Double Love Bonus Written Recap: SVT Special Edition – Big For Christmas
It’s the last day of school before Christmas holidays! Hooray! Jessica is at a meeting of The Unicorn Club at Janet Howell’s house, where Janet is laying down the law about a Christmas party that she’s hosting. Now, for those unfamiliar with the Twins series, the Wakefields and their pals are all around twelve, The Unicorn Club is basically the tween version of Pi Beta Alpha, the Sixers is the Oracle equivalent and this Janet girl is allegedly Lila’s cousin and the most popular girl in Sweet Valley Middle School. She’s rich and snobby but has none of Lila’s swagger, basically. Also she’s in eighth grade so I believe she’s a year or two ahead of the twins which is why she’s nowhere to be found when the twins are in high school, or maybe Lila had her killed, there’s really no way of knowing. Jessica thinks about how much she loves Christmas and notes Janet’s particularly festive outfit of a “fitted red, green and gold vest” with a short red swingy pleated skirt and a low-slung red leather belt with a gold buckle. Janet reveals that her older brother Joe will be hosting the party alongside her and inviting his friends from school too, so there will be HIGH SCHOOL BOYS at this party, which takes the excitement levels up a few notches and causes the girls to all start squealing and dancing around the place.
After all, not only was Joe a freshman at Sweet Valley High, but he was also on the basketball team. That meant that he would invite his team-mates – and some of them were seniors!
There had absolutely better not be any any seniors at this party, I swear to God. Surely the seventeen year old basketball players will be too busy being a nuisance at the Dairi Burger or not understanding consent up at Miller’s Point. Janet then points out that because there will be “older men” at the party, she expects the Unicorns to dress accordingly and to look mature and sophisticated.
“No baby dresses, please. That means no velvet. No lace. And no bows. I want our club to look hip.”
In fairness, no velvet feels like a tall order in the early nineties when it comes to fancy clothes for twelve year old girls, but Janet has spoken and goes on to point out who is dressed well at the meeting, namely Lila and also Mandy Miller, who is sporting red and white striped leggings “that made her legs look like candy canes” with a red chenille sweater and a black felt hat with a red rose on it. Alright, Blossom. Jessica is then pointed out as being a bad example in her white jeans and purple t-shirt with a unicorn on it, which feels unfair as it’s surely pretty on-brand for this club, particularly because I remember the Unicorns are supposed to wear something purple every day, which Mandy the Christmas Elf certainly isn’t doing, but whatever.
We cut to Elizabeth and a pre-SVH Amy Sutton, who is a sweet, kinda boring girl who loves to read in this iteration of the series, rather than the destructive, manipulative bitch she later becomes, what with her basically shoving Regina Morrow’s face into a pile of cocaine and heartlessly using Ken Matthews to boost her popularity and social standing BUT HEY I DON’T HOLD GRUDGES. Liz and Amy are talking about books they’ve read recently and Amy is complaining that she doesn’t have anything to read over the Christmas holidays, because she’s all caught up on her beloved Amanda Howard mysteries. Liz decides that she’s going to buy Amy a book for Christmas and will head to the bookshop the following day to find something that she’ll enjoy.
Jessica catches up with them when they’re all cycling home and fills them in on the party that Janet and Joe are throwing, but Liz worries that she won’t have anything glamorous to wear. Jessica reassures her that she’s going to Kendall’s department store the next day to find something to wear for herself and will have a look for Liz as well. Their conversation is suddenly interrupted by a weird loud trumpeting noise and when they cycle off to investigate (it’s quite cute, very aerial-shot-at-the-start-of-a-Spielberg-film vibes) they discover that it’s the sound of elephants, because a Christmas carnival has come to town! One of the carnival workers calls them ‘kiddies’ when they ask about the carnival, which pisses Jessica off after having Janet talk down to her earlier.
The following morning at breakfast, Ned Wakefield says that he’s going to go pick up a Christmas tree that Friday and the twins happily say they’ll go too but fourteen year old Steven is being a grumpy teen and acts unbothered about going and says it’s for kids, which annoys the twins and hurts Ned’s feelings because it’s a family tradition that they do every year all together. 🙁 Liz notices that their dad looks sad so she talks Steven into joining them and Ned cheers up.
