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Lucy didn't know the truth, did she? She died thinking I abandoned her. Nancy would have been safe with me, and I lost the chance to raise her because of you.
— Ryan to Carson (1x17)[source]

Ryan Hudson is a main character in The CW's Nancy Drew 2019 television series. He is portrayed by Riley Smith.

Appearance[]

Ryan is a thirty-seven year old white man with fair skin, short dark blond hair, and green eyes. He wears expensive clothing and fashion-forward attire, including a high-end watch.

Character[]

Character description from the official announcement:

The handsome and affluent Ryan Hudson whose trophy wife is the murder victim. While he has been ruled out as a suspect by the police, Nancy’s not so sure. Her suspicions amplify when she discovers a connection between him and Lucy Sable, who mysteriously died years ago.

In episode 1x17, Nancy herself summarizes Ryan as "an entitled, morally bankrupt legacy criminal with no spine and a thing for teenaged girls." (He had an affair with an underaged George Fan that ended early in season one, after the death of his wife, Tiffany Hudson). Following the events of season one and a deepening familial relationship with Nancy Drew, Ryan contends with who he is. He grows up in parallel to the rest of the Drew Crew and moves out of his father's criminal shadow and away from Hudson Enterprises. He remains youthful and somewhat out of touch/ignorant to regular life in Horseshoe Bay, but he forges his own path and works to clean up his father's crimes.

History[]

Ryan Hudson was born in Horseshoe Bay, Maine, to the wealthy Hudson family. His father, Everett Hudson, was CEO of Hudson Enterprises while Ryan's mother, Celia Hudson, held a socialite and businesswoman status. Ryan's wealth gave him an arrogance and privilege that he often flaunted in front of his peers. Ryan was bullied in middle school so his father taught him self-defense. One day, Everett's punch slipped when Ryan failed to block it. When he began to cry, Everett called him weak and useless. When he went to school the next day, he learned that Everett had paid the child's parents to transfer the kid to a different school.

Years later, Ryan attended the local high school, and around 1999, he met Lucy Sable. They kept their relationship a secret, as to avoid trouble from Ryan's influential yet prejudiced and classist family. Unbeknownst to Ryan, his father threatened Lucy to break up with Ryan. When she refused, he made Lucy's mother lose her job and perpetuated terrible rumors about Lucy until she finally caved-- all of which Ryan was aware of at the time. Lucy ended her relationship with Ryan, which devastated him, and he went to boarding school at the insistence of his father. Ryan and Lucy continued to communicate in secret via email and maintained a relationship, until Lucy pulled away. On August 31, 2000, they planned to meet in secret at the ice cream parlor which they had donned "their spot". Ryan was late in sneaking off campus and missed their meeting time. The next day, news broke that Lucy had fallen off the Bluffs and died, though her corpse was never recovered.

After graduating, Ryan married the heiress Tiffany Hudson, though their relationship was anything but perfect. She suspected his family of criminal activity and secretly investigated them, while he kept an ongoing affair with a seventeen year old high school student, George Fan. When his affair with George started to get serious, and rumors began to spread about George dating an older man, Ryan broke off their relationship. He claimed it was because she was in high school and he was married.

Plot summary[]

S01E01 promotional 06

Ryan, the enigmatic and charming heir of the wealthy Hudson family, waltzes into The Claw one late evening. While he and his friends are waited on by George Fan and Bess Marvin, Ryan's wife Tiffany waits outside as she refuses to enter. He orders a salad for Tiffany that Nancy Drew delivers. A few minutes later, Nancy finds Tiffany's body in the parking lot. With Tiffany having died, George confronts Ryan about restarting their old affair as he is no longer married and she isn't in high school anymore. Ryan and his family then stall an autopsy from being performed on Tiffany's corpse, choosing to move her to a different facility, which Nancy finds suspicious. Ryan insists to George that he's moving Tiffany's body for discretion as he doesn't want the media involved. In the meantime, Ryan approaches Carson hoping to procure him as an attorney though Carson initially declines. It is only when Nancy is arrested for breaking and entering that Carson agrees to be Ryan's attorney in exchange for an advance payment that he uses to bail Nancy out of jail.

