Catch up on the Gossip (Girl)

    CW's Gossip Girl has already gone off the air, unfortunately until March, but its not too late to catch up on what has happened with everyone's favorite East Siders in their third season.  So far, it has been quite the roller coaster, and the fall finale left plenty of unanswered questions and flitting rumors to keep us guessing until its return.  Despite the fact that most of the main cast graduated from high school last spring, all have remained in Manhattan, and the show has lost none of it's zeal that made it a guilt pleasure triumph.  In case you missed it, let's review who's doing what and what's coming up next.

     Let's all breathe a sigh of relief that Serena (Blake Lively, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants) and Blair (Leighton Meester, who seems to be trying to launch a singing career now) have finally set aside their differences and cemented a fast friendship.  Watching S and B go back and forth could be fun, but they have both matured into more adult characters.  Sure, Serena was involved with a married man, and Blair still gets involved in school politics, but they both seem to have finally passed the point where they will be at war with each other.  Speaking of Blair, her settling down with Chuck (Ed Westwick) has done both of them a lot of good.  Chuck has finally become a respectable adult with real emotions and left behind most of his childhood tantrums.  It's nice to see some genuine character development among the leads.

     Nate (Chace Crawford) has returned to family roots, and seems to be seriously in love.  While Nate was almost always above the backstabbing and manipulating, the other characters starting to rise to his level makes him feel more a part of the ensemble than he did before.  He has ceased to become an extraneous character and matters to the overarching plots now.  Same goes for Vanessa (Jessica Szohr, What About Brian?).  After her threesome with Dan (Penn Badgley) and Olivia (Hilary Duff, Lizzie McGuire), resulting in their breakup, it appears that a happy ending for her won't be too far down the line.  The only holdout in the growing-up group is Jenny (Taylor Momsen, How the Grinch Stole Christmas), who, not coincidentally, is the only one still left in high school.  Jenny's balancing act between decent human being and queen of mean is finally finding a balance, but hopefully the correct side of her will win out in the end.

     The only major concern for the show is the always too fragile bond between Rufus (Matthew Settle) and Lily (Kelly Rutherford, the original Melrose Place).  The took so long to make it to the altar, the threat that it may fall apart so soon is too much to bare.  Either they need to be left alone to grow old together, or break them up and get them out of the cast.  The back and forth has become too frustrating.

     All in all, though, the show has only gotten stronger with time, and it is shaping up to be something much more than what it started as.  If it continues on this track, there is nothing but blue skies ahead for the whole gang.  Unless Georgina (Michelle Trachtenberg, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mercy) comes back again.