Valley Girls (11 May 2009)

Lily recalls her past when in a flashback to 1983, the naive and sheltered 17-year-old Lily Rhodes got kicked out of her Santa Barbara boarding school. She ran away to Los Angeles where she... See full summary »

Director:

Mark Piznarski

Writers:

Stephanie Savage, Josh Schwartz

Stars:

Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Penn Badgley

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Blake Lively	...	Serena van der Woodsen
Leighton Meester	...	Blair Waldorf
Penn Badgley	...	Dan Humphrey
Chace Crawford	...	Nate Archibald
Taylor Momsen	...	Jenny Humphrey
Ed Westwick	...	Chuck Bass
Jessica Szohr	...	Vanessa Abrams
Kelly Rutherford	...	Lily van der Woodsen
Matthew Settle	...	Rufus Humphrey
Brittany Snow	...	Young Lily
Krysten Ritter	...	Young Carol
Andrew McCarthy	...	Rick Rhodes
Matt Barr	...	Keith van der Woodsen
Shiloh Fernandez	...	Owen Campos
Ryan Hansen	...	Shep

Storyline

Lily recalls her past when in a flashback to 1983, the naive and sheltered 17-year-old Lily Rhodes got kicked out of her Santa Barbara boarding school. She ran away to Los Angeles where she tried to re-connect with her divorced and dysfunctional parents; her workaholic record producer father, Rick Rhodes, and the superficial Cece. Lily also met and hooked up with her outgoing free-spirited 19-year-old sister Carol. Carol was the so-called "black sheep" of the family who introduced Lily to the life of partying, as well as Owen, a busboy at Carol's place of employment. Eventually, they all got arrested after crashing a party hosted by the cynical and mean music producer Keith van der Woodsen (Lily's future husband) whom attempted to swindle Carol out of a music deal. In present day New York, Blair and Nate decide to attend their senior prom together. But the evening doesn't turn out exactly as planned, when the Mean Girls attempt to rig the votes for prom king and queen. But Chuck comes...

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Plot Keywords:

manhattan new york city | new york city | upper east side manhattan new york city

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 May 2009 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

17th Street Productions, Alloy Entertainment, CBS Paramount Network Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

43 min 60 min 42 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Was the pilot for a proposed spin-off focusing on Lily's teenage years. The spin-off never materialized.

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Quotes

Rick Rhodes: You're late.
Lily Rhodes: Sorry, I couldn't find any parking.
Rick Rhodes: That's what the valet is for.
Lily Rhodes: Yeah, but it also costs $2, and I just spent my last $11 on gas to fill up my car.
Rick Rhodes: Here to hit your dad up for some cash?
Lily Rhodes: What? No! So... Christmas was weird without you.
Rick Rhodes: You know how important fourth quarter is of retail. Someone's got to keep Tower Records in business or it just might go under.

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Connections

References Valley Girl (1983)

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Soundtracks

"Stand and Deliver"
(uncredited)
Performed by No Doubt

User Reviews

Gossip Girl 'Valley Girls' Review

I am sure interested in what Lily's life was, it somewhat mirrors Serena's life now. How was Brittany Snow as Lily Rhodes? Did you think she looked like Lily. The transitions between Lily Rhodes and Lily van der Woodsen were well done, as I found myself comparing both individuals and they were somewhat the same. I know they are the same person, but think about it, has Lily van der Woodsen ever really grown up? There is still a hint of Lily Rhodes in there, mixed with a bit of her mother's (Cece) cliché moments.

Like: Telling Serena 'Mother Knows Best' ...and Getting Serena arrested for punishment, most moms take away allowances, sentence their children to one month without television or a cellphone, but Lily gets Serena arrested...

Serena getting arrested was done very sloppy in 'The Wrath of Con'. I believed the show had met it's final moments and decided to just pull the final Wild Card.

Surprisingly, Valley Girls, picked up much better than I'd anticipated.

Still for some strange reason I thought I would be seeing Georgina in this installment, since they just dropped the Poppy and Gabriel theme like a hot potato! What happened to Georgina's words to Blair? Blair - "I don't think Jesus would approve of that.

" Georgina - "Well, you can tell Jesus that the b**** is back!"

Where is the b**** now!

Anyway I guess that would be picked up in 'The Goodbye Gossip Girl'.

Even though they needed to use this entire episode to promote Valley Girls, it's not right leaving us hanging in the balance there. I am sure Poppy would not hang around until prom was finished.

Another main theme in the Valley Girls theme was Prom.

Prom signified the end of senior year and it seemed to have brought an end to many things as well; Blair and Nate Lily and Rufus ...and a beginning for Serena and Dan Lily and her Mom It also looked like Nelly, Hazel, Penelope and Isabel were up to no good ...again. It only took Chuck to clean up the mess they created for Blair.

There latest scheme; giving Blair false hope of becoming Prom Queen at the same time crowning Nelly. Those girls really need to grow up! According to Nelly;

"If we do this stuff in college, people would think we're Pathological!"

-> What about Now ladies! What would people think of you when you do those things Now!

Blair got the crown non-the-less, with Chuck's help, by helping Blair be happy on the day. Chuck is always more sappy around Blair, but don't you think it's funny that even though Chuck gave Blair everything she wanted, she still ended up splitting with Nate!

This episode had so many fond moments, that I had to capture it in dialog!

Blair - "Serena's been in jail for over four hours, she's already served more time than Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan combined"

Chuck - "She's a socialite mistakenly accused of stealing a bracelet, I doubt they're working her over with the phone book"

For more quotes Visit my Blog:

http://lexabuti.blogspot.com/

Brittany Snow does look like Kelly Rutherford, except the difference in eye color. Brittany's eyes are blue and Kelly's are grayish-brownish. Although I read in an Article that your eye-color does change as you grow older...

This was my favorite episode of Gossip Girl this season. Some may disagree with me, but the acting was solid, the flashback scenes were well placed and everything just fell into place. I am actually interested in the Valley Girls prequel! Gossip Girl may not have the same spunk like Season one, and this episode might not make up for some past episodes they just passed us of with, but by the length of this review I'm sure you must already know that I liked this one. Definitely a different take on the overall series.

I just hope that they would conclude the Georgina mode quickly and I hope it would end better than her last encounter in Season one.

So, are you excited for The Goodbye Gossip Girl?

...and how much did you enjoy that performance from No Doubt! Special Credit goes to:

'No Doubt'

'Krysten Ritter' as Carol Rhodes

Brittany Snow as Lily Rhodes

Lexa

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Four and a half out of Five Stars

Grade B+

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