Carson learns that if Tiffany was murdered Ryan and his family won't inherit her estate, something that Carson finds odd as Tiffany was a healthy young woman. Ryan explains that she was self-medicating, paranoid, and having hallucinations, almost believing that she was haunted. At Tiffany's funeral, Ryan plays the perfect grieving widower by wearing his wedding ring and starting a non-profit in her name. He lets on to his recently acquired attorney Carson Drew, that he is anxious to get ahold of Tiffany's finances from her estate. He does privately apologize to Tiffany for his indiscretions during their marriage. Tiffany's spirit is vengeful and attacks Ryan the next day while possessing George, though Nancy and the Drew Crew, comprised of Ned "Nick" Nickerson, Ace, and Bess Marvin, are able to stop Tiffany in time. Ryan subsequently ends his relationship with George.

In the meantime, Nancy finds a locket in Ryan's home that once belonged to Lucy Sable, a teenage girl who was murdered eighteen years ago under mysterious circumstances. She unearths a time capsule from 1999 that shows Lucy talking to a young Ryan Hudson. She believes there to be a connection between Lucy's death and Tiffany's, especially when Lucy's spirit reaches out to Nancy with clues about her past. One of the last events Lucy attended before her death was a secret masquerade ball with Ryan, so Nancy forces Ryan to take her to the party in exchange for her stealing some ancient roman burial coins from an auction. Nancy learns that Lucy witnessed Ryan's mother, Celia Hudson, having an affair with Sebastian Marvin which forced Everett Hudson to ask Carson Drew to "deal with Lucy". Nancy receives word from a contact that Tiffany was killed with a rare type of poison, a poison that didn't appear in the autopsy performed by the Hudson's.

In the meantime, Owen Marvin asks for the burial coins as part of a plan to expose Everett Hudson for murdering their uncle. When Nick explains that they were destroyed, Bess concocts a scheme to use Ryan, who is increasingly estranged from his family, as a means to find other potential evidence. Owen explains that he believes Ryan's father Everett Hudson sank a ship called the Bonny Scot to not only kill Sebastian Marvin, but collect the insurance money from the artifacts on-board. The artifacts that supposedly sank included the ancient Roman burial coins, though if they survived so did the rest of the artifacts. Ryan realizes that his father might be responsible for the death of twelve innocent crew men and decides to take matters into his own hands out of fear that his family will go after the Marvin's.

Nancy and Ryan organize a sting operation with the help of Bess's girlfriend and undercover detective Lisbeth. With the help of Ace, Nancy learns that Ryan and Lucy were emailing in the months before her death as they were dating. The emails became nasty at the end with Ryan calling her a whore who he hoped would die. However, they were supposed to meet the night of Lucy's death. Determined that the events of the night of Tiffany's murder will help solve both Lucy and Tiffany's cases, Nancy brings the Drew Crew, Tiffany's sister Laura Tandy, Karen Hart, and Ryan, to The Claw. They reenact the night of the murder which leads them to a breakthrough: the poisoned salad was meant for Ryan and not Tiffany, as the poisoner wanted revenge for Lucy's murder and thought Ryan was responsible. Ryan leaves the diner but Nancy follows him, and confronts him about the emails to Lucy but he claims to have never wrote the last few. He also denies having killed Lucy. Lucy's spirit appears to Ryan who flees the parking lot. Nancy follows a string of leads to Lucy's half-brother Josh Dodd, who confesses to killing Tiffany though he meant to poison Ryan's salad as revenge for murdering Lucy.

Nancy learns from Ace that the emails calling Lucy a "whore" and wishing her death weren't written from Ryan's computer, meaning someone hacked his email account to scare Lucy away. She confronts Ryan and he tells her the story of their affair, and how Everett disapproved of their relationship which forced them to keep it a secret. They work together to track Lucy's last-known steps, which leads them Everett who admits to having talked with Lucy though he dropped her off at home. They head to her old house where they find Lucy's journal, against her spirits wishes, and learn that Lucy was clinically depressed after having her life ruined by Everett. Nancy admits the journal as evidence and tells the courthouse about Ryan and Lucy's affair, and that Lucy went to the bluffs to commit suicide. The journal is enough evidence to exonerate Carson of the murder charges.

Ryan reads Lucy's diary and pieces together that she was pregnant when she died, but believes there may be a chance the baby is still alive. He recruits Nancy for help in finding the child, but she asks for a favor in return. They travel to a clinic in a nearby town where Ryan interrogates the doctor when she refuses to give him Lucy's information due to HIPPA laws. He threatens to buy the clinic and fire her, though Nancy intervenes. Nancy is alone with the doctor for a few minutes after and tells Ryan that Lucy's due date was September 30th but she died on August 31, meaning that she died while pregnant. Ryan becomes emotional at the idea of having lost his child and girlfriend that night. She asks if he would have been ready for a child at eighteen to which he admits he wouldn't have been, but he also would have stepped up. The pair end up fighting after Ryan refuses to help her save Owen Marvin's life, citing his hatred for the Marvin's. He leaves Nancy on the side of the road but returns later only to find she's gone. He has an emotional release as he recants the days events. Ryan finds Nancy's locket on the floor of the car and opens it to find a baby picture of her inside. He compares it to one of Lucy's and the resemblance is uncanny.

