S03.E10: The Confession of the Long Night

[AnimeMania]

TRUTH HURTS – A truth-inducing ritual takes hold of a town-wide cocktail party, yielding volcanic emotional confessions and a surprising romantic connection for Nancy (Kennedy McMann). Meanwhile, one of Ryan’s (Riley Smith) business contacts comes to town with an offer that may be connected to a recent wrongful death.
Original Airdate: 1/7/2022   (9:00-10:00 p.m. ET)   The CW

[SonofaBiscuit]

Oh my gosh, Bess’ pink dress was so ugly and not at all flattering. She’s lovely, why did they choose that for her?!

I was so excited for all of the Nancy/Ace content I thought we’d get this season. LOL, what a letdown it has been. I mean, Ace disappears for like a day or two, misses his meeting with Nancy, misses his meeting with the coroner guy, and Nancy’s like “Huh, Ace missed a meeting with you too? Wow, that’s weird...Gotta go hook up with Agent Park now. K, bye!” Dude almost gets “purged from existence” and only gets a hug and a “uh...yeah...were you with me all day today (you didn’t see me hook up with Agent Park...right???). Ugh, this is not how I wanted things to play out.

Add in the Nick/George drama, and this season has kinda been a downer 😕

[Lady Calypso]

Weird episode, that's for sure. Season 2 and the beginning of season 3 had been so good but the last few episodes have been very...CW.

Nick/George's drama feels so lopsided because George is consistently the one made to look like the bad one. I get that Nick is not as vocal and withholds a lot, so George had to basically pry out the truth from him, but it's still noticeable that George said more stuff while Nick got to walk away. And I get that George has been pulling away and all that, but I would have loved to see more of Nick's honesty that's beyond him wanting to save her. I think that the scene would have benefitted from both of them bein openly honest, rather it being George and her telling Nick his truth. 

Ace was basically a non-entity (heh) for  most of the episode. Him and Hannah showed up...maybe six minutes total of the episode so their rescue was so lackluster. Apparently, we needed half an episode of truth telling and Nancy/Park flirting over Ace/Hannah getting rescued.

Also, goddamn fast Morse Code. It took Ace seconds to tell Nancy the entire story, unless she was standing there for a few minutes.

Seriously, Nancy/Park is so goddamn boring and it's obvious Nancy/Ace will get together, so either Park's getting his heart broken, or he's Charity's husband reincarnated or whatever. 

Bess and Addy are working for me. I love Addy's role and how she's fighting hard for the land behind the youth centre to be protected, and I love how open she is to the supernatural, but not in the weird way that Park is. 

The Ryan stuff was also really good. Him utilizing his family history to his benefit, calling out the rich dude and manipulating him into participating in the truth telling stuff to get the truth out of him. I like this Ryan; more of this Ryan, please.

Carson and his girlfriend? A big fat meh. Unless she's turning out to be evil as well, I don't really care for them. Carson, in general, isn't really needed beyond a few episodes here and there.

[Cranberry]

12 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

Weird episode, that's for sure. Season 2 and the beginning of season 3 had been so good but the last few episodes have been very...CW.

I've been thinking the same! I'd been telling people how good this show is, how surprising some of the reveals are, how it doesn't feel like your stereotypical overdramatic, lazy, anvilicious CW show... so the past few episodes have really disappointed me. I hope it's just a slump and not network meddling or something.

[jewel21]

I just want Nancy and Ace to get together, damn it. 

[quarks]

The CW shows have a history of having an uneven third season, and I see that Nancy Drew is following that tradition. It's not that this episode was bad, exactly - it had plenty of quips and great lines, and Bess continues to be a gift - but the pacing felt off, as did the overall episode.

1. And no, not because of all the relationship stuff, but because hey, dead body. Are we not going to mostly focus on investigating this? We aren't? Can I ask why?

