So, uh, WordPress just told me that today’s the 8 year anniversary of my blog? Oh my God, have I really been doing this to myself for that long?
Previously on Nancy Drew: Ghost of Thornton Hall: We found a long-lost relative hiding in the Thorntons’ basement, as you do. This family somehow got even more fucked-up than we already thought they were, and Nancy is having hallucinations and passing out all over the place. Clearly this case is going well!
So we saw the spooky film of Charlotte’s birthday party, which someone has spliced together with footage of the burned-out ruins where she died. Clara also saw it, and is now suitably freaked out. She tells us that she needs a minute. Okay, but after sixty seconds, I am coming back in here to interrogate you some more, Clara, so get ready.
After we leave the parlor, we can hear Clara yelling to someone on the phone (the police, maybe?) that Jessalyn didn’t run away, someone absolutely took her. Yeah, Clara, the police aren’t gonna do shit. I’m assuming the only reason Nancy even thought of asking them at the beginning of the game was because it was 3 AM and she had just woken up.
(Remember that time the police made Nancy solve a case that she was the main suspect in? My point is made.)
After that cutscene, we can go back and talk to Clara again. We tell her about seeing Charlotte’s ghost, and Clara tells us that she thinks the ghost is real. When Nancy’s like, “You sure about that?” Clara muses that maybe the house is playing tricks on her. But maybe not! Maybe this is the Nancy game where we all go completely off the rails and throw ourselves into believing in ghosts, like Scully after working with Mulder for years broke her emotionally.
Anyway, we also bring up that Colton thinks he’s being forced to marry Jessalyn. Clara insists that any man would love to marry Jessalyn. Aw, spoken like a total mom. And really, Colton should be happy that anyone’s willing to marry his cowardly ass. Clara adds that Colton’s always been prone to paranoia. Hmm.
Moving on. We still have to look at some of the other places we saw in Jessalyn’s photos, so let’s do that. She took a random photo of some dirt, which we find out is under the porch. So we go back down there — through the passageway in the basement — and when we dig in the spot a little, we find this box. Did Jessalyn…know that this was here? Or did she just like, take a random picture of some dirt?
Anyway, we can’t open the box yet, but let’s file away its location for later.
The next thing we want to look at is this column on the porch. There’s something written on it, so we can move the ivy away and see that there’s a shape drawn, and “First of its kind across the bottom” written underneath it. Nancy copies the drawing so we can look at it later.
Let’s visit with Wade. I feel like I’ve been neglecting him. Also, our next puzzle is in the cemetery anyway. Somewhat weirdly, we can repeat the conversation tree that leads to him showing us his ghost recorder or whatever, but we’ve already done that, so let’s not. Instead, let’s gossip about his love drama with Savannah! I mean, Colton got to whine to us about his romantic life, it’s only fair that we extend the same courtesy to Wade.
We bring up that Savannah seemed to think Wade would be upset that she didn’t come here herself. I mean…it’s true, he was pretty upset. He jumped out of the bushes and yelled at us and everything. Anyway, Wade’s all like, “OMG, Savannah was talking about me? What did she say, tell me exactly.” He also asks for her number, and I have Nancy give it to him because that’s what Savannah gets for calling me at 3 in the morning and sending me to investigate some weird ex-slave owners. Wade tells us that Savannah won’t be happy that we gave him her number. “Why, what are you going to do?” Nancy says, suddenly worried. Look, Nancy, I know reading a room is not your strong suit, but if you can’t tell that they obviously had a messy breakup and that I’m enabling Wade because I live for drama, I don’t know how to help you.
Wade tells us that he and Savannah used to date. I feel like that was already heavily implied by everything he told us before, but Nancy’s all like, “You don’t say!” Nancy, you are really ruining your own reputation here. We tell him that we think he’s just trying to scare us away. “Girl,” he snaps at us. Hee! So judgmental! Anyway, he warns us that fear isn’t something to overcome here, and we should heed our gut warnings. You know, Wade, you’ll never bust any ghosts with that attitude.
That’s it for Wade, so let’s go investigate the crypt. We use the key on the lock to get in, and then the grate near the floor opens.
Oh hey, Harper! Long time no see!
Harper is super pissed at us for tattling on her. Sorry, Harper! It’s the only way to progress in the game! She says she had to crawl all the way out to the crypt because of us. Or you could hide literally anywhere else in the house. Or get a hotel. There are options, Harper! When Nancy tells her this, she snaps that we think we can trust people around here, but we can’t. You can either say that we trust the Thorntons more than her, or we can say that we trust her. Either way, she’s like, “Well, you shouldn’t.”
