Recap / The Hardy Boys 2020 Season 2 E 5 Heading For Destruction

Season 2, Episode 5:

Heading for Destruction

The gang race to stop a potential bombing at the Demon Day Parade, while Fenton makes a shocking discovery of his own.

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This episode contains examples of:

• And Then What?: Frank asks this word-for-word when he and Joe are held prisoner by Stratemeyer and the latter suggests headbutting their captors to try to get away, pointing out that they're still tied up and, even if they could escape from their chairs and get to the door, there would likely be a bunch of goons right outside to immediately re-capture them anyway. Lucky for them, Stratemeyer lets them go soon after.
• Back for the Dead: After just appearing in a few photos in the previous episode, Paul McFarlane, who fled town to escape the Circle back in the first season, makes a proper reappearance here...just in time for Fenton to find him dying after Olivia poisoned him.
• Big Brother Instinct: As the Hardys have an Oh, Crap! reaction to realizing Stratemeyer is about to kidnap them, and they're trapped between the van and Angela, Frank instinctively shoves Joe behind him and tries to shield him with his body until they're yanked apart and thrown in the van.
• The Big Damn Kiss: After their Almost Kiss in the previous episode, Chet and Belinda get to share one for real this time at the end.
• Big "NO!":
  • Phil has one just before Lola hits the button to detonate the bomb, despite his best efforts to stop her.
  • Frank does this as well while in Stratemeyer's captivity when the Eye is about to give him another vision, which will set off Angela's tracker and reveal that the Eye is inside of him.
• Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario: Downplayed since they don't actually break up, but Callie keeping her visit to Gloria a secret from Frank caused them to have a fight near the end of the previous episode, and there's still tension between them at the beginning of this one. By the end, though, after Frank and Joe survived being kidnapped and Callie and the others survived a bombing, they make up and promise not to hold out on or lie to each other from then on, with it being clear that Frank plans to tell her about the Eye.
• Cassandra Truth:
  • The boys immediately suspect, and the Eye promptly confirms, that Tom Elroy is being framed for planting a bomb by the real culprit(s), but the mayor refuses to listen to their warning that they need to shut down Demon Day because of the bad publicity it would bring, while the police initially brush off the boys' protests that Tom's innocent, though Jesse and Riley soon start to believe them. Of course, the true bombers, one of whom is the Demon Queen, do set it off during the parade, causing mass panic and critically injuring Jesse.
  • JB told Frank at the drive-in that Stratemeyer found a way to trace the Eye's signal remotely, and will know the next time the boys use it. Joe convinces Frank when he tells him this that JB was just bluffing to try to scare him into handing over the Eye. They soon discover after being kidnapped, and lampshade to each other, that this was very much a sincere warning and not a bluff.
• Character Death: Fenton tracks down ex-Rosegrave Dean Paul McFarlane, who fled from the Circle last season, on his private boat...dying from poison that Olivia gave him after he refused to give her what she was searching for. McFarlane lasts long enough to entrust this something—a small scroll—to Fenton before he dies, telling him to keep it safe.
• Chase Scene: Both Vanessa and Lola try to run away when they realize they've been caught. Vanessa subverts it, though, as she doesn't get far while trying to run from Trudy before Biff tackles her. Lola does a little better, but is eventually cornered by Chet and Belinda on one side and the Hardy Boys, returning to town after Stratemeyer released them, on the other side.
• Chekhov's Gun: A few from previous episodes related to the Demon Day Parade bombing:
  • The lightning symbol with the circle around one small part of it that Dennis repeatedly drew after being rescued. It turns out to be part of the bombing plot he witnessed: the "lightning" is actually the route of the Demon Day Parade through the streets of Bridgeport, and the circle is where the target is located (which turns out to be Wilt's Deli).
