After a meeting regarding the new security system of the museum and Ian Blackpoole making James Sterling IYS' new Vice President of Security, Nate comes to visit them in Sterling's office. He tells Blackpoole that he's going to rob the Two Davids gallery on the opening day, but Blackpoole refuses to call the police and mocks Nate for his son's death. They argue about Blackpoole refusing to pay for his son's treatment, but Blackpoole just laughs it off, saying that it's company policy. Nate makes a one time offer that he must resign as CEO and donate all his assets to charity, and in return he won't rob the museum. Blackpoole refuses, and Nate leaves. Meanwhile, the former crew are planning their own theft, but end up bumping into each other and getting themselves caught in the process. Luckily, Nate arrives in front of the museum just in time for them to escape in his car.
Later, they meet at a mansion that Hardison bought as his new safe house (that used to be MC Hammer's) and ask Nate how he knew. Nate tells them that the security system has not been fully operational, so this is the best time they had to try pulling off the heist. Everyone argues over whether or not they could pull off the con, except Nate, who instead tells them the details of the new security system. The team realize that there's a restoration room directly below the museum and decide to use it to their advantage. But since the museum personnel and security staff will recognise all of them, they need a new face. Parker suggests Maggie, and Sophie agrees since she recently bumped into her and Maggie works at the restoration room. At the museum, Blackpoole introduces Sterling to Dr Lloyd and Maggie and explains to them the new security functions. Blackpoole added that all the paintings around the Two Davids belong to him or a client from IYS and is committed to protecting them at all cost. Just then, Maggie receives a call from Dr. Sinclair (Eliot's cover from the other night) to have a cup of coffee with him. Maggie agrees.
However, as Maggie and Eliot meet up with each other, Maggie starts ragging on Nate (even his sex performance) and mentions he forgot that she gave him the same button camera that Eliot is using. Back at the mansion, Nate and Maggie argue while the team listens then go out to the gardens to have a serious talk. Nate tells Maggie that when their son was at stage 4 he found a treatment that could help him and asked Blackpoole to cover it, but he refused despite Nate having worked 20 years for the company. Maggie starts crying, asking why he didn't tell her about it, and Nate responds that he was worried that she'd hate him as much as he hates himself. The only thing that Maggie can do is comfort him. Meanwhile, Sterling finds out that Maggie got a call from Eliot's old number.
After explaining the plan, Maggie tells them that they need Dr Lloyd's permission to enter the restoration room. Maggie questions Nate's leadership but the team assumes she's joking. Back at the museum, Parker manages to switch Dr. Lloyd's glasses while Maggie checks up on him. Just then Dr. Lloyd notices his glasses are blurry as Sophie talks to him. Distracted, Sterling catches Parker meeting with Maggie and goes after her. Sophie lies that the Sarcophagus of Pharaoh Menkaure (thanks to Hardison's checking) is cursed and to sell the deal Maggie says the symptoms are congestion, memory loss, blurry vision. Shocked, Dr. Lloyd seals up the Sarcophagus in the restoration room, unaware the workers are the Leverage team.
Back at the mansion, while the crew gets ready, Sophie tries to apologize to Eliot, but Parker and Hardison tell him that she apologised to them first (and screwed up the speech). He eventually forgives her. On opening day, while Blackpoole introduces his art and the Two Davids, Sterling's right-hand-man Geary goes through what Sterling said about Nate's crew. Sterling thinks that someone's hiding in the sarcophagus but it's actually a real mummy inside; the team was already in the museum in disguise when Sterling and Geary passed them. Suddenly a gas fills the Two Davids' case as the security alert goes off, prompting everyone to escape. Nate gives the signal once everyone evacuates. Closed, Blackpoole and Sterling have to exit the museum while Nate and his crew successfully infiltrate the place. Worse, everyone in the museum seems to have copies of the David sculpture (thanks to Parker). Once they manage to open the security locks, Blackpoole, Sterling, Maggie, Dr. Lloyd, and the guards appear to see the Two Davids still in the case with Nate standing right beside it.
