Finally, Gossip Girl will be back this Monday after a two month hiatus and E! has a sneak peek that reveals so interesting new developments for everyone’s favorite couples, Nate and Serena, and Blair and Chuck.

It looks like Nate and Serena are getting busy on top of Chuck Bass’ couch, and luckily for Chuck, Blair had it Scotchguarded.

The bad news is, that Blair and Chuck don’t seem to be “connecting” quite as well. “He’s shutting me out,” Blair tells Serena, “in his head, all the time. Last week he went through something and if he’s still upset, I just want him to be able to talk to me.”

But, don’t count them out just yet, the show’s runner, Stephanie Savage, has hinted that the power couple will be just fine. In fact, that “something” (which is probably the return of Chuck’s mom) may get them on track.

“Chuck and Blair’s main story when we come back will be solving the mystery of the lady at Bart’s grave,” Stephanie said. “Who she is, where she came from, what she wants. I think it’s a really great Chuck and Blair story that’s very emotional. You see them working together and supporting each other in a way that I think fans will really enjoy.”

Check out the entire preview below:

Bad news for Bluck (or Clair or Chair) fans: Chuck (Ed Westwick) and Blair (Leighton Meester) are breaking up.

Rumors have been swirling on message boards that the two would split before the end of the season but now E! News has confirmed it. And there’s no way to sugar coat it. Insiders are saying, “It’s a bad, bad breakup.”

After almost a full season of peace and love between Chuck Bass and Blair Waldorf, it will be Chuck who ends it.

Apparently, Chuck does “something horrible,” and everyone hates him for it. It will come as no surprise to fans that Jack Bass (Desmond Harrington) is also implicated in the break up drama.

No word yet on how long their off-again status will last, but it will unfold in either episode 17 (“Inglourious Bassterds”) or episode 18 (“The Unblairable Lightness of Being”), which air in mid-April.

The show is currently on hiatus until March 8. Its replacement, Life Unexpected, debuted Monday night to the highest ratings The CW has seen in a year. Hopefully, Life’s success won’t mean the end of Gossip Girl all together.

One of the long running mysteries on Gossip Girl has involved Serena’s long-lost father, but it won’t be long before that mystery is solved. The show has booked a very recognizable face to make an appearance on the show in the spring as Serena’s dad.

William Baldwin, who was last seen in Dirty Sexy Money, has signed on to play Serena’s deadbeat father who returns for his daughter. Starting in April, Baldwin will appear in several episodes of the series, which is on hiatus until March 8.

Serena (Blake Lively) has spent a significant portion of the current season looking for her father while her mother, Lily, has been hiding letters from him. Serena has also been busy playing homewrecker with a congressman, but that’s a story for another post.

Baldwin played Patrick Darling on ABC’s Dirty Sexy Money; his other recent credits include Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Squid and the Whale.

The choice of Baldwin seems like a good one, not only does he resemble Blake Lively but he is no stranger to prime time soaps or real-life family drama.

Things start off several hours into the future as Serena and Tripp are both wearing gender-appropriate stupid hats in Tripp’s philanderer-mobile as he declares his love for her.  Things turn all sorts of Chappaquiddick-flavored as Tripp swerves to avoid hitting a family of wolves who have escaped from Twilight and hits a guardrail, compacting the front end of his car and knocking Serena unconscious with a head wound. From there, the episode shifts back several hours into the time-space continuum to tell the story of how things got that way. By the end of the episode, things become further complicated for all of the Upper East Side crew, only resolved for a select few before Gossip Girl goes on winter break. 

At Casa de Van der Humphrey, Lily is reorganizing her closet obsessive compulsively, as most of the females on this show do in times of crisis.  Since Serena hasn’t been returning her phone calls, Lily is all verklempt, to the point of missing a condo association meeting, sending Rufus as her stand-in for him. Rufus obliges like a good little hubby and meets with Holland Campbell, a condo board meeting head who makes with the insta-TMI, divulging that “We all sacrifice ourselves for love,” particularly when your husband was nailing  your yoga teacher. 

Speaking of banging, Serena is shacking up and playing house with Tripp, going all goo-goo eyed over Tripp and his crazed Medusa stare.  Tripp, meanwhile, ponders when the poop will hit the fan and his political career will be affected and secretly calls Maureen.  He lies to Serena and says he’s calling Grandpa Van der Bilt for advice – a fact that Nate later refutes when he tells Serena that Grandpa is in Bermuda.  Serena starts to realize something is up when she’s alone in Tripp’s other home and Maureen pays her a visit, clutching the letter from Papa Van der Woodsen as blackmail.  The kicker is, she has realized that it’s in her best interest to allow Tripp to cheat and make Serena the Marilyn and her the Jackie O.  Maureen has deemed it’s okay for Tripp to have his fling, keep his career, and their marriage because it helps to allow them both to have a dream that neither is willing to let go of.  It’ll only be a matter of time before Tripp comes back to her and Serena is just another hump n’ dump.

