- Nate: Let’s go steal the Department of Defense.
Parker: Isn’t that treason?
Nate: We’ll give it back.
Nate meets up with the Italian who tells him that Damien Moreau is coming and they need to act now. The team breaks into a D.O.D. facility and get one of its staff, Yasmine, out moments before it blows up. At McRory’s, she thanks them for rescuing her, though Nate says they didn’t and she is now officially dead. She can’t imagine why anyone would want to kill her. Her project is a battery.
In Washington, D.C. her boss, General Atherton, is trying to get his project on track. The engineers he has want to slow it down, out of respect for Yasmine and since they need her component to finish their work. Atherton demands results by the weekend, or he promises they won’t like their severance package. He then gets a call from Moreau reminding him that he needs the battery soon so he can auction it off.
The battery is a new high-powered cell, and Sophie’s contacts have gotten word of an auction Moreau is holding at the end of the week. The team discusses plans, though Eliot seems bothered by Moreau’s presence, but eventually offers to get into the auction with Hardison while the others try to figure out what the Ram’s Horn is.
At the hotel where Moreau’s staying, Hardison plans to pose as the manager of the kitchen personally delivering a meal to Moreau, but Eliot walks up to the guards and introduces himself. He is promptly let in.
Posing as a congresswoman, Sophie gets Atherton to show her around, while she and Parker lift his wallet and phone.
Meanwhile Eliot is brought to where Moreau is having a sauna.
- Moreau: Let’s catch up!
Hardison is floored.
Nate and Parker use Atherton’s security card to access the facility network and find the files they need. Meanwhile, Eliot and Hardison are “enjoying” Moreau’s company. Hardison, cuffed to a chair, tries to present himself as a representative of a potential buyer, but Moreau pushes his chair into the pool behind him. As Hardison desperately tries to get uncuffed, Eliot and Moreau talk. Eventually, Eliot convinces him to accept the offer, and he drops the keys in the pool. Hardison climbs out, and calmly asks what message he should take to his employer. Moreau is impressed. As they leave a flock of swimsuit clad girls file in, among them, the Italian.
In a park, the others are looking over what they got when Hardison and Eliot come up. Hardison is furious and demands Eliot tell them about him and Moreau. Nate is irate, and demands to know why he didn’t tell them earlier, but Eliot claims he was doing it to protect them.
- Eliot: The worst thing I’ve ever done in my life I did working for Damien Moreau.
Parker: What did you do?
Eliot: Don’t ask me that Parker, because if you ask me, I’m gonna tell you. So don’t ask me.
Nate still isn’t happy, but seems to understand the situation. Eliot explains that he’ll get the details on the auction, but Moreau wants him to do something for him first: kill Atherton.
- Sophie: You can’t, you’re not that man anymore.
Nate: He might have to be…to get us in?
Hardison: So we can buy a bomb?
Nate: What?
Hardison: The Ram’s Horn, it’s a bomb. A really big bomb.
An EMP bomb, to be specific. Hardison recognizes it from the one he made, but this one’s powerful enough to black out entire cities, and Moreau intends to sell it to the highest bidder. The plan, however, has not changed, they still need to get into that auction, and the only way to do that is to kill Atherton.
Moreau’s security head takes Eliot to Atherton’s home, watching him talk to his young daughter and off-handedly commenting that he wanted to kill the entire family like they usually do. As Atherton drives off, then stops at a red light, the security guy distracts him while Eliot jumps out of the back seat and snaps his neck. Then he and Eliot drive off.
At the morgue, Nate poses as a coroner while an orderly goes to call in the death. They then unzip the body and Atherton sits up.
- Atherton: I can’t believe Moreau wanted to have me killed.
Sophie poses as Mrs. Atherton and “confirms” his death with great heaving sobs. Afterward, Nate sends Hardison and Eliot to get the bomb, so they can put it in the same room with Moreau and nail him for treason. Moreau gets word of Atherton’s death and calls Eliot to confirm that he’s in. Back at the facility, Hardison tries to get to the bomb using Atherton’s security card, but word comes of the murder. Security triggers a red alert, but Hardison has already planted the card on one of the engineers. Parker and Hardison get to the lab, but the bomb’s already gone. Then the alarm goes off.
Nate and Eliot are at a warehouse, Eliot wondering why there would be an auction here. Nate responds there wouldn’t be one, and as they discover the bound and unconscious Italian. Moreau has people in her organization and they gave her away. Then the warehouse doors are sealed. Sophie, Hardison and Parker trace the bomb to a freight train, while Eliot gives Nate and the Italian cover to escape. Hardison and Parker board the train from a bridge and make their way to the car where the bomb is, only to find it’s bolted to the floor. Hardison has an idea. He wires Yasmine's battery to overload, causing the bomb to destroy itself as Eliot finishes clearing out the warehouse. Before he can leave, the security head confronts him, pointing a gun at his head.
- Chapman: You said you didn’t like guns.
Eliot: I don’t. [shoots Chapman four times in quick succession] Never said I couldn’t use ‘em.
At the airport, Nate and the Italian confront Moreau, who is not pleased to hear that his merchandise is gone, but nowhere near as unhappy as his client will be (hopefully not Koreans), but still confident that he’ll get away scot free since there’s no proof of his crimes. That is true, so Nate framed him for the Italian’s crimes, and called Yasmine to give the evidence to Lt. Bonanno. Now several government scandals have a fall guy if they come to light.
