Gossip Girl and the Geek - Home For The Holidays

Beauty and the Geek - Meet the Parents - Ep. 412
Gossip Girl - Blair Waldorf Must Pie! - Ep. 109

You know all those times when Gossip Girl was hilariously cliched and revelled in its own sumptuous gloss, celebrating the trivialities of pretty people so that we could laugh at the ridiculousness of it all? Yeah, well, this is the episode where the tides are turning and I found myself laughing WITH the characters more than AT. GASP. WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME??? I'm actually FEELING something for Blair, Serena, Dan, Jenny and Eric? And, GASP. Even a little for Nate? Well, at least we can rest assure that Chuck will still be slimy and terrifically evily slick but he doesn't appear in tonight's episode where the beautiful and the rich gather for Thanksgiving dinner. Who knew they ate?

Over on Beauty and the Geek, it's the finals... almost. In order to stretch it just one more episode since The CW has nothing really to replace it with (well, it does but it doesn't look pretty), the last two teams (Dave and Jasmine YEY!, and Sam and Nicole, yey) get to visit each others homes before returning for the final elimination. Which IN THE MOST SHOCKING CHANGE EVER (okay, no), let's America (or whoever has the Internet and can fake a US address) vote for the winner (ahem, Dave and Jasmine, though if I could, I would have Nicole win too).

Essentially, Beauty and the Geek has turned into the Bachelor but at least that was always one of the best episodes anyways, getting to see the contestants in real life settings. It was fun to see Jasmine totally take in the Larking and getting really into it after being apprehensive with it at first (who wouldn't be?). It's so cute how these two, who were complete opposites and a disaster in the making, come together and grow as friends to work as a team.

I think Sam still helped Sam and Nicole get to where they are by winning many of the challenges and the guy is funnier than I thought he would be but he's still kind of an egotistical tool, but at least a semi-lovable one now, who learned how to use his brain to study. Still, you could tell he was freaked out when he met Nicole's even geekier friends. Which is too bad for Nicole since she seems like someone I would probably have been friends with in school.

So as much as I would love to see Nicole get some prize money, my votes for Dave and Jasmine, who is just too cute.

Meanwhile, back on Gossip Girl, it's Thanksgiving and the Humphrey's are making dinner, and dinner plans. While Serena, Eric and Lily try to figure dinner plans out in Chinatown (what's wrong with Peking Duck for Thanksgiving? No floral scents in the hotel room?), Dan invites them over for dinner, being the gentlemen that he is and not letting them starve in their kitchenless hotel room (what, no room service?).

Lily of course doesn't realise that Alison, Rufus' wife (technically) and mother to Dan and Jenny, is in town. I didn't realise that the kids still didn't know that Rufus and Lily used to have a thing so this will be AWKWARD. TERRIFIC!!!


The discomfort starts right away as the adults try to hide all the dirt, but things unravel slowly with Jenny, Dan and Eric discovering that they all could have been brothers and sisters. Luckily, Serena was out to go save Blair from her evil mom (a wonderful Margaret Colin) who hid her away from their gay dad (John Shea).

There's more with Nate and the Captain with the Captain being found unconscious and the mother (looking a lot like Alison that I'm getting confused over the mothers. Could the casting director been a bit more varied?) is still all in denial about everything, leaving us to feel oh, so sorry for poor little rich boy Nate, but since I just want to tussle that hair, I actually feel for him. A bit. On a good day.

Anyways, loved the tabloid styled titles that flashed back to last years Thanksgiving, when all was still well, Serena was still drunk, Blair and Serena were still best friends, and Nate was still secretly in love with Serena while dating Blair. Ah, good times good times.

Dan was still invisible to the cool kids, and Rufus and Alison were still happy together. Blair's dad wasn't gay (well, wasn't with his future boyfriend yet though there were hints that Eleanor outright knew in some strange arrangement) and everything looked just a little muddier (okay, we get it, it's a flashback).

I actually kinda liked this episode. It seemed to give a lot more depth to most of the characters. I liked the Humphrey kids and the van der Woodsen hanging out and discovering their parents' past. The hilarity in their faces over what could have been and the strange taboo-like implications made us finally laugh with them instead of at them. I don't know why but I love Connor Paolo as Eric and his deep voice and grown up poise all in the baby body of a mini Colin Farrell. It's amusing.

The drama amongst the parents seem to be sorted out well, some clarity amongst the messiness if you will. I'm liking Kelly Rutherford more as Lily everytime, and Matthew Settle, while still creeps me out that he's playing Penn Badgley's father since they look like brothers, is winning me over. Um, dare I say they win the hottest father-son team around?

This week's MTV end montage sequence of the week was brought to you by "Nolita Fairytale" by Vanessa Carlton. I forget that I actually like her. I get her confused with Michelle Branch who I hate (long story but basically I'm still bitter about the $12 I lost in service fees when she cancelled her concert). I don't get over things fast. I would be perfect on Gossip Girl.