“	We don't play in Eliot's sandwich.	”
— Breanna

The team pulls Harry back into the fold to help a journalist investigating the corrupt president of a small eastern European nation. But when the journalist is grabbed, our team has to infiltrate a London Ball to extract him.

Client

Bradley Simkov

Mark

Pietr Volkov

Summary

The episode starts with Bradley Smikov texting about a meetup while being tailed. Despite his correspondent telling him not to, he runs and gets kidnapped and thrown in a van. Hardison shows up and stops the van with his hacking skills, saving Bradley. Hardison then goes to the New Orleans headquarters, surprising the team, as he’s supposed to be away helping an actor friend set up a satellite. Hardison asks the team for help with Bradley. He tells them that Bradley is a reporter exposing Pieter Vilcov, the dictator president of Alstonia (an Eastern European Country). Pieter has been stealing the country’s funds and antiques and shipping them overseas. Bradley doesn’t have physical proof of his crimes, so he will never stand up in court. Sophie hesitates to take on the job, recognizing they need Harry’s help.

Sophie surprises Harry by showing up at his legal case, and she and the team help Harry wrap it up so that he can lend aid to their job.

Back at the base, Hardison and Breanna argue about the best way to get the legal proof they need. The team head to the airport to get the evidence they need of Pieter’s crimes. Harry and Sophie act as distractions while Eliot and Parker sneak in. At the airport, they meet with Pieter and his daughter, Nadia. They overhear how Pieter wants to bring Nadia out into society to make good relations. Harry uses Sophie’s duchess status to get Peiter to talk to them. The team gets the data they need and leave to celebrate a job well done.

Not long after, they realize that Bradley was kidnapped from the safehouse Hardison hid him in. They receive a video message from the kidnappers and Bradley. Harry recognizes that the kidnappers have Bradley in a basement. The team figures out that the most likely place Bradley is being held is in Pieter’s basement and decide to investigate through his neighbour’s house. The neighbour turns out to be Ralphie Roy, a famous musician. Eliot and Hardison go in and use sonar to investigate Pieter’s basement. Ralphie used to work in the marines and wants to watch Hardison and Eliot with the tech. Sophie recognizes this is bad and decides it’s her time to come in, ripping her shirt and frizzing up her hair. When Sophie knocks on the door, Ralphie instantly recognizes her, calling her Kiki, the same name he used on his album about a girl who broke his heart.

The team infiltrates Nadia’s debutant ball to rescue Bradley. Parker keeps bumping into a waiter at the party, only to realize later that he’s dating Nadia, much to Pieter’s chagrin.

Breanna is able to shut done the security system for a few seconds while Eliot and Hardison break into the basement. They blow up the basement wall with explosives they planted on the other side earlier. On the other side, Sophie convinced Ralphie to host a party filled with cops that immediately arrest Pieter.

Locations

• New Orleans, Louisiana
• London, England

Aliases

• Sophie: Beatrice Campbell- outside legal council, Charlotte Prentiss- Duchess of Hanover, Kiki
• Eliot: Civil engineer, J.R-inspector
• Parker: air hostess, Alice- waitress
• Harry: American Lawyer
• Hardison: Darrin- inspector, Crown Prince Leratodi of Lesotho
• Breanna: Princess Mercedeso of Lesotho

Guest Cast

• Aldis Hodge as Alec Hardison
• Steve Coulter as Ralphie Roy
• Dikran Tulaine as Pietr Volkov
• Josh Breslow  as Bradley Simkov
• Iliana Raykovski as Nadia Volkov
• Chase Steven Anderson as Tohd

Episode Notes

• Hardison shows Bradley a taser he got specially bedazzled for Parker, in which he bedazzled a pretzel. This is calling back to The Double-Blind Job and The Big Bang Job when pretzels were referenced in terms of their relationship
• There is a reference to The French Connection Job, as Hardison got Eliot some truffles
• Sophie mentions Hardison’s “handsome millionaire actor friend”, possibly referencing The Rock, as Aldis Hodge was busy filming Black Adam during this time, which stars Dwayne Johnson.
• Sophie goes by her cover “The Duchess of Hanover, Charlotte Prentiss”, which has often been used in the show.
• They mention plan M, which in the original show was the plan in which Hardison dies.
  • Nate told Hardison in season 5 that he doesn't always die in plan M, just most of the time.
• Hardison and Parker are shown dressed up in Doctor Who paraphernalia (Parker is dressed as the Thirteenth Doctor, and Hardison is shown wearing the Fourth Doctor’s iconic scarf) in a Halloween photo with Eliot.
• Parker's nametag for her waitress cover reads "Alice" Possible her aliases Alice White.

Trivia

• Dikran Tulaine has worked with both Dean Devlin and Noah Wyle in a previous Devlin production by way of The Librarian 3: The Curse of the Judas Chalice (2008)
• The client's name-- Pietr Volkov-- is a reference to a character (Piotr Volkov) from a Doctor Who spin-off novel, "The Tree of Life."