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Nathan Ford, The Nigerian Job


Synopsis[]

Nathan Ford, former insurance investigator for IYS Insurance, sits alone at a Chicago bar nursing a drink, when he's approached by Victor Dubenich, President of Bearing Aviation. Dubenich has assembled a team of expert thieves to retrieve plans for a new jet which were stolen by a competitor. All he needs to complete the team and recover the plans is one honest man to run the job. Nate agrees and that night the team, consisting of Eliot Spencer, a retrieval specialist, Parker, an eccentric thief, and Alec Hardison, a youthful hacker, complete the job only to discover the next morning that they are the ones who have been conned into stealing another company's plans for Dubenich. Determined to get even with Dubenich, Nate brings in a secret weapon: grifter (and would-be actress) Sophie Devereaux. With Sophie on board, the team constructs an elaborate plan to con Dubenich, recover the plans and make a tidy profit. What none of them expects is the taste for using their skills for good that each develops.

The team relocates to Los Angeles, where they set up business as Leverage Consulting and Associates. Their first client is a military reservist in need of treatment after he is injured by mercenaries working for a corrupt military contractor (The Homecoming Job). Soon after, the team takes on international traders in illegal adoptions (The Stork Job), a mafioso who frames a restaurant owner for murder (The Wedding Job ), a chemical company attempting to hide evidence of a toxic fertilizer (The Mile High Job), con men taking over homes when the owners refuse to pay for shoddy repairs (The Snow Job), an investment manager swindling charities (The 12-Step Job), and woman determined to buy a jury in order to take over the defendant's company cheaply (The Juror #6 Job). A foiled bank robbery leads them to take on a corrupt small-town judge (The Bank Shot Job), and the team saves St. Nicholas when a priest friend of Nate's church is purchased by a tacky property developer (The Miracle Job). When the father of an old flame of Eliot's needs help, they take on a New York businessman killing horses to commit insurance fraud (The Two-Horse Job), and confront the man who becomes their most persistent adversary: Nate's former colleague James Sterling.

With Sterling on their heels, they take on their most daring con: bringing down Ian Blackpoole, President of IYS Insurance and the man responsible for the death of Nate's son. They also gain an unexpected ally: Nate's ex-wife, Maggie Collins, who helps them run an elaborate pair of cons designed to steal two bronze maquettes of Michelangelo's David and force Blackpoole's resignation (The First and Second David Jobs). The team succeeds, but at a price: their headquarters is destroyed, and they must leave Los Angeles and scatter for six months.

Episode List: 2008-2009[]

Image Title Writer(s) Director(s) Airdate #
101 The Nigerian Job John Rogers & Chris Downey Dean Devlin 12/7/08 #101
The pilot episode. A desperate aerospace CEO asks Nathan Ford (a former insurance investigator who once specialized in recovering stolen goods worth millions) to lead a team of expert thieves to recover airplane designs from the rival company that took them. But there's a twist: the designs were never the CEO's to begin with. Now, the honest man he hired must convince the band of criminals to do the right thing ... steal the plans back.


102 The Homecoming Job John Rogers & Dean Devlin Dean Devlin 12/9/08 #102
Leverage Consulting & Associates opens for business as the crew reunites to help a Reservist who's been wounded in Iraq by private military contractors. In order to get the veteran the medical rehabilitation he needs but cannot afford, the team investigates why he was shot by friendly fire in the first place, and uncovers the security firm has a secret worth killing for.


103 The Two-Horse Job Melissa Glenn & Jessica Rieder Craig R. Baxley 12/16/08 #103
A high-rolling Wall Street broker burns down his own stable to kill off his underperforming racehorses. The Leverage team goes to Kentucky to help the heartbroken horse trainer, who has lost everything and who also happens to be the father of Eliot's high school sweetheart.


104 The Miracle Job Christine Boylan Arvin Brown 12/23/08 #104
When the downtown church of Nate's former priest - and childhood best friend - is about to be razed by a profiteering real estate developer, the Leverage team must steal a miracle in order to save it. But as the story progresses, the question arises as to who exactly is saving whom.


105 The Bank Shot Job Amy Berg Dean Devlin 12/30/08 #105
While working a con on a corrupt county judge in an outlying desert town, the team gets caught in the middle of a bank robbery, and Nate and Sophie are taken as hostages, along with their mark. Now, they must not only find a way to keep their own con going without being discovered, but also figure out how to help two very desperate - and very amateur - armed robbers.


