Gossip Girl
Recaps

Last night's Gossip Girl featured moral lines being crossed, bad decision making, romantic twists and turns, slightly confusing plot lines and a whole lot of Lady Gaga.

In short, pretty much what we were expecting. Follow the link for a full recap of "The Last Days of Disco Stick." Now for our review of what worked and what didn't:

Dan, Olivia and Vanessa: For the most part, the aftermath of last week's threesome was handled well ... even if it featured a lot of Vanessa being manhandled by Dan!

Olivia got jealous of V and Dan's supposed feelings for her and left to go film a movie. Fare thee well, Hilary Duff. You weren't too annoying, but it was time to say goodbye.

The odd twist we liked was that Vanessa seems to be interested in someone else, whereas Dan has feelings for her. We would have guessed it would be the other way around.

After last week's threesome, Dan's love life predictably imploded this week.

Blair and Lady Gaga: There was too much Lady Gaga for our taste last night, but give Gaga credit for refusing to do a standard, music-plugging, ratings-boosting cameo.

The idea for the cabaret - a Snow White-themed Lady Gaga musical, followed by her own two-song set, was the singer's own collaboration with the Gossip Girl writing staff.

That's pretty cool. We're still not quite clear on why this event was Blair Waldorf's ticket to NYU glory or why she cares so much about that crowd, but it was fun to watch.

Serena, Nate and Tripp: Now we're talking. Throughout this third season, we've been complaining that Gossip Girl has lost some of its morally-questionable edginess.

Married Congressman-elect Tripp nailing Serena certainly shoves that in our face, and watching her leave with him after Nate admitted feelings for her at the end was painful.

This is Serena, though. She cannot make a good decision. Ever. We're not quite sold on Tripp bailing on his marriage so fast, but those legs on Serena ... okay, we're sold.

Chuck Bass saves the day ... at least for this episode.

Jenny, Chuck and Damien: Chuck effectively has to babysit Damien, the teenage son of a diplomat from Belgium who he hopes to get in good with for business purposes.

Luckily, Jenny is feeling bored being the queen of the Upper East Side and decides to take him off Chuck's hands. He's hot, after all, so this should be some harmless fun.

That is, until he starts dealing drugs in the park. Now Jenny, an honor student at the Serena School of Bad Decisions, is even more intrigued by this mysterious hottie!

She agrees to accompany him on his next deal, which takes place at a club. Fortunately, Chuck steps in and puts a stop to it just before Jenny can officially sling some E.

Chuck throws Damien and his dad out of his hotel and tells J that she shouldn't go down that path. It was awesome to see new, mature Chuck giving brotherly advice.

Which she promptly ignored, texting Damien to meet up again, but still.

It's hard to say how we feel about Gossip Girl this season.

Compared to last, it's been much more consistent, with fewer story lines that feel like filler, and without the need to create comically fake drama that often drove us crazy.

Yet some of the over-the-top drama seems to be lacking.

The downside of that consistency is that the show often feels boring, or just a little bit short on vintage GG excitement. We expect the show to really push the envelope.

Instead, it just sort of slides it nonchalantly in our direction. It's hard to put your finger on why or whether it's a conscious decision. In any case, it was true last night.

Click here for a full episode guide to "They Shoot Humphreys, Don't They?" Now, some thoughts on last night's story lines, beginning with the big threesome scene ...

The threesome (between Dan, Olivia and Vanessa, as predicted) was hot, but brief, and light on drama. When it looks like Olivia must leave to film a movie, roomie Vanessa and boyfriend Dan find a list of things every college kid does and try to check them all off.

At the end of the list? Have a threesome. So they all kiss each other and the next morning we see them all in bed together. Sexy? A little. OM3? Eh. What will really be interesting is how Dan deals with this when he learns Olivia's not leaving and V really loves him.

Elsewhere, Blair and Serena finally made up, but after last week's cake face plant, this felt a little stale as well - cute as Chuck Bass was in plotting the reconciliation.

Also intriguing but lacking a real spark? Serena working for Nate's cousin Tripp. He clearly wants her and sort of admitted as much, but no one acts on it. For now.

Even Jenny's quest to rule Cotillion lacked the flair of years past. Eric and Blair schemed to take her down, but she wouldn't have it, thanks to Nate saving the day.

Yawn.

Basically, the dialogue is always sharp and there have been refreshingly few eye-rolling plots this year, but it needs to be more inappropriate and ridiculous dammit!

Last night's Gossip Girl featured a political scandal and a battle royale between Blair and Serena that easily trumped Tripp's bid for Congress in intensity and bitterness.

Here's an episode guide to "The Grandfather: Part II" if you missed it. Now, here's a rundown of what worked, what didn't and why. Fortunately, most of it did work.

Blair and Serena are at each other's throats. Why? Who really even remembers with these two. All that matters is that their game of one-upmanship is on, b!tches!

B didn't want S at Tripp van der Bilt's election party (more on Tripp later), but she showed with fake boyfriend Patrick Roberts. Meanwhile, B had her own fake BFF.

Determined to make S jealous, B made a friend at NYU. A friend who it turned out was a call girl. S outed her to Chuck. B outed S fake-dating her movie star beau.

Things came to a head and ended with Blair's head in a cake. We loved Chuck's effort to mend fences, and the fact that it wasn't that easy. They remain on the outs.

Last night's primary story line was a good one. With the polls too close to call on Election Day, Nate's cousin thinks he needs a miracle to win a seat in U.S. Congress.

