In “Easy J,” Gossip Girl 4×6, little Jenny Humphrey returns to Manhattan for an interview with Tim Gunn, the guru who can get her into Parsons and make her fashion dreams a reality. Unfortunately for her, returning violates Blair Waldorf’s explicit orders of banishment, so all things escalate (as they typically do) between Chuck, Blair and Jenny. At last, Jenny reveals a secret publicly via a Gossip Girl blast that humiliates both Chuck and Blair.
At The New York Observer party, Dan, Jenny’s brother, sees her sipping a drink on a couch and comes over to speak to her. He remarks, “Jen, I was proud of you for moving on, but if this is what you become after just a day back, maybe Blair was right after all and maybe you should go back to Hudson.” Cue Jenny’s wilting expression; she hadn’t wanted to think about that. Once Jenny is back in the whirlwind of backstabbing sabotage, betrayal, lies and power struggles that comprises the Upper East Side, she turns back into her old self.
This is a powerful statement about the company we keep and the ways in which it can affect who we are. In Proverbs, a book of pithy aphorisms and statements written by King Solomon, he advises young people not to walk in the path of sinners. He explains:“If they say: Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us lurk for the innocent without cause…my son, don’t walk in the way with them; restrain your foot from their path. For their feet run to evil, and they are quick to shed blood” (Proverbs 1:11-16). Avoiding people who take pleasure in hurting others, even though it may be hard, is the first step to becoming your true self. The same sentiment occurs in the Torah when it comes to the destruction of Korah, who is swallowed up by the ground. It’s not only him but all his neighbors that are destroyed (Numbers 16:32-25). Rashi comments to this, “Praise be to a righteous person and praise be to his neighbors; woe to an evil person and woe to his neighbors.” We are affected by the company we keep.
Later on in the episode, Jenny faces off with Chuck and Blair and tells them that if she wanted to continue this revenge game, “I would have to be you.” And she doesn’t want that. “I’m better than that. At least I want to be,” she informs Blair, which is why she is planning to leave Manhattan and return to Hudson. Little J wants to work on herself and she realizes that part of that means she needs to rise above the malice that underlies Blair’s actions, distancing herself physically in order to do so.