The team pulls Harry back into the fold to help a journalist investigating the corrupt president of a small eastern European nation. But when the journalist is grabbed, our team has to infiltrate a London Ball to extract him.
Tropes stolen in this job:
- Alliterative Name: Ralphie Roy.
- Big Damn Heroes: Eliot and Hardison blow a hole in Volkov's Torture Cellar just as he's about to have his henchmen start roughing up Tohd.
- Borrowed Biometric Bypass: The team needs Volkov's fingerprints to access his Torture Cellar and save Bradley. Hardison and Breanna, who are posing as Lesotho royalty, solve the problem by telling Voslov that "a raised hand of peace" is the traditional greeting in their country and having pictures taken. Then they use a program that Breanna wrote (but Hardison "adjusted") to isolate Voslov's fingerprints from the photos.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Hardison's descripton of Volkov duting the introductory briefing.Hardison: Now, the man loves classic R&B. He loves long walks on the beach. He also loves crushing freedom and putting anybody that disagrees with him in prison.
- British Rockstar: Ralphie Roy is an affable example. Eliot, who grew up listening to his music, is pretty much Starstruck Speechless in his presence.
- But Now I Must Go: Hardison does this yet again at the end, but he assures Breanna it's only because he knows that she's doing a great job of filling his role.
- Continuity Nod:
- Hardison, who was apparently hanging on to Eliot's truffles from "The French Connection Job", returns them because "They stank".
- Sophie revives her Charlotte, Duchess of Hanover identity in order to snare Volkov.
- The Dictatorship: Alstonia, the Fictional Country that Volkov rules with an iron fist until Team Leverage brings him down.
- Diplomatic Impunity: Volkov tries to claim this when Team Leverage exposes his crimes. A Scotland Yard officer explains that he's not being arrested, but deported back to Alstonia — where his own generals will arrest him.
- Dumb and Drummer: No one, not even his fiance, seems very impressed that Tohd is the "drummer in a Ska band"
- Electric Torture: Eliot says the only way he and Hardison can break Bradley out of his prison is by frying the electric lock, but they don't have a device powerful enough to do that. Then Bradley mentions that Volkov's Mooks tortured him with a car battery...
- Elopement: Nadia and Tohd plan to do this during the debut ball to escape Nadia's father. Since this would interfere with Team Leverage's plan to save Bradley — and they'd never make it past Volkov's security — Breanna talks them into waiting for a better time. In the end, they're able to get together after Volkov is defeated.
- Foreshadowing: During the briefing, Eliot mentions that Volkov has rivals who wouldn't look kindly on his plundering his own country without cutting them in, including his own generals. In the end, we're told that Volkov has been imprisoned by the generals.
- Hidden Depths: Nadia initially seems like a bored Selfie Fiend who is willing to halfheartedly help her father with his plans to make powerful friends, but is bothered by what her father is doing to their country and wants to elope with a waiter.
- Intergenerational Rivalry: Hardison and Breanna clash over their differing personalities and methods, although they're friends again by the end of the episode.Hardison: I've been doing this job for years, okay? You could respect the experience.
Breanna: Or you could respect the fact that I'm not you. - Intrepid Reporter: Bradley Simkov is willing to investigate Volkov for his corruption and tyranny, although he isn't as prepared to deal with Volkov's goon squad as the Leverage crew.
- Malevolent Masked Men: The thugs in Volkov's Torture Cellar disguise their identities with ski masks. This comes in handy when Eliot infiltrates the group.
- Malicious Misnaming: Parker makes a Running Gag out of being unable (or unwilling) to pronounce Tohd's name properly.
- Murder by Remote Control Vehicle: Inverted Trope. When Volkov's men try to kidnap Bradley in London, Hardison saves him by using his tech to take control of their SUV. He stops the car, releases Bradley, then sends the would-be killers to their Uncertain Doomnote .
- The Muse: Sophie has a history with Ralphie Roy — she dated him while posing as a Groupie named Kiki Carmichael, which inspired his best-selling album Kiki. She has to adopt that identity again to get Ralphie to play an unwitting role in stopping Volkov.
- My Nayme Is: Tohd, which is spelled eccentrically but is pronounced "Todd".
- Playing Drunk: Eliot does this in the video that resolves Harry's case, in which he poses as a guilt-ridden civil engineer who exposes his employers for Cutting Corners.
- Pursued Protagonist: In the opening scene, a man walking down the street and texting an associate realizes he is being followed and then breaks into a run, but is caught and abducted. Hardison pulls a Big Damn Heroes rescue moments later.
- Rebellious Princess: Nadia Volkov isn't literally a princess, but otherwise she exemplifies the trope. She resents her father for his dictatorial treatment of both the Alstonian people and her personally, particularly his opposition to her relationship with Tohd.
- Shout-Out:
- Breanna says that rich Londoners put basements in their townhouses although they're forbidden by the building code because "they still want their private spas, their wine cellars, their money rooms where they can swim underground like a cartoon duck".
- Late in that same scene, Sophie invites Breanna to join the rest of the team at Volkov's party, which they both compare to Cinderella being allowed to go to the ball.
- Surpassed the Teacher: After arguing with Breanna for most of the episode, Hardison finally admits that she's not only an ideal replacement for him, but comes up with ideas he never would have thought of.
- Torture Cellar: This one of the things Volkov uses his illegal basement for. His goons torture Simkov there, and they're about to do the same to Tohd when Team Leverage intervenes.
- Translation Convention: Both lampshaded and defied. Volkov insists that he and Nadia converse in English so they can become fluent in the language and impress the Brits they're trying to make friends with. But later, there's a scene where Volkov and Eliot, who's disguised as one of the Malevolent Masked Men who run the Torture Cellar, talk to each other in subtitled Russian.
- Uptown Girl: Volkov's daughter Nadia is in love with a waiter and runs away with him after her father's crimes are exposed.
