S01.E10: The Mark of the Poisoner's Pearl

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

After discovering a connection between the poison that killed Tiffany Hudson and a Horseshoe Bay cold case, Nancy and the Drew Crew risk their lives to bring a serial killer to justice.

Promo:

Original air date: 1/15/20

[Camera One]

Wow, after 9 episodes, Nancy finally solves a real case and catches a real human criminal.

Nancy thinks that every time she pursues a case, one of her friends gets hurt.  So let's openly taunt a serial killer to kill again and endanger everyone in town.  Grrreat idea.  She did this BEFORE coming up with a common thread between the victims, BEFORE she had any hint of who the serial killer could be.  

The "investigative" skills needed for this case was not extensive.  Solving the cipher seemed like random luck.  Meanwhile, the whole team figured out the common ties between the victims, which was so obvious they figured it out within 2 minutes of looking at the limited number of obituaries.  I'm sorry but Ace's dad might not be a very good police detective.

Then, the killer kindly revealed exactly where she and the intended "victim" was, so they just went and walked right into her trap.

Nancy was pretty slow on the uptick at figuring out that the victim was the murderer, too.  It seemed random she took the murderer's ring; it wasn't like Nancy knew that had the antidote.

Someone could have skipped this episode and they would have missed nothing.  Nancy "luckily" got a near-death experience from this case, which allowed her to bring Dead Lucy back from the brink of the ghostly realm.  Instead of starting the episode with Nancy talking to her dad after the cliffhanger, they managed to get a full episode of filler and ended with the conversation.

The best thing about this show is Nancy's friends supporting her no matter what.  Those scenes were pretty nice.

I was disappointed that when the murderer asked Nancy if she had a dog, she said no.  What about Togo?!  I looked it up and she did have a pet cat named Snowball, apparently in one book?

Is it just me or is the picture quality on this show not very HD?  The image looks soft or overexposed or something.  The exterior of the closed down high school (with a well-equipped science lab and working computers) looked straight out of a bad video game.

Edited January 16, 2020 by Camera One

[AnimeMania]

Since Nancy knew the White Baneberry was the poison, she should have gotten the antidote to save the victim before confronting the killer. 

As the poisonous smoke filled the room, I was too distracted by the two windows letting in all the light. If only Nancy could break them and let in some fresh air. There appeared to be a chain link fence over there so maybe she could not reach the windows, although she never made any effort.

I liked this episode a little better since Nancy did use her brain to detect something.

Ryan Hudson found another item that could prove his father sunk the ship for the insurance. Will he share with Owen.

I thought it was funny that Nancy asks a poisoner to poison her and then someday shows up on her doorstep with a bag of food.

[UNOSEZ]

Pretty good episode... Nick friend-zoned Nancy and that would be interesting to see her try to win him back.. But.. I doubt they go that route.. For starters its obvious hes still mad about her, but keeping her at a distance to not get hurt And Owen is there as well for her to be flirty with, which may make nick jealous and bring him back on his own... So Bleh... Another note.. Now that it's known she's really a Marvin is Bess gonna use her actual accent.. Or just continue with the fake one.. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I hated the serial killer with the fire of a thousand suns for putting that extraneous comma in "now, you get a penalty."

I know the show likes having the characters do stuff in the dark and at night but FFS, some of these scenes are way too dark.

I guess everyone wanted to give Nancy some space, but if my friend almost died and she was living alone, I would insist on staying on her sofa the first night.

1 hour ago, UNOSEZ said:

Now that it's known she's really a Marvin is Bess gonna use her actual accent.. Or just continue with the fake one.. 

I really wish Bess would tell everyone the whole truth so that the actress can stop with her American accent. It slipped noticeably several times in this episode and I found it really distracting.

[Chicago Redshirt]

8 hours ago, UNOSEZ said:

Pretty good episode... Nick friend-zoned Nancy and that would be interesting to see her try to win him back.. But.. I doubt they go that route.. For starters its obvious hes still mad about her, but keeping her at a distance to not get hurt And Owen is there as well for her to be flirty with, which may make nick jealous and bring him back on his own... So Bleh... Another note.. Now that it's known she's really a Marvin is Bess gonna use her actual accent.. Or just continue with the fake one.. 

Did Nick friend-zone Nancy? I thought there was still potential for things to rekindle but he wanted to take it slow.

