S01.E05: The Case of the Wayward Spirit

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

When Nancy (Kennedy McMann) realizes that George (Leah Lewis) is possessed by Tiffany's spirit, she must act quickly to rid her friend of the ghostly passenger before it's too late. Meanwhile, a mysterious stranger, Owen (guest star Miles G. Villanueva), wanders in to The Claw and asks the gang to cater a charity gala happening at the country club that same day.

Promo:

Original air date: 11/6/19

[bettername2come]

All right, this is the best episode of the Scooby Gang coming together so far. Everyone played off each other well and their friendships are starting to really form. I think George and Nancy are the strongest actors. Nancy's actor continues to grow on me and seem more Nancy like. Not growing on me are the frequent mentions of her teen detective phase without showing her doing much detective work in the present. I mean, Nancy shouldn't just be asking ghosts who killed them and calling in Veronica Mars-esque favors. I need to see more of her snooping and getting away with it. 

I like George's mom, despite her flaws. They have a really nice kitchen for what is portrayed as not a nice house. 

The flashback of Ryan in 1999 looked fake considering Riley Smith really hasn't changed all that much in the last 20 years. I blame the hair. If he doesn't have spiky hair, it won't look like him. 

I did not miss Scott Wolf at all. 

[mommalib]

Oh here we go with the love triangle crap. The CW just can't help they self. And unfortunately when it involves a white dude and a black dude it's usually the black dude that gets the short end of the stick. I hope that's not gonna happen to Nick he's one of my favorites.

[thuganomics85]

As silly was it sounded on paper (and, granted, it was still pretty silly), George getting possessed was actually pretty entertaining.  Leah Lewis did a good job with all of it, and I thought they used the rest of the gang really well and delivered some fun reactions.  Plus, it brought back George's mom and I'm all for more boozy Liza Lapira!

So, now Ryan has a connection to both Tiffany (of course) and Lucy.  Certainly not a good look for him, but that just makes me think he won't be involved.  I also suspect there will be more to Karen's story than she initially let on.

This real estate guy is so going to be bad news.  And not just because he's likely going to form a dumb love triangle with Nancy and Nick.

Bess finally took the step and set up a date with that women from the second episode.  We'll see where this goes!

Finally figured out where I saw the actress playing Tiffany's sister from: she was on that goofy show, Crisis, years ago, starring a pre-Trish Walker Rachael Taylor, a pre-Orville Halston Sage, Gillian Anderson, and Dermot "Seriously, I'm not Dylan McDermott, You Assholes!" Mulroney.

Carson was off in Boston a.k.a. Scott Wolf doing the CW's whole "What, you think the veteran actor is going to appear in every episode?  Ha!" bit.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I love how the Claw, which is a divey diner at best, got hired to cater a fancy country club gala (because country clubs definitely don't have their own kitchen staff to cook for the members and parties) and then not only did George accept this last minute gig but then everyone left the restaurant to go talk to George's mom.

On top of that, this gala for the new foundation in Tiffany's name is so small that they have only Nancy, Nick, Ace, and George passing hors d'oeuvres but simultaneously so big that Nancy can't find George. And there are so many people at the party who need food but George disappears, Nancy and Nick run off to find her, and Ace takes a break to dance with Laura.

Ha, I love that all of George's sisters have boy names (Ted, Jesse, and Charlie) and that one of them is hiding money under her bed so she can see BTS!

George's mom said that stress was what would cause Tiffany's spirit to emerge, but what we saw in this episode was a perfectly calm George who saw Ryan which caused Tiffany to come out, drop the tray, and grab a knife. I loved that Tiffany's first instinct was to take off that catering uniform and find something way better to wear.

I enjoyed this episode. I like that we're getting more of the different storylines intertwining now. I really hope that Nick and Ace saved all that stuff to the cloud as well as to a bunch of flash drives that they hid all over town. If there's one thing I learned from watching tv shows with mysteries, it's that if there's only one copy of documents about shady stuff, it WILL be stolen, lost, or destroyed. Make a million backup copies!

I agree that on paper, George being possessed sounded lame but she pulled it off really well.

I really do not want a love triangle but it's the CW so I guess I should expect it. My main objection is that Owen seems way too old for Nancy. If he's such a baller real estate guy, he must be significantly older than Nancy, who just graduated from high school a few months ago. No thanks, show.

