Episode 5

Gossip Girl S2E5 - The Serena Also Rises

Summary

In this conversation, the hosts discuss an episode of Gossip Girl and share their thoughts and opinions on various aspects of the show. They talk about the characters, the plot, and the writing. They also touch on other topics such as streaming services and the works of Ernest Hemingway. The conversation is filled with humor and banter between the hosts. In this part of the conversation, the hosts discuss various subtopics and themes from the episode. They touch on Rufus' obsession with Lily, Jenny's success in the fashion industry, Serena and Blair's complicated friendship, Chuck's betrayal by Dan, and the mystery surrounding Lily's secret. They also analyze the character development and dynamics between the main characters. Overall, they praise the writing, directing, and acting in the episode.

Keywords

Gossip Girl, episode review, characters, plot, writing, streaming services, Ernest Hemingway, Rufus, Lily, Jenny, Serena, Blair, Chuck, Dan, fashion industry, friendship, betrayal, mystery, character development, writing, directing, acting

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Initial Impressions

07:04 Discussion of the Episode's Plot

17:46 Exploring the Characters and Their Relationships

24:29 Analysis of the Writing and Themes

29:09 Fashion Week and Drama

32:56 Chuck's Backstory and Emotional Moments

35:39 Surprising Revelations and Conclusion

37:02 Rufus' Creepy Obsession and Jenny's Success

45:06 Serena and Blair's Complicated Friendship and Transformation

52:16 Praise for the Writing, Directing, and Acting

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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#GossipGirl

Transcript
Leif:

You said he looked like Fred from Scooby doo the other episode.

Leif:

uh-huh

Leif:

Now he really looked like he

Leif:

did.

Leif:

He had like, full ascot.

Leif:

Hey, upper east siders and all you scandal loving listeners out

Leif:

there, you just tuned into the non judging breakfast

Leif:

five, where the coffee is strong, the waffles

Leif:

are fresh, and the gossip is hotter than ever.

Leif:

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

Leif:

veteran.

Leif:

And I'm Steve, your newbie, your greenhorn,

Leif:

your, I don't know, Leif. What's the

Leif:

season two newbie called in Gossip

Leif:

girl terms?

Leif:

I don't know. I think it's time to see what you're made of. You're either in for

Leif:

the full ride or not in at all.

Leif:

All right, well, then sit me in the second row with all

Leif:

the other girls and, let's go ahead and get started.

Leif:

Sounds good.

Leif:

So here's the deal, folks. Leap has been watching

Leif:

gossip girls since it first aired, and I'm tuning in

Leif:

for the first time. And together, we're your

Leif:

dynamic duo, bringing you all the drama,

Leif:

romance, and sometimes questionable fashion

Leif:

choices of this iconic 2007

Leif:

series.

Leif:

That's right. Each week we're going to be taking a deep dive

Leif:

into the show, one episode at a time. We're going to go

Leif:

through all the hidden parallels, obscure

Leif:

references, and of course, the guator catastrophes.

Leif:

We're also going to look at some behind the scenes gossip and

Leif:

stories from fandom along the way.

Leif:

And since we're all about inclusivity here at the

Leif:

non judging breakfast pod, there is room for you at

Leif:

the non judging breakfast table. So go ahead and

Leif:

grab your mimosa, some coffee,

Leif:

and maybe some of nate and Chuck's special medicine, and

Leif:

let's go ahead and get this started.

Leif:

Yeah. I don't know about you, but I've been watching our

Leif:

favorite stoner, on the new season of the boys.

Leif:

You know, I actually am about to start that. I

Leif:

started the acolyte instead,

Leif:

which I. Which I really

Leif:

liked for a little

Leif:

bit. And then, well,

Leif:

there was.

Leif:

If you ever wanted to see Chase Crawford sing,

Leif:

you can watch season four, episode four.

Leif:

Awesome. I am, a little Joe

Leif:

cocker.

Leif:

Up where we belong.

Leif:

Nice. And I am caught up now, so I'm

Leif:

going to. When I get back from Alabama, that's going to

Leif:

be the first thing I watch. Is it all. Is

Leif:

it already all out or is it.

Leif:

They released three episodes last week, and, now they're going

Leif:

one episode at a time.

Leif:

Okay, all streaming services, can we have

Leif:

a talk for 1 second. All streaming

Leif:

services why are you taking us back

Leif:

in time? Please stop. Please let us

Leif:

binge our shows now.

Leif:

I actually like it because you get to have

Leif:

the water cooler moments.

Leif:

I get that. But there's so. But I

Leif:

don't have a water cooler.

Leif:

Get a job. Steve,

Leif:

a, little bit of sad news. Donald Sutherland passed

Leif:

away.

Leif:

Yeah, very sad. I heard about that today.

Leif:

88.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah. I always think

Leif:

of his scenes in, animal

Leif:

house and the scene where they're all

Leif:

getting high and they talk about being, an atom on a park

Leif:

bench because that's actually one of those things

Leif:

that fucking blew my mind watching that

Leif:

high in college and having the thought

Leif:

of, like, wait, what? And like.

Leif:

Yeah. For me, the real

Leif:

memorable role for me is the,

Leif:

original watcher for Buffy.

Leif:

Oh, correct. Yeah. In the

Leif:

first. In the Buffy movie. Yeah.

Leif:

Oh, yeah, I remember that.

Leif:

But today we are talking about Gossip

Leif:

Girl, season two, episode five, the

Leif:

Serena also rises.

Leif:

Yeah. Yes, I recognize the

Leif:

title. I don't know that I've even read it.

Leif:

I hate Hemingway.

Leif:

Yeah. I have not read it.

Leif:

I hated Hemingway

Leif:

since, you know, in high school, and I was supposed to read old man

Leif:

in the sea. I didn't finish it because it was boring. And

Leif:

then I started reading some of his stuff. And I'll say he

Leif:

is a brilliant writer. He's

Leif:

fantastic. But he. But I.

Leif:

He's such a grumpy old man, and he

Leif:

just always brings me down. I had to read hills, like,

Leif:

well, it weighed elephants, like, three times. And

Leif:

it's just so fucking depressing and he's just

Leif:

such a morose outlook on life.

Leif:

Wikipedia had this to say about it. The sun also

Leif:

rises is the first novel by american writer Ernest

Leif:

Hemingway. It portrays american and british

Leif:

expatriates who travel along the Camino de

Leif:

Santiago from Paris to

Leif:

Festival of San Fermine in Papollona

Leif:

to watch the running of the bulls and bullfights.

Leif:

An early modernist novel, it received mixed reviews

Leif:

upon publication. Hemingways biographer

Leif:

Geoffrey Myers writes that it is now

Leif:

recognized as Hemingways greatest work, and Hemingway

Leif:

scholar Linda Wagner Martin calls it

Leif:

his most important novel. The novel

Leif:

was published in the United States in October

Leif:

1926 by

Leif:

Scribners. a year later, Jonathan

Leif:

Keith published the novel in London under the

Leif:

title Fiesta. It remains

Leif:

a print. Yeah, I never read it.

Leif:

Yeah. I have not read it. And like I said, I really

Leif:

don't care to. I never read a farewell

Leif:

to arms. I've read. I've read short

Leif:

stories. And again, it's not about the

Leif:

writing. He's a brilliant writer. He's

Leif:

got a brilliant command of his technique,

Leif:

but it's just. Everything is just so

Leif:

nihilistic and

Leif:

depressing and

Leif:

grumpy.

Leif:

So this episode originally aired on September

Leif:

22, 2008, and the gossip Girl

Leif:

Wiki episode description reads,

Leif:

in the midst of fashion Week, a furious

Leif:

Blair learns that her mother, Eleanor, at

Leif:

the suggestion of her protege Jenny, has given

Leif:

Serena and her new socialite friend poppy

Leif:

lipton front row seats to Eleanor

Leif:

Woolner's show. Hurt once again by

Leif:

Serena's popularity at her mother's portrayal,

Leif:

Blair decides to sabotage the show.

Leif:

Meanwhile, Dan starts to hang out with Chuck.

Leif:

But a walk on the dark side always has its wrist.

Leif:

And Dan learns that the hard way. Lily learns

Leif:

a secret that her new husband, Bart, has been

Leif:

keeping from her.

Leif:

There's stuff in this episode I love, and there's stuff in this

Leif:

episode I hate.

Leif:

Really. I love this episode.

Leif:

There's. There's just parts of it that I don't like. I

Leif:

miss old Blair

Leif:

and. But other than that. But,

Leif:

like, the Lily shit is so.

Leif:

Fucking good episode

Leif:

written by Jessica Queller. she's back.

Leif:

She had three pre strike episodes. The

Leif:

Handmaiden's tale, Blair ward off from his

Leif:

pie and roman holiday.

