Gossip Girl Reboot Series Finale: Find Out How It Ended — Including Andy Cohen's Surprisingly Pivotal Role

HBO

Warning: This post contains spoilers from the Gossip Girl reboot's series finale.

Gossip Girl has officially logged off.

HBO Max's once-buzzed-about standalone sequel to The CW series of the same name, based on author Cecily von Ziegesar's popular book series, ended its run Thursday after two seasons. But the sleek drama made sure to still go out with a bang.

The show's central gang — Julien (Jordan Alexander), Zoya (Whitney Peak), Obie (Eli Brown), Max (Thomas Doherty), Aubrey (Emily Alyn Lind), Aki (Evan Mock), Luna (Zión Moreno), Monet (Savannah Lee Smith) and Shan (Grace Duah) — only had one thing on their agenda: taking down Gossip, for good. But unbeknownst to most of the crew, Obie has been working with the internet menace, who was revealed to be their very own English teacher Kate Keller (Tavi Gevinson) in the series premiere, to expose his family.

Aki, at one point, was able to create a way for the group to gain access to Gossip Girl's booming Instagram page, using a fake account sharing a deceptive tip alongside a hacker link. Though Obie attempted to warn Kate about the plan, it was too late. The students were in — and yet, they quickly realized that once Julien's own information popped up under the user's info that the account holder found a way to hide their actual identity.

It's Max who then pointed out: "Someone must've tipped her off."

"Not just someone," Luna added. "One of us."

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It was revealed that Kate's boyfriend, former teacher Jordan (Adam Chanler-Berat), rerouted the account information to make it so that Julien's details were there instead. And given what a close call this was for Kate to be hacked, Jordan suggested that "it's time" for her to give up being Gossip Girl. She, however, was far from interested in that.

Because Julien still had access to the Gossip Girl Instagram account on her phone, she was able to discover that Obie — her own boyfriend — was the one who tipped off the account holder. Obie messaged Gossip Girl with a new plan of action, using the social media app's vanish mode feature. But his attempt to delete the exchange failed as he mistakenly placed it under general messages, which Julien realized after seeing Kate's response over her mutual agreement with Obie to help each other out.

Julien later called a meeting with everyone but Obie to discuss a new plan of action: one of their own will identify as Gossip Girl on the official account, taking the "reins" from Kate in an attempt to outdo her at her own game. Per Julien, the moment in question will occur in a "spectacular, headline-grabbing photobomb on the Met Gala steps, of all places."

"And when the real GG sees you claim credit," Max inserted, "she won't be able to resist outing herself in order to regain glory."

Zoya, in turn, offered to pose as the faux Gossip Girl. "It has to be me. It makes the most sense," said Zoya, who has often been an outsider to the group, even frequently feuding with half-sister Julien.

Karolina Wojtasik/HBO Max/Courtesy Everett Collection

"She started when I arrived. Dan was an outsider," she continued, referencing former Gossip Girl account creator Dan Humphrey, played by Penn Badgley in the original series. "He also talked about himself almost as much as anybody else. So let's lean in. People have to believe it's true if it's going to work."

The group also agreed that in order to make this work, they have to be willing to expose their biggest secret through the account and "get more scandalous" and "more brutal" than Gossip Girl ever had before.

Later on, the gang took their places at the Met Gala to begin their takedown scheme. Secrets soon began flowing, including Monet's mother being "the brain's behind the union-busting scandal" her father pinned on Zoya's dad and how Max cheated on his throuple partners Aubrey and Aki with Obie's older sister. But it was the revelation that Aubrey and Aki were excluding him from the relationship in private that led Max to break things off later that evening.

Realizing what was going down, Obie confronted Julien about her new scheme. But Julien called out his own behavior of working with Gossip Girl, which Obie defended by saying it felt like his "only choice" in exposing his family's bad deeds. He then got permission to use the account, where he live-streamed a private conversation with his sister, exposing her misdeeds. This led to him being escorted out of the event.

Zoya eventually made her way up the Met steps, wearing a gown augmented by Aubrey's designer mother Kiki, reading: "I AM GOSSIP GIRL." After photographers on site snapped her photograph, security escorted her off the premises.

