Leverage Episode 1.11 The Juror #6 Job

Three years ago, Ernesto and Gloria Vargas were happily married. Late one night, Ernesto was up studying for night school and took a pill called FastLife, an energy supplement, to help him stay awake. Soon after Gloria went to bed, he collapsed in their kitchen clutching his chest and calling for his wife. . .

Present day.

The Leverage crew bursts into headquarters berating Parker after their latest job. Apparently, she took some pretty insane risks to get Eliot, Nathan and Sophie into a building and it almost led to them getting decapitated by an elevator. She denies that it was even close, but Hardison, who was at his post at his computer the entire time, says the video makes it looks like they were seconds away from being cut off at the neck. Parker stomps off into her office and Sophie follows to scold her. The crew doesn't appreciate her taking those kinds of risks when they're involved; if she wants to do that on her own time, fine, but when they're on a job and they say stop, she'd better come to a screeching halt.

Parker emerges and tosses a letter addressed to "Alice White" on the conference room table. It's obviously not hers. Oh, but it is, Hardison corrects. Alice White is one of the aliases he created for her. Alice is a vegetarian, bookkeeper, and had a wild time at her sister's wedding in Phoenix. If Parker wants more information, she should check out Alice's Facebook page. She might not have time to do this, though-it seems that the letter was sent to inform Alice that she has jury duty. Damn, Hardison is good.

Yeah, well, if he's so good, Parker says he'll be able to get her out of going. She begins walking out of the room, but Nathan says no. Jury duty requires a person to follow instruction and, Sophie points out, consider other people's points of view. While Eliot has his reservations about letting Parker go because, after all, there will be normal people there, Nathan doesn't relent. Alice White will be reporting for jury duty.

Sitting in the jury box, Parker/Alice listens as Paul Richards, the lawyer for the plaintiff, Gloria Vargas, goes through his opening statement. He explains that Ernesto Vargas was a hardworking, dedicated father of two. He was a warehouse manager who was also going to night school. In order to stay up at night to study, he would take FastLife, which is promoted as an "all natural" energy booster. Unfortunately, these pills are what led to his fatal heart attack. Richards is there to not only prove that FastLife led to Ernesto's death, but show beyond doubt that William Quint, the defendant and CEO of Live Herbally, the company that makes FastLife, knew of the health risks involving the supplement when he put it on the market.

After Richards finishes his statements, a juror named Peggy leans over to Parker/Alice and says she hopes the rest of the trial is this exciting. Parker/Alice tells her she smells like gravy. The no-nonsense Judge Kerry Durham smacks her gavel to bring them to order and asks if Henry Louis, Quint's lawyer, is ready to make his statement. Louis rises from the defendant's table to speak, but touches his hand to his ear before he gets into his speech. Parker/Alice notices this and leans in for a closer look. . .

Odd, Louis is wearing a communication earbud just like the Leverage crew wears when they're on a job. . .

In it, a woman speaks from a warehouse filled with TV monitors showing the courtroom. Flunkies mill about with papers, files and surveillance equipment. Very high tech-and expensive-stuff. She tells Louis to say the statement exactly as they practiced. His words were specifically tailored for this jury.

As this mystery woman coaches him, he tells the jury that it's a common to think that future tragedies can be prevented if someone, anyone, can be held accountable. But not all tragedies can be prevented. When judgment is rushed to try and place blame, lives can be ruined and a man's life's work can get destroyed. He looks at Quint when he says this.

Always the perceptive one, Parker/Alice notices a video camera lens hidden in the briefcase sitting on the defendant's table. She looks directly into it for a moment and the mystery woman doesn't like this. Who's juror number six? One of her young flunkies says it's Alice White, a bookkeeper. She's been zoning in and out all morning, so she just might be confused. The mystery woman doesn't like this-confused people are dangerous to their operation, especially when they think they know something.

