Talk:ITwins/@comment-3276102-20110310052526/@comment-3419317-20110313191346

@ Rachim :

I'm not really sure I understand your post. @Phenglei Kai was talking about people who think that Melanie's girlish behavior was proof that she couldn't possibly be Sam, which he didn't agree with.

And I think he made a good case for that. Up until the moment that Melanie actually arrived in the elevator to meet with Carly and Sam, it was still possible (from the audience's point of view) that either Melanie was a real person, or Sam was just really determined to fool Freddie.

I wasn't aware that there are people who think that Sam and Melanie were actually the same person, and I'm not clear on what that has to do with @Phenglei Kai's post. In any case, I would think that Melanie and Sam actually appearing in the same scene together would be enough to prove Melanie's existence to the viewers.

@ Phenglei Kai :

It does get a bit exasperating when people claim that it was obvious that Melanie wasn't Sam, because she was behaving in ways that Sam wouldn't.

Wasn't that the point? As you say, if Sam really had invented a fictional twin sister, then it only makes sense that she would make Melanie's personality different from her own. Sam wouldn't have been a very good prankster otherwise, would she?

There was, however, one significant clue (though a very subtle one) that the girls were telling the truth :

Melanie's story never deviated.

Throughout the entire episode, Melanie (as well as Carly and Sam) just kept repeating the same story over and over - Melanie was Sam's twin sister.

Usually, when a lie fails to be convincing, it will start to subtly change. The liar will began adding more details, or changing bits of the story, hoping to make it more persuasive.

Melanie never did that. Despite Freddie's persistent skepticism, she just continued to maintain that she was Sam's sister, that she'd been away at school, and had just returned to Seattle. That was a pretty good clue that she was telling the truth. If she had really been Sam in disguise, it is likely that she would have tried at least a couple of different tacks on it after her initial attempt to convince Freddie had failed.

Also, all of the differences in Sam and Melanie's behavior were perfectly consistent throughout the entire episode. Sam always acted like Sam, and Melanie like Melanie. If they were really the same person, then it seems likely that their behavior patterns would break or overlap, at least in a small way, once or twice. They didn't.

These were very subtle clues that, I think, most people would only think of in hindsight. (I did.) Freddie himself may have picked up on these things, but only after it was all over. That might explain why he later started to believe (by the time of "iThink They Kissed") that Melanie was real, after all.