The real twist is that Maureen says unless Serena does as she says, or she spills the beans to Rufus that Lily may have extended her stay with CeCe to hit the skins with Papa Van der Woodsen for one last romp.  Rufus would not be pleased if he knows this.  Serena calls Van der Mommy to tell her how wrong she was about Tripp and to give her a heads up on Maureen’s blackmail plans.  Lily vows to tell Rufus what really happened, but never gets a chance thanks to Serena’s accident and drama with Chuck.  Regardless, Maureen delivers the letter to Rufus who ends up hanging out in a bar with condo association divorcee, Holland Campbell. Wow.  That was a quick rebound, Rufus! Way to actually talk to your wife and see what really happened, chief! Maybe Holland will appreciate your stupid Bolognese!

Meanwhile, Serena is furious that Tripp lied to her about the divorce and his status with Maureen.  She demands to go home and Tripp offers to drive her.  The scenario with the wolves, bad hats, and the car crash from the beginning of the episode ensues.  Serena hits her head on dashboard and Tripp takes advantage of the situation.  Nate, who has been in constant contact with Serena and reeks of eau du desperate, arrives on the scene as Serena is being loaded into the ambulance.  She asks how Tripp is and Nate tells her he’s not there. Which is funny, considering that Tripp moved Serena to the driver’s side and then left her inside the car.  At the hospital, Tripp is waiting outside and is all sorts of concerned to Nate. Maureen then says that Grandpa is on her side and will corroborate her story that Tripp was with her all night, discrediting Serena’s story.  Given her track record with booze, drugs, and guys, Serena will look like a fool if she tells the truth.  Nate then punches out Tripp in a satisfying moment. 

In other stories this episode, Queen Jenny and Eric end up calling a truce after Eric’s plan involving Ugly Duckling-turned-(semi)-Swan Kira and another of Queen J’s coordinating beret and leather jacketed minions trying to out-fashionista Jenny with a new YSL bag.  Jenny trumps them all by providing the exclusive YSL bags for everyone in her crew, all but declaring “Am I not merciful!?” while looking fabulous.  Eric’s attempt to make Queen J look like a tyrant backfires and he decides to call it a day and allow her to be queen.  Either way, Queen J may be up for a  fall since Hot Belgian Drug Dealer is back in the picture and Jenny is earning money for those bags by helping him unload his wares. 

Dan has a cheesy story this time around and ends up with yet another bland, not really attractive redhead that the Gossip Girl casting directors have a thing for this season.  Dan makes out with Willa the Drama Major and then tells Vanessa that he really, really cares about her.  Vanessa is totally nonplussed by this revelation.

And in the other big storyline of the ep, Chuck Bass finds himself on the one year anniversary of his father, Bart’s death.  Not just that, but in true Ebenezer Scrooge fashion, Chuck is haunted by Bart’s ghost who alternately insults him and urges him to “do the right thing” as Chuck contemplates buying a building and displacing its homeless denizens into the street for profit. 

Blair notices Chuck’s lack of emotion and calls him out on his deliberate lack of mourning.  At a loss, she goes to Lily for help, telling her Chuck won’t visit Bart’s grave and that Bart never told him where his own mother was buried, deeming it too morbid for a kid to know.  Although she’s concerned about her former step-son’s well being, Lily was completely oblivious that it was the first anniversary of Bart’s death. 

Lily eventually shows up to talk to Chuck, bearing a bunch of wild flowers.  He responds that the best way to honor Bart is to work. When she leaves, he Chuck chucks the flowers in the trash, noting that they should be yellow roses, his mother’s favorite.

Things come to a head with Serena’s accident when most of the main players find themselves in the hospital to visit her, check on her well-being, and say “I told you so” about getting involved with Tripp… Except Nate who ends up sleeping in the hospital room to show his love for Serena.  Awww….

While visiting Serena at the hospital, a rather shaken Chuck gives pause to think about his father’s death that day and possibly could of having lost a friend/former step-sister this year.  Blair shows support for Serena and Chuck, coming to the hospital in her very classy pajamas.  (Seriously, though… Her pajamas were probably classier than some stuff most people wear in public!)

The hospital brings back uncomfortable memories for Chuck.  He tells Blair that his father thought he was weak and he believes his father was right.  He couldn’t be there as Bart died and was taken off life support, as we see in a flashback. Blair tells Chuck that it wasn’t a weakness to not be able to handle death, but rather it was because he couldn’t handle feelings.  Since that day one year ago, he’s changed and has made Blair a better person and has grown as a man so much.  She brings him past the room where Bart died and allows him to say goodbye in his own way.

Chuck takes a more active action in mourning his father that night and arrives alone at the grave site for his mother and Bart, bearing yellow roses.  He sees a sobbing woman at the grave who runs off after calling Chuck by name.  She leaves behind a locket with Bart’s picture in it. 

Looks like we’ll be meeting the infamous Chuck Bass’s supposedly-dead mother in 2010 when Gossip Girl returns!

It’s Thanksgiving at the Van der Humphrey house and everyone’s attempting to patch together their holiday traditions.  What initially starts off as a small, intimate get-together turns into a multi-party Charlie Foxtrot – which can also apply to this episode. 

