“A jury is twelve people. Just talk to them like you’ve always done. Put on your bow tie and go ring the doorbell.”
- Nate
I have to say I really liked this episode. It was a different set up than our usual formula for the season and it had the awesomeness of Jonathan Frakes directing and Brent Spiner acting. Because who doesn’t love Data and Commander Riker working together. Anyway, enough geeking out. We start the episode with a couple. The man is studying and taking some energy supplements. Not surprisingly, he has a heart attack and dies. Back at HQ, Parker’s done something to upset the rest of the team and when one of her aliases gets summoned for jury duty, Nate sees it as the perfect opportunity to get Parker to learn a little lesson. She’s on the jury of the widow who is suing the manufacturer for knowingly putting out a dangerous product (aka Brent Spiner’s character). Parker picks up on some sketchy things going on with the defense attorney. He’s got an earpiece and she spots cameras in the guy’s briefcase. She heads back to HQ after the day of the trial ends and asks the team for help. The guys are hesitant (because it would cut into them being able to watch sports on the big screens). But Eliot goes to spy with Parker and we learn that Brent’s character, Mr. Quint, is having some issues with a drug company heiress who put $20 million into his product and plans to buy his company. But if he settles, she’s screwed. So Nate finally agrees to help the widow. Hardison hacks in and finds that the heiress has been doing a lot of in-depth research on all the jurors. So the Leverage crew will need to steal the jury before she can buy it off.
Eliot and Hardison go dumpster diving to try and find anything that will show which juror has been bought. Meanwhile, Parker needs to get close to people and try to earn their trust. She fails miserably of course. And Sophie’s little acting lesson back at HQ doesn’t go so well either. But Sophie appears to be having more luck with reeling in Quint. She poses as an Indian entrepreneur who offers to pay him $100,000,000 and allow him to retain stock options and control of the company. It’s a nice deal but will it be enough to sway him from the current path he’s on? The boys find out that the jury foreman is the one being controlled and so Parker does a bunch of lifts and then orchestrates the exposure of the “theft” at lunch to get him removed. This endears her to her fellow jurors and she get selected forewoman. In retaliation for getting rid of the foreman, Quint’s manipulative backer (who likes playing chess) gets rid of the plaintiff’s attorney. This could cause a mistrial and give her the win she wants but our team is on the ball. Hardison poses as her new attorney and then spends quite a while stalling for time. Parker even makes a friend on the jury (well sort of).
Quint’s backer is trying to get any info she can on Hardison, thinking he’s a fake but her analysts can’t prove it and his cover is just too tight. Quint asks about what his position would be after the company acquisition (Sophie floated the notion that all the other CEOs who sold to her were sent to early retirement). It seems like it will be the same for him and when Sophie shows up at court, his backer zeros in on her and wants to know everything about her. Sophie sets up a fake call to Mumbai and it looks like Quint is going to bite. But, his backer pulls a fast one and acquires the company. Guess that’s the risk you run when you use a real company as your background. Oops. So now Hardison has to go finish the trial for real. Nate reminds him that he’s just talking to people like he did as a kid with his foster mom who was Jehovah’s Witness. It’s good advice. While he’s cross examining the defense’s medical expert (Armin Shimmerman…gotta love all the Star Trek love in this episode), Eliot and Nate set it up so that Quint is delayed getting to court. Sophie’s off checking warehouses to try and find Quint’s backer. So far she’s zero for three. It was of course typical to see Eliot take out the guys that were tailing Quint. He’s just such a bad ass.
And then we get Hardison’s closing speech and I have to admit I was moved by it. He’s a great speaker when he wants to be and damn was it good. Even the defense attorney seems moved by it. But now it’s up to Parker to get the jury to find for the plaintiff. Quint’s backer is watching the footage from the jury room and it looks like they won when Parker asks who finds in favor of the defendant and everyone raises their hands. She thinks it is in the bag and she’s also going to screw over Quint. She present him with three red envelopes, one with the amount he gets if he wins, one with nothing in it if he loses and a third with how much she will pay if he sells the company right away. So he agrees to sell. She thinks he’s been going around to her competitors (Nate and Sophie pickpocketed his phone). Clever. Back at court, Parker delivers a guilty verdict and we see that Hardison doctored the footage and spoofed the bad guy’s recording. And since Quint no longer owns his company, he isn’t actually on the hook for the $5 million payout. Checkmate, bitch! I have to say, I really liked the chess analogy that ran through this episode. I thought it was an effective way to tell the story. Oh and Parker made a friend on the jury. Yay for social progress!
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