Recap / The Hardy Boys 2020 Season 3 E 4 The Crash

Season 3, Episode 4:

The Crash

With Frank back, the race is on to locate the third and final relic, but the bad guys are hot on the Hardy Boys’ trail.

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This episode contains examples of:

• Anti-Climax: Phil notices there are a few symbols on the scroll map that perfectly match those on the codex caps, so he tries putting one cap on each symbol, he and the others hold their breaths in anticipation...and nothing happens. Phil is in fact completely right about this, but they're just not in the correct location for the codexes to activate. Once they do this same thing in the Chamber of the Eye, it does work.
• Asshole Victim: Cadmus Quill is a smarmy guy working for a shady employer, brings a whole legion of thugs to JB's apartment to eliminate him, and probably would have killed or captured the Hardy Gang too, so no one mourns him when his own boss murders him. That said, JB is still pretty horrified by it because he only left Quill Bound and Gagged to try to find out who his boss is, and didn't mean to get him killed.
• Batman Gambit: Sadly, JB Taking the Bullet for the Hardys is very likely All According to Plan for the hooded killer, who probably followed him there after killing Quill at JB's apartment because He Knows Too Much, and makes no further attempt to kill the boys after shooting JB twice.
• Big Brother Instinct: All over the place from JB toward Joe (his Morality Pet), Frank, and the rest of the gang.
  • When JB's buyer implicitly threatens the Hardy Boys, he immediately vows to burn the map he was hired to find if they or their friends are in danger, and decides to leave the game for good, while urging the boys to do the same "before one of you gets hurt or worse."
  • Soon after, he sees Quill with a mini-army of Mooks show up at his apartment building, and knows they're coming for him but will find Frank, Joe, Biff, and Phil in the apartment instead. He doesn't hesitate to turn around, sneak into his safe room, and bring the kids in there right before the bad guys break in.
  • There's also a minor one from Frank in the same scene; he has his brother and the other two younger kids rush into the safe room ahead of him, and waits to be the last one in, closing the door Just in Time.
  • JB does his best to look out for the group while working with them: pulling Joe and Frank away from the machine in the Chamber when they get a seizure-like vision from touching it, quickly warning all the kids to duck down at the quarry so the arriving Quill and co. don't catch them, and drawing aggro to lure the bad guys who are following him out of Bridgeport and away from the Hardy Gang.
  • And most of all, very soon after he watched the hooded woman kill Quill, he sees her coming up behind the Hardys at the pool club with a gun. Even though she's almost certainly after him rather than the boys, he still instinctively takes the bullet and gets the brothers out of the crossfire by pushing Frank down and putting himself right between the shooter and Joe.
• Big Damn Heroes: The quartet at JB's apartment gets a Mass "Oh, Crap!" when they see on the security footage that they're seconds away from being found there, with the map, by a group of thugs led by Quill who are looking for it, not knowing how they can hide in time. Then JB pops out of his safe room hidden behind his closet and brings them in there, with Frank shutting the closet door behind them just as the bad guys break in.
• Bookends: One of Joe's earliest encounters with JB involved the latter rescuing him from the Tall Man in a carnival funhouse, while narrowly surviving it himself. Their final meeting here once again has JB saving Joe's life from a known murderer dressed in black in a dimly-lit, crowded room full of neon lights; this time, though, he's fatally injured.
• Bound and Gagged: JB pistol-whips Quill, then leaves him like this for his boss to find. Unfortunately for Quill, the boss immediately puts a bullet in his brain as soon as they show up, to JB's dismay (as this was definitely not his plan).
• Cliffhanger: The episode ends with JB being shot twice In the Back at the nightclub by the hooded woman while protecting the boys.
• Character Death: Cadmus Quill is a somewhat minor character who previously tried to hire the Hardy Boys under false pretenses. JB ambushes him and leaves him Bound and Gagged for Quill's boss to find, only to be horrified when said boss just shoots Quill dead upon arriving.
