Nancy Drew Review: The Curse of the Dark Storm (Season 1 Episode 3)
After a hit-or-miss first episode and a second that coalesced the messy story, Nancy Drew feels like a show that’s hitting its stride in Season 1 Episode 3, “The Curse of the Dark Storm.”
Save for a couple jump scares, this episode is literally and figuratively quieter than those that have come before, devoting much of its time to following Nancy and Nick on a treasure hunt of sorts.
We’re going to have to deal with this being the kind of show where every single person can be a suspect. Still, the plot suggests we can see Nick as unfairly targeted and worthy of empathy, at least for now.
I love the literary clues spread through this story and the background of why they exist. Nick has killed a person, but only in self-defense. Tiffany Hudson did play a key role in getting him sentenced, but without knowing the whole story.
Their path to overcoming that and the work to absolve guilt on both their parts takes Tiffany’s death from a plot-fueling mystery to a legitimate tragedy involving characters we relate to. Nick goes a long way in making us feel that.
A clock left behind by Tiffany leads to a hidden safe and several million dollars in old bonds. We’re told they’re an apology of sorts; a way to help Nick overcome the circumstances she inadvertently created. He’s not fully buying into the windfall yet. On this show, there’s no way it’s as good as it seems.
Though Nick is most open with Nancy, he tells his story to George, Ace, and Bess as well. Here too we see the fruition of what’s been skimmed over before. This group feels much more like a unit that will work together to solve all this.
A big part of “all this” is the series of near-misses that target George, supposedly cursed for death by the bucket of blood on her doorstep. It’s a stretch, but all the events could be attributed to bad luck and coincidence.
Such benign explanations are harder to apply to the vanishing woman George meets. A newspaper clipping on her violent death suggests she is the last victim of the same curse. If so, is she here to protect George or seal the same fate?
At this point, I’m hard-pressed to deny that this is going to be an adaptation of the supernatural sort. There’s just too much that shouldn’t be rationally explained by smoke and mirrors.
If I’m wrong, I worry that some of most terrifying moments we see will never be explained because they’re only there to scare and aren’t being thought through. If “Dead Lucy” is created by a living human, how does Ryan Hudson hear and see her too?
I have considered one possibility: Nancy’s father may indeed be the criminal the show wants us to think he could be. That might explain Lucy being in his home and Nancy and Ryan seeing things that he “can’t”. Yet I don’t buy it at all.
In the closing moments, we see him alone and noticing signs of Lucy himself. That’s to say nothing of how he could possibly be making any of these things happen even if he isn’t as innocent as he wants us to believe.
Above all, I still believe the suspicions against him are part of some sort of red herring. Ryan Hudson is barely mourning his wife. He awaits major financial gain from her death. In a way, he’s too obvious too, but if we want human motives, why not one the must human of all—greed?
Before we go, we’re also presented with Bess as a suspect, and this point does carry the “rushed shock value” factor that’s bothered me before. I’ll allow it because I’m sure we’ll learn why she has Tiffany’s ring, but for now it feels absurd.
I’m fully on board with our mystery at this point. It’s become much easier to follow, with twists that highlight plot instead of overshadowing it. While I have concerns about how the revelations to come, I’m excited to see where we’re headed.
Is this the Nancy Drew we may have anticipated? Given the lack of procedural episodes in favor of a big story that usually waits for sweeps, maybe not. I’d like to see those kinds of stories at some point, but I’m also happy to wait.
What did you think of this episode of Nancy Drew? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Nancy Drew airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.
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Caitlin Wyneken
Caitlin is an elder millennial with an only slightly unhealthy dedication to a random selection of TV shows, from PBS Masterpiece dramas to some of the less popular series on popular networks. Outside of screen time, she's dedicated to the public sector and worthy nonprofits, working to make a difference in the world outside of media.