1 "The Case of the Wayward Spirit" is the fifth episode of Season 1 of CW's television series Nancy Drew. It aired on November 06, 2019.[1]
Synopsis[]
Official synopsis of The Case of the Wayward Spirit from The CW:
MILES G. VILLANUEVA (“THE RESIDENT”) GUEST STARS IN THE EPISODE – When Nancy realizes that George is possessed by Tiffany's spirit, she must act quickly to rid her friend of the ghostly passenger before it's too late. Meanwhile, a mysterious stranger, Owen, wanders in to The Claw and asks the gang to cater a charity gala happening at the country club that same day.[2]
Plot summary[]
The previous episode ended with George getting possessed, and that is exactly where we pick up. We find George creepily walking through Ryan Hudson’s home. She nears his sleeping body before heading to the bathroom, letting her hair down, and writing “I know” on the mirror in blood. However, it is Tiffany seen in the mirror, not George. Proof that Tiffany knew about her husband's affair with George.
Elsewhere, that same morning, Nancy looking at an old photograph of young Lucy and Karen. Karen now a detective with the Horseshoe Bay Police Department, lied to Nancy about knowing Lucy. Whilst there is no evidence suggesting Karen has been avoiding Nancy’s calls, it seems odd the detective wouldn’t return her calls when she’s dating Carson Drew.
The next day at The Bayside Claw, Bess is wondering when they should begin worrying because she thought this town loved it’s ghost stories. Bess tells Ace that they actually have a ghost sighting and no one seems to care. Ace tells his colleague ghosts are great for business, it’s apparently the murder that kills you. George arrives to work just then and has no recollection of how she hurt her finger when asked and is also annoyed there isn’t an appropriately sized band-aide in the first aid kit.
Owen comes to the Claw and even though its short notice hires them to cater a party since the caterer he hired before having dropped out at the last minute, that left the gala high and dry. Even though George wouldn’t have much time to set everything up and make sure it all runs smoothly regardless she accepts the job because everyone has been steering clear of her business ever since Tiffany's murder.
Ryan calls George to ask her why she entered his house. With it being only himself, George, and Tiffany that has the code to the alarm system, there is only so many people it could have been. He tells her someone came into his bedroom, they turned on the shower and left it running, and wrote something on the bathroom mirror in blood. As George looks at her finger, she suggests to Ryan he might have been sleepwalking deflecting the blame onto him. However she immediately makes a connection between her having a cut finger and Ryan’s bathroom mirror having blood written writing scrawled on it.
After not seeing Karen at work Nancy wants to leave a note on her desk. However Chief McGinnis wants to keep civilians out of the detective bullpen. Officer Rawley whom Nancy solved a mystery for years ago doesn't budge when Nancy asks to leave the note for Karen. Leading Nancy to learn that any new investigations are free of civilian interference however it goes without saying that only means her.
Getting nowhere at the police station Nancy leaves for The Claw after getting texts from both Ace and Bess pertaining to George’s weird behavior. Bess, Ace, Nancy discover George’s possession when she locks herself in her office and frantically scratches her face out of all the pictures. Knowing that George wouldn't do that to her personal pictures they conclude it's Tiffany finding out George didn't complete the ritual the previous episode.
Nick drops in at The Bayside Claw to speak with Ace about his girlfriend Laura. With photographic evidence of Laura having broken into his place the previous night, Nick asks Ace for his help to get the flash drive she took. If Tiffany had wanted her sister to have the flash drive, she would have given it to her. She didn’t. She gave it to Nick.
Going with the idea that Tiffany has somehow possessed George’s body, Nancy takes a picture of George to show to her. When Nancy shows the possessed George her image, she passes out. Nick thinks the whole thing is totally crazy. He’s not wrong. Despite it being crazy, it’s true.
A few seconds later, George is back to her bossy self. With a party to cater for Owen Marvin, she needs all hands on deck doing their respective jobs so that the party goes off without a scratch.
