Previously: Dead Lucy took Nancy to a time capsule.
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The Mystery of Blackwood Lodge
Marines: Nancy is staring at her computer, her Voice Over asking Dead Lucy to help her out here. She can’t find a connection between Lucy and Ryan Hudson, not even in the poem Lucy included in the time capsule. It has a ball, a prince, a Kraken, a Pegasus and a Medusa. Nancy Drew’s Voice Over [NDVO] thanks Dead Lucy sarcastically for being literal. NDVO wonders what you do when the dead stop talking to you.
Celebrate? Just me? Okay.
Sweeney: Fair, but counterpoint: I’m so lonely.
Mari: Wait, hold on, points were made.
Nancy goes to visit Ryan Hudson. She knocks on his door and waits actually one second before pushing it open and letting herself in. The Veronica Mars vibes are strong with this one. She calls out for Ryan and starts walking around his mansion. As she passes one of his water features (rich people thangs), her reflection is actually Dead Lucy. Nancy doesn’t notice but she does spin around and look like she ~feels~ something.
NANCY DPEW.
Claw. Ace and Bess are in the back room, and she’s rambling nervously about her date with Lisbeth. George whirlwinds in and isn’t having it. It’s inventory day. She tells Ace to fix Bess because it’s INVENTORY DAY.
Sara: Bess is having a whole thing where she’s analyzing the fact that Lisbeth responded just “okay” and not “Great!” or “yummm” and so now she’s pretty sure Lisbeth hates her and she needs to cancel the date, and WHEW I have never related more to a scene on television, friends.
Sweeney: This is another nice thing about ghosts: they can’t text! Love that.
Mari: Out at the front of the restaurant, Ned asks George if Nancy is here yet. He’s got more information on Owen Marvin. George snarks about how Nancy is always late, just as Nancy walks in. She asks if they know anything about The Velvet Masque. Ned doesn’t, but George knows it’s an exclusive underground party for east coast 1%-ers. Nancy knows that part, and that the location changes every five years, but she wants to know more. George tells her to drop it and definitely stay away. Rumor is they brand or bury townies. Or both. She walks away, and Ned awkwardly transitions to another shady rich person: Tiffany was definitely targeting the Hudsons, but Owen Marvin’s name keep popping up in her files. Plus, Ned has been following Owen around.
Cut to Nancy parked next to Owen’s parking spot, staring at it. He surprises her by walking up to her window and seems charmed that she’s staking out his parking spot. He asks what they are digging up next. Nancy says no digging, but she does have a couple of questions: Ryan Hudson, associate, business partner or mortal enemy? Owen says all of the above. Is it possible these questions are coming from a mechanic with good cheek bones who is bad at following people around? Nancy says they are very good cheekbones. Next question: The Velvet Masque, is it real, when is it and also where? Owen points out that that’s more than one question. He offers to talk to her about it over dinner the next night. Nancy asks why not tonight. Owen replies that he’s busy. Nancy is like hmm, right around dusk? He smiles and says he has to go, but he does invite her to go sailing sometime. I hope this guy isn’t evil, but he’s rich in a CW teen show, I don’t have a lot of hope.
Sara: That hair, that jawline, and that polo? Definitely rich evil guy.
Sweeney: And SAILING? That’s an evil rich murder activity if ever I saw one.
Mari: Damn, no hope for Owen.
Nancy gets home. She leaves the door open as she looks through her purse for something. Some one runs behind her and slams the door closed. She spins around to come face to face with Ryan Hudson. He apologizes for scaring her, but he thinks someone is trying to kill him.
After the break, Nancy tells Ryan she’ll totally tell him where her dad is… after he explains what’s going on. Ryan says he kept hearing noises in his house last night, someone going through his stuff. He left and stayed at a hotel. Nancy asks who would be after him. Ryan says he owes money to people you don’t want to owe money to. Nancy tells him to uh, pay then. Ryan can’t, though, because his father cut him off after he made out with his teenaged ex-girlfriend at the fundraiser to honor his dead wife. He’s broke! Except he’s got a collection of antique Roman coins he was hoping to sell at a secret auction. Nancy figures it’s happening at the Velvet Masque, but Ryan won’t confirm. Anyway, he can’t get to them and was hoping Papa Drew would pull some strings for him. Papa Drew is in Boston, but Nancy can break and enter and her price is that Ryan takes her to the Velvet Masque.
Sweeney: Ryan is a poor negotiator because Nancy loves a little b&e and probably would have done it for less!
Mari: Bess and Ace are still chatting about her date. They are now having a late lunch at The Claw. Ace tells her maybe not to lead with her living in a van or kleptomania or family dramz. Bess looks worried.
