iTwins is the 23rd episode of the second season of iCarly and the 48th episode overall. The episode originally aired on July 11, 2009. Jennette McCurdy portrays a dual role in the episode as both her regular character Sam and as Sam's previously unknown twin sister, Melanie.
Plot
After Freddie is teased for being very gullible (he receives an email from Carly and Sam and dresses up as a clown, believing that it's Clown Day at school), he believes the girls are trying to prank him when Sam says her twin sister named Melanie is coming to Seattle since she goes to a boarding school. He is unconvinced that Sam really has a twin sister, and to try to prove it, he asks Melanie out on a date, thinking that Sam would never go on a date with him.
The plan to try to prove that Melanie is really Sam takes an unexpected turn when Melanie accepts his invitation, doesn't act like Sam and then kisses Freddie at the dance club, causing him to believe that Sam kissed him on purpose. He immediately becomes extremely paranoid. In the end, since Freddie refuses to believe it, Sam "admits" to Freddie that there is no Melanie. Satisfied, Freddie departs shortly before Melanie arrives to go to the mall with Carly and Sam, proving her existence once and for all to the audience (although not to Freddie).
Subplot
Carly gets a job tutoring Chuck in math, to which Spencer objects, as Chuck keeps tormenting him. After Spencer shows Carly how awful Chuck really is (with the help of a hidden video camera that Spencer set up that Socko lent him), Carly thinks of a way to get back at Chuck. She makes up the number Derf and teaches it to him, so he can use it on his next math test. When he fails his test, Mr. Chambers says Carly no longer needs to tutor him, and decides to send Chuck to Camp Add-'Em-Up for the whole summer (at Spencer's suggestion).
Guest Stars
- David St. James as Mr. Howard
- Ryan Ochoa as Chuck Chambers
- BooG!e as T-Bo
- Chris Harper as Earl Chambers
Trivia
- This is the first iCarly episode to be rated TV-G (previously rated TV-Y7).
- Jennette McCurdy has stated in interviews that her natural speaking voice is "somewhere between Sam and Melanie." She affects a deeper tone when she is playing Sam (to emphasize Sam's tomboyish demeanor) and spoke in a higher pitch as Melanie (to project Melanie's more feminine personality).
- Jennette McCurdy once told Tiger Beat that "iTwins" was her favorite episode to film. She said "It was so much fun" to play both her own character, Sam, and Sam's twin sister, Melanie.
- This is the only appearance of Sam's twin sister Melanie, not counting her appearance in Sam & Cat. Despite this, both Dan Schneider and Jennette McCurdy showed positive reactions to the Twitter trend "iTwins Sequel".
- The dance club that Melanie and Freddie went to was named Quisp (Under 21) DANce Club. The capital letters in "dance" is a reference to iCarly's creator, Dan Schneider.
- The actress who appeared as Gibby's cousin Sabrina in the season three episode "iBeat the Heat", first appears here in a non-speaking role as a dancing girl who is responsible for Freddie spilling his drinks.
- Sam and Melanie is a reference to Amanda and her twin in True Jackson VP.
- When Freddie told Chuck, "Don't waste your time, kid. I've been barking up that tree since the 6th grade," (In response to Chuck's suggestion that when he's older, he could date Carly), Carly originally replied, "Neutering is always an option." On his blog, Dan Schneider stated that this line got a lot of laughs on the set, but he chose to cut it during editing because he felt it slightly crossed the line in terms of what was appropriate for iCarly's younger viewers.
- After Spencer says, "Good, 'cause you owe me 24 bucks for the pot roast," he starts to "shampoo" (as Dan Schneider described it) Carly's head with his hands, making her laugh. This was not scripted. Before the last take, Dan Schneider instructed Jerry Trainor to do that, without telling Miranda Cosgrove. When she was giggling and saying, "Stop ... stop it," Miranda was not acting. The laughter was her actual, natural reaction, and she was genuinely telling Jerry to stop.
- At the end, the last "Me either," Melanie's voice is panned hard left and Sam's is panned hard right in the stereo field (i.e. Melanie's voice comes out of the left speaker and Sam's comes out of the right).
- This is the second time Nathan and Jennette have had an on-screen kiss in iCarly. The first as Sam and Freddie in iKiss, the second as Melanie and Freddie in this episode. They've also had to kiss twice for iOMG as Sam and Freddie, where Dan revealed they shot the kiss two different ways. Then they kissed twice in iDate Sam & Freddie, twice for iCan't Take It and three times for iLove You - not counting practice kisses or do-overs. Also, it is the first and only kiss for Freddie and Melanie.
