Well Drew Crew, this week Nancy and company make some startling discoveries with the aid of a DIY seance, and we are left on a MAJOR cliffhanger going into the break. While I’m going through all my potentially demonic children’s toys, please enjoy this recap of “The Tale of the Fallen Sea Queen.”

We open back at The Claw, where Ace is doing a great job of hiding the real identity of his “weed guy”… by which I mean he is doing very poorly. The Chief is on the phone asking for information, but Ace tells him it’s a bad time as Nancy looks on suspiciously. Nick arrives, bringing the coins that could prove the Hudsons sank their boat and murdered its crew for insurance reasons. Nancy knows an FBI agent who’s friendly with Owen that they can entrust the coins to. Nancy also shares that Celia Hudson was in Argentina when Lucy Sable died, which seems like a solid alibi. But Nancy thinks that Celia could have still hired a hit man or woman considering her wealth.

Victoria, George’s mom, bursts into the diner. She’s terrified and muttering about dark spirits. She thinks the coins are drawing the spirits and recommends they get rid of them by placing them in a lead lined box and throwing them into the sea (someone’s been watching Supernatural). George is skeptical, asking how many drinks she’s had. But Victoria is adamant they get rid of the coins. Bess is worried, but Nancy reassures her that Nick will put the coins somewhere safe. Ace does some Googling and finds that the coins are so reactive today because of the new moon. If they use them in a seance tonight, there’s a chance they could contact the other side.

Nancy leaves to find the coins and Victoria, but her father calls her. He wants to restart the tradition of family dinner, and Nancy reluctantly agrees. She heads to the garage to see Nick, and they quickly start arguing. Nick feels excluded by Nancy’s secret keeping, especially since she expects him to be honest with her. He wants to give the coins to the FBI right away to prove the Hudsons’ guilt, but Nancy wants to talk to Victoria first. When she calls George to find her, George says she’s in jail for public intoxication.

Nancy heads to the precinct, where the police tell her that Victoria was never arrested, she just came in and passed out on the bench. Victoria tells George and Nancy that she was trying to get arrested since the precinct is the least haunted building in town, and with the coins out she doesn’t feel safe anywhere else. Nancy says they can get rid of the coins, but they need to contact Dead Lucy. Victoria warns that there are other entities out there attracted to the coins and there’s no way for her to guarantee those won’t also come through. But she shares how to conduct the seance anyway to help George clear her name, even though she thinks it will end in disaster. Nancy correctly notes that this has never stopped her before.

Laura Tandy shows up at the garage to find Nick. Nick says he hasn’t found anything on Tiffany’s drive yet, but he will fill her in when he does find something. Nancy and George visit Candace, the Sea Queen runner-up the year Lucy was crowned, and pretend to be working on a blog about the Sea Queens. They ask her what she whispered to Lucy as she won, and Candace says she told her there were rumors of Lucy’s promiscuity with the judges. Nancy mentions her own time as Sea Queen, wondering why there’s a photo of Candace doing a ribbon cutting ceremony that only the Sea Queen does. Candace says she was asked to step in since Lucy had already run away with her little brother at that point. The photo was never published because Lucy’s death overshadowed the rest of the coverage (a point Candace is still upset about despite the MURDER that occurred). She tells them the newspaper still has other photos from that day.

Ace and Laura meet in the supply room. He’s upset she didn’t trust him with the publicity stunt and confronts her with the lawsuit he found online. Laura sued Tiffany to get her inheritance money sooner since Tiffany had control of their parents’ money. Ace isn’t entirely mollified, but when Laura pulls him into a closet he certainly doesn’t say no.

Nick tells Nancy that in the files on the drive, there is a secret payment. It was to Carson Drew just a few days after Lucy was murdered. It was routed through a shell company and was a one time payment of $50,000. Nancy is shaken and doesn’t want to believe her father could be involved. She lashes out at Nick, and they both leave to get photos from the paper.

Carson shows up at the diner, where a disheveled Ace and Laura emerge from the walk in freezer. He tells Laura that Celia Hudson wants to settle out of court. Laura declines, wanting to drag this through the courts. She leaves and Ace asks Carson what would happen to Tiffany’s money if the Hudsons don’t get it. Carson tells him it would go to Laura since she is the last living member of the Tandy family. Ace seems nervous based on the info he learned earlier.

