Wait a minute. This guy makes his money on the backs of children and nobody goes after him because he feeds the CIA a bunch of names?
”
— Eliot Spencer
The Leverage team must steal diamonds from the a vault belonging to Alexander Moto, a corrupt African official planning to succeed his brother, the country's president. Hardison must face the music when the operation requires he play the violin with a symphony orchestra.
Jane Akinyemi, a reporter for The West African Newswire. Jane has written an article on Moto that reveals his involvement in the blood diamond market, and is being followed by Moto's men. Jane seeks the team's assistance when the Justice department abruptly stops an investigation of Moto for which she provided evidence.
The Mark
Alexander Moto, the younger brother of the president of Wadata is a wealthy, politically corrupt businessman. Educated in the United States and based in Boston, he maintains little connection with his home country. Moto deals in blood diamonds, which he uses to fund his lavish lifestyle, and has begun to peddle influence in his home country, where he plans to return with an eye to taking over the government.
Alexander Moto, brother of President Simeon Moto of Wadata, meets with investors and assures them that his brother doesn't have the will to make the country attractive to investors. When the businessman wonder if Moto can succeed, Moto says he's making an effort to eliminate any threats. Meanwhile reporter Jane Akinyemi from West Africa Newswire is trying to call Moto when she is almost killed in a hit-and-run accident. At the McRory Pub, Eliot and Hardison question each other on why they are there. Eliot says he's here due to the client almost killed in a hit-and-run attack while Hardison is checking on what Nate does so he would one day run his own crew since he has all their skills - hacking, stealing, grifting. Eliot points out that Hardison doesn't have the hitter skills Eliot does, to which Hardison replies he has a dog for that. Nate is surprised to hear that Hardison wants to run his own crew one day and tells him that he can't do what Nate does. Before he explains further, Jane comes in, followed soon after by two African bodyguards. Eliot drives off the guards without much difficulty, and asking Hardison whether his dog can do that. Jane explains to them that Moto uses children to mine for diamonds before smuggling them into the US, laundering them, and using them to finance his bid to beat Simeon in the next election. Jane admits that the Justice Department has refused to follow up on her story despite her having proof, and Nate says he can find out why.
To get more information about Moto, Nate visits the Italian. She explains to him that Moto's a paid informant for the CIA, identifying terrorists that are really his political rivals. Before she leaves, she invites Nate for dinner but Nate refuses, worrying he'll get killed. Nate's plan is to cripple Moto by stealing his diamonds. After some investigation, Parker and Hardison find his vault at the basement of the Raines Concert Hall. Hardison then finds that Moto purchased a Stradivarius violin for $4.5 million, giving them a way in. Realizing that Moto isn't well-respected in Wadata, Hardison and Eliot create a fake photo that indicate Moto was drinking and insulting the people of Wadata and then make a fake newscast showing protests from the people of Wadata. Moto and Simeon argue over video chat about the bad press, and afterwards Moto blames one of his guards for not taking care of Jane. Enter Sophie in a new cover, who claims to be able to solve his problems as "Perception Management." What she suggests is to make him a hero by helping an individual rather than a big showy display that only proves his wealth. She shows a picture of 'Temi' (Hardison), saying that he's a taxi driver that emigrated from Wadata with a dream to attend the world-famous New England Conservatory to study the violin. Her proposition is to make his dreams come true.
As he prepares his equipment to recon the vault, Hardison mentions that he did play the violin as a kid, but stopped when he discovered computers. Hardison asks Nate why he thinks he can't do what Nate does. Nate doesn't answer. Sure enough, Moto shows him the Stradivarius in his vault. Watching through a button camera, Nate and Parker check out the vault. Parker tells Nate that the vault is unbreakable since there are no security cameras, meaning it uses motion sensors and Hardison can't hack it. Nate asks Parker to check the log to see when they shut it off and why. It turns out that when the orchestra above plays the 1812 Overture, the vault is shut off because the vibrations would set it off. Nate then tells Sophie about a new plan, having Sophie suggest to Moto that Hardison should play the violin for the concert since his brother is coming to visit in two days. Hardison insists that he can't do it, but Nate presses ahead anyway. Sophie comes in and tells Hardison that he's going to play "Scheherazade" by Korsakov (which ends with one of the most difficult violins solos) and has a rehearsal in two hours using Moto's violin. As he leaves, Sophie questions Nate if he has picked up any new skills during his time in prison but Nate avoid the question. While Hardison attempts to skip the rehearsal, Parker, Nate, Eliot, and Sophie try to find a way to open the door after the motion sensors go off. As Hardison practices at the concert hall, Parker does a walkthrough and tries (badly) to cheer up Hardison.
The next day, Sophie is introduced to Simeon by Moto. Moments before the concert starts, Nate is called to the props room by the Italian to steal an envelope from Moto's safe that links to Damien Moreau for her. The concert starts in full and the team moves into action with Nate timing the concert to make sure the musicians provide sound cover. Eliot fights a guard to cover Parker brute-forcing the combination on a door keypad and rigging some explosives. They blow a hole through the roof of the vault, bypassing a retinal scanner that they wouldn't have time to hack. Nate, Parker, and Eliot manage to take the diamonds but stop their tracks when Hardison's solo starts. All of them are affected at hearing the music. Unfortunately, once it ends, the motions sensors turn back on, and the alarm in the vault goes off - with Nate, Eliot, and Parker inside. Moto, Simeon, and their security team arrive in the vault. Moto brags about his security, but Nate tells Simeon a story about Moto trying to assassinate him by pinpointing the last-minute concert that Moto arranged, and suggesting that Moto wailing over Simeon's bleeding body live on the radio, would instantly bond himself to the thousands listening back home.