  • On that note, Wilt's was broken into and TP'ed a few days before Demon Day in "The Missing Camera"; Wilt chalked it up to a prank because nothing was stolen, but Frank and Chet noticed that one of the arcade games was moved out from against the wall, and put it back. The gang now realizes that the break-in was actually done to plant the bomb, and when they search Wilt's, Chet remembers that the game was the only thing out of place. Sure enough, they find the bomb there.
• Chekhov's Gunman:
  • Anya Kowalski and Paul McFarlane were both name-dropped in the season premiere as two other people besides the Hardys and their True Companions who might know that the Eye has magical properties. This comes back in some way for both of them here:
    • Anya was introduced last season as a woman who was wronged by the Circle; her father died in the mine explosion caused by Ahmed, George, and Sergei claiming the Eye, and they went on to become rich and powerful. Now, as Fenton hunts down the remnants of the Circle, he meets a woman trying to do the same thing; she claims to be Olivia Kowalski, Anya's daughter, who's seeking revenge for her family.
    • After ex-Dean McFarlane became a case of What Happened to the Mouse? last season, he reappears here in time for Fenton to find him murdered by Olivia.
  • Lola Burton and Vanessa Bender, two of Belinda's fellow detention girls. Vanessa is this year's Demon Queen at the Demon Day Parade, and they both turn out to be the culprits behind the bombing at Wilt's and holding Dennis prisoner in the woods.
• Clear My Name: When Tom is arrested for being behind the bombing plot, the boys know he's being framed. However, the cops and the mayor don't take their concerns seriously, forcing them to find the real bomber on their own to clear Tom. He's not released until after the bomb goes off.
• Continuity Nod: Angela, who knows the Hardys "used" the Eye at the police station earlier that day (where Frank had a vision), asks if they stashed it in an evidence locker for safekeeping. Joe snarks in response, "You think an evidence locker's safe?" He'd know quite well how much they're not safe considering that he himself broke into one back in "Secrets and Lies" to steal back his own soldering iron.
• Danger Takes a Backseat: How Fenton gets kidnapped by Olivia. He returns to his car after finding McFarlane dead on his boat, only for her to pull a gun on him from the seat behind him and order him to drive them to Dixon City.
• Distressed Dude: Quite a bit to go around this time, including two separate kidnappings for the Hardy family.
  • Frank and Joe are kidnapped by Stratemeyer Global (who now know thanks to JB that they have the Eye or know where it is), stuffed into a van with bags over their heads, and tied to chairs in their lair, and spend more than half the episode out of the action.
  • After Phil finds the blue car that was used to abduct Dennis, a thug in a Demon Day mask sneaks up on him, knocks him out, and locks him in the trunk of said car.
  • Fenton briefly gets captured by Olivia, though she doesn't end up hurting him despite her threats to do so.
• The Easy Way or the Hard Way: As Stratemeyer interrogates the Hardy Boys about the Eye's whereabouts, this is referenced when Mack waves a knife near their faces and tells them, "Answer honestly and we can avoid any unpleasantness." When the boys refuse to cave, Angela promises to come back later to "try things the hard way." Fortunately for the boys, the bomb going off in town not long before and the tracker picking up a signal from a different location both make Angela decide to let them go before they have to find out what "the hard way" is.
• Frame-Up: Tom Elroy is framed for the Demon Day bombing plot after evidence is planted in his car. At first, the police seem content to believe he did it, but when Tom talks to Frank, he reminds him that he's a war veteran who has experience with explosives and would never make such an amateur bomb, which is enough for Jesse and Deputy Riley to start second-guessing. He's released offscreen after the bombing.
• Gilligan Cut:
  • Once Frank, Joe, Callie, and Biff reach the (ultimately false) conclusion that the bomb will be set off at the fireworks show that night, Frank says, "We need to shut down Demon Day." We then cut to Mayor Krassner's response to the boys telling him this: "Absolutely not!"
