Line #44 Recap/LeverageS01E07TheWeddingJob


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leverage_the_wedding_job_7871.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:320:Nate is the worst priest ever.]]
3
4	->''"Let's go rob Mickey Moscone, a guy who kills people, and lives in our city."''
5	-->--'''Nate'''
6
7	-----
8
9	The episode opens in an Italian restaurant. The owner, Ray Palermo, tells his wife to go home while he takes care of the last two customers -- a pair of mobsters having a business meeting. She begs him to kick them out or leave, saying they can't be trusted. Ray says he'll handle it. Not long after she leaves, one mobster guns down the other. This is Nicky Moscone, who says because he gave Ray the money to start the restaurant, he owes Moscone a favor. To repay it, Ray is going to take the fall for the murder.
10
11	Five years later, his wife comes to the Leverage team to try and get her husband out. Nate isn't too happy about it, but the woman is a friend of Sophie's and so he listens. The mob boss promised to take care of her family, but he never paid a dime. All she wants is the restaurant back.
12
13	As they canvas the estate, they notice an FBI surveillance van nearby, and Nate decides to borrow theirs. Parker and Hardison show up dressed in suits, and pass themselves off as agents. Parker lifts an ID off one of them and makes a copy of it. Hardison helps himself to the computer.
14
15	At the FBI building, Eliot comes in to take the files off the computer, but finds they’ve been recorded on ''cassettes''. Hardison sets off the fire alarm and Eliot uses the disturbance to escape. After listening to tapes for hours, Hardison finally finds out Moscone keeps his money in an offshore accounts in the Caimans, in his wife's name, with constantly rotating passwords he can change at any time. There is some cash, but it's on the estate. They listen to a conversation between Moscone and his wife as she demands help setting up their [[MafiaPrincess daughter]]'s wedding. Nate sees that as their in.
16
17	Sophie arrives there as a wedding planner, with the rest of the team as her help.
18
19	Parker begins searching for safes upstairs, Sophie is looking downstairs, Hardison is planting listening devices, and Eliot…[[HiddenDepths is cooking]].
20
21	Nate gets roped into having a drink with Moscone and his future son-in-law. After the young man leaves, Moscone admits that he offered thousands if the boy walks away, but he refused. Moscone says he has yet to meet a man without a price. Then a call comes in. Hardison listens to the audio of it, and finds out Moscone is doing a deal at the wedding, which means they have to get the money out from under his nose, while running the wedding, without ''ruining'' the wedding of this very nice girl and her equally innocent groom.
22
23	The wedding day arrives and Parker gets dressed in a bridesmaid dress, which she says in an all-access pass at a wedding. Hardison sets up as a DJ and brings his surveillance network. The guests arrive, including [[TheDreaded The Butcher]].
24
25	->'''Eliot''': Does he have the lamb chops?\
26	'''Hardison''': The Butcher of Kiev.
27
28	He and Eliot have some history, and he is definitely going to remember Eliot. Their cover is in danger, but Sophie declares she intends to stay, by herself if necessary. Nate tells Parker and Hardison to find the money and Eliot to stay away from the Butcher. He has a wedding ceremony to officiate.
29
30	[[BitterWeddingSpeech As Nate goes a little off script]], Parker breaks into the screening room, the last place the money could be, and finds a case. Once the bride and groom become man and wife, Moscone leaves, which means the deal is going down. Parker hasn’t gotten into the case by the time Moscone arrives, and she hurriedly hides behind the curtains. He opens the case to find it empty. Someone got to the money before them. Nate looks around and settles on Moscone’s wife, Heather (Creator/NicoleSullivan).
31
32	Moscone’s partner is not happy and threatening to kill everyone there. He also reveals that the man Moscone shot was his brother. Nate orders Eliot to the screening room, but he runs into the Butcher. As Moscone desperately tries to talk the Russian down, Parker emerges from her hiding place acting a little tipsy, and claims everyone has been looking for Moscone, and calls out “He’s in here!” while dragging him out of the room. Parker manages to get Moscone into the wedding tent, and to keep him there, Hardison starts up the father-daughter dance.
33
34	The Butcher recognizes Eliot, who manages to take him out with a whisk and a slice of lemon. Hardison hurriedly sends the bride and groom off (with the cash they found in the house). Nate comes up to talk to the Russian. Sophie fails to stop Heather, and Nate tells Moscone she left. The gangster realizes Heather is taking off with his money, and hurriedly calls the bank to change the passwords to his accounts. Thanks to Hardison's bugs, the team gets the codes and access to all his money. Hardison leaves him "five dollars for socks".
35
36	With the money from Moscone, the team buys the restaurant and sets it up for the Palermos. The family gets even more good news: Moscone is arrested and Ray is coming home (thanks to Hardison's bug planted onto Parker's for the FBI to hear the murder confession). They celebrate with Eliot's cooking.
37
38	!!Tropes stolen in this Job:
39	* AwfulWeddedLife: Moscone and Heather, based on a surveillance tape of them arguing over their daughter's wedding preparations. Heather is even willing to set Moscone up to be killed by a vengeful Sergio just so she can avoid a messy divorce.
40	* BadHabits: Nate pretends to be a priest as part of the team's scheme to infiltrate Maria Moscone's wedding to find and steal money from her father. (Interestingly, Nate was previously revealed to have actually studied to be a priest prior to the series.)
