Nancy Drew Showrunners Break Down Shocking Season 3 Finale

The CW's Nancy Drew aired its Season 3 finale on Friday, and it was a big one that not only completely changes things for Nancy and the Drew Crew going forward but stunned fans by leaving a lot of major questions. Now, series showrunners Melinda Hsu Taylor and Noga Landau are breaking down the stunning season finale and where it leads things for a potential fourth season of the popular series. Warning: major spoilers for the Season 3 finale of Nancy Drew, "The Ransom of the Forsaken Soul", beyond this point. If you haven't seen the episode, now's a good time to turn back.

In the Season 3 finale, Nancy (Kennedy McMann) put a stop to Temperance for good, thus preventing the apocalypse and saving Horseshoe Bay, but it came at a steep cost for Nancy personally. Ending Temperance led to a curse that, should she act on her feelings for Ace (Alex Saxon), he'll die. The episode ultimately saw Nancy having to leave Ace — who is unaware of the curse — and saw the rest of the Drew Crew embarking on their own separate paths as Nancy set up her official detective agency. It's a lot of moving parts, but Taylor explained to ET that it all sets the stage for Season 4 to return to the show's roots.

"Season 3 was pretty epic. It was about Nancy averting a supernatural apocalypse that her 200-year-old ancestor witch was trying to do," Taylor said. "And I think what we're most excited about for Season 4 is that we're returning to our roots and we're returning to the story of a detective in her beanie and with her flashlight in a creepy graveyard at the beginning of a whole new mystery that might be Earth-bound. It might be supernatural. It might be a little bit of both. We're really excited to go back to that kind of storytelling as a bit of a palette cleanser for our audience. We're really excited to tell the story of how Nancy and Ace move forward now."

However, moving forward won't be without its complexities. Ace is unaware of the curse and why Nancy left so abruptly so fans can expect that to lead to some interesting story paths for Ace as he tries to figure out what's going on.

"But his question is, 'Why did she run away from my apartment instead of kissing me? Is she in trouble? I bet she's in trouble. I need to find out what's going on so I can protect her,'" Landau said. "And naturally, that will lead him down some story paths himself."

As for what's next in terms of Nancy's new mystery, Landau and Taylor told TVLine that they're already crafting what's next—and teased a few clues as to what Season 4 might look like.

"There is a very small tendril of something that's already been planted that will become a part of the next mystery, yes," Landau said. "But the fun part of seeing Nancy Drew back in a dark, creepy graveyard is that after this big, crazy, epic season where she saved the world from a supernatural apocalypse, we really are designing Season 4 — knock on wood — to be a return to the roots of Nancy Drew, more where we started in Season 1."

"Carson and Jean are still a thing, Ryan is going to have a dastardly entanglement with the seemingly nice folks who made him get in their car at the end of the episode, there will definitely be a through line of supernatural and mythological mysteries, and Nancy is going to take a major step into the grown-up world," Taylor added. "Sometimes you have to pick and choose where your energy goes as a grown-up, and we'll see the ramifications of that."

What did you think of the Season 3 finale of Nancy Drew? Let us know in the comment section!