Artwork for podcast Non Judging Breakfast Pod
S4E07 - "War at the Roses" with Alice Callahan Thompson
Episode 7 • 20th October 2025 • Non Judging Breakfast Pod • Mithril Chain Network
00:00:00 01:43:57

Share Episode

Shownotes

The waffles are fresh and the gossip is hotter than ever! Leif and Steve are breaking down Season 4, Episode 7 of Gossip Girl, and they’re joined by a fantastic guest—Alice Callahan Thompson, who played one of Blair’s iconic Columbia minions.

👑 Guest Spotlight: Alice Callahan Thompson

Alice gives us amazing behind-the-scenes stories, including:

  • Auditioning multiple times before landing the role
  • Making the most of every one-liner with extra facial expressions and “cringe”
  • Why her character always held a grape juice “cocktail” in the background
  • Filming Gossip Girl vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs. Morning Glory
  • Her friendship with Leighton Meester and why Leighton carried the show
  • How the Rachel Zoe fondue stunt REALLY went down

----------------------------------

🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your pods.

📱 Follow us on Threads, IG & X @NonJudgingPod

🧇 Leave a review if you love waffles and wild plot twists

🔗 http://nonjudginbreakfastpod.com

🔗 http://njbpod.captivate.fm/discord

----------------------------------

Produced by Leif Capicola and Steve Marchion. 

Edited and mixed by Leif Capicola.

The Gossip Girl Theme Performed By Steve Marchion.

Transcripts

Alice:

Uh, again, yes.

Alice:

You know, a cringe line, so you just have to go for it as

Alice:

you know, as much as possible.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Walking up and having the first thing I say, the OMG

Alice:

step onto frame with the, just the acronym, OMG.

Leif:

Hey, Upper East, siders and all.

Leif:

You scandal, loving listeners out there.

Leif:

You've just tuned into the Non-Judging Breakfast pod where the coffee is

Leif:

strong, the waffles are fresh and the gossip is hotter than ever.

Leif:

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

Leif:

And I'm Steve,

Steve:

the newbie, the greenhorn, the rookie, the, I don't know, Leif.

Steve:

Now that we're in season four, what am I classified as?

Leif:

Steve, you really don't dunno how to stage a rut in, do you cut to the chase?

Steve:

Hey, I just thought we were staying remote for Article 19.

Steve:

No touching.

Steve:

So here's the deal.

Steve:

Folks leave has been watching Gossip Girl since it first aired, and

Steve:

I'm diving in for the first time.

Steve:

And together we're your dynamic duo, bringing you all the drama,

Steve:

romance, and sometimes questionable fashion choices of this iconic

Leif:

2007 series.

Leif:

Bring your magnifying glasses because each week we're dissecting

Leif:

every juicy detail of the show.

Leif:

One episode at a time.

Leif:

We'll connect the dots, uncover those sneaky little Easter eggs, and

Leif:

of course, serve up some piping hot behind the scenes tea and expect some

Leif:

iconic moments from fandom as well.

Leif:

Because what's a deep dive without a little drama?

Steve:

And since we are all about inclusivity here at the Non-Judging

Steve:

Breakfast Pod, there is always room for you at the non-judging breakfast table.

Steve:

So go ahead and grab your mimosa, a cup of coffee or some a Chuck's

Steve:

special medicine and let's go ahead and

Leif:

get into this.

Leif:

And Steve, we are here today with a special guest.

Leif:

We are here with Alice Callahan Thompson, who of course played

Leif:

Blair's, Columbia Minion.

Leif:

Jessica Alice, welcome to the show.

Alice:

Hi, welcome.

Alice:

Thank you.

Alice:

Thank you.

Alice:

I'm thrilled to be here.

Leif:

Thank you for taking some time outta your

Steve:

day.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

We're really excited to have you on.

Steve:

We've been talking about this and, and you are the second of

Steve:

three from the original Columbia girls that we see in season three.

Steve:

Right.

Steve:

Um, that, that has now come to be our guest and we really

Steve:

appreciate you taking the time

Alice:

like these.

Alice:

Oh, good.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

So who are the others?

Leif:

Well, we had Danielle Joy.

Leif:

Okay.

Leif:

I dunno if you remember her.

Alice:

Yes, yes, yes.

Alice:

She,

Leif:

she was on, uh, last season.

Leif:

She was on toward the end of the S season.

Alice:

Do you have someone coming, you have someone else in the pipe?

Leif:

Uh, no word from uh Melissa form yet.

Leif:

I'll

Alice:

try to help you with that.

Alice:

I'll try to help you with that.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

We'd appreciate it.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

But yes, thank

Leif:

you so much for being here.

Alice:

Thanks for having me.

Alice:

I'm excited.

Leif:

So we're in quite a few episodes.

Leif:

You got your official kind of introduction to your character in season three.

Leif:

Mm-hmm.

Leif:

But according to IMDB, you were in a season one episode.

Leif:

Can you confirm that?

Alice:

Oh, yeah.

Alice:

Um, okay.

Alice:

So I tried out probably seven, eight times for different

Alice:

characters in the first few seasons.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

Um, they were all small characters, like one liners, like maybe I would be like

Alice:

one of Chuck's girlfriends for a half a second, or I would've been a server

Alice:

at a bar, like, and I would've been thrilled to do any one of those jobs,

Alice:

obviously, but I kept not getting it.

Alice:

And I'm like, they keep bringing back in, but I just can't make it happen.

Alice:

And I was just like, okay.

Alice:

And then this whatever time, this was the ninth or something

Alice:

when they brought me in for.

Alice:

For that first one, I was like, well, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna,

Alice:

you know, leave it all out there and do the best I can, you know?

Alice:

And like, if they don't like me, fine, I'm not coming back.

Alice:

Except for, I totally would've kept auditioning.

Alice:

But anyway, um, yeah, I just remember that last time being like, screw it.

Alice:

Like I'm just gonna really go for it.

Alice:

And so then I booked that one and that one turned into this multiple

Alice:

season kind of recurring thing.

Alice:

And I'm so obviously thankful that I never got any of the previous one-liners with,

:

right.

:

Yeah.

:

Chuck

Alice:

or something.

Alice:

I wouldn't have been able to come back.

Alice:

But yeah, I guess they just didn't know if they were gonna use me more back then.

Alice:

I didn't know.

Alice:

I thought I was only doing one episode.

Alice:

That first one.

Alice:

I think I was just like a girl, just like random girl number five or something.

Alice:

Um, and then I, they ended up giving me a name in the next.

Alice:

I guess the next time I came back.

Alice:

Yeah.

Steve:

Something that, that I thought was really funny.

Steve:

You had posted on your Instagram about rewatching gossip Girl and how cringe

Steve:

it was and I, I remember my, I was talking to my wife about it and she

Steve:

was like, why would that be cringe?

Steve:

And I was like, she does have some of the most cringe wines that we've seen.

Steve:

I, because I I really it the, your line in the episode before previous

Steve:

to the one we're doing today.

Steve:

Okay.

Steve:

Where, where they said, you know, we don't know why Jenny was exiled.

Steve:

And you said, aside from the obvious, which, which I just, I loved it.

Steve:

It was, but it, it was just that like so, so cringe that like, 'cause this bomb's

Steve:

about to drop, so it was just so fun.

Steve:

So I just really, yeah.

Alice:

Oh.

Alice:

A thousand percent.

Alice:

Every line is cringe.

Alice:

And we only when you only get like one line a scene, if that Right.

Alice:

You really have to make it count.

Alice:

Right.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

And so I would really like milk, you know, I would milk every line possible.

Alice:

So I, I made them extra cringe with extra, you know, uh,

Alice:

facial expressions and moves.

Alice:

But, but yeah.

Alice:

But I just didn't wanna watch it.

Alice:

Yeah, exactly.

Alice:

I just, um, I don't know.

Alice:

It was, it was so much fun shooting it, obviously, but then I kind

Alice:

of just wanted to keep moving forward and I just, I don't know.

Alice:

I felt funny watching it, and it wasn't as easy to watch, like back then it was.

Alice:

It aired and then it went away for a while, you know, and then it, I guess

Alice:

it came back on different streaming and I just never was like, you know what?

Alice:

I wanna watch gossip.

Alice:

I don't know, I just never, I like, I was like, I had, you know,

Alice:

I'm like, I'm into severance.

Alice:

I was into Handmaid's Tale, obviously Summer I turned pretty,

Alice:

like there's other shows I would rather watch, you know what I mean?

Alice:

All

Steve:

good shows, all

Alice:

good shows, all great shows.

Alice:

And so I just, it was never just like if, oh, I have free time.

Alice:

I'd like to watch Gossip Girl.

Alice:

Just never like.

Alice:

I never felt like watching it.

Alice:

And clips I'd seen that people had posted and stuff over the years are

Alice:

always just like, oh, like, oh, because I'm critical of myself too, you know?

Alice:

Of course.

Alice:

So it's just, but uh, but then when you guys approached me about doing

Alice:

this, I was like, you know what?

Alice:

It's time.

Alice:

It's time, it's time to do this.

Alice:

I, you know, it's been like 15 years.

Alice:

I think I can face it now.

Alice:

And I've actually had so much fun when I watched these episodes, I had a blast,

Alice:

like laughing out loud and knowing that I was gonna get to make fun of it, made

Alice:

it feel right, made it feel better.

Alice:

Like I was gonna get to watch it for a reason, which is later making fun of it.

Alice:

Um, so I'm happy to be here and it, yeah, it feels this is the right

Alice:

time to enter back in the chat.

Alice:

Yeah.

Leif:

So you bet you, you have a few, very few lines, but you do

Leif:

make your presence felt, I think.

Leif:

You do a great job with the physical comedy.

Alice:

Oh, thanks.

Alice:

Yeah.

Leif:

Thank you.

Alice:

Well, again, it was all me trying to get screen time.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

And just trying to steal anything I could, you know, I'm not sure if you

Alice:

notice, but as you keep watching it, I always have a drink in my hand.

Alice:

My character does anyway, and it's always like red grape juice or white grape juice.

Alice:

But for some reason I thought it was just funny to, 'cause I

Alice:

was never like the meanest one.

Alice:

I was kind of just like along for the ride one.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

And just kind of like here for the, here for the drama.

Alice:

So I, I had fun making my character just like, always

Alice:

like drinking in the background.

Alice:

So,

Steve:

and, and it works though.

Steve:

And, and like I was saying before, it really fits the tone of gossip grill.

Steve:

It, it, you, you, you really just kind of blend with that attitude,

Steve:

with that minion attitude that they.

Steve:

Put forth in from the, from the prior seasons even, you know?

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

So just such a great carryover.

Steve:

Oh, uh, the other thing that I noticed on your IMDB was that you were in the

Steve:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

Steve:

Oh.

Steve:

As and credited as Attractive Detective.

Steve:

Which, which that, I want that to be my next album name.

Steve:

I, I now wanna write a song called Attractive Detective,

Steve:

because it's just such a great,

Alice:

it's ridiculous

Steve:

title.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

I did not do much in that movie, but it was a night shoot, and

Alice:

I got to stand in between Megan Fox and, oh, Amy PO's, ex-husband

Leif:

Will, Arnett

Alice:

will thank you.

Alice:

Oh, yeah.

Alice:

And so getting to stand next to him for like 12 hours straight for a night shoot,

Alice:

like on Liberty Island, staring at the Statue of Liberty was, was so much fun.

Leif:

Is he a funny guy?

Leif:

He's

Alice:

just hilarious.

Alice:

Oh my gosh.

Alice:

Yes.

Alice:

He was just hilarious.

Alice:

And so the best part of that whole thing was just like listening to his.

Alice:

Like filibuster for 12 hours straight about like, you know, how horrible

Alice:

it is that we were doing this.

Alice:

I'm like, I'm, I'm having fun.

Alice:

Like personally, like you have better things to do, but I totally

Alice:

don't, so I'll be attractive to technic number five or whatever

Alice:

so I can listen to this monologue.

Alice:

Yeah, it was,

Leif:

yeah.

Leif:

Yeah, it was great.

Leif:

So as of this recording three days ago, gossip Girl became legal.

Leif:

18 years.

Leif:

This, the season is a series premier.

Alice:

Oh my God.

Alice:

That's

Leif:

sad.

Leif:

Wow.

:

That's

Leif:

sad.

Leif:

Yeah.

Alice:

No one wants to know that.

Alice:

No one wants to hear that.

Alice:

Don't, don't say that again.

:

What is it now?

Leif:

And we did get a comment on YouTube from our friend Nostalgic Edit.

Leif:

Uh, this was on episode for season four, episode one.

Leif:

She commented late comment, but I need to say something about this episode.

Leif:

I'm so excited you guys were on season four.

Leif:

To be honest, the more I rewatch the show, I honestly feel like four might

Leif:

be my favorite season besides one.

Leif:

I love the what the title of this episode.

Leif:

It's a nod to obviously the movie Belle de Jour, but they make it bell.

Leif:

It might seem kind of random, but the film and this episode reflects similar

Leif:

themes of double lives escaping reality.

Leif:

Glamor and masking inner conflict and women navigating identity and desire.

Leif:

I think the inclusion of this film especially speaks to Blair's struggles

Leif:

perception versus being true to herself.

Leif:

Even opening with Prince Louis and many passionless exchanges like the

Leif:

film, Blair lives a double life in this episode, denying and suppressing her

Leif:

actual feelings to preserve her image.

Leif:

I would wonder if this is for shattering how something this season might

Leif:

finally break through her facade.

Leif:

Well, thank you again for writing in Eden.

Steve:

Yeah, good insights.

Steve:

Yes, good

Leif:

insights.

Leif:

So before we get into the episode proper, Alice, do you have any,

Leif:

uh, like general stories from the set or anything you wanna share?

