S02.E12: The Trail of the Missing Witness

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

Nancy and Celia Hudson go head-to-head; Nick hires a new line cook at The Claw.

Promo:

Original air date: 4/14/21

[statsgirl]

Was that Bruno from The Great Canadian Baking Show judging the clam chowder?  LOL

I'm glad that Ace got to know his brother, too bad that he's gone now.

I'm disappointed that Celia won and Nancy is going to back track on her testimony. Yes, I know that she did it to save Ace's life but I feel like season 1 Nancy would have found a clever way around it.

Did Steve Bacic and Teryl Rothery ever have a scene together on Stargate SG1? Nice to see Erica Cera too.

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I like Ace and he's been a great friend to Nancy and the others, but I'm glad they showed us that from Grant's point of view, he'd been trying to tell him they were brothers or even just get someone to sign his damn time card for an entire week and they'd all basically ignored him. You don't necessarily need to become instant BFFs with a new coworker but Ace barely engaged with him all week.

I loved Nancy casually mentioning that she uncovered a nature cult in tenth grade.

As soon as Nick said he was meeting Tiffany's source and he was supposed to wear a red flower to identify himself at the food festival, I thought or you're marking yourself with a target!

On a shallow note, I love that Ace's garage has bookshelves and racks full of neatly labeled storage containers.

Why was Ace's mom signing what Grant said for the Captain? I thought it was established in S1 that he can read lips. Am I thinking of a different character on a different show?

When George said one of the other restaurants in Horseshoe Bay is called the Beak, I started to wonder if all the restaurants in town are named after body parts of sea creatures.

I was totally cracking up when Ace and Grant started telling Nancy what they'd brought for their spelunking mission (a baseball net, a whistle, and A TIRE JACK).

I really appreciate that Carson is so nonchalant about things like Nancy, Ace, and Grant coming into the house completely covered in dust and dirt and his only comment is "Good hike?" Ace giving him a big thumbs up in response was hilarious.

I don't understand Nancy's logic about having Celia's people get that device back. The device isn't what matters. Once Daniel saw the list of names, he'd be a fool not to take a picture of the names immediately and text it to the Road Back so he wouldn't have to rely on the device. Even if he didn't take a picture and something happened to the device, he'd still be able to remember a good portion of the names on the list.

I couldn't believe this show fell back on the old "villain gets chatty and reveals his motive and a secret illuminati group instead of just taking what he wanted and leaving" cliche.

Damn, Everett is an even bigger dick that I'd imagined. It's one thing to murder a bunch of people but it's another to set up your only son as the one doing it. In contrast, the Captain embraced Grant as soon as he knew he was his son.

I'm sad that Grant had to leave town before he had time to get to know Ace and the Captain better. I wonder how Ace's mom will take the news about Grant.

The new DA's raspy voice is going to drive me crazy. Every time she speaks, I want to give her some lemon honey tea and a handful of throat lozenges.

8 hours ago, statsgirl said:

Was that Bruno from The Great Canadian Baking Show judging the clam chowder? 

OMG it totally looked like him!

[AnimeMania]

14 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

The new DA's raspy voice is going to drive me crazy. Every time she speaks, I want to give her some lemon honey tea and a handful of throat lozenges.

The minute she spoke I knew it was the Deputy Sheriff from the TV Show "Eureka". I just had to keep staring at her until I had a good enough view of her to recognize that she was indeed the Deputy Sheriff from the TV Show "Eureka".

[Jenniferbug]

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I like Ace and he's been a great friend to Nancy and the others, but I'm glad they showed us that from Grant's point of view, he'd been trying to tell him they were brothers or even just get someone to sign his damn time card for an entire week and they'd all basically ignored him. You don't necessarily need to become instant BFFs with a new coworker but Ace barely engaged with him all week.

Yeah I thought it was a good way to give Grant a sympathetic viewpoint and show how enmeshed our main group is. Poor Grant. I'm sad he had to leave so soon, but hope he'll be back for a few episodes later. He'd make a great recurring character. Loved that Thom accepted him right away. And I thought it was interesting that they made sure to mention that he goes by his middle name. The show is doing everything it can to point to them as the Hardy Boys. What is the rights situation with the characters? I know Hulu had a show with them, but does that exclude them from being used elsewhere? 

