Season 3, Episode 1:
A Strange Inheritance
When the gang learns the location of George Estabrook’s hidden codexes, they must enlist the help of an unlikely ally to retrieve them before anyone else.This episode contains examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation:
- We never find out how much Gloria knew of George's plans related to the Crystal. She clearly knew all along that these plans involved Frank in some way based on George's instructions to will all of her assets to him, and it's heavily implied this is the main reason for her grandparental favoritism of him over Joe throughout the series. Still, George's words to her at the end of the previous season where he noted that he'd "promised to return and explain everything," as well as the dialogue he had with her right before they parted in 1961, confirm he didn't explicitly tell her he'd be taking Frank's body, but it's unclear if she guessed or figured any of it out after discovering what Project Midnight was 10 years ago. The way she looked more dismayed and stunned than happy at seeing George when he visited her at the hospital in Frank's body, and dying of apparent shock/horror right after, implies she had no idea her father planned to steal her grandson's body and and is horrified by it, but we'll never know for sure.
- It's not 100% clear when Joe decides for certain that "Frank" isn't actually Frank. The final confirmation is when the museum heist goes wrong and "Frank" steals the codex without him, but Joe also shows suspicion of him at several points before this, like lingering with an odd expression after the pre-funeral scene. Did he truly dismiss all of "Frank's" odd behavior as amnesia and trauma from the Crystal up until the heist, or did he suspect what really happened much sooner but was in denial of it and trying to give his "brother" the benefit of the doubt?
- While Stacy is noticeably thrown as well by "Frank" initially not recognizing her at all and then calling her "Miss Nabokov" instead of "Stacy" after she reminds him who she is—as well as narrowing her eyes a bit at some of the odd things he says—she seems to brush them off like mostly everybody else does, probably assuming that he's been using the Eye and it's changed him. She also still acts flirty with him. Was she planning from the beginning to use "Frank" to find a way to get the other relics and then kill him after as revenge for her father's death? Or did she switch to this plan after meeting him when she saw how much he's "changed"? Or is it somewhere in between?
- Antiquated Linguistics: George tries to act like Frank, but there are definitely several occasions where he sounds like the old man in a teen's body that he is, such as referring to "malt" for milkshakes and saying "Silence!" to Joe and JB when they're arguing, instead of the slang you'd expect Frank to use. It's confirmed in the next episode that Joe did pick up on this, and it's one of many factors that made him suspicious.
- Back for the Dead: Kanika Khan and Stacy Nabokov, returning for the first time since Season 1, are both crushed to death after only a few scenes (in Kanika's case, her only scene) when a woman in a black hood blows up the Chamber of the Eye and causes it to cave in on top of them.
- Bad Liar: George doesn't do the best job of pretending to be Frank, to say the least. He passes off not knowing about everything that happened in the series so far as Laser-Guided Amnesia, but still acts distant and awkward even with those Frank is close to, rarely smiles or cracks jokes, can't make a modern-day milkshake (using "malt and water" instead of milk), occasionally speaks with Antiquated Linguistics, and changes his hair and fashion styles to more like that of an old man. Overall, it takes him less than a week to get made, with Joe deducing it even before his Blatant Lies about betraying him at the museum heist, and Callie has clearly suspected something as soon as he broke up with her.
- Bait-and-Switch: When the museum heist goes wrong, JB decides to flee, while "Frank" has Joe hide and instructs him not to leave without the codex. Cut to the Hardy home, where Chet and Belinda are guarding the safe in case JB doubles back to steal the rest of the scrolls; the power goes out, and someone is shown moving outside the window behind Belinda, implying that he did indeed return to do so. But then Biff reports to Joe over the walkie that she saw JB being arrested by the cops, meaning the intruder is someone else; it soon proves to be George, who actually found the last scroll at the painting and came back to get the rest.
- Big Bad Friend: Subverted. As soon as Joe realizes "Frank" was the traitor in the museum heist group, rather than believing him to be this for even a second, it instantly confirms his sneaking suspicions that "Frank" isn't actually his brother and someone else is using his body.