2. Which, ok, turned out to be because of the relationship stuff, since the episode wanted to set up the whole truth serum thing. Still. I kinda feel that everyone should have been a lot more focused on the dead body and a lot less focused on whether or not George and Nick had actually broken up and what was up with the DA and Carson and Nancy and Park and....wow, this episode really did have a lot of the relationship stuff, didn't it?

3. Speaking of that, I do realize that Nancy was operating pre-coffee so I should probably give her a break here, but it did seem to take her a suspiciously long time to work out just why the DA was in her kitchen, didn't it?

4. And speaking of taking a long time to figure things out, it also seemed to take Nancy and frankly everyone, including the coroner, a lot longer than it should have to realize that Ace was missing. I get that Nancy was focusing on the hey, I was just stood up conclusion, but HI NANCY DEAD BODY NOT FOLLOWING THE SERIAL KILLER'S USUAL METHOD MAYBE JUST MAYBE THERE IS ANOTHER KILLER ON THE LOOSE AND MAYBE JUST MAYBE ACE DIDN'T SHOW UP FOR A VERY GOOD REASON. I admit that "slid into some alternative liminal space" is not the first thing that would have come to my mind, and I also admit that by this point, Nancy is probably just kinda numb to dead bodies, but I still feel that under the circumstances both Nancy and Bess should have been considerably more concerned about Ace's absence, and that Nancy's ongoing thoughts shouldn't have been, wow, my love life sucks, but OMG IS THERE ANOTHER MURDEROUS GHOST ON THE LOOSE?

5. That particularly stood out since OMG IS THERE ANOTHER MURDEROUS GHOST has been the usual reaction from the Drew Crew since about the middle of the first season, so the nonchalance from all - including the George/Nancy conversation about Ace standing Nancy up - just felt seriously off. 

6. Hannah, I don't mean to be critical, but mysterious knocks and things flying around do not exactly scream "Hello I am trapped in a weird liminal dimension." Maybe you should have tried Morse code. Speaking of which -

7. This is one of my ongoing TV irritations, but AUUGH, most people do not know Morse code, TV. Granted, this would irritate me less if I hadn't seen it on so many shows by now, especially since Nancy is the sort that would, and Ace is the sort that might, but this "Oooh, yes, I am feeling Morse code on my shoulder! Let me translate it immediately!" still irked me.

8. And now that I've reached that ball....Ok. I get that the lighting was deliberately off to convince us that this was an Evil Ball, and the decorations were off because....actually, that I don't know. Last minute set issues? What I do not understand is the costuming, and here, I'm not just talking about what Bess and George were wearing (though, auugh), but the background extras. It stuck out largely because up until this episode, Nancy Drew has done an excellent job with costuming background extras, especially at this high end society events. I'm honestly wondering if one of the Vancouver costuming warehouses had some sort of Covid problem - which also might be the other explanation for the weird lighting: they didn't want us to notice the issues with the background extras. Alas, I did.

9. And still speaking about the ball - I can't help but think that Bess's truth serum should have caused more commotion in the background? I know that some of these confessions - like Carson's - weren't all that exciting, but at least some of the people should have learned unpleasant or unpleasant truths and had some kind of reaction to them, and instead, with the notable exceptions of Nick and George they were mostly just....standing there?

10. And on the topic of the ball - Park is such a huge improvement over the disaster that was Gil that don't exactly want to sound critical about Nancy/Park, but....I'm going to sound critical about Nancy/Park, mostly because, and not to obsess over this point: I get completely why a truth serum would get the two of you to confess that yay, you are two attractive people who like each other and would like to bang. What I don't get is why you should immediately decide to bang in a closet when - and I cannot stress this enough - DEAD BODY, SUSPICIOUS BILLIONAIRE, and TRUTH SERUM are going on. I mean, from a pure procedural position, this was a great time to collect confessions from everyone. This was a truth serum, not a horniness serum! What were you thinking --

11. Oh, right, that we needed an obstacle for Nancy/Ace so that they don't get together until the season finale, which, ok, fine, and said obstacle needs to have a bit of suspense to it, something that might have potential or be a real obstacle.

