The "Gossip Girl" Series Finale Is Full of Secrets, Lies, and a Shocking Exposé

Kate finds herself treading on thin ice when Monet's mother, Camille de Haan (Amanda Warren), begins her witch hunt to unmask Gossip Girl. Though she manages to stay off Camille's radar, the teens put together a plan to force her to come forward as Gossip Girl. First, they hack Kate's Instagram account, which she manages to undo with help from her boyfriend, Jordan (Adam Chanler-Berat). She then foils their plot to have her reveal herself on the Met Gala red carpet when she lets Zoya take the fall.

However, she gets ahead of herself when she stumbles upon a fake news report about a star-studded movie deal meeting to acquire the rights to Gossip Girl's story. Not willing to have Zoya go down in history as Manhattan's most infamous gossiper, Kate shows up to the fake meeting and proclaims she's the real Gossip Girl — only to have her confession printed on the front page of The Spectator. Thus, Gossip Girl is officially dead.

At last, Julien squares off with her ex-ally Gossip Girl one final time to expose her identity. First, she convinces her friends that they need to hack Gossip Girl's Instagram account and force her to expose herself. But after Obie tips her off on the plan, Gossip Girl, aka Kate, reroutes the account back to Julien's info to hide her tracks.

After Julien finds out Obie betrayed the group, she comes up with another grand ploy, behind his back, to have Zoya claim she's Gossip Girl on the Met Gala red carpet and steal all the glory — which Kate can't ignore when she finds out about the movie rights deal. In the end, Julien, with Zoya's help, lures Gossip Girl/Kate out of the shadows with the fake meeting and gets The Spectator to report her real identity.

While Julien is victorious in unmasking Gossip Girl, she loses a friend in Luna when she unknowingly sabotages the latter's chance at a modeling campaign. During the Met Gala, the pair are approached by a rep from a modeling agency, but Julien tells them that Luna is "just my stylist, not a model." Offended by Julien's actions, Luna tells her that she's "f*cking done" and storms off. This is the last time we see the two together until the end of the episode, when Julien — joined by Zoya, Obie, Audrey, and Aki on her vacation to Rome — leads the group to a huge billboard of Luna's fashion campaign hanging up in the middle of the city. But that's not the last twist of the finale.

The episode ends on a mysterious note when Julien goes to visit an aunt of hers to inquire about her mother. Her questions go unanswered; it's assumed that "Gossip Girl" season three would've delved into that.

Zoya joins Julien's plan to take down Gossip Girl, and when the first phase of it fails, she's given a key role in unmasking the Manhattan gossiper: she steals Gossip Girl's identity. Yes, during the Met Gala, Zoya crashes the red carpet wearing a custom dress that reads, "I am Gossip Girl." The plan was to have Zoya take all the credit for the city's most infamous scandals caused by Gossip Girl, which would then cause the latter's ego to out herself.

However, Gossip Girl, aka Kate, lets Zoya take the fall, and she *almost* gets away — until Zoya and Julien finally expose her at the fake movie deal meeting. The Spectator reporter informs Kate that Zoya would've only gotten a fine for being Gossip Girl because she's a minor, but she's facing serious jail time.

As usual, Luna aids Julien in another one of her ambitious plots — this time, by taking down Gossip Girl. However, things go awry when, during phase two of their plan at the Met Gala, Julien unknowingly sabotages Luna's chance at booking a modeling gig, reducing her to "just my stylist." Fed up with Julien's selfish ways, Luna ends their friendship.

The two don't reunite by the end of the episode, but Julien does travel all the way to Rome to check out Luna's big billboard for a fashion campaign she secured. It's unclear if the two ever repaired their friendship, but considering how many spats they've come back from in the past, it wouldn't be a surprise if they reconciled.

Monet is another key player in the "operation out GG" plan — part of which included her friend group impersonating the infamous gossiper by posting some of their deepest, darkest secrets on her page. Monet's secret? Exposing her mother as the brains behind the union-busting scandal that her father, Greyson (Rick Worthy), pinned on Zoya's dad, Nick (Johnathan Fernandez).

Monet's storyline in the finale is probably the most unfinished, because she disappears for the remainder of the episode after the Met Gala. She was supposed to join Julien and their friends on their Roman vacation, but she never appears. Julien merely mentions her when she lies to Zoya about being on the phone with Monet, saying she's "complaining about how her mom won't let her come meet us."

After discovering that Audrey and Aki have been secretly having a two-way affair behind his back, Max distances himself from the throuple and has a one-night stand with Obi's sister, Heidi. However, he finds it less fulfilling than his polyamorous relationship. After much back-and-forth between the trio, Max decides that it's best they all break up — but ultimately gets his heart broken when Audrey and Aki decide to stay together as a couple.

Gossip Girl remains Obie's unlikely ally after he warns her that his friends are coming after her. He also tries to team up with her again to handle another family scandal with his sister, Heidi (right on the heels of taking down his mother), who tricked him into getting their mother arrested so she could steal her job. Obie then takes matters into his own hands at the Met Gala and secretly exposes his sister's actions by filming her confession on Instagram Live. Julien forgives all his sneaking around, seeing as they both lied to each other about Gossip Girl. The finale ends with the two on vacation together with their friends.