This includes the second Super Thriller of the series, which was also the first Sweet Valley High I ever read. Ever! The beginning of my very guilty pleasure all because of that book… (Episode 53) 😉
Season 3: The Perfect Size 6 (Continued)
Episode 52 – “Family Secrets”: The twins’ cousin, Kelly, is moving in with the Wakefields for awhile. Kelly’s mother is getting remarried and Kelly is having a difficult time adjusting to her soon-to-be stepfather and stepbrothers. Deep down Kelly blames her mother for leaving her father and keeping them apart. Kelly can’t remember anything about her childhood in Sweet Valley, but she and the twins enjoy her time back and they dress the same as a gag on Kelly’s first day at Sweet Valley High because Kelly looks a lot like the twins. The twins introduce Kelly to Nicholas Morrow, who takes a liking to her and invites her to a costume party and Kelly accepts. Kelly’s mother keeps calling, but Kelly refuses to speak with her and puts her down in front of the twins. She says that she wants to stay in Sweet Valley permanently. Kelly’s mother has never told her daughter why she left Kelly’s father. Kelly’s father is irresponsible and a jackass. Everyone knows this, even the twins, but Kelly’s mother was determined never to say a negative thing about her ex-husband and this backfired big time. Kelly keeps telling everyone all of these stories about how terrific her father is. Then Kirk Anderson (the jerk who played that trick on Penny earlier this season – Episode 45) asks Kelly out, because of Elizabeth getting back at him for having her fake cousin stand him up at a dance. Kelly thinks Kirk is the greatest and blows off Nicholas Morrow’s invitation to the costume party to go with Kirk instead. Kelly gets a letter from her father, saying he will be in town for her birthday and she is ecstatic. Kirk keeps seeing other girls, telling Kelly they’re just friends and showing up late or standing her up completely. On her birthday, her father is an hour and a half late and only stays a few minutes before taking off again. At the costume party the next night, Kirk convinces Kelly to leave with him to talk, and he takes her to make-out spot Miller’s Point. Kelly tells Kirk to slow down and he gets pissed and throws a beer bottle. Suddenly, Kelly remembers the night her mother left her father, and how her father was violently throwing dishes in the kitchen. Kelly runs away, and Jean West and Tom McKay see her on the side of the road and take her back to the twins’ house. Kelly tells Elizabeth everything when she gets back, and Elizabeth tells Jessica and her parents. Mrs. Wakefield calls Kelly’s mother who takes the first flight in, and she and Kelly have a long talk. Kelly decides to go back home with her mother.
Episode 53 – “On The Run”: Everyone is talking about the DeLucca trial in New York. Frank DeLucca, who is with the mob, is on trial for murder and after his last witness was killed, all of the other witnesses have stopped coming forward, refusing to testify. The new intern at The Sweet Valley News, Darcy, who moved to Sweet Valley from Ohio, thinks no one will come forward, while Elizabeth and Seth Miller disagree. Jessica doesn’t care and after witnessing a murder earlier that summer (earlier this season – episode #49) she wants nothing to do with crime or the law. Darcy becomes fast friends with Jessica, but hates Liz for some reason. Darcy is terrible to Elizabeth and keeps doing things to make Elizabeth look bad at least once a day. At the last minute the doctor of the last witness, Dr. William Ryan, agrees to testify against Frank DeLucca. The next week, Elizabeth meets a boy who is working at the coffee shop in their building and they hit it off immediately. His name is Eric, he likes to write poetry and he just moved from Ohio (just like Darcy). Later that day Darcy tells everyone all about Eric and Elizabeth is surprised at how jealous she feels since she has a boyfriend, Jeffrey. She decides not to tell anyone she is friends with Eric, even though he has given her a ride home and they have dinner plans the next night. Elizabeth shows Eric around town, and every time she tries to find out something about Eric or his past, his face gets dark. They exchange writing and she thinks his poetry is very sad while he thinks her story is too