A young woman has developed a 'golden' potato. It is disease-resistant, quick to grow, and produces an abundance of vitamin A, the deficiency of which causes blindness in hundreds of thousands of children in developing countries. She plans to give it away. A big agricorp wants to make billions off it and they're willing to use violence to get it. Or worse, lawyers.
Trope Stolen in This Job
- Accidental Truth: Sophie orchestrates a fake mole hunt to keep West busy while the rest of the team steal back the potato... and uncovers an actual mole: the janitor who's been quietly selling trade secrets to competitors — and raking in millions of dollars — for years under everyone's noses.
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Nate runs a quick one on the security guard at the vault by calling him and pretending to be a pissed-off executive who threatens the guard with disciplinary action if he doesn't help out the VIP on her way up. Hardison promptly explains to Trevor that by amping up the stress level on the guard, he's going to be too nervous and agitated to pay attention to Parker's face when she shows up.
- Bittersweet Ending: The team recovers Emily's potato (well, most of it) and successfully frames Verd Agra CEO Saunders for bribery. But West is cleared of all charges and made interim CEO due to the behind-the-scenes interference of Season Four Big Bad Jack Latimer.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Sophie's "audible" forces the team to hastily rework a cover identity originally designed for Eliot, and in the process, Sophie adopts his accent and a few of his mannerisms. At one point, she even mumbles a frustrated, "Dammit, Hardison."
- Bratty Half-Pint: Trevor, the obnoxious know-it-all kid from the field trip group. Eventually, the team gets tired of trying to corral him and just lets him watch the con go down from the security office. His cell phone case also comes in handy for smuggling out the potato.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Jana West, smug and ambitious VP of Operations for Verd Agra, is not above having her thugs break a few of Emily's father's ribs to make her point. CEO Saunders is fully aware of her activities and has no problem with them.
- Eat the Evidence: When smuggling the potato out proves to be impossible, the team slices it up, salvaging a piece with the most eyes and tossing the rest in the cafeteria fryer. The lunch crowd disposes of the evidence for them.
- Gilligan Cut: Sophie recruits Eliot to be her accountant partner, and Nate tells him to look the part. Cut to Eliot tackling some poor random guy into the bushes, then emerging in the guy's suit.
- Indy Ploy: Sophie "calls an audible" when Hardison's attempt to stall West's security team is about to fail, knocking Hardison out and introducing herself as a security consultant sent to help West.
- Kill It with Fire: Verd Agra's most valuable assets are locked in a "burn room", designed to incinerate everything inside with a touch of a button hidden in Saunders' desk.
- Mugged for Disguise: Eliot ambushes a technician outside Verd Agra and takes his clothes for his cover as a forensic accountant.
- Mundane Made Awesome: The super-valuable Macguffin the team is trying to retrieve is... a potato. Granted, it's a genetically-engineered "Super Tuber", but Parker simply can't get her head around the fact that they're trying to steal a vegetable. Until she actually sees it herself, she just assumes that "potato" is the code word for what they're really stealing.Parker: So the diamond is inside the potato...?
- Noodle Incident: "Remember Laos! You and agriculture do not mix!"
- Paranoia Gambit: Verd Agra is a cutthroat corporation led by the avaricious and arrogant Colin Saunders, and West knows that he will not hesitate to throw her under the bus if she proves to be a liability. Sophie preys on her distrust and feelings of being unappreciated to get West to trust her and do what she wants her to do.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Sophie is winging it with the custodian, accusing him of being the mole and having an account in the Caymans. Turns out he is a mole and he does have an account in the Caymans!
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: West's whole approach to appropriating Emily's potato is claiming it was Verd Agra property to begin with (since Emily used their seeds for her experiments) and trying to "reclaim" it, first legally and then with force. It's a fallacy, but Emily doesn't have the resources to fight a Big Ag conglomerate.
