The King George Job - Recap

The team gets word that one of Damien Moreau's guys, John Douglas Keller, is coming through. They track him coming in from Baghdad, moving antiquities. They figure he's bringing in a smuggled antiquity, and his bodyguards are outside so they hit him as he gets off the plane. Parker is ready to move in and do a briefcase switch, get what he's bringing in, and put the hooks into him. Keller meets his one bodyguard and Eliot moves in, but a young girl, A'yan, approaches an undercover Eliot and asks him for help. Nate takes his place while Eliot escorts the girl over to the person meeting him. The team realizes that Keller hasn't made a switch and must have his smuggled goods coming in separately. Hardison, posing as a customs inspector, greets Keller. The alerts go off and a security team moves in on A'yan and arrests her for smuggling. Hardison has no choice but to let Keller go. Keller confirms with his bodyguard, Ennis, that the other girls he has smuggling his goods made it through and dismisses her as an acceptable loss. Nate sends the others to follow Keller, and Sophie insists that they talk to A'yan and find out what's going on. Nate warns that it's too dangerous, but lets her talk to the girl's family.

When Sophie and Nate meet with the family and their immigration advocate, they discover that all the advocate can do is file paperwork. A'yan could be in the system for months since the laws haven't kept up with the newest tactics. The smugglers force refugee children at gunpoint to take the smuggled goods on, and they usually make it through since airport security is looking for guns and drugs. However, the artifacts then finance criminal activities. Sophie is upset at the thought of selling art for blood. Nate tells the advocate they'll do what they can.

At the condo, the team tries to come up at another way to get to Moreau. Moreau started with antiquities and has since passed the smuggling business onto Keller. The Middle East pieces aren't traceable and Moreau uses the money to finance terrorists. Sophie explains that the big money is in selling off the pieces legitimately at auction houses. She walks off in disgust and goes downstairs, and Nate goes after her and finds her drinking. Sophie wonders if innocent children were ever used to smuggle some of the goods she stole when she was a criminal. Nate warns her not to get emotionally invested, but Sophie admits the Moreau business has got her reconsidering what harm she may have done by stealing from the rich, and how she isn't so different from what Keller does now. Nate invites her to go to London to steal an auction and she accepts.

In London, the team determines that Keller moves most of his good through Claridge's Auction House. Hardison breaks in and accesses their antique computer systems, and Sophie warns that the real contracts are going to be on paper files. Keller and Ennis arrive and Parker steals his wallet. She informs Nate that Keller has an auction card, and Sophie realizes that it indicates Keller is buying rather than selling. Nate tells Parker to keep the bid card, return the wallet, and break into the vault to find something that he can move through the auction house and get Keller's attention.

Parker breaks into the antique vault while Sophie confirms that Keller bought a relatively value-less signet ring that belonged to King George. Parker goes through the vault contents and finds religious icons, Napoleonic silver, and the Statue of Ra. Nate has her bring him the Statue. Meanwhile, Sophie tries to figure out what the signet ring means to Keller. Hardison accesses the file and says that Keller is looking at buying land in Scotland.

Nate approaches Keller and gives him his auction card. He then claims he's a broker of antiquities for private collectors and shows him the Statue of Ra. Nate asks Keller if he'll help move the Statue, but Keller sniffs at it and confirms that it's a fake. He figures Nate is a conman or a cop and has Ennis beat him, and Eliot starts to move in. Sophie calls him off and realizes what Keller wants. She goes in and claims to be Charlotte Prentiss, the Duchess of Hanover, and identifies Nate as her employee. Sophie says she has a buyer for the Statue in the States and needs someone to move it there. Keller refuses to accept the job until Sophie offers him a lost barony. He doesn't believe she can do it, but Sophie claims that her family is connected to the Earl Marshal. She'll set up the interview in return for his smuggling the statue, and Keller agrees to meet her the next day.

