Season 2, Episode 3:
The Missing Camera
When Frank is led to believe a local recluse is their prime suspect, the friends attempt a risky break and enter to retrieve the video camera Dennis lost in the woods.This episode contains examples of:
- Angry Guard Dog: Tom's dog is kept in her own fenced area, but barks at trespassers on the property. She's more of a Big Friendly Dog to the Hardys and co once they lure her away with food, but plays this straight with the teens who come to prank Tom once Belinda siccs her on them.
- Brick Joke: Chet tells the Hardys about the rumors that Tom Elroy, who owns much of the East Woods, buries bodies there at the behest of the Bridgeport Demon, and Wilt notes that it's ridiculous, because "the Demon lives in the West Woods." Later, when Frank, Belinda, and Chet are confronting Tom and he states that he's heard all the names people call him and things they say about him, he offers his own thoughts:Tom: I just don't get it. I mean, the Demon lives in the West Woods.
- Call-Back:
- When planning to break into Elroy's house, Frank brings up the time that Joe and Biff broke into Chief Collig's house in "A Figure in Hiding."
- Frank's and Callie's entrance exam to Rosegrave Academy, and them being the two students who passed and were admitted, is discussed at length in Callie's scenes with Gloria. The latter also mentions how she mentored the former for years when revealing her motive for doing so.
- Cassandra Truth: After his own Good Cop/Bad Cop route of questioning Dennis goes poorly, Joe cautions Frank against likewise going "full-steam ahead" with his suspicions against Elroy and to consider other angles. Frank, who has Theory Tunnel Vision at this point, insists the Eye is leading them right to Tom and charges ahead anyway, only to similarly regret it upon learning he's innocent, and promises to listen to Joe's attempts to keep him in check from now on.
- Chekhov's Skill: The beginning of the episode establishes that Phil works as a paper boy. During the planned break-in at Tom's house, Phil states that, as part of the job, he's become really good at dealing with dogs, and manages to bribe Tom's dog with treats, befriending her and getting her to happily come with them.
- Deal with the Devil: Gloria offers one to Callie: she'll use her connections to get her un-blacklisted from prep school if Callie gets Frank to visit her there in prison. She flatly refuses, unwilling to let Gloria use her to get to and potentially hurt Frank.
- Did You Actually Believe...?: Gloria asks Callie if she really believed that she and Frank—Gloria's protégée and grandson, respectively—just happened to be the two students who did the best on the entrance exam for Rosegrave Prep. She reveals that everyone who took the exam aced it, but outright states the school's admission is not a meritocracy; Callie's acceptance was guaranteed from the start, long before she took the test, because—unbeknownst to her—Gloria was grooming her to be part of the innermost ring of the Circle of the Eye.
- Didn't Think This Through: Biff calls a florist to track down who ordered flowers that were left on her birth dad's grave, in hopes of finding her birth mom. She doesn't want Jesse to know she's looking into this, so instead of using her own name and phone number for a call back, she gives them Joe's contact info—someone she hasn't told yet about her search—rather than Phil's, who is actively helping her. Of course, when the three kids are at the Hardy home later, Trudy gives the message to Joe, forcing Biff to fill him in on the spot regardless of whether or not she wanted to yet.
- Elephant in the Living Room: Callie asks Frank if everything's okay between him and Chet regarding Frank dating her now. This prompts him to ask Chet about it, who claims there's nothing to discuss because he's the one who ended the relationship with Callie, and it's been six months since then, which is longer than they even dated. Although there are hints he's not quite as fine with it as he's pretending to be.
- Face of a Thug: Tom Elroy initially sparks Frank's suspicions (which the Eye seems to encourage) due to having similar black boots that their unknown arsonist wore, but his grumpy, loner-like tendencies and Perpetual Frown don't help at all. But when he catches Frank breaking into his house and establishes his innocence, he's revealed to be a Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold, a war veteran who plants trees and picks up trash in the woods during his walks. Tom was only unfriendly to the Hardy gang because he has a long history of teens trespassing on his land and pranking him, and befriends Frank, Chet, and Belinda when they drive off one such group of pranksters.
- Flat "What": This part of the Unfolding Plan Montage to break into Elroy's house:Frank: Joe, Biff, Phil? This is where you three—
Chet: —get eaten by the attack dog.
Joe: Sorry, what? - Food as Bribe: When the Hardy gang needs to sort-of-dognap Tom's dog, they get her to come with them willingly by giving her treats. It also seems to be a case of Tastes Like Friendship, since she's completely friendly and docile around them from then on.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: A variation in that Joe plays both roles. He's been playing Good Cop since Dennis was found, including when they first go to the East Woods, gently asking him questions to try to prompt memories of what happened. But after Elroy chases them through the woods while shouting "I know what you did, Dennis!", Joe swaps to Bad Cop once they're safe, being much rougher and more accusatory with his questions. It ultimately doesn't help, though, since trying to remember just causes Dennis actual pain, which makes Lucy angry, and they both storm off.
- He Knows Too Much: Implied. Dennis is recovering more and more from what happened in the woods and starting to recall more details of that night. Then he goes missing near the end, and Joe, Biff, Phil, and Lucy find him catatonic in a classroom at the school—despite Lucy having already looked there for him—indicating he was taken again and someone messed up his mind to keep him from remembering anything else.
