I forgot the whole costume ball thing completely. Like nothing about this sounded at all familiar
Yeah, and the twins' sparkly pink ball gowns gave me minor heart palpitations - no way could the #100 stepback be a lie!!1!
James debating pushing Jessica off a cliff. Why didn't Margo just... do that? (We don't know a body would ever be found! No logic need apply here!)
Yeah, if James had killed Jessica and Margo had just taken her place, it would've made sense. But no: Margo wants to be Liz, for some reason! I liked the way one reviewer put it on GR in their review of 100, after everyone continuously mistakes Margo for Jessica - read the room, Margo! LOL.
Of course, knowing the 'twist' of Return, we actually get to see this. Sorta.
I didn't hate the wacky hijinks, but they're definitely more inline with what the show winds up doing and what the future mini series will do.
The hijinks just seem so forced. Nothing wrong with a subplot to lighten things up - previous books in this very miniseries did that with varying degrees of success. This one just stank of stereotypes that smell even worse 30 years later.
I'm not sure we needed wacky hijinks because Margo herself is so over the top. I don't remember her being quite so... *gestures* whatever this is. I'd forgotten JUST how obsessed she is with the idea of Alice, to the degree of being jealous of Ned, and I do wonder if maybe that's part of why she's so set on taking Liz's life instead of changing plans and going for Jessica. Maybe she assumes Jess is correct and that Alice does have a favorite and it's Liz? But yeah, having her successfully pull off Jessica at the party with everyone but Todd, really, it blows my mind that she didn't just change course. She already knew she had Jessica's mannerisms down (or closer, anyway) and if she's accelerating her plans, why go for the twin you're still in the dark about?
Why am I still wanting logic from a storyline that is batshit bananas?
Because there was some method to Margo's madness at the beginning. She chose Liz because she saw her in the newspaper and didn't even know about Jessica's existence until the trial was over. Why she doesn't course correct is anyone's guess.
Her obsession with Alice is super creepy!
I will say that the Margo here seems pretty different in a lot of ways from Evil Twin Margo. ET!Margo is way more calculating and even if she's still got obvious issues, she's got a better grip on her temper... and isn't letting the voice in her head talk through her. o_O
I'm glad to see that you, too, were thrown off by the OTT crazy in this book. My memory is bad, but I didn't think it was that bad, LOL! It's reassuring to hear that Margo is more the the way I remember her in #100.
It's also weird as hell that this book doesn't mention the fact that it's damn near Christmas, or that we sped through Halloween (we were ROBBED of a Margo Halloween!) and Thanksgiving, if Ned's meeting is set up for a week from the end of the book. The timeline for this arc is all over the damn place.
YES! I knew Evil Twin took place at Christmas, so I have been completely baffled at how there's no buildup to this in #95-99. This book reads like it's barely even summer, and yet the next one starts with the twins dressing for their last day of school prior to Christmas break. That gave me some whiplash, I admit, but at least the books are FINALLY getting into the Christmas spirit!
I'm miffed we didn't get to see Enid and Lila team up in their scheming to bring the twins back together. ROBBED. Universe, I need the deep cut of this happening. Someone. Somewhere. Gimme!
*remembers their feud over Jeffrey* Seconded x1000.
So yeah, I get Liz being hurt, and I know we need them mad at each other again for the next book to happen but I feel like the time to be mad about Todd has either passed OR not been quite long enough, depending.
Their reconciliation scenes were heartwarming. I honestly thought this second split was caused by Jessica confessing to having spiked the drinks. Anger of THAT would make a lot more sense than keeping a solitary letter from Todd away from Elizabeth. (This doesn't excuse Jessica keeping instead of destroying said letter, tho. Early canon Jessica knows better than to keep the evidence!)
Some of this stuff really works, which makes the stuff that doesn't seem even worse.
You've taken my incoherent ramblings above and summarized them quite succinctly!
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Yeah, and the twins' sparkly pink ball gowns gave me minor heart palpitations - no way could the #100 stepback be a lie!!1!
James debating pushing Jessica off a cliff. Why didn't Margo just... do that? (We don't know a body would ever be found! No logic need apply here!)
Yeah, if James had killed Jessica and Margo had just taken her place, it would've made sense. But no: Margo wants to be Liz, for some reason! I liked the way one reviewer put it on GR in their review of 100, after everyone continuously mistakes Margo for Jessica - read the room, Margo! LOL.
Of course, knowing the 'twist' of Return, we actually get to see this. Sorta.
I didn't hate the wacky hijinks, but they're definitely more inline with what the show winds up doing and what the future mini series will do.
The hijinks just seem so forced. Nothing wrong with a subplot to lighten things up - previous books in this very miniseries did that with varying degrees of success. This one just stank of stereotypes that smell even worse 30 years later.
I'm not sure we needed wacky hijinks because Margo herself is so over the top. I don't remember her being quite so... *gestures* whatever this is. I'd forgotten JUST how obsessed she is with the idea of Alice, to the degree of being jealous of Ned, and I do wonder if maybe that's part of why she's so set on taking Liz's life instead of changing plans and going for Jessica. Maybe she assumes Jess is correct and that Alice does have a favorite and it's Liz? But yeah, having her successfully pull off Jessica at the party with everyone but Todd, really, it blows my mind that she didn't just change course. She already knew she had Jessica's mannerisms down (or closer, anyway) and if she's accelerating her plans, why go for the twin you're still in the dark about?
Why am I still wanting logic from a storyline that is batshit bananas?
Because there was some method to Margo's madness at the beginning. She chose Liz because she saw her in the newspaper and didn't even know about Jessica's existence until the trial was over. Why she doesn't course correct is anyone's guess.
Her obsession with Alice is super creepy!
I will say that the Margo here seems pretty different in a lot of ways from Evil Twin Margo. ET!Margo is way more calculating and even if she's still got obvious issues, she's got a better grip on her temper... and isn't letting the voice in her head talk through her. o_O
I'm glad to see that you, too, were thrown off by the OTT crazy in this book. My memory is bad, but I didn't think it was that bad, LOL! It's reassuring to hear that Margo is more the the way I remember her in #100.
It's also weird as hell that this book doesn't mention the fact that it's damn near Christmas, or that we sped through Halloween (we were ROBBED of a Margo Halloween!) and Thanksgiving, if Ned's meeting is set up for a week from the end of the book. The timeline for this arc is all over the damn place.
YES! I knew Evil Twin took place at Christmas, so I have been completely baffled at how there's no buildup to this in #95-99. This book reads like it's barely even summer, and yet the next one starts with the twins dressing for their last day of school prior to Christmas break. That gave me some whiplash, I admit, but at least the books are FINALLY getting into the Christmas spirit!
I'm miffed we didn't get to see Enid and Lila team up in their scheming to bring the twins back together. ROBBED. Universe, I need the deep cut of this happening. Someone. Somewhere. Gimme!
*remembers their feud over Jeffrey* Seconded x1000.
So yeah, I get Liz being hurt, and I know we need them mad at each other again for the next book to happen but I feel like the time to be mad about Todd has either passed OR not been quite long enough, depending.
Their reconciliation scenes were heartwarming. I honestly thought this second split was caused by Jessica confessing to having spiked the drinks. Anger of THAT would make a lot more sense than keeping a solitary letter from Todd away from Elizabeth. (This doesn't excuse Jessica keeping instead of destroying said letter, tho. Early canon Jessica knows better than to keep the evidence!)
Some of this stuff really works, which makes the stuff that doesn't seem even worse.
You've taken my incoherent ramblings above and summarized them quite succinctly!