SVU #45, Don't Let Go
It’s the day of Nick Fox’s funeral. I’m sure the ghostwriter would have had it raining, except it never rains in Sweet Valley. Let’s just assume the sky is raining on the inside but showing a brave face. Everybody at SVU is
at the church to say goodbye to Nick Fox, even though he wasn’t a student there or anything. Only evil, sex-loving, wicked boyfriend stealer Dana Upshaw has the audacity not to attend. She pretends like it’s because she doesn’t want to inflict more pain on Elizabeth Wakefield after sleeping with her boyfriend, Tom Watts, but we all know that she’s just afraid of a crucial twin smackdown. Come on, there are two of them!
Jessica can’t cry watching them bury Nick. She is in shock, and she feels as though she is somehow to blame for Nick’s death. She wishes she could cry, but feels all dried up inside. Elizabeth gets all judgy about it: “[Jessica] hadn’t shown any emotion. She sat perfectly still, as if she were carved from marble, not shedding a tear. Meanwhile, Elizabeth was weeping enough for them both.” I’m sure St. Elizabeth was doing just that. Everybody throws a rose onto Nick’s coffin and then the gravediggers start filling it in. Elizabeth can’t take the sound of the clods hitting the coffin and runs away, leaving her sister standing alone by the grave. Good times! She runs right into Tom who tries to apologize for the sex, but Elizabeth basically tells him to fuck off. (She doesn’t mean it literally, though.)
Because Elizabeth dipped out on her twin, who’s left to comfort her but Lila? Would I have enjoyed this series more if Jessica and Lila were the twins and Elizabeth was the dorky girl down the street who they plotted against? Or, better yet, if Elizabeth and Enid were a dorky pair of rival twins? I don’t know. I do love so much to hate Liz. It’s hard to say. Anyway, Lila is so nice to Jess here and Jess is rude: “You can’t possibly understand what I am going through.” Lila is like, “WHY DOES NO ONE REMEMBER MY DEAD ITALIAN HUSBAND?” Jess is like, “Oh, yeah. Tis-i-ohno-my-Jetski’s-on-fire! That guy. I feel bad.” Lila says that she won’t feel bad forever. Jess doubts it.
Isabella still has amnesia from that coma she was in. Perhaps she will start acting like Jessica and let Bruce Patman touch her boob! Danny brings book of poetry to Isabella’s room to read to her. She doesn’t remember him. Her parents arrive and announce that they are taking Isabella to Switzerland to get treatment and recover her memories. Danny once again convinces Isabella’s parents to eschew medical treatment and keep her in Sweet Valley so he can help her remember. Is Danny some kind of voodoo witch doctor? Is that the subtext here? Is he a Jedi?
Todd and Dana have lunch together. They talk about all they have in common; you know, the fact that Dana had sex with Elizabeth’s ex-boyfriend and Todd tried to have sex with Elizabeth.
Jessica is wandering around the graveyard. Where is Elizabeth? Where are the parents? Do Alice and Ned Wakefield have any idea of what’s going on in their daughters lives? Why didn’t they come to the funeral? What is wrong with this family?? Someone touches Jess on the arm and she thinks its Nick’s killer but it’s Denise and the Thetas. Everyone is super-nice to her, including Allison Quinn, which means shit must be bad, if Quinn’s being nice. Elizabeth finally shows up to take Jess home. I guess she was there all along.
The Thetas are sure busy today because now they’re at the hospital to say hi to Isabella, who is checking out. Her parents are taking her to the Stanhope Towers, and they want Danny to wait a few days before visiting. Izzy doesn’t know the Thetas. She clings to Danny and asks who they are. Isabella’s parents are worried because Danny promised them all Iz needed were a few familiar faces and she’d snap out of it. She doesn’t seem to be snapping.
Elizabeth has a plan to help cheer Jessica up: she thinks they should redecorate their dorm room. She starts talking about wall-to-wall carpeting. Are students allowed to do major renovations like that? Jessica thinks its lame and is basically catatonic here. At least Liz is trying. She gets partial credit for that. There’s a knock on the door and Jessica apparently has some kind of PTSD because she runs and hides. Elizabeth opens the door to reveal…
Tom, who saw Todd and Dana together and is pissed that the whore’s love life is stellar while his is falling apart. If only she had not tricked him into having sex with her! You know, by dating him. And being there. Those feminine wiles! Jessica thinks whoever is at the door is trying to take Liz hostage and freaks out. Elizabeth tells her that she’s leaving for a while to go out and discuss not having sex with Tom. But then Tom says that it’s Elizabeth’s fault he had sex with Dana because she wouldn’t have sex with him. That was the wrong thing to say, Tommy. Elizabeth isn’t going anywhere with him now.
