Previously on Nancy Drew: Midnight in Salem: We saw ghosts (again, some more) and found out that there might be a logical explanation for all of this. Then we went around town with Deirdre Shannon and had to like, hold her back from physically fighting our suspects. I LOVE HER.
Anyway, half the town is tripping balls on ergot, which might explain the whole ghost-sighting thing. We interrogated everyone and found that the common denominator is that they were all chugging Lauren’s tea, made with tap water at Lauren’s house. We also found a map from from Salem’s water company that points towards Hathorne House, so we really ought to go there next.But first! We also saw CCTV footage of Jason Danforth breaking into the courthouse and stealing the AW evidence, but the game won’t let us acknowledge it was Jason, for some reason. Instead, we’re focused on the car that he got into when he left after stealing the evidence.
First, though, let’s talk to Jason anyway. While we can’t accuse him of stealing the AW evidence — because we’re pretending we couldn’t see his blindingly bleached hair in the security footage? — we can call him out for lying about his alibi. He claimed to be running errands for Alicia when the evidence was stolen, but when we spoke to Nancy’s dad earlier, he said he was talking to Alicia at the time, and she was running errands alone. Jason reasonably points out that they could have just been running errands separately, but Nancy and Deirdre are like, “Stop saying words.”
We then turn around from our conversation with Jason, and see the car that he — sorry, that “the suspect” got into at the end of the CCTV footage. We go back to Jason and he says that the car belongs to Alicia. Suspicious!
We have nothing left to chat with Teegan about, but we can observe how awkwardly placed Deirdre is!
Let’s go back to Lauren and tell her that her home is about to get blown up in like three days. Lauren is totally shocked and says that Alicia never mentioned demolition to her. Deirdre snarkily asks if Lauren is looking to build her dream home on the property, and Nancy’s like, “Ooookay, let’s go.”
Again: if ruins have to be preserved “as-is”, though, then how on earth is Alicia able to blow it up? I mean, unless she was just going behind everyone’s back to do it, which is fair enough — but why bring it up at all if the game hinges on everyone ignoring that particular clause?
Our next step is to go see the Hardys, which triggers a phone call from Ned. Hi, Ned! The conversation gets weird quickly, though — for once, Nancy is the enthusiastic one, bringing up her conversation with Deirdre and her idea to go on a vacation after this case. Ned is cagey and keeps hedging every time Nancy mentions hanging out together. He says that he’s not sure he has time for a vacation, ’cause he just got off fall break — “Well, the next break,” Nancy says. Ned says, “Okay, but…” and this is clearly one of those conversations where the other person has something dramatic to say, but the other person won’t let them say it. Ned says that he’s actually been wanting to have a longer conversation with her, but then Frank calls Nancy over and Nancy says she has to go. Ned gets all salty that Frank is there, and he and Nancy agree to talk later. “Nance? I love you,” he adds. I guess that dramatic conversation will just have to wait until the next Nancy Drew game!
Okay, so — I may be alone in this, but I don’t necessarily mind some drama with Nancy and Ned. I personally like when the games portray Nancy more like a character and less like a blank slate for the player to step into; as a longtime Ned apologist who has stumbled upon way too many “Ned tries to force Nancy to stop taking cases because he doesn’t ~understand~ how important mysteries are to her, driving her into the arms of Frank Hardy” fanfics, I find it novel to see Nancy be the one insisting on spending time together. On the other hand, I would only really enjoy the drama if it ended with Ned and Nancy working things out, and I just do not trust that these games wouldn’t go the “Nancy Drew fanfiction” route.
On the other other hand, the likelihood of another game coming out is…LOL. So maybe Ned and Nancy’s relationship has been saved purely by Her’s terrible business decisions.
Also, there was no point to Frank calling us over, because there are no conversation options for the Hardys. Typical Frank.
Alright, with that drama out of the way, let’s get back to the main plot and investigate the Hathorne House. You’ll recall that the water map that Alicia had overlaid with the map of the Hathorne House perfectly, so we want to find the “access point” that was marked on the map. The access point is over by the carriage house where Lauren lives, and when we meander on over there, Nancy will muse that one of the bushes “looks strange.” Somehow.
Clicking on the bush will show us a patch of ground, and when we dig a little, we uncover the access point to the Hathorne House’s pipes. The pipe is rusted shut, but remember how we stole some Rust-B-Gone from the Parrys way back at the beginning of the game? We can now use it to un-rust the pipe and open it up, and we see that there’s a stalk of ergot-infected wheat(?) stuffed into the pipe. Since we found the blueprints for the pipes in Alicia’s office, that means she’s been poisoning Lauren! Is she our culprit, though, or is this one of those games where like, one suspect is trying to murder someone, but they’re not guilty of the main crime so we just kind of ignore it?