• Chase Scene: Right after the Hardy gang finds the Core, one of these ensues when several SUVs pull up and they attempt to flee. It doesn't last long, since the kids are on bikes and have no hope of outrunning cars, but the people driving them (Olivia and her forces) don't intend the gang any immediate harm, especially since one of them is Aunt Trudy, and convince the boys to give them the Core.
• Chekhov's News: At JB's apartment, there's a news broadcast on his TV in the background about expected meteor showers over the next few days. Joe recalls it later when realizing one such meteor that will impact the Earth's surface contains the Core, right as it does come crashing down at the quarry, as expected.
• Commonality Connection: A major reason JB has always liked Joe—as he himself admits—and clicked so well with him since they met is because Joe questions everything around him and trusts in his own instincts, and JB is no different.
• Conscience Makes You Go Back: When the Hardys, Biff, and Phil come to JB's apartment to get the map back from him, he warns them that his buyer knows who they are, officially drops out of game, and leaves while the others stay there to start piecing the map together. As he heads out the fire exit, though, he sees several cars containing Quill and a small army of Mooks drive up outside. Knowing they're coming there for him but will find the kids instead and probably hurt them, JB promptly changes his mind about leaving and heads to the roof to sneak into his Secret Room, letting the gang in to hide there too just before Quill and his men barge in.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Frank notes that Biff is really good at finding people from the past, and she agrees, "I'm 2-for-2 so far," referring to how she separately tracked down her bio dad and her bio mom in the past two seasons.
  • When talking about the security camera footage of Laura, Callie mentions her own mom having abandoned her when she was a kid and how crushed she was by it (which hasn't been brought up since Season 1), and hopes that Frank and Joe can get a happier ending.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • Biff and Phil are wondering aloud how they're going to find William Vogel as they walk into Wilt's, who overhears them and happens to have been friends with Vogel as teens. It's subverted by being a dead end, but then double-subverted when Wilt gives them another lead instead.
  • Joe has a "Eureka!" Moment while deducing the last relic isn't on Earth yet, and remembers the news broadcast earlier about expected meteor showers. He is literally mid-sentence explaining to the others that this is the Core when the meteor comes crashing down to the quarry.
  • After JB watches Quill's boss kill him and realizes she's going to find his secret room within the next few seconds, he tries to take the security footage tape with him that'll show her identity. Of course, this is when the tape recorder happens to jam after he opens it, preventing JB from getting the tape out and forcing him to flee without it to avoid getting caught by the boss, which gives her the chance to steal it before the boys ever see it and keeping them in the dark about who the murderer is for a few more episodes.
  • Right as the boys reach the pool club to meet JB and realize they won't make it past the bouncer, one of the staff comes out a side door to take out the trash, facing away from them, giving them the chance to sneak in. They also get through the kitchen while everyone's back is turned.
• Crazy-Prepared: Chet asks Joe if he has a map of Bridgeport in his backpack. Joe, in fact, has four of them—one each for if another gets lost, stolen, or damaged. The others give him "WTF" faces, and he points out that in a treasure hunt, everybody should have a map.
• Disguised in Drag: JB dresses as a little old lady to get back into his apartment through the safe room and get the drop on Quill.
• Downer Ending: The last 10 minutes of the episode go From Bad to Worse: the Hardys actually do get to the Core first, but are quickly cornered by Olivia and her backup. She convinces the boys to give it to her, but it's then heavily implied that she's Impersonating an Officer and is one of the bad guys, which means Fenton's likely in trouble, and though Trudy helps them escape, they have no choice but to leave the Core behind. Then JB accidentally gets Quill killed by his boss, and is forced to leave without the recorded security footage that could provide their identity. And then JB himself takes mortal gunshot wounds from this same boss while shielding Joe. Summed up pretty well by this exchange:
  Biff: What's wrong?
  Trudy: Everything.
• Draw Aggro: JB does this when the gang goes to the quarry to try to find the Core, only to find the bad guys there, getting them to chase him so he can lure them to Dixon City and out of Bridgeport and make it easier for the kids to continue their search.