1

Ryan helps Nancy with the ritual

He confronts Nancy about the resemblance and she emotionally admits that Lucy's baby was born before her death, and the child survived - she survived. She asks again for his help in the ritual to which he agrees, knowing its importance to her. He helps her perform the ritual was it requires her to use a blood relative, and is forced to tell her friends that Ryan and Lucy are her biological parents. The ritual is painful for Nancy so Ryan wants to end it, but she pleads with him to continue so he does. When the ritual passes, he asks her to coffee but she refuses as she isn't ready which he understands. Carson confronts Ryan leading to an argument, and Carson informs him of Lucy's last wish - to protect Nancy from the Hudson's which included Ryan. Reeling from the revelations, Ryan tries to support Nancy after Owen's murder, but she refuses his support. He is then confronted by George who is angry over their previous relationship. She doesn't know how to act in a real relationship because of him, unloading the truth about how their relationship affected her mental health. He attempts to apologize or justify his actions but she refuses, reminding him that Nancy was right about him ruining all the women in his life.[2]

Now aware that Nancy is his biological daughter, Ryan attempts to form a relationship with her. She keeps him at a distance by repeatedly refusing his help, even after he saves her and the Drew Crew from his father when they break into the Hudson Lodge. His offers to help her financially are turned down, though he makes headway by giving her the Hudson family mirror which she needed. Still, he didn’t ask for clarification on what she intended to use it for. He also forms an unlikely friendship with Carson over their mutual desire to protect Nancy. Ryan ultimately agrees to give Nancy the space she needs. He helps her when she comes to him about needing the sand she left in her car during their drive back from the medical clinic. Nick visits Ryan and tells him about the hard drive Tiffany left him, and the corruption that both Tiffany and Nick believe Hudson Enterprises is involved in. Ryan reluctantly agrees to help Nick and does some research on his father’s company. He learns that the sinking of the Bonny Scot wasn’t the first or last time that Everett had killed for business.

Ryan fears that he alerted Everett of his suspicions when he tried to access his father’s overseas banking information. He goes to Carson for legal advice as he hopes to change his Grandfather’s will, which Carson informs him is impossible. As it stands, if Ryan commits an act of treason against the company or its CEO, he will be removed as it's inherited and the company will eventually go to his heir - Nancy. Everett is unaware of Nancy’s biological heritage as Ryan is sure Everett will kill Nancy if he learns she will inherit Hudson Enterprises one day since she would dismantle the company immediately. Carson presses the importance of protecting Nancy, forcing Ryan to accept a higher position in the company to cover his tracks with Everett. Nick initially worries about this occupation, until Ryan reveals that his fathers abuse dates back to Ryan's childhood and he wants to stop his father just as much as Nick.

Ryan’s new role in Hudson Enterprises earns him media attention and mistrust from Nick, though Ryan is still adamant about finding the truth. A reporter, Valentina Samuels, arrives in Horseshoe Bay to interview Ryan about Everett’s impending murder charges, Ryan’s new role in the company, and if the rumors of Lucy Sable having his child are true. Ryan expertly avoids her questions, shutting down the rumors of Lucy having a child to protect his daughter. Val’s interest is still piqued as she believes there is more to the story. She uses her growing relationship with Ryan to perform a secret DNA test between him and Nancy, before ultimately exposing Nancy’s parentage to Celia Hudson. Celia confronts Ryan with the DNA results and he feigns surprise but assures his mother that he’ll deal with it.

He contacts Carson and Nancy as he fears that she will become the new Hudson to “fall off the slopes” while skiing. His plans to use legal action are sidetracked when Nancy erases Celia’s memory, forcing Ryan to watch over a version of his mother that is docile. He assures Nancy that the decision to restore Celia’s memories is hers, as this is Nancy’s life at stake. She ultimately decides to restore Celia’s memories. Ryan continues his work with Nick to take down Everett, as he believes this is the best way to stop the corporation in his family and protect Nancy. This includes introducing Nick to Howard Driscoll, who turns out to be an informant willing to work with them to dismantle Everett. Nick gives Ryan files that prove Hudson is tied to murders for hire, the only problem is that all the bank statements, wire transfers, and contract agreements are in Ryan’s name. Everett had set Ryan up to take the fall for him by having Ryan sign things over the years as a teenager. The papers are for bombs, hits, and more, all that Everett set Ryan up to take the fall for.

