Nancy Drew S01 E04 – Global Playgirl Detective

Previously: A storm with thunder, lightening and ghosts.
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The Haunted Ring

Marines: Nancy watches Bess sleep while Nancy Drew’s Voice Over [NDVO] gives us the quick and dirty on Bess as a suspect: liar, stole Tiffany’s ring. Something creaks out in the hallway. Bess wakes up and is like wtf. Nancy tells her it’s just an old house that makes a lot of noise. That sounds like an incredible reason to m o v e.

Sara: People talk about how old houses have character and charm but all I hear is ghosts and ghosts. No thank you please.

Sweeney: When I was a kid we lived in an older rental for a few months and my mom hated but I loved it, even though my room was the one with access to the attic that was definitely haunted and I was afraid to go in by myself? But also I loved it???

Mari: Sounds real fake.

The creaking is definitely not regular old house noises. It gets so loud that not even Nancy can ignore it so the two girls creep downstairs to investigate. The porch light is surging and buzzing and then goes out. In the kitchen, the microwave has turned on by itself. The girls watch the empty plate spin as they get closer and suddenly, the power surges there too and causes the microwave glass to crack. A light in the living room turns on and also starts buzzing. It powers off and Bess flinches. I yell ME TOO GIRL because I keep expecting Dead Lucy to jump out of a light bulb.

Next, the TV turns on with ghost static (you know the kind) until the video of the night Tiffany died starts playing. I’m not sure if I noticed before, but here, as Tiffany calls 9-1-1, it kind of sounds like she can’t breathe? Or like she’s choking? The TV also explodes and cracks. Nancy and Bess (and Mari) are disturbed.

Sara: Listen here, ghosts. If you feel the need to do jump scares or make creaking noises, fine. But don’t you dare break my television.

Mari: It’s rude af.

NANCY DPEW.

After the credits, Papa Drew comes downstairs to  figure out what’s going on. Nancy introduces him to Bess and then tells him that something weird with the fuses caused the TV to explode. Papa Drew heads off to investigate it.

Up in her room, Nancy finds Bess looking at a framed picture of Mama Drew. Bess says that Nancy never talks about her. Nancy says there’s nothing to talk about. Bess then says that the weird lights thing was definitely not a fuse and they are definitely being haunted. Dead Lucy was probably trying to send a message, like the time she tried to warn Nancy not to go to the morgue. Nancy stubbornly says that she’s choosing not to believe that, and turns out the lights. NDVO says that her other choice is to believe Dead Lucy is trying to warn her about Bess being the killer.

We Segue Magic from Nancy in her bed to Past!Nancy putting on some makeup. She heads downstairs and we see her mother in a sick bed in the living room. Nancy doesn’t want to go to this dance, but her mother tells her to go, have some fun, and stop missing out on all of her senior year. Nancy leans in to kiss her mom and the dream jumps to Mama Drew’s grave. Nancy startles awake as NDVO tells us she has too many dead women in her life.

Downstairs, Nancy is dressed for work. Papa Drew says he’s never heard Nancy mention Bess. Is she a friend from high school? Nancy explains that Bess works at the Claw and she’s in town for the summer visiting family. She’s a Marvin. Bess joins them. Papa Drews asks after her aunt Diana, and it’s clear that Bess knows nothing about her aunt, including the fact that she recently had surgery. Papa Drew offers to leave the girls pizza money, since he’ll be working late. Nancy declines, which is some high key commitment to being a rebellious daughter because it’s pizza. money. I’m 33 and if my mom were like “I’m leaving you some pizza money,” I’d be like THANKS MOMMY. (S: Hard agree.) (S: So say we all.)

Anyway, Papa Drew [PD] is going to be attending Tiffany Hudson’s funeral. Bess makes some comment about it being so sad that she got murdered and PD clarifies: the autopsy came back and said she died of totes natural causes. Nancy makes a face at that and her dad tells her to drop it. Once he’s gone, Bess also points out that if Tiffany wasn’t murdered, they aren’t suspects anymore. NDVO says she doesn’t believe it, mostly because Bess herself is the Suspect of the Episode.