- Blatant Lies: When Joe confronts "Frank" after the botched museum heist—in which George told Joe to stay hidden and not leave without getting the codex, only to steal it himself—"Frank" tries to pull the "Oh thank goodness you got away safely, someone betrayed us!" routine. Joe, understandably, is not buying it anyway because he knows Frank's Big Brother Instinct is way too strong to ever leave him behind like that to possibly be arrested, but George's unconvincing tone does not help.
- Bookends: The first season practically began with Laura's funeral, with a deeply saddened Gloria giving a eulogy for her. This final season begins with Gloria's own funeral, which is likewise attended by her own mourning parent.
- Bound and Gagged: George knocks Chet and Belinda out when he sneaks back to the Hardy home to steal the scrolls after betraying the group, and leaves them both tied up and gagged with handkerchiefs in the closet.
- Brutal Honesty: Phil comes up to Joe and "Frank" while they're trying to spy on Trudy to tell them of his intention to confess his feelings for Biff. Joe, whose concentration is divided, doesn't say it in a mean way or anything, but also doesn't mince words when trying to dissuade him:Joe: Ohh, don't do that. It—uh, it's just gonna mess up the group dynamic even more.
Phil: You're just assuming that she doesn't like me back.
Joe: That's correct.
Phil: I think she likes me.
Joe: Not in that way. - The Bus Came Back: After being completely MIA for Season 2, Stacy returns at Gloria's funeral, and Kanika also reappears, both planning to rebuild the Circle with "Frank" (or, at least, that's what they claim, as all sides actually intend to betray and kill each other). They don't last long, though, before being killed off by the new villains (see Back for the Dead above).
- Character Death: Stacy Nabokov returns to attend Gloria's funeral, and agrees to work with "Frank", along with Kanika Khan, to resurrect the Circle, although neither side is sincere and they plan to turn on each other. Just before they draw their guns, though, a mystery woman in a hood blows up the Chamber of the Eye, killing Stacy, Kanika, and their goons, while "Frank" barely gets out alive. Also counts as Back for the Dead, since both of them were completely absent from Season 2 and only get a few scenes here before being killed off.
- Chekhov's Gun: The painting of the house on the cliff behind Gloria's desk in her video will has been seen hanging up in a different part of the study in the background for the whole series. It's now revealed that she hid George's final codex in the top of the painting frame itself, before donating it to a museum to be preserved.
- Chekhov's Gunman: In Frank's flashback to the beach in "Hunting an Intruder", George had one of his employees with him there. This man, his chauffeur, is shown in the Flashback here to have been George's loyal right-hand man who sabotaged the plane, put his mind in the Crystal, and killed the doctors present to Leave No Witnesses. He becomes an important Chekhov M.I.A. character as the season continues.
- Chekhov's Skill: Possibly. It's mentioned once again that George was a codebreaker in his younger years, which has been brought up before, and this may be how he's able to break into the safe in the Hardy attic to steal the scrolls despite JB being the only person who knows the code. It's not made explicit, however, as safecracking is not a fast process, and George is in a hurry to avoid being caught.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with George pulling a gun on Joe and preparing to shoot him after the latter has realized he's not Frank.
- Continuity Nod:
- Way back in the series premiere, Frank noticed Joe struggling with his tie before Laura's funeral and put it on for him. This time, before Gloria's funeral, Joe asks "Frank" for his help with it from the start. Unlike the gentle way Frank tied it back then, George briefly pulls it too tight in implied annoyance after Joe mildly insults Gloria, showing that this guy doesn't care for him like his real brother does.
- When the threatening voice on the answering machine tells JB he has 24 hours to get the codexes, he scoffs, "It's always 24 hours!" He's probably remembering when Angela also told him he had 24 hours to get the Eye in "A Clue on Film" before she and Mack did him harm.
