The Ho, Ho, Ho Job - Recap

Parker and Hardison are watching TV, and Parker is trying to find a channel that is predicting snow. Parker is disappointed that she won’t get a white Christmas. Nate goes down to the bar to drink, disgusted with the Christmas spirit. However, Parker comes over to tell him that they have a special client: Santa Claus.

Two Days Earlier

Frank, the Santa, is working at the mall when the manager, Mr. Dooley, comes over and accuses him of drinking. The other Santas take him away, while the crowd looks on in disgust.

Now

Frank shows them video of his being taken away, and notes that Dooley has been firing all of the old Santas and hiring new ones that Frank thinks are criminals. When Dooley tried to shut down the Toys for Tykes program he ran, Frank protested and Dooley framed him for drinking. As Frank goes, he offers Nate a candy cane, but Nate turns it down. Parker is eager to take the case, but Nate notes that they were all going to take a break. She insists that they can’t turn away one of Santa’s helpers.

At the mall, Hardison works at a Santa. Sophie and Nate go shopping, and Nate tries to find out what Sophie’s real name is so he can get her a gift. She doesn’t take the bait. Nate then approaches Dooley, while Eliot poses as a deliveryman and flirts with the secretary, Ashley. He distracts her while Parker breaks into Dooley’s office and finds the bottle of Scotch that Dooley framed Frank with. Meanwhile, Nate poses as a mall developer and offers to help Dooley improve his business, but Dooley is strangely uninterested.

Later, Hardison briefs the team and Parker arrives playing recorded Christmas music. After Nate has her stop, she decorates the tree with stolen jewelry. Hardison explains that he inherited the mall and has been running it into the ground ever since to cover his gambling debts. The new Santas he’s been hiring are all ex-cons, and Nate figures that it’s an insurance scam. Dooley is firing the old Santas, then hires new crooked Santas to rob the mall, while he takes a plane to San Lorenzo and establishes an alibi. Nate tells the team to infiltrate the mall and make sure Dooley doesn’t get on the plane to San Lorenzo.

Eliot takes over as a Santa at the mall, with Parker as his helper. Eliot is less than thrilled with the job, but Parker insists he has to get into the Christmas spirit. Hardison and Nate are in the van, and Hardison uses an EMP to short out the real driver’s car, trapping him inside. Sophie takes over as Dooley’s chauffeur and drives him to the airport, and he finally calls his accomplice. Hardison works to track the signal, but it’s heavily encrypted. Eliot goes to see the other Santas, and realizes that they’re not talking to Dooley. They figure that Dooley is working with someone else.

As Sophie drives, she hits the release on Dooley’s seat belt and then runs into an embankment. The air bag protects her, and Dooley is knocked out in the crash.

Eliot joins the other Santas, who are suspicious of the newcomer. He assures them that Dooley brought him in, and they put him out front ringing the bell for the donation bucket. Nate tells him that he needs to show some enthusiasm, and that he’ll have to wait until later to start hitting people. They’re unaware that someone else is watching Eliot on the security cameras.

Sophie is at Dooley’s hospital bed when he wakes up, and she tells him that he’s not beyond saving. Dooley signals for morphine.

Nate and Hardison approach Eliot, who is getting credit card donations, and Parker detects a RFID signal on the nearby wreath. Parker confirms that there are Santas at every exit, and Nate realizes that it’s a virtual robbery. The kettles have RFID readers, and Dooley is collecting the credit card info from all of the people at the mall. When the stores close that night, Dooley and his people will be able to rip off millions of dollars making credit card charges. They call Sophie and tell her to find out the hacker that Dooley must be working with.

Sophie calls in Frank, who arrives at Dooley’s room as Santa. Dooley wonders why Frank is being kind to him, and Frank says that he wants to know about his credit card fraud. The drugged up Dooley mistakes Frank for the real Santa, and Santa and Sophie tell him to call off his hacker. Before he can call, the hacker calls him. Dooley tells him to call it off, but the hacker asks for Sophie by name. It’s Colin “Chaos” Mason, who tried to kill her a year ago. He addresses the rest of the team through the earbuds, and notes that he easily escaped from the Federation prison he ended up in.

The crooked Santas all leave, and Chaos taunts the team over the intercoms. He informs them that there’s nothing they can do to stop his credit card catastrophe, then steals the EMP from Hardison’s van, Lucille Two, and uses it to short it out. Chaos drives away as Hardison surveys the destruction of his new van.

Back in the mall, Hardison confirms that Chaos is using a trunk line going through the Yakamoto Building. It’s a major military contractor, and they have to work fast. They go there and Nate and Sophie pose as a couple. They get inside and secretly jam the locks while distracting the security guard, while Parker and Hardison drop down through the elevator shaft. Nate steals the keys from the security guard and slips them to Eliot, who gets to the security room, takes out the other guard, and gets a retina scan from him. He then turns off the server-room alarm so Hardison and Parker can get in. Hardison plants a virus to block the trunk line.

Back at base, the team celebrates. However, Nate notes that the government is moving in at Yakamoto. They realize that they were played, because they also shut down the lines to the nearby Federal Bank Depository.

At the mall, Chaos and his Santas move in on the depository, now that the security systems are down.

The team argues over what happened, until Nate interrupts and admits that he didn’t do his job and failed to see two steps ahead.

Chaos and his team enter the steam tunnels beneath the mall and head for the depository. He figured he’s got everything planned, ever since he set up Frank to be fired and then directed him to the Leverage team.

Nate says that he didn’t take things seriously. He comes up with a new plan: figure out the plan in the car as they drive over.

Chaos’ team gets to the depository and he makes sure the motion sensors are shut off. They then start cutting off through the walls into the vault.

The team arrives at the mall, and Eliot remembers that one of the kids mentioned that they moved the North Pole set-up from the previous year. They go over and find Frank and Dooley working together on the Toys for Tykes drive. Dooley has had a change of heart and they’ve brought all the children in. Nate sends Eliot to intercept Chaos’ team, and tells the others to go shopping.

In the tunnels, Eliot intercepts the Santas and a fight breaks out. Meanwhile, Nate calls the government about the attack on the trunk lines. Once he finishes, he calls Eliot, who watches as the Santas flee back to the mall after breaking a steam pipe. Nate tells Eliot that he’ll handle it from there.

The Santas emerge through the North Pole entrance and find the children waiting for them. The criminals have no choice but to play along, but government agents pull up outside. The criminals refuse to hand over their “gifts” to the kids, until they realize that their bags hold toys. Parker and Hardison switched the money for toys while Eliot fought the crooks in the tunnel. Parker poses as a government agent and directs the authorities to the money in the tunnels, and asks them to wait to arrest the crooked Santas until they’re done handing out presents. Even the criminals get into the Christmas spirit. Dooley tells Frank that he has a year-round job at the mall.

Eliot emerges from beneath the North Pole and finds one of the kids waiting for him. He gives the kid a present and tells him not to tell anyone.

Chaos emerges from the tunnels into the basement, but finds Hardison and the FBI waiting for him. Hardison planted a tracker in the money bag earlier. As Chaos is taken away, Hardison says that he failed because he didn’t honor the true spirit of Christmas.

The team celebrates at the bar, and Nate and Sophie have “obtained” gifts for them. They give Eliot a rare Hanzo samurai sword, Hardison a Prototype 7 unit, and Parker a bundle of money with nonsequential serial numbers. As everyone celebrates with their new gifts, Nate gives Sophie her present: a necklace with “Your name here” on it. In return, she writes down her name on a piece of paper and gives it to him. Parker looks outside and sees that it’s snowing. She goes outside into the snow and lets it fall on her.

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