Wonderwall

'Gossip Girl' Series Finale: Mysterious Blogger's Identity Finally Revealed

The Associated Press, Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 11:46am (PST)

The Hollywood Reporter -- [Warning: Major spoilers from Monday's series finale of Gossip Girl.]

After six seasons, more than 120 episodes and dozens of upscale Manhattan shindigs, The CW said goodbye to Gossip Girl for good with a two-hour event Monday filled with shocking reveals, familiar faces, life-changing moments and a farewell that might have come a little too late.

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It had been one of the series' biggest (if not the biggest) questions: Who is the mysterious, omnipresent blogger calling herself Gossip Girl? There had been fake-outs and detours (see: Georgina and Serena) throughout the show's run, and in the final minutes of "New York, I Love You XOXO," the question was finally answered.

So, who is it?

Gossip Girl is &hellip Dan Humphrey.

It's kind of hilarious if one really thinks about it. Dan (Penn Badgley) unmasked as the blogger also makes sense, to a degree. He was always an outsider -- until he somehow slipped into the upper echelon of the Upper East Side. Writers are often observant, and Dan is no different: He somehow got so good at eavesdropping on conversations that he learned the "LOLs" and the "OMGs" of what made Gossip Girl live and breathe. But let's be serious, picturing Lonely Boy speaking in emoticons and "XOXOs" is a comedy series in itself. (Let's not forget that Dan's younger sister, Jenny (Taylor Momson), was in on her brother's Gossip Girl extracurriculars for a while.)

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How did Blair (Leighton Meester), Serena (Blake Lively), Nate (Chace Crawford), Chuck (Ed Westwick), and company take the surprising news? Rather well, actually. At the end of the day, all of them schemed their way through six seasons and somehow stuck together in the end -- and as Chuck put it, Gossip Girl was nowhere to be seen following "Chair's" traumatic car accident.

It was fitting the way Dan ended the conversation: "Gossip Girl is dead."

And speaking of "Chair," their wedding likely was the show's biggest event -- at least from a fan's perspective. The final season might have been a wash, but the two managed to survive a royal wedding, a questionable pact, a life-altering car accident and emotional baggage to see this through. Although in the real world their troubles might not be worth it in the end, there's something to be said for their continued allegiance to each other.

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There were a slew of familiar faces who dropped in for their final bows, like Vanessa (Jessica Szohr), Juliet (Katie Cassidy), Agnes (Willa Holland) and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The most surprising, however, might have been seeing The O.C.'s Rachel Bilson and Kristen Bell, Gossip Girl narrator, reading lines from a screenplay for a big-screen adaptation of the whole story.

In the vein of Six Feet Under and Life Unexpected, Gossip Girl flash-forwarded a few years for another headline event: Dan and Serena's wedding. It was the series' way of wrapping everything up with a neat bow, even though viewers know there were often hiccups and mishaps along the way.

In the end, everyone got their happy ending, answering a question The Hollywood Reporter posed to executive producer Sara Goodman before the season:

Nate: Running for mayor with NY Spectator so successful it can afford a private jet. Chuck/Blair: Happily married and parents to a young boy. Eric/Jenny: Back! Rufus/Lily: Not together, but should be. Georgina/Jack: Couple.

Although Dan declared that Gossip Girl was dead, it's pretty much known that the entity never will die: "You may be rid of Dan Humphrey, but you'll never be rid of me. There's always someone on the outside. &hellip Who am I now? That's one secret I'll never tell." So, who's next? There's a part that wishes Gossip Girl was living on in an alternate universe, just to see this all play out.

It's been a rocky six seasons, but the series finale reminded viewers of what Gossip Girl ultimately is and should be remembered as: a soapy, cheeky guilty pleasure.

'Til next time. XOXO

Sound off on the reveal of Gossip Girl's identity in the comments below. What did you think of the cameos? What did you think of the finale and the series' wrap-up? What else would you have liked to have seen?

E-mail: Philiana.Ng@thr.com Twitter: @insidethetube