Episode 4
S304 - "Dan De Fleurette"
Hey there Upper East Siders! This week on the Non Judging Breakfast Pod, Leif and Steve are diving headfirst into the delicious drama of Gossip Girl Season 3, Episode 4, aptly titled "Dan de Fleurette." Buckle up, because our beloved Upper East Siders are back at it again, juggling friendships, ambitions, and, of course, the ever-watchful eye of Gossip Girl herself.
First up, we’ve got Dan, who’s finally trying to put his heart on the line with the new girl in town, Olivia—yes, the one and only Hilary Duff! Will this be the romance that finally gets him off the bench, or is he destined for another epic fail? Meanwhile, Jenny is on a mission to reclaim her crown at Constance, but let’s be real, her quest for power might just unleash a whirlwind of chaos that even she can't handle. And let’s not forget about Blair! As she navigates her identity crisis at NYU, she finds herself in a comical tug-of-war between her glamorous past and her uncertain present.
Join Leif and Steve as they dissect all the juicy plot twists, character dynamics, and those iconic fashion moments that make this episode a total must-listen. So grab your favorite breakfast treat—whether it’s a buttery croissant or a stack of waffles—and pour yourself a mimosa (or two), because this lively discussion is going to keep you coming back for all the Gossip Girl gossip you can handle!
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
Should I go be a, fucking
Steve:ridiculous child and throw a huge
Steve:fit out there? Is that the advice
Steve:I should take? Why are you even
Steve:considering that? Like what?
Leif:Because that's her natural reaction, apparently.
Steve:Yes.
Leif:But something else I want to throw off about the scene.
Leif:Ursula calls Casey
Leif:Kenny. She, like, looks over, says
Leif:and addresses her as Kenny.
Leif:Now, are they dropping some deep lore
Leif:about this character that she goes by KC
Leif:because her parents gave her a boy's name, or was
Leif:that just the best take they could get out of Tyra Banks?
Steve:Did Tyra Banks create the deep lore
Steve:that she goes by KC because her parents
Steve:named her after, Ken Griffey Jr. Ken Griffey
Steve:Sr. Big fans. They're from Seatt.
Steve:Foreign.
Leif:Sires and all. You scared of loving listeners out there,
Leif:you just tuned into the non judging breakfast pod, where
Leif:the coffee is strong, the waffles are fresh,
Leif:and the gossip is hotter than ever. My name is
Leif:Leif, and I'm your seasoned Gossip Girl veteran.
Steve:And, I'm Steve, your newbie, your greenhorn, your.
Steve:I don't know, Leif. What am I now that we're,
Steve:you know, three seasons in?
Leif:Steve, your cute little attempt at perestroika is
Leif:over. We're going back to the old way. Queens
Leif:hierarchy and no Brooklyn wannabes.
Steve:Well, at least I'm not hanging out with my high school
Steve:friends. All right,
Steve:so here's the deal, folks. Leaf has been
Steve:watching Gossip Girl since it first aired, and I'm tuning
Steve:in for the very first time. And together, we're your dynamic
Steve:duo, bringing you all the drama, romance,
Steve:and sometimes questionable fashion choices
Steve:of this iconic 2007 series.
Leif:That's right, grab your cocktails and your magnifying
Leif:glasses, because each week we're dissecting every
Leif:juicy detail of the show one episode at a
Leif:time. We'll connect the dots, uncover those
Leif:sneaky little Easter eggs, and of course,
Leif:serve up some piping hot behind the scenes tea.
Leif:Oh, and expect some iconic fandom moments
Leif:too, because what's a deep dive without a little drama?
Steve:And, since we are all about inclusivity here at the non
Steve:judging breakfast pod, there is always a seat
Steve:for you at the non judging breakfast table. So go ahead and
Steve:grab your mimosa, a cup of coffee, or grab something
Steve:from Chuck's stash, and let's go ahead and get
Steve:started.
Leif:Let's go ahead and get started.
Leif:And just this past week, it was
Leif:fashion week in Paris.
Steve:Fantastic.
Leif:Spotted Leighton Meester and Kelly Rutherford sitting
Leif:together at the Ellie SOB show.
Leif:Leighton has gone from auburn hair about a month
Leif:ago at the Sagwars to a full on redhead.
Steve:Oh, no kidding.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:Okay.
Leif:She's also wearing an awesome, floral print, MIDI dress
Leif:by Ellie Saab.
Steve:I think I need to check that out. Just purely
Steve:as a fan of the show and a fan of hers.
Leif:And also this week, the new Lady Gaga
Leif:album came out. Mayhem.
Steve:I have not given that a listen yet, but
Steve:I'll.
Leif:I mean, it's not fame, but it's good. my
Leif:favorite track so far is Zombie Boy.
Steve:Okay. Okay. Okay. I. Yeah, I'm.
Steve:I was really into her. Some of her older
Steve:stuff. I actually do. I. I do a part
Steve:of, Bad Romance
Steve:when I do a, Talking Heads Lady Gaga,
Steve:medley when I perform and includes Bad
Steve:Romance.
Leif:And, you know, you know, we get into this episode,
Leif:you know, we talk about Nate doing comedy and chase to a
Leif:comedy.
Steve:They.
Leif:They finally let. Let it out this episode.
Steve:Yeah. Yeah, he was.
Steve:He.
Steve:I loved Nate in this
Steve:episode. Finally giving him
Steve:something worth watching to.
Leif:Do, even though it's not an actual story. But at least he's
Leif:just being a breath.
Steve:Yeah. Yeah. I'm also all caught up
Steve:on Good Cop, Bad Cop, as well. We watched
Steve:last night. M. We watched the newest one, and we saw the other
Steve:one. Yeah. And it's
Steve:one of those things where the mark of a good
Steve:actor is when you don't see
Steve:everything else that actor has done when you're watching
Steve:them. And I
Steve:watched Gossip Girl this morning.
Steve:I watched Good Cop, Bad Cop last night,
Steve:and there was a moment when
Steve:Blair was talking to Chuck
Steve:where I was like, holy shit, that's the same
Steve:actor from last night. And, even
Steve:when she gets to do the more emotional stuff
Steve:and the more serious
Steve:bits, that interaction with her brother and those
Steve:sorts of scenes, it's not
Steve:the same. It's. It's, It's Lou.
Steve:It's not Blair. And it's
Steve:very. It's very
Steve:much like Steven Root that I get
Steve:lost with. Steven Root. Stephen Root is probably my
Steve:favorite actor, and it's because he
Steve:is never, ever the same
Steve:character twice, and he's been in
Steve:a ton of shit.
Leif:So, we are here to Talk about season three, episode
Leif:four, titled, Dan de Florets
Leif:Original Air Date was October 5,
Leif:2009 Yes, I am
Leif:unfamiliar.
Steve:With the film
Steve:it references.
Leif:It's like one of the most famous French
Leif:language films ever, Jean de
Leif:Floret.
Steve:I am unfamiliar with
Steve:this film.
Leif:I watched both this and the sequel in French class in high
Leif:school. this short description is a
Leif:greedy land Owner and his backward nephew
Leif:conspired to block the only water source for adjoining
Leif:property in order to bankrupt the owner and force him to
Leif:sell. So, water rights.
Steve:Yeah, yeah.
Steve:I wonder if they'll make a remake, an American
Steve:remake about the water
Steve:heights crisis that we're heading towards
Steve:in the western
Steve:states.
Leif:the second one's a little weird because he falls in love with
Leif:the girl that was like a kid in the first
Leif:movie.
Steve:Oh, yeah. It's sort of like Les
Steve:Miserables. Watching them. Watching the
Steve:play.
Leif:They like that in France.
Steve:Yeah, yeah. Watching the play.
Steve:Les Miserables and loving it. It's. I loved
Steve:that musical in high school. I saw it twice and I
Steve:could have sung every word of it at a time. Then I read
Steve:the book and it's like, wait, she's a
Steve:kid. And he's like in his 20s and
Steve:he's like, man, when that 10 year old
Steve:grows up, she's going to be smoking. And
Steve:then it's finally like, well, she's grown up. And I
Steve:was right. So fucking
Steve:creepy.
Leif:Episode was written by John
Leif:Stevens, previously, wrote
Leif:episode 203, the Dark Knight, 209
Leif:there might be blood and 214
Leif:in the realm of the Bassett.
Steve:Yeah, that's. That's a solid resume.
Leif:Yeah. And directed by. Once again,
Leif:the P. notably did the pilot and
Leif:the backdoor pilot in season two.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:and so they, they're going a little interesting. A couple
Leif:interesting things in the episode. One of them was that the Gossip
Leif:Girl blast were not in their normal place.
Leif:They were just like in the middle of the ax instead of at the end of the
Leif:ax.
