LEVERAGE #501 "The (Very) Big Bird Job" Post-game

I can't help but the think the very excellent video post-games made by our scrappy assistants/podcast producers will eventually answer all your questions about the episodes.  But for now, I'll indulge.

Right.  First, the crime; second, the meta.

The crime was inspired, much like "The Van Gogh Job", by our annual scouting trip around the Portland area. Once a year, our location scouts take us out to different places we may not have seen, places with high production value -- and in this case, the world's largest airplane.  Just kinda sitting there.  At the awesome Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum, and watched over by a super friendly, helpful and knowledgeable staff.

I'd actually missed this trip.  I was back in LA doing work when I received a text with a photo attached. It was Dean Devlin sitting in Howard Hughes's pilot seat, looking happier than I have ever seen him look.  So we knew he was in.

Also, the sheer ballsiness of the crime was intriguing.  The world's biggest airplane is right there.  I mean, it's impossible to steal the thing.  Completely impossible.

But I'd seen David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear ....

... which was the first run at this, actually.  I mean, it's not like you can actually move the goddam thing.  It's a seaplane.  It can't taxi.  But you might tow it, cut it apart, or say we stored it somewhere near the water and then taxi or tow it down the river ... there are ways to make it disappear.  No, the trick to this con, as in every Landmark Con, is The Blow.  

What's The Blow?  We'll get to that.

As we developed the idea, we realized the real big swing was to have somebody fly the plane.  It turns out, we were told as we walked through the Hercules H-4, that in theory -- IN THEORY -- it could fly.  The original engines had been repo'd by the Air Force, but the replacement engines were up to snuff.  They are actually started with --I am simplifying here, for you aerospace geeks -- what is essentially a giant primer engine, a helicopter engine, that sits way back in the cockpit.

This plotline was very much inspired by the TrueFact we drop in the episode -- the bit about most of the other planes in the museum, be they P-40B's or Spitfires, being flyable.  Some of them were private restorations acquired by this amazing museum over the years from collectors, some of them were salvage from old airfields.  As we pointed out in the show, many of them have oil drip pans underneath to catch the leakage of fluids from the FULLY OPERATIONAL WW2 FIGHTER PLANES.

Have I mentioned how ridiculously awesome this museum is?

Anyway, we had a villain - an exec obsessed with Hughes.  Making him an airplane guy kept everything thematically unified.  We gave him the sin of carelessness, and we had a ton of research on the real-life off-shoring of airplane maintenance (notably to El Salvador) and the concerns people had about these practices.

No one sane would steal the plane, but being part of a coalition to buy it, and then eventually winding up in a crisis where things are moving too fast to stop and think, a crisis where the only reasonable thing is to fly it --  we could get him there.  That's the key to getting sane people to do crazy things, according to our con artist friends -- slowly slide them into situations where the crazy is sane in context.  Even better if the crazy thing is something they desperately want to do anyway.

This is how small business owners from Ohio wind up in Nigeria with briefcases full of their life savings.

We landed on putting the Mark in a simulator gimmicked to look like the Spruce Goose cockpit.  If he approaches in the dark, being chased, using one signature piece of the Spruce Goose architecture to frame the scene -- in this case, we were going to use the spiral staircase that led up to the cockpit -- all that would work.  But we were still faced with several problems.

Problem 1.) The Spruce Goose has to be near or on water, or it can't fly.  It has no landing gear, per se.

Problem 2.)  Fueling the son of a bitch would take ages.  So the Mark had to believe that the Goose was fueled when he got in her.  Why?  Were the thieves fueling it, were they going to fly it?  But then THEIR plan would be crazy, and in a non-crisis situation, the crazy's harder to sell.

Problem 3.) The Blow.

So, let us say you are a showrunner on a big-ass pulp show.  How do you deal with these issues?

Problem 1.) Nobody knows the Spruce Goose has no landing gear.  Except for .0000001% of the audience, who may get very angry.  If there were only a blog where they could go to express their anger ...

Nope, that goes in the Don't Give A Shit bag.  You all have a Don't Give A Shit bag, you Don't-Care-About-Gravity-on-Firefly, Why-Do-They-Keep-The-Bourne-Files-in-an-Office-Safe, CSI-Techs-Don't-Talk-to-Witnesses viewers.  In this case, obscure engineering fact #2541 goes in the Bag.  Hell, I'm pretty sure a large chunk of the audience would have no context for Hughes if not for the Tony Stark crack.

