The Quest for the Spider Sapphire is the eight episode of season 2 of The CW television series Nancy Drew, and the twenty-sixth episode of the series overall. It aired on March 17, 2021.
Synopsis[]
Official synopsis of The Quest for the Spider Sapphire from The CW:
OLD GHOSTS - Nancy and George work together to vanish the ghost who's been timesharing George's body since they defeated the Aglaeca. Meanwhile, no one is more surprised than Bess when a blast from her past comes knocking. Scott Wolf, Alex Saxon, Tunji Kasim and Riley Smith also star. [1]
Plot summary[]
COLD OPEN: A year ago In Manchester, England, Bess Marvin shuffles through the airport and gives Stephen Dowd a bottle of pills. She spills the juice she hands him and instantly apologizes as she tries to clean it up. As he insults her for spilling the juice she slips something in his bag then tries to leave for the ladies’ room. He grabs her wrist and pulls her close telling her to not make them late. She promises she won’t and hurries away as airport security approached Stephen, asking him to come with them. They received a call from a safety hotline as the female officer checks the man’s bag and uncovers what Bess slipped in. He resists arrest but is dragged away. One year later, Bess rehearses her speech to Diane Marvin as she is presenting the annual Marvin toast. Diane recommends talking about the bordeu argent in the family crest, which is the silver, as people no longer honor the founding families but hold the Hunt & Roast are held for habit. Diane praises her for caring about the family and not the wealth, but Bess wants to blend in with everyone else. Diane has found her an outfit but she just needs a comfortable pair of shoes as there will be hunting. Ace texts Bess so Diane asks if the restaurant friends are joining them to which Bess says they are. She pardons herself to take a call from Ace who confronts her over being married to a man. He explains what happened at the hotel just as Bess sees Stephen by the harbor smiling at her. She confronts him and asks if she was afraid he would never find her, looping her arm through hers and asking to talk business.
ACT ONE: Nancy draws a diagram to determine what happened with Odette, knowing that the shroud might be responsible for George being possessed. George is against burning it in case the shroud is what is keeping her soul inside her body. Nancy decides to talk to the previous owner of the shroud who was R. Jenkins in 1987. She is about to text Nick about needing the morning off but George stops her, explaining that she hasn’t told Nick about her situation yet. She opts to lie about them needing an emergency supply run. In the office of The Claw, Ryan and Nick talk about him being in the magazine. Nick wants to prep him for his interview with Valentina Samuels since she has a knack for seeing through people. Ryan needs to be careful about his words as that is the only way they will get into the inner circle. Ryan tells him to relax as he’s a serious adult which is why Celia is having corporate PR send over some topics of things to avoid. Nick warns him to keep Nancy out of the conversation just as he gets a text from George about heading out on a supply run. Ryan perks up at Nancy’s mention while Nick confronts George about them being good on supplies. She brushes him off as she hurries out and Nancy snips to Ryan that she sees him and to stop being weird. Stephen and Bess walk through town with him complimenting her on getting close to her marks, reminding her that he was her family when her mother threw her out. She rebuttals with the things she did for him just to further his scams, including their sham marriage. As they argue he reveals that he found her through the society papers, as the counterfeit euros she planted on him didn’t land him in jail for long. She asks what he wants and he shows her a picture of a bracelet called the Spider Sapphire, a priceless Marvin heirloom that will even her debts to him. Bess refuses to steal from Diane but he advances as he manipulates her kleptomania but when that doesn’t work, he threatens to tell Diana about Bess’s criminal past which will have her extradited to London and put through criminal processing.
