Gossip Girl: The Ex-Files (Episode 122)

We begin this week in the Bass-Vanderwoodsen home where Serena, her mom and brother are having breakfast. Chuck briefly drops in on the breakfast just long enough to ruin Serena's plan to talk her mom into letting her skip school. Chuck fills her mom in on the fact that Serena and Dan have broken up and she only wants to skip school to avoid seeing Dan.

Dan is equally as reluctant to go to school but that's not the only thing on his mind. He's also curious about this new girl his dad has been dating. Before Rufus can explain Jenny comes into the room and Rufus doesn't want to discuss things in front of her. Jenny is in crisis mode because she thinks she's going to be labeled "victim" rather than "project" this year by Blair and her posse. Dan and Rufus don't have a clue what Jenny is rambling on about and they don't care to either.

The drama at school is already heating up and it's just the first day. Blair and the posse are screening potential 'projects' but those are few and far between. Chuck is working on a new sneaky plan, but we won't find out exactly how it all unfolds for now. Nate confronts Vanessa on why she's suddenly went MIA. She blows him off and tells him they were really never friends. Dan accidentally bumps into a new transfer student named Amanda, he apologizes and as they're talking Serena and Blair spot the two and Serena instantly jumps to the conclusion that Dan is hitting on Amanda. Serena and Blair have it in their minds that whoever dates first Serena or Dan wins, like it is some game. Later, Dan and Serena run into each other in the courtyard. At first they just awkwardly wave at one another but then they talk and Dan suggests that they try to just be friends and avoid all the awkwardness. Serena thinks it's a great idea and agrees that she'd like to be friends, but as they're talking Dan's new friend Amanda comes up and Dan is reminded that he already has lunch plans with her. Serena takes it as a slap in the face and goes to whine to Chuck.

Katherine "The Duchess" drops by the Gallery to visit Vanessa. She hands Vanessa a check for $5,000 and then vanishes. Vanessa later tries to return the check but is told Katherine isn't available. The butler allows Vanessa to step inside to leave the check on a table but then he has to step away for a minute to answer a phone call. While he's in the other room Vanessa hears Katherine and goes to peek in the room. That's where she spots Katherine and stepson, Marcus, getting frisky. Quick thinking she pulls out her EnV cell phone (I've got one too!) and snaps a picture of Katherine and Marcus passionately kissing. SCANDAL!

Lily drops by the Gallery to pay Rufus a visit. She says she just wanted to catch up, but Rufus says he was just on his way out. She says she'll tag along with him. Looks like she's wasting no time to get Rufus back since Serena and Dan are done.

By afternoon word of Dan and Amanda has already made it on Gossip Girl and the whole school knows. Blair and her posse have made it their mission to take Amanda down. They bully her into agreeing to skip lunch with Dan to go to lunch with them instead. At lunch the posse schools Amanda on the rules of not dating a friend's ex-boyfriend. Serena feels bad, but she does little to end the bullying.

Vanessa txts Dan at school and tells him to meet her ASAP. She shows him the picture she snapped and he's shocked. Vanessa isn't sure what to do with the picture so Dan tells her to show it to Blair because she'll know exactly what to do. Vanessa isn't too excited about having to meet with Blair. Dan goes back to school and Serena apologizes to him for Blair bullying Amanda. Dan is getting sick of Serena always apologizing but never actually doing anything and that's pretty much exactly what he tells her. Serena gets pissed and tells him that if this is a competition she would win. As Serena is walking off Amanda walks up and her Dan make plans for dinner. Looks like Blair and her posse may be losing their touch or maybe Amanda is just a tough cookie.

Vanessa shows Blair the picture and Blair breaks down crying. She makes Vanessa swear she won't show anyone else the picture. Blair tells her that she'll take care of it.

Dan and Amanda go to a hotspot for dinner and Blair's posse is there. Of course, they don't skip a beat taking a picture of the two and sending it to Gossip Girl. The next morning Jenny throws a pillow at Dan to wake him up. She starts tearing into him for taking Amanda to the hotspot restaurant last night. She tells him it's social suicide. And, believe it or not.. Jenny may be onto something. Chuck wakes Serena up with the picture of Dan and Amanda at dinner. Chuck is clearly getting a kick out of all this.

Vanessa meets with Jenny before school to find out where Blair is and tells her that it's important. Jenny doesn't know where Blair is so she has to ask the posse but they don't really know either. All anyone knows is that Blair isn't at school today. Dan tries to smooth things over with Serena but she isn't really into smoothing things over. Her idea of making things better is for her, Dan and Amanda to go have dinner together. Dan is just as confused as we are as to why Serena would want to torture herself with going on a date with her ex and his new crush.

