| “ | I'm not dressing like a damn elf, or a troll. | ” |
— Eliot | ||
The Leverage team dives into the world of a high fantasy collectable card game with a devoted following to take down a pharmaceutical bad boy who is price-gouging drugs to fund his own house of cards.
The Client[]
- Michael, who's been paying off Cordozar for years to treat his sick daughter.
The Mark[]
- Jim Cordozar
Summary[]
The Leverage team gets a client whose daughter has a rare illness. Michael, the client, tells them that the drug company promised a cure for his daughter’s illness but hasn’t released it and is upping the price of his daughter’s current treatment to a price he can’t afford. The team realizes the company’s malpractices and agrees to take on the case.
Breanna works her way into the offices of the drug company under an alias. Inside they find out that the owner, Jim Cordozar, bought a castle related to Breanna’s favourite card game, Spirit’s Ruse. The team decided to use the card game to entice Cordozar by making him want to buy the company while selling him a fake company with no value. Unfortunately, during their con, the creator of the game, Deric Springer, who had been a recluse for years, shows up and agrees to sell Cordozar the real company. The team has a window of time to work as Springer won’t sell Cordozar his company till he can prove how he found a rare card, the Queen Ziel, hidden on the castle’s property. A fan meet-up is being held on the castle grounds, where the trade will take place. The team goes, intent on finding the card before Cordozar. Breanna plays in the card game while Sophie and Eliot distract Springer. Parker and Harry try to unlock the clues to find the hidden card. Breanna is able to decode the clues, having played the game, but the card is already gone from the safe. Breanna convinces Springer that he shouldn’t sell his company to Cordozar as he has no real love for the game. Parker and Harry found documents in the vault where the card was supposed to be and was able to discredit Cordozar using them.
Locations[]
- New Orleans, Louisiana
- Unspecified park
- Leverage Offices
- Cordocorp Corporate Offices
- Abandoned warehouse (possibly a barn)
- Springer's Castle
Aliases[]
- Breanna: Billy Potts
Guest Cast[]
- Max Sheldon as Jim Cordozar
- French Stewart as Deric Springer
- Kunal Dudheker as Carter Lagrange
- Munda Razooki as Michael
Episode Notes[]
- Harry tells Parker Breanna’s trying to connect with her.
- Parker acts as Breanna’s mentor
Quotes[]
Breanna: "People who grew up feeling like they don’t belong. Like they’re strange for the way they think. The way they dream. Or the way they love. People like me. And your game made us feel like we weren’t alone in the world. Like we could belong. Like we do belong. We belong in myth."
Trivia[]
- Breanna's alias is "Billy Potts", a reference to Twelfth Doctor companion Bill Potts.
- When Harry briefly impersonates Deric Springer, his disguise is reminiscent of Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin.
- Sophie dressing as "Milana the Poetry Mistress" and Eliot as "Glenn the Savage" aren't aliases, just costumes.
- Cordozar's back story is based on American vulture capitalist/convict Martin Shkreli.
- The swords used in Eliot's fight were made of steel instead of stunt aluminum, and according to an Instagram post by Christian Kane "they were really heavy and really hurt."
- Jenna is played by Director Dean Devlin's daughter, Hannah.
- At 30:19, the Welsh flag is visible at the tournament.
- The card game "Spirit's Ruse" is loosely based on a real card game called Magic: The Gathering. A rare Magic card called "Black Lotus," which has sold for as much as $160,000, may have been the inspiration for the rare card the team steals in the episode.
- In what appears to be a nod to Noah Wyle's time on ER there are characters in this episode named both Carter (Wyle's character) and Lucy (played by Kellie Martin).
- It is hinted that Breanna isn't straight in this episode.