At the paper, Nancy and Nick are going through the archives. Nick wants Nancy to open up, but she remains closed off. They find pictures from the ribbon cutting ceremony that contradict Candace’s story, but then Nick accidentally knocks the box with the coins off the table and they spill out. They hear supernatural sounds as they quickly move to get the coins back in the box. A demonic creature moves towards them, but disappears when the last coin is placed in the box just in time.

Bess is trying to help Victoria by giving her a face mask as Ace goes to her for advice. He thinks Laura might have killed Tiffany and is feeling conflicted about it. Nancy arrives and asks if anyone knows why Candace would lie to them. Bess, ever the social media expert, says that she’s liked all of Ryan’s social media posts for years. Nancy gets a call from her toxicologist who confirms that Tiffany was poisoned. He also shares the bad news that the box of evidence from Lucy’s murder is gone, which is what they needed for the seance to work.

The group discusses how to get an item Lucy touched the night she died. They look at the photos and notice that Lucy’s bracelet disappears as the day goes on. Nick recognizes the charm from a necklace his boss wears, and when they go to talk to him, it’s revealed that he is Lucy’s half brother. He asks that they keep this information private since he doesn’t want to deal with the scrutiny. He moved away with his mother following Lucy’s murder after his mother received a lot of money from a real estate developer. Lucy gave him the bracelet the night she died. Nancy shares her mom’s necklace with him to show she understands how much the charm must mean to him … then asks if they can use it in their seance. He’s understandably skeptical, but Nick vouches for Nancy and says he trusts her. Lucy’s brother agrees.

Back at the diner, Bess and George lose Victoria, and Nancy heads to the precinct to find her. The chief pulls her in to chat and asks for her evidence from her investigation into Tiffany’s death. Laura’s stunt is dragging the State Police into the case, and he wants to prove he’s a good cop. He now wants to work with Nancy, not against her.

Back at the Claw, Nancy confronts Ace about his dealings with McGinnis. Ace says McGinnis caught him hacking into a government computer system, which would have been a federal charge. In exchange for making the charges go away, Ace would be an informant for him. He apologizes, but says that if he had told Nancy it would have violated the deal. He starts to tell her about his evidence against Laura, but Nancy stubbornly refuses to listen. I like that the writers aren’t afraid to make Nancy look bad and give her some flaws. Between her insistence on trust from everyone else and her closed off nature, it’s been interesting to see how the characters react to her not practicing what she preaches.

George finds Victoria, but she’s drunk and can’t help them. Nancy and George decide to go ahead anyway, and George’s little sister Ted arrives with a toy to help contact the spirits. She’s adorable and they put her in a salt circle for protection while they set up the seance.

The seance itself is creepy and well done, and I have to give the effects team props for finding practical ways to show Lucy without using CGI. They ask if Candace killed her (no), if the Hudsons murdered her (inconclusive), if she’s haunting Nancy because of the items she found in the attic (yes), did the same person kill her and Tiffany (no), and does Lucy know who killed Tiffany (yes). As Nancy tries to get the courage to ask if Carson killed her, another entity rips Lucy away. The coins are melted and there’s now no way to prove the Hudsons were involved in the boat sinking.

Nancy approaches Nick, sorry that the coins were destroyed. She says she didn’t know that would happen, and Nick believes her. But he also notes that if she had known, she would have done it anyway. He asks her what she found in the attic, but Nancy doesn’t tell him. Upset that she still doesn’t trust him, he says he needs time to figure out their relationship. He knows she’s trying to open up, but says he worries there’s no room for him in her present or future. He leaves, and Nancy is heartbroken.

Bess and George discuss the seance, and Bess notes that Victoria must be so lonely having to deal with seeing all these entities alone. This seems to give George a better understanding of her mother. Ace heads out to talk with Laura but he has an ulterior motive: he’s secretly recording their conversation, trying to make it up to Nancy. Meanwhile, Ted is playing with her dragon toy which is now … talking to her. Guess you can’t put the creepy demons back in the box. As Nick drives home, he sees a major car wreck and realizes it is Ace and Laura’s car. We don’t see either of them, but a firefighter is trying to pry open the car and it doesn’t look good.

Nancy heads home, and this is where the biggest reveal of the episode comes into play: Carson has been monitoring Nancy’s texts. Nancy snoops and discovers that Carson may have stolen the evidence from the lab. Nancy, sick with fear, can’t hold her suspicions in and asks Carson if he killed Lucy. The episode cuts to black before Carson answers.

I can’t believe we have to wait until December 4 to hear his answer (and find out if Ace and Laura are okay after that wreck). What did you think of the episode, Drew Crew? Let us know in the comments!

Nancy Drew airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on the CW.