Alice:

Oh, definitely.

Alice:

I mean, from this episode?

Leif:

Uh, in

Alice:

general

Leif:

or just in general?

Steve:

Yeah.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

I mean, I.

Alice:

Again, like was just happy to be there.

Alice:

Much like my character, I was just like, I mean, I was thrilled to be a part of

Alice:

it and so I had a blast doing it and I made some good friends and ate good food.

Alice:

'cause that was always very important to me was the food they were serving on set.

Alice:

So that was great.

Alice:

Um, I'm still friends.

Alice:

People, you know, ask like, are you still friends with anyone?

Alice:

And I'm still friends with Leighton.

Alice:

Um, obviously who played Blair.

Alice:

She's just the best.

Alice:

We actually had dinner last night because Oh, nice.

Alice:

She's here filming a movie randomly.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Nice.

Alice:

Crazy.

Alice:

Um, but she's, she's the best.

Alice:

I think she's hilarious.

Alice:

I think she carried the show in my personal opinion.

Alice:

Um, and I think she can do it all.

Alice:

Yeah.

Steve:

We, we talk a lot about her acting and how, and, and, and how

Steve:

oftentimes she'll run circles around the other younger, you know, these,

Steve:

these younger actors who are kind of building their foundation here.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

And she just owns.

Steve:

There.

Steve:

I think there's been like two times in this series where it's

Steve:

like, I don't really buy it.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

But for the most

Steve:

part she just,

Alice:

maybe she was tired.

Alice:

Maybe she was done whenever they shot that scene.

Alice:

Yeah,

Steve:

yeah, yeah.

Steve:

And just, but she just owns everything she's in.

Steve:

She's spectacular.

Steve:

Yeah, she

Alice:

is.

Alice:

And she's, yeah.

Alice:

Her career, like, I think she has so much to give.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

She can be so like deep and heartbreaking and raw and

Alice:

like she can really do anything.

Alice:

And I just, I wish that people were able to see more sides of her.

Alice:

'cause people do think of her as just being like, Blair Waldorf.

Alice:

But she's so much, she's so much more than that.

Alice:

I, I love her comedy.

Alice:

She's really hilarious.

Alice:

Yeah, she's hilarious.

Alice:

I mean, like, she really is so, so funny and I, I'm waiting for that to be like.

Alice:

Seen by everyone.

Alice:

'cause I want, I want everyone to know.

Steve:

Yeah, yeah.

Steve:

We watched, we watched, we both watched Cop Out, her Good Cop Bad

Steve:

Cop show that came out this year.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

I haven't figured that.

Alice:

Or

Steve:

Good cop, bad Cop that show.

Steve:

Okay.

Steve:

That's good cop.

Steve:

Bad Cop.

Steve:

And like Lee said, her comedy just, she owns so much of it.

Steve:

Her, her timing, so.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Leif:

Well, we are here to talk about season four, episode seven.

Leif:

War at The Roses.

Leif:

Original air date was November 1st, 2010.

Leif:

And once again, I am DB and Gossip Girl Wiki are disagreeing on the title,

Leif:

the Gossip Wiki.

Leif:

Wiki just says it's based on the English Civil War.

Leif:

Right.

Leif:

Which is obviously wrong.

Steve:

Right, exactly.

Steve:

'cause they're all based on movies.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

So I would assume The War of the Roses.

Leif:

Yes.

Leif:

Which came out in 1989 directed by Danny DeVito and starring Michael

Leif:

Douglas and Kathleen Turner.

Steve:

Funny thing, one of the few movies, my dad was like, no,

Steve:

you're too young to watch that here.

Steve:

Watch Revenge of the Nerds, like Watch Police Academy.

Steve:

You're too young for this one.

Leif:

Yes.

Leif:

The episode I, yeah, I, I would actually seen it, but a Buried couple tries

Leif:

everything to drive each other out of the house in a vicious divorce battle.

Leif:

So, makes sense.

Leif:

Yes.

Leif:

Works.

Leif:

Works for this episode.

Leif:

Yeah, very

:

much.

Leif:

And this episode was written by Jessica Queller who

Leif:

took off all of season three.

Leif:

I'm not sure exactly what happened.

Leif:

She was not working at all for that year.

Leif:

I looked it up so I'm not sure what happened.

Leif:

But Interesting.

Leif:

She's wr written a lot of great episodes, notably the two Norbert

Leif:

Buckley's, two favorite episodes, the Handmaid's Tale, and also

Steve:

on Fire or Age of Dissonance.

Steve:

Yeah,

Leif:

age of Dissonance.

Leif:

Um, yeah.

Leif:

But also Rob and Holiday, the Serena also rises.

Leif:

Blair Walworth My Pie.

Leif:

So.

Steve:

Yeah, the, I mean, that first Thanksgiving episode is mm-hmm.

Steve:

Absolutely classic.

Leif:

And it was directed by Joe Laro, who has done three episodes so far.

Leif:

Oh, brother.

Leif:

Where Baral, how to Succeed in Bass, and The Empire Strikes Jack,

Leif:

kind of up and down on those ones.

Steve:

Or brother where I like Empire Strikes Jack, I kind of hated parts of it.

Steve:

I, I hated the end of that one.

Leif:

But yeah, he's been a producer for, since season one.

Leif:

Yeah, that's right.

Leif:

And as we learned from Morman Buckley, he sometimes filled it as director,

Leif:

like on the season one finale.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Yes.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

So we had, I had Norman Buckley and Carolyn Lagerfeld on

Leif:

last week, Alice and mm-hmm.

Leif:

Apparently Norman broke his nose during the shooting of the season one finale.

Leif:

So he had to leave for a day in like an hour.

Alice:

So Joe filled in.

Alice:

Yes, I can see that.

Alice:

Yeah, he was great.

Alice:

So nice.

Alice:

Really down to earth, easy to feel comfortable with, even though

Alice:

he was a producer and you're like, oh, the producers here.

Alice:

Ooh.

Alice:

But he was always so kind, so,

Leif:

yeah.

Leif:

Alright, Steve, why don't you give us that rather short this week, Walter Recap.

Leif:

Yes.

Leif:

It's a blessing.

Leif:

It looks like.

Steve:

So Vulture had to say.

Steve:

They say promises are meant to be broken, and nowhere is this more

Steve:

true than on Gossip Girl, where sincere utterances are asphyxiated.

Steve:

The moment they hit the Upper East Side Air last night's episode, saw the

Steve:

breaking of pledges between Nate and Dan to not see Serena alone between

Steve:

Serena and Colin, who made a pact to remain physically uninvolved until

Steve:

Serena completes Collin's class.

Steve:

And of course, between Blair and Chuck, who violated Article 19 of

Steve:

their treaty in a way that could have embarrassed even Connie Chung.

Leif:

That is short.

Leif:

That's, yeah.

Leif:

Kylie Chung referenced.

Leif:

I haven't heard of that name in a while.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Yeah.

Steve:

What did she, did she get caught having sex on a piano

Steve:

in 2010 or something like that?

Steve:

Like is that why we haven't heard of her?

Leif:

Not that I'm aware of.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

But like she's referenced in the episode for something about a piano,

Steve:

it's, she says, look up Connie Chung piano, and now they reference it here.

Steve:

So

Leif:

well, we open act one with a Gossip Girl monologue,

Leif:

rise and shine Upper Eastsiders.

Leif:

It's officially fall, and when the leaves start to turn, we

Leif:

know it's time for B'S birthday.

Leif:

We hope Serena will be there to celebrate.

Leif:

But we hear she's having her own private party with a professor.

Leif:

Blair is prepping invitations for her birthday.

Leif:

Serena brings coffee to Colin's office.

Leif:

The two are learning each other's histories.

Leif:

And Serena, it seems, is having a tough time.

Leif:

Sticking to their agreement and not get physical until after the class.

Steve:

I, I mean, I talked last week about how much I hate this whole thing.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

As, as a, as a teacher.

Steve:

And it's just so cringe.

Steve:

Even like, even with the college level courses, like We Leif and I discussed

Steve:

about how this guy's probably in his thirties and, and here's Serena

Steve:

just turned 20 or about to turn 20.

Steve:

And just, I, I find the whole thing cringe.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

It's bad.

Alice:

It's hard to watch for sure.

Alice:

It's hard to watch.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

And is, is Robin still on board?

Steve:

Yeah, Robin was still on board.

Steve:

Robin was telling me to shut up when I was talking about how annoying it is.

Steve:

My, my wife Robin is completely on board with this relationship.

Steve:

I'm the one who's like, this is disgusting.

Steve:

And, and she's like, it's a little hot though.

Steve:

And she's like, you've never been a teenage girl with daddy issues.

Steve:

So there you go.

Steve:

And I've got it there.

Steve:

There you go.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

I never had

Speaker:

charge.

Leif:

Blair is having breakfast with Eleanor and talking about their plans

Leif:

for Blair's upcoming birthday party.

Leif:

Eleanor's back.

Steve:

I love an Eleanor episode too.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

She's, yeah, she's one

Leif:

of our favorites.

Leif:

Dan Rufuss and Eric are walking the streets coffee in hand, discussing

Leif:

both Lillian Rufuss first anniversary and the fact that Vanessa is back and

Leif:

still living with Dan Rufuss seems to pressed that Jenny can't come to

Leif:

celebrate with him when Rufuss walks away.

Leif:

Eric and Dan discuss trying to break Blair's embargo.

Leif:

Going through Chuck seems the path of least resistance.

Leif:

Dan's like, you probably

Steve:

need my help planning this.

Steve:

I, I thought it was cute, but then I, but then he went on to say it's

Steve:

more just to get away from Vanessa, which understandable as well.

Leif:

Yeah, Nate and Serena are standing in an empty restaurant and Nate

Leif:

notices Serena is happier than usual.

Leif:

Uh, suspects a new man.

Leif:

Serena begins to confirm the suspicion when Chuck and Blair

Leif:

come into the restaurant and are shocked to see Nate and Serena.

Leif:

It looks like Nate and Serena set the other two up so they can

Leif:

oversee a treaty negotiation.

Alice:

Right.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

Is this when Blake is in the bandage dress?

Leif:

Yes.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Like the

Alice:

Tight Ave ledger?

Leif:

Yes.

Leif:

Yeah.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

So if, if you remember this, this Ave Ledger, I guess that's how you pronounce

Alice:

it, bandage dress had a major choke hold on all the stylist in the year 2010.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

This could be seen everywhere.

Alice:

And of course Blake loved wearing it 'cause it was tight and low

Alice:

and, you know, all the things.

Alice:

Um, and, and it's just everywhere you, you'll see them more as they pop up.

Alice:

But I, um, just thought it was so funny that, you know, she pops on

Alice:

and like, oh yeah, you could have showed me that and I could have told

Alice:

you what year that was, you know?

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

In a time capsule.

Alice:

But, um, I, I got to wear one too.

Alice:

Not on this show.

Alice:

They didn't have that kind of budget for me.

Alice:

But, um, I was on another movie around this time called Morning Glory, which

Alice:

was a Rachel McAdams and Harrison Ford.

Alice:

I only had one scene.

Alice:

It's not a huge deal, but it was a big deal to me.

Alice:

And I got to wear, you know, one of these.

Alice:

One of these it girl dresses.

Alice:

Nice that, you know, cost more than I made that day.

Alice:

But Rachel McAdams was, was lovely and it was a really fun scene.

Alice:

So I had my, I had my moment in the dress.

Leif:

I, I just saw this reel on Instagram the other day with Reese

Leif:

Witherspoon, like an old interview where she told everyone she, how she

Leif:

got in her contract on legally blah.

Leif:

And she got to keep everything from her wardrobe.

Alice:

I can see that for her.

Leif:

Which is, there's like 50 pairs of Jimmy Cheese shoes.

Alice:

Yeah, exactly.

Alice:

There you go.

Alice:

Not me.

Alice:

Not me not on Justin Girl play that.

Speaker:

They're

Alice:

like, I give it all back.

Alice:

No stealing trust any of y'all.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Did you come in with those

Leif:

earrings?

Leif:

Yeah, exactly.

Leif:

Blair and Chuck go back and forth negotiating on who gets to go to this

Leif:

or that restaurant on which dates.

Leif:

When the topic of strip clubs come up, Blair pulls Serena aside

Leif:

for a sidebar where Blair also mentions Serena's glow as usual.

Leif:

Blair is the voice of reason when it comes to Serena's

Leif:

questionable relationship choices.

Leif:

Blair continues her filibuster a bit longer after returning to the table,

Leif:

but eventually seeds the strip clubs.

Leif:

However, there is a last item to be negotiated in private.

Leif:

Nate and Serena are dismissed.

Leif:

I loved

Steve:

this scene.

Steve:

I, I love's funny the concept of the scene that they bring in a stenographer

Steve:

and a notary and that they're, and they go back and forth and it is so

Steve:

in line with who these people are.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

Yeah, and I absolutely love that and know I also love.

Steve:

Blair being that voice of reason that, that Blair being like, I

Steve:

don't want to hear about you trying to sleep with your professor.

Steve:

He's a professor.

Steve:

It's wrong.

Steve:

Move on.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Period.

Leif:

Much like trip.

Alice:

Yes.

Alice:

Period.

Leif:

Back at the Vander Woodson penthouse a dad and Eric see a Gossip girl blast

Leif:

announcing Blair and Chuck's treaty.

Leif:

Eric wishes someone, not them, would take Chuck and Blair down

Leif:

so that Jenny could come home.

Leif:

However, Dan is confident that the duo can take down the king and

Leif:

the queen of the Upper East side.

Leif:

Oh, Dan,

Steve:

I find that there are several moments where we see Joe Goldberg in

Steve:

this episode that, that you see this like scheming and you see, and you

Steve:

know how when Joe is trying to like.