Leif:

So the two holiday episodes, both really

Leif:

good. Really good episodes.

Leif:

And the other one is

Leif:

Handmaiden's tale. You gave a b. you gave a b minus. I gave

Leif:

a b.

Leif:

Right. And that was the, masquerade.

Leif:

Yes.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

And then it was directed by Patrick R. Naris.

Leif:

Also did two three strike episodes. Bad news Blair

Leif:

the fourth episode, and I society,

Leif:

the 10th episode.

Leif:

Yeah, I kind of liked high society. Yeah, I liked

Leif:

both.

Leif:

Gave I society.

Leif:

Yeah, high society. that was the first one was CC. I really liked that.

Leif:

Yeah, you gave. You gave bad news player b minus. I gave it a b

Leif:

plus.

Leif:

Yeah, I remember

Leif:

having mixed feelings about that one.

Leif:

Which is the photo shoot episode.

Leif:

Yeah, it's their first. It's the first Serena and Blair being

Leif:

friends again episode, which. That has

Leif:

now lasted a

Leif:

season. Right. Because that

Leif:

was. That was episode four. And now this

Leif:

is episode five.

Leif:

Yeah, they had some mini breakups in

Leif:

between, like, in episode 13 there.

Leif:

Well, they. Everything that has

Leif:

happened between them so far has

Leif:

resolved within the episode. It happened.

Leif:

Right. Like, the big one being, you

Leif:

know, the. Especially the Thanksgiving episode

Leif:

where, you know, they get into the big fight,

Leif:

but then Blair calls Serena when she

Leif:

relapses and needs Serena there. And Serena drops

Leif:

every.

Leif:

I think. I, think 13 was their biggest fight because that's

Leif:

why Blair's almost going to leave.

Leif:

Yeah. And Serena goes to stop her

Leif:

because.

Leif:

She thought she had lost Serena too.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah.

Leif:

But at the last minute, Serena comes and stops her.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

So we get into the episode

Leif:

when the white tents blossom in Bryant park. It can

Leif:

only mean one thing.

Leif:

Fashion week.

Leif:

The time of year when any park Avenue princess would

Leif:

trade her last Prada Pochette for front row seats to

Leif:

the best shows. And we hear the seating trial for

Leif:

Eleanor Waldo's show is being made by our

Leif:

very own bee in Gus

Leif:

Girl monologues as we see Blair arranging the cd chair

Leif:

for Eleanor's fashion show.

Leif:

Eleanor. I love Margaret

Leif:

Collins in every scene she's ever in. And

Leif:

her writing in this is just. She's

Leif:

like. It's a blessing that she was

Leif:

dragged off to rehab when she was

Leif:

talking about the. But

Leif:

she's so fucking wrong

Leif:

and so fucking

Leif:

disrespectful. But, like, that,

Leif:

she is just like, fuck it. I don't have any time

Leif:

for anything that isn't my show.

Leif:

Like, She just makes that clear from the

Leif:

start that Eleanor is taking

Leif:

no shit right now.

Leif:

Yeah. Dan and Jenny are walking

Leif:

to school, and apparently Dan has switched his college of choice

Leif:

from Dartmouth to Yale. Looks like Jenny is teaching school

Leif:

altogether.

Leif:

Yeah, this was a neat, You know, you always have

Leif:

those great Dan and Jenny scenes. And then this

Leif:

one specifically. Ah, they pour a lot

Leif:

of exposition into it too. they give you a lot of

Leif:

that info, you know, that Dan is fine with

Leif:

being ostracized, but it is still

Leif:

happening, and he seems mostly fine with it.

Leif:

There seems to be maybe a twinge of.

Leif:

You know, the sarcasm says that maybe there's a twinge of her

Leif:

there, but there's also this great. You

Leif:

learn, like you said, jenny's not going to school. You learn that

Leif:

Dan is switching his ideas of where

Leif:

he wants to go to college because of the

Leif:

shift in the

Leif:

writing teachers and stuff, so.

Leif:

Yeah, yeah. Poached the writing staff

Leif:

from Dartmouth.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Lily is reviewing her art collection with becks.

Leif:

Serena has been out partying with a

Leif:

socialite populiptin. We also learned

Leif:

that lily posed for Maple Thorpe.

Leif:

Fucking becks. Are we still doing this? Are we

Leif:

still bringing becks around?

Leif:

I mean. I mean, I know she's our art dealer.

Leif:

I actually kind of like that. That's like, it's

Leif:

better than just bringing, like, some random person in.

Leif:

It really is. You know, it is good continuity. It's.

Leif:

And there were no interactions with Rufus. It

Leif:

was. My worry was like, I think I'm a yemenite do something.

Leif:

But you're right. It makes a lot of sense for becks to be in this

Leif:

scene.

Leif:

Chuck is offering to help Blair, regain her

Leif:

throne. Blair turns him down. However, the minions

Leif:

are much more impressed with Serena hanging out with poppy than

Leif:

the tickets to Eleanor show. Blair and truck

Leif:

jade trade a few more barbs before Blair

Leif:

storms out of the courtyard.

Leif:

Well, you can kind of see that Chuck is starting to make his

Leif:

play. You know, he's starting to try to

Leif:

actively pull his strings a little more.

Leif:

King Blair.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah. The other thing, I mean, these

Leif:

girls, they are fangirls, you know? And

Leif:

Serena says something later that describes them even

Leif:

better. When. When she says they're gonna flock

Leif:

from one to another, but they are just kind of

Leif:

oohing and ahing over Serena

Leif:

when. When Blair starts going in

Leif:

on Chuck, and she's like, you are nothing. You're

Leif:

like Dan Humphrey, only at least his

Leif:

lame nineties dad loves him.

Leif:

God damn, does she know how to fucking

Leif:

hit him hard.

Leif:

And, yeah, as we find out later in the episode, how hard

Leif:

that hits.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like Blair

Leif:

would know that, too, that Blair would know

Leif:

that they all know each other so

Leif:

intimately.

Leif:

Yeah, I'm sure they all know.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

That story. Dan is meeting with Noah

Leif:

Shapiro, who is bored with Dan's writing different

Leif:

versions of the same story. Shapiro

Leif:

encourages Dan to get outside his comfort

Leif:

zone.

Leif:

So I'd like to flash back to episode

Leif:

two, where Dan said that he's going to turn it into a series. And

Leif:

Jenny said, I think you're overestimating

Leif:

how much people enjoy your life. And I was

Leif:

like, you're right, Jenny.

Leif:

I'm gonna stand by that comment

Leif:

now.

Leif:

But the people around, maybe he could be

Leif:

the. What's the, other guy from the guy. The

Leif:

pov guy from the great Scott Gatsby.

Leif:

Oh, yeah.

Leif:

He's fucking boring as shit, but, yeah, he sees

Leif:

a lot of crazy stuff going on.

Leif:

Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Leif:

I forgot to mention this in the first episode where you had

Leif:

that first author.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

My Harris. Which they mentioned.

Leif:

Yeah, yeah.

Leif:

So that was actually being played by

Leif:

Jay McElroy, Riney

Leif:

McElroney.

Leif:

Okay.

Leif:

Who is a. He was, like, sort of a hot shot.

Leif:

He's like a lesser Brett. East Dallas.

Leif:

His big hit was a bright, big

Leif:

city. Bright lights, big city.

Leif:

Oh, okay. I have heard that. yeah, I have heard of that.

Leif:

But, yeah, so they were. They were very excited to get him.

Leif:

Mm

Leif:

But then he was not a good

Leif:

actor. They kind of wrote

Leif:

him out and brought this this guy is, an actual actor.

Leif:

Yeah, well, and I didn't really love him

Leif:

because I felt like this guy was someone playing

Leif:

a writer. Like, I just felt like, you

Leif:

know, with the whiskey on the desk, and.

Leif:

I feel like that was probably direction.

Leif:

I think you're right.

Leif:

I feel the guy seemed like he was a competent actor.

Leif:

Yeah, I I, feel like he was a competent

Leif:

actor who was not given. I I

Leif:

didn't. I didn't like the.

Leif:

The role, and I didn't like, you know,

Leif:

bukowski shot a shot glass off of my

Leif:

head.

Leif:

Have you never got gossip girls all surface, all

Leif:

this, everything? You know, it's not a main character

Leif:

stereotype.

Leif:

Yeah, you're. You're right. You're right. I need to accept.

Leif:

It's like. Yeah, like watching the

Leif:

Simpsons.

Leif:

Oh, my God. You just kind of ruined and made

Leif:

this entire rest of this podcast

Leif:

something even better.

Leif:

At the atelier, Eleanor needs it girls.

