I LOVE HILARY DUFF! Ever since the days of Lizzie McGuire I’ve been a fan. And when I say “fan” I mean “I cried at the Lizzie McGuire movie when she finally kissed Gordo.” Sigh. I also love her music, her style and her sister (but only in Napolean Dynamite). Anyways, it was obviously another week in Gossip Girl heaven for me when she finally showed up at NYU to buy Dan some gross street coffee. (I once heard there is lots of rat poop in those carts…but I digress.)

Duff stars as Olivia Burke, a young movie star trying to live a normal college life. Of course, the first person she meets is Dan Humphrey.  While it may have been slightly predictable, giving Dan another dramatic blonde girl to go after, I couldn’t help but smile as I watched the two of them have coffee. They were so cute, so happy. She’s Dan but with boobs and a great wardrobe…and a successful career as a movie star with a bitchy publicist….

If only we all didn’t know that Georgina is waiting in the wings to mess it up, Single White Female style.

Speaking of Satan Georgina, while she’s gone being all shady in Boston, Blair uses the alone time to wallow in self-pity, pining away for her days as Queen Bee. And I have to say – this was hard to watch. That’s our Blair - the strongest, most confident girl we all know – and she’s acting a fool. She reminded me of those kids from my high school who still wear their letterman jackets now, 3 years later. She looked pathetic heading back to Constance now that she’s a college girl.

Thank God Chuck intervened and reminded her who she was (and surprised us all once again by showing how sweet and caring and perfect he is. I want my own Chuck, dammit). I didn’t want to see Blair 10 years from now hanging out outside the school, buying the younger kids liquor and telling stories from her glory days… Instead, I’m going to see her and her 3 new friends (by far the best dressed clique in college history) take on the patchoulli-smelling, sandal-wearing student body at NYU.

[Insert evil laugh here. And here.]

I am glad to have my bitchy Blair back. The same bitchy Blair that clearly taught Little J well. Now that the older girls are gone Jenny is on top of the school, despite her attempts to ditch hierarchy and headbands. She can’t fight the need for some structure in the social scene and eventually takes her place on top. And girrrrl, it fits her better than that tight little number she wore down the red carpet at the movie premiere. Let’s just hope all that power doesn’t go to her tousled little head.

Oh, and we have to talk about Serena, don’t we? And that means we have to talk about crazy-eyes, Tyra Banks getting all up in my Monday night shiz. I swear, if Hilary Duff hadn’t been in this episode and if Chuck hadn’t given the “I told you I loved you and you can’t win over these NYU minions?” speech, I would be all sorts of angry. I don’t need to see Tyra in anything but ANTM – there are no opportunities on GG to smile with your eyes, so clearly this is not her place.

Anyways,  after finally informing her mother that Brown is not the place for her this year, Serena tries to get a job and discovers (shocker!) that you need a college degree to get one. She ends up falling into PR and working with the one and only Tyra Banks. Yeah, yeah – this was supposed to be some overly dramatic actress named Ursula, but she played it so well….

Too well.

Serena ends up learning some valuable lessons, blah, blah, blah, wears some cute outfits, blah, blah, blah, and that’s that. No Carter Basin. No sexy Carter Basin. What the eff is up with that?!

It’s OK, though; the episode ended on a high note and has definitely come back from its season premiere let down. I can’t wait to see Little J in power, Georgina’s return to evil and whatever goes down at the Lily/Rufus wedding.

Until next week…

You know you love them.
XOXO.

GGR
(Gossip Girl Recapper)