Previously: A party, but make it mystery. Coins, but make them burial.
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The Tale of the Fallen Sea Queen
Marines: Bluffs. Creepy children saying a creepy rhyme. Nancy Drew’s Voice Over [NDVO] reminds us that in the hours after being crowned, Horseshoe Bay’s most infamous Sea Queen made her way to the bluffs and died. All they know of the killer are the bloody knife and tire tracks they left behind. NDVO questions why this is what we know. Maybe the town didn’t want to face that the killer was a local.
The Claw. Nancy tells Ace and Bess that even though Lucy Sable’s murder has been reduced to a nursery rhyme, they know there’s more to it. I’m going to go ahead and say they knew that all along, considering it’s a murder. What Nancy now knows, thanks to one helpful ghost, is that this murder is connected to Tiffany Hudson’s murder. They have to solve one to solve the other.
Bess asks how the murders are linked. Ace thinks it’s because both Tiffany and Lucy found things out about the Hudsons. Tiffany knew about the Hudsons sinking the Bonny Scot for those burial coins. And Lucy found out that Celia Hudson was having an affair with her husband’s business rival.
George walks in with a cooler. Nancy runs over to help her carry it, but George wants none of her help. Nancy is like, “I get it, I ditched you to go to a depraved rich people party.” George just gives her a look.
Sweeney: Ah, yes, the classic “you ditched me to go to a depraved rich people party” look. Oft sported on The CW and nowhere else.
Mari: A true classic.
Ace’s phone rings. He answers and says he can’t talk right now. It’s Chief McGinnis. He knows that Ace and his friends have been crashing depraved rich people parties and he wants the deets. Ace says he may have a lead on the Hudsons, but he’ll call back later. Nancy looks at him suspiciously.
Sweeney: Ok look I don’t know much about how to be a police chief or detecting the shit out of things, but it seems like mole 101 is that your arrangement has to stay a secret to their associates so honestly Chief McGinnis is just very bad at this.
Mari: Ned walks in. Nancy hurries over to give him a kiss, but he’s clearly not into it and breaks it off soon. Nancy asks why Ned left so early last night, and he kind of snits that she looked really busy convincing Owen not to come after the coins he paid 1.5 million dollars for. George greets Ned and gives him his coffee. It’s very nice but also everyone is being awkward.
Ned brings out the coins and says that since Laura Tandy and the cops like breaking into his place, he’s definitely not keeping them at his house. Bess asks what they do with the coins, and Ned suggests they turn them in to the authorities, so that they can prove the Hudsons are murderers. Nancy says there’s a trustworthy FBI agent in Portland. George questions how she knows about this person, and she admits that it’s Owen’s contact. They can bring him the coins and the toxicology report from John Sander, the scientist that is actually Nancy’s contact. Got all that? A bunch of evidence, none of it in the right hands.
John Sander currently has the hair they found. Ned wonders if it’s Celia Hudson’s hair. Nancy said she thought so at first, but she did a little internet digging and found that Celia was in Argentina when Lucy was killed. That doesn’t rule out a hitman, though.
Victoria (Mama George) enters the Claw and she’s freaking out. She says there are a bunch of dead spirits outside, being attracted to this place. George immediately asks how much she’s had to drink, but I am beginning to understand that if I too saw dead things all around all the time, I would be tempted to drink. (S: 100%) Victoria tells them to get rid of the coins, to put them into whatever lead lined boxed that was obviously protecting them, and throw them back into the sea. They are like catnip for spirits. Victoria says the spirits of the dead were outside, but when she looks out there, they are gone. She turns to look at the teens, and the spirits are there, hugging them? Not in a nice way though. A ghost hug. She screams and tells them to get rid of those dang coins.
Sara: Even during these lonely times, I would still choose No Hug over Ghost Hug.
Mari: 1000%. I’ll remain touch starved over ghost hugged, thank you so much.
NANCY DPEW.
