Season 2, Episode 8:
A Midnight Scare
Frank and Callie make a shocking revelation about the Project Midnight test subjects, while Joe impatiently tries to enlist the help of JB Cox to get the power out of Frank.This episode contains examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: The last episode made it appear—and Joe and co. certainly believed—that Dr. Burelli reluctantly agreed to give the catatonic Dennis back to the Shadow Man, likely in response to coercion, and only changed her mind once the kids pulled the rug out by sneaking and hiding Dennis away from them. However, Brian's reveal to Belinda that Burelli has been working with him to some extent to find out who's trying to revive Project Midnight and came to Bridgeport to check on Dennis after hearing of his condition muddies the waters. Was she still threatened into compliance but had second thoughts after being foiled, like it first seemed? Or was she genuinely planning to send Dennis to the facility in Dixon City as she claimed, and lying to the Shadow Man all along about handing him over? Regardless of which one is true, though, Joe and friends' actions certainly did thwart any attempt by the Shadow Man to take Dennis back.
- Anger Born of Worry: Frank's and Joe's bickering starts getting heated because Frank doesn't like his brother taking unnecessary risks by planning to break into Angela's motel room while she's meeting with Chet, worried he's going to get caught (and, implicitly, kidnapped again); Joe insists he'll be fine, and is still frustrated about Frank overusing the Eye and wants to get it out of him for his own safety.
- Anywhere but Their Lips: Lucy gives Joe a quick kiss on the cheek to thank him for saving Dennis in "The Doctor's Orders."
- Arc Words: "I owe you one" from JB's note to Joe. It's written as "IOU-1", and Lucy telling Joe "I owe you one" for saving Dennis is a "Eureka!" Moment where he figures out that reversing it (1-UOI) provides the area code for the rest of JB's phone number that he found earlier. Once JB gets his call and shows up as promised, he repeats, "I owe you one, right?"
- Artistic Licence – Geography: Though it's not entirely clear where Bridgeport and Dixon City are supposed to be located, they're indicated to be far enough north that characters wear long sleeves outdoors even in the early fall and late spring, most likely in either New York like the books or Canada, the filming location for the series. However, when Joe solves JB's code to get his phone number and contact him, said number has an area code of 864, which is in South Carolina in Real Life, pretty unlikely to be the actual intended setting of the series, especially since it's for the most-inland portion of the state rather than the part that borders the ocean.
- Asshole Victim: Both of the Character Deaths arguably qualify.
- Mack Malone definitely counts, having menaced both JB and the Hardy Boys with a knife while holding them prisoner at separate times, and acted like nothing but an Obviously Evil sleaze for all of his screentime.
- Dr. Burelli's a lesser example. She's not all that sympathetic thanks to her role in experimenting on teens in the past with Project Midnight—despite apparently becoming The Atoner by the present—and may or may not have initially intended to give Dennis to the Shadow Man until the kids thwarted her.
- The Atoner:
- In Brian Conrad's first year working with Stratemeyer Global, he helped cover up Project Midnight after the experiments failed, leaving one kid dead and another catatonic, only discovering how immoral the project really was after he was already in too deep with everything to lose. In the present, he's trying to find proof to definitively connect Stratemeyer to Project Midnight to bring them down for good, and is using them to find the Eye so he can destroy or at least get rid of it and make sure its power can never be misused again.
- Vivian Burelli, the doctor who ran Project Midnight, is implied to have become this to a much lesser extent. She came to Bridgeport to check on Dennis after he ended up similarly catatonic to a previous Project Midnight victim, and sounded quite heartfelt when apologizing to the Shadow Man, also apparently a victim, in the previous episode about "what we did to you."
- Bait-and-Switch:
- Chet sneaks back up to the attic to secretly tell Angela (via the bug) to call him at Wilt's, and when she does, agrees (with conditions) to help her take the Eye's power from Frank, asking her to meet him there the next day. It looks like Chet's still harboring enough resentment against Frank that he's decided to betray him or at least go behind his back, but then we see that his friends are there at Wilt's with him as he talks to her, and it's a plan they came up with together for Chet to go undercover as a Double Reverse Quadruple Agent so they can stop Angela.
- A twofer right after Frank and Callie find evidence that the Shadow Man is Adrian Munder, who's currently helping Phil decode the scroll:
- The scroll's message seems to relate to Project Midnight (saying "The vessel is the key"), and Munder closes the classroom door while asking Phil where he got it, making it look like he's going to do something to him. Then Joe and Lucy get to the school and find Phil sitting there seemingly catatonic...but when Joe touches his shoulder, he's just fine and was only spaced out, and Munder already left a while ago.
