The team was going to con Judge Roy, a crooked small-town politician who's been taking bribes from meth dealers and smugglers, by a "Rip Deal" scam for the Delgado family when suddenly the bank that Nate and Sophie are in is being robbed. Hardison and Parker have no choice but to leave the bank temporarily as they don't want to be suspected. The two robbers realize they don't have enough money (and no way to get into the vault) and start to panic. Meanwhile Judge Roy hides his briefcase full of money for Nate under a nearby desk. The team realizes that the robbers are amateurs and quite desperate and panic-stricken about getting the money by 5:00. Judge Roy tries to persuade them to leave as he can clear their name since he owns the law and even knows Officer Bill who's outside, but the move fails. Soon, Hardison and Parker come to the scene as FBI agents, confronting Bill and his men on the situation.
The team figure out that the robbers are Derrick Clark and his son Michael. It turns out that Michael has been involved with the meth dealers. The week before, someone ripped them off, and the gang blames Michael, who is innocent. They kidnapped his mom and demanded for a ransom of a hundred grand by 5 o'clock, or his mother dies. Nate and Sophie talk with the Clarks and gain their trust. The crew successfully takes Judge Roy's bag out of the bank and into Parker's hands, who passes it to Eliot at the meeting point. Judge Roy notices his briefcase has gone missing and begins to freak out. He attacks Michael, and in the attempt to disarm him accidentally shoots Nate in the shoulder. In a panic, Sophie cries out Nate's real name, and Roy realizes he's been conned. He refuses to believe that their con has nothing to do with the Clark's robbery, and takes everyone hostage until he gets his money back. The bank employers tells him to let Nate go as he's bleeding, but Roy refuses to listen to reason. He discovers that both Sophie and Nate use earpieces. He takes them long enough to threaten their accomplices outside, demanding his money back, before destroying both earpieces and cutting the team off from their mastermind.
Meanwhile, as the meth dealers arrive at the meeting spot, they are surprised to find Roy's bag contains more money than they asked for. Michael's mom tries to escape, but is stopped by the meth dealers. Eliot appears and beats up all of the dealers. Soon, Hardison knocks on the door to deliver some 'pizzas'. Judge Roy assumes it's from Nate's crew who delivers it and allows Hardison and the paramedics in. As Hardison opens up one of the pizza boxes, Roy is delighted to see that it does contain a pile of money. Suddenly, Hardison accuses Roy and acts like Roy's the robber. Roy realizes that he's one of Nate's crew as Hardison signals Bill and his men charge into the bank to arrest him.
Judge Roy tries to explain to Bill the truth when he realizes that the pizza boxes are missing. Hardison plays dumb about it (although no one knows how the pizza boxes disappeared) while Roy, in anger, yells that they stole his money again, which was originally from his briefcase. Bill looks down and found his briefcase only to find crystal meth inside. Roy denies it but Hardison claims that Roy's 'out-of-control' behavior was the cause of the drugs he's taking. Roy tries to prove that the Clarks are involved but to his surprise, he reveals the 'Clarks' to be Eliot and Parker. Turns out that both Eliot and Parker disguise themselves as paramedics and switch shirts with the Clarks during Hardison's confrontation. As the Clarks safely place Nate into the ambulance and drive off, the ambulance stops someway as Mrs. Clark greets them as the driver. The Clarks are happy for her safety while Nate weakly requests that they save the heartwarming reunion until after Nate has been hooked up to a morphine drop.
Back at the bank, Eliot and Sophie testify that Roy is trying to rob the bank and their stories been backed up by the bank employees after what he did. Dumbfounded, Roy claims that everyone's lying and ask the police to look at the footage — in which Hardison agrees. It seems before entering the bank, Hardison has already doctored the footage where Roy's the gunner and has no traces of the Clarks being involved. This causes Bill to believe the 'proof' and arrest Roy while Roy furiously denies it while being drag away.
- Roy: Come on Bill, you know me!Bill: Yeah I do, Roy. That's kinda the problem.Roy: (being dragged off-screen) Whoa! Hey, Bill! Listen to me! These people, they're trying to set me up. They had this planned from the start! THEY'RE TRYING TO DESTROY ME!
