Nate Archibald

**Nathaniel Fitzwilliam "Nate" Archibald**is a main character in the Gossip Girl series of novels and on its television adaptation, in which he is portrayed by Chace Crawford. Nate is best friends with Chuck Bass and is good friends with Dan Humphrey, Serena van der Woodsen and Blair Waldorf.

Nate appeared in 115 episodes.

## Novels

Nate, a "Waspoid", is a lacrosse player at the elite St. Jude's School for Boys. His mother, Mrs. Archibald, is a French socialite, and his father, Captain Archibald, is a former Navy captain and a wealthy banker. He smokes copious amounts of marijuana and was once caught and sent to drug rehabilitation for buying a dime bag in the park. Nate's best friends are Blair and Serena.

Nate's family resides in a gracious townhouse right off Park Avenue on the exclusive Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, and his mother's French socialite family owns a summer chateau in Nice. He is a fan of sailing like his father, and wished to do that instead of attending Yale with his girlfriend Blair, although he expressed interest in attending Brown University. By the end of the series Nate has realised that he loves both Blair, his on/off girlfriend and her best friend Serena. At the end of the twelfth book he sails around the world with a friend of his father to avoid getting in between Blair and Serena.

## Television Series

### **Summary**

Nate was born to Howard Archibald, a successful business magnate and former Navy captain, and Anne Archibald, a member of the van der Bilt family, on March 27th, 1991. Nate is considered to be the "golden boy of the Upper East Side." Nate is best friends with Chuck, with whom he attends the elite St. Jude's School for Boys and share a deep friendship with.

Throughout the show, Nate has been involved in numerous romantic relationships, none of which turned out successful. He once said to Dan "that all his life he has chased after girls that have been wrong for him". In the finale, he is the only main character who is still single.

Nate has aspirations for a future in politics, it was for this reason he took an interest in running the Spectator. In the finale, Nate on his way to Dan and Serena's wedding, tells a reporter his intention of running for mayor of New York.

### **Season 1**

When Serena departs for boarding school after he lost his virginity to her, Nate continues to date Blair. When Serena returns, however, tensions are all stirred up. Nate expresses interest in Serena, but remains with Blair. Nate then confesses to Jenny Humphrey (whom he mistakenly thinks is Serena) at the Masquerade Ball that he is not over Serena. This causes Blair to eventually end their relationship.

While Nate wants to attend college out West (with a preference for the University of Southern California), his father pressures him to attend Dartmouth College, his alma mater. Nate wishes to break free from the life his family planned, which includes an Ivy League College, law school, marrying Blair (although he still wants to be with her on his own terms), and all the superficialities of the Upper East Side. Because of this, he is drawn to Carter Baizen, a former classmate who claims to have shunned his wealthy life and travelled around the world. At Carter's invitation, Nate attends a poker game and loses quite a bit of money, and he realises that Carter set him up. Chuck saves him from physical harm by paying his gambling debt, but when Nate tries to repay Chuck, he finds that his trust fund has been emptied. Although the money is later returned, Nate is curious and raids his father's study for answers, where he finds a bag of cocaine. His mother later finds it hidden in Nate's dresser and believes that it is Nate's; his father lies and lets Nate take the fall. Nate's father promises Nate that he only did drugs once, but Nate witnesses him purchasing coke again later. When he tries to tell his mother the truth, she does not believe him. He later confronts his father and accuses him of doing drugs, and his father (high on cocaine) punches him in the face. His father is arrested, and it is revealed that in addition to the drug-related charges, he is accused of embezzlement and fraud.

His father goes to rehab, and now that he has been relieved of his familial pressures, Nate has more time to miss Blair. He notices that she seems lighter and happier (as a result of having a secret relationship with Chuck, of which Nate is unaware), and he wishes to get her back. He asks her to attend the debutante ball with him as friends, and she agrees. He grills Chuck for advice on how to get Blair back. Chuck wants Blair for himself, so he plots to keep Blair and Nate apart by telling Nate that Blair is seeing Carter, whom Nate hates. Fueled by jealousy, Nate gets into a fight with Carter at the ball and is kicked out. Blair realises that Chuck engineered the fight and ends their affair. She later reconciles with Nate, and they have sex together for the first time that night.

