Nancy Drew’s Bess Marvin deserves better

The Nancy Drew writers desperately need to give Bess a life, for both her sake and ours. 

Nancy Drew is still a relatively new show. Only two seasons in, and with a third on the way in October of this year, it’s reasonable that the show is still finding its footing in some aspects. Though, the handling of Bess Marvin, both as a member of the Drew Crew and in her love life, it’s starting to feel a little ridiculous.

Nancy Drew‘s version of Bess is a self-proclaimed recovering kleptomaniac, member of the Drew Crew, and almost-socialite. Our introduction to Bess was framed around her lies and the fact that she lifted a really shiny ring off a dead woman. The Nancy Drew writers have shown her she’s grown a lot in the time that we’ve known her so far. Though, despite the clear difference between the woman we saw in the pilot and the Bess we know now, it still feels like the show hasn’t invested in her in the same ways it has for the other characters, especially by the end of the second season.

Throughout season 2, Bess continued to deal with her new role as a permanent member of the Marvin family after proving herself to her Aunt Diana during the first season. Bess’ happy family life doesn’t last long, though, as she was officially kicked out of the family by episode 8 of season 2.

In “The Quest for the Spider Sapphire,” Bess was forced by her ex-husband of a loveless marriage of convenience to steal from her Aunt in order to save Nancy and George from the death trap he set for them. Though, it turns out, he did not want the expensive Spider Sapphire at all. He only wanted revenge on Bess. He planted the heirloom on her, which led to her being disowned by Diana when she was caught with it.

And, unfortunately, that’s where Bess’ storyline with the Marvins comes to a close. She spends a single episode moping around on the Drew’s couch mourning a family she had only just started to be a part of, but then she just moves on.

It’s understandable that the rocky relationship Bess was building with her Aunt Diana was never going to last, but it’s still weird that the show just dropped it, especially since that storyline was Bess’ only storyline outside of Drew Crew activities.

While characters like Nancy, George, Ace, and Nick all have multiple threads related to their lives beyond the shenanigans they get up to as a group, Bess’ relation to the Marvins provided that separation for her. By removing that thread from Bess’ story, her screen time is then only filled with Drew Crew-related storylines, which leaves her feeling more hollow than her friends.

Bess ultimately became a sidekick in the second half of season 2, following the Crew around for group activities and lending a listening ear for all her friends’ life problems, with only one exception: her love affair with a ghost.

Nancy Drew’s mishandling of romantic storylines

Before we talk about Bess’ ghastly romance, let’s talk about how Nancy Drew handles romance in general. In the series, it feels like every other member of the Drew Crew has their love lives front and center. Nancy and her relationships with Nick, then Owen, then Gil, and, assumedly, Ace have all been a central part of her narrative throughout the seasons, and have affected her choices on an episodic basis.

For Nick, after his time with Nancy was done, quickly moved on to George, and their relationship has been a central part of each episode since they got together. Before Nick, George’s affair with Ryan Hudson had major ramifications for the series, and now that she’s with Nick, their impending marriage serves as a turning point as well.

For Ace, his relationships have always served meaningful purposes within the plot, from dating Tiffany Hudson’s sister Laura Tandy to dating the incredibly helpful Amanda Bobbsey. His girlfriends haven’t always been consistently in back-to-back episodes, but his teased relationship with Nancy will move his relationship status to a more important place on the show. Then, that just leaves us with Bess.

During the first season, Bess started dating Lisbeth, Ryan Hudson’s driver who turned out to actually be an undercover detective investigating his family. Despite Lisbeth being connected to the Hudson plot, she’s hardly in the first season. In fact, she’s only in 6 out of the 18 episodes that went to air before their season was cut short in early 2020. Had the series been able to finish their first season as intended, she would’ve only shown up one more time, as episode 4 of season 2, the original season finale, was her final appearance.

In the season 1 make-shift finale, Nancy and her friends realize the magnitude of their deal with the Aglaeca, a vengeful sea spirit, as their lives are immediately put in danger. This causes the first five episodes of the next season to focus on how they can possibly rid themselves of the curse put on them by said deal.