Back at their hotel room, Sophie explains that she spent seven years establishing a persona as the Duchess. She figures that Keller has been buying up land in the hopes of getting a lost barony. Keller wants a barony and has been rejected six times when applying. Nate explains they're running the Mummy's Tiara con, and convince Keller to buy a fake relic to buy a real title. When they wonder how they can give him a real relic, Sophie says that Hardison will have to do it and shows him how Keller determined the Statue was a fake because it lacked the proper smell, taste, and feel. Hardison will have to create a forgery of a diary by overwhelming his senses. Meanwhile, Nate and Sophie go to seal the deal with Keller and convince him they have a secret stash of treasures.

As they go in, Nate warns Sophie that she's overinvested. She insists that they need to run a passion-based game, and notes that Nate always runs head cons. Nate reluctantly agrees and wishes her luck. Sophie meets with Keller and says that she has the lost diary of Catherine, the rumored mistress of King George the Third. George got his pregnant mistress out of the country and sent her to the Colonies with a trunk full of treasure, and her diary eventually fell into Sophie's hands. Sophie offers Keller the diary so he can claim a direct descent to the King of England.

At the hotel, Eliot brings Hardison the ingredients that Sophie specified. He's less than thrilled to discover what Eliot uses to dampen paper in the traditional manner.

Sophie explains that Catherine's diary is going for auction at Claridge's and they don't know what it is. She offers to get Keller the diary in return for his smuggling her goods to the U.S. Before he agrees, Keller brings in the Countess of Kensington, Sophie's supposed aunt. Nate tells her to leave if she can, but the Countess greets Sophie as Charlotte and embraces her.

Parker and Eliot return and find Hardison using computer technology to create a forgery using authentic ingredients. He's enthused about taking forgery to a new level, but they're not impressed.

Sophie and the Countess share family stories with Keller. He's called away to take a call from Moreau, and the Countess comments that her husband died of a broken heart after "Charlotte" left. Keller returns and informs Sophie that Moreau wants to move up the shipment to the next day, and she'll need to pay him with the diary immediately.

The team goes to the auction house and Nate wonders if Sophie actually is royalty. She ducks the question and Nate tells Hardison they need the book. Hardison warns that the forgery won't stand up to extended exposure. Eliot meets with Ennis and his men to arrange the pickup of Sophie's treasure stash. They refuse to let Eliot inspect their facilities, and demand that he take them to the treasure and leave. Eliot checks with Nate, who tells him to stall by driving them around the city.

Keller arrives and confirms that the book collection on sale is from the proper era, and that the auction house doesn't know what they have. Meanwhile, Nate meets with Parker, who explains that she chloroformed the auctioneer and is now taking his place.

Eliot plays stupid and drives Ennis and his men around the city.

Parker starts the auction and can't resist talking about the security systems of the items, the toupees of the bidders, and which pieces are forgeries. Parker tells her to focus. Meanwhile, an exhausted Hardison arrives with the forgery and makes sure it's in the proper box. Hardison tells Nate that he can only follow Keller's bid back to Moreau's shell companies if it's £250,000. Parker auctions off the book collection and Sophie flirts with Keller to get him to raise his bid. Nate convinces a young dandy that he can impress Parker if he bids higher. It almost backfires when the dandy bids too high, but Sophie convinces Keller to outbid him.

Eliot finally takes Ennis and his men to Sophie's storage unit. Meanwhile, Keller checks the diaries and confirms that their authentic. He transfers the money but then tells Sophie that he doesn’t need her because the royal scandal she was involved in. It would ruin his chances of advancement, so he dumps Sophie and calls Ennis to tell him to shoot Eliot dead. Eliot takes the three men out.

Keller prepares to leave the country, but the customs inspector informs him that the box the diary came in is made up of wooden Russian icons. They're the same icons from the auction house vault. The diary is falling apart and security takes Keller away. The police check out the storage unit and discover stolen art treasure that apparently belongs to Keller.

Back in the states, A'yan is released and the advocate thanks the team. A'yan runs to Eliot and thanks him. Sophie explains that she filled the storage unit with some of the first things she stole, and insists that Charlotte was her stage name. Hardison confirms that Keller transferred the money to a shell company belonging to a hockey player who is protected as a Federal witness. Nate says it's time to steal a Federal witness.

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