Danny brings Isabella a pizza to try and jog her memory. To no avail. Not only does Isabella not remember liking pineapple pizza-she hates it now. (I am telling you, the boob-touching is not far away). She’s also kind of a brat about it. Maybe she forgot her manners along with everything else. Mrs. Ricci tells Isabella not to worry because there is no pineapple pizza in Switzerland. Danny knows he better step up his game.
At a WSVU meeting, Tom wonders if he should go into therapy for his love life. Yes. Yes, Tom, yes to therapy. Not for your love life, though. You are a twenty year old guy whose parents died in an horrific car crash and you lost your identity and then you were stalked multiple times by a serial killer and then your biological dad turned out to be a creepy pervert. YES. THERAPY. He decides against it. I love the message these books send to young people! Tom runs into Dana and calls her a parasite, who lives off other women’s boyfriends. Which is harsh…but kind of true.
If it wasn’t for Nina and Bryan, I wouldn’t think this series was actually set at a university.
Dana is understandably upset at being called a slut by Tom, especially considering that he was just as much a part of the sex as she was. She can’t concentrate on her cello, and it doesn’t help that the person in the next music room is making an awful racket. She goes to tell the person to shut up and finds that Todd’s playing the drums. They talk about how music is like basketball, or something. Todd feels vaguely guilty that he is flirting while his ex-girlfriend, Gin-Yung, is dead, but he gets over it. He probably heard about how Dana has sex with guys who used to date Elizabeth.
Jessica is bad off, y’all. Elizabeth can’t leave her but she has a paper due, so she convinces Jessica she needs her help at the library and Jessica agrees to go with her. The lights in the library keep flickering. It’s probably because the school spent all its money bribing the jocks in that athletics scandal a few months back. Jessica is freaked out and thinks the library is haunted. Someone from one of Jessica’s classes comes over to talk to her about a paper they have due the next day on the Russian revolution. Jess hasn’t been working on it because of everything with Nick, but I’m not so sure she would have even if Nick hadn’t died. Elizabeth decides to help Jess with her paper but ends up writing the paper for her. You might think that’s nice of her, but she’s all annoyed that her own art history project will have to be turned a day in late.
Danny is still trying his memory-reviving mojo on Isabella, reading her poetry and showing her pictures. Nothing. Not a blip. Isabella’s parents are tired of this and they tell Danny that they don’t think this is going to work. They’re taking her to Switzerland. Danny tells them he wants to take her to Theta house for a tea party in one last attempt to make Izzy remember. Her parents reluctantly agree; at this point, I think Danny should try to sell them a bridge.
Nina and Bryan are in the chem lab and she notices he is writing the name ‘Maria Lawrence’ over everything. C-Plot mystery! If Elizabeth had seen that she would probably assume that Bryan was having sex with this Maria Lawrence. Speaking of, Tom is sitting around with some WSVU interns and they are talking about graduate school, and Tom thinks that women in graduate school probably don’t get bent out of shape when their ex-boyfriends sleep with someone else. OK, I want to put this sex thing to bed right now (so to speak). Here is how I feel about it. I think Elizabeth is in the wrong here, and here’s why. It’s not because she is not having sex with Tom. I think that it’s perfectly reasonable to expect someone to want to wait if they are not ready to have sex. I think it’s wrong to pressure anyone into it, so what Todd did to Liz at the start of this series is wrong. But. It’s just as wrong for Elizabeth not to respect Tom’s decision to have sex when he felt he was ready. And it’s not like Tom tumbled willy-nilly into bed with the first person who came along. Tom and Elizabeth were broken up. Tom and Dana were dating for months before they went to bed together. They used protection and had safe sex, and it’s not clear whether they were in love (probably not) but they seemed to care about each other. But that’s not good enough for Elizabeth: she wanted Tom to wait until she was ready, but she and Tom weren’t even together. I think she is allowed to feel hurt or jealous, but she is not allowed to be mad. I have a hard time even thinking that this is even any of her business. I mean, if she and Tom got back together and Liz decided somewhere along the line to have sex with Tom, I think he should tell her that he has had another partner or even get tested to make sure he doesn’t have any STDs. But as it is, he had caring and safe sexual relations with a non-casual partner. I can’t really say anything else here but kudos to him. Sorry for the digression; back to the story.