To that end, Nancy does some investigating. She talks to a man who works for the Marvins and he’s never heard of anyone named Bess.

Sara: I feel low key annoyed that Bess couldn’t come up with a better cover story. It took literally one question to see that she was lying.

Sweeney: This entire plot is here to set up and eventually dismiss the idea of Bess as a threat and the flimsiness of that effort is apparent at every turn.

Mari: Ned sets up a surveillance camera to monitor a safe where he keeps his bonds. Nancy calls him to check how he’s doing and he admits not great. If he cashes the bonds, he’ll look suspicious. But keeping them feels like keeping a ticking time bomb. They talk some about the autopsy result. Ned agrees that it’s fake, but also points out that it’s a literal get out of jail free card. They can accept the story the Hudsons are spinning and move on with their lives.

After Nancy hangs up with Ned, she grabs a newspaper from a vending machine. She turns and a woman walks by her and snatches it out of her hand while bad girl music starts blaring. Honestly WHO EVEN would do something like that? NDVO offers an introduction: Laura Tandy, Tiffany Hudson’s sister, orphan, global playgirl and last living Tandy. Also: newspaper thief.

At the police station. Laura yells some about her sister’s murder and the fact that Ryan was broke and was also cheating on Tiffany. Chief McGinnis says that’s all well and good but with no evidence, the case is closed. Laura says she guesses she’ll have to do the police’s job for herself. Now we have ourselves a girl detective and a global playgirl detective.

Sweeney: I honestly love this for us. I am already invested in Nancy, but would happily watch the shit out of a TV show all about a global playgirl detective.

Mari: Chief McGinnis calls Ace and tells him that Laura Tandy is back in town. McGinnis wants Ace to tail her. I love that he’s Nancy Drew’s #1 un-fan and yet he employs Ace to do all his detectiving. Even Ace is like, “don’t you have cops who can do this?” McGinnis says sure he does, but Ace and Laura have history and Ace and McGinnis have a deal.

Ace goes into the Claw and starts fake coughing. George immediately tells him to go home because she’s not taking any chances after the blood bucket thing.

Sara: Ace is me at work, when I’m laying the groundwork for why I need to take off for the afternoon.

Mari: I’m not saying I’ve ever, ever done this but *wink*

In the break room, Bess is at her locker when she starts hearing a bunch of ghost whispers. Ace’s fake coughing scares the shit out of her, but she says she’s fine.

Back in the restaurant, it’s George’s turn to tell Nancy to please let them have their fake exoneration, and to not Nancy Drew this for the rest of them.

Later, Bess closes herself into the storage room. She pulls Tiffany’s ring out of her pocket and puts it on, breathing deep. Suddenly, the ghost whispers start again. Instead of running out of the enclosed murder closet she’s in, she starts getting closer to the vent since it seems that’s where the ghost whispers are coming from. For a second everything gets quiet, and then something jumps out of the vent. We cut to the restaurant as everyone hears Bess screaming. Nancy and George run back there and find Bess asking for help, army crawling towards the door. The backs of her legs have scratches on them.

After a break, Nancy and George help Bess into the break room. Bess tells them about hearing the whispers. George notices Tiffany Hudson’s ring. I like that everyone recognizes this ring. I feel like I could never. George asks if Bess killed Tiffany and Bess says no! She found the ring in the parking lot and by the time she realized it belonged to Tiffany, they were suspects and she couldn’t tell anyone. Plus, she likes shiny things. They calm her. Nancy is like, “girl, that’s the story you are going with?” Nancy also doesn’t think the attacking spirit was Dead Lucy. George points out the obvious of maybe Dead Tiffany being the mad one, considering that Bess is walking around with her ring. George thinks she knows someone who can help.

