The Hardy Boys (2020) – Season 1 Episode 12 Recap & Review

Eye To Eye

Episode 12 of The Hardy Boys begins in Bridgeport back in 1961 as George phones his contact and tells them he needs to leave. It’s clear that it’s not safe there now and he needs to get out. He refuses to let Gloria help either, stuffing the idol inside a chest and telling her she won’t be part of the Circle no matter what. He apologizes for what this has done to them and hopes that she’ll forgive him.

This brings us back to the present as Frank finally comes around to Joe’s way of thinking and agrees to help him destroy all the pieces together. This includes using Gloria and Frank going undercover to finish what their Mother started.

At Gloria’s estate, she realizes all the families are back in play and the Tall Man may well have been hired by Victor too. However, J.B. happens to be on the sofa and it appears that he got away from the house with nothing but a black eye. Unfortunately he lost his piece of the Eye in the process and now Anastasia has two pieces. The third however, is with the boys and Gloria decides to use J.B. against them to steal it back.

At Wilt’s, Callie confronts Frank over the kiss but the two have a falling out and she storms out. When she does, Anastasia bursts in and stirs things up, telling him that they’re alike and need to get revenge on those who made them orphans. Of course, Frank isn’t an orphan but she claims Fenton’s disappearance proves he’s dead.

He’s obviously not though, as we see Rupert Khan and Fenton hiding out in a motel nearby after escaping their captors. Fenton tells him to stay put for now and heads back home.

At Trudy’s, J.B. shows up at Joe’s window and manages to convince the kid to let him in. As he does, Fenton shows up downstairs and greets the kids. Upstairs, Trudy bursts into Joe’s room and finds J.B. nonchalantly sitting in the corner. While Joe convinces his father that J.B. is his friend, J.B. slips out the window and disappears. Predictably, their piece of the Eye has been taken.

The group bring Fenton upstairs and reveal everything they’ve figured out so far. Fenton decides against looking for the piece though and tells them to focus on Rupert instead. Despite telling the kids to stay put, Frank decides to head out and find someone who may know where to start looking.

Kanika shows up at the safehouse where Rupert and Fenton happen to be, revealing that they’re not in possession of the Eye anymore. She knows that someone (J.B) is working against the Circle and she’s been trying to bring all the pieces together. However, Kanika does have a tape from Laura’s grandfather and hands it over in exchange for a deal of her own.

Back at Gloria’s, J.B. is paid for his troubles after handing over the pieces of the Eye. Now her true colours are shown as Frank shows up and sees this exchange take place. Frank talks to her privately and listens as she berates her grandson for not acting quicker and on her behalf. He realizes that the Eye is bigger than them both and decides to go undercover just as he promised to Joe.

Back home, Fenton listens to the tape with Joe. Within this happens to be a message for Laura confirming that George was the one who decided to split the pieces of the Eye into three. He wanted to make sure it couldn’t be used for wrongdoing and with the pieces separate, the Eye can do no harm.

He’s well aware that Gloria is blinded by greed and warns that she wants the piece for herself. Laura was the only one he trusted and now it becomes clear that Gloria is central to all of this.

Back at Gloria’s house, Anastasia and Kanika are brought into the meeting room – the three parts of the circle – to discuss the future of the Eye. She wants to use the Eye together but Anastasia reveals that Victor was poisoned and stayed alive for several days after so she knows that someone is to blame.

It turns out Anastasia’s crew were the ones who took the idol from Ern and the others on the Astghik  – who were of course hired by Gloria to find the box.

After all this bickering, Gloria wants to bring everyone together but Frank’s encouraging words to back her up aren’t enough to convince Anastasia to join them. She wants to use the Eye for her own selfish means and asks whether Frank wants to be on her side for this. When he declines, she instead turns her attention to Callie and kidnaps her, intending to use the girl as a bargaining chip

The Episode Review

So apparently the Eye was split into three parts to make sure it doesn’t do any more harm and for it to lose its power in the process, Yet, as we’ve seen all season the individual pieces have enough power on their own.

J.B. had the gift of foresight while Joe managed to navigate tunnels with its help and had a run of good luck at the carnival. This even helped him evade capture at the hands of the Tall Man. These are dangerous tools and could very easily be used to do evil deeds in the hands of someone who knew how to wield it.

And what do two pieces offer if one small piece has that much power? This narrative inconsistency is a little annoying if I’m honest, as the power of the Eye is never fully explained beyond supernatural occurrences. I’m fine with the paranormal part but the rules of the pieces could have been explained a little more clearer.

Even worse, there’s a pretty big plot hole here too. Now, please correct me if I’m wrong and I’ll adjust the recap but Tall Man was hired by Victor to go after the artifacts, at least according to this episode.

With that in mind then, why on earth did Anastasia (Stacey) run him over in the street? Was this an accident? Was it to gain the boys’ trust? Tall Man was about to grab the artifacts for himself so why kill him? And what a disappointing end he had after surviving a blast of electricity and no explanation to his freakish strength and ability to withstand this. Especially when Jesse outright asked the nurses how he survived and no one seemed to know.

Still, the ending seems to hint toward an epic conclusion to all this and right now, everything hangs in the balance. Who will come out on top?