Elizabeth wants Jessica to get up and start living her life again. Jessica doesn’t want to. She doesn’t want to go shopping or do her nails, she doesn’t want to go to class, she doesn’t want anything but for Elizabeth to stop crowding her and give her space. She tells Elizabeth this in a less than polite way but I can’t agree with what Elizabeth does next, which is to pull all the way back and emotionally abandon her twin. Fine, Elizabeth says, if that’s what Jessica wants then Elizabeth will leave her alone-she won’t have anything else to do with her. She won’t help her. She reminds Jessica she has her own life to live and is going to start right now. Jessica was sort of a brat to Liz, but I think Liz could totally try and have some of that famous empathy here. Elizabeth runs to the Gazette offices to work on a story, leaving Jessica sobbing in their room. Elizabeth thinks to herself, There’s nothing more noble than being an investigative reporter. Except having giving your grief-stricken twin sister the benefit of the doubt and the emotional support she needs. She gets hers, though, because the editor of the Gazette comes over and assigns Elizabeth a story: he wants her to interview people on campus about their attitudes toward sex. Get ready for an incisive piece of journalism in which Elizabeth Wakefield villianizes every person who’s ever had sex because she personally has decided not to!
Jessica breaks down in class and starts weeping and calling Nick’s name. I am so mad at Wakefield pere and mere right now. Where are you, Ned and Alice? Your child needs you!
Elizabeth feels weird about her sex story. Apparently, probing into other peoples’ sex lives seems intrusive. Funny, it didn’t seem intrusive when she was probing into Dana and Tom’s sex life in the book before this one. I wish the Sweet Valley universe included YouTube and that someone would tell Elizabeth several disgusting sexual acts to type into the search window. It would do wonders for her prudishness. Elizabeth interviews a guy named Chip who asks her if she is a virgin. She’s fairly uptight about answering and when Chip says he thinks she is, she seems ashamed. Own it, Elizabeth. There’s nothing wrong with waiting. Elizabeth freaks out and makes a value judgment of her own: that because Chip has had sex in the past, it must be all he can think about, ever. She tells him to go find someone to have sex with; she is being really ridiculous and unprofessional here.
Jessica sees Nick across the quad. This is bad, because it means Nick is not dead or that Jess is hallucinating. I suppose there is also a small chance he might be a zombie. She runs across campus in front of all the Thetas screaming his name. She’s also wearing a torn cardigan and wrinkled khakis, which is even more distressing. Danny sees her and stops her before she can reach the guy in a leather jacket-who we see from Danny’s point of view only looks a little like Nick. Jessica tears away from Danny to follow Nick. Isabella might not remember Danny but she is touched by his kindness to Jessica. She reaches over to hold his hand.
Dana plays the cello for Todd, and her performance is the best one she’s given since all this sex breakup drama went down with Tom Watts. Todd is impressed and Dana is so grateful to be playing music again.
Jessica runs into Leather Jacket Dude (AKA Not Nick’s) arms. LJD is like, “Do I know you?” But he’s kind of flirting with her. Jess thinks that nobody is allowed to love her but Nick, and that she should start dressing ugly to make sure she is not attractive. She starts screaming. This is full-on mental breakdown territory, guys. This is not scary cold psychopathic Jessica of the days following the Jungle Prom. This is their coming to take me away to the mental home straitjacket crazy. Lila finds Jessica and takes her back to her dorm. She tells Jessica she has to get over Nick. She has to. Jess says it will never happen.
Elizabeth at this very moment is having cake with Nina. Nina congratulates Liz on her article in the school paper about how True Love Waits which sounds fairly preachy to me. But good for her for being open about her personal choices. Tom sees Elizabeth’s article and beats himself up over it. He’s pissed, and he goes off to write a rebuttal piece called “Bitter Uptight Virgins and the Men They Don’t Love Enough.” Which is not nice, but it is funny.
Jessica goes to visit Isabella, but is told that Izzy has left. Jess thinks this means Iz is better. She doesn’t know about the amnesia. She runs into the Riccis on their way out, and Isabella doesn’t know who she is. Jess tells her it’s OK, because she doesn’t know who she is anymore, either. Danny shows up in time to see the Riccis take Izzy away. They tell him gently that Izzy will get better in the sanitorium or she won’t, but if she and Danny are meant to be together they will be, and it is just this kind of crap that makes kids hate old people.
