“	**** this	”
— A greeting card mockup shown to the documentary film crew.

From TNT: Uncovering a simple embezzlement scam becomes anything but simple when the team becomes part of a documentary shooting at the company they’re trying to save.

The Client

Hal, a recently fired long-time employee, asks Nate and the team to save the Good Cheer Greeting Card Company, the largest employer in Montvalle, MA, from mismanagement and possible embezzlement. Hal believes Fred Bartley, the CEO, is stealing from the company and driving it into the ground.

The Mark

Fred Bartley, the current CEO and grandson of the founder of Good Cheer Card Company. Bartley, a former football player, sees the world through football metaphors. An inept manager, he seems unaware of much of what's going on around him. As the crew works within the company, they realize he lacks the wit to pull off an embezzlement scheme and begin to suspect someone else setting up Bartley to take the blame.

The Con

The Leverage crew infiltrates Good Cheer Greeting Card Company posing as efficiency experts. This allows them to search the office for any evidence of embezzlement or criminal activity which they need to find before Heartfelt agrees to buy Good Cheer out at the end of the week or the deal will fall through. However, their search is impeded by the documentary crew that is filming at Good Cheer and constantly following them, Parker, in particular.

After a search of Bartley's office Eliot and Hardison find no evidence of embezzlement, but do find purchases of color-shifting ink and cotton paper, leading them to believe Bartley is printing counterfeit money. Eventually they realize that Bartley is the fall guy and that the counterfeiter is setting him up. Using the documentary crew's footage they find some of the warehouse workers tampering with the copier, but they don't know enough to lead them back to the mastermind.

The counterfeiter decides to fake a suicide note for Bartley and send it to the printer, to print during the company's presentation to Heartfelt, who is looking to buy Good Cheer and save them from financial ruin. Hardison traces the documents origin and discovers Felicia, the HR director is framing Bartley who has gone missing. Hardison and Eliot go to the roof to save Bartley from warehouse workers working for Felicia, Nate and Sophie stall the Heartfelt Executives and Parker plants a camera on Felicia. Felicia attempts to frame Bartley, is captured on tape by Hardison and her scheme is exposed to the whole company and the Heartfelt executives. Heartfelt and Good Cheer reach an agreement and launch a new greeting card line inspired by Bartley's inability to comprehend anything but sports metaphors.

Guest Cast

• Fred Bartley (Josh Randall): Inept CEO of Good Cheer Greeting Card company. A former football star, Bartley sees the world in terms of football and peppers his speech liberally with football jargon.
• Gunter Hanzig (Peter Stormare): A German documentary film-maker filming a fly-on-the-wall documentary about Good Cheer. Hanzig uses the slowly lowering water level in the water-cooler as a metaphor for the company. He also seems to be attracted to Parker, flirting with her throughout the episode, rather inappropriately several times.
• Felicia Von Riker (Blake Lindsley): Head of Human Resources. Felicia gives the appearance of being the jovial colleague, making brownies and trying to improve the company, but may have other motives.

Episode Notes

• The episode is filmed in the style of Ricky Gervais' BBC "mockumentary" The Office, which ran for 14 episodes. Gervais later adapted the series for NBC, where it has run for eight seasons and nearly 150 episodes. The American series is set in the office of the Scranton, PA branch of paper manufacturer Dunder Mifflin. Shot using a single camera in the manner of a real documentary, it follows the lives of perpetually clueless office manager Michael Scott and his quirky staff.
• Swedish actor-musician Peter Stormare plays documentary filmmaker Gunter Hanzig. Stormare has a long list of film credits in both the U.S. and Europe. He is arguably best known in the U.S. for his role as murderer Gaear Grimsrud in the 1996 film Fargo, in which he disposes of the body of his partner (played by Steve Buscemi) by feeding it into a wood chipper.
• Nate's character, Joe Meeker, is an homage to P.I. Jim Rockford's favorite alias, good ol' boy Jimmy Joe Meeker. Jimmy Joe's persona found its way into another of Nate's aliases, loud-mouth attorney Jimmy Papadakalis (The Lost Heir Job). Elements of Jimmy Joe's personality can also be seen in Nate's aliases Bob Gibson (The Two-Horse Job) and A.J. Lucas (The Boost Job).
• The name Gunter Hanzig is likely an homage to critically acclaimed German director Werner Herzog, who is most known for his documentaries.
• This episode features a side story with Hardison and Elliot feuding over a sandwich. Elliot suspects Hardison ate his sandwich when he left it in the refrigerator at the office; Hardison meanwhile asserts he did not eat the sandwich. At the end of the episode, we learn that Hardison did indeed eat the sandwich, but did not tell Elliot for fear of injury. This side story provides a satirical insight into typical office drama. It also highlights Eliot's culinary skills: his so-called "forgettable" (but in fact, delicious) sandwich is on an everything bagel with thinly sliced turkey that is pan-seared with sweet Maui onions, then havarti-dill cheese & sliced heirloom tomatoes are added, all with a homemade garlic & onion cream cheese spread. As Hardison finally admits, "The boy can cook... he can throw down!" The ending scene reveals that he did take the sandwich (which he is eating). However, it is on bread, not a bagel (which is most likely production error).
• Felicia from HR's full name appears on the name plaque on her desk as Felicia Van Riker. This is a reference to director Jonathan Frakes, who played Commander William Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
• While pitching her "Eskimo Kisses" line of cards, Parker uses American Sign Language (ASL) including the signs for Eskimo, day, and thank you.

Episode Media