Hustle: Episode 5

This episode revolved around a con that takes advantage of a vengeful, rich wife, a con called "The Congeve" (named after William Congreve, the man who penned the phrase "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"... It's paraphrased, but that's how everyone knows it, anyway). The group pondered the possibility of conning a woman named Katherine Winterborn, a real "psycho bitch", as Stacie put it. After Ash revealed that he's been secretly caring for his ex-wife and former grifter, June (she use to play "The Flop" like Ash, but after one went wrong, she suffered from partial brain damage). He's desperate for some money to provide some proper care for her so the group eventually decide to go through with the risky, but profitable, Congreve.

The group found out that their new mark, Katherine Winterborn, was an avid art fan. To rope her in, Albert signed up for one of her art classes, only to find her to be a cold-hearted woman who wanted nothing to do with him. Hell, Albert even had to strip down and model for the class (new student always does this, apparently... tradition) so that he wouldn't blow his cover. They decided that they needed someone equally business-minded and strong to rope her in. So, they send in Mickey to meet with her. After some quick thinking, they take advantage of Katherine's claustrophobia and find a way to trap her and Mickey in a lift together. Katherine goes into a panic attack so Mickey carefully brings her out of it by telling her to think of calming imagery, like cool water in a flowing river. As soon as he calms her down, the lift starts working again and he's got Katherine hooked. She asks to buy him dinner as a token of thanks. Mickey, now under the name "Patrick Greene", shoots a sly grin at the camera and obliges.

Stacie and Danny did some undercover research at Winterborn's ex-husband's spa (which means they spend all day getting pampered and asking questions). Stacie met Katherine's ex-husband (it's that guy from the original Coupling!), Stephen Winterborne, and found him to be a nice fellow. While she and Stephen chatted, Mickey and Katherine went out for drinks. Mickey put on a great show of acting like a strict, business-minded jerk, which Katherine clearly loved. He explained that he was about to open a chain of hotels and, already enamored, Katherine offered to put down more start-up money to put him in direct competition with her ex-husband. And while Mickey worked it all out with Katherine, Danny spent some time with a Russian girl working at the spa. After a massage and a quick game of pool, they go back to her place and have a little fun, only to find out that Danny had to pay, cash, for the time he spent with her (because her bosses need her to service at least three clients a week). Uh-oh.

After finally giving in and paying the Russian girl for the sex, Danny set off to take care of the next step of the con. He roped a young "bohemian chic" architecture student into playing poker with him. Danny easily won and demanded his winnings from the young bohemian. Of course, bohemians don't have much money, so Danny asked for something else: drawings. With these architectural drawings of a potential hotel chain, Danny decorated the walls of the office space Stacie got her hands on (from some quick flirting). This new office space was for Mickey (or "Patrick)'s business. They get ready just in time to have Katherine come over and pay a visit to her newest investment. She's very thorough with her questions but she eventually agrees to put down 100,000 pounds and free consultation.

Despite Albert's warnings about getting attached, Mickey found himself falling for Katherine. This also made Mickey feel a little guilty for conning her, so he was rather relieved when she said that she didn't feel comfortable with signing the deal anymore. She had decided that she could not live as a bitter woman for the rest of her life, and to ruin her husband's career would only make everything worse. When Mickey told the group the news, they scolded him for not trying to persuade her more. Had he forgotten about June? Ash, frustrated, called up Katherine late at night and mentioned something about a midwife, prompting Katherine to believe that Stephen had gotten his girlfriend pregnant. She brought Mickey back the next day to tell him that she had changed her mind and wanted to sign the deal again. Then, she confided in him that Stephen had forced her to have an abortion when she was 23. After this emotional moment, the two of them kiss... The kissing soon turned into more than kissing and before we know it, Mickey's getting out of the bed and putting his shirt back on. He explained to her that he couldn't let her sign the papers because it was all wrong. Surprisingly, he admitted that he had originally set her up. He was a con-man. Strangely enough, this doesn't shake Katherine. In fact, she wants Mickey to pull a con to humiliate her ex-husband.

Keeping June's needs in mind, they went through with it. They decided to take advantage of the prostitution racket and pin that on Stephen. Stacie met up with Stephen again and, after a short chat, she introduced him to a PR guy, Ash, to do a new video for a new opening. While she was working that angle with Stephen, Danny hung out with the Russian girl again to get some more information about the prostitution racket. At the big opening, the group snuck in with Katherine. They set the video (meant to promote the new spa but really revealing the underground prostitution) to run automatically. After Ash set it, they got ready to leave. However, Stacie made a startling revelation after another chat with Stephen: he can't have children. Someone was lying. Danny also recieved a phone call from the guy that let them borrow the office space, saying that he found the "mean lady"'s earring. Turned out that after meeting Mickey in the office, Katherine returned to look for her missing earring, only to discover that they had cleared out. So, Katherine had known that they were grifters all along. The con artists were conned by the vengeful woman. They nearly ruined Stephen's career because he had nothing to do with the prostitution (Stacie had to pull a few strings to do some damage control), but at least Katherine had deposited the money before running off. So, they ended up with money for June as well as a very important lesson: "Never. Never let a mark get under your skin."