Gossip Girl Episode Review: Season 5, Episode 14 : The back-up Dan

5x14 deals with the aftermath of the 100th episode.




Serena is looking everywhere for Blair. As she does, she meets Eleanor who needs desperately to be reassured that Blair is happy with her marriage. Serena understands this and offers Eleanor reassurance she's been seeking. (By the way, where's Cyrus or Blair's father?)

Georgina plans her next strike as the scoop she has got clearly isn't enough for her. On a side note, Georgina's relationship with her husband really surprised me positively. I always thought that she has fooled him, but he actually knows her pretty well and accepts her for who she is. They may have the most honest relationship in Gossip Girl history and to use Nate's quote from last episode that's how we know the world is really a mess!


   
Chuck and Serena keep searching for Blair, when Chuck's security guard informs them that Blair is in the Empire... So they leave the reception and on their way out they meet Nate and Charlie. Nate is flirting with Charlie and helps her finish her work. How cute is Nate flirting! Charlie informs Serena and Chuck that the traffic is heavy and that she has a way to avoid it by going from a different road. Chuck suggests that they should take her van and Serena quickly reminds Chuck that they should be nice to Charlie and ask her if she can take them there. Of course, she accepts and Nate follows them a little too eagerly. something that Serena notices.

Louis and Sophie find out about Blair's absence and try to track her down too.
Meanwhile, Chuck, Serena, Nate and Charlie arrive at the empire and instead of seeing Blair they see Georgina. Nate introduces Georgina to Charlie in the funniest way possible.
Nate: "This is Georgina Sparks, the worst person you will ever meet, so avoid eye-contact at all times"
Georgina tells them that Blair has run away from the reception.


And we finally get to see Blair. They are waiting in a parking lot in the car. Blair wants to go to the Dominican Republic to get the divorce there, so that she could get a divorce without her husband's consent, a move originally inspired by Elisabeth Taylor.











In the same scene, Dan expresses his surprise that Chuck actually sent the video again. I would be really angry at him if he actually was the one to send the video. I wouldn't mind if he did it without accusing Chuck, because however inappropriate, this move was in Blair's best interest. But trying to convince Blair that Chuck sent it  is strategic and maybe proves that Georgina was right in the previous episode.

Dan and Blair head to the airport. Blair's worried that she will get recognised and that way Louis will find out and stop her. What really bugs me though, is the fact that she didn't even think to put off the tiara... How many brides walk into the airport wearing a crown?!?
Therefore, she decides that she should change clothes. At first, she finds a girl who has a good taste and asks her to swap her wedding dress to one of her clothes. The girl understands that it is Blair, but Dan quickly comes up with a plausible lie. They are decoys and are used to distract the press so that the real princess and the prince won't be found.



That's not the only instant Dan was caught lying in this episode. Serena calls him to ask him whether he has seen Blair. When Serena explains him the reason she's been absent for the reception (not the true one either), Dan responds: "I didn't even realise you left". Ouch. Really? Couldn't he think of a better answer considering her confession earlier that night. Serena understands that Dan is weird in that phone call and asks whether this can be attributed to her confession and if he has something to say about it. And then we get an  even funnier response: " I do but I have to go to the bathroom".
As soon as they hang up, Serena tells everyone that Blair has left with Louis, as Dan told her. Georgina knows better though, and insists that Dan is lying something he is getting better at (not quite true... he is still a terrible at lying.)

Back at the airport, Blair finds out that being in the cover of a tabloid isn't enough to get you a ticket... What a sock! Dan can barely keep her from revealing to all the people there that she is Blair Waldorf.
So, she decides to ask Dorota to get her the passport.

Chuck and Serena dismiss Georgina and she goes along with it, since she was informed that Dorota went at Blair's house. Chuck admits to Serena that maybe he should make peace with the fact that his relationship with Blair is over since the video killed every chance they got. But Louis sends a message at Blair's cellphone, asking her to get back. Serena has Blair's cellphone so she and Chuck figure out that what Dan told them might not be entirely true.

Dan calls Rufus to help them distract Louis' family so that they won't find where Blair is. Fortunately for them, Rufus is at his house with Eleanor, Sophie and Lily. Rufus seems originally concerned though here, maybe he thinks that Dan is getting too invested and he will get hurt in the end.

 Sophie initially tries to use Eleanor to find Blair without actually telling her the situation. When her attempts fail, she threatens Eleanor that if she doesn't get Blair to come back to Louis, they will have to pay the amount of money that is defined by the prenuptial contract. (Which must be huge, since the only way for them to pay it was if Eleanor sold her business.)

Nate overhears Charlies' phone call with her mother, and when she lies about it, Nate thinks she isn't as honest as he thought she was and asks her to leave.