Anyway, Harper won’t let us poke around and look at anything in the crypt while she’s there, so we’re gonna have to threaten to tell everyone about her again. “Do you want me to be found?” she wails. “At this point? Yes,” Nancy says. Hee.
Once Harper bails, we can look around. There are a bunch of puzzles in here. The first one is this stained glass window. It’s similar to one of the puzzles from Shadow at the Water’s Edge — you have to match the colors on each side to mirror each other. I think this puzzle might have also popped up in Trail of the Twister? That would require me to remember anything about that game, though. Once we do that, Nancy will note that the name “Beauregard” appears in the window.
There’s also a rose on the ledge under the window, which we’ll need for the puzzle in Harper’s note.
We also find this newspaper in the crypt. The article says that Harper had a “violent outburst” at Charlotte’s funeral and caused a ton of damage. Also, the smaller story at the side notes that there was some concern over who would take over Thornton Industries at the time. (Also-also, apparently the company is based in “Chatham county.” There’s a Chatham county in both Georgia and North Carolina, although the one in Georgia is the only one on the coast.)
So there are three coffins that we want to look at. Each coffin has a plate with a shape on it, and a sketch that we have to collect so we know how to arrange the tiles on the plates. We have two of the three plates and sketches because I’m dumb and didn’t do this all in order.
One of the coffins already has the plate on it, with a picture of a bird on it. The matching sketch is hidden near the wall where Harper was standing earlier. Once we grab that, the sketch will be placed on the plate, and we have to fit the tiles into it.
Like so.
The coffin opens, and we have to get these slips of paper from where they’re lying next to the skeleton. You know, I don’t really want to touch a crusty old skeleton, and I especially wouldn’t do it for math. It’s been like ten years since I had a math class. I can barely remember how to cross multiply.
We found a plate with a snake on it in that secret compartment in the fountain by the ruins, and the sketch was on that column by the porch. When we finish the snake design, another coffin pops open and we have to touch yet another skeleton, this time for a key. Nancy notes that this is the other half of the key we found in Jessalyn’s backpack.
The final plate has a star on it, but we haven’t found the sketch yet, so we can’t open it.
Let’s go back to the workshop and look at that creepy-ass video again. This time, as the film plays, we see a flash of Charlotte wandering around in her ghost dress. Aw, hell no! Nothing good ever happens when you see dead girls in films!
Anyway, Charlotte’s ghostly film cameo breaks the projector. SPOOKY! Clearly some freaky shit is up at the ruins, so let’s go back there to check it out.
We go back to the ruins, and promptly see Charlotte’s ghost. She rushes at us, but gets all burned up before she can get too close. Nancy passes out.
Dude, what the fuck is going on in this house.
When Nancy comes to, she notices that there’s a piece of wallpaper high up on the wall that she wants to investigate. Wallpaper! So mysterious! Whatever you say, Nancy. So now we have to make a tower so we can climb up there. It’s a similar puzzle to the opening of Alibi in Ashes, and of course I have no screencaps of the solution because I am useless. Anyway, once you pile everything in the correct order, Nancy can climb up and see what’s hidden behind the wallpaper.
It’s the star sketch that goes with the plate we have. Nancy copies down the design, and now we can open up that coffin. Savannah, you really failed to mention all the grave-robbing that was going to occur in this mystery.
As we leave the ruins, a piece of ceiling detaches and nearly falls on us. “That was close!” Nancy says. I mean, it is a building that burned down 30 years ago. This might be the only time one of Nancy’s near-deaths is an accident.
We go back to the crypt and solve the star puzzle, and find a locket inside the coffin. I hope none of the Thorntons wanted these sentimental heirlooms to be buried with their relative forever, because Nancy’s just reaching in and snatching all of them.
I forgot that this part of the game was pretty much just collecting clues from puzzles for a good hour or so. Anyway, we go to Beauregard Thornton’s grave next, and when we place the colored tiles from the basement on the grave, Nancy will note that the arrangement of the colors is important. It goes purple…green…dark blue…teal…I think? This game is really dark 🙁 Makes me regret not wearing glasses anymore 🙁
We can also drop by Wade and have a short chat about seeing Charlotte — it’s like an exchange of three sentences and we learn nothing, so let’s keep moving.
Back at the house, I choose to harass Colton some more because those texts between him and Jessalyn lowkey made me ship them and now he’s sinking my ship by still having a thing for Lexie, and I feel betrayed.
