Line #47 Recap/LeverageS01E04TheSnowJob


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leverage_the_snow_job_7812.jpeg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:Nate's conference with Wayne Scott.]]
3
4	->''"You're still a mess. You know, one of these days, they may not stick around and back you up?"''
5	-->--'''Sophie Devereaux'''
6
7	----
8
9	In a Missouri suburb, homeowner Wayne Scott is being evicted from his house, and is stunned when he finds it has been sold to the contractors he paid to fix it up. He punches the man and is arrested. Nate meets with Scott in jail, who tells him the story. Nate agrees to take the case.
10
11	The mark is Henry Retzing. He gets contracts to fix homes but does shoddy work and stretches his work out, but then puts a lien on the house and when the customers can’t pay up, he can take ownership of the house. Hardison tells the crew about Retzing’s two sons. One, Randy, just whiles the day away snowboarding and other non-serious things, and the other, Dennis, is actually running the company.
12
13	Sophie shows up at a ski lodge where Randy is goofing off and stages a phone conversation about the luge. Randy sneaks a look at Sophie's passport, which Hardison has doctored to match with that of an international athlete. Randy’s interest is piqued and he comes to talk to her. She tells him she and her partners have purchased the resort and are looking to make some renovations and offers him a place. He agrees, as long as he can see the plans and meet the management.
14
15	Hardison shuts down the ski lifts, Parker jumps off one and hangs over the side. The actual manager goes to deal with the lift situation. Once he leaves, Eliot (already in the office posing as a salesman) puts some things up to make it look like it’s his office, and takes the role of Sophie’s partner. They show Randy the “plans” and he agrees, but he needs to go to Miami to get his dad to write the actual check.
16
17	In Miami, Sofie and Randy sell his father on the plan. Although Dennis disapproves, Henry tells him to sign the checks. Sensing that Dennis feels under-appreciated by his father, Sophie begins sweet talking him. He rants about Randy's stupidity and his own business acumen, including that the scam was all his idea, and they’ve done this to hundreds of people.
18
19	Hearing this, Nate changes the scheme, having Sophie rip up the check for Randy's deal and tell Dennis they have a bigger opportunity. Nate wants to take the entire company and help all the victims, not just the Scotts. The rest of the team express their doubts, and their frustration at Nate not consulting them. Hardison realizes the interference they’ve been getting is from police bugs, and that local law enforcement has the Retzings under surveillance.
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21	Nate (using his actual name and background in insurance) meets with Dennis and presents his scheme: they buy the life insurance of dying people for cheap and let them have one final fling then they get the payout when they actually die. He has a list of people who are good potentials. Dennis will agree as long as he can have a doctor check any of the patients. Nate charges him $10,000 to see the list, and Dennis picks a name. Randy suddenly calls and demands to know what’s going on. Dennis and Sofie gloatingly inform him that they've found a better deal.
22
23	That night, Nate gets stopped by a police car and talks to Lieutenant Stone from the Racketeering And Corruption Task Force. They are going after Retzing but Nate doesn’t think they have anything to go on.
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25	At the hospital, put Parker in a CAT-scan and a cadaver with a brain tumor in another and switch the signals. Dennis brings his doctor and has her examine the images of “Parker’s" brain. The doctor agrees that she is terminal, but Dennis is still skeptical of the risks. Nate fakes a phone call informing him that one of their other patients just died. Dennis is convinced, but when he starts talking about how he needs to move accounts, Nate asks what kind of partner Dennis is and storms out.
26
27	Later, the team question Nate's behavior. Parker is especially irked by the fact that they've now turned down money from the mark and actually given money ''to'' the mark. Elliot is more concerned that Nate's drinking is putting them all in danger. Nate insists they trust him, but it's obvious that he's starting to alienate the team.
28
29	In the morning, Dennis calls and tells Nate he’s in for $5 million. As they start the transfer, Henry and Randy see it (Randy having become suspicious after Sofie turned on him) and they decide to put a stop to it. They go to the bank where they remove Dennis access to the company accounts and sign company control to Randy instead. A bank security guard informs Henry that his car is being vandalized, and when he steps away to look, he runs into Dennis and Nate. This soon builds into a fight between Dennis and Randy, as the rest of the team leaves the bank.