- The three of them then go to Munder's house to confront him about being the Shadow Man, only to find him actually catatonic, apparently another victim of his (like Dennis) instead.
- Big Brother Instinct: Both Frank and JB for Joe; when Frank briefly thinks JB's the Shadow Man, one thing he angrily accuses him of is trying to run Joe down with his car the previous night at the hospital, and JB actually takes major offense to this and snaps that he would never hurt Joe.
- Bound and Gagged: After decking him in "Hunting an Intruder", Angela has been keeping Mack handcuffed in the bathtub of the motel room with tape over his mouth, which is how Joe finds him after breaking in.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Downplayed, but Belinda makes her displeasure of Brian's past involvement with Stratemeyer quite clear, grilling him on why he helped cover up Project Midnight and not letting him off the hook easily, though she does accept his apology for lying to her.
- Character Death: Two in this episode, which is a fairly high body count for this show.
- Dr. Vivian Burelli fled from the Shadow Man in the previous episode, only for Brian to find her car abandoned on a bridge not long after. It's confirmed that this is because the Shadow Man did catch up to her there and murder her, and her body washes up from the river.
- Mack Malone was betrayed by his partner at Stratemeyer, Angela Todd, who's been holding him prisoner in the bathtub in JB's old motel room. Once Mack lies to Joe to set a trap for him as part of a deal with Angela to set him free, she decides he's no longer useful to her and goes back on her end, putting a bullet in his brain instead.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: Phil being a paper delivery boy was established and provided a Chekhov's Skill in "The Missing Camera". It comes in handy again here when he, Joe, and Lucy go to confront Munder at his home, since it's how Phil knows his address.
- Chekhov's Gun: The seemingly-random instructions that Young George gave Frank in his vision in "The Doctor's Orders" to tell him which way to move while standing in George's office, to Frank's confusion. This turns out to be instructions for how Frank must turn, push, or pull the end of the codex device built into George's desk to open it and find the scroll hidden inside, which JB came there to steal (though it's ultimately already gone).
- Chekhov's Gunman: Recurring character Mr. Munder, the detention and programming teacher at Bridgeport, appears to be the Shadow Man based on Frank's visions, though when Joe, Phil, and Lucy go to his house, they find him catatonic there instead.
- Continuity Nod:
- Mayor Krassner states to Deputy Riley that Bridgeport is supposed to be a place "where friends meet", referencing the town slogan seen on a welcome sign all the way back in the series premiere.
- When JB meets up with Frank and Callie at Rosegrave Academy and starts talking to them, Callie confusedly asks who he is, and is left incredulous when he introduces himself; while she has certainly heard a lot about JB from the others, she's one of the few members of the team who's never actually met or seen him in person before then and thus wouldn't recognize him on sight.
- Diegetic Switch: Joe and Chet listen to "867-5309" on JB's private channel, which then becomes the background music as the scene transitions.
- Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Angela tries to get Chet to turn on Frank and help her get the Eye out of him. While her previous words did motivate Chet to finally admit his lingering complicated feelings about Frank's and Callie's relationship to them, he's now talked it out with them and put those issues to rest. He has no intention of really betraying his friends, and only pretends to go rogue to convince Angela; the group is in on the whole plan. He outright refers to himself as a "double agent" when he successfully gets her to fall for his act.
- Double Take: As Frank assures Callie that he's fine after his latest vision, he does one of these upon realizing he's hallucinating Young George being in the backseat of the car.
- Dramatic Irony: The gang goes downstairs to discuss the bug planted in the attic, thinking they'll be out of range there. They're not, and Angela still hears everything they say, looking amused by it all. Though they ultimately don't divulge anything else important that she can hear.
- "Eureka!" Moment: Lucy thanks Joe for protecting Dennis in the previous episode, and adds, "I owe you one." These words help Joe crack the final secret of JB's note to get the area code for Jenny's Number: reversing the "IOU-1", as written in his letter, and calling 1-UOI-867-5309.
- Failed a Spot Check: Joe breaks into Angela's motel room and tampers with the radio she's using to eavesdrop on them so it won't work anymore, but then gets distracted at finding Mack imprisoned in the bathroom and fails to turn it back off before he leaves. Angela comes back to find the radio now turned on and only emitting static and immediately realizes someone was there, although Mack likely would have told her this anyway.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: When Callie and Frank walk through the Rosegrave grounds, it's possible to recognize the "groundskeeper" trimming trees near them in the background as JB the first time he's in frame, before it's explicitly shown to be him a minute later.
- Gender-Blender Name: Joe reaches JB's answering machine by calling Jenny's Number, and it appropriately uses a woman's voice calling herself "Jenny". When JB and Joe meet up at the end and JB addresses him as "Joey" as usual, he in turn jokingly calls him "Jenny" in response.
