So, I may have been a little hasty when, at the end of Gossip Girl's last three episode arc, I got all huffy-and-puffy about the show revisiting familiar plot points. Because if there's anything that the third season of this show has taught us, it's that in Gossip Girl's UES, everything is cyclical. Everything is orchestrated. Everything occurs exactly how it has before, and the greatest struggle a denizen of this world can engage in is breaking that cycle. And that's why Serena didn't die in a car crash, why Nate gave Tripp the ol' Archibald right hook in front of the hospital, and why Chuck—finally reaching that all important fifth stage of grief, acceptance—had what was the series' most genuinely affecting moment since Dan and Serena had that long, crushing slow-dance at the end of the first season. Now that Chuck can accept that his father is dead, he can now also accept that he is not becoming Bart Bass.
Ah yes, but this is Gossip Girl, so they to address that denial of transformation in the bluntest way possible: By having Chuck ignore the one-year anniversary of his father's death, all the while having the fuck haunted out of him by the ghost of Bart, who delivered his typical mix of cutthroat business advice and not-so-fatherly put-downs from beyond the grave. Aside from raising (again, from the grave!) the question of whether or not Chuck's been acting out his own personal version of Ghost Dad, Bart's reappearance at least served as explanation as to why Chuck's been acting so non-Chuck lately. If Bart truly has been shadowing Chuck every day since he died, than it's no wonder Chuck's become more work-obsessed, more withdrawn, and less apt to wear purple. He's matured too much to return to Old Chuck's more watchable ways, but I was fully expecting the post-acceptance of New Chuck to loosen up a little, maybe try an ascot for the next board meeting—until he encountered what may have been his mother at Bart's gravesite. Can't really make peace with your father if he was lying to you your whole life, huh? Boom, cliffhanger.
So Chuck's left dealing with the fact that his mother might have been in hiding for his entire life, while Serena's hidden parent indirectly landed the girl in a Long Island emergency room. The letter disclosing the recent rendezvous between Keith Van Der Woodsen and Lily Humphrey (a change in surname Jenny reminded us of tonight) has become the show's latest, biggest bargaining tool, used by Maureen to ensure that she can keep playing Jacqueline Kennedy to Serena's Marilyn Monroe. Apparently to keep this storyline going would only mean more JFK analogies and Tripp outliving Serena—only to be felled himself by a magic bullet. We know this can't happen because Serena can't die (prove me wrong, Gossip Girl writers—I dare ya), so instead she put and end to their relationship. What did she get in return? A bloodied noggin, and a car accident Tripp caused (Swerving to avoid wolves!) and blamed on Serena. Therefore becoming a representation of a lesser Kennedy, Tripp was free to recede quietly into the background—until his face met Nate's fist.
At this point, for Nate to resume his fight against his Van Der Bilt heritage is expected by the audience as much as his continuation of the Van Der Bilt dynasty is expected by his family, but for the first time, his motivations aren't driven by a youthful need to rebel or an allegiance to his father. This time it's about Serena, and for once, his brooding is interesting, if not the tiniest bit rote; interesting because he's starting to resemble an empathetic figure (much easier to relate with "unrequited love" brooding than "father fingered for embezzlement" brooding), and rote because Nate and Serena are star-crossed lovers, and what coupling on this show—or any teen drama before it—hasn't been star-crossed? It may seem like he's splitting from the path that was laid out for him, but Nate is the product of a golden child-black sheep marriage, and a Nate-Serena pairing would bear the exact same markings. The pattern repeats itself.