Meanwhile, George and Ned are going through Tiffany’s files. It seems Tiffany definitely found a connection between the Hudsons and Marvins, but they don’t know what it is. George says that they are looking at a shipping manifest. Ned asks if she’s sure, and she reminds him that she comes from a maritime family. Generations of fishers. George asks if Nancy found anything on Owen, but Ned says she hasn’t called back yet. George gives A LOOK and says she can’t decide if sending Nancy to Owen was very trusting or very stupid. Ned says that a little of George goes a long way. She accepts the truth of this and says that’s why she isn’t a fisher. Imagine her on a boat.
Drew Domicile. Nancy has more questions for Ryan, this time about Lucy Sable. Lucy attended the Velvet Masque the year before she died. Did Ryan see her there? Before he can answer (lie), they are interrupted by a knock at the front door. Nancy answers the door shiftily, and then opens it a little wider so that George and Ned can see that Ryan is there. When they freak out, she rushes outside so Ryan can’t hear them. Nancy explains that Ryan thinks someone is trying to kill him. George is like, “GO HELP THAT GUY.” Do I… love George?
Sweeney: Yes.
Mari: I thought so.
Nancy says that Ryan is the only connection between Tiffany and Lucy Sable. Ned and George are confused what Dead Lucy has to do with anything. Nancy admits that she’s being haunted. They accept it pretty well on account of George was possessed last episode. This is their life now.
Ned is more concerned with the fact that Nancy didn’t tell them sooner. George says it’s almost like she doesn’t trust them. Instead of being like, “no! It’s not that!” she just shares that something happened to Lucy at the Velvet Masque 20 years ago and she’s helping Ryan with his Roman burial coins in order to get access. Plus, she’s still on the Tiffany case and waiting to hear back from her friend who is analyzing her blood. Nancy asks if they are cool then. Ned says yeah, 100% good.
Sara: I particularly liked the part where Ned says, “What does Ryan get out of this? A date with an 18-year old?” because age is so rarely acknowledged on The CW.
Sweeney: YES! I feel like this show has consistently addressed this reasonably well? I was happy from the jump that they at least made the main characters 18 and out of high school (albeit very newly so) and even the George/Ryan thing is handled in a way that generally acknowledges the age gap and the fact that he was married.
Mari: We watch Ned and George run to the car in the rain. George is like 100% cool? Ned admits he rounded up. He pulls out some of Tiffany’s papers and shows George that those Roman burial coins were on the shipping manifest they were looking at earlier. They don’t know what that means, but George says she knows a harbormaster who might. Ned is like, “right, maritime family.” George says yeah, but also he dated her mom.
Cut to the Claw. This sweet, old harbormaster brought George’s mom chocolates. Except of course, George explains that mom “couldn’t make it.” The sweet man says it’s okay. The chocolates will keep. While he’s here, though, Ned asks if he can look at something for them and hands over the manifest. He says this isn’t just a manifest. It’s a record of the dead. The ship, the Bonny Scot, sank 18 years ago and took all the crew with it. Plus all the cargo was antiques and valuables, including 12 Roman burial coins called the 12 Coins of Charon.
Nancy runs out of a building wearing her Crime Beanie. She’s got the coins.
After Sweet Harbormaster leaves, George breaks into the chocolate and Ned wonders why coins that should be at the bottom the sea are in Ryan Hudson’s possession. George says this must be why Tiffany kept copies of insurance pay out checks. And if the Hudsons stole their own cargo and then filed for insurance payments, they also killed all the people on that ship.
Ryan is anxiously waiting for Nancy at the Drew Domicile. He drops his wedding ring and it rolls under the couch. My internal monologue is going “expect ghost, expect ghost, expect ghost.” (S: You’re doing so well with the spooky show, though! Proud of u.) The ghost isn’t like hiding under the couch; Ryan sees her when he stands up again. (S: Did jump.) Dead Lucy grabs him by the wrist and his wedding ring looks like it’s on fire. Ryan falls to the ground in pain. Nancy sees the whole thing. Ryan asks what the heck that was. Nancy says that was Lucy Sable. He may not remember her, but she remembers him.
Lisbeth arrives for her date late. Bess is real awkward about it and there is an awkward hug and then awkward joke about the restaurant being empty and then Ace awkwardly asking if they want to hear the specials and then the first question Lisbeth asks is what part of town Bess lives in. Awkward.
Sara: Everyone needs an awkward Ace in their life to tell them they are a candle in the wind.
