The Hardy Boys (2020) – Season 1 Episode 9 Recap & Review

The Key

Episode 9 of The Hardy Boys begins with Gloria showing up and J.B. admitting that he’s the man she hired to bring the idol to him. She’s not happy but Stefan blindsides and knocks out J.B., eventually having him dragged away for Ezra to “take care of him.” With him out the picture, the boys sit with their Grandmother and learn what’s really going on.

Gloria lied about the fishing boat and clearly knows more than she’s letting on. Frank reveals that Laura has been murdered and breaks the news about Kanika Khan and how she hired Fenton, going on to admit they weren’t sure who to trust and so kept her in the dark. Although Gloria looks distraught and struggles to hold in her emotions, it’s still not clear whether this is an act or not.

This small act of trust finally allows Gloria to open up and reveal the truth. All of this stems from the cave at Demon’s Paw. There were three miners – Gloria’s father, Ahmed Khan, and Sergei. Together, they found an object of unknown identity (our artifact from before) and were the only survivors after a cave-in.

Holding this artifact allowed them to wield great power, which they called the “Eye.” Instead of helping those around them, the trio allowed the artifact to corrupt them and only used it for selfish desires. They changed the town and decided to protect their own interests and power.

They called themselves the Circle Of The Eye and swore an oath never to speak of this to anyone else. Laura unfortunately found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time and overheard a heated argument between the trio of Circle members. Laura’s grandfather apparently wanted to get out of the Circle too but the others were having none of it.

She rejected the entire family on the back of this while the Circle decided to split their piece into three. Frank knows there’s more to this story and shows the hidden compartment behind the shelf. It turns out there’s a room there that may well hold more secrets about the Eye but Gloria lost the key.

X-Ray imaging confirms that if the lock is tampered with, (ie. Joe trying to lockpick his way in) then it would destroy everything behind it.

With Khan in possession of one piece and the third party (presumably Sergei’s group) in on this too, Gloria wants the boys to bring over the piece of the Eye they have and work with her to make it whole. When they do, they can then go looking for their Mother’s killer.

When the pair finally return home, Trudy brings them to the attic and demands answers given their board full of clues. Given this is an episode of truths, they tell her about the secret society and everything within the Circle. They ask her to keep everything hidden and she agrees to do so…unless they are in over their head, in which case she’ll go straight to Jesse and tell her what’s going on. The boys apologize for not telling her sooner but for now she’s on their side.

Meanwhile, Ezra takes J.B. out on the outskirts of town and gives him an envelope with a picture of the piece of Eye. He’s tasked with bringing it to Gloria no matter what. Without much of a choice, he agrees to try and find it.

Fenton finally finds Rupert Khan hooked up to a lie detector machine and asks him about Laura. He was working with her to find the pieces of the Eye in a bid to destroy the Circle once and for all. However, armed guards arrive and prompt them both to hurry off.

When they’re safe, Rupert admits that George was the one who broke the Eye into three pieces and he and Laura were trying to expose the Circle together. Whoever was involved also killed Victor too. When armed guards arrive, they quickly drive away.

While the kids at school get wrapped up in their classes (except Callie who remains convinced there’s something up with Stacey), J,B. breaks into Khan’s residence and finds her piece of the Eye. After knocking her and her guard out, he takes the piece and hurries off.

On the back of this, Khan heads in to visit Gloria, asking about Rupert and telling her about the piece of the Eye. Gloria remains confused, and plays on that later on when the kids decide to give her their piece of the Eye. Only, when Joe shows up at the theatre to get it, the piece is gone. Someone has stolen it.

Back home though, Frank and Joe work out what to do next and deliberate over the music box Gloria gave them. Inside, they find something that looks like a key. Lockpicking into Gloria’s study in the middle of the night, they unlock the secret room. As the mechanisms whir, the door opens and they head inside to find out what secrets lie within.

The Episode Review

Finally we get some answers and after all these episodes, the truth about the artifact is revealed. It’s clear now that Gloria is involved, possibly working with Khan to bring the pieces of the eye together for their own diabolical scheme. I don’t buy her story about being innocent and I’d imagine not many other viewers will either!

There’s a lot of exposition here though but it’s good to see everything starting to make more sense and come into view. Savvy viewers will have probably pieces together a lot of this several episodes (or more) back but that doesn’t dissuade from the enjoyment. After a couple of filler episodes, this show finally looks like it’s picking up the pace now.