Nancy Drew season 4 episode 12 recap: Jane Doe's identity is revealed

Nancy Drew season 4 episode 12 is titled The Heartbreak of Truth. Directed by Kristin Lehman and written by Celine Geiger, the episode was released on August 16, 2023, on The CW.

This episode of Nancy Drew saw Ace and Nancy learn the true identity of Jane Doe. The latter was a female ghost with whom Ace had been interacting for a while. Soon, this ghost was revealed to be Alice Palermo. Meanwhile, it was revealed that Ace had accidentally caused her death.

The official synopsis of the episode read:

"Nancy and the Drew Crew head out to the graveyard after she receives a mysterious call."

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Nancy Drew season 4 episode 12 recap: What did Callie do?

The penultimate episode of Nancy Drew saw something so destructive that nobody saw coming. All this time, viewers believed that the storm in Horseshoe Bay was the worst thing to ever happen to the town. However, in this episode, Callie gave a new definition of pure evil.

She ruthlessly "showered 200 years of unburied sins" upon Horseshoe Bay by contaminating the water at Bess. Since a peaceful celebration was going on in the place, something severe of this scale was unexpected.

The uncanny Jane Doe mystery involving Ace and his father also got solved. This angle had been grim from the beginning, but this episode revealed something shocking. Ace saw and interacted with a female ghost, but he never knew her identity. He learned that her name was Alice Palermo, and she was the captain of the boat he and her father used to go night fishing.

One day, Ace accidentally dropped a cursed jar in the water that made a huge explosion. Both Alice and her father were on the verge of being killed, but the fiormer had only enough time to rescue one of them. At this point, Ace chose his father and this ultimately led to the death of Alice.

As soon as Ace reached the shore, he called Nancy for help. The latter then called the sin eater. She was sympathetic towards Alice as she said that there were some things that were too much to handle.

Aside from this, some positive things even happened in this episode with both George and Nick getting into colleges. George was selected to study at the prestigious Northern Seattle Law College, while Nick made it to Washington State Law School. They celebrated their achievement with a passionate kiss. Furthermore, Nick convinced George to sell the prestigious claw to a rich investor. This was not just good for the town, but Nick's sisters could also keep their jobs.

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More about Nancy Drew

According to Rotten Tomatoes, the synopsis of Nancy Drew reads:

"Nancy Drew is a brilliant teen detective whose sense of self had come from solving mysteries in her hometown of Horseshoe Bay, Maine -- until her mother's untimely death derails Nancy's college plans. Devastated by her mother's passing, Nancy swears off crime-solving while crossing off the days until she can reapply to college."

It further states:

"But when a socialite is murdered, Nancy finds herself a prime suspect in the crime, along with a group of other teens present at the scene: Nancy's nemesis from high school, George Fan; a rich girl with a mysterious past, Bess Marvin; Nancy's secret boyfriend, Ned "Nick" Nickerson and amiable burnout Ace. The five of them must team up to clear their own names, encountering emotional entanglements and even more mysteries along the way."

Nancy Drew was develouped by Noga Landau, Josh Schwartz, and Stephanie Savage. It premiered on October 9, 2019, on The CW.