i am not a woman, i'm a god

nancy's characterisation in nancy drew

throughout the show, we recognise a pattern in nancy's behaviour when it comes to emotional or difficult times in her life and the coping mechanisms she adopts to deal with them. it's very clear that nancy, more often than not, attempts to bottle up her emotions and ignores them and avoids dealing with her emotions by seeking out physical comfort and validation.

when we first meet nancy, she's in a barely friends-with-benefits relationship with nick which she fell into as a result of the emotional impact of her mother's death, and over the first half of their relationship arc we can see that, in contrast to nick who has developed feeling for her, nancy is not only using their relationship to avoid coping healthily with kate's death but is also closing herself off from forming any sense of romantic or emotional attachment to nick and this ultimately plays a part in the breakdown of their relationship. she's resistant initially to letting him go, but its my personal belief that this is more because she identifies him with the aftermath of kate's death and her unwillingness to let him go is connected to how she's not yet really let go of kate either.

after nick, nancy develops a relationship with owen, right around the time that she is beginning to have doubts about carson's innocence in lucy's murder. this is a period of turmoil for her, because as someone with an almost righteous sense of justice, the idea that her father could be guilty is difficult to deal with and process emotionally. the fact that nancy's relationship with owen is a continuation of an unhealthy coping mechanism for her and a parallel to the dynamics of her relationship with nick become clear when she undergoes further emotional distress when nancy finds out that her biological parents are lucy and ryan. after she goes to the house to confront carson, and he tells her the whole truth, she leaves in order to go to owen's place.

owen's murder is shocking, and we can see through nancy's behaviour over the next few episodes that she's having difficulty with dealing with this loss. shortly after owen's death, the drew crew meet the bobbsey's, and nancy finds herself attracted to gil. this is the unhealthiest of her relationships as we see thus far, because of gil's behaviour towards and treatment of her, and i think at the time as an audience we—like ace—had difficulty understanding why such a headstrong and independent character could fall so easily into a relationship so toxic. not only is this reflective of real life, however, but it's also reflective in a lot of way of nancy's emotional state—she's gone through trauma after trauma, continuing to rely upon the unhealthy coping mechanism of seeking out physical comfort and validation in times where she wants to avoid dealing with her emotions and perceived guilt. with each new emotional blow, nancy's ability to deal with it without facing up to how she's feeling is minimised, and plays a role in how she ends up blind to gil's mistreatment.

nancy's relationship with ace

throughout the show, nancy's relationship with and feelings towards ace shift and change and we can see it quite clearly on screen. they go from coworkers and somewhat-friends to friends with a lot of faith and trust in one another, and slowly develop into lovers and life-partners. this is a contrast to her relationships with most men in the show, including the ones mentioned above as well as even detective tamura and agent park, because we can actually see that this is a relationship with a lot of emotional depth which develops before any physicality.

after she's realised her feelings for ace, instead of dealing with these emotions she puts them aside and attempts to ignore them, and this comes to a head after the hallucination of their relationship and temperence's curse. she pushes ace away incredibly hard, because a decent portion of her inability to process difficult emotions is connected to an apparent fear of abandonment, and she's so terrified of losing ace the same way that she lost kate or owen that she decides it's safer for her and for her heart to keep him at arm's length, even though it hurts him, because it means that he is safe.

when she ultimately comes to admit to ace that they are cursed at the beginning of season 4, it marks a turning point and growth for her character. she wasn't completely given a choice, but her decision leads to her welcoming ace closer to her as they work to break the curse, and to see him putting so much effort into this and not abandoning her does wonders for her acceptance of her feelings for him. after she nearly dies following the tampered ritual, and ace pulls an uno reverse and pushes her away for the sake of her safety, nancy isn't just upset because she's finally accepted her feelings for him and she see's this as a betrayal but because this is her worst nightmare coming true: she's processed her emotions, let him in, and he's in her mind now abandoning her the way he was always scared that she would be, through death or otherwise.

nancy and tristan in 4x06

by 4x06, ace has not only shut nancy down but has said that he's not willing to try and break the curse for the sake of her safety, and suggested that they see other people. after this heartbreak, it is absolutely in-character for nancy to seek an emotional escape, and tristan is in the right place at the right time, especially when he himself is being so forward and open with his feelings.

it’s explicitly stated that horseshoe bay is located in maine, a northeastern state of the us bordering new hampshire, canada, and the atlantic ocean. but that’s hardly specific, is it? it could be anywhere—all we really know from the show is that horseshoe bay is somewhere on the coast.

they’ve given us two main clues about where exactly nancy and the clue crew are located, but both conflict with one another.

in 1.15, the postal address of nancy’s house is given the ZIP code 04854. horseshoe bay may be fictional, but the town with that code is very real: owl’s head. located in knox county, owl’s head has a population of a little over 1,500 and features a state park and a lighthouse. at first, it sounds pretty close to what we know about horseshoe bay. until we get to 3.03.

at the beginning of the episode, we see a marked map showing where nancy, ace, and george are going as they travel from horseshoe bay to portland. if horseshoe bay was intended to be in owl’s head, or in fact almost anywhere in knox county, it would be marked somewhere underneath her cell phone.

instead, horseshoe bay is marked as being located on an island further north up the coast, called mt desert island. mt desert island, in hancock county rather than knox, has a year round population of around 10,000 and is known as a bit of a tourist hot-spot between visits to its acadia national park and the summer homes of wealthy families. there’s also acknowledged links to the Abenaki, which includes the Passamaquoddy people who we know Addy was researching (and presumably identifies with). 

i personally believe that mt desert island makes a lot more sense than owl’s head, especially within the social context. we know that horseshoe bay is a resort town with a sizeable wealthy population of “hilltoppers”, which aligns with how mt desert island is home to places like bar harbour, which is a wealthy area surrounded by hills and mountains. aside from that, despite us knowing that horseshoe bay is relatively small i can’t quite believe that it’s small enough to only house just over 1,500 people. from doing some research, i don’t even think that owl’s head has its own police department, and they’re instead serviced by nearby rockland–mt desert island does have its own police, small enough to align with the image the show are giving us but not outsourced in the way owl’s head seems to be.