What do our favorite Gossip Girl Upper East Siders have to be thankful for this year? An affair? A lost love? A lost brother? Serena and Tripp are the center of a Thanksgiving meal as their affair becomes front and center. She lies to Lilly and says that Tripp is having her staff work at a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving and instead makes plans of escaping to a hotel with Tripp for the night. Maureen calls Tripp and is very upset about him wanting a divorce and would like to spend Thanksgiving with him and spoils Serena’s plans. Lilly just happens to run into Maureen on the street and invites her and Tripp to Thanksgiving dinner at her home (seems like the only recipe on the menu is one for “drama”). One by one, people start scoring invites to the Humphrey-Van Der Woodsen Thanksgiving dinner (Serena invites Nate, Dan invites Vanessa and her mother, Gabriella and Blair invites herself).

The day before the dinner, Tripp follows Serena up to her hotel room where she is staying (in Chuck’s hotel) and asks if he can come in. S says, “yes” which is why “he shouldn’t” and as a compromise she pulls the stop button on the elevator and they proceed to make out. Security kindly lets Chuck know that S and Tripp were getting busy in the elevator. Chuck mentions what happened to Nate and in order to save the day, he calls hotel security and gets a copy of the tape from the elevator camera. 

Meanwhile, everyone starts to gather at Lilly’s home to celebrate the holiday. In an effort to have Vanessa and her mom fix their issues (and so that Dan can get V out of his apartment since she insisted on staying with him after she and her mom fought) he invites Gabriella (V’s mom) to dinner as well. They get into a tiff about whether or not Gabriella knows anything about raising kids. On the other side of the table, Blair lets Jenny in on Eric’s plan to sabotage her at cotillion and Jenny confronts him about it. Eric lets Jenny have it when he says that the reason why Jonathan broke up with him is because he changed and it is all her fault (doesn’t it seem like everyone on this shows like to blame their shortcomings on everyone else?). Blair and her mom get into a little disagreement when Blair accuses her of being pregnant after finding some pregnancy tests (B’s mom lets her know that she is not pregnant and the two of them figure out that it is actually Dorota who is with child- congrats babe!). 

As if there was not enough tension already, Maureen confronts Serena in front of everyone and lets her know that the affair must stop or else she will release the security tape from the hotel of them kissing (which she obtained via Nate. What is with him and risking incriminating vids/photos of Tripp in order to help out S?). Lilly just happens to be standing behind S when Maureen shows her the video and Lilly is outraged. She lets S know that until she ends her affair with Tripp she is no longer welcomed in her home. S then does “the right thing” and apologizes to Maureen and says that she will never see Tripp again.

As a celebratory gesture, B invites S to Paris with her and her mother (whenever I make bad decisions my friends always invite me to go on vacation with them too!) Just as S reaches for her passport, Tripp lets her know that he told Maureen to hit the road because he wants a divorce and insists that S leaves with him. As she is looking for her passport she finds a letter from her father that Lilly hid from her. No word on what the letter says but it seems to be juicy because she hands it to Lilly and walks out the door, disregarding what Lilly said about not being welcomed. She is just about to make it to the car when Nate appears and professes his love for her (finally!). She leaves with Tripp anyway which in my opinion is the wrong decision (he is a congressman and she is only 18!).

Meanwhile, Maureen heads back the Lilly’s house because she forgot her coat. Inside of it she finds a pleasant surprise; the letter from Serena’s dad which Lilly hid in her pocket by accident! Now Maureen has all the ammunition she needs to end the affair and get her beloved husband back (the one she is willing to lie to in order to get ahead). Looks like Maureen has a lot to be thankful for this year!

— By Stephanie Vacchio