- Heroes Love Dogs: Thanks to his job as a paper boy, where he encounters a lot of them, Phil's quite good with dogs, and successfully befriends Tom's dog with treats so they can "dognap" her as part of their plan to break into his house.
- Innocently Insensitive: Joe, in his desperation for a new case, repeatedly pestered Biff to tell him what she learned about her adoption so he could investigate it for her, to her annoyance. Turns out her birth dad is dead, and Joe feels terrible and quickly apologizes when he learns this. Biff accepts his apology easily and assures him that it's okay; she was just getting irritated and not wanting to tell him because he was trying to turn it into his thing when it's not, it's hers.
- The Kindnapper: With a dog instead of a person. The gang lures Tom's dog into coming with them using treats, and she's more than happy to do so and acts like a Big Friendly Dog to them. They're quite affectionate with her and don't do anything but keep her with them for a while; the plan is to call Tom and let him know they found his dog to get him out of the house to come get her so Frank can sneak in in the meantime.
- Mood Whiplash: Frank and Joe are discussing Fenton selling their old Dixon City house, and are kind of upset about it but do manage to joke a little bit back and forth. Then they suddenly get jumped by a couple of Demon Week pranksters who pelt them with paint balls, followed by arriving at Wilt's and seeing that his store's been vandalized.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Downplayed, but when Joe learns that Biff's discovery about her adoption, which she's mentioned to him before, is that her birth father is dead, he feels awful about having repeatedly lightheartedly pushed her for information about her bio parents and immediately apologizes, as he can certainly relate to the tragedy of having a dead parent. She assures him that it's okay and she's not mad at him.
- Nepotism: Callie is horrified to learn from Gloria that Frank's and her acceptances to Rosegrave were indeed fixed, even if they didn't personally cheat; they were always guaranteed to be admitted, even before the exam, due to being so closely connected to Gloria.
- The Reveal: JB bugged the Hardys' attic when he was there in the first episode, and is shown listening in on the boys' hushed talk about the Eye.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: The Hardys and friends believe that Tom Elroy has Dennis's tape because he's the one who kidnapped him, torched the shack, and took it with him to hide the evidence, and they break into his house to find and steal it. Tom does turn out to have the tape, but it's because he found it in the woods during one of his walks, and the video-tape-adjacent electronics he bought was so he could try to get it working again. Once the gang befriends him, he willingly hands the tape over to them for their investigation and reveals what he knows.
- Shipper on Deck: Frank notices that Chet and Belinda have a thing going on, asks him about it, and grins at hearing that they've been hanging out, seeming skeptical when Chet says they're Just Friends. He becomes this even more after seeing for himself at Tom's farm how cool Belinda is.
- Shout-Out: Mr. Shaw misnames "Rosegrave" as "Rosewood", the name of the town where the Pretty Little Liars series is set.
- Sixth Ranger: This episode marks the point where Belinda goes from just being Chet's friend that he's been hanging out with separately to her becoming part of the True Companions after she comes with him to save Frank and lets Tom's dog loose on some vandals to drive them off.
- Theory Tunnel Vision: Thanks to the Eye making Frank suspicious of Elroy, he becomes completely certain the man must be the arsonist and doesn't even consider otherwise until Tom catches him breaking in and disproves all his arguments, and Frank realizes he's really a Misunderstood Loner with a Heart of Gold. He laments this Joe later, saying "I was so sure, and so wrong," and promises not to make this mistake again.
- There Are No Coincidences: Gloria reveals that Frank and Callie being the final two standing in the Rosegrave entrance exam in "In Plain Sight" wasn't because they happened to be the two students with the best scores; it was rigged in their favor from the start because of them being Gloria's grandson and her protégée.
- Toilet Paper Prank: Someone broke into Wilt's Deli offscreen and TP'd it as a Demon Week prank, requiring Wilt and Frank to clean it up.
- Unfolding Plan Montage: The beginning of the plan to sneak into Tom's house, the part that goes smoothly, is shown this way, which includes stealing Tom's dog, calling him to let him know they "found" her, and getting into the house. Once this ends, things start to go off the rails.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Frank's plan to break into Tom Elroy's house is fully stated and shown happening as he's explaining it, so naturally, the later stages don't go as planned; Frank gets caught in the act by Elroy, and it turns out that the latter is innocent.
- Wham Line: Once Callie confirms that Gloria didn't sabotage her attempts to get into prep school, she asks her to help Clear My Name, only for Gloria to drop a few of these in succession to reveal that there was more going on behind Callie's admission to Rosegrave than she realized.Callie: Why am I being targeted? I had nothing to do with the corruption at Rosegrave. I'm not...I'm not part of the Circle of the Eye.
Gloria: But of course you are.
Callie: What are you...what are you talking about?
Gloria: Everyone aces the test, Callie. Rosegrave is reserved for the best and the brightest, but it is not a meritocracy. You were chosen. You were my candidate. The Circle has many rings, and you were being groomed for the innermost. - Wham Shot:
- When Callie is crying outside of the prison, she sees Fenton pull up in his car and go inside, clearly to visit Gloria as well.
- The final shot of the episode shows JB listening in on the boys' conversation through a receiver in his motel room and learning that they still have access to the Eye, revealing that he bugged their house during his previous visit.
