I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating: Gossip Girl needs evil like a flower needs the rain. As I suspected, last week’s hideous Thanksgiving episode was an anomaly mostly because of the holiday: Thanksgiving is supposed to be about family and togetherness, after all, so it was the antithesis of the petty manipulation and dysfunction that makes this show purr. The moment it became clear that “Hi, Society” was going to center around a cotillion—that deliciously antiquated ritual left over from the earliest days of New York high society—I had a feeling the show would find itself again. And when committee chair Lily barked on the phone, “Those brands I listed are the keys to her happiness,” that officially sealed the deal.
The big star of tonight’s hour was Serena’s beloved Grandma CeCe, a character that would have been perfect for Angela Lansbury circa The Manchurian Candidate. So prim, so refined, so wonderfully malevolent, she seems to lurk around every corner and drinks cocktails like rocket fuel, never letting her ice to get too lonely. When CeCe persuaded Lily to force her daughter to attend the debutante ball by telling her she had lung cancer, I wrote in my notes, “Is CeCe making up cancer? Please make it so.” And it didn’t take long to realize that she’s exactly the type of person who would make up a terminal illness just to get what she wants.
For a master manipulator, CeCe overplays her hand a little bit by going after the Humphrey men, who pride themselves on unshakable (and yes, occasionally dull) integrity. But those two scenes are dynamite anyway, especially the first one with Dan, which preys on his insecurities in a way that may not work in the short term, but will haunt him over time. He doesn’t fit into Serena’s world; for just one example, look no further than tonight’s amazing exchange over whether or not Dubai is overrated, which is the sort of discussion UES kids can have without a shred of self-awareness. As CeCe astutely points out, Dan is the sort of fellow who uses a dessert fork for his entrée, and she’s right to believe he simply won’t feel comfortable in Serena’s world over the long haul. The speech doesn’t force Dan to step away—in fact, it backfires, because Dan naturally doesn’t like to get pushed around—but CeCe has planted a seed of doubt in his head and I suspect it will flourish in due time.
As for papa Rufus, CeCe’s plan backfires yet again when she offers to buy up a gallery-full of Rufus’ Boring Wife’s (RBW) crappy artwork if he convinces Dan to stay away from the cotillion. CeCe’s a bit naïve about Rufus’ nature to think that such a transparent scheme would work, especially given their not-so-close relationship when Rufus was seeing Lily. And she lets fly the revelation that she forced Lily to choose between Rufus and her inheritance, which is a fact that doesn’t sting as much as the ostensible reason they broke up 20 years earlier. Rufus and Lily have been dancing around (and occasionally with) each other all season, and their phone conversation at the end suggests that Rufus may shed RBW after all. (The sooner, the better please.)