30
31	Soon, the Retzings find that all their checks are bouncing, with Dennis being the first to realize why: while Henry left Randy alone at the bank, Sofie approached him with the contract for their original "Winter Edge-Games" idea, which he happily signed. However, what he actually signed was a deal giving Sophie 51% controlling stake in their company. To make matters worse, Lieutenant Stone and his men arrive, arresting Henry for undeclared transfer of money with the combinations of his previous fraudulent and corrupt activities under the RICO act. A flashback reveals that Nate tipped off Stone to look for the very incriminating behaviors that their scam would cause.
32
33	As Henry is being taken away, Nate calls Dennis, explaining that the names on the list he shows him as they are actually a list of names that lost their homes to the Retzing family. With all the company assents under their control, including the Retzings' house, Nate proceeds to put all the people they evicted back in their homes, except their client, who they put in Retzing’s house. He then reminds them to leaves the keys under the mat after they pack their stuffs in two to three days.
34
35	A few days later, Nate gives the house key of the Retzing's to the Scott family while Hardison nearly breaks into tears. Nate tells Sophie that he has changed but Sophie reminds him that he hasn't and sooner or later they won't help him out if he continues.
36
37	!!Tropes stolen in this job:
38	* ButForMeItWasTuesday: It's doubtful that even if Dennis had read the names on the list Nate gave him, he wouldn't have realized they were all past victims of the family, which Nate counted on.
39	* TheCameo: Creator/JonathanFrakes is the guy sitting next to Nate in the hospital.
40	* CutawayGag: As Hardison doctors the photo of Ute, the German luge athlete, with Sophie's head as part of the con, he mutters an apology to Ute, to himself. Cut to Ute finding the doctored photo and very pissed about this.
41	* DrunkDriver: Nate is pulled over while intoxicated. Fortunately, the officer isn't interested in that.
42	* DullSurprise: PlayedForLaughs, when Parker plays a skier who's dangling off the ski lift, gives a bored-sounding "Help."
43	* FoolishSiblingResponsibleSibling: Randy is a playboy looking for a good time, while Dennis is the one who makes their father's company work, which makes him a little irritable when he thinks he doesn't get enough recognition. Intimately, the team gets Retzing to switch managerial control over to Randy, who they then trick into signing away control of the company.
44	* FunnyBackgroundEvent / IronicEcho: As Nate gives the house key of the Retzing's to the Wayne family in the end, you can see Randy in the background futilely pleading with the cops about his eviction just as Wayne tried to do in the beginning.
45	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: At the end, Leverage kicks the Retzings our of their home because they declared it a "corporate asset."
46	* IdleRich: Randy. He spends his time going to fancy ski resorts or strip clubs. He has various business schemes that any good business mind would laugh at, like hot air balloon paintball (which apparently got far enough to have flyers printed).
47	* KickTheDog: Lest the audience come to sympathize with {{Unfavorite}} Dennis too much, he openly admits that the foreclosure hustle was his idea, and he's ''proud'' of it.
48	* LoopholeAbuse: The Retzing's bread and butter. Their entire business method is geared to abusing the loopholes in the contract and good business laws. As it happens, one of those very loopholes are what the team uses to take them down.
49	* NoodleImplements: The team considers several named cons, but none are explained or elaborated on.
50	** Except for "The Apple Pie" which is apparently "The Cherry Pie, but with lifeguards."
51	* OhCrap: The Retzings go through these when their checks bounce, the accountant calls them saying there are some problems, and then they realize Randy signed away the majority share of their company. Lastly, the police arrive to arrest Papa Retzing.
52	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Lt. Stone wants to take down the mark for their fraud and is willing to let Nate slide if Nate can get the Retzings to break the law enough for a Rico charge to be applied.
53	* ShoutOut: The name of the scam is "[[Film/GlengarryGlenRoss Glengarry Glen Death]]", but instead of a list of real estate leads, it's a list of people with terminal illnesses, potential targets for the scam.
54	* TheUnfavorite: Papa Retzing ''clearly'' favors his elder son, a useless playboy, at the expense of his younger son, the one responsible for their current wealth. It's thus a fitting irony that it's because of Randy that the family loses their money and the father ends up in jail.

Context Recap / LeverageS01E04TheSnowJob