Mari: Nancy is looking at Ryan’s wedding ring, which is inscribed with Tiffany & Ryan. Ryan has a burn mark on his finger. He tries to blame the haunting on the Drew Domicile, but Nancy asks him who he thinks was at this house last night. Dead Lucy is haunting them both. After some prodding, and showing him the poem that Lucy wrote about the prince that took her to the ball, Ryan says that he and Lucy had a summer fling, it ended, Lucy went off the deep end and then she was murdered.
Nan steps into the study to take a call from Nick. He tells her not to give the coins to Ryan, but it’s too late for that. Ned wants her to get them back as they are the key to taking the Hudsons down. Nancy says she believes them, but the coins won’t solve Tiffany’s murder, but they will help her solve Lucy’s.
Ned can’t believe Nancy is being this way. George says that relentless, single-minded, and closed off is Nancy’s whole thing. Ned has to be relentless right back. So, they need to get into the Velvet Masque, too. Ned suggests using their connection to a Tandy.
Claw. Bess is wallowing. George asks how the date went and Bess says that 30 minutes in, Lis got a text that her niece was in the hospital for an emergency appendectomy, and that was the best part of the date because the pain was over.
Ned finds Ace and asks how he left things with Laura Tandy. Ace says they made up. Ned is like GREAT, can you call her for a favor?
Bess says she’ll never smile again. George is like okay, but how does a new dress, a rich people party and the chance to steal stuff sound? Bess smiles.
Sara: And during this time of no awards shows and red carpets, we really need all the fancy dresses on television that we can get. And it’s a MASK party, it truly does not get better than this.
Sweeney: Bless you, CW, for taking care of us in this difficult time.
Mari: Nancy arrives with Ryan. He gives her one more chance to leave, and she says she totes will if he tells her right now what happened to Lucy Sable. He says she doesn’t give up, huh, but he doesn’t know anything, so they go inside together. And soon after, Ace, dressed as a limo driver, opens the door. Ned, Bess and George get out and join the party.
Inside, George says they should be less identifiable. She sneaks into what she calls a weird sex room to grab some of the masks they have available.
Meanwhile, Nancy is marveling at what rich people do when they think no one is looking. Ryan starts to say something about not babysitting Nancy all night, but she’s already gone. She finds a room with a bunch of masks with placards that have dates on them, including one for a Kraken (1952-2001). The line from Dead Lucy’s poem is “I watched Medusa embrace the kraken and not her husband, the king.”
Owen finds her here, completely not surprised that Nancy made it after all. He asks if she really came with Ryan, and she’s like “you had your chance.” She asks who the Kraken was, and Owen explains that it was his Uncle Sebastian. He masqueraded as the Kraken until he died. Nancy next asks about Ryan bringing Lucy Sable here in 1999, but Owen was 5 and so not old enough to attend. (S: Nice way to make sure we know that he is much younger than Ryan and thus much more age appropriate for Nancy.) Nancy figures he might have heard some things, though. Owen says no one talks about what happens at these parties. He brings the conversation back to Ryan and those coins he’s selling, which are proof that the Hudsons double crossed the Marvin family. The Bonny Scot was a join venture until it sank, killing 12 people, including Sebastian Marvin, the Kraken. Nancy apologizes because she doesn’t have the coins. Owen says she can make it up to him by leaving. You know, for her own safety. Nancy says she’ll leave if Owen tells her where she can find a Pegasus.
Sweeney: That’s a really great string of sentences. Lots of gems in describing the events of this show, but not in a “truly what the fuck” kind of way like Pretty Little Liars. I’m just like, “yeah she did say that.”
Mari: Ryan’s mother finds him. She says she’s been worried about him, but he reminds her that she didn’t even attend Tiffany’s funeral. Mama Hudson quickly reveals she’s really here to stop Ryan from selling those coins. She asks him to hand them over, and she will take care of getting Papa Hudson to let Ryan back into the family (money). Ryan says he doesn’t like his mother’s way of solving his problems and leaves.
Owen is leading Nancy somewhere when they run into Ned. Owen points Nancy in the right direction and leaves. Nancy pulls Ned aside and says there are too many of them here and they are going to get caught and then nobody is going to get done what they need to get done. Nancy wants Ned to trust her, but he says that she needs to trust him, then, and open up. She says soon and leaves.
Bess is still having feelings about her date, wondering if she should text Lisbeth and see if her niece is okay. But George spots Lisbeth at this here party and says it seems she’s doing just fine. Bess gets mad and stomps over to Lisbeth, who says she’s there for work. Bess is like yeah, me too. But they are both lying to each other and they know it.
After a break, Medusa Mom is walking with Nancy through the party, saying she shouldn’t be here. Some people are not nice to locals. Nancy is like, “oh, like Lucy Sable?” and basically reveals her entire hand and everything she knows about Medusa Mom and Sebastian Kraken. Medusa Mom basically says that rumors get people killed and Nancy better stfu and be discreet like her father. Nancy asks what that means but Medusa Mom just walks away.