The House of Fan, as Nancy calls it, is where George lives with her mother, Victoria and sisters. The family lives above a laundromat. George, in Nancy’s view, is the breadwinner and the real adult of the family. George’s sisters, one of which being Ted apparently all have different absentee/deadbeat dads.
George is forced to reveal to her mother that she had an affair with Tiffany’s husband, Ryan Victoria is upset with her daughter having had an affair with a man much older than her with George being unfazed by the hypocorism and snarks back at Victoria.
Despite George's attitude towards her Victoria is concerned that, if they don’t do something quickly, Tiffany will take up permanent residence and George will be gone forever. She heads to the kitchen to make her daughter some tea to build up her daughter’s yang up. Bess volunteers to help Victoria while everyone works at the party.
In the kitchen, Nancy flirts with Owen, but gets interrupted by Nick, who's threatened.
As Nancy tried to maintain the pretense of normalcy while trying to keep track of George, she hallucinated a child’s voice. If Nancy hoped that that normalcy was going to last, she was sadly mistaken. On seeing Lucy's garment half-buried, Nancy sought to pull it from the ground, but a hand reached up and grabbed her. Like the child’s voice, this was also a hallucination. Nancy falls backwards and is caught by Karen.
Looking at the ground where Nancy had her eyes fixed, Karen wonders if there is something wrong. When Nancy mentions her calls, the detective tells the teenage she has been a little busy. With Nancy having a photograph of Karen with Lucy on, her cell phone, the detective can no longer lie about knowing her.
Karen tells she lied because of guilt. All the way through junior year, Karen and Lucy were the best of friends. Something happened which changed that. After a party in early fall, Lucy apparently started pulling away from Karen. A year later, someone killed her. When Nancy asked Karen about the party, the detective didn’t know very much about it. All she knew was that it was some exclusive underground party. Because of the party’s exclusivity, not everyone was invited. Lucy is the reason Karen become a cop. When Karen returned from the academy to Horseshoe Bay, the town had turned her best friend into some urban legend.
With Nancy asking numerous questions about Lucy, Karen is curious as to why the case should interest her. When Nancy reveals she might have a new angel on the Tiffany Hudson case, with her arraignment getting closer, Karen suggests to the teenager she lay low. Laying low really isn’t Nancy’s strong suit. Before Karen can pursue the issue further, Owen arrives with the tray Nancy should be carrying around the party.
Karen tells Owen that the town appreciates his company’s contribution to the new outreach centre. Nancy realizes Own is a Marvin. Only rich people talk about where they live in terms of season. Owen used to “Summer” in Horseshoe Bay. That was back when he was five inches shorter and adorably rotund. When Nancy finds George missing, she pushes her tray onto Owen and rushes off as if someone’s life depended on it.
In the kitchen, Ace and Nick continue to prep food for the party guests. Laura arrives in the kitchen. She’s tried several passwords, and nothing works. With only one password remaining, Laura wants to know if Nick would have the password. Nick wants the flash drive, but Laura isn’t prepared to give it back. She wants to do this together or not at all. Consequently, Nick isn’t happy with Ace. With Ace having set up the meeting, Nick feels he’s been stabbed in the back.
Owen has learned from Everett exactly the kind of businessman Ryan has become. With him having lost a significant amount of money, it doesn’t look like Owen plans to do business with Ryan any time soon. As Owen walks away from Ryan. George stares at her ex-lover having stolen a cocktail dress, but what is the most alarming to her attire is the knife she's holding.
Nancy and Nick separate to look for George while Laura and Nick kiss/dance as they talk about Tiffany
She's spotted by Bess who just came to the party who was flirting with Lisbeth and giving her cell number to her. Bess makes an quick excuse to leave to go warn Nancy about Tiffany being in control of George again.
Knife in hand, but hidden George goes to Ryan and kisses him in a private room. Seconds later, Nancy finds George with Ryan. As a distraction, Nancy tells Ryan there are people in the house looking for him. She mentioned something about a photo op. Ryan heads back into the house. Meanwhile, Nancy takes George through the kitchen to Bess, Victoria. With time not on Nancy’s side, she desperately wants answers to her questions about Lucy and her death. Tiffany doesn’t understand she’s dead.