The crux of the episode hinges on Serena and Tripp’s attempt to play JFK and Marilyn.  The twist this time is that Tripp is planning on dumping his wife, Maureen.  He tells Serena that the real reason why he wants a divorce are trust issues stemming from Maureen’s involvement in orchestrating Hudson-gate… not because he wants to boink his new, young, blonde assistant.  Stupid Serena still wants to spend some quality time with the Tripp-ster.  Although she’s still in unconsummated territory with her boss and vows to stay that way, Serena tells Lily and the rest of the Van der Humphries a big ol’ lie that Tripp’s forcing her to work the soup kitchen with him on Thanksgiving day. Oh, and the two make out like someone slipped them both some Spanish Fly in the elevator in Chuck Bass’s building. Little do they know, Chuck’s surveillance cameras got their little tryst on film. 

Serena’s community service-themed lie comes back to bite her in the tookus when Lily runs into Maureen on the street. While she’s aware that they’re both wearing the same jacket, Lily is oblivious to the fact thatMaureen, just served with the news that she’s the soon-to-be “ex” Mrs. Congressman Van der Bilt, was bleary-eyed with tears. Lily makes mention that Serena is will be working the soup kitchen with Tripp and she’s bummed about it. Smelling that this is a crock of gravy, Maureen takes up Lily’s invitation for her and Tripp to show up at the Van Der Humphrey dinner and give Serena some “family time.” 

Things get further complicated when Serena pops by Nate’s to tell him what’s going on.  Tripp then cancels their Thanksgiving plans on Serena, telling her that Maureen was a wreck when he broke the news to her.  (Duh. Like any social-climbing, young politico wife who just staged a coup to get her hubby elected to office would be thrilled that she’s being ousted for a newer, even younger model?)

Speaking of twisted triangles, Dan is still patting himself on the back about his three-way (which is such old news already). He keeps blathering on about how Vanessa keeps saying he has developed a new facial expression (that isn’t an “o” face) that he keeps fixing her with that has never been before.  Speaking of Vanessa, she shows up at the Humphrey loft, looking for a place to crash since she didn’t have permission from her mother to stay at the dorms. And speaking of Vanessa’s holiday-hating, societal convention tirade-spouting mother, Gabriella Rufus invited her to Thanksgiving dinner, too.  (This marks the second time Gina Torres: Harbinger of Television Show Death has made an appearance on the show.  This does not bode well for Gossip Girl.)

Across town, Dorota the Maid is trying to calm the one-woman tornado known as Miss Blair while simultaneously dodging Vanya the Doorman’s phone calls.  Blair is all in a tither since her mother, Eleanor has just come back from Paris with Cyrus and has with her a large manila envelope from her lawyers regarding revisions to her will.  When Blair grills Dorota about what Eleanor may be keeping from her, she rips the bag out of Dorota’s hands she thinks is carrying the secret and it’s loaded with an empty pregnancy test.  Blair kicks into high gear attempting to pry the news that her Mom is preggers from Eleanor’s lips themselves and gets her to accompany her and Chuck to Thanksgiving dinner at the Van der Humphries.  They may as well since Dorota will be working the dinner and attending to those guests, too. (And yes, Dorota ends up being festively-clad with an orange leaf print collar, cuffs and apron on her standard black maid ensemble.)

Jenny and Eric are civil with each other at first, flip-flopping their roles as Good Step-Sibling and Bad Step-Sibling. Jenny asks Eric if he wants to invite Jonathan to dinner.  Eric informs her that he and Jonathan broke up.  Jenny sets about making reparations, texting Jonathan and calling for a Turkey Day truce so that her step-bro and his former beau can reconcile. Jonathan never contacts her back and doesn’t show up to Thanksgiving dinner.

That doesn’t stop everyone else from showing up, however. And everyone also includes Lily’s mother — that one-woman, WASP-y Axis of Evil – CeCe.  Dear, simple Rufus made the mistake of inviting her to dinner after wishing her a happy Thanksgiving during a video chat. She insists she’s well enough to travel, her illness having gone into remission back in August and is delighted to attend. Boy, will this be fun!

The fun really starts rolling when Rufus stands at the head of the table and tells this lame pilgrim/rockstar joke as obnoxiously loud, pop/techno soundtrack music blares over most of the dialogue at the table.  Amid the torrent of dramatic revelations and assorted snit fits that go down are:

•        Eleanor isn’t pregnant… Dorota is!  And she’s not returning Vanya’s calls!  Eleanor’s secret is that she’s going to live with Cyrus in Paris.  (Which is also where Blair’s other two fabulous daddies live!).  Instead, Eleanor wants to leave Blair to “conquer New York” and make it hers.  Are you kidding?! Blair is only 19!  She hasn’t even finished a midterm yet, much less is she ready to take Manhattan! (Way to write out two entertaining minor characters, Gossip Girl.)
•         Jenny hears from Blair that Eric was the one who sabotaged her at cotillion.  Eric retorts that Jenny’s sweet potatoes are bland.  (Really.  He did.)  Furthermore, he cops to his own dark side and tells Jenny Cakes that her time as Queen is coming to an end and he has a secret weapon to help bring her down.  (Way to play your hand, Easy-E!)
•          Vanessa freaks out on her mother, Gabriella for being a tree-hugging, self-righteous on a Humphrey-esque level disappointment and Gabriella maintains that Vanessa is an equally self-righteous disappointment of the social-climbing variety.
•         Vanessa and Dan quibble about the “facial expression.” (Curiously, with all the mud-slinging and revelations, no one spills the beans about Dan’s three-way.  Hell, I’m surprised he didn’t start bragging about it at the table!)
•          CeCe went into remission in August… Lily didn’t return home until October.

