‘Nancy Drew’ Season 1 Episode 5 Recap: “The Case of the Wayward Spirit”

Nancy Drew Season 1 Episode 5
Leah Lewis as George and Kennedy McMann as Nancy in ‘Nancy Drew’ season 1 episode 5 (Photo: Robert Falconer © 2019 The CW Network)

George (Leah Lewis) shows up at Ryan’s house in the middle of the night as The CW’s Nancy Drew season one episode five begins. It appears Tiffany has inhabited her body and after cutting her finger, she writes “I Know” on the bathroom mirror in blood.

Nancy Drew (Kennedy McMann) shares her thoughts on Karen and Lucy Sable once being friends. She feels Dead Lucy wanted her to find that photo which means she has to get to the bottom of it and suck it up to talk to Karen, even though she’s not happy with her at the moment.

Bess (Maddison Jaizani) and Ace (Alex Saxon) seem to be the only ones at the diner…not even a single customer is there. Bess wonders when they should worry about business because she’s under the impression this town loves their ghost stories. Ace explains ghost sightings are good for business while murders, on the other hand, are not.

George arrives and needs a Band-Aid because somehow she cut her finger last night. Their conversation’s interrupted when a man comes in asking if they can cater an event that day. He explains the caterer they hired dropped out. The Hudson family is the host and it’s a charity gala.

George agrees to do the job but leaves the room to take a phone call from Ryan (Riley Smith). He wants to know why she was at his house last night and she’s confused, claiming she wasn’t. He reveals the only other person who has his alarm code is her. Still, she denies it. He tells her whoever it was wrote on his mirror in blood. Just then she looks at her freshly bandaged finger and tells him she has to go.

Nancy shows up at the police station looking for Karen. An officer informs her Karen’s not there and Nancy says she’ll leave a note on her desk. He reveals she’s not allowed back there because of the ongoing investigation. Nancy picks up on the “ongoing investigation” and begins to question the officer if it has anything thing to do with what her father said at the press conference. He replies, “You know I can’t tell you that.”

Nancy heads over to the diner after receiving several texts from Ace and Bess. When she enters, she spots a trail of blood that Ace is mopping up. When Nancy asks what’s going on, he explains George was chopping potatoes and cut her hand pretty badly. When he offered her the first aid kit, she just sat there staring and then locked herself in her office.

Nancy walks up to George’s office and hears what sounds like George in distress. She barges in to find George on the ground with pictures of herself, frantically scratching out her own face. Ace says, “I think it is time to worry.”

Nancy, Bess, and Ace discuss what could be wrong with George and Ace thinks it could be stress. Bess thinks it is supernatural-related. Nancy isn’t buying the supernatural angle; she’s still trying desperately not to believe in such things. However, she does entertain the thought since there’s no other logical explanation.

They begin to go over what George was supposed to do to Tiffany’s body. It was two simple steps: place the ring back on her finger and put the mirror over her heart. They’re not sure about the mirror over her heart and try to figure out how they can confirm she did that. Bess suggests checking George’s locker and when they do, they find the mirror. Bess seems excited that she was right.

Ace is still mopping up blood when Nick (Tunji Kasim) comes in and asks him about his relationship with Laura. Ace downplays it and says they’re friendly. Nick reveals Laura broke into his place last night and shows Ace the footage on his phone. Nick says she took a box he thought was empty and wonders how she would know what Tiffany hid in it.

George suddenly stands up from a booth and crumples the newspaper that has an article about the Hudson Gala. She then begins to mess with her finger as if there’s a ring on it. Nick asks if everything’s okay and Bess explains what’s happening. Bess stands next to George with the mirror and George takes it from her and looks at herself. The reflection is of Tiffany. While George is looking in the mirror, Nancy snaps a photo with her phone. She shows George the photo and George nearly faints. She snaps out of it and is George once again. George asks why no one’s working and they explain they think she’s possessed by Tiffany.

Nick doesn’t believe it and tells everyone to calm down. Ace agrees with Bess that this is for real – Tiffany took over George’s body.

