Stuck in a Mysterious Robbery

**"Stuck in a Mysterious Robbery"** is the eighth episode in Season 3 of ***Stuck in the Middle*** and the forty-fifth episode overall. It first aired on March 23, 2018, to 1.13 million viewers.

## Summary

When the Bait & Bite is robbed, the Diaz kids use their resources to track down the culprit.

## Plot

After finding the Bait & Bite store robbed (in Stuck with Horrible Helpers), the Diazes have called the police to investigate. Harley, Ethan and the little kids are all very disappointed for everything they've lost. The only thing the robbers didn't steal was Harley's Slushy machine. Tom says he's most disappointed that the thieves took the very first dollar bill he made when the store was opened. He had pinned it on the wall for sentimental value.

The kids want to help but Tom asks them to leave it to the cops. When Tom mentions that the security camera didn't record last night, Harley rallies her siblings to help solve the crime. Lewie and Beast take on the identities of Detectives Peeby and Jay, characters they played in Ethan's movie. Daphne joins them as a rookie police officer, Sasha Phluff. Together, the Diaz kids come up with a list of suspects: Cuff, Colt Bailey and their competitor Rod. Lewie, Beast, and Daphne go undercover to spy and interrogate the suspects:

* Cuff- as Rachel's ex-boyfriend, could have done it for revenge because Rachel broke his heart. Since he is a former employee of Bait & Bite, he knows the store pretty well. Lewie and Beast follow Cuff around and realize that he's turned his life around and he's actually working for the mayor to paint graffiti on walls.

* **Colt Bailey**- could have done it as revenge because of what the Diaz kids did to him and his dog in Stuck with a Hook, Line and Sinker. After following Colt Bailey, the twins discover that Colt Bailey's life turned into a mess after the Diaz experience. He wouldn't want to be associated or get close to the Diazes at all.

* **Rod**- from Rod's Reel & Deal, their main competitor could have done it too. He's currently promoting that he's expanded his inventory. Detectives Peeby and Jay follow him around but can't get anything solid.

* Georgie- Beast questions whether she really left for "Basketball Camp," but Harley vouches for their sister.

Later, Tom and Suzy also become suspects because Tom had told the kids that the camera didn't record; but Suzy said the recorder got stolen. Why would Tom say it didn't record if it got stolen? They must be hiding something. The kids' suspicion is confirmed when Harley's Slushy Shack camera shows Tom hiding the recorder. They conclude that the parents might have secretly sold their inventory to Rod so that they can move away from Marshport.

Daphne reveals that while spying on Suzy, she saw her hide the recorder at the top of her bedroom closet. That's the one place where the parents keep things they don't want the kids to touch. So, Harley devises a plan to distract their parents in order to the closet key. It works perfectly and she sneaks into the parents' closet to retrieve the recorder. But first, she has to hide from Suzy who comes in to get some secret Halloween candy.

The kids start watching and find that the recording is from the back-door camera. It shows that Harley had put duct tape on the back door while throwing trash out. But then she forgot to remove the tape. So, later that night, the thieves came in, found the door open and stole everything. After watching this, Harley realizes that she is the reason her dad's store got robbed. Her parents must have been so disappointed in her that they couldn't even punish her. She goes back to the store and starts making plans to sell her slushy machine to help in any way she can.

After learning that Harley knows, the parents come over to the store to cheer her up. When Harley calls herself the worst Diaz kid, the parents reveal that they have a system where they choose to keep one big mistake a secret from each kid from the rest of the family. Ethan, Lewie, Beast, and Daphne reveal that they've done such big mistakes too. The parents usually talk to the kid alone about the mistake, but Harley beat them to it. This helps Harley feel less guilty.

While the family is drinking some slushies, Rod comes in with good news. He reveals that the same robbers have been caught while trying to rob his Reel & Deal store too. He managed to do so with his new security system because Lewie and Beast were following him. When Rod buys a slushy, Harley gives the dollar bill to her dad to replace the original first bill.

## Cast

### Main Cast

* Jenna Ortega as Harley Diaz
* Isaak Presley as Ethan Diaz
* Ariana Greenblatt as Daphne Diaz
* Nicolas Bechtel as Lewie Diaz
* Malachi Barton as Beast Diaz
* Cerina Vincent as Suzy Diaz
* Joe Nieves as Tom Diaz

### Recurring Cast

* Brett Pierce as Cuff
* Morgan West as Colt Bailey

### Absent Cast

* Kayla Maisonet as Georgie Diaz (mentioned)

## Continuity

* This episode was a continuation of the previous episode, Stuck with Horrible Helpers.
* Lewie and Beast reprise their characters Detective Peeby and Jay from Ethan's student film in Stuck without a Ride.
* Colt Bailey is a suspect because the kids thinking he's getting revenge for their failed attempts to host him and his dog in Stuck with a Hook, Line and Sinker which ended in disaster. Apparently, he acquired the life-size cutout of himself from Stuck with a Hook, Line and Sinker. Guppy left Colt, as his career plummeted afterward, and is now owned by new fishing phenom LeRoy McFly.
* Cuff is still brokenhearted since Rachel dumped him. Cuff says he's now officially hired to paint graffiti. He was previously arrested for graffiti in Stuck with a Guy on the Couch.
* Daphne mentions the time Cuff was a Bait & Bite employee in Stuck with My Sister's Boyfriend.
* Rod's Reel and Deal was first mentioned in Stuck in a Commercial, and is Tom's Bait N' Bite's primary business competition.
* Mega Mart is mentioned again, as the twins follow Rod there. It was first mentioned in Stuck in the Store. It is mentioned again in Stuck in Dad's Birthday.
* Lewie and Beast mention that they were tricked by their nemesis twins Poopy and Goon to buy a fake treasure map. Poopy and Goon were mentioned to be on the "Dead to Diaz" list in Stuck with Harley's Bethany.
	+ This incident is implied to be why they are on the Dead to Diaz list.
	+ In Stuck in a Fake Out, it is revealed that Poopy and Goon don't actually exist. The little kids made them up in order to blame them for stuff.
* Tom is seen sadly taking down the special dollar bill when they have to give up Bait & Bite to Mr. Pillman in Stuck in Spring Break
* Daphne adopts the identity of rookie police officer Sasha Phluff who returns to help solve the crime in Stuck in Diaz Court. She also makes an appearance in Stuck Without the Perfect Gift for a fake family memory photo.

## Trivia

* Lewie and Beast return in their cop identities, with Daphne teaming up with them.
* Georgie is said to be at Basketball Camp.
* Georgie is the only character who does not make an appearance in this episode because she went to a tournament.
* Rachel (portrayed by Ronni Hawk) is mentioned as having broken Cuff's heart.
* Guest star Clint Culp as Rod makes an special appearance in this episode so that he's best friends hanging around with the twins.
* Harley placed a camera in her Slushy machine to theoretically improve service.
* Tom and Suzy's bedroom is depicted for the first time.
* Tom reads Daphne Edgar Allan Poe's most famous poem "*The Raven."*
* "42" is a famous answer to questions, due to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy book series
* The criminals are caught, but never identified to the Diazes, as Rod informs them rather than the police.
* Harley intends to replace the lost framed first dollar the Bait Ni Bite ever earned with the first dollar the Slushy Shack earns after the robbery which was ironically supplied by Rod.
* The original airdate of this episode coincides with the wrap date of Season 3.

## References

1. ↑ [1]
2. ↑ [2]