"Gossip Girl" Premiere Recaplet

*** Spoilers Ahead! ***

Gossip Girl kicked off its much anticipated second season last night, and the episode had most of the rich kids hanging around the Hamptons for an end of summer last hurrah – the White Party – and if you’re expecting P. Diddy to be in any way involved with this soiree you’re going to be disappointed – the way the show interprets "The White Party" it's pretty much overwhelmingly white and waspy.

Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meister) is a late arrival. She's been in Paris all summer with her two gay dads nursing a broken heart because resident bad boy Chuck Bass (Ed Westwick) stood her up at the airport in last season's finale. Determined to make amends, Chuck arms himself with a bouquet of flowers and heads to the "jitney station" (it's like a bus station only much fancier) to escort her back to Grandma Van der Woodsen's swanky Hamptons mansion. May I say, Ed Westwick is looking vastly better this season. I think it's the new hairdo...

Ed Westwick

Unfortunately for Chuck, Blair is determined to make him jealous so she's brought with her a handsome but bland Georgetown student who she pretends to be madly in love with. Now it's Chuck's turn to be crushed.

Serena & Nate have been pretending too. They've been masquerading as a couple all summer. Serena needs a pretend boyfriend so "all the guys will leave her alone" and Nate (Chace Crawford) needs some cover because he's having a clandestine affair with an older married woman (Madchen Amick). Amick looks great by the way  - her "Twin Peaks" are as perky as ever.

Nate has fallen hard for the married woman, but she only seems to be toying with his affections. When her husband arrives home early she pushes Nate out her second story bedroom window and tosses his clothes after him.  It's a total cliché but at least offers an excuse to see Chace Crawford in his boxer shorts.

Chace Crawford

The show's poor kids, siblings Dan (Penn Badgely) & Jenny (Taylor Momsen) are stuck back in the NYC. Jenny's summer internship in the fashion industry has made her a de facto indentured servant to a total bitch of a boss, Laurel, who viciously insults the little mousy girl, hands her a giant box of beads to sort, and tells her "She'll never go to the ball!" Okay, so I'm paraphrasing - still it's basically the Cinderella plotline.

CinderJenny decides she has to crash the White Party in the Hamptons so she can get her dress seen by high society. So she calls her fairy godfriend Eric Van der Woodsen (Connor Paolo) (Gossip Girl's resident gay guy and patsy doormat), and he agrees to escort her because, well, she's basically the only friend (and storyline) he has. I feel for the guy. I notice, like Westwick, that Connor Paolo's hair is much better this season. He's gone back to his natural color.

Connor Paolo

Jenny's brother Dan has spent the summer as assistant to a celebrated drunken author, Jay McInerney, who is pretty much playing himself.  Dan was supposed to finish a short story but has writer's block because he still has feelings for Serena.  Jay McInerney fires him from his assistant's job because of the writer's block (I know - it makes virtually no sense), and Dan determines to head out to the Hamptons to find Serena and try to resolve their relationship. 

Needless to say, everyone winds up at the Hamptons White Party and hijinks ensue. Grandma van der Woodsen, recovered now from cancer and inexplicably a "nice" character (last season she was a high riding bitch!) invites Dan along as her "plus one" so he can reunite with Serena.

Penn Badgeley

Unfortunately, when he walks into the party Serena and Nate, to make the married lady jealous, are in the midst of making out. 

Across the room, little Jenny has a glass slipper moment when her dress is complimented by a high society fashionista right in front of her witchy boss.

Blair finally admits that she's bored with her trophy boyfriend and tells him she's only spending time with him to make Chuck jealous. Her fake date has a confession of his own: He's not an american college student - He's a British Lord! (Cue the hilarious mid-sentence switch from midwestern American twang to upper crust British accent.)

Suddenly Blair is interested in the guy for real, and when Chuck can't quite bring himself to tell her he loves her, she hops into her British lord's Jaguar and peels off.

All in all a decent start for the second season. What were your favorite moments from last night's episode?