The Julien Theory That Has Gossip Girl Fans Looking Twice At Episodes

Contains spoilers for "Gossip Girl," Season 1, Episode 2, "She's Having a Maybe"

With a new "Gossip Girl" comes a whole new wave of drama between the students of Constance Billard and St. Jude's. Rather than focusing on the love-hate relationship between Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) and Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively), the HBO reboot focuses on the tense relationship between two half-sisters: longtime it-girl and influencer Julien Calloway (Jordan Alexander) and young newcomer Zoya Lott (Whitney Peak).

Audiences soon learn that although the girls have secretly been in contact online for years, their fathers Davis (Luke Kirby) and Nick (Johnathan Fernandez) have separated them their entire lives. This is because Julien and Zoya's late mother left Davis for Nick and seemingly died shortly after Zoya was born. Now, the girls are determined to be "real" sisters, but their school's teachers soon attempt to be the new Gossip Girl, leading them to try and tear the girls apart.

As Julien and Zoya consider their ties to their fathers vs. their social lives vs. each other, one small detail about Julien has fans looking at her in a different light.

Reddit user @holdbackallmydark noticed a striking similarity between Julien and her wealthy, Grammy-winning producer father. "I love that Julien and her dad basically have matching hair," they wrote. "It makes me wonder if she did that on purpose so people would always know it was them walking around together. Like it makes sense from a PR angle if your dad is 'that' famous."

To be fair, Davis' hair is a bit longer than Julien's hair is. However, they both have close-cropped short hair with light sideburns, even if Julien's is more of a buzzcut. It's certainly possible that Julien modeled her style after her father's. Viewers know that she's a well-known fashion influencer, and visually associating herself with her powerful dad likely played at least some role in launching her online career. Julien also has a gender-neutral name, and her more androgynous haircut aligns with the reboot's more modern, progressive ethos.

However, Julien and Davis' matching hair isn't all that @holdbackallmydark noticed about the series. They also pinpointed a potential explanation for Julien and her friend Audrey Hope's (Emily Alyn Lind) close bond, writing, "It appears that both Julien and Audrey have a lot of history with having to take care of their parents? Perhaps that's how their friendship molded?"

Nick is surprised to learn that Davis is sober when he, Zoya, and Julien are all accidentally reunited at a school fundraiser. Julien mentions how hard her father worked to get to the point he is today, suggesting she had to deal with and help him overcome his substance abuse issues at a very young age. In Episode 2, viewers also learned that Audrey's athleisure designer mother has issues with substance abuse and what seems to be depression, especially since her company has filed for bankruptcy. That means she often refuses to show up for Audrey, and Audrey is forced to act as her caretaker. Because both girls have had to care for their parents from a young age, it makes sense why they have a tight friendship.

Fans can look forward to seeing even more of Julien, Audrey, Zoya, and their terribly rich parents as HBO Max's "Gossip Girl" Season 1 continues.