The return of Charlie Trout

We’re watching Gossip Girl again, and we are all caught up. Shut up and stop laughing. When you’ve watched all of your shows for the week and you hear that an old one got decent again, how could you not check it out? And it DID get good again. Since we’ve been gone, Dan’s book came out and it featured Serena as a Paris Hilton type, Nathan as a gay half-Eric, Rufus as a trophy husband, Blair as the love of Dan’s life, and the return of Charlie Trout, who kills himself and gives Chuck a wake-up call. No one is too happy. Serena is upset that she wasn’t Dan’s love interest in the book, and she also thinks her portrayal will affect how she is seen at work. She works for a film production company and is doing a decent job. Dan gave her the movie rights though. After she pretty much made him. This season is going to let Serena do something conniving and wrong? Yay!

We feel bad for Dan. One of us has a family that would be ripe for a very hilarious book, and the family members even comment sometimes that she will write a book loosely based on them. But she would never do it, because people are too sensitive. The family freaks when she makes a snarky comment at dinner! A whole book? They’d set her on fire and push her in the family pool. Poor Dan didn’t even want this book to come out. Also, Rufus is exactly what Dan said, so why is he mad? Rufus IS a washed-up musician who married Lily. Rufus was all, “I can’t believe that’s how you see me.” Ummm. That’s how you are. That’s how you see you.

Chuck is starting to grow up. No, for real y'all. Also, it’s not boring. We used to think, “Chuck can never open up, heal from his problems and become a decent guy, because it would ruin the character.” But this season is showing us that the Charlie Trout life can only go on so long before you burn out and get help, or end up destroying yourself. Watching Chuck grieve the loss of Blair and his wasted life has turned out to be just as interesting as watching him be a bad boy.

Nate is being the bad boy right now. He’s back into cougars and the latest one is Elizabeth Hurley, a journalist who wants to create a new Web site to rival Gossip Girl, and she has Nate to help her. Finally, Nate has something to do on this show! We also saw the return of Ivy/Charlie, who is back to enjoy the rich life she’s been missing. Elizabeth Hurley knows that Ivy isn’t who she says she is, so Ivy has to dig up dirt on the Upper East Side to keep Hurley on her good side. Ivy is a villain and hopefully the show knows that. She’s a liar for profit, and while her doe-eyed baby face can look sympathetic, her actions are not sympathetic. We can just see Serena forgiving and adopting her when her secret gets out. We can’t wait to see the story behind the Bart Bass file and Elizabeth Hurley (her character’s name is Diana Payne).

Blair looks fantastic this season. No wonder she is shunning the lonely boy’s romantic advances. With the hair he is sporting this season, he is hardly worthy. Yes, Blair is pregnant (so is Dorota, but who cares), and she is still marrying the prince. Her main conflicts this season so far are with Prince Louis’ controlling family. At first, Prince Louis seemed reluctant to take Blair’s side in small issues. He finally came around. We like this about him, because we truly believe that one of the most common downfalls of marriage is a spouse not leaving home, emotionally and mentally. You have to take your spouse’s side, make your own family, and not let your parents interfere. There’s only room for two adult minds under one roof. To mess with that ruins both trust and intimacy. It’s not like we think the trust is fully there is this case to begin with though. Blair’s baby daddy is likely Chuck, and Prince Louis is close to finding out the child’s paternity (if he hasn’t already).

The show has also gotten rid of the dead weight. We already knew that Vanessa was gone, but so is Eric! He never brought much in the way of good storylines. Now he is on Revenge, and good riddance to him. We wish Jenny had not been let go. While everyone hated her, she sure brought drama. There is a new therapist to the rich on the show. Apparently she’s the only therapist in town, since everyone is seeing her. We thought she would just be Chuck’s new floozy, but she nailed his ass and proved herself to be up to the task of possibly fixing Chuck. We love her. This was just one example of how this show has gotten its emotional punch back. We think that’s the major triumph of the season so far. It’s made us care again, rather than write these characters off as silly people who never learn from their mistakes.