(My sense is, this was initially supposed to be Tamura/Nancy, not Park/Nancy, but Tamura's actor wasn't available for whatever reason, so they slid Park into the position. And, because the obstacle relationship apparently needs to end fairly quickly, they immediately eliminated pretty much all obstacles to Nancy/Park other than he's older, they've only known each other a couple of weeks in show time, and they work together. None of which are huge obstacles - they're both legal, coworkers frequently sleep together, and the timeline is wonky, so Nancy/Park could be put together quickly, which, again, fine. 

I'll also say that this is one place where Covid has had a pretty drastic effect. Prior to Covid, the show timeline was certainly compressed, but not quite this compressed. Post Covid, the showrunners have said that they don't want to introduce it into the show, which makes complete sense - I don't think that most viewers want to watch the Drew Crew trying to fight ghosts while masked up and social distancing in between vaccinations and booster shots.

The result, though, is this massively squished timeline, which has understandably led to George thinking that everything with Nick is going too fast, and Nancy/Park coming off as just an infatuation - mingled with a touch of obsession on Park's part, which is probably going to turn out to be caused by a ghost, because this show.  And the end result is that although Park is considerably better than Gil, and the Nancy/Park chemistry is fine, he's also coming off - for me - as arguably the least convincing love interest for Nancy yet. Including Gil.

11. And awwww, George and Nick have split up. Presumably not permanently. But awww anyway.

12. And on a non-relationship note, I'm continuing to have problems feeling invested in Temperance. Oh well. I'm assuming it's just another couple of episodes, and then, on to the next ghost/big bad in season four. 

 

 

Edited January 11, 2022 by quarks

[CrazyDog]

This was a weird episode. Everyone seems kind of...joyless.

I'm not interested in the Bess / Temperance storyline at all, especially with the new actress. 

I've really grown to love George and Nick, so this sort of breakup was such a bummer. They've struggled with communication, but the reasoning for the breakup kind of seemed to come out of nowhere. Maybe I haven't been paying attention.

I like Park, and I liked Gil (Nancy's got a type) but poor Ace. They'll get there eventually.

I don't think they'll kill Nick off, but he's been kind of lost this season. If he wasn't so invested in the youth center, I'd think he was going to leave at some point.

[Jenniferbug]

That was a let down, considering it was the first episode back after a break and resolved the cliffhanger of Ace being pulled into the limenal world with Hannah. It should have been a lot more action packed and exciting. 

I liked Nick and George together so I'm annoyed they broke up. It's probably temporary, but I don't think the show needed the angst. Let one couple be stable. 

I'm not thrilled with the Park/Nancy development either. I like Park and I don't hate him with Nancy, but it feels incredibly forced to have them hook up right as Ace was going to discuss his feelings for her. And considering that Nancy wasn't completely oblivious to what Ace might have wanted to talk about, she kind of looks like an asshole for sleeping with Park in a closet while unconcerned that Ace missed their talk.

Which leads me to- this group is CONSTANTLY together. They have texts both with each other and as a group. It's one of the reasons many of us like the show, because they feel like a genuine friend group. But not ONE of them wondered where Ace was or why he wasn't even texting that day? Really? I have a group chat with 4 friends and if one of us isn't even reading the messages sent, we tend to send a separate "just checking you're ok!" text because that's not normal for us. But I'm supposed to believe that neither Nancy (who Ace just uncharacteristically stood up) and Bess (his plantachor) didn't raise the alarms and try to get hold of him?

Does anyone know why they changed actresses for Temperance? I can't say I was overly attached to the first one, but I barely remember this second one is supposed to be the same character. Temperance has been a weird letdown of a character too. I don't understand why any of them are trusting her. Sure, Nancy, go ahead and bind yourself by blood to her even more. Seems smart. 

