In December of 2012, the CW series Gossip Girl came to a close and viewers found out who the anonymous blogger that documented the lives of Serena, Blair, Chuck, Dan, Nate and the many guest stars was. I have mixed feelings about the finale because while I loved how the characters ended up, I wish GG’s identity remained a mystery. This isn’t Pretty Little Liars, and who GG is is just not that important to the story. The creators picked Dan Humphrey, one of the main characters throughout the series run, to be GG and if you only watch the last few seasons it kind of makes sense. But if you watch the whole series in full and take notes (like any normal person would) you find the writers didn’t plan on announcing Dan as GG, because if they did there wouldn’t be as many inconsistencies.

Reasons that back up Dan Humphrey as Gossip Girl
Season 1 epi 1– Dan wants to make an impression on Serena and “her world”.. Goes along with his reasonings to become an insider in her world and the Upper East Side
Season 1 epi 16- Dan “sends” gossip girl the tip about Asher and Eric and then GG post asking for “proof.” Dan also wants proof to show Jenny that Asher is gay
Season 1 epi 18- foreshadowing..”Just born to lie I guess” -Dan
Season 2 epi 1- GG posts all about “lonely boy” becoming “playboy” and seeing a lot of girls. Dan would want Serena to see this and be jealous
Season 2 epi 1- Dan tries to write about his breakup with Serena and explains it as a story about “two people in two different worlds” which goes with his reasoning for being gossip girl
Season 2 epi 10- gossip girl doesn’t ever post anything on thanksgiving to be with their family, Dan and the Humphreys are obsessed with thanksgiving so it makes sense
Season 2 epi 18- Dan knows its Miss Carr sending all the tips about B & S to GG, makes sense he’s the only one who knows bc he sees the tips
Season 2 epi 25- Dan gives himself the “ultimate insider” label at graduation. The rest of the labels make sense too. Dan was mad at Nate for betraying Vanessa and for kissing Jenny (classwhore). Dan knew Chuck and Blair really did love each other from when Serena wanted him to help Blair say I love you (weakling and coward).
– Dan doesn’t help Serena “take down” gossip girl like everyone else and tells her there’s no point
– when Serena sends the text to see if gossip girl’s phone will go off, Dan had already left the party
-Dan’s the first one at the Oak Bar when Serena wants to meet “Gossip Girl.” Everyone else comes after and GG announces she’s coming to college. Makes sense because Dan just told Serena she isn’t “irrelevant” (her gradation label) and never will be
Season 4 epi 4- “well as they say, adapt or die.” Dan says while helping Blair and Serena dig up dirt on Eva
Season 4 epi 6- during Dan’s explanation he says Jenny sent the tip about her and chuck to GG himself which is true
Season 4 epi 7- “no offense Dan, but we’re no match for Chuck and Blair.”- Eric “I’ve picked up a few skills over the few years. I don’t know about that.” -Dan
-Dan wants to get Blair and Chuck mad at each other again so Chuck will help Jenny allowed back in the city, so he posts a fake tip on GG
Season 4 episode 9- Dan wanted Serena to chose and made it easy for him and Nate to just walk away from her when he got GG pics of Serena kissing him and Nate so he posted them
Season 4 episode 11- this one can be taken in two different ways. Dan and Blair email gossip girl to find out where Juliet is. Dan is the one on the computer, so I’m choosing to believe he just doesn’t want Blair to know that he’s GG and so he communicates through email
Season 4 episode 17- Blair and Dan want to make their friendship seem like no big deal so they have GG say a big secret will come out tonight to distract people from their friendship and make it seem like nbd, easy for Dan to do when there really isn’t a secret
Season 5 episode 10- “there’s no harm in looking back at a few old blasts. You might learn something you didn’t expect.” Dan to Serena
Season 5 episode 10- no one is sending in GG blasts since the Spectator leaked a list of GG’s sources. The only thing she posts for weeks is Blair’s escape to Brooklyn when she’s trying to pick between Chuck or Louis, where she goes to Dan
Season 5 episode 10- after Serena says its all GG fault C&B were in the accident: “it’s not like I’m trying to defend her, but GG didn’t hop in a motorcycle and chase them down Manhattan.” -Dan. Also Dan heard Nate and Serena’s plan to “take down GG” and therefore doesn’t post anymore
*the whole Georgia as GG thing starts. She claims to have stolen it, Dan steals it back eventually according to finale.* Then when Serena is acting GG and the “real GG” wants her site back everyone is in constant contact with gossip girl through texts and emails. This is hard to follow, but Dan is the only one NEVER involved in finding “her” identity.
Season 5 episode 22- Serena gets “gossip girl’s real phone number” from Diana, and when Lola puts it into her phone GPS (this must be a magical UES thing) it says its at the party Dan follows B & C to. Also a perfect time for him to steal the computer back.
Season 6 episode 1- GG doesn’t care that Serena is missing and says “SVDW” is dead which makes sense because Dan is so mad at her
Season 6 episode 3- GG posts that Rufus is threatening to sue after Dan’s chapter about him is posted on the Spectator. You’d think Dan wouldn’t want this published, but really he was testing Nate to see if the Spectator could handle the stress and pressure

