The aftermath of Regina’s death and the very first Super Thriller of Sweet Valley High are in this installment of episode recaps. Check them out! 🙂
Season 3: The Perfect Size 6 (Continued)
Episode 47 – “Outcast”: Everyone blames Molly Hecht for Regina Morrow’s death. After all it was her house that hosted the fatal drug party. Even Justin Belson won’t have anything to do with her. Molly tries to apologize to Elizabeth, but Elizabeth gives her the cold shoulder. Molly goes to the cemetery to apologize to Regina instead and Regina’s brother Nicholas is there and screams at her to leave. Molly feels depressed and alone (even her parents say she deserves being treated like this after what happened) until Buzz, the drug dealer from the party, calls her. Molly meets Buzz and he convinces her to run away to Mexico with him, when really Buzz just needs the cash to make his escape. Molly agrees. Elizabeth tries to get Justin to talk to Molly and he finally relents, but can’t find her. She is at the bank emptying her savings account. Elizabeth tries to talk to Molly, but Molly refuses to listen. Justin and Elizabeth decide to go to Molly’s house that evening, but see her sneaking out with a bag and follow her. They watch her get into Buzz’s car and Elizabeth gets out to call the police while Justin follows them. Justin cuts them off and Buzz gets out of the car and attacks Justin with a knife, but Buzz is no match for Justin and his big stick (hey that was his weapon, and I couldn’t help myself). Police arrive and take Buzz into custody. Justin and Molly are friends again and Molly promises to change for the better. Meanwhile, Jessica has a great idea (it was bound to happen sometime) and sets up an annual scholarship in Regina’s name and memory, to be awarded to a student who has overcome a disability.
Episode 48 – “Caught In The Middle”: Sandra Bacon is dating Manuel Lopez, but she doesn’t want anyone to know about it because her parents are racist. Manuel wants Sandra to come clean to her parents and she keeps bringing up the subject with her mother with these ‘hypothetical’ situations and her mother freaks out (and loses sleep over the possibility). Sandra lets Manuel think that she has told her parents about them and they plan a date on her boat out at Secca Lake. Sandra finds out that she can’t use her best friend Jeanie West to cover for her anymore, so she tells Elizabeth Wakefield that she really wants her to get to know Manuel and he wants her to join them, while telling Manuel that Elizabeth invited herself and Sandra couldn’t stop her. Out on the boat, Elizabeth says something that reveals the truth to Manuel. He is about to ask Sandra about it when the boat’s motor starts smoking and suddenly explodes. The blast knocks Manuel and Elizabeth into the water and the boat catches fire with Sandra still onboard, unconscious. Manuel rescues Sandra and they make it to shore, but as soon as Sandra wakes up she makes Manuel leave because her parents can’t find out. Sandra lies to everyone and says that Elizabeth saved her and begs Elizabeth to go along with it. A few days later Manuel tells Sandra that unless she can be honest with her parents they’re going to break up – he can’t keep being her dirty little secret. That afternoon the police bring Manuel to the station and accuse him of tampering with Sandra’s boat because witnesses placed him at the scene. He denies everything without revealing his relationship with Sandra. Sandra’s parents bring her down and she denies knowing Manuel (to his face) and just as the officers are getting ready to arrest him, Sandra breaks down and confesses everything. Her parents see the light (to some extent) and Manuel takes Sandra back. Meanwhile, Lila Fowler keeps hinting to everyone that she expects them to throw her a party and Jessica convinces everyone to act like they don’t care about her birthday. Lila is furious until the day after her birthday when she is surprised by Jessica’s planned ‘surprise surprise party’, which is a smashing success.
