Previously: Nancy is kind of a murder suspect and maybe a ghost did it.
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Marines: We start one second after last episode: Nancy is in the attic, looking at a bloody formal gown, a ghost behind her. She seems to notice something and turns around, but the ghost is gone. There isn’t even an old, inexplicable mannequin or like dress form to try to convince us that it wasn’t a ghost. Nancy has to hurriedly put the bloody gown away when she hears her father arrive.
Sweeney: I really, really hope the show is gonna stick to GHOSTS ARE REAL but, like, Nancy Drew is solving real murders and the ghosts are just kinda there to point her in the right direction. Kind of like Veronica’s dreams of Lilly. GIMME THE GHOSTS!!
Mari: I’m here for it. Ghosts as known entities, but not murderers. Just hanging out like “damn, Nancy looks like she needs a clue.” I mean, it sounds like something I’d do while haunting earth.
We cut to the kitchen for awkward father daughter chats. Papa Drew is explaining his relationship with Karen, how nothing ever happened between them while Mama Drew was alive, but Nancy is tuned out. (S: WE DID THE MATH & IT’S STILL TOO SOON, MY DUDE.) Nancy Drew’s Voice Over [NDVO] is preoccupied with the fact that maybe her dad is a murderer. I mean, he did lie about dating Karen so maybe can lie about this. If you are familiar with our Nancy Drew Files book recaps, you’ll know that I once had a biology teach who imparted the words of wisdom, “if you lie, you cheat, if you cheat, you steal, and if you steal, you murder.” So, Mrs. Grimm agrees that Papa Drew is a murderer, Nancy!
George and Ryan Hudson are making out in his room, surrounded by pictures of his recently departed wife. He gets a phone call and as he leaves, we hear the start of a conversation about how the police want to do an autopsy on his wife. He seems very surprised by this, even though his wife was big time murdered. George leaves, because apparently waiting to be sexed while your boyfriend talks about an autopsy for his murdered wife is too much.
Sara: George, love yourself. Your boyfriend might not have murdered his wife (still debatable), but he definitely has murdery vibes regardless.
Mari: Right! If it’s too easy to believe he murdered his wife, break up with him. #SnarkSquadAdvice
The next day, Nancy visits the LOLPD. They have a murder board all out in the open, so that Nancy notices her picture pinned up under PRIME SUSPECTS. I’m not an expert on police stations, but it just seems like a thing you would want to keep in private. Nancy is stopped by Chief McGinnis. Nancy requests to see the cold case file on Lucy Sable, but he just sasses her in return. The visit is not a waste, though, because Nancy is there to overhear when Karen announces that a judge signed an injunction and Ryan Hudson is being allowed to move his wife. The autopsy will be performed in New Hampshire instead. They are picking the body up at 8pm. Nancy says the Hudsons are railroading the investigation. Chief McGinnis sees her out as NDVO tells us that Lucy’s mystery is going to have to wait.
Claw. NDVO gives us a rundown of all the characters again for some reason: quiet Ace with a crush on Bess, rich Bess who also works at a diner for some reason, tough girl George with the secrets. The only one with a motive, though, is Ned. Speaking of, he shows up to ask Nancy to be his date to the Seawater Ceremony. She says yes and kisses him hesitantly. NDVO hopes he’s innocent. I hope there are going to be sea-themed events every week. I need it.
Sweeney: GIMME THE GHOSTS AND SEA THEMED EVENTS!!!
Mari: The credits are pretty neat, though the NANCY DREW at the end kind of gets wiped away so it looks like it says NANCY DPEW. So, now I’m going to signify the credits by NANCY DPEW. Quality content around here.
Nancy shares with everyone what she heard about the Hudsons blocking the autopsy. That’s extremely something a guilty person would do. George claims Ryan wouldn’t kill his wife, and Nancy, bless her, gives her an extremely long and suspicious look. (S: Same, Nance.) Back to the subject of the autopsy, Nancy comes up with an extremely wild plan to steal blood from the body before they move it and send it to a forensic scientist friend.
Nancy leaves work for some breaking and entering. She watches a man leave the morgue, swiping his access key in the process, and get into his car. Nancy somehow missed the whole access card thing so she runs all the way to the door only to realize she can’t just pick a lock and get in.
On her way out, she catches Dead Lucy in the reflection of a window. She turns around and heads towards the trees where she saw Dead Lucy. A hand drops down from the tree and lands on Nancy’s shoulder. She spins around, but there’s nothing there. NDVO tells herself to get it together. She doesn’t believe in ghosts. I mean, that’s great Nancy, but a ghost just touched you so maybe you should.
Sweeney: Seeing is believing and also literally being touched on the shoulder is believing and we’re now 2 for 2 on BELIEVING. Get with it, Nancy.