Leif:

To bring the press to her shows, jenny suggests

Leif:

Serena and her new socialite friends.

Leif:

I love how Eleanor rips

Leif:

the dress away from one of the other people

Leif:

and takes it to Jenny and is like, I need this

Leif:

fixed, that now. Jenny is the

Leif:

Eleanor go to fix it person.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

That was fantastic.

Leif:

Yeah. That is just. Yeah. That is a very little thing, but I

Leif:

think. Yeah, that's very important.

Leif:

Yeah. I thought it spoke volumes, especially for the rest

Leif:

of the show and how she trusts Jenny's

Leif:

judgment over and over again.

Leif:

Yeah. And Jenny is talented. That.

Leif:

That's, I think, the key takeaway there.

Leif:

Yes. They really want us to believe that

Leif:

Jenny is very talented and that

Leif:

that dress that she made is

Leif:

great. Robin liked

Leif:

it. We'll get there.

Leif:

I mean, it's not like an everyday dress, but I liked it.

Leif:

It was kits couture.

Leif:

It's not. It's not to be worn out.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

It's to go to the met ball.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah. It was

Leif:

very boofy.

Leif:

It's my note.

Leif:

Dan shows up at the penthouse because he wants

Leif:

Chuck to take him outside of his comfort zone.

Leif:

blair's barb earlier clearly got under Chuck's

Leif:

skin because he agrees to take down

Leif:

out with him when

Leif:

he's like.

Leif:

Yeah, I know you think that I'm blah blah, blah. I don't think of you

Leif:

like Chuck. I fucking love Chuck. In this

Leif:

scene. When are you gay? Yeah.

Leif:

Now in this scene. And then also the later scene

Leif:

when Dan punches the guy. I

Leif:

thought Chuck seemed a little excited.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

I don't know if that was ed writing or

Leif:

the. Or the direction, but. Or

Leif:

combination.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

But I read it as, like, he was turned

Leif:

on, especially after the

Leif:

punch.

Leif:

Yeah, yeah, I didn't really read into

Leif:

that. I didn't. I wasn't. But, like, I could

Leif:

totally see that, though, too. And that.

Leif:

I mean, that could be just, like, reminiscent of the book Chuck, who

Leif:

is bisexual.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah, that's fair.

Leif:

Blair is whinging to Dorota about

Leif:

Serena stealing her minions, and, Blair, already

Leif:

spiraling, discovers that Jenny changed her

Leif:

seating chart.

Leif:

Oh, little j. You're stuck on the tracks, and the b

Leif:

train is coming through town.

Leif:

Yeah. And this is where I felt like I missed season

Leif:

one. Blair, that I. That like her

Leif:

on the fact that she does all of

Leif:

this, that. That she gets so

Leif:

unhinged on her mom.

Leif:

Like. Like that the. That the person who is

Leif:

very careful not to throw Eric under the

Leif:

bus ever is now willing to

Leif:

fuck her mom over to fuck over

Leif:

Jenny. That didn't sit right with me.

Leif:

I mean, I think she was kind of like this a little

Leif:

bit, like, especially, like, the thanksgiving episode.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

I feel like Eric is an exception.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

She has a very contentious relationship with her

Leif:

mother.

Leif:

She does. I just.

Leif:

It's almost similar to the relationship to Serena.

Leif:

Although I also feel like

Leif:

Blaire is, though she's

Leif:

constantly fighting with Eleanor, she also is constantly seeking

Leif:

her approval, too, and that's why I thought, like,

Leif:

your mom was only going to be mad at

Leif:

you for anything that goes wrong once it all

Leif:

comes out that you're doing. And, like, how can

Leif:

you expect to keep any of it a secret? But we'll get to that as we're

Leif:

going on.

Leif:

I just feel like that. That is kind of Blair.

Leif:

Yeah. I feel like it's

Leif:

season two. Blair is whinier and

Leif:

unravels easier and quicker. I

Leif:

feel like she has. She, comes.

Leif:

She was broken already in season one. That's why.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah.

Leif:

Now, like, once you're broken that first time, it's much easier to

Leif:

break.

Leif:

Yeah, I guess I just

Leif:

miss. I miss the old blair.

Leif:

What would fashion week be without a fashion

Leif:

victim? Looks like little J. Started her own

Leif:

trend wearing a bullseye on her back.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

And we move it back to.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Blair is arguing with Eleanor about the changes to

Leif:

the seating chart. It looks like Blair has figured out

Leif:

Jenny has been skipping class to go work at the

Leif:

atelier.

Leif:

This is, Oh, I I really liked

Leif:

Blair putting this together and, like,

Leif:

seeing the wheels turning, and it's

Leif:

like we're Jenny because, like,

Leif:

she's caught.

Leif:

Now at a dimly lit

Leif:

bar, a waiter drops a tray full of

Leif:

shots in front of Dan and Chuck. Is Chuck going to

Leif:

date rate Dan?

Leif:

Yeah. Does he actually drug him, do you

Leif:

think? Or does he give him a placebo? Because he's. Because

Leif:

Dan is like, give me the Chuck bass treatment. So

Leif:

Chuck's like, I'm gonna fuck with this guy.

Leif:

I just don't. Why would he be carrying around a placebo? Cause he

Leif:

does eat one himself.

Leif:

Yeah, but it. But it's

Leif:

Chuck. Like, I could. Or

Leif:

having, like, a tylenol to tell him, like, hey, yeah, take

Leif:

this.

Leif:

It was just, like, ecstasy.

Leif:

I had that. Yeah, it could be. I just kind of

Leif:

questioned whether or not he actually

Leif:

would waste his drugs on Dan.

Leif:

He's a fucking billionaire.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah.

Leif:

You see how much food these people. Wait.

Leif:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Leif:

Poppy and Serena are having dinner with. With

Leif:

lily. Serena is doing the same thing as last week where

Leif:

she offers up a little protest to the thing but then

Leif:

just caves in because it's what she really wants to do all

Leif:

along. Again, not sure if she's even consciously

Leif:

aware of this, but it's definitely become a

Leif:

staple of the Serena playbook. Lily finds out

Leif:

that someone bought her nude photo prior to the

Leif:

auction, and.

Leif:

You do see that Serena definitely doesn't want to cross

Leif:

Blair. And you know that,

Leif:

like, you kind of expect this from

Leif:

the start, that.

Leif:

Like, she said, she totally lets herself be

Leif:

talked into it.

Leif:

But she does let herself be talked into it. She lets herself be

Leif:

talked into the cooler thing.

Leif:

She's the queen of plausible deniability.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah, I. Wow. She really

Leif:

is. Yeah.

Leif:

Blair shows up the loft under the guise of caring

Leif:

about Jenny, but it is clearly there for the sole

Leif:

purpose of blowing up Jenny's spot.

Leif:

One thing I wanted to add about the previous scene I

Leif:

called. It was Bart. I mean, yeah, yeah, I

Leif:

called it right then, and, yeah, yeah.

Leif:

I mean, who else would it be.

Leif:

Exactly in that next scene, the one that you

Leif:

just read, the skepticism

Leif:

on.

Leif:

Rufus's face, at least you've learned a little bit.

Leif:

Yeah, but then Blair just. Facts are

Leif:

facts. She hasn't, been showing up at school.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

And I may not have her best interest, but

Leif:

facts are facts.

Leif:

Yeah. And I love that.

Leif:

I love that Rufus.

Leif:

Yeah. I know you don't have my kids interested at heart.

Leif:

Yep. Yep. But, yeah, you're

Leif:

right.

Leif:

Elise, Rufus learned from season one.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah, he really did. Like, yeah, he. That is

Leif:

one of those really big things that I loved about

Leif:

Rufus in that scene is that he instantly is

Leif:

like, you're here for no good.

Leif:

We shift back to Dan and Chuck in the

Leif:

limo. Dan is clearly trash. Chuck is

Leif:

bored and kicks Dan out of the limo with his. Without his

Leif:

wallet and shoes. Spotted. Dan

Leif:

Humphrey shoeless and clueless. That's

Leif:

all.

Leif:

How do you know so many twins? Twins

Leif:

find me.

Leif:

yeah, check.

Leif:

I really enjoyed the Dan joke.

Leif:

Kicking him out with no shoes. It's like.

Leif:

Yeah, I love their interactions.

Leif:

Stole his phone. Yeah.

Leif:

that's actually one of the reasons why this is one of my favorite

Leif:

episodes of the show.

Leif:

Yeah, yeah, I loved

Leif:

it. They were great together.

Leif:

Rufus shows up at the atelier and reads Jenny the

Leif:

riot act as Blair watches from the

Leif:

shadows with glee.