• Everyone Has Standards: Cadmus Quill is an Asshole Victim for sure, but JB's not a killer, and just knocks him out and ties him up to lure out his employer. And he's utterly shocked when this person shows up and murders Quill, certainly not intending for him to die.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Joe figures out that George wasn't worried about someone else finding the last relic until he came back from the Crystal because it wasn't on Earth yet, and deduces it'll be inside a meteor that's going to come crashing down soon. The "oh crap" comes in when the gang hears the meteor coming down right as he's saying this, and rush outside to watch it happen.
• Guest-Star Party Member: JB becomes this to the Hardys and co, agreeing to help them try to get the Core in an attempt to keep them safe. Unfortunately for him, it only lasts until the end of the episode, at which point he is fatally shot while protecting them.
• He Knows Too Much: Though it's ambiguous here if JB's able to see on his security footage who Quill's hooded killer is, as the room is dark and her face is in shadow, it's confirmed a few episodes later that he did. The murderer doesn't give him a chance to tell the Hardys, following JB to the pool club to fatally shoot him, and as the next episode shows, steals the tape with the footage that reveals her identity.
• Heroic Sacrifice: JB sees the mysterious woman in the black hood coming up behind Joe and Frank with a gun as they enter the bar, and ends up putting himself between Joe and the shooter while trying to move them out of harm's way and Taking the Bullet, to the Hardys' shock and horror. Even sadder, JB himself is almost certainly the real target to begin with, since the killer doesn't keep shooting at the boys after.
• Hope Spot:
  • Once Quill's boss murders him, JB isn't able to get away with the camera footage showing her identity, but does at least escape himself and the Hardys make it into the club to meet him, leaving some hope that he'll be able to pass on some intel to them. Then the killer arrives and shoots JB—while he saves the Hardys from her, to boot—before they ever get a chance to talk.
  • Overall, this episode retroactively makes the previous one into one of these. The Hardy Boys won big in "A Promise of Trouble", successfully pulling off their highly complicated plan to save Frank and defeating their biggest adversary yet (George) against all odds, and had a plan to go get the map back from JB, which they succeed in doing at the beginning here. But after they decode the map and figure out where the Core is, things keep going From Bad to Worse and they end up losing majorly by the end: they immediately have the Core taken from them after finding it, have gained a new enemy in Olivia, and as mentioned above, Quill and JB are both fatally shot before the gang can learn what they know.
• Internal Reveal:
  • Brian asks Belinda and Chet how Adrian Munder became catatonic too, and Chet recaps to him everything that happened with the Crystal, including George faking his death and stealing Frank's body, Munder helping with the plan to get Frank back, and him staying behind in the Crystal with Aaron. Brian believes them, but laments having to find a way to twist this story into something Driscoll will believe.
  • JB likewise learns about all or most of this, and that Joe wasn't lying back in "Captured!" about Frank having the Eye's power in him, when they fill him in offscreen after their "seizure visions" in the Chamber.
• Ironic Echo: A couple when Olivia and her men corner the Hardy Boys, Callie, Chet, and Belinda after they find the Core:
  • Upon learning Olivia's a government agent, Frank and Joe ask in unison, "Which agency?" and when she says they've never heard of it, say "Try me," which were the same reactions Fenton had to Olivia telling him the same thing in "A Strange Inheritance".^note Though, unlike Fenton, they certainly have heard of the DSA since Belinda's dad works there.
  • Olivia asks them if they still have the Eye, and Chet lies that they don't (but he actually does). She asks where it is, and Belinda claims it was "vaporized in the Sleep Room," the same lie that Joe originally gave to her dad and he told her about.
• Karmic Death: Cadmus Quill and his goons break into JB's apartment to presumably kill or at least capture him and the Hardy gang on orders from his boss. When he comes back again later, JB turns the tables and knocks him out, and Quill is soon murdered by said boss.
• Let Me Get This Straight...: JB, verbatim, when the boys give him an Internal Reveal between scenes after their seizure visions in the Chamber.
• Let's Just Be Friends: Biff reiterates this when Phil once again broaches the possibility of a romantic relationship between them and mentions their exhilarated hug in the previous episode after saving Frank, clarifying that it was a "friend hug" and now's not a great time for her to be thinking about romance with everything that the group, and she personally, has going on. Phil accepts it, but is clearly disappointed.