Problem 2.) The fueling thing was tough.  Why they hell would there be fuel in the engines?  Maybe I was the wrong guy for this -- I'm not a gearhead.  I mean, I like tech, but  I don't inherently like fast cars or shiny cars, or collect ... things.  I had no way in on this.  Which is when Chris Downey suggested "Hey, go ask the guy who owns Tesla #009 off the production line, whose office is next door."

I poked my head into Dean's office: "If you owned the Spruce Goose, why would yo put fuel in it?"

I don't think he even lifted his head from his work.  "If I owned the Spruce Goose, I'd want to start her up and hear those giant engines roar."

Ah.

And so that problem, timing the con with the anniversary, was solved.  We did the effect with CGI, of course, and had to hack the hangar to make it work, but all small sins of storytelling.

Problem 3.) The Blow.  The Blow is where you get away with it.  The Blow is the bit where the Feds come in and shoot everybody and take the briefcase full of money and the Mark flees and escapes with his life and counts himself lucky.

When your "briefcase full of money" is the biggest airplane in the world, that's a little tricky.  Your solve is to stall the Mark, so that when he realizes he's been conned he's a.) too late and b.) discredited. Convincing him he crashed the plane would be the stall, and the crazy story would take care of the rest.  Transporting him to a crash site would be a piece of cake, so all we need to do is get him into the simulator....

Problem 4.) ... except we are on a cable budget, and we cannot afford a.) a mocked up simulator or b.) to go to a separate warehouse location to establish the con in the simulator.  Especially not in the 7 days we take to shoot each episode.  Which we figured out maybe three days before prep.  

(Please note, all this is going on while we're breaking and writing four or five other episodes.  We had about a week to conceive of the episode and then solve these problems as they arose.  Welcome to television.)

The solution, the only solution available to us, was to shoot in the cockpit of the Spruce Goose.  Remember what I said about the key to a con being to convince sane people that their only reasonable choice is the crazy one?  Yeah.  The Leverage production team had somehow become the Marks in our own con.

Okay, on one hand, this is cool.  No other film crew in history has filmed in the Spruce Goose cockpit. We would be the first.  But how do we jimmy the cockpit? It's not like we can move the damn thing.

This is when I recalled  the bank turn.  This magazine article has stayed with me for almost 20 years, since I read it as a stand-up comic on the road, flying from city to city.  The article explains that while most people think they can tell how a plane's moving, banking, changing course when they're flying, absent visual feedback they do not.  And so.  They.  Die.  Welcome to Newtonian Physics, squishy human.

See where this is going?  Fool the eye, fool the ear -- and you're done.  Or, at least done in Pulp World, where our job is NOT TO BORE YOU.  


I will admit that we had a beat where we drugged the Mark to make him disoriented and suggestible, and therefore more likely to buy the con, but the timeline didn't work out -- he'd have to be drugged and woozy for a brief amount of time in con-time, but a very long time in show-time.  I didn't want the actor playing the Bad Guy so have to work that way for two acts.  So it was cut.  Maybe an error, but ... eh.  There's 77 of these bastards.  Season to taste.

Add Cary Elwes, who totally sold the smart-but-obsessed bad guy, and you have yourself a big, ballsy con of a season opener.  

Now, the meta ... we had to move and rebuild our sets over the summer.  It occurred to us that if we had to rebuild the damn things, we might as well put the money into some new and shiny.  This was coupled with our experience making "The Gold Job" from the previous year.  It had been so refreshing to be able to let loose and shoot Portland for Portland, take full of advantage of the city for that episode.  And so we arrived at "Is it Crazy or Cool?" Idea #452 for Leverage, just yank up roots and move HQ.  It did make sense, after the giant blow-out of the S4 finale.

The clean start and implied six month gap also allowed us to advance the character relationships in ways we wanted to.  It was time to get Nate and Sophie on the same page.  It was time to get Hardison and Parker together.  Being able to skip the "awkward dating episode" and go straight to "they are adorable" was too tempting.  We always said we never wanted to do that damn first date episode.  Besides, why deprive the fanfic pages of the chance to fill in that time gap?  Mi canon es su canon.  You're welcome.

Oh, and to our friend at the A.V. Club -- we had a big scene written for Fred Armisen, but scheduling didn't work out.

I'm sure you folks cover anything else interesting in the questions.  Let's GO!

@ Anonymous: Oh, John. Not to doubt you but do you really think you will be able to catch up?

Watch me.

