Ryan-Carter Relationship

The relationship between Ryan and Carter, also known as *Rycarter*, is the friendship and romantic relationship between **Ry**an Blanchard and **Carter** Baizen.

After Dan and Serena, and Chuck and Blair, they have the third longest relationship in the series. They are married with a kid in the series finale.

## Series

Ryan and Carter met prior to the series when Ryan was 14. Carter at that time was known as a bad boy and hung around with Ryan's friends Nate Archibald and Chuck Bass. They ended up sleeping together and for a while that was all they did before Carter up and left Ryan. She never wanted anyone to know about the relationship so she kept it a secret from her friends: Nate, Chuck, Serena and Blair.

The two are reunited in Bad News Blair, where Ryan tries really hard to avoid Carter but once he comes looking for her, the two verbally spar. Throughout seasons one and two, they both verbally spar whenever he shows up and Ryan's boyfriend starts questioning their history.

By Reversals of Fortune, Ryan has broken up with her boyfriend Hayden Frost and has established a good friendship with Carter who is dating Serena. Throughout Season Three he is actively telling her to cut ties with Hayden who is trying to win her back.

After Serena and Carter breakup in Enough About Eve, Carter leaves the UES and tries to make amends with Ryan. In The Hurt Locket, Ryan is having a FWB relationship with her friend Theo Holden while still in contact with Carter. This is also when Hayden starts trying to win Ryan back—this keeps going on during the rest of the season.

In Last Tango, Then Paris, Ryan—conflicted over her feelings for Carter and Hayden trying to win her back—decides to join Serena and Blair in Paris.

In Belles de Jour, Ryan is shown to be having fun in Paris with Serena and Blair, but has not told either of them why she decided to join them in Paris.

In The Undergraduates, we see Carter and Ryan in the UES, sleeping together. It is during the end of Goodbye, Columbia that Ryan confesses her feelings for Carter and they decide to date for real. However, knowing what her friends think about Carter she keeps it a secret.

In Damien Darko, Ryan is offered an internship in England. Though excited about it, she tells Carter and he admits that he doesn't want her to leave and asks her about getting an internship in New York. She says that she *wants* to go to England and says she won't turn it down. This ends up turning into a fight between the two.

In Panic Roommate, Ryan returns to her house and her aunt, also her biological mother, asks her where she's been and if she's okay. Ryan puts on a front and says that she's okay, fleeing to her room.

In Shattered Bass, we see that Carter has been reaching out to Ryan in an attempt to apologize, but she's been busy with the drama surrounding her friends. At the end of the episode, we hear a voicemail from Carter apologizing and declaring his love for her.

In The Wrong Goodbye, Carter and Ryan make up when Carter tells her that of course she should go to England and do her internship and that he'll come visit. They kiss as Ryan leaves to the airport and Ryan tells him that she loves him too.

In Yes, Then Zero it is shown that Ryan has been thriving while in England and has been joined by Carter in England, hanging out.

In The Jewel of Denial, after Gossip Girl reveals Ryan and Carter's relationship, they go back to New York and try to face the consequences. Ryan's friends initially try to talk her out of her relationship but—in a flash of rare anger—Ryan puts her foot down and tells her friends that they don't have to like Carter but as her friends they need to respect her relationship.

In The Return of the Ring, Carter and Ryan decide to spend the summer together in Greece.

Throughout the sixth season, we see Carter and Ryan juggle their relationship while Ryan remains a part of her friends' drama. In the flashforward of New York, I Love You XOXO, we see Carter and Ryan with ring bands on their hands and a kid at Dan and Serena's wedding.

## Trivia

* When *Gossip Girl* would talk about their relationship online she would refer to them as *"The Duke and Duchess of the Upper East Side"*
* Carter took Ryan's virginity