The best part of all, however, occurs when Tripp shows up to dinner with Maureen.  Ever-the-considerate boss/cheating husband, Tripp informs Serena that he’s on the way and the two will weather the storm together, even though when Tripp and Maureen show up, they’re completely lovey-dovey.  Even better,  Tripp also throws in some sappy crap that Serena eats up with a spoon that he’s grateful for the time he gets to spend with her, even if he has to share it with everyone else.

Tripp gets his chance to share Serena with everyone else – or at least what kind of a kisser she is — as Nate, at Chuck and Maureen’s behest, shares the footage of Tripp and Serena’s love in an elevator tribute to Aerosmith. Nate, Blair, and Chuck do this for Serena’s own good, of course while Maureen is merely bent on revenge.  Of course, Nate has another motive, particularly since he’s still in love with Serena.

Blair and Chuck voice their disapproval towards Serena’s stupid decision to dally with a married man, much less one in public office. Blair insists that no man ever leaves his wife for his mistress and in six months, she’ll be another Hump n’ Dump for Congressman Van der Bilt. Nate also makes a last-ditch plea, reminding Serena of his feelings and urging her to choose him over his creepy, crazy-eyed Congressman cousin.

Lily, on the other hand, is much harsher on Serena.  She tells her that she knows what it’s like to have been left for someone else. Serena counters saying that her case is different, because she (naively) believes she and Tripp will stay together.  Since common sense or morality doesn’t appeal to Serena, Lily tells Serena that until she stops fooling around with a married man, she’s no longer welcome in her house and boots her from Chez Bass/Van der Humphrey. 

Serena repents to her guests and Maureen (who could care less and still hates Serena) and publicly swears off Tripp.  However, when Serena and Blair chat in Bart Bass’s old room with the ginormous safe, she comes across the letter from Papa Van der Woodsen that Lily had intercepted and kept from her.  Throwing the letter in Lily’s face, Serena tells her mother she has no right to judge her since she kept news from the father she had been trying to contact all summer.  Just to spite everyone, Serena and Tripp are back on! FTW!

Maureen leaves the apartment separately, clutching in her hands some very potent information that made her smile.  (Gossip Girl seems to really like young, smug, upper crust redheads who manage to be somewhat bland while possessing an evil streak this season, doesn’t it?)

As Serena angrily storms out of Thanksgiving dinner following Tripp in the elevator, Lily and Rufus chat about why she was M.I.A. until October when CeCe had recovered in August.  Lily makes up some story that she wanted quality time with her mother and CeCe corroborates the story.  When mother and daughter are alone, CeCe makes like a Prada-wearing Emperor Palpatine, alluding to a secret she knows will blow up in Lily’s face.

In another corner of the Van der Humphrey house, Vanessa and Gabriella make up and Gabriella has a heart-to-heart with Dan.  She warns that while Dan and Vanessa’s friendship survived the first time he broke her heart and turned her down, a second round of this could permanently damage things between them. 

While this wasn’t a bad episode, it could have used a visit from the Continuity Fairy and the Common Sense Fairy.  With everyone else and their hamster at the Van der Humphrey table, you would think Rufus and Lily’s long-lost-and-found love child would put in an appearance. Furthermore, Tripp is going to throw away his young, yet wildly successful political career and marriage for a jobless blonde without so much as a semester of college under her belt… that hasn’t even put out yet?  Please!  Get your act together, Gossip Girl!  I expect better from you than this!

This week, Gossip Girl has Dan feeling the effects of his threesome, Jenny taking a walk on the wild side, Serena hurtling towards the stupid end of the pool and Blair continuing to plot her domination of NYU as Lady Gaga puts in a guest appearance.  Meanwhile, Nate manages to look pretty while being banished to the Friends Zone.

Dan Humphrey, who has been high-fiving his way across campus, has bought into his own hype as the man who scored with a world-famous starlet and somehow ended up pulling off a threesome with his best friend.  Nate calls him out on his supreme stupidity, insisting that the “third” should have been a total stranger.  He cites his credentials as the voice of experience as Chuck Bass’s best friend and having dated (Very Vocal) Vanessa.  Dan still gloats it up and insists he and Vanessa are still BFF and nothing has changed, even going to a Morrissey concert with V later that night. Ah, hubris thy name is Humphrey!

