February 27th - The Princess Dowry
The Princess Dowry (Season 5, Episode 17)
You know, I'm starting to like Lola less and less and Ivy more and more... I seem to hate Charlie regardless who has the name. Hated Ivy when she was playing Charlie. But I like her now. Once liked Lola. And now she's getting on my nerves. Nate and Lola is... strange. They just don't mesh. Is there a single girl that's been on GG who Nate hasn't slept with? Does Nate even have a purpose in this show anymore? Other than eye candy, I mean. Not that I'd complain about the eye candy...
World War Waldorf. Love.
For those of us who took French... we understood what Blair said perfectly, Dan.
Georgina's leaving someone else in charge of Gossip Girl? Seriously? She just passed crazy and made it to insane.
Goodness gracious. The music at CeCe's wake. Reminded me of an Irish jig. ...Oh. It was. Apparently CeCe has a secret love of the Irish? Alllllll righty then.
Georgina's husband is adorable. So naive and innocent.
OMG! I'm watching "The Kids Stay in the Picture" as I type this and I just saw Louis step out of his limo holding B's shoe! Ahhhh! I was just reminded of why I loved him so much last season. Before he became a world class jerk.
Back to this episode. I love how Ivy kicked Lily out at the end. It was such a slap in the face. One that Lily did need...
Chuck really has no qualms over destroying Blair's happiness? ALL he wants is to take down Dan regardless what he might do to Blair in the process?
Blair - "Are you so worried that I might find happiness without you that you feel the need to spread baseless lies at the wake of my best friend's grandmother?"
Chuck - "While you may be correct about my motives, the blast was anything but a lie."
Blair hits the nail on the head in saying that what bothers Chuck is the fact that Blair's happy. Without him. Apparently it doesn't seem to matter that Blair is happy. It's the "without him" part that means the most. This exchange just laid it out for us in black and white that Chuck doesn't care about Blair's happiness. He would prefer Blair be unhappy over happy just as long as she isn't with someone else. It's basically him saying, "I can't have what I want, so I'm going to ensure no one else has it." Blair's happiness in this situation is inconsequential. He's still treating her like a toy to be passed around at his will. He wants to manipulate her back into his arms. If Blair wants to be with someone else, Chuck has to allow it. If not, he'll just use any means possible to destroy the happiness Blair's found. Why? Because he's not a part of it.
Judgmental VdW's over Ivy? That's so not fair to her. I get that they hate that she lied to them. But if CeCe wanted her there... why the hell would you make a scene at CeCe's fucking wake??? She's your grandmother/mother! You can't respect her wishes for long enough to mourn her death? This show sucks at dealing with grief. They should stop killing people. I mean, GG isn't realistic to begin with, but grief isn't something you can just pass over. They dealt with Bart's death quite well. Then Blair losing her baby and CeCe... God. If you can't do the grieving properly, stop killing people.
"Looks like Blair's annulment just got annuled. Shame. You were so close too."
Chuck, I've never been so disappointed in you as I am now. I mean, of course I was disappointed when he traded Blair for his hotel, but at least he did that to preserve his father's legacy, to protect the only thing he had left of Bart. I don't agree with his actions and I was shocked by them, but they were out of desperation. Here... the tone of voice with which he delivers this line is so smug and proud of himself and... dare I say giddy? It made me want to vomit.
Let's take a look at the situation, shall we? Blair got married to Louis and now she's trapped because her family can't afford the dowry she'd be forced to pay if she backed out. Blair's miserable. She has to spend a year (a damn long time if you're miserable) with a husband she doesn't love and who doesn't love her. She'll have to pretend to be happy and spend a year under the harsh scrutiny of the media. She can't act on her feelings for Chuck or Dan. She has to be the loving wife in public and be a lonely shunned stranger in private. Maybe an heir will come into play at some point. But even without that, it's a lose-lose situation for her. But there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon thanks to Estee's plan. Blair might be free again right away. She wouldn't have to endure any of that loneliness or misery. But in the face of this, what does Chuck do? He makes sure the annulment can't go through so that Blair has to be trapped in that year of misery. And this is all because if she were free she'd run to Dan instead of Chuck. Chuck's so happy that Blair can't get out of her marriage! Who would want a man like that as their partner? Please enlighten me. If that's not despicable, I honestly don't know what is. Chuck doesn't even show any remorse that he's just ruined Blair's life for at least the next year.
It's only later when Dan tells him that paying the dowry would bankrupt the Waldorfs that he shows any remorse.