So we’ve noticed that he occasionally disappears off the porch every now and then. Where do you go, Colton? He says, “Nowhere,” to which Nancy snarks, “So every now and then, you pop out of existence?” For ages, I remember thinking that line sounded familiar, and I am just now realizing that it’s basically a paraphrase of when Angel told Buffy that he did “nothing” last night, and Buffy says, “Nothing at all? You ceased to exist?” in “Lie to Me.” And much like how Angel was talking to Drusilla behind Buffy’s back, Colton was hitting up Lexie behind Jessalyn’s! Quick, check if Colton burns up in the sunlight.
Anyway, Colton claims that he walks around and looks for Jessalyn. Then we ask if he ever met Charlotte, and he says that he met her a couple of times when she was alive. He tells us what everyone else has so far — that she was awesome and everyone loved her. She also spent a lot of time in the crypt with her dead relatives, too, which…okay, that sounds normal.
We bring up his paranoia issues as well, and Colton says he had to go to a psychiatrist when he was little. He says that Clara knows why he went, but she won’t let it go. Hmm. Clara seems relatively chill about Colton’s issues, whatever they are — she’s always mentioning that they’re not a big deal, and we shouldn’t suspect him of anything just because he’s depressed or whatever — but you could also read that as her being really passive-aggressive and condescendingly gossipy.
Speaking of, as soon as we go back into the house, we hear Clara scream. She freaks out that she saw Charlotte walk through the wall, and that Charlotte told Clara “something that only [Clara] could possibly know.” Nancy wonders if someone is just cosplaying as Charlotte, and wants to know what the maybe-ghost told Clara. Clara shuts down and snaps that she said something ONLY CLARA COULD POSSIBLY KNOW. “Not to be rude, but you don’t look so great right now,” Nancy says. HEE! Nancy, you’re just being petty because Clara won’t spill her secrets to you. Clara just tells us that ever since she got here, she’s been feeling weird. Us too, man. Nancy’s passed out twice already! Usually that only happens when someone hits us over the head!
Now that we have both parts of the key to Charlotte’s room, let’s go in there. There’s another puzzle on the door, which is similar to the puzzle at the ruins. If you recall, the puzzle at the ruins had the numbers already on the sides; for this one, we have to use the numbers from that one dude’s coffin.
When we finish the puzzle, the door swings open and we can finally go into the dead girl’s room. Not creepy at all!
We find Charlotte’s journal, and apparently, she was worried in her final days about someone “slipping off the edge” (probably Harper), and keeping herself safe. Hmm. Her journal notes that if something does happen to her — which, as we know, did — then she put her papers somewhere safe, and “Franklin’s memorial opens the first door.”
There’s a box on Charlotte’s desk, which shows us this puzzle when we look closer at it. Nancy will say that she has to trace a path from the top left to the top right corner. You’ll notice that these tiles are the same colors as the ones on Beauregard’s grave (I wonder if I’ll be able to spell “Beauregard” right on the first try by the time I’m done with this recap), so the path has to be traced through the tiles in the order they appear on the grave.
When that’s done, the box will open and we’ll find another note from Charlotte, saying that the passages are no longer safe, and now whatever she hid can be found by unlocking the clocks and making them all strike twelve together.
There are five clocks on the mantle, so presumably these are the ones to unlock.
Wait, we found a key in her jewelry box! Oh, wait, this isn’t the right key 🙁 This game has so many keys, guys. I’m losing track of them.
We also find an invite to Charlotte’s ill-fated 21st birthday party. The menu lists fried okra, grits, pecan pie, and sweet tea, in case you forgot for five minutes that we’re in the South.
Let’s see if Addison has anything to say about all this. We ask her about the ruins, and she says that she and Jessalyn never made it out there. Addison is like, “Did it look like there was a fire out there? Because that would be the ruins where Charlotte died.” As opposed to…other ruins that might be on the property? Damn, Thorntons! Take better care of your freaking island mansion!
And hey, Addison, since you’re Jessalyn’s best friend, did you know that Colton is a total fuckboy? Addison says that she knew Colton was hella into Lexie and was super upset when she dumped him, but she didn’t know they were still texting or whatever. She thinks that Colton might’ve actually been rebounding from Lexie when he and Jessalyn got engaged, and warns that if Lexie is back in the picture, that’s probably not good for Colton and Jessalyn. Addison says that Jessalyn never mentioned anything about her parents setting her and Colton up, but to be fair, this whole saga is kind of proof that Jessalyn wasn’t telling her everything about her life to begin with. Sucks to be Addison. You think you know someone, and then she goes missing and you get dragged into her family drama with some nosy Northerner chick calling you every five minutes.
