Gossip Girl: Poisen Ivy

ORIGINAL EPISODES, WEDNESDAYS @ 9PM ON THE CW

I can't believe the schools choir sang "Glamorous." What is this place? Obviously you need to suspend your belief in reality a bit when watching this show but are we really expected to believe there could ever be a school where a sophisticated choir would be singing that song. That was a bit much for me and so was the rest of the opening. The field hockey scenes were severely lacking in quality. Most of this show isn't predicated on quality but this was even lower than you could expect from this show. The action shots were poor and the dialogue couldn't have been more pedestrian. Overall the opening scenes were atrocious.

The episode did get better from that point on though. Everyone was competing for the Usher/Representative roles for the Ivy League University dinner held at their school. Apparently, being one the select few means you have a very good shot at being accepted to the University. What Dan soon found out is that these positions go to those who can buy them. Thus, despite the fact that Dan is second in his class, Nate got the Usher spot for the Dartmouth Representative because his father is connected. Luckily, Dan's dad was able to get him into the dinner anyway which led to Dan meeting the Dartmouth Rep.

The dinner wasn't all that boring however. Blair decided to step up her espionage and found out that Serena was visiting the hospital. She decided to inform all the college rep's that Serena was a recovering alcoholic. Obviously she had no idea she was going to visit her brother who had tried to commit suicide. This was definitely one of the best scenes so far in the first three episodes. We learned a lot about Nate when he gave Dan a shot at meeting the Dartmouth Rep. We also learned how far Blair is willing to go to retain her spot at the top of the socialites. More importantly, we learned that Serena really has changed and was willing to sacrifice her future to protect her brother.

Despite the incredible destruction of her future, thanks to Blair, the two of them seem to be reaching out to each other by the end. How long this will last who knows, but I have a feeling Blair won't be caged for too long. She likes to be in control and this means she likes messing with peoples lives. Although, now that Serena knows about her father she might not be so willing to attack her anymore. This may be a bit selfish but I'm glad that Serena had so many problems at the dinner. This gave Dan a chance to see who she really is and apologize for being incredibly stupid last week. Personally I think their chemistry is a significant part of this show and will determine it success or failure. They have great chemistry and I their scenes together give the show much more depth.

In the end I think Dan is going to find life very hard because of his sister, Jenny. She's a good kid and means well but she's entirely too tied up in being like the rich kids. Her materialism will be both of their downfalls and I really hope she can change before that happens. In the meantime I'm looking forward to next week's episodes and I want to hear what you all think about the direction of the show so far.