He says, "No, you left me no choice." Chuck pins the blame on Dan instead of taking credit for what he's done. If Dan does something wrong (like sending in that video), it's Dan's fault. If Chuck does something wrong in sending in that picture of Dan and Blair kissing, somehow it's still Dan's fault. Somehow, in doing nothing more than kissing Blair, Dan's forced Chuck's hand and made him send in that picture. Somehow, this is still all Dan's fault according to Chuck. This is just like Chuck blaming Blair for going up to sleep with Jack. Because Blair fell prey to Chuck's manipulation, apparently it's Blair's fault that she nearly slept with Jack. Chuck doesn't deserve blame in either of these situations according to him. It doesn't matter that he caused all of these things to happen. It's not his fault. Nope. He didn't do anything wrong.
"It's one thing losing Blair because she doesn't want to be with me, but I only lost her because of something you did."
You did lose Blair because she doesn't want you, Chuck. Did Blair stop speaking to you when she thought you sent the video? Besides, didn't Serena take the blame for that? Blair didn't think you sent it! She told you that she knew it wasn't Chuck who sent the video! How the hell did Dan make Chuck lose Blair? Sure, Dan didn't admit that he sent the video, but the blame was never put on Chuck! Everyone but Blair thought Chuck sent it! Dan had nothing to do with Chuck's losing Blair. He's been losing her for a while. It's just that no one realized it until she was completely lost.
Before I move on, let me say that Blair's feelings for Dan weren't sudden. All through this season, Blair's stuck by the idea that she loves Chuck. She has. But her actions contradict her words. When Blair needed anything, she went to Dan. Not Chuck. It was Dan that she needed to know would always be there for her. It was Dan who she called to take her from the wedding. It was Dan who listened to her every day before the wedding saying that she had to marry Louis even though she didn't love him. Chuck wasn't the person she ran to or the person she confided in. Blair may have been saying this entire time that she loves Chuck, even loves him more and more every day, but she hasn't been showing it. Someone can tell you they love you five times a day, but maybe they'll never listen to you when you talk. On the other hand, someone may never say the words "I love you," but they'll be there to dry your tears whenever you're hurt. Answer me this, which of these is love?
"You said you wanted to wait until your marriage was over, and now it's over."
So that was why you did this Chuck? Really. So why was it that you were willing to wait a year to start "World War Waldorf" (as Nate put it) when she was going to stay married? Chuck wanted to marriage to end. So he annuled her annulment? Does anyone else see the contradictions in these two statements?
"And I love you. I always will, but that doesn't mean I'm in love with you. At least not right now and not the way you need to me to be right now, not the way you deserve."
I agree that Blair will always love Chuck. How could you ever stop loving someone you once loved so deeply? Because there's no doubt that Blair was once in love with Chuck. But she's fallen out of love with him now. As much as I absolutely hate to make this comparison, Bella loved Jacob and Edward. But she was only in love with Edward. That doesn't mean she didn't love Jacob. Because she did. Blair loves both Chuck and Dan. But she's no longer in love with Chuck. That's why she didn't need him for support. That's also why she was still insisting she loved him. Because she genuinely did. That last bit with the "at least not right now" seemed more like an afterthought. To me, it sounded the same as when Blair said that Dan obviously cared more about her than Louis did, then tacked on the "as a friend, of course." She didn't mean either of those afterthoughts. It's just what was expected in the situation. Blair can't completely toss Chuck away because she still cares about him. It was almost like a reassurance because Chuck looked so heartbroken.
I'm quite shocked that CeCe left everything to Ivy. Even more shocked that CeCe knew Ivy wasn't the real Charlie.
"How do we know Ivy didn't try to hasten our mother's death?"
Are you serious? No wonder no one wants to associate with you Van der Woodsens! If I met them in real life I'd run like hell in the other direction.
I can't believe that Carol saw CeCe's death as nothing more than her "pay day." But I guess, why should I be surprised? Gossip Girl has no idea how to deal with grief. Will is Charlie's father? Damn. Didn't see that one coming. But seriously? Now Charlie is Serena and Eric's half-sister? Did this Charlie storyline really need another twist? I think we've had enough of those to last ten lifetimes. Carol wants child support? She lives in Florida. According to Florida child support laws, child support ends when the child finishes 12th grade or reaches 19. I looked it up. There's no way Carol could collect twenty years worth child support. Get your facts right, GG.