Later, Jessica is happily bopping around Kendall’s and enjoying the festive atmosphere as the whole place is decorated for Christmas. She tries on a few hats in the women’s section but they’re all massive on her, then a saleswoman spots her and tells her to try the children’s department, which Jessica isn’t too pleased about. The theme we’re building on here is that the twins are fed up of being treated like little kids, which is then furthered for Jessica when she queues up for a free makeover and is literally shooed away by the woman working the cosmetics counter. She tries the dress section of the children’s department but it’s wall to wall lace, velvet and bows and Jessica can’t find anything she likes, so the saleswoman tells her to try out the petite section in womenswear department but everything there is too big for her so she’s having no luck at all.
Over in the bookshop, Elizabeth is going through something similar in her effort to find something for Amy, as the man there just recommends all the books that Amy rolled her eyes at while her and Liz were talking about books the day before. He tells her try the adult section, where Liz meets the worst bookseller ever who offers to help her find something, recommending The Life of Franklin T. Jones: Memoirs of an Industrialist, a biography of a silent film actress and finally The Life of Churchill, because apparently she’s never met a twelve year old girl before and I guess Paula Danzinger doesn’t exist in this universe. Eventually Liz spots a book about horses that she thinks Amy will love, it sounds like a big shiny coffee-table type of book, and the woman brings it to the counter and continues to be terrible at her job, wrapping up the book as a gift before telling her twelve year old customer that it costs sixty five dollars, like bitch, of course she can’t afford that, what are you doing? Liz is mortified and has to explain that she doesn’t have that much and then overhears the woman bitching about her to a clerk, saying that she wasted her time and that the next time a little kid tries to buy a book from her she’ll send her to the children’s department. Why, so you can continue to recommend books that are totally unsuitable? It’s not Liz’s fault that you suck at your job, lady! Liz is all embarrassed and leaves the shop feeling like she’ll never be able to go back there, so slow clap to that saleswoman who I have taken against with a vigour that’s actually surprising me a little bit, to be honest lads.
On her way home, Liz starts to think the whole thing was pretty funny and starts laughing to herself, but runs into Steven who continues to be grouchy and says she’s making a show of herself and that she and Jessica are going to embarrass him at Joe Howell’s party by acting like eejits and that it’ll be more like babysitting for him with them there. They argue a bit and Steven asks her not to go to the party, because of Grumpy Teen-ness, which hurts Liz’s feelings and she shouts a very sarcastic Merry Christmas at him as he storm off, which is sassier than usual for baby Liz, so good for her, I suppose. Back at home, Jessica explains that she couldn’t find anything cool for them to wear to the party and Liz realises that their velvet dresses with bows on the back do make them look like little kids. And also like haunted porcelain dolls one might uncover in an attic before being murdered under very strange and unexplained circumstances. BUT I DIGRESS.
That evening, the twins are having a lovely time at the Christmas carnival with their pals, everything is glittery and shimmering and it’s all very festive. When some of the Unicorn gang head off to have a go on the merry-go-round, Liz and Jessica stop to buy some roast chestnuts. The guy selling them is dressed very convincingly as an elf and when his eyes meet Liz’s, there’s a weird flash of light. There’s also a wishing well behind where he’s standing with his cart and while he’s chatting with them, he tosses a coin into the well and says that he’s wishing them an unforgettable Christmas. Liz is a little bit puzzled by the whole thing, but then the twins spot Steven and decide to go chat to him and his friends while being super cool and mature to prove a point to him. Steven is all snappy with them, because, again, grumpy teen, but one of his friends, Tim, is happy to chat to the twins.
He talks to Liz about books, goes on the merry go round with them and tells Jessica to save a dance for him at the party. The following day, Jessica gets home from a shopping trip with Lila, and has a huge bag of clothes with her. The outlet mall she had tried was no use for nice party clothes, but she found a garage sale on the way home where a tiny woman who looked like Mrs Claus was selling off clothes that she had made for herself when she was a singer and dancer at the Christmas carnival. It all sounds like really lovely stuff, there’s a soft emerald green cashmere sweater with rhinestones on the sleeves and a matching green silk skirt and they’re all excited about how fuckin’ class they’re going to look at the party now in their cool grown-up (and very silky of course) clothes.
