- Pieces of Sophie's past complicate a job in London where the team tries to expose an unscrupulous antiques trafficker who is using children as slave labor.
- John Robert Keller (James Frain) threatens immigrant children by forcing them to smuggle stolen antiquities into the US for Damien Moreau. The team wants to save an Iraqi girl Keller left to rot with ICE. Keller is bound for Claridge's, so Nate thrills Sophie with a London trip, as well. He plans to sell Keller an unexpected "treasure" created by a true genius. Sophie uses Charlotte Prentice, 18th Duchess of Hanover to sell it, deducing Keller wants a lost barony. The "duchess" claims to be related to 3 of the 10 people who can reach the Earl Marshal. Sophie's provenance is never given, but she is slick enough to fool title-hungry Keller with one well-connected aunt. The con "structed" by Hardison soon gets underway.—LA-Lawyer
- Logan International Airport, International Terminal
Nate catches us up, telling us they're close to one of Damian Moreau's guys, John Douglas Keller, who moves antiquities for Moreau.
They think he'll be guarded outside the airport. Parker's going to switch his briefcase. Eliot's waiting to jump the guy, but he's dressed as a pilot and a little girl approaches him, asking where she's supposed to go. He escorts her out.
As a customs guy, Hardison takes Keller's passport. Alarms go off calling security to customs. They swarm on the little girl, even as a man on the other side of security explains she has refugee status.
Keller checks with his guy that the other 10 girls are coming in later that day, and decides she's an acceptable loss.
Nate wants Parker to clone his phone and Hardison to tail him. He sends Sophie to talk with the little girl's family to get her home.
Sophie and Nate talk to the immigration advocate, who knows the artifacts often go to drugs and terrorism.
Back in loft HQ, they trace Moreau and Keller's illegal art importing scene. Keller's already back in London. The payoff in black market art is to wash it through legit action houses. Sophie's uncharacteristically upset about the whole thing. She storms out.
Nate finds her downstairs drowning her sorrows. She's feeling guilty, that she might have accidentally be involved in black market art.
He asks her if she wants to go to London. "Let's go steal an auction," she says.
Sophie and Nate go to Claridge's Auction House, dressed like rich people. Hardison goes to hack the files in the office, but finds they're all hard copies. Keller comes in. Parker lifts his wallet, including his bidding card. Nate wants Parker to lift something from the vault to establish his credentials with Keller.
Parker caresses the old style vault, waxing rhapsodic. Sophie finds Keller bought a signet ring, which she finds odd.
Parker finds a Statue of Rah for Nate to borrow. Hardison finds two files on Keller, one of which has land purchases in Scotland.
Nate introduces himself as a broker, which Keller understands he means smuggling. He shows him the statue, which he says is from a dig in Egypt. He says he needs a way to get the items to his buyer in America. Keller smells the statue, and then announces it's up for auction in two weeks, which means Nate's a con artist or a cop. Keller's goon slugs Nate.
Sophie calls off Eliot from rescuing Nate, saying she has a new con. She introduces herself as the 18th Duchess of somewhere, Nate's employer. Keller kisses her hand. She reiterates the need to get things to America. He turns her down, but as he's walking away she offers him a knighthood. When he scoffs, she offers one of the lost baronies.
She makes a date tomorrow for tea.
Later, Sophie tells the team she spent seven years building her baroness persona and it'll hold. She explains the land buys were a play for a title and the ring clearly had an emotional attachment for him. There are 86 unclaimed baronies in England.
Nate explains the name of the con is "the Mummy's Tiara," which involves using a forged relic to purchase a royal title.
Hardison says they have a problem because they have no forger. Sophie tells him he'll be doing it. She explains he knew it was fake because it smelled like cinnamon, which was only used in Libya at the time. She gives them a shopping list.
Sophie reports for her tea, over Nate's concerns. She tells Keller that if he were to have a private journal of the mistress of King George III, Catherine, he might have a good claim. He knows the legend, that she moved to America with a trunk of treasure.
Eliot returns with oil, soot and other forging supplies.
Sophie tells Keller the book is coming up for auction soon at Claridge's as a regular family heirloom. He says there's someone who wants to meet her. An old woman walks over. Nate tells her it's OK for her to leave if she needs to. The woman approaches Sophie and greets her with a hug and calls her "Charlotte."
Back in the hotel room, Hardison has made juice from boysenberry juice and rendered glue out of animal parts.
At tea, Keller takes a call as Sophie talks to her aunt. She asks where she's been. They reminisce about her dearly departed uncle William, who died eight years ago. Her aunt mentions how he turned to drink after she left.
Keller returns from his call and says something from Boston has speeded up their timetable. He wants to move her stuff tomorrow.
Later, Nate asks Sophie how real her duchess persona is. Nate tries to speed everything up.
Eliot goes to meet Keller's guys to check out their storage area. They explain they need him to take them to Sophie's stash. Nate tells him to stall.
Parker meets Nate after knocking out the auctioneer. She takes over the job.
Eliot drives around, stalling Keller's goons.
Hardison meets Nate at the auction house with the forged book. He tells Nate Keller's bid as to be at least $250,000 for him to be able to trace it back it to Moreau.
They goose the bidding until Keller gets it for $300,000.
Eliot finally reaches the storage locker with the three British goons.
At the auction house, Keller sniffs the book and announces it's genuine. Then he says good bye to Sophie. He tells her he doesn't need her help; he spoke with the countess and learned about her "royal scandal."
As for the deal... he calls his goons with Eliot and tells them to shoot him.
One of them pulls a gun on Eliot, who quickly explains that the storage unit is empty to buy time. It gives him a chance to knock the guy out, take a belt off the other and use that to whip the third.
From the airport, Keller checks in with Moreau on the phone, saying he'll be in Rome in two hours. Meanwhile, the customs guy opens the book box and tells Keller they'll have to detain him. They check his paperwork, which shows he bought books, not Russian icons.
We see that the icons are painted in the lid and bottom of the box the book came in.
Flash back to Parker going through the auction stuff and reporting on the icons and Nate also telling her to bring the icons.
Back at customs, they point out his book is also a forgery and they'll be detaining him for that and the other items he tried to smuggle.
Cut to the storage unit and the three goons hogtied with their belts out front. They say it's empty but the police open it up and find tons of art.
Back in Boston, the girl is reunited with her family. First she thanks Eliot.
Nate asks Sophie about the storage locker filled with stolen art. She tells him it was filled with the very first stuff she ever stole. He's happy to at least know her real name, but she tells him Charlotte was her stage name.
Hardison has found 10 shell companies traced to Moreau's money, including Slapshot Productions, owned by Mark Vector, the hockey player who's in witness protection.
"Oh yea," Nate says, "let's go steal a federal witness."
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