Gossip Girl: The end?

Well, ladies and germs, Gossip Girl finally made the teen drama jump. This week's season finale was the graduation episode. All teen dramas have to deal with this at some point. I mean, they can't stay in high school forever...right?

So what happens next? Do we follow our heroes on to college? Does the series end with high school? (The answer to that question is almost always no.) Gossip Girl is handling this by most of its characters attending NYU in the fall. How convenient. Now we can stay in the city and nothing will really change (since very little in the show, unlike most teen dramas, took place in school anyway). And really...would these kids all be going to NYU? (Sort of like how the gang from 90210 all macially ended up at California University, or whatever fake school they all went to.) I mean, sure, they each have a reason: Nate wants to defy his family but not attending an Ivy League, Dan is worried about the financial pressure Yale would put on his family (cause NYU is sooo inexpensive...it's basically a state school), Blair didn't get into Yale and didn't have any backup schools but her new step father happened to know the right person to ger her into NYU at the last minute.

The graduation was of course not without its drama, but things seemed to wrap up a little too nicely in the end. Serena decided to wage war on the gossip girl (whoever she is!) and so right as they were about to graduate a "huge gossip bomb" was dropped. I really didn't think it was that huge. It's not like any secrets were even revealed. Basically the gossip girl just labeled each of the main characters, and this was somehow shocking. Whatev. I enjoyed that the popular Blair followers belted their robes.

Of course the graduation ceremony was full of proud parents and proud kids alike, and it sparked the following conversation between me and the ole ball-and-chain.
Qualler: Who actually even cares about graduating from high school?
Me: All those kids from The Wire, season four.
Qualler: Good call.

Qualler did make a good point, however. On all these teen dramas, the high school graduation seems like a much more significant right of passage than it should be for these particular characters. What's going to change for the GG crew? No parents? They hardly had parents all through high school. They already went to bars, pretty much ran their own affairs, did what they wanted without restrictions...now they just won't have to wear the uniforms, I guess. It also seems strange that a show that really didn't focus around high school (yes, the characters were high schoolers, but most of the action happened outside school...and we could sort of forget that they were supposed to be a bunch of 17 year olds) would end a season with a graduation episode. Appropriately, much of this episode did surround a fabulous post-graduation party, much better than any I ever attended (no offense to the back yard bonfires and cook outs). Blair decided to name Jenny the new queen, and I'm wondering how that will develop in season 3. Can Jenny really resist the temptation to become another mean girl?

Some of the best parts of the episdoe of course surrounded the Chuck and Blair saga. Oh, Chuck and Blair! Finally. I wasn't sure they'd come through, but...they did. Sorta. I was kind of annoyed that once again she declared her love for him and once again he bailed...only this time he came back! With gifts for her! Oh Chuck, you weren't in Europe hiding from your feelings, you were there getting presents for Blair! Hurray! Everyone's happy. It seemed a little to easy...I'm not sure what I was expecting, but this didn't quite cut it for me. I am, however, glad that they're finally done with the will they--won't they game, but where will it go from here?

Everything did indeed wrap up neatly in the end. After gossip girl really did unleash all her stored gossip (Blair sleeping with chuck's uncle, Chuck sleeping with Vanessa, etc.) she explained that she wanted them to start out their college lives with a clean slate. No more secrets! She even hoped that their secrets would bond them for life. Seems a little too sentimental for the GG, if you ask me...but I guess things had to wrap up somehow.

Of course there are some new ridiculous plot lines looming on the horizon:
Georgina rooming with Blair at school? Whaaa? But they HATE each other! What situations will arise from this odd couple?

The long lost son that Lily and Idiot head (Rufus) had together isn't dead at all, and in fact he's tracking them down, starting with befriending Dan! And he'll also be at NYU in the fall! Whoooa!

Serena's been looking for her long lost dad, and now he's been found?? Wha?!? How will that complicate things with Lily and Dan's just-like-him-no-need-for-his-own-name-stupid-dad?

I can't wait for season 3!! Bring on college life.

This entry was posted by Brigitte, on Thursday, May 21, 2009. You can leave your response.