On Thursday, Ned is with Steven buying pastries for the following night when they’ll be putting the tree up and decorating it all together. I don’t know why he doesn’t buy them on Friday, or why the ghostwriter didn’t sub in something that wouldn’t be stale by the following day, but here we are. Well done everyone, the tree looks great, now let’s eat yesterday’s pastries! Anyway, Ned runs into Janet and Joe’s dad, Mr. Howell, who’s picking up some things at the last minute for the party later that night when he mentions in passing that he wants to make sure there’ll be enough food for the big senior guys on the basketball team. Ned is like “Whuuuuh??” because neither him or Alice realised that the party the twins are going to is one that Janet and Joe are throwing together, they thought that it was just going to be kids the same age as the twins and that Steven was going over to help Joe get it set up. Even though Steven had said he was going to a party at the Howell’s. Anyway, it’s just more of Ned and Alice’s excellent parenting on display.
Mr. Howell reassures Ned that he and his wife will be there for the whole thing, it’ll be fully chaperoned and there’s no reason to worry. However, Steven can see that Ned is wavering on the whole thing after the conversation, so the little fuckin’ snake starts suggesting that he’ll be able to keep on eye on the twins in case it gets too wild (it won’t) and that there won’t be any more than a hundred students at the party (unless the Howells live in a fucking airport hangar or something, Ned is so stupid to believe this unquestioningly). Steven fells a bit guilty, as well he might and Ned declares that this party won’t be right for the girls but that maybe the cookies and pastries he’s bought will cheer them up because he’s an absolute dope who has clearly never met Jessica Wakefield.
Back at the house, Liz and Jessica are getting dressed for the party. Jessica was over at the Howell’s house for two hours helping to decorate earlier and the place looks amazing so they’re all excited about how much fun it’ll be. Then Alice appears in the door way and comments that she didn’t realise it was a costume party. The twins are confused and so am I to be honest, because what they’re wearing sounds perfectly fine for two twelve year olds going to a Christmas party. Liz is trying on a green cashmere sweater with jewelled buttons and Jessica is in a “shimmering sequinned top over silver silk slacks” but Alice tells them the clothes aren’t suitable and picks up a brightly beaded bag, exclaiming it looks like “something from a Mardi Gras parade”. Jesus Alice it’s the nineties, get a grip. She also gives out about Liz wearing green eyeshadow and when the twins mention that there’ll be high school kids at the party too, Alice is as dumbstruck as Ned was because clearly neither of these people actually talk to their children. Ned gets home and makes a comment about the girls looking like they’re dressed for Halloween and I’m ready to dropkick these parents out the window, the girls are literally wearing sweaters and slacks, leave them alone! Ned and Alice decide that the girls shouldn’t go to the party which obviously doesn’t go down too well and even Liz has an outburst, surprising Alice. They go back to their rooms feeling upset and betrayed and I’m with them to be honest, fuck Ned and Alice man, those guys suck!
Liz and Jess are grumpy and quiet all evening and Alice tries to console them, saying that they’ll have plenty of time for parties in high school when they’re older, and look, I’m still mad at Alice but to be fair, all they fucking do is go to parties when they’re in high school, so I guess that’s actually fair. Jessica decides that they should go to the party anyway and just tell their parents that they’re going to the carnival. She has it all worked out, they can take their party clothes with them in a backpack and change on the way and she can blackmail Steven into saying nothing when they get there because she has a photo of him coming out of an R-rated film at the cinema (okay??).
However, when they tell their parents that they’re heading to the carnival, Ned is like “We’ll all go!” saying they’ll have a big family outing, even though the last thing the twins want to do is hang out with their parents who just screwed them out of a party they were looking forward to at the last minute, but that doesn’t occur to Ned and Alice. The twins have no choice but to go along with it and are even more miserable once they get there because Ned and Alice are all over each other, being embarrassing parents and making the girls feel like spare wheels after all Ned’s talk about it being a family outing. They go looking for more roast chestnuts while Ned and Alice are in the Tunnel of Love (these fuckers, I’m gonna kill them) but can’t find the vendor guy anywhere. They do come across the wishing well again though and both of them make a wish at the same time and each without the other knowing, wishes the same thing, “I wish I were grown up.” I suppose “I wish I was big” would have been too blatant a rip-off.
Meanwhile at the party, Steven can’t manage to enjoy himself because the guilt over the twins is eating away at him.
Tons of people had asked about them – and not just the middle schoolers, either. A lot of the high school kids seemed to be really sorry they weren’t there.