• Lured into a Trap: Played with. After jumping and knocking out Quill, JB uses the mobile phone to call the latter's boss, and while imitating Quill's voice, claims to have killed JB Cox and asks the boss to come there so he can spy on them with the security cameras and find out who they are. He's quite shaken when said boss just promptly murders Quill upon arrival, and though he does see her face, he doesn't get the chance to share her identity with anyone else before she kills him, too.
• Made of Iron: Trudy causes a major car crash to escape Olivia, which ends with the SUV flipping over several times and landing on its side after she drives it off a hill. Yet all four occupants—Trudy, Olivia, Frank, and Joe—survive relatively unharmed. Only Olivia is even knocked unconscious by it, while the three Hardys get out with nothing more than some minor scrapes and bruises.
• Mama Bear: Once Trudy figures out that Olivia's lying to her and the boys about both Fenton and being a DSA agent, she uses a Cryptic Conversation to tell her nephews to fasten their seatbelts, then knocks Olivia out and crashes the car to give Frank and Joe a chance to escape.
• Mass "Oh, Crap!":
  • The Hardys, Phil, and Biff once the latter points out on JB's security footage that Quill and an army of underlings are just moments away from breaking into the apartment and finding them there with the map, with Frank saying they need to hide. Luckily, JB intervenes.
  • The Hardys, Callie, Belinda, and Chet as they watch the meteor, containing the Core, crashing down to Earth. And then another one soon after when, right after they take the Core, a whole bunch of black SUVs drive up, leading to a Chase Scene.
• Needle in a Stack of Needles: The map to the final relic—which will be some kind of rock/mineral like the other two—brings the friends to a rock quarry, and they lampshade word-for-word how hard this would be to find. Though they soon figure out the Core isn't there yet and watch it come crashing down, at which point it's quite easy to find due to leaving a crater in the ground.
• "Not So Different" Remark: JB compliments how Joe trusts his instincts and questions everything, and states that he himself is the same way.
• Oh, Crap!: JB has a couple in rapid succession: first when Quill's cloaked boss enters the apartment and shoots him dead, and then again when the killer turns and notices the security camera, and begins looking for the entrance to the safe room. And then in the next scene, a huge one when he spots the murderer just a few feet behind an oblivious Joe and Frank and starting to raise her gun.
• One Last Job: JB is really tired of dealing with all the magic relics and Artifacts of Power, and decides to drop out of the relic hunt (and apparently thievery in general) altogether. However, he hides the Hardys and co. in his safe room after Quill and his Mooks show up at his apartment, and Joe convinces him to stay in the game and work with them a little longer by guilt-tripping him that they might die without his help. He ultimately does help out willingly, and doesn't hesitate to take the bullet for Joe and Frank to save them from the woman in black.
• Pet the Dog: Throughout the whole series, JB has always been a Wild Card who truly likes the Hardy Boys (Joe far more so) and looks out for their safety when he can, but also usually prioritizes getting his payday above all else, even if it means betraying the boys or handing over powerful artifacts to unscrupulous employers. By now, though, his better nature and sincere care for the kids' well-being definitively wins out over his Greed, as he decides he can't give the scrolls to such dangerous people after they threaten his and the Hardys' lives and drops out of the race for the relics for good. He continues helping the gang for the sole purpose of keeping them safe, even Taking the Bullet to protect Joe and Frank.
• Pistol-Whipping: JB sneaks up on Quill with a gun in the apartment, then knocks him out this way and leaves him Bound and Gagged for his boss.
• The Reveal: Drew Darrow knows or at least is connected to William Vogel, George's former chauffeur whom Gloria fired, because he had the Crystal piece that he stole made into a necklace that Drew is now wearing.
• The Scapegoat: The new dean of Rosegrave decides to blame Adrian Munder, the now-permanently-catatonic escaped felon, for the attack on Donald and Drew by the "figure in black," even though he couldn't possibly have done it, because "Rosegrave doesn't need more bad publicity."