@Anonymous: Did I miss it or did we never get to find out Sophie's real name?

Not yet.  And remember, when it comes, things... change.  I promise you, however, that by the end of Season 5 you will hear someone say it out loud.

@ petticoat said... Great first ep! Two questions: 1. Can you explain a little further how Cary Elwes' character can buy the Spruce Goose when the museum owns it? 2. Not directly related to the episode but what are your go-to news sites for bad guys/story lines?  3.) I second the answering of the question about the cliffhanger being dragged out for the whole season. Please say we'll find out the answer soon! Can't wait until next week!!

1.) The Museum owns it privately.  Much like any collection, it's assumed a big enough offer will convince them to part with it.  The difference were were explaining was that we weren;t trying to sell him something we plainly didn't have, were were enticing him to partner up.

2.) We go pretty much everywhere -- every writer has his favorite sources.  I use Evernote to collect my articles, and keep a backlog of shitty rich people and clever criminals in a separate notebook just for the show.

@JoellaBlue: 1.) How soon before we meet the Big Bad?  2.) Our favorite Feds were too busy to come to Portland? How sad. McSweetie will be sad about Parker not being very available 3.) Last minute made me think about what might have happened between Pilot and The Homecoming Job 4.). Will we see Eliot's friend again later this year? The one who he was doing an outside job with?

1.) You did.  In the last minute of the show. 

2.) Don't assume.

3.) That is very perceptive of you.

4.) Oh yes.  Summer season finale, in fact.

@PurpleOps: It appears the series is now firmly on the satire track, and I'll just need to get used to that. (JR NOTE: We prefer pulp.  Say it.  Puuuuulp.  This show is made to be aired in 1969)  Accepting that, it was a fun show, and a better season opener than last year IMHO. Here are the questions - nothing particularly significant, just curious.

1.) Was Adam Baldwin playing John Casey from Chuck, or was his character nameless? WONDERFUL cameo!

2.) What behavior between Sophie and Nate gave the widow a clue about their relationship? In their scenes together, I didn't notice anything particularly indicative of a relationship.

3.) As for that final scene, I'd been under the impression that the show had been renewed for Season 5 AND Season 6. Has that changed, or are we being played with? Or does "All good things must come to an end" have nothing whatsoever to do with the show's renewal or continuation?

1.) As delightful as a Chuck crossover would be, he's got a very big part in the summer season finale so we needed to make him his own character. 

2.) She can just tell, as most people can.  It was a way of showing that Nate and Sophie are more comfortable with each other, maybe more than even they realize.

3.) No renewal yet.  And hey, spring comes, snow melts.  Change is inevitable...

@Liza: 1) Since the moving of Portland was kind of sprung upon the team (mostly Sophie) will we ever find out if Nate and Sophie buy an apartment?

Nope, separate places.  Always good to have separate places.

@Unknown: 1.) As always, loved the writing. The soft reboot to re-establish characters and their relationships was very well done - especially that Hardison is now accepted as equal by Nate (the symbolism of the glass of whiskey). Using Busey for the name of the main henchman was a wonderful insider gag. The con wasn't too complex to keep new viewers away.  2.) Question I do have though, is how much is the series actually 'owned' by TNT? I had gotten the impression through previous posts and comments that Electric Entertainment owned a lot more of the series and TNT was mostly distribution end. Would you (or other commenters in the know) be willing to expand on that a bit?

1.) Hey, I think this is our fifth time slot in five seasons.  I'm a bit anal about a soft reboot every year.  Glad it worked.

2.) I don't think it's any secret that Electric Entertainment is the sole studio involved in Leverage.  TNT is our US network.

@Ravenc: Hate to do it but I have to ask...wasn't the Spruce Goose a "flying boat"? It was meant to take off and land on water not a runway, wasn't it? Does it even have landing gear?

You are correct!  But not angry, which I will take as a positive result on my hypothesis.

@Jason: I feel like Hardison made a deal with the devil at the end of this episode. Will Parkers trust/emotional issues come into play when Hardsion reveals the secret him and Nate have been keeping?

Good questions.  Assuming they ever find out, probably.