Interesting to note that the students of Sweet Valley High were obsessed with the twins before they even went there. Interesting and ridiculous. Steven realises that he misses them being at the party too and ends up leaving early because he’s not having fun now that he’s ruined their night for no real reason. The Wakefields are on the way home from the carnival and Ned and Alice continue to excel at dealing with their children by telling them they should stop pouting over the party (it is still the SAME NIGHT Ned, you dick, they’re allowed to still be annoyed when the party is HAPPENING AT THAT MOMENT) and then laughing at the fact that the twins are still upset. I hate them!
The next morning, Liz wakes up but hey- that’s weird, her nightgown feels too tight around her neck and the whole thing is way shorter now, it only comes to her knees instead of her ankles and her slippers are way too small. She runs into the bathroom and screams at the sight of the blonde woman in the mirror, thinking that this stranger must be standing behind her. Jessica runs in and they both scream and then do a bit of running in and out of each other’s rooms like it’s Scooby Doo, looking for the regular Liz and Jess, as each of them think that the strange blonde woman must have captured their sister.
Eventually they stop and look at each other properly, realising that they are in fact the strange blonde women and then they look in the mirror and scream again. It was actually pretty funny, in fairness to the ghostwriter, even if it did take them far too long and too much screaming to work it out. Alice comes to the bathroom door and asks what’s going on but they manage to get rid of her saying they were just messing around and they’ll be down for breakfast in a minute. They realise that they each wished for the same thing at the well and that it’s actually come true. Jessica sneaks some clothes out of Alice’s wardrobe but runs into her mother and Steven on the way back to the room with clothes for Liz. They both manage to get out of the house fully dressed and run for it. Of course, the first thing Jessica wants to do is call the media, but then they get distracted by how beautiful they are as nineteen or twenty year olds, which is what they reckon they are now. Jessica is excited that she has boobs.
“Look at this,” she cried. “I’ve got a bust!”
Liz agrees that their figures are certainly fuller now, prompting Jessica to ask “Not fat, though?” in a worried voice, because it simply wouldn’t be a Sweet Valley book without a fuckin unnecessary nod to fatphobia. Liz reassures her that they’re not fat and then a guy passing by nearly crashes his red sports car because he’s so busy staring at them.
Then, as if to show the girls that he was still hot stuff, he revved his engine and took the next corner on two wheels.
He took the corner. In a car. On two wheels. Calm down there, Vin Diesel. Jessica gets swept up in excitement over all the things they can do now and the freedom they’ll have now that they’re grown up, until Liz points out that they have no money and nowhere to stay. Jessica can smell doughnuts nearby and reckons they might be able to work in exchange for breakfast at the bakery, so they bop along to find that the bakery is loading up the trucks for deliveries and they’re missing a driver.
Jessica decides that they can drive the delivery truck so she gets the supervisor’s attention, along with a sense of the power she now wields as a very hot woman when he immediately turns red and drops his clipboard at the sight of her. The men in this town have absolutely zero chill. Jessica tricks him into letting them eat a bunch of doughnuts for free, saying that she couldn’t possibly deliver a product she doesn’t know anything about. Once they’re both full of doughnuts, the guy sends them off with the truck even though they have no drivers licenses or social security numbers or any of that stuff. Jessica told him their bags were stolen on the bus that morning and just bamboozled him with her good looks until he let them head off, basically.
In the meantime, the Wakefield parents and Steven are talking to the cops about the mystery woman that was in their house and the fact that their daughters are missing. However, the Sweet Valley cops are as useful as ever and tell Ned and Alice to chill out and that the girls probably just left without telling them that morning after the disagreement they had the previous night and will be back later. Apparently they can’t start looking for them until it’s been 24 hours but like, I’m fairly sure that’s not the case when it’s ACTUAL CHILDREN but okay! Also Steven feels extra terrible now that he thinks the twins have run away and blames himself for it due to his snakey shithead actions.
Across town, Jessica is driving the truck and Liz is on navigation duties, but of course, neither of them actually know how to drive yet so they almost immediately cause a five-car pile up. When a nearby cop approaches they split up and make a run for it, meeting in an alleyway once they’ve outrun him on their newly long legs. Meanwhile, Steven decides to go out and look for the twins, seeing as the cops were typically fucking useless, and passes by the same alley just as one of the twins is coming around a corner, only to find himself dragged into it by the mystery lady from the house earlier.