Meanwhile, Congressman Tripp still wants to get his bill in Serena’s house, even though he’s married.  Tempted to Tripp the light fantastic, Serena staves off temptation and spills her guts about the situation to Nate, who is all too happy to rekindle his friendship with her.  Playing counselor to Serena (as well as Dan and everyone else on the Upper East Side), Nate advises her to avoid Tripp’s phone calls and drives home the point that getting involved with a married man would be bad for her and even more disastrous for his cousin’s political career.  Speaking of Tripp, Nate’s mommy pays a visit to Cuz and tells him that she knows that it was Tripp’s wife, Maureen, who orchestrated Hudson-Gate and not dear old Grandpa Van Der Bilt.  This is just the thing that Tripp needs to set him off on a path of mistrust with his wife and a ham-fisted excuse to pursue his feelings for Serena.  He calls Nate to tell him how confused he is and Nate is torn between playing the Good Cousin and the Good Friend.

After a day of pal-ing around town, Nate and Serena wind up at a bar.  Several drinks later, Nate breaks down and confesses Serena that he loved her and that he was going to tell her two years ago at the masquerade ball. Instead, he actually told a masked Jenny Humphrey, who he thought was Serena. Nate and Serena are about to kiss when Tripp walks into the bar, pouting about what he now knows about his wife. Stupid Serena ditches Nate and makes with the tongue action on Tripp as Nate sits forlornly at the bar.

In a sub-plot, Chuck has former stepsister Little J entertain the son of a Belgian hotel magnate whom he’s dealing with.  The Belgian Boy Babe has been doing some “dealing” of his own, as it turns out and is an international drug dealer.  Jenny is plainly smitten with the dashing dude and agrees to help him slide his product under the table at a night club.  It’s Chuck Bass to the rescue, booting the Belgian from the club and putting the kibosh on his deal with Daddy.  He advises Jenny to steer clear of this guy, but then again, Queen J believes only she knows what’s best for her and is seen texting Dealer Dearest on her cell, hoping to meet up for a rendezvous, possibly in an upcoming episode.  (Oooh!  Little J’s going to develop a Little Habit!  I love it!)

As is Blair’s habit, she’s back on track towards amassing more power to her NYU clique.  Realizing that drama of the Hollywood variety takes precedence to mere breeding, Blair attempts to infiltrate the NYU drama mafia by dropping stepdaddy Cyrus’s name as an entertainment lawyer with connections who can score the school a Lady Gaga appearance at the student cabaret. When the drama mafia brushes her off and denies her a spot on the caberet, La Waldorf makes another plan and uses the tension between the Dan/Olivia/Vanessa faction as pawns to fuel her combustion engine.

Olivia has a plan of her own to prove to Vanessa that she’s still Dan’s #1 girl and Vanessa will always be (in the immortal words of Biz Markie) “just a friend.”  Intent on staying at NYU since her movie deal fell through, Olivia intends to make full use of NYU’s stellar drama department to hone her acting chops.  This coincides nicely with Dan’s ambition to get into the school’s writing program, Tish.

Blair butters up Olivia to get a slot on the caberet and Olivia uses her star power to bring in Dan as a writer for her cabaret skit, a rockin’ reimagining of Snow White using Lady Gaga’s music as a backdrop for the action and character development.  Olivia is set to play Snow White as a pop star chanteuse with Dan as Prince of Charming records. Even better, the cabaret show coincides with the date of the Morrissey concert, leaving poor Vanessa out in the cold. 

What Olivia wasn’t counting on was Dan bringing in Vanessa to direct the cabaret play/skit.  Although Olivia is the lead, Vanessa is intent on having the Four Dwarves upstage her, dropping bitch-bombs left and right in an attempt to assert her own authority as Dan’s #1. Olivia retaliates by telling Vanessa that she knows she’s in love with Dan and that it’s painfully obvious to everyone else, as well.

Things come to a head when Vanessa and Olivia throw down with each other and both angrily storm out during rehearsal.  Blair, fittingly cast in the role of the beautiful Evil Queen (with poor Amalia as her Magic Mirror), realizes what’s going on and comes to the conclusion that Dan Humphrey had a three-way with Olivia Burke and Vanessa.  Echoing Nate’s sentiments that the third should never be someone you will see again, Blair’s blackmail machine kicks into high gear.

Not allowing her shot to wow the NYU drama mafia, Blair threatens both Vanessa and Olivia with broadcasting the news of their three-way not only to the entire school, but to Gossip Girl, TMZ and any other major tabloid if they don’t get back into the show.

Olivia phones in a performance as Snow White before abandoning her role during the second act, leaving Vanessa to step in as a “post plastic-surgery” Snow White.  Flashbacks to tender moments during the threeway with just Dan and Vanessa ensue when Dan kisses her in the role of Snow White. 

The show is a big hit with the NYU drama crowd and Blair scores extra brownie points for not only her bravura (albeit somewhat typecast) performance and an appearance by Lady Gaga who shows up to sing her latest song, “Bad Romance.”

Afterwards, Olivia understandingly tells Dan that she knows how he feels about Vanessa and that it’s more than just friends.  She’s leaving to star in a new film, but will return to NYU in the fall, leaving the door open for them at a later date.  Dan still thinks he’s got a steady girl… Until Vanessa says she’s hit it off with some dude in the drama department, leaving Dan to contemplate his reinstated status as “Lonely Boy.”

