Starting off right where the first episode ended, The CW’s Nancy Drew season one episode two opens with Nancy (Kennedy McMann) holding the bloody dress and questioning why a dead girl’s dress is in her attic. Her dad (Scott Wolf) comes home and talks to her about how sorry he is for keeping things from her. Nancy’s lost in thought, wondering if her dad could lie about his relationship with Karen, what else could he be lying about?
As if reading her mind, her dad asks if there’s anything she wants to ask him. Narrator Nancy says, “Yeah, are you the reason why she is known as Dead Lucy?” Instead, she tells him nope.
Ryan Hudson (Riley Smith) and George (Leah Lewis) are getting hot and heavy when he receives a call. He takes it and leaves the room, but George hears him say, “What do you mean they want to do an autopsy?” and “We need to get ahead of this thing now.”
Nancy shows up at the police station and sees they have a board listing suspects in the Tiffany Hudson case. The chief of police stops her from entering any further and wants to know what she’s doing there. She asks to see the cold case file for Lucy Sable. Chief McGinnis (Adam Beach) accuses her of interfering with his work yet again. He wants to know why she’s interested in Lucy Sable.
Detective Karen Hart (Alvina August) interrupts them to announce Ryan Hudson wants his wife’s body moved to the district morgue in New Hampshire. Ryan claims he wants a more reliable source. After Nancy says, “They are railroading your investigation,” the chief tells her suspects don’t get to hang around the police station and escorts her out.
Narrator Nancy is going over the suspects and why they couldn’t have done it, starting with Ace and then Bess. She questions whether Bess really lives with a rich aunt and if so why she is working at the local diner. She turns to George next. George claims to be some tough girl but she’s not so sure. But, then again, George is good at keeping secrets, like who’s the older man she was caught hooking up with during her senior year.
Nancy doesn’t think any of them have a motive except the one she’s sleeping with – Nick. Tiffany’s the one who put him away.
After putting things in her locker, she turns around to find Nick standing there. That scares her, but then he asks her out on a date to the beach that night. After first declining the invitation, she agrees to meet him.
George makes jokes about Tiffany not being the only dead thing around there, referring to the diner. (Too soon!) It appears no one wants to eat there since someone wound up dead in the parking lot. Bess (Maddison Jaizani) asks Nancy what the police said about the video of Tiffany. Nancy admits she didn’t show them because they would lock her phone up as evidence. She informs them Ryan’s having the body moved and believes that’s what someone would do if they were trying to cover up a murder. George gets defensive over that (gee, wonder why) and tells Nancy she’s looking in the wrong place.
Nancy thinks they should get their own autopsy and the rest of the gang wonders how that could possibly happen. Apparently, a scientist owes Nancy one because she solved a crime when she was 14. She explains all she needs is a sample of Tiffany’s blood.
Nancy stakes out the morgue and it appears she’s going to break into the building. She’s looking through the window when she catches a reflection behind her. Of course, when she turns around whoever it was is gone. When she goes to investigate a branch from a tree scares her and she has to have a pep talk with herself to get it together. Nancy reminds herself she doesn’t believe in ghosts.
Later, Ace (Alex Saxon) warns them they can’t go to the morgue after dark because it’s haunted by Lucy. The gang, of course, groans at that but Ace continues and says, “They say she wanders in after dark and searches for a long-lost body.” Nancy says they aren’t going to let ghost stories stop them. They’re going to go to the morgue at night. George wants to know why they have to help and Nancy points out that as a fellow suspect she should want to try to solve this.
Nancy goes over her plan and thinks she can get the coroner’s keycard. He’ll most likely be at the ceremony tonight and they can break in then. Bess points out that the van to transport Tiffany’s body is supposed to be there at 8:00pm and Nancy suggests they get it canceled. Ryan’s the one who arranged the pick-up and they could steal his phone to get the morgue’s number to call it off. Nancy asks George to get the phone.
Nancy heads to Nick’s shop and spots her mom’s car covered up. When she begins to lift the cover, Nick stops her by claiming it isn’t ready yet. He asks what she’s doing there and she confesses she needs something to break into a car because she’s trying to figure out how Tiffany died. Nick wonders how he can help and asks her to tell him more. She won’t, claiming she doesn’t want to get him in trouble.
George finds Ryan’s car parked with the window down. After reaching in and stealing his phone, Ryan appears and spots her. Fortunately, he didn’t see her take his phone. Right off she asks why he’s having Tiffany’s body moved. He acknowledges word travels fast around this town and says people like to go after families like his. He reveals Tiffany was heavily medicated. He doesn’t need that showing up on Page Six. He’s thinking of his family’s privacy and wants to protect that.