Steve:

Explain something and his eyes get wide and he gets animated and excited and

Steve:

like we saw that and I, I just, it, it was, it just really now that I've,

Steve:

I we just finished the series like a week ago or a week, two weeks ago,

Steve:

and just seeing that it was, it, it just felt like a young Joe Goldberg.

Alice:

Yeah, that's great.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

He plays that well.

Alice:

He plays like Psycho Stalker very well.

:

Yeah,

Steve:

yeah, yeah.

Steve:

You love

Alice:

him anyway.

Alice:

That's the thing.

Alice:

He gets away with it, right.

Alice:

Anyway.

Steve:

Yes.

Steve:

At the end, at toward the end when I'm like, oh man, you, it's

Steve:

like, no, he should get caught.

Steve:

You want him to get caught.

Steve:

He's a bad person.

Steve:

Yeah,

Alice:

yeah.

Alice:

No, but it's stop rooting for him it's pin like we can't not root for him.

:

Yeah, exactly.

:

Yeah.

Leif:

And Gossip Girl takes us to the first act break with this quip.

Leif:

Seems like leaves aren't the only thing.

Leif:

Changing colors.

Leif:

This fall.

Leif:

Act two begins as Chuck a Blair exit the restaurant and get

Leif:

into their respective cars.

Leif:

They say what they announce as their last goodbyes outside of social.

Leif:

Nice at ease

Steve:

that this is the Article 19 when Chuck goes to shake her hand.

Steve:

No touching.

Steve:

Love

:

that.

:

Yes,

Leif:

no touching.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Julia is still stalking Serena and flags her down at on the street.

Leif:

She quickly gets Serena to admit she has a crush on a professor.

Leif:

Serena reaffirms that she is waiting till after the semester to sleep with him.

Leif:

However, Juliet knows exactly the to trigger Serena's daddy issues.

Leif:

Serena's previously good mood is shattered as a part.

Leif:

Juliet texts Ben that Serena is hot for teacher.

Alice:

Yes, that's, yeah.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

So Katie Cassidy.

Leif:

Mm-hmm.

Leif:

Right?

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Juliet, and I don't know if you've already been over her or not, but

Alice:

as you know, daughter of David Cassidy from the Partridge Family.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

Oh, I, I did not know that.

Steve:

As a matter of fact.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

That, there you go.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Um,

Alice:

I grew up like loving the Partridge family, so when I met her, I thought,

Alice:

like, I hadn't seen any of the other stuff she'd been in, but I was like, your cast.

Alice:

That's what I was thinking in my head, like, that's awesome.

Alice:

Like, remember he had some iconic hair.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

Like, he had the Rachel, it was like the Rachel for the seventies, you know?

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

:

Yeah.

:

Before the Rachel was a thing.

:

Yeah,

Alice:

that's right.

Alice:

That's right.

Alice:

Um, but here's some hot Goss on that.

Alice:

Oh, she tried out for Blake's role.

Alice:

She tried out to be Serena.

Leif:

She told us when we were, I was kind of aware of that.

Leif:

Yeah.

Alice:

Okay, okay.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

Maybe not, I'm not giving you anything that you don't already know except

Alice:

for that Xavier Cassie's daughter.

Alice:

But yeah, something that was a little, that was a little hard.

Alice:

You know, she talked about how like, yeah, I tried out, I

Alice:

think she got really close to.

Alice:

Getting that role.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

Um, but didn't get it.

Alice:

And, uh, anyway, but at least they found something for her to do.

Alice:

But I could kind of tell she was like, eh, I probably could have done Yeah.

Alice:

The other part, you know?

:

Yeah.

:

Yeah.

Leif:

I like Katie Cassidy, but I think Blake was probably as perfect

Leif:

Cassy as you get for that role.

Alice:

It, it, yeah.

Alice:

It worked.

Alice:

It definitely worked

Steve:

this scene when, once again, Juliet, this isn't the first time that

Steve:

she's been like, well, you know, men, it's just, if you give them sex and

Steve:

that's what you get, then, then you have everything you need from 'em.

Steve:

She did the same thing to Vanessa.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

And the last episode, or the one before where she had Vanessa steal the phone.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

I guess it was two episodes of ago.

Steve:

And she's like, well, no, no, don't talk to Dan.

Steve:

Just go sleep with him.

Steve:

That's all you need to say.

Steve:

I'm sorry.

Steve:

And now she's like, oh, well no man is just gonna wait for you for six weeks.

Steve:

And it's like.

Alice:

It's like, Aw, what happened?

Alice:

Who hurt you?

Alice:

Yeah.

Steve:

Who?

Alice:

Yeah, exactly.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

She, she's very good at

Leif:

playing on your insecurities.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

And that's the worst part, is that if you say that to Serena, she's gonna listen.

Steve:

Vanessa did too, but Serena, it plays right into those insecurities that mm-hmm.

Steve:

She already has.

Steve:

Yeah.

Leif:

She, she always has the ab abandonment issues going on.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

As Serena's returning home, she sees Colin pulling another young,

Leif:

beautiful woman out of a cab.

Leif:

Very coincidental.

Alice:

Yeah.

Steve:

What is the chance?

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Put his hand on the small of her back, which,

Alice:

and like, is she wearing heels?

Alice:

I feel like,

Steve:

I dunno.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

She,

Alice:

yeah.

Alice:

Right then come to find out.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Well I don't wanna spoil it yet.

Alice:

Um, but speaking of heels, if you notice Katie Cassidy, I don't know

Alice:

what part, but she's in these like booty heels that they had us all

Alice:

wearing for a good entire season.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

And it's like, is it a heel or is it a boot?

Speaker:

Yeah,

Alice:

it was like a open toe.

Alice:

It was a shooty and it like went up the ankle and it's just like every

Alice:

time, every time someone's walking on stage, Vanessa's always in 'em.

Alice:

Serena Blair, everyone comes out in a, in a little like booty heel

Alice:

that again, timestamp of 2010.

Leif:

That's awesome.

Leif:

Back at the penthouse.

Leif:

Eric is impressed with Dan's diabolical plan to drive a wedge between Chuck

Leif:

and Blair so that Chuck will help Jenny return for the anniversary party.

Steve:

We don't see these two being schemers usually.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

And to see them scheming together, it you, there is that sense of

Steve:

like, oh, Eric, this isn't like you.

Steve:

The last time you did this, you got burned.

Steve:

And Dan, you don't really do this.

Steve:

You're going up against Champs here.

Leif:

But it's it's in the blood.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

And yeah, he's, he comes, Eric comes

Steve:

marriage.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

And Eric comes from a long line of schemers, no doubt.

Steve:

Right?

Steve:

Like genetically, both sides.

Steve:

Like Eric.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Eric has it in his blood.

Steve:

He just doesn't have it in his

Leif:

heart.

Speaker:

Mm.

Leif:

Serena goes to Colin's apartment in attempt to catch him

Leif:

in the act, but it turns out the woman is just Colin's housekeeper.

Leif:

Sena in heels.

Leif:

Yeah, in heels and fishnets, I believe as well.

Leif:

Serena admits that she let her jealously get away from her and

Leif:

maybe they should stop seeing each other out of class completely.

Leif:

However, it turns out that Kyle was invited by the dean

Leif:

to Blair's birthday party.

Steve:

I'm sorry, we can't say away.

Steve:

I'm going to a 20 year old's birthday party.

Steve:

Yeah,

:

I have to and I have to.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

I mean, this, this just really annoyed me.

Leif:

'cause this job is just a hobby to him.

Leif:

He, there's zero reason for him to kiss up to his boss.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Because this, this is not his real job.

Leif:

This is just

Alice:

Right.

Alice:

A a I mean, he's a successful author, right?

Alice:

Yeah.

Leif:

At businessman.

Alice:

Didn't business

Leif:

person

Alice:

just teach, um, Lily about the concept of, did you already talk

Alice:

about this last, a reverse psychology,

:

reverse psychology.

Alice:

I've, I've been reading this book and I thought I

Alice:

would put chapter 13 to you.

Alice:

It's like she had ju That was the first time, first time, you know,

Alice:

that this like, hopefully well educated, at least well groomed.

Alice:

A side woman had heard of reverse psychology and she's really

Alice:

proud to put it into action.

Steve:

Usually I just rely on guilt and just not parenting them exactly.

Steve:

But then I found the, then I found her for psychology.

Leif:

Uh, Serena calls Blair to confirm Colin's invitation, and Blair didn't think

Leif:

Serena was going to the party, but now she will because the anniversary was canceled.

Leif:

Blair reminds Serena that the dean will be at the party as

Leif:

well, so no funny business.

Alice:

Well, every episode has to end with all the characters at one party.

Alice:

Right.

Alice:

Every single, I mean with without exception, I think.

Alice:

Um, and so sometimes it's a stretch to, to make it make sense why

Alice:

everyone would be at this event.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

Some of these reasons are like, I dunno.

Steve:

And it's funny because there are those episodes where they don't end

Alice:

up together.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

So maybe, okay, maybe nevermind.

Alice:

There are exceptions,

Steve:

but to your point, the best episodes are the ones where they all

Steve:

are coming together and all of the drama takes place and unfolds mm-hmm.

Steve:

At these big gatherings.

:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

It usually happens that way.

Steve:

Right.

Steve:

And 100% of the really good episodes.

Steve:

That's really one of the, that's one of Leif and I, one of our

Steve:

marks for those top tier episodes.

Steve:

But it does happen most of the time.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

And when it doesn't, it lacks something, you're missing something

Alice:

you wanna see that.

Alice:

You wanna see everybody in the same room like this, you know?

:

Yeah, exactly.

Alice:

As like a peripheral character.

Alice:

I always loved getting to do that.

Alice:

I never really said much when it was a big thing, right?

Alice:

But still I gotta be there.

Alice:

So it was fun.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Dan tries to stage an awkward run in with Chuck.

Leif:

He expects Chuck to be ready to return to war with Blair, but a surprised

Leif:

to see Blair at the suite with him.

Leif:

Chuck and Blair immediately suspect Jenny of setting the blast and

Leif:

added a new addendum to the treaty.

Leif:

In a sign of good faith, Blair invites Chuck to her

Leif:

birthday in a sign of charity.

Leif:

Blair also invites Dan.

Steve:

I loved this because Dan is such a non schemer and

Steve:

he is walking in so confident.

Steve:

He is like, oh, I just thought I'd see Nate.

Steve:

But I guess he is not here.

Steve:

He is in his room.

Steve:

Oh, I thought I'd be at class.

Steve:

And it's like, how well do you know Nate?

Steve:

What makes you think Nate is what?

Steve:

What makes you think that there's a guarantee?

Steve:

Nate is in class.

Steve:

What part of Nate says always goes to class.

Leif:

Serena calls Juliet and asks for advice on being in a room with

Leif:

both Colin and the dean tonight.

Leif:

Juliet offers to come to the party to act as a buffer for Serena and her professor,

Leif:

who Juliet still doesn't know is Colin.

Alice:

Why do they think that Juliet's an expert?

Alice:

Like, I don't, I'm not understanding like why everyone's getting her advice,

Steve:

especially when she's done nothing but be in their way and like

Steve:

has openly shot at Serena before.

Leif:

Well, this, the explanation that Serena gives is as Blair is not

Leif:

willing to talk to her, and as we know, they don't have any other friends.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

But also Serena, keep it in your pants.

Leif:

I mean, you're, you're an adult now.

Leif:

Have a little self-control.

Leif:

Yeah.

Steve:

Wait six weeks or find anybody else.

Steve:

Find an age appropriate relationship.

Steve:

Yes.

Steve:

Any appropriate relationship.

Steve:

Nate and Dan do the polyamory thing.

Steve:

Date both of them.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

They're age appropriate.

Steve:

Experiment.

Steve:

Yeah, you're young.

Steve:

Be wild.

Steve:

It's college.

Steve:

Just not professors.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

A gossip girl has this to say as we go to the break, like

Leif:

Uh oh.

Leif:

Juliet's plans are falling into place and S is primed for a fall.

Leif:

Act three begins.

Leif:

Dan goes to see Nate, who quickly reveals Chuck and Blair's secrets

Leif:

are all within their treaty.

Leif:

Nate announces that it's super duper top secret before setting

Leif:

the treaty on top of his dresser and just walking outta the room.

Leif:

Dan, of course, walks over and grabs a treaty.

Steve:

Oh no.

Steve:

You can't know anything about this top secret treaty that I am having security

Steve:

come to put into a safe any second Now.

Steve:

Sets it down and leaves.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Yeah.

Leif:

It was so silly that they had to forget a mid act

Leif:

gossip girl lied in to say,

Leif:

Nate thought he and Humphrey were thick as thieves.

Leif:

Turns out Humphrey's a thief and Nate's just thick.

Leif:

No lies.

Speaker:

Ouch.

Leif:

Still love Nate.

Leif:

Oh, bless his heart.

Leif:

Bless his heart.

Leif:

Serena finds Nate on campus and asks him about Blair's party.

Leif:

Nate isn't too keen on seeing Juliet again, so he suggests using himself

Leif:

as a buffer instead of Juliette.

Leif:

Serena calls her and cancel the date.

Leif:

And Juliet texts Colin, asking for a favor.

Leif:

I love the like,

Steve:

yeah, I don't need you anymore.

Steve:

Yeah, be gone.

Steve:

Yeah, be gone.

Steve:

I, I have no need of you anymore.

Leif:

Also.

Leif:

So in this specific case, with these two people, yes, I agree.

Leif:

In this case, Nate's probably the better one to protect her.

Leif:

But in general, do we agree that a man is necessarily.

Leif:

Better to protect her than another woman.