Back at headquarters, Hardison is watching football on several of the conference room screens. He's explaining how he's managed to feed DirectTV's Sunday NFL Ticket into his video wall to Nathan, who is completely into it. Sophie says she thinks it's funny-American football is kind of like her native land's rugby, except for the pads and helmets they wear so they don't get hurt. This is enough to get Hardison riled up, but before he can counter, Parker walks into the room on a mission. She stands in front of the screens and spills:

She thinks there's something dirty going on with the trial she's involved in and believes Gloria Vargas, who's already lost her husband, is going to get hurt even worse. They should get involved. Nathan who, along with Hardison, isn't thrilled about his football watching getting interrupted, tells her that this probably isn't the case at all. It's just a boring trial and she's making something into nothing. Parker, really not wanting to be brushed off, frantically explains that the defendant's lawyer had an earbud just like theirs AND had a camera in his briefcase. Hardison gets defensive-their earbud coms are one-of-a-kind because he designed them. Nobody else could have a set. Again, Nathan tells her that it's nothing. She's attempting to make her jury duty more exciting than it actually is. Knowing she's lost the argument, Parker exits the room completely flustered and frustrated.

After she leaves, Sophie points out that Parker's never asked for their help before and walks out behind her, leaving Hardison looking at Nathan silently. Nathan defends himself, saying there was a reason he made Parker do jury duty-she's a loose cannon. Hardison comes to her defense by telling an anecdote from his own life: Growing up, he lived with a foster mother who was a Jehovah's Witness. She'd make him get dressed up and come with her to go door to door spreading the Word. That's he learned how to talk to people. Parker never had that. Yes, she can jump off of skyscrapers and do all of that fancy acrobatic stuff, but she clams up when it comes time to talk to people. Nathan should give her a break.

When Hardison finishes telling his story, Eliot comes into the room with his own beer, eager to start watching some football. Nathan notices Parker off in her office and tells Eliot that he needs him to go check something out with her. Okay, cool. He starts to crack open his first beer, but before he can do so, Nathan says they need to go now. Ticked off, Eliot storms off, but returns moments later to grab his beer-he doesn't want Nathan mooching while he's gone.

Outside of the aforementioned warehouse, Quint strolls up to the door and is let in. Parker and Eliot watch this happen from across the way and move to sneak in.

Inside, flunkies mill about looking at information about the case. The centerpiece of their work is several bulletin boards displaying countless pieces of research on all of the jurors on the case. Quint walks in and the mystery woman, whom he refers to as Ms. Earnshaw, tells him he's late. He comes up with a weak excuse about having just spent eight hours sitting on a plastic chair while some two-bit lawyer called him a murderer. On the level above the two of them, Eliot snaps a photo of Earnshaw with his phone, sends it to Hardison, and tells him to find out who she is.

Down below, Quint says he might as well settle the case out of court at this point, but Earnshaw tells him it's not his decision to make. He counters and says if she wants to buy his company, then buy it. If not, then don't. His ass in on the line, though and-

Before he can finish, Earnshaw interrupts. The only thing on the line is his company. Sure, he could lose that. However, if this case doesn't go her way, Earnshaw says she will lose everything. Winning is the only option. If Quint goes behind her back to settle the case, she promises to bury him.

Up above, Parker hooks wires into the electrical system of the warehouse. Eliot comments on all of the surveillance equipment they have down there-it probably cost a fortune. Parker tells him that the jurors were told that Quint's company is small. The money must be coming from somewhere else. She connects the final wire and, voila, the video feed Earnshaw is having sent from the courtroom is now also being sent to Hardison's video wall in the Leverage conference room. He's impressed at what he sees-not only has Earnshaw pirated the court's security camera feeds, but they've also added their own cameras. That's exactly what Nathan would've done, their fearless leader points out. They have surveillance not only from several points in the courtroom, but in the jury room, as well. They also get their first glimpse of Earnshaw because a camera is fixed inside of the warehouse. She stands over a chessboard, deep in thought, then makes a move.

That night, the crew reassembles in the conference room because they have a new client. Nathan gives a nod to Parker because, after all, she was the one who sniffed this one out. Gloria Vargas is suing William Quint's Life Herbally for the wrongful death of her husband. It should be an open-and-shut case, but Quint has help from Tobey Earnshaw, of Earnshaw Pharmaceuticals. Her father founded the company and remains CEO, but she's next in line. So why does she care about Quint's comparatively tiny company?

