Before 90210 went away for their last hiatus before the end of the season, we were introduced to Annie and Dixon's Kelly Taylor look-alike cousin Emily, who brought hell and brimstone down on Annie's already fragile existence at West Beverly. Luckily, Emily was exposed for the little conniving bitch that she was, being banished back to Kansas almost literally after Naomi coldly told her "Your life at West Bev is over," which is basically the kiss of death around those parts. While Emily's appearance was hella annoying, it was slightly entertaining only to find out how they were going to get rid of her ass in the end. However, the time until her demise was agonizing at best.

So, imagine how I felt when we were introduced to Serena and Eric's cousin Charlotte Rhodes, aka "Charlie" on Gossip Girl Monday night. The new girl seems to be okay and likeable for now, but an ominous warning from Charlie's mother Carol tells us that hell is just around the corner in some shape, way, or form for our favorite UES clique.

Has Gossip Girl, like 90210 was a few weeks ago, been hit with the Cousin Oliver Complex as well?

Now, the Cousin Oliver Complex isn't to be confused with the Cousin Oliver Syndrome, which is when long-running family oriented sitcoms tend to inject young, adorable children into their later seasons to ressurrect the ratings they once had before the show's original kids grew older. Some would say that besides The Brady Bunch, which started this phenomena with the character of Oliver being introduced in the last episodes of the show's final season, other shows like The Cosby Show (Olivia), Married With Children (Seven), The Partridge Family (Ricky), and a few others are guilty of this practice.

The Cousin Oliver Complex takes the negative connotation of its namesake and spins it on its head by letting viewers know that if a cousin (or a long lost sibling, or family friend, etc) of a main cast member of a soap/teen soap shows up with big smiles and bright eyes, then they are packing an abundance of trouble for the group for the next few episodes/years. The COC isn't necessarily new since we've seen it done a couple of times before in the original Beverly Hills, 90210 (Valerie and Gina); Dawson's Creek (Eve); The O.C. (Trey) and even Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dawn) to name a few.

Now, the COC isn't necessarily always a bad thing. There is an expected 'initial awkward period' between the family members/old friends that the main characters notices or experiences from afar. Then viewers have to wait to see if the "cousin" either falls on the wayside of being just misunderstood (like Scott from Gossip Girl's third season) or if they are pretty lethal for the characters on the show and the audience's mental state. In the case of 90210's Cousin Emily, that bitch fell in the latter. Hard.

It's yet to be seen just what hell Charlie has in store for the Upper East Siders or if she's even packing any heat to sling their way, but if the warning from her mother and the claims by actress Kaylee DeFer of Charlie having "a dark side" with many layers, then we are in for an interesting final four episodes for the rest of Gossip Girl's fourth season.

Let's just hope that she ends up being the Good Witch (or Bitch, your preference) of the Upper East Side for our sakes...

So what do you guys think? Could Charlie be the latest catalyst of the Cousin Oliver Complex? And what are your favorite Cousin Oliver Complex storylines?