In a midseason finale full of twists and turns, the Nark and Nace shippers saw their picks battle it out for Nancy’s heart as George and Nick deal with a blast from Nick’s past. Scott Wolf made his directorial debut with “The Voices in the Frost,” and I hope it’s not his last time behind the camera for the series. With major revelations about the Copperhead and Hannah’s whereabouts, the writers pay off several clues while setting up the back of the season to be a wild ride. Without further ado, let’s get into what happened as the Drew Crew finds out what the ghostly frost voices have to say.
Find What You’re Looking For
Bess is ignoring Temperance’s calls, which George calls her out on. Bess says she finds it creepy that Temperance is now wearing Charity’s face, while it doesn’t seem to phase Nancy at all. Bess is worried that she’s hiding something and that her eagerness to be a Woman in White kept Bess from seeing the truth. George tells her Nancy’s going to want more than a hunch before going after Temperance.
After helping Eve (more on that later), Bess realizes she needs to get to the bottom of the Temperance mystery. Bess goes to Icarus Hall to find evidence against Temperance, finding the letters to Charity. She quickly steals one before leaving, but it lights itself on fire as she runs. Realizing she’ll need to play the long game, she texts Temperance like everything is fine, making plans for an upcoming ball.
Warm Heart Cold Feet
Nick and Eve arrive in The Claw. George can’t wait to share her news about the soul splitter, and Nick is overjoyed to find out George is no longer dealing with a shortened lifespan. They quickly start bickering, which Bess and Eve overhear, but in a moment there’s silence, with Bess knowingly telling Eve that “This is when they start kissing, it’s a natural progression.”
Eve tells George, Bess, and Nick her story. She and her boyfriend Anthony were celebrating their anniversary on his parents’ boat. Somehow, Anthony ended up caught in the lines behind the boat and drowned, and Eve is now the prime suspect. But Eve sought out Nick and the Drew Crew because of one strange element. She says one moment it was daylight, and the next, it was night and Anthony was dead. She thinks that maybe she’s possessed like George was with Odette, because according to the Fan fanfic, George experienced lost time. Eve says this has happened to her before, for short periods. Bess is suspicious of Eve’s intentions, but George wants to help her.
Bess gets out the theories cork board as the trio tries to prove that the death was an accident. But they find inconsistencies in Eve’s story. Anthony had a blow to the head opposite to the side his body was found on. Then Bess, armed with tips from Ace, finds the recordings Eve’s voice recognition software made on her phone. There’s a recording and it looks bad for Eve. She accuses Anthony of cheating on her before a splash is heard and the engine of the boat roars.
Eve tries to say she doesn’t remember what happened, but Bess correctly guesses that Anthony kissed a girl on a neighboring boat. Bess is ready to blame Eve, but Nick and George note it could have been the other girl. They head to social media to find the other girls. Nick talks with Eve, and she wants him to come back to Florida, noting that there’s a secret reason Nick doesn’t want to go back. Bess interrupts, clearly thinking Eve is trying to break up Nick and George.
George shows Nick a photo of Anthony with one of the girls clearly showing that the bruise on his head happened hours before he died, and that he was drunk. Nick is so happy and proud of George (and also seemingly worried about Eve’s insinuations about Florida.) He tells her he doesn’t want to wait: he wants to elope right now. George says yes, and they embrace.
But Bess can’t let her obsession go. Breaking into Eve’s car, she finds Anthony’s $27,000 watch hidden inside. Eve can’t explain how it got there as Bess accuses her of trying to worm her way into Nick’s life. Eve leaves as Bess says a rocky relationship plus a wad of cash is plenty of motive. But Nick and George see that she left everything behind: she must have blacked out. Bess is skeptical, but follows the two as they go after her. Eve is standing in the water, walking into the freezing cold bay. Nick dives in to get her, much to George’s horror. Nick pulls her out, and Eve remembers nothing.
Back at the Drew house, Park talks to Eve about her situation as they comb through research. Park thinks Eve’s blackouts are a trauma response after the night Nick accidentally killed the student at the party. Nick blames himself for what happened as Bess blames herself for accidentally triggering Eve. Ace finds a deleted social media story showing Eve self soothing by unwinding the ropes on the boat … as Anthony falls in. It really was an accident. Bess apologizes to Eve, who forgives her.
Before George and Nick head to the courthouse to get married, Nick checks in with Eve, who plans to go back to Florida. He reveals that the real reason he never went home because he was ashamed. He thinks he can’t go home without becoming a big success, but Eve tells him that pressure is internal and that he’s amazing. Eve tells Nick to be happy with George, and they rush to the courthouse. Making it just before closing, George yells, and the door opens.
But as they ceremony starts, George gets major cold feet. She starts comparing the experience to what happened with Odette and tells Nick that she wants them to grow together. She doesn’t want to get married out of fear now that she knows she has time to live with Nick. Nick surprises her by saying he agrees. He now knows he has a lot of trauma to process, and he wants to do it with her. As George quips, “Beckett Dow and Charity Hudson rushed into a marriage and look what it got them, four pieces of a soul and an obsession with eating rats and frozen hearts.” George slides her ring off her finger and tells Nick he needs to ask her again one day, and he promises he will.
Falling In Love (With My Best Friend)
Nancy and Park head to the police station discussing theories. The night before, a frost hit the town, leaving them all stranded in Horseshoe Bay. Nancy wants to use Park’s profiling skills to find the other two parts of Charity’s soul, but Park notes that there’s only one way to really know for sure: ask the Copperhead. But Ace comes through with another theory. He thinks Charity Hudson is the ghost from the historical society building. Nancy tells Park it’s time to prove he really will take theories from anywhere.