Well, without telling her father or the board of directors, she put $20 million into research and development into Live Herbally, hoping to one day buy Quint out. If Live Herbally loses the case, many many more lawsuits will fall from the sky and the company will go toxic. Hence, the buyout will fall through and Earnshaw will be screwed.

In order to save a company she knows sells a product that kills people, Earnshaw is going to destroy Gloria Vargas. So, they need make sure Gloria wins the case, right?

Wrong. Nathan says that's not possible. . .

They've gotten into the game too late and wouldn't be able to pull that off. Their only hope is to con Quint into settling out of court. Parker reminds Nathan that Earnshaw took that option off of the table. Doesn't matter, they need to get it back on the table.

At that moment, one of the screens starts blinking. It shows the juror list-as it turns out Earnshaw ran a credit check on Alice White, Parker's alias. Eliot knows this game. Earnshaw is planning on buying herself a jury. Their only option then is to steal it first. . .

The next morning, the crew assembles in the conference room before Parker goes to the courthouse. Nathan goes through their plan by referencing chess. There are three stages to a chess match-the opening, middle and end game. In the opening, the goal is to take control of the board, line up the attack and protect the king (he pauses here to point at an image of Quint) who is the weakest piece. Earnshaw has already overpowered the Vargas defense and plans on buying a juror-that's a pretty bold opening strategy. They have to break her momentum. Parker's job will be to stall the trial by getting the other jurors to trust her through compliments, gestures of good will, and the like. Nathan tells her she'll be fine and she nods not completely convinced in her ability. She leaves.

Flash to a scene of an older juror showing Parker/Alice photos of her grandchildren. She does a decent job saying the kids look cute, except for the one who looks like a "dog in a baby suit." Parker laughs; the grandmother does not. This might not be as easy as Nathan assumes. . .

Back at headquarters, Nathan tells Hardison and Eliot to figure out what Earnshaw's line of attack is and uncover who her pawn on the jury is. Hardison mentions that he has financial traces on all of the jurors. But what if the Earnshaw's payment is delivered in cash? Hardison doesn't have an answer for this, so Nathan sends Eliot and him to go digging for answers in the trash outside of each juror's home. When he finds himself knee deep in dumpster garbage, Eliot realizes that this Leverage stuff isn't always glamorous.

Nathan only has one simple direction for Sophie: Go after their king-Quint.

And, oh, does she ever.

In Quint's office, Sophie introduces herself as Olivia Smithe-Patel, Chief Marketing Officer of Mumbai International Ltd. Quint points out that she's Indian; she tells him half Indian, half British. He delighted at this, as he's a big fan of Eastern philosophies. His office even looks like one big Zen garden. Sophie/Olivia tells him that her company is looking to branch out from prescription medications to the herbal supplement market and acquiring his company seems like the wisest move in order to accomplishment this. He tells her that this is not a possibility-he already has an offer. No, he has a joke on the table, she tells him before handing him some papers. Now he has an offer. He reads through what's in his hands and can't believe what he sees. Yes, Mumbai International would buy him out, but he would get to keep stock options and a controlling stake in the company. This is much different than what Earnshaw is offering him and her company's history proves it. The CEOs of every business Earnshaw has bought out are ousted and put into early retirement soon after the acquisition. Simply put, Tobey Earnshaw will kick Quint out of his own office after she takes over. Mumbai International won't do this-they prefer to keep the man that built the company. Sophie/Olivia has Quint at full attention and he wants to talk numbers. How much money is she putting on the table to buy him out?

In the Zen garden sitting on his desk, she writes $100,000,000. Quint is blown away to the point of disbelief, but Sophie/Olivia is an extremely convincing person. She's quite serious about getting into business with him.