But as the lights turn on, they see the paintings are missing. Shocked, Dr. Lloyd intends to call the police but Blackpoole stops him since the well-being of the paintings was his responsibility. Sterling realises that Nate's plan was never about the Davids- it was to steal the paintings, which are worth $150 million dollars, had all been insured by IYS, and all belonged to either Blackpoole or an IYS client. Angered, Blackpoole takes out a gun and points it at Nate, and everyone quickly leaves the room, leaving only Blackpoole, Nate and Sterling. Nate negotiates with Sterling, not Blackpoole, saying that if IYS wants their paintings back they have to strip Blackpoole's assets and his position in the company, and they have to end the policy of denying every claim. Sterling assumes it's extortion but Nate corrects him, it's 'oversight'. He takes out the recording of Blackpoole refusing to call the cops when Nate told him about the robbery. If the owners find out the art has been stolen and Blackpoole knew about the robbery but refused to do anything, they'll sue him and the company, but if he returns the paintings, they might not fire Sterling if he pins the blame on Blackpoole. Sterling laughs, and Blackpoole angrily tells him that he works for IYS, and Blackpoole. Nate takes his gun away, quotes Blackpoole on his responsibility to shareholders, and asks Blackpoole if he really thinks Nate's afraid of him, especially since Nate lost his only son. Blackpoole appeals to Maggie, but she punches him instead, and finds it immensely satisfying. Sterling tells Nate he'll call him once it's done, while Nate leaves the museum without being arrested.
At night Nate and Maggie wait in the museum. Nate gets a call from Sterling that Blackpoole's finished, while Nate says it's time to return the paintings. He reveals a hidden hole under one of the benches that leads right below the storage room, beside the restoration room. What Sterling didn't realize is that the sarcophagus that he checked blocks the door into the storage room that the team used. Hardison tells Nate that they plan to drop the paintings off at the loading dock, to make it look like someone from the outside did it.
In the end, the team members meet up at the airport hanger, and though reluctantly, they all walk away.
Tropes stolen in this job:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Sterling only laughs when he realizes that Nate deliberately left him a way to take advantage of the situation that also involves Nate going free.
- Badass Boast:
- At the beginning, Blackpoole gets one: "This is no longer a museum. It's a vault. With visiting hours."
- At the end, Nate gets a better one: "I have lost my only son. Do you really think you scare me?"
- Batman Gambit: Nate was counting on Blackpoole being too confident to call the police even when he knew Nate was going to try something, and as for Sterling...Sterling: Of course, you know your entire plan depended on me being a self-serving utter bastard.
Nate: Mm, yeah that's a stretch. - Big "NO!": Nate's reaction to the death of his son (as shown in a Flashback) is a particularly harrowing use of this trope. It's hammy and over-the-top, but believably so for a man who is all about being in control but who can do nothing as his son dies before his eyes.
- "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word: Nate offers to return the stolen paintings in exchange for Blackpoole being removed from IYS. Sterling calls this extortion but Nate prefers to call it "oversight".
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Rather than simply detain Nate the moment he walks into the gallery and spoil his plan, Blackpoole orders the security to let him in, on the grounds that actually committing a robbery carries a heavier prison term rather than simply conspiracy to commit robbery.
- Bookends: As with the pilot, we get a crane shot of everyone walking away from one another after a successful caper. However, while in the Pilot they all walked away without hesitating, this time they are all reluctant to part.
- Breaking the Fellowship: The team walks away from one another, apparently ending Team Leverage. They try to pretend they don't care, but all of them hesitate and Sophie noticeably sheds a tear.
- Butt-Monkey: Poor Dr. Lloyd is tormented lightly by the team's scheme for revenge. His anti-allergy meds are switched with the grasses which cause his reactions and Dextroamphetamines, he is tricked into believing the mummy is cursed, only to be soothed and then shaken again at the thought of a dangerous fungus causing his many problems.
- Crowd Panic: The team causes this with the "mysterious gas" released into the two Davids' chamber. Dr. Lloyd declares that they need to evacuate the museum per federal protocol for chemical attacks. Sterling tries to calm the crowd down by insisting that what's happening isn't a chemical attack; it's actually a robbery...cue the crowd panicking even more and running out of the building.
- Distinction Without a Difference: It's not extortion, it's "oversight".
- Dramatic Irony: As Sterling talks with his underling about which prisons they will send the team to, he speaks of Elliot, Parker, and Sophie, all of whom are behind him as he speaks.