Things I liked...I do like Addy and Addy/Bess together. Ryan continues to be awesome. I like Carson's new girlfriend and that he gets to be happy. 

Hopefully next week will be an improvement.

[tennisgurl]

After the big cliff hanger where Ace got sucked into an alternate universe, I was really hoping for a little more excitement then this. I know that when Nick disappeared he really had just left to clear his head, but you would think that everyone would be a bit more concerned when Ace seemingly vanished, especially blowing off Nancy. Then all of the sudden he's back, and that's it? The whole episode felt a bit weird, it was very low energy, like everyone was in a terrible mood the whole time, even when they should have been more energetic. There was still a lot to like about the episode, but this one just felt like it was lacking some of the shows usual magic. 

Ryan had a really good story this episode, I am glad that he didn't fall back into old habits and his plan to out the other guy as shady was quite clever. Horseshoe Bay really does love its weird magic traditions. I especially loved him giving Ace a big hug when he came back and his talk with Nancy where she admitted she was just scared he would leave, it was quite sweet. 

I am sad that Nick and George are having all of this drama, I really liked that the show had mostly held off on drama between them, and the little there was was understandable things, this seems like its drama for the sake of drama in a way that this show has usually avoided. 

As for other romances, I like Park and I certainly like his romance with Nancy more then her monster influenced thing with Gil, but it all seems like a place holder until she finally realizes her feelings for Ace. Which, come on! I like a slow burn as much as the next shipper, but I just really need them to get together. Like, yesterday. Especially now that even the show admits that Ace is in love with Nancy and Nancy has romantic feelings towards him. I like Addy and she and Bess are sweet together, she is definitely my favorite of Bess's love interests so far. 

[Simba122504]

This episode was terrible. Characters are OOC to serve the plot. Ace was missing for hours and Nancy nor Bess cares?! I kinda give Nick and George a pass, but not Nancy and Bess.  Bess knew he was supposed to meet Nancy at 8. Nancy knows he would lie before leaving her hanging. This is a small town not a major city. These people talk everyday. N&B didn't even call his parents to see if he were there?! And what was the point of the Upside Down? It was just used as a plot device. Nancy acts dumb, just so TPTB can get her to sleep with Park who is still too old for her and place holder. Park turning out to be a villain all along would be hilarious and fun.

Edited January 11, 2022 by Simba122504

[quarks]

46 minutes ago, Simba122504 said:

Park turning out to be a villain all along would be kinda fun. 

There's been some hints here and there that Park is not all he seems and might be a villain, which honestly, I'm kinda hoping for, since the biggest issue with Park so far has been that he's kinda boring/bland, partly because he is so perfect on the surface - appreciates Nancy, is good at crime solving, apparently great in bed - or, well, closets at least - fully employed.....

....all making him less interesting so far than Nick, who at the time could have been a murderer, and certainly has a past, and definitely has his own self-growth coming up; Owen, whose agenda was never 100% certain; Gil, who apart from being controlling and awful was at least somewhat unpredictable; and Ace, whose last name remains unknown. (Unless it turns out that Ace is his last name. We probably shouldn't leave that out.) And Park is less funny - or at least gets fewer good lines - than either Nick or Ace.

So having him either be one of the people carrying a bit of Charity's soul or there for some nefarious purpose might be interesting - and might help explain why his main response to the serum was to confess having a crush on Nancy and then immediately start doing things that would keep him from revealing anything else, similar to the way Nancy filled her mouth with food to keep from saying too much. 

 

[thuganomics85]

For some reason, I had assumed the show was coming back this Friday instead of the last one.  Better late than never, right?!

