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Gossip Girl Season 3 Episode 16

The Empire Strikes Jack

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AIRED: Mar 29, 2010

7.4

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Episode Summary

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Jack Bass is back in NY and Chuck finds himself at odds with his uncle. Eleanor puts Blair in charge of making sure her fashion show is a huge success with an important client. Rufus tries to get Jenny to be more good by volunteering to help in Eleanor's fashion show, but it takes a turn for the worse when Jenny finds out that Agnes is one of the models.moreless

FAN RECAP

Fan Episode Reviews (2)

This episode reminded me why I used to love the show so much. It was the best episode in a long time.

9.5

By Not_Lupus, Jan 12, 2011

Lately I have been finding myself wanting the episodes to end because they are so boring in season 3. This episode had me engaged the entire time. It had all the things that I've been missing lately.

It had Dorota, Blair being more Blair like, Eleanor, Jenny working in fashion and evil plot twists.

The episode was centred around Eleanor Waldorf's fashion show. Rufus encouraged Jenny to work with Eleanor again and she did very well. She reunited with Agnes, who was modeling for the fashion show as Eleanor had rehired her. To make a long story short, Agnes and Jenny apologised to each other and became friends again, only to have Agnes spike Jenny's drink at the end of the show with Damien's pills. She was then taken away and rescued by Nate. Eleanor did hire Jenny for a permanent job at the end of the episode.

Nate was very protective of Jenny in this episode and there weren't many Serenate scenes. Chuck and Blair had quite a few scenes but in my opinion, they are still lacking the chemistry they had in previous seasons.

Chuck was jerked around a lot in this episode. He finds out that Jack, his mother and his lawyer are all in on Jack's plan to get Chuck's hotel. He tries to convince his mother to hand it back but she admits that she can't because she is in love with Jack. Chuck tells her Jack with never love her back because he is Jack Bass, pretty much. She doesn't to listen to Chuck, but in the end asks Jack to choose between her and the hotel. Jack of course, chooses the hotel and Elizabeth tells Chuck she is leaving. He asks her to stay for him but she says no, and that she is not his mother. Later on, Elizabeth confides in Jack that she told Chuck she is not his mother, which leads me to believe that she lied to Chuck.

Meanwhile, Eleanor asks Blair to find at least 30 friends from NYU to come to her fashion show because they need to impress this guy who Eleanor wants to sign her design. Blair doesn't admit to her mother that she has no friends at NYU. She instead gets Dorota to hire 30 prostitutes for her and proceeds to tell her mother they are her friends.

At the end of the fashion show Blair has to black mail the guy into signing the fashion line. I really loved this part as we hadn't seen the manipulative, plotting Blair in awhile and it was really nice to see she's still in there.

In the end, Eleanor doesn't end up agreeing to letting the guy sign her fashion line because he wants her to change the name. She then tells Blair that Waldorf women should never change who they are. Blair then admits she has no friends at NYU and her and her mother have a very nice bonding moment. Blair then meets some girls from Columbia that she likes and it seems she is now thinking about going to Columbia instead.

There were also Dan and Vanessa scenes. Vanessa didn't want their relationship to be the same as it was when they were friends. It kind of seemed forced to me. I find them rather boring.

It ended with Chuck coming to see Blair. He was upset and fed up and didn't want to think about Elizabeth anymore.

All in all, I thought it was a wonderful episode. It was a very nice change and I think the writers did a good job with this one. Hopefully they can keep it up for the rest of the season.moreless
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Good Episode, as was last weeks.

8.0

By Postmoderner, Mar 30, 2010

Last 2 episodes of Gossip girl have been somewhat better than previous episodes this season. I hope the improvement continues and we get a run of good episodes until the season finale.

For one, the writers aren't randomly throwing in new plot points and are trying..maybe.. to develop the new relationships of dan/van and nate/serena

im a Nate and serena fan but they have not done anything interesting yet, looks like we will see something next week..Most interesting thing about the episode was Jenny and Nate, they have chemistry, looking forward to seeing if anything happens hear.

Chuck's scenes with his mother were quite emotional but I wish they would wrap the story up.

Another thing I didnt like was Dan and Vanessa. They are boring. Their relationship is not interesting in the slightest. But if they break up Vanessa will become void, and as much as I like her she is useless, the character is going nowhere.

Overall a Good ep. Hope Jenny gets her life back on track and grows up a bit. Working for Eleanor can be a good thing. And hope we see some interesting relationship development, im hopefull the run of good episodes continues!

PS. Good to see Deadmau5 playing at the fashion show. Love his tunes!moreless
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Cast & Crew: STARS

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Blake Lively	Serena van der Woodsen
Leighton Meester	Blair Waldorf
Penn Badgley	Dan Humphrey
Ed Westwick	Chuck Bass
Chace Crawford	Nate Archibald
Taylor Momsen	Jenny Humphrey

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Cast & Crew: RECURRING AND GUESTS

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Scott Bryce	Ed Conwell	Guest Star
Alice Callahan	Girl #2	Guest Star
deadmau5	Himself	Guest Star
Willa Holland	Agnes	Recurring Role
Desmond Harrington	Jack Bass	Recurring Role
Margaret Colin	Eleanor Waldorf	Recurring Role

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Episode Photos

Penn Badgley as Dan, Chace Crawford as N...

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Chace Crawford as Nate and Blake Lively ...

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Blake Lively as Serena and Jessica Szohr...

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Leighton Meester as Blair on Gossip Girl...

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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TRIVIA (2)
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- Guest Stars Margaret Colin and Scott Bryce played siblings Margo and Craig Montgomery on As the World Turns.
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- Although credited, Kelly Rutherford (Lily van der Woodsen) does not appear in this episode.
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QUOTES (0)
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NOTES (3)
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- International Episode Titles:
  Czech Republic: Jack vrací úder (Jack Strikes Back)
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- Featured Music:
  "Run" by Vampire Weekend
  "Try to Find" by Danica
  "Between Two Lungs" by Florence + the Machine
  "Not Exactly" by Deadmau5
  "Hi Fiend" by Deadmau5
  "FML" by Deadmau5
  "I Remember" by Deadmau5 & Kaskade
  "Go Hand or Go Home" by Megha Man
  "Hollywood" by Hollywood Holt
  "Animal" by Far East Movement
  "Falling Down" by Scarlett Johansson
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- Original International Air Dates:
  Canada: March 28, 2010 on 'A'
  United Kingdom: March 31, 2010 on ITV2
  Sweden: April 18, 2010 on Kanal 5
  Norway: April 26, 2010 on FEM
  Turkey: May 18, 2010 on CNBC-e
  Slovakia: September 19, 2010 on Doma
  Czech Republic: December 18, 2011 on Prima LOVE
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ALLUSIONS (1)
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- Title comes from the 1980 movie Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back.
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