- A job where the team tries to recover a war orphan for a grieving couple hits close to home for Parker.
- A childless US couple asks help after Luka Vladic, the pre-teen boy they bought naively from ruthless ex-Yugoslavian gangsters, wasn't delivered. Nathan accepts, aware formerly foster-abused orphan Parker is very emotional about the subject. They trace the whole network to Serbia, and conceive a fake B-movie production as a sting. Meanwhile Parker discovers Luka is hidden with many, mostly kidnapped, kids in a warehouse. it's mainly used by a powerful arms-dealer, yet she refuses to abandon any child 'merchandise'.—KGF Vissers
- Belgrade, Serbia, Mt. Carmel Orphanage: After the Mortons tried to adopt in the US, (one charge - in college - for possession ruined any/all chance of adoption through legitimate channels) their last resort was the Serbian orphanage. Soon, they meet and become attached to Luca; but Irina Larenko is running an extortion scam. Her boyfriend, Sergei Obravic, Chechnian separatist and gun runner, is using the orphanage and kids as cover. The crew steals a horror film so they can grab Luca. Parker decides to stick a fork in the entire fake orphan and gun-running plot.—LA-Lawyer
- Belgrade, Serbia A distraught American couple confront a blonde woman and two thugs, asking what they've done with Luka. The goons beat the man up.
Leverage HQ Ford meets with the woman, Mrs. Morton. Her husband is still recuperating. They were trying to adopt Luka from Irina, who so far had bilked them of $120,000. She introduced them to Luka. They don't want the money, they just want the boy.
Ford presents the job to the Levergites. They're concerned about going after a kid. Not as easy to steal as a painting. Parker sees herself in the young orphan. Alec presents the dossier on Irina, a former model and actress, wrapped up with the Russian mob. The adoption scam is like the "Spanish Prisoner" and starts with links through legit adoption websites. Getting the kids is easy, after the war there are tens of thousands of parentless kids. Alec has found her name on an invitation to a party at the American Embassy next week. They pack their bags.
At the Embassy. Parker works the room as a server, while Eliot prepares to woo Irina. Sophie has to wait elsewhere with Nate due to her past conning history with the ambassador. (Something to do with her as a royalty and a trans-Siberian oil pipeline.) Eliot snaps a photo of the man with Irina and sends it to Alec. It pops up quickly on his software as matching the man who picked up the kid from the Mortons. Ford wants Parker to lift the man's wallet while Eliot schmoozes Irina.
The man sidles up to Parker, who freezes but manages to get his name. Nicolas Obrovic. Eliot strikes out quickly with Irina, but Sophie coaches him. Every time she laughs or smiles he should take a nice long sip of champagne, to "anchor the feeling," which he can use later. Nate recognizes some of her moves.
Alec finds info on Obrovic, who relocates families. Nate feeds Parker a line to use but it gets her nowhere. Instead, he's more interested in her, and getting smarmier by the second. She thinks of Luka, and then her own rotten childhood, as Obrovic leans in closer. And then she stabs him with a fork. Pandemonium ensues. She dives off a balcony and escapes. Scrambling as they listen in, Nate and Sophie expect Obrovic and Irina to have a dead drop set up in case something goes wrong, where they'd wait for further instructions.
Nate feeds Eliot a move and Eliot excuses himself, saying he has an early call time. Irina smells movie and quickly he has her address on the promise of a small role in a film he's producing.
Now they need a movie. Five are currently filming locally. They home in on an independent film. They get rid of the director by fake texting him a job for "The Hills Have Eyes 6" and dispatch the producer by draining his bank account.
Nate steps in as the director, doing his best difficult creative type. Eliot meets up with Irina and they cast her as a mother. Nate's puts Parker on the most basic assignment, wanting her to prove her commitment to the plan. Sophie was just supposed to get a two page script ready, but instead she's rewritten and expanded it and cast herself as a nun. (It was supposed to be about NATO troops hunting werewolves.) Nate tries to talk her out of it, saying the plan is just to convince Irina to bring Luka to the set. But he can't bring himself to tell Sophie that she stinks.
The cameras roll. Sophie the nun draws out her death scene, in a totally non-sucky way. Nate tells Eliot that she can act-- when it's an act. They call in Irina. Eliot and Nate argue as they say that the kid who was supposed to play her son didn't show up for work. Nate says they'll just cut the scene. Desperate to stay in the movie, Irina says she has a perfect 10-year-old to fill in. She'll bring him tomorrow.
Using a tracking device in Irina's car, Parker follows to a warehouse with an orphanage sign out front. Inside there are scary men with automatic weapons. Alex tells Parker to get out and she goes through a door. Inside she finds dozens of young, dirty children, some sleeping on the floor. Irina busts in and Parker dives under a bed. Irina gives Luka some clothes and leads him out. On electronic surveillance, Alec tells Parker to get out, but she follows instead. There are new players. Big, scary players who don't seem like kid-lovers. When they leave, Parker looks in the box they were examining. It's filled with big, scary automatic weapons. Orphans and guns and mobsters, oh my!
Away from the orphanage, Parker and Alec realize they're not just dealing with an adoption scam. Parker says they have to bail. Alec tries to convince her that not all foster parents are bad, his "nana" was tough but loved him.
The Leveragites meet. Nate says they have to just focus on Luka. It's too risky to do more. They'll come back for the rest later, after they have time to make a plan. Nobody likes it, but they know he's right. On set the next day, with Irina and Luka, Nate walks her through the scene, in which she'll take Luka to safety behind a barn door and then die a violent bloody werewolf-inflicted death. They roll. Irina is viciously mauled and collapses in a dramatic heap. She lays there, waiting for "cut." But none comes. She looks up. Nate and Luka are gone.
The Leveragites take Luka to meet the Mortons. As they soak up the small moment, Nate realizes Parker isn't there. Alec put a GPS in her shoe after he lost her at the party. She's going back to the orphanage.
Obravic and the scary men conduct their arms deal as Parker sneaks in to the kids and tries to tell them she's there to help. (Instead she tells them she's there to make their tomato shiny.) When she finally gets them to follow with the magic words (Hagen-Daaz), she opens the door and ends up face to face with Obravic. A tussle ensues on the other side of the door, where she gives the big man a whupping. She leads dozens of kids away, near the big men and their guns. Sophie shows up to help. A voice booms that they have the place surrounded and should come out with their hands up. They load the kids into a school bus and drive off, but don't get very far. The men with guns follow and open fire - right at Parker. But she's unhurt. Flashback to Nate and Eliot switching the guns for props. Alec completes the final stunt: the building explodes behind them.
They regroup in safety. Nate has called the nearby World Health Organization, and they'll take the kids. And Irina? Nate mentions the funding that just disappeared.
Flash to the money appearing in her account and police hauling her off.
Sophie checks that Nate got a copy of her death scene. Oops. There was no film in the camera.
Parker thanks Alec for having her back. And she tells Nate they have to make a stop: Hagen-Daaz.
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