Leif:

Yeah, can't blame rupees on any of

Leif:

it. Yeah, yeah. I mean,

Leif:

he's. I mean, he's dumping thousands of dollars down

Leif:

the drain for her to skip school like

Leif:

that. That's fucked.

Leif:

But I do fair she is keeping up with all of her silence.

Leif:

Yeah, like. Like I get Jenny. Every

Leif:

argument Jenny has is also

Leif:

Validore Rufus being Rufus

Leif:

react. Justified is definitely

Leif:

justified, too. I really feel like this is one

Leif:

of those parenting things.

Leif:

There are whole stuff shows that the relationship

Leif:

is already cracked, that she has to hide this

Leif:

and.

Leif:

Yeah, yeah, you're right.

Leif:

They say in fashion you can become sort

Leif:

a success overnight, but 1 minute you're in and

Leif:

next you're out. We come back from commercial

Leif:

break. Rufus is making waffles at the loft

Leif:

while jenny reads in sullen silence.

Leif:

Rufus lets Jenny know that she has to go to school on a

Leif:

Saturday to apologize to headmistress.

Leif:

Well, yeah, dad.

Leif:

Yeah. Good, good. Taylor Mumson

Leif:

scene. She did some great, great

Leif:

work here.

Leif:

Yeah, she played a perfect, angry teenage

Leif:

girl.

Leif:

She really did.

Leif:

and again, this is a good move by Rufus

Leif:

getting her chance to apologize.

Leif:

Yeah, yeah.

Leif:

I don't know. Saturday.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Blair and Serena fight. blair is mad

Leif:

at Serena for stealing her spotlight. Serena is mad at blair

Leif:

for being blair. Can't we all just get along

Leif:

and that?

Leif:

Really? And, like, Serena's right to be mad at

Leif:

Blair for being Blair because Blair comes at

Leif:

her out of nowhere with all of

Leif:

these accusations, and

Leif:

nothing Serena says gets

Leif:

her to back off. So Serena is like, all right, fuck off,

Leif:

blair. And. And which is how they

Leif:

always, which is how all of their fights have gone. You

Leif:

know, it has always been, you

Leif:

know, Blair erupts over something

Leif:

Serena says or a, look Serena gives her

Leif:

something Serena is like, okay, fine. I'm not dealing

Leif:

with this. Fuck off, Blair. And then

Leif:

an emergency happens to bring them back together.

Leif:

Noah Shapiro is getting awfully meta with his

Leif:

advice to Dan. Your protagonist character is

Leif:

boring, right, about Charlie trout.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

This is just clearly the writers getting meta because, like,

Leif:

penn Badgley's number three on the call street by blake and

Leif:

laytone.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

He was supposed to be the main character.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Was not very popular, so Chuck was much more

Leif:

popular, so, yeah, he's clearly the writer's being

Leif:

bad at.

Leif:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And needing a more,

Leif:

less boring protagonist.

Leif:

Having created a pretty boring

Leif:

protagonist, it.

Leif:

Turns out Bart is the one who bought

Leif:

Lily's reese photo. Apparently, Lily

Leif:

takes likes, being stalked.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

And this is, like, a, scene where you really see the

Leif:

similarities between Lily and Serena.

Leif:

Yeah, yeah.

Leif:

They like the attention. No matter if it's negative or

Leif:

positive, they just like the attention.

Leif:

And earlier in the episode when.

Leif:

When Serena, when Serena found out

Leif:

about the picture, you see that, too,

Leif:

that Serena's like, oh, yeah.

Leif:

Like, awesome.

Leif:

Yeah, that's awesome. And here

Leif:

I wasn't. So as far as the stalking

Leif:

goes, to me, it was

Leif:

Bart bass learned of this

Leif:

picture and bought it at that point.

Leif:

Right. That is as far as my. As I took it

Leif:

and I saw it as I understood why she was excited.

Leif:

She wanted this thing, and now

Leif:

he's buying it, and I'm sure there's a story

Leif:

behind how he got to have it.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

So that's where. Where that excitement comes from. You

Leif:

know?

Leif:

I didn't tell anyone, so he's just, like, looking into me

Leif:

and.

Leif:

Yeah, and. And.

Leif:

But at the same time, I'm sitting there thinking, Bart Bass

Leif:

is never going to let anyone see a naked

Leif:

picture of his wife ever.

Leif:

No way. That that superhero villain,

Leif:

that super villain.

Leif:

Well, I mean, he really pulls off his

Leif:

mask in this episode.

Leif:

Oh, yeah.

Leif:

Like, at this up until this point, like, we kind

Leif:

of suspected this guy is kind of evil,

Leif:

but he hasn't really shown his hand until now.

Leif:

yeah, well, and we'll get

Leif:

to that. We'll get to that.

Leif:

The needle drops. Lady gaga plays.

Leif:

Vitamin water is on display as we

Leif:

officially. We're officially at

Leif:

fashion week. Blair is being petty with Serena,

Leif:

but Jenny once again jumps in front of the b train to make

Leif:

sure the show goes off without a hitch.

Leif:

Eleanor makes Blair feel like shit.

Leif:

He has no fucking time for

Leif:

Blair's shit, and I love it. I love how

Leif:

she's just like, what are you doing, Blair?

Leif:

Yeah. Get out of here. Not now. Yeah.

Leif:

Chuck is trying to bond with Bart, but Bart

Leif:

completely blows him off. Dan overhears and

Leif:

sits down to find his story.

Leif:

Dan slowly sliding into the upper

Leif:

east side lifestyle of using

Leif:

friends and family to get ahead.

Leif:

Yeah. It's the first time Robin

Leif:

has ever said she wanted to give Chuck bass a

Leif:

hug.

Leif:

Oh, they're going over dry to make him a sympathetic

Leif:

character.

Leif:

He. I, mean, and it. And in this, it's working.

Leif:

It's working. It works. Yeah.

Leif:

I mean, I. He's good. His

Leif:

convert, the Batman voice is

Leif:

silly, but, like, the

Leif:

conversation with Bart

Leif:

is fucking heartbreaking.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

You know, and, like, I never had a cats in

Leif:

the cradle dad like that. Like, I. As

Leif:

complicated as my relationship with my dad was,

Leif:

my dad was always there

Leif:

if I ever, like, needed him. like, yes,

Leif:

he worked a lot, and he was the. You know, there

Leif:

were. He was the one who I saw less

Leif:

of, but he was. I

Leif:

never had that. But you still had that real heart

Leif:

wrenching, like, you know, that feeling

Leif:

of, like, God, how much that sucks to

Leif:

just be blown off like that by someone

Leif:

who all you want is to see him.

Leif:

You know?

Leif:

Blair is still being petty and taking

Leif:

out all her insecurities regarding her mother and Serena out

Leif:

on Jenny without caring who gets in the

Leif:

crossfire. Looks like she is going to

Leif:

sabotage Jennings next desk.

Leif:

I have two things here, and the first is just like,

Leif:

blair, how does this actually

Leif:

benefit you? like, yeah, you're making Jenny look bad,

Leif:

but how does it actually, it's

Leif:

not.

Leif:

She's lashing out.

Leif:

Yeah. And she

Leif:

was so, again, like, she used to be so

Leif:

calculated, you know, she would steal the batteries

Leif:

and research flow, ride assams. But, like,

Leif:

she had a plan, you know?

Leif:

Also why.

Leif:

But she was never fighting against Serena

Leif:

directly.

Leif:

Right. But so that brings me to my other

Leif:

thing, though. You're the stage manager

Leif:

that you just saw Blair try to fuck everything

Leif:

up and just got told, no, don't listen to

Leif:

her. Why? When Blair comes up to you and says,

Leif:

oh, I'm taking over for Jenny now, you're,

Leif:

like, dope. Here's what you need to do, and I

Leif:

will just not go verify this.

Leif:

Well, technically, she didn't say she was taking over for

Leif:

Jenny. She just found out what she was doing, and then

Leif:

she went and told the models to leave.

Leif:

I know. She said something like,

Leif:

I I want.

Leif:

To make sure we don't mess. We don't mix up our tasks again. So

Leif:

tell me what Jenny's supposed to do.

Leif:

Right. Okay. Yeah, you're right. You're right.

Leif:

And then she just went in and told them all to leave. so Jenny

Leif:

would be blamed.

Leif:

Yeah. Cause that couldn't possibly backfire.

Leif:

Cause no, one could verify who sent

Leif:

them all home.

Leif:

spotted Blair Waldorf looking to do a

Leif:

good deed. There's a first time for

Leif:

everything. And that is the end of

Leif:

act two. We moved into the final

Leif:

act. Dan is trying to get inside

Leif:

Chucks head. Chuck gets bored with 20

Leif:

questions and decides to make an indecent

Leif:

proposal to a woman at the bar. The woman

Leif:

is offended and her boyfriend tries to pick a fight.

