Season 1, Episode 8:
What Happened in Bridgeport
The boys head back to school, but Frank and Callie have different takes on the new girl. Frank learns more about young Laura, while an old friend returns to offer Joe information…at a price.This episode contains examples of:
- Asshole Victim: While the Hardy Boys are shaken at watching the Tall Man die, and Stacy is naturally horrified at having hit him with her car, nobody is actually sorry he's dead considering that he was a murderer who killed almost everyone on the Astghik, was stalking the Hardys and their friends, and already attacked them several times, and they see it as a relief that he won't be bothering them anymore.
- Big Brother Instinct: Frank is very tense and nervous when JB brings Joe to Gloria's as "leverage" and demands that Stefan go get her, especially because he and Joe were planning to get JB arrested to avoid having to give him the piece, and is likely scared that he wants revenge for it. When JB mentions that Joe knows where the piece is, Frank murmurs, "Let him go, JB," though the latter brusquely tells him it's fine and Joe has his own reasons for being there.
- The Bus Came Back: After JB Cox left town partway through "The Drop", he comes back to Bridgeport to get paid for his previous job, only to find that he unknowingly didn't properly deliver the item as promised.
- Chekhov's Gun: The walkie-talkies Biff gets for Joe and herself to use to contact each other for safety pays off very quickly for this purpose. Joe accidentally drops his while leaving the school, and Phil picks it up and follows him on his bike to return it to him. This lets him see the tail end of JB's "kidnapping" of Joe, and Phil uses the walkie to call Biff for backup.
- Cliffhanger: The episode ends with Frank and Stefan finding Joe and JB in Gloria's study, with JB using Joe as a sort-of-hostage and demanding that Stefan bring Gloria to talk to him.
- Commonality Connection: Frank and Stacy bond over not only being the new kids at school in Bridgeport, but also getting a lot of gossip and weird looks from other students after being closely linked to someone's death in a brutal car crash: in his and Joe's case, their mom, and in Stacy's case, having hit the Tall Man with her car.
- First Day of School Episode: Since Fenton is still not back yet, the boys are reluctantly forced to start school in Bridgeport with the rest of their friends. They lament that this is their first First Day of School without their mom.
- Insistent Terminology: Inverted with JB, who insists on not using a certain term:Joe: You did just abduct me!
JB: (Making a "hey, now" gesture) I, I didn't abduct anybody. This wasn't an abduction, okay? - Internal Reveal:
- JB only now finds out that there was something else hidden inside the idol he stole, which is what his buyer actually wanted, when Stefan pays him a visit at his motel to inform him that his delivery was incomplete and he won't get paid until he finishes the job.
- JB also learns from Joe that Chief Collig was the one who showed up at the factory for the idol, and is impressed by his detective skills.
- Kidnapped by an Ally: Well, by a Wild Card sometime-ally and sorta-friend. JB promises to get Joe info about his mom's death in exchange for the piece from the idol, but then discovers his buyer is Gloria, Joe's grandma, so decides to just make him come with him to see her and tell her where he hid the piece, and Gloria can tell Joe about Laura directly. JB doesn't even consider it a kidnapping since Joe's not actually in danger, but the latter clearly does at first and is a bit freaked out until JB reassures him he won't hurt him and there's something in it for him too.
- The Kindnapper: Downplayed since JB does bring Joe, not by his own choice, to see Gloria with him while planning to use him as leverage to get paid, but has no intention of actually hurting him and even tells Joe most of what he has in mind, pitching it to him as a mutually beneficial arrangement where he can possibly get some information about Laura's murder. Joe's pretty reluctant, but does go along with it.
- Locked Out of the Loop: Defied. When Jesse tells Trudy what Biff told her about Collig, they both decide they're tired of being this and need to do something about it, resolving to start digging for answers. This leads to Trudy finding the boys' String Theory board in the attic.
- New Transfer Student:
- Downplayed with the Hardy Boys, who've already been in Bridgeport for a couple of months and quite a few people know them by now, but they do have to start school there as "new kids" after having lived and gone to school in Dixon City all their lives.
- Played straighter with Stacy Baker; even though she's also starting school on the first day like the Hardys and everybody else, she only just moved to Bridgeport with her aunt and uncle, and is thus regarded as "the new girl."
- Not What It Looks Like: From Joe's point of view, a criminal who's figured out that he planned to turn him in orders him to get into his car by telling him that they're "going for a ride" and that Joe's going to be "leverage", and then drives to a remote wooded area and refuses to say where they're going. JB truly doesn't plan to harm him and actually intends help him learn more about Laura's death, but once he sees Joe's subdued fear and realizes it's because he thinks JB may intend to kill him, he's quick to reassure him this is definitely not the case and he's no killer.
- Playing Sick: Parodied and played entirely for laughs. As the Hardy Boys stand outside the Bridgeport school building on their first day, Joe weakly tries to claim that he's not feeling well and asks Frank to write a sick note for him, knowing full well it won't work, and Frank just chuckles and drags his brother inside with him.
- Ransacked Room: Joe comes home to find his bedroom like this, including some of his stuff broken. The culprit is later revealed to be JB, who was told by Stefan that there was something hidden inside the idol, realized Joe must have found it, and searched his room for it.
- The Reveal: Gloria Estabrook is the person who hired JB to steal the idol containing the piece of the Eye from the Tall Man. JB himself figures this out after Stefan threatens him and he then sees a picture in the paper soon after showing that Stefan works for Gloria.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Frank's lead in this episode turns out to be a dead end. He meets a teacher at Bridgeport who went to school there with his mom when they were teens, and she tells him about a story Laura was working on for the school paper about the Bridgeport conspiracy and that he might find record of it in the archives in the basement. Frank goes to look, only to find the folder empty, as someone apparently already got rid of all of Laura's notes and research there.
- Shared Family Quirks: Invoked by Trudy when she decides to take action and not be Locked Out of the Loop anymore.Trudy: I come from a family of detectives. I'm gonna do what comes naturally. Snoop.
- Ship Tease: Frank and Stacy get some pretty much immediately, smiling around each other a lot and seeming a bit shy; she especially seems smitten with him, probably thanks to her appreciation for Frank comforting her and looking out for her after the car accident. Callie even observes to Frank later, "It seemed like you two were hitting it off."
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: JB insists to Joe that he's a thief but not a murderer, and has never killed anyone.note
- The Un-Reveal: It's never made clear exactly how the Tall Man escaped from lockup at the Bridgeport police station back in "In Plain Sight". Since the Hardy Boys now know Chief Collig is corrupt, Joe clearly believes he secretly let him go, but as we learn here, JB's buyer whom Collig is working for is Gloria—who understandably showed concern about the Tall Man's escape, since he was very much not on her side and was going after her grandsons—so this wouldn't make much sense, and Collig certainly didn't seem happy to have to tell her about his escape. Now that the Tall Man is dead, the question of how he got out of jail takes a backseat to everything else going on and is ultimately never solved.
- Vehicular Kidnapping: A more low-key example than some considering that it's not at all violent, but JB does make Joe get in his car against the latter's will and drives off with him. Joe's just sitting safely in the backseat, but is still kinda scared until JB assures him it's Not What It Looks Like.
- With Catlike Tread: JB grabs Joe by the backpack at Wilt's to try to stealthily pull him into the back room of the store where they can talk privately with less risk that he'll be seen. Joe thrashing around in surprise causes them both to slam into a pile of boxes and knock several items the ground with very loud crashes while JB can only cringe before shutting the door. They still somehow don't get caught.