Leif:

Right.

Alice:

But protect her from herself.

Alice:

Right,

Leif:

right.

Leif:

Like, yeah.

Leif:

Okay.

Leif:

If, if they're alone and like he, you needed a physical perception.

Leif:

Yes.

Leif:

But at a party, I would think, you know, your girlfriend

Leif:

would be the better person.

Leif:

Sure.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

But

Alice:

yeah, just the whole concept though of, of meeting the chaperone is

Steve:

well, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Steve:

Control yourself is also, as we previously pointed out, you're an

Steve:

adult surgeon, keep it in your pants.

Alice:

Correct.

Alice:

Keep it in your pants or you're tight.

Alice:

Every ledger dress.

Alice:

Yes.

Leif:

Chris, last week, week, she wasn't quite keeping all of it in her dress.

Leif:

With that, the circle in the middle there,

Alice:

it happens.

Alice:

It happens.

Leif:

Blair is going bridezilla over her birthday party and no

Leif:

one is spared from her wrath.

Leif:

Not the staff, not Toda, and not even Eleanor.

Steve:

What is wrong with me?

Steve:

Darda.

Steve:

You don fight with Chuck.

Steve:

So you fight with everyone

Alice:

else.

Alice:

That's the best.

Alice:

Oh, zoo's not.

Alice:

Have y'all talked about Zuzanna much?

Alice:

She played I, he's the best.

Alice:

Love her.

Alice:

Love her.

Alice:

So funny.

Alice:

So.

Alice:

Talented also.

Alice:

Yes.

Alice:

I mean, can do everything.

Alice:

She can truly do everything as well.

Alice:

And I want, I want the world to know that.

Alice:

But yeah, just hilarious.

Alice:

And they made her look so old, like it made her look old in

Alice:

this, in her like uniform.

Alice:

But she was actually like, like everyone were kind of all

Alice:

the same age, give or take.

Alice:

Like not eating white.

Alice:

She was not that much older.

Alice:

And it was just so funny that they kind of made her to be this like

Alice:

old nanny when really she was like two years older than all of us.

Steve:

It's funny 'cause when it, when we were, had Norman Buckley on, and he talked

Steve:

about early on with Darda that she, that Margot Collins, Margaret Collins mm-hmm.

Steve:

Wasn't able to make an episode.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

And they needed ROA to kind of take on

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

That

Steve:

part.

Steve:

And he said.

Steve:

If that's the case, then she needs to have had this role all along Uhhuh.

Steve:

She can't just be the help, she needs to be this other mother figure.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

And we need to kind of establish that.

Steve:

So it almost sounds like she wasn't, was originally cast just to be sort of there.

Steve:

Right.

Steve:

And then needed to all of a sudden be 10 years older than Blair.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

You know, 20 years older than Blair.

Alice:

Right.

Alice:

Right.

Steve:

To, to fill that

Alice:

role.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

I can see that.

Alice:

Well, and I'm sure that they were all blown away by how fun she is to

Alice:

watch on camera, and she's so natural and just, anyway, so I'm, I'm, I

Alice:

guess as time went on they were like, let's, let's have her do more.

Alice:

Because everyone loved, but also I think people loved her.

Alice:

Like I rem like fans loved her.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Alice:

So I think that that was also part of her like arch.

Alice:

And then she gets married later, you know, and like gets to do more, which is nice.

Steve:

In a show that is so based on these characters that are scheming and attacking

Steve:

and kind of being horrible to each other.

Steve:

You have these characters of Eric and Deda that are so down to earth and so

Steve:

honest in their observations, especially Darda and how she just kind of brings

Steve:

what she sees from the outside in.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

So her character just has such an important role in grounding

Steve:

the rest of the series in a person that we can relate to.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Speaker:

Because a lot

Steve:

of us can't relate to these billionaires scheming against each other.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

But I can relate to the people who are working for them,

Steve:

who are putting up with them.

Steve:

Right.

Steve:

Who also love them, you know?

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

So she has such a great

Leif:

presence on the show.

Leif:

After reading the treaty, Eric is surprised at Chuck and Blair's big secret.

Leif:

However, he advises Dan to learn from Jet's lesson from last week.

Leif:

Get outta the game before you get too deep.

Leif:

After Eric walks away, Dan uses his dad's Interscope connections to ask a favor.

Steve:

I loved Eric here.

Steve:

I love Eric being like, we tried it failed.

Steve:

Let's, let's cut our losses and get out of this.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

Because again, the voice of reason Eric dipped his toe

Steve:

in, didn't like it, got out.

Steve:

Then Dan, with the calling the Interscope records to keep this scheme going.

Steve:

It was just, it was funny

Leif:

and Gossip Girl has this to say.

Leif:

Looks like Brooklyn's in it to win.

Leif:

It just, what is it exactly?

Leif:

Guess we'll find out tonight.

Steve:

It's funny 'cause you said that Eric was surprised

Steve:

by what was in the treaty.

Steve:

I think we all were.

Steve:

By the time it came out.

Steve:

It's like, really?

Leif:

That's it that

Leif:

we move it to Act four.

Leif:

Blair's party is a cameo buffet.

Leif:

Rachel, Zoe and Jo Z greet each other.

Leif:

Blair greets them and several other people before getting well

Leif:

wished by the dean and press.

Leif:

With Blair's social planning, the dean says they will set up

Leif:

a lunch and then we see Jessica slide up to Blair and then forward.

Leif:

The last person to get a lunch with the dean became a CEO of Pepsi.

Alice:

Uh, again, yes.

Alice:

You know, a cringe line.

Alice:

So you just have to go for it as you know, as much as possible.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Walking up and having the first thing I say, the OMG

Alice:

step onto frame with the, just the acronym, OMG.

Alice:

That's tough.

Alice:

But also like Pepsi, like they couldn't afford to say Coke.

Alice:

Like why do we have, you know what I mean?

Alice:

Like, I was, um, but I, something right before that,

Alice:

the, uh, Dean character mm-hmm.

Alice:

Says something like, the guest list is inspired and we had to do it.

Alice:

Like so many takes, you know?

Alice:

And then we all started being like, this napkin is inspired.

Alice:

Like, we kept saying everything was inspired, like we just latent

Alice:

anyway, we were all joking about how like, everything is inspired.

Alice:

Um, so we kept, we kept that going for a while.

Alice:

Nice.

Steve:

That's really funny because I just remember thinking like.

Steve:

You're the dean of a university and you're this impressed with like,

Alice:

with, with,

Steve:

with celebrities Celebrity high society.

Steve:

Yeah.

Alice:

Or Robin.

Alice:

Sorry, I said pink.

Alice:

It was Robin.

Steve:

Yeah.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

Yeah, yeah.

Alice:

Sorry.

Alice:

But yes, but to your point, same.

Alice:

Yeah.

Steve:

Yes.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

It was great though.

Steve:

We, when your delivery, the, and as we talked about earlier, the way that you

Steve:

just come on and just own that mean girl attitude, which again, also just

Steve:

sitting here hanging out with you seems very different from the person that

Steve:

that's in front of us, which also just speaks to your, to your chops, you know?

Steve:

Oh, yeah.

Alice:

All my chops.

Steve:

Well, it, but it does tell us, like, you know, it shows

Steve:

us that where you come out of yourself to be this other person.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

That's, that's very, that's very generous.

Steve:

I really appreciated it.

Steve:

Well, and, and kind of let, let's,

Steve:

let's peel back a bit.

Steve:

Leif and I have talked about

Steve:

how when there are cameos on this show, you typically

Steve:

know that it's a cameo.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

They drop the name and they're usually stiff and don't know how to project.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Well, like the, the Tim Gunn, like Tim Gunn from the last episode.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Yes.

Steve:

Well, and also in this, at the start of this scene, when you had Z and Zoe that

Steve:

were talking to each other now, I felt like Zoe kind of owned it, but z and

Steve:

I, I don't know who these people are.

Steve:

I don't know fashion like that.

Steve:

I, but I watched that and I'm like, those are two fashion people that if

Steve:

I knew fashion, I'd know who they were because of the lines, because of the

Alice:

delivery.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Rachel Zoe had a, had a hard time for sure with this.

Leif:

Uh, she, she had, we'll do a little stunt there though, at the end.

Leif:

Okay.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Are you ready to talk about that or do you wanna wait?

Leif:

We'll, we'll, we'll wait till we get to that part.

Leif:

We'll

Alice:

wait, we'll wait, wait.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

I'll have to play about that.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Because I, yeah.

Steve:

I, which I'd love to hear.

Leif:

Rufuss and Lily are at the party.

Leif:

Lily teases rufuss up for acting like he's too cool for an Upper East

Leif:

Side party wearing a $2,000 jacket.

Leif:

Eleanor comes over and witches them a happy anniversary and

Leif:

compliments rufuss on his blazer.

Leif:

Yeah, I loved this.

Steve:

It's, it's just that I love those moments.

Steve:

'cause Rufuss does want so bad to be this, you know, retired rockstar.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

But he, but now he is living the good life on the Upper East Side.

Steve:

And I, I love, I love when Lily puts him in his place.

Steve:

We, we talk about Kelly Rutherford a lot and how much we love Right.

Steve:

Lily and her acting and just what she brings to the show.

Steve:

So we, and this is the kind of stuff they should be doing.

Steve:

Yes.

Steve:

This is where I want to see Rufuss and Lily when they have their

Steve:

drama and their fighting and that.

Steve:

I hate it.

Steve:

It's like, you guys did that stuff.

Steve:

You worked it out.

Steve:

You're married.

Steve:

Just be parents to the kids on the

Leif:

show now.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

Yeah.

Leif:

It looks like Colin got Juliette into the party, but

Leif:

they immediately separate so they can't be connected too late.

Leif:

As Nate immediately spots them entering, who's at the door, checking

Steve:

tickets to this party, the Julia could have just, if they're gonna

Steve:

walk in together and just separate, she could have probably just walked.

Steve:

I bet.

Steve:

Bla.

Leif:

I bet Blair did have someone checking invitations.

Leif:

She probably has a front of house.

Leif:

You're right.

Leif:

You're right.

Leif:

What am I thinking?

Leif:

Yeah,

Steve:

she probably has someone in the lobby.

Leif:

This isn't your house.

Leif:

This is your birthday party, Steve.

Leif:

This is Blair party, right?

Leif:

Yes.

Steve:

That made me realize, hold on a second.

Steve:

Colin lit a maid into his apartment somewhere near

Steve:

Columbia where she ran into him.

Steve:

So why is he escorting women out of Blair's apartment building

Steve:

every day when they first meet?

Leif:

That was near, that was near Blair's apartment because they, they his house?

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

They, they live, they live close together.

Leif:

'cause remember they're always, he's always getting the calves when

Leif:

Serena's leaving in the morning.

Steve:

I thought he was coming out.

Steve:

Right, right, right, right.

Steve:

I thought he was coming out of the building, out of Serena's building.

Steve:

In fact, I think they had said early on that he was in Blair's building, possibly.

Steve:

And now he has his own.

Steve:

He, I mean he is a multi-billionaire.

Steve:

He probably has more than one flat

Alice:

guys.

Alice:

He invented reverse psychology.

Alice:

I mean, come he did.

Steve:

After inventing reverse psychology, you actually, there's some payback in

Steve:

that, that he can afford his, you know, pie tear in Blair's, in Blair's building

Steve:

and that his actual house where he lives.

Steve:

Somewhere near Columbia.

Steve:

That's right.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Side the west side.

Steve:

Where's the living Deer?

Steve:

Columbia.

Steve:

That's just an assumption that he probably you, you're right.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Serena

Leif:

was coming home and saw him going into his building.

Leif:

'cause they lived next to each other.

Steve:

Oh, see I didn't really, that wasn't well communicated earlier on.

Alice:

Well, I'm confused too.

Alice:

Are they are, um, are Juliette and the professor meant to be

Alice:

siblings or They're cousins?

Alice:

They're cousins.

Alice:

They're cousins,

Steve:

yeah.

Speaker:

Okay.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Which only just comes out in this episode.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

At the end of the previous one.

Steve:

We see them together for the first time and he gives Juliette

Steve:

the check and it was like,

Alice:

right.

Alice:

He pays for her to go or something.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

And so there was like a whole, how is this connected?

Steve:

Which last week I was convinced that Colin was a part of this whole Take Serena down.

Steve:

Ben Juliet,

:

co

Steve:

conspiracy.

Leif:

But really, it's just a big coincidence.

Steve:

Yep.

Steve:

What are the chances?

Leif:

Yeah,

Steve:

pretty high on the Upper East side, as it turns out, it's a small island.

Leif:

It's

Steve:

a small island

Alice:

radius.

Alice:

There's only one cab to be shared.

Alice:

Yeah,

Steve:

right?

Steve:

Yes.

Steve:

Yes, you would.

Steve:

Because you can't get into the cab behind the cat.

Leif:

Serena sees Colin across the room, but then finds Nate and begs him to

Leif:

distract her as the two old friends are.

Leif:

Goofy around.

Leif:

Dan, of course, shows up and sees him together

Alice:

again.

Alice:

She's like, quick distract me.

Alice:

I might have to, you know, run across the screen here and just jump on top.

Alice:

Like, what?

Alice:

Yeah, just, no, no.

Steve:

What, what I did like from this scene was Chase Crawford.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

We talk a lot about how those moments when he gets to be funny mm-hmm.

Steve:

And gets to be sort of softer and smiling and kind.

Steve:

He really shines.

Steve:

He really just, he is very engaging when he does that.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

So the whole Gettysburg address thing, I thought it was a cute, I thought

Steve:

it was stupid that it's like, you gotta distract me to keep me from him.

Steve:

But the means that they went about it I thought was adorable.

