Thanksgiving is a special holiday for Gossip Girl fans. Rufus Humphrey loves the excuse to cook, talk about cooking, and make awful jokes about cooking. All while everyone else somehow ends up embroiled in some sort of drama. Every Thanksgiving Gossip Girl episode is a highlight.
Greatest hits include Lily spending Thanksgiving with Rufus and his estranged wife, Jenny trying to get emancipated, Serena having dinner with a married politician (whom she's having an affair with) and his wife, Serena spending the holiday in the hospital after being drugged, and Blair and Chuck teaming up to prove that his father murdered someone. Happy holidays!
Blair Waldorf Must Pie! (Season 1) - 7.6
Dan's parents have decided to give their marriage another shot, so Dan's mom is spending Thanksgiving at home. Blair is ecstatic over her dad's impending arrival, as Thanksgiving is kind of their thing. Serena gets uninvited to this family reunion when she shames Blair for sleeping with Chuck (tip: if you sleep with your best friend's boyfriend and she manages to forgive you, maybe refrain from judging her on who she has sex with).
Dan generously invites Serena and her family to join them for Thanksgiving dinner, unaware of his father's history with Lily (Serena's mother). Blair's devastated to learn that her father won't be joining them this year after all, triggering a relapse in her eating disorder. She calls Serena for help, who drops everything to be there for her friend.
It's Really Complicated (Season 6) - 7.8
Dan and Serena plan to throw a Thanksgiving dinner in the hopes of bringing everyone they've pissed off back together. Nate discovers that Bart may have been involved in the murder of one of his business associates, so he teams up with Chuck and Blair to take Bart down.
Things get awkward when Bart and Lily cancel their vacation and wind up spending Thanksgiving with everyone. Chuck and Blair are able to gather enough evidence to convince Lily of Bart's guilt, taking away his biggest ally. And Dan and Serena's reunion is cut short when he puts out a scathing chapter of her in his book.
The Magnificent Archibalds (Season 2) - 7.9
Jenny has run away from home and is seeking emancipation from Rufus. Rufus is able to convince her otherwise, and by the end of the episode, she finally comes home. Serena is dating the newly sober Aaron, from whom she'd like to keep her wild "past" a secret. Blair suspects her mother is engaged to Cyrus, and decides to ditch the family celebration, hurt that her mother didn't tell her. Chuck shows Eric the files Bart keeps on their family, which he promptly shares with Serena and Lily. Lily is furious about the invasion of her children's privacy, and the Van der Woodsens leave Bart alone in favor of another Thanksgiving with Rufus. Nate's dad returns after having fled the country to avoid his criminal charges, and he asks Nate and his mother to come away with him. This is all a ruse, as his father wants to use Nate and his mother, planning to hold them for ransom to get more money from his mother's relatives. Nate stands up to his father, demanding that he turn himself in.
The Treasure Of Serena Madre (Season 3) - 7.9
Lily and Rufus are hosting basically everyone for Thanksgiving. So much is happening in this episode: Rufus surprises Lily by inviting Cece, who taunts Lily with a secret she hasn't yet let Rufus in on. Dan is struggling with the realization that he has feelings for Vanessa, who resents her mother dropping in unexpectedly for the holiday. Jenny finds out that Eric was responsible for her cotillion being sabotaged, and Blair is convinced her mother is pregnant but won't tell her.
Serena is having an affair with Tripp, who attends her family's Thanksgiving with his wife in tow. Nate not only informs Tripp's wife of her husband's infidelity, but uses a tape from Chuck's hotel security to give Maureen something to blackmail them with in order to end the affair. Only a couple of these storylines reach any sort of resolution: Blair's mother isn't pregnant, she's moving to France, and Serena runs away with Tripp. Oh, and someone is pregnant after all- Dorota!
Gaslit (Season 4) - 8.0
Blair is headed to Paris for the holiday. Serena is missing, and nobody knows where she is. Serena wakes up in a hotel room, drugged and without any idea how she got there. Everyone drops what their plans were and rushes to the hospital to be there for Serena. The doctors believe that Serena may have been trying to commit suicide due to the nature and amount of drugs in her system, and offer to have Serena committed. Dan busts her out and the two plan to run off together until Lily and Blair stop them. A Gossip Girl blast featuring a photo of Juliet doing a line of cocaine while disguised as Serena convinces her that she has a problem and agrees to be committed. Juliet clears out for good in order to avoid getting caught, since Jenny came clean about their plan to ruin Serena. Jenny and Vanessa leave town, and Dan and Blair team up to find Juliet.