"Blair. She walked away from me today. And not like in the past. It was different. I feel like she's changed. I know I didn't die in the car accident but I feel like I did."
Last line in there. Awwwwww!!!! Angsty Chuck is the best. But thank god the GG writers gave us concrete evidence that something has shifted in the Chair relationship. They're not stringing along Chair and Dair shippers anymore.
"You mean thanks to Saint Jack."
Fuck! Jack saved Chuck's life? Whoa. I actually like this twist. I always like the family relationships in GG, no matter how twisted.
Serena's gonna be Gossip Girl? Hello end of the world. We're ready for you.
Blair looks so happy with Dan!!! I've never seen that look on her face before. She looks so relaxed and happy. And even a little uncertain.
"I told Chuck he doesn't have my heart anymore. I realized it belongs to someone else."
So adorable. I loved that line. But then they reused the "I love you" scene with Chair from season two... I'm not sure how I feel about that. Gossip Girl seems to really like parallels. But this one wasn't necessary. Dair deserves their own thing. I like how it was Dan asking Blair to say his name rather than "I love you" though. Because it's them being able to call each other Dan and Blair that marks the transition in their relationship. "I love you" isn't necessary.
Ahh!!! 360 degrees of the Dair kiss! Ahhh!!! It's always significant when the directors decide to do something they've never done before. The first time they used the freeze frame, it was the experiment Dair kiss. The first time they show all angles of a scene is with this Dair kiss. I think they're trying to tell us something. Let's all embrace Dair, shall we? Oh, remember how mad we were about that freeze frame? I own the DVDs for season 4. Every time I rewatch that episode I practically grin until my face hurts because I can just click the next episode! There's no waiting to see the result of that kiss! My giddiness knows no bounds.
Promo. Worst promo for Gossip Girl I've ever seen. And I've seen almost all of them. Usually the promos are huge cliffhangers and make you want to kill something because you have to wait for the next episode. Especially before a hiatus. And all they give us this time is that Dan and Blair have bad sex? Really? I'm not even intrigued. I'm quite confident in my belief that they won't throw Dair away after one episode after the five season long build up. Doesn't mean I won't be dying a little more inside every day because I can't see more Dair. But I'm satisfied. For the most part.
~XOXO, Seravia
You know, I'm starting to like Lola less and less and Ivy more and more... I seem to hate Charlie regardless who has the name. Hated Ivy when she was playing Charlie. But I like her now. Once liked Lola. And now she's getting on my nerves. Nate and Lola is... strange. They just don't mesh. Is there a single girl that's been on GG who Nate hasn't slept with? Does Nate even have a purpose in this show anymore? Other than eye candy, I mean. Not that I'd complain about the eye candy...
World War Waldorf. Love.
For those of us who took French... we understood what Blair said perfectly, Dan.
Georgina's leaving someone else in charge of Gossip Girl? Seriously? She just passed crazy and made it to insane.
Goodness gracious. The music at CeCe's wake. Reminded me of an Irish jig. ...Oh. It was. Apparently CeCe has a secret love of the Irish? Alllllll righty then.
Georgina's husband is adorable. So naive and innocent.
OMG! I'm watching "The Kids Stay in the Picture" as I type this and I just saw Louis step out of his limo holding B's shoe! Ahhhh! I was just reminded of why I loved him so much last season. Before he became a world class jerk.
Back to this episode. I love how Ivy kicked Lily out at the end. It was such a slap in the face. One that Lily did need...
Chuck really has no qualms over destroying Blair's happiness? ALL he wants is to take down Dan regardless what he might do to Blair in the process?
Blair - "Are you so worried that I might find happiness without you that you feel the need to spread baseless lies at the wake of my best friend's grandmother?"
Chuck - "While you may be correct about my motives, the blast was anything but a lie."
Blair hits the nail on the head in saying that what bothers Chuck is the fact that Blair's happy. Without him. Apparently it doesn't seem to matter that Blair is happy. It's the "without him" part that means the most. This exchange just laid it out for us in black and white that Chuck doesn't care about Blair's happiness. He would prefer Blair be unhappy over happy just as long as she isn't with someone else. It's basically him saying, "I can't have what I want, so I'm going to ensure no one else has it." Blair's happiness in this situation is inconsequential. He's still treating her like a toy to be passed around at his will. He wants to manipulate her back into his arms. If Blair wants to be with someone else, Chuck has to allow it. If not, he'll just use any means possible to destroy the happiness Blair's found. Why? Because he's not a part of it.
