When it comes to fictional detectives, Nancy Drew is one of the best. Appearing in print for more than 100 years, Nancy has gone on to appear in movies and television, most recently for the CW's series, and her story always reminds the audience that she's been solving mysteries since she was a kid. But while Nancy has a knack for puzzles and is always ready to question a suspect, she's not always the best detective in her friend group.
Nancy's friends — George, Bess, and Ned (in the case of the CW, Nick) — have been mainstays in her stories for years. The CW series, however, makes them just as capable as she when it comes to following the clues and uncovering the truth. Sometimes, Nancy's friends and family in the series are even able to figure things out before her.
Nancy Drew Proves Herself A Great Detective
Nancy Figures Out Karen Is Responsible For Tiffany's Death
The big mystery that kicks off the CW series is who killed Tiffany Hudson. Nancy Drew, her fellow Claw employees, and Nick all end up as suspects, which gets them to band together and solve her murder even though they're barely acquaintances at the time. While everyone contributes legwork to the investigation, it's Nancy who ultimately puts the pieces together.
Nancy deduces that Karen, the detective on the force in charge of the investigation, swapped out poison from evidence in an old case for water and gave it to Tiffany's killer. It leads to a tense standoff in which Ace takes the "poison" while Nancy outlines her theory, drinking it, and proving it's water. Nancy does all of this in the middle of the police station, which really should have made the police department take her more seriously as a detective earlier in the series.
Nancy Knows Josh Dodd Is After Her
After the death of Owen Marvel, a handprint on his window sees Nancy helping Lisbeth with her investigation into his murder. While there aren't any fingerprints available, when Lisbeth mentions just what chemicals are present in the residue in the print and on Owen's phone, Nancy immediately recognizes it as motor oil. It's the last piece of the puzzle to slip into place for her, even while everyone else around her is still trying to figure it out.
That one final clue is enough for Nancy to realize that Josh Dodd didn't die like everyone thought a few episodes earlier and that he's after Nancy. Blaming Nancy for the town believing his sister took her own life, Josh wants revenge, but Nancy manages to help apprehend him rather than allow that to happen.
Nancy Uses Hand Sanitizer To Get A Clue
Not all of Nancy Drew's brilliant detective moments are her solving the case. Some of them are incredibly resourceful methods of collecting evidence. While Nancy isn't above picking locks or breaking windows to get into someone's house for clues, sometimes the clues can be retrieved in plain sight.
When she first meets Detective Tamura, Nancy is brought to the bedside of an unconscious Amanda Bobbsey to find out if she knows her. While she doesn't, Nancy does take a moment to grab some hand sanitizer to use to press her own hand against Amanda's palm to transfer the ink there... which she then also figures out is a code to pass along to Ace to get them instructions on a website. Nancy's quick thinking means they track down Gil, a special mirror, and Tamura doesn't initially notice her getting the code.
Nancy Solves Bertram Bobbsey's Crossword In Minutes
Bertram Bobbsey has an interesting method of getting information to people in season 3. He has boxes of chocolates delivered to people with a crossword attached for the recipient to solve and put together the location of a meet-up. When Ace reaches out to Nancy for help solving the cipher, she is in the middle of something else. A phone call from her father later, however, has her remember to look at the tag and take a few minutes to work out the clues.
A few minutes is all she needs. While on the phone with her father and walking from her car to the inside of the police station, Nancy pulls out a notepad, figures out the clues, and relays the information to her father for his case. If she had helped Ace, maybe it could have been a few seconds instead of a few minutes!
Nancy Out-Solves The Police At Only 13 Years Old
One of the most impressive feats for Nancy is that she recovers a missing child when she's only 13. The first season of the series features a lot of callbacks to "Nancy's first case" so the audience can get a look at what gave her a start.
While the police, and the rest of the Horseshoe Bay volunteers, are looking for the missing child, Nancy follows the seemingly one person in town who isn't following the grid search. Nancy Drew's attention to detail pays off and earns her a lifetime of jealousy from the police force.
Nancy Drew's Friends One-Up Her Detective Skills
Ace And Bess Use Social Media For Clues
Nancy clearly isn't big on social media. She prefers to do things the old-fashioned way. Lucky for her, Bess Marvin is all over social media and Ace has never met a website he can't hack.
Between Ace and Bess, no suspect's online account is safe. While Ace does everything from hack emails to finding private files, Bess even outsources some of their questions to followers and looks for clues in photos posted by witnesses. These two think beyond visiting the scene and talking to people.
Ryan Figures Out Nancy Is His Daughter
Once Nancy finds out Lucy Sable and Ryan Hudson are her biological parents, her world is turned upside down. The only people who originally know the truth are her, Carson, and Ace. Ryan, however, gets access to copies of Lucy's high school journal and realizes that Lucy was pregnant right before her death.
Ryan puts together that he and Nancy are both allergic to wasps, that Nancy is the right age, and that her baby photo is nearly identical to Lucy's. Ryan doesn't let up in his pursuit of the truth, figuring out that he's Nancy's father before the rest of her friends do.
Nick Knows His Literary References
In the first season, it's not just Tiffany Hudson's murderer whom Nancy is on the trail of. There also happens to be a trail of clues left specifically for Nick, as Tiffany became friends with him while he was incarcerated. Tiffany's clues, however, all pointed to literary references as she and Nick shared a love for reading.
While Nancy Drew is often considered the smartest character, and she might be skilled at puzzles, she's not so great at remembering classic literature. It was up to Nick to catch all of Tiffany's references and track down the gift she left him, which turned out to be a few million dollars' worth of bonds.
Ace Knows The Wraith Has Nancy
In season 2, Nancy isn't quite herself. The only one who notices just how much her behavior has changed, however, is Ace. While some fans might have thought Ace's romantic feelings for Nancy were the reason he pointed out how bad Gil Bobbsey was for her, part of that was that Nancy was drawn to Gil's destructive behavior because of the wraith from the very first episode of the season.
It was Ace who put together her behavior changes, her dip in energy levels, and Nancy being the last one to encounter the wraith, to figure out that it had latched onto her. Ace even got Nick to help him get photographic proof of the wraith's presence.
George And Bess See Nancy And Ace's Feelings Before They Do
Being a detective requires a certain level of observation skills. While Nancy's are usually strong, she doesn't notice when George and Nick start dating, though no one else is surprised by it. Nancy also repeatedly ignores her own growing feelings for Ace, but someone else picks up on them.
In fact, both George and Bess prove more observant than either Nancy or Ace, and both call out their friends for said feelings. George pretends to be shocked when Nancy admits them while Bess repeatedly encourages Ace to make his feelings known, even when he doesn't admit he has them.