George believes his story and has a change of heart. She lies and says he dropped his phone and hands it back. Little do they know Nancy Drew, in full detective mode, is there and watches the whole exchange.
Ryan Hudson spots Carson Drew and tries to engage in a little small talk. Carson is visibly annoyed and asks, “If you came to see me about your image problem, you might start by not calling them ‘townies’,” referring to what Ryan just called the locals. He asks Carson to be his lawyer and Carson declines. Ryan is done with the nice approach and tells Carson he knows his parents have him on retainer. Carson gives him advice to stop treating the town as if it’s just someplace he summers in because if he ever does go on trial for his wife’s death, these people are going to be his jurors.
Carson also informs him he promised his wife that he would never work for another Hudson again.
George returns to the diner and lies to Nancy saying it was a no-go; she could not get his phone. George stops in her tracks when Nancy calls her out. Nancy admits she saw her take it out of his bag. George accuses Nancy of spying on her, and Nancy reveals she believes there are two scenarios. One, she’s covering for the killer. Or two, she is the killer.
George points out that Nancy is the one who handed Tiffany her food and Nancy counters with George is the one who handed her the food to bring to Tiffany. Nancy also points out, “But I’m not the one sleeping with her husband.” George brings up high school and how Nancy’s friends were mean and would constantly slut shame her. Not stopping there, she hits her with a low blow when Nancy reminds her that was her friends; she never did it. George asks where all her friends are now. “Oh, wait, they don’t want to be friends with a girl with a dead mother,” says George, answering her own question.
Ace and Bess interrupt and want to know why they’re fighting. Nancy changes the subject and Ace asks her about the cell phone. She covers for George and says Ryan took it with him when he was jogging. The new plan is to delay the van by cutting it off. They make plans to meet up later.
The town gathers for its annual tradition of going to the beach, getting a bucket of seawater, putting it on their doorsteps, and then kicking it over when the church bells strike midnight. (It’s a really bizarre tradition.) If there’s just seawater that spills out, you live. If it turns to blood, you’re marked to die within the year.
Nancy and Nick are at the beach to collect a bucket of water when he confesses he knows she’s planning something. He says he’ll sit this one out but warns her to be careful. Carson’s also there with Karen and spots Nancy with Nick. Karen catches Carson’s attention, stating, “Someone got lost on their way to the Yacht Club,” referring to Ryan. The police are there, including the chief, as well.
Nick wonders who would ever trust a manipulated psycho like Ryan and Nancy replies, “You’d be surprised.” George overhears this and walks off.
George tries to tell Ryan something but he blows her off because they’re in public.
Nancy spots the coroner and breaks into his car to get his keycard. After closing the car door, she suddenly sees a pool of blood mixed with water coming out from under the car. After bending over to inspect it, she catches a reflection in the door’s window that isn’t hers – it’s a ghost. Clearly, that startles her and she jumps back.
When Nancy looks back down the blood is gone.
On the way back to the beach she considers she might be losing her mind. Bess interrupts her train of thought and asks what’s wrong. Nancy opens up that she may have seen something. Bess encourages her to tell her what she saw. Nancy confesses she thinks she saw a vision of a drowned corpse. Bess worries it’s Dead Lucy and she doesn’t want them to go to the morgue.
Just then Ace walks up and Bess tells him Nancy received a warning from Dead Lucy that she does not want them doing this. Nancy jumps in and says, “That’s definitely not what I said so forget I said anything.”
Yet in her mind she admits either she is going crazy or she’s being haunted.
Nancy stands in front of the morgue at night in her trusted black beanie and sends Ace a text letting him know she’s going in. She avoids the cameras as she sneaks in.
Bess and Ace are waiting for the coroner’s van and when they spot it, they flag it down. The driver’s a woman who happens to know all about cars. Not so lucky for them…
Nancy’s trying to figure out which body is Tiffany’s when she finds her.
Back to Ace, Bess, and the lady driving the van, Lisbeth (Katie Findlay). Lisbeth says she’s almost done fixing their car and they panic. Bess does something to the car to make it smoke and asks if that’s normal.
Nancy goes to move a sheet off a body, but to her surprise when she rips it off there isn’t any body. She then turns around and sees a door moving.
Lisbeth asks Bess to assist her and it appears Lisbeth is flirting with Beth. Ace picks up on that.
Nancy heads into the room with the moving door and discovers it’s the tissue sample room. She spots a file box on Lucy Sable and finds a sample of blood taken from the rocks she fell on. The box also contains a broken crown where strands of Lucy’s hair were found. That’s all that’s left.
