Well, three episodes in and I think Nancy Drew officially has me hooked. It’s the day after the weird blood bucket festival, and everyone’s in a good mood except for George. That’s understandable since she’s the only one who got an omen of doom the previous night. She tries to shrug it off and says she was punked. (That’s a word I haven’t heard in more than a decade.) You can tell the confidence is just an act, though. As much as she says she doesn’t believe in curses, they still get to her. I mean, I suppose seeing a bucket of blood where water once was will do that to anyone.
That bad mood is contagious, though. A nasty nor’easter is coming in, which the locals say will blow restless spirits into town. Just part of living in Maine, I guess. And Nancy finds Ned’s second cell phone with a recent missed call from her number. Yeah, that looks bad. Even worse are the text messages from Tiffany telling him a package is inside Nancy’s mom’s old car. You know, the one Ned offered to restore. Things really aren’t looking good for old Ned Nickerson here. Especially when the cops show up at the diner and offer Nancy a deal: Evidence against Nick, and all the charges against her are dropped.
Tunji Kasim as Nick and Kennedy McMann as Nancy. (Photo Credit: Dean Buscher / The CW)
Nancy isn’t ready to turn snitch just yet though. Part of being an amateur detective is getting the whole story. She burns Ned’s burner phone and gets him to open up a little bit about what’s going on. Nancy’s mom was Ned’s social worker back when he was in jail. She convinced Ned to meet Tiffany and the two developed a friendship. They communicated through books and riddles, and just before she died, she left a package containing an old clock for Ned. One last riddle for him to solve.
The old clock isn’t just a cool callback to the books, it turns into the most exciting puzzle the show’s had yet. This storyline is easily the most engrossed in this show I’ve been since it started. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen, I had to know what the next step of the puzzle would be. It starts with a ring inside the clock with a recent engraving on it. Since Ned and Tiffany communicated through books, Nancy reasons it must be an ISBN number. It leads them to a page in one of Ned’s books that contain’s the word Lilac. Thanks to Nancy’s snooping around the police station, she knows Tiffany owned an abandoned bed and breakfast called the Lilac Inn. Another book reference!
Kennedy McMann as Nancy and Tunji Kasim as Nick. (Photo Credit: Dean Buscher / The CW)
The story really works though, because it’s not just a fun puzzle to solve. There has to be an element of danger as well. Nancy’s father and his new client, Ryan Hudson, are going over finances. Ryan is oddly nervous about how he needs cash now. He owes money to some dangerous people, it seems. He wants to sell the Lilac Inn, but it’s already been approved for landmark status. Oh, and he sees a screaming ghost on the ceiling. I have to hand it to the show, it wasn’t just a cheap jump scare. The whole scene had Ryan hearing footsteps that weren’t there, nervously pacing through the house, and building up to the big moment. That’s how you pull off a jump scare. In any case, it’s enough for Ryan to want out of the house quick. He wants to check out the Lilac Inn. Which is right where Nancy and Ned are.
Ned needs to solve Tiffany’s puzzle, and not even the prospect of being caught in a dead woman’s secret inn will deter him. He follows details he remembers from each book Tiffany shared with him. One particularly clever clue was a painting of Edith Wharton among portraits of Maine writers. That told Ned to look in the kitchen cupboards for a hidden wine closet. Just in time too. With Ryan and Carson Drew walking in the front door, they need a place to hide. Ned starts freaking out. He thinks Nancy is forcing him to relive the worst moment of his life. It’s only when they stumble on another clue inside the wine closet that he calms down.
Maddison Jaizani as Bess. (Photo Credit: Dean Buscher / The CW)
He notices the wine rack is filled with Amontillado, hinting at the Edgar Allan Poe story where a guy gets bricked up inside a wall. And yes, basing the episode’s big puzzle around literature was a surefire way to win me over. Inside the wall is a locked safe. One last clock puzzle reveals the key, and Ned has what Tiffany left for him. Of course, it can’t be that easy. In his excitement, Ned knocks over a bottle of wine, tipping off Carson and Ryan. By the time they find the wine closet, Nancy and Ned have cleaned up and escaped… somehow. Yeah, cutting to them just running outside was kind of lame. Like the show couldn’t think of any plausible way for them to actually make it outside unseen, so they just did. After all the intricate puzzle solving, that was kind of a letdown. At least it’ll all lead to something interesting next week. Carson notices the broken bottle of wine, and later sees a red stain on Nancy’s shoes. She got that detective instinct from somewhere.
They run into detective Karen, and Nancy decides not to turn Ned in. She offers proof that Ned and Tiffany were friends. So finally, everything seems good between Nancy and Ned. Though the cops still consider him a suspect. That situation’s likely to get worse if they find out what exactly Tiffany left for him: $5 million. She wanted him to have a fresh start. But if they find out he has that money, they’ll think he killed her for it. Nancy has other suspects to deal with for now, though. She finds out that Bess has been living in a van, despite the wealthy front she puts up. Nancy invites her to stay with her, but as they’re packing, Tiffany’s ring falls out of Bess’ bag. That doesn’t look good.
Maddison Jaizani as Bess, Leah Lewis as George, Alex Saxon as Ace, and Zibby Allen as Rita. (Photo Credit: Dean Buscher / The CW)
Honestly, now that I’ve accepted this won’t be a Veronica Mars-style mystery of the week show, I’m enjoying Nancy Drew a lot more. It helps that the mystery got really good this week, really leaning into its source material to give us an interesting puzzle. I’m gonna need the ghosts to start paying off soon, though. They’re good and creepy showing up on the ceiling behind characters, but I need it to go somewhere. There was some promising development on that front in George’s story, I’ll give the show that. She spent the entire episode dodging things trying to kill her.
First a coffee mug shatters out of nowhere. Then, a decorative harpoon falls from the ceiling, almost impaling her. Each time, someone pulls her out of the way from dying. Then there’s a mysterious interviewee named Rita looking for a server job at the cafe. Towards the end of the episode, she starts acting super creepy towards George, telling her not to move from a salt circle Ace had drawn. Just then, Ned and Nancy walk in and Ned saves her from a falling light. Rita disappears, and George notices an old newspaper on the wall. Rita was decapitated in a boating accident in 1975. Oooooh, spooooky! Seriously, that was a cool reveal. The blood bucket meant something. I only hope the show keeps this story going and that George’s ghost run-in isn’t a one-off.
Nancy Drew airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.
Previously on ‘Nancy Drew’:
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