Sweet Valley High #142: The Big Night

SVH142Read part one of this miniseries here.

The Moral of the Story: You can only fuck around on your boyfriend for so long before he finally gets sick of it. In this case, fifteen years.

The Big Deal: Junior Prom

Synopsis:

Devon corners Liz at the beach and yells at her for skipping their date to meet Todd. Then he tells her he’s the one who asked her to come to the beach because he wanted to see which guy she’d choose. Liz tells him she just wanted to return Todd’s ring. Devon immediately starts apologizing and Liz decides to forgive him.

Suddenly, it’s prom night. Devon calls and leaves a message with Jessica for Liz to meet him at some restaurant instead of at Secca Lake like they’d planned. Predictably, Jessica forgets to pass on the message and Liz ends up waiting around for an hour for Devon to show up at the lake. Why isn’t he picking her up at home? I love a good plot contrivance. Todd shows up at the lake. He wanted to go there because it’s “their” place. Liz is touched and confused and stuff, but after waiting so long for Devon, she decides to just go to the prom with Todd.

Meanwhile, Jessica’s limo pulls up at Jordan’s house. Right next to Lila’s limo. They spot each other and race to the front door. When Jordan answers the doorbell, he’s wearing boxers and eating a chili dog. He tells Lila and Jessica they’re a couple of morons for going behind each other’s backs. Then he slams the door in their faces. For some reason, this makes Jessica remember Devon’s message for Liz. She goes to the restaurant, planning to explain herself to Devon, but when she sees him looking all lonely and sad, she can’t help but pretend to be Liz. She figures they can go to Lila’s pre-prom party together, and then when they get to the dance, she and Liz can switch dresses and Devon will never know the difference.

Everything is going just great at Lila’s party except black Maria keeps giving Jessica and Devon weird looks. Enid looks absolutely miserable with Blubber Johnson and Devon keeps suggesting “Liz” go talk to her, but Jessica changes the subject. When everyone is leaving to go to the dance, Courtney Kane shows up. She stomps up the driveway and demands to know where Todd is. He apparently called her and said he decided not to go to the prom, but Courtney is sure he’s with Liz. Lila says nobody’s seen him, but Courtney is welcome to accompany her to the prom to see if he shows up. In the limo, Devon and Jessica flirt a whole bunch and Jessica decides she’s not going to give him back to Liz.

Liz and Todd go straight from the lake to the country club ballroom, reminiscing about old times the whole way. Which I imagine goes something like this: “Hey, remember that time you cheated on me with my sister?” “Which time?” They’re the first ones at the dance and they decide to have a spin around the dance floor before anyone else get there. And of course that’s when the whole crew comes in and sees them together. Courtney screams, “I can’t take this anymore!” and runs out of the room. Everyone else looks on in shock because they think it’s Jessica dancing with Todd. Liz is pretty shocked herself to see Jessica and Devon together. Jessica drags Liz away and comes up with the worst plan ever: Jessica will hang out with Devon and pretend to be Liz all night while Liz enjoys her prom night with Todd. How is this a good plan? So there are two Elizabeths and no Jessicas at this prom? Whatever. They’re not even trying anymore.

Jessica has a great time with Devon, but then Lila drags her off to the bathroom, where she threatens to tell Devon the truth. She’s miserable because she doesn’t have a date, so she wants to spread the misery around. They argue for a minute and then Lila says Jessica’s not worth the effort. After they leave the bathroom, Courtney comes out of a stall feeling like an evil genius. While Jessica talks to some of the cheerleaders, Courtney tells Devon he’s been dancing with Jessica all night. Devon is pissed. He marches over to Todd and Liz and makes a scene. Both Devon and Todd are completely disgusted with the twins. Liz runs out of the room in tears.

Jessica finally decides to come back to the ballroom, and Lila catches her and tells her Devon and Todd found out what was happening and that Liz wants to talk to her and is waiting in the golf shed. Jessica runs off that way, but she doesn’t know that Lila and Courtney are working together to bring the twins down. Liz is actually in the pool house crying to Enid and black Maria. Lila runs in and tells Liz that Jessica wants to talk in the golf shed, and she’s aggravated when Enid and Maria insist on going with her. While Courtney is locking the twins, Enid and Maria in the shed, Lila goes on to do the rest of her job. She’s supposed to convince Todd and Devon to get on the party yacht the school is renting.