- Hypocrite: Mayor Krassner criticizing the competence of the Bridgeport PD is awfully rich considering he has repeatedly brushed aside the Hardys every time they've tried to report their concerns about something bad happening in Bridgeport, and also disregarded the police themselves when they believed the boys, in favor of protecting his public image, risking the townspeople's safety as a result.
- I Lied:
- Joe finds Mack handcuffed to the railing in Angela's bathtub, and agrees to let him go only after Mack tells him where the relic is. He does so, but Joe knows he's lying about not planning to hurt him and reneges on releasing him. Which turns out to be a good call, since, unfortunately, the info Mack gave him was also a lie.
- Angela turns out to have also lied to Mack about planning to release him once he gave the Hardys and co. this false info, having expected whoever found him there to free him. Since Joe didn't do so, she murders Mack instead, feeling that he's no longer useful to keep alive.
- I Take Offense to That Last One: JB is already annoyed with Frank and Callie openly suspecting him of being the Shadow Man (not even knowing what that means), but tries to just walk away and leave. Then Frank adds on accusations that he's been hurting Dennis and tried to hit Joe with a car the night before, and JB, after saying he has no idea who Dennis is, sounds quite pissed that Frank would think he had anything to do with trying to harm Joe, and sells him and Callie out to the Rosegrave teacher who comes over to talk to them just to get them off his back.
- I Warned You: Frank is disgruntled about JB having bugged the Hardy attic for Stratemeyer Global, but JB replies that this was Nothing Personal and points out that he warned the Hardys about Stratemeyer multiple times, and they chose not to listen to him.
- Jenny's Number: Turns out this is JB's phone number, too. The letter he left for Joe has hidden clues telling him what channel to tune into on the radio, and it just plays "867-5309/Jenny" on repeat. Joe combines it with the "IOU-1" in the note—which, when dialed in backwards, provides the area code—and finally is able to contact JB about calling in his favor, who shows up to meet him at the end.
- Just Following Orders: Why Brian, a new employee with Stratemeyer Global at the time, helped cover up Project Midnight, not realizing just how bad their actions were until he was already too far into it to get out easily, especially as a young man with a home and family he risked losing. He's spent the decade since trying to forget and living with the guilt, and has become The Atoner in the present.
- Killed Offscreen: We never actually see the Shadow Man attack Burelli in the last episode or this one. Brian found her car abandoned after the Shadow Man already caught up to her, and it's only confirmed here that he killed her after her body is pulled from the water where he dumped it.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Joe certainly (and rightfully) sees it this way when he finds Mack Malone—who previously kidnapped him and Frank together with Angela and their goons, and terrorized them both in captivity—Bound and Gagged in the motel room bathtub, promptly lampshading it:Joe: Do you hear that sound? It's the sound of the tables turning.
- Meaningful Background Event: As Frank and Callie walk through the Rosegrave campus, they pass a groundskeeper trimming the trees, who glances over, notices them, walks away from the tree after they've passed it, and a moment later is shown to be trimming a hedge right behind them. It's easy to tell he's JB the first time he's in view if you're looking in the right direction, and he quite clearly recognizes them (or at least Frank) and casually gets closer so he can eavesdrop and then follow them to the archive room.
- No Man Should Have This Power: Brian feels this way about the Eye, as Laura did, telling Belinda he's searching for it so he can destroy it for this reason. It contrasts him with his subordinate, Angela, who doesn't care one bit and is Only in It for the Money she can get from selling it.
- Nothing Personal: JB says this to Frank when the latter is annoyed about the former putting a bug in his attic, since Stratemeyer was threatening his life to get the Eye. JB still tried to warn them about the danger they were in, as he lampshades, to no avail.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Frank is able to crack the lock on the codex built into the foot of George's desk, but instead of the scroll JB came there to steal, they find that Paul McFarlane apparently already opened the codex at some point in the past, took the scroll as leverage (which the Hardys now have after he gave it to Fenton), and replaced it with a note basically taunting Gloria about having done so.
- One Degree of Separation: While the two main members of the Big Bad Ensemble—Angela and her Stratemeyer cronies, and the Shadow Man—don't know each other and aren't working together in any way, they are connected like this. In the past, Rosegrave Prep secretly tested on a couple of students in "Project Midnight", and when it failed, Stratemeyer Global, including Brian (whom Angela officially works for, but has gone rogue and is making a play for herself), covered it up. Dr. Burelli was the one to run the tests, and the Shadow Man was a victim of them in some way.