Ace is following Laura around. We get confirmation that “Weed Guy” in his phone is indeed Chief McGinnis. Ace, by virtue of being a kid and not a professional, gets caught pretty easily by Laura, who knows he’s been tailing her for the last two hours. She asks him what’s up with him spending all the previous summer with her, then never calling her, and now stalking her. Luckily for him, she still thinks his bumbling stoner act is cute and invites him to catch up. I guess we are ignoring the stalking bit.

As they walk, Ace says he’s sorry about Tiffany. Laura shares that their last conversation was a fight, specifically about Tiffany gathering up the courage to divorce Ryan. Laura asks if Ace has heard anything about the case. Ace tells her about the 9-1-1 call, and Laura asks him to pull one of his hacker moves and get the recording for her.

Sara: Is it a real TV show if there isn’t one character on it who’s a hacker?

Sweeney: No friend group should be without one, truly. (1, 2, 3, not it.)

Mari: NOT IT. lol Sara! Better look up some YouTube tutorials or something.

Papa Drew has Ryan sign some paperwork. Ryan gives him a statement the family would like PD to read after the funeral about a non-profit they are founding in Tiffany’s name. PD thinks that’s a good idea. He also says what a relief it must be to have that totally legit autopsy saying Tiffany died of natural causes. Ryan is like “yeah, by the way, when can I get Tiffany’s money?” Papa Drew says he’ll need a signed copy of the autopsy and Tiffany’s death certificate to file in probate court. Ryan’s like “cool,” and leaves.

Nancy breaks into Bess’s locker, which is a bold move considering that Bess is like… in the restaurant. Inside her locker, Nancy finds Bess’s passport. Bess is not Bess Marvin.

After a break, Bess does indeed catch Nancy in the act, which is not a surprise, considering that Bess was… right there. Nancy wants to know why Bess has been lying, but George interrupts them for a team meeting. Turns out, the person George brought to help? Her mother. She’s not a medium, but she is clairvoyant, though George does point out that she’s usually drunk when she’s doing her power thing. Mama George is a wealth of information: the scratches on Bess’s legs point to a new ghost who is probably lost and confused. Someone like, say, Tiffany. That ring was probably Tiffany’s most prized possession so she’s drawn to it, even in death. Bess has to put the ring back on Tiffany’s corpse in order to guide the spirit back to the body. She should also put a mirror on the body so the spirit can kind of see where it’s going. Also, they should give Mama George more wine. George is like okay that’s enough.

Sweeney: Seemed like a reasonable request to me, Mama George.

Mari: As I said, it was a heck of a lot of ghost info.

Bess freaks out because she’s already been attacked by Dead Tiffany once. George volunteers to do the ring thing. Nancy volunteers to be the lookout. When Bess leaves, Nancy tells George she doesn’t have to do this, considering her history with the Hudsons. That is precisely why George is doing this. What she did to Tiffany was wrong and she feels compelled to do something to give Tiffany a little peace in the afterlife. George returns that Nancy doesn’t have to go either, seeing as how the whole funeral thing might be hard. Nancy says she can handle it.

Drew Domicile. Papa Drew has once again left his office open and important documents on his desk, so Nancy helps herself. PD arrives a little later, and Nancy confronts him right away about what she read: the autopsy is a lie. She knows because she stole some blood from Tiffany’s corpse and the report doesn’t mention a puncture wound. Papa Drew is like JESUS CHRIST, but Nancy will not be knocked from this high horse! No one is looking out for Tiffany but her! PD says he’s got things to worry about like medical debt and bail for his daughter. Nancy thinks it’s super convenient PD has those excuses to use for his selling out.

Sara: Like I’ve said before, Papa Drew is very money motivated, and while I’m not saying he’s a great guy, I am saying that I vibe with him on this.

Mari: Telling the truth isn’t going to pay his bills.