After the credits, Bess is freaking out even though Ned took the coins and is going to find a box to put them in. George comes in and tells them to get back to work. Bess is like HELLO? You got POSSESSED. You should believe your mom. George never said she doesn’t believe, but freaking out in the kitchen isn’t going to pay the bills. Bess asks if they can’t just get the original box the coins were in from Owen, but Nancy says she can’t get ahold of him. He’s in Singapore on business. Ace is reading the Wikipedia page for the coins (I assume) and says that they are in overdrive right now because of the new moon. Tonight, they’ll be less like catnip and more like tokens for a payphone that calls the other side. Nancy tells George that she needs to take a 20 minute break to go get the coins from Ned and talk to Victoria. George points out that they just opened, but Nancy leaves anyway.
Sweeney: George is truly an incredible friend and boss for not having fired Nancy yet.
Sara: I do feel, though, that there are always so many employees for a restaurant that is perpetually empty.
Mari: Both valid points.
In the locker room, Nancy gets a call from Papa Drew, who is back from a business trip. I guess we hadn’t seen him in a while? Sorry, Papa Drew, we’re here for the teens. (S: Every adult on this show is on a business trip!) PD suggests resuming their family dinners. He knows it won’t be the same, but they can start tonight at 7pm, after he gets off of work. Nancy is a little snotty about the fact that work means working for Ryan Hudson, but Papa Drew has a great reply because he’s actually returning a favor for Celia Hudson, who is the one who gave the money for Nancy’s bail. Nancy is like “see you at dinner!”
Garage. Ned is actually working, but then Nancy is there. His boss walks away to give them some privacy. Uh, thanks for showing up, boss. Ned coolly asks what’s up, and Nancy returns the question. Why does it feel like they are on different teams? Ned thinks that’s a rich question, considering that Nancy never tells him anything. Nancy says that’s not true! She just doesn’t tell him everything. Ned says maybe that’s why it feels like they are on different teams. Anyway, back to the coins, Ned finds a little lead box that will have to do for now, just so they can turn them over to the FBI. Nancy is like “we could, but also what if we keep it a while longer.” She calls George to asks if she knows where Victoria is. And the answer makes her go WHAT?
Cut to the police station. Victoria got arrested for being drunk in public. George is yelling at her because it’s 11am. Nancy marches right over to the front desk and starts pleading Victoria’s case, and listen, I’m emotional all the time now because the world is on fire, but this was such a good friend moment? Nancy isn’t always a great friend, but her ready to throw down with the officer on Victoria’s behalf was good. (S: I LOVE THIS FRIEND GROUP SO MUCH.) The officer is like WOAH THERE, because Victoria isn’t even arrested. She walked in here by herself and fell asleep on the bench. George asks her mother if she’s trying to get arrested, and Victoria says this is the least haunted place in town.
Nancy and George grab Victoria by the arms and pull her to where no one can hear her talking about ghosts. Victoria doesn’t want to be outside if those coins are out there, unprotected. Nancy pacifies her by saying they can get rid of the coins, if Victoria can help her talk to Dead Lucy. George gives her mom the tl;dr version of “Lucy is haunting Nancy, go with it.” George, as if your mom wouldn’t go with it.
Sweeney: She has just been waiting for you to go with it, George!!
Mari: Nancy says that Lucy only shows up when she wants to, namely for jump scares that always work on Marines, and even when she’s around, Nancy can’t understand her. Maybe if she could call on her? Use the coins to focus her and ask her questions? Victoria says there are way worse things out there, inhuman entities, pure evil, and they will also be attracted to the coins. George asks if these are things that were never alive. Victoria emphatically says yes! But this makes George think that Victoria can keep them safe, then. Victoria is surprised George wants in on this, but George clarifies that she doesn’t actually, but they have few choices. And if Victoria doesn’t help them use the coins, they’ll do it on their own. Victoria says, it isn’t only the coins: they’ll need something Lucy touched the night she died and the full moon tonight. Nancy thanks her, but Victoria says no thank yous. This is probably going to end in disaster. Nancy says that’s never stopped her before, so Victoria gives her this face 😮 and Nancy returns this face 😬
Sara: In every form of media, the necessary moon is always TONIGHT. Just once I want it to be, “Oop, we just missed it actually so hold on to those coins for another 27 days.”