Steve:Yeah, well, and they really were
Steve:essential to the action in
Steve:this. Right? They, they really
Steve:pushed the plot in some places
Steve:and they had to. It's been done
Steve:before, but you're right that it was
Steve:out of place for the most part. Except for of
Steve:course, the beginning and end. But you're.
Steve:Yeah, I understand what you're saying.
Leif:Why don't you go ahead and read us that vulture
Leif:recap?
Steve:Once a very beautiful model told us
Steve:about the time her eyes had been injured by a
Steve:flash. She had to wear an eye mask and
Steve:stay in her apartment for days in utter darkness.
Steve:She was blind. It was hard. She told
Steve:us to feel her way around. She was
Steve:always bumping her long gazelle, like
Steve:shins into everything and didn't know where
Steve:anything was and was probably peeing all over
Steve:herself whenever she went to the bathroom.
Steve:We don't really know. For almost two years
Steve:now, we've been watching the characters on Gossip Girl bumble
Steve:around in the same darkness. It was only
Steve:last night's episode that they finally
Steve:were able to lift their masks and catch a
Steve:glimpse with their beautiful but crusted
Steve:eyes of the world and their place in
Steve:it. Dan, after a brief
Steve:interlude of loneliness, realized he was put
Steve:on this earth to squire around the
Steve:bees. Jenny Humphrey, after
Steve:attempting to relinquish the throne at Constance
Steve:Billard, realized that she was destined to
Steve:rule the school. Serena, after losing
Steve:herself briefly in a
Steve:publicity career, realized
Steve:her true talents lay with just being,
Steve:like, friends with people. And Blair,
Steve:in a hysterical reaction to being the biggest
Steve:dork at nyu, was fast
Steve:becoming the upper class version of
Steve:the Wooderson, character in Dazed and
Steve:Confused at Constance Billard before
Steve:being reminded that she was Blair
Steve:Waldorf. And Chuck Bass loved
Steve:her.
Leif:Nailed it.
Steve:Now, I'm. If I remember
Steve:correctly, that supermodel referenced in
Steve:the beginning was Tyra Banks. Right?
Steve:The supermodel that was injured by a flash and had to
Steve:stumble around her apartment for days and
Steve:had to be blind and was blind.
Leif:Was it Tyra Banks or was it just someone?
Steve:I'm almost positive it's Tyra Banks. I think that she did a
Steve:whole thing about it on her show.
Leif:I'm like, that.
Steve:Yeah, I'm almost positive that that was
Steve:Tyra Banks, because it just makes so
Steve:much sense, also with her
Steve:guest appearance on the show. So.
Leif:So we get into the episode. Act one
Leif:begins with a gospel girl blast.
Leif:The first day of a new queen's reign.
Leif:Nervous subjects twitter and tweet. Will she
Leif:continue where the last queen left off or strike
Leif:out on her own? And. And what of queen
Leif:Bee? We hear NYU is not yet under
Leif:her golden thumb. is she biding her time
Leif:or simply doing time? But the real story
Leif:this morning is a queen of the silver screen just
Leif:enrolled at nyu. Rumor has it she wants to
Leif:keep a low profile. Sorry, your
Leif:majesty. Not if I can help it.
Leif:Get set up for the episode.
Steve:Yeah, yeah. In our first
Steve:couple episodes, we discussed the
Steve:Gossip Girl as the
Steve:narrator versus Gossip Girl and her
Steve:posts. And I
Steve:feel like a lot of times the
Steve:intro can be more narration
Steve:than post, and this felt
Steve:very clearly a post.
Leif:Yeah. Jenny is
Leif:prepping for her first day of school. She
Leif:contemplates wearing the crown tiara, but
Leif:instead sets it aside.
Steve:We're ditching headbands.
Leif:Yeah. Blair bumps into some
Leif:people outside her dorm room. She is still TR Struggling
Leif:to find her place at nyu.
Steve:Yeah. Oh,
Steve:Blair, you poor thing.
Leif:If this is high school, they would have just got out of her way.
Steve:Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Leif:Dan and Nate are walking the streets discussing
Leif:Dan's lack of pop culture knowledge.
Steve:I also. I also love that Dan is
Steve:helping Nate with his homework still.
Steve:He's reading over his Hawthorne paper.
Steve:That's so sweet.
Leif:Yeah. once again, the show is ignoring
Leif:geography.
Steve:Yes. Oh, yeah. They're just kind of meeting partway in
Steve:the city somewhere.
Leif:Well, they're definitely in NYU territory. They're definitely,
Leif:I think, in the Village.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:And it's.
Steve:It's like Nate's just popping by.
Leif:Yeah, it's. It's like an hour by subway to,
Leif:Columbia.
Steve:Well, but is Nate taking the subway, or is he
Steve:have a car taking him?
Leif:Even with a car, it could be wild. There's
Leif:traffic.
Steve:Yeah. And I. Where I can see
Steve:it making a little sense is I'm going to
Steve:go see my friend who's helping me with my homework.
Steve:I'm going to go see the guy that I know is probably
Steve:one of the smartest guys I know.
Leif:Honestly, I'm kind of surprised Nate's even going to class.
Steve:Just banging.
Leif:Yeah. And playing lacrosse.
Leif:As Nate leaves for Columbia, Dan
Leif:discovers, after ordering that he forgot
Leif:his wallet, a young woman who introduces herself
Leif:as Kate offers to buy Dan's coffee
Leif:for him.
Steve:Hillary Duff.
Leif:Yep. On the scene.
Steve:Yeah, on the scene. When I moved to
Steve:Seattle, I, think it may have even
Steve:been the first time I really injured my back
Steve:badly. And
Steve:I was sitting at home all the time
Steve:and came across Lizzie McGuire. Now here I
Steve:was, 22 years old,
Steve:23. And
Steve:it, was accidentally on. I never was into
Steve:Nickelodeon shows.
Steve:And then I ended up accidentally watching this show
Steve:for an episode or two and was cracking up.
Steve:The dude from Revenge of the Nerds played her
Steve:dad, and he was
Steve:hilarious. The show was so well
Steve:written. It captured that middle
Steve:school energy. And I was fresh
Steve:out of student teaching middle school kids,
Steve:so it really just captured all of that, and I
Steve:absolutely loved that show. And it
Steve:became appointment TV for me for a
Steve:long time. And after a
Steve:while, a friend of mine said something
Steve:that sexualized
Steve:Hillary Duff, and
Steve:it horrified me when they said
Steve:it, and it just repulsed me. And I couldn't
Steve:watch the show anymore because I was like that.
Steve:Like, she was just this little,
Steve:little kid, you know,
Steve:experiencing middle school. And it
Steve:was so well done, and it was so
Steve:awesome, and I was just so
Steve:disappointed that, like, somebody really
Steve:just, like, grossed me out
Steve:about that, about the show, the
Steve:way that they talked about her.
Leif:Well, as someone who's had a lifelong crush on Hillary
Leif:du years younger than you.
Steve:Yeah. appropriately aged to have.
Leif:She's like, the same age as me.
Steve:Yes, exactly.
Leif:And, yeah, but I have actually never.
Steve:Seen, Leslie McGuire. That's really
Steve:funny. You. Honestly.
Leif:I know the basic concept, but, yeah, they're actually seeing it.
Steve:Yeah. Honestly, you should. You should go. At least watch the
Steve:first season or two, because it is
Steve:really clever, really witty.
Steve:I feel like at this
Steve:point, looking back, it
Steve:has a lot of sort of. I don't want to
Steve:say cliche things, but really, they
Steve:were ahead of their time with a lot of their
Steve:narration, and it was this cross with the
Steve:animation and the real world, and
Steve:it was just really clever. It was
Steve:a really clever show, and Hilary Duff
Steve:was hilarious on it. She was
Steve:amazing.
Leif:Blair goes to a coffee shop looking for a club that
Leif:discusses finance, but instead finds nerds discussing
Leif:he Man.
Steve:We also do role play.
Steve:Why'd you tell her that?
Leif:A frustrated Blair calls Chuck, who gives some
Leif:exposition about Georgina visiting her parents in
Leif:Connecticut. Blair can't figure out NYU
Leif:people and, begins to reminisce about Constance.
Steve:Blair, if you want to rule over
Steve:people, then you're going to need to, like, start a
Steve:business or a club, but
Steve:people don't give a shit about you here. So
Steve:pivot. You need to pivot.
Leif:Jenny and Eric are walking to school.
Leif:Jenny is happy about the end of Hierarchies, but Eric
Leif:seems less optimistic. As usual,
Leif:Eric is right, because as they arrive at school, Eric and
Leif:Jenny are greeted by a trio of new minions
Leif:that are dressed like Jenny clones. A
Leif:disgusted Jenny tells her new minions to call a mass
Leif:meeting.
