Gossip Girl episode recap for 'Gaslit'

It’s tough to be a reformed party girl with a sullied past. Because even if you have reformed and are telling the truth no one believes you. On this week’s Thanksgiving episode of Gossip Girl (Monday, November 29 on the CW) Serena struggles to piece together what happened to her while Dan stands by her side, Juliet continues her evil sabotage, Jenny comes clean and Nate tries to keep his family together.

The main players:

Thanksgiving on the Upper East Side is never a warm, happy family affair. And the drama this year kicked off almost immediately when Lily, Blair, Eric and Rufus realize that no one knows where Serena is. Since everyone thinks that Serena was responsible for terrible behavior at Chuck’s Saints and Sinner’s party, no one bothered to check up on her.

It turns out that Serena woke up alone in a hotel room in Queens and suffered from a drug overdose. She was able to stay conscious long enough to call 911 and ask for help and she winds up in the hospital.

Although most people would be concerned and frightened for the poor girl’s well being, Serena’s closet family and friends wind up doubting her. They believe she’s fallen off the wagon once again and went on a bender to try to avoid dealing with her problems. Lily, Blair and even Nate seem to think she’s relapsed into the party girl that she used to be. Dan is the only one who reasons that something else might be at work and claims that everyone should talk to Serena before making any rash judgments or decisions.

But Lily decides to take matters into her own hands, and before Serena even wakes up, decides to commit Serena to the Ostroff center for treatment. The doctor explained that a mix of depression drugs were found in the hotel room with Serena and that the pills, when mixed with other drugs and alcohol, could have been fatal.

Needless to say, Serena is upset and feels incredibly betrayed when she wakes up at the Ostroff Center. She realizes that Lily, Blair and even Eric believe that she has a problem, but Serena remembers nothing about the night and believes that someone has sabotaged her, although she can’t explain or remember what happened. The only one who comes to her rescue is Dan, who tells her that he believes her story and knows that she hasn’t relapsed into drug use.

Dan decides to break Serena out of the center and they book bus tickets to get out of the city for a few days. But they get stopped in their tracks while at the Brooklyn loft by Lily and Blair, who prevent them from leaving.

Now, you have to remember that Juliet was the one who orchestrated this whole drug overdose. Even Jenny and Vanessa, while they helped Juliet at the party, seem genuinely concerned about Serena’s wellbeing and realize that something with the plan went amuck. After hearing from Rufus, Jenny comes home and has plans to tell her father what happened at the party and that she, Juliet and Vanessa were involved in trying to sabotage Serena. Juliet convinces Jenny that they are not responsible for what happened to Serena and tells Jenny that she shouldn’t tell anyone about their scheme since Serena might actually need help. Juliet also manages to scare Vanessa into believing that if Jenny comes clean, Vanessa will be the one who suffers since she isn’t family. Juliet that Jenny will eventually be forgiven since she is part of the family, but that Vanessa runs the risk of losing everything. So Vanessa throws Jenny under the bus and tells Rufus that Jenny and Jenny alone orchestrated the plan at the party.

With this news, Rufus overreacts and basically tells his daughter that he wishes she never came back to the city and that she’s a terrible person. Jenny tells him the truth—that she, Vanessa and Juliet were responsible for what happened at the party and that she doesn’t know what happened afterwards. Jenny decides to leave the city—but not without making a few stops on her way out.

Back at the Brooklyn loft, Serena explains that she won’t go back to the Ostroff Center unless they drag her out in a straight jacket (which Lily seems ready to do). She storms off into the other room, leaving Lily to have a heart to heart with Dan Humprey. Lily tells Dan that he doesn’t know enough about Serena’s past and that he really has no place butting in and making decisions. But Dan fires back and explains that he’s the only one looking at the situation from Serena’s standpoint and not being selfish about it. He tells Lily that she always wants to sweep Serena’s problems under the rug and not deal with them.

But just after the heart to heart, a Gossip Girl blast goes out showing a photo of what seems to be Serena after the party (in her mask and ballgown) snorting cocaine. Since Serena doesn’t remember what happened, she begins to believe that the photo proves that she did drugs and that maybe she was responsible for everything after all. She voluntarily returns to the Ostroff Center for treatment. But before she goes, her and Dan share a kiss and Dan explains that he still believes her and that he always will. How sweet.

But Jenny still wants to set the record straight. She goes to try to find Juliet, who has apparently packed up and left. But Jenny finds Juliet’s “Serena mask” in the garbage left in her apartment (why the door was open and evidence left lying around we will never know) and takes it to show Blair. Jenny tells Blair what really happened and that Juliet is behind Serena’s drug overdose.

