Season 2, Episode 1:
A Disappearance
Frank and Joe Hardy return to detective work when a classmate goes missing.This episode contains examples of:
- Aesop Amnesia: After Fenton ended the previous season learning to trust his sons more, he starts off this one by getting very angry with the boys simply for going to Demon's Paw to look for Dennis (even though they didn't do anything dangerous while they were there and were just looking around for clues), and grounds them. To his credit, he gets over this pretty quickly once they do succeed in finding Dennis, un-grounds them, and allows them to do detective work as long as they're smart about it and keep each other safe.
- Allergic to Routine / So What Do We Do Now?: In the six-month Time Skip between seasons, the Hardy Boys haven't had any significant mysteries to solve, and Joe is bored to tears by "normal" life and desperately looking for something to investigate. Frank, on the other hand, is fine with this arrangement, and even wishes things could be more normal, since he's plagued by nightmares strongly implied to be Eye-induced.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Downplayed with Aunt Trudy; the boys aren't embarrassed by her in general, but they treat having an aunt who's now a guidance counselor at their school the way you'd expect from two teenage boys, refusing to ride there with her in her van because Frank's sports car (which he apparently picked up during the Time Skip) is better for their reputation.Frank: See, we love you, Aunt Trudy, it's just that, I mean, we can't be seen with you.
- And Then What?: When Joe, Biff, and Phil sneak out to try to find Dennis, the latter two ask the former what they'll actually do if they do find him, since he could be trapped or hurt, and Joe admits that he didn't think that far ahead.
- Bait-and-Switch: Dennis disappears near the beginning of the episode after apparently being cornered by someone who means to hurt him; Malone and Stratemeyer Global are later shown to be holding someone captive. But near the end, the Hardys and co. discover Dennis unconscious but otherwise unharmed (physically) at an old mill in the woods, and Stratemeyer Global's prisoner is then revealed to be JB Cox.
- Big Brother Instinct: Upon learning that the three younger kids snuck out to search for Dennis in caves at Demon's Paw full of poisonous natural gas, Frank, Callie, and Chet promptly rush out of Wilt's to go save them, and luckily get there in time before any major harm is done.
- Chemically-Induced Insanity: Joe, Biff, and Phil enter a boarded-up mine cave to look for Dennis and inhale too much of the "stink damp" there (as Wilt calls it). The latter two just quickly fall unconscious from it, but Joe seems to inhale more thanks to going farther inside, and before he passes out too, he has a hallucination of "the Bridgeport Demon" rising up from the floor of the cave and attacking him.
- Continuity Nod:
- The opening scene has Callie engage in some playful Exact Words with Frank, followed by Joe telling her she'll be a great lawyer someday, and she responds with "Doctor, but thank you." Callie previously told Frank about wanting to become a doctor back in "Secrets and Lies".
- In "What Happened in Bridgeport" as the kids talked about school starting, Phil encouraged the others to join the AV Club. His own membership in it serves as the impetus for the plot, as his fellow club member and rival, Dennis Gilroy, becomes the Victim of the Season.
- Jesse tells the gang that Malone works for Stratemeyer Global, who owns the land at Demon's Paw, and him ordering them to leave wasn't suspicious because it's his job to keep kids from falling into the mines..."again", while giving a pointed look at Biff and Joe, who fell into one there before.
- Frank and Joe state that the only people who know about the Eye having real magic powers are either "at this table" (them and their friends) or "in jail" (their grandma), but said friends counter by bringing up everybody else who knows this and doesn't fall into either category: Fenton Hardy, JB Cox, the Nabokovs, the Khans, likely Anya Kowalski, and possibly Dean McFarlane. (Though they do neglect to mention Trudy, who also knows this.)
- JB tells the Hardys that he knows Stratemeyer's relic isn't the real Eye because "I've held the real one in my hand," and knows what it feels like, referencing how he had one of the pieces in his possession for a few episodes last season and went on a brief Power High from it.
- Continuity Snarl:
- Downplayed. When the Hardy gang names everybody who knows about the Eye having actual magical powers (as opposed to only knowing that the Circle of the Eye is a major conspiracy run by powerful people, like Jesse does), they forget to mention Aunt Trudy, who was also explicitly aware in the first season that the Eye is supernatural. That being said, it's never Retconned by anyone outright stating that she doesn't know this, either, so it's likely that the kids just forget to add her to their list.
- When JB visits the Hardy Boys to ask them for the Eye, he accuses them of having switched it with a fake, and mentions how it "wouldn't be the first time" they'd done so. This would otherwise be a Continuity Nod since the boys did use the Fakin' MacGuffin trick before (although with only a piece of the Eye as opposed to the whole thing), but it's unclear how JB would know about that considering he was not present, or involved at all, either of the two times the boys used the fake piece to fool someone.