  • As the Hardy Boys try to convince Jesse that Tom is innocent, Riley comes in to inform her that their suspect refuses to speak with anyone except Frank, who befriended him and offered his help in "The Missing Camera". The boys triumphantly grin at Jesse, and she insists, "You're not going in there. It's not gonna happen." Cut to Frank entering the holding room to talk to Tom.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Olivia Kowalski has a noble goal on paper: bring down the Circle of the Eye to take vengeance on the people who destroyed her family, not unlike what Fenton is doing. Unlike him, though, she's crossed the line into murder.
• Hypocrite: Despite Mayor Krassner previously telling the Hardy Boys to come to him if they need anything and stating that he cares about the security of Bridgeport, he's completely dismissive when they tell him about the bomb plot and Tom being framed, even stating when the boys call him out on his hypocrisy that he was "just being congenial" when offering his help and—while not totally wrong that the boys have no evidence for their claims—refuses to even consider their warnings. Even after Jesse and Riley begin believing them, Krassner still doesn't take action and just tells them to keep pushing Tom.
• Ironic Echo: In "A Clue on Film", Biff heard Vanessa talk to friends about being named Demon Queen for the second year running and shared her recent discovery that her own (bio) mom was also a former Demon Queen, only for Vanessa to rather indifferently reply, "Oh, well, congrats to you." During the Demon Day Parade, once the gang has figured out Vanessa is the bomber, she tries to escape, but Biff tackles her to the ground; Trudy compliments her on it, and Biff says, "Yeah, congrats to me" right in Vanessa's face.
• Irony: A rather dark example. Joe told Frank in "A Disappearance" about his suspicions of a dark blue van idling around town several times, stating they could be "kidnappers", and despite Frank brushing it off, Joe was proven to be Properly Paranoid when JB later confirmed the van belongs to Stratemeyer, who did indeed abduct him. Now, when the boys go to talk to JB again, this same van ends up being used to kidnap them.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Mayor Krassner may be a Slave to PR, but he does make one salient point when the Hardys are urging him to shut down Demon Day: the police apparently have the suspected bomber in custody, and this is one of the biggest and most beloved holidays of the year in Bridgeport. He can't just shut the entire thing down on the say-so of two teens who insist without any proof or even solid evidence that they've got the wrong guy. Though he's still a massive Hypocrite who cares far more for his own image than public safety.
• The Man Behind the Man: Lola reveals that she and Vanessa were paid by an unknown person to hold Dennis captive and plant the bomb at Wilt's, meaning that someone else is the true mastermind behind the whole thing.
• Meaningful Echo: When Jesse scolds the Hardys for not coming to her sooner with what they've found on the case, she says, "This is my job. Trust me to do it." Later, as she prepares to try to disarm the bomb at Wilt's, Callie asks, "What are you doing?!", and Jesse responds, "My job!"
• Not Me This Time:
  • As Callie, Biff, Belinda, and Chet check the list of who's both on the track team and taking senior chemistry, they find one name in common: Donald Dukay, whom Callie earlier accused of falsely claiming she cheated. When they confront him, Chet and Belinda also recognize his voice as one of the teen vandals who pranked Tom at his house. Donald does admit to being one of the pranksters, but emphatically denies knowing anything about the bomb plot, and the intel they pry out of him puts them onto the real bomber: his ex-girlfriend, Vanessa Bender.
  • While already hinted prior, it's confirmed that Stratemeyer Global—despite kidnapping JB previously and the Hardys here, and whatever other shady stuff they may be up to with trying to get the Eye—doesn't have anything at all to do with Dennis's disappearance or the bombing on Demon Day. Instead, there's another villain in play in Bridgeport with their own completely separate agenda.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Frank and Joe when Stratemeyer's dark blue van pulls up to kidnap them, with Frank quickly pushing Joe behind him.
  • Jesse Hooper's eye widen in horror when she sees that the bomb she's attempting to disarm has been armed and is about to blow.
• Only in It for the Money: Vanessa Bender and Lola Burton are revealed to have held Dennis prisoner in Tom's shack after he witnessed them there planning a bomb attack on Wilt's Deli. When cornered, Lola insists they only wanted the money someone else paid them to do this, and besides nabbing Dennis and holding him captive, they didn't hurt him in any other way before handing him over to said someone else.
