1.01 Pilot (Series Premiere)

At a privileged prep school for teens on Manhattan's Upper East Side, the students first learn that Serena van der Woodsen is back in town the way they learn all the important news in their lives: from the Internet blog of the all-knowing, albeit, ultra-secretive 'Gossip Girl'. No one knows Gossip Girl's identity, but everyone in this exclusive and complicated vicious circle relies on her website and text messages for the latest scoop. Even Serena's closest friend, Blair Waldorf, is surprised to find that Serena has suddenly ended her self-imposed exile from a boarding school in New England and returned to Manhattan for school. Once the Upper East Side's most notorious party girl, Serena's reasons for returning are mysterious, although they may have something to do with her younger brother Eric, who's secretly in the hospital following a suicide attempt which is kept under wraps by their overprotective mother Lily. Whatever the reasons, the change in Serena is obvious, especially to Blair, whose friendship with Serena has always been competitive and difficult. Into this crowd comes Dan Humphrey, a kid from Brooklyn and whose freshman sister, Jenny, tries a little too hard to fit into Blair's circle of gossip friends, whom include 'Gossip Girl's contacts, Isabel and Kati. Blair's nice-guy boyfriend, Nate Archibald, is also troubled by Serena's return for his best friend, Chuck Bass, the school's snobbish cynic and resident bad boy, knows about a fling that Serena and Nate had which is why Serena left town to avoid a scandal which, in the snobbish world of high society, is social suicide. Elsewhere, Dan and Jenny's father, Rufus, a former rock musician and art gallery operator, also has a return of feelings for Serena and Eric's mother, Lily.