After going to Monaco with Chuck over winter vacation, Nate returns and tries to reunite with Blair. Chuck is jealous and threatens to tell Nate about his and Blair's affair if Blair renews a relationship with Nate. Blair therefore gives Nate the cold shoulder. However, after he attempts to save her from expulsion and gets suspended in the process, the two begin dating again until he learns of the secret fling between Blair and Chuck from Gossip Girl, breaking up with Blair and lashing out at Chuck, leaving him without a girlfriend or a best friend.

In the final episode of the season, Nate's father buys a passport and skips town after the van der Woodsen-Bass wedding to avoid fraud charges. Nate has a short relationship with Vanessa Abrams, but they decide to remain friends in the final episode because he realises he has a lot going on in his life, and doesn't have time for a girlfriend. He and Chuck also reconcile. Nate runs into Serena, and they talk about their plans.

### **Season 2**

In Season 2, it is revealed that Nate and Serena have spent the summer pretending to be together. However it is only so as to hide the fact that Nate is having an affair with a much older, married woman Catherine Mason, who happens to be Blair's new boyfriend Lord Marcus Beaton's stepmother, though it is unknown to all at the time. Nate eventually turns to exchanging sex for Catherine's money to aid him financially after the Archibald's assets were cut off when Nate's father fled the country. After Nate attempts to break up with her to be with Vanessa, Catherine confronts Vanessa and threatens to reveal Nate's father's whereabouts to the police in order to stay with Nate. Vanessa discovers that Catherine is also having an affair with her stepson, Marcus. She turns to Blair for help, who concocts a plan to get Catherine out of the picture while also settling the Archibald debts, but after Vanessa decides she doesn't trust Blair, she eventually gives the evidence to Catherine's husband. After the scandal is revealed, Catherine and her family return to Brighton in England, sabotaging Blair's attempt to blackmail her into paying off Nate's debt, which Vanessa feels guilty about.

After a trip to Yale in the fall, Nate befriends Dan who, after visiting Nate's house to find him, discovers that most of his possessions have been seized by the FBI and Nate is now living in an empty house with no electricity or water, just a few clothes and a sleeping bag. Dan briefs his father Rufus Humphrey and his sister Jenny about Nate's situation, and they offer for Nate to stay at the Humphrey's apartment. Nate is upset at first that Dan broke into his house and is making him feel like a charity case, but eventually accepts and moves in. Nate forms a strong bond with Dan's sister Jenny, who begins to develop feelings for him. After he rescues her from being taken advantage of by an older photographer, they share a passionate kiss. Nate helps Jenny with her guerilla fashion show at Lily and Bart Bass' gala and ends up publicly kissing her, which ends up on Gossip Girl. This upsets Dan, who kicks him out of their loft, and Nate packs his stuff to leave for the Hamptons after stopping to mail a letter he has written to Jenny.

At Thanksgiving, Nate goes to stay with his mother and discovers that his father is back in town and claiming to want to take them with him to start a new life as a family in Dominica, where he has been living. Meanwhile, Vanessa calls Chuck after being approached by an FBI agent regarding Nate's father. They arrange to meet Nate at Vanessa's cafe, and the FBI agent informs them that Nate's father was planning on holding him and his mother hostage in order to get the van der Bilt family to pay a ransom for their return. Upset by this news, Nate confronts his father and eventually convinces him to give himself up. Nate's father goes to jail and Nate and his mother reclaim their possessions. Nate and Chuck's friendship is resotred, and Nate and Vanessa's relationship develops further, causing her to intercept Nate's letter to Jenny confessing his feelings for her before Jenny could receive it.

Nate later asks Vanessa to the Snowflake Ball. She accepts and they share a kiss, which is caught by a passerby and posted on Gossip Girl. Jealous of their relationship, Jenny confronts Vanessa, which results in a massive argument. Jenny proceeds to conspire with Blair's minions to humiliate Vanessa at the Snowflake Ball by offering her a see-through dress to wear to the party. Feeling guilty, Vanessa eventually reveals to Jenny that she stole Nate's letter before Jenny had a chance to read it. Too late to change her mind, Jenny's plan is a success, but it ends up alienating Nate, who proclaims that he's glad she never got his letter and pushes him closer to Vanessa.

