History Recap / LeverageS02E05TheThreeDaysOfTheHunterJob

* ShoutOut: The "proof" that Monica opens and plans to reveal live on air is just pages and pages of the line, [[Film/TheShining "All work and no play makes Monica a dull girl.]]"

* LaserGuidedKarma: Monica tells sensationalist lies about innocent people for ratings and hides behind the network she works for when her victims take legal action against her. The Leverage team manipulate her into doing something so absurd that the network has to dump and throw her to the media wolves in order to protect their reputation.

* ConspiracyTheorist: Hardison plays one. His room is full of string theory, he babbles a lot as he talks, and his clothing is a mess implying lots of sleepless nights. Monica buys it right away.

* YouCanPanicNow: Monica's stock in trade, to the point that she admits she's selling fear and turns down the secret terrorist prisons story because she doesn't think it will scare her viewers enough.

* SpitTake: One of the news station crew, who gives Monica water in theend, is taking a drink of her own bottle when Monica announces the water is poisoned. She immediately spits out her water into the air.

* PowerHair: Monica wears this.

* SpitTake: One of the news station crew, who gives Monica water in the end, is taking a drink of her own bottle when Monica announces the water is poisoned. She immediately spits out her water into the air.

'''Monica:''' And injustice.\\
'''Nate:''' Yeah.

* ConspiracyTheorist: Hardison plays one.

--> '''Email''': Dear Sirs. In regards to my upcoming contract, I am writing to urge you to reconsider my re-assignment. The News that I would like to follow would be of a journalistic nature. Serious inhabits every accurate lunatic with a ladder. Seriious emerges throughout the joking script. The remarkable astronomer stems serious.

* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: Attempted but subverted with Monica's pepper spray. After Nate terrifies Monica thinking he is about to have Elliott kill her too, Monica pulls from her purse pepper spray and blasts Nate with it. After Nate writhes in pain for a moment allowing Monica to escape, Elliott notes Nate is fortnate that Parker switched it with water, only for Nate to cry out that Parker didn't. He did just get pepper sprayed in the face.
* TheMenInBlack: Again, [[InvokedTrope arranged]] for their pursuit of Monica and making her think the bunker story has validation. Elliott appears around Monica several times making her think she is being tailed.

* OneDialogueTwoConversations: Invoked by the team, and a very brief one at that. The one source that they let Monica contact in person about the fake "Destiny" project and the water being poisoned is a congressman. That congressman has a hige skeleton in his closet related to "Destiny." He bought a stripper named Destiny a car for at least one very good performance. Scared Monica is going to expose him on this scandal, he grabs her recorder and runs away screaming revealing this would be the end. Monica takes it as confirmation of her fears of the water being poisoned.

* IntrepidReporter: Monica Hunter is a negative version of this trope, in that she's less interested in uncovering the truth than high ratings and self-aggrandizement. Parker's character Cindy [=McAllen=] is a more positive example.

* TheMenInBlack: Again, [[InvokedTrope arranged]] for Monica's benefit.

* MyCountryRightOrWrong: At the end, Nate makes Monica think he has this attitude.

* TheExitIsThatWay: Sophie finishes telling everyone about the mark, but her closing line falls flat. Nate tells her she should turn and leave the room at that point to make it more dramatic. She does, and Nate quietly remarks, "She's walking into the closet."

At the studio, Parker is trying to get caught rummaging through Monica’s office. When confronted she claims to be from a competing network then leaves, naturally making her suspicious. Parker admits that she’s trying to use Monica’s credentials to get to a source in the Pentagon. She’s after something that will bring down the President of the United States. Later, Parker brings Monica to the apartment where Hardison, who’s posing as some ConspiracyTheorist in his dark lair, lives. Monica is about to walk out, but when she sees Eliot wearing a [[TheMenInBlack dark suit and a menacing look]] she decides to hear him out. Hardison points to his bulletin board, [[RoomFullOfCrazy which is covered in photos of military installations, connected by strands of yarn]]. He says the government plans to replace Guantanamo Bay with a series of secret prisons on the mainland. Parker says her source at the Pentagon is General Mark Chesler, and she was trying to steal Monica’s credentials to get to him, and Monica tells her to call in the morning. A she leaves she calls the studio to arrange a cameraman, and Eliot overhears her saying she intends to take that story for herself, which means she’s hooked. Now they just need to provide her with a source inside the Pentagon.

* RoomFullOfCrazy: In Hardison's lair.

---> '''Email''': Dear Sirs. In regards to my upcoming contract, I am writing to urge you to reconsider my re-assignment. The News that I would like to follow would be of a journalistic nature. Serious inhabits every accurate lunatic with a ladder. Seriious emerges throughout the joking script. The remarkable astronomer stems serious.

-->'''Monica''': Denial means guilt. Refusal means more guilt. Punch out my cameraman, and I'll kiss you on the mouth. (''[[GirlOnGirlIsHot The cameraman looks at Parker with a grin]]'').

-->'''Nate''': (about Sophie's speech) Do I sound that creepy when I...?
-->'''Eliot''': Hell yes.

* Freeze-FrameBonus: At one point in the episode an email from Monica to a "T. Smith" about her contract renewal. Pause it at the right moment and you get this: