Nancy Drew Review: The Testimony of the Executed Man (Season 3 Episode 3)
It looks like hunt for the “Frozen Hearts Killer” won’t be the ongoing storyline I’ve expected it to be. By the end of Nancy Drew Season 3 Episode 3, “The Testimony of the Executed Man,” we have our guy.
That doesn’t mean this is where the story ends. The man himself insists there are greater forces at play—a fact that at this point viewers have probably taken for granted. Still, we probably won’t be seeing any more corpses who are missing their hearts for a while.
Regardless of what’s to come, in this episode, the conclusion of the killings that dominated the earliest part of this season is a fairly subdued affair. Our attention is instead drawn by what is at first only something Nancy does in exchange for information.
At a time when a romance between a white man and a Black woman would have specifically condemned the latter, a man named Joe Kelsey went to the electric chair confessing to a murder he didn’t commit. He did so to protect his lover, now the grandmother of a true crime podcast host.
This event spurs the main plot on as Nancy heads to a DetectiveCon with George, Ace, and an old box of evidence about the crime. Along the way, Joe himself temporarily traps them in a warehouse, accidentally almost kills Nancy (it’s almost commonplace by now) and ends up haunting Ace.
We learn that both Joe and Ace’s grandfather were survivors of the Holocaust. This connection allows the gang to bring some closure to Joe and the people he leaves behind, even if the world will never know of his innocence.
It takes strong writing and acting for a show to give this much empathy to characters we only know for part of a single episode. With all they’d already survived, Joe and Laci’s grandmother deserved happiness. She’s able to see him one last time in a tear-jerking and bittersweet moment.
It’s also nice to see Ace get some focus for his own background when much of his screentime has been devoted to his focus on others. How far he’s come from a character who opened the series often acting as a slacker and providing comic relief.
We do get a form of comic relief, largely through George’s discovery that she has fans—“Fan Fans”, that is– who have followed her story online as told and slightly embellished via a kid sister’s pen. They also sell paper fans as souvenirs, inviting us to make all the puns we want.
The whole thing is as silly as it sounds. It’s even pretty impressive as a business venture. It also gives us a few more moments to enjoy with the family unit of Nick, George, and her sisters. In an episode that spends almost its whole runtime outside of Horseshoe Bay, that helps us feel at home.
Through the discovery of the Frozen Hearts killer means this is hardly a bottle episode, there are elements of a self-contained storyline. Thankfully, the plot and characters we get are more than engaging enough to keep us invested.
That said, I do miss the settings, characters, and romances we don’t get to see much of. Carson and Ryan are both entirely absent, as is any time spent in the Horseshoe Bay police station. The nature of the plot means that though Nick and George and Nancy and Ace are together, there are few hints at current or potential ships.
The exception to this is Bess, who stays behind to ensure that neither The Claw nor Nick’s newly-opened youth center fall apart with everyone else away. This throws her headlong into the path of Addie, who she previously met for a date that was ill-fated at best. (You’ll recall Ace rescuing her from it.)
After some enjoyable snide comments, Bess and Addie realize they may have misjudged each other and are hooking up by the final scenes. Though it’s a bit fast, I’m already on board this ship. I promise it’s not just because Bess finally has a love interest who is, you know, a real and living human being.
What did you think of this episode of Nancy Drew? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Nancy Drew airs Fridays 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.