While Nate reconciles with Dan, his mother attempts to reconcile with the rest of her family, the van der Bilts. At a party thrown by his grandfather, William van der Bilt, Nate finds Blair drunk and out of control, devastated by Chuck's rejections and her failure to get into Yale or any other "acceptable" school. After she breaks down, Nate comforts her and the two grow close and rekindle their past friendship. Chuck doesn't believe that their newfound friendship is merely friendship and relays his suspicious to Vanessa. She too believes that he and Blair are more than just friends, and confronts Nate, who is upset that Vanessa doesn't trust him and breaks up with her. Nate then renews his relationship with Blair and they become a couple again.

Nate and Blair's relationship becomes deeper and he tells her he loves her and asks her to move into an apartment with him, afraid that she will simply return to Chuck. Blair fails to give him an answer, and they eventually break up at their prom, feeling that they've outgrown each other on a romantic level. After graduation, Nate decides to accept an internship at the mayor's office, upsetting Vanessa, who had made plans for them to backpack across Europe, but eventually quits after the deputy mayor makes a pass at him. He asks Vanessa if he can still go with her on their European backpacking trip they had planned, and she agrees.

### **Season 3**

Nate returns from his travels with a mysterious woman. Shortly after he finds out she is Bree Buckley, whose family is the political rival of the van der Bilts'; he likes her and realises their relationship also serves to show his grandfather that he is his own man and won't be controlled by him. At the party, she is introduced to his grandfather, but Bree worries about how being seen at this public event will hurt her chances of being forgiven by her own estranged family. While Bree and Nate's relationship grows, Blair senses something suspicious about her and thinks she is up to something. Eventually, it is discovered that Bree wants to take down Carter, who is dating Serena, for leaving her cousin at the altar. Nate finds out, and even though Bree apologises, he says it's not enough and breaks up with her. Nate decides to call Serena and tell her where Carter is, and offers to help her help Carter by settling his debt through a poker match with Bree's brothers. It is revealed later that he only used her to get back at the Buckleys by betting a faked photo of his cousin Tripp van der Bilt, who is running for Congressman, smoking marijuana at his bachelor party. Serena is so upset at being used to help Tripp's campaign that she informs the Buckleys of Nate's trick and is rewarded by settling Carter's debt.

On election day, the van der Bilt family and Vanessa, who is covering Tripp's campaign for school, work to help Tripp win the newly opened Congressman seat in New York. A man who appears to have fallen into the Hudson River is saved by Tripp, who is hailed as a hero. However, when Vanessa later reviews her video footage, she realises that the man who nearly drowned was paid off to give Tripp an edge in the last hours of the election. Vanessa confronts Nate about this fact and he is horrified at the thought. She admits that she is selling the footage to New York, and Nate pleads with her to wait until after the election. She tells him that it is unethical, but he accuses her of only wanting the fame of catching the story. Nate returns to the campaign office to confront his grandfather for setting up the scheme, but he denies any involvement. Worried about the video's affect on the outcome of the election, Nate hires a person to pretend to be the woman buying the footage for New York to keep it out of the media. Vanessa ends up finding out about his betrayal, and the story is revealed on the news anyway. Nate takes matters into his own hands and takes the blame for orchestrating the fake drowning, and Tripp ends up winning the election.

After the election, Serena is hired by Tripp to work for his office as Congressman, and the two begin to develop feelings for each other. Nate tries to talk her out of these feelings, as Tripp is a married Congressman and has too much to lose, and volunteers to help her avoid him until he leaves for Washington D.C. While distracting her, he admits to her that he used to love her and tried to tell her, but told Jenny instead. As they're about to kiss, Tripp interrupts them, having found out his wife Maureen had set up the Hudson drowning scheme, and seeks out Serena for comfort. He and Serena leave together, and Nate is heartbroken. In "The Treasure of Serena Madre", Nate informs Maureen about Serena and Tripp's feelings for each other, and Tripp decides to leave his wife, encouraging Serena to be with him. While leaving to go away with Tripp, Serena is caught by Nate who tells her how he feels. She once again leaves him heartbroken, choosing Tripp.

