The team's first job with Sophie's replacement grifter, Tara, gets off to a rocky start since Nate doesn't trust con artists very easily.

A young Chinese woman collapses at her sweatshop job. Talking with Nate through a translator who works for an immigrant advocacy network, she explains that she's working 15-hour shifts to pay off the debt she owes to the Pans, the sweatshop owners, for bringing her to America. All she wants is to make enough to bring her parents over too.

The mark, Gloria Pan, is a wannabe fashion designer, so the team sets up Tara as Caprina, planting evidence that she's the new hotness in the fashion world. Nate and team convince Gloria to give them money to set up a fashion show.

Tara calls Sophie to complain about Nate and threatens to quit; Sophie convinces her to stay, claiming Tara owes her. Nate arrives and confiscates Tara's earpiece.

As Nate and Parker show up to visit Gloria at home, the house explodes as a silver car speeds away. Hardison digs into Russell Pan, Gloria's husband, only to find that he's actually Nicholas Chow, a high-ranking member of a Triad and on Interpol's Most Wanted list. Nate warns Eliot and Tara, at the sweatshop, to get out, but they are intercepted by Russell and some of his men, demanding their money back.

Nate arrives and offers to steal a fashion designer's line for Russell. As Eliot and Parker steal the data, Tara appears to sell out Nate, telling Russell who he really is.

Nate arrives with the stolen designs, and Russell sends them to the Triad factories to get a jump on manufacturing, then returns the flash drive to him and brings in the police. The police take the flash drive from Nate's pocket and put it into Russell's laptop; it shows Russell's real name and wanted status, and he is arrested. Nate quietly flashes an Interpol badge and claims to be deep undercover, and is escorted out by a friendly police officer.

At the Triad factories, they pick up the new designs and get ready to start manufacturing. Unfortunately for them, the designs they were given were Gloria's, not the real designer's. Meanwhile, Gloria is busily working at a laundry, doing the sort of menial labor that she had been forcing other women to do earlier.

Nate arrives at the factory and gives the young woman $50,000 to bring her parents over. He also talks to the translator from the immigrant advocacy network, who is now the court-appointed administrator for the factory. He pays Tara for her work and gives her back her earpiece.

Nate has a video call with Sophie, who is upset at him for putting Tara in danger. Nate fires back about how Sophie forced him back onto the job only to bail on him; she hangs up mid-rant.

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* AwfulWeddedLife: Mr. Pan is willing to kill his wife to save himself 50 grand. Didn't even hesitate.
* BavarianFireDrill: A ''Leverage'' staple, Parker uses the fear of "Kerry" to scare the check-in attendant into submission. The second time it doesn't work, because security was heightened due to the crew's shenanigans.
* CloudCuckoolander: After Tara makes a passing reference to "reindeer games" Parker becomes distracted trying to determine how the reindeer would keep score.
* CrypticConversation: How Tara perceives Nate's preferred way of talking about jobs. She gets used to it.
* TheDogWasTheMastermind: The seemingly timid and henpecked Russell Pan is secretly a high-ranking member of a Chinese Triad, and the real money behind Gloria's business.
* EiffelTowerEffect: Visible behind Sophie in their video chat.
* FailureGambit: Tara gives up and tells the mark the entire con, including Nate's real name. Unfortunately for the mark, this is actually just part of a new con.
* FakeDefector: Tara appears to be turning on Nate, selling him out to the Triads to save her own skin, only for it to be part of the FailureGambit.
* FashionShow: Much of the action takes place at one, with Tara as a fashion designer and Parker as a model.
* GirlOnGirlIsHot: Subverted with Parker, who is just mirroring the others and doesn't understand their surprise.
-->'''Eliot:''' Plus, she's hot.\\
'''Hardison:''' ''Hot''.\\
'''Parker:''' Hot. [beat] Warm? Cold? Why are we staring?
* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: Nate avoids arrest at the end of the episode by convincing the cops that he's an undercover INTERPOL agent.
* IndenturedServitude: The victim-of-the-week is a debt slave in a clothes factory.
* LampshadeHanging: Tara notes Nate's habit of walking away after saying something cryptic on multiple occasions.
* LaserGuidedKarma: At the end of the episode, former sweatshop owner Gloria Pan finds herself laboring anonymously in a dry cleaning factory, her money gone and her dreams crushed.
* OutrunTheFireball: Nate and Parker, fleeing the explosion at the Pans' house.
* ParentWithNewParamour: How Tara's introduction to the team gets played, since she's replacing TeamMom Sophie.
* RudelyHangingUp: Sophie hangs up on Nate while he's ranting about how she forced him back onto the team and then left.
* TooManyBelts: Gloria's designs are covered with buckles.
* ToplessnessFromTheBack: Used briefly, along with DressHitsFloor, when the models are changing outfits.
* TheTriadsAndTheTongs: The background villains of the episode.
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Another ''Leverage'' staple. The exact plan between Tara and Nate isn't explained until after the mark has shown the police that he's a wanted criminal. It serves to underscore Tara's competence given this is the first time they're working together.
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