“ | Is it special, seeing your very first victim? | ” |
— Victor Dubenich |
Season finale. From TNT: The Leverage team must recruit old friends and rivals in order to take down Latimer and a foe from their past.
The Client[]
In this episode, the team does not have a client.
The Marks[]
The team has two marks: Victor Dubenich, the team's first mark, who ordered the murder of Nate's father, Jimmy Ford in The Radio Job, and Jack Latimer, who hired Jimmy and is in league with Dubenich.
The Con[]
Realizing Victor Dubenich is responsible for Jimmy's death, Nate leaves Boston to visit Dubenich in prison. Dubenich, unafraid of Nate, tells him, "All a man has in this world are three things: his business, his posessions, and his name. You take all that away, any man will kill." Dubenich taunts Nate, telling him that having put the team together, he knows all of Nate's secrets, and knows the team better than Nate, warning Nate that he can anticipate anything Nate might do.
Nate realizes the key to bringing Dubenich down is to get to Latimer. Eliot, Parker and Hardison attempt to break into Latimer's office security system, but are quickly detected, and escape empty-handed. Meanwhile, Nate pores over every case they have resolved and realizes the key to Dubenich and Latimer's plan is in waterway access Latimer has acquired, and in particular, Bellington Dam in upstate New York, where he plans to install the water filter the patent for which Jimmy was hired to steal.
But how to do it? Nate and the team realize that Dubenich is anticipating what they will do, as well as any trusted colleagues they might ask for help, and is ready for them. As always, Nate has a Plan B: run the con with a second team made up of people who are not friends, who aren't in the con game, and who they do not trust. With this in mind, Hardison, Eliot, Parker and Sophie put the back-up team together.
As they do, Latimer arranges for Dubenich to be released from prison. Dubenich hurries to Boston to confront Nate, but Nate has cleared out of his apartment, leaving behind one small clue for Dubenich to follow. The two teams set up headquarters in what Hardison calls "The Bat Cave", an underground room created when the original Boston subway tunnels were closed. With the two teams assembled, Nate briefs them on the plan to foil Dubenich and Latimer.
The Back-Up Team[]
"A man's business..." With Dubenich at the dam, waiting for the team's arrival, the back-up team is put in place to serve in place of the regular team. Dubenich expects Hardison to hack the waterway system via the main dam. As Hardison and Eliot enter the main dam, appearing to do as Dubenich expects, the back-up team is at the Haverford Water Control and Power plant, upriver, where they will access the network. While the back-up team executes its part of con, the regular team appears to run the con that Dubenich expects, but they actually serve as decoys to distract Dubenich, leading him to believe he's foiled their con.
- Colin "Chaos" Mason (hacker, for Hardison): Chaos is responsible for hacking into the dam's network via upstream access, turning off the dam's security and giving Hardison and Eliot access to the waterway system. Chaos explains to Quinn that the system is so old that it has no security, making the hack easy.
- Quinn (hitter, for Eliot): Quinn is responsible for protecting Chaos as he hacks into the dam's system, and for managing any security that may attempt to stop them. When Latimer's security realizes where they are, Quinn fights them off, allowing him and Chaos to escape via the river.
As the back-up team runs what now appears to be the real con, they draw attention away from Hardison and Eliot, who are on a very different mission: to access the waterway system and release quagga mussels, a predatory fresh-water mussel that must be cleaned out before the dam can operate. With security busy pursuing Quinn and Chaos, Hardison releases the mussels. Latimer is now faced with a year-long clean-up process and the possibility of federal fines if the mussels get into the waterways.
"His property..." That evening, Latimer holds a party for a group of Chinese investors at his headquarters, with an antique Chinese sword prominently on display. Dubenich expects Parker to arrive and attempt to steal one or more valuable artifacts, and security is prepared for the arrival of the team, but not for the back-up. Archie, disguised as a waiter, enters the party unchallenged while wheeling a large cake, which holds Parker, into a freight elevator. In the elevator, Parker gets out of the cake and makes her way through the duct system to Latimer's vault.
- Archie Leach (thief, for Parker): Archie's job is to steal the sword, while Parker creates the illusion that Latimer's vault has been robbed.
