The Three-Card Monte Job - Recap

Russian mobsters track down a telephone line installer, Andrei. While their boss looks on, they give him a red cellphone and tell him to take their call and do what they ask, or they'll injure his daughters.

Andrei goes to see Nate, Sophie, and Alec at the bar. He tells them what happened and admits that if he's arrested, he'll lose the life he's built for himself since he immigrated from Russia. The mobsters will know if he goes to the police, but Andrei has been to the bar before. Hardison put a tap on the phone and gives it to him, and determines the Russians made one call to test. Hardison calls and traces the call, and Parker and Eliot go to check it out. As they move in and spot a man, Hardison confirms that the Russian mobsters lost $20 million in a police raid, and figures that they're trying to build some quick capital.

Nate and Sophie follow the other mobsters and Sophie notes that the one thing she hates is blackmailers, because they force innocent people to commit crimes.

Parker searches a van in the warehouse and the man hears her and comes to investigate. He attacks Eliot.

Nate and Sophie follow the mobsters to the bar. They figure that the crooks have reversed Hardison's phone tap. He starts to panic, but Sophie and Nate go in and discover that someone has taken over their backroom. They reassure Hardison and go out front.

Eliot defeats his man, Simakov, and he shows them a red cellphone. They realize that he's a blackmail victim, not the boss. They tell Nate who informs them he's going to meet their boss. He goes to the bar and talks to their boss: his father, Jimmy Ford. Jimmy sends Pieter away and asks why Nate wasn't there to pick him up when he got out of prison. Nate says he was at his mother's grave. Jimmy explains that he went to prison to protect the three major Irish mob families, but they didn't take care of him like in the old days. Now he's working with the Russians. When Nate complains, Jimmy says that he got plenty of respect, and now Nate is a thief. Nate tells him that Boston is his town and tells him to get out, but Jimmy tells him he doesn't have the stones and reminds him that he never could beat his old man at three-card monte. Jimmy figures he's still not good enough to figure what he's doing, and tells Jimmy that he'll be using the back room until the weekend.

The team prepares for a briefing but they're reluctant to go after Nate's dad. He insists that they continue, and Hardison sugarcoats Jimmy's criminal misdeeds. Nate insists on telling the truth and describes how he went from bookie to loan shark to fixer. They've determined that Simakov ships uniforms and fabrics, and there's a third red cellphone they need to track down. Sophie figures that they don't have enough information and Nate should sit it out, but Nate insists on gathering information and bringing Jimmy down.

Andrei gets a call and tells the team that he's supposed to install a black box in a police precinct house. Using it, Jimmy can activate and cancel alarms. Eliot and Hardison take in Sophie and claim she's a drunken mob family member, while Parker rigs the phones so the police end up talking to Nate to confirm Sophie's cover. Once inside, Hardison puts in his own black box. However, when the team goes outside, they discover that Nate has left with the new van. Eliot realizes what's going on.

Nate goes back to the bar and offers to work with Jimmy. He figures that Andrei is a liability and they're better off without him, so he's put in his own black box. Nate shows them the remote that he can use to control it, but refuses to give it up unless Jimmy lets him join up. Pieter figures he's a narc, but Nate explains that he took down a warden from inside prison. Jimmy agrees to take him on, but Pieter doesn't like it.

Later, Nate tells the team what Jimmy's plan is, as much as he described. He has targeted three banks and will set off the alarms, and draw the police there while they hit at their real target. Jimmy didn't tell Nate what the real target is. Nate figures that Jimmy is running a real-life three-card monte. He sends Eliot and Hardison to find the third blackmail victim, while Parker and Sophie try to get a look at Jimmy's plans.

Nate goes to help Jimmy, who is planning to hit the man with the alarm plans. He wants to use the mobsters, but Nate suggests a more subtle approaching using a pill scam. Working together, Nate and Jimmy distract the guy and steal his plans.

At the bar, Sophie goes in as a waitress and pretends to be Russian, distracting Pieter while Parker finds a barcode scanner in Pieter's duffle bag.

Hardison and Eliot track the third cellphone to a coffee vendor's cart. The owner has the cellphone, and the police there are the ones who work at the precinct house. The desk sergeant notes that they'll be shipping out evidence the next day.

When Nate and Jimmy return to the bar, Pieter picks a fight with Nate, who takes him on. Afterward, father and son share a drink and Jimmy admits that he's impressed. Nate says he's there for Jimmy, and wonders what he's going to get. Jimmy says that he's on one last job, and plans to use the money to go back to Ireland and retire. Nate mentions his mother, and Jimmy admits that while his wife never understood him, she did love him.

The next day, Nate comes down and Sophie worries that he's having trouble going after his own father. Nate insists that he's fine. He goes downstairs but discovers that Jimmy has cleaned out... and stole Nate's remote during the fight with Pieter. The team tries to figure out what's going on, and wonder if the coffee vendor plans to drug the entire precinct house. Sophie finds Jimmy's map and they try to figure out what a barcode scanner has to do with a bank robbery, and what banks rigged with the company's alarm systems are close to the precinct house. Nate realizes that Jimmy never put the red queen on the table during three-card monte now, and that he's doing the same thing now. The Russians want to get their $20 million out of the police evidence room, along with their guns.

Pieter and his men don uniforms supplied by Simakov, and Jimmy triggers the alarms to indicate multiple bank robberies. Meanwhile, the officer driving the police van is forced to pull over because of the drugged coffee, and Pieter capture them and take over. Jimmy goes to the precinct house posing as a detective, and meets the Russians in the back. They leave one man with the van and go inside to the evidence room.

The team arrives at the precinct house and Nate explains that if they tell the cops, the Russians will start shooting. Nate plans to take down his father personally.

Jimmy and the Russians knock out the evidence officer, temporarily override the alarm, and use the barcode scanner to check the coded evidence boxes to find their money. Jimmy then leaves.

Nate comes in claiming to be Sophie's lawyer and threatens to sue. The overworked desk sergeant sends them off to the side to wait until he can deal with them. Meanwhile, Jimmy goes up to the Organized Crime Division office and breaks into the safe holding the ledger with the evidence against the three families. Nate arrives and aims a gun at him. He figures that Jimmy wanted the respect, not the money, and plans to get the ledger back for the three families so they'll owe him. Jimmy suggests they team up to run the town, but Nate tells him that it's too late because his people are going to take down the Russians. Jimmy refuses to go to prison and dares Nate to shoot him. When Nate can't do it and tells him to go, Jimmy blows him a kiss and walks away.

Eliot takes out the Russian guarding the van. Meanwhile, Hardison uses his laptop to prevent the Russians from finding their evidence and then reprograms their cellphone timers so they think they have more time until resets.

Parker shows up in the office and realizes that Nate has let his father go. She figures he had to and helps him get out.

The alarm closes the evidence gate automatically and the police arrive to arrest the Russians.

Jimmy tries to call the families to tell them he has the ledger, but they send men to kill him. Nate calls and has his father meet him at the docks. There, he explains that he called the families and claimed that he was representing Jimmy, and offered to sell them the ledger back. Now Jimmy is a marked man. Nate points out that there's a nearby ship heading back to Ireland, and he's already booked his father a one-way passage. Jimmy admits that Nate might actually be more vicious than him, and tells him that he's proud. Jimmy gets on the ship while the rest of the team arrives. Nate just smiles and walks away, while Parker wonders if this means he's going to be nicer.

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