Sara: Honestly, Nancy, that felt like terrible nancy drew-ing, do better.
Mari: The auction starts. Owen is standing next to Ned, and he says they should help each other. Ned says nope.
Bess is standing with Lisbeth, and they start playing handsies, which is like footsies, but with hands. They then turn to each other like they are about to kiss, all while the bidding for the burial coins is happening in the background. On cue, George screams. Outside, Ace turns off the breaker and the lights go out. People start rushing out. Bess and Lisbeth are kissing, but then Beth seems to realize she’s on, but she’s really bad at this and just walks up to the stage while people are still around and grabs the burial coins. The lights come back on quickly and Bess is caught red handed. Owen steps up and vouches for Bess, but Ned, Bess and George get kicked out. Please tell me that wasn’t plan A.
Ryan sees Lucy, but not like Dead Lucy. Like how she looked the night of this party, all those years ago. He follows Lucy into that Pegasus room and looks at her with a lot of feelings. He leans in and kisses her.
Nancy is out in the hall and notices some magical indoor wind coming from that Pegasus room, so she heads there. When she walks in, she sees Ryan kissing Lucy, but now she looks like Dead Lucy. Nancy calls Ryan’s name, and when he opens his eyes, he freaks out. His ring starts burning again, it comes off his finger, and Lucy disappears. Nancy picks up the ring and sees that now it says Lucy –> Tiffany. The deaths are connected. Nancy basically tells Ryan to stop being a lying liar who lies. Ryan says that the truth is that he was away at boarding school when Lucy was murdered, and his dad told him never to talk about it again. He really liked Lucy. He brought her to this party to impress her, but it was a big mistake. After that, he wasn’t allowed to see her or talk to her and her parents would only tell him that they handled it. Nancy asks how. Ryan says the same way they handled everything back then: Carson Drew.
Sweeney: Her friendships are all too good, she can’t also have a healthy relationship with living parents who are good people. Maybe if she were a very lucky side character, but not the lead! This is the CW.
Mari: Nancy gets home, big worried. She gets a call from her friend who doing the lab analysis. He needs more time with Tiffany’s blood, but Lucy’s crown had her DNA and DNA that belongs to another woman. NDVO says maybe Medusa Mom pushed Lucy and it wasn’t Papa Drew.
Claw. Everyone is kind of bummed their plan was the worst, but Bess had a great time because she kissed the hot girl and forgot how exhilarating stealing can be. Nancy walks in and everyone is snippy with her because she left them out to dry. Nancy dumps the burial coins on the table and says she switched them after they got kicked out. The gang is still upset that it took them getting kicked out for Nancy to help. Nancy tries to share what she learned with Ned, but they are interrupted when Owen rides up to the Claw. Nancy says she’ll handle that.
Outside, Owen says he bid 1.5 million dollars for some burial coins and got random loose change instead. He’s hoping that the coins went to a good home, to someone who might get justice for the Bonny Scot. Everyone is watching this from inside, but George says maybe they should start that inventory. Just then, George gets a text message. She goes outside to find Lisbeth with a box of pizza and an apology about the fake emergency. Bess asks how they can trust each other, since Lisbeth has a lot of secrets. Lisbeth says she has a lot of secrets too, so maybe they can keep each other in check. They kiss some more.
Sara: They know basically nothing about each other, but I’m always here for beautiful people kissing so I support this relationship.
Sweeney: Correct. This relationship does not appear particularly healthy, but also: I support the hot women kissing.
Owen asks Nancy out to dinner, but she says she’s not available. Her heart belongs to a car mechanic with good cheekbones. As she says this, though, she gets close and puts a hand on Owen’s shoulder. From Ned’s perspective, it does look rather chummy. He’s upset.
Sara: Ugh, I am clearly a sucker for a rich evil guy with rich evil guy hair because I would go on a date with that man so fast, you would not believe.
Mari: That is also correct. Evil be damned.
On a nearby table, the burial coins stand on their edge, all by themselves. Yeah, burial coins in a haunted town, probably not great.
Next time on Nancy Drew: The gang figure it’s time to talk to Lucy in S01 E07 – The Tale of the Fallen Sea Queen.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
Nicole is the co-captain of Snark Squad and these days she spends most of her time editing podcasts. She spends too much time on Twitter and very occasionally vlogs and blogs. In her day job she's a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host of educational YouTube channels. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one years ago and has been using a version of it ever since. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.
I'm a 30-something with three kids who spends an embarrassing amount of time watching teen television dramas. There's a whole lot of Internet out there, and I plan on reading all of it before I die.