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Once JB's buyer threatens his and the Hardy Gang's lives for the map, and the kids jump him and steal it from him soon after, JB reaffirms that he's sick of dealing with dangerous magical artifacts and decides to drop out from not only the relic race, but apparently thievery in general, and leaves. Though he barely makes it out of the building before Quill and his henchmen show up to eliminate him; realizing they're about to find the boys and friends in his apartment instead, he promptly pulls a Changed My Mind, Kid and goes back to save them.
• Secret Room: JB turns out to have a safe room, complete with security surveillance of his apartment and the nearby hallways, behind the back of his coat closet, which he uses to hide Joe, Frank, Biff, and Phil when Quill comes there searching for JB.
• Spotting the Thread: Trudy realizes Olivia's lying to them about Fenton because she told the boys he has has "good news" for them (hinting it pertains to Laura, which is how Frank and Joe interpret it), but claimed to Trudy earlier that she lost track of Fenton days ago. Olivia tries to cover by saying that, since that time, he left a message for her and one of her agents informed her of it just before they found the kids, but since she doesn't specify what the supposed message actually said and Trudy has been with her the whole time and never saw her receive it, she sees through it, realizes she and the boys are in danger, and knocks Olivia out, crashing their car, so her nephews can get away.
• Taking the Bullet: JB for Joe and Frank, seeing the mysterious hooded woman (whom he earlier watched murder Quill) entering the club behind them, gun raised, probably planning to kill him. JB gets them out of the crossfire by pushing Frank out of the way and pulling Joe around to put himself between him and the gun, and takes two shots In the Back while shielding him.
• Tempting Fate: At the beginning of the episode, JB's buyer threatens him over the phone, and he responds that he's gotten many threats to his life but always lives to see another day. At the end, which is still on the same day, he's mortally wounded Taking the Bullet for the Hardy Boys.
• Together in Death: Or, together in a permanent vegetative state. In addition to the Munder twins' minds being this inside the Crystal, Brian Conrad has had Adrian's now-also-catatonic body moved to Pine Grove Institute so he can be together there with Aaron's body.
• Wham Episode: The Hardys and friends are able to take the scroll map to the final relic back from JB, but he ends up having to hide them from Quill and his goons, who are sent by Quill's boss and JB's buyer to get it from him. The gang manages to decipher the map and find this relic, the Core, as it crashes down to Earth, and Olivia offers to keep it safe and reunite the boys with their dad (and, as she hints, their mom too), but is heavily implied to be faking her status as a DSA agent. Trudy crashes the car so she and the boys can escape, and they're forced to leave the Core behind with Olivia and her underlings. The mysterious woman in the coat shows up at JB's apartment and murders the Bound and Gagged Quill there, and then later shoots JB at the pool club as well while he protects the boys from her.
• Wham Shot:
  • Bickford, the jeweler, shows Biff and Phil the drawn design of the necklace his father made for Vogel using the stolen Crystal piece, pointing out the distinctive clasp. Cut to Drew, and we see that her necklace has this clasp, revealing she has some connection to Vogel.
  • As the Hardys arrive at the bar and walk over to meet JB, the woman in black who just killed Quill in the previous scene is shown coming up behind them and drawing her gun. JB sees her too, gets a massive Oh, Crap!, and pushes the boys out of the way, Taking the Bullet as a result.
• Won't Get Fooled Again: Seeing as JB stole from the Hardy Gang again since their last meeting, Joe spends most of the episode skeptical that he really had a change of heart about pursuing the relics and is helping them for purely selfless reasons, waiting for the other shoe to drop and him to double-cross them again. Ironically, JB is at his most earnest and altruistic here, and not only never betrays the boys, but only gets involved in the case this time to look after them rather than gain something for himself. Joe finally regains his trust and faith in him again after a warm, candid conversation between them, only for JB to get shot saving him and Frank the next time they meet.
• You Have Failed Me: The most likely reason Quill's boss, the person in the black hood, eliminates him, having arrived at JB's apartment expecting to see the latter dead, only to find Quill Bound and Gagged and realize JB tricked them into coming there.