‘Nancy Drew’ CW Premiere Recap: The Easter Eggs Book Fans Might’ve Missed

The CW’s “Nancy Drew” series, which stars Kennedy McMann as the titular sleuth, might have more sex and ghosts than fans of the novel series are used to, but the show still knows its history and will honor that history with little Easter eggs throughout, which it already started doing with its premiere episode last night.

Along with trying to solve the mysteries of who killed Ryan Hudson’s (Riley Smith) wife, Tiffany (Sinead Curry), in episode 1 and who killed Lucy Sable years ago, fans will also get to play the mystery game of “Where are all of the Easter eggs?” throughout Season 1.

“There will be Easter eggs,” show creator Noga Landau told International Business Times at New York Comic Con on Sunday, before showrunner Melinda Hsu Taylor added, “There a lot of shoutouts, but it’s become something completely different, with that bit of DNA in it.”

Keep reading to find out some of the shoutouts to the books people might’ve missed in the series premiere episode of The CW’s “Nancy Drew” on Wednesday.

At the start, while giving an overview of who Nancy Drew is and her history of solving cases as a tween and teen growing up in Horseshoe Bay — not River Heights, like in the books —there is a corkboard in Nancy’s room featuring article clippings about all of the mysteries she’d solved.

Though those clippings are only shown for a few seconds, fans who paused to read them closely might’ve realized they sounded pretty familiar. That’s because they’re actually based on “Nancy Drew” books.

Of those that are somewhat legible onscreen, here are the article titles and their matching book titles:

Article: “Nancy Drew, ‘Girl Detective,’ Uncovers Counterfeiting Ring Operated at Red Gate Farm, Exposing Horseshoe Bay’s Connection to Hale Syndicate”

• Book: “The Secret of Red Gate Farm”

Article: “Missing Girl Found Alive Behind Hidden Staircase by 7th Grade Honor Student: Local Realtor Arrested For Kidnapping”

• Book: “The Hidden Staircase”

Article: “Wooden Lady Missing From Skip: Young Detective Investigates Historical Relic”

• Book: “The Secret of the Wooden Lady”

Article: “Kidnapping Plot Uncovered — Ivory Charm Key Evidence”

• Book: “The Mystery of the Ivory Charm”

Article: “Girl Detective Aids Police: Hollow Oak Mystery Solved”

• Book: “The Message in the Hollow Oak”

Article: “Girl Detective Uncovers Secrets of Pine Hill”

• Book: “The Phantom of Pine Hill”

Article: “Precious Sapphire Still Missing”

• Book: “The Spider Sapphire Mystery”

After the board full of articles was shown, viewers saw Nancy filling out a college application, and it’s here that another Easter egg lives.

Although the town she lives in is called Horseshoe Bay instead of River Heights, that name is still in the show. Those who looked closely might’ve caught the address that Nancy filled out on the application, which was “River Heights Drive,” a clear shoutout to the town in the books.

Plus, later on, while sleuthing around at Ryan’s house to get information on him and his murdered wife to try to help clear her name as a suspect of said murder, Nancy’s seen wearing a hat, which she often had on in the books.

The hat she wore was different from the fedora, bucket hat or other mid-1900s styles the character has worn in the past, but she still was wearing a hat as her signature accessory, one that was wholly hers. It looked a lot like a regular black robber’s beanie, or winter hat, but it was something her mom had made for her before she died, which was what made it easy for Detective Karen Hart (Alvina August) to know it was Nancy who had broken into Ryan’s house.

Not to mention fans got to see Nancy sleuthing around with her handy-dandy flashlight in-hand both at Ryan’s house and when she found a blood-stained dress inside of a trunk in her own ghost-filled attic, the latter of which was reminiscent of the 1944 “Nancy Drew” book, “The Secret in the Old Attic,” in both action and imagery.

All of these Easter eggs are just from episode 1 of “Nancy Drew.” Fans will see even more throughout the season as the show airs on The CW on Wednesdays at 9 p.m. EDT.