Then he gets it ... or does he?

Serena van der Woodsen lost a friend and her job last night.

As luck would have it, Tripp sees a guy drowning in the Hudson River and saves him. He's all over the news, just the boost this "hero" needs in the final hours of his election bid.

But Vanessa, who's making a documentary of Tripp's campaign, gets it on tape, and sees that the guy jumped in the river on purpose. Self-righteous V outs the plot to the news.

Tripp and Nate's grandfather denies involvement. Tripp is about to bow out of the race - he'd rather lose honorably than win dirty - when Nate steps in with our favorite scene.

Before Tripp can quit the race, Nate falls on his sword for him, admitting he set up the plot, but Tripp had nothing to do with it. In fact, Tripp really is that honorable hero on TV.

Tripp wins. He's going to Congress. And in a surprising twist, his wife, Maureen, orchestrated it. While slightly confusing, it was a compelling story line from start to finish.

Elsewhere, Dan and Olivia hit a hurdle as she told an embarrassing story about him on Late Night, then tried to prevent her boyfriend from seeing the clip online or anywhere.

We were a bit disappointed that the story wasn't really that embarrassing, but the resolution to this drawn-out story that seemed like filler turned out to be pretty cute.

Dan, being a romantic, was more concerned with the fact that she let slip it was their one-month anniversary than about anything she said about his bathroom habits.

He planned a surprise. They made up (even though there was no fight). Aww.

Last night's Gossip Girl was full of backstabbing, lying, deceit and plot twists.

Classic Gossip Girl, right? Normally that's the show's bread and butter, but in this case, it was ever-so-slightly disappointing and actually felt quite a bit forced.

First off, Vanessa was a central component of the scheming, which involved herself and Blair jockeying for the honor of giving the coveted NYU freshman toast.

Caught in the middle was Olivia (Hilary Duff), getting played from both sides.

As good as we're making it sound here, 1. We just don't buy Vanessa as a backstabbing b!tch, and 2. Some of the twists were too far-fetched, even for GG.

Specifically, Blair pimped out boyfriend Chuck Bass, without his knowledge, to a gay NYU alumnus who held power over deciding who gave the big speech.

Blair looks so classically gorgeous. Which she is. But she's also mean!

This led to Chuck being kissed by a guy, and he did not like it. Well, at least we didn't, because it kind of felt like a cheap publicity stunt by the show's writers.

The lies didn't stop with that plot line. Serena and Nate pulled some interesting deceit of their own to get Carter Baizen off the hook with the Buckleys.

The problems with this subplot were that 1. Nate caring about Carter made very little sense, and 2. Even after we realized what he was up to, that made little sense, and 3. Carter inexplicably ditched Serena after they did their thing because he's too proud. Huh?

That said, it wasn't all bad, and there were plenty of great lines to go around.

For all the details, check out our comprehensive recap of  "Enough About Eve."

Last night's Gossip Girl was titled "Rufus Getting Married." Rufus did, in fact, get married to Lily, but not without plenty of drama, self-doubt and bombshells dropped.

Out for revenge after Dan dumped her for Olivia, Georgina reverted back to her crazy self and nearly ruined everything by outing Scott as Rufus and Lily's love child.

In the end, though, this ended up bringing them together.

Meanwhile, Chuck and Bree forced Carter Baizen to either hit the road or come clean. Amazingly, he chose to admit to new love Serena why Bree's family is after him.

It was the best episode of the year so far, and set the stage for another dramatic installment of our favorite guilty pleasure next Monday. Counting down the minutes!

Follow the link to check out our recap of "Rufus Getting Married."

Last night's Gossip Girl featured ridiculously over-hyped guest stars galore. Fortunately, it also featured plenty of New York City drama - both new and old.

Lily returned and was less than thrilled with Serena's decision to defer college, leading S on a bizarre soul-searching quest ... for employment. Crazy world!

Blair Waldorf, meanwhile, was desperate to feel like her old, popular and fawned-over self again, and the former Queen B went to new, desperate measures.

Jenny decided she didn't want to rule the school, then had a change of heart, while her brother Dan is clearly the last person to know just about everything.

For all the dramatic details, check out our episode guide to "Dan de Fleurette."

Also, follow these links for the Gossip Girl quotes and music from the night!

For the first time this season, we can say that last night's Gossip Girl was vintage Gossip Girl. Humor, lies, sex, and more plot twists than you can keep track of.

Setting the stage for plenty more drama in the coming weeks, we learned that Carter Baizen (Sebastian Stan, below) has a connection to Bree (Joanna Garcia).

We also learned that Chuck and Blair will do anything to sabotage him (and each other), while Georgina (Michelle Trachtenberg) will do anything to take down B.

Best of all, Scott (Chris Riggi) is gone, at least for now. Hooray!

Follow the link for a full recap of last night's "The Lost Boy" ...

Last night's Gossip Girl wasn't the best the show has ever offered us. On the other hand, it was mostly on the lighter side, which we often don't see enough of.

In the end, it gets mixed reviews from us. Nate and his new girlfriend Bree are sort of off doing their own thing, while Serena is re-entering train wreck mode.

The primary plot line involved Blair enrolling at NYU and finding herself a social outcast while Dan, Vanessa, Scott and Georgina are now cool kids who fit in.

It's hard to imagine anything worse if you're Blair Waldorf, but it led to many a funny moment - not the least of which when Dan made her ditch the headband.

Follow the link for a full recap of "The Freshmen" ...