@Circling:  Absolutely wonderful episode! It just felt right, watching them walk into new digs and having Hardison explain the tech while no one listened. 1) Was that a deliberate call back to The Homecoming Job? The familiarity of that moment was lovely. 2) What's the background scoop on the new office? Is there more than what we've seen? Does anyone live there? 3) Has Hardison really installed a Suggestion Box, and if yes, does anyone but him use it? I would give my right arm for a DVD extra showing the team going through the suggestions in that box. 4) Is Old Nate going to make an appearance in the new space?. 5) CK's comment at the close of the episode that you can't learn how to brew beer online. Was that scripted? Also, his moment with the victim's daughter was lovely.  6) Please tell us other ideas you came up with for the name of the team's beers. Thief Juice? Brilliant.  7) Sophie's constant digs on Portland's weather were great. Any fear of aggravating locals with those? 8) Ooh - speaking of Portland, the outdoor scene of Parker and Sophie - was that filmed the same place the "Don't ask me that Parker" scene was filmed at the end of S3? It sure looked familiar.

1.) Yes, echoed it very strongly.  And there's a reason ...

2.) Hardison has a crash pad upstairs, at the end of that walkway.

3.) Hardison has set up several team-building wikis.  No one gives them the respect they deserve.

4.) I believe he's hanging in the back work area.  But this is new offices.  Fresh start.

5.) The general revulsion at Hardison's first brew attempts were all improvised.

6.) "It's a mouth crime" may be my favorite thing I've written in years.  We will unveil his other creations as the show continues.

7.) They know it rains.

8.) Nope, different park, different part of town.  The "Don't ask me,Parker" was over by the Shnitzer theater while this was by the courthouse in the Pearl.

@CC: I really only have one question, which I doubt you'll answer. With all the speculation about this being the last season (I hope it's not, btw) along with the comments from you and the cast about how sad the season (series?) finale is, PLUS this secrecy mess with Hardison and Nate....are we in for a heartbreak if this is the last episode?

Oh God yes. All joking aside,  network execs were crying watching the dailies for the finale.  Several of the assisitants who are big fans of the show still glare at me when I walk by.  I assure you, the finale is ... complicated.

@oppyu: Sophie's Australian impersonation... as an Australian, really? 'g'day'? Why don't you just offer to throw a shrimp on the barbie and show everyone what a real knife is?

Gina as a native New Zealander (you did not know that, did you?) was yanking the chain of our Australian D.P. Dave Connell.

@Evelyn: Nate isn't dying, is he? Because that would suck.

We're all dyin' baby.

@Matt: 1.) Will the opening credits be back for 5.02?   2.) I'd love to see Jeri Ryan again, any chance you could bring Tara back for an episode or two?

1.) We stole the 30 seconds of credits back for the show.  I don;t think we need them anymore.

2.) As always, it sucks that actual humans who are under contracts are attached to these characters.  Jeri didn't work out this year.

@ellabell: 1.) How long were they away for? I didn't hear it, but I'm interested.  2.) Like others, I'm concerned that Old Nate isn't in the new headquarters. Where is he? Why isn't there yet?  3.) I like that they are using Leverage, Inc. again, but how come that one wasn't burned?  4.) ALL the old aliases were burned? Even the ones that came before the team? (I'm kind of heartbroken that Charlotte Prentice would be burned... and not ready for Annie Kroy or Alice White to be gone either!)  5.) I saw on the fermenter that they are brewing an IPA. Is that it? Or do they have a wider selection too? As an aside, what kind of beer would YOU brew? or, what's your favourite beer? (I'm SO hoping for some Maudite or Fin du Monde or Chambly here. :D )

1.) The traditional 6 months.  There's been a roughly six month gap between each season except for season 3 and 4, which were separated by a few weeks.  Leverage time is roughly lined up with our real-time.

2.)  He's safe, I promise.

3.) Hardison is using that as a metaphor.  Although we can argue that there are enough Leverage Inc's around the world, it's a safe haven.

4.) They will probably re-use those names if it's in a low-security setting.  I know we hear "Alice White" again.  Parker is ... comfortable with her.

@Spencer: Any particular reason Christian looks directly into the camera when he shakes the bear? Loved this when I saw it at FanCon2, and still loved it the second time around. I have to admit I had forgotten about the teddy bear scene. ROFL!

He's looking juuust camera left, actually, at Parker.

@Ally: Oh, I missed you guys... A couple of quick questions: 

1. Spruce Goose is an orange box. I researched that. But the National Act thingy of 1966: ledger or orange box?

2. Now that the team is actually in Portland, does Christian have to have his hair flatironed?

3. Did Sophie actually buy/lease the theater?

4. I don't see why they actually have to have an operating restaurant to keep up their cover. 

5. Where did Sophie and Hardison get the guns? (probably a really stupid question, considering their line of work...)

6. Who actually put the bomb in Roemer's car?

Again, fabulous episode, as always, and loving Season 5 so far!

