Serena van der Woodsen

Serena van der Woodsen
Gossip Girl character
First appearance	Book Series: Gossip Girl TV Series: Pilot
Last appearance	Book Series: Don't You Forget About Me
Created by	Cecily von Ziegesar
Portrayed by	Blake Lively
In-universe information
Alias	S
Nickname	TV Series: S
Gender	Female
Occupation	Book Series: Actress Model TV Series: High School Student Face of Waldorf
Family	Book Series: William van der Woodsen (father) Lillian van der Woodsen (mother) Erik van der Woodsen (older brother) TV Series: Lily van der Woodsen (mother) Bart Bass (stepfather) Eric van der Woodsen (younger brother) Chuck Bass (step-brother)

Serena Caroline van der Woodsen, born 14 July is one of the main characters in the book series Gossip Girl. The television character is portrayed by Blake Lively, as Serena Celia van der Woodsen, in the TV series.

Book Series Background

Serena van der Woodsen is another one of the main protagonists of Gossip Girl. Serena is described as being very beautiful, with long blond hair and navy blue eyes. She was the It girl of Constance Billard School for Girls and the talk of Manhattan. Being the It girl of the Upper East Side, she is a constant fodder to the rumor mill. Her father runs the same Dutch shipping firm his great-great-grandfather created in the 1700's and her mother, Lillian van der Woodsen, is a socialite. Her parents are on the boards of all major charities and art organizations in the city and live at luxurious 994 Fifth Avenue, a ritzy, white-gloved-doorman building directly across the street from the Met and Central Park, the van der Woodsens own half the top floor, and live in a fourteen room penthouse. Serena's older sibling Erik, whom she is close to, is a student at Brown University. Her birthday is on 14 July, also known as Bastille Day.

Overview

Serena van der Woodsen was a student at Hanover Academy in Hanover, New Hampshire, where she partied a lot and broke many rules. She previously lived in Manhattan with her wealthy family and was the It Girl at the exclusive Constance Billard School for Girls. She was close friends with Nate Archibald, and best friends with Blair Waldorf, with whom she shared many experiences, including urinating on classmates stoops, partying in the Bass Suite at the Tribeca Star Hotel, and leaving Blair's sibling, Tyler, in the Lower East Side, making him walk home to the Upper East Side.

Serena returns to New York City, arriving at the Waldorf Penthouse on Fifth Avenue, interrupting Blair and Nate's passionate scene. Serena then becomes the target of Blair's disgust for her, and turns Serena into a social outcast, starting or keeping rumors of Serena going, including her having a baby that's in a fancy French convent school, making marks above the bed for every time Serena did a boy at Hanover, and selling her own drugs with S stamped on them.

But Serena always seemed to shine brighter then Blair; for example, Blair and Serena tried out for the role in Breakfast at Fred's, but Serena got the part. Serena also got into all the colleges that turned Blair down (including Harvard, Princeton, Brown, Wesleyan, and Vassar), even though Blair was an excellent academic student and participated in many extra-curricular activities and charity events, while Serena was a below-average student and had only participated in the Film/Drama club.

Serena and Upper West Sider Dan Humphrey dated throughout the first and second novels, but Serena's taste for wealthy men and Dan's growing crush on outcast Vanessa Abrams proved too much. Serena then moved on to Blair's rich step-brother Aaron Rose and Dan and Vanessa would go on to be an on/off couple.

At the end of the series, Serena turns down college to be a full time actress and Blair goes off to Yale, her dream school. Nate, not wanting to chose between the two girls who finally made up for good, opted out of college to sail across the world with a family friend, Captain Chips White.

TV Series Background

Serena "S" van der Woodsen was born to Lillian van der Woodsen, an heiress socialite and currently divorced. Lillian was a former groupie to Rufus Humphrey, father of Dan Humphrey and Jenny Humphrey. Rufus described Serena's father as a billionaire. Like in the book series, she ruled the Upper East Side while best friend, Blair Waldorf, was also pretty but less appealing than the gorgeous It girl. However, Serena left suddenly for boarding school, making Blair the queen bee of the social scene for a while.

Serena and her family currently reside at The New York Palace Hotel in Midtown Manhattan She has a younger, troubled sibling named Eric. Her parents went to Harvard University and Brown University.

Season 1

Serena returns home to Manhattan from boarding school to see her younger sibling Eric who had recently attempted suicide, though he is the target of other rumours about her return. Blair and Serena's heart-to-heart at the Palace is soon shattered when Nate "N" Archibald tells Blair that he and Serena had a one night stand before she went off to boarding school.

Serena goes out on a date with Dan Humphrey after he tries to return her "Sidekick" cell phone, which she had left at The Palace bar. The two ends up going on a date to Dan's father's concert, blowing off the Kiss on the Lips party. Their date is interrupted when Jenny text messages Dan from the Kiss on the Lips party telling Dan she needs help. Serena and Dan "Lonely Boy" Humphrey go to the party and finds Chuck "C" Bass all over Jenny "Little J" Humphrey, resulting in Dan punching him in the nose. Serena warns Chuck to leave Jenny alone. Chuck calls out to Serena, telling her that her life is over. Serena leaves the place with Dan and Jenny.