Blair meets with Marcus for lunch and he's trying to be lovey-dovey. Vanessa tracks down Blair and sees the two having lunch and seemingly in love. She's pissed that Blair is just going to let this go and not stand up for Nate, so she decides to take matters into her own hands. What Vanessa doesn't know is that Blair starts ripping into Marcus soon after she leaves, telling him that she knows all about him sleeping with his stepmom and shows him the picture to prove it. Katherine shows up after Blair txts her and she's not very happy. Blair tells her to sit but Katherine refuses, Blair sends her the picture on her cell phone, this makes Katherine decide to take a seat. She asks Blair what she wants, Blair tells her that they need to discuss an exit strategy for Marcus and Katherine. Vanessa, meanwhile, has given up on Blair and gone to meet with the Duke.

The threesome date between Dan and Amanda, and Serena, is going... well, let's just say it's going. It's clear that Dan and Amanda are definitely no Dan and Serena. Serena excuses herself from the table to get a drink and while she's at the bar Blair's posse introduces her to a Lacrosse player. Serena drags her new boytoy to the table, obviously just trying to make Dan jealous. After some boring chatter about how the Lacrosse player knocked some guy out, Amanda excuses herself to the bathroom, Serena excuses herself to get another drink, and Dan just excuses himself for no reason to get away from the douchebag. Dan confronts Serena at the bar about why she would want to do a threesome date just to try to throw some new guy in his face. She starts getting all upset about how he could already be talking to a new girl so quickly after their breakup. She tells him that it hurts, just because they broke up doesn't mean she could turn it off just like that. Dan suggests that they stay away from each other for a while. Serena turns the switch on her emotions and goes from crying to outright bitch. She tells Dan that he and Amanda should probably just leave. She tells him that it's her friends at the restaurant and this really isn't his kind of place anyway. Serena then walks to another side of the bar to get her drink. Chuck walks up and tells Dan he hopes he's not leaving yet because he'll miss seeing the real Serena.

Blair asks Nate to meet her ASAP because she has to tell him something. She tells Nate about Katherine and Marcus and the sweet deal she worked out in his favor. Katherine and Marcus are gone and she got Katherine to agree to pay Nate's dad's restitution, so therefore Nate is free of Katherine and his family is rich again. Woohoo! The good news doesn't last long though. Blair gets a call from Katherine telling her that Vanessa already talked to the Duke and told him everything. Now it looks like the deal is off. Blair goes to confront Vanessa. Vanessa tries to act like she really did Nate a favor, but then Blair tells her the wonderful deal that she had arranged and now Vanessa feels like an idiot.

Chuck continues on with his sneaky plan and things seem to fall in place. He gets one of Blair's posse to dump some chemical drink on Amanda. The chemical immediately starts making Amanda's hair fall out. Dan sees what's happening and tries to help Amanda but she doesn't want anything to do with him now. Serena tries to apologize again to Dan and says she had nothing to do with it, but Dan doesn't want to hear it and blames her entirely. He tells Serena that she needs to take a good look at who she is. Serena tells Blair's posse that from now on anything and everything goes through her. It looks like Serena is taking back the thrown bitches.

Lily drops by unexpectedly to have an impromptu movie night with Rufus. She tells Rufus that she can't handle being lonely, she's either alone at home or feeling alone in the middle of a crowded restaurant. Rufus tells her that he can't do this, he can't be her safety net anymore, it's not fair for anyone involved. Rufus's girlfriend, Claire, then comes in and Lily finally gets the message that this isn't going to happen.

The next morning Vanessa meets up with Nate to apologize but now he's the one blowing her off and he even throws the "we were never friends" line back at her. Ouch! The Blair posse is back to bullying Jenny again now that they're done with Amanda. Jenny tries to pretend like their bullying doesn't affect her but it's obvious that it does. She decides to skip school for the day and goes to do some interning at Eleanor's office instead. Dan calls Amanda to apologize for what happened the night before but he gets her voicemail. It turns out that Amanda isn't just some transfer student, she was actually hired by Chuck to befriend Dan and cause drama between him and Serena. It's all part of Chuck's twisted plan to make Serena queen of the school again and somehow he hopes this will send Blair running to him. His plan seems to be working so far as Blair's posse has started to turn on her. They blow off Blair when Serena shows up and Serena pulls the queen act on Blair treating her like a lost little puppy. Chuck is there on the sidelines watching and just waiting for Blair to come running which doesn't take too long.

Dan learns that if you play with fire you might just get burnt. When he arrives in the school courtyard everyone just stands and stares at him. They quickly file out and leave him standing alone. Serena and her new posse strut by and Serena gives him a look of disgust and shakes her head. Looks like queen Serena is back and she's just getting started.

Did anyone else love the final scene with Serena strutting by Dan? I think it was the ultimate Gossip Girl moment. And, what about the nasty stepson-stepmom thing going on with Marcus and Katherine? I'm glad to see those two gone, although I'm sure we're not done with them totally yet.