History Leverage / TropesAToD

* DataDriveMacGuffin: A stolen flash drive pursued by various characters throughout most of Season 5 is said to contain scandalous information that could ruin the lives and careers of a number of city officials.

** Aldis Hodge plays the violin. In "The Scheherazade Job", he gets a chance to show his skills off — while he actually doesn't play in the episode, his experience makes the motions much more convincing.

** Sophie: Black Queen. The most versatile and dangerous piece on the board, but vulnerable if threatened.

* TheCon: With "The Miracle Job", a priest is assaulted by gang members, who were paid by a real estate mogul trying to buy up the land his church (which is in danger of closing) is on. The gang tries to prevent the church's closing by faking a miracle... which backfires, as the mogul's now going to build around the "crying statue" and turn the place into a faith-based moneymaker.

** Hardison will often say the people he's trying to hack are going against his ethnicy, and then say "Jewish". He'll also say "You think we all look the same".
** Not to mention the ubiquitous phrases "We're going with a much bigger scam" and "Let's go steal ourselves a <usually large event or location which is actually impossible to steal in real life>," (by which he usually means Let's go fake the ownership of _) which is a classic MadLibsCatchPhrase.

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd3K-soFdU4 It's a very distinctive]] _______"-- Eliot's response whenever someone's astonished at how he can identify people/weapons using cues like knife fighting style/stance/sound of a gunshot/shoeprints.
*** Gets [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Parker after Eliot identifies the mark's hireling as being former Spetsnaz based on a single bootprint in "The Long Way Down Job".

** "Dammit, Hardison!" -- Eliot's response to being the recipient of Hardison's mistakes or pranks.
*** Hardison finally gets a turnabout in The Gone Fishin' Job and gets a "Dammit, Eliot!"

** "Seriously?" -- A go-to expression of dismay or surprise. Usually said by Hardison, though Sophie seems to have started saying it occasionally too, and everyone's said it at least once. (Nate upon opening the fridge to find lots of orange soda, Eliot when Hardison just happens to have a blacklight on him, Parker when Eliot goes on about sleeping with lots of models...) It's a habit of co-showrunner Creator/JohnRogers, who gets a kick out of how each actor has made it his/her own.
*** Also "Really?" used in the same way as "Seriously?"

** "There is something ''wrong'' with you!" -- Usually uttered by Eliot whenever he finds out about another one of Parker's quirks.
*** Of course, they ''all'' get something like that at one point or another, as when people look askance at Eliot for being able to identify "distinctive" things, or watching fights in his downtime because "What? You never know when you might need to fight on ice." They all have very esoteric hobbies related to their specialties and they're all quite GenreBlind about it.

'''Eliot:''' Well ma'am, we'd be TheCavalry.
*** Parker repeats this in "The San Lorenzo Job," complete with an imitation of Eliot's accent.

*** Before the show started, he was the aforementioned White Knight. As an insurance agent, he moved in unpredictable ways, and skipped past defenses that criminals had put up that would stop police, but not him.

** Hardison: Black Bishop. Confined to only one type of square, he's a tiny god in cyberspace but unable to do a pick to save his life. A good long-range piece.
*** However, in "The 12-Step Job" (and others) he begins to show the capability to kick serious ass.

** Everyone Else: The pawns. Not able to do much on their own, but together, they decide where and how the game is played.
*** We could go on. White Turned Black Pawns (no pun intended) could very well be the victims. White King can be the head of the villains they face off. Other White pieces would be another major bad guy except for the White Pawns. They would be the stereotypical henchmen. Black Pawns can be the few allies like [[spoiler: Nate's wife in "The First and Second David Job" and the doctor in "The Tap-Out Job".]]

*** Gets [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Parker after Eliot identifies the mark's hireling as being former Spetnaz based on a single bootprint in "The Long Way Down Job".

** Parker is possibly the best thief on the planet but she has...quirks. Enough so that she spent an entire scene dressed as a nun in "The Beantown Bailout Job" -- and Eliot wasn't sure whether she was wearing it for a job or just being Parker. This borders on CrazIsCool, in that it's implied in "The Inside Job" and elsewhere that her quirks are the result of her having been thieving as opposed to having a normal childhood.

** Quite possibly the best example is "The Queen's Gambit Job" in Season 4, where Nate prepares a gambit on the fact that he knows Sterling must be pulling a gambit on him. And the implication that Sterling was planning on that.[[note]]Specifically, Sterling manipulates the entire crew to leave them in the wind while he rescues his daughter. Nate doesn't know about the daughter, but predicts a trap, so sets up a backup plan, where if Parker fails to steal the nuclear devise, she ends up filling the chamber with sand, which will cause it's to become worthless. It's implied that Sterling chose Nate, because he knew that he could rescue his daughter without risking Dubai getting a nuclear power, because he knew that Nate would have a backup plan when dealing with Sterling[[/note]]

* TheAlcatraz: The prison Nate is in "The Jailhouse Job". Eliot repeatedly describes it as state-of-the-art and escape proof. Naturally, nate immediately starts planning a GreatEscape from the inside.

* In "The Frame Up Job," Sterling accuses Nate and Sophie of stealing a priceless painting. They didn't but later need it to prove someone else guilty of murder. As Nate heads in its direction, Sophie exclaims, "We're going to steal it?!" and Nate replies, "No, just borrow it."

** In "The Homecoming Job," Sophie reveals that Congressman Jenkins lied about not knowing about their client's shooting in Iraq because he looked her straight in the eye when he said it, rather than at any other part of her anatomy. Apparently, the only time ''any'' man ''ever'' looks a woman in the eye is when he's making an effort to lie to her. Alternate explanations (e.g., he's StraightGay, [[UsefulNotes/{{Asexuality}} Asexual]], or just HappilyMarried) apparently do not exist.