Who knew a vengeful spirit could be this agreeable? Nancy Drew, I guess. Last week, we ended with the spirit of Tiffany apparently possessing George. That certainly seems to be the case this week, as she breaks into Ryan’s house and writes “I Know” on the mirror in blood. Whether he believes in ghosts or not, that’s gotta be terrifying to wake up to. We don’t get to see that scene, though. Instead, we see George at the diner the next morning completely unaware of what she did. Her finger’s bleeding and she doesn’t know why. It’s not until Ryan calls accusing her of breaking into his house that she figures it out. He mentions that someone wrote on the mirror in blood, and she realizes it must have been her.
Nancy comes into work wondering where George is. Ace says she’s locked herself in the office. Nancy goes to look, and it’s not a pretty site. She’s on the floor desperately scratching out her own face in photos. Bess thinks she must have been possessed. The mirror she and Nancy find in George’s locker appears to prove it. If that’s not enough, Ned comes in complaining about his stolen flash drive. He has video evidence of Tiffany’s sister stealing it. As soon as he mentions that, George snaps to attention and wants to see the video. When Nancy and Bess come back with the mirror, George looks into it and Tiffany’s face is looking back.
Leah Lewis as George and Riley Smith as Ryan. (Photo Credit: Dean Buscher / The CW)
The bring George to her mother where we learn the stakes of this whole possession thing. Since Tiffany hates George, and has a reason to, the ghost is extra aggressive. Tiffany’s spirit will regain its memories, then it will start taking over George’s body more, and then George will cease to exist. This is meant to give the episode a ticking clock, and it doesn’t really work. The timeline before disaster happens is muddy, and the actual possession episodes are never as scary as you want them to be. Hell, it’s barely even an inconvenience at this point. The restaurant still makes its catering gig, and there’s no build-up to the next possession. When it does happen, it doesn’t even cause as big a scene as we want.
It threatens to, of course. George suddenly walks through the party in a red cocktail dress, wielding a knife. She walks up to Ryan and says, “I know about the waitress” before forcefully kissing him. Despite Ryan’s protestation that people are staring, no one seems to care. Things get a little more exciting once they get the possessed George into the kitchen and start trying to exorcise Tiffany. It remains hokey as hell, but Leah Lewis commits to the scene so much, it immediately improves. Playing scared, confused, angry and sad all at once, she’s giving this performance her all, and that’s really fun to watch. It lifts the entire scene up, and for the first time, we really feel the stakes the episode’s been trying to convince us were there the whole time.
Kennedy McMann as Nancy, Alex Saxon as Ace, and Tunji Kasim as Nick. (Photo Credit: Dean Buscher / The CW)
Tiffany’s ghost freaks out when she realizes she’s dead. The fact that everyone’s trying to get some kind of information out her doesn’t help either. It takes Ned speaking to her calmly, like a friend, to put her at ease. He and Nancy ask Tiffany to forgive George. That it was Ryan who took advantage of someone much younger than him. As George’s mom continues the exorcism ritual, Tiffany asks Ned to protect her sister Laura, and gives him the password to the flash drive he found last week. You know, the possession story had a slow, disappointing start, but I’m impressed it built into something this emotionally cathartic.
The episode rides that high out until the end, too. Nancy confronts Karen over why she lied about being friends with Lucy Sable. Turns out Lucy became strangely distant at the end. Nancy figures with such a mundane reason, Karen isn’t why Lucy’s ghost led her to that photo. It was pointing her to the time capsule. Here, the show even makes something out of the seemingly pointless love triangle it was building. There’s a guy that keeps rushing to help Nancy out and they stare at each other, and it makes Ned all jealous. For most of the episode, I rolled my eyes at the awkward attempt to set up a love triangle out of nowhere. Nancy finds out he’s Owen Marvin, another son in a very rich family with ties to the area. Nancy figures she can use him to get some digging equipment.
Miles Gaston Villanueva as Owen and Kennedy McMann as Nancy. (Photo Credit: Colin Bentley / The CW)
Just as she’s doing that though, Ned finds out what Tiffany’s flash drive points to. A huge file of documents she was compiling about the Hudson family. She was about to bring them all down. She also had dirt on Owen Marvin’s company. Nick is worried, but if Owen Marvin did have something to do with Tiffany’s death, he’s not going to murder Nancy right now. He helps her dig up the time capsule. Inside, she finds a bunch of 1999 nostalgia and a DVD. When she plays it, she discovers it has a strange skip in it. A student appears to repeat the name Ryan before the video skips back to a scene of Ryan Hudson talking to Lucy Sable. Is he responsible for two murders?
The supernatural scares have largely been this series’ strong suit. Going in, I was sure Nancy Drew could nail a possession story. Though it does eventually get there, it takes a lot more effort than I expected. The show never manages to make the possession scary. The timer they’re on isn’t adequately communicated, and the exorcism is more silly than anything. It’s a weird misfire for a show whose blending of supernatural horror with a more grounded mystery story was one of its strong suits. Still, the show continues to be capable of ending strong. It’s good at piquing your curiosity right at the end. It works for now, but I want either more clues in the main mystery or more scares from the ghosts. This episode was disappointingly light on both.
Nancy Drew airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.
Previously on Nancy Drew:
- Nancy Drew Season 1 Episode 4 Recap
- Nancy Drew Season 1 Episode 3 Recap
- Nancy Drew Season 1 Episode 2 Recap
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