Before Ms. Newton's father passed away, he made funeral arrangements in advance with Darlene Wickett. But Darlene took advantage of his illness and when Ms. Newton's father passed away, Darlene pretends that she never received any money nor heard of the man. Darlene's sons even use violence on Mr. Newton, threatening them to give up on their money. With no money to pay a lawyer, they decide to seek the Leverage team's help to take down the Wickett family.
Soon after, the team sets up an investigation on Darlene's business to learn more of her grifting scam, which infuriates Sophie. After much investigation on their business, it turns out that not only is Darlene embezzling money from the dead, she and her sons even withhold the deceased's death certificates and steal their identities to sell to Javier, whom they assume is a broker selling those identities to the black market. Worse still is that the Wicketts use some of the stolen identities as their own when their covers get blown. So Team Leverage decides to make Darlene believe that they're doing the same business that she is.
Even though their plan to make a deal to use 'clean identity names' works, what the team doesn't know is that Javier is actually part of a Mexican drug cartel, who is angered by Darlene's price increase after making a deal with Nate. So as Darlene exchanges Nate's clean names for $500,000, Javier and his goon crash in, telling them that their negotiation's off and he wants those names. Unfortunately, the Wicketts manage to escape while Javier decides to use Nate and Hardison to retrieve the identities while taking Hardison hostage.
As Hardison wakes up after being knocked out unconscious, Hardison is shocked to find himself buried alive in a coffin. Javier instructs him using a phone near his body to tell his friend to deliver at the baseball diamond on the corner of Sycamore. Hardison, having claustrophobia, calls and tells the team what happened. Knowing that it's a setup to kill both Nate and Hardison, the team decides to find Hardison before his oxygen runs out.
After stealing a police car and an ambulance (using a fake distress call), they manage to find Hardison at Stoneshire Cemetery while Parker tries to calm Hardison down. Upon arriving, Javier is in the area and a gun fight ensues. While they managed to save Hardison in the nick of time, Javier manages to steal the envelope containing the identity list.
Soon, the team manages to give back all the money that the Wicketts stole from Ms. Newton with a bit of a bonus to pay off their credit card fee. The team thanks the Newtons for giving them this job or else Darlene would've harmed more people and promise Ms. Newton that they've taken care of Darlene Wickett. Before conning them, Parker had already taken pictures of all the death certificates that Darlene was using for her getaway. Sophie delivers Parker's pictures to the Office of the State Coroner for Massachusetts as 'Official Documents Death Certificates'. Sure enough, the Wicketts are arrested in Florida using the identity of Emily Jackson, who passed away 5 years ago in Massachusetts. As for Javier, he stole Hardison's earbud, and little did he realize that it is also a tracking device. Hardison, who's still pissed after being buried alive, manages to track Javier and his men to northern Mexico and send a picture of their vehicle's plate number to Homeland Security, who are waiting to arrest Javier and his Mexican drug cartels' agents just after they enter Texas.
In the end, Hardison thanks Parker for keeping him calm; point to their developing relationship.
- Admiring the Abomination: While conceding that Darlene Wickett is a terrible, terrible human being, Sophie is impressed by her skill, and Parker says she has good taste in security systems.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: For all Eliot's frequent complaining about and bickering with Hardison, he bolts to help get the casket open and promptly grabs him for an emphatic bearhug the moment he's out and won't let go, proving how much he really cares.
- Big Damn Kiss: It's only a peck on the cheek, but under the cirumstances - and given how much it obviously means to both Parker and Hardison - it counts.
- Buried Alive: As leverage against the team to get them more fake IDs, the cartel buries Hardison. His teammates spend much of the episode desperately trying to find him before it's too late.
- Chekhov's Gun: The show really put in the work for a long time making it clear that Hardison really hates small spaces. Then they put him in the worst possible place and the audience absolutely knows it. And Aldis Hodge fucking sells it.
- Cannot Spit It Out:
- Parker tells Hardison to hold on because... he's her friend.
- Later, when he's unburied, she just turns away, unable to say anything at all.
- Description Cut: When talking to Parker, Sophie compares jumping off buildings to falling in love. Cut to Hardison.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Sophie calls Darlene's scam of stealing from dying people and their families the cruelest grift in the book and says that even she never crossed that line.
- Gold Digger: The widow at an old man's funeral is much younger than him and has her hand about half an inch from a younger man's penis.
- Hit You So Hard, Your X Will Feel It!: Eliot gripes that he's going to hit Hardison - whose information has caused Eliot to turn up dressed as an ex-con to a police funeral full of uniformed officers - "so hard your ancestors feel it."
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Humorously inverted at the abovementioned police funeral. After Eliot pulls out an impromptu excuse that he was undercover at a drug sting and didn't have time to change into uniform as an excuse for why he's at a cop funeral dressed like a thug, one of the officers steps forward and offers him a flask, clearly believing that this trope is in effect.
- In Medias Res: A particularly suspenseful one, considering that the episode starts with Hardison discovering he's been buried alive, then immediately goes into How We Got Here.
- Last-Name Basis: Averted. Usually, the characters call Hardison by that name, his last name. Parker, however, tells Alec to hold on.
- Manly Tears: Hardison has nothing on Eliot for the manly man act, but he still tries to live down to the stereotype, usually only expressing fear and needing to call his when he's alone... but this episode has him terrified, close to losing it, and weeping the whole damn time.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: You have never seen Parker as close to breaking as she is in this episode. And you've never heard her call Hardison by his first name before, either.
- Single Tear: Hardison, on discovering he's been buried alive.
- True Companions: If the boys' hugging when Hardison is unburied doesn't get to you, nothing will.