Funeral. Nancy looks around as NDVO tells us that you can tell a lot by the way people act at funerals. Ryan hasn’t looked at the casket once, Bess looks terrified to speak to the Marvins, and Ned is moping around, actually sad that Tiffany is dead. Nancy joins him and his feelings. Laura stops by and hugs Ned, thanking him for being a good friend to Tiffany.

Chief McGinnis finds Ace and asks about Laura. Ace says that she doesn’t know anything.

George watches Ryan.

Papa Drew greets a man named Everett, who says he’s happy to have PD back in the family. PD says that he’s working for Ryan, not the Hudson family. Nancy sees all this go down and seems to decide something. She finds Bess and tells her to be on door duty for George.

Bess waits outside the door but she’s approached by Diana Marvin, who asks if Bess works there. Bess freaks and leaves her post. George is inside the room. She apologizes to Tiffany’s corpse for sleeping with her husband and tries to get the ring on Tiffany. Except that she hears someone coming. She has to hide underneath the casket. Everett and Ryan walk in. Everett says it’s too bad Tiffany never got pregnant, because it was a waste of a marriage. Ryan objects, and Everett says that Ryan never cared about his wife while she was alive and leaves. Ryan apologizes to Tiffany’s corpse that she had to hear that and then also leaves. George leaves her hiding spot, slips the ring on Tiffany, and bails.

George finds Nancy and asks what the heck happened to being on door duty. Nancy has just been standing pensively this whole time, I think? Nancy says she told Bess to do it so the girls find Bess, who is out front, waiting for a Lyft. Nancy sees the Marvins walking by and loudly announces that Bess should get a ride from the Marvins, since they are family and all. This is real cold. I’m not proud of Nancy right now. Bess asks what the hell Nancy wants from her, and Nancy demands answers. With a British accent, Bess explains that her mum always told her they were descended from some fancy family named the Marvins. She came here trying to figure out if that was true, but she needs DNA from one of the Marvins to verify. Nancy points out the absurdity of using the last name Marvin, but Bess claims she didn’t know how small the town was. Nancy also thinks Bess’s idea of getting a DNA test and then just presenting herself is absurd. Bess doesn’t want Nancy’s opinion. Family may not mean much to Nancy, but it does to Bess. Nancy is like “you don’t know me,” and Bess is like YOU! DON’T KNOW! ME! And Nancy looks truly shocked to find out that when people make broad assumptions about you based on limited information, it sucks. Shocked.

Funeral. Everett is giving a speech, but he’s interrupted by something coming over the apparent outdoor PA system at this graveyard. It’s Tiffany’s 9-1-1 call. Laura announces to everyone that Tiffany died alone and panicked, not of natural causes. Tiffany may have been afraid of Everett, but she’s not. And she’s going to prove that Tiffany was murdered.

Chief McGinnis accuses Ace of stealing the 9-1-1 recording, but he says he didn’t. McGinnis doesn’t believe that and reminds Ace that if he breaches their agreement, he can prosecute him to the full extent of the law.

Sara: Is this agreement even legal? It sounds kind of not legal?

Sweeney: Our resident legal scholar isn’t watching this show but somebody should call her and ask because I agree that it seems very Not Legal.

Mari: Maybe Sara can YouTube some legal things while she’s learning to hack.

Karen finds Nancy in front of Lucy Sable’s grave. Karen asks how Nancy is doing, but Nancy just wants to talk about Lucy. Karen was in the same grade as Lucy, but they moved in different circles. All the police know about her death is that they have a bloody knife and tire tracks leading away from the cliff. Karen thinks Nancy is asking about Lucy to deflect from the fact that she hasn’t visited her mother’s grave.

George stands by Tiffany’s grave and gives a true apology this time. As she does, ghost smoke rises from the grave and goes into George’s backpack.

