Spoilers are ahead. The Gossip Girl Instagram account may be run by adults on the new Gossip Girl, but that doesn't mean the youths can't pull schemes, too. The prevalence of plotting means at least some of the original series' DNA is infused into new Gossip Girl along with some actual DNA: the HBO Max series just used a kid to reference one of the original series' biggest schemers and you probably didn't even notice.
In the fourth episode of the new Gossip Girl's first season, Zoya (Whitney Peak) is approached by a kid named Milo Sparks (Azhy Robertson), who just so happens to be the son of Georgina Sparks (Michelle Trachtenberg). This twelve-year-old is just as devious as his mother, so if you thought the reboot was going to be a Georgina-free zone, think again.
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If you didn't watch the original Gossip Girl or have washed away all your memories of the Queen of Scheme, you should know Georgina was a lot. She joined Gossip Girl in the first season and almost immediately elicited groans from the audience every time she would grace the screen because of the chaos she would inevitably cause. Georgina was addicted to ruining lives. She drugged Serena (Blake Lively) in her first episode and threatened to expose her secrets. Over the shows' six seasons she also blackmailed Vanessa (Jessica Szohr), outed Eric (Connor Paolo), lied about her identity, kidnaped Dorota (Zuzanna Szadkowski), and wedged her way into every 'ship. It was too much.
Milo technically showed up on the original series as well, in baby form. Georgina was visibly pregnant in the season 3 finale and originally alleged that Mr. Gossip Girl himself, Dan Humphrey (Penn Badgley), was Milo's biological father... but by season 5 that was confirmed to be false. Pretty much everything she said on the show was a lie. That said, Dan did help raise Milo for a little while and worked pretty closely with Georgina in the final season of the original series on an exposé of the Upper East Side. You have to wonder if any of Dan's talents for destroying rich kids rubbed off on Milo as well, even if they're not related by blood.
In the reboot, Milo invites Zoya to his home (see also: lair) and offers to ruin her sister Julian's (Jordan Alexander) life for her with a quick internet deep dive and a bit of light hacking. In his brief appearance, the Georgina connection is clear as day: He's so intense for a middle schooler.
"My mom taught me early on that it's not enough to go to war," he says to Zoya in the episode. "Wars never end. What you need is a coup." He offers to dig back into Julian's internet history to find something that will get her canceled. Soon enough, #CallowayCancelParty is trending, and if the full-scale digital attack wasn't enough... Milo then drugs Julian at her own event, just like Georgina before him. Oh and, of course, he also does favors for Monet (Savannah Lee Smith) and Luna (Zión Moreno). Unsurprisingly, there's no loyalty with this little chaos agent. His mother must be so proud.