Blair vows to get revenge on Juliet. But instead of turning to Chuck Bass for assistance, she teams up with an unlikely partner—Dan Humprey—and the pair decide to find Juliet and get her to confess what she did to Serena.

But it seems like they might have a difficult time finding the scheme queen. Juliet has left town, only stopping to collect a check from Lily (she’s receiving monthly checks from Lily to keep quiet about Serena’s past with Ben…which we are still confused about) on her way.

Will Blair and Dan get revenge on Juliet and clear Serena’s name? Here’s hoping.

At bat:

With everything that is happening with Serena, you’d assume that Nate, once hopelessly in love with her, would drop everything to be by Serena’s side (kind of like Dan). But Nate has to deal with his own family problems this episode.

A lawyer stops by the Archibald residence in order to hand Mrs. Archibald an important document. But Nate tells the lawyer that his mother isn’t home and takes the document, promising to deliver it to her. Nate opens the envelope and is shocked to find divorce papers, waiting to be signed.

Nate seems dismayed since he believes his father has really changed during his time in prison. However, Anne Archibald would not be able to see any kind of change since she has refused to visit him.

But when Nate confronts his mother with the divorce papers, he tells her that she owes it to his father to at least visit him to see if things have changed. And although Anne is skeptical at first, she eventually does wind up visiting her husband along with Nate.

The Archibald family seems like they are on the mend—father, mother and son all share a laugh over the cafeteria tables in the prison dining hall. But before Nate leaves his father, a guard explains that it’s a good thing that Nate’s mother showed up for a visit. When Nate seems confused, the guard says that Mr. Archibald’s parole is coming up and that the support of his wife would surely look good for the parole board.

So has Nate’s father really changed or is it all an act to gain the parole board’s favor? I’m going to guess that the Captain still has a few tricks up his sleeve and hasn’t completely reformed.

Warming up:

The Chuck and Blair action has cooled and it seems like it will continue to freeze over for a little while.

Although the pair have a pleasant run in at the van der Woodsen’s (prior to Serena’s hospitalization) with cordial attitudes and niceties, things begin to spiral somewhat into a familiar format.

Blair begins to seek Chuck out for comfort and solace in her time of need and even says that maybe what she said to him the previous week (about them not being able to see each other or really interact) was a little premature.

But Chuck puts the situation to rest when Blair grabs his hand in the limo ride home from the hospital. He explains that they need time apart and cannot be friends at the moment, because they will only end up torturing one another. Blair handles the situation surprisingly well and realizes that it’s probably for the best.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t take much more of this up and down, off and on nonsense with Chuck and Blair. The last few episodes got my hopes up only to be crushed once again. They need to be back together. For good. Can I get an AMEN?

On the bench:

I’m benching Rufus this week. Although he appeared in several scenes, his character is really beginning to drive me crazy. He doesn’t DO anything.

Even though his family life is in complete disarray, he doesn’t make any decisions or offer any type of helpful advice. He is aloof with his wife and his kids and seems to be taking on a very passive, nonchalant kind of air. Even when he was arguing with Jenny, he gave up far too easily and just let his teenage daughter storm off.

And he didn’t offer Lily any kind of help or advice when it came to Serena. Even though I understand that he is Serena’s stepfather, it seems like he should still make an active effort to help his wife with parenting decisions instead of just letting her deal with everything on her own.

We have to say that we miss the romantic, cool, over-caring Dad who started on this show. Does anyone else agree that his character has gone down hill?

Best plays of the night:

- Dorota’s baby is absolutely adorable. Just saying.

- We cannot get over the fact that no one knew where Serena was. Serena should really find a new set of parents and some different friends.

- Chuck calls Thanksgiving “The only day of the year where it’s acceptable to eat dinner before 8.”

- Nate and Dan’s relationship is so bizarre. They seem to just pop into scenes with each other when they need to get something off their chests and then they disappear. We’re waiting for them to just kiss and be done with it.

- The confrontation between Lily and Dan was perfect. It’s about time they had it out with one another and we applaud Dan for standing up to Lily and making her realize she’s a bad mother. Dan: “It sounds like I’ve clocked more hours at her side than you have.”

- Jailbird Ben has nice eyes. Just an observation.

- Even though we don’t want to support weird family relationships and strangeness, we kind of love Dan and Serena together. Sure they might be step-brother and sister, but they’re sweet and it makes us think of the first season. Cute.

- We appreciate that at the slightest bit of confrontation and drama Vanessa runs to her mother. We have a feeling that she can’t hide from wrath that is surely coming her way.

- Blair to Dan about Juliet: “What do you say we find that bitch and get use a little frontier justice?” Just the fact that Blair said “frontier justice” made this episode worth while.