Later back at headquarters, Hardison reports that Quint is on the hook to Nathan. He went to the real Mumbai International's website to check out Sophie/Olivia. Thanks to Hardison, her profile and photo appeared on the site, so in Quint's eyes, she's legit. Nathan is pleased. Did he and Eliot find anything in the garbage? Yep. The jury foreman, Andrew Higgins, had an envelope from the US State Department that contained a passport, a receipt for two tickets to Fiji, and wrappers to stacks of cash. It's seems safe to say that Earnshaw bought off the foreman of the jury.

In another room, Sophie attempts to help Parker with her people skills since it didn't go very well the first time around. She employs Eliot's help and hands him an apple. She gives Parker an orange and tells her to convince Eliot that he wants her fruit instead of his. In true Parker fashion, she manages to enrage Eliot with her shaky ability to deal with others, yet not completely fail at the task. She walks out of the room after telling Eliot that she put a razorblade in the apple, he believes her, and she tosses him the orange.

The following day, Parker/Alice makes her way to the jury box and Nathan tells her, through her earbud, to make the foreman go away. As she shuffles past other jurors, she makes sure to say excuse me and give each one a pat on the back as she goes by. They seem to really appreciate this-maybe she's not so bad at this stuff after all.

The jurors have lunch in the jury room and Parker/Alice makes sure to sit next to the foreman. She asks Peggy for the time and she obliges, except, uh-oh, her watch is gone. Then the granny juror realizes her locket is missing. Another juror notices that his wallet is gone. As each juror discovers an absent article of jewelry, clothing or the like, Parkier/Alice "accidentally" squirts mustard all over the foreman, causing him to jump up out of his seat. When he does, all of the jurors' missing possessions come tumbling out of his suit coat. Who the hell does this guy think he is? The jurors grab their stuff as a security guard comes in to lead the foreman away, who is pleading that he didn't steal any of that. What happened?

Parker did.

As she walked through the jury box earlier, her saying excuse me when she got up into the other jurors' personal space was a diversion-she was really pickpocketing and stealing their possessions. Planting them on the foreman was the easy part.

As she hands everybody's things back, Parker/Alice is a bit mortified when Peggy says that she should become the new foreman. Everybody else cheers at this idea, so she has no chance to back out of it-she's the new foreman.

Earnshaw watches all of this take place, of course, and calls Quint to report it to him. He, of course, isn't thrilled and calls her out, saying she told him the trial was in the bag. Oh, it is. She's where she is today because she always has a contingency plan. Earnshaw hangs up on him and calls Richards, Gloria's lawyer, to tell him about some "exciting" retirement opportunities. Richards raises his eyebrows and listens up.

The next day, Parker tells Hardison that the bailiff said Richards never showed up. Meanwhile, Sophie arrives at headquarters and asks if he's heard the latest. He has. What does it mean? Well, if Gloria's lawyer doesn't show, the case will be ruled a mistrial and it'll start all over again should she find another lawyer. Since she can't afford another lawyer, that's not in the realm of possibility, so she'll have to withdraw the lawsuit. They took a pawn, Earnshaw took a knight, Nathan says. Lucky for them, they have more knights.

When Judge Durham calls the courtroom to order, she asks if Gloria has any idea where her lawyer is. She can only muster somber silence, so Durham tells her if she doesn't have representation, then the case will move to mistrial. As if on cue (because, really, it probably was) Hardison breezes through the courtroom doors and apologizes for being late. He's Gloria's new lawyer, Joseph Miller. Gloria is surprised, of course-she didn't know the government had court-appointed attorneys for civil suits. Hardison/Miller tells her to trust her government as Quint and Louis look on from the defense table a bit out of sorts.

Nathan and Sophie/Olivia then walk into the court. She argues that Hardison will never win the case, but that doesn't matter. As long as he stalls long enough for Quint to take Mumbai International's offer, they'll be fine.

Hardison/Miller asks to approach the bench and is granted permission. Louis follows suit. Hardison/Miller then does his best to stall. He tells Durham that Gloria's previous counselor did a poor job of building his case and that he'd like to add some things to the trial. First, he'd like to call new witnesses to the stand. He busts out Ernesto's high school yearbook saying that all 430 people in there will testify that the deceased led a very active life from childhood on. Durham denies this motion. Fine. Hardison/Miller then pulls out a file of embarrassing, perhaps incriminating photos from Louis's most recent vacation and asks to submit them as evidence to build up a profile on the opposing counsel's character. Louis objects, of course, and it's sustained by Durham. Anything else? Actually, yes, he does. A lot more stuff.