Admittedly not the best return though.  Still had plenty of good moments and I continue to find it one of the better ones out of the CW line-up, but it does seem to be falling into some of the atypical "CW tropes" lately.  Rushed love triangles, characters being daft or surprisingly naive in order to move the plot forward, relationship drama, and even the overall plot seems to be getting sloppier now.  I thought the first half of the season was really strong, so this is a little disappointing.  I don't know if it is a coincidence or not, but it still feels like this slump came around the time of the Temperance recast, so I still wonder if maybe there was another plan in place, but they had to change actresses for reasons beyond their control and it threw some things off.  Or maybe they were expecting another back order and are now scrambling since this season will be ending after its initial 13 episodes.

As soon as Ace finally wanted to admit his feelings towards Nancy, I knew that meant she was going to hook-up with Park before he got his chance.  While I generally like the character and John Harlan Kim, it feels like he's just become a placeholder now and the relationship is already on borrowed time.  But I the question I still have is how old is he suppose to be?  Because Nancy's confusion over why he would initially think it was wrong to pursue it was silly to me, because even if she's of age, he's still probably in his mid twenties, I would think, and dating someone who can't even legally drink yet can be considered to some as skirting the line towards being inappropriate.  It really wouldn't have been that odd for Park to wonder if he is crossing lines here.

So, George and Nick are actually not okay after-all and more or less "taking a break" since George is worried that she is only head over heels because he was the first guy that was nice to her and is also worried he gravitated towards due to his need to be protective of those he's closest to.  Boo!

Glad both Ace and Hannah got saved, but the Drew Crew really should have been more concerned over him not returning calls/text.  At this point, enough has happened to always be on the lookout!

I did like Ryan's stuff.  I understand why a part of him would want to believe that his former billionaire bud was sincere with the donation, but I'm glad he did the right thing at the end.  He's a good ally for the Drew Crew for sure!

At least things seem to be going well for Carson and Jean!  I still enjoy the pairing mainly due to keeping Erica Cerra around still!

The truth serum stuff provided some fun moments, but, yeah, the background folks seemed to be way too calm.  I would think there would have been a lot more drama going on there, instead of them just mulling around while all the major players get the big moments.

Hope the next three episodes are an improvement.

[quarks]

2 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

As soon as Ace finally wanted to admit his feelings towards Nancy, I knew that meant she was going to hook-up with Park before he got his chance.  While I generally like the character and John Harlan Kim, it feels like he's just become a placeholder now and the relationship is already on borrowed time.  But I the question I still have is how old is he suppose to be?  Because Nancy's confusion over why he would initially think it was wrong to pursue it was silly to me, because even if she's of age, he's still probably in his mid twenties, I would think, and dating someone who can't even legally drink yet can be considered to some as skirting the line towards being inappropriate.  It really wouldn't have been that odd for Park to wonder if he is crossing lines here.

 

I think Park is at least in his mid twenties, more probably late twenties, which explains why he was initially hesitant - Nancy looks like she's in her mid-20s, but in show she's still supposed to be 19/20, and as you note, legally unable to drink. 

Again, I think this was/is a Covid thing. They were still filming season 1 when Covid hit. That summer, the showrunners apparently decided to bet on Covid only lasting a year or so, which would allow them to skip portraying Covid completely, and decided to squeeze season 2 into 2019 as well.

My guess was that the original plan was to have a timeskip at some point - presumably at the start of season 3 or midway through season 3 or both. You can see some of the setup for that at the end of season 2, what with Ace taking off for what initially sounded like a long term road trip and Nick needing time to actually build a youth center that sprung up remarkably quickly given the time that has supposedly passed between when he decided to build one and when it appeared.  That would have allowed at least some of season 3 to take place in late 2021/early 2022, which would have made Nancy and George both 21/22 - more appropriate ages for dating men in their late 20s (Nancy) or getting married (George.)

Instead, Delta hit, and for whatever reason, the producers decided to keep everything in pre-Covid times. On top of that, they presumably started hearing some rumors about this potential CW sale - which might or might not impact a potential fourth season, but certainly could impact a potential fifth season, meaning that they need to be able to have Nancy have something with a potential endgame person at the end of this season.