As Parker makes her way into Latimer's vault while Hardison and Chaos hack the security system, Archie, now in his street clothes, circulates at the reception. Dubenich and Latimer argue about the dam and how Dubenich's plan has failed; as then Dubenich realizes what Nate is planning next, and heads for the vault with Latimer's security team. Nate arrives at the party and attempts to persuade Latimer to turn his back on Dubenich. Latimer refuses; Dubenich returns to the party, having realized Nate's objective is to steal the sword.
At that moment, the lights go out briefly. When they return the sword is still there, or so it appears. In the dark, Archie swaps the sword for a false handle. The security team takes the sword to the vault, where it triggers the explosives Parker has set in the vault, destroying the vault's contents. Meanwhile, Archie escapes with the cake and the sword. Dubenich realizes Nate's plan at last, and that he gave that plan to Nate.
"His name..." With the con seemingly sprung, Nate gets in some target practice. Eliot warns him about the cost of revenge, but Nate seemingly ignores him. As he does, Latimer sits drinking at an airport bar before he travels to Washington D.C. to answer to Congress. Sophie approaches him with a drink, but is quickly hustled out the terminal door by Dubenich, who has anticipated her move. But Latimer is in for a surprise when he's approached by another woman.
- Maggie Collins (grifter, for Sophie): Maggie's role is simple -- do what Dubenich thought Sophie would do.
As Latimer drinks sullenly, watching the news of his downfall on TV, Maggie approaches him, introducing herself as Jenny. Next thing Latimer knows, he wakes up in the Cayman Islands with all the loot from his vault, the sword and multiple passports. Dubenich and Latimer argue on the phone as they learn that the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating him. With Latimer's money in their accounts, the team celebrates while Dubenich plans his final move.
The Final Confrontation[]
In the final confrontation, Dubenich tries to steal Latimer's money but Chaos and Hardison stop him from doing so and put the money in their accounts. Nate confronts both Dubenich and Latimer but ultimately decides not to kill them, instead leaving the gun within reach of both of them while they both struggle and fall off the edge of a cliff while a shot rings out.
Guest Cast[]
The Back-up Team[]
- Quinn (Clayne Crawford):
- Archie Leach (Richard Chamberlain):
- Colin "Chaos" Mason (Wil Wheaton):
- Maggie Collins (Kari Matchett):
The Bad Guys[]
- Victor Dubenich (Saul Rubenik):
- Latimer's Assistant (Robert McKeehen):
Episode Notes[]
- The dam scenes were filmed at Bonneville Dam, 40 miles east of Portland, near Cascade Locks on the Columbia River. The dam was opened in 1938, and is operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The dam was built to improve navigation on the river, as well as to manage flood waters and produce hydro-electric power. The waterway surrounding the dam includes fish ladders to allow salmon and steelhead migrate upstream to spawn, but the dam blocks migration of white sturgeon, whose numbers are healthy below the dam, but dramatically reduced above it.
- The quagga mussel used to foul the dam's water system is a real predatory species. A fresh-water mussel originating in Ukraine, it has become a concern in U.S. waters both because of its prolific breeding and its eating habits, which destroy the food balance in waters it invades. It also colonizes hard surfaces, which allows it to block screens, pipes and intake valves used in dams and water treatment facilities. Currently, the mussels have been reported in the Great Lakes area and in a small group of lakes along the Colorado River, presumably carried from body of water to body of water by boats' water intake systems.
- As he breaks into Nate's apartment, Victor Dubenich cocks his gun and says "knock, knock". This is an homage to Saul's character Artie in Warehouse 13, who was introduced to his partner Claudia Donovan, when she wrote the "knock, knock" on the Warehouse's computer mainframe while trying to infiltrate the Warehouse.
- While Chaos is goading Hardison by saying that he wants Parker to dress as Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica, he says, "I'll accept Sophie as Counselor Troi." Wil Wheaton, who plays Chaos, also played Wesley Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which he acted alongside British-American actress Marina Sirtis, who played Counselor Deanna Troi.
Trivia[]
- At the airport bar, Maggie introduces herself to Latimer as "Jenny". In The First David Job, we learn this is a previous alias of Sophie's, and the name by which Sterling knew her as well as the first of her old aliases we hear. Although Maggie was not present when Sterling used the name, Maggie was involved in the con, and may have learned it then.
- On the walls of Latimer's vault are several grey-blue plates with some runes etched on them. These runes are actually symbols from Stargate, where they appear on the titular device.[1]
- Victor states that is has been 3 years, 5 months, 4 days since the end of the first episode.
- The Chinese characters on the cake are 欢迎, meaning "welcome".