Line #8 Recap/LeverageS02E08TheIceManJob


1	-->'''Nate''': ''Hardison’s going to pretend to break into the vault.''
2	-->'''Eliot''': ''[[DeadpanSnarker Yeah, well, hopefully the Russians will only pretend to kill him.]]''
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4	-----
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6	In Boston an armored car is robbed and the driver, Joey Cospito, is shot trying to stop them. Afterward he goes to Nate for help since it looks to be an inside job and he’s the most likely suspect, and has been suspended without pay. Nate agrees to help him. Before leaving, Joey asks who the extra drink on the table is for. Embarrassed that he forgot Sophie isn’t there, Nate just dismisses it.
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8	Later, Hardison begins the briefing on Jim Kerrity, the owner of the diamond company, who’s in some financial trouble from a number of unsavory habits. The insurance on the diamonds was $9 million, which would look pretty tempting to him right about now. If he has the diamonds, he can’t sell them because each one is tagged with an ID number laser etched into the diamond face, so he’s going to need a way to remove that first. Nate decides they are going to pose as someone who can do that, and get him to bring the diamonds to them. Then they’ll drop Kerrity and the diamonds onto Lt. Bonnano.
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10	Since Sophie is out for the time being, Hardison will be the grifter. Parker, armed with a little blue dress, and a diamond she snatched in Perth, draws Kerrity to Hardison. Hardison and Kerrity talk diamonds for a bit to get the mark’s interest before Hardison drops the hook about removing the number tags. Kerrity is interested, but Hardison asks for 30%, which causes him to balk.
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12	Later, his men are demanding payment, and encouraging him to take Hardison’s offer, when Nate arrives posing as “Mr. Sterling from the insurance company.” He tells Kerrity that he’s there to conduct an investigation which means that the insurance money will arrive in 7-9 months. Faced with not having the money, he decides to call Hardison.
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14	Eliot and Parker, posing as agents from OSHA, arrive at a laser facility and clear it out. Kerrity arrives with Hardison getting there in a Ferrari. Hardison “demonstrates” his technique and Kerrity is convinced. He and Hardison agree to a deal the next day. Before Hardison leaves, he is snatched by the Russians.
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16	They want him to steal Kerrity’s diamonds for them. Hardison reluctantly agrees but calls Sophie, as “Sheila”, [[PublicSecretMessage to discreetly let her know he’s in trouble]]. She gives him some advice and then calls Nate. When he’s done, the lead Russian takes him to explain their plan as Nate gets on comms and Hardison is able to explain to them, much to the Russians’ confusion, what’s going on. Nate tells him to stall while they figure out how to extract him.
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18	While in the vault, Nate disables the heat sensor and gathers information on the security measures. Parker determines there’s no way for Hardison to break into it, so Nate decides that she’s going to do it before he gets there. And they’ll have to keep Kerrity out of his own vault. Nate takes care of that with more “insurance business”, while Parker and Eliot break into the vault.
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20	Eliot poses as a guard and Hardison pretends to knock him out until Parker’s done. She then gets out of the way so Hardison can make it look like he’s breaking into it. He goes too fast, however, and Parker barely has time to get out of sight.
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22	The Russians identify the box the diamonds are in, but Parker didn’t have time to crack them. Meanwhile, Kerrity gets tired of Nate and tries to throw him out, but notices the activity on the security monitors and comes down to investigate. When Kerrity confronts the Russians, Hardison disappears and the vault door closes sealing all of them inside, and the security system goes off.
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24	Parker and Hardison escape using the [[ChekhovsGun det cord]] the Russians had put in to make their entrance in the first place. Meanwhile the police come into the vault, and while Kerrity tries to pass it off as a false alarm, the cops find the diamonds in the vault. When they check the numbers on them, they’ll know they are the stolen gems. All Kerrity can do is sigh.
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26	At [=McRory’s=], Nate tells Joey he’s been cleared and Kerrity has gone down for insurance fraud and his business has collapsed and Nate even gives him one of the diamonds from the job. Later, he calls Sophie and apologizes for all of them calling and bothering her. HE then invites her to call whenever she want, but after he hangs up, she dumps her phone in her drink.
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28	!Tropes stolen in this job:
29	* AffablyEvil: The Russians. They do kidnap Hardison to rob their own boss and make it clear that they will kill him if he doesn't deliver, but are somewhat friendly complimentary encouraging of him throughout the heist and based on what they tell Kerrity, are in fact planning to give him a cut of the diamonds rather than just kill him once he gets them into the vault.
30	* ApologeticAttacker: Eliot apologizes to the guard he knocks out.
31	* BasedOnAGreatBigLie: This episode is based on a Wired magazine article telling the story of the 2003 Antwerp diamond heist. Unfortunately as the article is only based on the account of one of the thieves, there are several notable problems with his story as he tries to make himself and his associates sound better.
32	* BadLiar: Parker, it seems.
33	* BlatantLies: Who everyone says they call when they’re talking to Sophie.
34	* CallBack:
35	** [[Recap/LeverageS02E01TheBeantownBailoutJob Lt. Bonanno]] comes to investigate the vault alarms going off.
36	** It's easy enough to miss, but Nate's alias is "Mr. Sterling from the insurance company." Sterling is Nate's recurring rival played by Mark Sheppard.
37	** We also get a call back to the time Parker tried to flirt with a guy and ended up stabbing him with a fork.
38	* ChekhovsGun: Two of them:
39	** The method the Russians planned to use to break into the vault - blowing a hole in the floor with det cord from the tunnel underneath - becomes Parker and Hardison's escape route at the end of the con and provides the final nail in the mark's coffin by triggering the alarm and drawing the police.
40	** To convince Kerrity that Hardison's character can remove the serial numbers from the stolen diamonds via laser, he and Parker surreptitiously switch the diamond Kerrity provides with a cubic zirconia. After the con it's shown that Hardison pocketed the real diamond, and the team has sold it for money to pay their client's medical bills.
41	* DistinctionWithoutADifference: Not a bribe, a "processing fee".
42	* FakeAFight: Eliot poses as a guard and Hardison pretends to knock him out during a fake fistfight to not only impress the Russian goons, but to also buy Parker time to break into the vault where the diamonds are and help set up all the bad guys involved before the real police arrive.
43	* GilliganCut: After Parker says she’ll be fine with acting as the lure, it cuts to her calling Sophie on the phone saying the exact opposite.
44	* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Hardison acts one out on Eliot for the Russians' benefit.
45	* PublicSecretMessage: Hardison pretends to call "Sheila" as he calls Sophie and covertly explains his debacle with the Russians to her.
46	* ShipTease: Parker and Hardison play a couple again, though Parker is often annoyed that Hardison takes credit for her heists.

Context Recap / LeverageS02E08TheIceManJob