However, he eventually wins her over in "The Debarted", after being patient and supportive even despite his feelings for her during her relationship with Tripp. After her car accident, he stays at her bedside in the hospital after Tripp leaves her in their crashed car. They officially start dating in "The Hurt Locket", but deal with multiple problems, from miscommunication regarding the speed of their relationship, distrust over Serena lying about her adventures with Carter to find her dad, and hiding her mother's illness. Jenny, whose feelings for Nate are renewed when he saves her after being roofied and nearly being sexually assaulted in a bar, attempts to sabotage the couple so she can be with Nate. Jenny's lying and scheming (with some help from Chuck, who wants his best friend back) causes friction between Nate and Serena; however, when Serena walks in on Jenny trying to kiss him, Nate discovers her deception and kicks her out of his apartment.

They later end up reconciling, and in the season finale, Nate wakes up after spending the night listening to Jenny's problems and being both supportive and understanding, leaving their friendship in good terms. Nate later discovers from Jenny via Gossip Girl that Serena and Dan shared a kiss. He finds it in his heart to forgive her; however, Serena breaks up with him, saying that while she does love hm, she "needs a break" from them both. Nate, hurt, ends all connections with Serena, and tells Vanessa (who is currently away in Haiti, doing an internship with CNN) about what happened between her and Dan compromising their relationship, and ends the episode moving on from Serena.

### **Season 4**

It is revealed that during the summer Nate had numerous one-night stands thanks to "Chuck's little black book". Before he returns to college he meets Juliet Sharp, a Columbia student who helps him realise that he still has feelings for Serena that makes him act reckless. He soon falls for Juliet and they begin a relationship. Their relationship goes smoothly until he begins to suspect that Juliet is hiding something from him. He soon finds out she has a brother in prison, but it takes him a while to realise that. Nate's father is transferred to Riker's Island Prison, where he is assaulted by Juliet's brother as a way to send a message to Juliet about dating Nate. Nate tries to get his mother and father to reconcile to make his father happy, but Nate's mother is more concerned with her social reputation than her marriage, and the two end up getting a divorce. Nate's father ends up getting released from prison and stays with Nate and Chuck at the Empire Hotel at first, before moving out later on. He gets a job working for Russell Thorpe, which Nate sees as a betrayal to Chuck, but when Howard realises that he's being used by Russell, he helps Chuck get information about Russell to stop the dismantling of Bass Industries.

Nate soon decides to win Serena back. Serena ends up in a situation where she needs to choose between Nate and Dan. Nate still cares for her but is put off when Juliet pretends to be Serena and kisses both him and Dan. Nate clarifies that this is typical Serena behaviour and that he is not going to let her pull him back in ever again. Dan disagrees. In rehab, Serena admits to Dan that she had picked him, that he was the only one she came to kiss.

Near the end of the season, Nate connects with Chuck's love interest, Raina Thorpe, daughter of business mogul and Bart Bass enemy Russell, while trying to convince her to get back together with Chuck. Instead, Raina tells Nate that she likes him, and they spend the day smoking a joint, eating ice cream and playing Wii games. Chuck is obviously hurt by this betrayal, but Raina eventually goes back to her hometown of Chicago after learning the truth about her mother's death.

### **Season 5**

At the age of 21/22, Nate had taken the media world by storm in Season 5. Usurping power of The Spectator and publishing a much-lauded pieces on his editorial values. He had a confusing relationship with Diana Payne, fell in love with Charlie Rhodes, and kissed Ivy Dickens. He found out that his grandfather helped him rise to power at the Spectator but his grandfather assured him that he was only trying to help. Nate remained faithful to the newspaper and defeated Diana to become the editor and chief. His cousin, Tripp's jealousy reached to boiling point after his grandfather picked Nate instead of him to go on a retreat. Tripp decides to take drastic measures in order to get Nate out of the picture. He organises a car crash to injure Nate and possibly kill him but Chuck and Blair get into the car meant for Nate. Chuck and Blair get severely hurt and Blair loses her baby. Nate does some digging in order to find out what caused the accident and figures out that it was Tripp. An Upper East Side take down occurs with the help of his grandfather and Serena. Nate felt guilty but was glad that Tripp was arrested and wanted nothing to do with him.

