The Gossip Girl Season 1 Episode 6 Moment That Made No Sense To Fans
Contains spoilers for "Gossip Girl," Season 1, Episode 6: "Parentsite"
The "Gossip Girl" reboot is proving to be just as — if not more — scandalous than the original 2007 teen drama by the same name. While the cast is much more diverse, the new characters share similarities to the original cast in terms of wealth, priorities, and a love for drama. The first season only has six episodes out at this point, but we've already seen plenty of moments that have gone too far and even an appearance from an original "Gossip Girl" star.
Episode 6, titled "Parentsite," just dropped on HBO Max, and it's a shocking episode to say the least. The personal and private drama of the students at Constance Billard School St. Jude's School continues to get more intense as people break up, get together, and threaten to leak each other's secrets.
One of the most confounding moments in "Parentsite" happens at the very end of the episode between queen bee Julien Calloway (Jordan Alexander) and her ex Otto "Obie" Bergmann IV (Eli Brown), in an out of place reunion.
There's a time and a place
In Episode 6, Obie — known for his activism — takes part in a protest (against his parent's business) for housing rights. Some fans have likened it to the cringe-worthy Kendall Jenner Pepsi commercial in terms of performative activism, but surprisingly, it gets worse. Julien eventually makes her way to the protest as well, as both an excuse to apologize to Obie for a previous fight as well as a chance to expand her brand. She even tells a potential employer that her politics are part of who she is, and she's not willing to leave a protest to protect her image.
By the end of the night, riots break out as the police turn violent. Rather than stick out the entirety of the protest with their peers, Obie runs to Julien's rescue and the two escape from the fray and avoid arrest themselves. They make their way to the safety of an alley, surrounded by police lights and smoke, and then they...kiss? Not only is it a random moment to decide to reconcile, but fans took issue with the way the two ditched the protest right as things took a turn.
Fans thought the moment was out of touch
Confused fans took to Reddit to discuss Episode 6, specifically the whole protest-to-make-up plotline. User u/SmallTownBigDreamz kicked off the conversation and shared their frustration with the episode, writing "People were getting brutalized by the police and Obie and Julien just run off and start making out...can't make this s***up." Another user named u/Kcatlol agreed, writing, "Giving very much rich people trying to 'protest.'"
Some fans expected Julien and Obie to be much more involved in the protest, because the two had literally just bonded over it moments before. User u/lunas-monet wrote, "I really thought they were going to jump into the thick of it but no they dipped so fast," while user u/SmallTownBigDreamz also added, "Is so ironic because Julien said her politics are part of her identity and then 5 minutes later she's kissing Obie while homeless people are getting tear gassed."
On a funnier note, user u/ForgetfulLucy28 joked, "Nothing turns me on like police brutality," referring to the weird timing of the ex-couple's romantic moment. While it was an interesting touch to see the students get more involved with activism, the whole plot fell flat by the end of the episode.