- Distressed Dude:
- Dennis is abducted by an unknown party, who does something to his mind in the process, kicking off the adventure for the season.
- Joe, Biff, and Phil go into a mine cave searching for Dennis that's full of toxic sulfurous gas, causing all three of them to pass out and almost die. Frank, Callie, and Chet figure out where they went and are able to arrive and pull them out offscreen before any serious damage is done, with Joe waking up to find the others all standing/kneeling over him.
- JB was captured offscreen by Stratemeyer Global before the start of the episode, and they grill him for information about the Eye.
- Eye Scream: The threat of this as Cold-Blooded Torture is used to make JB talk under interrogation. After he claims that he's never seen the Eye relic before, Angela just says to Mack, "Right eye." Realizing that Mack is about to slash said eye with a knife, JB clarifies that he's never seen the Eye in one piece (which is true).
- Fakin' MacGuffin: This is what Stratemeyer Global and then JB assume the Hardys or someone else did with the Eye, replacing the real relic with the "fake" Stratemeyer found in the Chamber, because it doesn't have any kind of magic at all and is just a powerless rock. As the ending strongly implies, and the next episode confirms, the actual relic is the real thing, but the power has transferred from it into Frank.
- Get a Room!: Joe's reaction, word-for-word, when Frank and Callie start kissing in front of him.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Callie invites Frank to come over in the evening to study. Frank replies that he has to work, but invites her to come do so at Wilt's while he's there, and she clarifies that that's not quite what she had in mind by "study", though she does still come there anyway.
- Happy Ending Override: Downplayed, but JB's goodbye note to Joe at the end of the previous season left them on reasonably friendly terms, and stated that he'd decided to be done for good with the Eye. But then JB gets roped back in against his will after Stratemeyer abducts him, and is not happy when he visits the Hardys afterwards because he thinks they're indirectly responsible by swapping the Eye for a fake. He leaves for now when they deny it, but gives them a warning about Stratemeyer, and they wonder if it's really a threat and are left a bit shaken.Joe: (unhappily) Makes me wonder why he gave me that radio, if he's just gonna show up.
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: During the boys' argument, in which they're still quite frustrated and upset at Fenton for unfairly grounding them, Joe demonstrates that, just like Frank, he does have some buried resentment toward their dad for leaving them behind after Laura's death:Joe: That's 'cause Dad wasn't here! He was off gallivanting oversees while we solved the case.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Subverted. The first time the Hardys and friends encounter Mack Malone from Stratemeyer Global at Demon's Paw, they tell him they're there looking for a friend (Dennis), and Malone replies, "He's not here." Frank points out that he never said their friend is a "he", but since the cops already talked to Malone, he no doubt knew about the Dennis situation and that that's who Frank meant.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In-universe, the Hardy family discussing Fenton's new look refers to the Beard of Sorrow he's grown, but it's really a thinly-veiled reference to his actor changing between seasons, complete with him saying, as if to the audience, "Let's just get over it and move on."
- Love at First Sight: Not full-on "love", but Belinda and Chet are both visibly attracted to each other from the second they see each other in detention, before ever exchanging a word. Belinda even lampshades it outright in a later episode.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The trailer for the second season implies that the boys' classmate Dennis going missing, and their search for him, will be the major story arc. In fact, they actually find him before the end of this premiere episode, and the mystery for the rest of the season is instead trying to figure out what happened to him (since he has amnesia from being knocked out and getting a concussion).
- New Transfer Student: Belinda Conrad is "the new girl" in Bridgeport whom Chet meets in detention. It especially stands out given that she's starting less than a month before the end of the school year.
- Noodle Incident: However JB got his face busted up. Malone tells Angela that he already looked like that when the Stratemeyer goons found and captured him, and JB just dismisses it when Joe asks about it.
- Not Me This Time: After being captured by Stratemeyer, interrogated about the Eye, and seeing that the one they have is a fake, JB pays the Hardys a visit to see what they know and accuses them of "pulling a switcheroo" as they have before. Since the boys did absolutely nothing of the sort this time and didn't have any idea until then that Stratemeyer even has a relic, they just express complete confusion at this.
- Obviously Evil: Mack Malone just screams "bad guy" the second he shows up onscreen, from his cold, menacing sneer and threatening body langauge, to telling the Hardys and friends to leave Demon's Paw "before you get hurt" (and not in a way that sounds concerned for them).