Edited November 7, 2019 by ElectricBoogaloo

[mommalib]

40 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I love how the Claw, which is a divey diner at best, got hired to cater a fancy country club gala (because country clubs definitely don't have their own kitchen staff to cook for the members and parties) and then not only did George accept this last minute gig but then everyone left the restaurant to go talk to George's mom.

On top of that, this gala for the new foundation in Tiffany's name is so small that they have only Nancy, Nick, Ace, and George passing hors d'oeuvres but simultaneously so big that Nancy can't find George. And there are so many people at the party who need food but George disappears, Nancy and Nick run off to find her, and Ace takes a break to dance with Laura.

Ha, I love that all of George's sisters have boy names (Ted, Jesse, and Charlie) and that one of them is hiding money under her bed so she can see BTS!

George's mom said that stress was what would cause Tiffany's spirit to emerge, but what we saw in this episode was a perfectly calm George who saw Ryan which caused Tiffany to come out, drop the tray, and grab a knife. I loved that Tiffany's first instinct was to take off that catering uniform and find something way better to wear.

I enjoyed this episode. I like that we're getting more of the different storylines intertwining now. I really hope that Nick and Ace saved all that stuff to the cloud as well as to a bunch of flash drives that they hid all over town. If there's one thing I learned from watching tv shows with mysteries, it's that if there's only one copy of documents about shady stuff, it WILL be stolen, lost, or destroyed. Make a million backup copies!

I agree that on paper, George being possessed sounded lame but she pulled it off really well.

I really do not want a love triangle but it's the CW so I guess I should expect it. My main objection is that Owen seems way too old for Nancy. If he's such a baller real estate guy, he must be significantly older than Nancy, who just graduated from high school a few months ago. No thanks, show.

The CW is about to shoot this show in the foot with this triangle stuff. It reminds of how they did with the show Life Sentence where they shoehorned in a unnecessary triangle that nobody wanted and probably contributed to it's cancellation after one season.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

55 minutes ago, mommalib said:

The CW is about to shoot this show in the foot with this triangle stuff. It reminds of how they did with the show Life Sentence where they shoehorned in a unnecessary triangle that nobody wanted and probably contributed to it's cancellation after one season.

I hated the love triangle on Life Sentence, partly because Riley Smith looked way too old to be with Lucy Hale's character who seemed like a very young, naive, and sheltered 20 something (but mostly because he was obnoxiously cavalier about openly pursuing her despite the fact that he knew she was married).

I guess at least on Nancy Drew they are making it clear that his relationship with George was inappropriate on several levels since he's married and much older.

[Josh371982]

I hate love Triangles and dont understand why shows feel the need to do it. I wind up detesting the character in the center and it really sucks when the main character is involved. I ended my viewing of Vampire diaries cause of that crap cause it was two brothers fighting over a Special Snowflake. I hate them cause of stringing two people along and its gross seeing the shipping wars over a Love Triangle. I dont want to grow to detest Nancy Drew I'm liking the show so far 

[kirkola]

Owen is definitely up to something.  I don't care what problems the kitchen staff at the Country Club are having, you don't wander in and ask the empty dive diner where the honoree of the event died to host the event.  And even if you do have problems in the kitchen (necessitating the need to call an outside vendor), you certainly have your own wait staff at the ready.   That being said the hors d'oeuvres looked pretty good.

And, of course, Owen singled out Nancy and Ned/Nick is jealous.  And Owen is a Marvin.  Yeah, definitely something sneaky going on. 

As for Ned/Nick...jealousy is not a good color on him.  How is she supposed to fight crime if her boyfriend doesn't like her talking to other men? 

Finally, I looked Owen's actor up, as he looked incredibly familiar.  He also got to play the temporary triangle for the lead female on The Resident.  Here's hoping he's got better things to do here. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

2 hours ago, kirkola said:

As for Ned/Nick...jealousy is not a good color on him.  How is she supposed to fight crime if her boyfriend doesn't like her talking to other men? 

Yeah, Nick looked super petty for no reason. It’s not like Nancy was batting her eyelashes at Owen and flirting. They were just talking and Nick got bent out of shape every time. Seriously, calm down there, Nick. 