Lauren catches us snooping around once again and isn’t too happy, since Deirdre just accused her of being the culprit like an hour ago. Sorry about that Lauren, but you’re going to have to get over it, because the end of the game is starting! We tell her that Alicia’s been poisoning her all along, and Lauren immediately believes us. “But why?” she wibbles. Aw, look at her face! I feel bad for Lauren. She just kind of has a bunch of shitty things happen to her in the background of this game, like getting her house burned down and then being poisoned by the person she hired to help her. Should’ve hired Nancy Drew like Teegan did, Lauren!
Speaking of whom, finding out that Alicia is behind the ergot infection triggers a phone call from Teegan, who tells us that Mei has disappeared.
We cut back to the Parry house, where Teegan explains that Mei didn’t leave a note or anything: Teegan just came back for lunch and found the house empty. We despair over never getting her alibi, and wonder who she could’ve possibly cared about protecting so much that she’s risking getting arrested.
Teegan: “It’s Jason Danforth.” Nancy is like “WHAT” and Deirdre is like “WHAT” and I am not like “WHAT” because it’s kind of hinted that they were hanging out earlier, but still, admittedly — what. Are even angsty emo girls not immune to lure of a bleached fuckboy haircut? Love yourself, Mei! You’re an emo and he’s a prep! It will never work out!Teegan explains that Mei left her phone in the living room, so Teegan read through it and realized that Mei and Jason are still friends. She says that she thought they grew apart after they were kids, but apparently not — and Jason, being the massive fuckup that he is, told Mei he was in trouble for something, and she decided to cover for him.
Nancy wonders why Mei’s run away now, and then everyone pauses for a really long time before Nancy finally notices the newspaper on the table. “Juvenile record?” she asks, because I guess the front page is about Mei — we can’t see it from here, of course, although we can pick it up later and look at it (apparently Mei’s mostly been in trouble for graffiti and some shoplifting). Deirdre exposits that newspaper somehow got their hands on Mei’s juvenile record and published it, including her fourth-grade arson charge, so now the whole town is out for her blood. She’ll definitely get arrested if the cops find her first. Was…was the town not out to get her before?
Anyway, we tell Teegan that we think Alicia is the real culprit — she’s been poisoning Lauren, and if she’s evil enough to do that, she may also be behind the Hathorne House fire. “No, she’s not,” Teegan says. “Because I was the one who set Hathorne House on fire.” Teegan, what the fuck!Teegan bleats that it was an accident — she was looking for Frances’s will, and she knocked a candle over into some paint cans, and the whole place just…burst into flames. Teegan, it is the year of our lord 2020. Why the fuck were you lighting candles instead of just using your phone? Anyway, Nancy and Deirdre both want to know why Teegan didn’t just tell us this, you know, when she first hired us, and Teegan’s like, “Because then we wouldn’t have a game.”
Teegan promises to turn herself in if we find Mei, and Deirdre rightly says that Teegan should do that anyway. “Were you planning on having Mei take the fall for this?” she asks. Teegan’s like, “No? But kind of yes?” She says she was hoping the whole thing would just blow over, since they didn’t have any proof it was Mei or Teegan, and they would both just skate by under the radar. While that’s a totally cowardly move, I think this is a pretty good twist, since it makes a lot of sense for Teegan’s uptight, ambitious character. You definitely get the sense that she loses control of situations the second she messes up or feels any kind of pressure.
In addition to being an accidental arsonist, Teegan is also a shitty sister: not just because she was going to let Mei take the fall for something she did, but also because when we ask where Mei might be, Teegan has no idea. She shrugs that she knows Mei has hiding places around town, but she doesn’t know where they are, because that would require her to like, have paid attention to anything her sister was doing in the past ten years. Oh, Teegan. And I liked you! I usually like uptight, obnoxious characters because I think they get a bad rap, but you betrayed me!!
Anyway, we leave Teegan to stew in her guilt and run off into the night to find Mei. Deirdre exposits that the rain has picked up and it’s a full-on storm right now. Would be cool if they’d thrown in an ominous clap of thunder or something! Come on, guys, make an effort.
The Hardys show up, and they’re like, “Hey, we’ve spend the past ten hours just chilling in the cemetery and not doing anything, what’d we miss?” Nancy: “Long story short, Teegan set fire to the Hathorne House and Mei is missing.” Hee.
Frank: “WHAT?!” Like, half of Frank’s role in this game is to just be shocked at every wacky turn of events. I mean, this doesn’t even really affect you, Frank. It’s not like when you found out you were poisoned with ergot this morning.
Anyway, we task the Hardys with staying at the Parrys’ and making sure Teegan doesn’t like, try to make a break for the Canadian border or something. Frank frets about us going out into the storm because he really wants to be Nancy’s boyfriend. Back off, Frank!