Steve:Now wash your
Steve:eyes and then tell everyone to meet
Steve:me.
Leif:Yeah. So we meet Carmen, Celeste, and
Leif:Jane.
Steve:Okay. Named named minions.
Leif:Rufus and Serena are role playing
Leif:Serena telling Lily about not going to
Leif:Brown. Hilarious scene.
Steve:It's great. I really love it.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:Yeah. I. I loved how they
Steve:both know Lily well enough
Steve:that when she says she would put her two fingers to a temple,
Steve:Rufus is immediately like, oh, yeah, I know the look.
Leif:You know, I've gotten the look.
Steve:Yes.
Leif:Playtime is interrupted by a returning Lily.
Leif:After hugs are exchanged, Lily immediately asks why
Leif:Serena's at school, and the sweet scene
Leif:quickly cuts.
Steve:You say hugs, Rufus. Stop trying
Steve:to make out with her right
Steve:in front of Serena.
Steve:He kept going in when she was like,
Steve:okay, we said
Steve:hello.
Leif:It's been a few months. He needs
Leif:that. Let the kid leave the room.
Leif:Dan is getting to know his new friend Kate.
Steve:Get her number, you fool.
Leif:Dan doesn't have game. He just.
Steve:He doesn't. He doesn't. He's Just.
Steve:He just lucks into
Steve:sex.
Leif:Well, I guess that that jawline probably helps.
Steve:It's whenever he actually does
Steve:start to exhibit game, he
Steve:just completely himself. Like when
Steve:the season one two summer
Steve:when he was clearly banging two women at the
Steve:same time, but, like, was clearly
Steve:fucking it up as well.
Leif:Back in the penthouse, Lily is very disappointed in
Leif:Serena. Serena promises to get a job to prove
Leif:herself. Lily doesn't blame Rufus, but she is going to
Leif:force her daughter to go to Brown. Lily has been
Leif:spending too much time with Cece, and I think Rufus needs to
Leif:make some sweet love to her so she can calm down a bit.
Steve:I get Lily here. I get it.
Steve:I think she's wrong, but I
Steve:get it.
Leif:She's wrong in the general sense and she shouldn't be trying to
Leif:force it. But in Serena's case, the best
Leif:thing for her is, you know, go to college and find out who she
Leif:is.
Steve:You have unlimited money. Exactly. I
Steve:agree with Lily's
Steve:notion. You can just go do this
Steve:thing. Just go live there.
Steve:Go and just go live there and do whatever you
Steve:want there. I get where
Steve:Lily's point, the going about it the
Steve:wrong way of forcing her into it.
Steve:Let your kid take a year off. I would not
Steve:like it if my kid came to me and said,
Steve:I want to take a year off. But I
Steve:would say, if this is really what you want to
Steve:do, then this is. It's
Steve:your life. This is for you to do.
Steve:As of right now, all, of my kids, none of my kids wanted to
Steve:take that gap year. Emily
Steve:graduates this year and starts college in the
Steve:fall. She's already committed to a
Steve:school, so they all had that
Steve:in their path to go right to school. I
Steve:know I wouldn't have liked it if they did
Steve:not. At one point, Bailey started complaining
Steve:about college life and about, oh, this
Steve:class is useless and it's so dumb. And it's.
Steve:And we were like, knock it off.
Steve:You. You can't just hate everything. You gotta
Steve:find something positive here and go with
Steve:it. And they were like, okay, you're right.
Steve:And because we started hearing the
Steve:thoughts of dropping out without a plan
Steve:of what to do with that. And at this point, for any
Steve:of the kids, if they're like, okay, college isn't my thing.
Steve:Okay, where are we going from here?
Leif:Yeah, we get the last few
Leif:lines of a speech from Jenny declaring that hierarchies are
Leif:done at Constance. Most people are cheering,
Leif:but a few others, like the new minions, don't seem
Leif:too pleased.
Steve:Yeah, I love how they made sure
Steve:to have Everyone there that you
Steve:had, the kids that were clearly like the band
Steve:geeks and just the kids who
Steve:weren't dressed in the fancy uniforms, but the
Steve:very plain ones that they really made
Steve:sure that it was
Steve:diverse. And then it comes to
Steve:make you realize the whole time Blair was
Steve:ruling Constance, she was really just ruling five
Steve:people. Four people. Yeah, it was four.
Steve:It was four people that really
Steve:followed anything that she said. Because right
Steve:now Jenny's dealing with three people.
Leif:Blair is still at the coffee shop, annoyed at the
Leif:nerds talking about the genius of Skeletor,
Leif:and gets a text from Celeste. It
Leif:reads, help. Jenny Humphrey is destroying
Leif:everything.
Steve:Kind of pathetic. Be.
Leif:Yeah, we get one of those mid act
Leif:blasts here.
Leif:Well, well, word is the changes in the
Leif:era. Constance Billard. I have to wonder,
Leif:when queen bee finds out how little J is treating her
Leif:legacy, will she let it slide?
Steve:I doubt it.
Leif:Vanessa comes back to her dorm room to find a
Leif:woman on her phone hanging posters. The
Leif:woman says she works for V's new roommate and hands her an
Leif:NDA to sign. Then her new roommate shows
Leif:up, who is apparently the movie star everyone has been talking
Leif:about, but also Dan's new friend, Kate.
Steve:The publicist, Casey. played by Deanna
Steve:Russo. I recognized her
Steve:immediately. My little sister
Steve:was super into the Nickelodeon show Hey
Steve:dude. And she was on that.
Steve:And I hated the show. Never wanted to watch it.
Steve:It was a stupid kid girl show.
Steve:And to, you know, however old I was,
Steve:Steve. And yet she
Steve:was the one that was like. But
Steve:there's. There is the pretty one that I don't mind
Steve:watching.
Leif:there's always the pretty one.
Steve:There's always the pretty one. But I hated that show. My
Steve:sister loved it. I. Sometimes I wonder
Steve:if there were things my sister loved because of how much I hated them.
Steve:probably. Yeah.
Leif:We move into Act 2. Kate
Leif:slash. Olivia apologizes to Vanessa for taking down
Leif:Vanessa's Godard poster. Vanessa is a little
Leif:starstruck.
Steve:That was sweet. I really liked
Steve:Olivia's response and
Steve:the. Her response to the NDA and
Steve:all of that stuff.
Steve:NDA? Yeah.
Leif:Non disclosure agreement.
Steve:Yeah, I was. Yeah. My brain couldn't wrap around it for a
Steve:second.
Leif:They call it something else in the episode, but that's what it was, right?
Steve:That's why I was thrown off, because I know that they said something
Steve:else.
Leif:Confidential agreement.
Steve:Yeah. Confidentiality agreement. Yeah.
Leif:We get a montage of Serena applying for
Leif:jobs or even unpaid internships in various
Leif:fashion related businesses for once. Despite her
Leif:connections, Serena is struggling to get something she
Leif:wants. The fashionistas take the
Leif:meetings because they want Serena at the parties, but
Leif:don't want to hire for a job with good
Leif:cause. Yeah. She has no skills.
Steve:Yeah. You want to just come here out of high school
Steve:without any fashion experience? People go to college
Steve:for this. Hey, go to college and then come back
Steve:and do this.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:Oh, this is the direction I want.
Steve:Okay. If you think in fashion, go to
Steve:college for fashion.
Leif:Serena.
Steve:Serena. Zero experience doing anything
Steve:but posing for the paparazzi
Steve:and gallivanting.
Leif:Yes. Serena then
Leif:eavesdrops on a conversation between Olivia and her
Leif:publicist at a restaurant. Serena chimes in with
Leif:some advice on avoiding the
Leif:paparazzi, and Olivia comments. Serena's on
Leif:Serena's met ball dress. Casey
Leif:is impressed with Serena and ask her if she has any interest in working
Leif:in publicity.
Steve:First of all, Serena's response to
Steve:what do you mean you quelled a revolution?
Steve:When she's talking to Blair. Oh, Jesus,
Steve:Blair, what did you do? The,
Steve:Olivia recognizing
Steve:Serena, too. When
Steve:Olivia. When she gives her the advice
Steve:on how to sneak out the back and how to avoid the
Steve:paparazzi and how she
Steve:recognized Serena. Which it's funny because
Steve:Serena, the thing that you could do, which it
Steve:wasn't really a thing yet, but she's on
Steve:this influencer road. Serena doesn't
Steve:need to go to college. She just needs someone to invent
Steve:TikTok so that she can
Steve:do that.
Leif:Which is funny because one of the main characters in the
Leif:reboot is an influencer,
Leif:which.
Steve:That makes sense, you know, that.