Ace grabs the photo of George with her face scratched out. “The bad news is Tiffany doesn’t like you. The good news is Tiffany is dead,” says Ace. He pauses and then apologizes to Nick for the last comment. Ace adds, “The other bad news is that Tiffany’s spirit has been hitching a ride in your body – intermittingly.”

They take George home and speak with her mom, Victoria (Liza Lapira), about what happened. They inform her George forgot to put the mirror on Tiffany. Victoria wonders how she could let this happen and reveals they’re dealing with a brand-new ghost. New ghosts are the most dangerous because they’re looking for a body to inhabit.

Victoria asks to see the photo George trashed. “Whoa, this spirit hates you…like really hates you. She cannot stand your face. Why does she hate you so much?” George comes clean about her affair with Ryan. Her mom’s angry and warns that soon this spirit will become stronger and take up permanent residence in her body. When that happens, George will be gone forever.

George’s mother mixes stuff together while Bess watches closely, clearly intrigued. She asks what the herbs are for and Victoria explains she hopes they’ll keep Tiffany from getting stronger. Victoria believes George will soon start to have Tiffany’s memories. Nancy latches onto that tidbit and asks, “Including the memories of the night she was murdered?”

Bess thinks it’s insensitive of Nancy to ask that.

George drinks the awful concoction her mom made while her mom warns her she needs to not stress. She informs her mom she’s stressed because they really need the money. Her mom reveals her little sister has money under her bed and George cuts her off, saying, “Don’t you dare touch that money! She’s saving it for BTS.” (Nice shout-out to BTS there!)

The gang shows up to cater the event minus Bess who wants to hang out with George’s mom. Nick’s helping out when the guy who asked them to cater the event, Owen (Miles Gaston Villanueva), shows up. He introduces himself to Nancy and asks if she needs help. They stare at each other way too long for Nick’s liking and he slams some dishes down, drawing their attention.

While outside Nancy hears strange noises and spots freshly dug up dirt. She’s bending down and grabbing part of a bloody dress when a hand suddenly grabs her arm. She pulls away and stumbles into Karen (Alvina August). Karen asks if she’s okay and when Nancy turns back around the dirt pile is no longer there. Nancy gets straight to the point and shows Karen the photo of her and Lucy, demanding to know why she lied. Karen confesses she did so out of guilt.

Karen says she and Lucy were best friends all the way up until junior year. That’s when Lucy started to pull away. It all started after Lucy attended a party and when Nancy pushes for more details, Karen says it was some underground thing. She confesses Lucy is why she became a cop.

Owen interrupts their conversation. Nancy realizes he’s a Marvin but before they can talk any further, she discovers she lost George and runs off to find her.

Nick’s asking Ace if he’s talked to Laura (Stevie Lynn Jones) when she comes walking in. Nick asks if she’s going to apologize for breaking into his place and she explains Tiffany was collecting information to try to take the Hudsons down, but then she stopped talking to her about it. Nick insists she did that to try to protect her.

Ace tries to talk about teamwork when Laura cuts him off stating she’s not handing over the flash drive she took from his place. The only thing on that drive is a website she can’t get into without a password, which she doesn’t know. Ace thinks they should ask George for it. Nick doesn’t understand what he’s getting at at first but then realizes what he means. However, Nick still thinks all that’s nonsense.

Owen’s outside when Ryan spots him and reminds him he owes him a call about a deal. Owen confesses his father, Everett Hudson, sold him out. He told Owen how Ryan lost a lot of money and because of that, he doesn’t want to make any deals.

George spots Ryan…only it isn’t George. Dropping her tray, she grabs a knife and heads to a van with clothes in it.

Back inside, Nancy and Nick search for George. As they’re talking about splitting up, Ace arrives and asks if they think Tiffany is back. Nick still isn’t buying it and, annoyed, replies, “I think we need to find George…no matter what.”

Ace is ready to help but Laura stops him, revealing she heard her sister’s name. She wants him to tell her everything.