And on top of everything else, for whatever reason, Tamura's actor seems to have been unavailable this season - but the writers also didn't want to write him out, and thus, wanted to make sure that this season all happens within a somewhat reasonable time frame for someone to investigate another case out of state. And at the same time, the actor and his role were still needed as a blockade for Nancy/Ace, and beyond all this, someone decided to only order 13 episodes this season.

It's no wonder, really, that some plot lines/characters feel a bit truncated. 

 

 

 

[akg]

(sorry in advance. I went a little quote-crazy here)

Something small I liked: Tyler mentioned Tom Swift's company when talking about his business deals. I'm excited about his spin off (is that still happening?).

On 1/8/2022 at 10:54 AM, Lady Calypso said:

I think that the scene would have benefitted from both of them bein openly honest, rather it being George and her telling Nick his truth. 

I agree. I love the two of them together and hope they're endgame but can understand both of them feeling like they can slow down without a deadline hanging over them. But that doesn't necessarily mean completely breaking up. 

I'm also sad for George's sisters. Nick has done such a great job of becoming a part of their lives and losing him (if that's what happens) is going to hurt. I hope the show doesn't ignore that.

On 1/8/2022 at 10:54 AM, Lady Calypso said:

Also, goddamn fast Morse Code. It took Ace seconds to tell Nancy the entire story, unless she was standing there for a few minutes.

Hee. I was fine with Nancy's initial "Ace and Hannah are in trouble" translation but then she just kept going and I started laughing. Ace was really efficient with his message.

On 1/8/2022 at 10:54 AM, Lady Calypso said:

The Ryan stuff was also really good. Him utilizing his family history to his benefit, calling out the rich dude and manipulating him into participating in the truth telling stuff to get the truth out of him. I like this Ryan; more of this Ryan, please.

He was especially impressive considering how badly Nancy had failed at the same thing earlier. She definitely got some of her deviousness from him.

On 1/9/2022 at 10:57 PM, Jenniferbug said:

But not ONE of them wondered where Ace was or why he wasn't even texting that day? Really?

On 1/10/2022 at 11:26 PM, Simba122504 said:

Bess knew he was supposed to meet Nancy at 8.

I know it was all to serve the Plot but this really bothered me. They all freaked out about Nick 'disappearing' just a few episodes ago and there was less evidence that something was wrong then. And I can't believe Bess didn't call him immediately the next morning to find out what happened with Nancy. 

On 1/9/2022 at 10:57 PM, Jenniferbug said:

Does anyone know why they changed actresses for Temperance? I can't say I was overly attached to the first one, but I barely remember this second one is supposed to be the same character.

They've mentioned how weird Temperance taking her daughter's appearance is a couple of times but I feel like they're just skimming the surface of the creepy. I hope there's some kind of payoff for the switch.

On 1/9/2022 at 10:57 PM, Jenniferbug said:

I like Carson's new girlfriend and that he gets to be happy. 

I was initially excited about Jean since she was Jo from Eureka but I've been really enjoying her for herself lately. She was right to call Carson out for trying to protect the adult women in his life that way.

On 1/11/2022 at 5:17 PM, thuganomics85 said:

dating someone who can't even legally drink yet can be considered to some as skirting the line towards being inappropriate.  It really wouldn't have been that odd for Park to wonder if he is crossing lines here.

It also isn't going to look great to his co-workers, boss, and the city. Nancy is enough younger than him to be significant at that age and he can be seen as her boss at the police station. I was ok with the confessions of feelings but the closet and then their immediate decision to be super couple-y at the party didn't make as much sense for the characters.

[bettername2come]

I loved how Ace was staring at Nancy trying to have a moment, but got interrupted because Ryan was practically tackle-hugging him from behind. I admit, I thought what would let them on to Ace not being around would be Ryan's chores not being completed. 

Temperance hexed Nick's kids?! That's just mean.