Mari: I would die laughing.
Claw. Bess brings Victoria out some fried clam. “You can barely taste the clam,” Bess says and yes, that is the point of fried. That’s how I love it. Victoria digs in as Nancy walks in while ending a phone call. John Sanders is going to rush delivery Lucy’s crown and hair back to them so they can do the séance. George asks if they need a spirit board, and Victoria says this isn’t the 1800s. Dead Lucy has been using electronics to communicate with Nancy, so that’s what they’ll use. And since Dead Lucy isn’t a great communicator, they’ll have to use yes or no questions and be extra prepared as the whole thing will be over quickly. If they keep the spirit door open too long, bad things will come through.
Also, they actually have people inside the restaurant right now? The Claw hasn’t had clients in many episodes. Happy for them.
Sweeney: Proud of them. Also the lack of customers is probably why George can let Nancy walk off her shift whenever she feels like it.
Sara: All so relevant to my earlier thoughts! Now Nancy needs to get to work.
Mari: Ace says he’s in. Nancy is impressed that he hacked into the Horseshoe Bay digital library. Ace is like “sort of. I used my library card.”
Sweeney:
Laura Tandy brings her car to Ned’s garage for an oil change. Ned appreciates her publicity stunt, and asks if that’s what’s she’s been up to. Laura says that and giving Ned some space to finish going through her sister’s USB. Ned reminds her and us that Tiffany didn’t want Laura to have the USB. Laura says she wants to find Tiffany’s killer just as much as anyone. Ned reminds her that she played Tiffany’s 9-1-1 call at her funeral. Laura admits she’s a loose cannon. Ned says he’ll fill her in once he’s done going through the USB. Laura is not pleased and sasses away.
House. Outside, there is a yard sign for Candice Weaver, Horseshoe Bay PTA President. Inside, there are pictures everywhere with Candice wearing tiaras. Nancy tells her she was reviewing the footage, and she looked so beautiful. She leads into a question about the night Candice won runner-up, and George interrupts to say that runner up isn’t really winning. Nancy glares at her and George asks what? She wanted her Sea Queen blog to be accurate. A Sea Queen Blog cover story, I love it. Yas, Queen dot com. Or wait, Horseshoe Baes dot com.
Sweeney: This blog supports enterprising teen detectives using blogs as their cover story.
Mari: Anyway. Nancy asks about the whole whispering in the ear thing, and Candice just outs with it: there were rumors that Lucy was sleeping with the judges and other influential men. She says that Lucy was starved for attention. George asks if that was attention Candice should’ve been getting, and Nancy smacks her leg. Candice asks if this is really for the blog or if she’s missing something. George won’t be stopped, and she deadpans that Candice is definitely missing something.
Nancy points out a picture where Candice is doing a ribbon cutting. Nancy says she remembers doing that when she was Sea Queen. Did Lucy ask Candice to step in? Candice says that she had to step in because Lucy was already missing. She had disappeared with her little brother. Her brother and mother moved away a few weeks after Lucy was murdered and no one ever heard from them again. George points out that the picture they are looking at wasn’t in the library catalog. Candice says it was never published. Lucy’s death overshadowed all things Sea Queen, and Candice had to beg the Horseshoe Bay Ledger to give her a copy of what was supposed to be front page news. So now, our girls know that the Ledger has more Sea Queen pictures from that day.
Sara: Candice is definitely that person who has scrapbooks full of amusement park wristbands and movie ticket stubs from when she was 14.