Let’s call Bess and Ned. We mention the article we found about Harper losing her shit after Charlotte died. Bess is like, “Are you going to bring it up to her, with your usual lack of tact?” For once, Nancy’s like, “I don’t know, that might actually upset her.” Nancy managing to successfully read a social situation? She’s really growing as a person, you guys. She also muses that it’s unlikely that Harper would give us a straight answer anyway.
(Spoiler alert: we are, in fact, going to insensitively ask Harper about her arrest. Nancy talks a good talk, but you know the allure of getting up in everyone’s business is too great!)
We also tell them about Colton and Lexie, and how Colton and Jessalyn might have been in an arranged marriage. Bess: “That is so old-school! I mean, arranged marriage?! That’s like one room school house, uphill both ways in the snow, and the teacher is like a horse or something and everyone’s wearing buckle hats and they’re learning about corn.” Why is Bess me when I don’t plan my speeches and nobody stops me? Anyway, Nancy’s like, “To be fair, this house still has slave quarters, so old-school is kind of their thing.”
I call Savannah next, and ask about her and Wade. Savannah tells us that she broke up with Wade because he’s bad news. And…we just gave him her phone number, so…whoops.
Welp, let’s move on before Savannah finds out we gave her creepy ex-boyfriend information on how to find her! We tell her about finding the spooky haunted film out at the ruins, and Savannah’s all, “The ghost left it for you!” Can ghosts pick up objects? Nancy freaks out that she’s really starting to believe in ghosts out here, and Savannah’s like, “One of us! One of us!” She’s about to say more, but then she gets another call and hangs up on us. Rude 🙁
We turn around to go back downstairs and — oh, hey, what up, Charlotte.
You know what? I’m not even scared anymore. This girl is EVERYWHERE, like play a little hard to get, damn.
Harper’s back to hiding in the basement, so let’s go see what she’s up to. She snarks at us for threatening to tattle on her again, and Nancy…says that she’s going to tell everyone where Harper is, again, some more. Nancy, you gotta stop doing that. Harper says that she might be the only one who can help find Jessalyn. Harper, we’ve known you for over two-thirds of the game, so if you’re gonna help us find Jessalyn, maybe you should get on that.
There’s quite a bit we can go over with her, so let’s go though all the conversation options. We ask about her relationship with Charlotte, and Harper says that she worshiped here. “I wanted to be her when I grew up. But then one day I was older than my older sister, and older still today.” Oh, gosh, that’s a really sad and well-written line. We mention that Harper had a troubled childhood, and Harper chirps that her family sent her off to an asylum. “I’m one of the few girls to graduate from that program. I got a little diploma that says ‘Harper’s no longer a danger to herself and others’ and everything.” HEE. We ask why she was sent away, and Harper snipes that we should ask Clara.
Sorry, this is the first thing that popped into my head.
Then we tell Harper that we really upset Clara, and it’s her fault. I…forget what this refers to. I think it was when we brought up her father? I don’t know. Anyway, Harper starts cackling and is like, “Did she cry? And was it a single tear like she was going for one of them movie awards? Or was it a big snuffly ugly cry? Oh, she is an ugly crier — hate to bring that to the table, but it is the truth.” Speaking of upsetting Clara, we bring up that seeing the film of Charlotte’s birthday freaked her out, which pleases Harper even more. Nancy’s like, “Okay, I’m starting to think that you left the film out for us to find.” Harper’s like, “I might’ve.” Nancy clutches her pearls and is all, “Why would you ever do that?” and Harper snaps that she wants Clara to be miserable. “And, I had a hunch that it would be funny. Was I right?”
Oh, Harper. Shine on, you crazy diamond. I love her.
Since clearly Harper’s behind at least 80% of the weird stuff that’s happening, let’s go ahead and accuse her of dressing up as Charlotte. I’m not sure how she managed to get her hair under control, unless she’s hiding a bunch of product in the basement, but whatever. Harper denies it.
Alrighty, so the key we found in Charlotte’s room unlocks the box in the secret passage under the porch. When we unlock it, we have to slide the numbers around to spell out the date of Ethel’s death. Her gravestone says it was January 13, 1933.
The box opens, and we get another plate.
