New Haven Can Wait

The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain. Yale degree, please?

This week, the young New York socialites traded their stuffy Upper East Side for the collegiate atmosphere of Yale University. Blair woke up excited to visit the Ivy League school she’s dreamed about forever, Yale. Ex-best friend, Serena, woke up excited to visit the Ivy League school she’s dreamed about forever, Brown University. But, how fun is it if they went on two separate college visits? Definitely none, so the girls, along with the three boys, were off to New Haven.

Speaking of the boys, Dan started his day nervous about his interview with the Yale English Department. With a few encouraging words by his father, he took off for the hour train ride north. Chuck and Nate discussed their trip to Yale and the secret societies associated with the school. Chuck’s evaluating his choice of schools based only on the societies while Nate’s really set on going to the University of Southern California. My guess is because he wants to get away from his family’s problems anyway possible.

Before taking off in their separate limos, Serena breaks the week long silence with Blair. Blair wants no part of it. She insults Brown University as not being as worthy of the Ivy League title as the Holy Trinity made up by Harvard, Yale and Princeton. When Blair walks away, Serena decides to accept her Yale invitation she received a few days before and informs her driver of the shorter ride to Connecticut.

While the older kids frolic among the higher educated for the weekend, little Jenny continues her plans of staying with Eleanor’s company and not returning to school. Of course, Rufus is still not accepting his daughter’s choices even after Jenny and Vanessa inform him about the home-schooling option. They make a deal, however, that Rufus will consider her keeping the internship and doing home-schooling after spending the day with her at Eleanor’s. In return, if Rufus doesn’t agree then Jenny must give up the internship and return to school. I see this going either way.

On campus, Dan finds out he needs another reference for his application. The author he interned with over the summer didn’t send a recommendation of the young writer’s talents. Who can blame him after Dan spent most of the summer getting to know the girls coming into the bookstore then perfecting his writing skills? Dan’s mission, to find a Yale English professor to read his work and give him the good word he needs.

Elsewhere, Chuck and Nate scope out the Yale ladies. Nate’s doing most of the looking as Chuck’s waiting to be captured by Yale’s Skull and Bones. Each gets what they’re looking for. Nate picks a young woman to give him a tour around the campus. The Skulls find Chuck, pull a bag over his head and haul him off to their secret hideout.

We find Blair in the Dean of Admissions office waiting for her interview. She’s quite surprised when she sees Serena walking out with the Dean, both laughing. Serena said everyone likes a surprise but I don’t see Blair enjoying this one.

Nate and his female tour guide are talking on a park bench when they overhear the conversation next to them about Nate being on campus. Turns out, Nate’s father ruined many of Yale’s students’ inheritance. When his guide asks for his name, before continuing their day together, he passes himself off as Dan Humphrey. Why pick a name of real person? Joe Smith, always go with the average Joe name.

Chuck finds himself in a dark room where he’s questioned by top members of the Skulls society. He needs to prove his worthiness to be accepted. He offers them a party that lives up to his reputation of sleeping with more Maxim women than John Mayer.

On paper, Blair’s the perfect student to attend the fine institution of Yale. The Dean wants more insight into Blair though. Serena told the Dean of her quick jump into the modeling world. Blair has nothing and she becomes nervous, going on a tangent that appears to be targeted toward Serena. The Dean sees her out, obviously not impressed, but Blair doesn’t notice giving him a small peck on the cheek as she leaves. Awkward. Blair finds Serena outside and confronts her about moving in on her territory. Serena says she’s really likes Yale and the Dean invited her to his dinner party that evening, a dinner Blair was set on attending. Blair ends the conversation with the threat of taking Serena down by the end of the weekend.

Back in New York, Rufus tags along with Jenny to work. As he watches Jenny perform under the pressure, he sneaks back to Eleanor’s office. I still don’t understand their relationship except for her knowing about him and Lilly. Rufus wants Eleanor to fire Jenny but Eleanor won’t consider it. It looks like he’ll have to tell her “No” himself.

After his release from the Skulls dungeon, Chuck runs into step-sister Serena. Attempting to ruin Blair’s life even more, he gives Serena her answer to the Dean’s famous dinner question: What person real or imaginary, living or dead would you most like to have dinner with? The answer: George Sand, a literary woman who wore men’s clothing and apparently the key answer to finding one self’s on the Dean’s short list.

Nate’s tour ends in his tour guide’s room with an afternoon make-out session. Before continuing, his Yale lady wants Nate’s (Dan’s) impression of her favorite author. Knowing nothing about him, he plays it off as if his work was too boring to read. He’s almost saved by a knock on the door until the person behind the door is the real Dan Humphrey, looking for a recommendation. When the young woman realizes what Nate’s pulling she kicks both of the boys to the curb. Nate mad at getting kicked out and Dan mad about not getting a reference have it out on the stairs of the dormitory and part ways.