We missed you too!

1.) National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 -- orange box.  The foreign ownership rules are not as strict as we say, but it's a real thing.

2.) Christian's hair is as he wills it at any time.  But as I said, things change ...

3.) Bought it.

4.) They don't -- Hardison is indulging himself.  Frankly he's also using it to make Eliot happy, although Eliot would never admit it.

5.) Fake guns, they have tons of them.

6.) The Leverage team bombed Roemer's car to spook him into panicked paranoia.

@Anonymous: And for those of us that want to send money your way, any idea when the season pass for the show might be available on Amazon or iTunes? (Don't have cable, really don't want to use less legal methods.)

Should be up now.

@Anonymous: I understand the move to Portland because that is where you actually film and they were in Boston way too long considering their chosen profession(s), but does that mean no more poker games for the boys? No more Bonanno? And really, there are a few people in the police, FBI, Interpol, as well as other thieves and grifters that know who they really are - did moving really solve that problem?

Moving solved the "hey, that's where we can wiretap them" problem.  Lots of criminals out there, and out of sight means out of mind.

@ellabell: I forgot to add: I'm surprised Roemer made it into Canada, as I hear those Mounties are scrupulously polite and utterly unstoppable -- maybe even the most feared law enforcement agency on earth.

Ellabell is referencing the Leverage-verse convention that the most terrifying law enforcement agency on earth are the Mounties, base don a sadly unproduced episode pitched by @KitMoxie.  you'll note he was quickly caught and returned to the US to be questioned by the unflappable FBI agents.

@Group One: Also, at the end of the episode, Hardison and Nate talk about hiding something from the rest of the team, but I thought that team learned to trust each other after finding out about Elliot's previous involvement with Damien Moreau. What is different about this trust issue? Why doesn't Nate trust the others to tell them the truth whatever that truth may be, and why does Hardison go along with the lie?

All will be revealed.  But valid questions, certainly.  Just note, they do keep each others' secrets -- Nate never told the team about Eliot's warehouse massacre, for example.  And the team knows Sophie's real name.

@Bex: Was that a map on Hardison's screen at the end? Not being a US native Interesting locations lit up.

Yes, it was a map of the world.

@Nekussa: As much as I would love to have Leverage go on and on, I'd still prefer that you know when you're going to end it and have the time to wrap the story up, rather than get cancelled and leave us hanging.

Surprise cancellation is why every year the show ends with what I would consider a perfectly good last episode for the show.  Maybe not the one you want, but one you could live with.

@briddle: Is Nate's new haircut and neater look indicative of his attitude, or just Timothy Hutton getting tired of the shaggy look? There's a "discussion" going on the imdb boards. I'm of the opinion that it's directly related to Nate's newfound happiness with life.

Kind of both, but mostly Nate-centric.  This is the year Nate gets his shit together.

@meanderling: Is Nate's little sailor boy detour connected to the devious planning he and Hardison were up to in the end? Or is it just the S. S. Midlife Crisis? 

Combo, although Tim Hutton was the one who came up with it.  He said that if Nate was going to get his head together, he;d be the type to go off on a boat and read for six months.  That worked for me.

@Sabine: Christian Kane and Adam Baldwin! There aren't many BAMFs I'd call adorable but you managed to get two of them at once.  So how long have Eliot and Adam Baldwin's character (Vance, I think?) known each other? Long enough for Vance to know what happened to send Eliot totally off the rails and start working for people like Moreau?

Known each other for most of their lives, actually.  So yes, certainly.

@ANonymous: Are real explosions a thing of past? The fake explosions and fires kind of yank a body off the fun-train.

That was actually a real explosion.  A BIG real explosion we comped the car onto.

@talea: So is the Spruce Goose REALLY fired up once a year? If so, how do I find the schedule so that my brother (an aerospace engineer) and my dad (an-82-year-old pilot who has three home-builts in his hanger) can be there for the next time? (hey the guy's 82; gotta do these things while we can!)

Sadly, no, although the owner of the Evergreen Museum, Del Smith, was positively giddy when he saw the engine effects.  If your Dad is into planes, I can't recommend the Museum highly enough.

