'Nancy Drew' Episode 8 goes overboard with the smoke machine and ruins the supernatural element of the show
Spoilers ahead for Season 1 Episode 8 of 'Nancy Drew' titled 'The Path of Shadows'.
It looks like most people in Horseshoe Bay can see and communicate with spirits. 'Nancy Drew' returned to The CW after missing a week.
After Ace's (Alex Saxon) accident in the previous episode, we had anticipated that there would be another interaction with the supernatural, but we didn't expect Chief EO McGinnis (Adam Beach) to play such a big role in it.
With Episode 8, the show is being consistent with its supernatural format bringing in yet another ghost/spirit. But this time around, it feels a little too ridiculous as we see Chief McGinnis trying to summon Ace's spirit in his complete uniform in the middle of a hospital corridor with people around. Like there was nothing weird about it.
"He's not lost, he's scared. The trauma of the crash dislodged his soul from his body. If Ace is lost in the spirit world, he is frozen at the moment with his greatest fear."
The episode revolves around Nancy (Kennedy McMann), George (Leah Lewis) and Carson Drew (Scott Wolf) working together to enable George to enter the spirit realm and guide Ace's spirit back to his body.
Before the session, we'd have thought Nancy would be going to the other side, but it then made sense that it was George because her family is so involved in the process of summoning dead people.
There, she is caught up in darkness surrounded by clouds of smoke raised due to the conflict between Nancy and her father from an earlier argument about Lucy Sable. And suddenly there is pressure on the duo to solve their conflict.
The entire sequence has induced mixed feelings in us. For one, we're sure glad that they managed to find Ace at the end of it. They also went overboard with the smoke machine as a result of which the eerie factor was completely diluted.
Chief McGinnis asks the question we're all wondering — "Why is Nancy's house so important to Lucy Sable?" And that is not revealed in this episode.
We find out that Carson Drew had visited the scene of the crime of Lucy's death and ended up seeing tire tracks in the dirt, a broken piece of the crown on the rocks and Lucy's dress dangling by the cliff.
And just when you thought that the recipe couldn't get any more redundant, it is revealed that Lisbeth (Katie Findlay) is actually an undercover state police officer tasked with investigating someone from the police force who is on the Hudsons' payroll.
At the end of the episode, we find out that after a surprising visit from an unknown spirit, George's sister Ted (Ariah Lee) is nowhere to be found.
While the episode hasn't been the best so far, it brings to light Nancy's untrusting nature, which technically paved the way for her to become a detective in the first place. At the same time, it also points out that people are not intrinsically good or bad — they are often a mix of the two.
'Nancy Drew' airs on Wednesdays at 9 pm ET/PT.