#nancy drew

Chief McGinnis has been in and out of the show for the first seven episodes. We don’t really know him. If I remember right, in the novels, he’s friends with Carson Drew and is willing to work with Nancy on mysteries. Here, he’s not a true antagonist, but more like a small roadblock in her path to solving some puzzles, right? So, I love that we get a little insight into him in this episode, from the realization that he can see spirits to some extent, and also the reveal of the contents of the trunk in his office.

I mean, he is the reason that Victoria calls the Horseshoe Bay Police Department the least haunted building in town, right? He's making sure it stays that way. He makes it clear that he isn’t opposed to ghosts, but he’s all about keeping the balance, and he could have been a really interesting addition to the show’s storylines if Adam Beach hadn’t decided he wanted to leave the show in a few episodes.

I think my favorite scene in this entire episode is McGinnis confronting the group in the backroom of The Claw, wanting to know who has been messing with the spirit world, and it takes Bess all of 10 seconds to fold and start spilling everything they have been up to over the past few weeks. Everyone scoffing and rolling their eyes at Bess is also funny considering they all chime in and add to her stories without really missing a beat. It’s like there is this weird sense of relief in this scene that there is another adult - not Victoria, who is often busy trying to get to the bottom of a bottle as fast as possible - who might be able to help them.

As much as I enjoy that we get more McGinnis, I do think the show’s version of a “spirit walk” leaves a little to be desired. We get very little information on why McGinnis is able to do these things, what kind of actual training he has, and despite him talking about things considered sacred by his “tribe,” everything is very vague from him. My guess is that’s because the writers’ room didn’t want to pull from an actual Native American/First Nations ritual and wanted to fictionalize this as much as possible, but the whole thing plays very weirdly to me. (I have to give them their kudos for being inclusive though considering how much lore they do pull from different cultures throughout the entire show and how many different backgrounds they give to their characters.)

I also don’t know that it was necessary for the spirit world/dreamscape to be tinted blue and filled with fog. I think it could have been even creepier if George is just in the Drew household completely alone, and the doors she opened led to things like the hospital or the accident. It doesn’t have to be so blatantly “other realm” to be scary, but that's just a personal preference because the blue makes it so hard to see.

Also, I have to say, Bess and Ace are “that kind of close,” so, why isn’t she participating in this ritual? I understand that there was a need to move the Lisbeth story forward (and I do enjoy that Lisbeth is undercover and everyone is willing to help her stay undercover), but I think that reveal could have been made in a different episode, or had clues laid out a little differently so that Bess could participate. I just find it hard to believe that, as quickly as Bess and Ace have been able to connect, and how interested she is in the supernatural, she wouldn’t be jumping at the chance to help retrieve his soul.

I do like the decision that it’s George, out of the characters assembled, who goes on the search for Ace. The drama between Nancy and Carson disrupting the circle is a little heavy handed, but George being the person to go after Ace’s spirit is still a good story point. After all, it’s George who showed up to tell Nancy about the accident in person. It’s George who is also marked for death and is likely fearing her own trip to the spirit world in the near future. It’s also George who, at least as far as we know at this point in the show, has known Ace the longest.

I really wish there were more scenes of George and Ace together because their dynamic is fascinating to me. Honestly, George’s dynamic with pretty much anyone in the show is fascinating. She reconciles with Nancy so quickly, understands Bess faster than anyone else does, connects with Nick even while he’s pining over Nancy, and it’s curious that we don’t get to explore her friendship with Ace even more.

I do think George being the one to find and help Ace’s spirit while he is essentially lost as a six or seven-year-old only solidifies George as the protector of the group. When you have character groups like this, there are your obvious archetypes to draw from before you layer out your characters. George is the prickly one, the sarcastic one, etc. And even though it’s her life that we know is in danger, she is the one most often willing to jump into the line of fire for this group of people she begrudgingly became friends with. She’s the one wielding the crowbar. She’s the one picking up a child and promising to get them safely through the snow. It makes sense that this would be George’s role because she’s been raising her sisters and keeping The Claw afloat. (Honestly, I feel like George is like the classical literary archetype of the Good Mother, though she would probably balk at that classification because words like feminine, nurturing, and wise are thrown around, but she is a good modern fit.)

One line that never fails to make me laugh is George’s words as she first searches for Ace: “McGinnis brought a pipe you’d like.” Despite her tough exterior, she clearly would not have had a problem with Ace taking smoke breaks at The Claw. Ace is just the big brother she’s helping raise alongside the Fan girls.

I do feel the need to point out something else here since we spend the bulk of the episode in the Drew house. The only main character who hasn’t yet spent any time at Nancy’s house eight episodes into the show is Ace. The first seven episodes of the show really do a good job at exploring Nancy’s relationships with all of the other characters so far, and bringing them into her space instead of just putting her in theirs, but Ace is still kind of a question mark for her since she figured out he was informing to McGinnis, so it makes sense that we wouldn’t have seen him in her space just yet, despite the way she blew up at him in the last episode.

Even when George searches in the Drew household of the spirit world, she doesn’t even find hints of Ace in the house, but outside in the snow at the scene of the accident, right? Ace is kind of the last member of the crew whose place is being solidified, and though we won’t see him in the next episode, episode 10 is where we get to have that happen, and that is, of course, one of my favorite episodes of the season.