Leif:

Dan jumps in and drops the boyfriend with a right

Leif:

overhand. Chuck looks like he has a new

Leif:

best friend. Friend.

Leif:

Chuck says something interesting. he

Leif:

says, what's your dad like? And Chuck says, he's like

Leif:

me, but older and meaner. But older and

Leif:

meaner. And you've seen over and

Leif:

over that Chuck aspires to be his

Leif:

dad. He wants to be his dad, but he

Leif:

also wants a relationship.

Leif:

But does he really want to be his dad or he just want his dad's

Leif:

approval and he thinks that's the way to get it?

Leif:

I. Well, and I think that's more of the point I was going

Leif:

for, is that he wants to be.

Leif:

He wants that approval. And he thinks to get his dad's

Leif:

approval, he has to be his dad, when really

Leif:

it's just, you know, kind of

Leif:

gotta bring your mom back.

Leif:

Necromancy to get on your dad's goods.

Leif:

Rufus comes home to an empty loft to find out

Leif:

Jenny failed her interview.

Leif:

Yeah, I don't think I even took a

Leif:

note for this scene, but it was just

Leif:

fuck, like things have

Leif:

escalated.

Leif:

Yeah, that damn Jenny.

Leif:

At the show, Jenny ignores a call from Rufus only to

Leif:

discover Blair sent all the models home. early season

Leif:

one, Jenny appears to be back, always reacting and landing on

Leif:

her feet.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah, Blair sent them home.

Leif:

Like she knew Blair sent them home.

Leif:

All she has to do is say, yeah, Blair sent them home. I'll

Leif:

figure it out. And she does figure it out. And

Leif:

one thing that I love about it is that she sees

Leif:

Serena and she knows that she can go to her.

Leif:

But like, Serena loves Jenny and. And

Leif:

now Jenny later on does have the

Leif:

conversation about serena. But

Leif:

Jenny has always been friendly with Serena, and

Leif:

Serena loves. Has always loved Jenny

Leif:

as a little sister. So it makes

Leif:

so much sense for her to go to her for this favor too.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Dan and Chuck are in a holding sale.

Leif:

Chuck is extremely grateful for Dan stepping

Leif:

in on his behalf. Chuck reveals that Bart hates

Leif:

him because his mother died in

Leif:

childbirth.

Leif:

Yeah. So this is the first mention

Leif:

of Chuck's mom since the pilot. Yeah, and in

Leif:

the pilot, they only say that she has

Leif:

pills like dipping into her

Leif:

pills.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Which there could still be a medicine

Leif:

cabinet with. I mean, Chuck would have rated it by

Leif:

now, but there could.

Leif:

I mean, you would think they'd be expired to.

Leif:

Well, yeah, but if you're like, if you're a,

Leif:

you know, 16 year old who's just popping

Leif:

anything to see what it'll do.

Leif:

Expired might not bother you.

Leif:

Yeah. He's not an average 16 year old. He doesn't have to fucking.

Leif:

He can get the good shit.

Leif:

Yeah, but. But all. Or, like, where does his

Leif:

experimenting start, you know?

Leif:

Bart arrives home with a gift other than the one Lily

Leif:

was expecting, it turns out Bart only

Leif:

bought the photo so no one could ever see

Leif:

it.

Leif:

Aside from everything. Fucking Kelly

Leif:

Rutherford in this scene, m

Leif:

man, her reactions, her

Leif:

face, though, the control

Leif:

she has in her face

Leif:

shows every.

Leif:

Every flash of emotion going

Leif:

through that. That whole

Leif:

conversation, when she's like,

Leif:

I want to see it. And

Leif:

this scene and the next one

Leif:

made this scene

Leif:

in the season finale of season one.

Leif:

Now it's creepy. Remember, we went back and forth

Leif:

a little bit about that and how I was just like,

Leif:

yeah, I could see how he would pick up on Rufus.

Leif:

On the rufus thing.

Leif:

Yeah, I was kind of hinting at it, and.

Leif:

But now. Yeah, I remember you hinting at it a

Leif:

little bit, but now it's creepy because now

Leif:

it's. He has dug into every aspect of

Leif:

her life, and. And

Leif:

he's a fucking super villain.

Leif:

Jenny, his plan is to use Serena,

Leif:

Poppy, and her friends. Serena, Poppy,

Leif:

and her friends as models. How handy is it that

Leif:

society girls are way for thin.

Leif:

Eleanor again, when every time.

Leif:

Every time he goes to rehab his sales.

Leif:

Sore about the mark

Leif:

Jacobs.

Leif:

Jenny, plan. Okay. Ah, the show seems

Leif:

to be a big success. Serena is still feeling guilty,

Leif:

but she lets Poppy convince her to walk in the show.

Leif:

However, it looks like Blair may still have one last

Leif:

hole. Hole card up her

Leif:

sleeve.

Leif:

yeah. And

Leif:

so poppy's right on everything here. And, you know,

Leif:

it's a great scene, a great

Leif:

acknowledgement for Serena of, like, wow. You know, I

Leif:

really do hold back because Blair gets upset,

Leif:

and she does. We've seen it over and over, especially now

Leif:

that we're, for the first time, seeing

Leif:

Serena take the forefront. And

Leif:

Blair's acting badly. In fact,

Leif:

that earlier scene where she says they're like a

Leif:

flock of hummingbirds, they're on to me this week. They'll be on

Leif:

to someone else next week, and they'll be back to you eventually,

Leif:

too, so. Which also shows that

Leif:

Serena, these things just come naturally

Leif:

for her, and she doesn't have to work for it.

Leif:

It looks like Blair gave Serena a dress

Leif:

designed by jenny. I have to think. Blair thought

Leif:

Jenny's dress would be a.

Leif:

Flop, and, and even if it wasn't a

Leif:

flop, she knew it would be controversial. Like, she

Leif:

has that tell early on when she's like, oh, sue,

Leif:

you snuck your dress into the

Leif:

Eleanor Waldorf line. You know, like,

Leif:

she knew that even if it was good,

Leif:

like, either way, Blair was going to,

Leif:

like, get what she wanted. But also,

Leif:

I would assume that blair thought that that dress would suck.

Leif:

I also like to point out the whole fashion shoot was,

Leif:

I liked the way it was shot. We don't

Leif:

get a lot of action shots in Gossip Girl.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Yeah, I did. I did think they did a good job with the

Leif:

directing there.

Leif:

Yeah, I agreed.

Leif:

Blair admits that she was taking her Serena

Leif:

frustration out on Jenny. Jenny tells

Leif:

Blair that Jenny wanted to be friends with Blair,

Leif:

not Serena, last year. This scene is a

Leif:

mirror of Jenny and elder scene from the dark

Leif:

Knight.

Leif:

Yeah. And it's a nice Jenny Blair

Leif:

scene. Yeah. And it's nice to see them.

Leif:

I like to see them bonding.

Leif:

Yeah. They bond, and they kind of put a lot of

Leif:

the last year's shit behind them

Leif:

finally.

Leif:

And then we go to a commercial, and at the police

Leif:

station, Chuck accidentally gets Dan's

Leif:

personal effects and discovers the story about

Leif:

himself.

Leif:

Bum, bum, bum.

Leif:

Why are you carrying around with you, Dan?

Leif:

Yeah, why? With all the notes on it and everything, too,

Leif:

like, you fucking idiot.

Leif:

all the ridding.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Lily and Bart are fighting about Bart's

Leif:

investigations. However, it looks like Lily has a secret

Leif:

bigger than all the rest.

Leif:

Yeah. Who did Lily pass coke to?

Leif:

That's where my mind,

Leif:

who's dead? Who's dead? Who's fucking dead?

Leif:

Lily.

Leif:

Chuck, confronts tan about the story.

Leif:

Chuck lashes out in anger, but he's clearly hurting

Leif:

from the betrayal.

Leif:

And it was fair, you know, like, and, yeah.

Leif:

Again, I did, like, Ed Westbrook's acting in the

Leif:

scene.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

He saw that he was hurt.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah. Ed was really good in this whole episode.

Leif:

He thought he had a friend.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah. And he didn't really. And

Leif:

he, and it was like a momentary, like,

Leif:

I. Yeah, that, I mean, he thought he

Leif:

actually was connecting with someone, cuz.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Cuz, I mean, like, he likes Nate, but

Leif:

Nate's probably not the best

Leif:

conversationalist.

Leif:

Yeah. Chuck doesn't. Chuck needs more than just

Leif:

a friend. He needs. He needs a

Leif:

frenemy, you know? And he needs someone that can

Leif:

challenge him, on some level. And Dan

Leif:

can challenge him.

