve:Yeah. Yeah. That. Yeah.
Leif:So I'm gonna give this episode a B. Yeah.
Steve:Good actors can be terrible
Steve:people. You know what I. Yeah, like terrible
Steve:characters usually rely on really good
Steve:acting.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:I, went kind of storyline by storyline with
Steve:the chair. Storyline I felt was kind of.
Steve:It was well acted but poorly written.
Steve:I felt. I felt like the Rufus and
Steve:Lily storyline was probably the. The
Steve:best written despite Rufus
Steve:being a complete asshole. I do think that that was probably the
Steve:most coherent. The little
Steve:J storyline I thought was dumb. Like
Steve:if I were. If that were the episode, it would be a D.
Steve:The the resolution. I liked the very end
Steve:with the, okay, well, what about the party?
Steve:I liked that. But I hated all of the
Steve:stuff leading up to it. And then the Dan and
Steve:Serena stuff, I just thought was more
Steve:Dan and Serena stuff. So I overall gave
Steve:this episode a B minus. I. I felt like
Steve:the, the little J storyline kind of hurt it
Steve:the most. I thought it was. I found this episode to
Steve:be more towards poorly
Steve:written, like average written
Steve:than anything else.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:Acting again, like the acting is what it always is.
Steve:Spectacular from the people that you expect it from
Steve:and there from the people that you expect
Steve:that from. And
Steve:directing. I kind of tie a lot of
Steve:acting and directing together. Mm.
Steve:So yeah, B minus.
Leif:Moving over the stock watch.
Leif:Not a lot of ups for me this week.
Leif:Only Jenny and Eric. That's right.
Leif:Only two ups.
Steve:Huh? I gave Jack an up. Whatever he's
Steve:up to. He seems to be up to something,
Steve:but he seems to be, as of right now, on
Steve:the upper side of it. On the upper side of
Steve:it. I meant to. I forgot to give
Steve:Eric and Jenny ups and I want to give both
Steve:of them an up as well. I
Steve:also had Lily going up.
Steve:I kind of felt. I don't
Steve:know why I had Lily going up. That's a really
Steve:downer that I was.
Leif:We talked about it.
Steve:Yeah, I know. I'm, I'm. Yeah, I'm going to scratch
Steve:that one. and I'm going to just stick with
Steve:Jack, Eric and
Steve:Jenny.
Leif:All right. For my downs.
Leif:Rufus, obviously,
Leif:Chuck for. Continue to spiral.
Leif:Blair for just.
Leif:Yeah, she just didn't do well. add the minions.
Leif:Get it, get it down.
Steve:Yeah, I, I actually originally was going to give
Steve:Blair an up, but ended up giving her a neutral.
Steve:I didn't really feel like Blair went down in this
Steve:episode. I. Because I felt like she stood
Steve:her ground against the secret Society
Steve:but then lost out on the secret Society.
Leif:Yeah, she lost the secret Society.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:Standing the ground was not. That was not what she wanted to do.
Leif:Yeah, she wanted to be in. So, that was a loss
Leif:for me. And she didn't get. And I love you again.
Steve:That's fair. That's fair. I felt that she
Steve:was treading water this whole
Steve:episode and I felt like that was enough
Steve:to keep her in my. In my. From. From
Steve:me losing stock in her. I pretty much everything else
Steve:you said Chuck dropped.
Steve:Rufus fucking tanked. the
Steve:Minions tanked. And I not only had the minions,
Steve:but I also specifically had Nelly because
Steve:Nelly flew too close to the sun and
Steve:is only going to be down at the bottom of
Steve:that again, only even
Steve:worse. Yeah, she's going to be
Steve:demoted, Minion. So
Steve:I specifically gave Nelly a stock down.
Steve:Aside from the Minions as a collective.
Leif:Fair enough.
Steve:But here's the best outfits from the.
Steve:Last episode we see.
Leif:Best outfit for me, I
Leif:had Jack's suit for this meeting with
Leif:Queller. The gray tick suit with the purple shirt,
Leif:white collar and a purple tie.
Steve:It was so slick. That was so
Steve:fucking slick. I loved it. I'm giving mine
Steve:to Blair's Colony Club dress. That,
Steve:that sleek black dress with like the diamond
Steve:collar was just
Steve:super fucking cool. I really loved how
Steve:she held that together.
Leif:All right, that is it for segments. What are you
Leif:plugging?
Steve:first of all, we have not really had a
Steve:chance to say this, but. Go Birds. Six and
Steve:two. Sirianni, sucks,
Steve:but I can't stand him. I don't know your
Steve:opinions on Sirianni, but take the fucking
Steve:points. Nick.
Leif:if you're listening, my opinion is this is
Leif:organizational. That's not even. Nick, it's organizational. They've been doing
Leif:this since 2017. They did two Super Bowls with
Leif:it.
Steve:Yeah, yeah.