- As "Frank" and Stacy discuss how few members of the Circle are still left because someone's been "working to diminish our numbers", "Frank" names "the Kowalski woman", referencing how Olivia's been going around killing Circle members since "Heading for Destruction", and Stacy puts in "I hear your father has a hand in it," because Fenton has worked with Gloria to bring other remnants of the Circle to justice.
- Continuity Snarl: It's not clear when Gloria could have possibly recorded her video will. She's sitting in her/George's study during it, and she's been in prison since the end of Season 1 up until she died, so it had to have been before then, which is at least nearly 7 months before the present. However, Gloria also reveals in the video that the house has been condemned, in which case way too much time has passed since then for an entire funeral reception to be allowed to happen there, not to mention that there should have been people there inspecting the house in Season 2 rather than just security guards to come (at Gloria's own behest) if someone broke in.
- Dirty Cop: When Fenton and Olivia discuss Laura apparently being alive and having her death faked, Olivia starts sowing the seeds that Sam may be one of these, and could have been part of the cover-up.
- Dismantled MacGuffin: The map that George drew, which he split into four pieces that were each hidden in their own codex, and he had Gloria hide each one in a different location until he could return in the future to retrieve them. Her video will contains the clues to find them, and by the end, he has indeed gotten all four of them back.
- Gloria's will states that her father's first apartment in Dixon City, his shipping warehouse, and his desk at Rosegrave must all be preserved; each of these once held a codex that's already been located. McFarlane found the one in the Rosegrave desk and entrusted it to Fenton, which JB later stole; meanwhile, Olivia found the two in the apartment and warehouse, and Fenton took those from her and gave them to Trudy to hide. "Frank" overhears her tell Jesse where she hid them, and he and Joe take them.
- The gang deduces from a visual clue from Gloria that the final one is hidden in the painting behind her desk, and that she donated it to the Heritage Museum after her house was condemned and she couldn't save it with the Heritage Act.
- Distressed Dude: Continuing from the end of the previous season, Frank is still stuck in the Crystal after George stole the Eye from him, took his body, and left him there. We briefly see him calling out for help, not that anyone can hear him; he's still not rescued yet at the end of this episode, but at the very least, Callie took the Crystal before George could, and Joe has figured out now that "Frank" is an impostor.
- Dramatic Irony:
- The entire episode in general. The viewers know that "Frank" is really George's mind in his body, but the characters don't until Joe confirms it before the end. Even Callie, who's strongly implied to have suspected this since he dumped her, doesn't know for sure (or who he is).
- There's also Joe's line about the scrolls: "So George Estabrook drew a map. Too bad he's not here to decipher it." While George is, of course, sitting right next to him as "Frank".
- Draw Aggro: This is what JB tells Joe he was really doing when he seemingly betrayed him by stealing the Eye relic from him (or at least trying to) during their heist in the last season, in an attempt to protect Joe and keep dangerous people from coming after him to get it. We see nothing during this season that contradicts this claim, and it did actually work at the time, having distracted Angela and her men long enough for the Hardys, Chet, and Brian to escape the docks.
- Enemy Mine:
- Even though Joe is pretty thoroughly sick of JB betraying him at this point, he still agrees to work with him to steal the final codex from the painting at the museum so they can assemble the whole map, after which Joe acknowledges to the rest of the group that it'll turn into a scramble between them and JB for who gets the whole thing.
- Unknown to everybody else, since "Frank" is really George—who doesn't actually give a shit about any of the rest—he's in one of these with JB and with Joe and friends, just using all of them get the scrolls together more easily so he can take them for himself.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Averted with "Frank", as the rest of the gang don't ever truly believe he just betrayed them; once Joe figures out that "Frank" was the one who sold them out during the museum heist, he immediately deduces that it's not really Frank and someone else is using his body.
- "Eureka!" Moment: JB saying "For starters" triggers Joe's memory of Gloria saying in her video will, "the house where it all started" and mentioning her father being a codebreaker, and realizes that the video was a code containing a clue to the location of the final codex.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: However much of a psychopath George may be, he did sincerely love Gloria on some level, as he was weeping over her death shortly before Joe came to get him, and briefly pulls Joe's tie too tight while tying it for him in subtle anger when he states that Gloria's death is not a "tragedy" like Laura's was. That said, George still had no problem with manipulating his daughter to accomplish his own goals.
