Snoop

Ethan joins Carter as they monitor the surveillance feeds and watch Needle-Nose head toward the Paris Art Shop while the red Maserati pulls up near the corner of Roswell and Lavender. Instead of attempting a break-in, Needle-Nose enters the shop during business hours. Carter switches to the store’s internal camera and sees Needle-Nose speaking with the clerk and pointing toward the front window, which leads Carter to assume that the visit as a fact-finding effort. Outside, Needle-Nose meets a short, very thin man, and Carter labels him an accomplice. When Ethan suggests calling the police, Carter declines, recalling how the department dismissed his earlier animal report. Ethan remains skeptical about Carter’s sightings and argues that nighttime camera footage can be misleading. Carter does not tell Ethan that he saw a nonhuman figure outside the medical building last night that moved on all fours and struck him as a miniature ape.

Later that week, Mr. Grimes comes to Carter’s house to administer a state standardized algebra test, which Carter completes successfully. While Mr. Grimes speaks with Carter’s mother in the kitchen, Carter notices that the teacher has left his phone on the coffee table and sees the lock-screen family photo. Carter is shaken because he recently watched Mr. Grimes having dinner with a different woman than the one in the picture, making him realize that people in Sterling have private lives that he would not have known about before he began watching the town’s camera feeds.

Carter calls the police again to report an ape that he believes is a bonobo and explains that he has been seeing endangered animals around town late at night. The desk sergeant questions why no one else has reported the sightings and tells him to come to the station with his parents to make a formal statement. Carter cannot agree without exposing how he knows what he knows and hangs up, deciding to keep calling until someone listens. When he calls again after midnight, another desk sergeant demands his name, number, and address and refuses to proceed without them. Carter will not identify himself and hangs up when he hears someone suggest tracing the call. He recognizes that refusing to give his name makes the police trust him even less, but he fears that revealing himself will lead to him losing access to the camera feeds and screens that now structure his days. Carter compares his situation to the endangered animals he has been trying to protect, describing himself as feeling like an endangered species too.

Carter finds Martin assembling a large Lego Titanic in the living room and orders him to move it because his student ambassador, Lacey, is coming over. When Carter tries to take a Lego smokestack to force the issue, the two struggle over it, and Martin pulls Carter out of his wheelchair, sending him face-first into the pile of blocks. As Martin helps Carter back into the chair, Lacey arrives and sees the aftermath, accepting Martin’s account that Carter ruined the project. She delivers a geometry set from Mr. Grimes and prepares to leave, but Carter notices a sign reading “HAT” in her backpack. Lacey explains that it’s connected to the Chairmen of the Bored and mentions that Maddox told her about Carter’s lifetime ban. After she leaves, Carter resolves to find out where the sign will be placed.

Rather than guessing, Carter decides to use the town’s surveillance cameras to follow the Chairmen. After a long period of watching, he spots Maddox and other members gathering outside Lunch With Louie. The group goes inside, eats French fries, and is later joined by Lacey, who brings the sign. Growing impatient with their inactivity, Carter switches to another camera feed and sees Needle-Nose walking up Roswell Street carrying a baseball bat.

Believing that Needle-Nose is about to rob the Paris Art Shop, Carter calls the police on his cell phone to report an active break-in. A desk sergeant recognizes his voice from earlier calls, but Carter insists that the robbery is real and gives his full name and address to prompt a response. Carter asks his mother to take him to Roswell Street, and she drives him and Martin there, where two police cars are already outside and the shop window is still intact. When Carter sees Needle-Nose still holding the bat and warns the officers, they laugh.

An officer explains that the man is Mr. Grimaldi, a young artist who has been repeatedly stopping at the shop window to check whether his first painting, displayed near the replica crown, has sold, and that the bat is from a softball game. When Carter’s mother asks how he knew about Mr. Grimaldi’s behavior, Carter admits that he’s been monitoring public surveillance cameras online but does not reveal that he has accessed private systems. The officer warns him to stop making false reports, including claims about exotic animals. Carter’s mother makes him apologize to Mr. Grimaldi in person, and during the apology, she mentions that her own work is displayed in the shop, which alarms Carter because it’s The Diaper Shot.

Martin notices the “HAT” sign attached above the replica crown on the shop window. The police bring the Chairmen of the Bored, including Lacey and Maddox, out of a second cruiser. When Martin asks how long they will be in jail, the officer laughs and explains that nobody is going to jail but that the group will have to pay to clean the window or replace the glass. When Maddox confronts Carter, Martin announces that Carter called the police. Carter tries to explain that he didn’t call because of the “HAT” sign but for other reasons, and Lacey reacts with visible disgust.

The following Monday, Lacey angrily delivers Carter’s homework and announces that she and the other Chairmen of the Bored are grounded because of his involvement with the police. She accuses Carter of snooping, quits as his student ambassador, and storms out after throwing the papers at him. Carter soon learns that the backlash extends beyond the Chairmen: Ethan explains that his parents have forbidden contact after the “mom network” labeled Carter a troublemaker and that word has spread at school portraying Carter as the one who called the police out of spite.

Carter tries to convince his mother that his reports about endangered animals were genuine, but she dismisses his claims as the result of exhaustion and excessive screen use. She tells him that she and his father have agreed on new restrictions, confiscating his phone immediately and limiting computer use to schoolwork only. With his devices removed, Carter feels abruptly cut off from the outside world. Martin witnesses the scene silently and mouths an apology.