In the jury room during lunch, Parker/Alice bonds with Peggy over the merits of eating unhealthily. When Peggy reveals that she's a nutritionist but sometimes goes home after a long day at work and plows into a tub of ice cream, Parker/Alice almost squeals with joy. That was a secret she was just told, which means Peggy thinks she's an okay person. Mystified, Peggy confirms this by saying Parker/Alice is the nicest one there. She might be better at making friends than she thought. . .

At the warehouse, Earnshaw is busy trying to get information on this Joseph Miller. He can't be legit-his impressive credentials, including an education at Georgetown would mean his hourly rate would be more than Gloria makes in a month. One of her analysts says his story checks out. Unless this guy somewhat created an identity with an ability that rivals the CIA, then it's just not possible for him to be a fake.

Quint pipes up then-he wants to know what his position will be after Earnshaw buys his company. She tells him whatever he wants to do with his free time. What if he wants to stick around, though? After the millions of dollars that she's put into this whole deal, she tells him what he wants is irrelevant. It's clear that he will no longer have a place in his company once it's sold. Earnshaw stomps off to attempt to put out the fire Hardison/Miller has created, leaving Quint to weigh his options.

Back in the courtroom after lunch, Quint catches Sophie/Olivia as she walks back in to ask her why she offered him that much money. It's double what his company is worth. Thanks to the surveillance Earnshaw has on the courtroom, she can see them talking and isn't happy about it at all. She tells one of her analysts to scour Quint's computer, phone logs, his cell's GPS records-his life basically-and find out how that woman is.

Sophie/Olivia explains that India is booming right now. Millions of jobs are being outsourced there, including telemarketing. A lot of the jobs being outsourced require people there to work late, if not overnight. They need help staying awake. It is her belief that FastLife would do quite well there as a result. How well, Quint asks. Well, there are a billion people in India. He can do the math. All he needs to do is settle this case out of court so they can go into business together. Her company won't deal with someone who is currently fighting a lawsuit. Quint isn't sure about this-Earnshaw told him that settling would cause a lot of other lawsuits to open up. Mumbai International isn't concerned with that. With so many people back in India, people won't notice if a few people die.

Quint is starting to really like what she's saying, but wants to check out her operations first. Since Mumbai is thousands of miles away and twelve hours ahead of them, she could set up a conference call with their home office tonight at midnight. Quint agrees to it.

As Quint makes his way to the defense table, Hardison and Nathan walk past Sophie, who says they're inches away from getting Quint on board. Hardison says there's no way he can stall any longer. Nathan explains that this is the middle game, the portion where each player takes pieces and looks for weaknesses. He just needs to get Sophie a little bit more time. Nathan is positive that Hardison can dig deep and make this trial boring to the point of paralysis.

He succeeds, of course, by showing endless slides of chemical reactions and asking a doctor to explain them. When Durham, who is on the verge of sleep, asks if this stuff is leading anywhere, Hardison/Miller assures her that the next hundred slides or so will.

Later that night, Quint sits in the conference room at Leverage headquarters, which has been retrofitted to look like a branch office of Mumbai International. He speaks via video conference with Avi, who stands in front of rows of cubicles filled with busy people in his office in India. Both men exchange pleasantries as Avi explains that he thinks FastLife could spread across the urban centers across India and really do well. Quint seems pleased when Avi signs off and tells Sophie/Olivia that he needs to sleep on it. Sophie/Olivia pushes him a bit here-she tells him she can't give him much more time and that he needs to settle his case soon.

When Quint exits, it's revealed that "Avi" is actually Donne-a good friend of Eliot's. He's also not in India-he was standing in front of a green screen in another room in Leverage headquarters while Eliot shot video of him. Nathan thanks him graciously and tells Eliot he's pretty impressed by his friend.

