Mr. Vector, a former hockey player turned stock trader, has wiped out the savings of one of his customers, and former fan, who reported him to the S.E.C. Vector is not happy about that, and beats the guy’s face in.
Later, he tells Nate what Vector did, and how the police and S.E.C. were no help, since Vector is agreeing to testify in exchange for immunity from his crimes, basically a free pass to do whatever he wants. Nate agrees to help, and after the client leaves, the Italian comes up. She warns him that he’s running out of time to catch Moreau, but Nate needs Vector to get him.
In the apartment, the team are curious about her, but Nate doesn’t like being under her thumb and wants to get Moreau as fast as possible so he doesn’t have to deal with her anymore. As they run the briefing on Vector, it turns out that he built his fortune on dirty money, and one of his clients is Moreau. They need to find out what he has on Moreau before he testifies and gets immunity, which means they have to intercept him before he meets his FBI handler.
Their plan is to make Vector think he’s in water so hot that he’ll need a new deal from the feds, which they’ll use to force him to give up Moreau. They clear off the FBI agent, who turns out to be McSweeten, and Parker runs into Vector, posing as a fan, Alice, and drawing him to the pub. They flirt for a while, before she invites him up to the apartment, and Vector readily follows her. In the morning he wakes up, and rolls over to look at Alice, only to see her pale corpse lying next to him. They’d spiked his drink last night so he passed out, then made Parker up to look like she’s dead. Panicked, Vector calls his lawyer, which is intercepted by the team and a recording that Sophie got earlier tells him to call one of his colleagues.
Nate gets ready to go in, and sends Eliot and Hardison to get the original immunity deal. They get the files, but the cop identities Hardison made for them are so good, they’re drafted to take a witness back to county lockup. Eliot is not happy.
In the apartment, Nate arrives and asks to see the body. Looking over the scene he declares there’s enough evidence for a conviction of first-degree manslaughter. Meanwhile, Eliot is berating Hardison for taking the cover too far, again, as McSweeten suddenly shows up in front of their headquarters. Nate thinks he could be useful, and sends Parker to watch him, since he trusts her and her part in the con is done.
In the cop car, Hardison and Eliot hear a call from dispatch nearby, and Eliot insists on going to check it out, since there may be kids in trouble. It turns out to be a domestic dispute, but their prisoner makes a break for it and they have to chase him down.
Parker meets with McSweeten and they chat for a bit, before she gets him to wait for her outside, where Vector can see him. Now he thinks he’s cornered and Nate presses him for what happened last night and then spins a scenario where they playfully punch each other until she hits his face and he loses it. Vector admits that’s probably what happened and Nate calls “a friend in the U.S. attorney’s office”.
Eliot and Hardison finally show up with the agreement, but their prisoner said something interesting about money laundering by dirty cops. Eliot thinks there’s something strange going on. Sophie goes over the agreement and demands Damien Moreau to get him out of this one. Vector agrees to help, trouble is brewing downstairs. Cops are starting to show up, and Eliot thinks they’re the ones the prisoner was talking about, and they’re here to kill Vector, but they’re not the only ones; Moreau’s sent someone as well who opens fire from the building across the street. Eliot and Hardison take care of the dirty cops, then take care of the sniper. Everyone’s still alive, but Vector’s changed his mind, and decides he’ll be safer in jail.
Nate realizes they already have Vector’s codes and goes to see the Italian as the others clean up. At the courthouse, Vector is surprised to see his lawyer there, but it’s time for him to testify. When he sees his client and Parker there, he gets very nervous and starts to have a breakdown until Parker hits him with a Taser. She also dropped the prisoner in McSweeten’s trunk.
Nate meets with the Italian, revealing that he has Moreau’s information, and that he knows she knew Vector had them and would have the dirty cops take them out after he got them for her, except she wasn’t counting on the sniper. Nate gets the codes to Vector’s account, with the intent to get his client’s money back, then use the rest to take down Damien Moreau, on his terms.
As he leaves, the Italian calls someone.
- The Italian: It worked, he’s going after Moreau without us. Our hands are clean.
In the pub, Nate and Sophie talk about their choice. They didn’t ask for this fight, but they’re in it, and Nate wants to see it through.
- Sophie: (holding up a drink) To victory, then.
Tropes stolen in this job:
- Continuity Nod:
- Parker is still on about the time she tried romancing someone and stabbed him with a fork.
- Alice White dies in this one.
- McSweeten mentions not seeing Parker, or rather Agent Hagen, since helping take down Fowler.
- Crazy-Prepared:
- Eliot watches hockey fights since he never knows when he might have to fight on ice.
- Nate keeps a climbing harness in his closet, just in case Parker needs one.
- Dirty Cop: Several are running a money laundering scheme.
- Fake Identity Baggage: Hardison and Eliot pose as police officers to get the immunity deal for Vector. Unfortunately, their aliases are so convincing that the prosecutor makes them transport a witness back to county lockup.
- Honey Trap: Parker is sent in as one.
- Impersonating an Officer: Hardison sets up identities for him and Eliot, complete with official squadcar!
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Vector is a fictionalized take on Lenny Dykstra
, a retired baseball player with a controversial reputation on and off the field, who started a second career as a financial guru until it turned out that he didn't know what he was doing. - Paranoia Gambit: What the crew end up doing when the original plan falls apart. Vector sees Parker and realizes her "death" was a setup, but also suspects McSweeten of being an assassin when he's sitting next to her. Then he really freaks out when Eliot, in disguise as a bailiff, whispers, "Moreau wants to speak with you."
- Police Are Useless: All they told the client was to try suing Vector.
- Shout-Out: When looking for information about lawyers, Nate asks who Vector calls and Parker says, “Ghostbusters!”
- Tampering with Food and Drink: The team spikes Vector's drink to put him under while they set the scene of the crime up.
- Trash the Set: The sniper with the fully automatic rifle completely trashes Nate's apartment/the office.
