So far in this
season, we’ve seen the same thing happen week after week: a pretty slow plot
line followed by a huge culmination of drama at the very end, in which we may
find out one or two secrets of the plot. But tonight was different. Right off
the bat, each moment was more dramatic than the last, and I say that in the
best way possible.

Sharing a common love
has prompted Dan and Blair to crack down on the case at hand. They “road-trip”
(with much complaining by Blair) to Connecticut to find Juliet, after an e-mail
from Gossip Girl says she is probably hiding out there. Instead of immediately
finding Juliet, though, they run into Jenny’s ex-boyfriend/drug-dealer Damien
who spills that he sold Juliet a great amount of drugs a little while back. We
also learn that Damien and Serena went to boarding school together, in this
town in Connecticut that Juliet calls home. Lastly, during a visit with
Juliet’s mom, we find out that Juliet’s brother Ben was a teacher at this
boarding school.

This episode is done
through flashbacks and, in my opinion, very well. It is revealed that Serena
and Ben were very much in love at one point. Ben helped Serena to get her
grades up while in boarding school and turned her away from her party-girl
nature. But he turned her down sexually, and Serena admits to having been so
embarrassed by it that she never spoke to him again.

Juliet finds out that
Dan and Blair are in Connecticut, so she goes to talk to Serena and tells her
everything. All of us (including Serena) learn that Serena’s signature was on a
document saying that Ben committed statutory rape against her. Serena knows she
didn’t do it, because she and Ben never did anything, and she thinks back to
the time when all of this happened and realizes that it had to have been her
mother.

At (yet another) van
der Woodsen party, Serena attempts to expose to all of the guests that her
mother has lied about something huge. Following Serena’s little temper tantrum
(Aren’t these kids a little old to be continually embarrassing adults at
parties?) Lily tells Serena everything. She heard a rumor on campus at the
boarding school that Serena had a sexual relationship with a teacher. Lily,
wanting Serena at only the best private schools once back in Manhattan, went to
the school in order to clear Serena’s name from the incident. This resulted in
Ben being fired, which escalated into him being imprisoned. Essentially, Lily
put an innocent man behind bars for years.

This seems to be
Lily’s night, since it also is exposed that she is planning to sell Bass
Industries without telling Chuck. At this point, it seems that everyone has
turned against her: her husband, her daughter, and her stepson.

The plot skips to a
Christmas celebration at Chuck’s. He is planning to spend his winter in New
Zealand, and Serena goes to speak with Ben in prison, which leaves Dan and
Blair together in the city. The behavior between the two of them at the end of
tonight’s episode suggests perhaps a blossoming friendship — or maybe it is
just my wishful thinking.

Tonight lacked the
cliffhanger ending of so many of this season’s episodes, but perhaps it was for
the best. We have a little breather until mid-January, which gives us all time
to process all of the drama. I can’t wait to see what these kids are up to in
2011.