[mommalib]

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Yeah, Nick looked super petty for no reason. It’s not like Nancy was batting her eyelashes at Owen and flirting. They were just talking and Nick got bent out of shape every time. Seriously, calm down there, Nick. 

Well since we are up here talking about triangles it's obvious that as written Nick was supposed to see what we are seeing. He's not jealous for no reason, I just hope they don't make a fool out of him. I would rather see Nancy jealous.

[Lady Calypso]

1 hour ago, mommalib said:

Well since we are up here talking about triangles it's obvious that as written Nick was supposed to see what we are seeing. He's not jealous for no reason, I just hope they don't make a fool out of him. I would rather see Nancy jealous.

It's just funny to me that all he saw was Nancy go to talk to some guy and then they walked away. I'm pretty sure he wasn't close enough to hear any of their dialogue so I found it unnecessary for the director to have that shot of Ned looking jealous. They're not even pretending that it's not a love triangle scenario. 

I thought the episode was really solid. Everyone got some interactions in, and I thought the possession stuff was surprisingly great.

If anyone was skeptical about the supernatural element before, I think this episode shot the idea of no supernatural stuff right out the window. George was full on possessed by Tiffany. The actress did a great job with it, as well. 

I knew I recognized Owen from somewhere! Yes, he was last on The Resident for me. But he's obviously guilty of something. Maybe not murder, but something shady. 

 The Lucy mystery going on in the background is a great way of creating an overall arc. I like that Nancy has these little supernatural moments about Lucy. It does add to my curiosity....but also, makes me wonder if Lucy will possess Nancy at some point. That could be fun to watch.  

[ursula]

The best part of the episode for me was Tiffany's sister telling Giffany to fight against the exorcism because she didn't owe George a thing. That was so real.

[tennisgurl]

George being possessed by the ghost of Tiffany sounds really stupid, but it actually worked pretty well for me, probably because the actress who plays George was really great and brought a lot of intensity and pathos to such an out there plot. I am also glad that, even though ghosts are running around, Nancy still has to use her detective skills. 

The idea of a dive bar catering a fancy party at a country club is obviously ridiculous, but I was alright with it because it got everyone together to deal with the ghost issue, and everyone worked together and contributed to the plot. The actors worked well together and it was nice to see some pairings get mixed up, like Nick and Ace working together. 

This new guy is clearly bad news, and not just because he looks closer to Carson's age than Nancy's. 

I am surprisingly into the Lucy plot, it seems to be tying into the main mystery more now, and its the kind of ghost mystery that I enjoy a lot as a kind of back burner season long arc. 

[Camera One]

I still don't like the ghost stuff, but I agree the actress who played George did a good job with it so it ended up being a reasonably engaging story.  I also enjoyed George's mother and everyone working together.  

The Lucy reveal was not very surprising.  We'll probably soon find out that Nancy's parents were both friends with Lucy too.  

The show still needs more Nancy actually doing detective work rather than interpreting messages from ghosts, or getting passwords from body possession (which never would have happened if George hadn't put the mirror in the coffin). 

I wasn't intrigued by the new character Owen at all.  Tiffany's sister was once again annoying.   Those two brought the episode down a bit.

So is Nancy going to get charged destroying the school lawn by digging up the time capsule?  Or did she get away with it since somehow no one saw her doing this with a giant machine?

[Lady Calypso]

9 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

This new guy is clearly bad news, and not just because he looks closer to Carson's age than Nancy's. 

Which is hilarious because the actor for Owen is younger than the actor for Ned/Nick. 

[UNOSEZ]

I dunno.. It read to me that Nancy was being kinda flirty... 

[UNOSEZ]

On 11/6/2019 at 11:10 PM, mommalib said:

And unfortunately when it involves a white dude and a black dude it's usually the black dude that gets the short end of the stick

Totally agree there... Tho the actor who plays owen.. I believe is half Latino.. And the woman who was called a Marvin in a previous episode was.. Well something def a WOC... And Bess.. At least based on her name is playing a WOC... I believe the actress is mixed race as well... So I'm guessing in this iteration.. The Marvin are POC.... 

[mommalib]

58 minutes ago, UNOSEZ said:

Totally agree there... Tho the actor who plays owen.. I believe is half Latino.. And the woman who was called a Marvin in a previous episode was.. Well something def a WOC... And Bess.. At least based on her name is playing a WOC... I believe the actress is mixed race as well... So I'm guessing in this iteration.. The Marvin are POC.... 