- The song that Melanie and Freddie dance to is Tightrope by AnnMarie Montade.
- A split-screen was used to film scenes when Sam and Melanie were seen at the same time. A stunt double was also used (sometimes as Sam and sometimes as Melanie), for Jennette to have someone to react to.[citation needed]
Allusions
To be added
Character Revelations
- Freddie can be pretty gullible (although he says he usually isn't).
- Sam has an identical twin sister who is her polar opposite.
- Sam hates stripes on guys, but likes wearing stripes herself according to Dan Schneider.
- Ms. Briggs and Mr. Howard are having an affair (according to Sam).
- Freddie has been trying to get Carly to go out with him since 6th grade.
- Carly and Sam hate the letter Q.
- Spencer used to have trouble with math and was sent to math camp by his dad.
Goofs
- Freddie is supposedly gullible in this episode, but he wasn't fooled by Consuela's Revenge in iStage An Intervention. But in that episode, he admits that he didn't know the first part of Consuela's Revenge but later saw Sam loosening bolts on his bike.
- When Chuck sprays Spencer with the brown liquid, he said he didn't want to taste it, although he got it in his mouth. So he had to taste it anyhow.
- When Chuck sprays Spencer with the brown liquid, it splashes all over the walls in the kitchen, the door to the fridge is off its hinges and the cupboard door is lying on the counter. While Spencer does call out for Carly, he did not show her this mess or mention the incident to her, which is odd given that he was trying to prove to her that Chuck was evil. By the next scene in the kitchen, the mess is no longer there and the fridge and cupboard doors are back in place. This suggests either that the spraying of the walls was unscripted and unintentional, and a member of the crew simply cleaned it up and fixed the fridge and cupboard doors before the next scene was filmed, or (more likely) this scene was filmed afterwards and added later.
- Freddie's date with Melanie was on Saturday (as said by Freddie when he asks her out). Since he later refers to the date as "last night", the final scene should take place on Sunday; however, Mr. Chambers comes by on the same day to tell Carly that Chuck failed his math test, which he is supposed to take on Monday.
- When Melanie kisses Freddie, Freddie (believing she is Sam) says, “You swore we’d never do that again,” refering to the time when Freddie and Sam kissed in iKiss. However, Sam never swore that the two would never kiss again. She merely asserted that they would “go back to hating each other” after the kiss. Although Freddie may have interpreted this as she would never kiss him, since kissing almost always indicates affection.
- Carly tells Chuck that there was a new number, but technically "derfteen" and "derfty-four" would count as different numbers. Though she probably just meant the single digit.
- Carly hits the up button on the elevator call station, but she and Melanie are going down.
Running Gags
To be added
Series Continuity
- Spencer tells Carly about Chuck tormenting him in iHurt Lewbert and iReunite With Missy.
- At the end of the episode, Freddie still doesn't believe Melanie is real, because Carly and Sam never proved it, Sam admitted Melanie isn't real to him, and he never saw Sam and Melanie together. However, in iThink They Kissed, Freddie states he may have kissed Sam twice, but the second time might have been her twin sister, adding that he was "still fuzzy on the whole Melanie thing." This indicates that he has accepted that Melanie might be real, although he still isn't sure.
- After iThink They Kissed, Melanie is mentioned in one more episode. In Season 4's iSam's Mom, Sam's mother, Pam Puckett, asks Sam why she can't be more like Melanie. Sam tells her mother to stop comparing her to her sister.
- Melanie is the first person to know about Sam and Freddie's kiss (seen in "iKiss") other than themselves. Carly did not find out until iThink They Kissed.
Quotes
[during the iCarly webcast] |
Freddie: [to Sam] I've been to your house. How come I've never seen a picture of this “sister”? |
Freddie: Hey, can I borrow a scissors? |
[after Melanie enters from the elevator] |
T-Bo: Would the gentleman care for a pickle? |
Melanie: Hey Freddie. Where's Sam? |
Freddie: Sam would rather chew broken glass then go on a date with me for a whole Saturday night. No way she's going through with this! |
Chuck: Hey, when I get older, maybe I could go on a date with you ... |
Freddie: So, "Melanie" ... you look pretty hot tonight. |
[Freddie and Melanie are slow-dancing] |
Carly: Hi Mr. Chambers, [plainly] Chuck. |
Sam: You won. We tried to trick you but we couldn't pull it off. |
Sam: How could you make out with Freddie? |
Related iCarly.com Blog Posts
- Sam's blog: Are You a Sam or a Melanie?
Gallery
See photos of iTwins here.
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