[Warning: Major spoilers from Monday's episode.]
Things moved forward as Gossip Girl's final season continued to unfold.
The connection between Serena's new love Steven and Nate's new significant other Sage was revealed and Dan made a big move when he opted to go the uncensored route (after several failed meetings with big-time publishers) with his new tell-all, instead bringing it to Nate's struggling publication, The Spectator. Blair also got a taste of her own medicine when one of her former Constance minions returned for what turned out to be a not-so-pretty fashion debut.
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With only eight episodes left in The CW drama's season, just what do these latest developments from "High Infidelity" mean for Manhattan's elite? Gossip Girl boss Sara Goodman discussed the aftermath of Dan and Nate's team-up, why it was important to introduce a new family connection and what kind of damage Sage could do.
The Hollywood Reporter: The battle lines have been drawn with Dan deciding to have his new book published in The Spectator. How does that decision affect his relationships moving forward?
Sara Goodman: Dan as a power player is going to affect everybody. The way that we’re doing the chapters is a character at a time, so each chapter will be a character. Some episodes it will be there, some episodes it won’t. And of course, there will be twists and turns within that. But how he’s releasing it is chapter by chapter of characters. The fallout, unlike his original book, where he didn’t use real names, it keeps building with each chapter that comes out.
THR: It’s also told through one perspective. Are we to assume events and observations featured in Dan’s book will be twisted into his point of view?
Goodman: Definitely, definitely. He’s not writing like a newspaper story just reporting on what happened. He went with Georgina (Michelle Trachtenberg) to Italy so I think we can expect it will be a little bit more brutally honest.
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THR: Why was it important to introduce the Steven (Barry Watson) and Sage’s (Sofia Black D'Elia) father-daughter connection in the final season?
Goodman: For us, the final season we really were trying to go back and tell our own multigenerational stories, in terms of Lily and Bart, Rufus and Ivy, and Eleanor and Cyrus – and the core group. Are the kids going to become their parents? When we talked about who we wanted to bring in, we decided we wanted to bring a family that had that same dynamic – a different dynamic, obviously. We brought in Barry Watson to be an adult love interest for Serena and sometimes adults have kids. We really thought we could get a lot more complications, not in terms of someone with a deep, dark, plotty agenda but in terms of what buttons those things can push. I mean, Serena’s Sage’s step-mom, right?
THR: Obviously this will affect the dynamics between Serena-Steven and Sage-Nate. What can you say about how this will change the four?
Goodman: You’re going to have to stay tuned. Is Sage going to be OK with Serena in that stepmom way – which I think by the end of the episode, she’s not. Is Steven going to want his daughter dating someone his girlfriend used to date? It’s not going to be simple for any of them involved.
THR: What kind of damage could Sage do?
Goodman: I can say that she’s going to stir up a lot of trouble. She will do her damndest to make it difficult for Serena to be with her father.
THR: Poppy Lifton (Tamara Feldman) and Nelly Yuki (Yin Chang) came back for Blair’s fashion show. Should we expect more favorites to pop back up again?
Goodman: There will be more familiar faces. I can’t tell you who, but yes. [THR reported last week that Gossip Girl alum Katie Cassidy, who appeared in season four as Juliet Sharp, will be back for the series finale.]
Gossip Girl airs 9 p.m. Mondays on The CW.
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