- Joe is in Hong Kong with Frank and his father to help a friend of his father with a man's defection. Joe's in an accident and when he wakes up he is told that he's been in a coma for a year. He is then approached by a government agent who tells him that Frank and his father were killed when they tried to bring the defector in, possibly betrayed by his friend. He asks Joe about the details and he tells him. But Joe doesn't know is that he was tricked into revealing where the meeting is.—rcs0411@yahoo.com
- As the episode opens, a barely conscious Joe is being rushed to a hospital in Hong Kong in the back of an ambulance. A Chinese man and a European woman are tending to his injuries. As they reach the hospital, the doctors wheel Joe into an operating room to perform surgery, where he blacks out. A young nurse watches from the corner. Joe wakes up in a hospital bed, very stiff and groggy. The same man from earlier asks Joe if he can remember his name, and Joe, after some hesitation, is able to provide it. The man is pleased, and introduces himself as Doctor Low. He tells Joe that he is in a hospital in Hong Kong, and that it is Wednesday January 17th, 1979, and that Joe has been in a coma for almost a year. After giving Joe some time to process, The European woman, who introduces herself to Joe as Doctor Leta, prepares to give Joe an EEG test to check for brain damage. She asks him is there is anything he remembers about his accident, however, Joe can only remember driving his rental car, then blacking out. Leta tells Joe his car was hit by a truck and pushed into a river, and that he sustained heavy injuries. Joe then asks about his brother, Frank, and his father. Leta dodges his question and changes the subject, but Joe becomes persistent, and demands to know where his father and brother are. Leta tells him his father and brother are both dead. Joe is shocked and distraught at this revelation. After the test, Joe asks how Frank and Fenton died. Leta tells Joe it had something to do with a Chinese defector.
Some time later, Joe is reading the newspapers Leta saved for him, as well as his letters from people he knows back home, including one from Nancy Drew expressing her condolences. On their way back to Joe's room, the same nurse from earlier hastily makes her way past them. Leta tells Joe that she is not supposed to be on this floor. An American man shows up, asking to see Joe. Though Doctor Low argues that it's too soon to ask Joe any questions, Joe agrees to see the man, who claims to be U.S. Government agent Peter Abrams. He asks Joe to tell him everything about the mission he, Frank, Fenton, and their friend Allen Klein were on in China. Joe tells him that in Bayport, Klein had called Fenton asking him to help with the defection of scientist Chang Soy Li to the United States, so his work into biological warfare would not fall into the wrong hands. The two boys went with Fenton to China to meet Klein, and prepare for Chang's arrival in Hong Kong. The plan was for Chang to take a small boat across the Strait of Colon alone, and meet the men on Queen Victoria Point on February 23rd at dawn. This plan was kept very secret, as the East Germans wanted to kidnap Chang and take his research. However, Joe read in the papers that his father and brother had been found in a boat elsewhere. Abrams theorizes that Klein changed the time and place of the meeting to throw them off, and betray Frank and Fenton. He also says that Klein may have caused Joe's accident in an effort to trip them up. Abrams thanks Joe for his help and leaves, going to doctors Low and Leta and telling them that the Hardys are going to meet Chang the next morning, and that they have less then 24 hours to prepare to take Chang. Meanwhile, at the harbor, Frank and Fenton Hardy are surveying a destroyed car that has just been pulled from the harbor. It turns out that Joe has been missing for over a week and is presumed dead, his body washed out to sea. Klein wants to abandon the operation and warn Chang, but Frank and Fenton refuse to give up. Klein tells them he has gotten word from Langley that three East German spies, who look like Low, Leta, and Abrams, arrived in Hong Kong before they did. While there is no indication that they know of the defection, Klein warns that they should be careful.
Joe is reminiscing on times with Frank, including a time just before the crash when they were at a perfume shop, and Frank playfully spilled perfume on Joe's jeans. Across the city, Frank (who believes Joe to be dead) is also reminiscing. The time nears to meet Klein and receive Chang. As Joe goes to put on his clothes, he notices he can still smell the perfume, which would have faded after a year. Then, the nurse sneaks in and shows Joe the day's newspaper, with the date just over a week from the crash. Joe's suspicions are confirmed when Doctor Low and his cohorts enter, and, realizing the jig is up, take Joe and the nurse (who's name is Kim) to an old factory to keep them until they have Chang. Joe congratulates Leta on tricking him into believing she cared. He and Kim momentarily get away from the kidnappers, but are eventually recaptured and tied up in a back room. Their captors then drive for the meeting place, with plans to kill everyone except for Chang. However, Leta refuses to carry a gun. Kim asks Joe what is going on, and Joe explains that they need to escape to save his father and brother. Kim appears to be enjoying herself, and Joe helps her to break a glass jar so they can cut their ropes. She also finds a mannequin arm to use to pry the door open, and stops a taxi to take them to the meeting. At the harbor, Frank, Fenton and Klein are awaiting Chang's arrival on the docks. The East Germans have also arrived and are preparing to ambush them. Chang's boat comes in, and before the men can get to the car, Abrams, Low and their henchman hold them at gunpoint and take Chang to their car. As Abrams and Low get ready to shoot Frank and Fenton, Joe arrives with the police, who stop Leta getting away with Chang. Joe demands to know where Frank and his father are and Leta points the way. Joe tackles Low from behind, providing a distraction for the police to apprehend him and Abrams. Frank and Fenton share an emotional reunion with Joe, both of them saying they thought each other dead.
Back at the hospital, Frank shows Joe how the spies used fake papers and news reports to convince Joe that it was a year later. Even going as far as faking their friend's handwriting for the letters. He also explained how the tests from Joe's car showed that they coated the steering wheel in a drug that was absorbed through the skin, knocking him out, and faking the crash. They kept him on anesthetic to make him feel as though he had been in a coma for a year, instead of a week. Joe goes to thank Kim for helping him, and she invites them to dinner to ask how she can get into their line of work full-time, to which Frank happily agrees.
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