Leif:The way, the way Analyz works is to play it out
Leif:over the long haul.
Steve:Yeah, I, I feel like the one.
Leif:I really disagreed about was the 12 point
Leif:conversion when Fred Warner got hurt on the touchdown.
Leif:because now you had your third string tackle in there.
Steve:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Leif:But other than that, I was fine with it. I, I also would, I also
Leif:would have punted at the, the last field goal that he did attempt.
Steve:See, I would have
Steve:the. There was one field goal. There was like
Steve:the 4th and 6th. to me,
Steve:I feel like from the
Steve:50 yard line to about
Steve:the 35 yard line, when
Steve:you're in enemy territory,
Steve:that is the real strong. Go for it
Steve:on 4th. That's where I'm not going to argue on it. When it's
Steve:4th and 4th and 4 and you're
Steve:at the 44 yard line,
Steve:Elliot could probably make the field goal, but you're
Steve:probably. But. But it's going to be a lot tougher.
Steve:Like I get it more in that neck of the
Steve:woods. Once you're past the 30,
Steve:it's just like, just take the points.
Steve:Like when it's that sure of a thing, that's when it really gets
Steve:me. So you're too old school.
Leif:Yeah, it's like the three pointers in the
Leif:NBA. It's just you got to score more.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:You might miss some, but you're going to score more in the long Run.
Steve:Yeah, I just, almost cost
Steve:us a third game, though. It's a
Steve:third. If we would have lost, it would have been the third one that we lost.
Steve:Just.
Leif:Well, no, the only one so far, the Atlanta game.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:And, even that one was more on the fact that the defense
Leif:let him go 90 yards and a
Leif:minute and a half.
Steve:Yeah. Anyway, go Birds.
Leif:Yeah, go Birds.
Steve:And the other thing that I've been plugging is that
Steve:I was watching yellow, jackets
Steve:finally. That show is fucking
Steve:good. I just saw the, you know, the first two
Steve:seasons are out of it and that's definitely worth the
Steve:watch.
Leif:Well, if you want to follow the podcast, you can follow us
Leif:on most social medias at non judging breakfast
Leif:pod. That's on threads on
Leif:Instagram and on TikTok.
Leif:You can also find us on Facebook by searching for
Leif:non judging breakfast pod. And if you go to our
Leif:website,
Leif:nonjudgingbreakfastpod.com you can find
Leif:links to our discord and also our
Leif:subreddit.
Steve:And if you would like to get in touch with the podcast, please
Steve:feel free to send us an
Steve:email@nonjudgingbreakfastpod
Steve:Gmail.com. we'd love to
Steve:hear your thoughts. We'd love to read what you have to say
Steve:on the air, if it's appropriate.
Steve:And we, while you're at it, while you're listening
Steve:right now, if you could just go ahead and like comment,
Steve:subscribe, follow, help boost our
Steve:visibility so more people get to share
Steve:in this. And aside from all of that,
Steve:also go out there and tell a friend what you're listening
Steve:to and share the non judging
Steve:breakfast pod with people that you know, love Gossip Girl
Steve:and love middle aged men. Talking about Gossip
Steve:Girl.
Leif:And we will be back next week to talk more. Gossip
Leif:Girl season 2 episode 15
Leif:Gone with the Will the Max
Leif:episode description reads Art's will is
Leif:read. And Dan learns his father's secret.
Leif:I thought he learned his secret.
Steve:He already learned his father's secret,
Steve:but.
Leif:It had a similar description on Netflix as well.
Steve:That's so funny. Weird. Yeah.
Leif:Anyways, you love us.
Steve:Xoxo.
Steve:Every time you walk away, run away you take a
Steve:piece of me with you there
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a
Steve:piece of me with you there
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a
Steve:piece of me with you there
Steve:oh, it seems I'm walking right to
Steve:your door
Steve:My heart's still resting looking for
Steve:something more
Steve:Are you ever gonna see everything you mean to
Steve:me? I'm trying really hard to believe
Steve:Every time you walk away, run away you take a piece
Steve:of me with you there
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a
Steve:piece of me with you there
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a
Steve:piece of me with you there
Steve:Never feels right when I'm out here on
Steve:my own
Steve:I left last night and it feels like
Steve:way too long
Steve:are you ever gonna see everything you mean to
Steve:me I'm trying really hard to believe
Steve:every time you walk away, run away you take a piece
Steve:of me with you there
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a
Steve:piece of me with you there
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a
Steve:piece of me with you there
Steve:Come back to me
Steve:smile and you'll make my life
Steve:complete
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a
Steve:piece of me with you there
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a
Steve:piece of me with you there
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a
Steve:piece of me with you there
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a piece
Steve:of me with you there
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a
Steve:piece of me with you there
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a
Steve:piece of me with you there
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a
Steve:piece of me with you there
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a
Steve:piece of me with you
Steve:there's.