Leif:

Eleanor is about to end Jenny's career when

Leif:

Jenny and Blair team up in the moment to convince

Leif:

Eleanor to take credit for Jenny's dress,

Leif:

which everyone loved.

Leif:

Yeah. And so after all of

Leif:

this shit, Blair, you're just like my b.

Leif:

Like, sorry,

Leif:

I didn't do it.

Leif:

Looks like Jenny still has her dad to

Leif:

contend with, but she's able to put it off for just a little

Leif:

while longer.

Leif:

Cold blooded.

Leif:

Yeah. no, my dad's out of town.

Leif:

Yeah, my dad's out of town. That's that crazy dude. You should

Leif:

just let your man. Don't let him in.

Leif:

And then we move into the epilogue.

Leif:

Dan is getting bailed out by Noah

Leif:

Shapiro. And Dan pulls back from the dark

Leif:

side for the time being, but Shapiro tells him

Leif:

he will never amount to anything with that attitude.

Leif:

Shapiro is such an asshole. And the thought

Leif:

of, like, the only way you can be a good writer is to be a

Leif:

complete fucking exploitive asshole.

Leif:

Like, I'm sure there's other.

Leif:

How much? Like, come up with something.

Leif:

Yeah.

Steve:

Yeah.

Leif:

I could maybe try to just, I don't know, be creative.

Leif:

Yeah. and again, it's harder for, you know,

Leif:

dumb writers to write smart. It's hard for bad writers to write good

Leif:

writing.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

I'm just playing along with Dan as a good writer. Just

Leif:

like Jenny is a good fashion designer.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah.

Leif:

he's like, well, maybe I'll write about this crotchety, old,

Leif:

washed up. He's like, yeah, I can't wait to read it

Leif:

and read his digest. I'll use it to prop up my

Leif:

Pulitzers. That

Leif:

was fantastic.

Leif:

Like, I love those moments when Dan thinks, like,

Leif:

ha. Got him. Then it's like, boom. Hm.

Leif:

Oh.

Leif:

At the post show wrap up, Eleanor

Leif:

specifically thanks Jenny for all her

Leif:

hard work. Rufus hears this and

Leif:

seems impressed.

Leif:

Yeah. Like, and Rufus needs to hear

Leif:

that. Needs to hear that Jenny is really good at

Leif:

this.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

And that she is praised for her work

Leif:

by one of the most powerful people. I'd

Leif:

say, like, up and coming, right? Eleanor's, like, powerful

Leif:

up and coming.

Leif:

Yeah. At the start of the show, she was just

Leif:

about to take her company public.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah. So she's. She is very

Leif:

powerful, I guess, at this. Ah.

Leif:

We're to assume at this point she has a guy po. At

Leif:

this point.

Leif:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. And

Leif:

is competing with Marc Jacobs.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

You know, so she's on that level. You know, she's worried

Leif:

about who's at his show. So, like, here is one of

Leif:

the most powerful people in the industry who is now saying,

Leif:

your daughter is saving her

Leif:

show.

Leif:

Blair and Serena have a conversation. It looks

Leif:

as though Blair is trying to be humble, but Serena shuts

Leif:

that down. Dan might be resisting the dark side

Leif:

for now, but it appears Darth serena is here to

Leif:

stay.

Leif:

Much better heel turn than last week.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Much more concise, much more

Leif:

directed, and. And much more

Leif:

motivated. Last week, I didn't

Leif:

feel like it was a great

Leif:

motivative. There was a lot

Leif:

behind the heel turn.

Leif:

Well, yeah, she was hurt last week. This

Leif:

week, she just kind of pissed off.

Leif:

Well, and she's over it, right? She's over.

Leif:

She's over 16 years of

Leif:

not wanting to hurt Blair's feelings.

Leif:

And she has a new friend, too.

Leif:

she has a new friend, and she just got out of

Leif:

this relationship that she was in, so

Leif:

she's got nothing else really going on.

Leif:

She basically had the Blair reaction

Leif:

to Blair when Blair came up to be humble, but,

Leif:

like, I can't be mad at

Leif:

Serena for it.

Leif:

Like, oh, yeah, Blair was horrible all up, so.

Leif:

Yeah, yeah.

Leif:

Apparently, Rufus wasn't all that impressed

Leif:

after all, because as soon as he gets Jenny alone, he

Leif:

starts yelling at her again. Looks like little J.

Leif:

Is dropping out of Constance,

Leif:

man.

Leif:

like we said earlier on, the two of them

Leif:

both are making strong, valid points,

Leif:

and, I mean, I'm really more on team

Leif:

Jenny here because, like, she. She

Leif:

actually has access to have her

Leif:

career right now.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

And what? Like, I'm.

Leif:

I am m interrupted at homeschool program.

Leif:

Yeah. And I'm. And I'm an educator,

Leif:

and. And I. As an educator,

Leif:

I have always very strongly

Leif:

believed that we should not be sitting kids in

Leif:

high schools for four years

Leif:

learning shit that they don't need when they could be

Leif:

learning about the things they actually want to

Leif:

be doing.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

And. And I'm a very big, you know,

Leif:

advocate for trade schools, and high school

Leif:

should for. Be for people that want to go to college

Leif:

or want to work in

Leif:

areas that you need, that.

Leif:

That level of education. And here Jenny

Leif:

has this opportunity to do an internship and work for

Leif:

one of the most powerful people in the industry. Jenny right now

Leif:

is fast tracked to

Leif:

the career of her choice.

Leif:

Yeah. The who's who of the fashion world just said her

Leif:

dress design is awesome.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah. Just complimented her dress design,

Leif:

and Rufus is. And when she says the thing about,

Leif:

like, maybe I'm. What? Maybe you're more talented than me,

Leif:

and it's like, maybe she is.

Leif:

Ah, yeah, I think she might be. Rufus, both of your

Leif:

kids might be you're gonna need. And. And now

Leif:

I like the. Rufus is like, I hope you are. You know,

Leif:

I hope that is the case.

Leif:

But I also hate the difference between the way

Leif:

he treats dad and the way he treats.

Leif:

Yes, you're. You are

Leif:

absolutely right. He treats her like a little girl all the

Leif:

time. And it's something that, as. As a

Leif:

dad, that I, you know, of

Leif:

both the, you know, I have a son and a

Leif:

daughter, and I. And I've got a in

Leif:

between and all.

Leif:

And know you treat all three of them

Leif:

differently. And, yeah,

Leif:

I. Yeah, but. But at the same

Leif:

time, I've made it a very conscious effort

Leif:

not to treat my daughter like

Leif:

a little girl. You know, I

Leif:

don't try to exclude her from.

Leif:

From, you know, sports, conversations

Leif:

and stuff like that. Like, I,

Leif:

I don't treat her differently than the

Leif:

other two. At least I try not to. And there are times

Leif:

that I have to have those moments where I take a step

Leif:

back. We've actually talked about this

Leif:

since. But the first time I saw her after the

Leif:

pandemic, I hadn't seen her for a

Leif:

year, for over a year. I did not see my daughter the

Leif:

year that she was 13. and I

Leif:

saw her after the pandemic.

Leif:

And the first time I saw her, I went into her room, and she

Leif:

was wearing very short shorts

Leif:

and a very tight crop top

Leif:

shirt, the kind of stuff that she just lounges

Leif:

around in. And I was not

Leif:

expecting it. And she was, at this point, 14 years

Leif:

old. And I went in and I saw her

Leif:

and saw what she was wearing. And

Leif:

the guy that I was, that I

Leif:

was raised as was like, what

Leif:

the, fuck does your fucking mother know?

Steve:

You wear that?

Leif:

Then all of these things are going through my head, and I

Leif:

just look at her, and I go, hey, I just want to let you know dinner is ready. She's

Leif:

like, thanks, dad. No problem. And I closed the door, and

Leif:

I went downstairs, and I looked at Robin, and Robin and I looked at each

Leif:

other, and we were like, what the fuck is she

Leif:

wearing? And we had that moment

Leif:

together, and then we're like, okay, this is. We

Leif:

are not going to be those parents. We are not going to be the

Leif:

ones who are going to shame our kids

Leif:

clothing. We trust our kids. We know what they're

Leif:

doing. Lock it the fuck down. So

Leif:

Emily never knew what was going on in my head, but

Leif:

I'm sure that there are times that comes across, you know.

Leif:

Yeah. Circling back to

Leif:

Rufus, I think the biggest, the best example

Leif:

of his double standard would be the

Leif:

episode ten, the high society where

Leif:

he or he dresses Dan in this.

Leif:

In the tux.

Leif:

Yeah. Well, yeah, he says Jenny can't go

Leif:

to the thing.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

By the way, he's like.