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Before they can continue their mission, Ryan, Nancy, and Nick are pulled into a hostage situation at the Horseshoe Bay PD. A mysterious person named the Arbiter demands that Nancy solve the death of Dolores Barrett, a missing black woman whose car had been with a dent made by a car with red paint. Ryan becomes a suspect as he was arrested the night of Dolores’s death for drunk driving in a red Porsche. Nancy rules out that Ryan did it since Dolores was at the restaurant two hours after Ryan was arrested, so their paths never crossed. Ryan assures Nancy that he’s not the same guy that got arrested those years ago, which she knows. Through his recounting of the night, Nancy realizes that police records were tampered with so Ryan would be released early and not see the true events of the night; that the arresting officer used brutal force that led Dolores to suffer a brain injury and fatal seizure, which the police covered up by throwing her body into the ocean. Ryan is in disbelief that the police did something like that. With the case solved, Ryan commends Nancy for her ability to solve the case so quickly.

Refocused on their true mission, Ryan recruits Valentina for help as he and Nick go in search of a video, the “Black Crown Tape”, which features Everett committing murder. They visit Howard Driscoll for help, only to find him dead by apparent suicide. Howard’s last act was to visit a prisoner at Seabury Prison, Bertram Bobbsey, so Ryan uses his connections in the prison to score a meeting between Bertram and Amanda. He also recruits Ace for help in convincing Amanda to visit her estranged father. Nancy arrives at the prison only to find Ryan and Nick already there, and she is angry they didn’t tell her about their leads. The men admit that they were worried about her leveraging too many alliances, especially with her growing relationship with Celia. Ryan tells her that Howard Driscoll is dead by a convenient suicide, so pursuing the case is dangerous. Nancy worries that Everett might come after Nick and Ryan next. She thinks Bertram, the Hudson family’s former groundskeeper, might have the answers they need. They refuse to work with Nancy and explain that Amanda is already inside talking to her father. Ryan tells her to step away from the situation, but she snaps that he doesn’t know her at all.

Through a series of events, the trio deduces that the tape is hidden in the family mausoleum. Ryan, Nick, and Valentina visit the mausoleum while dodging calls from Nancy. They pry open the tomb of Elora Hudson just as Nancy rushes in trying to stop them. Ryan and Val see a camera that is planted, recording them on a live feed that traces back to Everett. Nancy angrily reveals that Everett moved the tape the second he thought someone would come looking for it. Now, Ryan and Val are next on his hit list. Ryan knows that Everett will hurt anyone who tries to take him down - including his son. Nancy rushes away to find Celia in the hopes she can convince Everett to back down. In the meantime, Ryan packs a go-bag for Val complete with thousands of dollars in cash. He plans to stay in Horseshoe Bay to fight this, but when it’s safe, he’ll come for her. He refuses to lose another woman he cares about, and they share an emotional kiss.

The next morning, Ryan learns that his mother Celia was murdered the night before. He identifies her body in the morgue and kisses her forehead. Detective Abe Tamura informs Ryan that Everett is officially missing, though Ryan is confident that Everett is responsible and reveals the existence of the Black Crown Tape. He leaves the morgue but drives across town to Lucy Sable’s old house, where he bursts in and finds Nancy, Gil, and a restrained Everett. Ryan, filled with rage and emotion, punches Everett repeatedly for killing Celia. Once they tie Everett back up, Nancy apologizes for the death of Celia but wonders how he found them. The limo they stole is reported missing but a sighting in the West Side made him draw the connection to Lucy’s old house. He assures her that Tamura doesn’t know about Lucy yet. As they begin to investigate Celia’s murder, it becomes clear that Everett isn’t her killer. This is affirmed when they learn their prenup cites that Everett forfeits his right to Celia’s estate in the event of her murder. Gil turns on Nancy and no longer believes that she knows what she’s doing, which sparks Ryan to warn him to back off.

