GOSSIP GIRL Season 5 Finale: Stephanie Savage on the Future for Serena/Dan/Blair/Chuck, Bart/Lily/Rufus and More Next Season
May 14, 2012 by Marisa Roffman
[Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen tonight’s episode of GOSSIP GIRL, please stop reading and go watch it. Trust me. You won’t want to read this post until after you’ve viewed the season finale because it will spoil a very important aspect of the hour.]
We all good?
If you’ve finished the GOSSIP GIRL season finale, odds are you have a few questions. Luckily, executive producer Stephanie Savage sat down with a group of reporters to talk about the events of “The Return of the Ring”…
The love quad resolution…
When did the writers know they were ending the season with a potential Chuck and Blair reunion?
“I don’t know that there was a definite point in the season,” Savage said. “I think it was just a question of arcing out that relationship so that it ended in a place where…Blair was a place where she was in it to win it with Chuck.”
So does that means Blair is done for good with Dan?
“I never like to say yay or nay to that kind of question, but we crafted the last act of that episode to send us in a certain direction,” Savage said.
But if you think that means Dan and Serena’s counter-top sex will now be meaningless, think again.
“Well if somebody has a sex tape on their phone and they said they deleted it but you never really saw it was deleted…” Savage teased.
And yes, Serena is really as lost as she seemed at the end of the fifth season.
“Obviously it’s a theme throughout the show to do echoes of previous episodes,” she said. “I think that’s the third time we’ve done the train shot…but having Serena leave town as we saw her come back into town in the pilot was definitely deliberate. Now feeling like she’s lost Blair, she’s lost Dan, she’s all by herself again.”
Speaking of Dan, he really has gone to the dark side by enlisting Georgina to help him. “When you climb in Georgina’s car…” she said cryptically.
What’s next in the search for Gossip Girl?
“That’s definitely something Nate is going to [keep pursuing],” Savage said. “We thought he had pretty good detective skills this year.”
When I questioned Savage whether the writers knew at this point if they would be revealing GG’s identity before the series concluded, she was a bit more hesitant to answer.
“How do I want to answer this?” she asked. “The unmasking of Gossip Girl is something that has larger implications to the franchise, beyond just our series. That reveal requires conversations at the highest level.”
Either way, was she the girl in the video Nate viewed at the end of the episode?
“Nate has a lot of clues to figure out!” was all Savage would say.
One thing Nate may get lucky in next season? Love. While Ella Rae Peck (Lola) will likely not return due to her pilot being picked up, Savage noted that Nate’s love life won’t be neglected.
“That’s going to be one of the series questions,” she said. “I think when we met Nate way back when in the pilot, he was someone who was really questioning what this world held for him, dating Blair and pining for Serena and where was this all going to end. I think that’s something that is a big part of his series arc.”
Where do Bart, Lily, and Rufus go from here?
“I think that’s something that is really exciting for season 6,” Savage laughed. “And how that’s going to shape up and what’s the end game for those characters. Rufus and Lily’s marriage has been relatively stable for a couple of years. And it just recently in the last story arc we did with Lily with her mother dying and the will and Ivy that certain aspects of her personality which we’re all very aware of and that have been with us from the beginning, those started to solidify in a way that made Rufus uncomfortable and made him question what that relationship is really about. And then with him making this gesture of wanting to save the marriage and Lily rejecting him, that’s going to put them all in a really interesting spot.”
Where is the series going in its final year?
“In getting ready for season 6, everybody’s been watching the pilot and talked about what our favorite episodes were,” Savage said. “It’s definitely bittersweet. As a writer, I think your impulse is to move your story forward and bring things to competition, but as a television producer, your job is to make the show last as long as humanly possible. So, those final [episodes], it’ll be really sad and weird when the episodes are over; we’re leaving it all on the floor.”
What else could she tease about the last batch of episodes?
“We’re definitely focusing on our core characters,” she said. “But that gang you see in that final act [of the season 5 finale] will be the main players when we come back.”
But for the big question of the hour — do they know how it’s going to end?
“We know a lot of things,” Savage said cryptically.
Hmm…
–
What did you think of the GOSSIP GIRL season finale?
Related:
GOSSIP GIRL Season 5 Finale: Do You Think Blair Made the Right Choice?
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This finale was not just poorly written, but irresponsible and disgusting. The way this show condones abusive relationships as being desirable for young women is appalling. I will not be watching season 6. Enjoy the eleven episodes that the CW gave you to keep Josh Schwartz happy, writers.
The finale is completely crappy. It just doesn’t make sense at all. A girl choosing an abusive relationship instead of a safe one. And ramification the show has on it’s millions of teenage viewers, encouraging abusive relationship. Gosh, don’t the showrunners have some kind social obligation to send a right message out to the youths. Pls put some sense into them. What they are desiring is completely unhealthy.
Come to think of it never had anything positive to offer, was full of vices. Sleeping around every single man/girl you see, drugs, partying etc. At least they should end it with a positive note.
Worst hour of TV I’ve ever watched. It just didn’t make any fuckin’ sense. Way to ruin every character, writers.