He almost faints when he discovers what’s happened, understandably, and gives the twins whatever money has has on him to tide them over. Liz tells him to sneak some stuff for them (toothbrushes, sleeping bags, etc) into the room over the garage without Ned and Alice noticing so at least now they have somewhere to stay for the night. Jessica is hungry again, what with all the illegal driving and running from the cops so they head for a diner where Liz orders eggs, toast and a fruit salad but Jess goes fuckin buck wild. She orders an ice-cream sundae, a slice of triple layer chocolate cake and a fudge brownie for dessert, which is gas and I do kinda love, because I vividly remember being a kid and deciding that when I was grown up I was going to have ice cream and strawberry jelly for breakfast every day, so I’m actually with her on this.
Liz finds an ad for a temp agency in a discarded newspaper, and decides that’s what they should do for money. On their way to the place, they see a group of Jessica’s friends talking about the party and Jessica ends up feeling a bit sad that she can’t join in with them and find out all the gossip. Liz is feeling a similar way as it’s weird not to be recognised by people they know, but they carry on and go for an interview at the temp agency. Liz manages to get a receptionist position in Sweet Valley Publishing and Jessica wangles a clerical job in a clothing company, despite, again, not a bean of documentation between them but sure look, we’re not exactly rooted in reality here, in fairness.
They’re both starting immediately, so Jessica heads to Y&C Clothing and pretends she’s a model while she’s on the bus there, flipping her hair around the place and throwing a look over her shoulder at an imaginary camera, only to find there’s someone sitting behind her and he’s very amused by her carry-on. She haughtily informs him that she’s a model on her way to a shoot and only on the bus because her limo broke down. Unfortunately for Jess, the guy on the bus is also going to Y&C Clothing, because he’s actually their photographer, so poor Jess is mortified when she arrives to the office and he sees her being sent off to do a heap of filing.
Jessica starts to think that being a grown up kinda sucks really, because everyone has a boss, even the higher up people. She imagines that the best thing to be would be a top executive in the company, until she comes across a letter to the CEO from stockholders giving out to them for not being profitable enough. As well as these revelations, she keeps having to start her filing over because the system is impossibly complicated (my eyes keep glazing over whenever I try to read it, so I don’t blame her for fucking it up) and her exasperated supervisor lady tells her to type some notes out on the computer instead but then Jessica presses a button and the whole system breaks down across the building, leaving Jessica in tears because having a job is the worst and being twelve is way easier.
Meanwhile, Liz is having as much fun as Jessica over at the publishing house because she has no idea how to work the phone system (can also relate to this, because every time I tried to transfer a call that came to me accidentally in one particular job, I ended up hanging up on the caller), she doesn’t know who anyone is and a lunch delivery she knows nothing about arrives while the phone is ringing off the hook. Her supervisor keeps giving out to her but they don’t seem to have shown her the ropes whatsoever so they only have themselves to blame really.
Back in the Wakefield house, Ned is about to cancel a work meeting with his most important client so they can drive around looking for the twins and Steven gets worried that Ned might lose his job. He tells him not to cancel the meeting and Ned and Alice eventually get out of Steven that he knows that Liz and Jessica are safe but can’t tell them where they are, so he ends up getting grounded.
Jessica continues to have a terrible time at the fashion company offices and ends up doodling some designs for clothes for her and Liz’s twelve year old selves, thinking about how a toned down version of the Christmas outfits they planned on wearing to the party could look really good. She was supposed to be putting binders of documents together for a big meeting that afternoon though, so when the supervisor sees they’re not ready and flips out at her, Jessica has had enough and says they’re all really mean and gets upset. The photographer guy tries to console her and explains that they’re all under pressure because their holiday line for girls hasn’t been selling well and they need to figure out what kind of clothes girls actually want to wear. Enter Jessica!
She tells them that she knows exactly what girls want to wear and when they’re like “How would you know, woman who is at least twenty?”, she manages to catch herself in time before blurting out “Because I AM a twelve year old girl in this confusingly hot body!” and says that she went shopping with her…uh… niece recently and they couldn’t find anything right for a party. The head of design then sniffly says that she’s mistaken because they sent out loads of velvet jumpers and and lacy blouses to the shops (quick reminder here more for myself than anyone that in American speak, jumpers mean pinafores) and Jess is like “yeah, and they fuckin suck”, or something to that effect. Chuck the photographer then spots the designs Jess was drawing and says they’re really good. Everyone agrees and Jessica is promoted to Assistant Design Consultant because why the fuck not, oh and they’re going to call their spring line The Jessica Collection. Because of course they are.