The following morning, the crew meets in the conference room. Hardison tells Parker to not worry about going to court today. Quint will call Sophie with his decision to settle before they even get there. Unfortunately, Nathan pulls up a news article that says otherwise. Earnshaw Pharmaceuticals bought Mumbai International in the wee hours of the morning. Their adversary has protected her investment by eliminating the competition. . .which really wasn't the real competition.

Now that they know Earnshaw is not only watching the courthouse, but keeping tabs on Quint, as well, there's only one thing to do: win the trial.

Hardison flips out-that's not possible. He's not even a real lawyer. Nathan isn't concerned. He points out that the guy he's going up against is taking his lines from someone in a warehouse. Plus, Hardison knows how to talk to people. During his closing arguments, all he has to do is talk to twelve people. It'll be just like going door-to-door with his foster mother.

Parker is having the same battle with her lack of self-confidence. She can't convince an entire room full of people to believe her. Especially a room full of normal people. Sophie eases her mind and says that she did really well with her persuasion exercises. As far as the normal thing goes, she has no reason to worry about that. Very few of the people on the jury are "normal." Sophie proceeds to tick off the hidden habits and personality traits of the jurors that she picked up by watching them in court. In fact, the only really normal one is Peggy. This makes Parker feel a lot better.

On their away out, Nathan hands Hardison his briefcase and Sophie hands Parker a big brown lunch bag. Both have smiles on their faces. After they leave, Nathan tells Eliot that they don't have court today, but they do have work today, the first part of which Eliot isn't going to like.

Quint gets into his electric car and begins driving to the courthouse. The two men Earnshaw has hired to tail him begin to follow until BAM! They hit a pedestrian that walks right in front of their car. They jump out to see if he's okay and, before they know, the pedestrian, aka Eliot, is whooping their asses. He makes short work of them, stuffs them in their car's trunk, and reports this to Nathan. He also tells him that he planted the device on Quints car that will overload the electrical system and render it inoperable.

Just as promised, Quint's car begins smoking and he's forced to stop to check out what's wrong. He gives Louis a call to tell him his car broke down. Nathan, who plays the part of a nutty techie-type guy, rides up to Quint on a bike and offers to help. When Quint is distracted, he manages to pickpocket him and relieve him of his phone, which he then tosses through the sunroof of the car Sophie is driving as she passes by. Smooth move.

In court, Louis has Dr. Patemkin on the witness stand. He explains that Ernesto had an enlarged aortic chamber in his heart, which led to his heart attack. FastLife played absolutely no role in his death. Louis has no further questions, so it's Hardison/Miller's turn. Before getting up, he apologizes to Gloria, saying she deserves better. She disagrees and says he's the best lawyer her family's ever had. Refreshed with a new sense of confidence, Hardison/Miller rises to question Dr. Patemkin.

Hardison/Miller asks if this is the first time the doctor has testified in a court case. No, it's not. He's testified in multiple cases across the country in cities like Chicago, St. Louis, and Houston. That is, he did until this past year. In the previous twelve months, he's only testified in cases in California. The reason behind this? He's only agreeing to testify at courts within driving distance because he was placed on the US government's no-fly, aka terrorist, list. He's no longer allowed to fly in the US and can be associated with a person like Osama bin Laden, who also appears on this list. Dr. Patemkin assures the jury that he's not a terrorist, but incidents did occur on a few of his flights. Hardison/Miller fleshes out the details for them, which involve Dr. Patemkin basically sexually harassing flight attendants or fellow passengers. Louis is crushed, knowing one of his star witnesses has now been discredited.

Bottom line: If the US government doesn't think this man is capable of behaving on a flight, how can this jury trust him to deliver an accurate expert opinion in the field of cardiology?

No further questions.

At Leverage headquarters, Nathan calls to ask Sophie "how many" she's hit. She says three. He tells her to hurry and finish the last two-Hardison is about to give his closing statements. What's this all about?

In court, Hardison/Miller gives his closing arguments and crushes one out of the park. He makes the jurors laugh, then pulls on their heartstrings. A week ago they were just strangers, but after hearing this case for the past seven days, they aren't strangers anymore. Some of them are even friends. They know what's at stake in Gloria's case, even if they have no idea what cardiology or how it plays into FastLife. He has enough trust in them that they will deliberate and emerge from the jury room with a verdict that speaks to the truth.