Leif:That, like, there she's, like, constantly talking about, like,
Leif:how. How many flowers she has.
Steve:That's funny. One of my characters, one of
Steve:the characters in the new DND game that I
Steve:just started, is actually playing an influencer
Steve:in. In the D and D world.
Steve:And that is going to be a lot of fun for me to play
Steve:with.
Leif:But it is also kind of funny that Serena is known for her met
Leif:ball dresses when. That's a totally Blake Lively
Leif:thing.
Steve:Yeah, that. Yeah, that's true.
Steve:Also, the fact that she
Steve:calls her a diva when she says you're a
Steve:diva whisperer. There is no
Steve:moment in this episode
Steve:where Olivia is a
Steve:diva. She is an anti diva.
Steve:If anything, the way that she. I'm
Steve:so sorry she took down your poster and re
Steve:hung Vanessa's stuff.
Steve:That's not diva behavior. She's
Steve:not a diva whisperer. She just talked to a
Steve:person.
Leif:She was kind of being a diva in this scene, I would
Leif:say, because she, like, she, she doesn't want to do the press Stuff,
Leif:and blah, blah, blah. She don't want to, you know, do the obligation. She just
Leif:wants to, you know, act.
Steve:And, and I feel like the diva aspect
Steve:here was being
Steve:riled up by this publicity
Steve:publicist who is not
Steve:doing what you want. I hired you.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:And they're not. She's not meeting in the
Steve:middle. She's not doing what her client wants. She's doing what
Steve:she thinks is best for her client.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:Which is good conflict. Except for the fact that they
Steve:clear that Casey was written to be just such
Steve:a terrible person.
Leif:Back at school, the new minions, now wearing headbands,
Leif:are arraigning the school back under the monarchy.
Leif:Jenny and Eric smell Blair's signature Chanel number
Leif:five. All over this scheme.
Steve:The headbands seem to have VW
Steve:engraved on them.
Leif:Nate is busting Dan's traps for not getting Kate's
Leif:number. Kate slash Olivia happens to walk
Leif:into the same cafe. Nate of course,
Leif:recognizes her, but just encourages Dan to go
Leif:talk to her again.
Steve:Nate fucking with Dan is
Steve:hilarious. It was so great that he turns
Steve:around, he's like, oh, that's her.
Steve:Awesome. And just downplays
Steve:it.
Leif:A sign.
Steve:That's a sign.
Leif:That's. That's Olivia Burke.
Steve:But no.
Leif:that. That's a sign.
Steve:Yes. Catches himself.
Leif:After Olivia fails to answer to Kate twice, Dan
Leif:gives her a little shoulder tap.
Leif:K. Olivia accepts the
Leif:invitation to pizza. As Dan and Olivia walk out,
Leif:Nate gives him the little bro nod and fist pump.
Leif:Yeah, she's.
Steve:She's skipping Larry King for lonely Boy.
Leif:Yeah, man.
Steve:And Nate again, just
Steve:cracking up as they leave. Like, you
Steve:dumb. Like lucky
Steve:bastard. Turn on your TV
Steve:sometime.
Leif:Serena gets introduced to her first assignment in
Leif:her new job. Looks like S is going to be babysitting
Leif:a bigger diva than Blair.
Steve:I can't with Tyra Banks. I never could.
Steve:I haven't always found her
Steve:to just be
Steve:so self righteous and
Steve:obnoxious and she is always.
Steve:And while also coming off very
Steve:vapid at times. And I've
Steve:never enjoyed watching her
Steve:in anything ever. And the streak
Steve:continues.
Leif:I liked her in her earlier stuff before she became like a
Leif:reality star. Like in Fresh Prince
Leif:and Higher Learning.
Steve:I don't remember her in Fresh Prince.
Leif:She was Will's friend from Philly that came out to LA
Leif:and they had, they had like a little romance thing going.
Steve:I, don't. I. Yeah, I, I do.
Leif:She was like 18.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:And then she was also at Higher Learning.
Steve:I don't remember. I know I've seen
Steve:Higher Learning, but I Was.
Leif:Watch it again. It's a great movie. Okay.
Steve:Yeah, I was really high. Like, we were all.
Leif:You should definitely watch that.
Steve:It's a.
Leif:It's a amazing movie.
Steve:Is. Wait, which one is that? The one I'm thinking about, Higher Learning
Steve:is the one where. Wait, is that a drama or a comedy?
Leif:Definitely a drama.
Steve:Oh, okay. I'm getting it confused with
Steve:something else.
Leif:So you got higher, education.
Leif:Yeah. Got Omar Epps. Got Christy
Leif:Swanson. what's his name?
Steve:The.
Leif:The white guy from Brooklyn.
Steve:Yes. Rapaport. Yes. Oh, yeah, I
Steve:have. Yeah.
Leif:That's a really good burn. Yeah.
Steve:Yes, I have seen that. That's a.
Steve:I was getting it confused with the.
Steve:I think it's called Higher Education, where it's like a
Steve:weed movie in college where it's
Steve:like, with. Is.
Leif:Is it the guy in the Critic?
Leif:Oh, maybe that's when.
Leif:What's the guy who plays the critic?
Steve:John Lovett.
Leif:Yeah. Isn't he in Higher Education?
Steve:I think so. Yeah. He may be. Yeah.
Leif:And, like, Tia Carrera, maybe.
Steve:Maybe. Yeah. but.
Leif:Yeah, yeah, but Bust, rhymes is also Empire
Leif:Learning.
Steve:Yes. Yeah. No, no, I remember that movie
Steve:now, and I. Yes, it came out around the time
Steve:is American History X, I
Steve:believe. Yeah.
Leif:Somewhere around there, it had.
Steve:Because it had those similar kind of themes to
Steve:it that, like. Yeah,
Steve:man, Now. Now that I'm remembering that movie, like,
Steve:it's a good movie,
Steve:but I came with Tyra Banks.
Leif:She plays Omar Epps, girlfriend,
Leif:slash track star with him.
Steve:Oh, yeah. Okay.
Leif:Poor S. No one told her this was going to
Leif:be a horror movie.
Leif:That's what we get from Gossip World. Before we move into Act
Leif:3, Serena's bonding with her new client,
Leif:Ursula. We learn that she has a really important scene
Leif:in the upcoming movie premiere.
Steve:Yeah, nothing can go wrong here.
Leif:So she mentioned she's playing Josephine Baker. Do you know
Leif:who that is at all? M. Okay.
Steve:Yeah. during World War II. Well, she was
Steve:a black jazz, singer.
Steve:Right. Or is it more opera?
Leif:she was an entertainer.
Steve:Oh, okay.
Leif:she did a lot of stuff. She was the first black woman to star in a major
Leif:motion picture.
Steve:Yes.
Leif:she was a burlesque dancer.
Steve:Yes.
Leif:And singer.
Steve:Yes.
Leif:And she was, like, basically the biggest entertainer in
Leif:Europe for a while.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:she had a cheetah that you brought up on stage with her,
Leif:and it would jump down into the. The pit to bother the
Leif:musicians.
Steve:Fantastic.
Leif:Yes.
Steve:But, yeah, just know if I ever. If you ever
Steve:read that I died from a big cat
Steve:mauling me to death that my last words were.
Leif:And then she. During World War II, she did work, for
Leif:French counterintelligence.
Steve:Yes. And that's one of the things that I knew the most,
Steve:that she was actually
Steve:active in the
Steve:war as well, in the war effort.
Leif:But she keeps talking about the scene
Leif:where she distracts the guards. Is she just doing a
Leif:burlesque dance?
Steve:Yeah, she's just going to go out.
Leif:There and how is that going to be some award winning performance?
Steve:Yeah. Yeah.
Leif:No wonder why I got cut.
Steve:Okay, this part's kind of okay.
Leif:We a little gratuitous.
Steve:We could actually find footage of the actual.
Steve:Actually probably can't, but.
Leif:Chuck goes to the Waldorf Pine House to invite Blair to
Leif:the big premiere. However, he discovered that Blair is
Leif:hosting a high school sleepover.
Steve:Be wearing. She's wearing
Steve:a skirt that is very
Steve:much the cut of something
Steve:she would wear to Constance, though it's
Steve:a grown up version of it. And it's not wearing the
Steve:colors, even the top. The entire
Steve:outfit is
Steve:schoolgirl esque.
Leif:Yeah, it's high school.
Steve:Yes.
Leif:A clueless Dan is flirting with Olivia, who says she
Leif:likes Dan, but that it wouldn't work out between them.
Leif:Once again, dad says the worst possible thing.
Leif:Yeah, you're so down to earth.
Steve:You're so down to earth. And you don't have all the attention on you
Steve:all the time like my exes did.