- Parting-Words Regret: Frank regrets his harsh words to his brother (which include telling him to grow up) almost right away, but especially after Joe, Biff, and Phil sneak out to go to a cave with poisonous fumes and almost die. He's frantic when trying to wake Joe up after they pull him out, and as soon as it's established that he's okay, apologizes on the spot for what he said earlier, which Joe reciprocates.
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: After Fenton grounds the boys, Frank finds Joe preparing to sneak out again anyway and the two of them have a fight, ending when Frank tell him in frustration to "Grow up!", only to immediately regret it after Joe wordlessly kicks him out of his room in response. After the older kids discover that the younger kids are venturing up to a dangerous mine cave full of toxic fumes and have to go rescue them, the boys apologize and make up, and this puts them in the right place at the right time to find Dennis not long after.
- Properly Paranoid: Joe, who's been desperate for something new to investigate, tells Frank about a suspicious dark blue van he's seen idling around town several times lately, suggesting, among other things, that they could be kidnappers. Frank naturally doesn't take this seriously, but then JB tells them later that the blue van belongs to Mack Malone of Stratemeyer Global, who did in fact kidnap him.
- Relationship Upgrade: Frank and Callie are now dating after their Big Damn Kiss from the previous season.
- The Reveal: The relic of the Eye no longer has its power; when Frank touched it as it reforged in the previous episode, its power transferred directly into him, making Frank himself the Eye's new vessel.
- The Rival: Phil Cohen and Dennis Gilroy seem to be this in the AV Club, apparently being its two most dedicated members who don't get along very well and have quite different ideas about filmmaking. Joe even refers to Dennis as "Phil's nemesis."
- Saying Too Much: Lucy refuses to tell the Hardys where Dennis was filming because it would give away what his video's about, which he doesn't want Phil to know. However, Joe uses this to deduce that the opposite is also true: if they know what Dennis's film is about, they can learn where he was filming. The boys and Phil break into Dennis's AV Club locker to find out, and sure enough, it does narrow down their search area.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Trudy now works at the Bridgeport school as a guidance counselor, and wonders aloud why her nephews don't just carpool with her since they're all going to the same place. The boys, however, would rather go separately in Frank's sports car, seeing it as giving them better rep than riding in a beat-up van with their aunt.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Joe, Biff, and Phil sneak out to look for Dennis, heading up to an old mine where they think he may be held prisoner (without any evidence to back it up, simply because it's where "The Demon of Bridgeport" is said to be located), and completely ignore the "Danger: Do Not Enter" sign blocking it. Not only do they not find Dennis, they don't get very far into the mine before all three of them pass out from the indeed-dangerous noxious fumes there and have to be rescued by Frank, Chet, and Callie.
- Tap on the Head: Averted with Dennis, who's found in the woods with a concussion; he has to stay overnight in the hospital because of it, and can't remember anything that happened to him in the last 24 hours. (Though it's later revealed the memory loss isn't just from the head injury....)
- Time Skip: Six months have passed between the end of the previous season and the start of this one.
- Trespassing to Talk: The Hardys go to the attic to start a new String Theory board, only for JB to emerge from behind the door and close it, having snuck in beforehand. He's there to get the Eye from them, which he's sure they have after Stratemeyer captured him and he sees their relic's a fake, but after the boys insist (truthfully, as far as they know) that they don't, he just warns them to be careful of Stratemeyer and departs.note
- The Un-Reveal: Fenton is shown to be in contact with Gloria when she calls him from prison, and is working with her on something, but we don't find out what it is for several more episodes.
- Warning Mistaken for Threat: JB's parting words to the Hardys before leaving are "Be careful. Okay? If Stratemeyer can get to me, you can be very sure they can get to you, too." The boys aren't sure whether this is a warning or a threat, or some combination, though additional context throughout the season makes it clearer that it really is a warning, just a rather curt one.
- What's a Henway?: This interaction when Dennis is demanding that Phil give him the AV Club video camera so he can go do some filming.Phil: What's your movie even about?
Dennis: The local legend of "Mindya."
Phil: Mindya? I've never heard of it.
Lucy: "Mindya own business?"
Phil: (Growls in frustration) - You Are Grounded!: To their resentment, Fenton punishes his sons this way for going to Demon's Paw to search for Dennis, with them only allowed to leave the house for school and work, including making Frank give up his car keys; Joe almost immediately sneaks out anyway. It doesn't even last until the end of the episode, after the boys and friends do find Dennis, for Fenton to recant this, apologize, and return Frank's keys.
- You Are in Command Now: Between seasons, former Deputy Chief Jesse Hooper has been promoted to the new Chief of the Bridgeport PD to replace former Chief Collig.