Carter describes the first day of what he calls “The Great Disconnect” (94), marked by restlessness and sleeplessness without access to his phone. The next morning, his mother returns his laptop solely for school and reminds him that he is forbidden from accessing the surveillance cameras. During his Zoom class, Carter receives hostile looks from Maddox and Lacey while the rest of the class ignores him, except for a furtive wave from Ethan.

To combat boredom during his technology ban, Carter creates a wheelchair obstacle course on his street using orange cones. As he attempts the final maneuver, his mother pulls into the driveway, forcing him to swerve and fall from his chair onto the grass. After checking that he is uninjured, she yells at him for risking further injury but then softens when he explains that he’s trying to learn how to manage the wheelchair while his legs heal. She calls his effort admirable, and Carter briefly hopes that this will lead to his technology being returned. Instead, his mother declares that his adjustment proves that taking it away was the right decision. Disappointed, Carter channels his frustration into physical effort, pulling himself up on a tree branch and recognizing that his wheelchair training has strengthened his arms.

Isolated from his friends and without access to his phone or computer, Carter spends his evenings watching children’s television with Martin. He also reflects on his unresolved suspicions about events in town and begins to doubt his earlier claims about the animals after having been wrong about Needle-Nose. That night, Martin wakes Carter and offers him his iPad mini so that he can get back online while their mother is asleep. Carter is moved by his brother’s kindness and aware of the risk involved, but he refuses the device, explaining that they would be caught and should not deceive their mother. He hugs Martin, calls him a great brother, and thanks him for the offer.

At a follow-up appointment, Dr. Patel says that Carter’s legs are healing well but that he must stay in the wheelchair for another three weeks before switching to walking boots. On the way home, Carter asks to stop for frozen yogurt, but his mother refuses because she needs to get back for Martin’s school bus. Near the old courthouse, Carter notices that the unpleasant smell from his earlier visit is still present and stronger.

Carter recognizes the odor as an animal smell, recalling a childhood visit to a petting zoo, and this leads him to connect it to the endangered animals he previously saw. He considers telling his mother but stops himself because it would raise the issue of the security cameras again and bring more consequences. Carter also realizes that he cannot report the animals without proof since the police already dismissed his earlier calls, so he decides that he needs photographs or video.

When they arrive home, Carter watches his mother and Martin carry her photography drone into the garage. He realizes that the drone could help him get the evidence he needs without using the surveillance cameras since his promise only covered the cameras.

During his Zoom class, Carter endures pointed remarks from Maddox and Lacey. He fakes an illness by listing symptoms he looked up online, convincing Mr. Grimes to let him sign off. He immediately takes his mother’s drone outside and launches it from the driveway, navigating using the drone’s attached camera for the first time. He briefly gets distracted by views of his neighbors’ yards before directing the unit toward the old courthouse, a mile away.

Carter locates the courthouse surrounded by a chain-link fence, with a Zippy Airport Service van parked by the gate. Flying low and circling the building, he sees no animals and cannot see through the boarded windows. He nearly crashes into a flagpole but pulls up sharply. His neighbor, Mrs. Jensen, sees him outside and assumes that he’s playing a video game; Carter plays along. He realizes that the animals are more likely to appear at night, based on when he previously saw them on the surveillance cameras, and that a daytime flight is unlikely to provide proof, even though a night flight will be riskier.

Before returning home, Carter spots the red Maserati and follows it with the drone, enjoying the feeling of surveillance again. He flies over Main Street and observes that the food war has escalated: Lunch With Louie has hired a burly bouncer, while Janine’s has contracted with a security company. As he starts to fly toward the park to check on the pregnant woman, a low-battery warning suddenly flashes on the controller, forcing Carter to abort his mission. The drone barely makes it home, landing with only 2% battery remaining. Though shaken by the close call, Carter resolves to continue using the drone until he solves the town’s mysteries.

During dinner, Mr. Grimes calls to check on Carter, who maintains his lie about being sick. After Carter’s mother leaves for a photography job and Martin falls asleep, Carter takes the drone to the back patio for a nighttime launch. He navigates toward downtown using the illuminated clock tower of a tall bank building as a landmark. Struggling to find the unlit courthouse in the dark, he realizes that he can locate it by identifying the one completely dark block.

Carter flies the drone low, circling the courthouse but seeing nothing. Searching the surrounding streets, the camera spots a strange, miniature-bear-like animal. It moves awkwardly on the ground but becomes extremely agile after leaping into a hedge, using its long tail to move through the branches. Carter recognizes it from a school unit as a tree kangaroo, an endangered marsupial from Australia. He takes several photos with the drone’s camera, believing he has the proof he needs.

A Zippy Airport Service van suddenly appears, nearly colliding with the drone. Two men wearing padded gloves jump out, capture the tree kangaroo, and throw it into the back of the vehicle. Carter follows the van with the drone and watches it enter through a padlocked gate in the fence at the old courthouse. He concludes that the courthouse is being used as the base for an illegal animal operation. Recalling a childhood field trip where he saw holding cells in the courthouse basement, he believes that the animals may be kept there and that some of the animals he has seen were likely escapees, with the Zippy vans used to recapture them.

To navigate home in darkness, Carter turns on all his backyard patio lights. The plan works, and he safely lands the drone and returns it to the charger. Unable to sleep, Carter thinks through what he has learned and decides that the animals are being held illegally in Sterling, likely for profit.