- Only in It for the Money: Angela reveals to Chet when he asks that this is her reason for going rogue and wanting to get the Eye for herself from the Hardys; she outright states that she has no interest in personally using a "mystical moon rock that's gonna mess with my mind," but knows that a lot of other people would kill for it, so she plans to sell it.
- Passive-Aggressive Kombat: Between Riley and Krassner (a witness who happened to be in the area) after Dr. Burelli's body is found.Riley: It's a good thing you were here last night. Otherwise, we might not have anything to go on.
Krassner: Yes. It's as if the mayor has to patrol the streets himself to stop an incompetent police force from bungling investigations. I'd hate to see you embarrassed in the media over your mishandling of everything. - Public Secret Message: Joe realizes that the radio JB gave him isn't used for contacting him directly; instead, his note contains a code for a channel to listen to, which turns out to be playing the song "867-5309/Jenny". For anyone else listening to the radio, they'd just hear music and not think anything of it, like Joe did the first time, but this is actually the phone number to contact JB.
- Rapid-Fire "No!": Mack, as Angela cocks her gun to kill him.
- Red Herring: When JB reveals to Frank and Callie that he once attended Rosegrave, they very briefly suspect him of being the Shadow Man because he's about the right age to have been going to school there ten years ago when Project Midnight took place, and he's always been at least tangentially connected to their cases. JB pretty quickly puts this to rest by stating he doesn't even know who Dennis is and becoming straight-up offended by Frank's accusation that he tried to run Joe over with a car in the events of the previous episode.
- The Reveal:
- JB Cox (which is an alias, not his real name) was a Rosegrave Academy student.note
- Adrian Munder, the Bridgeport teacher who's been a recurring character during the season, is connected in some way to Project Midnight. The gang initially thinks he's the Shadow Man, but then they go to his house and find him catatonic there....
- Stating the Simple Solution: Frank doesn't get why Joe is bothering to break into Angela's motel room to mess with her receiver when there are many other ways they could just get rid of the bug in the attic, like smashing it, flushing it down a toilet, or just selling off the whole lamp. Joe's idea seems to be that Stratemeyer could just plant another one, but Frank's right that he's taking a big risk by doing this.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Frank and Callie come to Rosegrave posing as students and try to keep a low profile, but then Frank comes charging right out of the archive room to follow and continue the confrontation with JB. Naturally, this draws attention, and a teacher sees them and calls them out for being somewhere they shouldn't, which, coupled with JB ratting them out, requires them to get out of there fast.
- Taking the Heat: Deputy Riley comes to the Conrad home, since Belinda still has Chet's truck, to ask if either of them were driving it the previous night. Brian claims it was him, even though it was actually Belinda, to keep her from being the one accused of killing Burelli.
- Three Lines, Some Waiting: The kids divide and conquer even more in this episode than the previous one, while Fenton's still out of the picture:
- Frank and Callie head to Rosegrave to try to find the Sleep Room. They do, meeting up and having an altercation with JB in the process, and also find evidence pointing to Mr. Munder as the Shadow Man.
- Joe and Chet team up to try to decode JB's note, and also against Angela; Chet distracts her by meeting her at Wilt's so Joe can break into her motel room and sabotage the radio. However, he also has his own agenda of planning to contact JB and call in his favor, and later meets up with Phil near the end after Frank calls to warn him about Munder.
- Phil works on decrypting the coded message written on McFarlane's scroll that Fenton left the boys, with help from Mr. Munder...only for the Hardys to learn that he's likely a bad guy. Joe and Lucy come to get Phil after Munder has already left, and the three of them head to the man's house, only to find him catatonic there instead.
- Belinda questions her dad, Brian, about his past involvement with Stratemeyer. They then visit Dr. Burelli's old storage locker and find shredded Project Midnight files, but before they can finish piecing them together, Brian is taken in by the police for questioning about Burelli's death, forcing Belinda to keep putting it together by herself (though Chet later comes by to help).
- Villainous Rescue: While Chet is waiting for Angela at Wilt's, Deputy Riley comes in and starts asking him about his truck being seen driving away from the bridge the previous night, where Dr. Burelli was murdered.* Luckily, Angela then arrives and vouches that he was with her (which is in fact true) and gets Riley to back off the questioning and leave by threatening to call one of Stratemeyer's "big, fancy lawyers." Notably, though, this isn't done out of any sort of kindness of her heart, and is only because she thinks Chet is going to help her get the Eye and still needs him.
- You Just Told Me: Downplayed. The group suspects but don't know for sure that Angela is the one listening in on them with the bug in the attic, so Chet, who's pretending to agree to work with her, tells her via the bug to call him at Wilt's in 20 minutes. She does, confirming everyone's suspicions, but she really doesn't seem to care in the slightest that he and the other kids know.