Also really liked seeing Jesse and George interact more. I'm not sure what to think about Odette. I thought it was interesting that her sisters had met her and weren't really bothered by it, but I really don't like the romance with Bess. Unless they can find a way to make Odette a character that isn't inside George, that gets into some icky consent issues and I'd rather the show not go there. 

The Hudson family is awful. Poor Ryan being set up from such a young age to take the fall. I don't like Nancy making deals with Celia but appreciated that she felt she had no other way to get Ace back safely.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

25 minutes ago, Jenniferbug said:

I'm not sure what to think about Odette. I thought it was interesting that her sisters had met her and weren't really bothered by it,

Yes, I totally forgot to mention that conversation in my previous post. I loved that Jesse just casually mentioned that she and her sisters had interacted with Odette like it was no big deal for a French lady to be living in George.

[Jenniferbug]

41 minutes ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Yes, I totally forgot to mention that conversation in my previous post. I loved that Jesse just casually mentioned that she and her sisters had interacted with Odette like it was no big deal for a French lady to be living in George.

It made me wonder what explanation Odette gave them! I bet that would have been entertaining! 😆

[tennisgurl]

You know, I haven't really picked up on any major Nancy/Ace vibes like other people have...until this week, I caught a real vibe. There was some intense eye contact and touching when she pulled him away from the edge of the building and yeah it could have been good old "you almost died" touching, it seemed to have some real crackle. 

Really glad we finally got to meet Grant and that he and Ace got to have an adventure together, it really sucks that he has to leave so soon. I guess having him around would change dynamics too much, but I hope that he can come back for a guest spot at least so that he and Ace can get to know each other better and Grant can know his dad. I think he would be a fun reoccurring character to have around. Loved them packing their spelunking gear, and Ace asking Grant all of the big questions to find out what they have in common. "What Ninja Turtle were you?" They seem to still be playing coy with the Hardy Boys fan theory, not Grants first name and still not telling us Ace's full name, is it a rights issue and they're waiting for it to get legally cleared, or are they just drawing the reveal out? Or are we reading too much into things and its just a silly theory? 

So while Ace and Grants dad proved himself to be a good (if flawed) guy and dad, to both of his sons, Everett proves that we should never underestimate what an asshole he really is, he just gets worse and worse. This asshole was setting up his own son to take the fall for his crime since Ryan was a kid, what a piece of crap. The Hudson's really are just a pair of horrors, poor Ryan. He knows his family is terrible but this is low even for them. I know that Nancy felt like she had to go along with Celia to save Ace, but its really sucks that she is changing her testimony and that Everett might get away with everything. Could we find an angry ghost somewhere to take care of him? 

Nice seeing George and Jesse hanging out again, and its really funny that her sisters have met Odette already and are just like "Oh, a ghostly French woman sharing our sisters body? Cool" about the whole thing. I guess this isn't the weirdest thing to happen to them. This whole thing with Bess and Odette is just really weird, they are going to have to make some very strict rules about consent if they want to keep going with this, unless they find Odette somewhere else to live. 

[waving feather]

36 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

Could we find an angry ghost somewhere to take care of him? 

I love that this could be a real possibility on this show.

This episode was enjoyable in a low key way. I liked the brothers' adventure with Nancy and George's sub-plot with the chowder bowl contest. George is such a good character.

I can't deal with Ace's "flavor layer". Honey, no. Grant is so different from Ace. I liked his sweet and innocent nature in contrast to the snark and savvy of Ace. Carson's dynamics with Nancy's friends is one of the best thing about the show. Both Carson and Ace's dad just let their kids run around doing whatever they do.

Nancy and Ace as a couple will be too much of beautiful hair together. I can't decide if I actually want them together or not. Their chemistry is insane but then the ambiguous friend/sexual tension going on between them right now is great too.

[thuganomics85]

As much as I enjoy the supernatural elements of the show, I liked that this was another episode that was light on those elements (besides the whole George/Odette thing.)  To me, it kind of shows that they have confidence enough in their characters (and cast) that they don't have to rely on those aspects all of the time, and I think that's a good thing.

Loved the stuff with Ace and Grant.  Shannon Kook worked well opposite of Alex Saxon (and Kennedy McMann), and I enjoyed the dynamic between the brothers quite a bit.  While I understand why he has to leave again, I hope he at least pops back up again somewhere down the road, because there seems to be a lot of potential here: especially since the dad knows about him now.

