Nancy Drew Season 4 Episode 13 Review: The Light Between Lives
This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.
On Nancy Drew Season 4 Episode 13 “The Light Between Lives,” the series ends with all the chaos, terror, and drama we’ve known through its run. It also gives us almost everything we could want, if only for a few moments.
The last chapter opens right in the middle of the Purge-esque aftermath of sin fog. The one saving grace is that everyone seems to be bad at what they’re doing, leaving both a massive mob and a theft spree between Carson and Red to be borderline hilarious.
Needles to say, that doesn’t last. Fixing the curse means sending both Tristan and Nancy back to their past lives with Ace tagging along as a guardian. All three of their present lives are thus in danger, because we just can’t have a final episode without those stakes.
A lot unfolds with only a rapid-fire glimpse of history to explain it, but the key takeaways are that Nancy once lived as man who unleashed the sin eater across the country and that she and Tristan’s souls are then entwined in anger instead of love.
We’re so busy unpacking this that we barely touch on what it could mean for Nancy and Ace. The stakes may be too high anyway. Nancy barely survives facing what her past lives have done and when it’s all over, she and Ace are both left unable to ever reincarnate again.
This is a form of tragedy, especially on a show steeped in ghosts and stories told over generations. Yet they are both still alive in this last life they share. And Tristan, now both rid of the sin eater and free to leave the town he’s been trapped in, gives them his blessing.
There is one true casualty: the historical society, consumed by a fire the mob sets. Nick makes a heartbreaking dash to try and save some of what’s inside, but the others pull him back. Horseshoe Bay carries on, but without a major piece of itself.
I’m honestly surprised—in a wonderful, relieved way—that all our characters survive, however worse for wear. If Bess and Nick can make peace with losing so much of what they worked for, so can I. It’s not a fully happy ending, but it’s the happiest we could have gotten.
Finally, we get to the calm after the storm and the end of an era. Yet it’s a series of beginnings as well:
George gets into her dream law school. Nick takes an engineering position with Tom Swift(!), working alongside Jade. Bess will travel the world to find new relics to replace what the town lost. Addy will run for town council and be waiting whenever she returns home.
That, of course, leaves us with Nancy and Ace. They both have their own plans that will take them from the town. But first Ace has to test a theory that the curse died after all their souls underwent. In the last five minutes of the series, they finally kiss for real.
It might hurt that we get so little time with them being happy after waiting so long. It does seem anticlimactic that this season-long curse was broken arguably behind the scenes. At the same time, this brief reward feels like everything we need.
It’s also not all we get. Those last five minutes do give us the couple we’ve waited so very long for, but the also give us some of the most bittersweet and beautiful moments of the series as the Drew Crew gathers together to bid each other farewell.
Though romantic love is the biggest driver (and time consumer) of plot, this has always been a show about friendship. Different parings have have come and gone, but these five have survived the odds together. Nancy says it herself: they’re all soulmates.
I do wish we had time for more. Not only of Nace, but also of Carson, Jean, and Nancy’s baby sibling on the way (that tiny beanie!). Of Ryan and finding balance between his found family and new love. Of seeing glimpses of what the future holds for everyone.
All of that is going to have to be left to the imagination now. I’m sure we’ll see visions of it portrayed within the fandom, and it’ll be a long time before the show ever truly fades away. Peace out once more, fellow Drewds. We made it out alive and got some happiness to boot.
What did you think of this episode of Nancy Drew? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Nancy Drew aired Wednesdays at 8/7c on The CW.
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Caitlin Wyneken
Caitlin is an elder millennial with an only slightly unhealthy dedication to a random selection of TV shows, from PBS Masterpiece dramas to some of the less popular series on popular networks. Outside of screen time, she's dedicated to the public sector and worthy nonprofits, working to make a difference in the world outside of media.
One thought on “Nancy Drew Season 4 Episode 13 Review: The Light Between Lives”
I Loved this new version of Nancy Drew ,I grew up reading the books ,I also liked that the people who Created and Produced the show listed to there fans and saw that there was no chemistry with Nancy and Ned in this virson and saw there was A spark and Chemistry with her and her best Friend Asa turned love Interest. The series Finally was my Favorite except. I want the show #RenewNancyDrew for one more season on #HBOMax so they can wrap up the other story ‘s. And fix the other couple that had Chemistry to that is Nick and George. Plus of course more #Nace ,and #drewcrew. So everything that was left undone can be finished.