It turns out he doesn’t have to worry, though, because when we try to leave with Deidre, she tells us not to come with her. She yells at us for not being able to get Mei’s alibi in time — we’ve let down our city, our country, but most of all, we have let down Deirdre Shannon. God, I feel so ashamed. Deirdre stomps out, leaving us with the Hardy Boys. No, Deirdre! Anything but abandoning us with Frank Hardy!
All that said, this is dumb. Why is it Nancy, a stranger’s, job to get the alibi from Deirdre’s family? The Parrys and the Shannons need to go to therapy and leave Nancy out of it.
Let’s go check out Mei’s usual hangout for clues. We move the pillow on the chair where she usually sits and see that she’s conveniently left her phone behind and — even more conveniently — doesn’t have a passcode, so we can immediately open up her texts and see that she’s been texting Jason Danforth. Ew. I bet there’s a dick pic in there somewhere.
Anyway, we read through the texts and see that Mei was asking Jason to come out to the burnt-out Hathorne House, which Jason refused to do on the grounds that he was still too freaked out, for some reason. Then, from today, we see that Mei told Jason she was going into hiding and asked him to “meet [her] there.” So Jason knows where Mei is.
Hey, I wonder if now, with Mei missing, we can go into her room? Surely it contains valuable clues as to her mindset and potential hiding places? And yet, Nancy still won’t go in without permission.
We go outside to find Jason Danforth, who’s still all super casual, calling us “detective lady” and snarking that the rain will ruin our makeup. Jason, can you please read the room. We ask what he’s doing here, and he’s like, “What are you doing here?” and Nancy’s like, “I live here, Jason.” Not in so many words. We tell him Mei’s gone missing, and he invites us to take a drive with him. I feel like we shouldn’t be going to a second location with one of our suspects, but okay, whatever, Nancy.
Jason drives us downtown for no reason that I can see. In the car, he admits that he and Mei have been friends all along, and he’s not worried about her because he knows that she’s just hiding. Not that he’ll tell us where she’s hiding, of course. When we press him, he just snaps at us to go back to where we came from. What is Jason’s deal? Like, does he not care that this is probably going to end in Mei’s arrest? Is he not aware that we are approaching the end of the game, and now is the time to stop lying to Nancy Drew?
Anyway, we get to the museum, and then Jason kicks us out of the car. Nancy’s like, “Why did you drive me all the way down here just to force me out into the rain? You know you could’ve just left me at the Parry house and avoided me altogether?” Jason’s like, “Stop poking holes in the plot.”
Before we get out of the car, though, we notice something suspicious. “There’s something here!” Nancy says. And then, instead of stopping her, Jason just stares down at his phone while we rifle through his glove box with impunity. The first thing we find is a first-class ticket from Boston to Vienna, from October 26th. Shock, gasp! Jason is the thief we saw! I mean, we can’t accuse him of this just yet, but that’s what this indicates.By the way, the game repeatedly establishes that the Book of Apologies theft was three days before we arrive in Salem, making the first day of the game the 29th. We’re on the third and final day now, which is the 31st. It’s Halloween! ~*~*~Spooky~*~*~
Finding the ticket triggers another fade-out, and we fade back in to be standing in front of the museum with Jason. Why don’t we both just get back in the car, where it’s not raining? Just asking. Anyway, we needle Jason about the plane ticket, and he cracks like an egg: he confesses to stealing the Book of Apologies and the AW evidence, and he admits Alicia was behind it all. That was embarrassingly easy. Is this your king, Mei???
Anyway, Jason says that Alicia coerced him into doing all of this because she knows he needs money, but he doesn’t know what her real motive for wanting the house is. He says he didn’t give her the Book, either: “It’s somewhere safe.” Ah yes, because we really trust Jason’s judgment after all this.Nancy rightfully points out that Jason doesn’t seem to give a shit about Mei, and Jason replies, “She has the Book of Apologies.” I mean — that’s not what we asked, but okay? Good to know the Book of Apologies isn’t in Alicia’s villainous hands, but can you please pretend to care about your supposed friend going to jail?
We finally manage to peer-pressure Jason into telling us where Mei is hiding: she’s in the tunnels under Salem. More tunnels! This game really is just Alibi in Ashes, part deux. Jason shows a glimmer of concern for Mei, asking us to find her quickly, since the rain causes the tunnels to cave in pretty frequently. Nancy’s like, “Why don’t you just take me down there yourself, you coward?” Jason: “I’m not a good person, okay? I’m scared.” Well, at least he admits it.
Jason goes off to confess what he did to Judge Danforth, and we call Deirdre to help us find Mei. She’s not picking up, though, so we’re forced to resort to Frank Hardy. Oh, all right, if we must.
