One well that the storylines of Gossip Girl keep coming back to is the nature of identity; the show likes riffing on its various permutations and showing how it’s constructed. Most importantly, it’s formed from the intersection of other people’s perceptions, and this drives most of the social gamesmanship that takes place — it’s all about perception control. But the most important thing is that a gulf exists between how we view ourselves and how the rest of the world does. Gossip Girl (both the series and the website) loves playing in the space between the two.

If we’re going to talk about identity, one go-to is always Dan (Penn Badgley), whose self-professed “outsider” status has been exploded by his celebrity authorship and impending entry into one of New York’s wealthiest families. He’s dated a teacher, socialites, and now a movie star. Hilary Duff plays Olivia, a famous teen actress who just wants a breather from the spotlight as she goes to NYU. Not a stretch for her, but she delivers a capable and sincere performance. What’s interesting is that through her, Gossip Girl explores another facet of the power elite. There is the aristocracy, which derives their power from heredity, bloodline, and tradition. There is the capital/political class, who directly control the levers of the government and economy. Then there is the celebrity, who gains power from being well-known. Celebrities cultivate and harvest fame, and use it as currency.

But all these elements are interconnected and reinforce each other. Most Americans would claim an instinctual revulsion towards aristocracy, but see no issue with massive wealth concentration, the biggest step towards creating such an aristocracy. After all, those people earned it, right? And the concept of celebrity puts a face on the elite: a face that is always handsome and beautiful and charming and irresistable. It’s even become a cornerstone of our politics ever since we elected as president an actor who starred opposite a monkey. Bush II was characterized easily as a guy you could sit down and have a beer with, regardless of the fact that offering a beer to a recovering alcoholic is really insulting. And Obama? Of course you could have a beer with him! Right-wing commentators hurl “celebrity” as an insult, but there’s some truth there. Obama is far from a leftist; the president supports several policies that would put him to the right of several nationalist and fascist European parties. What is important is that Obama puts a charismatic and compelling face on America and its government, while the people who are hands-on with the levers of power do their work in relative obscurity.

What I’m saying is that Hilary Duff would probably make a decent president. Better than Bush II, at least. (I assume Cadet Kelly counts as military service.)

She certainly does a better job of being an actor on Gossip Girl than Tyra Banks, who plays Ursula, a tyrannical, demanding, self-conscious diva. Again not a stretch, but Banks, in some kind of Gertrude-like protestation, attempts to distance herself from the character and overplays it to the point of absurdity. Combine this with Serena (Blake Lively), who becomes Ursula’s publicist’s assistant in a bid to “find herself” outside the roadmap to college, and this is a clusterfuck of a plotline. Compare this moment to the beginning of the series, where Serena’s mold-breaking relationship with Dan was the centerpiece of the series. But they went to that well a few too many times, and now any storyline they place Serena in only paints her as more of a dilettante and dissipated heiress than Blair (Leighton Meester), whose Jiang Qing-like machinations have only become more endearing with time.

If there’s anything redeeming about this plot, it’s that they touch on publicity as one of the purest forms of image and identity control. Ursula’s publicist engineers a public meltdown for the fragile actress to boost her public profile, regardless of how deceitful and psychologically damaging it might be. Serena makes the hard decision and warns Ursula, which gets Serena fired. However, since nothing bad can ever happen to anyone rich (except Bart Bass), Serena gets to keep her job in the end. Yay.

Far more intriguing, though given short shrift, is Blair and Jenny’s (Taylor Momsen)  interactions with the students at Constance Billard, Blair’s alma mater. Blair, who is still unable to forge a place at NYU, finds herself drawn back to Constance, where her power structure still resides. Meanwhile, Jenny, who was handed control of that structure, attempts to tear it down to usher in an era of “sunshine and fairness.” However, she faces resistance, and the two girls become locked in a power struggle that only Chuck can defuse. The plot is filled with trademark Gossip Girl mirrors and inversions — who thought that Jenny and the guy who tried to rape her would ever be in cahoots? Chuck makes an incisive point when he tells Blair that her identity isn’t dependent on what other people think of her; even then, the happy ending is not without maniuplation and subterfuge, and I’m not sure comparing your girlfriend to Dumbo is ever a good idea.

Meanwhile, by the end, Jenny seems to have comported herself all Isildur-like to the top-down dominance hierarchy of Constance, embracing its privilege and power for herself. It’s certainly a sharp turn, and Blair means more than she says when she compares Jenny’s initial program to perestroika. Jenny is indeed a Gorbachev/Yeltsin figure: initially bent on progressive reform of the system, they all faced heavy pressure from external forces (neoliberals/mean girls) and had to turn to repressive tactics to maintain power. After all, if you have to bomb your own parliament building to get your way, you probably fucked up somewhere. It remains to be seen if Jenny has her “storm the White House” moment, and what she plans on claiming as her real identity.

Cultural references in this episode:

• Josephine Baker was an African-American entertainer most renowned for her singing talents. Like James Baldwin and many other African-American artists in early 20th century, she received more acclaim in her adoptive country of France than she did at home.
• Jean de Florette is a French historical film directed by Claude Berri. Heavily featuring manipulation, deception, intercepted communications and mistaken family identities, the characters of Gossip Girl could probably relate.