Gossip Girl waited until its final episode to reveal the identity of the title character, but looking back, the show brilliantly hinted at this controversial reveal in the first episode. The 2000s was a big decade for teen drama TV shows, and one of the most popular ones is Gossip Girl, created by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. Based on the series of novels of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar, Gossip Girl took viewers to the Upper East Side of New York to follow a group of privileged teenagers at a prestigious high school.
Leading this group were on/off best friends Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester), but in addition to the many dramas with their families and in their circle of friends, their private lives were constantly exposed by a mysterious blogger known as “Gossip Girl”. Throughout the show, Serena and the rest tried to bring Gossip Girl down and reveal her identity with no success, and it wasn’t until the series finale that it was revealed – but in retrospect, there was a huge clue to her identity in the very first Gossip Girl episode.
Gossip Girl’s First Episode Subtly Hinted At Dan’s Big Reveal
A Big But Subtle Clue To Gossip Girl’s Dan Twist
What Gossip Girl did was run a blog in which she documented the lives of Manhattan’s elite and the wealthy teenagers on the Upper Side. Gossip Girl used tips from readers to spread gossip (of course) about these people, but she mostly focused on the lives of Serena, Blair, Dan (Penn Badgley), Nate (Chace Crawford), and Chuck (Ed Westwick). Gossip Girl didn’t waste time in presenting this character, what she did, and the drama she could cause, and in the show’s first episode, there’s a clue to Dan being behind the blog.
As pointed out by a TikTok user, in the first episode of Gossip Girl, the camera shows the Gossip Girl website with the post about Serena’s return. The episode cuts directly to Dan in front of his laptop while the Gossip Girl voiceover says her now-famous line “And who am I? That’s a secret I’ll never tell.” Knowing that Dan was the one who created the blog and character of Gossip Girl gives a completely new perspective and meaning to that scene in episode 1, even though Dan wasn’t planned to be Gossip Girl at the time.
The original plan was for Gossip Girl to be Eric van der Woodsen (Connor Paolo), Serena’s younger brother. However, Paolo was cast in another TV show and became a recurring character in Gossip Girl, which, along with viewers beginning to suspect he was Gossip Girl, led the writers to change the character’s identity. After considering various characters, including Nate, they ultimately decided Dan would be Gossip Girl.
Why Dan’s Gossip Girl Reveal Is Still Controversial
Dan Being Gossip Girl Still Doesn’t Make Sense
The big reveal of Gossip Girl’s identity was controversial and continues to be a topic of debate among fans of the show. Dan made the big reveal himself in a chapter that was published in The Spectator, and despite knowing everything he did, Serena still chose to stay with him… and all of his friends also forgave him. Not only is it problematic that Serena stayed with Dan after knowing he was the one responsible for ruining her life on many occasions, but it also doesn’t make sense that Dan was Gossip Girl.
10 Clues That Dan Was Gossip Girl That Fans Completely Missed
Fans were shocked when it was revealed Dan Humphrey was Gossip Girl all along. It didn’t seem to make sense, but these clues say otherwise.
There are many moments throughout Gossip Girl where Dan wasn’t near his computer or phone when Gossip Girl published a revealing post, and his sister Jen was brutally attacked by Gossip Girl on many occasions – and Jen was revealed to have always known what Dan was doing. It’s evident that Dan wasn’t always planned to be Gossip Girl, but this controversial reveal at least gave a completely new meaning to one brief scene in the first episode.
Source: TikTok.
- Cast
- Release Date
- December 1, 2022
- Seasons
- 2