As Hardison and Parker leave, the real FBI agents arrive. The bewildered agents are congratulated by Bill and his officers for taking down the meth dealers bound and gagged in a van outside the bank. As the team leaves by the ambulance, Nate congratulates Hardison for the 'pizza boxes' idea while heading to the Delgado family's place.
Tropes stolen in this job:
- Bank Robbery: Throws the team's con off the rails, but it turns out there's more to it than meets the eye.
- Briefcase Full of Money: The judge puts a bunch of cash in one.
- By-the-Book Cop: The sheriff's deputy, since he was the last one to take...an online seminar. Last year. He got a certificate.
- Caught Up in a Robbery: Nate and Sophie visit a bank to con a Corrupt Politician out of his bribe money, but they instead get caught up in an armed robbery of said bank. They end up sympathizing with the bumbling robbers so much, they actually help them complete the heist and make a clean getaway (other than Nate getting shot for his trouble).
- Chekhov's Gun: Hardison convinces the police that the bank robbers want 12 pizzas in order to distract them early on. Later, when the team is returning the money from the con that they were using to lure in the drug dealers, they use the pizza boxes to smuggle it in, and they use the pizza order as "evidence" that Judge Roy was on meth.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Eliot vs. the drug dealers.
- Dirty Coward: The branch manager is more than happy to let Sophie take his place to go talk to the robbers.
- Dirty Old Man: Judge Roy slaps a female bank employee on the rear, and when he finds out she's nineteen, he asks if she has a younger sister. He means it to sound like a joke, but he's not very convincing.
- Establishing Character Moment: So you know right off the bat Judge Roy is a worthless piece of shit, the first thing he does is slap a girl on the ass. She did not like it.Frank: Help you with anything today, your honor?
Roy: Yeah, Fred, her phone number.
Frank: It's Frank, and she's 19, sir.
Roy: That's too bad. She got a younger sister? - Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: One of the first things we see Judge Roy do, the target being a 19-year-old girl.
- Framing the Guilty Party: In the end, the judge is framed for the robbery under the influence of meth thanks to sleight of hand and some doctored security footage. Everyone else, already not happy with his treatment of them even before he held the bank hostage, supports the blatantly false story.
- Friendly Sniper: the sheriffs departments “sniper” is just a local hunter dressed for the part who cheerfully waves at the “FBI agents” from the window.
- From Camouflage to Criminal: Clark, Sr. is actually former military, although he didn't want to be in this situation.
- The Ghost: The Delgado family, the team's clients for this episode, never appear in person.
- Heist Clash: Nate and Sophie are at the bank with Judge Roy as part of their scam to steal his money. They are just about to finish the job when a father and son decide to rob the bank to pay off some meth dealers holding the mother hostage. Invoked when Nate orders Parker to break into the bank while it is being robbed.
- Hostage Situation: Derrick and Michael's motive for the bank robbery is this; drug dealers have kidnapped Michael's mom and want $100,000 for her. When Roy eventually realizes he's been conned, he then creates a new one by taking everyone in the bank hostage himself.
- Hypocritical Humor: Parker, a master thief, chides Hardison for repositioning a satellite so he could watch Doctor Who, telling him "Illegal downloading's wrong!". It borders on Blue-and-Orange Morality, as her next action is to set some papers in a wastebasket on fire, while she and Hardison are still sitting in the back of his van.
- Impersonating FBI Agents: How Parker and Hardison take control of the situation outside the bank.
- In Medias Res: The episode starts with the team just about to complete their money laundering scam on the judge. We don't learn why they're targeting him until later.
- It's All My Fault: Michael is well aware of how his involvement with the meth dealers could get his mother killed and is forcing his dad to help him rob a bank.
