Gossip Girl Has A Sus New Teacher & IDK Whose Side He's On
Something's up with him.
Now that it’s in its second season, all of the Gossip Girl reboot stars have become familiar faces, but there is one newbie this time around. And of course, he wasted no time in stirring things up at Constance Billard St. Jude’s School. Chances are you’re just as suspicious of the new guy as Kate is, so here’s all the dirt to know so far about Mike Shubin... and whether he’s Gossip Girl’s friend or foe.
Spoiler alert: This post discusses plot details from Episodes 1 and 2 of Gossip Girl Season 2. Mike Shubin doesn’t exactly make a great first impression with Kate, nor viewers at home. Right when he arrived at the beginning of the new term, he took over Kate’s office, and then publicly rejected her when she asked to be his plus-one to a debutante ball. Initially, he seemed to be buddy-buddy with Monetde Haan’s billionaire mother (and Kate’s arch nemesis), Camille, which is how he got the office and debutante ball invitation, but things took a bit of a turn later on in the episode.
Naturally, Kate was able to gaslight-gatekeep-girlboss her way into the gossip-magnet deb ball event, where she was surprised to discover that she may have a lot more in common with Mike than she thought.
While Kate was snooping for dirt in Camille’s office, she ran into Mike doing the exact same thing. Turns out, he’s not really Camille’s BFF, but rather a fellow investigator trying to take the corrupt billionaire down. Or, at least, that’s what he told Kate, According to him, his goal is to weed out the bribery-powered corruption at Constance Billard... but strangely, his actions don’t always seem to match this motivation.
Yes, he worked with Kate to expose Constance Billard’s headmistress for taking obscene bribes from parents, but he kept pushing back on using Gossip Girl’s power to take down the guilty. In fact, he pleaded with Kate not to use the dirt they got on Camille or the headmistress, claiming he wants to take out the root cause of the problem and not just a replaceable figurehead. That logic certainly makes some sense, but it’s still pretty suspicious how adamant Mike was about not exposing the corruptions he claimed to want to expose.
So, is Mike really the do-gooder he says he is? Honestly, it could all be an act. Maybe he’s actually hovering around Kate so much because he’s spying for Camille, or because he figured out Kate is Gossip Girl and he’s looking for an opportunity to expose her.
Only time will tell if this nice guy is as nice as he claims.
New episodes of Gossip Girl Season 2 drop Thursdays on HBO Max.