I also loved seeing past scenes through Grant's eyes, and how it was frustrating for him.  Honestly, it kind of makes me want to see a "Lower Decks" type episode, with an entire episode being the focal point of minor, background characters watching all of the Drew Crew's antics from afar, and dealing with all of the little, annoying things, like them leaving work at a moment's notice, showing up at random spots and doing weird stuff, and other forms of mischief!

Heh, of course Carson is just at the point where he's not even questioning why Nancy and the boys were all dirtied up after "hiking."  He just knows that they're up to some crazy shit as always, but as long as they come back in one piece, it's all good!

Damn, Everett basically set up Ryan to take the fall for him?  Back when he was a kid?!  Yikes!  I know Ryan is no saint, but stuff like that shows that he probably was always destained to be messed up on some levels, and it's actually a good thing that he's even trying to redeem himself now.

They really do seem to be going there with the world's most bizarre love triangle that is actually a love square, with Bess and Odette totally having the hots for one another: you know, despite the whole being a ghost who is still stuck in George's body thing.  I really can't see this moving very far unless they find some way for her to possess another body (and one that is probably braindead or something),or they find a way to resurrect her in her original body.  I do like that Jesse and the rest of George's sisters know about the whole Odette thing and are basically cool with it, because, hey, this is Horseshoe Bay, baby!  No point in resisting it!

Always great seeing more familiar faces like Steve Bacic as the hitman and Erica Cerra as the D.A.!

[akg]

Grant-related question: We know Ace hacked into some secure database to find his brother (and had to report back what the gang was doing to the original sheriff last season). Do we know why Ace knew there was something to hack for? 

Or does this go into the same hand wave bucket as the 'why did the reporter decide to test Nancy's DNA and no one else's?' question?

I'm very excited about the DA. I loved her on Eureka and am hoping we see more of her. She and Carson worked well together.

[waving feather]

1 hour ago, akg said:

Do we know why Ace knew there was something to hack for? 

I can't recall the details but he said he came across something about his father at the time he was working as a US Marshall. He got curious and looked more into it. 

How does Grant know about Ace's father though? I would have to rewatch if they gave any explanation. 

[Jenniferbug]

Grant had the picture of his mom and dad together, but had been told his dad bailed on them. 

[secnarf]

12 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Why was Ace's mom signing what Grant said for the Captain? I thought it was established in S1 that he can read lips. Am I thinking of a different character on a different show?

I thought he could read lips as well. I also thought it was established that he can speak out loud, and re-affirmed this episode when they stated he became Deaf as an adult. I wondered why they had Ace translate for the things his dad was saying to Grant, when his dad was able to say them himself. For the other scenes it didn't feel so out of place, but it was his first time meeting his son, and he was speaking to Grant through Ace. Otherwise, I quite liked that scene. I wonder if they will ever tell Ace's mom.

[AnimeMania]

10 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Yes, I totally forgot to mention that conversation in my previous post. I loved that Jesse just casually mentioned that she and her sisters had interacted with Odette like it was no big deal for a French lady to be living in George.

That would make Odette trying to kill George seem a little weird if Odette was such good friends with George's sisters.

Maybe a better solution might have been to erase the hitman's memory. That would keep Grant's mother safe.

19 minutes ago, Jenniferbug said:

Grant had the picture of his mom and dad together, but had been told his dad bailed on them.

I wonder who took the picture.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

4 hours ago, akg said:

Grant-related question: We know Ace hacked into some secure database to find his brother (and had to report back what the gang was doing to the original sheriff last season). Do we know why Ace knew there was something to hack for?

From the quotes thread:

Ace: I found my brother.
Bess: You have a brother? Wait, hold on. You lost your brother?
Ace: No, I've never met him. He's lived his entire life in witness protection since before I was even born.
Bess: What did he witness?
Ace: He didn't witness anything. His mom did.
Bess: Right. And his mum is not your mum? 
Ace: No. And I don't think my mom knows either. The U.S. Marshal who ran his mom's security detail was my dad. 
Bess: Oh.
Ace: Again, it all happened before I was even born. A year ago, I was digging around for details of my dad's early career and fell down this rabbit hole that led to-
Bess: Evidence of a secret affair with this other woman? Right, okay. So then you hacked into a federal database and found out that you had a brother.

[quarks]

1. Given all of the various people showing up from The 100, I was expecting some sort of scene there - and then they never met. Heh.

