Lincoln Hawk Fan Club: s01e10, "Hi, Society!"
Apples and Trees.
Hello, and welcome back to Lincoln Hawk Fan Club, my GOSSIP GIRL recap newsletter. Some housekeeping before we go!
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I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: One of the single best stretches of GOSSIP GIRL happens in the first season, from episode 7, “Victor/Victrola,” to episode 11, “Roman Holiday.” Literally every single thing is done to perfection, from the fashion to the drama to the line delivery. And for today’s newsletter we’re right in the thick of it, with episode 10, “Hi, Society!”
A lot of GOSSIP GIRL, especially in early seasons, revolves around the idea that, as CeCe says in this episode, the apple never falls far from the tree — in other words, these characters are all destined to be locked into the same patterns as their parents. It’s a thesis that’s come up more than once, from Chuck telling Nate in the pilot, “What we're entitled to is a trust fund, maybe a house in the Hamptons, a prescription drug problem — but happiness does not seem to be on the menu,” to Serena and Dan finding out that their relationship is just a copy-paste of their parents’ doomed romance in episode nine.
In introducing us to Lily’s mother CeCe Rhodes (finally! CeCe is here!), though, “Hi! Society!” is the first episode to really hone in on the generational trauma of rich people. CeCe has come to town with a scheme to manipulate her granddaughter into participating in Cotillion, something she didn’t manage to do with her own daughter. We learn this episode that CeCe essentially bribed Lily to break up with Rufus (although…okay, more on that in later seasons), which she tried only after bribing Rufus himself didn’t work.
Either the memory of that has faded, or Lily is too involved in the Upper East Side scene to care anymore, because she accepts CeCe’s “oh they found, uh…something, idk, in my lungs” bit without question and immediately presses Serena into becoming the granddaughter CeCe wants her to be. Lily even rewrites her presentation intro at CeCe’s urging.
“All you care about when people look at me is what they think of you,” Serena says to Lily about this betrayal. “How am I supposed to accept myself if my own mother doesn’t accept me?” And the lightbulb clicks in Lily’s mind: She’s doing to Serena what her mom did to her. What kind of life might Lily have had if she hadn’t let her mom push her into an ill-fitting mold?
The CeCe/Lily/Serena lineage is the most fleshed out family tree in the show, but this pressure exists across GOSSIP GIRL families: Blair’s perfectionism is an effort to please Eleanor, Chuck’s womanizing and business ventures are attempts at getting Bart’s approval, Nate’s desire to go to USC and slack off is a counter-reaction to his family legacy — even Vanessa wants to make her mom proud.
Family will fuck you up! That’s a fact of life no matter what tax bracket you’re in. But a central question of GOSSIP GIRL is whether you can break the patterns which have been set for you from birth. We just have to stay tuned to see how our kids do.
Best Lines of the Episode:
An All-Time Read from CeCe Rhodes: “The way you feel? It never goes away. It just gets worse. You’ll always use your dessert fork for your entrée, you’ll always feel under-dressed no matter what you wear, and at dinner parties, it will be as if there’s a language that sounds like English and you think you speak it, but they don’t hear you and you don’t understand them.
"As time passes, you’ll feel that people…never see you when they look at you, but wonder merely whether you are Serena’s whim or her charity case. Until the day comes when you realize that…girls like Serena don’t end up with Dan Humphrey. They end up with the Carters of the world, and, um, people like you, they turn into cocktail party anecdotes of their foolish youth.
"So…why don’t you, uh, give it up and…spare yourself the pain, hmm? I’m sure Serena will understand.”
CeCe: “So, I see it’s true what they say about the apple and the tree.”
Rufus: “Hello, Celia. I’d say it’s nice to see you, but I know how you hate dishonesty.”
Serena: “Besides, don’t you want to see your brother in a tux?”
Jenny: “Wait, what?”
Serena: “You know, your brother, Dan: The guy who thinks dancing is making fists and pumping ‘em into the air?”
Blair, reading Serena’s updated Cotillion intro: “‘Serena hopes to continue to live on the Upper East Side and devote her life to volunteering for the nature conservancy and junior league and have two wonderful children.’
Carter: “Let me see that.”
Blair: “Make it stop, you sound like me.”
My Favorite Outfit of the Episode:
Both Blair and Serena kill it at Cotillion, there’s no denying it. But the outfits they’re wearing at the top of the episode are just God-tier for both characters, from Serena’s sequined Nanette Lepore cardigan and knee sock combo to Blair’s pinstriped blazer and bright-red tights. The latter inspired me to try a knock-off version in college. It was…not as successful.
Also, this shot of Chuck’s hand on Blair’s tights altered my brain chemistry:
Final Stray Observations:
Speaking of deb balls, was anyone else completely obsessed with Teen Vogue’s Crillon Ball coverage every year? I kind of miss it…
“A girl wants Romeo, not Hamlet,” Blair says, and while Serena is correct to point out that Romeo dies, I’d also like to add that Juliet was 13! Romeo and Juliet is romantic but not in a fun way!
“Don’t eff with an effer” is so fucking funny to me. I know they had to get past CW censors but
The way Chuck talks about Blair in front of Nate — “She does have a certain glow to her, doesn’t she?” etc. — is like a dog peeing on a fire hydrant. It is gross but I also kind of love it and yes I’ll bring that up in therapy this week.