Elizabeth’s article has really done a number on Dana. It’s made her feel ashamed of her sexual choices. Todd reassures her that it’s OK, and that she has healthy desires, and it’s normal, which I want to think is sweet, but then I remember that he’s eighteen and a raging ball of hormones and a former almost-date rapist.
D-plot: Nina asks Bryan about the mysterious Maria; he won’t tell her who she is. Nina thinks Bryan is cheating on her and tells Elizabeth who is horrified to think that someone else is HAVING SEX! I wonder if Elizabeth knows that her parents once had sex and she is the product of it?
Jess goes to the cemetery. She takes a cab there; just as she arrives it starts storming. She wants Nick to come back. There’s lightning and thunder and Jess just lies on his grave and cries. She feels as though his spirit is nearby. She starts thinking that she just needs to live her life in a way that would make Nick proud and that is how she can keep him in her with her forever. She leaves the cemetery with a new purpose. It’s no Sam Woodruff Memorial Dirtbike Rally, but it’ll do, pig.
OK. Maybe I spoke too soon. The next morning Jessica gets up and smears self-tanner all over her face instead of foundation and brushes her teeth with hair gel and then puts on a silk blouse and leather clogs. I feel like next she is going to start singing “Hey nonny nonny.” She looks at herself in the mirror and thinks she’s ready to go face the world.
This is weird: “Since she had to keep her nails short for the cello, Dana always made sure to take extra care with her pedicures.” Does she play the cello with her feet??
Jessica is in class (!). Instead of taking notes she writes: “I love you. I miss you. Come back to me, Nick.” After class her professor wants to see her. Her teacher calls her disgraceful, which is pretty harsh, and tells her she is failing the class. Her teacher wants her to write an extra credit paper on anarchy and death in the twentieth century and at the word ‘death’ Jessica freaks. She says she can’t take it anymore, she can’t take it. She staggers out of the classroom and lays on the floor. Denise finds her and takes her to the Theta House. None of the Thetas know what to do for her. They’re only kids; Jessica is melting. What can they do? This is why most people have parents. Allison Quinn comes in and tells Jess that the Thetas have standards and Jessica is not living up to them. Jess is out of the Thetas; Jess doesn’t care. You’d think the rest of the Thetas would protest, but they just sort of sit there. Maybe they’re stunned at the bitchery.
And while all this is happening Elizabeth gets dolled up and goes to a frat party to scope guys. Wonderful. Tom is drunk. He sees Elizabeth dancing with another guy and is pissed. She makes out with the guy she’s dancing with. (This scene is interspersed with scenes of Todd and Dana’s date. They make out, too.) At the party, Tom punches the guy Elizabeth is kissing but is too intoxicated to do much damage. Danny hauls him out of the fight.
Jessica lays in her dorm room alone, in the dark. She picks up a picture of Nick and talks to it like Nick can hear. She picks up her teddy bear and talks to it, too. Jessica is gone, y’all. “I’m not going to make it through this one,” she says. “Jessica Wakefield is checking out.”
The last scene of the book is of an unnamed man watching Jessica through binoculars. He reads her lips as she says she’s all alone. You’re not alone, he thinks…not when I am watching your every move. Is this good or bad? I have my suspicions, but we’ll have to see.
There you have it, guys: the most egregious parenting in the history of this series. This, more than anything, is Ned and Alice Wakefield's shittiest hour as parents. I mean, when Jessica got married and Mike McAllery was shot it made sense that they might not know because Jess was keeping everything secret. Whatever. But here? This is a huge thing and was probably on the news. Ned is a lawyer. Of course they would have heard about this. If they didn't it's because they are so totally absent as parents. Jessica is cracking up and nobody cares. There have been a lot of times in this series where I have accused Elizabeth of shitty sister behavior but I honestly believe this is the worst. Even worse than the way Jessica acted after the Jungle Prom, because she was motivated by grief and Liz had parents to turn to. Jess has nobody and Elizabeth's only reason for not being there was that Jess, in a fit of despair and anger, told her to go away. And Elizabeth did. This is pretty unforgiveable and I am not looking forward to the reconciliation scene where its just pooh-poohed away. This is a serious betrayal; IRL Jessica would never forgive her sister for this. And Liz wouldn't deserve it.