Being in the secret passageway will make Nancy pass out again, and we cut to being on the phone with Bess and Ned again. I mean, I guess Nancy doesn’t really pass out; instead everything will fade out and she says she has to go to sleep. I don’t miss the alarm clock system or anything, but I do feel a lack of control at not being able to make Nancy binge-solve this case 🙁 Anyway, Nancy will merely note that the search party is winding down, and everyone’s just like, “LOL, guess Jessalyn’s gone forever.” Man, some people ain’t loyal.
We go ask Clara about Harper being sent to an asylum, and Clara’s like, “Uh, we sent her to a boarding school, she was just being hella dramatic about it.” She asks how we even know about that, and Nancy says that Harper told us. Clara tells us to stay away from Harper. Don’t tell me what to do, Clara!
(Nancy’s notes: “Harper may have been committed, or she may have gone to a boarding school. Nothing is ever simple with this family.” Heh.)
Out in the graveyard, we can put the rose from the crypt on the statue of the Grey Lady. When we back away and then come back, the rose is replaced with this sketch that matches the plate that we found.
So we do the plate/sketch/tile puzzle with the rose plate, and we get a button with a “6” on it from this crusty skeleton dude. Hmm, it looks like the numbers on that door in the basement that wouldn’t open.
When we go back into the house, we hear more eerie singing, which I’m realizing this game’s like, notification alert for when Harper-pretending-to-be-a-ghost leaves us notes. So we go upstairs, and the note tells us that someone is creeping in the tunnels. And we better hurry up and do it now — Harper was in such a rush, she didn’t even bother making up a rhyme for the last bit. Damn, Harper, put in some effort.
So we go through the passageway in the cellar and go upstairs, where we can see in to the hallway. Wade comes by and tries to get into Charlotte’s room, but can’t. We hear him drop something, and then he leaves. What you doing, Wade?
After he leaves, we can go out and see what he dropped. It’s another key! I straight up don’t even remember how many keys we have anymore!
Alright, so this is the key that unlocks the clocks, which means it’s time to do the clock puzzle. Each clock rotates at different speeds, which seems unhelpful for clocks, but whatever. Pulling the lever makes the clocks stop and start, so you want to see how fast each clock moves, stop them, then go and adjust each clock’s hands so that they’ll reach 12:00 at the same time.
One of the big ol’ paintings swings open and reveals a secret passageway…
Which leads behind one of the portraits in the parlor. When we look through it, we see Clara on the phone, presumably with Colton’s parents. She’s yelling at them for not paying off Lexie enough, and snaps at them, “He’s not my son yet, and if you don’t care of this, he never will be — and you know what that means.” Ooh! What does it mean? Tell us more, Clara!
Tragically, that’s all we can eavesdrop on. We can’t leave through the portrait, since Clara is still in the room. Instead, we go around the long way, and try to ask Clara what she was talking about. “I couldn’t help but overhear,” Nancy says, and Clara’s like, “Oh, you couldn’t help it, could you?” Hee. She snaps that Nancy’s not invited to this conversation. Clara, nobody ever invites Nancy into conversations. Nancy just sorta shows up and shames them into talking to her.
Let’s go see what Colton knows about this. He’s all like, “Golly, Clara was talking to my parents about little old me?” Colton, that’s your parents and your future mother-in-law, of course they talk about you. Anyway, he tells us that his parents have always been in politics, but they’ve been steadily draining their money on campaigns, and they might not be able to run anymore. Interesting.
Let’s confront Harper about the whole maybe-asylum maybe-boarding school thing. We tell her that Clara said she was just sent to boarding school, and Harper’s all, “Alternative facts!” Okay, that’s not helpful at all. It doesn’t get resolved, either — the game sort of leans in a certain direction over who’s telling the truth here, but it doesn’t ever exactly give us a solid answer. We’ll get to that.
Alrighty! So we have the #6 button for this door, so let’s put it on the door and solve the puzzle. Charlotte’s diary told us that the clue to solving this was the first and seventh numbers on Franklin’s plaque. If you read it, the first and seventh numbers on the plaque are a 1 and an 8, so we want the rows of numbers on the door to add up to 18 on every side. As you can see, the top row is 4 + 1 + 7 + 6, the left side is 4 + 9 + 5, and so on.
We open the door, and meet this lady. Dude! Jessalyn’s been in the entire house the entire time! Wait, how has she been eating? Anyway, Nancy is relieved that Jessalyn’s safe, and Jessalyn’s like, “Uh, I don’t even know you.” Wait, really? She couldn’t even like, hear us aggressively interrogating Harper outside?