Nancy finds her dad at Mama Drew’s grave. He shows her that he’s brought two arrangements, one from him and one is supposed to be from her. Nancy says she’ll come back later, but PD stops her. He doesn’t want this tension between them. He asks what he can do to fix it. Nancy says she wasn’t there when her mom died. She was at that dance we saw her getting ready for at the beginning of the episode. PD could’ve called her, but he didn’t. PD says that it’s what Mama Drew wanted. She didn’t want Nancy to remember her suffering, but all the happy memories. Nancy cries as she says that she had so much more to say to her mom. PD says that Mama Drew knew how much Nancy loved her and that was enough. He was trying to honor Mama Drew’s dying wishes. He thought he was doing the right thing. Nancy grabs the flowers from PD and thanks him for bringing them. They both kneel by Mama Drew’s grave briefly, before PD has to go.

Alone, Nancy starts talking to her mom. She tells mom that lots has happened since her death and a lot of it has been weird. Nancy has started believing in ghosts, but it took her a while to get there because she kept thinking that if ghosts were real, Mama Drew would find her. Nancy cries as she asks her mom why she hasn’t come back for Nancy, why she hasn’t shown up? Is Nancy not enough to keep her here?

Woof. That’s rough. I mean, nothing Nancy has seen is evidence that ghosts are happy at all. She’s seen violent, unresolved things, and yet I can 100% believe that Nancy is thinking nothing about this. She is only thinking about how much she misses and needs her mom.

Sweeney: This show has it’s problems but wow yes I sobbed. This scene was A Lot and Kennedy McMann did a great job here.

Mari: PD is announcing the non-profit at a press conference. Reporters ask about the autopsy, and Ryan cuts it short. Papa Drew decides, though, to announce to the reporters that he thinks the autopsy is inconclusive. Ryan angry whispers to PD that he made a huge mistake. Papa Drew is like fire me then, but Everett is on hand to angry whisper that leaving them a second time won’t be that easy. Papa Drew walks away and nods at his daughter, who is watching, as he does.

Laura finds Ace and apologizes for betraying his trust. Ace forgives her way more easily than I would ever and they kiss.

Ned gets to his home-garage and sees an empty money box near the safe. He runs to check the safe, but his bonds are still safe in there. He looks curiously at the empty money box and looks up at his camera.

Nancy watches the video of the night Tiffany died, wondering why the ghost would play this video for them. Nancy wonders if she’s been looking at the wrong thing. In the video, Nancy sees Tiffany drop her ring before dropping her plate. Bess wasn’t lying. This time, when the video goes to static at the end, Nancy sees Dead Lucy in the static. And then the glass on her laptop screen also cracks. (S: This ghost owes Nancy a big check.) Bess enters and scares Nancy. Nan apologizes to Bess for putting her on blast at the funeral. She knows that Bess didn’t kill Tiffany. When Bess leaves again, Nancy opens her laptop and realizes that the crack on her screen is in the same pattern as all the cracks on all the glass in the house. And it’s familiar: it’s a map of Horseshoe Bay. And the epicenter of the crack is the high school.

Music video time! “Feel It Coming On” by Contessa plays as Bess looks at an invitation to the Tiffany Hudson Gala and smiles. Ned reviews his security footage and sees Laura doing something and then walking out with a USB in her hand. Ace and Laura make out. Nancy and her crime beanie break into the high school. In a trophy case, she finds an old picture of Karen and Lucy Sable. George locks up the Claw. As she puts her keys in her backpack, the ghost smoke escapes her purse, chokes her and goes into her. George falls to the ground and then in a voice not her own cries, “Help me, please! please! I’m in the Claw! No” And we see that in front of her is the mirror she was supposed to leave on Tiffany’s body. Whoops.

    Sara: Well. I guess my prediction that this is all a Scooby Doo situation is super wrong, huh?

Sweeney: YAY GHOSTS!!!!

 

Next time on Nancy Drew: George is possessed by Tiffany in S01 E05 – The Case of the Wayward Spirit.