Nancy Drew and the Vision of the Birchwood Prisoner

 

 

Notice how Temperance wears long flowing gowns from another century and nobody comments.  It's that sweet face of hers.

Trott, the Serial Killer currently in jail as the Frozen Hearts Killer will be released because another similar crime was committed while he was in jail.

Nancy is determined to find a way to nail down his guilt. She asks Temperance to go with her to the jail and create a shared vision with him to find answers.

What they find is a memory of ten year old Trott finding a strange trapped creature in a cage underground. The creature has long claw like fingers that he uses to catch and extract the hearts of small creatures (mice/rats litter the floor).  Fascinated by this thing, he says he does not bring it any creatures to feed on and he did not release it from its cage. He merely watches it.

The Creature is the same "Man in a Hat" that attacked Nancy in an earlier episode.  She's seen him near the scene of the death of several teens.

At the end of Trott's memory, Temperance pushes Nancy away to get more information from Trott.  She also seems to have caused him to have a stroke.

 

Elsewhere, Ace was caught on camera picking up Bertram Bobbsey, the Bobbsey family patriarch recently released from prison at a Cannery.  That night, when he saw Bertram's knuckles were all bloody, he kicked him out of his car, unwilling to have anything to do with a crime.

Now Ace is charged with aiding Bobbsey in that crime. Ace also had passed out some chocolates for Bobbsey which were tied to drug transactions.

Carson tries to tell Ace to go to the police and tell him everything he knows, but instead Ace grabs the laptop with the screenshot and the drug packages and runs.

In a confrontation at the local library, there's a drug bust and the police arrive to save Ace just in time, led by Ace's former policeman father.

In an argument between father and son, Ace slips out a comment on his father's hidden son just as his mother walks out of the library.

Ace's father is furious having to face this with Ace's mother and kicks Ace out of the house. Now.

Elsewhere, George confronts the father who left her behind as a baby because he didn't want to feel trapped.  George's father looks just her age, so it's awkward.  He's played by Osric Chau, Kevin Tran from Supernatural!  He's way too young.

It was quite emotional for both of them, even so.

Previews for next week have The Drew Crew looking for the Creature's Lair.  Or at least the cage he was held in.

Way outta here theory of the week is Temperance kept the Creature and released the Creature.  Why remains to be seen.

Nancy Drew and The Journey of the Dangerous Mind

 

 Let's start off by mentioning that the episode titles in this third season are just awful. The Journey of the Dangerous Mind?  Even after watching the episode, I can't guess whose mind they're referring to.

Luckily, the episode itself was good.

The Frozen Heart serial killer didn't take another victim this week.  There was a considerable amount of investigation tonight.  Nick and Ace tested freezing pig hearts in ice and liquid nitrogen (?) to see if that's what the killer is using.  They concluded neither was the right substance but Argon Gas could have been used as well.

Nancy, at her tiny desk at the police department, finds a neighbor complaint about someone miss-using his recycling bin for gas containers.

With Ryan in tow, she scoots off to the killer's actual house.  Leaving her new dad in the car as a "lookout," she stacks boxes and trash cans so she can break into the house via the deck door.  

You keep expecting the guy to be right behind her in the house.  Even for Nancy, doh, what was she thinking.  As it turns out, she rescues a heart from the fireplace, only to step on a pad that is connected to pipe bombs aimed right at her. It was all a trap.

Texting Agent Park (played it turns out, by John Harlan Kim from The Librarians, without his British accent!) he comes to the rescue.

So, the Mind stuff.  Temperance offers to help Nancy remember more about her sighting of the killer.  She blows some dust in Nancy's face, making her recall the day of George and Nick's proposal.  She sees the killer more clearly, including his license plates, but doesn't get a good look at his face.

Afterwards, while answering a question from Bess, Nancy seems to have enhanced memory and she can tell Bess right where something is at Temperance's place. Is this enhanced memory to be an ongoing thing?

Bess is trying to protect Ace ,and decides to use a spell from her own ancestor's spell book to protect him.  It all backfires, and Ace meets with accident after accident.

When she goes to Temperance's lair to recover an artifact, of course Temperance is there, and next thing you know, Bess is learning a simple spell from Temperance so she can be more "empowered".

Bess, as we know, is impressionable, and feels helpless, so she's ripe for being ill used by Temperance. 

Lots of good scary moments, charming bits with Ryan and Carson working out who is really Nancy's best dad.  Nick works hard to win over George's sisters who are afraid of losing her.

I love that next week the crew travels to Detective Con, to see a podcaster who says she knows the identity of the Frozen Heart killer and that she'll reveal it at the con.  What a good idea!

I almost forgot, while Bess was performing her spell something sparkly flew through the air and appeared to be eaten by THE CAT! He's at least sort of alive, with eyes that glow and a totally mechanical cat look to him. But he's ok...