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Every Gossip Girl Thanksgiving Episodes, Ranked (Worst To Best): Your Thanksgiving Binge-Watch Schedule Is Here!
Welcome back, Upper East Siders; it’s almost Turkey Day. And ladies, we are in for a treat. XOXO As per the timeless tradition of Gossip Girl, we are ready to trade our laptops for stove tops, and for the next few weeks, we are only planning on dishing seconds.
But then, what is Thanksgiving without a side of drama and some pie?
Another Thanksgiving is about to arrive – and this Thanksgiving, what are we most thankful about? The truth! The truth about all the Gossip Girl Thanksgiving episodes ranked from worst to best. There are six seasons and, surprisingly, five episodes centering around Thanksgiving (the 5th season doesn’t have a Thanksgiving episode – shocking!).
Yes, it won’t take a very long time to finish. Once you are done with the Upper East Side, you can binge-watch the best Friends Thanksgiving episodes. So, without wasting time, let’s just dive in!
Every Gossip Girl Thanksgiving Episodes, Ranked (Worst To Best): Your Thanksgiving Binge-Watch Schedule Is Here!
We have ranked all the Gossip Girl Thanksgiving episodes from the worst to the best. Let’s check them out!
5. The Magnificent Archibalds: Season 2, Episode 11
The second annual Thanksgiving episode begins with perhaps the show’s best opening lines from the narrator (Kristen Bell).“For the rest of the country, Thanksgiving is when families come together to give thanks. But on the Upper East Side, the holiday thankfully returns to its roots: lying, manipulation, and betrayal. And from what we hear, just like the Indians, someone else is being pushed out of their home.”
This disdainful retelling of the horrifying and brutal real history of the holiday might not be very relevant to the comfortable, ritzy lives of people on the Upper East Side. But we definitely appreciate the basic acknowledgment of what Native Americans dealt with on this particular romanticized holiday.
Here, it’s Blair who feels pushed out by Cyrus Rose, her new stepfather. Blair suspects Cyrus of starting new family traditions. But he actually turns out to be charming and kind to Blair and her schemes.
Although Dan tells Serena, “This year’s gonna be a little quieter, I guess,” at the beginning of the episode, it is only foolish to think that the holiday season won’t be dramatic! Jenny Humphrey tries to emancipate herself from her parents, Nate works with the cops so that they can arrest his father, and Dan tells Aaron Rose (Serena’s new boyfriend) about Serena’s not-so-sober past.
Jenny Humphrey is trying to get emancipated from her parents, Dan spills tea to Aaron Rose, Serena’s new boyfriend, about her memorable past, and Nate turns his father in for his fraudulent behavior.
While the episode is admittedly exciting, it involves plenty of characters who are pretty irrelevant in the big picture – yes, Aaron, just leave. However, any episode with Leighton Meester and Wallace Shawn is worth watching!
4. Gaslit: Season 4, Episode 10
This episode is definitely less heartwarming as compared to the past Gossip Girl Thanksgiving episodes. But it is undoubtedly the most real one!
It’s Thanksgiving at the Van der Woodsen/Humphrey home on the Upper East Side, and the weather is chilly. Blair is pissed at Serena, Lily is pissed at Serena, Dan is pissed at Serena. But nobody can find Serena until she wakes up in a random room, drugged, and dials 911.
Thanksgiving is interrupted from here on. Serena’s doctors, family, and friends assume that she is depressed. And as a result, has purposefully overdosed. So, Lily sends her to the family’s go-to rehab, Ostroff Center.
But nobody knows the complete story yet – how Juliet Sharp teamed up with Vanessa and Jenny, turning everyone against Serena.
And then Juliet just took things a thousand steps further by drugging Serena. In the middle of this drama, because of another annoying outsider, everyone forgets about Blair’s dad’s pumpkin pie recipe and Vanessa’s tofu stuffing. Yes, we love how the show talks about the problems of the 1%. But then this episode and the whole season lays it on too thick.
The villains are actually poor outcasts – Nate’s dad, Juliet, Vanessa, and Jenny – but once again, the mighty rich emerge victorious.
3. It’s Really Complicated: Season 6, Episode 8
This is Gossip Girl’s final Thanksgiving episode, and it’s a doozy. It definitely pays homages to old episodes with a torn-apart (against) Chuck and Blair, a reunited (again) Serena and Dan, and shots of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Dan even sums up the Thanksgiving history of the show neatly with his words, “Given our track record with Thanksgivings, it might be kind of risky. Divorces have been filed, and affairs revealed.” And then Serena interrupts with her naive, optimistic, “Yes, but that was our parents, not us.”
Awwh, poor Serena, aren’t you aware of how children in fictional history are typically doomed to repeat the mistakes made by their forebears?
Plot wise, Blair is again trying to go to Paris, Bart and Lily are trying to go to the beach, and Serena decides to host a Thanksgiving dinner for friends with Dan. But surprise! Things do not go as planned.
2. The Treasure Of Serena Madre: Season 3, Episode 11
This is perhaps one of the most gossip-y episodes in the show’s existence.
On the delish buffet table: Serena and Blair squabble, references to Olivia/Vanessa/Dan threesome, Serena’s bad romantic decisions with Congressman Tripp Vanderbilt, who is married, surprise guests at dinner, Eric and Jenny tension, plenty of daughter/mother conflict, pregnancy misunderstandings, Vampire Weekend soundtrack, and more.
But the juiciest thing to happen in this episode is the iconic dinner table scene with Jason Derulo’s Whatcha Say playing in the background, with some typical holiday drama on the side. It starts with Nate letting Maureen, Tripp’s wife, know about his affair with Serena, while Blair tells Jenny about how Eric schemed to ruin her debut in Cotillion.
By the time the song ends, hearts are broken, secrets are revealed, and half the chairs at the table are empty, indicating that nothing will be the same again…until next year, obviously!
1. Blair Waldorf Must Pie: Season 1, Episode 9
We always save the best for the last. The inaugural Thanksgiving-inspired episode laid the foundation for all Gossip Girl Thanksgiving episodes of future seasons. It includes everything. Exposed secrets, Serena walking around Manhattan with Nelly Furtado’s Promiscuous booming in the background, and flashbacks to past Thanksgiving.
The main conflicts of the episode? Blair vs. her mother vs. her father, who doesn’t show up in spite of their pumpkin pie tradition after leaving New York to move in with his partner. Things, however, go for a toss between the Van de Woodsens and Humphreys. Serena and their family (Eric and Lily) have nowhere to go on Thanksgiving after a fight over Chuck with Blair. But then Dan saves the day and invites them over, except the new couple has no idea about the history their parents share.
The fact that Rufus and Lily used to date when they were young is unknown to the children. Plus, they reconnected once their children started going out. But Lily didn’t know that Rufus had been working on his marriage with his wife all this while. He and his wife had separated for months.
So, everyone ends up at dinner, where different kinds of conflicts erupt simultaneously, with Serena getting Blair to join the party. When the two besties walk inside the Humphrey loft, Blair says, “Wow, weird vibe.” It’s a very accurate summary of the whole episode, TBH!
And It’s A Wrap!
And that’s a wrap on the best Gossip Girl Thanksgiving episodes! But really, can anyone actually finish a single meal on Thanksgiving in the show? We don’t think so! In the span of six seasons, we have never seen anyone finish a single meal. But not a single episode has compromised in terms of dishing out drama! After all, like we said in the very beginning – what’s Thanksgiving without a side of drama and pie? XOXO.
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