HBO Max's highly anticipated Gossip Girl revival introduces a new crop of cool kids — this time, ones with heavily trafficked IGs and killer contour. However, the show has not completely forgotten its CW roots, nor the Upper East Side crew that came before it. One such person who gets name checked in the pilot episode of Gossip Girl revival. is none other than Nate Archibald.
In the OG pilot, Nate (of Vanderbilt lineage) was at the center of the love triangle between Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen. In the new Gossip Girl, however, that romantic entanglement, and any trouble Nate got up to during his time on the series, is long in the past. Instead, Nate is just a notable alumni of St. Jude, one whose name the teachers rattle off when they reminisce about the good, hard working, successful students of the past.
So what did happen to Nate? Well, a lot, over the course of The CW show's six scandal-filled seasons. However, for those who don't quite remember the path Nate took, here's what happened in the last season.
Nate got a job at (or, rather, purchased) the magazine The New York Spectator, which seemed kind of like a combination between Page Six and The New Yorker, depending on what the episode called for it to be at that moment. Nate was around 23 (max!) when he became head of the paper, and did almost get arrested after he worked with Bart Bass to cook the books on his advertising money. However, things ultimately worked out for Nate, as his best buddy, Chuck Bass, killed his father Bart in a move reminiscent of Scar and Simba's final showdown in The Lion King. (Just off a NYC skyscraper instead of a cliff in the Sahara.) Nate's name was totally in the clear, and The Spectator became an enormous success.
In the final episode of Gossip Girl, which jumps ahead five years, Nate steps off a private plane. His media company is thriving, and he's planning a mayoral run. It's all very Mike Bloomberg and the parallels are probably not such a coincidence.
The hilarious thing about Nate's name getting dropped so early in the pilot (Dan is also noted as a "novelist" in this iteration) is that he's lauded as the complete opposite of what these kids are now. Sure, Nate was certainly more polite to his teachers than the coffee-spilling jerks who make Kate Keller's life a living hell, but in terms of making trouble? The OG crew, Nate included, were just stealthier.
Also, I didn't forget the time he dated a teen. And neither should you!
Images: The CW