@ANonymous: I realize you're not going to give me any absolutes. But there's a rumor going around Tumblr (yeah, I know. Serious business over there) that "Nate and Sophie will only be canon for a short time". Someone who claims to have some inside knowledge is claiming this. What's that about? Is there any truth to this? My instinct is that this person is full of shit. But um. I like Nate and Sophie so I figured I just... ask?

Define "short time."  No, we just got them together, we're going to take a while to explore the relationship.  Although this could be the last season, so...

@Lydia: 1a. Wouldn't Roemer realize there wasn't enough fuel in the lines from "turning over the engines" to actually get very far, if even off the ground? b Where did the team "acquire" the "wreckage"?

2. If the crew is brewing IPA, will they take over some the production of "Summer Grifter"?

3. Since this season looks like it's going to be focusing on relationships, which non canon fan pairing has surprised you the most over the course of the show?

I like a questioner who labels her sub-questions

1a.) We gimmicked the dials to reinforce his assumption.

1b.) There was actually a moment of panic as we were prepping, where someone said "But this airplane wreckage is plainly made of wood."  "That's okay," I said "because ... SO'S THE SPRUCE GOOSE!" And they clapped, and I drank.

2.) I will get right on that.

3.) I don't read the fan pairings -- I know what's out there mostly from geek osmosis.  But I think there's some Eliot/Maggie stuff kicking around.  Or isn't there one where Faith form Buffy is Nate's daughter?  That amuses me.  The Supernatural crossovers are too easy.

@Anonymous: Let me ask you a more important question: why the hell is EVERYONE who aint on the crew fucking so stupid. EVERYBODY even the victims they helping. Let me ask a question directly to the victim of these bad guys: how you gonna let someone fuck you over that hard and then trust a total stranger to fix everything? ... etc. for a hilarious and long post

You are my favorite comment EVER.  You delight me.  Although on a more serious projector note, which @Oona also asks, a.) there is such high-def footage available.  I know, because we bought it.  b.) His projector is wired into a much stronger industrial IMAX (which you can just BARELY see if you freeze-frame that wide projector shot) and projected onto a semi-translucent film, which goes dark when struck form the other side.  We cut that explanation for time.

@Anonymous: When you say in the commentary that Sophie and Maggie are "Canon", is that just tongue in cheek? Or is it legit? Or have you stopped giving a shit entirely. I won't say which one seems most obviously the case.

I don't know how long you've been here, but I said back in Season Two, the characters' sexual experiences are... whatever makes you want to watch the show more.

@Oona: As for questions, I read somewhere that most cast contracts run for 5 seasons. Is that true for Leverage?

Our actors' contracts are confidential, but no, industry standards tend to be for 3, then 3 or for more.

@MacSTL: 1) Since you directed, were you sailing w/Nate? 2) When the Busey accosted the little girl - why didn't Parker yell at her to run the other way? She didn't look like she was too far away to stop the guy if the girl took off.  3) Did Beth or her stuntie do the competence porn move when she entered that server room? AMAZING 

1.) That sailing shot was Poor Man's Process.  He never left the dock.  That dock sequence was the first shot, BTW.

2.) She's actually a full block away, it just seems shorter in the shot, and not helped by editing.

3.) Although it was Beth's stuntie doing the server room break-in, that was Beth doing her own rappelling onto the desk in the opening office scene.

@Anonymous: Why did Gina finish filming before the others? Is she not going to be in the season 5 finale? I know this is getting ahead of myself, but judging by this and some twitter comments, I'm concerned she's not coming back. :-/

Coincidence -- all her locations were blocked out at the beginning of the shoot schedule.  She finished no more than a day or so ahead of the rest.

@Zeyneb: As a fan from Turkey, loved that Parker and Hardison were on vacationing in my city!! Whose idea was it? And why?

I have a soft spot for Istanbul, as I spent a long time researching it for the never-shot sequel I wrote for The Thomas Crown Affair.  I have mercilessly strip-mined that script for Leverage episodes, so it wasn't wasted time. 

@IMForeman: 1.) When Nate and Roemer are looking at the Spruce Goose blueprints, and Roemer comes to the conclusion that Hughes had developed stealth tech in the 40s, Nate says "Nice going on the blueprints, Hardison." I thought for sure Hardison was going to later say that he didn't have time to change the blueprints, and that Hughes may have actually done just that.   2.) I like that you actually named the Busey, "Busey." I'm surprised it cleared.

1.) ... goddamit, I wish I had written that.

2.) Hey, there are real  Busey's out there.

*********************************

Relatively painless.  As always thanks for your time and enthusiasm, and enjoy next week's show!