I was under the impression that Owen was lying about Bess being a real Marvin. It seemed coincidental that he's like, "Hey, just so happened that I got the news that you're part of the family you've idolized for so long from afar. Also, can you hook a cuz up with those million dollar coins that show our rival rich family are some murderers?"

No talk about announcing her Marvin-ness to the rest of the family, no talk about cutting her in on the Marvin bajillions, etc...

I think Bess's independent results will show she's just a rando.

[UNOSEZ]

1 hour ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

Did Nick friend-zone Nancy? I thought there was still potential for things to rekindle but he wanted to take it slow.

Kinda halfway friend-zoned her at the end when she was thanking him for the risking it all to save her and she was looking on all lovingly.. Maybe waiting for some declaration of love.. He said what are friends for and walked out... She closed the door looking dejected... So he pumped her brakes.. But you are right that it can and prob will rekindle at some point... In my post earlier I was saying I want her to push for a do-over because she knows her walls and what not made him leave.. But I think the show will just throw owen at her which will amp up Nicks jealousy and then he'll be the one fighting for their relationship 

[tennisgurl]

Nancy finally got to solve an actual murder case! Involving only humans! I mean, she didnt do very well and the killer pretty much literally had to spell out who she was (technically Ace did more detective work just looking at a picture than she did) but she has been through a lot lately, and she is rusty on non ghost related cases! 

The welcome back party for Ace was cute, and its nice to have him back in the mix again. You know Nancy, if your worried about your friends getting hurt due to your investigation, maybe dont taunt the serial killer? 

I am still not totally sure that Bess is a Marvin, I dont trust Owen and think its pretty convenient that he was the one who did the DNA test that proved her. Also, Bess can just use her real accent now right? Or is that cat still stuck in its bag? 

Hi Lucy! Bye Lucy!

[Simba122504]

Does Scott Wolf's contract says he only appears in a limited amount of episodes?  Given this is a 22 episode season.  Will the black lady cop do anything cop related?  The case of the week wasn't too bad.  Why would anyone accepts someone's word without seeing the results for herself?  

[Cranberry]

I think Bess might have asked to see the results if Owen had told her she wasn't a Marvin, but he told her what she wanted (and expected) to hear. Also, I love her, but Bess is dumb as a box of rocks.

I liked the case of the week more than usual, probably because it didn't involve ghosts. I feel like the gang did more of the work than Nancy did, but she figured out the photo trick, so at least she contributed. I love how the others don't listen to her at all and she's just resigned herself to it.

[Samwise979]

Didn't Bess and Owen do two DNA tests? She had one and asked him to do it and he said yes but only if she'd do one for him to analyze as well. So she should get her results from her DNA test too which would then confirm or contradict his results. But having said that, I agree, my gut reaction when he walked in and just casually said congratulations you're my cousin was that he was lying. 

[Lady Calypso]

9 hours ago, Samwise979 said:

Didn't Bess and Owen do two DNA tests? She had one and asked him to do it and he said yes but only if she'd do one for him to analyze as well. So she should get her results from her DNA test too which would then confirm or contradict his results. But having said that, I agree, my gut reaction when he walked in and just casually said congratulations you're my cousin was that he was lying. 

They definitely did say that they were doing two DNA tests. I'm guessing Owen sped up his DNA test results...or is faking them. So either Bess still has time to get her results, or she just took him for his word and stopped with hers. Maybe there will be a reveal that Owen's lying through Bess' DNA test. 

Or they just wanted this Bess Marvin thing to happen badly enough to toss it in casually. It was weird for it to be basically a throwaway line.

I liked the episode. I like that Nancy had to rely on her own wits for this case. It's too bad that she didn't do a great job with being very slow on the reveal of the true serial killer. Oops, Nancy! It looks like you can't rely on your ghosts this time! Besides Lucy showing up when Nancy died to...save her? Or something? I'm not really sure what Dead Lucy was trying to do. 

It was great to see the whole gang work together. 

 

[AnimeMania]

4 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

They definitely did say that they were doing two DNA tests. I'm guessing Owen sped up his DNA test results...or is faking them. So either Bess still has time to get her results, or she just took him for his word and stopped with hers. Maybe there will be a reveal that Owen's lying through Bess' DNA test. 

Or they just wanted this Bess Marvin thing to happen badly enough to toss it in casually. It was weird for it to be basically a throwaway line.

If the test results are not real, then Owen was probably trying to get someone on his side that would tell he the truth about what happened to the gold coins.