- Long List: Hardison listing off the robbers' "demands" to the local police, so that Parker can sneak into the bank and help Nate and Sophie.Hardison: Now look, they have a list of demands. First off, they want 12 large pizzas. One cheese, one Hawaiian, extra pineapple. Two pepperoni and black olives, two meat lover’s...Seriously? Nobody’s writing this down? Seriously? One triple-shot half-caf vanilla latte, tall, three copies of the latest Hall and Oates CD. I know, right? Exciting stuff, I didn’t know they were coming out with a new one either. We’re gonna need steaks. Steaks and a grill. They’re trying to tailgate. Okay, they need your overalls, I don’t know why. They need some kibbles n’ bits, we need an Etch-A-Sketch, somebody in there likes to squiggle, okay. Possibly we need some stuffed bears. Are we good? Let’s go, people.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Judge Roy harasses a young female bank employee and treats the branch manager with naked contempt (he can't even remember the guy's name while the guy is wearing a name tag). So when he's framed for the bank robbery, they eagerly play along with the con. Even Sheriff Bill, with his comment, "I do know you, Roy; that's kind of the problem," implies that he might just be glad to finally have a reason to put Roy away.
- Ms. Fanservice: The young banker who garners the judges attention is wearing a figure-flattering outfit and there are a couple of gratuitous shots down her blouse.
- Multitasked Conversation: Pretty much the entirety of Nate's dialogue after the bank robbery starts. He has to talk to his team while pretending to talk to the judge.
- Noodle Incident: Invoked by Hardison, "The book got a good man killed!"Parker: Better not mention the book again...or propellers.
- Not Helping Your Case: Judge Roy tries to invoke the fact that Sheriff Bill knows him as to why he isn't guilty. Bill's response is;Sheriff Bill: Yeah, Roy. I do. That's kinda the problem.
- When Sophie is trying to convince Derrick Clark to work with the team, he asks why he should trust her. Her response is "I'm a thief!"
Clark: Okay... (Beat) I'm not sure what to do with that. - Oh, Crap!: Eeeeeextended. As Nate's on his way out the bank with Judge Roy's money, he notices half a dozen clues letting him know the bank's about to be robbed. And he can't just leave, because Sophie's in place playing the role of an employee.Hardison: Y'know, five more feet and he would've been in the clear. The hell was he thinking?
Parker: Don't be an idiot, Hardison.
Hardison: What?!
Parker: Sophie was still in there.
Hardison: [drives] - Police Are Useless: The local police are very inexperienced in this sort of thing, and the FBI doesn't even show up until it's all over.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Upon confronting the meth dealers, Eliot asks one of them, "What smells like crank and screams like a girl?" before delivering a beatdown that answers his own question.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The local sheriff works diligently to resolve the hostage crisis while listening to the supposed FBI experts when they sound sensible. After the bank robbery is broken up he does bother to hear out Judge Roy but is quick to believe that he’s a criminal due to the fake evidence.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: The judge has this attitude. "The truth is whatever I say it is."
- Smokescreen Crime: This is wrongfully assumed to be the case. The team are trying to pull a con on the corrupt Judge Roy when the bank they are in is taken hostage by a father and son duo who need money to save the mother from drug dealers. Roy gets into a struggle with the father for the gun and accidentally shoots Nate in the shoulder, causing a panicked Sophie to cry out Nate's real name. This leads to Roy realizing that Nate and Sophie are running a con on him, but he mistakenly believes that the robbers are in on it and that the robbery is simply a cover for Nate to take his money without Roy suspecting Nate's involvement.
- Shout-Out: Hardison and Parker as Agents Leonard and Elmore
- Stupid Crooks: More inexperienced, but they clearly didn't plan this out very well.Parker disgustedly claims she could pull off the bank robbery they were trying in 42 seconds.
- Those Two Guys: first appearance (in broadcast order) of FBI Agents Taggart and McSweetin, although in this case it's more The Cameo note .
- Trojan Ambulance: The crew commandeers an ambulance car to make a clean getaway after the con — which isn't as gratuitous as most examples, since Nate has been shot during the job and needs actual medical attention.
- Villainous Breakdown: Judge Roy has one after discovering his money's gone, and again as Bill carts him off.
- Who Are You?: Eliot politely refers to the whole team when a kidnapped woman is stunned by him seeming to rescue her single-handedly from the goons who grabbed her.Ellen Clark: Who are you?!
Eliot: Well, ma'am... we'd be the cavalry.
