The Ivy Con was so needlessly complicated
I get that Carol wanted to use a con artist to get her daughter's trust fund without Lola knowing about it but why On Earth did they make it that convoluted?
I know this show is all about the drama lol but as a plan it's so out there. Why not just claim Carol had a change of heart once she found out about Lily's sickness/after reconnecting with her and Cece, and that this is why she now wants 'Charlie' to meet the rest of her family. Charlie plays nice with Serena and the rest of them for a few weeks, her trustfund gets unlocked, and bob's your uncle.
After which they could simply claim Charlie's summer break is up and she has to leave to go to College or do an internship or bc she has a boyfriend back at home or literally anyyyyyy other excuse.
Like there was nooo need for the whole 'I came here to meet you behind my mum's back and she's sooo mad at me but I'm staying anyway and also I start taking an interest in Dan (which would only needlessly antagonise Serena?) and also claim to have some sort of mental illness that I guess results in chronic backstabbing disorder whenever I don't take my meds'
I can only imagine that the in-universe justification is Carol wanting it to seem like this was definitely all 'Charlie' and she had nothing to do with it and maybe the instability/mental illness was to justify her leaving the upper east side but especially the latter was just totally unnecessary. If anything I feel like that could have jeopardised the plan bc maybe Cece would be more reluctant to sign over full control over that much money to someone who seemed unstable.
And lastly, does the show actually make it clear why Carol needs this trustfund? By her own admission she already gets a check from Cece every month. Was that just..not enough for her or something? For all her flaws Cece seemed pretty generous so I feel like if Carol needed more money she could have pretty easily gotten it by just asking for it.
And over the course of this scam Lily and co also find out she's been taking money from Cece anyway so it's not even like she Carol gets to keep the moral high ground or her pride or something.