Steve:There's an alarming number of people who turn
Steve:and stop to look at you on the street. I mean, you're just so
Steve:beautiful.
Leif:Yes.
Steve:Oh, boy. Dan, you will
Steve:understand. Which that line, like,
Steve:I don't understand you will, is also a
Steve:little bit arrogant on your part,
Steve:Olivia, because you don't know that you're rooming with his best
Steve:friend. And this guy clearly does not give a shit about
Steve:anything you've been in. So if it weren't for
Steve:circumstance, he would have just gone on with his life
Steve:not knowing who you were for a little while.
Leif:Outside the school, Chuck finds Jenny and
Leif:recruits her to help him snap Blair back to the
Leif:present.
Steve:Love that Chuck just can't with pathetic Blair.
Steve:It's so the guy
Steve:that would hang out at the high school
Steve:after high school was over.
Steve:Because I remember being, like a sophomore
Steve:junior, and friends of mine would
Steve:graduate and then they'd come back to visit and it'd be
Steve:like, oh, it's great to see you. And then you don't
Steve:see them again until Christmas. But then
Steve:there's that one guy who it's just kind of like every
Steve:Week. And then, like, every now and then, it'll be, like, every
Steve:day. And it's like,
Steve:why are you. Why are you still here?
Leif:Serena is helping a frazzled Ursula get ready
Leif:for the premiere. When Ursula leaves the room,
Leif:Casey informs Serena that Ursula's big scene got
Leif:cut. Casey tells Serena that they can't
Leif:tell Ursula and Serena.
Steve:Serena, you know how shitty you're being
Steve:already. You already know that.
Steve:That's not good.
Leif:Dan thinks he was dumped, so he calls his fallback
Leif:girl, Vanessa. It looks like they are going to the
Leif:premiere as well. Did someone say party of the
Leif:week?
Steve:Yes, and I picked up on that as
Steve:well. Where. Oh, this premiere is the
Steve:party. I actually really
Steve:noticed it the second run through.
Steve:At this point, I realized, okay, this is the party of the week.
Steve:The premiere. The second time through, it
Steve:was. The seeds were so much more
Steve:obvious.
Leif:At the red carpet, the stars are arriving. Dan is
Leif:looking For Vanessa and Mrs. The arrival of
Leif:Olivia, being greeted by her adoring fans.
Steve:It was cute.
Leif:It was cute, it was funny, but it just
Leif:feels, like, out of place in this show.
Steve:yeah, yeah.
Leif:It's like more of a sitcom thing.
Steve:I. I feel like this show
Steve:realized there, that it could only take what it was
Steve:doing last season so far, and now they're kind
Steve:of trying to find
Steve:a new voice almost,
Steve:so it feels like they're kind of throwing things out there to.
Steve:To just sort of shake it up. The
Steve:Gossip Girl interludes being out of
Steve:place and scenes like this
Steve:that are a little bit more sitcommy. I'm,
Steve:wondering if that's an intent. They're
Steve:trying to find something at the
Steve:Waldorf penthouse.
Leif:Blair is sitting back and taking in some adulation
Leif:of her own. Dorota pleas for Blair to stop the
Leif:nonsense, but it falls on deaf ears.
Steve:So pathetic. Even Dorota is
Steve:like, I can't with this. I'm watering
Steve:down these martinis, and these
Steve:children don't even realize it.
Steve:What is happening here?
Leif:Jenny, in all her gothic Barbie
Leif:glory, arrives, at the premiere on the arm of Chuck
Leif:Bass. This fact is almost immediately
Leif:relayed to Blair via Gossip Girl. Blast.
Steve:And Blair is just so much more pathetic here when
Steve:she's. Who wants to hear about how Chuck. How I
Steve:got Chuck Bass to tell me he loves me? And then when
Steve:they all. And then they all gather around
Steve:and get this bomb from Gossip Girl
Steve:that Chuck Bass is
Steve:at. At the premiere with Jenny, and,
Leif:Nothing new, but Chuck Bass was being very gross in this
Leif:scene.
Steve:Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
Leif:Spotted on the red carpet. Jenny Humphrey on
Leif:the arm of the Red Baron. Chuck Bass, guest
Leif:queen BE isn't starring in this melodrama.
Steve:It's got a sting. Yep.
Leif:It seems Rufus convinced Lily to come to Serena's
Leif:event on the premise that it was the date. However, when
Leif:Lily discovers the ruse, she immediately shits all over
Leif:Serena's job. Lily gives the advice to be
Leif:a good friend over obeying her boss's orders
Leif:though.
Steve:Good advice. I think that that would have been the right
Steve:thing to do.
Leif:It's definitely the moral thing to do.
Steve:It's the moral thing to do.
Leif:But is that what Lily really
Leif:believes? Or is she intentionally sabotaging Serena's
Leif:job?
Steve:Yeah, because Lily. Because Lily would have
Steve:been the publicist.
Leif:Yeah. You would think Lily would say, you know, follow your boss's
Leif:orders.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:But.
Steve:Yeah, well. And
Steve:Lily isn't taking this job seriously,
Steve:so it's not even so much as that.
Leif:Turns out she's right.
Steve:She was. But it wasn't so much take
Steve:the doing it to sabotage the
Steve:job. It's the take the friendship seriously.
Steve:Because that's the thing you're going to get out of this. The job isn't
Steve:going to be serious.
Leif:Dan and Olivia bump into each other. And Dan still
Leif:hasn't figured out the big secret. After figuring
Leif:out they both mutually know Vanessa,
Leif:Dan finally has the light bulb moment when the flash of a
Leif:camera shines in his face.
Steve:Perfect. It was so the way he.
Steve:Wait.
Leif:What's going on? What are you doing?
Steve:Oh, you could have just told me you didn't want to be here. You
Steve:could have just told me you didn't want to come with me.
Steve:Wait, I'm looking for my. For Vanessa?
Steve:You mean Vanessa Abrams? What? Like how do
Steve:you know this? And
Steve:then him finally getting it your
Steve:floor.
Leif:And then we move into Act 5 as
Leif:everyone is watching the movie. Ursula sees that her scene was
Leif:cut and she storms out of the theater. Casey and
Leif:Serena follower.
Steve:Yeah. And then that leads to the next scene.
Leif:It turns out that Lily was right. Casey was
Leif:just using Serena. Casey is hoping Ursula will be
Leif:humiliated by the press because it will be good
Leif:publicity.
Steve:And Casey is just. She's.
Steve:She's shitty. This whole. Yeah, everything about her is
Steve:shitty. Going in and rearranging
Steve:somebody's room is shitty.
Leif:She's very two dimensional character.
Steve:Very two dimensional character.
Leif:Blair arrives at the premiere after party and
Leif:goes after Jenny. However, Chuck quickly
Leif:steps in and takes the blame. Chuck gives a big speech
Leif:to Blair about why she can't give up because that would
Leif:make him him look bad.
Steve:It's funny how once,
Steve:again, this sick and twisted
Steve:relationship comes out. Sweet
Steve:in the way he's like, you're
Steve:telling me that I'm easier to win over than all
Steve:of these idiots
Steve:at nyu.
Steve:Like, that's. That. That's shitty.
Steve:And remember, next time you forget your Blair
Steve:Waldorf, remember, I'm Chuck Bass and I love you.
Steve:again, they're twisted, but it's
Steve:oddly sweet. Despite him,
Steve:again, like you said, making it about him,
Steve:I didn't like it.
Leif:Dan is waiting in the empty theater for
Leif:Olivia. Olivia apologizes for not telling Dan
Leif:sooner. She was just enjoying a normal
Leif:relationship. It looks like it was not meant to be
Leif:after all.
Steve:Dan, why are you still there? Why
Steve:are you still just sitting in the theater?
Leif:He knows that she wasn't going to apologize,
Leif:okay? Because Dan
Leif:is the king of NY show.
Steve:you know what? Hold on. I take it back.
Steve:Dan is the guy that would sit there until the very
Steve:fucking end of the credits.
Leif:Oh, yeah, definitely.
Steve:Dan is the guy that's sitting there like, oh,
Steve:I didn't realize that John. That John was a
Steve:compositor now.
Leif:And also judging everyone from leaving early.
Steve:yes. And, you know, these people put in hard work. We should at
Steve:least stay to see their names.
Steve:So, yeah, I take it back. It makes total sense for
Steve:Dan to be the last guy in the theater.
Leif:Blair gets stopped by a photographer that specifically
Leif:wants to take Blair Waldorf's photo.
Steve:Definitely not a setup.
Leif:In a quiet room, Ursula is crying over
Leif:losing the scene that could have made her career.
Leif:Casey, advises for Ursula to go out and throw
Leif:a fit for the press. When pressed, Serena
Leif:gives the opposite advice. Serena gets
Leif:fired.
