Nancy Drew Review: The Ransom of the Forsaken Soul (Season 3 Episode 13)

Nancy Drew Season 3 Episode 13, “The Ransom of the Forsaken Soul” leaves us with the kind of emotional whiplash that might require physical therapy. This season finale had better not be the series finale, because…well, just keep reading.

We pick up with Ace facing his role as the next frozen heart victim and take off at a rocket’s pace in the attempt to fix that. The Crew is already at work to make a deal with Temperance to save his life, but both parties are only pretending to play their roles.

Whatever else there is to say about Temperance, she’s a great villain. Smart enough to outwit Nancy Drew and yet plagued the flaw common in so many antagonists—she’s so focused on her end goal that she misses things like Nancy coming for her with a magical hatchet.

Nany kills Temperance and all seems well, but it’s less than halfway through the hour. Anyone who’s watched TV knows this means trouble. It comes in terrifying fashion as Ryan collapses in agony with a piece of shrapnel embedded in his neck.  

It’s a brutal scene, heartbreakingly highlighted by Nancy calling him “dad” for the first time as he dies in her arms. The aftermath takes us forward a full month in seconds, past the initial processing of grief. It’s all too fast, too soon. It’s written that way for a reason.

The hints we get for the Drew Crew’s future would be promising. We get to see them on their first steps toward success and happiness as individuals. Much as I support every canon couple the show has given us, it’s so nice to root for each of them alone in these few minutes.

Still, there’s that one couple that’s been written to stand out this season. The finale should be Nace’s moment, and it is, although the scenes we get soon become ones well need to cling to: Ace supporting Nancy in her grief, comfort, love, a sweet scene waking up in bed together.

Then it ends, just as horribly as Ryan’s death, in a car crash caused by a very not-dead Temperance. She stopped time at the instant of her own demise and the entire month since has been fantasy. The rest of the episode pivots on a kind of supernatural blackmail.

The trope of a protagonist choosing between their true love and something much bigger on an ethical scale (in this case, the entirety of Horseshoe Bay) is often criticized. What true hero is going to choose the former, even when it would spare their own heart?

When Nancy first drops the hatchet, we almost believe the show will buck the trend, but only for a moment. After saving Ryan by removing the shrapnel and offering Ace words that will soon be far too few, she returns to slay Temperance. True to her nature, the witch doesn’t see it coming.

Ace lives, Ryan lives, and so do all the residents of Horseshoe Bay. If only the town’s waterfront were the only casualty. Instead, Temperance releases a curse with her death that will doom Ace if Nancy ever acts on her feelings with him.

It’s crushing to lose our few moments of their happiness in this way, even if they were never real. But of course they were so real, and the handling of the final few moments leave me with little doubt that this serves only to make our endgame the slowest of slow burns.

Sure, the writing tries to instill doubt. I’m troubled by Nancy employing the “hurt them to save them” trope on Ace when the curse should allow her to simply tell him the truth. Carson and Nancy’s talk about having multiple soulmates is, on the surface, not a great sign.

I’m chalking the former up to circumstance. It’s easy to forget at times just how young Nancy is. She’s terrified in the moment and desperate to spare Ace at any cost. The latter I’ll take just for a wonderfully bittersweet moment between father and daughter.

I remain confident because this show has a way of fixing things that should be unfixable, up to and including death. They can fix this, too, and I believe they eventually will. Now we just need the show renewed lest we never get to see it happen.

In that spirit, let’s end with speculation based on the final prophesy reveals. Most of them play out before the season ends in the temporary demise of Ryan and Ace, in Nick and George “betraying” and “forsaking” their love for each other, and in Ace’s heart being broken, if not literally lost.

Then there are our cliffhangers. Ryan is forced into a car by the couple who had owned the hatchet over narration about his destiny causing the others to call. And Nancy starts her own detective agency by getting called to a graveyard and finding multiple graves ruined and empty. Good times.

There are a few things I don’t want for season four. I don’t want Ryan’s redemption arc to regress, though this one doesn’t worry me too much. There are plenty of ways to fix that, too, especially if his destiny is tied to that whole thing about Hudsons dying gruesome early deaths.

I also don’t want zombies. Like I really do hate all zombies, with the possible exception of Kegstand. So, when she show is renewed as it now absolutely must be, we can get right to solving this whole new set of supernatural dilemmas. Just please let us do so without becoming The Walking Dead.

 

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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