| Georgina (guest star Michelle Trachtenberg, "17 Again") returns to the Upper East Side after undergoing a major transformation. Chuck (Ed Westwick) and Nate (Chace Crawford) find themselves at a major crossroads in their relationship as it pertains to their mutual interest in Blair (Leighton Meester). Serena (Blake Lively) finds her relationship with Gabriel (guest star Armie Hammer) growing more complicated. Penn Badgley, Taylor Momsen, Jessica Szohr, Kelly Rutherford and Matthew Settle also star. | Blair and Nate check out the neighborhood around NYU, which includes (gasp!) riding the subway.
Jenny and Dan go to an antique shop with their dad and are shocked to find him checking out a ring. He tells them he has listed the gallery and will get plenty of money from its sale, despite the crash in the housing market. Later he finds out it might be months before they can find a buyer, which is very upsetting to Rufus. He keeps all this from the kids, so as not to make Dan feel bad about going to Yale.
Serena tells B things are going great with Gabriel, except that he can’t commit to plans, because he is so busy with his “new business”. But Blair is suspicious. Later, he charms the pants of Lily and Rufus and they invite him to go to a co-op meeting that Lily is hosting, but he cuts out again suddenly.
That night, Chuck catches Blair outside his house, but she explains to him that she is not there to see him, but rather to spy on S’s shady new man. Then they see him leave the building and get into a car with Poppy, acting a little too friendly. But never fear, Blair has gotten photos on her camera. When she tells Serena the news, she says she’ll take care of it. He comes over, and he admits that he hung out with Poppy, but claims they are not sleeping together anymore. He tells her that he had to lie to Poppy about his relationship to Serena to protect his business contacts (all of whom he got through Poppy.) He tells Serena that he will come clean to Poppy when he closes the deals in a week, and she believes him.
Chuck tells Nate he is no longer interested in Blair, and Nate seems cool with that info. Then later Blair relates the story to Nate about the spying, he is a little worried to hear that she was with Chuck. Nate then brings his “friend” Chuck to an apt. half way between Columbia and NYU, so they can be together next year. He asks Chuck to back off from her, eventually telling him not to talk to her again. Just then, Chuck gets a call from guess who, inviting him to help her scheme to expose Gabriel.
Blair and Serena argue because clearly B doesn’t believe that Gabriel will leave Poppy (well, duh!) B also goes on and on about how much she and Nate trust each other, which is starting to seem like if that were actually true, they wouldn’t feel compelled to talk about it every 5 minutes.
So, Blair and Chuck arrange it for Poppy to walk in on Gabriel and Serena hanging out at Serena’s and of course, she flips out. She tells them she is going to have the investors get out of their deals unless he leaves with her. Surprisingly, he tells her they are over and he loves Serena. Blair and Chuck giggle over their mistake despite the fact that Gabriel’s business may now be ruined. Serena convinces him to get new investors at her party. Gabriel pitches his business plan to Lily and she is in. He claims all investors will triple their money and Rufus upon hearing this, wants in as well.
Serena doesn’t remember the first time she met Gabriel, but Gabriel says the first time he met Serena was with Georgina one night when they used fake accents and Georgina slipped Serena a mickey which was also the night before the SATs. When Chuck asks Gabriel, he says he met her at a club called Butter, but Blair knows Butter was closed that night because she used the bartender in her Nelly Yuki sabotage that night. Something clearly doesn’t add up. When B and Chuck confront Serena again, she tells them Gabriel is a good guy, and accuses them of using this as an excuse to get back together. So Chuck and Blair know that there is only one way to get to the bottom of this: find Georgina!
Nate asks Blair to move in with him at the one-bedroom he got in Murray Hill, but just then Chuck tells Blair about the new developments in the Gabriel case, and that he needs her to scheme with him to save Serena. Oh Blair, who will you choose? (hint, Chuck). But Nate claims he trusts her, so that is that.
Chuck and Blair spend a platonic night (well, there was some hand holding) sleeping in his limo waiting outside Georgina’s camp. When they wake, Chuck tells Blair he is going to find Georgina alone and she realizes he only asked for her help to keep her away from Nate. Chuck doesn’t deny it, but reminds her that she went along with it. And Chuck insinuates that Nate only got the place to keep a better eye on her. And later, Nate all but confirms this.
So Georgina is, well, saved. She is all about Jesus now, and changing her life. But she does confirm that they never went to Butter that night. After talking with Georgina, Chuck leaves the camp to find that B has taken his limo back to NYC.
Meanwhile, Serena has wised up a little bit and while lying in bed with Gabriel, she gets him talking about the supposed first night they met. When she asks him what he thought about Georgina, he is evasive and says he was so taken with Serena to notice much of anything else. But she tricks him…she brings up Georgina’s obnoxious red hair and he is quick to say that of course he remembers that. Hmmm. She makes her excuses and leaves, and minutes later Poppy shows up at his place, makes out with him, and tells him what a great performance he did last night pretending to choose Serena over both her and money.
So Poppy and Gabriel are playing Serena for the investments they got at the party. Serena comes by the hotel and finds the place empty, with a “bewildered” Poppy asking where he could’ve gone. Oh wait, but before he took off, Rufus made sure to stop by and deliver his life savings to Gabriel (who we now pretty much know is a con artist.)
Vanessa tells Dan about the whole sleeping with Chuck thing, and she also lets it slip about Dan not getting into Yale. Later Rufus tells Dan and Jenny that if his plan works out, they should be fine, money-wise. The kids want him to marry Lily and to not let his money problems stop him from that, so they pooled their money and bought the ring he had been eyeing at the antiques shop.
Although we are all very confident that Georgina has in fact found Jesus and turned over a new leaf (wink, wink) she heads back to the city with Chuck, and we can’t wait to see how this will turn out. Xoxo.
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