Steve:This scene where she's like, you
Steve:should go out there and steal their day and make a big
Steve:scene. And Tyra Banks turns, she's like, is that what
Steve:you think I should do? You
Steve:just listened to some horrible advice, and now
Steve:you're asking a teenager, should I go
Steve:be a fucking,
Steve:ridiculous child and throw a huge
Steve:fit out there? Is that the advice
Steve:I should take? Why are you even
Steve:considering that? Like, what?
Leif:Because that's her natural reaction? Apparently.
Steve:Yes.
Leif:But, something else I want to throw up about the scene.
Leif:Ursula calls Casey
Leif:Kenny. She looks over, says,
Leif:and just calls her and addresses her as Kenny.
Leif:Now, are they dropping some deep lore about
Leif:this character that she goes by KC because
Leif:her parents gave her a boy's name, or was that just
Leif:the best take they could get out of Tyra Banks?
Steve:Did Tyra Banks create the deep lore
Steve:that she goes by KC because her parents
Steve:named her after Ken Griffey Jr. Ken Griffey
Steve:Sr. Big fans. They're from Seattle.
Leif:but after that scene, we move into the
Leif:epilogue. Lily comes into Serena's room
Leif:to find her packing a suitcase. Serena is leaving
Leif:Lily's house but not going to Brown. Now that
Leif:she has failed to sway Serena, as well, Lily
Leif:shifts the blame onto Rufus.
Steve:Yeah, Lily. It's Rufus's fault.
Leif:Lily.
Steve:And. And to be fair, Rufus is like,
Steve:let her. Let her go. Like, this isn't the
Steve:way you're going to win her over.
Steve:What are you thinking? What? What
Steve:teenager does the thing
Steve:that their parents just tell them they have to
Steve:do? Especially Serena, who has
Steve:never. Who, when you tell her to do something,
Steve:goes to Spain.
Leif:If only Rufus would have taken his own advice last
Leif:year.
Steve:Yes. Jesus Christ.
Steve:If only he was as good a parent to Jenny as he is to
Steve:anybody else.
Leif:That just shows that Rufus M or Lily are perfect for each other
Leif:because they gotta parent everyone else's kids, but not their own.
Steve:But not their own. And
Steve:there you gotta also wonder if how much of it is Rufus
Steve:now looking back and learning from what he
Steve:did? And maybe. Maybe even regretting
Steve:some of it. Well, he should regret it because Jenny is.
Steve:That's gonna. That's gonna escalate.
Leif:Vanessa and Olivia do some roommate bonding.
Leif:Vanessa remembers her time with Scott and pushes Olivia to go
Leif:after Dan.
Steve:Vanessa coming through as a wingman in
Steve:this. Good job, Vanessa.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:Don't know why she's so obsessed with Scott, though.
Steve:Yeah, he's. He's shitty
Steve:and boring and boring and,
Steve:yeah, hardly real.
Leif:Blair lets Serena know that she can stay at her house before
Leif:arriving back at her dorm. It looks like Blair
Leif:finally tracked down some NYU minions. Looks like
Leif:she also received a schoolgirl uniform from Chuck for their
Leif:next roleplay scenario.
Steve:Fans, is this the story you want?
Steve:Is Blair getting a new
Steve:dominion really what we need?
Steve:I really just want to see Blair pivot
Steve:and find a new way to fit in without
Steve:this fucking hierarchy shit. I want her to learn
Steve:that this isn't how life works
Steve:outside of your super
Steve:rich prep school.
Steve:That this isn't how,
Steve:especially at a place like NYU where
Steve:people don't give a shit that you have a lot of money. People are
Steve:going to be more mad at you that you have a ton of money that you're
Steve:flaunting around than if you were just fucking
Steve:cool.
Leif:I mean, NYU does have a business school.
Steve:okay, go to that then.
Steve:And do that.
Leif:Well, it looks like she's now Finding her people.
Leif:And the one girl we did meet in
Leif:the second episode, she was the one person that showed up
Leif:to the fish party.
Steve:Yes.
Leif:Amalia.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:And then I think the other two ones are actually twins.
Steve:Oh, interesting.
Leif:We'll see if we get. We get names for them.
Leif:And then, to no one's surprise, we find out
Leif:Chuck paid the photographer to take pictures of Blair because
Leif:even Dumbo needed the feather.
Steve:Yeah. Called it.
Leif:Yeah. Ursula is saying goodbye to
Leif:Serena before returning to la. But Ursula also
Leif:lets Serena know that she got Serena her job back.
Steve:She said, you helped me find myself. You.
Steve:You found yourself by not throwing a
Steve:fit in front of people like you.
Leif:You realized you were an adult person.
Steve:Yes. Good job.
Leif:Well done. Serena is the
Leif:diva whisperer.
Steve:She is the diva whisperer and has her
Steve:job back. Apparently so.
Leif:So she has something to do in the city. She's not just gallivanting around.
Steve:Yeah. Does that mean Casey is going to be a
Steve:more regular star
Steve:of the show? Is she going to be at least a.
Leif:probably. Some of these characters probably need a publicist.
Steve:Yeah. Oh, boy. Oh, Blair.
Steve:Oh, God.
Leif:Vanessa calls Scott because she clearly misses him,
Leif:but he seems over it and then blows her off to take a call
Leif:from Georgina. It seems like sky has been hanging
Leif:out with her in Boston.
Steve:Fantastic.
Leif:I've been asking. You're such a loser.
Steve:Yeah. Vanessa. Vanessa, you got dumped for
Steve:Georgina and you're still pining over
Steve:a guy who. Whose secret you should tell
Steve:at this point because he's a big fucking
Steve:asshole. Although how. What does that do to Rufus if
Steve:you do tell him? If you do go to Rufus and Lily and
Steve:like, hey, that is your son. He
Steve:lied to you.
Leif:Well, Lily doesn't know.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:even that he came back at all.
Steve:And I've seen the episode title for the next
Steve:episode, so wonder how that's
Steve:going to blow up.
Steve:Somebody's getting married.
Leif:Dan is sitting alone in a coffee shop, hoping to see
Leif:Olivia again. The
Leif:girl with the hat. Some other blonde
Leif:hipster.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:Jenny is back at Constance and is once
Leif:again approached by the new minions. They are
Leif:clearly desperate for leadership. Jenny reluctantly
Leif:takes up the crown and begins ordering her new
Leif:kingdom. Yeah, Dark Jenny's
Leif:coming back.
Steve:Yeah. Dark Jenny orders a yogurt
Steve:and hold my place. The Met steps.
Steve:I even saying like, hold my place in the Met steps. It's like, okay,
Steve:I need to maintain order. Get me a yogurt.
Steve:Now that's a power move.
Leif:It looks like Blair is starting her new kingdom at
Leif:nyu.
Steve:Yeah, she sure is.
Leif:And then finally, the Episode ends with Olivia
Leif:finding Dan, and it looks like they're gonna be
Leif:starting something.
Steve:They obviously had to get together. They're too
Steve:cute not to. They had. They had good
Steve:chemistry the whole time, and
Steve:I think it'll be nice to have them.
Steve:I. I'm hoping we. We have
Steve:Hillary Duff for a little while now,
Steve:I'm assuming. At least for a few episodes,
Steve:for. For a little love arc with Dan.
Steve:That's cool. Which also gives Casey
Steve:reason to be around as well.
Steve:So who's she gonna bang, Nate? Or is this.
Steve:Or is she going to be? What drives Blair and Chuck
Steve:apart when Blair needs a,
Steve:publicist and Chuck M.
Steve:There's something that could be there.
Leif:But, yeah, we end the episode. So the last several
Leif:scenes were all overlaid with the Gossip Girl blast as
Leif:normal. And it goes.
Leif:If you ask me, we go to the movies because we
Leif:want to see fairy tales. A sleeping
Leif:queen woken by her true love's kiss.
Leif:A princess to put aside her jewels to make her way in the
Leif:world. Lovers torn apart, being brought
Leif:back together. But life is an eighth fairy tale,
Leif:and happy endings are few and far between.
Leif:In life, the young queen becomes a tyrant and
Leif:takes her subjects to war. So that's why we need
Leif:movies and that sometimes even
Leif:fairy tales can come true.
Leif:Xoxo. Gossip Girl.
Steve:Yeah, it ends on another sort of
Steve:uplifting upbeat, which also
Steve:typically means there's going to be some shit on the
Steve:horizon.
Leif:So the previous cliffhangers from last
Leif:episode were Scott and Georgina, which we
Leif:got at least a little bit of movement on that one.
Leif:But the other one was Carter and Brie, and they were, like, not even
Leif:mentioned at all this episode.