As far as i'm concerned being black is a totally unique experience. So terms like minority or POC don't mean much to me. 

[rainsmom]

Since Ryan has been connected to both murders, I speculate that he will be the next to die.

My money is on Karen as the killer, though I don't know why.

[Kaiju Ballet]

This episode rocked. Sure, you had to overlook the sheer silliness of the rundown looking diner not only getting an order for, but able to produce, upscale catering like it was a quickfire challenge...or nobody noticing George brandishing a large, shiny knife like its a handbag as she wanders through the party...or even the fact that it's Bess who tells Nancy to be a detective break into George's locker to see if the mirror is there....but any episode with George's mom and siblings is a big win in my book.

ITA that the actress playing George killed it. I loved the little touches of her being "George",  like when she brushed off Nancy's awkward attempt to place a supportive hand on George's knee. I was worried in the first episodes that George's perpetual bad mood heralded a one-note character, but this episode blew all of that out of the water. Now I want to see more of her story! She still has that bucket of blood year to get through!

Love, love, love the "ritual" and actually any scene with George's mother. If this show is full-on supernatural, then I hope we'll see more of her.

'A married man? How could you be with a married man?"

"I dunno...genetics?"

For some reason, the antagonism that George has towards her mother is interesting/entertaining, whereas the way Nancy treated her dad...not so much. Maybe because her mom gives as good as she gets and then some, while Carson Drew/Scott Wolf is just so....bland.

George looked amazing in the red dress, and Bess/Driver Girl are too cute together. Owen is....easy on the eyes. Nancy was way too relaxed minutes after having a corpse hand reach up out of the ground and grab her.

Nancy is also officially the worst cater-waiter in the world.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

2 hours ago, Kaiju Ballet said:

For some reason, the antagonism that George has towards her mother is interesting/entertaining, whereas the way Nancy treated her dad...not so much. Maybe because her mom gives as good as she gets and then some, while Carson Drew/Scott Wolf is just so....bland.

I think another reason that George's antagonism toward her mother is more interesting an acceptable is because we've been told since the first episode that George's mom is not a great parent. She's an irresponsible alcoholic who lets George take care of the household and the kids which explains George's brusqueness at work (she needs the money) and her resentment toward her mother. Seeing the way her family lives (a sheet instead of a door, at least three kids sharing a bedroom, etc) makes it understandable why George is cranky. She's supporting a family of five with a high school diploma by working at a dinner in a small town. That's a lot of responsibility. Her insults with her mother are usually very pointed and specific so it's clear why she's resentful of her mother.

Nancy, on the other hand, said a lot of rude things to her dad that came off as very bratty and without any apparent reason until they talked after Tiffany's funeral and she revealed one of the reasons that she's been so mad at him. But before that conversation, what we saw was Nancy living rent free in a very nice house and mouthing off to a dad who kept asking if she was okay and if they could talk. She came off as a very immature and petulant teenager because we were not aware of the reasons for her anger and resentment.

[AnimeMania]

I don't see why Nancy was so mad about not saying goodbye to her mother. When you know that someone has a long term illness you say goodbye in stages and being there at the exact moment that they die is less important. Would Nancy be just as mad at her father if her mother died while Nancy was taking a shower and she missed it?

[methodwriter85]

On 11/6/2019 at 10:32 PM, bettername2come said:

The flashback of Ryan in 1999 looked fake considering Riley Smith really hasn't changed all that much in the last 20 years. I blame the hair. If he doesn't have spiky hair, it won't look like him.

He did wear his hair like in the flashback in the brief scene from Bring It On where the hot gay cheer squad member talks to him:

1999 was such a time neutral look that I thought they more or less got it right in terms of how people dressed.

George's mother looks young as hell. Good ol' Asian genes.

So it does look like the supernatural element of this show is real and not just a scheme cooked up by developers scheming to put in a new hotel resort or something like that. I was kind of the fence but they really are going with this stuff being for real.

Edited February 14, 2020 by methodwriter85

[akg]

Do we think Ryan ever realized that George was possessed by his dead wife in parts of this episode? He's not a believer in the supernatural at this point but he learns about it later. I hope he did if only so he doesn't think George was acting that crazy.