Sara: I just need to go back to Nancy’s total surprise at the key card system. How long has she actually been out of the girl detective game, that key card access to a highly confidential area is surprising news?
Mari: Back at work, Nancy tells the Bovine Besties about the super high tech morgue with its *checks notes* key cards. The new plan is to break in that night. Ace tells her she can’t. Dead Lucy haunts the morgue. The last kids who broke in? One died, one went missing and one lost his mind. Nancy says ghost stories can’t stop them, so she takes her plan and makes it even more convoluted: They are going to steal the key card from the morgue guy’s car and break into the morgue while he’s at the Seawater Ceremony. They also need to delay the body pick-up, though, so they need to steal Ryan Hudson’s phone to get the number they need to then impersonate someone working for the Hudsons. George knows where he jogs every afternoon, so Nancy sends her to steal the phone, despite her protestations.
Nancy heads to the garage where Ned works. Her mom’s car is there and NDVO is like “hmmm, I wonder if Ned is up to something more and is hiding it under this car shaped tarp.” Ned comes out and says the car isn’t ready yet. He is very helpful, though, when Nancy explains that she stopped by for some breaking into a car tools.
Middle of the woods. George finds Ryan’s parked car with its conveniently open windows and his left behind cell phone. Ryan, don’t you want some music or something? I feel like only murderers run without their phones. I know nothing about running, don’t be mad.
Sweeney: This is 100% the activity of a murderer. I cannot imagine being so rich and male and secure in the world that I wouldn’t feel the anxious need to bring my phone for safety, let alone all the useful shit it does like track my run and play music and stuff. Rich and male and MURDERY.
Mari: Glad I read that right.
Just as George grabs the phone, Ryan shows up. She pretends to have been looking for him to ask about moving Tiffany’s body. Ryan is surprised word got out so fast. He says that people like to come after families like his. Tiffany was highly medicated, and he doesn’t want that to get out. He’s moving the body to a bigger jurisdiction in order to buy a little more discretion. George shares that everyone is talking about how suspicious this makes him look. As Ryan puts his sweatshirt out, George quickly plants his cell phone on the floor so she can pretend like it fell while he was getting dressed. He seems suspicious. And out in the trees, Nancy watches this all, including their parting kiss, through her binoculars.
After a break, Ryan finds Papa Drew (have I mentioned his name is Carson?). A passing woman calls Ryan a hill-topper. Ryan tells Papa Drew that he didn’t know the townies still used that term. Papa Drew says if Ryan is here to talk about his image problem, he can start by not calling the locals townies. Ryan wants to hire Papa Drew, but he declines. Instead, he gives more free advice: stop acting like he has no connection to the town, especially because if this goes to trial, the “townies” will be jurors. Ryan asks what it will take to change Papa Drew’s mind. Papa Drew says he made a promise to his wife to never work for another Hudson.
Claw. George stomps in (she literally stomps everywhere she goes) and quickly tells Nancy that Ryan took his phone jogging. Nancy confronts her, explaining that she saw everything. Best case scenario, George is covering for a killer. Worst case scenario, George is the killer. She did handle Tiffany’s food that night and she is sleeping with Ryan Hudson. In the face of these cold, hard facts, George flips this again to how mean Nancy’s friends were in high school and how Nancy was still friends with them. Even though I agree that kids are mean and slut is an awful word, George really spun this one around, huh? She countered “you could be a murderer” with YOU SAT WITH THE MEAN GIRLS IN HIGH SCHOOL! I’m kind of impressed.
Sweeney: Truly a deflection power move.
Mari: Bess and Ace enter from the kitchen and wonder why everyone is so mad. George tells Nancy that all that’s left is for her to tell her secret and laugh and stomps off. Nancy doesn’t tell George’s secret, though. Instead she just tells Bess and Ace that the plan is off. Ace has an alternate plan, though. They can distract the car coming to pick up the body, giving Nancy enough time to still get the blood. Nancy sends Bess with Ace, which he enjoys very much.
Seawater Bucket Ceremony. It’s actually pretty dope: on the last day of the summer festival, the town gathers to light bonfires and collect a bucket of seawater. Everyone places the bucket outside of their doors and when the bells strike midnight that night, you go outside and kick it over. If the bucket is still water, you live. If it’s turned to blood, you are marked to die that year.
Sweeney: I really love this weird ass town tradition! I cannot wait for what other weird paranormal sea themed events are coming!
Sara: I wish I grew up in this town! All my town has is a milk chugging competition for the high school kids every homecoming.
Mari: Definitely not as cool as haunted bucket water.
Ned and Nancy arrive. He can tell she’s planning something, but she begs off telling him more details on account of his record. If they get caught, it would be really bad for him.
