Gossip Girl season 2 episode 5 ending explained: What happened to Zoya?

Gossip Girl season 2 hasn’t given Zoya much to do. Last season, she was more of an active participant in storylines but this season, she’s been more reactive. Plots happen and she responds. That changed in episode 5, “Games, Trains, and Automobiles.”

Before Zoya could completely adjust to her new living situation with her father, Nick, and sister, Julien, she found out her dad took money from Davis Calloway. Now notorious for sexual misconduct and rape, Julien’s father is persona non grata. The fact that the apartment they were living in was bought by Davis and Nick has taken a high paying job with a Big Pharma firm to get out of his debt, has been unconscionable for the girls.

As such, they’ve been crashing with friends. Zoya, specifically, has been splitting time between Audrey and Shan’s homes. But, she hasn’t been acting out. She even felt guilty about not informing her dad that she wants to spend her first unsupervised weekend at a night exhibit at the Whitney. That guilt evaporated, however, when she felt ambushed by Julien and Nick.

Zoya hadn’t been returning Nick’s calls or texts so he reached out to her sister. While Julien was still mad at him, too, she wanted to help and invited him to come see Zoya at school so they could talk. Her plan backfired and Zoya, who’d originally turned down Shan’s rave idea, decided she was going to do something reckless and fun for once.

Unfortunately, she managed to get herself in a bind. Here’s what happened.

Gossip Girl season 2 episode 5 ending explained: Plan B for Zoya

Zoya’s never been much of a drinker. Shan’s respected that as her friend, but when Z decided to indulge at least a little, she didn’t stop her. At the rave, Zoya wasn’t sloppy. She hadn’t drunk herself into a stooper and was in control of her faculties, but in her quest to let the chips fall where they may, she made a decision that could be hard on her emotionally going forward.

After Shan left to hang out with her friend, Cory, at another party, Zoya was stranded at the rave on her own. Shan had neglected to tell her where she was going but Z did come across Cory’s brother, Drew. The two hit it off. Drew introduced Zoya to a cheesesteak so good that he wrote a poem about it. He even shared more poetry with her.

The storyline seemed to be subverting the expected trope of a teen girl’s choice to be reckless resulting in her being assaulted once her friend leaves her alone. The pieces were there. Zoya was at a rave by herself, Shan was nowhere in sight, she stumbled across Drew who handed her an open water bottle for her to drink from. Typically, this is when the story goes very dark.

Thankfully, the two only ended up at a food truck. However, the following morning it slowly began to be revealed that they’d slept together. Drew was giving Zoya the classic brush off despite the initial chemistry they had together (though it’s unclear if this might have to do with the fact that Z was going by the name Monet de Haan and a simple look on social media would have busted her lie).

Then Zoya showed up back home to tell her dad that she didn’t want to be angry anymore. She was near tears while telling him and when she went to her room, the parting shot was of Zoya looking up how to get Plan B. How this will affect the plot going forward is anyone’s guess, but we suspect there may later be fallout between Zoya and Shan along with an emotional sisterly talk between Z and Julien.

Stay tuned to Hidden Remote for more Gossip Girl news and coverage! New episodes of the series premiere Thursdays on HBO Max. The finale is on Jan. 26.