Gossip Girl: Woman on the Verge

Gossip Girl – Woman on the Verge
An embarrassed Serena resurrects some troubling old habits as she continues to hide the truth from Dan, and her feuding friends rally to help her. Meanwhile, Rufus’s band scores a high-profile gig, where an unexpected guest shows up to lend him support.

Serena didn’t murder anyone. Not that any of us thought that she did. There was a sex tape; actually more of a make-out tape. After Nate and Serena had sex a year ago at some random wedding, Serena then traveled to a hotel room to hang out with Georgina and some drugged out fellow. Georgina secretly set up a video camera and the dude practically attempted to rape Serena. In an effort to curtail his advances, Serena encouraged the dude to have some more coke before they progressed any further. Dude had more coke, starting seizing, and then died of an overdose. Serena somehow convinced herself that she was to blame and has been shouldering the guilt ever since.

Overcome with remorse, Serena turns to Blair, who contacts Chuck and Nate so they can all pull together to save Serena from herself. Let me just say that Chuck was looking really good this episode, with a new hairdo I believe. Blair encourages Serena to tell Chuck and Nate her dark secret in order to lift some of the guilt. They all share a moment. This seemed really overdone since it was evident that Serena didn’t kill the guy. But then again, maybe when you are 17 things like that get a little foggy. Not knowing from personal experience, it is difficult to say.

A great deal of this show is centered on Rufus’s band playing a reunion concert with Lisa Loeb. What??? Gossip Girl is getting way too 90210 lately, especially with the random insertion of a ’90s musical act. Vanessa is working as the roadie for Rufus’s band. This girl seems to be the master of all things alternative. She and Nate plan a date to catch the show, but Nate arrives late due to Serena’s meltdown. Meanwhile, Georgina’s alter ego Sarah befriends both Dan and Vanessa. When Dan confronts Serena (mid-meltdown) about how she has been avoiding him lately, for some silly reason Serena lies and says she slept with someone else. Naturally Dan is devastated and turns to his new friend Sarah (really Georgina) for comfort. Confused yet?

Lily shows up at Rufus’s show. Remember that Lily used to be a photographer and used to snap photos of Rufus and the band back in the day. Sparks fly during their set and Lily and Rufus have a moment of intense eye contact. Lily runs out after the set is over and Rufus runs after her. Lily tries to avoid talking to him but they end up smooching. I’ve been waiting for this moment throughout the season but when it happened it seemed anticlimactic. Their chemistry was pretty nonexistent.

The episode leaves us with “Sarah” and Dan walking hand-in-hand after Dan had his heart broken by Serena. Georgina is totally creepy and luckily Nate warned Vanessa to keep away from her, but for some reason Vanessa was unable to properly warn Dan.

Recently Vanity Fair posed the same question we have for our readers: Has Gossip Girl jumped the shark??