Suddenly the alarm goes off. Nancy tries to use the keycard but it won’t work. George suddenly appears on the other side of the door and insists she’s there to help her. After breaking a small rectangular window on the door, she tells Nancy to give her the blood. If Nancy gets arrested at least she won’t have the blood on her.
After George runs off, Nancy is caught.
Bess and Ace get back to the diner and wonder where Nancy is. Bess thinks something must have gone wrong. Ace brings up Lisbeth and how he saw Bess give Lisbeth her number. Bess tries to tell him she doesn’t really date anyone – not boys or girls. She explains she’s been on her own for so long she hasn’t really dropped an anchor anywhere. He offers to be her anchor and she asks if he means in a friend way. He says yes.
George bursts in and says, “Nancy got arrested! I got a bunch of dead people’s parts.” Ace seems intrigued while Bess focuses on Nancy being arrested. George warns them she’s putting what she has in the refrigerator and that nobody can touch it.
Karen questions Nancy, advising her this makes her look guilty. Nancy reminds her trespassing doesn’t make her a murderer. Karen warns she can’t help her if Nancy doesn’t trust her. Nancy says she can’t do this “with the one woman who completely broke my trust.”
Nancy sees something and asks Karen for a cup of coffee. When Karen gets up to get it, Nancy hops on her computer and starts going through messages Tiffany had on her phone – a phone that’s now logged as evidence. She finds the last text she sent to an unnamed contact and quickly writes down the number on her shirt before Karen returns.
Carson joins his daughter and tells Nancy what she’s being charged with. He confirms he’ll do everything in his power to get these charges dropped. He reminds her she’s not a kid and this detective stuff isn’t cute anymore. He reveals he also knows she broke into his filing cabinet at home.
Although he can’t say much, he says what he can tell her is, “I can imagine a scenario where they might be worried about Ned Nickerson’s connection to Tiffany Hudson. They might even speculate that he’d have a motive to kill her, but what I can also tell you is that a high-profile witness like Tiffany would have testified behind a screen to make sure the defendant never knew her identity.”
Carson tries to tell his daughter that as her attorney he has questions to ask her. She cuts him off saying she has questions first. She reveals she found a dress – a pink, bloodstained dress – in a trunk in the attic. He claims it was a prop he got to scare her mom. She brings up seeing him and her mom when she was little digging up that very trunk. He then claims the trunk belonged to a relative and after the relative died, they heard she buried valuables in it. He says it held China cups and steak knives.
Carson pays Nancy’s bail and she wonders where he got the money. He reveals he took on a new client – none other than Ryan Hudson himself. “So, you sold your soul to the devil, huh?” says Nancy.
Nancy shows up at the diner and attempts to thank George, but George ignores her. Nancy apologizes to her for what she did to George in high school, explaining that although she didn’t spread those rumors, she didn’t try to stop them. She’s sorry for being a part of what hurt her. George takes this opportunity to talk about Ryan. He told her he has nothing to hide but he does…and it’s her. She realizes he’d rather keep her hidden.
Bess and Ace come walking up with boxes and Bess explains she thought they might need their help. Ace randomly says, “As friends.” Bess tells him not to make it weird. Bess says the boxes are so she can mail her friend the body parts.
While Nancy is filling out the address, she’s thinking about how she’s starting to believe the town’s superstitions. She decides she’s going to figure out who killed Lucy as well.
Nancy goes to see Nick and he has a surprise for her. Her mom’s car is finished.
Narrator Nancy muses, “As midnight approaches and with it another year, who will live and who will die? Only the buckets will tell.”
Bess kicks over her bucket and then types out a text to Lisbeth suggesting they get together for dinner sometime. However, she changes her mind before sending it. Next up is Ace who kicks over his bucket. Nick stops his make-out session with Nancy to kick over his bucket. Meanwhile, Carson’s at the beach burning the dress with blood on it.
George kicks over her bucket and blood comes spilling out.
Nancy dials the number Tiffany texted (remember, she wrote it on her shirt while in custody) as she waits for Nick to knock over his bucket. Unfortunately, he comes back and she hangs up. However, before the show ends the cameras pan to a cell phone in Nick’s shop that now shows one missed call.
- Season 1 Episode 1 Recap
- Season 1 Episode 3 “The Curse of the Dark Storm” Recap
- Season 1 Episode 4 “The Haunted Ring” Recap
- Season 1 Episode 5 “The Case of the Wayward Spirit” Recap
- Season 1 Episode 6 “The Mystery of Blackwood Lodge” Recap