Steve:

That's right.

Steve:

You know,

Alice:

he, he does well when he gets to be like the cute, sweet, funny, kind friend.

Alice:

But when he has to be like,

Speaker:

yes, we need the burning to

Alice:

chuck it harder.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Yeah.

Leif:

Julia finds Serena and Nate and continues her innocent helper act.

Leif:

Nate doesn't necessarily see through it, but he is still bitter about the breakup.

Leif:

So Serena asked him to give her and Julia a minute to talk.

Leif:

When Nate walks away, Juliet begs Serena to point out the professor

Leif:

before Serena can smell the beans.

Leif:

Eleanor bustles up and drafts Juliet into cater waiter service.

Leif:

I love that Eleanor can

Steve:

just smell the PO on someone and be like, oh, you must be help.

Steve:

Go do something.

Steve:

Yeah, she does it to Dan all the time.

Steve:

It's just like, oh, you helped out in an event.

Leif:

Go fix the catering tray.

Leif:

Now, is this foreshadowing of a Dan and Juliette romance?

Steve:

Oh,

Leif:

um,

Steve:

I don't know.

Steve:

I mean, Juliet has hung around for a while now, longer than any of the previous.

Steve:

This is episode seven for Juliet.

Steve:

A lot of these type of roles are only three episodes.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

Three, maybe four.

Steve:

So she's already on a pretty long story arc. I does she become full cast?

Steve:

I don't know if I want you to answer that, but just seeing

Steve:

that's an interesting take.

Steve:

I'm still waiting for the Blair Dan thing to happen.

Steve:

I know it has to.

Steve:

They've got the charisma.

Steve:

Juliet.

Steve:

Juliet, wait your turn.

Leif:

Blair finds Serena and still doesn't want to hear about Collins.

Leif:

She also rightfully doesn't trust Juliet.

Leif:

However, Blair is not in the mood to protect Serena from herself, so

Leif:

she decides to go rub elbows with Pulitzer Prize winning novelists.

Leif:

Jonathan Franzen, again,

Steve:

it was just one of those Blair moments.

Steve:

You know, if I, if I wanted to hear this, I'd just go talk to, to Jonathan Franzen.

Steve:

In fact and just just turns and walks off her one-liners in this episode.

Steve:

She just drops them so heavy and I had several laugh out loud

Steve:

moments based on on Blair and Dan.

Steve:

In this episode,

Leif:

Dan is surprised to see Rufuss, Lily and Eric at the

Leif:

party and suggest they go home to celebrate on paper plates as planned.

Leif:

Eric didn't think he needed to warn Dan about the parents because he

Leif:

didn't think Dan would ignore his advice to go through with the plan.

Leif:

Whoops.

Steve:

Of course

Leif:

he did, Eric.

Steve:

He had his

Leif:

skiing face on.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

And again these Joe Goldberg moments where, where he's like trying to

Steve:

like usher them out and it just felt so much like I did it for you.

Steve:

The facial expressions.

Leif:

It just brought me right into that.

Leif:

Mm-hmm.

Leif:

So good.

Leif:

Chuck and Blair come face to face and disagree on the room temperature.

Leif:

Chuck is suspicious on why Blair knew about Jack's whereabouts,

Steve:

this little monkey wrench that gets thrown in here, which it's what?

Steve:

Here's the thing I love about it.

Steve:

Dan's whole goal is to tear these two apart and he had does all of this

Steve:

scheming and all of this research and calling these people when ultimately.

Steve:

Just his one-off wine about Jack is the thing that does it.

Steve:

That none of his scheming matters.

Steve:

He just throws something out there that just stuck and he didn't even know.

Leif:

Nate and Serena are engaging in another awkward cameo

Leif:

with designer Cynthia Rawley.

Leif:

Nate acts as a terrific buffer for Serena and distracts her from Colin by getting

Leif:

her to recite the Gettysburg address.

Leif:

After that, Nate passes his chaperone duties onto Lillian Rufuss.

Steve:

Okay, so I was, I had my scenes mixed up.

Steve:

This is the Gettysburg address scene.

Steve:

Again, everything I said earlier is still true.

Leif:

Nate finds Colin and assumes that he is Ben.

Leif:

When Colin says he isn't, Nate gives a brief explanation on

Leif:

why he thought he was Ben.

Leif:

When Nate walks away, Colin Grimaces for the Camerara,

Steve:

and this is the moment where you get that they're not.

Steve:

In on it.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

The, the Colin isn't in on it.

:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

So I did, I liked that.

Steve:

I kind of hated that he wasn't in on it.

Steve:

I hated that it was a coincidence, not just because it made me wrong

Steve:

last week, but because I felt like it would've been better, a better story.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

But I can't

Leif:

hold every episode like that.

Leif:

So a waiter hand Serena a napkin with a note from Colin to meet

Leif:

upstairs in five minutes, she excuses herself to the restroom.

Leif:

Rufuss and Lily, as usual, are oblivious.

Leif:

The

Steve:

thing that grosses me out so much about Colin is how much he's

Steve:

not listening to Serena saying.

Steve:

Not for another six weeks.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

He's not accepting that.

Steve:

He's constantly trying to push these boundaries.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

And again, with a relative child to where he is in his life and now

Steve:

manipulating this college girl, and I don't know if manipulating

Steve:

is the right word, maybe it is.

Steve:

But for her to be saying, we need to not do this until six weeks.

Steve:

We need to push this off.

Steve:

I need to get through this.

Steve:

And him to be like, meet me upstairs.

Steve:

It's like you're not listening to her.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

You're not listening

Leif:

to what she wants.

Leif:

Blair pulls Nate into the kitchen so they can grab a drink.

:

Yeah.

Leif:

And then Colin is also pulling Juliette into the kitchen and

Leif:

confronts her about still seeing Ben.

Leif:

And Juliette begs to talk about it later because she doesn't

Leif:

want people to see them together.

Leif:

Blair and Nate see the argument from outside the kitchen door

Leif:

and assume they are dating.

Leif:

Nate is surprised to learn that the guy is also the one Serena has

Leif:

been talking to about Surprise.

Leif:

Surprise.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Surprise.

:

Surprise.

Leif:

As is tradition, 90% of the drama in teen dramas is

Leif:

caused by poor communication

Steve:

lessons we've learned from three's company.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Toss in miscommunication.

Steve:

A misunderstanding.

Steve:

Fall over a couch.

Leif:

You got tv.

Speaker:

Yes.

Leif:

Blair goes to warn Serena about Colin and Juliet.

Leif:

While Nate goes to confront Juliet.

Leif:

Juliet denies dating Colin because they are cousins.

Leif:

Nate also shocks Juliet by revealing that Colin is the professor Serena is hot for.

Leif:

Yeah.

Steve:

Gross.

Steve:

But also, once again, you get this whole Nate and and Colin interaction and just

Steve:

more information coming out that opens this whole thing up a little more.

Leif:

Darda gives a beautiful toast for Blair's birthday when she is done.

Leif:

Rita from Interscope shows up to introduce the recording artist

Leif:

Robin, who is here to toast or rather roast Blair for her birthday.

Leif:

Dan, Eric, Eleanor Blair Deda, and the whole party watching horror as they

Leif:

play a video of a clearly drunk Blair singing Stand by your man with Chuck

Leif:

trying to pull her off the stage.

Leif:

Blair rushes the podium and in the process.

Leif:

Bumps into a waiter who knocks over Rachel.

Leif:

Zoe all seems to be, uh, fine until she uses a nearby table to help herself up

Leif:

knocking a chocolate fondue pot over and spilling its contents all over her head.

Leif:

Blair sees Chuck and assumes he is responsible.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Not going on.

Leif:

Yes.

Steve:

And this is the big stunt.

Steve:

Yes.

Steve:

Yes.

Alice:

Yes.

Alice:

Um, so right when they start playing the movie, I, I, I have a line in there, guys.

Alice:

Don't skip over it.

Alice:

And when I saw it, I was like, oh, my GI said that my line is well, 'cause um,

Alice:

Amanda Penelope says like, what is it?

Alice:

A, I don't know, something negative or embarrassing.

Alice:

And then I say, an, an Yuki snuff film.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Right.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Alice:

And then when I watched it I was like, oh my God.

Alice:

Like I said, that's so dark.

Alice:

Like it's really dark.

Alice:

Like what?

Steve:

That's, that's exactly what I thought too is like, wow,

Alice:

that, like, that's a big jump up from, you know, from a sex tape.

Steve:

Yeah.

Alice:

Yes.

Alice:

Like a, like a rape murder video.

Alice:

I'm like, oh God.

Alice:

Like why did I say that with a smile on my face?

Alice:

Like,

Leif:

also, I don't, I don't think your character's ever met Nel Yuki either.

Alice:

My character had never met Nel Yuki.

Alice:

I never shot with her until like, the very, very end.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

So.

Alice:

I don't know.

Steve:

But even then, Nelly, Yuki was in enough gossip.

Steve:

Girl blasts.

Steve:

She would, she would've been in Alice's.

Steve:

Jessica periphery.

Steve:

Right.

Steve:

You know, so like, it makes sense that she would know who Nelly Yuki is.

Steve:

Yes.

Steve:

And especially Nelly Yuki, who is now at, uh, Yale, right?

Steve:

Yes.

Steve:

Right.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

Something like

Speaker:

that.

Speaker:

Yes.

Steve:

So, like, now that she's at Yale, you wouldn't be hearing from her.

Steve:

You don't know where she is.

Steve:

Maybe she's been so murdered on

Alice:

camera and I'm finally Why that would be your

Steve:

first thought.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

It's really dark, but again, maybe we can blame it on like, I had

Alice:

too much to drink at this party.

Alice:

I'm drinking that red grape juice.

Alice:

You know, so.

Alice:

Right, right.

Alice:

Maybe we can blame on that.

Alice:

But I just, I saw it and I was like shocked.

Alice:

I had no memories.

Alice:

Like a lot of this I couldn't remember doing, you know, what I

Alice:

was wearing or what I was saying.

Alice:

And so that was a shock to see.

Alice:

I was like, oh, sad.

Alice:

My kids are gonna see that one day and be like, mom,

Speaker:

what's a snow film?

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Like, I didn't write it.

Alice:

I did not write it.

Alice:

Um, but okay.

Alice:

So fun fact about Leighton.

Alice:

She is a great singer.

Alice:

Well, you might already know that 'cause she has albums out, but she

Alice:

also loves karaoke and loves like eighties country, seventies, eighties,

Alice:

a little bit nineties country.

Alice:

Uh, like we go out, we do karaoke a lot.

Alice:

We just love like funny old karaoke.

Alice:

And so I'm, I know that like this was probably her choice

Alice:

to do stand by Yourman.

Alice:

She sings it really well, actually.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

And so like, Leighton as a person would not be embarrassed by that video.

Alice:

Like it's a great, like, what is wrong with this video?

Alice:

Like, why are we embarrassed in this video?

Alice:

I mean, I guess she's supposed to be kind of like tipsy, but still

Alice:

like, I feel like Blair's character could just like, own it also.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

So anyway, that, that like confused me as to why that was such a embarrassing thing.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

One, maybe because I know her so well, I know that she probably loves shooting

Alice:

that scene and she like for fun.

Alice:

Does old country karaoke?

:

Yeah.

:

Anyway,

Alice:

it was just like, why is everyone so, why is everyone

Alice:

freaking out about this?

Steve:

Which is my reaction.

Leif:

The one thought that I did have was that it was just the fact

Leif:

that she was so in love with Chuck and she doesn't like to admit that.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

And people see in the video

Alice:

though, is he like in the video or is it just her?

Leif:

Yeah, he's she's singing to him.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

And he, and he tries to pull, pour off the stage and stuff.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Okay, okay.

Leif:

Okay.

Leif:

So

Alice:

embarrassed by that.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

I'm like, 'cause Layton would Yeah.

Alice:

Stand by this video.

Alice:

Like she stands by her man.

Alice:

For sure.

Steve:

Well, well, and it, it's funny because I, that's the sense

Steve:

I get from offscreen Layton from everything that I've mm-hmm.

Steve:

Seen about her.

Steve:

That, that it's, that she is so much more free going and so much more,

Steve:

so much less uptight than Blair is.

Alice:

Oh yeah.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Yeah, absolutely.

Alice:

We like to just get like private karaoke rooms and sing old

Alice:

country and she's just lost.

Alice:

Anyway.

Steve:

Anyway.

Steve:

Well bring us along 'cause I love karaoke.

Steve:

Okay, great.

Alice:

Yeah, for sure.

Alice:

Okay, can we talk about the Rachel Zoe fall?

Alice:

Yeah, go for it.

Alice:

Yes,

Speaker:

please.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

So I think they meant originally to, to actually show her falling and they

Alice:

put like a gymnastics mat out and there were some like handlers ready to

Alice:

facilitate the fall, but like it did not go well the first time they shot it.

Alice:

Like she, it just did not like something and she was not happy about

Alice:

having to repeat doing that, you know?

Alice:

Um, so they were kinda like, I guess we could just shoot, this is what I think

Alice:

they did because I saw the fall and then I saw that they scrapped shooting

Alice:

it from that angle and they pulled up the gymnastics mat and then they just

Alice:

shot it to where she's already down.

Alice:

Like they don't show her falling.

Alice:

Right.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

The camera cuts away and it comes back and she's just.

Alice:

So I just was like, oh, yeah, yeah.

Alice:

That was a whole thing.

Alice:

Because the falling was like more than they could ask of her,

Alice:

I think, to do multiple times.

Alice:

Right.

Alice:

So then they were like, fine, just lay on the floor.

Steve:

Well, and then of course you only have one take to get the, the

Alice:

chocolate.

Alice:

Exactly.

Alice:

Chocolate.

