Gossip Girl Review: Parentsite (Season 1 Episode 6)
Gossip Girl Season 1 Episode 6, “Parentsite,” serves as the midseason finale for the new HBO Max series, with the second half of Season 1 returning in November. As halfway points go, the episode contains plenty of big developments — some more exciting than others.
True to its title, “Parentsite” finally gives the show’s adult characters more time to shine. For some of them, this means redeeming moments ahead of the break. For others, it represents quite the opposite.
The episode opens with Obie (Eli Brown) learning that his mother is back in town, a fact that immediately shakes things up between him and Zoya (Whitney Peak). As it turns out, Obie is a mommy’s boy.
Because Obie values his mother’s approval so much, he hasn’t told her about his breakup with Julien (Jordan Alexander) — or his new girlfriend. When Julien advises Zoya to charge in and introduce herself, she receives an invite to dinner.
That dinner proves a defining moment in Obie and Zoya’s relationship, cementing that they definitely aren’t working together anymore. Despite Obie’s holier-than-thou attitude, he’s the one who can’t stick to his ideals in front of his mother.
Obie’s “not in front of the adults” mindset offers a valid critique on performative activism, especially coming from someone as privileged as he is. For Obie, it’s only acceptable to have radical beliefs in the appropriate setting.
Opposite of Obie, Zoya charges headfirst into the critiques of the business decisions Helena (Lyne Renée) and Aki’s father, Rodger (Malcolm McDowell), are making, which have sparked human-rights protests.
The dynamic between Obie and Zoya drives home the notion that they’ll never fully be on the same page, and his fake “wokeness” is something she calls him out on.
While Zoya and Obie are dealing with the ups and downs (mostly downs) of their relationship, Julien is trying to convince her father to take her brand more seriously.
Failed PSATs force Davis (Luke Kirby) to question his daughter’s motivations, as well as her future. Julien enlists Luna (Zión Moreno) to help ramp up her brand, leading to some sweet moments between the two friends.
Scenes like this early on would have gotten fans invested in the Gossip Girl reboot more quickly, and it’s a shame Monet (Savannah Lee Smith) needs to bail on the group for them to happen.
Smith’s character is missing from this week’s episode, but hopefully, that doesn’t mean the show will write her off entirely.
The other half of the core friend group also has plenty of drama this week, but most of it circles around Audrey’s (Emily Alyn Lind) reaction to her mother’s hospitalization.
As much as Aki (Evan Mock) and Max (Thomas Doherty) attempt to ease Audrey’s worries about her mom, she remains frantic over her well-being. The episode highlights how much Audrey has had to parent her own mother, and Lind brings a compelling performance to the table.
Seeing more of the dynamic between Aki, Audrey, and Max — without the arguing and negativity — is one of the joys of the episode, which pushes all three of them closer together.
Unfortunately, Audrey’s frenzied state leads her to accidentally out Aki as bisexual during dinner, telling his father, who’s been accused of LGBTQ+ discrimination at work, that he doesn’t know how people around him identify.
This thread is “Parentsite’s,” weakest if only because it’s not properly explored. Outing someone without their consent is a pretty serious subject, and while Audrey didn’t have malicious intent, the episode doesn’t dig into the repercussions enough.
The situation worsens when Rodger outs Aki on national television, using his son’s sexuality as a defense for his company (and not even getting that sexuality correct, mind you).
Rodger’s comment emphasizes that you can, in fact, have a marginalized love one and still be prejudiced. Fortunately, Aki handles the situation pretty well. He both corrects his father on national TV and cuts him off later.
On Max’s end, things get seriously spicy as he and Rafa (Jason Gotay) butt heads after last week’s split. Despite Rafa’s attempts to win Max back over, Doherty’s character finally sees him for what he is: a predator.
The show excels with this storyline, upending viewer expectations and properly picking apart what it means for a teacher to take advantage of their students. “Parentsite” shows Rafa has a cruel side to him, and he’s not afraid to leverage that against Max.
Of course, Max isn’t one to back down, and the episode ends with a bombshell on that front. Max sends a video of him having sex with Rafa to Gossip Girl, revenge for Rafa lying about him having an STI.
Since he now has access to the account, Rafa deletes the video before the teachers can do anything with it. However, now that the knowledge of what Rafa’s doing is out there, things just got far more interesting.
Speaking of Gossip Girl, the teachers behind the persona are once again turning on themselves. Kate (Tavi Gevinson) continues to develop awkward feelings for Zoya’s father, with Nick (Jonathan Fernandez) inviting her on a date.
She insists she’s only going to gather information, but that doesn’t stop a jealous Jordan (Adam Chanler-Berat) from snapping a photo of them and posting it to the Gossip Girl account.
We’ve spent plenty of time wondering if the teachers would get caught running their Instagram, but it’s possible they’ll fall apart from the inside. They’ve had some rough times over the past few episodes, suggesting their storyline could get a lot more fun.
For the core group, the episode ends with a few major relationship developments. For one, Obie takes Zoya’s words to heart and attends the human-rights protest against his mother’s business dealings.
While that could be viewed as a character growth moment for him, he meets Julien at the protest — and the two of them rekindle their feelings for one another, even as canisters of tear gas start flying.
The decision to include the protest felt in line with how Gossip Girl has tried to tackle modern-day social issues in its storylines. Unfortunately, Obie and Julien’s decisions felt less aligned with where the show has been headed.
Having Zoya show up and see them together proved a predictable plot point, and Julien not going after her sister felt out of character. If nothing else, Julien has spent the first half of Season 1 growing. She knows better than to go down this road.
Julien also forfeited her chance at a partnership with Sephora by staying at the protest, an admirable decision — and one that’s likely to have some interesting repercussions during the second half of Season 1.
More exciting than the tiring love triangle between Julien, Zoya, and Obie is the fact that Audrey, Aki, and Max seem to have accepted their feelings for one another.
The midseason finale sees the three of them finally getting together, introducing the show’s first polyamorous relationship into the mix and delivering on all of the tensions between the characters.
All of the relationship drama definitely sets the stage for an interesting time when Gossip Girl returns in November. It’s a shame Julien and Zoya are at odds once again, but the rest of this week’s episode offers a lot to look forward to.
Hopefully, the upcoming episodes will deliver.
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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