- Evil vs. Evil: A three-way version: George and Stacy are about to each pull a gun and try to murder the other, but then someone else in a dark coat bombs the Chamber to try to kill all the Circle remnants present, succeeding with Stacy and Kanika, although George is able to survive and escape.
- Faking the Dead: Fleshing out what was shown in the previous episode, George did this by letting others think he was fleeing to his private island on his plane, actually just gave the pilot the idol (with the piece of the Eye hidden inside) to take there without him, then the chauffeur sabotaged the plane so it went down, the piece was lost, and everyone believed George died in the crash. Meanwhile, he had his chauffeur download his mind into the Crystal to wait it out until Frank arrived two decades later.
- Flashback: We once again get one to the night George disappeared, but this time from the perspective of both George and The Dragon, his chauffeur. As Stacy states later, George didn't actually break the Eye into three pieces for the greater good, but to hide the existence of the other relics from the rest of the Circle. He gave his pilot the idol with his piece to take to his private island, but had the chauffeur secretly sabotage the plane so it would crash. George then ordered the chauffeur to download his mind into the Crystal and kill the doctors who'd shown him what to do as a way to Leave No Witnesses, promising to reward him when he (George) returned in the future.
- Friendship Moment: Joe and Callie demonstrate that they're not just connected through Frank and are friends in their own right, too. Joe is the one person Callie talks to about her plans to go to Rosegrave for the summer before leaving, he makes it clear he fiercely disapproves of "Frank" dumping her, she assures him she's still here for him despite the breakup, and they share a big hug and state that they're going to miss each other.
- Gambit Pileup: Numerous different characters and groups have conflicting goals that collide, even within the True Companions:
- As shown in the Sequel Hook last season, Joe actually kept the Eye for unknown reasons despite claiming to "Frank" and his friends that he gave it to Belinda's dad to be destroyed, and here we learn that Joe told Brian himself that it was vaporized in the Sleep Room.
- Related to this, once Brian, Belinda, and Chet compare notes and realize he lied, the latter two end up with their own agenda of trying to find where Joe hid the Eye, without him knowing, so they can take it back and give it to Brian for real.
- Of course, George, while posing as Frank, has his own plot of trying to find the scrolls so he can recreate the map that'll lead him to another Artifact of Power, and he uses Frank's brother and friends to help him.
- JB works with them because, despite having the scroll he stole from the Hardys last season, his client is threatening to kill him unless he gets the other one he was hired to find. Then he learns from the boys that there are in fact four of them total. It's made pretty clear that, once they get the fourth one from the museum, it's going to turn into a standoff between JB vs the Hardy Gang for who gets all the scrolls.
- Stacy and Kanika are apparently working together (though may be planning to betray each other later) to get the scroll map from "Frank", pretending to want to work with him too, but Stacy plans to kill him after getting it. George has something similar in mind for them as well.
- When Callie and Joe talk in George's secret room after finding the box with the Crystal (containing Frank) on the floor, Callie secretly slips it into her purse and takes it with her to Rosegrave. This ends up making her a Spanner in the Works for George, preventing him from taking the Crystal and vamoosing with it (along with the scrolls) before Joe catches up with him.
- He Knows Too Much: Once Joe confronts "Frank" about being an impostor using his brother's body, George promptly takes out a gun to shoot him.George: I always knew you were gonna be a problem. You're just too smart for your own good. I didn't want to have to do this. You left me no choice.
- Heist Episode: Downplayed, since the heist is relatively short. JB, Joe, and "Frank" break into the Heritage Museum to find the final codex hidden in the painting Gloria donated. As usual, it goes south fast: the cops soon arrive, JB tries to bail but gets arrested, "Frank" has Joe hide while claiming he's going to Draw Aggro, and instructs him to get the codex when the coast is clear; in fact, he goes back and takes it himself, leaves Joe there alone, returns to the Hardy home, cuts the power, and knocks Chet and Belinda out to steal the other scrolls from the safe.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: Inverted; as Joe assures "Frank" that JB will show up to meet them as invited, "that last one" is the only part that JB does concede to:"Frank": What makes you so sure?