Jason told us that the entrance to the tunnels is under the Little Liberty statue in the graveyard, so we meet the Hardy Boys there. Of course, we can’t just go slithering under the statue: there’s a puzzle to open it up first. Jason also gave us the hint that we need to “Bring light into darkness.” Nancy and the Hardys puzzle over what this super-complex metaphor could mean — is it literal light? Is it the truth? Do we need to bring truth into the night? (Frank: “I would think we need truth during business hours as well…”) Nancy comes down on the “literal light” side and asks if the Hardys if they brought flashlights. Of course they didn’t. To the museum!
On our way over, we get a bunch of cracked-out texts from Olivia, who’s hyped up on caffeine and wants to talk to us. Heh. Olivia’s really starting to grow on me. All she wanted to do was put on a show for a bunch of tourists and be an overdramatic theater kid; she didn’t sign up for all these poisoning and arson shenanigans.
Olivia babbles at us that she’s too terrified to drink any more tea — or possibly even water in general — and now she’s on a straight diet of pure caffeinated soda and she hasn’t slept in 48 hours, but on the bright side, she hasn’t seen a single ghost! Everything is great! Good to know; so anyway, Olivia, can we —
“Oh! Hey, can you do me a favor?” Olivia! I’m kind of trying to find Mei before the tunnels of Salem collapse in on her!
Well, let’s hear Olivia out. She tells us that she found “something” the other day that reminded her of her and Teegan’s old friendship (fuck Lauren, I guess), and she thought Nancy could give it to Teegan to make Teegan feel less alone. We have two options here: the first is to agree, and the second is to be like, “Seriously, Olivia? Right now?” If you choose the latter, you won’t get to see what it is that Olivia wants to give Teegan; if you choose the former, Olivia will give you a photo of her, Teegan, and Lauren that looks similar to the one that Teegan had in the spare room. (It would be poetic if Lauren had a third matching photo of their little gang, but we don’t talk to her about it.)
You don’t actually have to give the photo to Teegan right now if you take it from Olivia, so there’s no reason not to agree to do it for her. I chose to shoot her down anyway, though, because what is with everyone in this game asking Nancy to patch up their relationships for them? If you do take the photo from Olivia, Nancy will notice that there’s a younger girl with blonde hair in the background of the photo, and she’s all like, “Omg, who could that possibly be?” I mean, I guess it’s kind of weird that Mei apparently started bleaching her hair at the age of seven, but come on, Nancy.
We can borrow a lantern from Olivia’s desk, and with that, we go back to the Hardy Boys. Nancy expresses surprise that they’ve just been standing around in the rain, and Joe says, “Frank won’t leave. He’s like a robot who only takes orders from you,” and Frank/Nancy shippers everywhere squeal in unison.
We take the lantern and place it in Abigail Woodley’s hand, and the passage to the tunnels opens up. “It’s like Salem’s version of the Parisian Catacombs!” Nancy gasps. Or Salem’s version of the tunnels under River Heights. Or Salem’s version of the tunnels under Castle Finster. Or Salem’s version of the tunnels under Blackmoor Manor. Or…well, you get the point.
Just as we’re about to go underground, Deirdre finally calls us back. I love you, Deirdre, but like — we’re this close to finishing the game, do you mind?
Anyway, apparently Deirdre needs to tell us right now that she was meant to be babysitting Mei the night of her accident — she didn’t keep a close enough eye on her, and Mei snuck out and got into the accident that burned her. Deirdre apologizes for yelling at us, saying she doesn’t want to lie or pin the blame on anyone else anymore. She doesn’t think Teegan or Mei have ever forgiven — or will ever forgive her — for it, and that’s why she couldn’t get Mei to open up about her alibi.
On the one hand, I like the emotional weight behind these reveals a lot: there’s a quiet sadness and realism in the realization that Teegan and Deirdre are afraid of being punished for their actions the way they’ve seen Mei be punished by the town, so they’ve instead stayed silent and let Mei take the fall for everything. The scapegoating of Mei isn’t just the fault of pitchfork-wielding townspeople, her friends and family are also too wrapped up in their personal fears and failures to tell the truth. That is, after all, the point of a witch hunt: it’s not just about catching witches — or communists, or whoever — it’s also about making bystanders too afraid to speak up, because they know the consequences for taking the wrong side, even just for having sympathy for the victims, are too great.
On the other hand, it’s kind of hilarious that everyone keeps interrupting our supposedly frantic, time-sensitive search for Mei to explain shit that happened ten years ago. I mean, thank you for the background, guys, but couldn’t it wait until after we rescued her from the collapsing tunnels?
Speaking of! The last part of this game is, crazily enough, still long enough to warrant another post, so let us save the resolution of this mystery for another time (like tomorrow or maybe a week from now, assuming my allergies don’t spin out of control and put me under with repeat migraines, which is what happened this week!)
Up next: We save Mei and cockblock Frank Hardy, and all is as it should be.
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