- Engineered Public Confession: Nate gets the cart before the horse when he gets Blackpoole to admit he won't call the police on a threat to rob his gallery. When the gallery is robbed, the response from the owners of the art taken will have his head on a plate.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Blackpoole seriously does not seem to understand why Nate and Maggie are so upset over what was, to him, a business decision, honestly thinking they should have gotten over their son's death easier. He truly acts like he's the one being betrayed and is shocked when Maggie punches him.
- Exact Words: Nate tells Ian he will rob "the two Davids' gallery". Ian misses this and doesn't think Nate is after anything else save the Davids. Once the job plays out, it becomes clear that Nate's original plan was in fact to rob the gallery of everything except the two Davids, and since he admitted this plan to Blackpoole beforehand, Blackpoole is now liable for not having called the police.
- Gambit Pileup: At the beginning, when everyone from Leverage was casing the same museum. At the same time.
- Heist Clash: Sophie, Hardison, Eliot and Parker simultaneously attempt to steal the two Davids, only for all of them to end up getting made by security. Fortunately, Nate arrives to save them.
- Internal Reveal: To Maggie about how Blackpoole allowed her son to die to save money.
- Ironic Echo: Nate has a couple."Are you here to kill me, Ian?" from the previous episode.
"Can't let personal feelings affect policy, you have a responsibility to shareholders, no exceptions?" from Ian earlier in the episode. - It's Personal: For all of them this time.
- Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: Hardison tries to get into the museum disguised as an electrical worker. It might have worked if he hadn't gotten distracted by running into Eliot (who'd gotten himself hired onto security).
- Kansas City Shuffle: Nate has Blackpoole and Sterling thinking he was going to steal the two David’s. It is a decoy; he has the other artworks on display with the statues stolen instead, their total worth over $150 million.
- Lousy Lovers Are Losers: This is Played for Laughs when Elliot is having a date with Maggie (Nate's ex-wife) for a job, and Nate and the rest of the crew are listening in from a nearby van via Elliot's button camera. During the conversation, Maggie suddenly starts talking about Nate's many defects, but the one that stings the most is her saying he had no redeeming qualities "in bed", which prompts the team inside the van to cringe while Nate remains store-faced. But given she reveals she knew about Elliot's button camera soon after, it's implied she just said it to mess with Nate.
- Not Helping Your Case: Sterling insists that the unknown gas released into the case holdings the Davids isn't a chemical attack; it's a robbery. This does little to reassure the people who are already panicking.
- Once More, with Clarity: The flashback to the death of Nate's son had been shown in several previous episodes, but it plays out in full for the first time here, showing mad-with-grief Nate shoving doctors out of the way to get to his son's lifeless body and a devastated Maggie watching in horror.
- Opportunistic Bastard: Sterling admits he is one by virtue of going along with Nate's "oversight" and sells Blackpoole out.Jim Sterling: You know your entire plan depended on me being a self-serving utter bastard.
Nathan Ford: [sarcastically] Mm, yeah, that's a stretch. - Percussive Therapy: Maggie finds much relief in decking Blackpoole in the end. Implied by Nate earlier as well.
- The Reveal: Nate reveals his reason for drinking and hatred for Ian and IYS.
- Revenge: Nate's reason for going after IYS.
- Sherlock Scan: Maggie notices the camera button Elliot wears is the same one she once gave Nate as a gift.
- Ship Tease: Hardison asks Parker where she's planning to go when the team splits up. Her response (which demonstrates an unusual level of social subtext, for Parker):Parker (smiling): "Let's see how hard you look."
- Villainous Breakdown: Blackpoole goes to pieces once he finds out that the paintings, not the Davids, are missing. He owns the Davids, losing them would be bad. The $150 million worth of paintings, however, were on loan and insured by IYS. It starts with a Big "NO!" and moves into gibbering, and then he grabs a guard's gun and holds it on Nate (and at one point, Sterling). It's pretty much complete when Nate quotes his own words back at him, to the point that Nate casually takes the gun away from him.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Maggie is furious when she finds out Nate is still going after Blackpoole, then angrier he didn't tell her what a bastard Blackpoole was about their son's medical issues.
- Worthy Opponent: When Sterling realizes the full scope of Nate's revenge is to steal $150 million worth of art, and all insured by IYS and has both him and Blackpoole's at his mercy, all he can say is, "Well done."
