Okay Gossip Girl Fans, “Remains of the J”, is one Gossip Girl Episode that banked on your having seen the episode before! So if you don’t watch Gossip Girl religiously, I’m sure your head was about to explode from all of the relationship drama!

Did any of us really think that Nate and Vanessa were officially over after she walked out on him in the last Gossip Girl episode? We’ve all done it. We argue; we cool off; we make up! Too bad that Vanessa and Nate aren’t on the same wavelength with this one!

Vanessa gets an email from Nate asking to meet him. By the looks of it, this may be her ticket to an apology and a do-over. But we know things are never that easy on the Upper East Side. Vanessa arrives just in time to see Blair leaving Nate’s place. What?! Who will Vanessa turn to in her time of need?

A shared sibling, dating parents, a future at different schools - we really knew from the beginning of Gossip Girl episode 17 that Dan and Serena were toast. What we couldn't see coming was that half the Upper East Side would be dragged into the vortex of their breakup. The episode starts out with a serious absence of communication; Serena and Dan are barely speaking, while the whole school is de-cell phoned at the prompting of Miss Carr. Being forcibly parted from their Blackberries was just too much for Blair and company to stand. When Blair notices Dan's obvious, stammering attraction to Miss Carr, the means of her revenge appears on a silver platter.

Meanwhile, Chuck is haunted by a mystery woman. After responding to an anonymous invitation and finding himself at an opulent gentleman's club, he wakes in the morning in a strange hotel room with foggy memories of the best lover he's ever had. Tracking her down, he discovers that his invitation was accidental, intended for his dead father. Just as he begins digging through Bart's secret papers, he receives a call: his one-night stand has gone missing. Never one to give up easily, it seems certain that Chuck's proclivities will pull him in beyond his depth.

The expansion of Gossip Girl into teacher territory has the school and parents in an uproar, with Dan and Blair's fathers making contradictory accusations of slander and inappropriate sex. When Serena witnesses Dan's pass at Miss Carr and captures it on film, Blair is exculpated and back to Yale. Rachel Carr is out of Constance Billard on her ass, but she seems to have come up with better uses for it. When Dan stops by her apartment, he doesn't even make it through the apology before they're hooking up. We won't get to watch Gossip Girl's next episode until March! Plenty of time for Dan to get himself in deep... trouble.

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The music from Gossip Girl Episode 10 is mostly a well-deserved homage to Kings of Leon, a great Tennessee trio of brothers who have put together a solid reputation over the last several years, but have had no big hits. Episode 10 features three Kings of Leon tunes: the lighthearted “Sex on Fire” is playing as Aaron asks Serena to pose for him, and repeats later in the show for their Central Park frolicking. “Closer” strikes a more sultry note, and backs up the scene where Serena awkwardly poses for Aaron in his studio. Finally, a heavy drum beat and crashing cymbals accompany Agnes when she flips out and burns all of Jenny’s dresses to “Be Somebody”. All three songs are tracks on Kings of Leon’s 2008 album, “Only by the Night.” That one band can serve up background music for such different scenes is a testament to their breadth.

Kings of Leon don’t quite hog the whole spotlight in Gossip Girl Episode 10. Other music of note includes the contemplative “What is a Life?” by Youth Group, playing as Bart opens Dan’s manuscript and Serena confronts Aaron about his freewheeling ways. Youth Group, originally out of Australia, has been around for about a decade now. They’ve had some trouble building a U.S. fanbase, but a Gossip Girl spot might be just the ticket for their brand of lyrical, emotional songwriting.

One last spotlight: “Graniteville”, by singer-songwriter Doug Burr, might not match Jenny’s fury as she yells at Agnes, but it’s a great foreshadowing of her later despair. While Burr’s Texas roots definitely show in his music, the sound isn’t exactly “country”. Burr has called today’s homogenized pop country a “broken model”, and fusion sounds such as his might be a good fix.

Watch Gossip Girl online for the best of the music you missed and the cream of the up-and-coming!

This week’s Gossip Girl has everyone toeing the line about what their consciences – and their families – can take. Both of the Humphreys are faced with a choice between a shameless power grab and their father’s more ethical, but less certain road to the top. When Jenny realizes that Agnes’s spontaneity and free spirit makes for a lousy business partner, she dumps the last person who was on her side. All that stands between her and a career is Rufus’s signature, but stubbornness seems to be a family trait. Rufus refuses to condone her actions by signing her contract, Agnes refuses to exit the stage gracefully, and Little J ends up homeless and crying over the ashes of her designs. The girl seems to have a backbone of titanium, and accepts her last option: emancipation from her parents. For his part in Episode 10, Dan takes the path of The Good Son and passes up a potentially career-making opportunity for a muckraking piece on Bart Bass.

Most Gossip Girl episodes leave me with at least a few songs to savor, and this one wasn’t any different. I have to say, however, that for episode 9 I’m picking favorites. There’s just no way for mellow indie music to compete with “Sheena is a Punk Rocker”! If you’re going to be jumping up on tables and breaking champagne glasses the way that Agnes does, your soundtrack of choice has got to be something by the Ramones. This cover, by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and Jemina Pearl of Be Your Own Pet, does justice to the kings of punk.

That’s not to say that episode 9 is lacking in other musical gems – I might direct your attention to the scene where Dan asks Vanessa for advice, backed up by “Children of Chin” by The Henry Clay People. The L.A. Times once noted that “if brains were noise, they’d be The Henry Clay People,” and that about sums it up. They’ve been pretty local to California up to this point, but I don’t think the indie scene’s seen the last of them.