2. And ok, yeah, Ace and Grant are very definitely Joe and Frank Hardy. My understanding is - and please correct me if I'm wrong here - that the copyright on the first two books expires next year, putting the characters from those two books in the public domain, meaning that this show doesn't have to squabble with Simon & Schuster over the cost of broadcast rights, as long as they don't specifically adapt any later books in the series. I don't think the series was ever trademarked, so it should be just a copyright issue. 

3. Carson, seeing three people covered in dirt walking into the house: "Nice hike?" Heh.

4. Old Navy, sneaking in a product endorsement that also informed us that really, Old Navy is very community minded and interested in charity work? Heh.

5. The little clams from the rival chowder people getting released into the sea? We are absolutely positive that those were all local clams and we didn't just introduce an invasive species into the ocean, right, marine biology sister? Because if we are, heh.

6. George's sisters all perfectly fine with finding out that George is possessed by a ghost? Heh. I'm assuming part of this acceptance is that Odette is the sort of ghost who doesn't mind helping out with French homework, which I would think is not overly typical for ghosts.  

7. Also loving these casual asides about Nancy's previous cases, like this casual "I shut down a cult." There seems to be whole shows we are missing here about Nancy's previous mysteries and whatever Hannah was doing pre show.

8. But auuugh, Nancy, Ace specifically told you he didn't want to be responsible for deaths, and now, you're amending the statement that can put Everett, distinctly responsible for several deaths, in jail, just because you owe Celia a favor for saving Ace's life? I know this is for the purposes of High Drama, since I have to assume that Ace, Ryan, Carson and Nick will all be unhappy about this -- but I so wish Nancy had been able to figure out another way to save Ace other than calling Celia for help. I mean, at the very least, Nancy, you just damaged Carson's relationship with the DA; you've just made it harder for Ryan and Nick to get Everett into jail, and you are letting a murderer go free and potentially kill others, again, against Ace's express wishes.

9. Speaking of Everett, whoa on the whole setting up his son to take the fall for his hit jobs. I mean we knew Everett wasn't the nicest guy, but that's seriously cold, dude. Kinda wondering if Nancy would have stayed with her initial statement if she'd known about that? Not that she's particularly fond of Ryan, yet, but that's another reason to ignore Celia's demand for a favor and just make sure that Everett stays in jail.

10. Regarding the sign language versus reading lips thing - my impression was that Thom (and the Deaf actor portraying him) can read lips, but it's not 100% accurate, so he and his family also use ASL to ensure accuracy and as a courtesy? And that in the final scene, Thom could read Grant's lips, but given the importance, looked at Ace to make 100% sure that he was understanding everything.

Speaking of that scene, I thought it was a really nice touch to have Grant sign very slowly in that final scene, and really nice of Grant to take the time to memorize that bit of ASL. 

 

[akg]

Thank you, ElectricBoogaloo! They left some steps out but I can accept that as an explanation.

15 minutes ago, quarks said:

Speaking of Everett, whoa on the whole setting up his son to take the fall for his hit jobs

I wondered if maybe it's better to let Everett go for the moment, now that they have this information. Everett was clearly planning ahead to frame his son and he may have started with this trial if he thought there was a chance of a guilty verdict.

[quarks]

52 minutes ago, akg said:

Thank you, ElectricBoogaloo! They left some steps out but I can accept that as an explanation.

I wondered if maybe it's better to let Everett go for the moment, now that they have this information. Everett was clearly planning ahead to frame his son and he may have started with this trial if he thought there was a chance of a guilty verdict.

Yeah, except that once he's freed, given that he didn't hesitate to set up and frame his own son for murder, I don't think he'll hesitate to go after Nancy. And sure, she has Protagonist Plot Armor, but do the others around her?

Edited April 16, 2021 by quarks

[ElectricBoogaloo]

3 hours ago, quarks said:

George's sisters all perfectly fine with finding out that George is possessed by a ghost? Heh. I'm assuming part of this acceptance is that Odette is the sort of ghost who doesn't mind helping out with French homework

And tracking comets! Odette is a very helpful ghost!

[Jenniferbug]

10 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

I wonder who took the picture.

I think it was a selfie using a camera. I don't think her other arm was in the picture so she was probably holding the camera out to take the picture. I was alive back in the stone age of the 90s and that's how we did it then- much harder and less guaranteed than today's phone versions LOL

[Shorty186]

On 4/15/2021 at 5:22 AM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I loved Nancy casually mentioning that she uncovered a nature cult in tenth grade.