All of this stuff about Blair’s date, Prince Theodore, serves a lot of foreshadowing for Prince Louis, no? Serena says she can see Blair on the cover of Hello! already and Blair, I have seen your future and you do not want that!
Blair and Chuck are still hooking up post-Thanksgiving. Seems uncharacteristically sloppy for B but they also have killer chemistry so I can’t blame her.
Why did Blair sew her heart charm into precisely one sweater? It’s a cute gesture but it doesn’t even seem like a sweater he wears often? Nate is not a perceptive guy, Blair, one tiny heart charm in one sweater ain’t gonna cut it.
Something that pisses me off this episode is that Jenny is the one who dragged her mom back from Hudson, and now she’s pitching a little teen fit about not getting her way, being an ungrateful bitch about the vintage shoes her mom bought for her. Later, she sulks, “If you were in Hudson, I’d be able to go [to Cotillion]” and girlie pop you should’ve considered that before you boarded a train!
I admire the verbal trickery CeCe pulls off; she never says she has cancer or even a tumor, just that the doctors “found something.”
Blair rolling up to Nate’s fitting in jeans!!! I don’t think we ever see her in denim again, but she looks great.
Chuck texts, “R U With Him RT Now” and god, kids these days will never understand how hard it was to text in 2007, especially with a T9 keyboard!!!!!
Of course Nate is most attracted to Blair when she’s unattainable, get in line, bro.
Lily’s shock at seeing Alison in the shoe department of Saks Fifth Avenue is expert level bitchiness, I cackled.
I have not noticed this before, but CeCe makes a joke about her ice getting lonely to what is clearly Dorota, but the “of course ma’am” delivered after is not Zuzanna Szadkowski??? I need to know why!
Nate asks Chuck if he and Blair are still close, and I do love the groundwork the show has put into the Blair-Chuck friendship foundations. Just two people who love to scheme and be kind of evil from time to time.
Every time I hear “You almost made a fool out of me in front of the New York Times” I think of this ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT line.
Letting Dan go to Cotillion but not Jenny is just bad parenting, this one is on Rufus tbh.
Chuck sending this cell phone video of Carter outside of Blair’s apartment to Gossip Girl would’ve taken approximately 5-7 business days and the entirety of his data plan for the month.
Serena is remarkably naive about her grandmother, between “She loves honesty!” and “She probably just wanted to see your mom’s art.” In what world, Serena?!
Chuck getting revenge on Carter from the boys’ weekend in episode four while also covering his tracks with Blair is a smart two-birds/one-stone strategy, even if it does backfire.
Carter is the one who jazzes up Serena’s intro to say “Miss van den Woodsen hopes to bed as many billionaires as she can before settling down to..” and I’ll be honest, I might be team Carter/Serena?
Kati and Iz came with brothers!!! I NEED THE FULL KATI/IZ BACKSTORY AND I NEED IT NOW!
Okay, more Carter/Serena: First, why is a teenager holding a glass of scotch to her date’s punched jaw? Second, the Santorini lore! Again…I am rethinking some things…
Lily goes all the way to Brooklyn just to call Dan on his cell phone and ask him to meet her outside of Alison’s opening. Lily. You have his cell phone number. What is with the multi-borough trip?
Chuck is such a smitten kitten for Blair and I love it.
Blair tells Chuck, “You did all of this for your own enjoyment and didn’t care what it would do to me” and my girl please write this on a Post-It note somewhere so you can remember this for the next six seasons.
All of this scheming to keep Lily from Rufus and Serena from Dan and I need to know: Who was CeCe banging in her youth that she wasn’t allowed to keep?
I’m sorry but Nate winking at Chuck before hooking up with Blair skeeves me out!!!
Alison gives Jenny a lecture about who she’s becoming and Jenny takes exactly zero percent of it to heart.
I NEVER SHOULD HAVE LET YOU LET ME GO!!!!!!!
The One Republic “Apologize” music cue has to be a top five of the series, right? Maybe even top three.
Why does Blair’s hair look that perfect after being pulled out of a heavily hairsprayed bun? This shouldn’t matter to me, and YET.
Chuck is fleeing to the airport but he already has a copy of the New York Times with Blair and Nate on the cover. I know early editions are a thing but debutante balls are hardly “rush to press” worthy.
And Now, Your 'Dan Is a Psycho for This' Moment of the Episode:
First of all, Dan says this about Serena to her grandmother mere moments after being introduced: “People spend all this money to have their daughters basically dance in front of others for attention, when, if you ask Serena, I bet she’d do that right now for you, free of charge.” Bro, gross. This doesn’t even have to do with him being Gossip Girl, I just think if my boyfriend said that about me to my grandma, I wouldn’t give it a cute little giggle.
Second, and this is related: Everyone is fawning over where Carter Baizen has been on his grand “giving up the trust fund” tour, and Dan is like, “Oh? Where were you?” Only we find out that Gossip Girl had a dedicated Carter Baizen map on SPOTTED so actually, Dan could probably give a detailed itinerary of where Carter was. That’s creepy! But also, incredible. It’s a level of psycho I kind of have to respect.
This Gossip Girl blast kills me though: “This just in: We hear there’s a Cold War brewing between Lonely Boy and a certain blue blood. We never thought we’d say this ourselves, but our money’s on Brooklyn for the win.”
Psycho!
But then Dan shows up at Cotillion to dip-kiss Serena and fireman carry her out of there and damnit, I gotta give it to him, that’s smooth.
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