Judgmental VdW's over Ivy? That's so not fair to her. I get that they hate that she lied to them. But if CeCe wanted her there... why the hell would you make a scene at CeCe's fucking wake??? She's your grandmother/mother! You can't respect her wishes for long enough to mourn her death? This show sucks at dealing with grief. They should stop killing people. I mean, GG isn't realistic to begin with, but grief isn't something you can just pass over. They dealt with Bart's death quite well. Then Blair losing her baby and CeCe... God. If you can't do the grieving properly, stop killing people.
"Looks like Blair's annulment just got annuled. Shame. You were so close too."
Chuck, I've never been so disappointed in you as I am now. I mean, of course I was disappointed when he traded Blair for his hotel, but at least he did that to preserve his father's legacy, to protect the only thing he had left of Bart. I don't agree with his actions and I was shocked by them, but they were out of desperation. Here... the tone of voice with which he delivers this line is so smug and proud of himself and... dare I say giddy? It made me want to vomit.
Let's take a look at the situation, shall we? Blair got married to Louis and now she's trapped because her family can't afford the dowry she'd be forced to pay if she backed out. Blair's miserable. She has to spend a year (a damn long time if you're miserable) with a husband she doesn't love and who doesn't love her. She'll have to pretend to be happy and spend a year under the harsh scrutiny of the media. She can't act on her feelings for Chuck or Dan. She has to be the loving wife in public and be a lonely shunned stranger in private. Maybe an heir will come into play at some point. But even without that, it's a lose-lose situation for her. But there's a glimmer of hope on the horizon thanks to Estee's plan. Blair might be free again right away. She wouldn't have to endure any of that loneliness or misery. But in the face of this, what does Chuck do? He makes sure the annulment can't go through so that Blair has to be trapped in that year of misery. And this is all because if she were free she'd run to Dan instead of Chuck. Chuck's so happy that Blair can't get out of her marriage! Who would want a man like that as their partner? Please enlighten me. If that's not despicable, I honestly don't know what is. Chuck doesn't even show any remorse that he's just ruined Blair's life for at least the next year.
It's only later when Dan tells him that paying the dowry would bankrupt the Waldorfs that he shows any remorse.
Click to viewHe says, "No, you left me no choice." Chuck pins the blame on Dan instead of taking credit for what he's done. If Dan does something wrong (like sending in that video), it's Dan's fault. If Chuck does something wrong in sending in that picture of Dan and Blair kissing, somehow it's still Dan's fault. Somehow, in doing nothing more than kissing Blair, Dan's forced Chuck's hand and made him send in that picture. Somehow, this is still all Dan's fault according to Chuck. This is just like Chuck blaming Blair for going up to sleep with Jack. Because Blair fell prey to Chuck's manipulation, apparently it's Blair's fault that she nearly slept with Jack. Chuck doesn't deserve blame in either of these situations according to him. It doesn't matter that he caused all of these things to happen. It's not his fault. Nope. He didn't do anything wrong.
"It's one thing losing Blair because she doesn't want to be with me, but I only lost her because of something you did."
You did lose Blair because she doesn't want you, Chuck. Did Blair stop speaking to you when she thought you sent the video? Besides, didn't Serena take the blame for that? Blair didn't think you sent it! She told you that she knew it wasn't Chuck who sent the video! How the hell did Dan make Chuck lose Blair? Sure, Dan didn't admit that he sent the video, but the blame was never put on Chuck! Everyone but Blair thought Chuck sent it! Dan had nothing to do with Chuck's losing Blair. He's been losing her for a while. It's just that no one realized it until she was completely lost.
Before I move on, let me say that Blair's feelings for Dan weren't sudden. All through this season, Blair's stuck by the idea that she loves Chuck. She has. But her actions contradict her words. When Blair needed anything, she went to Dan. Not Chuck. It was Dan that she needed to know would always be there for her. It was Dan who she called to take her from the wedding. It was Dan who listened to her every day before the wedding saying that she had to marry Louis even though she didn't love him. Chuck wasn't the person she ran to or the person she confided in. Blair may have been saying this entire time that she loves Chuck, even loves him more and more every day, but she hasn't been showing it. Someone can tell you they love you five times a day, but maybe they'll never listen to you when you talk. On the other hand, someone may never say the words "I love you," but they'll be there to dry your tears whenever you're hurt. Answer me this, which of these is love?