A bit later, Hardison returns to headquarters and watches with the other crew members as Parker/Alice plays the end game for them in the jury room. It's all up to her. . .

. . .and she looks terrified at the head of the table.

In the warehouse, Earnshaw watches the jury room with Louis. She thinks out loud about what has taken place over the past week and almost compares it to a chess game, but stops short, saying that's ridiculous. On the screen, Parker/Alice says that she's said her piece and made her argument. Now, let's see where everybody stands. Who finds in favor of the defendant, Live Herbally? Everyone at the table raises their hands and a cheer erupts amongst all of the flunkies in the warehouse. Earnshaw smiles and switches the TV's feed from the jury room back to the empty courtroom. Case closed-the jury is about to walk back into the courtroom and hand the judge a very good verdict for them. Louis says he's going to call Quint, but Earnshaw stops him. She says he didn't show up in court today not because his car broke down, but because he was visiting Earnshaw's top competitors trying to get a better deal. That's what his cell phone's GPS records told her anyway.

Quint then walks into the warehouse and Earnshaw says she's going to teach him a little something about karma. . .

When he asks if there's any word from his trial yet, she says no. However, she wants to talk business. She's realized that his company now has three prices: If he wins the trials, it's worth $45 million. That's a lot of money, but Mumbai International won't be paying, will it? Quint is stunned that she knows about his dealings with the company, but she goes on. If he loses the trial, it's worth nothing. If he makes a deal with her right now, before the verdict is out, she'll pay. . .some large amount based on how much Quint's eyes pop when she shows him the written agreement. It's his choice-she's the one taking the risk. After thinking about it for a moment, he signs the papers she laid in front of him and sells Live Herbally to her. Thinking she's just taken this guy, she tells him he's made a good decision.

Louis then receives a phone call-the jury is back.

Everybody files back into court to await the verdict. Parker/Alice tells Durham that the jury has reached a verdict and reads it. They've found in favor of. . .the plaintiff, Gloria Vargas, in the amount of $5 million! Whoa.

Earnshaw, who is sitting in the first row of the courtroom, looks like someone has just ripped her soul from her body. Louis looks about the same when he mumbles something unintelligible to Quint before making a quick exit. Quint himself just gives a chuckle out of disbelief.

How did this happen?

Leverage, Inc. happened, of course. The video of the jury voting to find in favor of Live Herbally wasn't real. Earlier in their deliberation, Parker/Alice asked her fellow jurors who wanted pizza for lunch. They all raised their hands. Later, she asked them who wanted to find in favor of Live Herbally. Nobody raised their hands. Hardison spliced the video, putting Parker/Alice's Live Herbally question in with the video of the jury members raising their hands. This version was then sent to Earnshaw's TV.

In court, Earnshaw tries to put the blame on Quint. He spent the entire day rolling around the city going to her competitors to get a deal. She knows because, after he beat up her men and stuffed them in a trunk, she tracked the GPS in his cell phone. Quint finds this ridiculous-come on, he's granola and wears sandals for Pete's sake. The cell phone part of the equation came from Sophie, who drove around the city to each competitor after Nathan tossed her Quint's phone to make it seem like he was there himself.

When Quint walks out of court, he's met by Sophie as herself. She says he probably should've settled. He rolls his eyes and continues walking. Nathan walks up to a wide-eyed Earnshaw, doesn't say a word, but simply drops a chess piece in her hand-a king.

Checkmate.

At headquarters, football is on once again. Nathan compliments Hardison on what he pulled off-he won over a jury and didn't cheat. Hardison points out he did hack a government no-fly list to humiliate a witness. Nathan revises his statement: he didn't cheat excessively. He could be anything he wants if he really puts his mind to it.

Parker then receives a text from Peggy-turns out she made a friend who wants to meet up with her next week. Think she'll want to steal a painting? Sophie tells her to start small, like getting coffee.