We tell her that Wade hired us to find her, which surprises her for some reason. “My family just a hot mess,” she sighs. Oh, Jessalyn. We know. She says that we can’t tell anyone we found her, and Nancy’s like, “Don’t try me, I totally sold Harper out twice.” Anyway, we can either offer to help her, or try to threaten her. I choose threatening, because that’s been working out for me so far, you know?
Aaand Jessalyn summons Charlotte’s ghost, who kills us. Oops. Okay, so we can’t intimidate Jessalyn with threats. I can respect that.
One second chance button later, we offer to help Jessalyn, which will lead to the scene fading out, and Jessalyn reappearing in the cellar. She’s presumably explained everything to Nancy in the interim, because Nancy’s all, “Wait, so you and Harper are working together?”
Jessalyn recaps for us that she ran into Harper during her sleepover with Addison (that part of the night when Jessalyn disappeared). Harper cackles that Jessalyn was so freaked out that she had give her a paper bag to help her breathe. I should add, Harper is commentating on Jessalyn’s whole story offscreen, and it’s amazing. Jessalyn said that she’d been told her whole life that Harper was crazy (Harper: “What a coincidence, me too!”), but she stayed to listen to her anyway. Apparently, Harper was there the night Charlotte died, and she says that Clara was the one who set the fire. Jessalyn thinks it might be true, but she needs proof. Nancy offers to help her.
But before we go off and do that, let’s see if we can unravel any more of this crazy via Jessalyn’s dialogue. She tells us that she thinks that Clara’s been trying to take control of the family and stop anyone from finding out whatever Charlotte found out — because apparently, Clara killed her because Charlotte knew something Clara didn’t want getting out. Hmm.
So Clara has Charlotte’s locket in her briefcase. Charlotte told Harper that if anything ever happened to her, there would be a clue in the locket. But we have to open in the right way — i.e., by doing a puzzle, obviously — or else the locket will self-destruct or some shit. That’s pretty high tech for the ’80s, which was when Charlotte died. Jessalyn gives us the instructions for the puzzle.
Oh, wait, before leave: Jessalyn, your boyfriend was kind of texting other girls while everyone thought you were kidnapped. Jessalyn’s like, “Whatever, this whole thing was my mom’s idea anyway.” Oookay. I mean, I can see Colton going for the relationship because he was on the rebound and everything, but why the hell did Jessalyn agree to get engaged to him? Whatever.
Alright, so now we have to somehow get Clara out of this parlor so we can go through her stuff. There’s really been a lack of going through people’s personal possessions in this game, now that I think about it. We can mention to her that she doesn’t look too good again — man, Nancy, I know she might be a murderer and all, but we could be nicer to the lady with a missing daughter! Clara muses that it’s a little hard to breathe in here. She still won’t leave to get any fresh air, though, so that was pointless.
Oh, and I forgot to add the instructions for opening the briefcase. Here they are.
I think at this point I called Bess and Ned for hints, which was pretty sad. Nancy’s like, “Bruh, this game is dark as fuck. When I get home, we’re doing something fun.” Bess concurs, as apparently the rest of their friends are also no fun — “Joe’s taken up hiking, and Nancy, it’s just walking. That’s what it is.” Hee. That’s why I don’t hike. Or exercise at all. I’m very sedentary. Bess adds that Frank is all emo for no reason that she can tell. Probably because Nancy didn’t pick up when he tried to confess his undying love for her in the last game. That’s your own fault, Frank. I was really embarrassed for you when I heard that voicemail.
Oddly, Nancy tells Bess that she figured out the ghosts: Harper and Jessalyn were dressing up as Charlotte so that they could move through the house easily. Harper was also hoping that Clara would be spooked into telling the truth. Harper, have you met Clara? That woman is ice cold. Anyway, Bess is like, “How very Hamlet of them.” She adds that Nancy should take a break from dark cases for a while, which is quite meta.
We can also call Savannah, and tell her that Harper and Jessalyn told us that Clara tries to discredit anyone who might be able to tell the truth about what happened to Charlotte. Okay, yeah, so — this stuff is presumably what Jessalyn told Nancy after the fade-out when you find her. If you don’t make these phone calls, Nancy won’t explain to anyone else, so you get a little more backstory if you do this. Anyway, Nancy tells Savannah that Wade might not be such a bad guy; Clara probably framed him for getting in her way. Savannah’s like, “I didn’t leave Wade because of Wade, I left because his family is way too damn spooky.” And Clara being a murderer probably doesn’t help, so…sucks to be Wade, I guess.
