Gossip Girl Review: Fire Walks With Z (Season 1 Episode 4)
Gossip Girl Season 1 Episode 4, “Fire Walks With Z,” proves a surprisingly heartfelt installment — sometimes, a bit too heartfelt if we’re being honest. It’s another fun addition, but it makes you wonder where this story is even going.
The episode opens with Zoya (Whitney Peak) actively trying to avoid the fact that it’s her birthday. It’s also the day her mother died giving birth to her, which is enough to give anyone mixed feelings.
Obie (Eli Brown) attempts to celebrate by lining up a fleet of food trucks outside of Constance Billard. He may be frustrating and predictable, but his sentiment that “the only thing she should be thinking about is whether she wants to start her day with a croissant or a crepe” is what dream relationships are made of.
Unfortunately, Zoya’s too preoccupied with her grief to appreciate the gesture. Not only does she tell Obie to get rid of the trucks, but she blows off Julien’s (Jordan Alexander) birthday greetings.
Julien’s subsequent frustration is exactly what Luna (Zión Moreno) and Monet (Savannah Lee Smith) need to start another war between the sisters.
We’ll ask again because the show still hasn’t explained: Why are these three friends?
In all seriousness, Gossip Girl has yet to offer any background on Luna or Monet, which leaves them feeling two-dimensional episode after episode. A series like this needs mean girls, but mean girls need something to drive them.
As much as Luna and Monet complain that Julien’s efforts to become more authentic might derail their careers, there’s no urgency about their concerns. This show really needs to delve deeper into their characters if it wants us to care.
Oh, and did we mention that Luna somehow exposes Zoya and her dad for living in their grandmother’s home without her there? It’s a low blow, even for Constance Billard’s It Girls.
Luna and Monet also convince Julien to throw a party to get back at Zoya, sparking a competition of sorts. Zoya asks Obie if they can throw their own party, placing a barrier between them yet again.
Zoya and Obie certainly have their cute moments, but the show keeps throwing the same obstacles at them every week. Their relationship is already predictable, and it’s only episode 4. That could prove an issue if Gossip Girl doesn’t switch things up.
Zoya does find an ally in a surprising place, however: an eighth-grader named Milo Sparks (Azhy Robertson), who is actually the son of Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg) from the original series.
Milo aids in the back and forth between Zoya and Julien, but even his know-how doesn’t stop Zoya’s past from being exposed later on. His inclusion in the episode is an interesting way of tying it to the original, but it feels sort of hollow.
On the Aki (Evan Mock) and Audrey (Emily Alyn Lind) front, there’s plenty of awkwardness — and it’s one of the highlights of the episode. The two of them are avoiding one another and the big elephant in the room: Is Aki gay?
Their attempts to dodge each other ar
e hilarious — and relatable to anyone who’s ever tried to avoid someone they see every single day. Their storyline also weaves in a conversation about discovering one’s sexuality.
To Gossip Girl‘s credit, it handles Aki’s situation well. Between Julien’s insistence that Audrey should approach him with an open mind to the couple’s final conversation, the show is making a clear effort to treat his bisexuality with care.
His proclamation that he’s not sorry for kissing Max (Thomas Doherty) also presents interesting possibilities for the three characters — though Max is dealing with his own issues this week.
On the heels of last week’s drama with his father, Max takes a prolonged break from school to party. It’s something Rafa (Jason Gotay) confronts him about multiple times, with the two of them getting together at the very end.
Truthfully, the Max and Rafa storyline continues to be one of the show’s weakest. That’s for two reasons. One, Rafa’s dynamic with Max isn’t nearly as interesting as what was happening between him, Aki, and Audrey.
Secondly, the teacher-student romance is also overdone at this point. Gossip Girl seemed to be taking the opposite approach from Pretty Little Liars by having Rafa do the adult thing and reject Max’s advances.
However, this week raises the question of what this series is trying to accomplish with these two.
Gossip Girl now appears to be pushing them together, and it’s unclear if we’re supposed to root for what’s clearly a problematic dynamic between a teacher and his student.
Of course, Rafa isn’t the only adult on this show to engage in unhealthy behaviors. We’d be remiss to forget about the faces behind Gossip Girl, especially as Kate’s (Tavi Gevinson) growing obsession with Gossip Girl reaches a new low this week.
Not only does Kate declare that she was meant to run the account, but she struggles to choose between continuing the project and submitting her writing to a prestigious program.
Her struggle highlights how invested the teachers have become in their pet project, and with her colleagues taking over for her — and hiding things — it’s possible they’ll all be quarreling among themselves in short order.
That could take the weirdness of the teachers being Gossip Girl to new levels, which is something the show hasn’t quite dared to do. Hopefully, Gossip Girl takes a deeper dive into the minds behind the account.
After all, the teacher twist is one of the reboot’s most gripping hooks.
“Fire Walks With Z” ends with the big birthday bash, which Julien and Zoya’s fathers insist they have together. The two of them make strides toward becoming fully formed characters this week, which is nice to see.
They also learn to get along with one another, which is more than their daughters can say most of the time. Sadly, their efforts to get Julien and Zoya to make nice only push them to be more vicious.
With Monet and Luna’s help, Julien finally exposes Zoya’s secret about why she left her old school — and well, it’s a bombshell, but not in the way fans expected.
It seems Zoya set her old school on fire after being locked in a science lab and bullied, and the bullying aspect adds weight to this week’s episode that doesn’t quite mesh with everything else.
It also doesn’t feel like grounds to “cancel” Zoya at all, something Julien must realize because she immediately apologizes to the crowd she played the video for. They seem oddly undisturbed by the whole thing.
Julien’s speech also feels a bit preachy at times, and although it marks character growth, the series is likely to go back on it — especially since it keeps rehashing the same drama with its main sisters.
Zoya and Julien make up at the end of the episode, but it’s probable they’ll find something else to argue over next week. Their rivalry is already getting stale, so hopefully, the series will explore some other characters — or find a new formula for their feud.
At this point, the new Gossip Girl biggest challenge is to find some overarching storyline that ties its episodes together and adds suspense from week to week.
In that regard, the show hasn’t quite found its footing yet. Perhaps this will be the turning point?
What did you think of this episode of Gossip Girl? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Gossip Girl drops on HBO Max on Thursdays.
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