Alice:

That's right.

Alice:

They're like, everyone quiet the star one.

Alice:

You know, like for sure.

Alice:

That was a one take situation.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

She did well, but I, but the, the I die thing, I'd totally forgotten.

Alice:

That was a thing.

Alice:

Remember I die.

Alice:

That was like her,

Speaker:

yeah.

Alice:

That was like her, her motto.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

That people used to say.

Alice:

But I was actually like, you know what, I'm glad to know that like these

Alice:

phrases can come and go, because I totally forgot that phrase existed.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

And it gives me hope for some of the phrases I hear my kids saying now.

Alice:

I'm like, okay, this will go away.

Alice:

Like the six, seven.

Alice:

Like, there's so, I mean, there's so much that they say that I'm

Alice:

like, but maybe it'll go away.

Steve:

The number of times my kids had to stop a sentence to explain

Steve:

whatever they just said to me.

Steve:

My, my kids are all 18 and up.

Steve:

Okay.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Okay.

Steve:

So you be, but yeah, I've, I've been through It does pass.

Steve:

I will promise you.

Alice:

Right.

Alice:

The I die, the eye die thing was big and then it was gone.

Leif:

And we get into Act five.

Leif:

Robin is performing at Blair's party.

Leif:

Blair finds Rita and when she tells Blair that she was invited and told it

Leif:

was a roast, Blair of course assumes that the, he that invited her was Chuck.

Leif:

Fair

Steve:

assumption.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Except for the truce.

Leif:

Serena's waiting for Colin in our bedroom.

Leif:

When he arrives, they accuse each other of trying to make the other jealous.

Leif:

Tension is so thick, you can cut it as they already begin

Leif:

to make excuses not to wait.

Leif:

You guys couldn't make

Steve:

it through a night, one night at the same location.

Steve:

Yeah.

Alice:

She was really going for our, I wrote down like, sex pot, eyes are cringe.

Alice:

Like I felt I wrote, but it was just like, it was so like, I mean, it's so intense.

Alice:

She's working so hard to be like, I, I can't, I cannot breathe

Alice:

without making out with you.

Alice:

You know?

Alice:

And it's like we we're all kind of like.

Alice:

We don't wanna see this.

Alice:

Right?

Alice:

I don't know.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Personally, that's me.

Alice:

I didn't wanna see it.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

And I'm just glad she didn't have any strawberries or anything in the

Steve:

scene because we, we often talk about how she'll just lick the whatever.

Steve:

She's like a glass or a strawberry or a, it's Serena flirting

Steve:

is always so like, it's so,

Speaker:

it's a lot.

Steve:

It's a lot.

Steve:

And it's like, there's those times when it's cute 'cause she's doing it with

Steve:

Dan or Nate, but then it's like this college professor, it's like, oh, gross.

Steve:

It's gross.

Steve:

Yeah.

Leif:

Blair find Chuck chatting with Nate and accuses him of releasing the video.

Leif:

Chuck denies it.

Leif:

Blair a bitchy knew about Jack's location because she was

Leif:

searching for info on Chuck.

Leif:

Dan steps up and readily admits that he did it.

Leif:

Because Jenny doesn't feel safe to come home even for her parents' anniversary.

Leif:

Nate figures out that Dan went behind his back and says that Dan

Leif:

did this outta revenge, not justice.

Leif:

Rufus overhears the conversation and is disappointed Dan has

Leif:

become just like the rest of them.

Alice:

Mm, mm-hmm.

Leif:

Yeah, I

Alice:

wrote that down.

Alice:

I'm sorry.

Alice:

You became one of them.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Yeah.

Leif:

That old Rufus burn from Rufuss.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Rufuss disappointed

Steve:

dad, which he doesn't do often.

Steve:

And there's a couple things that I liked about this.

Steve:

For one, once again, you get the Joe Goldberg side of Dan popping out.

Steve:

'cause he is more and more trying to justify what he does.

Steve:

He's like, I'm not sorry.

Steve:

And then Rufus like, well I am So after the Rufuss says that and

Steve:

they're leaving and, and he says like, you become one of them.

Steve:

The look on Lily's face.

Steve:

Is not one of disappointment.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

It is not one of shame.

Steve:

It's one of like, eh, it's gonna happen eventually.

Steve:

Like, he's like, like, ha ha.

Steve:

Like she, she seemed almost gratified that Dan had fallen to their level.

Steve:

Like I, which I feel is what Lily would do.

Steve:

I don't think Lily would be mad.

Steve:

Oh yeah.

Steve:

I think Lily would be a little bit like, well, that's my stepson.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

It goes back to season one where she was totally into Bart spying on her.

:

Yes.

:

Yeah.

Leif:

Juliette calls Ben and reveals that their cousin, Colin, is the

Leif:

professor that Cerrito has a crush on.

Leif:

It appears Colin is in the dark about Ben and Juliet's plan.

Leif:

Juliette doesn't want to risk losing Colin's financial support and wants to

Leif:

back out, but Ben pushes her forward.

Steve:

Ben, I get it.

Steve:

You're in jail, but now you're trying, you're, you're gonna ruin your sister's

Steve:

life just to ruin this person's life that you're not going to ruin.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

You can get her kicked outta Columbia and get your cousin fired, but like,

Steve:

oh no, I'm kicked outta Columbia.

Steve:

I guess I'll just go to Yale now, or Brown, or anywhere else that I want to

Steve:

go to or not do anything and just sit here being super rich or take classes

Steve:

at a community college, like who cares?

Alice:

So many options.

Alice:

Like

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Like, oh, Serena got kicked outta college.

Steve:

Well, now she'll never make anything of herself.

Alice:

Right, exactly.

Steve:

It's like when Billy Joel got an honorary degree from a

Steve:

university, he said, now I can finally make something of myself.

Speaker:

Oh, yeah.

Leif:

We move into the epilogue.

Leif:

Eleanor finds Blair moping post party, but managed to cheer her up a bit

Leif:

by letting her know that she got the only copy of the video from Robin.

Leif:

Blair tells her mother that she wants to be a powerful woman, but whatever Chuck is

Leif:

around, she feels like a weak little girl.

Leif:

Eleanor empathizes with her and tells her that she wasn't herself and cold

Leif:

and closed off for a long time after Harold left her until she met Cyrus.

Steve:

There's some real interesting psychology here with Blair.

Steve:

She's super embarrassed about this video and she does hear kind of

Steve:

express that she's embarrassed that these people saw her weak for.

Steve:

A man and saw this singing for him as a weakness for him

Steve:

and loving him as a weakness.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

For him, that is carried over from her mom being a very powerful woman who also

Steve:

went through this horrible breakup that she was really hurt by her first husband.

Steve:

So again, the psychology of Blair, feeling that, feeling embarrassed

Steve:

for people, seeing her show love for a man, I thought was just a

Steve:

really interesting piece to her.

Steve:

Thinking, and especially with all the emphasis.

Steve:

Emphasis this show has put on women, finding a man on Blair, finding

Steve:

a man, and Jenny, finding a man, and Blair and Chuck are broken up.

Steve:

So now I have to go find a man immediately and she's always, I gotta find a man

Steve:

right now, but I cannot sing to him.

Steve:

It's just kind of interesting.

Steve:

That's where I draw the line.

Steve:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Steve:

But no one can know that I actually care.

Leif:

Rufuss and Lily are returning home and discussing Dan Lily points out that it

Leif:

was just a silly prank video, but Rufuss is still disappointed that his son is

Leif:

turning into an Upper East side schemer.

Leif:

That is, until they see all the paper flowers, Dan put in the living

Leif:

room to celebrate their anniversary.

Steve:

I kind of love that part of this conversation is like, yeah,

Steve:

I'm just really sad that my son turned out to be like your shit kid.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Oh man.

Steve:

Now he is like Serena.

Steve:

You know that asshole that you raised?

Steve:

He's doing her shit now.

Steve:

Not you Eric.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

No.

Leif:

Fuck you.

Leif:

Fuck you, fuck you.

Leif:

You're cool.

Leif:

You're cool.

Leif:

Fuck you.

Leif:

I'm out.

Steve:

And

Leif:

there's,

Steve:

and there's also the whole like, oh wow, there's paper

Steve:

flowers all over this place.

Steve:

There's 10 minutes left in our anniversary.

Steve:

I can get this done.

Alice:

What?

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

What does new, yeah,

Leif:

I dunno.

Leif:

Dan returns to the loft to five, Vanessa.

Leif:

There, he gives her the cliff notes version of the episode.

Leif:

They reaffirmed their friendship, but are interrupted by a call from Rufuss.

Steve:

I found it interesting to bring Vanessa in just for.

Steve:

The end of this episode.

Steve:

That, so the past episode, she was just mentioned, only talked about,

Steve:

and in this episode she's mentioned and talked about a little bit, but we

Steve:

don't see her until this one scene.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

So I thought that was interesting.

Steve:

It was almost like the writer was like, oh shit, Vanessa.

Steve:

Oh, we have her on call that day too.

Steve:

I shouldn't, yes.

Steve:

I shouldn't put a scene in for her.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

And she says, um, we just need rest and a good dose of Brooklyn.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

That's just, it's just, that's so bad.

Alice:

I need a good dose.

Alice:

We just need a good dose of Brooklyn.

Alice:

That's what we need.

Alice:

Me and you get back to our roots in a super expensive.

Alice:

Dumbo, you know?

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

It's like city facing loft.

Leif:

2 million, $2 million

Alice:

loft goes to that.

Alice:

That'll, that'll bring us back down to earth, you know?

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

We, we talk about that a lot.

Steve:

About the poor Brooklyn people living in like a $2 million loft more and Yeah.

Steve:

Yeah, exactly.

Steve:

For sure.

Steve:

And, and, and Vanessa, whose mom was this very successful

Steve:

singer who traveled the world and

Steve:

them both being musicians and all of that, that, you know, oh, just a

Steve:

poor rockstar living off of all these

Leif:

royalties.

Leif:

Serita is saying goodbye to Colin and says it's going to be a long six week wait.

Leif:

But then she leans in and kisses him.

Leif:

The shot pans out and we see a hidden camera recording the scene,

Steve:

Serena you, and you go all the way to his house and then you're

Steve:

like, you know what, nevermind.

Steve:

And here he's like, cool.

Steve:

Which my comments earlier about him not respecting the boundaries frustrating.

Steve:

But here he does respect it here, he says, okay.

Steve:

Which there's a tendency for men to be in that situation and say, oh, well, you

Steve:

know, you, you brought me all this way.

Steve:

You came all the way out here.

Steve:

You're leading me on, you're, you know, and, and Colin's not doing that.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

You know, he's not doing those toxic men things.

Steve:

He is doing that toxic male thing of trying to.

Steve:

Seduce a 20-year-old when he is a 30 something college professor.

Steve:

Besides that, but I do, I do credit him here for not doing the shit that many

Steve:

men would do and try to lay that on her and guilt her and manipulate her further.

Steve:

So that's the one plus that

Leif:

I have.

Speaker:

Here we go.

Leif:

I, I'll just say that his game is just so strong that he

Leif:

knows that it's covered anyways.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Well he's just the slow game.

Steve:

Master

Steve:

it.

Steve:

It's the reverse psychology.

Steve:

He's using it right there.

Steve:

No, I get it.

Steve:

You wanna take a break?

Steve:

We'll slow down.

Steve:

No problem.

Steve:

Serena,

Speaker:

see,

Steve:

uh, this little thing I invented,

Leif:

Julia is back in stalker mode, standing outside of Collins

Leif:

window with a cold, hard stare.

Leif:

It's so dramatic.

Leif:

Yeah.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Okay.

Steve:

And, and, and just

Leif:

standing there out in the open.

Leif:

Like if, if you had the camera, why either, why do you need

Leif:

to be staring there too?

Leif:

Standing there too.

Steve:

And if either one of them decided to close the curtains,

Steve:

like you're right there.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Like just standing at the, why is Juliet standing outside of your

Steve:

front door staring up at this window?

Steve:

Longingly.

Alice:

So she's mostly just mad that he's her cousin and he's getting involved

Alice:

with the girl that she thinks like took down her family or something like that.

Alice:

That's her, like her biggest,

Leif:

we, we haven't quite figured out exactly what, but somehow Serena

Leif:

is responsible for Ben being in jail.

Alice:

I see.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

Okay.

Steve:

I really feel that that look was confliction.

Steve:

Like she's conflicted on, she doesn't wanna get her cousin involved to

Steve:

take down Serena, but now she's doing it anyway and getting the dirt

Steve:

on them to get Serena kicked out.

Steve:

And it's so funny 'cause like I don't think Serena would get kicked out.

:

Hmm.

:

Like

Steve:

I, I'm sure in the gossip girl universe, she would, but I feel like

Steve:

in a university, if you're caught with a professor, they'll get fired and

Steve:

you'll get some kind of reprimand.

Steve:

But I don't think you're gonna get expelled for sleeping with a professor.

Steve:

I think you could sue a school.

Alice:

I'm not get paid off to not say anything.

Leif:

I feel like it comes back to the last episode where the dean has

Leif:

already and the pre previous episodes of season Dean's already watching Serena.

Leif:

Right.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

See, I got my eye on you, Serena.

:

Yeah.

Leif:

Blair is walking around her apartment, shutting off the lights,

Leif:

presumably ready to turn in for the night.

Leif:

She finds Chuck waiting silently by the piano.

Leif:

They both agree to tear up the treaty and compete over adjectives to describe

Leif:

each other's hate For the other, we get some filters that are very Ted of their

Leif:

first time in the limo as Chuck proceeds to throw Blair on top of the piano

Leif:

and pleasure her with his belly button

Leif:

because that piano is way too high for him to do anything.