The Gossip Girl threesome between Olivia (Hilary Duff), Dan (Penn Badgley) and Vanessa (Jessica Szohr) may have upset parents last week but its the threesome who have the issues this week as they deal with the morning after and the news that Olivia isn’t leaving after all. Tonight’s episode will focus on the three of them reconnecting and the unavoidable awkwardness after a night of recklessness.

But, believe it or not, that won’t be the highlight of tonight’s show. Instead, the show-stopper will likely be the performance from Lady GaGa in a 30 foot dress! You can check out a preview of GaGa’s performance and the rest of the show below!

Gossip Girl springs back into fine form with an episode that ties together the floundering storylines of the past few weeks.  Chuck and Nate scheme to get Serena and Blair back to BFF status.  Jenny continues down the path to the Dark Side, owning to her Queen of Constance status at her society debut.  And Dan and Olivia’s syrupy sweetness gets an added ingredient in the form of Vanessa.

Things kick off with preparations for the society debut of scads of teenage New York socialites, one of which is Queen J.  Seems that Cinderella hasn’t found a suitable Prince Charming to stand with her at her debut, nor dance with her at the cotillion.  Self-conscious of her Jenny From the Block Brooklynite status, she deems that no one less than hunky Graham Collins (a heretofore unseen character) will do.  After brushing past a slightly dumpy “nobody” named Kira, Eric picks up the slack and talks with the girl who wants nothing more than to be friends with her idol, Jenny.  Additionally, she knows Graham Collins and wants to hook him up with Jenny as an “in” into her circle of minions.  Eric volunteers to be Kira’s escort to her debut.

Eric, still fuming over his humiliation at the hands of Queen J a few weeks ago, attempts to play nice with Jenny.  He offers his own boyfriend, Jonathan, as her debutante escort, citing that he comes from the prestigious Whitney family and will make her look good.  Indebted to her step-bro, Jenny accepts.  Meanwhile, Eric intercepts a text message from Graham Collins who offers to escort Jenny.  Replying as Queen J, Eric politely declines the invite on the grounds of already having an escort.

Meanwhile, Eric’s big sis, Serena, fresh out of a job with K.C. has accepted a position with Nate’s cousin, Congressman Tripp as his publicist.  She gets more than she bargained for when Tripp confesses to having a crush on her.  Factor in that he’s married, a politician, and Serena is a blonde and you’ve got yourself one helluva JFK/Marilyn situation right here.  Although Tripp made no creepy advances and was quite sweet about it, Serena rightly bolted.

Across town, Chuck and Nate decide to get in touch with their inner Lucy and Ethyl, conspiring to mend fences between Blair and Serena.  When Blair walks in and is eerily, cheerily calm, Chuck notes that it the last time that he saw her that chipper was when Serena  went to boarding school.  Smelling that Blair will likely implode in a shower of Chanel in T-minus several hours, they get cracking on a plan centering around the cotillion where both Blair and Serena are slated to be mentors to the soon-to-be-debutantes. 

B and S engage in a standoff at Serena’s place, pre-cotillion headquarters, with Blair sniping Jenny from Serena’s mentorship and claiming her as her own.  Under Blair’s tutelage, she deems Jonathan Whitney a subpar escort, citing her own stellar (and straight) choice of her then-boyfriend Nate Van Der Bilt as the man who walked with her at her own debut.  Noting that a girl’s debut is “not like you’re wedding! It only comes once!” she takes Jenny under her wing.  Meanwhile, Eric and Jonathan put their tousled heads together to try to figure out how to stop Darth Jenny’s Vader-esque turn to the Dark Side.

Back on campus, Olivia and Dan are cutesy-ing it up with Vanessa in her perennial supporting role as “good friend/good roommate.”  They find themselves bum-rushed by the café geeks grilling Olivia about the email blast about the possibility of an Endless Nights 4.  Olivia brushes off the rumors before her phone is gang-raped by her agents, parents, and other assorted handlers pressuring her to do the movie. 

Olivia realizes she will have to postpone her “normal” college life and return to school next year.  As a parting gift, Dan and Vanessa offer to give her a whirlwind “ultimate college” experience to remember.  Shots, beer pong, and other relatively tame college hijinx ensue on the itinerary Dan and Vanessa download.  The one thing left that needs to be done on the list is a three-some.  Surprisingly, Olivia seems to be the most keen to do it, and “do it” they do.  (In spite of the controversy surrounding this plot point, the only thing racy about it was fully-clothed, three-way kissing between the two gals and one guy.  The aftermath was implied with the three of them sharing a bed in a dimly lit room.  Hardly anything worthy of Emanuelle status.)  But no one gets off that easily.  (Pardon the pun.)  As it turns out, Endless Nights 4 has been cancelled, leaving Olivia to have her “normal” college experience… Not quite so normal now after doing the three-way nasty with Dan and Vanessa (who has now broken free of the Friends Zone!).

Back at the pre-cotillion festivities, Little J is making friends all over the place!  She discovers that Eric blocked her date with Graham. Eric says it was for her own good since he knows Graham and thinks he’s a douche.  Jenny retaliates by insulting Eric publicly, and moments later, publicly disses and dismisses Blair as her cotillion mentor.   Jenny promptly texts Graham back and tells him she needs an escort.