Blair needs an invitation to the Dean’s dinner party that night. In order to do so, she bribes the Dean’s secretary for an invitation in exchange for antiques the secretary collects. Oh Blair, so sneaky. Now that Blair has invitation, she gives Serena a surprise of her own showing up at the dinner unexpectedly. Serena’s not threatened, though, and tells Blair she’ll still use her answer to the Dean’s infamous question.

Nate finds himself at Mike’s Bar, alone. He calls up Chuck and leaves him a message that he wants to go home. Chuck’s throwing the Skulls a party with three young foreign girls who don’t speak a word of English. The party’s just the first step for Chuck’s initiation. The Skulls are looking for blood, more specifically Nate Archibald’s. Chuck’s instructed to bring Nate to them as soon as possible. The Skulls seem to make a mistake, though, when Dan’s kidnapped instead.

The Dean’s questioning has begun at the dinner party. First up, Serena with the answer of Pete Fairman. Serena stands frozen. Waiting for the Dean to announce George Sand as her answer, she’s shocked to hear the name of the guy she accidentally killed with a drug overdose that night in the hotel with Georgina. This can only be the handy work of Blair Waldorf. Serena pulls herself together and politely explains to the Dean the situation behind Pete. Serena then grabs Blair by the arm and pulls her out to the front porch. Serena’s words for Blair are not enough. As Serena goes to walk back inside, Blair throws her purse at Serena hitting her smack upside the head. Serena swings around, tells her she should not have done that and the two girls get into the first major catfight of Gossip Girl history.

It looks like Jenny’s dream of being a young designer is coming to end. Rufus still wants his little girl to finish school and Jenny, unwillingly, agrees to her part of the deal. They have one last stop to make before heading home for the day, a trip to the Bass household. Rufus has no interest in seeing Mrs. Lilly Bass but Jenny informs him she’s not home. We see Lilly is home trying on Serena’s dress and comes out to find Jenny and Rufus standing in the foyer. Jenny needs to pick up a pair of shoes for the dress and runs upstairs to fetch them, leaving Rufus and Lilly alone. Lilly tells Rufus how talented she thinks Jenny is and how lucky she is to know what she wants to do at such a young age. It looks like her words resonate with Rufus and he might be having second thoughts.

The Skulls come into Mike’s Bar bragging about conquering their nemesis Nate Archibald. Nate overhears the conversation and throws a punch at the bandleader of the group. Nate walks out of the bar and finds Dan on campus tied to a statue in only his boxers. Nate and Dan forget their earlier standoff and Nate attempts to help Dan out of his jam. He can’t untie the tight knot but not to fear, Nate’s tour guide arrives on the scene with the Navy intelligence to release Dan.

Sitting on opposite ends of the porch exhausted from their physical feud, Serena lets Blair know she can’t keep up with their ongoing war. She wants to break off their friendship for good. She calls a cease-fire and the two girls part ways for the night.

The next morning, Jenny wakes up to Rufus and Vanessa having breakfast. Rufus changed his mind (surprise, surprise) and called Vanessa over to tell Jenny about home-schooling. Jenny can also keep her internship at Eleanor’s. Rufus says he and his parents had a rocky relationship after they wouldn’t let him pursue his music career and he didn’t want that relationship with his daughter. Hopefully this won’t cut down on Jenny’s already limited screen time.

As the sun rises over Yale University, Serena’s making her way to the Dean’s office to tell him that Blair really deserves to attend the elite school. Serena runs into Blair on the way and Blair says she already did the same for Serena. The two realize they don’t want to lose their friendship and agree for their feud to be over.

A new friendship is blooming between Dan and Nate. We see the boys spending their last day with their new Yale gal pal. With a recommendation from her, Dan’s dream of Yale has not ended.

Chuck informs the Skulls and Bones that he won’t be attending Yale and any harm they want to bring to him wouldn’t be in their best interest. Chuck’s girls at the party were really spies and have photos of the future CEO’s of America.

Nate meets up with Chuck at the limo. He knows Chuck had the Skulls kidnap Dan instead of him the night before. He declines the ride back to the city and heads to the train station.

Serena’s phone rings with the Dean on the other end. Serena made early admission but Blair will have to wait. Serena won’t accept the offer and is willing to give up her dreams to keep her friendship with Blair. The question is would Blair have done the same?

I have a few questions at the end of this episode. What’s Chuck’s storyline this season except to ruin the lives of everyone around him? The only real moment we’ve had is him trying to tell Blair he loves her and the intimate conversation with Dan in jail about his mother. It looks like he’s featured in next week’s episode but he’s helping Blair ruin Vanessa’s life.

Another question, how long will Dan and Nate’s friendship last? Once the two return to school, will Nate follow suit with the rest of the student body and abandon Dan?

Last question, can Serena and Blair rule the school together? Blair’s been queen since Serena took a year hiatus and now the two are friends again. Who will the posse follow, the overthrow queen or the young, hot socialite or both?