The Reveal
Moto laughs at him until Nate pulls out the list of terrorist names in Africa that Moto supplied to the CIA. Moto thinks it's a joke but Simeon believes it, knowing about the rumors about him and asks him to open it. Moto refuses as he says it isn't his until one of the security guards mentions there's a rifle in the projection room with a clean print on the scope. Before the performance Sophie brought a camera bag through the security inspection and one of Moto's mooks touched the lens, which was actually a scope for the rifle that Sophie planted. Simeon believes it was Moto's and has him arrested, bowing to Nate as they leave without further issues. Back at the prop room, the Italian asks if Nate opened it but Nate just tosses it to her. He points out that the envelope isn't a link to Moreau but to her, which is why she had him steal it.
Back at the Pub, Jane thanks the team about Moto's arrest. Nate adds that the assassination charges aren't going to stick against Moto, but it was enough to warrant a search at his vault containing the smuggled diamonds, crushing any hopes of Moto being president. Nate then gives her a check to use for the betterment of Wadata, having sold the Stradivarius. Hardison and Parker are talking at the bar, Hardison saying he can't believe that he could play that well. Nate reveals that he hypnotized Hardison and made him play as he did as a teenager, the last piece he played being Scheherazade. Hardison is upset, saying that hypnotism is done to the mark, but not your own crew. Nate reveals that this is supposed to be done, as you need to 'push every buttons' to get the job done, and this is what Hardison doesn't have but Nate has. Hardison angrily and Parker follows him to comfort him as Sophie comments that he likes being alone before leaving Nate all alone.
Eliot: Guy Hamilton (reporter), Dex (maintenance worker)
Sophie: Kristi Connelly
Hardison: Temi
Parker: Kathy (maintenance worker)
Episode Notes
The episode features excerpts from Scheherazade (Op. 35), arguably Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's most popular work. Composed in 1888, the symphony consists of four movements, each named for a tale from the Arabian Nights. The movements are tied together by two unifying themes: the Sultan's theme, played by the brass and Scheherazade's theme, played on the violin. The final violin solo tells the tale of Scheherazade's final story and the Sultan's peaceful night's sleep.
In Scheherazade (Op. 35), the violin has solo sections in all four movements; the first of these occurs around 40 seconds into the piece in the first movement. This contrasts what the show implies, in that the solo violin plays only at the end. Even if, in the concert, only the fourth and final movement was played (which is what we hear in the episode), there is still a violin solo at the beginning as well as the end.
Scheherazade is a legendary Persian queen, one of the many wives of King Shahryar. Having learned his first wife was unfaithful to him, and convinced that all women were incapable of being faithful, Shahryar determined to marry a virgin each morning, then kill her at night. Scheherazade, who loved Shahryar, volunteers to marry him, equally determined to survive and make Shahryar fall in love with her. To accomplish this, she began telling him stories every night for 1001 nights, each night leaving the story incomplete so Shahryar would have to wait for the next night to hear the end. At the end of the 1001 nights, when Scheherazade tells the King she has no more tales to tell, Shahryar realizes he has fallen in love with her, and makes her his queen.
The fictional Wadata is a coastal west African county, which may be based in part on West African nations such as Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) or Sierra Leone. Both countries have experienced recent political instability with factions funding civil war through the trade in blood (aka conflict) diamonds, often mined by young children making a few dollars a day to do so. These small West African countries are former European colonies grabbed during the "Scramble for Africa" following exploration and the discovery of diamonds in the late 1800s, when nearly all of Africa was colonized by France, Britain, Belgium and other European countries. Most are rich in a range of minerals, with post-colonial economies dependent upon mining. The Wadatan national colors and flag are suggestive of the flag adopted between 2010 and 2012 by the modern east African nation of Malawi.
The Italian makes an appearance as part of the Damien Moreau arc. In this episode, she forces Nate to steal evidence related to Moreau from one of Moto's lockers. The evidence as it turns out, were documents linking her to Moto's diamond money laundering.
Trivia
This episode includes the reappearance of Sophie's alias Kristy Conolly, an expert in PR first seen in The Miracle Job. This character allows the New Zealand born/British raised Bellman to use her natural Kiwi accent.
Nnamdi Asomugha, who played Moto's security guard, is a cornerback for the NFL's Oakland Raiders (as of the time of production) and Philadelphia Eagles. He is American-born, but of Nigerian descent.
Eliot retrieves the first two digits of a six digit code, the latter four numbers are not repeated. Parker says this will take time to punch in every possibility. There would be 24 possibilities for this code based on what they know.
The reporter Guy Hamilton, played by Eliot, was named for Mel Gibson's character in The Year of Living Dangerously.
The decorations seen in the background when Nate talks to the Italian during the concert are from the "Sciencical" in The Fairy Godparents Job.
According to the check that Nathan hands to the client, "Leverage Associates" is incorporated in Miami, Florida. The check is made out for five hundred thousand dollars. Assuming they sold the Stradivarius violin for its stated $4.5 million value, the Leverage crew made $4 million.
Hardison says he played the violin until he was 14, roughly ten years ago. That would make him approximately 24 years old in this episode.
Differences in Spanish Dub
The title El Caso del Concierto translates to The Concert Job.