Laura tries to stop Victoria from making Tiffany leave her daughter’s body. Ryan attacks George over upsetting his father, Everett but Nancy, Ace, Bess Tiffany, through George, asks Nick to keep her sister safe. The last thing Tiffany asks Nick is to remember her. Everyone, including Nancy, is glad George is fine.
Outside, Ace asks Laura to trust him and Nick. With her only having one password chance left, letting Nick have the flash drive is the only way she’s going to get answers. Despite her trusting Ace, Laura is beginning to regret it.
Elsewhere, Nancy seeks out Owen for his help. When Nancy asks Owen if he still wants to make himself useful, he agrees to assist her with a little digging. Again, the same as that seen in the kitchen, this exchange between Nancy and Owen doesn’t go unnoticed by Nick. Nick recognizes competition when he sees it and Owen is that competition.
Later, at The Bayside Claw, Ace insisters the flash drive into a USB port on his laptop. After pulling up the folder, he finds one remaining password chance open to him. Typing in the wrong password will lock the information permanently. Nick types in the title of the first book Tiffany gave him. Even though it would have been the first password he would have tried, there are no guarantees it would have worked. Fortunately, with Nick knowing Tiffany the way he did, it works.
As Ace and Nick look through the information, they find documents signed by an Owen Marvin. This is the same Owen that’s helping Nancy. Nick calls Nancy but gets her voicemail.
With the right equipment ready to use, Nancy and Owen head to the high school and dig up a time capsule. Because Owen has such a charmingly charismatic personality, when the dust settles, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn he’s the villain of the piece. It’s always the seriously duplicitous characters that vail themselves in charm.
Elsewhere, at the Drew house, Bess texts Lisbeth. In a text, she suggests getting dinner soon. Happily, she receives a positive response. Meanwhile, at the Fan house, Victoria is preparing a meal for her daughters. Lost in thought, George sits at the dinner table.
With the time capsule unearthed, Nancy looks through the content for a clue as to solving Lucy’s murder. By today’s standards, that’s a large cell phone. With the cell phone, the students placed a toothbrush, a book of poems written by high school students, and numerous other oddities. After a few seconds, Nancy finds what she’s looking for. It’s a DVD featuring high school students from the class of 1999.
After reviewing the video on her laptop, Nancy finds out Ryan knew Lucy.
Cast and characters[]
Starring:
- Kennedy McMann as Nancy Drew
- Leah Lewis as George Fan
- Maddison Jaizani as Bess Marvin
- Tunji Kasim as Ned "Nick" Nickerson
- Alex Saxon as Ace
- Alvina August as Detective Karen Hart
- Riley Smith as Ryan Hudson
- Scott Wolf as Carson Drew
Guest-starring:
- Liza Lapira as Victoria Fan
- Katie Findlay as Lisbeth
- Miles Gaston Villanueva as Owen Marvin
- Stevie Lynn Jones as Laura Tandy
Co-starring:
- Sinead Curry as Tiffany Hudson
- Nathanael Vass as Officer Rawley
- Ariah Lee as Ted Fan
- Lizzie Boys as Teen Lucy Sable
- Nic Walter as Fresh Faced Boy
- Cassidy Foley as Energetic Girl
Mentioned:
- Jessie Fan, George's sister
- Charlie Fan, George's sister
Quotes[]
- “Bad news, Tiffany doesn't like you. The good news is Tiffany's dead! So... I'm sorry Nick. The other bad news is that Tiffany's spirit has been hitching a ride in your body. Intermittently.”
- — Ace
- “Turn that down! Your sister's fighting off a ghost!”
- — Victoria
- “Bess filled me in on what you guys did at the funeral. We're platanchors now, so she tells me things.”
- — Ace
- “Nancy won't give up on finding out what happened. And neither will I. I don't want to ask you to go, but I can't let George die. I'll stay with you. I'll stay with you 'till the end.”
- — Nick
Trivia[]
Tba
Gallery[]
Promotional stills[]
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External links[]
The Case of the Wayward Spirit on The Internet Movie Database
