XOXO? Gossip Girl.

In my very first post here on Popinions, I dubbed Gossip Girl "the best show you're not watching".  I totally lied.

In my defense, at the time, Gossip Girl really was good.  The Blair/Dan set up had a wonderful slow build, the promise of what disaster the publication of Dan's book would bring was ripe with possibilities and they had finally figured out what to do with Nate (stand there and look pretty while baking special brownies).  It looked like it was going to be an awesome season.  But after episode four, in which the upper east siders got their hands on Dan's book and turned against him, the show took a nose dive.  Serena went from job to job, bitching out people for not loving her the most.  Chuck decided to get his life together which is problematically against everything that we love about Chuck.  Pregnant Blair sat around trying to keep her prince baby daddy while still truly being in love with Mr. Bass.  And Dan?  I think he got drunk at some point.  And maybe got into a twitter war.  I don't know.  I've tried to block it out.

This week, however, the show tried to make amends for putting all of its characters into a corner this season.  As an overall episode, it wasn't that hot (and clearly all that wardrobe money took away from much needed stunt work).  But the episode did right a lot of its wrongs, setting up what could be a much better second half of the season.  First and foremost..Dan and Blair had scenes with each other!  These two really are so much better when together and my heart broke for Dan the whole episode long as he struggled to tell Blair how he felt as she was torn between the other two men in her life.

No, YOU smell like onions.

Ultimately, Dan decided that he just wanted Blair to be happy, and rather than expressing his feelings he helped her to reconnect with Chuck.  I may have swooned a little.  I'm actually really glad that the show did this.  It lets us know that Dan's feelings for Blair are true and unselfish and lets Blair go get her Chuck yayas out before finally coming around.  I still really want to see these two together.  But in the meantime I'm willing to wait, provided they get to at least interact with one another.  It is so worth it.

After Blair and Chuck rode off in reunited bliss, their limo was swarmed by paps on bikes and they crashed.  As of now, we know that Blair is awake and that Chuck is one big question mark.  Now, while I know that Chuck will be just fine  (fool me once, Gossip Girl!) I have a feeling this is the end of Blair's baby.  And while this may seem cruel...good riddance.  Even though both Dan and Chuck have made it clear that they would help raise her child, the fetus does tie Blair to Louis who, while a prince, is a total snooze.  Also, motherhood would hold Blair back from all that makes her awesome.  So the potential of a miscarriage might just be a good thing for Ms. Waldorf, and opens up a world of story for her as well.

This episode also brought back a lot of my favorite things about the show.  Aaron Tveit reprised his role as Trip.  Chuck and Lily had a touching honorary mother-son scene.  There were some fabulous clothes.  But even more important, is the potential for what 2012 will bring.  First, Jack Bass calling Diana Payne indicated, once again, that she may in fact be Chuck's mother.  That would be fun to play out and would give Chuck a good amount of angst that wouldn't have anything to do with Blair or his hotel.  But the best part?  Is that the gang has finally decided to take on Gossip Girl.  The title character has been but a mere narrator in the first few seasons, but the show is named after her for gods sake.  It is time she played a more substantial role.  Figuring out who Gossip Girl is has given us a mystery to figure out, and I like it.

So while, Gossip Girl isn't the very best show that you aren't watching anymore, I'm perhaps stupidly hopeful that it will be again.  There is some serious promise there.  Because Gossip Girl, I DO want to know that I love you.  So make it happen.  XOXO, Popinions.