['Gossip Girl' - 'All the Pretty Sources']

No-one throws a soiree like Serena van der Woodsen, but it wouldn't be an Upper East Side shindig without a healthy heaping of scandal. This week's 'Gossip Girl' once again brought all of our favorites together, but despite the verbal fireworks, it still felt like a spark was missing (perhaps because so much time was spent on Chivy and her snoozeworthy boy drama).

Still, some progress was made between Blair and Louis, and Queen B's dashing prince is turning out to be a right royal pain; when he was being sweet, he was simply dull, but now that he's trying to scheme, he's just plain irritating. Alas, we've been promised a royal wedding, so we sadly haven't seen the last of Louis yet, but it looks like we might get a break from Elizabeth Hurley's scenery chewing, after Diana's reluctant exit ...

Join us after the jump for our five favorite moments from this week's episode.

1. Prince Charming Takes a Walk on the Dark Side
Oh, Louis -- you clearly forgot the first rule of scheming in your attempt to sully Serena's reputation: don't get caught. Sure, in theory, turning Blair against her friends was a sensible plan, especially since Louis is clearly itching to drag her back to Monaco, but these Upper East Siders are both master manipulators and fiercely loyal, so trying to sever their relationships was inevitably going to be an uphill battle, and even if he had succeeded in getting B and S fighting, chances were that they'd be back to being BFFs within two weeks anyway.

Still, I was a little disappointed that Blair was so quick to believe the worst of Serena, both in her party planning abilities and her desire to steal the spotlight from Blair during her bridal shower. It's sad that even as the writers are developing and maturing Chuck immeasurably, they seem to be devolving Blair at an equal rate, taking her back to her petty, insecure, high-school persona, which is a sad regression when she seemed so patient and forgiving last season.



2. Blair Wants a Break
But no matter how immature Blair can be in the heat of the moment, she still made the right choice in deciding to take a break from Louis this week. The prince's actions have been the opposite of chivalrous lately; they've been downright dastardly. Being paranoid about Chuck is one thing (and probably entirely justified) but trying to separate Blair from her whole support system is just cowardly, and the sooner Blair disentangles herself from Louis and all his royal baggage, the better. No matter how polished our Park Avenue Princess might be, the monarchy just isn't for her. Here's hoping we get a few weeks of respite from Louis and his incomprehensible sentences.

3. Chuck and Dan's Bromance
Lonely Boy found himself an equally lonely friend this week, with both of Blair's scorned lovers left off the guest list for her bridal bash. Chuck, still trying to be noble, didn't even indulge with the two women that Dan declined, and he seems to be channeling all of his sexual frustration into dog walking, which ... probably won't be effective for long. Their 'Matrix' scene was actually fairly charming, especially since Chuck gave Dan some much-needed tough love and advised him to change his situation if he was tired out being an outsider.

Sadly, Dan's solution was to get drunk and crash Blair's party to give her a piece of his mind (selfish as ever, Humphrey) but luckily, Chuck was close behind, still prepared to be a gentleman. Their scene on the steps was oddly poignant, with Baby Bass all grown up and pointing out that both of them were losers in the race for Blair's heart. (Or are they?) Considering how antagonistic the pair used to be towards each other, it's nice to see how far they've both come, even if Dan still won't let Chuck cut his hair or change his clothes.

4. Nate Scores a Promotion
Diana's relationship with William van der Bilt finally became clear this week, as it was revealed that Nate's grandpa is the majority shareholder in the Spectator brand. He had apparently employed Diana to help him rehab Nate's public and professional image -- I can't imagine that he also employed her to go all 'Cougar Town' on his barely-legal grandson, but those are semantics. Diana was supposedly grooming Nate to take over the site, because any legitimate business would want a slutty and generally unreliable 20-year-old with a penchant for pot as the boss, right?

Regardless of Nate's many foibles, he proved himself to be an overall honorable and decent chap because he hadn't sent any incriminating scoops to Gossip Girl (unless he is Gossip Girl!) and thus Diana was prepared to gracefully step down, kind of. Unfortunately, Nate didn't have the same high regard for his womanfriend as she had for him, so their parting wasn't exactly amicable. There's still the matter of the photo she found of herself in Bart's file, though, so I doubt we've seen the last of her.

5. The Final Scene
After making up with Serena in the glittery aftermath of her awesome Tiffany-themed party (I covet), Blair apparently couldn't keep herself away from Chuck any longer. "You've really been good this whole time, haven't you?" she swooned after turning up at his door, and I only wish we could say the same for her. It would serve her right if Chuck rebuffed her, given all the mind-games she's been playing recently, but that long and loaded look the pair shared was certainly promising, wasn't it? You know you love each other, xoxo.

'Gossip Girl' airs Mondays at 8PM ET on The CW.

What did you think of tonight's episode? Are you relieved to see Louis and/or Diana leaving? Were you as bored by Chivy and Max's drama as I was? Share your thoughts below, and check out our scoop from the 'Gossip Girl' 100th Episode Party here.

Follow Laura on Twitter: @LauinLA