Papa Drew is also here. He stares at Nancy and Ned until Karen calls his attention to Ryan, who really took that pro-bono advice to heart. He collects his bucket of seawater and then starts shaking hands and hugging locals. George walks up as Ned and Nancy talk about how obvious this is and how it’s also working. Ned asks who would trust a manipulative psycho like that. Nancy says he’d be surprised. George looks hurt and… stomps off. I’m not making this up; she walks aggressively.
Morgue Guy shows up, so Nancy excuses herself from Ned. Meanwhile, George waits in line to shake hands with Ryan. When she reaches him, she tries to warn him about something, but he quickly moves her along and pretends he doesn’t know her. Nancy breaks into Morgue Guy’s car and grabs the key card. While she’s standing there, though, she sees blood pooling under the car. Nancy bends down, and I brace myself so see a ghost body. Instead, she stands again, and when she does, Dead Lucy screams at her from the reflection of the car window. Then she’s gone and so is the blood.
Sweeney: GHOSTS 👏 ARE 👏 REAL 👏
Sara: I’m still putting my money on this being a Scooby Doo situation, even though none of this will be explainable at that point.
Mari: Nancy finds Bess. She can tell something is wrong, and Nancy shares that she saw a vision of a drowned bloody corpse. Bess thinks this is a hard sign from Dead Lucy to not break into the morgue. Nancy says they are still are going to do it. NDVO adds that either she is losing her mind or being haunted.
Sweeney: OK it’s true “losing her mind” is a possibility I had truly not considered and that’s on me.
Mari: The dead hand from the tree was very convincing.
Nancy breaks into the morgue, darting down hallways to avoid the roving security cameras. (S: Also, return of the Crime Beanie!) Meanwhile, Bess and Ace are parked on the road leading to the morgue. He’s let the air out of one of his tires. When the coroner’s van approaches, they wave it down. A woman hops out and offers to help them change the tire.
Nancy has to lift the covers off a couple of bodies before she finds Tiffany. She’s clearly spooked by it but still about 100% less spooked than I would be in the same situation. She finds Tiffany.
The coroner, Lisbeth, is almost done changing the tire, but Nancy is still breaking and entering. In fact we cut to her drawing the blood. Ace buys more time by doing something under the hood of his car that makes it super smokey.
Sara: Lisbeth is also Rebecca from How To Get Away With Murder in case anyone else was certain they knew her from something but couldn’t place her with the shorter hair.
Mari: I did not recognize her from anything lol.
For some reason, even though she’s done and should get the heck out, Nancy walks towards the last bed. She braces herself and then lifts the covers, only to find that it’s empty, even though there definitely appeared to be a body underneath. A door behind Nancy opens by itself.
Lisbeth is busy working on the car and asks Bess for her help. It’s kind of flirtatious? Anytime someone grabs another person’s hand to guide them or show them how to do something, I’m like “ARE YOU FLIRTING?”
Mari: Ace agrees because this is his reaction:
Sara: The conversation between them at this moment is excruciatingly long. We can see police lights coming! Pass the stuff! This is so stressful!
Mari: Bess and Ace wait for Nance. Bess is worried, but Ace takes this opportunity to talk feelings. He noticed that Bess got Lisbeth’s number. Bess says that she doesn’t really date anyone, boys or girls. She’s just been on her own for so long, she never dropped an anchor anywhere long enough to get close to people. Ace offers to be her platonic anchor (platanchor, I groaned) and they smile at each other. George runs in and announces that Nancy got arrested, she has a bunch of dead people’s parts and she’s putting them in the fridge. Bess yells, “Nancy got arrested?” at the same time Ace goes “oooh, what parts?”
Nancy is processed at the station.
Mari: Karen tells Nancy and her beautiful hair that this makes her look super guilty. Nancy says trespassing doesn’t make you a killer, forgetting that at the beginning of this episode, she was like my dad lies so maybe he kills, too. Anyway, Nancy doesn’t want to have this talk with the woman who completely broke her trust. Karen just wants to impress on Nancy what a waste of time breaking and entering is. It was all for nothing. Nancy very obviously eyes Karen’s computer while NDVO says maybe it’s not a waste of time. Nancy asks for a cup of coffee. When Karen leaves, she hops on the computer and looks at the evidence logged for Tiffany, including her phone. Last message sent was to an unsaved number, telling whoever that the package is in the car. Nancy writes the number on the underside of her shirt. She leaves the windows she was looking at open, but is back in her chair before Karen comes back. Karen says someone is here to see her.
