The Girls' Night Out Job - Recap

Two thugs chase a man in a tuxedo through the streets. He finally loses them by clinging to the side of a passing SUV.

The Leverage team is preparing for their nights out. Eliot and Alec are setting up a poker game, while Sophie goes out for dinner and Parker meets with her friend from the jury job, Peggy. As they set up, Alec tells Parker that he has tickets for robot fighting and is clearly enthused. She’s not quite so thrilled. Nick comes in to tell them that Detective Bonnano needs them, discovers that they’re setting up for poker, and tries to get out of it. Sophie and Eliot figure that he needs to make a few more friends, and as Sophie leaves she tells Eliot to make sure that Nate gets involved.



As Sophie tries to leave, Parker asks her for relationship advice about Alec since she’s discovered that he likes different things. Eager to leave, Sophie tells her teammate that she should talk to Peggy, but Parker explains that Peggy is going on a blind date with a fellow cat lover and going to a party at the Venezuelan Consulate that Peggy’s small business is catering. However, Parker decides to go see Peggy at the bar where she’s mating her date. As Peggy takes a call from her employees at the party, the blind date comes in: the man in the tuxedo from earlier. When he orders Peggy’s drink and sits at the bar, Parker realizes that he’s the date and takes a cell phone photo of him as he opens his wallet to pay. She then sends it to Alec, who is playing poker with the guys. He reluctantly runs facial recognition software on the photo and confirms that it’s Craig Mattingly, an international thief. When Alec worries about why Parker is taking photos of an attractive man, she hangs up.

Meanwhile, Sophie has gone on her dinner date... with her friend and fellow grifter, Tara Cole. Parker calls Sophie and asks for her help, and sends her Craig’s criminal record over the phone. They agree to help Parker and check Craig’s wallet from the photo. They spot his hotel key and head out to check his room. Meanwhile, Parker poses as Peggy and talks to Craig, who is eager for them to leave for the party at the consulate. Parker steps away for a moment, claiming she’s going to call her cat, and then goes to find Peggy. She then directs her friend to a random stranger as her blind date, steals Peggy’s invitations to the gala, and then steals a dress that a woman has hung up.



Tara and Sophie break into Craig’s room and start searching it, but are interrupted when two men break in and start searching it. One of them gets a call from their boss, who wants them back at the gala. The women hide in the closet but Tara sneezes, giving them away. They end up fighting the men, and Tara takes out her man while Sophie distracts hers long enough for Tara to help her. The two men run off, and Sophie and Tara head for the consulate.

Peggy gets to the consulate first but is unable to get in due to her missing invitation. Meanwhile, Parker and Craig go in, and Craig immediately suggests Parker check on her catering staff. Parker takes off and calls Sophie and Tara, who have arrived outside and ask for an update. Parker tells them that Craig is watching three different men, and each one has a briefcase. Tara goes in posing as a FBI agent, while Sophie goes her separate way posing as a Russian call girl and briefly attaching herself to a diplomat. Once they’re inside, Sophie steals the man’s diplomatic ID and meets up with Tara.



Craig meets with one of the three men, a drug cartel representative named Octavio Escobar, and objects to him sending men to steal what Craig plans to sell. Octavio wants to buy the item immediately but Craig wants to hear the offers from the other bidders. Parker is keeping an eye on Craig when Peggy takes time off from berating one of the waiters to come over and wonder why Parker is there. When she sees Craig, Peggy realizes that Parker stole her blind date and her invitation. Parker can’t come up with a good explanation and her friend storms off.

Once Peggy leaves, Parker meets with Sophie and Tara. They figure that Craig is holding a sale at the consulate, where he plans to steal whatever item he is offering, and figures that he’ll sell it right away. Sophie tries to assure Parker that they’ll help Peggy, but the thief realizes that Craig came in on Peggy’s invitation so whatever happens, Parker’s friend will get the blame. Tara and Sophie go to check out the three buyers while Parker keeps an eye on Craig.

Parker grabs two drinks and goes after Craig, who has slipped away from the party. He breaks into the outer room of an office and tries to get through the inner door, and Parker stumbles in, pretending to be drunk. Craig tries to ditch her and says that the office belongs to a friend and that he’s there to get a sweater back. Parker secretly picks the lock on the inner dock and then “accidentally” knocks it open and suggests that they go inside.



Sophie approaches the second bidder, a rich Texan, and has a loud fake conversation on her phone talking about the buy. She and Tara analyze the man’s body language and figure that he’s interested and how sure he is. They’re unable to get a read on the third man, sitting by himself, and Tara claims to be a Secret Service agent to get him outside. They confirm that he is Humberto Garcia, a professor of Latin American Studies. Humberto explains that Craig is stealing data: the reserve levels of the oil fields in Venezuela. The government has been releasing fake data showing higher levels to stay in power. The rich Texan, an oil magnate, wants the information so he can get ahead of his competition. The cartel wants it to blackmail the government into leaving them unopposed. When the two women wonder why Humberto wants it and how he plans to pay for it, he opens his case and plays them a song of Venezuelan children singing. The professor hopes to appeal to Craig’s better nature. Sophie thinks that’s cute and takes the briefcase from him.

