If there’s anything that Mao Zedong, Milton Friedman, and Publilius Syrus could find common ground on, it’s that “Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it.” The Marxian term for this is exchange value, in that the worth of something is determined at the point of transaction. Nowhere is this more evident than in an auction, where a madding crowd swarms over scarcities and determines what the prices of things really are. But one of the questions that art, and especially good art, wrestles with is how this economic truth clashes with the messy margin-less frontiers of human nature. Can you put a price on your lover? On the bonds of family? On vengeance?

The determination of such hidden prices is a core element of this week’s episode, which brings a tight focus that the show has been lacking this season. Serena (Blake Lively) treads lightly in her relationship with Carter (Sebastian Stan), wondering if he’s being fully honest with her or if there are hidden costs that she’s not seeing. Chuck (Ed Westwick) and Blair (Leighton Meester) find themselves competing over the same item up for auction at Sotheby’s. Each of them needs it for the advancement of their agenda — but what will the competition do to their relationship? Meanwhile Scott (Chris Riggi) and his journey to connect with his real father comes to a head as Vanessa (Jessica Szohr) discovers his secret and Dan (Penn Badgley) and Georgina (Michelle Trachtenberg) race to uncover it.

Truth be told, it’s probably a good thing that Scott’s story is winding down. The noble lie he tells to Rufus (Matthew Settle) is probably the best way for this arc to land, and the angst and tension of it all has been converted into a potential weapon for the now-outré Georgina to use. It’s certainly better in her hands than his; I never bought Scott. He has the same dopey good nature as Chace Crawford’s Nate, but with none of the charisma or incipient gravitas. (Also, he never punches anyone.) You’d think that such a character struggle — trying to forge the basic bonds of a family that were undone ages ago — would have some simmering tension, and a hidden inner turmoil. But he was nachos, Flanders-style, walking through scenes with a stumbling monotone.

Blair and Chuck, on the other hand, never have that problem. They’re channeling Nick and Nora (no, not the Infinite Playlist couple) and their easy chemistry makes the conflict between them have teeth. However, their intersection with the others at the auction house makes clear how everyone has spread out into their disparate bubbles.  Even though everyone is in the same place thanks to convenient plotting, they might has well have undergone the same geographic diaspora that most high school classes undergo. It reminds me of something a professor said in one of my very first college classes: “Cherish this time, because for most of you, these will be the only four years in which you’ll be forced to think about anything.”

For many people, college is conceived of as a purely economic choice — advanced degrees translate into increased earning potential. Messy, intangible concepts such as “intellectual development” or “spiritual growth” are non-economic and therefore meaningless. Chuck isn’t in college because there’s no economic value to it; Blair seems to be going through the process because it is a required badge for her economic class — she hasn’t married into money yet, after all. Theorists such as Paulo Freire (writer of Pedagogy of the Oppressed) have pointed out how contemporary educational methods serve the needs of the class system: most primary and secondary schools inculcate the rhythms and demands of a life of labor, while higher education opens up to include the skill sets required for an effective managerial class. Looking at it through this lens, Chuck’s trajectory makes perfect sense — he’s already firmly ensconced in the upper echelons of the bourgeoisie. It’ll be interesting to see how this divergence colors their experiences when compared to the others.

If we’re talking about divergences, there’s always Serena and Carter. Theirs is a simple enough story about how you can’t judge a book by its reprinted dust jacket; although, I did enjoy how Blair and Chuck working together to run a secretive smear campaign to discredit Carter was treated as routine as the pair ordering breakfast. No, the interesting thing is that Carter might catalyze the heretofore-sleep-inducing runner plotline of Nate and Bree (Joanna Garcia). Kings and Privileged’s losses may prove to be Gossip Girl‘s gains, as the terse exchange at the end of the episode indicates another layer to Carter that may snap his character into coherence, while Joanna Garcia’s cheerful menace hints at some life in what seemed like a standard girlfriend character.

It also promises to inject another dose of much-needed conflict. Of course, their plotline could end up being utterly idiotic. That’s the beauty of Gossip Girl – you never know what it’s worth until you see it for yourself.

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Cultural references this episode:

• The Lost Boys is a 1980s vampire movie, most notably starring the two Coreys and 24′s Kiefer Sutherland. My hopes of Rufus crashing a Jeep through the walls of Sotheby’s and killing Scott with a fencepost were cruelly dashed.
• Our Bodies, Ourselves is a seminal work on women’s health written from a feminist perspective. The conservative Intercollegiate Studies Institute called it one of the worst books of the 20th century, which the authors took as a badge of honor.
• Serena makes a reference to “checking for an icepick under the bed,” which Sharon Stone’s femme fatale wields in Basic Instinct, another 1980s thriller. Georgina may have a lot in common with that character…
• Patrick McMullan is a photographer who specializes in images of fashion, nightlife and A-list celebrities. Andy Warhol once said “If you don’t know Patrick McMullan, you need to get out more!”