Reasons Dan Humphrey can’t/shouldn’t be Gossip Girl
Season 1, epi 6- Dan finds out Serena is going to the masked ball with someone else on gossip girl. Unless tips were automatically posted he would have known. And if writers planned on Dan being GG, they wouldn’t show him looking at the site so much
Season 1 epi 10- Dan seemed surprised about Carter and acts like he doesn’t know anything about him, but Gossip Girl dedicated a spotted map to him
Season 1 epi 13- Dan sees Serena with the pregnancy test on GG
**Dan posts the tip Chuck sends to GG even though he promises Serena “he didn’t tell anyone” about Blair sleeping with Chuck. Dan claims to love Serena and wouldn’t want to create trust issues
Season 1 epi 16- GG posts about Jenny “losing her virginity” to Asher and Dan comes running in upset that this happened and is on the Internet about her
Season 2 epi 4- GG posts about Dan and new girl Amanda on a date after he tells Serena he doesn’t want it to be a competition
Season 2 epi 5- “If I have to exploit people to be a good writer, then maybe I don’t want to be a good writer.” -Dan LOL
Season 2 epi 9- Dan finds out Jenny’s at the palace for her fashion show on gossip girl
Season 2 episode 15- Penelope overhears Dan talking to his Dad saying he hates keeping secrets from Serena(the real secret is the love child between Bart/Lily) the girls want to “help Serena” so the girls send a tip to GG and she posts it accusing Dan of cheating and asking to give up dirt on Dan
-Nelly steals Dan’s phone and Vanessa texts him about the love child. Gossip girl gets the tip and posts it after Dan promises his dad he wouldn’t tell anyone and he wouldn’t want Serena, Eric or Jenny to find out this way
-also Dan doesn’t even have a phone bc nelly stole it so he couldn’t post it
Season 2 episode 17- Blair sends gossip girl a tip that Dan and miss Carr are together with no proof. GG posts the tip. Dan wouldn’t want this post about him bc of Serena & it’s illegal.. (Also this is before they even hookup)
-also Dan again doesn’t have a phone but this time bc miss Carr makes everyone hand them in before school (Dorota brings Blair one)
Season 3 epi 7-Dan finds out Olivia Burke bought condoms on GG
Season 3 epi 9- Dan is a little busy having a threesome with Vanessa and Hilary Duff to post about Jenny and Nate at cotillion on GG
Season 3 episode 20- Blair sends the tip in about Jenny being a drug dealer and GG posts it. Dan wouldn’t want to hurt Jenny who’s upset bc she doesn’t want Rufus to see it
Season 3 episode 22- why would Dan (GG) post the picture of Dan and Serena in bed together when he’s with Vanessa and Serena’s with Nate?
Season 4 episode 2- why would Dan want Gossip Girl to have a poll asking if Serena should be with him or Nate? Especially when Nate was winning?
Season 4 episode 3- Dan finds out Georgia is on vacation after she left him with Milo on GG
Season 4 episode 5- GG posts a pic of Dan in the student health center after the rumor of Serena having an STD is posted. Why would Dan want Vanessa or anyone else to think he slept with Serena when he didnt?
Season 4 episode 10- right after Lilly and Dan get into a fight about Serena going to the Oscoff Center, GG sends out a blast about what happened to Serena and convinces Lilly that Serena really did get messed up and needs help… The opposite of what Dan wanted
Season 4 episode 19- Charlie takes a video of Dan and Blair kissing and GG posts it, but this isn’t a “real kiss” it’s just so no one finds out about her and the prince. Dan wouldn’t want Serena or anyone to know so why would be post? When did he have time to do it when it happened right when he walked out of the room?
Season 5 episode 3- Dan doesn’t want anyone to know about his book Inside, but GG posts randomly that she knows about it
Season 5 episode 9- GG posts all about the @ihatehumphrey twitter that hates on Dan and his book after he complains to his dad about getting so much hate
Season 5 episode 10- Dan goes to all the trouble of helping Chuck and Blair be together, why would he post Ivy’s tip that they were together at the party when they’re hiding from Louis?
Season 5 episode 24- gossip girl posts Blair’s diary which not only says Blair loves Chuck more than Dan but also ruins her relationship with everyone because of the mean things she says. This hurts Blair in so many ways and Dan “loves her”
The finale claims Jenny always knew which COULD make the Jenny comments invalid.. But I think that’s just a cover and it’s a big plot hole.

I’ll always be a Gossip Girl fan, and I enjoy watching the show, however, if the writers wanted Dan to be their GG- the ultimate insider- they could have done it in a way that simply makes more sense. Keep Dan off of as many GG posts as possible and don’t show him looking at the site so often.