Maria’s date, Tyler, and Blubber Johnson find the girls and Blubber breaks down the door. Well, that’s one upside to dating a football player. They run to the dock and get there just as the yacht starts sailing away. They get hold of a speedboat and go after it. I don’t really get what they’re going to do when they get to it, but we never get to find out because as soon as they get close, they see Courtney push Todd overboard. So she’s not just a bitch, she’s also homicidal. Liz jumps in and saves Todd. Once he’s on the speedboat, he thanks Liz for saving his life, but tells her he doesn’t ever want to see her again.

Quotes:

Todd’s jaw tightened. “You heard me. I don’t want to see you anymore. I can’t let you keep playing with me the way you have been.” He closed his eyes, and when he spoke again, his voice sounded distant and harsh, not at all like Todd. “I won’t play the fool anymore, Liz.”

Todd’s breakup speech.

The Cover: Doesn’t Lila look like some kind of dominatrix back there? Or, like, a madam keeping an eye on her girls?


You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or create a trackback from your own site.

17 Responses to “Sweet Valley High #142: The Big Night”


  • Comment from Merrie

    Wow. I’m totally taking Todd’s side — but just this once!

    Serioisly, Devon, you still want Liz after all that! 15 years with Todd and all she’s let him do is look at her ankles!

    [Reply]

    Shannon Reply:

    I’m on Todd’s side, too. He really just needs to move back to Vermont.

    [Reply]

  • Comment from girltalkread

    I think Lila looks fuggin hot :)

    [Reply]

    Shannon Reply:

    She does look pretty good.

    [Reply]

  • Comment from Jane

    My hatred for Todd knows no bounds. TEAM DEVON! Actually, Devon is annoying, too. TEAM ENID!

    [Reply]

    Shannon Reply:

    Ha! I think she should hook up with Jeffrey again. Poor Jeffrey.

    [Reply]

  • Comment from Anonymous

    I’d be happy for Todd if this wasn’t the 200th time Liz cheated on him.

    Dude Courtney get a life.

    [Reply]

    Shannon Reply:

    Agreed. Courtney is really pretty pathetic.

    [Reply]

  • Comment from Lorelai

    That is my least favourite Lila cover look. What is that looks she’s giving Todd and Liz? It can’t be a look of jealously, because it’s TODD AND LIZ!

    I will admit, though, that I always had a secret hope of Lila and Todd getting together. I think it stems back to Sweet Valley Kids. They had some serious seven-year-old sexual tension going on back then.

    [Reply]

    Shannon Reply:

    I never even thought about them getting together!

    [Reply]

  • Comment from Lindsay

    Both Devon and Todd are completely disgusted with the twins.

    Me, too, guys. Me, too.

    Jordon’s kinda awesome. But don’t scold my Lila, Jordon, ’cause she can do whatever the hell she wants.

    Doesn’t Lila look like some kind of dominatrix back there? Or, like, a madam keeping an eye on her girls?

    Ha! Yes!

    [Reply]

    Shannon Reply:

    I am also disgusted with the twins. What a stupid plan.
    I also think Jordan’s kind of great.

    [Reply]

  • Comment from HelenB

    Oh man, this whole thing is just one hug plot contrivance, isn’t it? How come Devon noticed that “Liz” was really Jessica every time but this? How come after all this time, people still trust Jess with phone messages? How come the allegedly intelligent Elizabeth has never realised that she is the ultimate doormat when it comes to both handsome guys and her sister? What the hell kind of revenge is locking two girls in a shed and stealing their dates who they may or may not actually like, and why does the usually somewhat mature Lila want to bloody her hands with a sociopath like Courtney “Plot Device” Kane?

    In other news: I am totally a fan of this piece of SVH fanfiction.

    [Reply]

    Shannon Reply:

    That fanfiction is awesome!

    And I agree with every single thing in your comment. It is, in fact, one great big plot contrivance. Thank goodness this series is almost over.

    [Reply]

  • Comment from Darren

    Actually, I’m a little sad it’s nearly over. Then again, that’s why the Simpsons seem to last forever.

    [Reply]

  • Comment from Sandy

    I still don’t understand how Enid got invited to Lila’s pre-prom party???

    [Reply]

    Shannon Reply:

    There’s no telling. Just like there’s no telling why Lila and Jessica visit Enid in the hospital in Enid’s Story or why they buy Olivia a present for her birthday in whatever book that was. Just for the sake of plot convenience, I guess.

    [Reply]


Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>



Theme Tweaker by Unreal
Better Tag Cloud