When they arrive at the historical society, Ace is disappointed that Park came along. Ace shares his research along with the recording of the ghost, showing them that the first glitch in the tape occurred when Temperance returned. Even worse, he found that a paperweight on Hannah’s desk is a supernatural signal. It has six roses to represent the founding members of the Women in White. Nancy agrees with Ace that it must be Charity, and Ace, clearly a bit threatened by Park, notes, “It’s like our brain’s the same brain.”
Park tries to argue that because Charity still technically has two living soul pieces out there, she can’t be a ghost. But Ace surprises him when he’s able to use all their past research to show that not every haunting they’ve encountered has been a true ghost, quoting Hamlet as he smugly says, “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Agent Park.” Park asks how to contact Charity, and Ace reveals his biggest find yet. The icy weather, like the previous nor’easter, blew in spirits to Horseshoe Bay. Now, this ghost’s voice is not alone.
As Nancy and Park try to use a radio to hear Charity, they begin to theorize about how to amplify the signal. They settle on trying to find Charity’s wedding ring as a totem while Ace looks on, jealous but trying not to show it. Nancy and Park run to go to the cage, with Ace about to follow before Bess calls him. He asks what she knows about Park, and Bess laughs. She responds, “You know that hot, stuffy feeling you have right now? That might be because the window for you and Nancy is closing and you’re finally realizing it.” Ace responds with, “Who said I had windows … or feelings?” Bess sweetly adds, “I know you, I’m your platanchor,” before hanging up.
As Ace goes to join Park and Nancy, the ghost slams the door to the tunnels shut, keeping Ace from being with them. Objects start to fly around the room aimed at Ace each time he tries to open the door. As Nancy calls up asking if he’s okay, a metal hook hits Ace on the head, knocking him out.
As Ace lies on the ground, Nancy doesn’t realize what’s happened. She tells Park that Ace is resourceful and will have them out in no time, so why not look at the cell? Inside, Nancy finds the symbol that’s been popping up on the key and the padlock. She rambles, worried about stopping the Copperhead, but Park tells her to sit with the discomfort of not knowing. He says the silence is often where the best leads are found. He tries to put himself into Beckett’s mind. Nancy shivers, and in a moment sure to make Nark shippers happy, he gives her his jacket. Park realizes that Copperhead imprisoned himself in the cage, but why? Nancy and Park theorize that it wasn’t Cora that made him a monster: it was a lover’s pact between he and Charity. He became the monster, while Charity split her soul. This way, they could always find each other.
Park doesn’t think profiling will work to find the last two soul pieces because the people the soul jumped to were random. Nancy realizes that Beckett destroying the soul pieces isn’t to get back at Temperance: it’s so he and Charity can be together forever the way they planned.
Upstairs, Ace wakes up as a voice on the radio calls for him. It sounds like Hannah, and it simply says “Not … Charity.” The ghost is not Charity Hudson. Nancy notices a hole in the limestone of the cell. One of Charity’s handkerchiefs is inside: they have their totem. The two try to find the exit, with Nancy narrating everything she’s doing as usual. Park marvels at how smart she is and how her mind works. He stops to reassure her, telling her, “You don’t need to do anything to mitigate my discomfort. I’m fine with walking into the unknown.” He smiles at Nancy, who isn’t sure what to do with the compliment.
Just then Ace bursts in with an axe, muttering that they’re going to have to replace that hatch (fantastic timing, buddy.) He’s figured out that the ice has made whatever ghost is up there stronger, so they need to leave before it kills them. While Nancy feels their trip was useless, Ace carefully takes the handkerchief and the key, telling Nancy they could be helpful. Nancy thanks Park for helping Eve. She says that she doesn’t have a plan, and inspired by Park, she is going to sit in silence. They share a cookie together as they think. Nancy realizes that the pieces of the soul are passed down generationally as she confirms that Jake had an ancestor who fought with the 20th Maine Regiment at Gettysburg.
Meanwhile, Ace is gathering his courage to confess his feelings to Nancy. He types out a text asking to meet at his loft alone at 8 p.m. as Bess reads over his shoulder. Before he can chicken out, she hits send like the amazing platanchor she is. She rushes to Icarus Hall as Ace nervously waits for Nancy’s reply. But Nancy left her phone in the kitchen, so when she and Park come in, it buzzes. Too scared to see her reaction, he dashes out, puzzling Nancy.
Nancy sees Ace’s text later that evening as Park heads out. She says nothing as she contemplates what to do. At the historical society, Ace puts the key back together. When he tries it in the lock without knowing what it does (a Nancy Drew move if I’ve ever seen one), the lighting suddenly changes to a muted blue. Nancy walks in, silently noting that the time is past 9 p.m. She went to the loft, and he wasn’t there as promised. It’s clear she had feelings for him too, and now he’s blown it by being late. He stammers an apology as she leaves without acknowledging him. Chasing her down, he finds himself outside the Drew residence.
And in a stunning twist: it’s revealed that he and Hannah are the phantom knockers. They are trapped in a parallel dimension, and Nancy can’t hear them. That’s why she didn’t react: she couldn’t see Ace in the chair after he tried the lock. Hannah has been trying to get Nancy’s attention for weeks by knocking, which Nancy and the dads have been hearing. Ace asks where they are as the screen cuts to black.
Nancy Drew airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on The CW. It will return on January 7, 2022. You can find our other coverage of the series here!
