Gossip Girl episode recap for 'Shattered Bass'

Tonight marks the beginning of the end for Season 4 of Gossip Girl. This first-part of the two-part finale brings back a few familiar faces, including Jack Bass who, once again, seeks to destroy his nephew, Chuck.

On this week's episode of Gossip Girl Jack visits with the Thorpes to try to take down Chuck, Blair worries Louis won't love her dark side, Charlie goes to crazy town with Dan by her side and we find out the truth about a season-long secret.

Let's get down to it.

The main players:

Jack Bass is back in the picture and he was called into town by Raina Thorpe who hopes to get back at Chuck for covering up Bart's involvement in her mother's death. She hopes to take revenge on Chuck and carry out her father's plan of destroying Bass Industries.

So Jack meets with Raina and agrees to help, but then he goes behind her back and strikes a deal directly with Russell. Jack knows that Chuck is nearing a major fall since he lost Blair and all he needs is a push. Russell promises to pay Jack handsomely as long as he gets his hands on Chuck's evidence box that houses all the documents, videos and information about the night of the apartment building fire-the fire that killed Avery Thorpe.

And Jack's return doesn't sit well with Blair. While walking down the street with her husband-to-be Prince Louis and his mother Princess Sofie, Blair stops in her tracks when she sees Jack Bass across the street. Knowing that Jack could only mean trouble, Blair finds Chuck at his Brooklyn construction site (Chuck is building a hotel in Brooklyn) in order to warn him about Jack's appearance.

And although Chuck tries to tell Blair how much he's been suffering without her, knowing that she's engaged, Blair tells him that she has to go and get ready for her engagement party.

But Blair's Prince has grown suspicious. His mother has had Blair followed and tells Louis that Blair went to see Chuck after he proposed. So Louis follows Blair when she goes to Brooklyn and discovers her visiting Chuck. And then Louis confronts Chuck himself and Chuck warns the Prince about Blair's penchant for secrets.

But the engagement party goes off at the Waldorf's apartment without a hitch. Cyrus woos Princess Sofie into accepting Blair and the Princess tells Louis and Blair that they can make their royal debut as a couple at the Constance/St. Jude black tie fundraiser event later that night. When Louis confronts Blair about seeing Chuck, Blair just says that she has a past and that she didn't tell Louis because she's ashamed. Louis tells Blair that she needs to open up and share her whole self with him-darkness and all. He tells her that if she isn't ready to share her life with him, she shouldn't show up at the fundraiser at night and he will return to France with his mother.

Meanwhile, Chuck is accosted by Jack Bass. Chuck gets violent with his Uncle and tries to hit him. Then Jack calls in the guys from a rehab facility and hey make Chuck go with them. Nate tries to protect Chuck from his Uncle, but tells Chuck to just go along with it so that no other trouble takes place.

The plan seems to be going perfectly, and it looks like Russell is about to get his revenge. Russell takes the key and visits Chuck's penthouse to search for the evidence box. But as he's snooping around, Chuck shows up with Nate and Jack to back him up. The tables have turned! Uncle Jack actually came to his nephew's aid.

Jack was fully aware of Bart's relationship with Russell Thorpe and knows not to trust him. And it turns out that Russell is the real villain. The video tapes from the night of the fire show Russell locking the doors of the building after Bart had left. It was Russell who set the fire that killed his wife.

Russell tries to explain that he thought Bart was the one in the building. That he never meant to murder his wife. But we discover that Avery really did love Bart and wanted to leave Russell for him. So, Russell would have a difficult time getting out of charges if Chuck and Jack went to the authorities with the evidence. Russell tells Chuck that he will pay and that Chuck can take over Thorpe Enterprises, but he begs Chuck not to tell Raina about what happened.

Chuck tells Russell to leave, return to Chicago and never return to New York.

Raina is still hell bent on taking down Chuck, but Nate eventually lets her know that Chuck isn't the one to blame for her mother's death. Nate tells Raina the truth about her father. And Rain basically disowns her father, telling him that she knows the truth and that he is dead to her. And who do you think Russell figures told his daughter the truth? Yep, he blames Chuck Bass.