Mari: Laura visits Ace at the Claw. She kisses him, but he’s not into it. He’s bummed that she didn’t trust him to share about the posters. He also asks why her own sister didn’t want her to have that USB. And how she even knew where to find it when she stole it from Ned. Laura says that she and Tiffany were super close and told each other everything. Ace says they were so close Laura sued Tiffany. He found that on the internet today. Laura explains that Tiffany was put in charge of her inheritance after their parents died until Laura turned 25. She wanted it sooner, so she sued. “It’s what sisters do,” Laura says. “Rich sisters,” she adds because I was about to say, absolutely not. Have not sued my sisters.
Sweeney: Have also never sued my sister or been sued by her, but I’ll call her later and let her know we’re doing this wrong. Maybe there’s a half-sister exemption clause.
Mari: Laura apologizes for not telling him about her poster campaign, but he knows how impulsive she is. And to prove her point, he pulls him into an inventory closet to bang. Never eat at The Claw.
Sweeney: This is probably why they never have any customers.
Mari: Nancy visits Ned at his garage loft. After Nancy said that maybe Celia Hudson paid someone off, Ned took a look at Tiffany’s files and found bank transfer records. The Hudsons did pay someone a large sum of money just 2 days after Lucy was killed, but it wasn’t a woman: It was Carson Drew.
After a break, Nancy is still staring at the bank transfer. She says that Papa Drew was the Hudson’s lawyer, so he probably got all kinds of transfers from them. Ned slowly explains that yes, he got money from their payroll, not their shell company two days after Lucy Sable died. Nancy gets up and she says she has to go meet George at the Ledger. Ned asks if she heard what he just said. Nancy says she heard some accounting information that doesn’t prove anything and she has to go. Ned grabs his jacket to come, too.
Papa Drew is at The Claw looking for Ace. He stumbles out of the closet with Laura close behind, and starts stammering excuses. Papa Drew says it’s fine, and they are lucky he isn’t the Department of Health. (S: Lucky for them, unlucky for potential customers of The Claw.) Anyway, he came here to see if Ace knew where Laura was. He introduces himself, and Laura calls him the Hudson’s errand boy. Papa Drew tells her that Celia Hudson wants to settle outside of court. Laura is like lol, no. She doesn’t want the Hudsons to get a dime of Tiffany’s money. After Laura leaves, Ace asks Papa Drew who would get Tiffany’s money if Ryan Hudson doesn’t. Papa Drew says it would go to the last living member of the Tandy family– Laura. Ace looks Concerned.
Sara: The music in the background is also Concerned.
Mari: Ledger. Nancy and Ned are going through Sea Queen photos. He wants to talk about this Papa Drew thing, but Nancy is straight up ignoring him. The zoomy cameraman zooms in on the fact that Ned puts his little lead box of burial coins on the edge of the desk they are working on, and sure enough, a minute later he knocks them down and all the coins scatter. (S: LOL, my gosh that is a terrible box for storing deadly ghosty coins.) Ned and Nancy bend to pick it up, but they hear mysterious shuffling from deep in the archives. They both pause to look up and listen, but like don’t worry about what’s happening out there, PUT THE COINS AWAY. There is a bunch of eerie breathing and gasping. Nancy finally realizes they have to put the coins away, so they do, quickly.
But still, a shadowy hand creeps out from in between the archive boxes. And down the aisle from them, a shadow man approaches. Nancy opens the box again only to realize they didn’t get all the coins. She spots the last one, and some shadow creatures are headed right for it. Our girl of pure bravery runs for it, gets it first, and tosses it to Ned, who shuts it away. The shadow creature disappears.
Sara: She runs right up on a shadow ghost! Could never be me.
Mari: Claw. Bess is sitting with Victoria, who is doing a face mask. Bess stage whispers to Ace that she’s trying to keep Victoria sober. Victoria says that she can still see the terrifying death creatures descending on the town, but her pores are unclogged. At least you are picking a struggle, V. Imagine seeing death and having bad skin. Ace sits next to Bess and asks if she would know if she were sleeping with a murderer.
