[S1E2] The Bicycle Thief

Phil is working on being the quintessential dad. To that end, he feels that the time is right for getting Luke his own bicycle. (Luke has been riding his sister's old girly bike, badly camouflaged with black tape.) Of course Claire, who must play the responsible one of the pairing, thinks that Luke is not quite at a point in his life where he is responsible enough to take care of such an important item. However, Phil thinks he is. Unfortunately, when he's walking home Phil sees the bike unlocked and unsupervised. Angry that Luke has proven him wrong after mere hours, Phil decides to teach Luke a lesson by stealing the bike. However Phil doesn't realize that the bike doesn't belong to Luke but is simply an identical one.

[S1E2] The Bicycle Thief

Riding the stolen bicycle home, Phil runs into Desiree, who has locked herself out of the house and asks Phil to help her. Once Phil adjusts to looking at her face, he agrees to do so. He is certain he would never stray. He unlocks her house and somehow avoids unlocking her shirt, but Phil has a problem. The bicycle he was riding is gone. He runs like hell to the bicycle shop again to purchase a new bike (and takes the insurance this time).

Phil is trying to cover his tracks, but Claire thinks it's actually a bit funny that Phil would steal another kid's bike to teach Luke a lesson and then try to return the bike. She is more annoyed about him keeping things from her, like how the bicycle got stolen en route bringing it home. Phil claims it got stolen while he was at a gas station, and the lie works. It's classic Phil, up to the point where the woman he helped returns it. Apparently one of her neighbors put it in her garage while Phil was in her bedroom. Classic Phil, right?

Gabe, CJ, and Suki are in the observatory trying to figure out how to prove Ian's innocence when Ian slips in through a hidden panel. They figure the thief is using the panels to get into the students' rooms. With time running out until curfew begins and Ray and Don return and discover Ian is gone, Ian goes back through the passageways and passes Headmaster's office. He hears Headmaster asking Whisper 119 for an analysis on the Gnome helmet, and a report of what the students answered on Science's light-frequency homework.

Lost in the passageways, Ian finds himself in the closet in Gabe's room. He sees Howard polishing shoes in the darkness, and realizes where he is. He tries to get to his room directly below, but ends up in the girls' room. Don and Ray are in there going through the girls' possessions. When they come in, the boys claim they were trying to find the thieves, but the girls don't believe them. Ian heads across and comes across Gabe's sock monkey, and realizes that it's leaking beads after the thief dropped it. Just before Don and Ray enter the room, Ian gets back.

The next morning, Ian joins the others at breakfast, and Howard asks if Gabe wants to go to a movie with him that night. Gabe turns him down to help Ian, and Howard walks away. When Chelsea won't let Ian talk to his friends, he spills orange juice so she has to go get a cleanup cloth. He quickly gives Gabe his sock monkey back and tells them to meet in the observatory once he sneaks away from Chelsea. Later, they meet and Ian suggests that they follow the stuffing beads and locate the thief.

That night, the others use the secret passageways to meet Ian in his room. Suki has rigged the boys' PDAs to emit light and transmit text messages underground. She and CJ stay in the room to cover for Ian's absence while Gabe and Ian track the thief. Suki uses her ability to impersonate Ian's voice, but Don and Ray come back from the movie early when someone steals the DVD. Suki sends CJ to warn the boys while she hides beneath the covers and pretends to be asleep. However, she snickers when Don boasts about how the girls were impressed with him. Don starts to pull the blanket away and demands to know who Ian thinks is attractive, and "Ian" says that he thinks Suki is hot.

Ian and the others continue their search and find the thief's secret lair. All of the stolen items are there, including Fenton's operettas and a pair of headphones. They figure that the thief must be Fenton, since no one likes his singing, and then hear the thief approaching. He realizes that they are there and runs away. They try to chase him, but Suki calls them and the lights on their PDAs waver. The thief gets away in the darkness and the trio figure that the thief won't come back now that they've found his lair.

A lieutenant asks Juliette if she knew the thief at the station, but she threatens them with lawyers for non-compliance and then tells them to find the necklace. Afterward, the lieutenant is trying to piece the timeline together and linking them to the Lupin books. However, his colleagues mock him, claiming he should also investigate Harry Potter. 041b061a72