Steve:No, we. We had Nate and
Steve:Serena, but neither of their
Steve:others. And Brie. Ah. Just not
Steve:even. Not even a conversation with Dan and Nate,
Steve:which is a little interesting.
Steve:Yeah.
Leif:But, what's coming next?
Steve:Well, first of all, somebody's getting married. I do know
Steve:that just from the title of the next episode,
Steve:I'm assuming this
Steve:Dan Olivia relationship will
Steve:have a nice little arc until
Steve:someone else throws their hat in the
Steve:ring and things get messy. I'm
Steve:thinking Vanessa is going to.
Steve:I'm predicting Vanessa takes a trip
Steve:to Scott and
Steve:Georgina and finds them, and
Steve:it'll be a whole storyline that nobody
Steve:needs.
Leif:that's about right.
Steve:Yeah. I have a
Steve:feeling that hopefully, we'll get something of
Steve:the Carter Bree drama.
Steve:And I say hopefully very lightly. I don't give a shit.
Steve:I would actually really like for that to never be addressed
Steve:again and for us to just Go on knowing,
Steve:hey, they have a history and let's just never worry about
Steve:them again. It'd be kind of funny if they really did just
Steve:ignore that whole thing and never came back to
Steve:it and we never see Carter or Brie again.
Leif:Sebastian, Stan got fired.
Steve:Yeah, I know. He does. Eventually. So is
Steve:this. Was it here or was it later?
Steve:I'm assuming it's later, but it would
Steve:be great if it was just. Nah.
Steve:And because. Because that's stupid.
Steve:Because having drama between two side
Steve:characters is stupid. Yeah,
Steve:I can't think of.
Steve:There's going to be drama with Scott,
Steve:with Lily finding out about Scott sometime, I'm
Steve:assuming right before or after the wedding.
Steve:So there's going to be that conversation.
Steve:I'm. Chuck and Blair are still
Steve:going strong. Stronger than I anticipated.
Steve:And I almost thought Chuck was going to dump
Steve:Blair for not being cool when. During that. Which
Steve:maybe that's why I liked it when
Steve:you said you didn't. I thought it was creepy. I didn't like
Steve:it. I would hate it if someone said that to my daughter. I thought it made
Steve:sense for Blair and Chuck because of
Steve:how their dynamic is.
Leif:It makes sense.
Steve:Creepy.
Leif:I still don't like it.
Steve:But I actually didn't know where he was going with that at first. And I think
Steve:the part of why I liked it is because he ended up being like, just
Steve:remember that I love you and you're with
Steve:me. So it was like, okay, they're staying together, so
Steve:he still loves her. I almost thought he was going to break up with her
Steve:right then and there and then.
Steve:So they're still going strong. And I feel like
Steve:they. That is not being
Steve:threatened. I'm constantly waiting for that to
Steve:be threatened. And it keeps not really
Steve:being threatened.
Leif:Could they be the new Monica and Chandler?
Steve:They could be. They could be.
Leif:And they're just together for the whole series.
Steve:She hasn't banged Dan yet. And I just
Steve:know at some point she's got to bang
Steve:Dan.
Leif:I mean, does it everyone.
Steve:Yeah, everyone has to bang Dan.
Steve:Like, look at him.
Steve:Especially, you know, easy a glow up
Steve:Dan. Like, come on.
Leif:Which I actually just did rewatch this week.
Leif:Such a good movie.
Steve:Oh, yeah, it's fun.
Leif:What, about Jenny.
Steve:Yeah, Jenny is going to
Steve:take it too far. I feel
Steve:like Jenny is going to crescendo and then crash and
Steve:burn. I do know that at some point, I believe this
Steve:season that she makes her exit. It's either this
Steve:season or next season. And I'm just assuming
Steve:that she takes this too far
Steve:until she just crashes And Burns.
Leif:Does Eric get drawn into it?
Steve:Eric is the voice of reason. Eric.
Steve:I actually. I would sooner see her turning
Steve:her back on Eric to gain her
Steve:own power. She's done it before. I could see it
Steve:getting to her head. And if Eric doesn't agree with her, I could see
Steve:her turning on him. And I could see Eric being the one to bring
Steve:her down out of love
Steve:and out of just Eric being
Steve:the voice of reason at all times. Eric
Steve:being the one and only fucking
Steve:grown up on this show.
Steve:Eleanor, sometimes.
Leif:Any other predictions?
Steve:I don't think so. Oh, Serena
Steve:still having a job is interesting.
Steve:I. Serena, if she's still with
Steve:Carter, I could see Serena
Steve:publicizing someone new
Steve:who makes things awkward.
Steve:So Serena being a publicist is
Steve:going to, play into some drama at some point, I'm
Steve:sure.
Leif:All right, well, let's go ahead and get into some
Leif:segments. This week in Fandom,
Leif:we hopped into the Wayback Machine to travel to the
Leif:Television without pity forums from 2009.
Leif:Hello there, Peabody here. And this
Leif:is the Wayback Machine for traveling through time.
Steve:And this is my boy, Sherman. Speak,
Steve:Sherman. Hello.
Leif:Good boy. Overall,
Leif:kind of a meh episode. Good comedy.
Leif:The Blair, Chuck and Jenny plot was good,
Leif:but, overall it was not that great. Yeah,
Leif:too much stunt casting and too many guest stars in general.
Steve:Yeah, it was just hardly any
Steve:cast. Every scene. I feel
Steve:almost every scene had a guest
Steve:star in it except for
Steve:Jenny. It was anything that didn't have Jenny or the Lily
Steve:Rufus stuff, but anything that had any of the
Steve:others. And.
Leif:Yeah. So, this is a common problem with teen
Leif:shows. Once they get out of high
Leif:school, the stories become too disconnected.
Steve:Yeah. Saved by the Bell. The college years
Steve:absolutely could not keep up with Saved
Steve:by the Bell.
Leif:They probably started the show with the main characters. They
Leif:should have started the show. The characters as softwares
Leif:to get another year of high school stories.
Steve:Makes sense. I'm assuming that the book did. The book. Are the
Steve:books all high school? Because you could do that in
Steve:books.
Leif:Yeah, I think it is. Yeah. I believe so. And
Leif:then they spin off to Jenny going to boarding
Leif:school. Most people dislike
Leif:Blair being so pathetic.
Steve:Because it was really pathetic. It really
Steve:was. It was a rock bottom for
Steve:Blair. I honestly,
Steve:I found this to be more cringy
Steve:that, it was more cringe than
Steve:her banging two dudes
Steve:that were best friends
Steve:back to back.
Leif:There's some anticipation for a potential
Leif:Jenny and Eric feud.
Steve:I could see it. I can see it.
Leif:There were a bunch of people making fun of Serena's idea of
Leif:work attire. And this was their words,
Leif:not mine. Is just putting a jacket over a slutty
Leif:dress.
Steve:Interview interview clothes.
Steve:Surprised she didn't have, like, a tie
Steve:just around her neck, but, yeah,
Leif:Serena does that all the time.
Steve:Yeah. I'm going to
Steve:wear these pajamas with a coat.
Leif:Most fans thought Chuck and Blair were adorable, but if
Leif:you saw the same cracks I did.
Steve:Yeah, yeah.
Leif:Jenny's minions look like, quote,
Leif:rejects from a Disney Channel TV show.
Steve:Probably Nickelodeon, because I'm starting to see
Steve:a, lot of a, commonality in this episode.
Steve:All these Nickelodeon stars this week,
Steve:and.
Leif:The fans are still convinced that Ed is the best actor on the show
Leif:for some reason.
Steve:Really? Wait,
Steve:really? He's. He's not the best
Steve:actor in any scene he's ever been in.
Steve:He's.
Leif:Remember, like, last. Last year, they were talking about how, like, his
Leif:scenes were, like, going to a prestige television or
Leif:something?
Steve:Yeah, no, not at all.
Steve:He. He carries his role,
Steve:but he can't emote,
Steve:vocally without going full
Steve:Brit. Yeah.
Leif:And then finally, Lily and Rufus can't be good
Leif:parents at the same time. They keep flip flopping.
Steve:Yes.
Leif:Facts, facts.
Leif:That is it for this week in Phantom, So let's
Leif:get into some episode grades. You went first
Leif:last time, so I will go first.
Leif:there's some great comedy moments with Nate and Dan as well as the
Leif:Rufus and Serena stuff, but
Leif:the writing was a bit too contrived for
Leif:me. They're trying some new things with the Gossip
Leif:Girl blast in different spots, but
Leif:overall, I gave it a B minus.
