Eliot returns to his hometown of Carson, Oklahoma for a much needed family reunion only to discover it in danger from a fracking rig. The team works to expose the harm the rig is causing and shut it down, with the fact that the company that owns the rig intends to build more creating even more urgency.
Tropes stolen in this job:
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Attorney General James Hodgins comes off as an honest politician who cares for his constituents, even suspending operations of the fracking rig until an environmental survey is completed. In reality he has invested money into the company that owns the rig, is implied to have aspirations for President, and actually hates his hometown of Carson, seeing its residents as "hillbillies".
- Call-Back:
- Eliot's father Billy freed a POW camp, which should have earned him a medal, but the military gave the honor that was rightfully his to "a lily white boy from Kentucky." This is the same thing that happened to Charlie Lawson in "The Van Gogh Job".
- Before fighting some goons, Billy utters a Pre Ass Kicking One Liner similar to one Eliot gave back in "The Bank Shot Job":Eliot: Hey, what smells like crank and screams like a girl? [Breaks a mook's arm, eliciting this response] Good answer.Billy: Hey, Eliot.Eliot: Yeah, Dad.Billy: What smells like a fracking rig and screams like a girl? [Breaks a mook's arm, eliciting this response]Eliot: Classic.
- The Cameo: Hardison makes appearances via video-calling from the satellite.
- Continuity Nod:
- The reason behind Eliot's estrangement from his father is explored here after being touched on in the final season of the original series and last season's Christmas Episode.
- When Parker wonders if Eliot's Secretly Dying and that's what he needs to tell his father, she reminds him that she and Hardison have prepared robot bodies for after they die.
- Eliot's implied Dark and Troubled Past as part of his time in the military is mentioned. Also it's revealed that his moments of patriotism, his sympathy for and work with veterans, and even joining the army come from wanting to be a hero like his father.
- Determinator: Billy never gives up his quest to stop the fracking rig, even after the bad guys win the right to build six more rigs across Oklahoma.
- Handicapped Badass: Billy limps because he injured his hip during his military service, but is still able to help Eliot take out a gang of Mooks.
- Happily Adopted: Eliot's birth parents dropped off him at the hospital (i.e. abandoned him) where his adopted mother worked, she and her husband taking him in and raising him as their own. They implied to have had a pretty good relationship up until he joined the military against their wishes; even then it was Eliot being forced to miss his mother's funeral that really drove a wedge between him and his father.
- Kryptonite Factor: Sophie, as Harry observes, is a master of reading people but has a crippling weakness that undermines this: self-doubt. Since Sophie has been having worries since her encounter with Arthur Wilde, she completely misreads the AG's true colors and runs into roadblocks due to this unforeseen circumstance.
- Man of the City: Coach Billy DeWitt is the driving force behind the legal challenges against a hydraulic fracturing rig that is killing his hometown's livelihood. He is introduced trying to persuade a family not to leave town just yet and also buys clean water from out of town and delivers it to his neighbors.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When he learns that Eliot's dad is black, Hardison is happy to tease him about it - but he's the first to drop the teasing and sincerely offer Eliot his support when he sees how much all of this is hurting Eliot.
- So Proud of You: Billy Spencer, Eliot's father, tells his son this once everything is said and done, understanding that Eliot works to help people in ways others can't and he wouldn't be on this path if his son had obeyed his wishes to not join the military.
- Unseen No More: Eliot's father, played by Keith David, is finally seen after only getting sporadic mentions across both series.
- What You Are in the Dark: To Eliot, it doesn't matter that his father never got the medal he earned, he saved the men in the POW camp he freed. Eliot follows his father's example by doing good deeds that the world will never know about.
- When He Smiles: Eliot gives a rare smile after repairing his relationship with his father.