Speaking of spooky, if we go out into the cemetery, the blank gravestone suddenly has Nancy’s name on it. “You don’t get less subtle than that, now do ya,” Wade deadpans.
There isn’t much to do in the graveyard except see that creepiness, so now we can go back inside. If we go through the passageway in Charlotte’s room and look through the portrait, we can hear ~*~eerie singing~*~ and Clara freaking out. She leaves, and we can go through the portrait to get to her briefcase.
So according to the instructions, we want to click on the labeled parts of the numbers baed on the yes/no answers. This will make a shape that looks sort of like this, and the briefcase will pop open.
Success! And that’s a pretty sweet necklace; my mall goth self would’ve been very into it.
We bring the necklace to Jessalyn, who says that there’s a piece missing. We already have it, though; it’s the locket piece that we pulled off of that one skeleton. Aren’t you glad we desecrated your ancestor’s graves, Jessalyn? We’re prepared!
So the instructions for the locket were in that one sketch we found in the fountain. The sketch labels the buttons on the locket with letters, and we have to spell out the names of three Thorntons: Marianna, Hiriam, and Emeline.
The locket opens up, and Jessalyn reads whatever’s inside. She says she’s going to go confront her mother herself. We read the note after she leaves; it says that Clara can’t be trusted and Harper needs to know the truth. Then it gives in the instructions for another puzzle. Nancy worries that shit’s about to go down with Jessalyn and Clara.
On our way back, we can talk to Colton again. He’s like, “Oh, by the way, I just remembered that I saw Charlotte before she died and she gave me a clue. Also there was another person in the ruins the night that she died and I’m pretty sure the fire wasn’t an accident.” Wow, thanks for ever bringing this up before, COLTON. He frets that whoever started the fire might have taken Jessalyn. Colton, we already — you know what, nevermind.
I didn’t actually put this together, but Nancy’s notes will indicate that the traumatic event that triggered Colton’s anxiety was seeing Charlotte’s death, so that’s a sideplot tied up there as well.
Anyway, Colton gives us Charlotte’s paper, which has a bunch of symbols listed out, but one of them is missing. Naturally, that’s the one that will lead us to whatever we’re supposed to find.
So the symbols are all in the tunnels, so let’s go down there and OH SNAP I DON’T THINK THAT’S JESSALYN OR HARPER? LIKE I DON’T THINK THEY’RE NON-CORPOREAL LIKE THAT?
The actual possible ghost rushes us, but we don’t die, so let’s keep moving. That’s some weird shit, though! What the fuck! Anyway, we can’t go any further into the tunnel, because it’s too dark. This entire game is dark as fuck. Nancy should’ve developed night vision by now.
The area of the cellar that Jessalyn was standing by has a generator, so we can turn that on to light up the tunnels. I…will not pretend to completely understand this puzzle; basically the gates open and shut as you move the ball through the maze, and sometimes you can go through some of them but not others, and opening some of the gates will close the others. I don’t know. The goal is to get the ball into the hole near the top, and somehow I manage it, and the lights in the tunnels turn on. Jessalyn’s alone with an arsonist, so let’s keep moving.
The symbols in Charlotte’s note are actually the numbers 1-5 mirrored, so we’re looking for number 6. When we find it, you use the spade that we’ve been carrying around since the actual beginning of the game oh my God. The spade will dig in the wall until we find a safe.
More puzzles! For the love of God, there’s a murderer on the loose, guys! “A hidden safe. Cool,” Nancy says. NANCY, THE WOMAN STANDING ON THE FLOOR ABOVE YOUR HEAD MURDERED HER ADOPTED SISTER THIRTY YEARS AGO.
So we have to push all these buttons in order, based on that paper in the locket. First you have to line all the buttons up with the levers on the outside rim. Then the note lists numbers for each of the corners of the safe — so for example, the numbers 1, 3, 4, and 5 are listed for the designs on the top corners of the safe, so the levers 1, 3, 4, and 5 have to be pushed in for the top row of buttons.
Inside the safe, we find Charlotte’s will. It looks like Clara was originally the heir to everything, but at the last minute, Charlotte revoked that and made Harper the heir. Nancy muses that if Clara was trying to keep this will hidden, then she was probably the one who started the fire. Yeah, Nancy. That’s what Harper and Jessalyn have been saying this whole time.
Okay, remember how I said there’s something else very dark about this game that is hinted at but never confirmed? Yeah, so — as we know, Charlotte was researching her family before she died, and was for some reason really interested in Clara’s grandfather, Jackson. In the days before she died, she found something out that made her write Clara out of her will. Clara was so disturbed by what she found that she killed Charlotte to keep the secret. You’ll also recall that Clara hates talking about her father.
