TV Review: Gossip Girl 6×05 – “Monstrous Ball”

Gossip Girl Episode 6×05 – “Monstrous Ball”- Aired on 11/12/2012

First, sorry for not recapping last week’s episode! Some issues stopped me from watching the show. Anyway, we’re now halfway through the final season of Gossip Girl with the latest episode, “Monstrous Ball.” This episode featured a cotillion, in particular Sage’s. If you caught my post last week on my Top 10 Favorite Parties from GG, then you know that a cotillion is the ideal place for some Upper East Side drama to go down. And it did deliver, even if it wasn’t all that great or original. However, it seems that with this episode the writers are starting to head to a finale, and it’s going to be one that will make fans happy.

“Monstrous Ball” starts out with Serena finagling an invitation to Sage’s (guest star Zoe Aggeliki) debutante ball for herself. Steven (guest star Barry Watson) has been acting distant, but Serena soon realizes that it’s because he’s going to propose to her. So of course, Sage finds out and tries to stop it from happening. She immediately teams up with Blair, promising to wear a Waldorf design to the ball, if Blair helps her stop Steven from proposing. Blair agrees, but as we always, she has something up her sleeve. The thing we didn’t account for is that Sage would have one too.

At the cotillion, Sage bumps into Georgina and steals her phone. (For being a master schemer, you would think that Georgina would easily know her phone was taken. Guess not!) On her phone is a video of Serena and Dan together when he was with Blair. Because Sage is just so annoyingly cruel, she broadcasts it to the entire ball. In turn, she stops her dad from proposing to Serena, kills all of Dan’s chances of getting Blair back and potentially ruins her relationship with Nate. (I hate to admit when I’m a little grateful to that brat)

All the while, Chuck is still investigating and trying to find evidence of Bart’s illegal oil trading activities. He doesn’t get that far in the episode. And I still hold my theory that Bart is Gossip Girl or has something to do with her. In addition, some stuff happens with Ivy, but frankly, whenever she’s onscreen I tune out for the sake of my sanity.

Even though I wasn’t crazy about this episode, it had some major pluses:

1. All the music was from Frank Ocean. This is the first time an episode of GG has featured all of its songs from one artist. What made it even better was that it was one of my favorite artists! If you haven’t heard of Frank Ocean, check out our review of his album here!

2. The End of Dair! The last episode was a letdown because it ended with a Dan/Blair moment. I understand them as friends, but as a couple, it is just totally wrong! They were the main reason I couldn’t stand last season. It seemed that Sage really put the final nail in this pairing’s coffin.

3. The Beginning of Derena… Again! I loved how the episode ended with Dan and Serena hanging out together. It reminds me of how well they are together, and since it is now the end of Dair, it could mean that Dan and Serena will get back together again. Hopefully.

With those points in mind, I can’t say I hated tonight’s episode. It makes look forward to see what the final five episodes have in store for us. I pray that it’s good and worthy for all of us, GG fans.

Rating: 6.5/10

Gossip Girl airs Monday nights at 9/8c on The CW.

Watch the preview for next week’s episode below: