Fans may remember the original 90210 was centered around ‘Brenda and Brandon’ twins who moved to Beverly Hills from Minnesota. While the twins in ABC Family’s (channel 39 in Phoenix) may not be from Minnesota they are both on the move to bigger and better cities.
Sutton has left her cozy home in Phoenix Az, to find the truth about her biological family in sunny (and dangerous) Los Angeles. She left her recently discovered twin sister Emma in her place (Emma ran away from her foster home to escape her perverted foster brother who was framing her for sex). While Sutton is off in LA risking her life, Emma is slipping into Sutton’s life easily, acclimating to her new ‘popular friends’, ‘nosey little sister’ and super sexy ‘secret boyfriend’.
This week her new ‘friends’ and ‘secret pretend boyfriend’ taught her the cold lesson of how 3rd grade ‘dibs’ rule is alive and well in high school. As the forty minutes of this week’s episode played out it was hard not to reminsce about popular shows like 90210, Gossip Girl, and Pretty Little Liars. It was like eating a buffet of all three of those popular shows.
Emma revealed Sutton had a secret boyfriend to her parents. She asked him to come over for dinner so the parents could meet him. At first he declined saying it was not what Sutton would want; but Emma convinced him to play along. While at dinner, little sister decided to make it uncomfortable for them by interrogating them about their relationship. Just as they were making a good impression ‘pretend boyfriend Ethan’s’ cop brother showed up and took him home. But before he could get off the property he confronted him about the laptop (Sutton’s stolen laptop) that he found in Ethan’s car. Emma heard this and suddenly decided she couldn’t trust the one person who knows her dirty little secret anymore.
In the midst of this drama Laurel (Sutton’s little sister) meets a new boy in town and develops a crush. A crush she could do nothing about because Char (one of Sutton’s best friends) called dibs. The dibs rule was made by Sutton to keep the girlfriend circle strong and avoid any fights that may come about over guys between them. The problem is the boy Char called dibs on actually wants to date Laurel (and Emma gives him her address so he can go and ask her out personally).
Madeline (another close friend of Sutton – who is a little suspicious of Emma) decided to make a move on her dance teacher in the midst of father/daughter fight between them (perhaps she is acting on a hidden daddy complex).
After 30 minutes of Emma ignoring Ethan she finally comes back to reality and tells him she is sorry and she trusts him. They kiss. Ethan pulls away because he loves Sutton (even though he is developing feelings for Emma). Emma discovers she has feelings for him but pushes them away and refocuses on her situation when Sutton (who is secretly working with Thayer in LA) video phones her and shows her a picture of their biological mother. The same biological mother that took Emma from the family who adopted her and caused her to wind up in the foster care system.
Madeline and Thayer’s father Alec is the one who stole the laptop. He discovered everything, including the twin swap secret which he verified as he (very creepily) stood outside Emma’s room and watched the video conversation.