Blair is sleeping, lying on Dan's shoulder, when she and Dan watch Louis' talking to the press, asking for information on where Blair might be. They realise then, that they shouldn't wait at the airport for the flight and they head to a hotel.


At the same time, Chuck and Serena find Dorota, who was locked by Georgina in Blair's wardrobe (Georgina was kind enough to leave pregnant Dorota snacks as she was a mother herself!). She explains them where Blair is and Chuck and Serena take over bringing Blair her passport. Georgina follows them...

Dan and Blair reach the hotel and Blair starts complaining about how she ended up being in a hotel room with Dan Humphrey when earlier that day she thought she would be a princess. Dan is actually tired of Blair's ungratefulness and demands a little appreciation. This resulted to one of the most interesting scenes in the episode. The way they were fighting reminded me of a married couple. Yelling at each other through closed doors was hilarious! And I feel actually relieved that Dan stoop up to her. He was absolutely right. He has helped her so much  all season long and he never got the credit he deserved. Sometimes she didn't actually treat him as a friend. I don't know if she is in denial of deeper romantic feelings or just oblivious of Dan's feelings, but as a friend of hers he deserved something better. I'd like to see in the future some scene, where she is originally concerned about what is happening on Dan's life and not only thinking of him whenever she needs help.

Chuck and Serena go to the hotel at the same time that Dan was ready to leave. When they see him, they are originally surprised. Serena asks him why he had lied to her earlier and he tells that he didn't do it because Blair asked him not to tell anyone. Blair, though, obviously thinks that he should have and adds that she called him because she needed a car. Dan responds: " now that your real friends are here to help you, I'm going out!"

Georgina enters, when Dan leaves and takes a photo of them. Serena drops her bag and the things she has in it get out. Georgina notices her camera and suggests that Serena sent the video after all. Serena says that she has sent the blast, but she did it to help Chuck and Blair.

Serena says to Blair: "You choosing to run away with Dan knowing how I felt about him and not telling me any of it, that hurt too". What caught me by surprise is that Blair's expression showed guilt. This had me wandering whether Blair is actually more aware either of Dan's feelings or of her own feelings than she lets us know. If she thought that they were strictly friends, there wouldn't be anything to feel guilty about, right?
Serena leaves and just when Chuck suggests that he and Blair should go to the Dominic Republic together, Sophie enters and threatens her that if she divorces Louis she will have to pay.

Chuck is willing to pay the money and do whatever is needed to help her but she is not accepting it. She says to him that when and if they end up together they should be equals. I get why Blair wouldn't accept Chuck's offer but I'm getting tired of watching them try to overcome all those unrealistic hinders. Either let them be together or split them up for a real reason.


Blair:"When and if we end up together, it has to be as equals with nothing over our heads.."

Serena meets Dan at the bar and tries to avoid him. Dan explains her that he lied to her to help Blair and she responds that if he wanted to do that he could tell them. Dan asks if she is mad at him because he hasn't answered her yet and Serena tells him that he just had. Serena is no longer in denial  and he can see how important her best friend has become to Dan. She is really disappointed because she obviously hadn't evaluated the situation right.


Dan:"I won't apologise for helping a friend"
Serena: "And aparently you won't apologise for lying to one either"

After her conversation with Chuck, Blair finds Dan in the  bar and wants to talk to him. He initially tells her that if she is looking for Serena, she's gone to the town. Blair apologises to him and in her attempt she says:
"I could never have survived this last month without you"
"I care about you too even if I have odd ways of showing like bossing you around or making fun of your hair"
"I just need to know that you will be there for me"
 His response is always... I'm glad he finally got the recognition he deserved.




Charlie comes to Lily's house for her job and tells her about the situation with Nate. Lily informs Nate about it, so he decides to explain her the reason he ended their date so abruptly. I like them together very much. They end up telling each other about their families and Nate asks for a do-over. Charlie, then, makes it clear that she doesn't like his world and that she doesn't want to be in it. I wonder, does she know that she has the oportunity to be in that world? Does she know she has a trustfund?

Eleanor tells to Louis that she doesn't want her daughter to be with him and therefore she would sell everything if she had to, to succeed that. Blair though doesn't want to destroy her family in order to get divorced so she decides she can handle being married to Louis for a year. Dan goes there to give Blair her wedding dress and Blair once again tells him how much she appreciates his help and he reminds her that he will always be there. I love the way she looks at him in this scene.


And back to the question we've been having since the last episode. Who sent the video? Serena tells Chuck that she accepted the accusations just because she thought it was Chuck who did it. But Chuck denies it. Georgina says that she can take advantage of  the identity of the person that has sent it. And the way it was presented, implies it was Dan who did...  Is it too early to reveal the ID of the sender or  is Dan really the one that has done it? What did you think of the episode?