In turn, Blair decides to take dumpy little Kira under her wing and vows to make her Queen of Constance. This mentorship course also includes a wonderful speech in which Blair notes how both Jenny and Serena aren’t worthy of friendship and subject their “friends” to “emotional Ponzi schemes.” After a mini-makeover which turns Kira into (sort of) a beautiful swan, Blair decides that she can do better than scoring someone else’s boyfriend and nixes Eric as her escort.  Instead, Kira gets to bring shiny, pretty Graham Collins to escort her to her debut.

Under the impression that Graham will be escorting her at her debut, Jennifer Tallulah Humphrey receives the shock of a lifetime when Kira Abernathy is announced with Graham Collins as her escort, leaving Jenny looking fabulous in her black gown, but utterly dateless and alone.  Humiliated, Little J turns the tide and gets even shinier, prettier, college boy Nate to don a tux and stand in as her escort, cementing her rep as Queen of Constance and making her the envy of all… Even Blair Waldorf.

Eric, however, has a less-than-stellar time at the cotillion, seeing his former BFF/current stepsister/neo-nemesis emerge smelling like a rose.  Even worse, Jonathan dumps him cold at the event, not liking the vengeful little sprite he’s become.  Eric may have lost Jonathan, but he’s gained a new friend in Kira, whom he enlists to help unseat Queen J from her throne.

Blair, however, has been occupied, having been conveniently trapped in an elevator with Serena, as per Chuck and Nate’s plans, baiting the two former BFF’s to cross paths with conciliatory texts pretending to be one another.  Once trapped in the elevator together, Serena and Blair make up and repair their friendship, with Serena confiding in Blair why she’s been so off-centered and self-centered lately, relaying the bit about trying to contact her absentee father and Congressman Tripp’s feelings for her.  Blair advises her to stay away from Tripp and consoles S about her daddy issues… And somehow, the Tripp/Daddy thing suddenly makes sense. 

Speaking of Daddy Van Der Woodsen, the show ends with Lily intercepting a letter from Papa V der W to darling daughter Serena.  Guess we might get to meet S’s daddy after all!

The Parents Television Council has asked CW affiliates to preempt an upcoming episode of Gossip Girl in which a threesome between the main characters has been teased. Promos for the show identify the act occurring between unidentified characters in an episode entitled 3SOME. The episode is scheduled for November 9th.

In a statement, PTC president Tim Winter called the behavior “reckless and irresponsible” and called the show “”expressly targeted to impressionable teenagers.” The group has urged all stations carrying the popular show not to air it. Winter asked: “Will you now be complicit in establishing a precedent and expectation that teenagers should engage in behaviors heretofore associated primarily with adult films?”

“CW has been defending graphic content on Gossip Girl by asserting that they don’t target teenagers,” Winters said earlier this week. “Such a claim doesn’t even pass the ‘laugh test.’”

“Gossip Girl is 18- to 34-year-old women, with a median viewer age of 27 years old,” said CW spokesman Paul McGuire pointing out that the target demographic is older than what PTC is concerned about. Officially, the network had no comment on PTC’s complaint.

A spokesperson for PTC told Fox News that the organization has not yet had the opportunity to view the episode and are basing their criticism on news reports and the recent round of advertisements from the network.

“We don’t know how it will be depicted yet,” Melissa Henson, the director of communications and public education said. “Our concern is really more thematic with respect to the target audience. We know that the show is especially popular with teenage girls.”

Gossip Girl has been in hot water before with the Parents Television Council. The organization issued a statement against the racy marketing used to promote the upcoming season of the show. In the ads, “intimate moments” were shown between Gossip Girl characters in the bed, the couch, and yes, skinny dipping. Tag-lines like “A Nasty Piece of Work” and “Mind-Blowingly Inappropriate” were used. Similar campaigns were used for the Melrose Place reboot.

Gossip Girl

In spite of the fact that it appears that everyone is sleeping with someone new or no one at all, Season 3 of Gossip Girl seems to be floundering without much direction.  While the changing natures of many of the main characters seems to be a main focal point, there is still no clear cut feel for the remainder of the season and what things may come.  Blair and Serena’s tattered friendship seems to be a key plot point, and it’s fairly obvious that the ooey-gooey Dan and Olivia duo are destined to have a short shelf-life in spite of their massive amounts of PDA.  Eric pulled a vanishing act and was nowhere to be seen after last week’s falling out with Queen J and Jenny herself was sidelined with a flu bug. 

On the bright side, Nate got something to do other than be pretty background scenery and Dan and Olivia were marginalized to a nearly pointless side-plot involving Jimmy Fallon and Dan being dubbed “Bathroom Boy” on national television.  The real kicker was that there was nothing nearly as interesting or perv-a-licious surrounding the “Bathroom Boy” moniker, as the story later played out.  Nate, however, took center stage this episode with his family drama and the return of his domineering Grandfather.  Playing an integral role in his cousin Tripp’s campaign to gain a New York Congressional seat, Nate teams up with Grandfather Van Der Bilt and his circle of Upper East Side friends to run the Van Der Bilt hype machine. 