These episodes are filled with heartfelt goodbyes between characters and constant reminders of the relationships each of the Drew Crew share outside of their inner circle. You would think this would cause Bess to reach out to her girlfriend over the course of those episodes, but she doesn’t.

We don’t see Lisbeth until episode 4, and she’s only around long enough to be stood up by Bess, who breaks off their relationship before she can get hurt. While Bess’ cause was definitely noble, it still felt like a really half-baked ending to a really half-baked relationship.

Lisbeth isn’t the end of the line for Bess, as she gets another love interest during the second half of season 2: The French ghost trapped in her best friend’s body. If you just did a double take, trust me, I did too while watching. Later, I’ll elaborate on how the answer to all the problems with Bess’ love life would be solved if she just dated someone within the Drew Crew, but I definitely don’t mean like that.

Sure, Bess having an almost-relationship with the ghost possessing George, named Odette, did thrust her love life into a major plot line and made it relevant, but at what cost? It still was only brought up every few episodes, and it’s not like Bess and Nick could do a time-share with Odette and George, so it was never going to be a long-term relationship either.

The entire time they’re having their flirtatious relationship, everyone in the Drew Crew continues to tell Bess how wrong it is, until George finally allowed her one kiss with Odette before she locked herself away in George’s soul forever. This final kiss felt more like a bone thrown to those who ship Bess and George, which is a small ship that’s gained traction over the show’s two year history, rather than the end of an epic Romeo and Juliet-type love.

The subduing of Bess’ love life just feels odd, especially on a show run by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. If you don’t recognize those names, they’re two of the executive producers on Nancy Drew, and were executive producers of Marvel’s Runaways on Hulu. That series gave queer audiences the iconic pairing of Nico Minoru and Karolina Dean, but Bess’ love life is far from the well-written story of Deanoru.

All of this comes back around to the same premise, for me: Bess’ love interest should be a part of the Drew Crew. The reason Nico and Karolina worked so well was because they were both in the same group, the Runaways, and they both held equal weight in the series.

For Bess, both of her love interests haven’t had that luxury, with neither of them involved in the overarching season plots, and hardly in the episodic ones. With all the other members of the Drew Crew partnering up with each other, it’s more imperative than ever that Bess’ new lover becomes a true part of the Crew. It would allow for the series’ LGBT representation to take a spotlight as well, putting their sapphic relationship on an equal playing field as their heterosexual ones.

The CW’s ongoing issue with storylines

Unfortunately, Bess isn’t alone in this particular situation of only having side-character lovers. In fact, across The CW, there are many examples just like Bess, showcasing that quantity doesn’t always mean quality when it comes to queer representation.

One prime example of this is Mel and Ruby from Charmed, where Ruby presents the same problem as Lisbeth: A half-baked character whose only true purpose in the series is to be in a relationship with a main character. Cheryl and Toni on Riverdale also fell into that category before Vanessa Morgan’s call-out of their treatment of Toni effected change in the writer’s room.

This recurring theme on The CW is discouraging for queer audiences, because it sends the message that their storylines aren’t worth investing in, or that queer characters will always be relegated to the sidelines. After Charmed showrunner Joey Falco committed to improving their show’s LGBT representation, and Riverdale improved their treatment of Toni, I can only hope the Nancy Drew writers follow suit. After all, the Drew Crew wouldn’t be the same without Bess, and it’s only fair that she be treated the same as her straight counterparts.

In conclusion, Bess deserves better. She deserves to have a life outside of the Drew Crew, she deserves to have a love interest who is relevant to the plot, and, most importantly, she deserves to be more than a comic relief sidekick.

As each member of The CW’s Nancy Drew’s ‘Drew Crew’ experienced life-changing events regarding their families and lives outside of their group, Bess felt like she got left in the dust post-episode 8. With season 3 just around the corner, and the synopsis for the first episode leaving much to be desired in terms of what’s next for Bess, I hope the series will eventually come around to treating her equally. After all, it would do nothing but improve the show as it heads towards a long future on The CW.