Steve:I landed at the same place as you,
Steve:for largely the same reason. And much
Steve:like last week, it didn't really go
Steve:anywhere other than Dan
Steve:having a potential new relationship. There was
Steve:no real plot
Steve:foundation to move into the
Steve:next episode, especially with, like, that little
Steve:bit of momentum. The last episode
Steve:really didn't do much except for these
Steve:cliffhangers at the end that ended up not
Steve:mattering in this episode. So it once again
Steve:just felt kind of standalone. It
Steve:was. Had its moments that I liked. It wasn't a
Steve:terrible episode. It was still enjoyable
Steve:to watch, and I landed at a B minus as well.
Leif:Moving on over to Stockwatch
Leif:for me, going up, I had Jenny
Leif:because she is taking the reins of the school.
Leif:Chuck, because she. You basically
Leif:manipulated Blair and got her to see some confidence.
Leif:Finally, Dan, because he continues to
Leif:fail upward,
Leif:taking advantage of that white privilege. I
Leif:gave Olivia, you know, up because she's, you know, she
Leif:had her big premiere and, you know, she's got Dan now the king
Leif:of nyu. And I gave Rufus an up because
Leif:he was funny and he was making some sense for
Leif:once.
Steve:Who do you got? I have mostly the same as you. I
Steve:had Dan and Olivia both going up
Steve:for their relationship, getting
Steve:together and going somewhere. I had Serena
Steve:going up for getting her job back and
Steve:actually having a job and
Steve:coming through for Ursula. And in
Steve:the end, I had Jenny going up
Steve:for the most obvious of all
Steve:of them. She is queen. So I have her
Steve:going up in her stock. I have
Steve:Rufus going up as well. The other one I have
Steve:going up and I, is
Steve:Vanessa. And the reason is
Steve:good wingman. Good wingman job. You
Steve:have a new friend who's a movie,
Steve:star who wants to just be your friend. And you
Steve:are a really good wingman to Dan. And I give her
Steve:an up for that.
Leif:But she did get blown off by Scott.
Steve:Yeah, but fuck Scott.
Leif:Speaking of which, he makes a place on my downs
Leif:because he is being manipulated by
Leif:Georgina. Yeah, being played by Georgina and just being dull as
Leif:usual. Yeah. I also had Lily because she was
Leif:horrible. She's taking her cues from Cece
Leif:now. we got Ursula because, you know, her
Leif:career is. Her scene got cut. And
Leif:Casey because she's a two dimensional villain.
Leif:I had Vanessa going down because she got blown off by
Leif:Scott. I had the new minions going
Leif:down because they got bulldoze this whole
Leif:episode. And also the NYC minions because,
Leif:well, you're being ruled by a loser.
Steve:Did you mention Blair?
Leif:And Blair and Blair.
Steve:Okay, because I was going to say I have. My list
Steve:is exactly 100% the
Steve:same as yours. Ursula, Casey,
Steve:Lily, Blair, both sets of
Steve:minions. I actually didn't have the New York minions, but
Steve:I want to add the New York minions because,
Steve:yes, they're being ruled by a loser
Steve:and.
Leif:Yeah, what about Scott?
Steve:Oh, and Scott. Scott going down for being played
Steve:by Georgina, which I originally didn't
Steve:put Scott, but having mentioned
Steve:it, he's completely getting played by
Steve:Georgina. He absolutely is getting his
Steve:stock down. Also, just Scott sucks. Like, can
Steve:we. God, that I wish
Steve:he would have just told Rufus the truth. Rufus, the truth.
Steve:And left
Steve:and been done.
Leif:It would have been even better if he's like, oh, you're my
Leif:son. Great.
Steve:Oh,
Steve:look, I gotta get out of here.
Steve:Looks at his watch, pats
Steve:his shoulder. See ya, bud.
Leif:Got my real son here. The king of nyu.
Steve:I've already got one. He's way cooler. He
Steve:doesn't have to lie about where he goes to school or stalk
Steve:people with letters.
Leif:So that is it for Stockwatch. Let's go ahead and
Leif:get into the best outfit, but
Leif:here's the best outfits.
Steve:From the last episode we've
Steve:seen.
Leif:For me. Gothic Barbie. The gold
Leif:and black bandage dress from Emilia Pucci. The
Leif:silver ankle boots, the diamond cross paired with the classic
Leif:pearls. Even the hair and the makeup worked for me. She looked
Leif:like a character from a Tim Burton movie.
Steve:Yep. I have the same. I have the
Steve:same thing she. That premiere dress
Steve:was just. It
Steve:popped. And the whole look, the whole look, the
Steve:whole look. And like you mentioned last week, and I didn't
Steve:notice it until this week, that the outfits
Steve:haven't been as eye
Steve:popping as they were. And this one
Steve:just jumped off this, jumped off
Steve:the screen. And you, you have that.
Steve:I like to have that head cannon that. She made it.
Steve:You know that even though we know that it was
Steve:a, design dress, my headcanon is.
Steve:Anything Jenny wears, Jenny made.
Leif:I don't know if that's true anymore. She's living on the
Leif:Upper east side now. She's. She's moved to a deluxe penthouse in the
Leif:sky.
Steve:That's right. She doesn't have to make her own stuff
Steve:anymore. She can. Yeah.
Steve:And that's disappointing because. Because
Steve:Rupus killed her dreams.
Leif:Yeah.
Steve:Way to go, Rufus. Now she could have had
Steve:the resources to do all of the shit that she wanted
Steve:to do. Great job. Good parenting. Fuck you,
Steve:Rufus.
Leif:That is it for segments. What are you
Leif:plugging this week?
Steve:I have been. First of all, I've been really
Steve:into Severance on
Steve:Apple tv. Great show. You should
Steve:definitely check that out if you're. If you haven't seen
Steve:it yet. Have you seen Severance?
Leif:Not yet.
Steve:It is cool. The acting in
Steve:it is really dynamic because
Steve:they kind of have to be. A lot of the
Steve:actors have to play two characters. Two versions
Steve:of themselves essentially. So it's really
Steve:well written, really good acting. I
Steve:highly recommend it.
Leif:For me, I have been rewatching the hundred.
Leif:So go watch that. Kind of a cross between
Leif:Gossip Girl, Game of Thrones and Battlestar
Leif:Galactica. I love it. I mean,
Leif:it's got the bad CW acting, but I still love it.
Steve:Spotted Cylons.
Leif:Yes. but if you
Leif:want to follow me on social media, you can find me on Blue
Leif:sky hotcapicola.
Leif:That's H O T C A P I
Leif:C O L A. You can follow the
Leif:podcast on Instagram, TikTok and
Leif:Threads at Non Judging Breakfast
Leif:Pod. If you want to check out our Patreon and our Discord
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Leif:breakfastpod.com and.
Steve:If you'd like to get in touch with us, please feel free to send
Steve:an email to Non judging Breakfast
Steve:Pod gmail dot com. We'd love to hear your
Steve:thoughts. We'd love to check out what you have to say and
Steve:maybe even read what you have to say here on the
Steve:show. And while you're listening, if you could
Steve:just give us a like a follow, hit that subscribe
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Steve:helps us with our visibility in the Apple
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Steve:tell a friend what you're listening to, go ahead and
Steve:share the non judging breakfast pod with your friends.
Steve:We'd love to become the water cooler talk at, your
Steve:job next week.
Leif:And speaking of next week, we will be talking
Leif:about season three, episode five,
Leif:Rufus Getting Married. The
Leif:Max episode description reads, will Lily
Leif:and Rufus get married?
Steve:See, I didn't read the description. I only saw the, Which is
Steve:really funny that it's called Rufus getting married. And then they say,
Steve:will they get married? Which
Steve:kind of makes it even more Rufus is. But is
Steve:it Delilah?
Leif:Well, I haven't seen Rachel getting married,
Leif:but doesn't she not get married at the end of that movie?
Steve:I couldn't tell you. I didn't. I haven't seen it either,
Steve:so.
Leif:Well, until next time. You know you love us.
Steve:XOXO Every time you walk away,
Steve:run.
Steve:Away you take a piece of m me with you
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 still.
Steve:Resting m looking for something more.
Steve: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 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: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
Steve:to me I'm trying really hard to believe
Steve:Every time you walk away run away you take a
Steve:piece of meat 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: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
Steve:piece of me with you there?
Steve:Every time you walk away or run away you take a
Steve:piece of me you with you there
Steve:Ah? Every time you walk away
Steve:and run away you take a piece of me with
Steve:you there? Every time you
Steve:walk away or run away you take a piece of me
Steve:with you there? Every
Steve:time you walk away or run away you take a piece of
Steve:me.
Leif:With you there.
Steve:I saw a clip of Taylor Tomlinson, the
Steve:comedian, on her show, some kind
Steve:of late night show. She was like, oh, I can't wait to hear
Steve:what Vulture has to say about this one. I was
Steve:like, oh, I didn't realize they were
Steve:still a thing.