Liz also has a bit of an upswing in her miserable job when she’s brought into an editorial meeting to take notes, and wouldn’t you know it, they’re trying to come up with ideas for a book series for middle-grade girls and throw out a bunch of things that aren’t any good in Liz’s opinion, until she unintentionally blurts out “What about a twins series?” and essentially pitches Sweet Valley Twins because HELL YES WE’RE GOING META, BABY. Just like Episodes, Gilmore Girls and Game of Thrones, the people in the thing end up writing the thing they’re in, only Sweet Valley did it back in 1995 so they can all SUCK IT. Naturally, the editors love the idea and the senior one wants Liz to be her executive assistant. Despite each of their wild successes in their first days on the job, both twins miss their friends and their parents and being twelve, but when they fill each other in on their promotions, they each think the other won’t want to try to find a way to go back to being kids again so they both end up pretending to be happy with staying as they are.
Steven manages to sneak them into the room above the garage back home (I suppose it’s just not a room that’s ever used?) and they can see their parents through the window, standing in Liz’s room looking sad and then see Alice bursting into tears. Steven yells at the twins for being selfish and wanting to stay grown up when their parents don’t know what’s happened to them and he ends up apologising for being such a little bollocks to them before and scamming them out of going to the party. Jessica and Liz each then realise how the other feels and they do actually want to be twelve again. The three of them set out to find the carnival again, figuring that the wishing well might sort everything out if they can unwish their wishes, but when they get to the fairground… the carnival has left town! Nooo! Some binmen clearing the place up tell them that it’s moved to Littlefield, a town three hours away and that there’s a bus they can take to get there.
They eventually get to Littlefield and find the carnival, only it’s closed and everything is dark as it’s pretty late by now. They rattle the gates trying to get in, but a voice tells them they’re not open until tomorrow. Jessica wails that they have to get in and who should appear only the chestnut seller guy and the woman who sold Jessica the flashy clothes at the garage sale. Liz asks them if they can come in to wish themselves back to normal, so they open the gate and suddenly everything in the carnival switches on at once as they walk in. The two elves disappear so the twins and Steven leg it to the well and toss their coins in, wishing they were twelve again. When they open their eyes they’re still adults though and Liz starts to get upset. Steven says they should get out of there and the carnival has turned a bit creepy now and as they run out, they can hear the sound of someone laughing. Those elf jerks need to cool it, there’s really no need for them to be this sinister.
There’s nothing for it but to head back to Sweet Valley on another three hour bus ride and Steven is feeling very gloomy on the way home. The twins have gone to sleep at the back of the bus and when they arrive back in Sweet Valley, Steven calls them to wake them up, to find two little twelve year old heads pop up all sleepy so the wish did actually work! Hooray! They get back to the house to meet Ned picking up the morning paper and it’s a lovely big tearful reunion. Ned says he doesn’t even care what happened as he’s so glad they’re home and they’re going to have the most amazing Christmas ever now and Jessica says it’s going to be the happiest and most unforgettable one of her life. Except it won’t because that time the twins pulled a Tom Hanks in Big never ever comes up in any other book so while they may have had an actual weird supernatural type experience, they sure as fuck won’t ever talk about it again.
Happy Christmas!
Let’s count some things!
References to the twins’ blue-green eyes: 1 (ONE?? The FUCK is this??)
References to the fact that the twins are blonde: 15 (Now that’s more like it)
Notable outfits:
Jessica tries on some truly stunning dresses in the department store during her failed shopping expedition.
She stepped into a sleeveless black sheath dress with a giant tiger head stitched onto the front.
Hell yeah she did.
When the gals are trying to sneak out to Janet’s they wear their party outfits under casual clothes, and in Liz’s case she had settled on:
“White silk trousers” with a “matching ruffled blouse.” Sweet Valley’s silk clothing game remains unbeaten.
Then when the twins raid their mother’s wardrobe for some grown-up clothes, Jessica takes Alice’s “beautiful black jumpsuit” and Liz goes for her “blue tweed suit and blouse.” Excellent.