Nancy and Ned rush in. She asks if they’ve found anything else on Candice Weaver. Bess shares that @CandiCanDoItAll has been all over Ryan’s social media for a decade. That adds fuel to why Candice hated Lucy, back in the day, but enough to kill her?
Nancy gets a FaceTime, and it’s John. He’s got good news and bad news. Good news: toxicology proves that Tiffany Hudson was poisoned. She didn’t die of natural causes. Bad news: he lost the box of Lucy evidence. All of it. He’ll keep looking for it, but he won’t be able to get it to her tonight.
Sara: John is just “uh my bad” about it. Thanks, John!
Mari: Truly, way too chill about losing a whole box of evidence.
After a break, the gang are all gathered around a table. Everyone has kind of given up on the whole séance thing, but Nancy says they have to do this. She’s looking over all the pictures of Sea Queen night and realizes that Lucy was wearing a bracelet at the beginning of the night, but not at the end. Ned recognizes the charm: his boss, Josh Dodd, wears it around his neck. Wow, good thing Josh was in a scene at the beginning of the episode for one second.
Nancy brings up the charm. Lucy gave it to him the night she died. She asks if maybe Lucy knew something was going to happen to her. Josh says that Lucy was acting weird. Towards the end of the night, she gave him the charm and told him not to believe anything they said about her. That was the last time he saw her. Nancy knows how much the necklace must mean to him. She wears her mom’s necklace everyday, so she understands what she’s asking when she asks if they can borrow the charm. Nancy says she thinks it can help prove who killed Lucy, but it’s really hard to explain how. Ned vouches for Nancy’s trustworthiness.
Claw. I really don’t understand how many days pass in a given episode and also what the work schedules are like at the Claw. Bess is working, though. She brings out a plate of food for Victoria, who is now gone. George is upset Bess lost her mom, but Bess says she promised to wait for her food. George tells her believing Victoria is a rookie mistake.
Nancy is back at the station as NDVO tells us that George was hoping Victoria was trying to get arrested again, but no such luck. Chief McGinnis spots Nancy, though, and invites her to catch up. He says that thanks to Laura Tandy, state police are moving in on this investigation. He has to send over all his evidence, including Nancy breaking into the lab and the fact that she served Tiffany her last meal. Nancy says he knows she didn’t kill Tiffany. McGinnis says she knows that he’s not the bad cop Laura is making him out to be. Nancy just looks at him and he’s like okay, but um, maybe it’s time we work together to solve this thing, him to fix his reputation, and her to clear her name.
Sara: Psh, McGinnis just knows she’s for sure going to solve this case before him and he doesn’t want to look dumb. But we see you.
Mari: Claw. Ace finds Nancy and tells her he has a theory. She solemnly says she has a theory, too: He is working for McGinnis. She lays out the evidence for why, ending with the fact that Ace overheard her call with John and an hour later, McGinnis was asking Nancy about poison. Ace explains about how McGinnis cut him this deal to keep him out of jail. He couldn’t tell them because it would violate the deal. He wants to make it up to Nancy, though, and says he has new information about Laura. Nancy cuts him off and asks how she’s supposed to believe him. As she walks away, he tells her that he’s going to fix this. He does a little lost puppy hair grab, and I say, “aw! baby.” to my empty apartment. (S: I love him.)
Another break, and we are still at the Claw. George says that in a non-turn of events, her mom got overwhelmed by the evil coin energy and got wasted, the worst George has ever seen her. Bess suggests waiting for the next full moon, but Ned says he’s not hanging onto the coins for that long. Nancy suggests doing the séance alone, and George is in. Ned and Bess are kind of pushed in, but they are in. George brought something to help them communicate with Lucy and she calls in her little sister Ted. It’s not Ted, but a toy Ted has that is a light up dragon. Lucy can light up the eyes green for yes and the mouth for no. I’m caught up on the fact that now this precious child is here in ghost haunting reach.
Sweeney: YES SAME!! And why are they not also concerned to have this precious child so near the séance!?