### **Season 6**

Nate starts to date a girl named Sage Spence who is the daughter of Serena's ex, Steven Spence. Throughout this season, Nate struggled a lot with The Spectator and his financial problems with his company was slowly making him spiral downwards. Bart Bass took this opportunity to use Nate against his son in an attempt to cover up Bart's illegal oil trades.

In the finale, Nate is seen attending Dan and Serena's wedding, with the rest of their close friends and family.

## Style and Appearance

Nate is described as being muscular with golden blonde hair and sparkly green eyes. In the TV show, Nate has stunning dark blue eyes. He's considered a "golden boy" and is considered by many the most attractive boy of the Upper East Side, he's also an athlete and every girl in Constance has a crush on him.

His style is very casual and laid back. He wears expensive designer clothes, but doesn't show much care for it. He wears them rumpled, and carelessly except for special occasions. As the show progresses, Nate matures and learns to care more for how he looks. His favourite colour is blue, as seen in his wardrobe.

## Personality

Nate is a very warm and trusting person. He is kind and caring, especially to his closest friends. He showed his honesty when he saved Dan in Season 2, even though it was best friend Chuck who sabotaged him.

He is charming, laid back, funny, and friendly, and it has always been in his nature to look out for people. Nate is also known for having a moral compass compared to all the other core characters in the show. It has always been in Nate's nature to try and please everyone especially in his family, but he later realises the wrong in trying to make everyone happy while he himself is not. He is also not as interested in all the wealth and elitist ways of the Upper East Side world. He is not comfortable with the previleges that his family's money and status give him because he thinks he does not deserve them and that they only control him. He is incredibly athletic, cares for his family deeply.

Nate's negative trait might be that he is a bit hypersexualised, even getting involved with women who are much younger or older than he is. This also makes him oblivious or naive to the other agendas or schemes that his lovers might have. Because of this, Gossip Girl labels him as a "class whore." However, he is still what one would consider a good guy. He changes his mind about Serena and Blair a lot.

## Relationships (Novels)

### **Family**

* Captain Archibald (Father)
* Mrs. Archibald (Mother)

### **Romances**

* Blair Waldorf (Childhood Crush; Ex-Girlfriend)
* Serena van der Woodsen (Childhood Crush; Ex-Girlfriend; Lost his virginity to)
* Vanessa Abrams (Ex-Girlfriend)
* Jenny Humphrey (Ex-Girlfriend)

## Relationships (TV Series)

### **Family**

* Howard "The Captain" Archibald (Father)
* Anne Archibald (Mother)
* William van der Bilt (Maternal Grandfather)
* Tripp van der Bilt (Maternal Cousin)
* Maureen van der Bilt (Cousin-in-Law; Tripp's Wife)

### **Romances**

* Blair Waldorf (Ex-Girlfriend)
* Serena van der Woodsen (Ex-Girlfriend; Lost his virginity to)
* Vanessa Abrams (Ex-Girlfriend)
* Lady Catherine Beaton (Affair)
* Jordan Steele (Kissed)
* Jenny Humphrey (Kissed)
* Bree Buckley (Ex-Girlfriend)
* Juliet Sharp (Ex-Girlfriend)
* Raina Thorpe (Ex-Girlfriend)
* Ivy Dickens (Kissed)
* Diana Payne (Ex-Girlfriend)
* Lola Rhodes (Ex-Girlfriend)
* Sage Spence (Ex-Girlfriend)

### **Friends**

* Chuck Bass
* Blair Waldorf
* Serena van der Woodsen
* Dan Humphrey
* Jenny Humphrey