Joe: 'Cause he's a weasel and a snake. Can't resist the grift.
JB: (Standing in the back of the store) Ouch! That was harsh, Joey. The last part was...pretty accurate, but the first two were just mean. That's not like you. - Immediate Sequel: Building off the plethora of Cliffhangers at the end of last season, Fenton's storyline starts with the same scene it ended on before and continues it, so it literally is "immediate" for him. The Bridgeport crew's story, meanwhile, resumes less than a week after the final scene where Gloria died after George stole Frank's body.
- Inevitable Mutual Betrayal: "Frank" and Stacy agree to work together to use the map to resurrect the Circle of the Eye, along with Kanika, so the three original families can be in control once more. Since George already betrayed his partners in a gambit to eventually get the Eye's powers all to himself and hide the other relics from them, while Stacy hates the Circle and especially the Estabrook bloodline due to Gloria killing her dad, it's not at all surprising that they both plan to betray and murder each other once George gets the map. Just before "Frank" and Stacy draw their guns, though, a third party blows up the Chamber, with George barely getting away while Kanika and Stacy are killed.
- Interface Spoiler: Finding out who hired JB to steal the scrolls becomes a major point of the case for the later in the season, and it takes about half an episode of investigating before they're able to identify the man's voice on the answering machine threatening JB to get the scrolls. However, even this early, this voice and the one on the Sparewell Technology TV ad are both identified by the subtitles as belonging to someone with the same name, so viewers who watch with subs can figure out well ahead of time that it's the same person.
- Internal Reveal:
- Joe, and by extension the rest of the team, discovers pretty early on that JB stole McFarlane's scroll from them in "Captured!".
- Joe also realizes by the end (if not sooner) that "Frank"'s an impostor and someone else is using his body.
- Karma Houdini Warranty:
- Stacy Nabokov dodged punishment in the first season for kidnapping Callie as a Hostage for MacGuffin and plotting to steal the Eye for herself, escaping with her Mooks after her plans failed. She returns for Gloria's funeral now and offers to work with "Frank" (really George) to revive the Circle once again and find the last relic, with the intention of turning on him once he gives her the map, but she's killed before she and George can attempt to shoot each other when the Chamber is bombed and collapses onto her.
- Kanika Khan also got off relatively easily for having her nephew Rupert kidnapped in the first season, planning for him to be murdered, and trying to get Fenton killed as well, escaping jail time in exchange for getting damning evidence against Gloria, with her only punishment being that she can never return to Bridgeport or be involved in the Circle again. She goes back on this to team up with Stacy and "Frank" to lead the Circle again (albeit with the intention of betraying at least "Frank"), and is likewise killed in the Chamber explosion and collapse.
- Kick the Dog: Unsurprisingly, George gets a few of these now that he's taken center stage as a villain.
- Building off of the previous season's final twist, we get a better idea of just how Evil All Along George has always been. He arranged for his pilot's plane to go down by having his chauffeur sabotage it so everyone would think he died in the crash, and had him kill three doctors as well who helped him with Project Midnight just to make sure there's no else alive who knows the procedure.
- At the funeral, an irritated Joe asks why "Frank" dumped Callie, and he gives a very un-Frank-like answer:"Frank": Our lives were diverging. I can't be tied to some girl.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Apparently, as a cover for not knowing anything about Frank's life and the cases the boys solved in the previous two seasons, George is pretending that Frank having his mind put into the Crystal and brought back out made him forget most of the past six months.
- Leave No Witnesses: In the Flashback to when George originally has his loyal chauffeur download his consciousness into the Crystal for him, he also orders him to murder the three doctors who know how the procedure works too, stating, "No loose ends."