- Nate: One thing I’ve learned, Moreau, over the last three years is the only thing more ruthless than a criminal is a politician trying to save his own ass.
Moreau: WHO ARE YOU?
Nate: You know how it feels like you’ve been poked with a stick over these last six months or so? I’m that stick.
As Eliot runs in, Moreau draws a gun, but turns and shoots the Italian. He then gets on his plane and takes off while Nate and Eliot look after her. That night, as the others come up, Eliot asks Nate not to tell them what he did.
The Italian is about to be loaded on an ambulance and tells Nate he’s a free man. Moreau’s gone to ground in San Lorenzo, which has no extradition treaties with anyone. Nate just smirks.
- Sophie: What now?
Nate: Now we go get him. In San Lorenzo.
Sophie: Nate, what are we going to do when we get there?
Nate: Finish the job.
Tropes stolen in this job:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Hardison's professional and restrained behavior after being nearly drowned has Moreau chuckling.
- Always Save the Girl: Moreau seems impressed that Nate got the Italian out of the warehouse.
- Auction of Evil: Moreau's setting one up to sell the Ram's Horn.
- Batman Grabs a Gun: After three full seasons of insisting that he doesn't like guns and dismantling every firearm he gets his hands on, Eliot picks up a pair of handguns in order to save Nate and the Italian from Moreau's goons. It clearly doesn't sit well with him afterwards.
- Call-Back:
- Hardison making an EMP gun earlier in the season is how he can recognize the blueprints of the Ram's Horn's capabilities after five seconds of looking at them.
- Parker and Hardison's pretzels talk gets brought up when Parker mentions she's in the mood for pretzels.
- Chekhov's Gun: The files the Italian had Nate swipe when the team was taking down Alexander Moto gets fired as it is revealed to be the secret bank accounts to many governments' wetworks teams and other illicit dealings.
- Concealment Equals Cover: The cardboard boxes Eliot hides behind during the warehouse shootout must be filled with depleted uranium.
- Consummate Professional: Hardison's cover when meeting Moreau is this type of messenger. Even after being nearly killed by Moreau by drowning, he walks out of the pool, wipes his face off and asks Moreau, "What message may I take to my employers?"
- Corrupt Politician: Nate refers to them when he has framed Moreau for their money laundering crimes. The fact they have a fallguy now to take the heat means one less thing they need to worry about.Nate: The one thing I've learned over the past three years is that, well, the only thing more ruthless than a criminal is a politician trying to save his own ass.
- EMP: A bomb large enough to blackout all of D.C.
- Faking the Dead: Done twice.
- First to save Yasmine's life, they tell her that officially she is dead for the time being.
- Then to make it look like Eliot killed Atherton.
- Identifying the Body: The team tries to thwart an international arm dealer's sale of a giant EMP bomb, who at one point has one of his suppliers bumped off. Fortunately, the team is able to fake his death and they cap it off with Sophie, posing as the man's wife, coming in and "identifying" his body with great heaving sobs.
- Implied Death Threat: Atherton's threat to the engineers about their severance packages. Moreau similarly delivers one to Atherton, which he follows through on later in the episode when he demands that Eliot murder Atherton in return for access to his auction.Moreau: Either you're an asset or a liability. I like you, Atherton. Be an asset.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Played for drama when Eliot asks Nate not to tell the others about his shootout with Moreau's thugs. Nate pretends not to know what he's talking about.
- Made of Explodium: Parker seems to think the world is like this. She asks Yasmine if her battery is capable of blowing up. In this case it's justified. Batteries can explode.
- Oh, Crap!: Eliot gets this while surveying a warehouse full of armed guards and realizing his only chance of saving Nate and the Italian is shooting his way out.
- Off Hand Back Hand: Eliot during the shootout. He's firing over one shoulder when a bad guy walks in on his blind side. He shoots the man without looking.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Parker points out that stealing the Department of Defense is treason, which would certainly slow the team down if they get caught. It's the first (and only) time in the entire series that she raises any kind of objection to a crime.
- The Reveal: Eliot used to work for Damien Moreau, who has been the crew's target all season. Previous episodes contained hints about the dangerous lifestyle Eliot lived prior to the beginning of the series, but this is the episode which makes it clear that he's done some really terrible things which cannot be justified by any greater good.
- Ship Tease: Parker decides that she is in the mood for pretzels. Hardison gives a slight smile when she says this.
- Tempting Fate: At the end, Eliot runs at the armed Moreau in a rage and shouts at him, "You got one shot, Moreau!" Moreau smirks and promptly shoots the Italian instead, and escapes while Nate and Eliot are distracted trying to save her.
- This Is Gonna Suck:
- Eliot looking at a warehouse full of Moreau's thugs, all packing guns.
- Hardison has a small one when he realizes how to destroy the bomb will really suck for him.
- Wham Line: "I'm Eliot Spencer". Introducing himself to Moreau's guards tells Hardison and the audience that nothing is as clear as it seems.
- Who Are You?: Moreau demands repeatedly to know who Nate is. Nate never gives him a name, presumably just to mess with him.
- Would Hurt a Child: Moreau's dragon seemed put out that they wouldn't be killing Atherton and his whole family and states this is their usual action when dealing with now useless assets.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Moreau decides Atherton has become a liability to him.
