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.
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.
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.
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 daughter's wedding. Nate sees that as their in.
Sophie arrives there as a wedding planner, with the rest of the team as her help.
Parker begins searching for safes upstairs, Sophie is looking downstairs, Hardison is planting listening devices, and Eliot…is cooking.
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.
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 The Butcher.
Hardison: The Butcher of Kiev.
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.
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 (Nicole Sullivan).
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.
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".
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.
Tropes stolen in this Job:
- Awful Wedded Life: 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 so she can avoid a messy divorce.
- Bad Habits: 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.)
- Berserk Button: Elliot gets so upset over Heather insulting his cooking that he almost stabs her.
- Bitter Wedding Speech: 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.
- Brutal Honesty: 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.
- Call-Back / Call-Forward: 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 "The Two-Horse Job"note .
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Maria always calls her stepmother Heather, showcasing their troubled relationship.
- Chef of Iron: 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 Nathan 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.Eliot: Hold a knife this way, dice an onion. Hold a knife this way, slice through eight Yakuza in four seconds...
- Chekhov's Gunman: 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 peace.
- The Dreaded: The Butcher of Kiev.
- Engineered Public Confession: 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.
- Even Evil Has Standards: 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.
- Every Man Has His Price: Moscone believes this, though he couldn't find one to make Adam walk away.
- Fall Guy: 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).
- I Gave My Word: When Nate wants to abandon the job after members of The Mafiya 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.
- Loan Shark: Moscone loaned Ray the money for the restaurant and uses this leverage to turn Ray into his Fall Guy.
- The Mafia: Provides the high stakes for the episode, as described in the page quote: they're stealing from a mob boss.
- Mafia Princess: Maria Moscone. Subverted in that she is marrying a meek guy from Kansas.
- Police Are Useless: 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".
- Public Secret Message: Nate's sermon (once he gets done bashing the idea of marriage) is clearly a message to Sofie about their relationship.
- Rich Bitch: Heather is an all-around unpleasant person, even insisting on making her stepdaughter's wedding about herself. Sophie outright calls her a shrew.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: 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.
- Ship Tease:
- Sophie and Nate. Sophie even sums up the state of their relationship after misunderstanding Nate's asking her "where are we at?"
- 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.
- Skewed Priorities: 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.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension:
- 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.
- Parker and Hardison. His reaction to her alibi for why she was in the screening room is priceless.
