The third season of the American teen drama television series Gossip Girl premiered on The CW on September 14, 2009, and concluded on May 17, 2010, consisting of 22 episodes.

[3] High school is officially over for Blair, Serena, Nate, Chuck, Dan, and Vanessa as they leave their carefree days behind and start the new chapter in their life: Adulthood.

Rufus finds a final punishment for Jenny when she sends a Gossip Girl blast involving Dan and Serena's non-existent tryst, creating troubles for their relationships.

As the summer is drawing to a close, Blair and Chuck are madly in love and adjusting to their new "in a relationship" status, breaking all traditional rules of dating as would be expected.

With Lily away in California visiting her mother, Rufus, Dan, and Jenny spent the summer in the Hamptons, adjusting to the van der Woodsen's glamorous lifestyle surprisingly faster than any of them expected.

Blair, who is determined to maintain her "Queen Bee" status in college, embarks on her first day at New York University, along with Dan and Vanessa.

An Upper East Side face-off ensues when Blair and Chuck both set their sights on a particular item up for bid at Sotheby's and the personal stakes are high.

It is the first day of school at Constance Billard which means it is also time for Jenny to take her rightful place as the new Queen Bee.

A famous film actress, Olivia Burke (Hilary Duff), enrolls at NYU in hopes of having a somewhat normal college experience, and is assigned to be Vanessa's roommate.

Dan and Vanessa are pulled into one of Georgina's schemes when she lures Scott back to New York on a ruse to break up Lily and Rufus.

Vanessa, hoping to finally win her difficult activist mother Gabriela's (Gina Torres) approval, desperately vies with Blair for the honor of delivering the freshman toast at NYU.

Feeling left out of the planning, Blair attempts to win Chuck's approval by secretly helping him with a problem concerning the opening night.

Meanwhile, Dan is unnerved when he finally watches one of Olivia's infamous sex scenes with co-star and real-life boyfriend at the time, Patrick Roberts (Simon Miller) in one of her films.

Meanwhile, Nate and Chuck plot to help Serena and Blair repair their damaged friendship by intentionally trapping them inside an elevator.

Dan is upset when Olivia contemplates leaving school for a film project, so he and Vanessa take her out on the town with a list of all the things that a university would make up—including a threesome.

Hoping to impress the elitist theater kids at NYU, Blair sets her sights on landing a private concert with the hottest musical performer of the year, Lady Gaga.

Dan and Olivia sign up to write and star in a school play, based on an idea by Blair and directed by Vanessa which leads to more quarreling between all involved.

With Blair out of the picture, Serena turns to Nate to help her get through a difficult situation when she begins falling for Tripp despite the fact that is he still married.

Serena is put in a very awkward position when her mother invites Tripp and his wife Maureen to join them for Thanksgiving dinner at their penthouse.

Chuck is forced to make an extremely difficult decision about transferring ownership of his hotel to Elizabeth when a lawsuit is served against him by female employees for sexual harassment, as his devious uncle, Jack Bass (Desmond Harrington), returns to New York with an agenda.

Meanwhile, Eleanor (Margaret Colin) puts Blair in charge of making sure her latest fashion show is a huge success with an important client.

Will's return to the Upper East Side continues to stir up problems for Serena, Lily, and his long-standing rival, Rufus.

Dan learns that Vanessa has been keeping yet another secret from him when she informs him that she has decided to leave town for more international activist work in Haiti.

After many failed attempts, Chuck makes one last grand gesture to reconcile with Blair, hoping she will finally accept the fact that they are destined to be together.

Rufus finds a final punishment for Jenny when she sends a Gossip Girl blast involving Dan and Serena's non-existent tryst, creating troubles for their relationships.

In Prague, two thugs steal a ring that Chuck was going to give to Blair; he struggles and ends up getting shot and left to die in an alley.