- The Masquerade: George, a century-old man who's taken over the body of a sixteen-year-old boy, now has to pretend to be Frank convincingly enough to not arouse suspicion until he can find the Artifact of Power relics he's searching for, at which point he presumably plans to flee to his private island for good. Considering that Frank is in a loving relationship and has a very close bond with his little brother, as well as an active social life with a tight-knit circle of friends, this quickly causes issues for George, who proves to be a pretty Bad Liar despite his efforts. Callie near-instantly became suspicious of him after he broke up with her, and Joe very quickly senses something's amiss, too.
- Meaningful Background Event: As Belinda stares at the safe after the power goes out, a figure can be seen moving outside the window behind her in the blurry background. Viewers are at first led to think it's JB, but then Biff tells Joe he was arrested, and it's soon revealed to have been George. Offscreen, he sneaks in, knocks Belinda and Chet unconscious and leaves them Bound and Gagged, and escapes with the codexes.
- Mistaken for Romance: Phil plans to tell Biff he has feelings for her because he thinks she likes him back due to her grabbing his arm for support when she called her birth mom in "Captured!" Joe is aware that Biff doesn't see Phil in a romantic way, but fails to discourage him.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Stacy claims to "Frank" that she's willing to bury the hatchet and work with him to find the other relics, but really plans to murder him as soon as he gives her the map. George, in the meantime, pretends to want to work with her and Kanika to resurrect the Circle once more, but intends to eliminate them too. Before they get the chance, though, someone else tries to kill all of them.
- Not Himself: A literal example for "Frank", obviously. He tries to use an excuse of Laser-Guided Amnesia from the Crystal for why he doesn't know many things or people, but those closest to Frank like Joe and Callie are still suspicious, until Joe finally confirms it and confronts him.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: According to Stacy, Paul McFarlane set up a "failsafe" where, if he was killed—clearly presuming it would be the Estabrooks who did it—the rest of the Circle would (somehow) find out about their secrets, which is how Stacy learned of the other relics.
- Out-of-Character Alert:
- "Frank" has these all over the place thanks to George not being particularly good at impersonating him, but most people seem to just be chalking it up to trauma and moodiness after being abducted and mind-loaded into the Crystal. Callie seems to know something's up, at least, and it's ambiguous whether Joe is hiding his own suspicions until he learns more or is just in denial.
- Stacy tells "Frank" that she wants him to "take your rightful place in the Circle" and revive it together with her and Kanika, stating that she's "willing to let bygones be bygones." Stacy always hated the Circle because of her father's murder and wanted to bring it down (but still claim its power for herself), and also came to despise the whole Estabrook bloodline after learning Gloria was the one who killed him, so all of this sounds off coming from her. Sure enough, she's lying and actually just wants to use "Frank" to get the map, then murder him after.
- Parental Favoritism: Subverted; Gloria's video will seems to indicate to other characters that she has this for Frank big-time, as she leaves him all of her estates and assets while giving Joe nothing at all. But she did this at George's instruction as part of his plans because he knew he would resurrect himself in Frank's body, so she was really prioritizing her father (whose approval she was desperate for) over either of her grandsons.
- Retcon: A couple with Callie getting into a summer program at Rosegrave on a scholarship:
- Callie had a subplot in the first few episodes of Season 2 of getting blacklisted from every prep school in the country due to false cheating accusations (before it almost entirely became an Aborted Arc, or at least was majorly downplayed compared to everything else going on). Gloria did offer to use her connections to get Callie back into Rosegrave, but then had a stroke immediately afterward before she could've done so. However, the "Callie being blacklisted" subplot is never brought up again throughout Season 3.
- It's been less than a week since "Frank" broke up with Callie, and she'd implied in that very same scene that she was planning to spend the whole summer with Frank. The fact that she's now entering this Rosegrave program (heavily implied to be with the motive of trying to save Frank, which the next episode confirms) means that she somehow enrolled in and secured a scholarship for it over the course of just a couple of days, when normally something like that would take weeks or months. Even if Callie had already received the scholarship offer for the program, planned not to accept, and changed her mind after the breakup, that's a tight turnaround time and still doesn't address the blacklisting issue.