Leif:

Yeah, I did

Alice:

not, I did not like watching that.

Alice:

I, he, he looks very violent.

:

Yeah.

:

Yeah.

Alice:

Just, I'm like, no, that's late.

Alice:

And like, don't hurt her.

Alice:

I don't know.

Alice:

I thought it was awkward.

Alice:

Thought it was very cringe.

Alice:

I, it was hard to watch that.

Steve:

Didn't like it.

Steve:

My big takeaway from this scene has absolutely nothing to do

Steve:

with Gossip Girl whatsoever.

Steve:

I'm a huge Philadelphia Phillies fan, and in 2022 when they had their World Series

Steve:

run the Clubhouse song, and when it, when they'd win, you would hear, oh, what is

:

it?

:

What is it?

Steve:

Dancing On My Own the, or is that what it's called?

Steve:

The

:

I'm dancing?

:

Yeah, Robin.

:

Robin like covered it, right?

:

Yeah,

Steve:

right.

Steve:

It was the co Yeah, it was the, the cover version with the man singing it.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

But that just blew up.

Steve:

And so I'm sitting there like, I know this song.

Steve:

It's like, oh, that's great.

Steve:

It's a cover, like the, this is the original.

Steve:

And so for, so I'm all excited, not because.

Steve:

Blair and Chuck are involved because I was annoyed at them.

Steve:

At this point, I'm like, oh my God, really?

Steve:

Are we doing this?

Steve:

Uh, because you see it when they come in and they start arguing, and

Steve:

we're gonna tear this truce apart and we're gonna, there's no more of it.

Steve:

And they rip it up and it's like, I wonder how this scene's gonna end.

Steve:

I, I bet they're definitely gonna go their separate ways.

Steve:

Um, and so when it actually starts happening, then I'm just distracted

Steve:

because I'm like, go fills.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

The way they shot it, like a, like, it was like machine gun.

Alice:

Like, yeah.

Alice:

Like I just, I didn't like it.

Alice:

Didn't like

Leif:

No.

Leif:

Very awkward.

Leif:

A gossip girl ends the episode with this quote.

Leif:

At the end of every war, the Warriors come home hoping what they've seen

Leif:

and done won't stay with them forever.

Leif:

Buddha once said, it's better to conquer yourself than win a thousand battles.

Leif:

But other soldiers can't give up the fight and go underground to plan the next war.

Leif:

But it's the true warrior who knows that wars don't end.

Leif:

They simply change.

Leif:

And there can never be a piece as long as guns are still loaded

Leif:

and there's plenty of ammunition, these weapons might be deadly.

Leif:

Xo, xo, gossip Girl.

Alice:

Wait, Kristen Bell says all of that.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Well it's laid over on, yeah, like the last few scenes.

Alice:

Oh, okay.

Leif:

Okay.

Leif:

So that's, yeah.

Leif:

So that is our episode.

Leif:

Steve, what is coming next?

Leif:

Serena

Steve:

and Cullen are not gonna be able to, I, I know we see Serena walk

Steve:

out at the end, and that nothing more than a kiss seems to happen, but that

Steve:

we're not shooting six weeks earlier.

Steve:

At this point, I don't think, are we.

Steve:

Episode seven?

Steve:

Well, I don't know.

Steve:

We might actually, but I don't, I, there's definitely, that's gonna build more.

Steve:

I think that Dan and Nate are gonna be in a rough patch now.

Steve:

My favorite friends on this show are now gonna be kind of against each other for

Steve:

a bit, and now we have to put up with more of the Chuck and Blair of it all,

Steve:

which I'm kind of over it at this point.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

I, I saw it coming and knew this was going to happen, but kind of wanted them to

Steve:

just be on their own for a little while.

Steve:

I want to see them be on their own and not just, just give me like a three episode

Steve:

arc where they don't fuck with each other.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

But we'll see.

Steve:

But, uh, we're back with that again.

Steve:

So outside of that though, yeah, I'm not really, oh, and I'm thinking

Steve:

that there might be something else between dad and Vanessa.

Steve:

I hope they just end up as friends, but I feel like that could

Steve:

bubble up again at some point.

Steve:

Those are my big ones.

Steve:

And that, uh, Blair's minions are gonna continue to just shine

Steve:

and seam steel whenever they're

Alice:

Yeah, whenever they come on.

Alice:

You predict that I take over everything?

Alice:

Where's that

Speaker:

prediction?

Alice:

No, we're, we're just, you know, we, we kind of continue

Alice:

as is for a while, but hey.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Some fun stuff.

Alice:

Yeah.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

And predict that Alice is gossip girl.

Leif:

No.

Leif:

Yes.

Speaker:

I wish.

Leif:

Well, let's jump into some segments this week in fandom, we

Leif:

traveled with the way back machine to the fan forums from 2010.

:

Hello there.

:

Peabody here, and this is the way back machine.

:

We're traveling through time and this is my boy chairman speak.

:

Chairman.

:

Hello.

:

Good boy.

Leif:

And overall they thought this was a fun episode.

Steve:

Yeah, it was fun.

Steve:

I'd say it was more fun than good.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

If that mm-hmm.

Steve:

If that makes sense.

Steve:

Yeah.

Alice:

I think like Thera Rachel Zoe with the chocolate tells you what

Alice:

you need to know about this episode.

Alice:

Yes.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Yeah.

:

Very well.

:

Like Walter,

Alice:

well shot.

Alice:

You didn't, the whole thing was kind like how didd she get on the floor.

Alice:

We didn't see that, but it, you had a good time watching it.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

:

Yeah.

Alice:

Um, and that was like, I mean, she was hot back then, like she, I mean

Alice:

she had like a reality show, I guess.

Leif:

Yeah, I believe so.

Alice:

Well, she's a designer and maybe she had a reality

Leif:

show and she was, she, her basically was, she was a celebrity stylist.

Leif:

She worked with, I think.

Leif:

Okay.

Leif:

Uh, like, uh, wit Lohan, Nicole Richie.

Leif:

That's

Alice:

right, that's right.

Alice:

Okay.

Leif:

Um, and a couple other people, Misha Barton from the oc.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

Of course.

Alice:

So roping her in and getting a few other Cynthia Rowley and Yeah.

Alice:

Um, Robert, it's always just funny when they pull in people that like, oh yeah,

Alice:

that's what we were doing back then.

Alice:

Like that, you know?

Leif:

Yeah.

Alice:

That was fun to watch.

Leif:

They enjoyed the Dan and Eric stuff.

Steve:

Yeah, I did too.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

I liked seeing them paired up.

Leif:

Yeah.

Steve:

I don't think we've ever really seen that before,

Steve:

so I did like that pairing.

Leif:

Many seem to think that the Nate and Serena stuff was unrealistic

Leif:

'cause they never really made up.

Steve:

Oh yeah.

Steve:

He did kind of leave off mad at her still, but then Julia breaks up with him.

Steve:

I don't know.

Steve:

I feel like it, it, the two golden retrievers are always

Steve:

going to circle around each other.

Steve:

Like I, I, yeah.

Steve:

I don't feel like anything was out of place for that.

Alice:

That's right.

Alice:

And we, we just love Nate's eyebrows, just eyebrow eyes, just the whole thing.

Alice:

We'll just, we'll just keep looking at

Leif:

that.

Leif:

Oh, cutie Nate.

Leif:

While some of the diehard share fans liked the, the sexting and a lot of people

Leif:

also noticed that it was a bit awkward.

Leif:

Yeah.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Just like, ed, you're like, Ooh, like, are you okay?

Alice:

You just, just anger and aggression.

Alice:

You know what I mean?

Alice:

It's just like,

:

yeah.

Alice:

I don't know.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

A lot of back and forth between the Brooklyn fans and the Upper East Side

Leif:

fans that scans starting to get a bit bored with the Juliet Ben stuff.

Leif:

Yeah, yeah.

Leif:

Kind of drag it on.

Alice:

There's only so many like calls to prison.

Steve:

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Steve:

Like and, and only so many like, well, we must bring her down.

Steve:

Like do it already.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Leif:

And more calling out of Co Serena Collin just being

Leif:

a retread of Serena trip.

Leif:

Yep.

Speaker:

Right, right.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Leif:

And a few people randomly decided to talk about missing Bart.

Speaker:

Okay.

Leif:

They would've liked to see if Lily stayed with Bart and

Leif:

he had more separation between Brooklyn and Upper East Side.

Leif:

Oh, wow.

Leif:

And finally what's the deal with all the plaid?

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Eric and and Dan were wearing matching plaid.

Leif:

This this episode, I think last episode he had dad and Nate wearing matching plaid.

Leif:

Okay.

Leif:

So it is definitely that era for the, the hipster era for guys in New York.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

Oh yeah.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Absolutely.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

All the wardrobe stuff is just funny to see.

Alice:

Like the outfit they have me in for that, the party with the Blair's birthday party.

Alice:

It's like a pur purple, motif purple, big purple bubble necklace, purple.

Alice:

It looked uncomfortable.

Alice:

Headband.

Alice:

What's that?

Alice:

It looked

Leif:

uncomfortable.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

I mean, it was tight.

Alice:

It was tight for sure.

Alice:

Um, but it just, yeah, all of it, like they always had us like in coordinating,

Alice:

matching over the top accessories and, um, just funny to look back at

Alice:

it and remember putting on that stuff.

Alice:

Like there was just never an, it was just like layer upon layer,

Alice:

like the previous episode too.

Alice:

When we're at the boom, boom room mm-hmm.

Alice:

It's like we're all wearing like 20 necklaces.

Alice:

The hair is like twisted up in these, in this big knot.

Alice:

It's just, it's so extravagant and so silly.

Alice:

It was fun to watch.

Alice:

Um, but that, that boom boom room scene was funny.

Alice:

I, I guess she talked about Ivanka and Jared last.

Alice:

Yes.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

It was a little hard for them to, to do their lines.

Alice:

Um, but they got through it, you know, they got through it and of course, at the

Alice:

time it was just like, oh, the novelty.

Alice:

This is, you know.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Ivanka Trump.

Alice:

This is Donald Trump's daughter.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

And, you know, and when we were shooting this scene, when we were shooting that

Alice:

scene and I got to, you know, whatever, see them there, I would never have

Alice:

imagined what would end up happening.

Alice:

Yeah,

:

yeah.

Alice:

With the Trump family, you know what I mean?

Alice:

Like, I, I mean, 'cause like that was like a fun gig to them back then.

Alice:

They're like, yeah, we'll do this Gossip Girl up.

Alice:

Or so like, they like wanted to be on, I mean, I assume they

Alice:

like, wanted to be on this show.

Alice:

So they took, you know, that like a few lines each, and there they

Alice:

were, he was supposed to be the most eligible bachelor or something.

Alice:

Which like really?

Alice:

I dunno, like are you sure?

Alice:

Um, but anyway, that, that was like a job they were like

Alice:

down to do, you know, in 2010.

:

Yeah.

:

And

Alice:

things changed

:

indeed,

Alice:

but it was just funny to see them pop on the screen.

Alice:

So I'd forgotten about that.

Alice:

And the whole boom boom room thing was like, that was such a

Alice:

cool place to be at that time.

Alice:

And the line to get in at night was so long and it was just,

Alice:

it was so fun to film there.

Alice:

They had us like staying in rooms while we were waiting and anyway, it

Alice:

was just like, but we, it was like a morning shoot, it was like 7:00 AM

Alice:

when we were shooting that whole thing.

Alice:

I'm like, is it kind of weird that like some of these nighttime scenes

Alice:

are brought like daylight coming in from the windows and Anyway,

Alice:

Hey, you don't question it though.

Alice:

You don't question the magic.

Alice:

You could have a dinner, you know, at middle of the day with them.

Alice:

But anyway.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Moving into episode grades.

Leif:

Steve, why don't you go first?

Steve:

It's funny, I kind of toyed with this one a bit because there are those

Steve:

writing things that I thought were kind of things like the tape being a weak surprise

Steve:

and things like some of the weird little things that took place in the episode.

Steve:

But ultimately, I had fun and laughed out loud enough that I gave it a solid B.

Leif:

Alice, how about you?

Alice:

Oh, okay.

Alice:

So it's not one to 10, it's like a, it's like a grading scale of Yeah.

:

Letter

Alice:

grade.

Alice:

A, B, C, D, F. I see.

:

Yeah.

:

Yeah.

Alice:

Um, I don't really know how to, I don't really know how to grade

Alice:

it, but I'm gonna say a b also.

Alice:

Like it wasn't the best episode that I saw or did, but I had a great time doing it.

Alice:

So it's through my filter of, of myself too.

Alice:

And I, what I liked about this is that I got to have that line

Alice:

with the um, Dean and with.

Alice:

Leighton, normally I'm like part of a set, you know?

:

Mm-hmm.

:

Yeah.

Alice:

All three of us.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

And so I kind of just get like one word or line or something, but that was a

Alice:

special scene for me because I got to like step out from the group for a moment

Alice:

and like have a, have little interaction

Leif:

one.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

One-on-one.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

So I

Alice:

had a, that was really fun for me.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Um, so

Leif:

yeah.

Leif:

Well I agree.

Leif:

It was a fun episode.

Leif:

It was solidly above average.

Leif:

Uh, so I guess we're all in the handholding club and I'm

Leif:

gonna give it a b as well.

Alice:

Alright.

Alice:

Maybe if, maybe if it weren't for the, um, professor Blake situation and weren't

Alice:

for the like scary piano sex section, we could maybe have given it better.

Alice:

Yeah, yeah,

Steve:

yeah.

Steve:

There were a couple places that could

Leif:

have gotten

Steve:

it a bump, but

Leif:

solidly above average.

Leif:

Not, not great.

Leif:

Moving over to Stockwatch Steve, who do you have going up?