Mari: Oh god, we’re about to get a séance. I’m already dying.
They are all sitting in a circle in the dark. Nancy opens the container with the coins and Bess screams. George is like, “girl.” and she apologizes, saying it was a big build-up. I’m Bess.
Nancy lays down the coins, clutches the necklace and says that she calls on the spirit of Lucy Sable. We start hearing spooky noises and then see a bunch of creepy ghost hands appearing all around the dragon face toy. George says again that they are calling on Lucy. Suddenly, Lucy’s hand grabs Nancy’s arm. She asks if this is Lucy, and the dragon eyes glow green. She asks if Candice Weaver murdered her, and the dragon mouth glows red. She asks if the Hudsons killed her and it glows green then red, then green, then red. Nancy asks if Lucy is haunting her because of what she found in the attic. Lucy says yes. Everyone is looking at Nancy like, “girl, WHAT?”
NDVO tells us that she wants to ask if Papa Drew killed Lucy, but she can’t bring herself to do it. Instead, Ned asks if the same person who killed Lucy killed Tiffany. No. George asks if Lucy saw who killed Tiffany. Lucy says yes. Ned starts to ask another question, but the toy starts shaking and weird demon smoke pours out of it and starts surrounding them. The demon smoke grabs Lucy and pulls her away. Bess says they have to bring her back, but they can’t. The burial coins all melted. Nancy apologizes to Ned, but he looks big mad.
Sara: Nobody had some notebook paper with all their questions written out beforehand?! I would have just been throwing out names like I was on a game show until the eyes lit up green.
Mari: A winning strategy, tbh.
Later, Nancy finds Ned in the locker area. She apologizes again and says that she didn’t know that would happen. Ned says he knows, but even if she had known, nothing would stop her. Nancy says she has to find out what happened to Lucy. Ned asks if it’s because Lucy is haunting her. He asks what she found in the attic and if it had to do with her dad. Nancy won’t say. She says she’s figuring it out. Ned looks resigned. Nancy says she just needs time to figure it out. Ned says he needs time too, but for him, it’s to figure their relationship out. Nancy gets teary and say she’s trying. Ned knows she is. He used to worry that there wasn’t room for him in Nancy’s future, but now he sees there is barely room for him in her present. Nancy asks him not to do this, but he does. He breaks up with her with a kiss to the forehead and leaves.
Ace meets Laura and gets into her car. She thanks him for coming because she didn’t want to drive down the coast alone. He says it also gives them time to talk. She smiles and Ace surreptitiously turns on the recording device on his phone. This starts the music video to end the episode. To the sounds of an unreleased song I couldn’t find anywhere, we watch as as Ace pulls up his text messages with Nancy and it’s really sad, honestly. I had to pause and screen shot so you can also feel bad about what a crap friend Nancy is to Ace:
Sara: What a gross violation to be reading all of someone’s text messages without their knowledge. I mean, also bad if he’s a murderer too. But the texts!
Mari: I know. Imagine doing that to your adult daughter. Woof.
Ted is coloring and asking out loud what color she should color certain things. The dragon toy next to her starts lighting up in response. She asks if this is Dead Lucy. Red dragon mouth for no. I’m mad at everyone who let this happen.
Sweeney: Truly!!! Ted does not deserve this! Protect Ted!
Mari: Ned is driving when a cop car passes him. Up ahead, there are a ton of cops and emergency responders because of a car crash. It’s Laura Tandy’s car.
And back at the Drew Domicile, NDVO tells us that she used to judge the people of Horseshoe Bay for fixating on Dead Lucy’s ghost, while her killer walks free. Living in denial while her killer walks free. And then, NDVO says, she did the same thing. Nancy joins her dad at the dinner table, and flashes back to all the evidence against her dad. NDVO tells us that denial is no way to live, though, and she blurts out a question to her dad: Did you kill Lucy Sable?
End of episode.
Next time on Nancy Drew: Nancy looks into the car accident in S01 E08 – The Path of Shadows.
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.