Synopsis: In ‘The Riddle of the Broken Doll’. Nancy and the Drew Crew learn that they have a new battle on their hands. Meanwhile, George’s strange behavior leaves Nick feeling unsettled. Lastly, Carson makes Nancy an offer she can’t refuse.

The Story

Picking up from where last week left off. Nancy’s role as the ace teen detective of Horseshoe bay expands as this episode offers her further avenues of investigation. While doing her community service at the local morgue. A body comes in, which piques Nancy’s curiosity. As she returns home from the Morgue she finds that the body has followed her and calls upon the drew crew for help.

As Nancy and her friends investigate the body by means of a kitchen table autopsy. They discover that the corpse has loads of dead bugs and plants in it. Bugs that went extinct over 100 years ago. This prompts Nancy to pay a visit to Hannah Gruen. Of course, Hannah is not happy to see Nancy given that she opened all the ancient haunted boxes that are housed in the historical society. However, Nancy manages to convince Hannah to help by saying that it might put right anything that she accidentally released onto the world.

As the episode’s story evolves we learn that the corpse is actually alive. It is been controlled by an evil entity that goes after children.

The Acting

‘The Riddle of the Broken Doll’ offers up solid acting performances and allows for some great character development along the way. Carmen Moore returns as Hannah Gruen. Who is fast becoming a great resource of help for Nancy and will hopefully continue to do so. Special mention should go to Sebastian Billingsley-Rodriguez who plays the Coroners son who happens to be a key character in helping Nancy solve this one. This young actor puts in a remarkably mature performance given the role that he is asked to play.

Leah Lewis also puts out a great performance as we see Georgie show signs of being possessed. The scene at the end of the episode is a pretty big reveal for what the new story arc will actually be.

Overall

Finally, ‘The Riddle of the Broken Doll’ not only offers up one of the grossest monsters on the show to date. But it also expands Nancy’s role as a detective. Added to whatever else she released from the boxes. As well as anything else that comes her way via the morgue. Nancy will also have various opportunities as her father’s investigator on any cases that he needs her for. So it will be interesting to see how all of that will crossover.