Nancy Drew Review: The Bargain for the Blood Shroud (Season 2 Episode 9)
After a few brief initial appearances, Gil and Amanda Bobbsey find greater focus as characters on Nancy Drew Season 2 Episode 9, “The Bargain for the Blood Shroud.” Given the influence of the Bobbsey twins in the original series, it’s likely we’ll see a lot more of them.
How do first impressions stack up? Apart from the feelings of those hoping Nancy and Ace will eventually hook up, Amanda is a sweet and helpful person. Whether or not she’s meant to be with Ace, she does have a spark with him.
Gil is another matter. The episode works hard to help us sympathize with him, and I do feel at least some empathy. Still, it’s hard to get past his open willingness to see George die if he can use the shroud to prove the guilt of the man he believes killed his mother.
To be fair, the ethical dilemma is more complicated by the fact Nancy already has taken a man’s life in saving George, but she didn’t know what would happen. Gil does. His willingness to accept those stakes for a mere semblance of justice will take work to get past.
He does show remorse in the end. It’s remorse that Nancy, with her own very personal understanding of these feelings, is willing and able to accept. We’ll see whether forgiveness comes quite as easily for everyone else.
In the meantime, we do get an intriguing mystery out of the arrangement, complete with cryptic clues, very clear stakes, and an even more clear deadline. The true meaning of an artist’s numeric signature is a sweet and clever twist.
I’m reserving judgement for now on the much bigger twist that the twins’ mother is still alive, having fled to seek treatment for mental illness and wanting to protect her children from painful reality. How close was Gil to sacrificing George for that?
There are other questions that need to be answered for this to work, too. Why has nobody reached out to Amanda and Gil all these years later? How did the present day painting wind up with the others? Just where is the elder Bobbsey, anyway?
Ace does provide a pretty strong clue as to that last question. It’s both an indication he and Amanda will likely be together at least a while and a sign that we’ll ultimately resolve this mystery, though only possibly with a happy reunion.
The only member of the Drew Crew almost entirely absent from all this drama is Bess, currently in emotional fallout over the loss of her adopted family. It’s never quite explained why she seeks refuge at the Drew home, but Carson soon finds her in tears on his couch.
What follows is a series of very sweet scenes between the two. Given that he’s only just getting back to a parental role with Nancy, we haven’t seen a lot of Carson as a traditional dad. He shows that side here, showing us he’s still good at it.
Bess also helps him with a case in a nice reminder that she’s as smart as she is complicated. Maybe someday she’ll be able to work things out with her aunt, but even if she doesn’t, she has a second found family in the rest of our characters.
Finally, I can’t decide what to make of the current direction of George’s dilemma. The idea of her and Nick just trying to accept Odette’s spirit in her body is intriguing, but hardly seems sustainable outside of a very strange sitcom-y spinoff.
This is made all the more clear when Odette runs off to try and throw herself and George to their deaths to be reunited with her own lover. True, she’s literally talked off the ledge, but what are the odds there won’t be a next time?
For the moment, Nick and George are going to have to reckon with this, and I hope it doesn’t come at the expense of their relationship. But in the long term, something’s going to have to give, and we’ll need to wait to see what that will be.
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.