Nancy Drew Review: The Spellbound Juror (Season 3 Episode 11)

You may notice a certain degree of, er, enthusiasm in the fandom after Nancy Drew Season 3 Episode 11, “The Spellbound Juror.” You’ll have to wait for the very final scenes to find out why.

In that spirit, let’s save any discussion of it for the end as well. Much of the rest of the plot takes place in a courthouse, combining the Temperance storyline with our first chance to really see Carson as a lawyer, with both Nick and his new girlfriend playing important roles.

I’m not entirely sure about how this episode wants us to feel about Carson and Jean. On the one hand, they discuss going to a family cabin together. That wouldn’t be odd except that this season’s entire timeline has been less than a month and their relationship even more recent.

Then again, maybe we’re supposed to question such a symbolic step, because them facing each other in the courtroom brings up a heck of a lot of tension. Except that they seem to forget all of it when Carson win and go right back to their travel plans. What gives?

I do like Jean I lot while believing we need to get to know her more, and it helps a lot that we see the positive outcome of a “not guilty” verdict in her realizing she was wrong about Carson’s defendant. Still, I’m not at all sure about where they’ll be when the season ends in two episodes.

I’m only half joking about fans only being centered on the end of the hour, but I would be remiss to not highlight Nick’s speech to his fellow jurors who themselves are aggravatingly prone to judgement about a young man from “the wrong side of the tracks”.

Nick knows all too well what it means to face that and to have it affect a target’s entire life. His passion and raw emotion are enough to change eleven strangers’ minds, and Tunji Kassim delivers a heck of a performance during a loaded reminder of Horseshoe Bay’s underlying issues.

It’s also nice to watch George helping Carson out in getting witness testimony, because most of what’s left for both her and Nick is there to remind us that they really have broken up and with my fears for the final episodes, I’m just not ready to deal with that.

It helps nothing that one of the jurors is, as the episode title suggests, possessed by the Copperhead and makes enough of scene to add even more theatrics to the proceedings. At least the Drew Crew is able to prevent his heart being removed—for now.

Nancy herself is kept largely at bay by going through old Hudson family artifacts with Ryan. That gives us a sweet moment in which he offers her some of Celia’s jewelry and a letter from Charity that reveals Temperance’s true nature and intentions.

Of course, it takes Nancy literal seconds to lose all the sympathy she’s built for her ancestor the past few episodes. A final showdown is undeniable now, and at least everyone is on the same page about their enemy. That should help things…right?

The very final seconds of the hour, after even The Scene, are more than troubling. Temperance launches another, more successful attack on our juror friend as he’s moved into custody. And the mention of sacrifice on top of the ominous predictions can mean nothing good.

And now for why we’re all really here: after more than a season of hints, after multiple characters work to make Ace and Nancy aware of their own feelings, and, of course, just after Nancy’s ventures into something with Park, Ace, at Bess’s urging, confesses all his feelings at once.

Nancy is speechless. We’re speechless. Ryan, who inadvertently stumbles in with the Temperance developments, is not—and I have some feelings about us believing that one of those people who saw Nace from the start could be that oblivious, but I’ll table them for now.

Nancy Drew is never lost for words, so her reaction basically means that our ship is canon now. True, there is still the matter of Park, but we’re getting visual confirmation of what we’ve always known. She may be shocked to hear his speech, but she totally feels the same.

There are predictions that Park will turn out to be evil, and while I can see it, I personally don’t prefer it. We know where we’re going, and there are plenty of ways to get there. That one feels like an easy way out and I’d like for his positive characterization to mean more.

Apart from the ship’s first official big moments, though, I’m approaching the last two episodes with a sense of dread. I desperately want everyone to survive and the ability to revive from near death in this universe is a comfort, but there are possibilities I’m afraid to voice aloud lest they come true.

Again, your dark predictions are welcome on the comments. So are your rationalizations for assuring us everything will be completely fine in the end. Myself, I’m stick with living in what is definitely not denial for as long as I can.

 

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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