The following Sunday, Serena asks Dan to the Sunday Brunch at the Palace, hosted by Chuck, where Chuck and Blair reveal to Dan that Serena had sex with Nate and "lied about it", causing a rift between Dan and Serena.

At an Ivy Mixer, Blair tells the audience that Serena is a patient at the Ostroff Center (since Chuck snapped pictures of Serena entering the building to see Eric) and is an out-patient due to a drug addiction. Serena joins Blair on stage and reluctantly agrees with her to spare her brother's embarrassment. Eric, trying to defend Serena, later shows Blair the cuts on his arm from his attempted suicide, resulting in Blair showing Serena a letter she never sent to her, causing them to reconcile their friendship.

Serena and Dan have a fairly solid relationship, though they do have their differences; Dan is very against the glitz and glamour of Serena's old lifestyle, but she's constantly proving to him how badly she wants to change.

Serena learns that her mother, Lily, and Dan's father, Rufus, are attempting to restart their relationship. Serena begs her mother not to do it because of her feelings for Dan. This leads Lily to accept a marriage proposal made to her by Bart Bass, the father of Chuck Bass, in the previous episode.

After a week of Spring Break, Chuck becomes a pain when she wants to take a shower as Chuck is smoking in her bathroom. She encourages Blair to go to school with her, where Jenny drops yoghurt on her hair. Serena was then invited to Jenny's birthday party, which causes Blair to become angry.

When Serena's family, as well as Chuck's, are sampling wedding dinners, an anonymous package of pornography arrives, causing her to be angry at Chuck. She later has 3 crates of champagne sent to her at school, causing her to become even more angry at him. Eric comes to Serena to give her another blank package, which contains cocaine, making her even more furious. Just after Chuck is kicked out of their house by his father, she discovers that Chuck did not send her the "gifts" in the first place. The gifts were sent by a distant "frenemy" named Georgina Sparks.

Georgina "G" Sparks returned from rehab in Switzerland, looking to rekindle her friendship with Serena. However, Serena wants to change from her party girl ways, much to the surprise and contempt of Georgina. In one of Georgina's multiple attempts to get Serena to revert back to her old self, she pours liquid ecstasy in Serena's soda at a bar, causing her to party hard with Georgina all night and wake up the next day not knowing what happened the night before, while also missing her SAT exam. Serena finally confronts Georgina and tells her that their friendship is over. Enraged, Georgina brings up some scandal Serena was involved in, causing Serena to become distressed and leave Georgina's hotel suite. In a vow for revenge, Georgina deceives Serena's boyfriend Dan, using the alias Sarah. Dan and "Sarah" become fast and good friends. Georgina then sends Serena a disk drive with a video on it that has incriminating evidence as to why Serena really left New York City. Georgina also outs Serena's brother Eric at the dinner table, but Serena immediately supports Eric, saying that she will love him no matter what. Serena then goes to see Dan and meet his new friend Sarah, only to discover to her horror that it is Georgina. Georgina then threatens to show the video to Dan in an attempt to ruin Serena's relationship. She offers Serena an ultimatum: party with me, or I'll reveal everything and you'll lose everything. Desperate and with nowhere to turn, Serena confides in her best friend Blair and reveals her dark secret: she killed someone.

She immediately leaves Blair's apartment after telling her and spends the night partying in a bar, reverting back to her hard partying self. Even though it takes her all night, Blair tracks Serena down, and brings her back to her apartment, enlisting the help of Nate and Chuck to do so. When Dan comes to Blair's apartment looking for Serena, Nate, Chuck and Blair all lie to him, saying that Serena does not want to see him. Dan refuses to leave and Serena eventually comes downstairs to confront him. When Dan asks her if she cheated on him, she replies, "Yes." Dan then says, "I'm done", ending their relationship and leaving Blair's apartment, heartbroken. When Blair asks her if she really cheated on Dan, Serena says no, but that she would rather have him believe that than know the real truth, because she feels that Dan would never look at her again if he knew the truth. Blair reminds her that they are all best friends, and convinces Serena to tell Blair, Nate and Chuck the truth about what happened the night that she claims she killed someone.

Serena then begins her story. The night that Serena committed her indiscretion with Nate Archibald (Gossip Girl), Georgina and a coke addict named Pete waited for Serena in a hotel room. Georgina had Pete waiting there with a hidden camera so that she could record a "genuine Serena van der Woodsen sex tape". Serena arrives at the hotel, distressed over what she has just done with Nate, and Georgina leaves the room. Serena and Pete start kissing, but Serena keeps saying "It's hot!". Pete doesn't listen and continues to undress her, despite her continuing to say no. She manages to stops him and decides to cool herself off while she gives him a "line" of cocaine. When he finishes snorting it, Pete ends up having a seizure. Horrified, Serena screams for Georgina. Serena then tries to call 911, but Georgina stops her, because there are drugs and alcohol in the room and they're under-age. Serena still calls 911 from Pete's phone and she and Georgina flee the hotel. After leaving, Serena waits across the street to see if Pete would be okay. Serena expected to see him fine but instead saw the paramedics bring him out of the hotel in a body bag. Even though there was nothing that a sixteen-year-old girl could have done, Serena personally blames herself for Pete's death, because she recommended that he do the line of cocaine that caused him to die.

