We know the drill on Nancy Drew by now. New week, new lead. Nancy helpfully reminds us what she found out at the end of last week’s episode: Her mom was Lucy Sable’s guidance counselor. Nancy found transcripts of their conversation implying Lucy was afraid of her own mom. That doesn’t mean Lucy’s mom killed her, but it means she might know something. Unfortunately, Lucy’s mom is now in a mental institution after suffering a stroke. Only family is allowed to see her, and her surviving son doesn’t want to disturb her. Sounds like it’s time to sneak into an asylum.
Nancy recruits George and Nick, finding out in the process they’ve gone into business together. That makes things just a little awkward. She shrugs it off and they sneak in through the closed off part of the institution that’s ostensibly under renovation. If you’ve spent any time at all watching this show, you know that means it’s definitely haunted. The creepy children’s laughter while a ball rolls into frame on its own was definitely a fun way to lead us into the title card, though. The weird haunting stuff doesn’t stop there. With George acting as a distraction, Nick and Nancy split up to check the place out. Nick finds a room with black mold rapidly covering the ceiling. For her part, Nancy sees a guard walking strangely down a hallway who disappears just before he gets to her. Spooky. Then she runs into the real orderly. There’s only so much distraction George can provide.
Kennedy McMann as Nancy, Tunji Kasim as Nick and Leah Lewis as Leah — Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW
Nancy feeds the orderly a story about being a reporter looking into “what’s going on here.” The orderly is then all too happy to talk about The Haunting. For some reason, nobody will take him seriously despite the very weird things that are clearly happening in this institution. And surprise, they all started happening after Nancy and the gang held that seance and released a bunch of spirits into the town. Well, glad the ghosts aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. When the orderly gets distracted by another patient, Nancy slips away and finds Lucy’s mom. That leads to a scene that’s surprisingly creepy. Lucy’s mom thinks it’s still 1999, and confuses Nancy for her mother. Nancy goes along with it, but doesn’t get far. Lucy’s mom speaks in cryptic half-sentences. Nancy learns another woman has been coming by asking about Lucy. She also finds out a key to “Lucy’s secret” is hidden somewhere. The show does a good job of making the whole scene feel off. They keep giving us scenes like this, and I’m not sure we need the ghosts.
They are appreciated though, Nancy consults with Nick and George and finds out Lucy’s mom was quoting the Bible. Now, they’re looking for a thin man’s Bible. And hasn’t Nancy seen a strange thin man wandering the halls? She finds the orderly again who tells her the thin man is the ghost of the man who used to live in the house that became the hospital’s east wing. Apparently three dead bodies were found smiling in a room referred to as the whisper box. Nancy decides that’s just the place she has to investigate.
Nancy finds the room and it’s covered in black mold. She recognizes the ball she’s been seeing rolling around the hospital as belonging to one of the thin man’s kids. In the same picture, she sees the books she’s looking for. It doesn’t take her long to find it on the shelf, and as promised, she opens it up to find a keycard. What it’s to, we don’t get to find out just yet. When Nancy turns around, the door is gone. She can’t get out and falls to the ground. She sees a strange blinking light, which seems like it’s going to be an important clue at some point, but we don’t know for sure. Nancy passes out and wakes up in her bedroom in a world where her mom is still alive. As she goes to the kitchen for breakfast and closes the door, the cockroaches from the Whisper Room flood into her bedroom. That’s definitely an unsettling cliffhanger. Wasn’t expecting this from Nancy Drew. Oh, and Nick and George can’t rescue her either. The orderly they were talking to turned out to be a patient who stole the real orderly’s badge.
Alex Saxon as Ace and Riley Smith as Ryan Hudson — Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW
It’s a good thing Nancy’s part of the episode was so cool and scary, because the other story turned out to be a giant dud. You’d think the Hudson’s putting a hit out on Carson would be the most exciting part of the episode, but it takes every opportunity to become less interesting. It starts out great. Carson knows someone’s trying to kill him and he’s desperately trying to get hold of Nancy, but she’s busy sneaking into an asylum. The first few scenes of this story are tense and uncertain, and I was so hoping it would keep this tone for the entire hour. It didn’t. All Carson can get hold of is Ace, which turns the whole thing into more of a comedy. As resourceful as Ace is, he’s comic relief and the show knows it. Ace fakes a prison transfer to sneak Carson out of jail just before he’s about to get stabbed. That’s fine, but then the show decides to turn them into a sitcom double act. As Carson lists the crimes Ace committed in getting him out, Ace’s response is basically, “did I do that?” I’m almost shocked I didn’t hear a laugh track start playing.
I’ll admit the comedy did get a couple chuckles out of me. (“Please tell me you’re not taking me to my house.” “Where would you like to pretend we’re going?”) My problem isn’t with the humor itself. It’s that it dramatically lowered the stakes on a promising storyline. Celia Hudson calling a hit on Carson and Nancy was such an intriguing way to end last week’s episode. It’s disappointing to see this is all they did with it. I will give this part of the episode credit though, I liked the way it tied into Bess’ story. Bess met with the woman the Marvin’s wanted to set her up with. They don’t get along at first, but they’re able to read each other, and start encouraging each other.
Tiana Okoye as Amaya Alston and Maddison Jaizani as Bess — Photo: Bettina Strauss/The CW
Following her new friend’s direction, Bess is able to convince Ryan to help. He sends the judge proof that a hit was placed on Carson Drew without revealing who placed it. The standoff at the Drew house ends, and Carson Drew is granted a pretrial release. It was a cool way to make Bess’ rich girl relationship drama matter to the rest of the episode. I’ll admit it kept my attention, and gave the meeting some stakes beyond setting up a love triangle. It wasn’t a terrible b-plot, it just wasn’t everything it could have been. Next week, I’m hoping for a whole lot less of that and a whole lot more of what we got in Nancy’s story.
Nancy Drew airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on The CW.
Previously on Nancy Drew:
- Nancy Drew Season 1 Episode 11 recap
- Nancy Drew Season 1 Episode 10 recap
- Nancy Drew Season 1 Episode 9 recap
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