Episode 49 – “Double Jeopardy”: Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield are working as interns at The Sweet Valley News for the summer. Jessica doesn’t mind because she is set to make handsome 22-year-old reporter and author, Seth Miller, her man. Meanwhile, Steven Wakefield’s good friend from college, Adam Maitland, is staying with the Wakefields for the summer because he is poor and from South Dakota, but has a prestigious internship at a criminal law firm in Sweet Valley. Jessica decides to try and set up Elizabeth and Adam so that way Elizabeth won’t find herself wanting Seth and also to get her to stop being “so serious” with her boyfriend, Jeffrey French, who is away working as a summer camp counselor. Jessica writes a letter “from Adam” professing his undying love for Elizabeth and hides it under Elizabeth’s pillow. When Elizabeth finds it she is shocked and hides it, deciding not to mention it to anyone, including Adam. To get Seth’s attention, Jessica makes up stories about arson and bank robberies that aren’t true, which waste Seth’s time before finally landing him in the hot seat and some serious trouble. After that Jessica is demoted and has to work late in data entry that night. When she leaves she witnesses a man dumping a woman’s body. He sees her and Jessica races home. No one believes her at first, until Adam is arrested for murdering his fiancé, Laurie Hamilton. Jessica knows that he is innocent, but Elizabeth turns the letter “Adam wrote” to her over to her father, who gives it to the police, strengthening the case against him. Jessica comes clean to the police and her father that she wrote the letter, but not to anyone else. She convinces Seth to help her track down the real killer and they figure out who he is. The night of an office party, Jessica goes to the police station to ID a picture of the killer but leaves Elizabeth to go to the office party alone. Jessica will meet her there because she doesn’t want Elizabeth to know that she wrote the letter. Elizabeth can’t get her brother’s car to start so she takes the car the twins are forbidden to take because the killer might recognize it. At the party, Jessica sees the killer and Seth goes to call the police while Jessica tries to stall him. He gets fed up and goes out to the parking garage just as Elizabeth is arriving. He recognizes Elizabeth, not knowing they’re twins, and attacks her. Jessica comes to the rescue and police finally arrive and make the arrest. Adam is released and because of Jessica, Seth gets the exclusive scoop for this “career-making” story and agrees to take her out to dinner and write a character based on her in his next mystery novel.
Episode 50 – “Hard Choices”: Enid Rollins and her mother, Adele, invite Adele’s mother (Enid’s grandmother) to come live with them in Sweet Valley after Enid’s grandfather dies. Enid gives up her room and moves to the attic and she and her mother prepare for her grandmother’s arrival. But when “Nana” gets there, she isn’t the woman either of them remembers. She is old, frail and very cranky. She always says she does not want to be a burden, when really she is throwing a passive-aggressive tantrum to get her way. Meanwhile, Jackson Croft (Susan Stewart’s famous father) is sponsoring a showcase for student documentaries. Elizabeth wants to do a documentary on Sweet Valley and how wonderful it is. She’s the writer, her boyfriend Jeffrey is the camera dude, Enid is supposed to be the producer (her job really isn’t clear) and Jessica is going to be the star/narrator. But Enid’s grandmother keeps interfering so that Enid isn’t able to be all that involved with it. Adele has her boyfriend, Richard, over and Nana makes it clear she hates him. She keeps making Enid and Adele (mostly Enid) cancel their plans to stay with her or drive her around. Nana talks Adele into not letting Enid go on a school trip with her boyfriend, Hugh, which causes a big fight. Richard has asked Adele to marry him, but she doesn’t tell anyone because of Nana’s apparent contempt for Richard. Elizabeth and Jeffrey finish the documentary on their own because Enid is unavailable because of her grandmother. They keep a bunch of funny scenes in the film, where Winston Egbert is teasing Jessica or their dog Prince Albert is ruining Jessica’s outfit on the beach. They have a premiere party at the twins’ house and Adele swears to Enid, she won’t be stuck with her grandmother again. But at the last minute Nana pulls the “don’t leave me alone or I might die, I am so sick,” and Adele makes Enid cancel her plans. Hugh shows up, and is pissed again and they get into a big fight. Nana says something snarky and Enid loses it and tells her that she is a horrible old woman and Enid wished she never moved in with them. Then Enid leaves to go to the party. But as soon as the documentary is over, she goes back home without visiting with anyone, terrified something may have happened to her Nana. When she gets home, she finds that he Nana is baking and seems like her old self. Nana apologizes and thanks Enid for being honest with her, and she is done feeling sorry for herself. Nana also decides to move back to Chicago. Hugh comes over and he and Enid make up, and Adele says yes to Richard’s marriage proposal!