ACT TWO: At The Claw, Bess practices a speech to Aunt Diana that explains her past but Ace intercepts telling her to mention that the marriage wasn’t real as she only dates women. She finishes her speech with Ace sure that Diana will understand, though Bess worries he won’t and will kick her out of the family. She doesn’t think Ace could understand as she was kicked out of the house at thirteen and suffered in poverty, which he can’t relate to. But he issues her that he doesn’t need to lie to survive. As they enter the diner part of the establishment, Nick introduces them to Grant, their new line chef who will cover them while they attend Bess’s party. He then tells Bess she has a visitor outback. Bess meets with Diana and tries to tell her the truth but Diana is well aware of Bess’s past, as she did a background check. She assures Bess that she’s a beloved member of the family now so her past doesn’t matter, she just has to put the Marvin family first. She assures Bess that she has nothing to worry about and leaves. Bess calls Stephen to end their deal. Ryan meets with Valentina in the booths of The Claw, with him expertly dodging her questions. She finds him amusing but asks if he intended to show the world he’s on the same side as Everett, or if Ryan’s forgiven him, but Ryan wants to move onto the next location at the Hunt & Roast. She laughs at the irony of the event. Meanwhile, George and Bess find that R. Jenkins is dead and his estate is being sold. Nancy picks up a random music box and approaches the woman selling everything. The woman dislikes the song as her Uncle Ralph used the songs to keep the voices away as he was eccentric. George approaches to tell Nancy that Ralph T. Jenkins was nicknamed the Comeback Kid in 1986 because he was the sole survivor in a three-car crash. He was revived miraculously ten-minutes after being declared dead when his mother arrived to identify the body. The girls believe that his mother revived him which led Ralph to put the shroud in an archive box. Nancy realizes Ralph died on the 21st which was the same night they defeated the Aglaeca and that when George was revived, Ralph died. George panics that if someone else uses the shroud she will die, with Nancy eerily adding that they will die the same way she killed Ralph.
ACT THREE: Diana explains to a group of people, including Valentina, that the hunt used to be grand with foxes and hounds, but in the 1960s there was an unpleasantness in the founding families so they changed the format. Now it is only a vestige of its former glory, but this way, people don’t get shot. Ryan ushers Valentia away to meet his mother Celia who feigns cooperation. Ace and Nick watch the situation as Nick explains that he’s only working Ryan out of need, which annoys Ace. Bess arrives and gives Ace and Nick two baskets with Ace being confident in his ability to win. Across town at the Drew house, Nancy tries to come to terms with having killed an innocent man but George thinks things have balanced out since she’s alive. Nancy realizes that the voices in Ralph’s head might have been the other two drivers, having gotten stuck inside Ralph the same way Odette is stuck inside George. The shroud brings the lingering spirits into the survivor, which is why flat-lining her won’t work. George storms off to get a drink as she’s angry that Nancy was thinking of killing her and leaves the room. A loud thud worries Nancy who investigates only to find George hit over the head on the floor. Nancy is then chloroformed from behind by a gloved assailant. Diana and Bess go on their treasure hunt, with Diana wishing Bess had joined the family earlier. Bess’s phone rings so she answers angrily to tell Stephen to leave her alone. He sends her a text of Bess and Nancy tied up and will only tell her when they are when he gives her the watch. He warns her not to test him again and has one hour to comply.
ACT FOUR: Bess tells Ace and Nick about Stephen’s threats. She believes them to be legitimate as she once witnessed him beat a man to death. She doesn’t want to tell Diana as she’ll call the police and Stephen will hurt George and Nancy. Ace offers to pin the location of the photo based on the metadata, though Bess asks for his help with a two-person play after. Nancy groggily awakens to a constrictor knot and a rope tied to a candle, which once burnt through will trigger a fire from the gasoline spilled. Odette calls Nancy a bedbug who was kidnapped by her pretty-eyed friend’s husband, who Nancy mistakes for Ace until Odette clarifies that it’s Bess. They bicker before Odette tries to let George take control again but fails, as George’s mind puts up a fight but she hasn’t perfected relinquishing control yet. Meanwhile, Ryan and Valentina walk the woods with her impressed that he’s so down-to-earth which he is surprised by. She tells him that everyone had good things to say including Patrice Dodd who is grateful for the groceries. Valentina brings up Lucy having a daughter and that Patrice was looking forward to seeing her granddaughter again, to which Ryan tries to place blame on Patrice having dementia. Valentina isn’t easily fooled and wonders if the child could one day inherit control of Hudson Enterprises but he continues to try and brush it off and invites her to join the roast. Ace pours cider in Diana’s cup and spills some on her hand. Bess leaves to get Diana’s car brought around. She pickpockets the Spider Sapphire while doing so.