- Scholarship Student: Callie attends a Rosegrave summer program as one, and meets her roommate Drew Darrow, who claims to be this, too. Drew speculates that this is why they got put together despite neither of them requesting to have a roommate.
- Shipper on Deck: Though Joe would roll his eyes and tell Frank and Callie to Get a Room! at their frequent displays of PDA, he ultimately proves himself a big supporter of their relationship. Before figuring out what's really going on with "Frank", Joe is disgusted by his callous, indifferent attitude toward her, seems happy when he thinks she wants to talk to Frank alone (obviously hoping they'll work things out) before she clarifies she meant Joe, and tells Callie outright that breaking up with her was the worst mistake Frank has ever made. She's quite touched.
- Shipping Torpedo: Phil tells "Frank" and Joe that he plans to confess his feelings for Biff, and Joe quickly tries to convince him not to. It's not because he does or doesn't want them to be a couple, just that he apparently already knows Biff sees herself and Phil as Just Friends and nothing more (which she confirms in the next episode), and doesn't want the friend dynamic among the group to get even more awkward than it already is with "Frank"'s and Callie's breakup. When Phil won't be deterred, Joe just shrugs and wishes him luck.
- Spotting the Thread:
- By the end of the episode, Joe (who was already suspicious) pieces together that "Frank" was the one who double-crossed the group at the museum, and from there, that somebody else is using his body, because he knows the real Frank, with his Big Brother Instinct and loyalty to their friends, would never betray them or leave him behind in the museum to fend for himself and potentially be caught.
- Something else Joe specifically cites is "Frank"'s stilted and awkward use of the word "Grandma" when talking about Gloria, slightly stumbling over it every time, which is because she's really his daughter and he's correcting himself before he accidentally refers to her by name.*Joe: "Grandma." Never sounds quite right when you say it.
- Undercover Cop Reveal: Olivia claims to Fenton to be one for the DSA (Defense Support Agency), the same agency Brian and Driscoll work for. Time will tell if she's telling the truth.
- The Un-Reveal: Since George breaks into the safe—which only JB had the combination to—offscreen to steal the scrolls, we don't find out how he did it: whether he used his codebreaking skills (though he shouldn't have been able to do it that fast), or if he rigged the safe/lock from the start.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Played straight with the museum heist, where Joe even has a "let's go over the plan again" moment where everyone discusses onscreen what they'll be doing during it. Only the first part of JB breaking into the building and letting the boys in goes as planned; beyond that, they never make it back to the Hardy house with the last scroll to look at the map together because the cops show up and "Frank", Joe, and JB all get split up, with the latter getting arrested and the former betraying the others to take the scroll for himself, then coming back to the house and knocking out Chet and Belinda to take the other three scrolls.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Gal: George explicitly states that Gloria was desperate for his approval, which lines up with how she's been portrayed so far in regards to him, and despite having had some genuine love for her, he nonetheless exploited this for his own gain on many occasions.
- Wham Line: An in-universe one for George when he realizes that Joe is onto him. Also for the viewer to a lesser extent, as it confirms that Joe's finally caught on.Joe: I know you double-crossed us. And now, I want to know who I'm talking to. Who did Munder upload out of the Crystal? 'Cause it's not my brother.
- Won't Get Fooled Again: After all the many, many times that JB has backstabbed the Hardys and friends (or at least appeared to do so), Joe's finally done trusting him on any level, and is now quick to assume that everything he says or does is a lie or a trick.
- Writers Cannot Do Math: The night George left Bridgeport was previously stated to be 1961, and Gloria said it was "over twenty years ago;" "A Midnight Scare" seemed to reinforce this when Frank and Callie checked a Rosegrave yearbook from 1976 when they were looking for someone from ten years prior, indicating Season 2 takes place around 1986. But at the start of this episode, the flashback to George's final night is said to be "Twenty Years Ago", even though by now it really should have been twenty-five years ago.