What's cool is that's a shoutout to one of the original Nancy Drew books by Carolyn Keene called "The Secret of Redgate Farm." I never read it but I read the Nancy Drew Writer's Room twitter. It's nice to know they're aware of cannon.

This ep did my shipper heart good. I was worried I was going to have to read into little glances and subtle shoulder bumps and instead we got hugs, angst and Nancy sacrifing her integrity for Ace.

Next week's promo looks weird though. Like marketing didn't know how to set up the plot. But this has been a strong season so far so I'm not too worried.

 

[Simba122504]

I've been watching TV long enough to know TPTB is on the Nancy/Ace train. But Ace doesn't even like Nancy in that way yet. He also has a major crush on Amanda Bobbsey, who he's now going out with. Nancy is also having sexy time with Gil. Ace and Nancy need to spend more one on one time together if we're supposed to believe he's going to start having more than friends feelings for her in return. Like in this episode, they worked together to help his long lost brother. If you're going to draw a ship out like this, they need to last more than a few episodes when it eventually does happen. I will be hella shocked if that ship doesn't happen.  I doubt the framing Ryan thing would ever hold up in court, but this is TV. 

[waving feather]

6 hours ago, Simba122504 said:

I've been watching TV long enough to know TPTB is on the Nancy/Ace train.

Nancy and Ace are more compatible, with their curious nature and their penchant for breaking rules/the law (though well-meaning). Even when the five of them were arguing in episode 5 of this season, they stood up for each other because they get each other. Nick is more of a reasonable and down to earth guy. So Nick and Nancy couldn't really understand each other. On the other hand, are Ace and Nancy too similar? I feel like they would get into a lot of trouble together, lol. I guess they already do. Speaking of, more and more Nancy is like a Macgyver type of character who has brilliant ideas to get out of a jam, but Ace actually does more of the sleuthing. 

[Lady Calypso]

So, with how many people Odette is meeting now, it feels like the conclusion will be Odette possessing another body. Obviously, she won't stay in George's body forever, or even past this season, but they're really establishing her as her own separate person, especially with Odette/Bess, and I don't see them just abruptly ending that with Odette leaving George's body and never being heard from again. Unless the show was more interested in Leah Lewis getting to kiss both Tunji and Maddison.

I liked the Nancy/Ace/Grant sleuthing. I like Grant as a character and hope to see him return soon. I liked him getting to meet his father, even though I also questioned Ace's father being able to read lips and communicate back. It was nice to see Grant learn a little sign language before he left.

And yeah, they're going full steam ahead with Nancy/Ace, which could be interesting. 

I was cracking up with Carson's nonchalantness when Grant, Ace and Nancy came back to the Drew house, clearly not having gone on a hike. 

It sucked to see Nancy give in to the Hudson way of keeping things quiet, but I understand why she had to make that choice to lie. And now that we know that Ryan was set up to be the scapegoat since he was a TEENAGER, no doubt Everett is an extremely dangerous man who you don't want to miss your shot with. It is for the best, so that Nancy and the Drew Crew can figure out a way to not get Ryan thrown in jail for his father's crimes. 

[Simba122504]

11 hours ago, waving feather said:

Nancy and Ace are more compatible, with their curious nature and their penchant for breaking rules/the law (though well-meaning). Even when the five of them were arguing in episode 5 of this season, they stood up for each other because they get each other. Nick is more of a reasonable and down to earth guy. So Nick and Nancy couldn't really understand each other. On the other hand, are Ace and Nancy too similar? I feel like they would get into a lot of trouble together, lol. I guess they already do. Speaking of, more and more Nancy is like a Macgyver type of character who has brilliant ideas to get out of a jam, but Ace actually does more of the sleuthing. 

Their kids would be smart as hell. Well, at least one. lol I actually like them together. Ace & Nancy. 

Edited April 20, 2021 by Simba122504

[bettername2come]

What is this timeline? Grant's been here a week?! "Because you heard that I've been called the Hero of Horseshoe Bay?" Well, with the way he was trying to protect the people on the WitSec list, he should be called that. It's nice to see some classic villain shenanigans with a hitman kidnapping Ace and creatively dangling him off a platform. Yep, very clear Nancy/Ace vibes and who could blame her? 

I love the reveal that George's sisters are hanging out with Odette. And the reveal to George about Odette and Bess.