Vanessa explains "awesome"-ly to Jenny that "Handmaiden is Jane Austen for slave," because the last thing Vanessa would ever understand is trading your precious unique snowflake wonderfulness in order to actually exist in the world, because God forbid Jenny make decisions for herself that don't fit inside the box of Vanessa's self-imposed, entirely sour-grapes response to socialization cues. "Non-conform, damn it!" Jenny points out rationally that A) she's not invited to the ball, B) Blair was open and honest about that at every possible point, C) there's no dress, D) there's no invite, and E) Blair told her not to come, so it's kind of bitchy for her to go. Vanessa is like, "None of that matters, you should go to this dance because it's totally nonconformist somehow, and nobody should ever stand in our way as women, and have you ever heard of a little thing called the Roller Derby," and it's just appalling, and like a Bastard Fairy Godmother from stupid Vermont, Vanessa gets Jenny into that party. Jenny's like, "Thanks, Vanessa! Hope this doesn't go horribly wrong and we all learn something about each other!"

Dancing, masks, craziness, Chuck is scary, Blair is gorgeous, Nate puts on a mask and has some emotions, Serena puts on a mask that would not fool a blind person: this show is totally awesome. "On the Upper East Side, appearances are often deceiving. From friends to hair color, there's always more than meets the eye." Thanks, GG. The only thing that would make this show better is if there were group dancing. It's kind of like a promise that they made with the Fergie thing, and then never went there again. Like, wouldn't you realize you were seeing something special if the entire cast suddenly pulled a Chenowith and started some insane Jane Austen-y dance routine? Like, fifty people or a hundred people on that dance floor, whirling. I don't think anybody would be upset by that. "Heightened reality! Right here in front of you!" we could say. Or even just a regular She's All That kind of dance routine, with those masks and gowns? Wouldn't that make this the best show, like, ever? Why this missing awesomeness?