Lily finds the tape in Serena's drawer and watches it, stopping it right before Pete's death due to her disgust, not knowing the whole story. She immediately assumes that Serena slept with Pete and thinks the worst about her daughter. At her rehearsal dinner the night before her wedding, Lily tells Serena that she would be going to a girl's reformatory school, but Blair convinces her otherwise and informs Lily that Serena has been harboring a dark secret, is in a lot of pain and therefore needs her mother. Serena then tells Lily the entire story and her mother stood by her side and apologized for immediately for judging her. Lily tells Serena that instead of reformatory school, she had to see Pete's parents instead and make peace with them and herself.

Immediately after visiting Pete's parents, Serena feels all of the weight lifted off of her shoulders (it turns out that Pete had been an addict for ten years, so there was nothing that Serena could have done to stop him) and asks her mother to take her to Dan so that she can finally tell him the whole truth. Lily takes Serena to Rufus' concert, but Serena can't find Dan anywhere. She gets a call on her cell phone and the caller ID says Dan. Relieved, she picks up the phone only to discover that it is Georgina on Dan's phone. Serena tells her that she is no longer afraid of her, and that she has revealed her secret to everyone, so Georgie can no longer use it as blackmail. Enraged, Georgina threatens Serena by using Dan, saying that she will sleep with him to torture Serena. Serena says, "No, Dan won't. He's too good." To which Georgina replies, "Are you sure about that?" and promptly hangs up on Serena. Georgina and Dan than share a passionate kiss which is inter cut with Serena at Rufus' concert, a sad and worried look upon her face.

The next morning Serena arrives at Dan's and finds Georgina Sparks there. After Georgina leaves, Serena reveals everything that has happened over the past few weeks to Dan and explains why she has been acting weirdly recently. Together, Blair and Dan hatch a plan to get Georgina out of the way and get her parents to send her to reform school. Later that day at the wedding, Serena and Dan have a brief conversation about what happened with Georgina; Dan confesses that he didn't actually sleep with Georgina, but he did hook up with her. During the reception, Serena tells Dan that she forgives him for what he did and that she didn't want them to break up, but Dan wants to break up with her and he does. A week later, Serena sees off Blair, who is going to Tuscany for the summer with Chuck and when she is leaving, she bumps into Nate and the two go and cool their heels in the Hamptons for the summer...

Differences between the novels and TV series

• In the books, her sibling Erik (spelled Eric in TV series) is older (three years), heterosexual, and attends Brown University; in the TV series, he’s younger (two years), a high school student, and gay.
• In the books, Serena came home from boarding school because she got kicked out for not returning for the beginning of senior year; in the TV series, the television version of her sibling, Eric, attempts suicide, compelling Serena to return home (in her junior year).
• In the books, Serena’s parents are still married and her mother, Lilian, never spoke to Dan Humphrey’s father, let alone dated him; In the TV series, Serena’s mom dated Dan’s father, Rufus.
• In the books, when Serena returns, she still wants to party and have things return to normal. In the TV series, Serena is focused on changing and becoming a better person.
• In the book series Serena's middle name is Caroline while TV Serena's is Celia.
• In the books, Georgina Sparks is a ex-girlfriend of Nate's from rehab who briefly met Serena in Sun Valley, while in the tv show she's a "ghost" from Serena van der Woodsen's past.
• In the books, Serena left because her parents wanted her to and because she had sex with Nate, while in the TV show, Georgina tried to film her having sex with a coke addict named Pete, and when Serena didn't want to sleep with him, she gave him another line of cocaine and Georgina caught him on tape overdosing. The overdose results in his death. Afraid that she will be caught if she stays in Manhattan, she leaves town to go to boarding school.
• In the books, Nate and Serena hooked up before Blair and Nate dated. The series state that they only hooked up at the wedding.

Family

Book Series

• William van der Woodsen (father)
• Lillian van der Woodsen (mother)
• Erik van der Woodsen (older brother)

TV Series

• William van der Woodsen (father)
• Lillian "Lily" Rhodes- van der Woodsen (mother)
• Eric van der Woodsen (younger brother)
• Catherine Celia "Cece" Rhodes (maternal grandmother)
• Carol (maternal aunt)
• Bart Bass (step father)
• Chuck Bass (step brother)

Flings and romantic relationships

Book Series

• Nate Archibald (lovers/ dated)
• Dan Humphrey (lovers/ dated)
• Flow (fling)
• Aaron Rose (dated)
• Drew (fling)
• Christian (fling)
• Henry (fling)

TV Series

• Dan Humphrey
  • First Relationship:
    • Start Up: Pilot (101)
    • Broke Up: Woman on the Verge (117)
      • Reason: Serena lied to Dan and told him she cheated on him.