All of the Gossip Girl Reveals Have Had Their Own Kind of Twist

Iconic multi-media franchise Gossip Girl chronicles the lives of New York’s (loosely fictional) adolescent super rich, as told by the anonymous, eponymous, seemingly omniscient, Gossip Girl, XOXO.

In amongst all the scandals, chaos, and affluenza-chic behaviour exhibited by the cast as they rampage across New York (and each others lives) Gossip Girl’s identity remains an enduring mystery for both the fictional Upper East Side and the fans themselves. Who is Gossip Girl? How does she know the things she knows? Most importantly, do we ever find out?

So who is Gossip Girl?

That really depends on which version of Gossip Girl you’re talking about. In the original series of young adult novels written by Cecily von Ziegesar, tragically, you never actually find out. On a more meta level, von Ziegesar herself is Gossip Girl, with the author saying, “She was the omniscient narrator. Gossip Girl was me,” in a 2020 interview with Vanity Fair. Clever. I like it. But also I hate it. Who was she in universe, von Ziegesar? Come back here and answer for your authorial crimes!

The first TV version of Gossip Girl however went in a different direction, revealing at the end of the show that it was Dan Humphries (Penn Badgley) all along. Something which makes an already insufferable character (in this author’s totally unbiased and objective opinion) completely irredeemable when you look back on everything Gossip Girl has said about his family and friends, and the real world impact he damn well knew it would have on them.

I’m not convinced this frankly terrifying behavior didn’t influence Penn Badgley’s later casting in You, because how are you going to claim you love someone while coolly slandering them in potentially life ruining ways on the side?

Anyway, my undying hatred of the CW version of Dan Humphries aside, clever fans took the reveal and went on to identify various clues pointing to Dan as Gossip Girl, some of which went all the way back to the pilot episode. But, in a twist worthy of a CW show, it turned out that these clues were themselves just happy coincidences that worked out well for the showrunners; because originally they’d planned to do as the books did and leave Gossip Girl’s identity a mystery for us.

While they’d always had a vague idea of who they intended Gossip Girl to be for plot structuring purposes, that identity changed as the show developed. First it was Eric, Serena’s (Blake Lively) big brother. Then, when too many people guessed it was him, they switched focus to Nate (Chase Crawford), only to finally settle on Dan after Crawford left the show just before season 5.

Then the 2021 reboot of the show decided to switch things up. Instead of Gossip Girl being a part of the peer group she’s surveilling, this time around she’s actually a group of teachers, shifting the power dynamics from the previous series. With motives that range from revenge on the students who tormented them, desire to regain control of their classrooms (via the most unhinged method possible), and the ability to conceal sexually predatory relationships with students, the Gossip Girl of the 2020s is a completely different beast from her predecessor.