Or rather: Was Nate in this episode at all?

My first question on last night’s Gossip Girl offering:

Why are almost all of Nate’s (Chace Crawford) storylines disjointed from the rest of the cast?

And why, even when he does appear in the episode, is he relegated to filler–almost tokenisms,–ust enough for him to stay in the credits? Don’t blame it on Bree. Serena (Blake Lively) is also currently dating someone who is not within their “circle,” but she remains pretty much in the center of everything.

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Nate was barely in the episode (also missing were Jenny and Eric, but that’s a whole other bone to pick), and when he was, it was all about how he and Bree (Joanna Garcia from Privileged) had sort of decided to “come out” as a couple. Little did we know that all this entailed was kissing in front of a phalanx of paparazzi, and then disappearing altogether.

The highlight of the episode (and season 3 in general, so far) remains to be Blair (Leighton Meester) and Chuck (Ed Westwick) canoodling around, auctioning a photo for upwards of $5,000, and buying hotels–yes, the things 18-year-old’s do these days. Kids. Theirs was the central storyline in this episode, and for good reason. At least things happened with them.

Nate has something going on, but since the season 3 premiere, developments have been very brief and… quite undeveloped. His story with Bree is taking forever to unfold, and it barely budged on this most recent episode. As far as I remember, this isn’t the first time he’s been entangled in this sort of love affair–the type where they seem to inhabit a world of their own (read: Vanessa), and that didn’t work out well. So I’m not sure why the writers are pushing Nate to the same direction. If there’s anything making Nate boring, this revolving cycle of ho-hum hookups and breakups is it.

Plus: doesn’t he have Columbia to get to? (You know, that university he enrolled in?) You know what they say: “All lust and no learning makes Nate a dull boy.”

– Glenn Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Image courtesy of the CW)

Glenn Diaz

Staff Writer, BuddyTV