Cut to Nancy in a cell. Her dad is telling her they are charging her with criminal trespassing. He’s going to try and get the charges dropped, but she’s not a kid anymore and this girl detective stuff isn’t cute. She could try just letting the police do their jobs for more than a minute, instead of breaking into morgues and filing cabinets. Nancy asks what choice she had and I literally crack up. Like “you wouldn’t tell me dad, I HAD NO CHOICE.” Papa Drew says maybe she could’ve just trusted him, but she reminds him how he’s a lying liar who lies. Papa Drew says that he can’t really comment, but if someone had broken into his files, they might’ve seen something that made Ned look guilty, but a high profile witness like Tiffany Hudson would’ve testified behind a screen. Ned never knew it was Tiffany. Nancy asks why Papa Drew didn’t want her to see him, then. He gives the very reasonable answer that he wanted Nancy to spend this year getting her life on track, not getting attached to a kid with a troubled past.
Sweeney: This answer IS incredibly reasonable, but I always have so much trouble with family dynamics like this, in part because my mom was always incredibly honest with me, bordering on too honest. So as a general rule, I am bewildered by fictional parents who try to keep things from their precocious children, especially in this case, when Nancy is now an adult. By this point, Papa Drew should have a pretty clear picture of who she is. Like. What are you even doing. I know he’ll never be Keith Mars, but I need him to have his “no more spy vs spy” moment where he talks to his fucking daughter. It seems like any murder edit he gets will be pure misdirection, but also: I am deeply annoyed with his choices as a father.
Mari: Nancy has more questions: what about the bloody dress in the attic. Papa Drew is like… oh yeah… it was a prop. I bought a dress and covered it in food dye to scare your mom, good times. That is a horrible lie, Papa Drew. You aren’t even good at this. (S: You know who would’ve had a good lie? Keith Mars.) Nancy says she remembers seeing him and Mama Drew digging up that trunk from the back yard. He claims it belonged to her great, great grandmother who for some reason buried her valuables in there. Papa Drew says it’s time to go. Nancy reminds him she’s in custody, but he actually already paid the bail. He left her in the cell so she’d talk to him. Nancy asks how he got the money. Carson has taken Ryan on as a client for a generous retainer. Nancy calls it selling his soul to the devil, but she should be nicer ’cause it’s getting her out of jail.
Sara: Papa Drew kind of sucks, but I relate to his being motivated by that good (bad?) money.
Mari: Back at the Claw, George hands the evidence over to Nancy. They have a heart to heart. Nancy apologizes for her part in George’s high school misery. George says that she realizes now that Ryan was always going to keep her a secret no matter what. Ace and Bess walk in with a cooler and a box so that Nancy can mail her stolen evidence to her forensic analyst friend. We cut to Nancy sitting alone outside, writing the address on her box, and NDVO’ing about how maybe there is something to all the superstitions in this town. Out loud, she tells Dead Lucy that she’s going to figure out who killed her, too.
Finally, Nancy visits Ned. He’s got her surprise ready: her car all finished and ready. He also shows her that he created a little space in the gear shift so that she can store her locket when she has to take it off to go do crime. She thinks this is really sweet, the way he was so thoughtful about her crime, and they kiss.
Sweeney: We love a boyfriend who respects his partner’s cherished hobbies! Like crime, which all the teens are doing these days.
Mari: NDVO tells us that as midnight approaches, only the buckets will tell who will live and who will die. We head into the final music montage of the episode set to Castaway by Barns Courtney.
Papa Drew looks haunted, parked in front of the water somewhere.
Bess gets out of her van and kicks over her bucket: water. She sits and starts typing a message to Lisbeth about grabbing dinner. She looks back at her van and reconsiders, deleting the message.
Ace kicks his bucket: water. He gets a text from a contact he has saved as “Weed Guy.” Weed Guy tells Ace to keep him posted on the results from the morgue.
Sara: Maybe at least change the name of that contact to a tree emoji, Ace.
Mari: I saw a few status on Twitter from people who were very upset Nancy was having sex last episode. LET NANCY LIVE. (S: LET 👏 NANCY 👏 LIVE👏) Anyway, Ned is removing her shirt as they kiss, but he stops to say he’ll be right back. Nancy asks if he’s getting protection, but he gestures up. Nancy hears the bells. Bucket time. When Ned leaves, Nancy notices the number on her shirt that she wrote at the police station.
Papa Drew lights an entire match book… and then sets the bloody dress on fire.
George kicks over her bucket: blood. Or red paint. It looked very paint-y to me.
Nancy calls the number on her shirt, but hangs up after a few rings because Ned is back. He tells her there was only water in their bucket. NDVO says that’s great news after the day she’s had. The shot pans out and we see that up on Ned’s shelf is a little flip phone with one missed call.
In short: everyone is still a suspect.
Sweeney: And flip phones endure!
Next time on Nancy Drew: A nor’easter causes ghosts or something in S01 E03 – The Curse of the Dark Storm.
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.