Julien was distraught over the scheme being "a total bust," saying to Aubrey that her little sister Zoya "goes down for all of it" while Gossip Girl gets to "vanish into the ether." Later venting to Obie about her frustration with this, her beau said: "What's the best way to catch flies? Money."

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After witnessing the faux unmasking action unfold from afar, Kate's boyfriend Jordan said she's now "free" and "no one will ever know" that she is actually Gossip Girl. But Kate appeared to be disappointed by that — and she only grew increasingly so later that night upon seeing a news blast from The NY Spectator, owned by Gossip Girl OG Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), that Shonda Rhimes, Ryan Murphy and Danny Strong were meeting with Gossip Girl at Minetta Tavern to discuss a movie deal.

Upon making her way over to the restaurant, Kate is escorted toward the table where the meeting is commencing with Danny, saying: "Mr. Strong, you can't believe these women. They're not Gossip Girl, and they don't have the rights to her story."

"Ms. Keller?" Julien said in astonishment as an equally stunned Zoya said, "Oh, my God."

Kate then shared: "I'm Gossip Girl, and I can prove it. I refuse to allow anyone else to take credit."

To that, OG Gossip Girl alum Jonathan Whitney (Matt Doyle) — who dated, and is now married, to Serena van der Woodsen's (Blake Lively) younger brother Eric (Connor Paolo) on the former series — turned around. "And credit you shall have," he said, surprising Kate. "Tomorrow morning, in fact, on the front page of the Spectator."

HBO

Even more surprising, Andy Cohen, who was seated in the back beside Obie, chimed in to say: "And tomorrow night, on my show!"

"Eric's at the Spectator right now giving the exclusive to Nate," Jonathan added.

Andy said he wanted to see Gossip Girl for himself, and noted how it was "a twist" to discover that a teacher was behind the new iteration. "Also, kinda gross," he said.

The Bravo producer's appearance at the unmasking wasn't random, however. Earlier on in the episode, Andy bumped into Obie at the Met Gala and told the student he recognized him because he's "a big Gossip Girl fan."

At that same moment, Jonathan chimed in to mention his disdain for Gossip Girl, recalling how the website previously "outed" Eric. He also noted how "complicated" it all was upon later discovering that Gossip Girl turned out to be his now-brother-in-law.

After Andy said this generation's Gossip Girl is "far more brutal" compared to its predecessor, Jonathan added: "I hope someone finds whoever it is and stops them."

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But Andy and Jonathan weren't the only ones who assisted in the unmasking of Gossip Girl. Zoya's lawyer father, Nick (Johnathan Fernandez), questioned why Kate would "cyberstalk and bully teenagers into being scared, hurt, confused [and] isolated," as well as her role in hurting his family, in particular. Nick also pointed out the legal repercussions at stake for Kate, including first-degree harassment and stalking in the third degree.

"Whatever happens to me, I'll be able to sleep at night knowing I succeeded. I made you better," Kate said as authorities were preparing to escort her out. "I made you good."

"You didn't make us anything," Julien said as Zoya added, "And in a year's time, we'll have all forgotten about you. But you? You'll have lost everything."

HBO

The end of the episode picked up two months after the events that transpired.

Julien, Zoya, Aki, Aubrey and Obie jetted off on a fun-filled summer vacation in Italy. All the while, Luna is finding success as a model, landing a major billboard through her Oscar de la Renta campaign. (The opportunity was also offered to Julien at the Met Gala, but they both fought over it because when the Oscar de la Renta rep handed both of him his business card, Julien said Luna was just her stylist.)

As for Max, he was shown being thrown out of a club while drunk. He also picked up a strange man.

In the last scene, Julien, Zoya, Aki, Aubrey and Obie stroll down the streets of Italy with ice cream in hand. Obie then says to a roaring cheers: "Here's to our future, in a Gossip Girl-free existence. May she rest in pieces, having given us back our peace."

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Gossip Girl premiered on HBO Max in 2021 and scored an early season 2 renewal. This latest season premiered in December. Creator Joshua Safran announced its cancellation on Jan. 19.