Blair does make her mind up and heads to the Constance fundraiser event to meet Louis so they can make their announcement as a royal couple, ready to be engaged. But in the midst of the party she gets a phone call with someone saying that Chuck is on the top of a building in Brooklyn, ready to jump and needs her to come and save him.

Without even a moment of hesitation, Blair rushes to Chuck's rescue. She tells Serena's cousin Charlie to tell Louis that she is coming right back. Blair climbs the building in Brooklyn and searches the roof for signs of Chuck. But she only finds a very scary looking Russell Thorpe, who knows how important Blair is to Chuck, and who desperately wants revenge.

Now Blair is in serious danger. Will Chuck rush to save her or will Prince Louis be her knight in shining armor? The dramatic events unfold during next week's finale.

At bat:

Charlie has been doing everything she could to fit in with her Upper East Side family members. She seems happy with her new life and has found a new love interest in Dan Humphrey. But Charlie isn't the sweet, innocent girl that she's cracked up to be.

Earlier in the season, Charlie's mother hinted that she had an incident in the past and that she needed to be watched at all times. It turns out that Charlie needs to take prescription medication in order to combat some sort of depression or bipolar disorder. But during this episode, Charlie throws her pills into the garbage.

And the effects really seem to start to show. Charlie becomes fixated on getting Dan and seems to want to morph into her cousin Serena in order to do so.

Dan invites Charlie to attend the fundraiser event and Charlie agrees. But she shows up to Blair Waldorf's engagement party with Dan wearing a dress that is exactly the same dress that Serena wore to her cotillion with Dan years ago. When Serena spots Charlie at the party, she reprimands her cousin for taking her dress without her permission. But Charlie insists that she bought the dress on her own, using money from her family trust fund. But Serena insists that the dress is hers, since she wore a couture creation. Dan witnesses both girls bickering about the dress and he sides with Charlie.

Dan and Charlie show up at the fundraising event and Charlie immediately pulls Dan into the Headmistress' office and tries to seduce him. At first Dan seems fine with the idea of "doing it on a desk" but then Charlie asks him to call her "Serena" and Dan immediately backs out of the situation, realizing that things just got weird.

Serena realizes that something is wrong with Charlie and actually calls Vanessa for help, since Vanessa called Serena to tell her that Charlie sabotaged her and turned Dan against her. When the same thing happened to Serena, Serena knew she needed an ally. Rufus breaks the news to both girls that Charlie hasn't been taking her medication.

So what kind of extremes will Charlie take to get Dan on next week's finale? And will she jeopardize the safety of herself or others in the process?

Warming up:

Nate didn't have a whole lot to do during this episode, but his relationships with Chuck and Raina were challenged. And although he was seemingly willing to abandon Chuck, Nate was there for his friend when he was needed. Nate was also the one that broke the news to Raina about her father and was there to comfort her in the aftermath. But Nate's decision to tattle could mean something terrible for Blair.

We wonder if the relationship with Raina and Nate will last and transition into the next season or if Raina's character will exit with next week's finale.

On the bench:

Lily and Eric were nowhere to be found during this episode. You'd think that since Lily is on house arrest and is supposed to be watching over Charlie, she would be more observant or concerned that Charlie wasn't taking her medications. But, there were just flitting mentions of Lily's name.

Same goes for Eric-the youngest van der Woodsen didn't show up at all. And we wish he would have.

Best plays of the night:

- Normally, we wouldn't like the old-movie-dream-scenes, but when Blair Waldorf places herself in an Audrey Hepburn movie with a Prince that turns into the dark Chuck Bass, we can get behind it.

- Blair to Serena: ""Like much else in your life, that apology was underwhelming."

- Jack Bass to Nate: ". "I should have known you'd still be dining on my nephews left overs" Oooh, zinger!

- We just love Cyrus and basically anything he does. Cyrus and Eleanor should make more appearances on this show.

- Blair to Penelope: "I invited you to attend, not speak."

- We appreciate that the writers really made Charlie crazy. Her "call me Serena" line was creepy and weird.

- Jack to Chuck: "All you seem to have are olives and hallucinogenic mushrooms."

- Let's hear it for a suspenseful ending. We're looking forward to the finale.