GOSSIP GIRL (4.1 – Belles de Jours)

Previously On…Gossip Girl

Little J sleeps her way into Nate’s bed. Georgina shows up preggers with Dan’s baby. Serena and Blair decide to ditch the city for Paris. Chuck is mugged and left for dead.

Serena and Blair’s summer in Paris is filled with couture and sancerre but Blair is dying for some romance. Her days of reading Colette in the park and hoping for a like mind haven’t panned out. Luckily for her, while j’adoring a Manet, a gorgeous Frenchman named Louie appears and tries to woo her to dinner. Overhearing a conversation dropping bon mots like, “the car is here” “Grimaldi” and “embassy,” Blair doesn’t waste a moment and jumps on her prince like a fat kid on the last piece of birthday cake. B convinces S to come with on said date. But ouch, Louie’s not actually the prince, he’s the driver. The real prince gets Serena. Score another for S.

What the hell, I liked Vanessa in this episode? Am I mental? After lines like “Geor-gina,” “Her hair lies!” “You can’t trust anything that comes out of her mouth…or anywhere else,” how could I not? Vanessa was the best part of Georgina’s crazy scheme to dump off her baby with Dan in between fielding calls in frenzied Russian about it “almost being done.”

Thank goodness the best thing about the Melrose Place reboot failure last year (Katie Cassidy) was saved and brought over to GG. As the show’s new resident crazy, with her wall of Nate, Blair and Serena tied together with yarn, Flashforward style, we should be able to rely on her for a weekly dose of wacko.

After months of wondering what Chuck’s fate is….we still sort of don’t? Apparently he’s in a foreign land being nursed by a blond chickie but with just flashes of memory. Renaming himself “Henry” after seeing a copy of Henry V on his bedside table, Chuck seems to be feeling like fresh start. But without all that Bass money, will a twin bed and some stale cookies be enough for him?