Gossip Girl 1x16: All About My Brother

I...didn't really love this episode. For one thing, the whole Eric-is-gay thing wasn't as interesting as I was hoping, I suppose. I mean, first off, the whole scene where Dan catches Asher kissing Eric was sort of lame to me. I mean, the way it was shot, there wasn't really enough for Dan to have definitively said he saw them making out, or that it was a guy (imo). I mean, Eric was completely hidden - he could've been a girl for all that Dan saw - and the way it was shot, hell, Asher could've been leaning down to talk to someone. It was all pretty odd. They couldn't have Eric put his arm around Asher's neck or something, to telegraph 'kissing! boy! don't know who!' a bit better? And then the mom's reaction...my first reaction was 'why would she believe Georgina?' (and also, how did Georgina know? did she know?), but I suppose if she'd been thinking it, she would be particularly susceptible. I don't know what reaction I was looking for, but it fell flat to me for some reason. Maybe I'll like it better on rewatch.

Secondly, oh Rufus, I know that you're at your wits end with Jenny, but why on earth would you go to Lily for parenting advice? One of her kids was the biggest train wreck in the UES, and the other tried to kill himself. I'm just going to choose to believe that Rufus was really trying to sneakily get back together.

Oh, and why is Nelly Yuki the new Kati? That's just ridiculous. Is she somehow so stupid that she doesn't realize that Blair was trying to screw her over? Is there a quota of one Asian in the Blair entourage? What the heck.

Also, there is no reason Georgina should be able to cause this much drama. Serena can just pull Dan aside and say 'look, I know her, she's making trouble'. I'm sure she'll have pictures or something lying around to prove it. But I guess she's afraid that if she does that, Georgina will show Dan the tape. *sigh* I suppose it makes sense, kind of, but I was very frustrated the whole time, all the same. Plus! I don't know what was up on the tape, but my guess is that it was an accidental death sort of thing, not 'Serena takes a shotgun to someone's head', in which case Georgina would be just as liable, meaning it would be crazy stupid for her to show that to anyone. Serena had her on that last week! Where did that go? Come on, Serena. That said, the Serena-Blair scene at the end was very good.


What I did like (aside from the Serena-Blair scene at the end) - Asher is totally evil! Like, cartoon villain levels of evil! I suppose not quite cartoon, he did have motivation, and for Eric to have liked him he must not have been completely vile. But when he was talking to Jenny it was absolutely cartoon villain stuff, down to the 'now-I'm-evil' voice. And I enjoyed the downfall of Jenny. I always thought I'd be a bit sad when it inevitably happened, but after her ridiculous 'aw, how cute, you like me! But it's not unexpected! Buh-bye! *cheek kiss*' brushoff to Eric I just sort of laughed to myself, thinking she will totally deserve what's coming to her. And I also enjoyed that little moment of empathy Blair had (very little) when Jenny came to surrender. Oh! And I love that Eric called Chuck! I am totally going to take this to mean that Eric came out to Chuck first, but since he was cool about it, it wasn't drama-worthy enough. The show needs more Eric and Chuck!