Nancy Drew Review: The Vision of the Birchwood Prisoner (Season 3 Episode 5)
For the second time in a row, on Nancy Drew Season 3 Episode 5, “The Vision of the Birchwood Prisoner,” we spend the primary plot of the episode with a member of the Drew Crew other than Nancy—in this case, Ace.
His involvement with Bertram Bobbsey now public knowledge, he’s accused of being involved in the man’s potential crimes, too. That means a desperate search that could expose certain family secrets like the long-lost brother his mother still doesn’t know about.
He flees the watchful eyes of both his father and Carson to track Asher Davies down, enlisting Nancy’s help to solve a crossword-style cypher. It’s as enjoyable to see him prove himself as it is with Bess, but the truly critical scenes here come only after he’s managed to succeed in his task.
Though his father is genuinely worried about him through the hour, we see the tensions the two rarely discuss. That boils over in heartbreaking fashion when his mother accidentally does overhear of Ace’s other brother. Thom responds with a fury we haven’t yet seen, kicking his son out of their home.
This reflexive anger hurts on many levels. The hurt it causes for Ace is at the top of that list, but we’ve mostly gotten warm feelings toward Thom and empathy for what this whole family has been through. This throws a wrench into that mix that will take a long time to repair.
Speaking of flawed fathers, we pick up right where we left off in George confronting her bio dad. After a lifetime stepping in for absent guardians and making questionable life choices she could have been guided away from, she has plenty of well-earned resentment to air out.
Leah Lewis switches between anger and vulnerable hurt as well as she’s been switching between George and Odette’s characterizations. We’re allowed to feel some pity for her father and his guilt, but this is her moment, and she delivers eighteen years of pain darn well.
I’m less sure about the last bit of angst stuck in. After all they’ve been through and understood for each other, I struggle to believe Nick suddenly being outraged about George not sharing these secrets sooner. I’m allowing for his stresses getting built up by everyone leaving him out of the loop.
Powerful as all these scenes are, this is still Nancy Drew, and there’s plenty of trouble for Nancy herself to get into, this time accompanied by both Bess and Temperance to hear that Trott, the first Frozen Hearts Killer, might walk free to due Nancy’s interference with evidence.
Temperance runs magical interference to allow them to talk to both him and his very “young Tom Riddle”-y childhood memories of himself. This results in some highly convenient issues with the prison cameras just as Trott himself is left debilitated, having suffered a stroke in his cell, likely at her mystic hands.
Two big takeaways here: first, we learn that wraiths are coming back into the mix and that Trott, at least, is connected with them. Second, Temperance does quite a bit to undo any benefit of the doubt both Nancy and we may have been giving her about her moral alignments.
It’s true we’re hardly going to feel sorry for a murderer, but Temperance’s casual attitude about her own actions remains troubling. She’s has no time for the questionable ethics of raising beings from the dead—not just cats, but people, at least with Bess’s help.
I trust Bess’s intelligence, but worry that she can be naively trusting, especially of those with supernatural powers. I’d love to see her come into her own as Woman in White, but I am very worried about what she might be convinced to sacrifice along the way.
Other Notes
- As ever, I really appreciate the work the show puts in the ASL communication department
- No glimpse of Ryan here, but the mention of him outsourcing his chores is grown-up teenager hilarity
- More hilarity: Can we talk about everything involving poor Bess and Kegstand, the latter now temporarily(?) dead again. Resurrect him again! Let him “live” his best zombie cat “life”!
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.