Leif:

There's not a lot really going up here.

Steve:

Uh, yeah, I, I'll, I'll have Rufuss and Lily going up for having a, for

Steve:

finally doing the thing that I want them to do on this show more than anything.

Steve:

So I'll, I'll send them up.

Steve:

I'll have Eric going up for being the bigger person and

Steve:

deciding not to get involved.

Steve:

I'll have Colin going up because he's getting what he wants

Steve:

out of his relationship with Serena, and I believe that's it.

Steve:

I think most of the folks, most everyone else I think is going down.

Steve:

I'm sorry, one more.

Steve:

I'm gonna give Dar Rhoda an up because she was great at the party and wonderful

Steve:

story and stunning in that dress, so,

Alice:

oh, yeah.

Alice:

It's nice when we get to see her out of her uniform.

Alice:

Yes,

Leif:

yes.

Leif:

I love it.

Leif:

Alice, who do you have going up?

Alice:

Um, well, I haven't, okay.

Alice:

I haven't watched any other episodes besides these two.

Alice:

So, I dunno if I, well, I mean, I, except for when we

Alice:

did it, so I don't really know.

Alice:

Completely subjective.

Alice:

I remember what happened before and what happened after.

Alice:

Um, but, uh,

Leif:

who, who did you enjoy in the episode?

Alice:

Who, oh, who did I enjoy watching?

Leif:

Yeah.

Alice:

Um, I, I'm like, I'll tell you, I didn't like watching, um, I

Alice:

didn't like watching Blake and, and Katie and Juliet, those scenes, all,

Alice:

all the scenes with the two of them.

Alice:

I was happy to when they were over, but I, I love seeing Leighton.

Alice:

I love seeing Leighton, uh, I guess flight.

Alice:

The figuring out the, um, the, the terms of the treaty was, was funny and silly and

Alice:

lots of fun call outs to like the New York restaurants that were popular at the time.

Alice:

And you, you know, I thought that was really fun.

Alice:

Um.

Alice:

Dan didn't do much for me in this episode.

Alice:

Normally, like I'm, I'm always a pin fan.

Alice:

Um, he's just great.

Alice:

But in this episode, I didn't like love what he had to do or say.

Alice:

So I guess Leighton was the star of the episode in my mind.

Alice:

And then me, of course, obviously

Leif:

all right for me.

Leif:

I actually had quite a few people going up.

Leif:

I had Nate going up because he was a good friend for Serena.

Leif:

I had Vanessa going up 'cause she was a good friend at the end for Dan.

Leif:

I had Lily going up 'cause she was just once again having

Leif:

a good time and being silly.

Leif:

I had Chuck going up because he didn't really do much bad this

Leif:

episode and he got the score with.

Leif:

The woman of his dream.

Leif:

So good for him, I guess.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

Uh, I had Eric going up 'cause Yeah, like you said, he, he backed outta the scheme

Leif:

and he didn't get his hands too dirty.

Leif:

I had Eleanor going up 'cause she was a good mother once again, Cyrus.

Leif:

'cause he got mentioned and gave the perfect gift apparently, Ben.

Leif:

'cause he was able to keep pushing his scheme forward and

Leif:

also ROA for her great speech.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

I, I actually want to add Eleanor as well.

Speaker:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

I, I and, and I would like to, after hearing you say

Steve:

it, add Cyrus as well because always because he was mentioned.

Steve:

I love Cyrus.

Steve:

Yes.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

All Steve.

Steve:

That's

Alice:

right.

Alice:

The mo Eleanor has a nice moment with, with Leighton, right.

Alice:

When she's encouraging her to, you can be strong and you can

Alice:

still, I don't know, have moments

Leif:

of

Alice:

weakness.

Alice:

You can, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Alice:

That was, that was sweet.

Steve:

Steve, who do you got going down?

Steve:

Dan right off the bat, Dan becoming an Upper East sider.

Steve:

He, he, he goes down.

Steve:

I had, I had both Blair and Chuck going down 'cause I'm over the

Steve:

Blair and Chuck of it all right now.

Steve:

I had Vanessa going down because I know she was a good friend, but I kind of

Steve:

saw it as she, you know, didn't have anywhere else to be, she doesn't have

Steve:

anywhere to live, so she's like now stuck living with her ex-boyfriend.

Steve:

So I actually had that going down and I had Serena going down because she

Steve:

can't keep it in the, in her pants.

Steve:

Oh.

Steve:

And Rachel, Zoe go going down for, uh, landing on the, for, for getting a

Steve:

bunch of chocolate dumped on her head.

Steve:

As,

Leif:

as we heard from, uh, uh, chief Wigga chocolate doesn't come out.

Alice:

Yeah, the, the, the cameos are always so funny because.

Alice:

They always have a real hard time with their lines.

Alice:

And you, we would shoot the cameo, the, the lines for the cameo

Alice:

guests so many times, you know?

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

And we were, I would just sit there being like, can I just, can I just do this line?

Alice:

Like you know, it wouldn't have worked coming from me, but it would just was

Alice:

so funny 'cause it would give us only a few take takes for our turn and then

Alice:

the celebrity gets unlimited takes and they still never really work out.

Alice:

But anyway,

Leif:

for me going down, I had Serena 'cause couldn't

Leif:

keep it in her pants Blair.

Leif:

'cause she didn't have a good episode even though it was her birthday, Colin.

Leif:

'cause he continues to just suck and Rachel, so, 'cause yeah, like you said,

Leif:

she got chocolate all over her outfit.

Leif:

But here's the best outfits from the last episode we've seen.

Leif:

Speaking of outfits, Steve, who do you have for best outfit?

Steve:

As we've said before, that this season hasn't been as

Steve:

strong, but I'm gonna give it to the one that I love giving it to.

Steve:

'cause we don't get to give it to her very often.

Steve:

And that's roa, Ana?

Alice:

Yes.

Steve:

That I, I, she had that nice blue dress.

Steve:

She had the pretty like diamond necklace that she was wearing, and

Steve:

I thought she brought it together.

Steve:

Well, and I think she's just so pretty when they let her be.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

Mm-hmm.

Steve:

You know, when they don't She is.

Steve:

And, and so I just, I, I give it to de Rhoda.

Alice:

She is, she's a beautiful person.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

She has such beautiful skin, beautiful dimples.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

Like her in normal life, you just don't even know it's the same person.

Alice:

Mm-hmm.

Alice:

And she, she like, you know, would, people would be always be surprised to see how

Alice:

young and beautiful she is in real life.

Alice:

And, I don't know, it's just, it was just so funny how, how she

Alice:

was portrayed for so many years.

Leif:

Is that who you are you, Alice, are you giving it throat as well?

Alice:

Oh well, no, I'm giving it to myself.

Alice:

Fair ly.

Leif:

There you go.

Leif:

Absolutely.

Alice:

Well, because I had told, well I, you might have to edit that because

Alice:

I already said it, but, um, I actually liked that purple outfit I wore.

Alice:

It was like kind of silly and over the top and, but it was like purple

Alice:

dress that I couldn't breathe out of.

Alice:

Purple necklace, purple headband, purple shoes, which you probably didn't see,

Alice:

but it was just like a, and then I had my purple wine, you know, my grape juice.

Alice:

And so it was just kind of fun 'cause I really got to feel like I was, you know.

Alice:

Like, and it was just such a character.

Alice:

Like just matching is just so ridiculous.

Alice:

And just, you know, I just thought it was fun.

Alice:

I liked wearing it.

Alice:

I liked having that, that little special scene.

Alice:

So, so

Leif:

for me, I'm going to give a half point to both Chuck and

Leif:

Blair for their matching outfits.

Leif:

I was gonna bring that up.

Leif:

Up.

Leif:

Mm-hmm.

Leif:

Uh, they both have the rough color and then also the silver accents.

Leif:

Uh, I believe the dress was Jay Mendel,

Steve:

which was not the dress that her mother picked out for

Steve:

her, I thought was interesting

Leif:

speak, which I also really liked Eleanor's dress, the purple one.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

Very nice.

Steve:

I, I really did like the color coordination of Chuck and Blair,

Steve:

but I didn't like the actual outfits themselves, if that makes sense.

Steve:

It was, oh, they've really, they've really paired them well together here,

Steve:

but it didn't do anything for me.

Alice:

But can I, I can get my thumbs down for bla for, um, Blake's outfit.

Alice:

The, the Ave dress.

Alice:

I'm just like, we, we've seen it too many times.

Alice:

And then of course last episode, as you mentioned, the, the big cutout.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Front

Alice:

and center, like totally classic her.

Alice:

So there you go.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Not my favorite, but yeah.

Alice:

Part of it.

Leif:

It's her.

Alice:

It's part of it.

Leif:

Well that does it for segments.

Leif:

Alice, once again, thank you so much for joining us.

Leif:

Yeah.

Leif:

We really appreci appreciate it.

Leif:

Thank for

Alice:

having me.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Thank you for having me.

Alice:

Thank you for giving me a reason to rer it.

Alice:

I had so much fun.

Alice:

And who knows, maybe I'll start actually watching it

Steve:

and then listen to the non-judging breakfast pod.

Steve:

That's right.

Steve:

You have us to listen to right along.

Steve:

Right alongside it.

Alice:

If I have something I'm dying for you to know, I will let you know.

Alice:

Like I need to tell you this about this episode.

Alice:

Yeah.

:

If we, if you hear

Leif:

any wrong, you have a very funny episode in season five.

Leif:

You have a very funny episode in season five.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

I don't wanna say it because I know that we have a, you know,

Leif:

yeah.

Leif:

Rookie.

Alice:

Rookie.

Alice:

I don't wanna say it, but I think I know what you're talking about.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

When I get to be a little more, I get to be a little bit more physical.

Leif:

Yes.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

Yeah.

Alice:

I like it.

Alice:

Little bit of competition.

Alice:

Anytime we can take up screen space,

Leif:

a little bit of competition going on.

Alice:

That's right.

Alice:

That's right.

Steve:

Yeah.

Steve:

And if you're available, we'd love to have you back for the episode too.

Steve:

Right.

Alice:

Okay.

Alice:

Awesome.

Alice:

Thank you.

Alice:

I appreciate that.

Steve:

My

Leif:

pleasure.

Leif:

Is pleasure.

Leif:

Anything you would like to plug or recommend?

Leif:

Oh,

Alice:

I wish I had something to plug in the moment.

Alice:

I, I will, I will have things to plug hopefully sometime soon.

Alice:

Not right now.

Alice:

You're

Leif:

being a mom.

Alice:

I'm being a mom, yeah.

Leif:

Steve, anything you wanna plug?

Steve:

Um, yeah, so Roxboro Porch Fest is coming up on October 11th, I believe.

Steve:

And if this is out by then, that's

Leif:

this episode that's after this.

Leif:

Is

Steve:

that, is it after this?

Steve:

Okay.

Steve:

Are in's about October 20th?

Steve:

If you are in Lockhaven this weekend, I will be playing the Fringe Festival

Steve:

in Lockhaven, uh, over the weekend of the, actually it's two weeks

Steve:

after the 11th, so it's next weekend.

Steve:

I'll be playing the Lockhaven Fringe Festival.

Steve:

I'll be playing at Hangar nine and I'll be playing at for, uh, at uh, avenue Coffee.

Steve:

So come out to Lockhaven and see those shows.

Steve:

They'll be a lot of fun.

Alice:

Awesome.

Leif:

Alright.

Leif:

Nothing from me this week, but if you wanna follow the podcast, you

Leif:

can find us on Instagram, TikTok and Threads at Non-Judging Breakfast Pod.

Leif:

You can find our links to our subreddit.

Leif:

To our Patreon and our Discord server on our website non-judging breakfast pod.com.

Steve:

And if you would like to get in touch with us and send us an

Steve:

email, we'd love to hear what you have to say and maybe even read what

Steve:

you wrote here back on the podcast.

Steve:

Our email is Non-Judging Breakfast pod@gmail.com.

Steve:

And while you're listening, if you could go ahead and hit that

Steve:

like the follow subscribe button and please leave us a comment that

Steve:

really helps us with our visibility in Apple Podcasts and on Spotify.

Steve:

And while you're at it, go ahead and let your friends know what

Steve:

you're listening to, tell them the tune into the Non-Judging Breakfast

Steve:

Pot, and maybe we can become your water cooler talk at work this week

Leif:

and we will be back next time to talk about season four, episode eight.

Leif:

Juliet doesn't live here anymore.

Leif:

The episode description reads, Chuck and Blair decide it's

Leif:

in both their best interests.

Leif:

To put the path behind them and end their vindictive games.

Leif:

Nate confronts Juliet after discovering a secret she has been keeping from everyone.

Leif:

And Nate, Dan and Nate realized they both still have feelings for Serena.

:

Yeah.

:

Oh,

Steve:

what do you know?

Steve:

Really?

Steve:

You're just now realizing.

Leif:

Well, until next time you know you love us.

:

XLXL.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me with you there.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me with you there.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me with you there.

:

Oh, it seems I'm walking right to your door.

:

My heart's still resting.

:

Looking for something more.

:

Are you ever gonna see everything you mean to me?

:

I'm trying really hard to believe.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me with you there.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me, he with you there.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me, he with you there

:

ever feels right When I'm out here on my own.

:

I left last night and it feels like way too long.

:

Are you ever going to see everything you mean to me?

:

I'm trying really hard to believe.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me with you there.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me with you there.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me with you there.

:

Come back to me,

:

smile, and you make my life.

:

Complete.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me with you there.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me with you there.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me with you there.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me with you there.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me, you with you there.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me with you there.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of me with you there.

:

Every time you walk away, run away.

:

You take a piece of

:

with you there.

Chapters

Video

More from YouTube