There's nothing worse than investing time and energy into a show only to be completely disappointed by the series finale. For most, Gossip Girl was this very series. The popular CW teen drama premiered in 2007 and was an instant hit among its younger fanbase. Featuring the fresh-faced talents of Blake Lively, Leighton Meester and Penn Badgley, the show centered around the drama-fueled lives of the wealthy students of the Upper East Side, with the titular "Gossip Girl" being an all-access blog spilling anyone and everyone's dirty secrets. It was all fun and games until Gossip Girl turned out to be ...Dan Humphrey.
Part of the appeal of Gossip Girl was that nobody knew who Gossip Girl (voiced by Kristen Bell) actually was, though she certainly knew everything about everyone else. She could've been anyone, and hints throughout the series pointed viewers in several different directions. One direction they did not really point to, however, was towards "Lonely Boy" Dan Humphrey (Badgley). Why was this reveal so polarizing?
Gossip Girl (2007), based on a young-adult book series of the same name, centered around Dan Humphrey, a teen living in Brooklyn with his father and younger sister Jenny (Taylor Momsen). Infatuated with the mysterious and beautiful Serena van der Woodsen (Lively), he found himself begrudgingly mingling with the Upper East Side world more and more throughout the series. As Dan became involved in an on-again off-again relationship with Serena, he also grew closer to Serena's best friend (or worst enemy, given the day) Blair Waldorf (Meester) and her boyfriend Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), as well as the roguish Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick). Dan and Serena ultimately ended up getting married at the end of the series, shortly before it was revealed that Dan was Gossip Girl all along.
Dan's Motives are Questionable
Gossip Girl centered around the elite families of the Upper East Side. Dan and his family were not rich or elite by any means, and this was established from the very beginning. Almost all of Dan's character arc revolved around his obsession with Serena despite his hatred for all things Upper East Side. He never quite fit in with the cutthroat, backstabbing attitude the rest of his peers seemed to possess. This was the point of contention for him and Serena at several points in their relationship throughout the series, with them feeling as if they were from two worlds that were just too different.
Serena didn't necessarily like the deception and lies intertwining the lives of all Upper East Siders, but it WAS also all she knew, so she wasn't really taking any hard action to get away from it. Why would the show writers make such a point to have Dan be so anti-Upper East Side just to turn around and reveal him as the ultimate puppet master?
How Did He Do It?
One of the biggest unanswered questions is how could Dan be Gossip Girl? Strictly looking at the timeline of the events of Gossip Girl, there were several instances where Gossip Girl dropped a story about something or someone Dan wasn't even around for. In the pilot episode, Gossip Girl knew Serena was returning home from boarding school, but there would have been no way Dan could have known when she'd be arriving. Given that Gossip Girl mostly operated on anonymous tips from Upper East Siders to keep the blog fresh with juicy information, it's not totally out of the question that Dan would have pieced together stories from these tips and possibly his own sleuthing work, but it's still questionable, at best.
Why Did He Do It?
Some, if not all, stories Gossip Girl posted were personal attacks on either Dan or people closes to him. When Dan and Serena were in the beginning stages of their relationship, Gossip Girl posted a picture of Serena buying pregnancy tests. It's later revealed that she was buying them for Blair, but if that weren't the case, and Dan was Gossip Girl, why would he out his own girlfriend buying pregnancy tests?
Another problematic plot point comes from Gossip Girl revealing that Dan's younger sister lost her virginity to Chuck Bass. It's worth mentioning that the show did try to amend this plot hole within the series finale. Dan's father confronts him about exposing his sister's secret, to which Dan replies that Jenny was the one who wanted Gossip Girl to post the story. Regardless, instances like these make the ultimate reveal of Dan as Gossip Girl feel thrown together at the last moment, despite the fact that some of the writers have insisted Dan was meant to be Gossip Girl all along. It's easier to believe that, as some other writers have said, the plan for Gossip Girl's reveal was never set in stone.
Overall, ask any Gossip Girl fan their thoughts on the series finale, and they're bound to share their disappointment. While it may very well have been one of the most popular young adult shows of the early 21st century, many viewers felt that the ultimate reveal of Dan as Gossip Girl was too much to get past. Some claim the hints about Dan being Gossip Girl appeared as early as the pilot, while others argue his reveal was thrown together because the show runners knew the series' end was drawing near. No matter the opinions, Gossip Girl is a show viewers are still buzzing about almost ten years after it went off the air. For fans still craving Upper East Side drama, a Gossip Girl reboot is available to stream on HBO Max, following a new cast and armed with even juicier scandals.
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December 07, 2021 at 06:16AM
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Why Gossip Girl's Dan Humphrey Reveal Disappointed Fans | CBR - CBR
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