While the rest of the team is in Tokyo, Parker is laid up with a torn ACL, watching the patrons of the brew pub on the security cameras. When she finds that two of them are planning what appears to be a heist of a nearby jewelry store, she recruits one of the pub's waitresses, Amy, to help her stop it.
Tropes Stolen In This Job:
- Benevolent Boss: Referenced in dialogue. Parker, puzzling over the fact that Amy and the other Brewpub staff consider Hardison "the boss," asks if he's a good boss and if the waitstaff like him. Amy replies that he's "awesome," though "way too smart" to be running a pub.
- Bottle Episode: Takes place solely in the brewery and HQ.
- Character Focus: Shows off Parker's progress in broadening her skillset and finally demonstrating that she can form social bonds without the help of her teammates.
- Comically Missing the Point: Parker, of course.Parker: What we've been doing here? Not super legal.
Amy: RRGH, I knew it!
Parker: Just think of it as more charity work.
Amy: Okay, but my other charity work doesn't involve having a gun pointed at me!
Parker: Exactly! That's what I'm saying! Oh, you meant that as a bad thing. - Continuity Nod:
- In one of the shots during Parker's boredom montage, she's having a conversation with the Parker 2000/"Hardy" safecracking robot from "The Carnival Job."
- Eliot can be seen with the sword Nate and Sophie gave him for Christmas, and (presumably) uses it in an off-screen swordfight.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Parker, naturally.
- "Eureka!" Moment: When K and V start to move before the arrival of the armored truck she thought they were casing this whole time, Parker figures out that they're actually here for Amy. The time the truck arrives just happens to be the same time each day Amy takes the trash into the alley.Parker: This isn't a robbery. It's a kidnapping.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: The thief who delivers the coffee reminds the guy in the van that the job goes down at 2:30... right before we learn that they're not after the armored car, they're after the waitress who makes a trash run at 2:30 every day.
- Foreshadowing: Whereas Hardison's con failed for being far too complex in "The Gold Job" and Eliot had trouble finding a basic hook in "The Gimme a K Street Job", Parker finds a client and foils a kidnapping (and breaks up a relationship where the guy's cheating, sets up lonely star-crossed lovers, and comforts a lonely widower) by herself while sidelined with a torn ACL. She's the one who will end up taking over the team when Nate and Sophie retire.
- Gone Horribly Right: Parker gets Amy to hack the bad guys' cell phones and accidentally hacks every phone in the bar. So naturally she snoops on everyone.
- Handicapped Badass: Even benched with a torn ACL, Parker still ends up climbing through vents and beating down the villains of the week like she normally does.
- The Lost Lenore: Dr. James "Chicken Parm" Robertson recently lost his wife and is in a depression.
- Noodle Incident: The con that the rest of the team is pulling off in Japan. It apparently involved the theft of a gold monkey statue, a katana duel, Hardison dressing up as a general, Eliot pissing off the Emperor by putting the moves on his granddaughter, and a live monkey in a box.
- No "Police" Option: Parker overhears bad guys plotting what she takes to be a jewelry store robbery. Incapacitated, she recruits a waitress to help her thwart the plan. When Amy says they need to call the cops, Parker balks and tells her bringing them in will just cause more people to get hurt. Subverted later when she discovers two patrons are Portland PD officers and orchestrates their involvement in the men's capture. Ironically, one of the officers is the only person to get shot.
- Orphaned Punchline: The end of the joke Hardison tells the monkey.
- Police Are Useless: Or rather, Police Will Complicate Things Unnecessarily. When Amy makes the quite-reasonable suggestion to call the police about the criminal plot they've uncovered, Parker points out that the presence of uniformed officers will cause these nervous armed amateur thieves to panic, which could lead to innocent people getting hurt or killed.
- "Rear Window" Homage: An injured Parker discovers a crime while resting at her home.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Parker quickly realizes the two guys in the brew pub are up to no good, but figures they're thieves looking for a score. Turns out they're kidnappers after Amy, heiress to a multinational company.
- Secretly Wealthy: It turns out Amy is the daughter of an extremely wealthy international business mogul, which is why she's the target and not the armored truck.
- Sherlock Scan: Parker quickly scans the bad guys' car and determines it's a getaway van: quick-release clip on the license plate, spike-immune tires, and a handicap plate that lets them park anywhere.
- Shout-Out: Parker quotes Heat, much to Hardison's delight.
- Trademark Favorite Food: The chicken parm guy. His recently deceased wife always made him chicken parm, and he just can't bear to eat it if it's not made by her, so at the end of the episode Parker and the staff at the bar make him every dish on the menu so he can find something new and maybe make some friends.
