Ace & Nancy Drew: How The CW Keeps Teasing Their Romance

Throughout Nancy Drew season 2, Nancy and Ace have proved an increasingly popular pairing — here’s how the writers have teased that the relationship might turn romantic. Since debuting in 2019, the show has weaved a tangled web of dynamics between the Drew Crew. Nancy (Kennedy McMann) first dated Nick (Tunji Kasim). After they broke up, Nick and George (Leah Lewis) got together and fell in love. Early on, potential Hardy Boy, Ace (Alex Saxon) was attracted to Bess (Maddison Jaizani). When she didn’t reciprocate, they instead became best friends and platonic emotional anchors (“Platanchors” for short). Over time, however, one unexplored pairing became one that Nancy Drew fans most yearned for.

In Nancy Drew‘s earliest episodes, Ace was something of a question mark. Initially, he seemed designed to be burnout comic relief. Midway through the first season, however, he unburdened himself of the secrets that isolated him. As a result, he revealed the full breadth of his heart, humor, and intelligence. Equally, he formed a closer bond with Nancy and the rest of the group, reinvigorating his purpose and general zest in life. Knowing her to be the linchpin of the kind of squad he’d never had before, he developed an especially deep trust and loyalty for Nancy. Across the episodes, that manifested in several ways — including drinking what could’ve been poison to prove one of her hypotheses. In response, by the time of Nancy Drew season 2, Nancy came to view him as one of her most beloved friends and trusted allies.

All of that – and the casual chemistry the two share – has prompted fans to start rooting for them to become a couple. Though Nick and Nancy are famously a central couple of the books, the show writers haven’t ignored the clear sparks and potential of Nancy and Ace. In fact, Nancy Drew season 2 has increasingly played up to it in a myriad of ways, leaving just enough breadcrumbs to lead fans to the belief that the ship could indeed come to shore. For starters, there have been a number of furtive yet lingering glances and loving smiles between them — as well as the way they generally eschew concepts like personal space when in each other’s presence. In most recent episodes, they have become more acutely aware of (and tactile with) each other than ever before. They also offered themselves as a confidant for the other.

The teases from the Nancy Drew writers have only gotten more specific. When Odette Lamar (inhabiting George’s body) referenced Nancy’s “friend with the pretty eyes“, Nancy’s first thought was that she’d meant Ace. Later, when Nancy was infected by an overabundance of lust, she developed an intense attraction for several men in her life. While puzzling the logistics of the situation, she questioned aloud whether the curse was manufacturing the feelings or merely intensifying ones she already had but was suppressing. At the moment she asked that question, Nancy noticeably turned her gaze to Ace. Furthermore, in Nancy Drew season 2, episode 13, “The Beacon of Moonstone Island”, Nancy and Ace cracked a safe together in search of evidence for a crime. As Amanda Bobbsey (Aadila Dosani) looked on, how well Ace and Nancy went together was emphasized by literal clicking sounds.

The duo’s respective relationships with the Bobbsey Twins only made their feelings more evident. Even if not consciously realized by each other yet, there were definitely elements of jealousy affecting Nancy’s view of Amanda and fueling Ace’s distrust of Gil (Praneet Akilla). So much so that even George and Bess silently noticed the truth. As if that wasn’t enough, it was Ace’s life being in danger that prompted Nancy to compromise her moral code and help the corrupt Hudson family. Arguably, she would have done the same for any of her friends. Once Ace was safe, though, there was a more passionate edge to the way Nancy hugged and stated that she couldn’t lose him. Fans will have to keep waiting and watching Nancy Drew season 2, however, to see if Nancy and Ace realize and act on their buried feelings.

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