On Thanksgiving Day, the flurry of food and family time (or family drama, as the case may be) calls to mind nothing so much as the halcyon days of Gossip Girl—in particular, the holiday high jinks of Blair, Serena, Nate, Dan, Jenny, et al. whenever the show rolled out a Thanksgiving-themed episode. Believe it or not, there were quite a few of them—and, betwixt and between all the social maneuvering and epic fallouts, the series managed to slip in a few wholesome moments, too.
Here, find every Thanksgiving-centered Gossip Girl episode to rewatch today—whether you’re hiding from your loved ones or looking for something to amuse your Gen Alpha cousins. Just be warned: Gossip Girl spoilers lie ahead.
Season 1, Episode 9: “Blair Waldorf Must Pie”
This episode switches back and forth between Thanksgivings past and present. In the latter, Dan invites the van der Woodsens to Thanksgiving at the Humphreys’, but little do Dan, Jenny, and Serena know, their parents have romantic history. The fact that Lily van der Woodsen was Rufus Humphrey’s “first great love” comes to light in the middle of dinner—and if that’s not awkward enough, there is yet another romantic revelation before dessert.
Flashback to Thanksgiving one year prior—which is to say, in about 2006—and we see Blair, Nate, and a drunk Serena enjoy a happy holiday filled with water fights, tire-marked pumpkin pie, and more. The episode ends with a montage of sweet moments backed by some classic aughts soft-girl-rock.
Season 2, Episode 11: “The Magnificent Archibalds”
HBO’s TLDR description for this episode, “It’s Thanksgiving and everyone is battling,” way undersells the drama. Jenny Humphrey, who has been trying to emancipate herself from her family, is not-so-secretly staying with Eric. The FBI is chasing Nate’s father for more than just fraud or embezzlement; the powers that be also believe the senior Archibald has extortion and kidnapping on the brain. Elsewhere, Serena tries—and fails—to keep her past from new beau Aaron, and Lily finds out that Bart has been keeping files on her and the kids.
Interestingly enough, Blair’s problems are the least chaotic. She is struggling to come to terms with Cyrus’s…existence, a problem made only worse when she learns that he and her mother are engaged. “This is the worst Thanksgiving of all time, and if we have to wander the Upper East Side like outcasts in a Jane Austen novel then so be it,” she says to her devoted housekeeper, Dorota, as they flee the apartment. Dramatic? Maybe. But thankfully, the holiday ends with tearful reunions and a picnic basket full of pie.
Season 3, Episode 11: “The Treasure of Serena Madre”
Thanksgiving dinner at the van der Woodsens’ just keeps getting bigger—and messier. Unaware of Serena and Tripp’s affair, Lily invites him and his (soon-to-be estranged) wife Maureen to dinner. Meanwhile, Vanessa shows up at Dan’s with the hopes of crashing for the holidays, and inadvertently gets herself and her mother invited for dinner. And Blair, refusing to let her mother leave without spilling whatever secret she’s keeping, convinces Eleanor to stay over, too.
During dinner, Nate and Maureen out Serena and Tripp’s romance, Jenny finds out Eric was the mastermind behind sabotaging her at Cotillion, Dan tries to hide his feelings for Vanessa, and Blair—wrongly convinced that her mother is pregnant—confronts her at the dinner table, only to find out Eleanor is moving permanently to Paris (and that somebody else is expecting a child). My favorite line from the episode comes from Blair (post-Paris revelation and Serena and Tripp breakup), when she tries to convince Serena to visit the City of Light with her, saying, “If you’re gonna be sad, you might as well be sad in Paris.” She has a point!
Season 4, Episode 10: “Gaslit”
It’s Thanksgiving again in New York City, but a difficult one for the Gossip Girl family. After Serena wakes up in a motel room in Queens, afraid and with no memory, she calls 911 and ends up in the hospital. Convinced by the doctor’s concerns, Lily sends her to a rehabilitation center. Dan, however, is the only one who believes that Serena was actually drugged. In fact, Vanessa, Jenny, and Juliet had been behind a long plot to take Serena down, including by booting her out of Columbia and convincing the world she was struggling with substance abuse issues. Festive, right?
Season 6, Episode 8: “It’s Really Complicated”
“It’s our first Thanksgiving back together, and given our track record with Thanksgivings it might be kind of risky. Divorces have been filed, affairs revealed,” Dan warns Serena as they hesitantly agree to host Thanksgiving together. He hits the nail on the head: This time around, Serena bumps into her ex Steven and invites him and Sage to Thanksgiving dinner, while Chuck confronts Bart for orchestrating the murders of his business managers.
The Steven appearance was staged by Sage and a meddling Blair, with the former hoping to get back with Nate, and the latter desperate to break up Dan and Serena—which she succeeds at doing with help from Dan himself, who gets his hit piece about Serena published. Separately, Blair helps Chuck plant the seeds to expose Bart’s dangerous tendencies to Lily.
In other words, it’s just another Gossip Girl turkey day.
