- The team uses a PR executive's own notoriety against him to bring him down.
- The team wants to take on Reed Rockwell, a public perception manager who targeted Ed Kelly, an old pal of Nate. Hardison calls Rockwell a ninja assassin; he moves very quickly and stealthily and has no online footprint. All the team knows is where he gets his coffee. So, how would Nate ruin Nate? Push him out of the shadows and ruin his anonymity. Reed Rockwell, Venti Vigilante, meet Andy Warhol ... and get your 15 minutes of fame.—LA-Lawyer
- Inside the Crisis Center office after hours. A man checks with his lackey to see if he had any trouble planting evidence on the State's Attorney. He mocks up a photo of a man with a drink in his hand, blood-shot eyes and a girl draped around him.
Cut to the State's Attorney having lunch with Nate and Sophie. He and Nate grew up together. He admits he had a drug problem, but says he's never tried to hide that. Nate has the photo mocked up by Reed Rockwell, who's doing PR for the opposition. There was also a bottle of vicodin planted in his office.
Nate orders his third drink. Nate assures his friend Ed that he has the situation under control.
Back at the HQ, the rest of the team reports they can't find dirt on Rockwell, but he creates plenty. He was rumored to have taken down a congressman by faking a plagiarism charge. Hardison admires his skill.
They know where he gets his morning coffee and that's it.
They can't ruin his reputation because he's so under-the-radar. Nate suggests making him famous, then discrediting him.
Eliot and Parker fake a purse snatching right as Rockwell walks by, but he doesn't take the bait and keeps walking. Sophie tries letting a stroller roll down the street by Rockwell but he walks away instead of stopping it. Nate concludes it's going to be harder than he thought to make Rockwell into a hero.
Eliot and Sophie go into a coffee store. Hardison complains that he has no idea what he's doing. Rockwell comes in and orders a fancy coffee as Nate watches on surveillance.
Hardison busts into the coffee shop with a gun and a mask, holding the place up. Rockwell tries to sneak out, but Hardison stops him. Rockwell suggests that Sophie would make a much better hostage than he would. Eliot gets behind Rockwell and bumps him into Hardison, who gets knocked over and runs off.
Nate's prepping to have Sophie stick with Rockwell for his accolades, but he jumps in his car and drives off.
Hardison hacks into YouTube and rigs millions of hits for the video. Sophie goes on the news praising him as a hero.
The next day he gets free coffee at the shop. When he passes by a construction site, Eliot leads them in a round of applause. Parker chats him up at a bar, inviting him to a party and getting his phone number.
Nate goes to Rockwell's office posing as a media consultant. Rockwell's about to throw him out but there's a crowd of paparazzi at his door.
Nate tells Rockwell he has him booked to give a motivational speech that night on ordinary heroism. Rockwell asks his guy to run a background check on Nate's cover ID.
They think they have him hooked.
Sophie thinks Nate is pushing hard because he wants to take down Rockwell, not just help his friend. Parker and Eliot look through the motivational speech options around town so they can borrow a crowd while Hardison makes up a cover ID for Nate.
They find a speech featuring an old guy who just donated a kidney to his best friend. Sophie greets him and steals his glasses. Sophie leads the 80 year old man onto the stage, warning him that the lights are going to be very bright.
He's in an empty auditorium, but can't tell because they have taped crowd noise and he has no glasses.
Nate gives Rockwell a speech written by Hardison, telling him that the people want to hear him because he's on the brink of having everything he ever wanted.
Rockwell goes out and says "you can be a hero to" and gets applause and is sucked in. He kills it.
Nate tells him next he has to do news interviews. They break and meet back later at Rockwell's office. Nate tells him there are interviews coming up and they'll have to do a background check. Rockwell seems concerned.
Nate comes downstairs hungover in the morning. Hardison tells him Rockwell just withdrew $25,000 from his account in small bills.
Eliot and Sophie follow Rockwell's lackey with the suitcase to a town 20 minutes away. They hear a woman in a trailer telling him to get off the porch. As he storms his way in, Eliot runs to help. He fights the man off and sends him running back to the car with the suitcase.
Eliot sticks around to fix Emma's broken screendoor. Emma tells Sophie that she went to high school with Reed and one night when she and her boyfriend and another girl were all drinking they got in a car accident and the girl was killed.
Nate guesses that Rockwell was driving and covered it up because he's not mentioned in news articles about the crash. The woman confirms that Rockwell was driving and she even had a picture she took from the backseat proving it. But when she took it to the police her boyfriend showed up at the wheel, so he was the one who went to jail for vehicular manslaughter.
Nate finds the photo in an article. Hardison says to swap it Rockwell would have had to replace the roll of film with identical pictures except that one, which is hard but not impossible. Nate sends Eliot and Parker to get the doctored negative from the police archive.
They head there and Hardison distracts the woman at the desk while Parker sneaks around looking for it. She finds it.
Back at HQ, Sophie thinks they're losing control of the job and Elilot thinks they're being reckless. Nate tells Eliot to take the rest of the job off.
Sophie thinks Nate is pushing so hard because Rockwell reminds him of everything he hates about himself.
Hardison goes over the negatives but says they won't be able to prove they were altered so they can't pin the car accident on him.
Back at the office, Rockwell yells at his lackey for messing up the payoff. The lackey tells him he got beat up.
Emma calls Rockwell, telling him she found a photo he missed and she wants $250,000. Sophie coaches her as she sets up a meet with Rockwell, telling him he has an hour to bring the cash.
Nate strolls into his office as Rockwell is melting down, drinking and denying he was driving that night. Nate tells Rockwell that maybe the payment isn't such a bad idea, since Emma will go away. He assures him he'll make that money back in a month of speaking engagements.
Later, Rockwell tells his lackey to make sure Emma doesn't get away.
At the meet, Rockwell gets in the back of the car as directed. It races off and he notices that Parker is behind the wheel. Rockwell is protesting as Parker races down the street when an SUV plows into the car.
Rockwell comes to and thinks Parker is dead. He takes the case and runs off. Back at his office he calls Nate, but is greeted by police.
In interrogation with the police, they show footage of the crash that clearly shows Rockwell getting out from behind the wheel of the SUV.
Flash to Eliot meeting the lackey before he gets in the car and breaking his arm to get the keys. Then Eliot drove the car to hit Parker, who was unharmed.
Hardison manipulates the video to put Rockwell behind the wheel.
The police show Rockwell records of hundreds of text and calls to Parker.
Flash to Hardison cloning his cell after Parker gets his number at the bar.
The police think he was stalking her. He says he was only in the car because he was being blackmailed by her and says the cash in his briefcase will prove it.
They open his briefcase but only see the photo from the car accident 14 years ago.
Flash to Eliot getting out after causing the crash and swapping the briefcases while Rockwell is out cold. The photo has now been altered again to show Rockwell behind the wheel 14 years ago. Rockwell is protesting he was set up when the State's Attorney comes in.
Cut to the Leveragers at the bar watching a news report about the State's Attorney freeing Emma's boyfriend who was in jail for the accident he didn't cause. Hardison mentions the $250,000 is waiting for Emma at her house.
Nate admits he was reckless, but says that it worked.
When the team leaves, Nate gets a call from a man (Leon Rippy) who Nate guesses was the one bugging his apartment. He asks Nate if he wants to take over some outstanding contracts of Rockwell's. Nate declines. The man chuckles at the idea that Nate honestly thinks he's one of the good guys.
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