- The team goes after the CEO of Nate's former insurance company, responsible for denying his late son's medical care, but the situation causes conflict among the crew.
- The team hopes to solve rehab-unwilling Nate's drinking problem by eliminating the root cause. So they want to go after Ian Blackpoole, CEO of the insurance company which denied Nate's son vital medical help. Blackpoole is a leading Renaissance art collector, so the scam is to sell to him a fake of one of the two models Michelangelo made for his David and have Ian 'exposed' as a fraud. Things get complicated first when Nate's ex-wife, a real art expert, volunteers to authenticate the fake. Worse follows when Nate's Nemesis Jim Sterling takes several team members hostage by surprise.—KGF Vissers
- Nate needs revenge over rehab, so the team focuses on the man who disallowed young Sam Ford's treatment, IYS CEO, millionaire art collector, Ian Blackpoole (Kevin Tighe) for their next con. Nate will offer to sell a Michelangelo statue to Blackpoole and its authenticity will be verified by Eliot and Sophie, inserted as art experts. Maggie Ford nee Collins (Kari Matchett) appears unexpectedly. There are various complications, including the annoying Jim Sterling. Sophie always has her own agenda. Can one really con one's own crew and expect to be forgiven?—LA-Lawyer
- Nate stumbles out of a cab, pissed on two levels. There's a private function taking place at his old insurance company. He knocks down the bouncer and takes his gun and confronts a man, who asks if Nate's there to kill him. Not tonight. The man, Ian, welcomes him in. Nate goes straight to the bar. He has something he wants to sell Ian. Ian is interested and introduces Portia, from the Vatican museum. It's Sophie.
Two Weeks Earlier Ian Blackpool, CEO of IYS insurance. Sophie presents the case and Nate is on the wobbly side of functioning alcoholic. But they don't think he needs rehab, he needs revenge.
Back to Portia, working on a loan from Ian's collection to the Vatican. Eliot is the art appraiser, Prof. Sinclair. Ian tells Portia that Nate is claiming to have found the second David, by Michelangelo.
Back to Sophie giving the background, Michelangelo made four copies of his model. The second David was stolen from the Vatican 10 years ago and has never been found. And the first...
Cut to Ian with Sophie and Nate in his vault. No David. He takes them back to a keypad vault with a randomized laser grid, four inch steel, infared detection, vibration detection and the First David, about a foot high statue. Nate snaps a picture with his phone. In the van, Hardison is glad they don't have to break in there. Sophie plays with the fake Second David they plan to sell Blackpool.
Back to briefing, Hardison explains that they'll sell the fake to Blackpool and when he displays it and it's discovered to be fake, his own insurance company will refuse to pay. Drunk Nate listens. They think it'll ruin Ian's company and his reputation. Nate says the problem is that Blackpool won't buy it until he has it appraised by someone. Sophie says one of them will do it.
Back in the vault, Sophie helps finagle Blackpool into buying the statue from Nate. She wants her expert, Prof. (Eliot) Sinclair, to do the evaluation. Ian asks Nate why he brought him the statue. Nate lays on the drunk and says he's broke and needs the cash. Eliot walks up with the woman he's been macking on. It's Nate's ex-wife, Maggie. Eliot and Sophie struggle to stay in character.
Hardison and Parker listen to Nate talk to his ex-wife alone. She heard what he was saying in character and offers him money. Maggie's there helping set up the museum show, she's an art inspector. She wants to help Nate. She offers to look at the sculpture. Blackpool decides to make one condition to the deal, he wants Maggie to do the inspection.
Sophie and Nate scramble, deciding they have to steal the first David and pass it off as the second to Maggie tomorrow. Parker puts on a spare dress in the van and gets some ice from the bar. Haridson, as a waiter, get some aluminum foil. She also needs dark eye shadow, which Sophie provides. They meet in back. Parker tells Sophie to hide while she and Hardison fake make-out to bump open the security door. The only thing fake about it is the fact she calls it fake. When the guards come to check, they leave the candooling couple in peace.
Inside the first part of the vault, Parker uses the eye shadow to brush onto the keypad like fingerprint dust and lifts the print. Hardison wants to talk about what just happened, and Parker agrees that it is weird Maggie is there. Which is totally not what he meant at all. Next, Parker gives the ice in the cup to Hardison and he uses gum to stick it to the heat sensor, which will keep it from picking up body heat. Parker does some nifty gymnastics halfway across the laser field then uses two long pieces of tin foil, folded, to separate the rest of the laser beams on the floor and reflect them back as she walks through undetected. "You did not just think about this on the way in from the van," Hardison says in awe. "Some people do crosswords," Parker says.
