Remember the collective gasp that echoed through the Upper East Side when Dan Humphrey was unmasked as the one and only Gossip Girl? Yeah, we were all pretty shook. But, were we really paying attention? Here’s a little trip down memory lane with a dash of sarcasm and a sprinkle of hindsight to uncover those sneaky hints that Dan was the mastermind all along.
Lonely Boy’s Outsider Act
Right from Gossip Girl Season 1 Episode 1, Dan’s got this ‘woe is me’ vibe going on. He’s the ultimate outsider—‘a nobody from Brooklyn’—just oozing with enough misery to make Eeyore look like a motivational speaker. But let’s be real, his awkwardness at swanky parties and that creepy, longing stare were nothing but a clever ruse. As one viewer pointed out, Daniel/Lonely Boy, who’s creepy, stares longingly in the background, and is low-key miserable
. Misdirection much?
The Unshaken Dan
In Gossip Girl Season 2 Episode 4, while everyone else is having a meltdown over Gossip Girl’s latest blast, there’s Dan, cool as a cucumber. 
I mean, if that doesn’t scream ‘I wrote that’, I don’t know what does. And let’s not forget his go-to line about not reading Gossip Girl because it’s ‘for chicks’. Sure, Dan, we totally buy that.
Dan Writing Himself as the Hero
There’s something fishy about how Dan always ended up looking like the good guy in Gossip Girl posts. It’s almost as if he had control over it…oh wait, he did. 
Remember when executive producer Stephanie Savage spilled the tea saying there were times fans should have been suspicious of Dan? Well, hindsight is 20/20, and Dan writing about himself in a favorable light is as subtle as a sledgehammer now.
When Gossip Girl Took a Break
Did you ever notice how Gossip Girl would suddenly go quiet when Dan was busy? Like in Gossip Girl Season 5 Episode 10, when our boy was preoccupied and Gossip Girl went MIA. 
Coincidence? I think not. It’s almost like he couldn’t multitask between being a regular high schooler and Manhattan’s most notorious blogger.
The Insider Knowledge
Let’s talk about how Dan always seemed to know things he shouldn’t have. In Gossip Girl Season 6 Episode 1, his insider knowledge was so blatant you’d think he was feeding information to himself…because he was. 
Like that time he knew about Rufus and Lily’s love child before anyone else did. Oh wait, he actually did spill those beans himself!
Jenny’s Not-So-Shocked Face
You’d think Jenny Humphrey would have some sort of reaction to Gossip Girl reveals, right? Wrong. She barely bats an eyelid because she probably knew all along her bro was behind it all. 
After all, she did have aspirations of joining Manhattan’s elite—being in cahoots with Gossip Girl might have been her ticket in.
The Reveal That Made Us Go Huh?
And then there was the finale. The moment when Dan being Gossip Girl made him jump from jerk to potential psychopath territory. The reveal scene had us scratching our heads thinking, It doesn’t make sense at all. It wouldn’t have made sense for anybody. Gossip Girl doesn’t make sense!
But after connecting the dots from these oh-so-subtle hints, it kind of does…in a twisted Upper East Side logic kind of way. 