41	* BerserkButton: Elliot gets so upset over Heather insulting his cooking that he almost ''stabs'' her.
42	* BitterWeddingSpeech: Nate gives an interesting example, as he's the ''officiant''. Notable points were pointed comments about how weddings are contracts (in front of their target, the father of the bride, who broke an agreement with their client's husband) and a section about waiting for someone who wasn't ready to move on and love again (clearly directed at Sophie). He does eventually manage to wrap things up in a way that seems to satisfy the couple and guests.
43	* BrutalHonesty: Parker has no tact while helping the bridesmaid with her dress. When the bridesmaid asks Sophie "You don't think it makes me look fat?", Parker tells her "Oh, definitely" and reminds her that Parker just had to let out the waist of the dress to make it fit.
44	* CallBack / CallForward: Depending on whether you're watching season 1 episodes in the broadcast order, or the order as originally meant. At one point, Hardison and Eliot talk about "settling down", and Eliot admits, "There was someone, once". He doesn't mention names, but if you're paying attention, it's obvious he's talking about Aimee from "[[Recap/LeverageS01E03TheTwoHorseJob The Two-Horse Job]]"[[note]]As originally intended, this ep was meant to be screened before "Two Horse"[[/note]].
45	* CallingParentsByTheirName: Maria always calls her stepmother Heather, showcasing their troubled relationship.
46	* ChefOfIron: Eliot spends most of the job performing his cover role as chef for the wedding reception rather than looking for the money with the rest of the team. When Nate questions him, Eliot demonstrates that he's eerily schooled in the differences in proper knife-holding techniques for different tasks, causing Nate to become visibly disturbed. He later fights The Butcher of Kiev in the kitchen using, among other "weapons," a saucepan and a ''whisk'' before defeating him by attacking his eyes with ''hors d'oeuvres'' topped with lemon juice.
47	-->'''Eliot''': Hold a knife this way, dice an onion. Hold a knife '''this''' way, slice through eight Yakuza in four seconds...
48	* ChekhovsGunman: The man Moscone kills in the opening? That was Sergei's brother, which leaves Sergei ''very'' angry when he later thinks Moscone has cheated him out of his money, especially since Sergei didn't retaliate against Moscone for his brother's death and deliberately tried to keep the peace.
49	* TheDreaded: The Butcher of Kiev.
50	-->'''Hardison''': Have you ever been to Kiev? The Cakemaker of Kiev could kick all of our asses. ''This'' is the Butcher.
51	* EngineeredPublicConfession: How the team brings Moscone down and frees Ray Palermo. During the confrontation, Sergei mentions how Moscone "shot my brother like a dog in that restaurant" and Moscone desperately says it was a mistake. Parker arranges for the FBI spying on Moscone to hear that part of the confrontation, giving them the evidence to arrest Moscone.
52	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Sergei's brother was murdered by Moscone, and Sergei didn't retaliate because he didn't want to incite a war with the mafia. He only threatens Moscone's life once he thinks Moscone has cheated him out of a payment.
53	* EveryManHasHisPrice: Moscone believes this, though he couldn't find one to make Adam walk away.
54	* FallGuy: The client's husband Ray is in jail for a murder Moscone committed in Ray's restaurant. Moscone demanded he take the fall for the shooting, insisting Ray owed Moscone for money borrowed for the restaurant, and promised to take care of Ray's family (he didn't).
55	* IGaveMyWord: When Nate wants to abandon the job after members of TheMafiya show up as guests, Sophie vows to stay and help Teresa and Maria Moscone as she promised. Nate relents and the team finish their work.
56	* LoanShark: Moscone loaned Ray the money for the restaurant and uses this leverage to turn Ray into his FallGuy.
57	* TheMafia: Provides the high stakes for the episode, as described in the page quote: they're stealing from a mob boss.
58	* MafiaPrincess: Maria Moscone. Subverted in that she is marrying a meek guy from Kansas.
59	* PoliceAreUseless: The two Feds are beyond useless. They managed to plant ''a'' bug in the don's place and their analysis of the guest list is "sure are a lot of 'Miller's' at this wedding".
60	* PublicSecretMessage: Nate's sermon (once he gets done bashing the idea of marriage) is clearly a message to Sofie about their relationship.
61	* RichBitch: Heather is an all-around unpleasant person, even insisting on making her stepdaughter's wedding about herself. Sophie outright calls her a shrew.
62	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: When Nate gets word that a group of professional killers, one of whom has a history with Eliot, has arrived at the wedding, he tries to invoke this for the team, recognizing that they're about to be in over their heads. Subverted when Sophie insists on staying and convinces the rest of the team to stay too.
63	* ShipTease:
64	** Sophie and Nate. Sophie even sums up the state of their relationship after misunderstanding Nate's asking her "where are we at?"
65	** Parker and Hardison, first with the classic "help zip up the dress" and then with her alibi for why she was in the screening room.
66	* SkewedPriorities: When Nate tries to pull the plug on the scam, Sophie asks him if he's doing it out of fear of the Russian mob or fear of intimacy, which makes everyone else on the team roll their eyes.
67	* UnresolvedSexualTension:
68	** Sophie and Nate, of course. Exacerbated by the fact that they're planning a wedding, and as Sofie points out, that he's dressed like a priest.
69	** Parker and Hardison. His reaction to her alibi for why she was in the screening room is priceless.

Context Recap / LeverageS01E07TheWeddingJob