[Cranberry]

11 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

Besides Lucy showing up when Nancy died to...save her? Or something? I'm not really sure what Dead Lucy was trying to do. 

Nancy was walking toward a bright white light (the light?), so I took it as Dead Lucy hurling her backward because she still had work left to do before she died.

(Also, I love that everyone in the gang calls her Dead Lucy, as if there's a Live Lucy they need to distinguish her from.)

[peachmangosteen]

On 1/17/2020 at 3:53 AM, Simba122504 said:

Given this is a 22 episode season.  

It is? I just assumed it was 13 eps. It really should be. 22 eps is way too many for this lol.

[Lady Calypso]

15 minutes ago, peachmangosteen said:

It is? I just assumed it was 13 eps. It really should be. 22 eps is way too many for this lol.

LOL, yeah, it got picked up for a full 22 episode season. I remember bitching about it when the news first came out, because I said that a show like this can't sustain 22 episodes. Look at Riverdale, for example. They did well with 13 episodes in season 1. Then, season 2 dropped in quality because they had to make stuff up for at least 10 out of the 22 episodes. 

[thuganomics85]

So, as I mentioned in the next episode thread, I totally had no idea there was a new episode last week, so I'm just getting to this now.  Thankfully, this was almost a standalone concerning the main arcs and development on the show, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been, I guess.

It was cool seeing an actual case involving a real serial killer that wasn't supernatural, but Nancy definitely seems to be rusty or simply too distracted over Carson's imprisonment, because she made a lot of dumb decisions, and it really was the rest of the "Drew Crew" (especially Ace) that were the ones that made the big discoveries and moves.  Still, it was fun seeing the majority of the main cast work together (with Bess as the lone holdout, dealing with her family storyline.)

I wonder if we'll see more of Ace's dad and the destroy behind that.  Ace made it sound like there was some major tension and history there, but he didn't seem that bad so far.  Granted, anyone will probably look good compared to the likes of the Hudson parents!

 

[Kromm]

How come I figured out that lady was the poisoner before Nancy (and before her friends)?  Oh yeah. because I watch TV, know cliches and IT WAS OBVIOUS.

The cure crap was crap.  There's no magic cure that would act like that.  Bullshit.

This show really irritates me.  I do keep watching though, hoping that eventually the scripts catch up to the quality of the visuals and production (both of which are good).

[Kromm]

4 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

I wonder if we'll see more of Ace's dad and the destroy behind that.  Ace made it sound like there was some major tension and history there, but he didn't seem that bad so far.  Granted, anyone will probably look good compared to the likes of the Hudson parents!

Bad writing. They say "show, don't tell" but all they did with Ace's dad was tell us.  He seemed like a nice guy, not "hard to deal with".  Even his "get out" moment was drawn out as justifiable, not curmudgeonly and unreasonable.   Are we supposed to conclude that his supposedly grudging moment of pride at his son was extraordinary?  Oh cry me a river.  He came off as the kind of guy who might not say those things, but who certainly wasn't unpleasant to be around. 

On 1/20/2020 at 8:36 AM, Lady Calypso said:

Nancy! It looks like you can't rely on your ghosts this time! Besides Lucy showing up when Nancy died to...save her? Or something? I'm not really sure what Dead Lucy was trying to do. 

Be the stupidest plot device ever?

On 1/19/2020 at 11:17 PM, Samwise979 said:

Didn't Bess and Owen do two DNA tests? She had one and asked him to do it and he said yes but only if she'd do one for him to analyze as well. So she should get her results from her DNA test too which would then confirm or contradict his results. But having said that, I agree, my gut reaction when he walked in and just casually said congratulations you're my cousin was that he was lying. 

Or that this was just badly written.

[Kromm]

On 1/16/2020 at 9:42 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I really wish Bess would tell everyone the whole truth so that the actress can stop with her American accent. It slipped noticeably several times in this episode and I found it really distracting.

What really frustrates me is that they could really have some fun with her having to change up her speech for different people.  And have some more fun with people starting to think her American accent is strange and getting suspicious of her.  And the show is doing none of this, because it's not very clever.

[akg]

On 1/16/2020 at 9:42 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I guess everyone wanted to give Nancy some space, but if my friend almost died and she was living alone, I would insist on staying on her sofa the first night.

And where was Bess going? She had just thanked Nancy for letting her move into the Drew home.