Sweet Valley High 97: The Verdict

The three-day trial of Elizabeth is coming to its close. We learn Elizabeth had dropped out of the race for Prom Queen in order to let Jessica win.

(A couple of thoughts here. Why did no one consider the use of a professional hypnotist to try to help Elizabeth regain her memories?)

Margo's on her way and she apparently resembles the twins a little.

Jessica continues what is essential her war against Elizabeth by going to a disco the night before the final day of trial. Todd sends letter to Elizabeth and Jessica intercepts it which brings up a good point. If the letter was actually a regular postmarked letter, than Jessica would be interfering with the mail. U.S. Code 1701 states 'Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.'

Now we know that the series continues so it isn't a spoiler to say that she is innocent but the last-second manner in which that is handled is not good. There's this long build-up to what will happen to her in the trial and suddenly its a deus ex machina (a person or thing that appears or is introduced into a situation suddenly and unexpectedly and provides an artificial or contrived solution to an apparently insoluble difficulty.)

Steven realizes mistake he made, Lila learns about the backstory between her mother and father and we learn more about Bruce and Pamela.

The main problem is still with Jessica. She has continued her war against Elizabeth, blaming her for everything that has happened, and absolutely refuses to acknowledge her part in it all. What she is exuding is absolute hatred against Liz and I don't see how that can be solved. I hope Jessica is held responsible for what she has done in relation to the dance and the drinking but I doubt she will be. I also hope that they just don't have a sudden 'oh, my, I've been bad to Elizabeth' moment in which the twins reunite without any bad feelings between them.

This is also a vast change in the series. The earlier books had problems for the twins, yes, but absolutely noting on this serious scale. (Granted, though, I haven't read all the previous books so maybe there was something that I'm not aware of.)