optimistic. Darcy asks a friend from back home if she knows Eric and she doesn’t, but then she tells Darcy all about how a young girl there was murdered two weeks ago. The next night Elizabeth and Eric see a movie, and afterwards Elizabeth notices someone following them. When she mentions it to Eric he freaks out. Eric tells Elizabeth they should keep their friendship a secret which suits her just fine. She is trying to figure out her feelings because she still loves Jeffrey but feels something for Eric too. The next morning Darcy bugs Eric in the coffee shop because she likes him, and steals his notebook full of poetry. Eric pleads with her that he doesn’t want anyone reading the notebook and Darcy gets him to say they’re for her, just so she’ll give it back, but she doesn’t. Then she tells the twins how Eric is madly in love with her and wrote all this poetry about his feelings. Elizabeth feels terrible and avoids Eric, but Mr. Wakefield has been helping Eric’s father and invites them both for a barbecue. Mr. Wakefield is surprised that Elizabeth isn’t more excited and says that Eric’s dad said Eric talks about her all the time. Jessica thinks this is weird because she didn’t know they had spent any time together. Liz clears up the misunderstanding with Eric and finds out the poem was really for her. Darcy is talking with her friend from Ohio again and gets the idea that Eric was the one who killed the girl back before Eric moved to Sweet Valley. She enlists Jessica’s help, who is going to look for any suspicious behavior. At the Wakefield’s barbecue, their neighbor Mr. Beckwith keeps saying that Eric’s dad looks familiar, making him and Eric increasingly uncomfortable until they leave. Jessica is sure that Mr. Beckwith’s questioning and their avoidance, proves Eric is the murderer from Ohio. Jessica and Darcy come up with a scheme where Jessica impersonates Elizabeth and gets his notebook away from him because they think he uses it as a diary. Jessica succeeds, but on the way home she is followed by a black Mercedes. A man jumps out, pushes her down, grabs the notebook and tells her to stay away from Eric. Now Jessica is terrified for her sister and knows she has to warn Elizabeth to stay away from Eric. But Elizabeth is at Enid’s for the weekend and Jessica can’t get a hold of her. Elizabeth and Eric are at the Dairi Burger where he finds out she has a boyfriend and is pissed. He storms off. That night Elizabeth meets Eric at the Beach Disco as planned except that he is a no show. On her way back to Enid’s house a blue sedan is following her. She pulls over and the driver flashes her FBI credentials and asks her questions about Eric, leaving Elizabeth very confused. The next day Darcy gets a composite sketch of the Ohio killer from her friend and it looks a lot like Eric, but they still don’t go to the police. They plan to warn Elizabeth when gets back from an assignment but she goes into the coffee shop first and tells Eric they need to talk. He pulls her into the back and they go into the alley behind the shop. Jessica and Darcy chase after them so Eric runs away. They go around the shop and see Mr. Beckwith shouting that a child is choking inside the coffee shop. Eric’s dad jumps into action and saves the boy’s life by doing an emergency tracheotomy. Mr. Beckwith realizes where he recognizes Eric’s dad from – he is really Dr. William Ryan, the guy who testified against Frank DeLucca, effectively putting him away for life. Eric and his dad quickly leave and Liz follows them to their place. Elizabeth tries to convince Eric and his dad that they can stay in Sweet Valley, but Dr. Ryan says they can’t and then a bunch of guys with guns break in. Elizabeth and Eric are forced upstairs. Upstairs, Elizabeth notices they have a “Good Neighbors” alarm system. She presses the panic button, which sounds an alarm in six neighbor’s houses. One of the neighbors call for the password to see if everything is all right, but Dr. Ryan pretends it is a wrong number. A mob of neighbors show up a minute later, tackle the bad guys and the police arrive. Eric, whose real name is Michael, and his father have to be relocated. Eric/Michael gives Liz his notebook of poems and they say goodbye. Elizabeth is sad to lose him and realizes it is possible to be in love with two people at the same time.