Leif:

He's pushing Dan, but, yeah, he's like dressing him in the tux

Leif:

to go and, you know.

Leif:

Yeah, and you're right. That's the most

Leif:

glaring. And there are others, too. You know,

Leif:

a lot of this whole storyline of Jenny

Leif:

wanting to do the fashion thing, Dan's

Leif:

encouraged to go into writing,

Leif:

but it's because he's doing it the way Rufus wants him to,

Leif:

too.

Leif:

Yeah. You know, but, yeah,

Leif:

he's playing by the rules.

Leif:

Stupid rules.

Leif:

We'll see if he sticks by that. He was typing

Leif:

up a story there at the end.

Leif:

He was. He was. What are you doing, Dan?

Leif:

We end the, Speaking of which, we end the episode of the

Leif:

montage. Chuck reading Dan's story, Dan

Leif:

typing at his laptop. Jenny

Leif:

admires her dress. Lily and

Leif:

Bart coldly go about their lives.

Leif:

Blair looks on with envy as Serena and

Leif:

Poppy get their pictures taken.

Leif:

I don't really have anything on that. Something

Leif:

I did want to comment on is I

Leif:

feel like the pacing of the show these

Leif:

last two episodes. We said that the writer that, you said

Leif:

last week, the writers seem to find their stride, and

Leif:

we had agreed on that, and I feel like they're still hitting

Leif:

that. The last two episodes, I

Leif:

took two pages of notes. Prior to that, it

Leif:

was usually two and a half.

Leif:

And in some

Leif:

cases, I think there might have been fewer scenes.

Leif:

But again, it speaks to the pacing that they've kind of

Leif:

drawn out, especially the exposition scenes and

Leif:

especially the beginning. There's a lot of

Leif:

drawn out scene work, and

Leif:

I, find that there's a new rhythm to the show

Leif:

since they've been back to new.

Leif:

Yeah, I feel like the, like, from

Leif:

episode 15

Leif:

of the first season up until, like,

Leif:

the second episode

Leif:

of the second season was kind of like a

Leif:

soft reboot of the show.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah. That.

Leif:

And now they found their new.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah. Did they. Did they

Leif:

run out of books after season one or

Leif:

did they just veer off completely?

Leif:

I think it really veered off the books.

Leif:

The only thing, like, only the kiss in the lips party.

Leif:

Yeah. The first book was basically the first episode

Leif:

got, it. And then we. So we add the episode with another gossip girl

Leif:

monologue. If there is one thing

Leif:

that ive learned, there would be no gossip without

Leif:

secrets. You might be brave enough to

Leif:

reveal your secret only to have it used against

Leif:

you once someone elses secret might affect

Leif:

you in unexpected ways. There are some

Leif:

secrets youre only too happy to keep, others

Leif:

service only to be buried away deeper than they were

Leif:

before. But the most powerful secrets are the

Leif:

truths you thought you could never reveal.

Leif:

That, once spoken, changed everything.

Leif:

But don't worry, b. The brightest stars

Leif:

burn out the fastest, or at least that's what

Leif:

I've heard. Waiting for a star to

Leif:

fall. Exo, xo gossip

Leif:

girl. What's coming

Leif:

next?

Leif:

Well, I'm kind of sensing a

Leif:

jenny and blair versus serena thing

Leif:

maybe boiling up. It'd, be weird,

Leif:

I think, for jenny to go against serena, but, like,

Leif:

blair, it would not be an.

Leif:

It would not be out of character for blair to

Leif:

unwittingly use Jenny

Leif:

to.

Leif:

What about what's next for Jenny at the

Leif:

atelier?

Leif:

I mean, right now she's

Leif:

turning heads. You know, she just had this, you

Leif:

know, she made Eleanor really mad, but then Eleanor

Leif:

seemed to come around, so I feel like she's

Leif:

gonna have. I don't know. Cause,

Leif:

like, I hope she does drop out

Leif:

of constance, and I hope that she does do some kind

Leif:

of bigger internship there, but I feel

Leif:

like Rufus is gonna be a dick about it.

Leif:

If only betty knew someone who's homeschooled.

Leif:

Oh, she

Leif:

has a friend that's homeschooled.

Leif:

That's right. Vanessa's homeschooled.

Leif:

What about for us, serena and blaire? What,

Leif:

they just continue to fight?

Leif:

Well, I mean, I feel like,

Leif:

like I said before, the. Their previous

Leif:

fights concluded when there was an

Leif:

emergency, but their other previous

Leif:

fights were also blair

Leif:

flipping out on serena, serena not having it

Leif:

going away. Emergency happens, they come back

Leif:

together. They're. They. They're good. So

Leif:

I kind of feel like we're going to see them

Leif:

actually go toe to toe for a little

Leif:

bit, because, you know, the

Leif:

last time we saw them go toe to toe,

Leif:

it was episode three, and

Leif:

blair was, you know, we saw serena

Leif:

could play the game, but blair was better. but

Leif:

now I also have to think that

Leif:

serena knows how to play the game, but serena wasn't

Leif:

a at top form then, you know?

Leif:

So I think that now that serena is going to be in top form,

Leif:

I think we're going to get a few episodes of this, at least.

Leif:

What about, daddy, Chuck? Are we going to get anything more from

Leif:

that?

Leif:

I wouldn't assume too much would happen right

Leif:

away. I kind of feel like. I feel

Leif:

like just the way that this show

Leif:

can write sometimes that that's going

Leif:

to be something that comes up in a new situation down the

Leif:

road that we'll see another pairing of that, but I think.

Leif:

I don't expect this unless

Leif:

that story he's writing actually has something to do with Chuck, but I

Leif:

doubt it.

Leif:

And then any idea what Lily's secret could

Leif:

be?

Leif:

She handed somebody coke.

Leif:

I mean, what. What is bigger than

Leif:

naked pictures? What is bigger than,

Leif:

you know, it goes back to somebody dead.

Leif:

What? She's. She was about to show her kids

Leif:

her naked art. Yeah.

Leif:

So, like, would she be hiding from her kids?

Leif:

Yeah. What is she gonna hide from them? That is,

Leif:

like, who's

Leif:

dead?

Leif:

This again?

Leif:

Yeah, that's. Yeah. Like,

Leif:

and how are you topping that? Do you guys remember you

Leif:

killed someone last season?

Leif:

Like, my other, like, daughter?

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, they're just

Leif:

mowing them down.

Leif:

Let's go ahead and get into some segments.

Leif:

This week in fandom, we jumped into

Leif:

the wayback machine to check out the television without pity

Leif:

forums. Hello there,

Leif:

Peabody here. And this is the wayback machine

Leif:

for traveling through time. And this is my boy

Leif:

Sherman.

Leif:

Speak, Shermandhe. Good boy.

Leif:

So this week, everyone really

Leif:

liked the Dan and Chuck interactions. That was the talk of

Leif:

the town. Please, sir, can I have some more?

Leif:

Pretty even split between the serenas and the

Leif:

blairs. Not a lot of middle ground. So people are

Leif:

like, oh, I'm a serena. Blair is horrible. Or I'm a Blair.

Leif:

Serena's the worst.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah.

Leif:

Dan is a bad writer, as we said. Yeah, bad

Leif:

writers can't write.

Leif:

Yeah. We just have to accept.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

And what's funny is that even in this universe are no longer

Leif:

accepting that he's a good writer.

Leif:

Well, I think that

Leif:

they're appreciative of his technique. He just

Leif:

doesn't have enough ideas yet.

Leif:

Yeah, and he doesn't have any.

Leif:

He's showing a potential because, like, they. The guy saw his

Leif:

first story and liked it.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

So he has potential. He just needs to branch out and get some m.

Leif:

More ideas.

Leif:

Okay. All right.

Leif:

That's the way I took it.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense.

Leif:

Someone fit. a lot of people failed to notice that name

Leif:

Vanessa were even absent.

Leif:

Oh, wow. Ouch. I did notice that there was a no

Leif:

nate in this. I don't. I

Leif:

don't pay attention to no Vanessa because that's

Leif:

not as unusual. I

Leif:

feel, especially coming off of season

Leif:

one. I guess she was in every episode this

Leif:

season so far, but in episode in season one, she was

Leif:

in and out constantly. I felt.

Leif:

Yeah, or check.

Leif:

I love confection.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

there's a lot of that.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Most think, Jenny's a brat.

Leif:

Yes.

Leif:

Well, I mean, she is a brat, but I like

Leif:

her.

Leif:

Yeah, but. And, like, she's going after months.

Leif:

yeah. She's doing the same thing Blair always does.

Leif:

She's doing the same thing Rufus did as a kid.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

You know, like, yeah, she's.

Leif:

I. Yeah, I think she's right. She's a

Leif:

brat, but she's right.