So the theory goes that Jackson is also Clara’s father — he abused his daughter, Rosalie, and Clara is a product of incest.
Obviously, HER hasn’t confirmed this, the way that they did with the “Thorntons had slaves” theory. That said, I think a fan emailed them about it, and their response wasn’t a definite no, either. So yup! Something cheerful to reflect on! You kind of can’t blame Clara for being upset at being cut out of the will; it’s not like she asked for her mom to be an incest victim.
Anyway, finding the will triggers the end of the game, so let’s step back and see what happens.
Smoke is filling the tunnels, and Nancy will note that the house is on fire. Oh my God, Clara, can you please find a new MO?
We go back out and see Jessalyn and Harper still here. Wasn’t Jessalyn going to talk to her mother? Whatever. Harper is freaking out and Jessalyn can’t carry her.
Another thing that makes this game hella dark: you can totally let some of the Thorntons die, if you want to. We have two choices: we can build something to help lift Harper out of here, or we can tell Jessalyn that there’s no time and we have to go. I’m a nice person, and Harper has cracked me up over the course of this game, so let’s save her.
Nancy will see a rail cart in the room and note that we can make a wheelbarrow out of it. So we run around the room picking up some wheels, bolts, and a set of handlebars. We automatically place them on the cart, and Jessalyn says she’ll take Harper from here. She also says that Clara is in Charlotte’s bedroom — it’s too dangerous to ask us to help, so it’s up to us, again.
I’m choosing to save Clara because I’m nice. You know how you can get Heather fired in Danger by Design? I’ve never done that, ever. I’m loyal, guys!
Clara is having a meltdown in Charlotte’s room, freaking out that she’l never let us leave. Speak for yourself, Clara! While we look for a way out, she wails and kind of confesses: she says she’s sorry for what happened, and she didn’t want Charlotte to die — she was just so upset, because Charlotte had everything and Clara had nothing. Aw, man, that’s just sad.
We have to do the clock puzzle all over again, and the solution isn’t the same as the first time, so you have to test them again. I really have no idea how anyone does it without cheating, because it takes for frickin’ ever to watch the hands move. Anyway, I cheat my way to the solution, the passageway behind the painting opens, and we get the hell out of there. Clara wails that she deserve to die here, and Nancy says that she should live and pay for her mistakes.
Everyone makes it out of the house, although like I said, you could also let Harper and Clara die in there. (Actually, Jessalyn might choose to stay with Harper as well — one of the summaries I found said that you can let three people die.)
Nancy voiceovers that Clara explained what really happened: when she found out that Charlotte changed her will, she was afraid she’d be pushed out of the family forever, and she was already super jealous and salty over the rest of the family’s closeness. She was trying to scare her, and ended up burning the house down and killing Charlotte. Gosh, I love this. I love that Clara’s only kind of evil — yeah, she’s a murderer, but she’s also an orphan (and maybe a product of familial abuse) who was terrified of being unwanted, and she’s been repressing all her guilt and vulnerability ever since. I do wish the game leaned a little harder on how the family made Clara feel like an outsider, but maybe I’m just a Clara apologist.
The fire in the house this time was actually caused by the fumes from the furnace. Oh my God, Harper, we told you this would happen! It’s not “upstairs people problems” now, is it? Nancy muses that all the ghosts she saw were from the carbon monoxide fumes, and inhaling them was what was making her so drowsy.
Jessalyn took over the family company and hired Wade to overlook their operations and make sure they comply with labor laws this time. Wade also peaced out to see Savannah, even though she said she broke up with him because his family was freaky, not because of him. Learn to take no for an answer, Wade!
And Jessalyn and Colton broke up so he can go back to dating Lexie. Nancy chirps that they’ll still be friends, though. Uh…okay, Jessalyn and Colton dated for like a year, right? They had to have slept together. Maybe I’m a bad person, but I feel like it’s gonna be weird to go back to being platonic best friends after that.
Harper disappeared, and Wade and Jessalyn had to track her down and convince her to rejoin the family. She agreed on the condition that they raze Thornton Hall and build a park there, which they did. So now people can go to Blackrock Island and not be murdered by farming equipment or carbon monoxide inhalation.
Also, according to the writers, Harper was the one who wrote Nancy’s name on the tombstone. For…fun? It’s unclear. Oh, Harper, you so wacky.
THE END.
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