Season 1, Episode 4:
Secrets and Lies
Joe tries to cover up his connection to a criminal and ends up learning his identity. While following Laura’s investigative footsteps, Frank learns his grandmother is lying to him.This episode contains examples of:
- Artistic License – Law: A justified example. Joe is panicking about the police having found the toolbox that he lent to JB before knowing he's a criminal, as his soldering iron with his name engraved on it is in there and he fears being arrested as an accomplice. Biff comes up with a plan to help him get it back while stating that since it's Joe's soldering iron, if he takes it back from the police while he's at the station, it's not really stealing. Of course, this is completely untrue, as taking something that's been classified as police evidence very much is stealing and is illegal, but these are two 12-year-olds saying it, not actual law enforcement, and they do acknowledge later that breaking into an evidence locker is a felony.
- Cassandra Truth: As Joe freaks out about the cops finding his toolbox on the beach, Frank tries to reassure him by pointing out that even if they learn it belongs to him, they'll just think JB stole it. What's more, he's very unlikely to get in serious trouble for helping a stranger whom he didn't have any idea was a criminal, especially considering he's just a kid and didn't even do anything illegal while helping JB. None of this manages to ultimately reassure Joe, who takes far more drastic measures like first plotting to run away and then sneaking into a police evidence locker to steal back the tool that can be decidedly traced back to him.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: Joe's engraved soldering iron from the first two episodes comes back into play again here in a big way after the police find his toolbox on the beach, scaring him because he knows this soldering iron will prove the tools are his and could get him into trouble for helping JB. Luckily, after hatching a plan with Biff to retrieve it, he's able to steal it back before the cops ever see it and learn about his involvement.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Which doubles as an Idiot Ball moment for Joe. Back in "Where the Light Can't Find You" when he went back to the beach to meet JB again and found him gone, his toolbox was apparently just left there for the cops to find at the start of this episode, kicking off Joe's subplot here of trying to get back his soldering iron with his name on it. If he had just taken his toolbox while he was there two episodes ago, or gone back for it anytime between then and now—which would've been a logical thing to do considering he'd probably want his tools back—the whole ordeal wouldn't have happened.
- Dumped via Text Message: Well, this is in the age before text messages, but in one of Frank's usual calls to his girlfriend Emma at the start of the episode, she comes across as rather distant, contrary to all of her prior appearances. When Frank admits that he doesn't know when he's coming back to Dixon City due to everything happening right now, Emma tells him somewhat unsympathetically that they both need to try to move on, ignores his pleas to talk things through further, and just says "Goodbye, Frank" before hanging up on him.
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Jesse sternly says "Joseph Hardy!" when she catches him in Chief Collig's office. Aunt Trudy also says "Joe Hardy, you get in that house right now!" when Jesse brings him home.
- Internal Reveal: Played with; the Hardy Boys finally learn JB's name at the end of this episode from the police file Biff copied. Any viewers who've seen one of the Interface Spoilers like subtitles or the ending credits, and/or noticed his "Wanted!" Poster in a Freeze-Frame Bonus, will have already learned his name prior to this, making the reveal an example of this trope. However, for audiences who didn't see any of these things, it counts as a proper reveal when they learn it together with the boys.
- Made of Iron: Jesse is understandably incredulous that the Tall Man withstood enough electricity to power an entire carnival and is still alive, lampshading that it should have killed him several times over.
- My Girl Back Home: Deconstructed. Emma isn't interested in trying to have a long-distance relationship with Frank any longer, especially in this day and age where they apparently don't have transportation to come see each other and are thus limited to phone calls and letters. Once Emma confirms with Frank that he doesn't know when he'll return to Dixon City, she pretty much tells him she's tired of waiting and breaks up with him.
- Noodle Incident: The sergeant falls for Biff's story and lets her and Joe go in the back of the police station to "collect the charity box," but does warn her not to "festoon the chief's desk with toilet paper again," prompting Joe to look at her in confusion.
- Not Quite Dead: After JB electrocuted the Tall Man near the end of the last episode and escaped, everyone thought the latter was dead, but he's revealed here to be comatose in the hospital.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Joe is able to steal his soldering iron back at the station, but then tries to get more info about JB and is busted. The next day, Biff shows up at the Hardy home to give the boys a copy she made of the police report on JB, having somehow managed to get her hands on it without her mom noticing. She even admits, "It wasn't easy, but I can't resist a challenge." Both brothers are suitably impressed.
- Parting-Words Regret: During the final time Gloria saw Laura before her death, they had a major argument. She tries to downplay the severity of it and claims when Frank asks that they were arguing about him, but Callie tells him later that it really had nothing to do with him. Gloria is honest, though, when she tells Frank she will forever regret that this was the last conversation she had with her daughter.
- Present Absence: JB does not appear in this episode, but Joe's whole subplot revolves around trying to avoid getting in trouble for previously helping him and find out who he is, and finally learns his name at the end, making JB central to the plot even while not there physically.
- The Runaway: Joe, fearing becoming a juvenile delinquent if the cops discover he helped JB, briefly plans to become this. He doesn't even make it out of his room before Biff finds him thanks to having grossly overpacked to the point that he can't even stand up properly, and she convinces him that running away won't help, prompting them to come up with the alternate plan of stealing back his soldering iron.
- Stereo Fibbing: Joe and Biff need to get past the sergeant at the desk to get to the evidence locker so Joe can steal back his soldering iron. Biff lies that they're there to get a charity collection box, and when the sarge asks what the charity is for, Biff says "kittens" and Joe says "orphans" at the same time, and Biff quickly covers by adding "Orphan kittens at the animal shelter."
- Title Drop: The episode title comes from Callie telling Frank what she overheard of Gloria's argument with Laura on the morning of the latter's death, with Laura saying "something about secrets and lies."
- Trespassing Hero: Both Frank and Joe do some form of this in their respective storylines. The latter gets caught, the former doesn't.
- Frank and Callie sneak into the library after closing hours to follow the trail of Laura's investigation into the origins of Bridgeport. They narrowly avoid being caught by a security guard and decide to quit while they're ahead and leave.
- Joe and Biff do manage to break into an evidence locker to get Joe's soldering iron without anyone seeing them. But he then decides to try sneaking into Collig's office to find info on JB despite Biff's warnings, and sure enough, Jesse quickly catches him red-handed.
- The Un-Reveal: Frank and Callie discover in their research at the library that, right after the Eye was found in the Tragedy at Demon's Paw, the agriculture of Bridgeport completely changed to become much more habitable, going from a place you couldn't pay people to live in to a booming town with a skyrocketing population. This reveal is never brought up again, so exactly how it occurred—whether it was thanks to the Eye's magic literally changing the landscape somehow, or the people who found it using its information to change the land itself—doesn't get any clarification.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Subverted. Despite Joe and Biff talking about it ahead of time, he does manage to take his soldering iron back at the police station without any of the cops ever finding out. Joe only gets caught doing something he shouldn't by Jesse after he then decides to go for broke while he's there and try to sneak into Collig's office to see the police file on JB.
- "Wanted!" Poster: JB Cox has had these in Bridgeport and other cities since he became a fugitive by stealing the idol from the Tall Man and jumping out of the plane, and it was possible to spot one of these in the previous episode as a Freeze-Frame Bonus. The Hardy Boys finally seeing one in the police file on him, along with the other information the cops have there, is how they learn his name.