Episode 51 – “Pretenses”: Elizabeth Wakefield and Penny Ayala are disappointed that the high school newspaper’s readership is down. Winston Egbert suggests they run some kind of comic strip or humor feature and they decide to have a contest to find someone to do it. Abbie Richardson jumps at the chance to help and offers to make posters and advertisements for the contest. Abbie is trying to be as helpful as possible to everyone in hopes that she can make some friends. She was dating a boy who went to Palisades High for two years, and they always spent time at his school and with his friends. Now on her own, Abbie realizes she is a junior and doesn’t have any close friendships with people at her own school and she wants to change that. Abbie decides to enter the contest and comes up with a comic strip about a girl named Jenny, a girl who is just like Abbie. The twins’ brother Steven is coming home from college for a few weeks because he has really bad allergies and is seeing a doctor about them. Jessica tries to convince her best friend, Cara Walker, who is also Steven’s girlfriend that she needs to add some mystery to their relationship. Cara gets insecure that Steven seems distant his first night back and would rather spend time inside with his family, than alone outside with her. Cara is having a birthday party because she didn’t get to have one on her actual birthday months earlier and she accidentally mentions it to Abbie when she is only allowed to invite thirteen people because the restaurant is expensive. Abbie is sure that she is invited since Cara mentioned it and buys her a gift and waits to be invited. But she realizes the day of the party that she isn’t invited and feels terrible. Cara’s party sucks anyway because Steven is being a jerk to Cara. He is hiding some sort of letter from her, which makes her suspicious. The following Monday, Abbie gives Cara her birthday gift and Cara feels guilty. That afternoon Abbie goes over to the Wakefield’s house to show Elizabeth her comic strip. Steven ends up confiding in Abbie and telling her about his problems with Cara and how she is being all clingy. Abbie keeps coming over to the Wakefield’s house because she is becoming good friends with both Steven and Elizabeth and ends up doing a lot of Jessica’s chores. Steven finally confesses to Abbie that he is freaked out because he keeps getting these anonymous love letters and he doesn’t know who they are from. He’s upset because it’s on the same stationary his ex-girlfriend, Tricia Martin, used and she died from leukemia several months ago. Steven feels he can’t say anything to Cara because Tricia is a sensitive subject with her. Abbie still encourages him to talk it over with Cara, but he doesn’t listen. Cara tells Jessica and Lila Fowler that she and Steven are having problems and not communicating anymore. The twins find out about the love letters and the stationary and Jessica is suddenly convinced that Abbie has been sending the letters to Steven. She reasons no one is nice like Abbie is without some ulterior motive. Mr. Wakefield gets six tickets to the Lakers game and Steven wants to invite Abbie instead of Cara, because things are so strained and Abbie has been so helpful, which only makes the twins more suspicious. Abbie and Steven are talking the next day when Steven goes upstairs and Jessica comes in the room. Abbie hides Steven’s latest letter because she knows he doesn’t want anyone to know, but Jessica sees it and assumes Abbie is leaving it for Steven. When Elizabeth gets home they both confront Abbie in front of Steven. Steven is horrified that Abbie is the one behind the letters, but Abbie says that she isn’t and that she’s done nothing wrong, and then she leaves. Right after that Cara comes over and confronts Steven with the twins still there. She is upset because she has been writing Steven love letters, but he hasn’t mentioned them to her and seems defensive about them, which makes her suspicious. Cara and Steven talk and everything is better between them and then they go apologize to Abbie, along with Elizabeth and Jessica, and get an extra Lakers ticket so Abbie can still go with them to the game. As far as the humor feature contest, Abbie’s comic and a feature Amy Sutton wrote were finalists, even though Abbie did most of the work on Amy’s feature. It doesn’t matter because Abbie’s comic wins anyway.
So, how was the very first Super Thriller of Sweet Valley High? If you weren’t exactly feeling it, don’t worry – they just keep getting better! 😉
-DMW