Craig checks the office computer and searches for a thumb drive. Parker saunters off, still faking drunkenness, and takes a picture of the room as she goes. She then sends it to Alec, who is in a bar dealing with Mexican gangsters. Parker asks him to look at the photo and tell her where someone would hide something, and he suggests checking the photo frame. As Parker hangs up, Alec worries that she is taking photos of an attractive man. Parker then goes back into the room and picks up the photo frame , giving Craig the opportunity to spot the thumb drive fastened to the back. A guard comes in and they both hide, but Parker gets spotted. Craig knocks out the guard and they head for the elevator, only to discover that it’s out of order. With the guards closing in, Craig uses a fire axe to pry open the door and suggests that they climb. When Parker leaps at the opportunity, Craig realizes that she’s not Peggy.



When they get to the roof, Craig figures out that Parker is a fellow thief and offers her a cut of his profits. Parker points out that she did everything and starts making counteroffers until Sophie remind her over the earbud that they’re helping the Venezuelan people. Craig explains that he has a hacker friend who encrypted the oil field numbers and tipped him off to the government forgeries. Parker wants Craig to give the thumb drive to Humberto for free because it’s the right thing to do, tells him to go to Humberto in five minutes, and walks away.

At the party, the Texan walks out and Tara and Sophie figure that he’s out and they only need to steal Octavio’s briefcase of money. Tara distracts the man by asking for a dance, saying that her date is ignoring her. While she tangles with Octavio and the cartel negotiator’s bodyguard watches, Sophie switches briefcases, Humberto’s for Octavio’s, and then gives it to Parker as she comes in. Parker then takes it to Craig on the roof to make the deal and get the professor the thumb drive. Craig defends his actions, claiming that he has people depending on him. When he learns that he’s been dealing with the legendary Parker, Craig is duly impressed. However, once Parker leaves, Craig makes a phone call.



At the gala, Octavio is talking to Tara after their tango when he gets a phone call. He takes it and says goodbye to Tara, and then goes to a study to meet with Craig. Sophie follows him and watches as Craig hands the thumb drive over, and receives the briefcase with a million dollars. Sophie is surprised since she switched the briefcases earlier, while parker realizes that Craig switched thumb drives and gave her a blank unit.

Parker goes through the kitchen to get to Craig and finds the Texan locked up in the walk-in freezer. Tara figures that Octavio stole the money from the Texan and plans to keep his own briefcase to pocket the difference. Meanwhile, in the study, Craig counts the money and tells Octavio that they’re done. He then leaves and picks up briefcase that Parker gave him, which is actually Octavio’s case. Meanwhile, Octavio goes back to the party and Sophie and Tara watch as he destroys the thumb drive by tossing it in a glass of champagne. Tara realizes that Octavio meant to destroy the thumb drive all long, and that he has hidden a bomb in the room.

Parker catches up to Craig as Sophie and Tara arrive. They figure that Octavio is now working for the Venezuelan government, which is paying him to bury the oil field info. The bomb will go off, Humberto will be framed for the explosion, and the thumb drive will be destroyed. They go back onto the floor and try to figure where Octavio would have hidden the bomb. Craig figures that Octavio would have hired someone to do the job for him, and Sophie realizes that the waiter that Peggy was berating earlier is a fake, which means he’s the subcontractor.



Parker calls Peggy in the kitchen, and her friend spots the waiter. She orders the other staff out but tells the waiter to stay, and he grabs a knife and tries to stab her. Furious at how her catering event has been ruined, Peggy grabs a sauce pan and hits him with it repeatedly. Craig and Parker arrive and restrain her, and the fake waiter explains that he just delivered the bomb in a serving cart, he doesn’t know where it ended up. Tara figures that Octavio put the car near the main entrance, preventing any survivors from escaping. She and Sophie check out the cart and confirm that it has a bomb... and there are two minutes until detonation.

Sophie and Tara wheel the cart out and tell Parker to clear the building. She runs up to the stage with Craig and tells everyone that they’re party planners, and that everyone should go outside for the big fireworks display. Meanwhile, Sophie takes a photo of the bomb and sends it to Alec, who is being chased up a fence by guard dogs. He gives them very complicated instructions for how to disarm the bomb. Realizing they only have 15 seconds left, the two women roll the cart out the window. It explodes harmlessly in mid-air, giving everyone the promised firework show.



Down below, Craig hugs Parker in relief after seeing the explosion. He explains that she stole a painting out from him five years ago and wonders what she’s been doing ever since. Parker says that she’s still a thief but with different rules, and then gives Humberto the real thumb drive. As a grateful Humberto leaves, Craig realizes that Parker is working the side of good now and tells her that he has something for her.

Later, Parker and Sophie meet Peggy at McClory’s and give her both briefcases to make up for her troubles. After the evening’s festivities, Peggy now thinks that Parker is a spy. She worries that Octavio got away with trying to blow up the consulate, but Parker and Sophie assure her that he ended up arrested by Lt. Grayson for assaulting the Texan. As Peggy leaves, she tells Parker that she’ll see her at book club and invites Sophie to come along. Sophie is surprised to learn that Parker has made up a fake alias for her as well as the one that parker uses for herself. Once Peggy is gone, Sophie apologizes to Parker for ignoring her request for help earlier. However, Parker assures her that after spending time with Craig, she learned that she prefers being with someone who likes different things than herself.



Meanwhile, Tara end up in bed with Craig, with the tape recorder of the Venezuelan children on the nightstand.

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