Nate walks with his ex-wife, who misinterprets his short comm commands to Hardison and thinks he's brushing her off. She tells him she's never stopped caring about him. Listening in, Sophie blurts out "great!" and has to cover with Ian for her lack of accent. In the vault, Parker prepares to switch the two as Hardison uses his cell phone to set off all the car alarms in the lot. The vibration alarm goes off in the vault as Parker lifts the David but the security guys notice the cars and think it's just a tremor.
Nate says good-bye to Maggie, who offers to let him sleep on the couch in her office. He swallows his pride to avoid blowing the job. Maggie tops the evening off by giving her phone number to Eliot.
Back at HQ, Sophie suggests it'd be even worse for Blackpool if it turned out both his statues, including the one he's been displaying, were fake. Every sale hes made in the last 10 years would have to be audited. Nate wants to have a word with Sophie. He calls her out for trying to con the team. She doesn't understand how Maggie could work for the company that denied their son's treatment. She doesn't know, Nate yells. He didn't tell her. Sophie asks if he wants to drop it, but he wants revenge for all the other kids that Ian hurt in favor of a profit.
The next day, at an airport hanger. Hardison stops a pilot, pretending to be doing an FAA check. He says he just needs to be taxied around the runway. Maggie and Ian arrive. Adam/Eliot is there. Parker is working the phone, saying a flight is coming on from Dubai. They're pulling in now.
Hardison steps off the plane with a large case. Maggie examines the David. She says it's a dead ringer for the first David he owns. It's real, she announces. As she leaves, she says it was fun working together. She tells Nate to call her.
Sophie/Portia arrives with news that the Vatican will lend everything Ian requested for his exhibit. Nate walks out and slugs Blackpool in the face. He takes it and walks away. Nate explains to Sophie that Ian wouldn't have believed a handshake. Plus, it felt good.
Hardison drives away with the money. But a man lurks nearby, taking pictures of Sophie and Nate. Eliot catches him, but it's the rare guy who gets the drop on Eliot. He gets him on the ground and breaks one of Eliot's ribs as Hardison takes the case into Leverage HQ. A group of men in suits follow him in.
Parker leaps off an overpass and onto the security truck with the David inside.
The men cut the Leverage alarm as Eliot continues to take it on the chin. In the hangar and a car pulls up on Parker breaking into the security van. The men in HQ knock out Hardison.
Parker gets into the van, but Jim Sterling, Nate's nemesis, is waiting inside. Eliot finally starts gaining ground in his fight, but his comm fell out long ago so he couldn't warn Nate. He finally gets word that they've been blown to Nate, but Sterling has Parker's earpiece. He tells Nate they've got Hardison, too.
Nate and Sophie meet him. He wants to trade. He wants the second David. Nate tells Sterling that he already has it, but Sterling knows it's the first, not the second. Nate says he doesn't have the second. But Sterling says he does. Behind him, Sophie looks incredibly guilty.
She admits she stole it 10 years ago and still has it. Sterling demands it by the end of the day. Sterling insists Nate go back to the office and wait while Sophie brings it to him. Sophie can't even look Nate in the eye as she walks away.
She takes Nate to a storage container, full of things. He accuses her of using him to get the statue and she slaps him, saying this wasn't a selfless op for him either. Then she goes on a little too long about the thrill of stealing two Davids. She says he still thinks of them as just criminals and there will always be a part of him who thinks he's better than them. They worry about how to get around Sterling, who knows how they think. Nate says they'll just have to think like someone else.
Sophie waits on the assigned rooftop, with the David perched on the edge. She wants to meet with Parker in the middle. Nate arrives at the office as ordered and is greeted by Sterling's men. Over the phone, on the roof, Sterling tells his guy to keep both Nate and Hardison.
Eliot walks in to HQ, unimpressed by the fact they only have six men there.
As they're surrounded, Parker asks Sophie how she's going to get them off the roof. Sophie says she asked herself, "what would Parker do?" as she removes her coat to show a harness underneath.
In HQ, Nate says that with a concussion and broken ribs, he doesn't think Eliot can take six men. But he asked himself, "what would Hardison do?"
Sophie raises her arms on the roof, and Parker gets it.
In HQ, Eliot uses his phone to set off a high-pitched whine in the earpieces of Sterling's men. The Leverage dudes take them out.
Parker runs full tilt at Sophie and wraps her arms around her as they both leap off the roof.
Later, at HQ, Sterling says the operation wasn't a total waste because they left a huge paper trail. Hardison appears on the wall o' TVs and says: "Hey Sterling, get out of my house." A clock starts counting down from 30 seconds and they run. On the street outside, one man wonders if they were bluffing after nothing happens. Then the entire top floor of the building explodes. So much for Leverage HQ.
As for Nate, Sterling says over shots of the Leveragites looking at each other -- every law enforcement agency has their pictures, they blew up their HQ and his team will scatter. Then they scatter.
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