TVSquad

(S02E10) "I wanted a Harry Winston choker for my birthday. Instead, I got a conscience." - Blair

"Bonfire of the Vanity" may not have been the most earth-shattering episode of The CW's Gossip Girl. However, it pushed all current storylines (minus the Nate storyline) a bit forward to prepare for the big twists and turns coming up later this month when November Sweeps wraps up thus sending us in GG hiatus until 2009 arrives.

The highlight of this week's episode was definitely Blair trying to act all grown up. But the icing on the cake was seeing her being out played by toad Cyrus.

As you know, I've never read a Gossip Girl book so I know squat about Cyrus. However, based on this episode alone, I say that the GG Powers That Be did good when casting Wallace Shawn as the man who stole Eleanor's heart. It was funny to see Blair comment on her mother's great taste in men and expecting a Cary Grant-like man to come through the door but ultimately be surprised by a Danny De Vito-like five feet tall hugger of a man who loves throwing his catch phrases around. The facial expression on Blair's face when understanding that the gnome was dating her mother was priceless. That alone was worth the show casting Wallace.

The man looked rather inoffensive throughout the episode and I never expected that he had the brains to out maneuver Blair like that. Yes, he is an attorney and was in the military at one point. But to outwit and outplay Blair requires a crystal ball and a lot of connections. Looks like Cyrus has both resources. Question is, will he be able to outplay Blair in the long run? Only time will tell. For sure, we are in for an entertaining ride as Blair and Cyrus must learn to live under the same roof.

Rufus definitely needs to do something to fix his family. Jenny is still spiraling down and now Dan is willing to push his values away in the hope to get a juicy story. Okay, in the end, Dan did do the right thing by killing the exposé and giving a copy of his short story to Bart but still Dan was ready to hurt Serena's family in order to get published in a big magazine. I don't think we've heard the last of the building set on fire and the death that occurred during the event. After all, Dan's notes are probably still out there, no?

Thanks to Dan giving Bart a copy of the short story he wrote about Chuck, we have seen father and son try to mend their wounds. I suspect it'll be too little too late. Even if they have been living under the same roof, Bart and Chuck have years of being apart to catch up. It was a very touching scene to see Bart open up to Chuck about why he has been distant all these years. Now Chuck needs to swallow his pride and go knock on Dan's door to apologize and thank him for helping Bart get closer.

Other tidbits of interest:

• "You have an agenda for absolutely everything." - Eleanor to Blair. It's surprising how much Eleanor knows her daughter considering they are not that often together as of late. It seemed to surprise Blair too that Eleanor knew exactly what Blair was plotting to get Cyrus gone.
• Dorota totally deserves every second of screen time she gets.
• We learned more about Aaron this week: he likes dating more than one girl at a time and he's Cyrus's son. So what? I'm so bored by his relationship with Serena. Are you?
• Where are Nate and Vanessa? Okay, Nate is living with his mother (or so he said he was going to do) and Vanessa is probably busy serving coffee but still, they are way more interesting than Aaron.