Chuck Bass volunteers his hotel to become official Van Der Bilt campaign headquarters, hosting the election night festivities.  Vanessa, the official campaign chronicler with her video camera in tow, has been assigned the task of making a flattering documentary that will help to improve Tripp’s numbers in the polls — which thus far, are dismal. Business picks up when Vanessa captures Tripp saving a drowning man in the Hudson river, diving in and selflessly pulling him to safety.  This is primo, vote-getting material if it wasn’t for one small problem: Vanessa reviews the tape before submitting it to local news outlets and sees the “drowning” man getting into the water and immediately flailing.  Uh-oh. This smells like something Grandfather Van Der Bilt would cook up!  Faced with a conflict of loyalty to Nate who granted her this career-making spot and a sudden jolt of Humphrey-esque self-righteousness, V ponders the greater good.

Meanwhile, Serena has been charged with an equally cumbersome task by her boss lady, Cuthroat K.C.  As Patrick Roberts’ new (fake) girlfriend and assistant publicist, it’s S’s job to get Patrick photographed at Van Der Bilt campaign headquarters as a P.R. stunt to help him land a role in a political thriller.  Serena, who has been drilled by K.C. that her only value is her social network, attempts to get back into Nate’s good graces to score a “plus one” invite to Tripp’s election night fete.  After ripping Nate a new one for his role in sending loverboy Carter Baisden packing to Texas, this won’t be too easy. 

Fortunately, Tripp sees S talking to Nate and is completely unaware of all that transpired behind the scenes of his campaign and his cousin’s involvement.  Tripp cordially invites Serena to the big night along with Patrick.  Serena’s problem is solved… Temporarily.

Serena still finds herself in the icy glare of Blair Waldorf, former BFF.  Sequins and lame collide when Blair and Serena encounter each other in the dorm hallway.  Blair snarks on Serena turning her back on her friends and S retorts that Blair has no friends, only minions. 

Offended by this slight, Blair enlists the aid of her minions to find her a suitable new BFF to bring to the Van Der Bilt campaign headquarters party. While holding court at the campus café, Blair spots an attractive blonde with a Valentino 360 bag on her arm — a bag so exclusive that even La Waldorf was wait-listed! 

She approaches the blonde (who we find out is named Brandeis) and immediately strikes up a friendship, inviting her to the Van Der Bilt affair that night. 

Blair waves her new faux friend under Serena’s nose at the party and Serena tries to do the same with Patrick.  Blair’s not buying it since Patrick has lodged himself at the bar and instead of scoping the scene and doing research for his role, is researching the inside of a flask. Although Patrick is a lush, he still has an eye for the ladies and spots straight away that Blair’s new friend Brandeis is a high priced call girl!

Serena tests the waters herself with Brandeis (who’s networking attempting to close deals of her own with the political hoi poloi) and both she and Blair confirm that Brandeis is a call girl.  That doesn’t stop things from getting all sorts of Teen Krystal and Teen Alexis between S and B.  Blair, ashamed that her new pal has been called out for her ho tendencies (because hoes are your friends and hoes are your enemies), flings it in Serena’s face that she’s essentially “whoring” herself out to be the fake girlfriend of Patrick the Washed-Up Lush and sacrificing her friends and integrity to be K.C.’s flunky.  In turn, Serena pushes Blair face first into Tripp’s patriotic-themed cake. 

The real icing on the cake is that Blair’s new “shopping buddy” used Blair to gain some new, influential clients.  Brandeis is then discreetly escorted from the hotel to avoid a scandal for both Chuck and Tripp.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t stop a scandal from brewing thanks to Vanessa.  V gave the tape to a news station showing the man Tripp saved from “drowning” to be a plant.  The story exploded and Tripp comes close to dropping out of the race after flipping out on his grandfather for interfering.  

After being berated for his change in character and dwindling moral compass by Vanessa, Nate takes one for the team and makes a public press statement saying that he was the one who had staged the “drowing” as a way to bolster Tripp’s campaign.  In spite of the fact that the stunt was a clever ruse, Tripp won the Congressional seat. 

As it turns out, Nate wasn’t the one who contrived Hudson-gate. It wasn’t even Gramps Van Der Bilt, although everyone automatically (and rightly) assumed it was.  It was actually Maureen, Tripp’s seemingly innocuous, red-haired, All-American wife who concocted the entire plot. Even better, she did it with the intent that everyone would believe Grandpa Van Der Bilt had orchestrated this ploy.  With Gramps’ credibility diminished, his influence over Tripp and the rest of his family would falter as well. After all, who is Tripp going to believe? His scheming grandfather, or his doting, mild-mannered wife? Well played, Maureen!

Setting the stage for next week’s episode and a possible “inter-friend-tion” to repair Blair and Serena’s BFF-status, Serena shakes off the reigns of K.C. and her non-Sunshine Band gig as a publicist’s gopher and ducks drunken, embarrassing Pattrick into a cab after scrawling “K.C…. I quit” on his shirt. 

Next week’s episode teases a possible three-some between some of the main players!  Hopefully, it will deliver the goods and not just a set up for disappointment.