"You said you wanted to wait until your marriage was over, and now it's over."
So that was why you did this Chuck? Really. So why was it that you were willing to wait a year to start "World War Waldorf" (as Nate put it) when she was going to stay married? Chuck wanted to marriage to end. So he annuled her annulment? Does anyone else see the contradictions in these two statements?
"And I love you. I always will, but that doesn't mean I'm in love with you. At least not right now and not the way you need to me to be right now, not the way you deserve."
I agree that Blair will always love Chuck. How could you ever stop loving someone you once loved so deeply? Because there's no doubt that Blair was once in love with Chuck. But she's fallen out of love with him now. As much as I absolutely hate to make this comparison, Bella loved Jacob and Edward. But she was only in love with Edward. That doesn't mean she didn't love Jacob. Because she did. Blair loves both Chuck and Dan. But she's no longer in love with Chuck. That's why she didn't need him for support. That's also why she was still insisting she loved him. Because she genuinely did. That last bit with the "at least not right now" seemed more like an afterthought. To me, it sounded the same as when Blair said that Dan obviously cared more about her than Louis did, then tacked on the "as a friend, of course." She didn't mean either of those afterthoughts. It's just what was expected in the situation. Blair can't completely toss Chuck away because she still cares about him. It was almost like a reassurance because Chuck looked so heartbroken.
I'm quite shocked that CeCe left everything to Ivy. Even more shocked that CeCe knew Ivy wasn't the real Charlie.
"How do we know Ivy didn't try to hasten our mother's death?"
Are you serious? No wonder no one wants to associate with you Van der Woodsens! If I met them in real life I'd run like hell in the other direction.
I can't believe that Carol saw CeCe's death as nothing more than her "pay day." But I guess, why should I be surprised? Gossip Girl has no idea how to deal with grief. Will is Charlie's father? Damn. Didn't see that one coming. But seriously? Now Charlie is Serena and Eric's half-sister? Did this Charlie storyline really need another twist? I think we've had enough of those to last ten lifetimes. Carol wants child support? She lives in Florida. According to Florida child support laws, child support ends when the child finishes 12th grade or reaches 19. I looked it up. There's no way Carol could collect twenty years worth child support. Get your facts right, GG.
"Blair. She walked away from me today. And not like in the past. It was different. I feel like she's changed. I know I didn't die in the car accident but I feel like I did."
Last line in there. Awwwwww!!!! Angsty Chuck is the best. But thank god the GG writers gave us concrete evidence that something has shifted in the Chair relationship. They're not stringing along Chair and Dair shippers anymore.
"You mean thanks to Saint Jack."
Fuck! Jack saved Chuck's life? Whoa. I actually like this twist. I always like the family relationships in GG, no matter how twisted.
Serena's gonna be Gossip Girl? Hello end of the world. We're ready for you.
Blair looks so happy with Dan!!! I've never seen that look on her face before. She looks so relaxed and happy. And even a little uncertain.
"I told Chuck he doesn't have my heart anymore. I realized it belongs to someone else."
So adorable. I loved that line. But then they reused the "I love you" scene with Chair from season two... I'm not sure how I feel about that. Gossip Girl seems to really like parallels. But this one wasn't necessary. Dair deserves their own thing. I like how it was Dan asking Blair to say his name rather than "I love you" though. Because it's them being able to call each other Dan and Blair that marks the transition in their relationship. "I love you" isn't necessary.
Ahh!!! 360 degrees of the Dair kiss! Ahhh!!! It's always significant when the directors decide to do something they've never done before. The first time they used the freeze frame, it was the experiment Dair kiss. The first time they show all angles of a scene is with this Dair kiss. I think they're trying to tell us something. Let's all embrace Dair, shall we? Oh, remember how mad we were about that freeze frame? I own the DVDs for season 4. Every time I rewatch that episode I practically grin until my face hurts because I can just click the next episode! There's no waiting to see the result of that kiss! My giddiness knows no bounds.
Promo. Worst promo for Gossip Girl I've ever seen. And I've seen almost all of them. Usually the promos are huge cliffhangers and make you want to kill something because you have to wait for the next episode. Especially before a hiatus. And all they give us this time is that Dan and Blair have bad sex? Really? I'm not even intrigued. I'm quite confident in my belief that they won't throw Dair away after one episode after the five season long build up. Doesn't mean I won't be dying a little more inside every day because I can't see more Dair. But I'm satisfied. For the most part.
~XOXO, Seravia