106 The Stork Job Albert Kim Marc Roskin 1/6/09 #106
The Leverage crew goes after a Serbian adoption agency that's scamming money from desperate American couples looking to adopt needy war orphans. To entrap the ringleader and rescue the children, the team must hijack the local production of an independent horror movie.


107 The Wedding Job Chris Downey Jonathan Frakes 1/13/09 #107
To retrieve the money promised to the family of an innocent man who took the fall for a mafia boss, the Leverage team poses as the wedding planners for the don's only daughter on her big day. Somehow, the team must manage to pull off a wedding in the midst of pulling off the heist, all while avoiding a dangerous Russian mobster known as The Butcher.


108 The Mile High Job Amy Berg Rob Minkoff 1/20/09 #108
The Leverage team attempts to expose a conglomerate's cover-up of their toxic fertilizer, which has resulted in a death of a young girl. But the CEO has put all of the damning evidence on a plane to the Cayman Islands. The team races to catch the flight but, once airborne, they discover that the CEO's intentions are far more sinister, and that to avenge one life they'll have to save their own.


109 The Snow Job Albert Kim Tony Bill 1/27/09 #109
The Leverage team helps a beleaguered National Guardsman find justice against the unscrupulous construction firm that foreclosed on his home. Knowing all too well what it feels like to fail as a father, Nate seeks solace in the bottle, putting the team - and the job - in serious jeopardy.


110 The 12-Step Job Amy Berg & Chris Downey Rod Hardy 2/3/09 #110
The team targets an investment broker who swindled a charity. To discover where the money is hidden, they trick the alcoholic financier into entering a rehab facility. There, they learn their mark is not the terrible person he at first appeared and that rehab may be exactly the place one of them needs to be.


111 The Juror Number Six Job Rebecca Kirsch Jonathan Frakes 2/10/09 #111
When Parker attends jury duty in order to keep up the legitimacy of one of her aliases, she notices some strange things at the trial. It seems someone is trying to buy a favorable verdict, but not if the Leverage team can steal it first.


112 The First David Job John Rogers Dean Devlin 2/17/09 #112
For Nate's benefit, the team targets the CEO of the company that denied Nate's son's medical treatment and allowed him to die. All they have to do is steal Ian Blackpoole's prized Michelangelo maquette and sell it back to him as its twin. All goes according to plan until Sterling reappears.


113 The Second David Job John Rogers & Chris Downey Dean Devlin 2/24/09 #113
The first season finale. Nate comes out of hiding to directly challenge Sterling and Ian Blackpoole. This time, he's going to steal both David statuettes right out from under their noses. But Nate's bigger challenge is to get his fractured team to work together again. The stakes have never been higher; either Nate gets his vengeance, or his friends go to jail for the rest of their lives.


Notable Cast[]

Season Notes[]

  • The episodes in the list above are listed in broadcast order. Except for the first two and last two, all of the first season episodes were broadcast out of order. According to John Rogers and Amy Berg's best recollections and the order on the DVD (which are inconsistent with the commentary on the DVD and an earlier list compiled by Rogers at the time of broadcast) the intended broadcast order was:
  1. The Nigerian Job (#101)
  2. The Homecoming Job (#102)
  3. The Wedding Job (#107)
  4. The Snow Job (#109)
  5. The Mile High Job (#108)
  6. The Miracle Job (#104)
  7. The Two-Horse Job (#103)
  8. The Bank Shot Job (#105)
  9. The Stork Job (#106)
  10. The Juror #6 Job (#111)
  11. The 12-Step Job (#110)
  12. The First David Job (#112)
  13. The Second David Job (#113)
On the DVD, Dean Devlin's comments indicate "The Miracle Job" was to have been shown before, not after, "The Mile High Job". Additionally, TNT originally planned to broadcast "The Juror #6 Job" and "The 12-Step Job" in their intended order, but a problem with clearances (unspecified) delayed the broadcast of "The 12-Step Job" for a week.

References[]


Leverage
Season OneSeason TwoSeason ThreeSeason FourSeason Five
Leverage: Redemption
Season 1, Part 1
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