Leif:

Moving into episode grades, you are first

Leif:

this week. What do you got?

Leif:

So, yeah, I liked some of this. Like I said, I

Leif:

missed the old, blair, but I really feel like

Leif:

the writing in this, the directing in this, it was a

Leif:

good episode. It was really solid.

Leif:

I wouldn't say one of my favorites, but I'd say it's good.

Leif:

I gave this one a b,

Leif:

so.

Leif:

I really liked the directing in this episode and the

Leif:

writing and the acting. I gave this an

Leif:

a. I felt like this is the soft reboot is

Leif:

overdeveloped. This is the show, and they. They are

Leif:

in full swing now.

Leif:

Yeah. Ah. I think I need to get a little more on board with the

Leif:

new. With the new

Leif:

show, you know, with the. With that, with where new world

Leif:

order.

Leif:

Steve, get the program.

Leif:

Well, the thing is, is that I thought I was with the

Leif:

Marcus stuff, right? Because then I thought, like, oh, we're

Leif:

a soap opera now, but now it's back to

Leif:

being. It is kind of back to that,

Leif:

you know, these friends fighting and

Leif:

scheming with each other. So we are getting back

Leif:

to that again.

Leif:

Whenever you see guest stars come into the picture, that's

Leif:

the signal for a soaps or Elise are coming in.

Leif:

Oh, okay. All right.

Leif:

But then, they have the serious. They keep, like, the main cast and

Leif:

serious storylines with each other.

Leif:

Yeah. Yeah.

Leif:

Stock watch you got going up.

Leif:

So. Going up. Serena,

Leif:

who's walking out on top of here? Little

Leif:

J. Jenny's stock went up.

Leif:

Eleanor, her show was a huge hit,

Leif:

and, that's actually all I have going up

Leif:

in this one.

Leif:

I actually had exactly the same for exactly the

Leif:

same reasons.

Leif:

Yeah, yeah.

Leif:

And Eleanor shows the hit. Jenny had the big

Leif:

dress and was the, you know, she. The key

Leif:

player making the show work, and

Leif:

Serena is a huge star.

Leif:

Yeah, yeah. They. They. Yeah, they took

Leif:

it. The only one I had going down was

Leif:

Blair. I felt like,

Leif:

you know, Blair lost control,

Leif:

and her schemes all. None of

Leif:

them panned out, and none of them were going to work in her favor

Leif:

if they did pan out. Like, she's. She

Leif:

only got out of this episode.

Leif:

Okay. Because her schemes didn't work because

Leif:

she was out schemed. Otherwise she would have been fucked.

Leif:

So she's the only one I had going down.

Leif:

I had a lot more people going down.

Leif:

I did have. I had Blair going

Leif:

down for the same reason she failed. And she was just

Leif:

horrible with all episode.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

I also had Rufus going down because, the

Leif:

whole double standard thing I mentioned earlier.

Leif:

Yeah, that's a fair one to go down.

Leif:

I had dad going down. He did

Leif:

sort of the right moral thing, but

Leif:

he did the bad thing for his career.

Leif:

I think he could have made a compromise by, like, changing the story up a

Leif:

little bit, making it less obviously he was talking

Leif:

about.

Leif:

Yeah. I mean, he definitely should run it. Worked with it.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

And added, you know, what's that?

Leif:

I mean, that's what he is doing at the end.

Leif:

Yeah. Well, and, that is

Leif:

actually what you're describing is why I had him go

Leif:

nowhere. Is that, like, he had

Leif:

this. The opportunity. Didn't really take the opportunity. He

Leif:

kind of goes, you saw, I landed him in the middle.

Leif:

I also had Chuck going down. I

Leif:

mean, he thought, he had a thought. He had a friend. And he's

Leif:

just a sad, sad boy. He has a

Leif:

sad boy.

Leif:

I felt. I thought about Chuck.

Leif:

I actually thought about writing Chuck. And I felt

Leif:

too bad because that's who I felt

Leif:

too bad for Chuck to give him the down this week

Leif:

because, of his fucking dad.

Leif:

I'm merciless.

Leif:

Yeah. Oh, you know what? That's the other one.

Leif:

I'm older and meaner than Chuck.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Yeah. I want to put Barb bask going down, too.

Leif:

Yeah, I. About him.

Leif:

I do have him on my list as well. Cause,

Leif:

yeah, he was just super creepy. Revealed

Leif:

his true supervillain, nature, finally fucking

Leif:

stalked his. And then I

Leif:

had Lily also going down. Cause she, like, at first

Leif:

washed and turned on by this talking, but then,

Leif:

like, when she realized how far I was, she. And

Leif:

then she's just kind of, like, stuck.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Yeah, but that's it.

Leif:

Yeah. I think Lily is another fair one. I didn't have

Leif:

her going down. and partially because of just

Leif:

how great Kelly Rutherford was. That

Leif:

one scene she just fucking.

Leif:

Every. Every emotion you can see passed

Leif:

across her face. And she was so good.

Leif:

But here's the best outfits from the.

Steve:

Last episode we see.

Leif:

Who do you have for best outfit?

Leif:

Speaking of which, I have Lily's purple

Leif:

outfit from the beginning when she's

Leif:

talking with becks in that opening in her first

Leif:

scene.

Leif:

Okay, so, like, the purple top with the floral print.

Leif:

Yeah, with the floral print dress. Yeah.

Leif:

Okay. I did not like the dress. I thought it looked kind of

Leif:

like. I did like the top.

Leif:

Oh, okay.

Leif:

That's rare.

Leif:

That's rare.

Leif:

And I actually gave it to her purple dress at

Leif:

the end when she specifically, once she put

Leif:

on the emerald necklace.

Leif:

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Leif:

Uh-huh I also really liked

Leif:

Chuck's. You said he looked like Fred from

Leif:

Scooby Doo the other episode.

Leif:

uh-huh

Leif:

Now he really looked like he

Leif:

did.

Leif:

He had, like, full ascot.

Leif:

That is it for segments. You got

Leif:

anything to plug this week?

Leif:

I don't really have anything to plug this week, but please feel

Leif:

free to follow me on Instagram and

Leif:

on, TikTok, Steve Dot,

Leif:

Marshan Marchion,

Leif:

and,

Leif:

yeah, keep an eye out in case I book something

Leif:

by now that I didn't realize I booked.

Leif:

Just, gonna recommend go watch the boys. Our buddy

Leif:

Chase Crawford is very hilarious. If you haven't seen it yet,

Leif:

new season is out. And

Leif:

I guess by the time, by the time this episode is released,

Leif:

the full season will, have come out. And you

Leif:

can follow the podcast on all the social medias,

Leif:

TikTok and Instagram, on judging

Leif:

Breakfastpod, on Twitter,

Leif:

jbpod. We're also on

Leif:

Facebook. There's a group and a page non judging

Leif:

breakfast pod. You can also find our discord

Leif:

and Reddit, as well as episodes on our website,

Leif:

nonjudgingprefacepod.com.

Leif:

And if you'd like to send us an email, we'd love to hear your

Leif:

thoughts and read it on air and

Leif:

hear what you have to say. And you can send us that

Leif:

email@nonjudgingbreakfastpodmail.com.

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also, please like and subscribe

Leif:

and leave a comment. Especially, really helps with our

Leif:

visibility on Apple reviews. On Apple

Leif:

reviews. so please also,

Leif:

tell a friend, let them know what you're listening to. And, hey, go ahead

Leif:

and listen together.

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We will be back next week to talk about

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season two, episode six. New Haven

Leif:

can wait. The max episode preview

Leif:

reads, where Serena, Dan, Nate,

Leif:

and Chuck visit Yale University.

Leif:

Oh, interesting, because we might

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have a special guest next week

Leif:

who just, finished their, interest,

Leif:

are going to college in the fall and has gone on

Leif:

some college visits.

Leif:

So stay tuned for that to see how it might be.

Leif:

We will see.

Leif:

Well, until next time. You know you love us.

Leif:

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 m 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 or run away you take a

Steve:

piece of me with you there

Steve:

uh? Every time you walk away or run

Steve:

away you take a piece of me with you

Steve:

there every time you walk

Steve:

away or run away you take a piece of me

Steve:

with you there never

Steve:

feels right when I'm out here on my

Steve:

own

Steve:

I left last night and it feels like

Steve:

way too long.

Leif:

Are.

Steve:

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

Steve:

trying really hard to believe

Steve:

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

Steve:

of me 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 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, run away you take a

Steve:

piece of me with you there

Steve:

every time you walk away and run away you take a

Steve:

piece of meat with you there

Steve:

m every time you walk away or run away

Steve:

you take a 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.

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Non Judging Breakfast Pod
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