They begin to explore other reasons for Celia’s death, which Nancy points out is ritualistic and cold, though the way it was posed was similar to Icarus. Ryan knows it’s Greek mythology and means someone might have paid the price for something. Nancy realizes that Celia stole the list of names from The Road Back to help Nancy. Everett recognizes the name as a powerful group with infinite means and unflagging resolve. The general public doesn’t know of their existence but the scarce few know they exist. They wouldn’t hesitate to make a move against anyone who angered them. They would have left a calling card, like a symbol, and Ryan gives Nancy a coin with a symbol on it from Celia’s belongings. She recognizes it as The Road Back’s symbol. Everett points out that Nancy is responsible for Celia’s death as she’s the one who asked her to get the list. The message was meant for Nancy.

Nancy flees the home as she breaks down over being responsible for Celia’s murder. Ryan comforts her as he knows Nancy was doing it to save Ace’s life, while Celia only did it to keep Everett out of jail. Nancy couldn’t have known what The Road Back was capable of, but Celia did. Nancy wants to get justice for Celia but Ryan admits that she might not. She should add it to the list and focus on what she came to get justice for. He tells her not to forget who Everett is. She tied up the right guy for the wrong murder. This inspires Nancy to trick Everett into thinking Gil freed him as an act of self-preservation. She, Ryan, and Tamura follow Everett back to the Hudson house where Everett is removing the Black Crown Tape from its hiding place. They play the tape which reveals that Everett murdered his brother Josiah in the woods. Ryan is horrified by the revelation and confronts Everett, as Ryan was told that Josiah died drunk in the woods of exposure. Nancy holds Ryan’s arm to calm him, which works, and allows Everett to be arrested for the murder of Josiah Hudson. At the station, Nancy asks Ryan what Everett whispered before he was taken away. Ryan relays a “welcome to the family” message from Everett. She decides she’s done hiding from him. She asks if Ryan is okay as this is a lot to process. His trick is not processing, but he has to give his statement though he plans to keep it short. She asks if he wants to get lunch tomorrow and not process together. He happily agrees and goes inside.

That night, Carson and the Drew Crew learn that Nancy is infected by a parasitic supernatural entity that is draining her life force by feeding off her most vulnerable moments. She only has a few days left to live. Ryan rallies together with Carson to help Nancy. He reveals his assets are frozen and he has no way to bury Celia. He emotionally states that Nancy is all he has left. She redirects their focus from her to laying Celia to rest. As they do so, Carson offers to put the charges on his card, which Ryan is thankful for. He asks if there is a document he can sign that could free Carson of any kidnapping charges Everett might pursue. Carson reveals that there is a document they can backdate to the night of her birth, but it would mean Ryan has no legal right to be Nancy’s father, which is a big ask. The next night, Nancy comes home after she and the Drew Crew find a way to save her life. She sees Ryan on the couch with Carson, watching a documentary about baseball. They simultaneously ask if she’s alright, and she jokes that there are two of them. She reveals that the parasite is gone but she wants to make a press conference to announce herself as the heiress to Hudson Enterprises. She wants to divide the shares as reparations to the families of Everett’s victims. She presses that she found a document online that Ryan can sign that would relinquish his rights, but he hands it to her already signed. He admits that he obtained a place on their couch in return, as Carson is letting him stay at the Drew house until he can figure out what to do next. Nancy hands Ryan a box of cookies and joins her fathers on the couch to watch the rest of the documentary. Later, Carson teaches Ryan how to wash dishes while Nancy discovers a letter from a long-lost ancestor in her backpack, followed by a foreboding knock on the door.[3]

Quotes[]

Nancy: "I need a favor."
Ryan: "See that, that right there is the opposite of unexpected."
Nancy: "I know, but think about all the times I didn't ask you for money or braces or dance lessons, or keys to the porsche."
Ryan: "It's time to go visit my favorite relatives. The dead ones!"

Trivia[]

  • He is the biological father of Nancy Drew, having unknowingly conceived her with his high school girlfriend Lucy Sable.
  • He's allergic to wasp stings and is lactose intolerant.
  • Ryan was heir to Hudson Enterprises until he betrayed the family by helping to imprison Everett for murder. He has since been frozen out of his assets.

Gallery[]

Main article: Ryan Hudson/Gallery

Appearances[]

As a main character, Ryan appears in most episodes of the series.

Nancy Drew 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3 N/A
Season 4 N/A

Navigation[]

References[]

  1. 3.13 The Ransom of the Forsaken Soul His birth year was listed as 1984 and age as 35. However, in previous episodes things were said (Josiah's words to him but he died in 1981) or revealed (him being a year or two older than Lucy) to indicted he was born earlier.
  2. Nancy Drew Season 1
  3. Nancy Drew Season 2
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