LEVERAGE: The Corkscrew Job

It seems that our evil person of evil this week owns or operates a winery, at least if we can believe the workers on the grapevines as any indication. Nothing like a little take down of corrupt boozers.

The guy who fell on the job died from “heart failure” and his daughter is nervous. She also has a very large check from the winery, and a non-disclosure form. Not a good sign in any way shape or form.

Eliot’s the plant into the mix of people who are picking grapes now. But he’s not so subtle with the name-drop of the daughter’s father. That also, is never good.

Hardison, Nate and Sophie all agree that no company suggests a Non Disclosure unless they have a huge secret. Parker works her way in as a wine intern, and the man who is leading her tour is more interested in increasing productivity than about sharing secrets of how to make good wine.

That man, our evil man of evil, worked as a manufacturer before where there were an equal number of suspicious deaths. His collateral for the loan on the winery is his wine collection, which the team is now going to ruin, and fake.

Stealing a bottle owned by President Thomas Jefferson is a great con in my mind. If only because, well, it’s from a President.

Hardison, you’ve been a Sommelier before in a con, why can’t you be a vintner?

Sophie is equally good as a reporter who is feeding Hardison so that he sounds like the kind of man the owner wants, even if that goes against everything that should be true of a winery.

Watching Hardison boss Parker now is going to make me laugh for the whole episode. Also, when Hardison calls his computer “his precious” I have to giggle. Right in time for The Hobbit this weekend. You may be a geek, but you are not “The Grape Gatsby”, Hardison.

Maddigan’s right hand in the field has a punchable face according to Parker and Eliot. I fully agree.

Sophie’s con is trying to get someone from a free tasting to buy a case of wine. I’m sure she can do it. Trying to con the boss is different, and by setting a different picture she’s been able to get Maddigan to think that the wines are different. She’ll now be selling a different expectation to everyone.

As Parker and Eliot look around the grapes themselves, they discover that what it marked as fertilizer is not that. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to know what that pink liquid is, but I’m pretty sure I know it’s why Sam died at the start of the episode.

Now that Eliot and Parker know that the winery is doing something wrong, and Eliot’s on the case to stop that.

That’s as Sophie works Maddigan with some of his private collection and a story of how CO2 used to get into the winery. Sophie has a button cam and access to some of the very best of Frank’s private collection. There’s a license plate on the wine bottle that they want to steal. Without stealing the bottle now, Hardison has to forge a bottle to replicate that.

Sophie has to plant down in the Jefferson bottle, and she’s doing that by telling a story of a Saudi prince and an old boss.

Eliot manages to drive all the bad “fertilizer” off the truck, much to his colleagues dismay. Turns out that the “fertilzer” is going to cause heart problems, like Sam.

On the other side, the whole team is selling Maddigan on the fake bottle, but that happens just as Parker’s about to wipe the evidence of the fertilizer’s real dangers. Parker can’t seem to stop the wipe from happening, but Hardison arrives just in time to stop it.

Turns out that someone came to visit the team’s client, and one of the pruners is working with the team to take down Maddigan too. Only she has the data that the team needs, and I don’t think she’ll be forthcoming in giving it up without a fight.

Maddigan thinks that Sam’s daughter is trying to shut down the winery, just as the wine auditor is testing the Jefferson bottle. Sophie takes the first test, and kisses her hand before touching the bottle right where the license plate was. (Wait, it wasn’t that it. It was a kiss to the printing to make it look more modern.)

Parker walks over as the second test is being conducted and Parker changes the lens to read a different chemical than should be in the bottle that is 200 years old.

The team’s ally has been found out by Maddigan’s right hand man.

The last test of the bottle involves some some radioactive isotopes and Hardison breaking into a lab.

All of that work and the auditor says that the bottle is genuine.

Just as Maddigan’s guys got to their ally with the information that everyone needs.

Despite getting his bottle authenticated, he’s closing the winery down to try and set up the team’s ally as a crazy person.

Eliot’s at least found the team’s ally and is trying to take down her attackers, but with the air getting thin, I don’t think this is going to end well. Even if Hardison and Parker are on their way.

Parker and Hardison are trying tp take down the some other goons, just as Eliot’s about to lose consciousness. I’m not sure how he’s still standing, but whatever.

Parker and Eliot managed to get the air regulated and Eliot’s save the ally.

Nate starts in now as Maddigan sells the bottle to another, and now the authorities have him arrested.

The winery is now owned by the employees outright, and that’s fine with me.