• Punk in the Trunk: When Phil finds and investigates the blue car that took Dennis, he gets jumped and knocked out, and wakes up to find himself in the trunk of this same car as well.
• Red Herring:
  • When Tom is framed for being behind the bomb plot, he tells Frank that he saw someone in his yard by his car who fits the description of JB's most recent disguise, leading the Hardys to believe that Stratemeyer Global is behind it and forced JB to plant evidence. It's later revealed that Stratemeyer actually had nothing to do with the bombing; this was the plot of whoever kidnapped Dennis, which they also had nothing to do with, and JB was lurking around Tom's place because he thought the Hardys might have hidden the Eye there and was looking for it.
  • Frank and Joe, after being kidnapped by Stratemeyer, are released due to an in-universe one. Angela takes them because she's sure they have the Eye or know where it is, and she can only track it when it's actively being used. Frank starts to have a vision while they're in captivity, and despite his attempts to suppress it, Angela's tracking device goes off...except the tracker picks up energy coming from a completely different location, making Angela think that the Eye is being used elsewhere by someone else and the boys are telling the truth about not having it.
• The Reveal: During Fenton's trips to Dixon City where he claimed to be fixing up the Hardys' old home there to sell, he's actually been trying to dismantle and bring down the remnants of the Circle of the Eye and tie up loose ends.
• Rewatch Bonus: Later episodes confirm Angela and Mack have been using the bug JB planted in the Hardy attic, and this makes it clearer on a re-watch that they set a trap to kidnap the boys, lying in wait for them at JB's motel after hearing them tell the other kids that they're going there.
• Tap on the Head: Played straight with Phil, who's knocked out by Lola when he finds the car that was used to abduct Dennis. He wakes up later in the trunk of the car, and is no worse for wear other than appearing to have a bad headache.
• Trespassing Hero: Invoked by Angela. When she decides to let the Hardys go for now, she tells them her intention to report to the authorities that the boys were trespassing on Stratemeyer Global property and detained for security purposes, which will ensure that they can't press charges for the kidnapping since it'll be their word against Statemeyer's.
• Trouble Entendre: Right after the Hardys' friends figure out Vanessa is the bomber, we cut to Trudy finishing up her Demon Day dress and telling her to enjoy her big moment. Vanessa responds with "Totally. It's gonna be a blast." Not long after, when the kids catch up to Trudy and fill her in, she remembers these exact words and realizes this trope was in play, to her consternation.
• The Un-Reveal: When Olivia releases Fenton and leaves, she's picked up by someone else driving a dark car, indicating that she's not working alone and either has a partner or is part of a larger group. We don't learn much more about this until the Season Finale and into Season 3.
• Vehicular Kidnapping: Frank and Joe go to visit JB at his motel, but find Angela there instead, and her Stratemeyer goons promptly pull up in their dark blue van, grab the boys, put bags over their heads, and drag them into the van before driving away.
• Wham Episode: Once again for the mid-season finale. The Hardy Boys are captured by Stratemeyer Global and spend most of the episode out of the action as Distressed Dudes, but are released when, for some reason, the tracking device picks up a signal from a completely different location. Phil is also knocked out and locked in a car trunk during the parade. The gang figures out that the bomb is at Wilt Deli's and that Vanessa and Lola are behind it, but fail to stop them from detonating it, causing major damage to Wilt's while Jesse Hooper is critically injured in the explosion. Fenton Hardy is revealed to be hunting down the remnants of the Circle and finds Paul McFarlane dead, and meets Anya Kowalski's daughter Olivia, who is also fighting the Circle to get revenge for her family. And Chet and Belinda finally hook up.
• Wham Shot: Two in quick succession. Frank and Joe visit JB at his motel, only for Angela to answer the door instead. And almost immediately after, the dark blue van drives up right next to them, and some goons jump out to abduct them.

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