Nancy Drew Season 1 Episode 5
Leah Lewis as George Fan, Kennedy McMann as Nancy and Tunji Kasim as Nick in ‘Nancy Drew’ season 1 episode 5 (Photo: Dean Buscher © 2019 The CW Network)

Bess shows up and runs into Lisbeth (Katie Findlay) who claims she’s a driver for the Hudsons. Lisbeth brings up the fact that Bess hasn’t called her back, confirming she’s been calling her at work all week. As Bess is giving Lisbeth her cell number, she spots George in a red dress and holding a knife. She needs to get to her without Lisbeth knowing why she’s rushing off.

Bess finds Nancy instead and reveals what she’s seen. Nancy still seems dead set on asking George questions while she’s possessed by Tiffany, but Bess reminds her they need to save George before Tiffany completely takes over.

George finds Ryan talking to some men and when he spots her, he excuses himself. She grabs his face and whispers, “I know about the waitress.” Right before she kisses him, he pulls away. Nancy stops them and gets Ryan away from her. After leading George away, Nancy explains they don’t have a lot of time to talk. She needs Tiffany to tell her what happened the night she was murdered.

A flashback shows Nancy coming out of The Claw with Tiffany’s food. Nancy hands it to her and then we zoom back to real-time as George/Tiffany says, “I’m not dead!” George’s mom comes in, demanding Tiffany leave her daughter’s body.

As Victoria and Bess are preparing things, Nancy’s still attempting to talk to Tiffany. Nancy begs her to please remember what happened the night of her murder, insisting she’s trying to help her. Nick comes in and asks George/Tiffany if she knows him. She finally puts the knife down as she looks at Nick affectionately. George/Tiffany begins to mess with her finger again as if a ring were there. Nick confirms Tiffany used to do that.

The gang tries to tell Tiffany again that she’s dead and that’s not her body she’s occupying. Nancy reveals they buried her yesterday and Tiffany becomes angry and picks up the knife again. Just then Laura and Ace come barging through the door. Laura asks if that’s the girl Ace told her about and Ace apologizes, revealing Laura knows everything. Laura promises Tiffany everything will be okay but Bess tells her no, she’s killing their friend. Laura doesn’t want her sister gone and throws the incense Bess and Victoria put together, yelling for Tiffany to run.

Ryan finds George and grabs her, pulling her into an empty room. He’s mad about what she did and wants to know if she knows what his father would do if he found out about them. George is going in and out between her and Tiffany’s spirit as Victoria and Nancy come bursting in, begging Tiffany to leave. Confused, Ryan takes off.

Bess and Nick arrive with the incense and Victoria begins to chant in Chinese. Nick promises Tiffany he’ll stay with her and assures her he’ll keep looking for her killer. George/Tiffany says, “Dantes,” before passing out.

George wakes up to find Nancy standing over her. She asks where Ryan is and Nancy explains he took off. Nick tells George he’s glad she’s okay and George asks Nancy if she got what she wanted. Nancy responds that she’s also glad George is okay. Bess takes that moment to ask what it was like being possessed by Tiffany. George confesses she hated it.

Nancy wonders what Lucy was emotionally attached to.

Nick and Ace tell Laura that Tiffany wanted to keep her out of this and she needs to trust them. She hands over the flash drive but isn’t happy with Ace.

Nancy talks to Owen and asks if he’s in real estate. She follows that up by asking if he wants to make himself useful. The two walk off together as Nick watches.

Nick and Ace return to the diner with the flash drive, ready to figure out what’s on it. Nick tries the password “Dantes” and it works. It opens a log, almost like a journal. They see old shareholder reports and insurance statements signed by the officer of the corporation who is none other than Owen Marvin. Nick calls Nancy right away but she declines his call.

Nancy and Owen are on some construction site and he wonders where they’re headed next. She reveals they need to go to her old high school. Apparently, she needs his help digging up an old time capsule that Tiffany’s class buried.

As the episode comes to an end, we see Bess texting Lisbeth asking her out. She agrees. Victoria makes dinner as George silently sits down at the table. Nancy is cracking open the time capsule from the class of 1999. Inside, Nancy finds a DVD of memories and watches it on her laptop. She spots Lucy and then as the DVD continues to play, it begins to glitch and goes back to the clip of Lucy. The boy she’s talking to turns and the camera catches his face. It is Ryan Hudson.