Did You Miss Me? Gossip Girl is Back!

Spoilers Ahead: Read at Your Own Risk

Hey Upper East Siders, the beloved Gossip Girl show is back after almost a decade since the finale of the original. Now, it’s time to reboot the storyline. While glitz, glamour, power, and privilege have stayed the same, the new world of social media has changed the whole game for spreading gossip online. There’s a lot to unpack from just one episode.

First, who are the characters in this show? Do we see any resemblance to the beloved Serena, Nate, Blair, and Chuck?

First up is Julien Calloway, portrayed by Jordan Alexander. Julien is a young influencer on social media, and that means everything. She’s worked hard for the reputation she has, and she won’t do anything to lose it, even if it means losing the trust of her half-sister, boyfriend, and potentially her friends.

Next is Obie Bergman, played by Eli Brown. He’s the richest of the friend group, which leads to the guilt he feels for his enormous amount of wealth. He tries to make the most of it by giving back to the community. He criticizes the rich for spending money at a restaurant and not a charity. While Obie seems to have a heart of gold, he doesn’t love how his girlfriend, Julien, makes everything seem so superficial.

Audrey Hope is the 3rd friend in the main group. Her storyline has mostly stayed on the grounds of worrying about Julien letting a stranger into her life and about how she’s wondering about what else is out in the world besides her long-term boyfriend. But could there be more to her relationship than what meets the eye? Audrey Hope is played by Emily Alyn Lind.

Evan Mock plays the role of Aki Menzie, the long-term boyfriend of Audrey. It seems like so far he’s also wondering what’s out there, and perhaps even wanting to experiment a bit with his sexuality.

Max Wolfe, portrayed by Thomas Doherty, seems to be the center of attention for both Audrey and Aki. He is so far seen as one willing to try anything and quite enjoys his freedom. It shouldn’t come as a shock that everyone is so fascinated by him. Could this be our new Chuck?

Luna La and Monet de Haan give off being a “minion” for Julien. They’re taking photos for her story, doing her makeup, and will go to whatever lengths to protect Julien—no matter the cost. Luna La is played by Zion Moreno and Monet de Haan is played by Savannah Smith.

Zoya Lott, portrayed by Whitney Peak, is the last student we seem to really know about. She’s moved from Boston to New York after receiving a scholarship to Constance Billiard. She’s a freshman, almost giving off a “Little Jenny” similarity. She has the potential to become bigger than Julien and steal her crown.

Now that we know about the characters, let’s break down what happened in this episode.

It’s the first day of school. As the episode begins, we learn that Julien and Zoya are half-sisters. Zoya’s dad is skeptical about having them so close together because of what’s happened in the past. All we know so far is Julien’s mom left her father to be with Zoya’s dad, and other than the fact the mother is now dead, we don’t know much else about what’s going on.

While it seems as though Zoya and Julien despise each other, we learn that’s not the case once they’re alone. The two have matching tattoos and have practically created an elaborate scheme to get them together in the same city. None of Julien’s friends even knew her plan, and as soon as Julien tries to invite Zoya to join the group, the whole group is hesitant (except Obie).

Obie, the boyfriend of Julien seems to be the only one who likes Zoya. He takes a chance on her after seeing how much she has in common with him.

Julien pretends to have never spoken to Zoya, but no secret lasts long on the Upper East Side, especially now that Gossip Girl is back. Over the years, the students have controlled the school system and made it incredibly easy to get any teacher of their choosing fired. With the teachers are sick of it, it brings on the resurrection of Gossip Girl. And of course, their first big hit is on the fact that Julien basically was the entire reason Zoya got the scholarship.

When the friend group finds out Julien lied, Zoya and Obie seem to be the most upset. The two storm off together and end up in Obie’s apartment, getting caught in the rain. They somehow decided it’d be a great idea to undress in front of a large window, which one of the teachers happens to witness. It’s a little disgusting, if you ask me, that a grown man would take a photo of two half-naked minors, but I guess he’s doing whatever it takes to save his job—no matter how illegal it is.

Now, once the photo of the two gets out, there's a whole uprising. All the students are freaking out, well, all except Julien. Julien is convinced someone's out to get her and trying to drop down her reputation. She said the best way to get back is to stage a "Serena-Blair" blowout. The plan is to "forget" to put Zoya on the after-party list, in which Zoya will cause a huge scene. 

Monet and Luna don't seem too pleased with this plan. It's not enough, so they decide to take matters into their own hands.

Monet does a little phone switcharoo with Zoya, in which we can only assume that the photos Luna takes of Max are what surface amongst all the phones in the room via airdrop. Monet sends this photo outright when Julien is having her big moment on stage, leading those to believe Zoya was trying to ruin Julien's big moment. 

Once the Fashion Show has ended, Zoya and Julien have a huge confrontation outside. The gist is Zoya is hurt that Julien allowed this to happen, and Julien basically explains while she didn't know what was going on, she has a reputation for upkeep. The feud goes from being fake to real. As Obie has witnessed the whole scheme, he decides this is the end of him and Julien. 

In another twist of events, we've seen the interesting dynamic between Max, Aki, and Audrey. Aki and Audrey have been a couple for quite some time, but it seems both of them are wondering what else is out there. Their specific interest in mind both seems to lead to Max, as he is fearless and carefree. In one of the last scenes of the episode, while Aki and Audrey are getting intimate, Aki basically tells Audrey to think about Max instead. The only assumption is that perhaps he is thinking about Max as well.

In the episode's final scene, we see Julien, Monet, Luna, Audrey, Max, and Aki watching over the school. Julien sees Zoya and Obie creating a bond, leading her to storm off. As she storms off, she runs into Ms. Keller, one of the teachers. She apologizes for bumping into her, instigating there's been a shift in dynamic. Keller is happy—as she can see the plan to revive Gossip Girl has begun working.

As noted, a lot  went down in the pilot of this reboot. It was almost too much for one episode, but it gives us a good idea of where the show will go from here. We'll witness the Zoya-Obie-Julien love triangle, as well as the Max-Audrey-Aki triangle. There will be more sister showdowns to come. Monet and Luna will continue to rain hellfire on Zoya for messing with Julien. And, of course, Gossip Girl will be there to record every minute of it.

So far, I think the show does a great job of making homage to the original but still making the reboot its own. The teachers being Gossip Girl is a brilliant twist, no matter how disturbing it may actually be. The inclusion of more race and sexuality is something the original GG severely lacked. It's hard to say much else as we've only seen one episode so far, but the pilot exceeded my expectations of how badly this could've gone. 

Don't forget to stream Gossip Girl each Thursday on HBO Max; the secrets and lies will only grow as the season carries on.

Xoxo.