ACT FIVE: Ace and Bess meet with her ready to meet Stephen while Ace and Nick venture to get Nancy and George. In the warehouse, Nancy thinks they have about five minutes until the candle burns the rope. Odette thinks their predicament is karma for what Nancy did to Ralph Jenkins. Odette thinks punishment suits Nancy’s worldview as she has remorse, as she can hear George’s conversations when they interest her. Nancy thinks Odette could use remorse for killing all those people for centuries, but Odette doesn’t feel remorseful as those who called to her knew the price of not paying her toll - just as Nancy did. Nancy wonders what kind of person she is after ignoring all those warnings and if she was born this way, which confuses Odette. Nancy clarifies that she thinks it’s in her bloodline but Odette doesn’t recognize the Drew bloodline until Nancy reveals she is a Hudson. Odette coldly realizes Reverend Hudson was one of her murderers and an evil man. She is angered that Nancy, his descendant, now wants to expel her from George’s body. Bess meets with Stephen who will text her the address of Nancy and George’s location once he’s safely driven away. He believes that the Spider Sapphire makes up for her mistakes to which she angrily tells him that her only mistake was believing he was her only option as a child. She warns him to never come back. He whispers that their debt is paid and leaves. Nancy sees Nick and Ae through the door, so Nick breaks the glass to open the door. Ace runs it and blows out the candle seconds before it is too late, while Nick catches the oil lamp. Nancy warns them about the constrictor knot but Ace is an Eagle Scout and talks Nick through freeing them. Odette is mortified by Nick having a knife and begins to strangle herself while whispering French. George takes over again and panics as Nick cuts the rope. He holds her after in an attempt to soothe her. Bess walks home when Diana’s van pulls up. Diana confronts Bess about stealing the Spider Sapphire.
FINAL ACT: Bess tries to act as though she doesn’t know what happened to Spider Sapphire, though Diana has the bracelet equipped with a micro tracker that shows it in Bess’s possession. Bess realizes that Stephen slipped it back into her pocket before he left. Diana is disappointed deeply but Bess tries to convince Diana that Stephen won’t come back. Diana doesn’t believe that she will put the family above her and cannot put her family at further risk. Bess tries to stop Diana who coldly calls her Bess Turani and informs her they are no longer related. A heartbroken Bess cries as Diana drives away. Bess apologizes to her friends for what she put them through, with Nancy noting it wasn’t her first chloroform. Bess admits that she reverted to a child when she saw Stephen, but he had it all planned and knew that Diana would kick her out of the family just like her mom did. She emotionally admits that he succeeded in making her feel terrible, running upstairs in tears. Ace follows Bess while Nick goes to the kitchen to get ibuprofen for George. When he’s gone, Nancy slides the musical box to George as she thinks that Ralph lost the fight with the voices in his head. The box is from the Larkspur Lane gift shop which surprises George, as this meant he was clinically insane. Nancy worries that if George can’t learn to co-exist with Odette, the same thing will happen to her. Meanwhile, Valentina leaves a voicemail about believing that there is more to the Hudson secrets and wants to stay longer to learn them. She then approaches Ryan and Celia. Bess declines cookies and milk from Ace as she throws her speech into the fire. Nick confronts George about why she said “you can have her back” in French when she was tied up as she doesn’t know French. George finally tells him that she is possessed by Odette Lamar and that’s what has been happening. The shroud pulled both George and Odette’s spirits into her body, but she isn’t in pain though if anyone uses it again she’ll die for real. Nancy is on her way to get the shroud but when she arrives, the lockers in The Claw are vandalized and everything is strewn about with the shroud missing.
Cast and characters[]
Starring:
- Kennedy McMann as Nancy Drew
- Leah Lewis as George Fan and Odette Lamar
- Maddison Jaizani as Bess Marvin
- Tunji Kasim as Ned "Nick" Nickerson
- Alex Saxon as Ace
- Riley Smith as Ryan Hudson
- Scott Wolf as Carson Drew (credit only)
Guest-starring:
- Teryl Rothery as Celia Hudson
- Judith Maxie as Diana Marvin
- Rukiya Bernard as Valentina Samuels
- Oliver Rice as Stephen Dowd
Co-starring:
- Shannon Kook as Grant
- Malaika Jackson as Sara
- Bola Omodara as Security agent
Additional:
- Ralph Jenkins
Quotes[]
Trivia[]
- Nancy being chloroformed was a callback to the book series. That is why Nancy tells the Drew Crew this isn't her first chloroforming.[2]
- It took several tries for the props team to achieve the look and feel of the Spider Sapphire. In the end, the props department created the look by altering an existing antique watch to give it a high class look and feel.[3]
Gallery[]
Images[]
Video[]
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External links[]
The Quest for the Spider Sapphire on The Internet Movie Database