Not an outstanding finale, relative to previous years, but a satisfying one, and sets up some interesting plotlines in S6. Ed was outstanding in this episode, his last scene with Bart was one of the best of the season. Blair choosing Chuck was almost a foregone conclusion, since it was obvious she was never that into Dan- he was just her fallback, her safe rebound relationship. And he pretty much proved he wasn’t that safe anyway by cheating on her, so… Anyway, it’s obvious the one who really loves Dan is Serena, which is a shame because he treats her like dogcrap. I really hope her downward spiral isn’t going to last for too long, it makes me so sad to see her like this… and I definitely don’t want her to turn into the new Chuck, i.e., the GGwriters’ favorite punching bag.
The complaining about Chuck and Blair being an “abusive relationship” just makes me laugh. Quit trying to come up with faux-moral grounds for your opinion, admit you just don’t like them, and call it a day.
Please insert my eye-roll here, I am so SICK of people talking about the writers making Blair choose an abusive relationship and the impact it has and blah blah blah. People, this is entertainment. The writers are in NO way accountable for placing moral values with their viewers. The show is called GOSSIP GIRL for fuck’s sake. This is not educational television! Anyone who looks to a television couple and says: “I want my relationship to be like that, even though the guy did all these messed up things” has WAY bigger issues that this show.
Now with that said, this finale was shit, just like this whole season. Bart exiling Chuck, Lily annulling her marriage with Rufus..it was all over the place. Terrible. I am a Chairleader to no end, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to sugarcoat how badly they’ve screwed up this show. The fact that season 6 is the last season isn’t the sad part. It’s how far they’ve fallen. Smh.
It need not be an educational program to educate teens. You can’t deny the fact that TV programs such as GG( with a huge teen fanbase) to a certain degree does influence the minds of young adults. And it’s definitely irresponsible on the part of writers not to give out a positive message. Ask pscyhologists, they would tell you how a program like GG which targets the teen does make an impression. Do you want our teens to lead that kind of crappy lifestyle or that’s how life is with the teens today sleep with every single man/lady you meet, partying, boozing, drugs.
I’m so bewildered with those who think showrunners need not stand on moral ground.
The ending sucked. Started watching the show after a two year because of the Dan/Blair pairing.There was chemistry between the two actors where in Dan ad Serena the acors dated and broke up in real life and it ‘s noticeable in some of their scenes . The writers putting Blair and Dan back together was not a good idea.
Was meaning to say that writers putting blair and chuck back together was not a good idea.:-). am a blair and dan fan.
The finale = every character dragged through the mud. And Blair returning to Chuck makes my skin crawl. She didn’t have to stay with Dan (in fact, after 5×13 she really should’ve been single and focused on getting herself together), but having her return to Chuck and “fight” for him is abhorrent on so many levels. We’re supposed to view Blair as a strong, female, lead?? PLEASE! Like those even exist on television anymore. Blair is a weak, pathetic woman. All of the females on this show are. Blow up dolls and over-sexed props that define themselves through money and men. Utterly disgraceful. End of story. *eyeroll*
I’ve been watching GG since the beginning i loved the first 2 seasons Dan/Serena we’re adorable as was jenny/Nate/Vanessa he worked great with both ladies i have to say i was never a big fan of Chuck/Blair so by the time season 3 was on i had lost interest but still watched and then season 4 happened i fell so in love with Dan/Blair storyline i mean enemies,aquantince,friends,best-friends,lovers to nonexisent i mean to me this was a well written incredible storyline from the GG Writer’s no other show has taken their time like that and in 1 episode they destroyed that relationship and turned it to shit they should be proud i mean the fucking rollercoaster ride they call Chuck and Blair has been used to death i mean how many times have they broken up or reasons in season 5 Blair stayed away they are a fucking joke my daughter is 13 and could have written a better season 5 finale
Yeah i personally know that is a TV show here for our entertainment but GG you are sending the wrong kind of message to young impressionable girls you have these two young men one who alway’s says the right things,supportive,kind and is willing to sacrifice his own happiness just so you can be happy Then take the second guy never says the right things, has alot of money so uses that when he needs too also can be controlling take the incident Blair you’re mine and then he punches the glass was he going to beat up Blair no don’t think that but some glass did cut her face look i’ve came from abusive home and had friends with abusive lovers Chuck is now or never will be a redeemed guy you the writer’s created him and what is with the portrayal of every female character take Blair she can never make up her mind so fucking wish-washy all i can say is why did you have Chuck/Blair breakup up season 3
Whilst I admit the season 5 finale was a bit all over the place, I find it mildly ridiculous that people are only now complaining about the ‘wrong message’ this show has on ‘impressionable girls’. Give me a break. When has this show EVER been a pillar of wholesome, moral television? Drug use, underage sex, bitching, backstabbing… Have people even seen this show??
The past few seasons have been about C/B growing enough individually so that they could get to a place where they are both emotionally mature enough to be together. Their relationship isn’t abusive! Its honest and raw and incredible. Yes, they are both severely damaged people, but sometimes you have to take the rough with the smooth.
At least chuck has had SOME character growth during the show. All Dan has managed to do for the past 5 years in moralise. And it turns out he’s the worst of them all. His disturbingly manipulative behaviour toward Blair at the beginning of season 5 seems to have been overlooked by Dair fans, but one things for certain- Chuck only ever wanted Blair to be happy. He did everything he could to be a better man for her and to put her happiness above his own. I don’t think anyone can honestly say that Dan did the same.