Episode 54 – “Decisions”: Robin Wilson has been accepted for early admission to Sarah Lawrence, but she isn’t sure if she really wants to go. But her aunt is willing to pay for Sarah Lawrence if she goes now, and that is probably the only way she can afford college at all. Only her best friend Annie Whitman knows until she blurts it out in front of Jessica Wakefield, who tells her twin sister Elizabeth. Robin doesn’t want her boyfriend, George Warren, to know yet because he won’t take it well. But Elizabeth doesn’t know it is a secret and when she runs into George at the library, she mentions it. Robin forgets that Jessica knew, and accuses and blames Annie Whitman after George confronts her. Robin mentions to her mother that she may not want to go to Sarah Lawrence and her mother freaks out, calls Robin selfish because if she goes to Sarah Lawrence her aunt is going to pay to remodel their kitchen. Robin’s aunt comes to town and acts like she owns everything and everyone. Robin keeps trying to build up the nerve to tell she isn’t sure she wants to go to Sarah Lawrence at all, and finally explodes after her aunt says something she doesn’t like at a fancy restaurant. She leaves and calls George who picks her up. He belittles Robin’s family about how they can’t make her go, but he is doing the same thing, just on the opposite side. Robin has an important diving competition the next day and she is miserable. It is affecting her performance. George finally realizes he has been just as guilty as Robin’s family and leaves the competition, coming back a short time later with Robin’s family, including her aunt. Robin feels great seeing them all out there, supporting her, and she wins the competition. Robin’s aunt sees the light and says she will pay for Robin’s college wherever and whenever she decides to attend. Meanwhile Jessica takes a job babysitting this sweet little girl named Allison. Her older brother is in college and is a composer. Jessica thinks he is the guy for her and tries to get him to notice her using all the usual tricks, but nothing works. So then Jessica tries to reach him through the one thing he obviously loves, music. She tries to play the recorder because Allison can, so it must be easy, but Jessica is awful. Elizabeth tries it, and loves it and is really good, but she refuses to entertain the notion because she doesn’t want Jessica to get insecure about it. Finally, Jessica gets her crush’s attention by faking a fainting spell. He asks for her to wait for him, he is on his way to Julliard for the next two years, and Jessica tells him to get real and quits her job. Elizabeth takes up the recorder with Jessica’s blessing.
Episode 55 – “Troublemaker”: Julie Porter has been helping Elizabeth Wakefield learn how to play the recorder. One afternoon they see Bruce Patman and his cronies laughing because they have stuffed Josh Bowen in a locker, as part of a pledging prank (hazing). Josh, who is Julie’s best friend and next door neighbor, is pledging Phi Epsilon because his older brother raved about it, and Josh has always looked up to him. Julie thinks Bruce is cute, but Elizabeth tells her that he isn’t a nice guy. The hazing continues with a series of mean tests. At Casey’s Bruce and his ‘guys’ make Josh eat all of their orders, at least eight sundaes. Of course he gets sick. Afterwards, Bruce apologizes to Julie and says that it went too far; then he asks her to be his date at a pledge party at his house. Julie says yes and tells Josh, but Josh warns her that Bruce is a creep. Julie gets defensive and thinks he is just jealous. When she tells Elizabeth, Elizabeth tells Julie the same thing: Bruce is a creep. That night at dinner, Elizabeth finds out from Jessica that Bruce is taking someone else to the party. She tells Josh and they both go to tell Julie. Julie doesn’t take it well at first, but decides it is what it is. At the party, Bruce gives Julie a tour of his mansion and then picks a quiet spot for them to talk. They are about to kiss when Bruce says he wants to change the song to something special, the lights are out and when he comes back he kisses Julie passionately… except it isn’t Bruce. It’s Josh! The lights come on and everyone sees them. Julie is mortified and thinks that Josh was in on the whole thing, when really it was another pledge task, and Bruce told all the pledges they were going to kiss a girl and she would report on who was the best kisser. Josh did not know it was Julie since it was so dark. Josh tries to make it right with Julie, but she won’t hear him out. He tells Elizabeth everything, and asks her to talk to Julie, but Julie isn’t listening to her either. Josh nearly quits the fraternity but is only a few days away from becoming a brother and holds back. Bruce’s tasks get even worse and a few days later he instructs Josh to embarrass Julie by buying all of the Jell-O and taking it over to her. He does, but at the last minute turns around and dumps the Jell-O all over Bruce instead. Josh quits the fraternity for good and Julie forgives him, and they realize they’re in love. During all of this, Jessica has been taking up ballet, which she hasn’t done since the sixth grade, because the female lead in the school play is a ballerina. Jessica is terrible, even with all that extra practice, but she still gets the part because the play is a comedy and she was always supposed to be bad. She wanted a romantic, dramatic role so nearly quits, but is encouraged by enough people to stay with it. The play happens and everyone loves Jessica’s performance, and all of her bad dancing.
I hope you’re not all Sweet Valley’ed out yet, because tomorrow’s post has some of my favorite books/episodes of the entire season and a very big first, I never thought would ever happen in the world of Sweet Valley… You’ll have to check back tomorrow to see what I’m talking about for yourselves! 🙂
-DMW
