Nancy Drew: 10 Easter Eggs You Missed in Season 2

Though the series is inspired by a classic set of novels, the CW’s Nancy Drew series has veered hard from mystery to the supernatural in the second season. Amongst the ghost stories, however, Nancy Drew and her friends still maintain their love of puzzles from the books.

Also maintained in the series is sneaking in clues to upcoming events and nods to previous versions of Nancy Drew. The second season features a lot of Easter eggs for fans of the novels. It also has nods to novels connected only by publisher to the Nancy Drew series, beginning to expand the universe for the screen.

10 The Bungalow Case

When Nancy and her friends get their hands on a mirror that’s supposed to help against the Aglaeca, she surprises them by breaking the mirror. That’s because, as Nancy informs them, she learned a thing or two on her “bungalow case.”

This is a reference to the third Nancy Drew novel ever released. Called The Bungalow Mystery, it featured Nancy helping a fellow teen who discovered the man intent on adopting her was really a thief. Originally published in 1930, a revised edition was published 30 years later. This nod is a sign in the first episode of the season that the writers intend to continue referencing the original source material, even as the stories are wildly different.

9 Stratemeyer Woods

Though the friends head into Gorham Woods and face off against the wraith inside at the start of the season, there’s also a reference made to Stratemeyer Woods. Carson namechecks it when telling Ace about an orphanage. That name might sound familiar to fans of the books.

The Stratemeyer Syndicate, named for its founder, was responsible for publishing the original series of Nancy Drew novels. It also published Hardy Boys novels and a ton of other series aimed at kids and young adults. Most involved mysteries or adventures. A group of writers all using the same pen name wrote the various novels published by the group.

8 Gilbert & Amanda Bobbsey

Gil and Amanda Bobbsey, twins, make their debut in season two. They’re set to recur throughout the season, but the show isn’t their only connection to Nancy Drew. Though they didn’t cross over into her novels, they did appear in their own series from the Stratemeyer Syndicate – though the original versions of the characters weren’t thieves.

They aren’t the only Stratemeyer character coming to the show either. Tom Swift, an inventor with his own series, is also set to appear at some point with a potential spin-off on the way.

7 Fernwood Orphanage

This abandoned orphanage is located in Stratemeyer Woods, so it’s an Easter egg within an Easter egg. The spooky location is referenced in the Nancy Drew novels as well.

It’s a location visited when Nancy is trying to track down someone’s family. It gets its mention in the novel The Sign Of The Twisted Candles, but it’s not a major recurring location in the novels and doesn’t appear in the 1980s revamp of the series.

6 Rita Howell

Rita Howell makes her first appearance in season one of Nancy Drew. She and all of the other members of the “Aglaeca class of ’75” do. That’s not why she’s an Easter egg. Her name is actually shared with a character in one of the games from Her Interactive: Warning At Waverly Academy. That’s not all!

Rita appears at The Claw during a big storm when George is already cursed by the blood bucket. When she leaves, she tells George to be careful of the harpoon on the wall, but George thinks nothing of it, noting that it’s just a decoration. It’s the same harpoon that goes right through her when Nancy and her friends try to stop the Aglaeca in season two.

5 The Florist And The Coroner

When Nancy needs to find out who is leaving flowers on the graves of Aglaeca victims, she visits Lilly, the local florist, introducing a new character to the audience. Nancy also happens to be doing community service for laws she broke in the coroner’s office in town this season. Those two things, surprisingly, are connected.

The coroner references that the mother of his son (who he doesn’t seem to get along with at all) is a florist. According to the writers for the series, that florist is the same one Nancy meets. Some fans were quick to pick up on the off-hand mention, so perhaps the audience will see more of the characters later in the season.

4 The Murder Hotel

When a volleyball player goes missing at an infamous hotel, her teammates call in Nancy for help. They’re sure a ghost took her, but Nancy doesn’t think so – especially when she finds secret passages and animal blood in storage to help maintain the hotel’s “haunted” reputation. Fans paying attention, however, will also notice that the owner of the hotel is referenced as “Mr. Holmes.” Some might have thought that was a nod to another literary detective, and while it might be, it’s also a reference to the real-life murder hotel.

H.H. Holmes is the first person to officially be classified as a serial killer in the United States. Not all of his victims were found, but he did run a “murder hotel” in which he had elaborately built secret rooms in which to torture people. A fictional account of his hotel is also used in the time travel drama Timeless.

3 A Secret Author

Katherine DiSavino is one of the writers on the series and she snuck in an Easter egg that fans wouldn’t even know to look for. In the seventh episode of the season, there’s a book that provides a nod to one of her real-life friends.

DiSavino revealed on Twitter that the book appears while members of the volleyball team are reading at Nancy’s house. She gave the fake book a fictional author. Spirits Of The Northeast says it’s written by Sheldon Miller. That’s the dad of one of her friends, who happens to be a big Nancy Drew fan.

2 “It Wasn’t My First Chloroforming.”

When Bess’s estranged husband shows up in Horseshoe Bay, hoping to cash in on her connection to the Marvin family, he kidnaps Nancy and George to make Bess cooperate. Instead of having to fight them, he opts for knocking them out with a rag soaked in chloroform over their mouths.

Bess feels incredibly guilty about what happens to them, but Nancy reassures her with this line. Not only has Nancy been kidnapped before in the show, but the line also references the novels – specifically the ’80s Nancy Drew Case Files. In that particular series, it was very common for Nancy to find herself incapacitated by her suspect with chloroform instead of something more violent. If a suspect tried to take Nancy head-on, she was usually smart enough to outmaneuver them.

1 Episode Titles

Fans already know that titles for the episodes are written in the same style as the books originally published in the ’30s. The titles don’t typically match up exactly, but sometimes, the writers make them a little closer than others.

“The Quest For The Spider Sapphire” is the title of the eighth episode of the season. The titular item is actually Bess’s aunt’s watch that she’s asked to steal. Beyond the title, and a really big sapphire, the episode doesn’t have much in common with The Spider Sapphire Mystery. That was the 45th Nancy Drew book published. In it, a friend of her father’s was accused of stealing the sapphire, and she set out to track it down.

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