Top 10 Gossip Girl Plot Holes You Never Noticed

Spotted: plot features that just don’t add up. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the "Top 10 Gossip Girl Plot Holes You Never Noticed."

For this list, we’re looking at all the inconsistencies and plotting issues that occurred in this teen drama. We’ll also be addressing things that straight up just don’t make sense.

Okay, we understand that Gossip Girl doesn’t exactly depict a realistic teenage experience and that all the characters are super wealthy and privileged, but even within the world of the show, it seems pretty unrealistic that Nate was able to go from being an intern to becoming editor-in-chief of The Spectator in what seemed to be no time at all. Not to mention, when we see him in the series finale, he’s inexplicably running for mayor? While we’re on the topic of unrealistic professional accomplishments, we have our doubts that Dan’s book would have ever been published, let alone make the New York Times bestseller list.

So the world of Gossip Girl may be slightly out of step with the world that us regular folks live in, but there are some basic rules that everyone has to follow, no matter how rich they are. In season four however, the diabolical Juliet is found to be plotting with her brother Ben, who is incarcerated at the time. And how were they communicating you ask? By text of course! Call us old fashioned, but even in the modern day, we’re pretty sure prisoners aren’t allowed access to their cell phones.

We’re not naive. We know that underage drinking happens, especially in countries like the US where the drinking age is 21. Of course, with their social statuses and trust fund accounts, the teens of Gossip Girls probably have to follow different rules than the rest of us; but they’re not totally immune to the law. Even when they’re still in high school, they’re shown drinking constantly, and never seem to have any restrictions whatsoever on procuring alcohol or getting into bars and clubs. Not to mention, Chuck actually buys a club while he’s still many years underage.

Viewers willingly suspend their disbelief about a lot of things while watching this drama-filled show, but everyone has their limits. Many plot points may seem unrealistic, but others leave you asking, “Wait... what?” Bart Bass is often at the center of these head scratchers, whether it’s revealing that he was alive after several seasons of being presumed dead, or heartlessly trying to kill his own son. No matter how much money you have, faking your own death is near impossible, especially for such a prominent figure like himself.

You’re going to have to bear with us on this one because as the seasons of Gossip Girl went on, the plot lines became more and more convoluted. In season four, Serena runs into a girl who she believes to be her cousin Charlie, and mentions that she hasn’t seen her since they were 12. Later on though, when the real Charlie shows up and Ivy is proven to be an imposter, the actual Charlie says that she has been hidden from her extended family for her entire life. There’s no implication that Ivy has been working on this con since she was a kid, so this seems like a clear oversight.

Serena’s father, doctor William van der Woodsen, doesn’t figure into the story until the show’s third season. When he does appear, it’s soon revealed that he is tricking his ex-wife Lily into believing she has cancer so that he can spend more time with her. Not only that, he’s actually giving her drugs to mimic symptoms of the disease. Despite this reveal, Lily and William end up together in the show’s series finale, with no real explanation for how she possibly managed to forgive him for such heinous actions. We’re just not buying this one.

In the very first episode of Gossip Girl, Chuck casually mentions stealing medication from his mom while chatting with Nate. By season two however, he reveals to Dan, in an uncharacteristically tender moment, that his mom actually died while giving birth to him. And of course, because this is Gossip Girl, by season three we get a reveal that... she’s actually still alive! The thing is though, Chuck always thought she was dead, so that line from the pilot must have been written before the story was well-thought out.

In season two, it is revealed that when they were younger, Lily and Rufus had a child together. This is understandably groundbreaking for those around them, especially their respective children. But although much is made of this dramatic turn of events, the story eventually fizzles out after Scott Rosson actually enters their lives for a while in season three. His final appearance is at Lily and Rufus’s wedding, and he is inexplicably never heard from again. He has only just met his parents for the first time, so this doesn’t really add up.

In the early seasons, much is made of the gang’s college applications, and in particular Blair’s aspirations to get into Yale. By the beginning of season three, our main characters are in their freshman year of college, though Blair ended up at NYU, much to her chagrin. Somehow though, as the show goes on, their scholastic pursuits seem to fall to the wayside in favor of a variety of other types of drama. By the final seasons, there seems to be almost no mention of them ever attending classes, but they also never say that anyone dropped out.

Though the show’s creators seem to have known Dan was Gossip Girl from the very beginning, there are so many times in the show’s run where this just doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. Starting with the pilot when he seems shocked to find out Serena is returning to town (when he allegedly wrote the post) to countless other instances when his reactions to Gossip Girl are completely inconsistent with the fact that he’s the one creating the content. He even acts like he doesn’t know who Olivia Burke is! Not to mention all the times when it was literally impossible for him to have written something. We really wish they had crafted this one better!