Hustle: Episode 10
This episode started at an auction house, where a bidding
war over some prized comic book artwork was reaching its climax. It was down to two gentlemen, who brought the price up
to £100,000. Ash, disguised in some cool glasses and a little facial hair, jumped in at the last minute and
offered £110,000. The two other gentlemen looked crushed as the auctioneer finally banged his gavel. The team
looked slightly worried about their new investment as well. What could they possibly do with £110,000 comic book
artwork?Back at Eddie's Bar, a policewoman, Sam Phillips, threatened to take away Eddie's business and accuse him of using
counterfeit money (which she planted on him) unless he gave her £10,000. He told her that he couldn't because of
the crew and their unwillingness to pay their tab. She, ever the vicious one, agreed to let him slide as long as he
gave her some names. With his arm literally twisted, Eddie gave in and revealed Mickey's name. Later, while Danny and
Mickey worked a con on an older gentleman in one of the booths, Sam sat nearby. As the money was being handed over, Sam
intervened and arrested Danny and Mickey. She let the mark slide, accepting his business card for later questioning.
However, she demanded Danny and Mickey tell her what their next score was to be. They explained their new comic book
scheme to her... They would take the comic book artwork and put it up for auction, only to switch the real piece with a
forgery after the authentication process. It sounded good to her, so she wanted in, as well as £50,000 of the
profit.
In order for this to work, they needed the two bidders from the con in the beginning of the show.
Stacie would seduce one (Neal, a genuine comic book geek) and Albert would befriend the other (Gideon, an avid art
collector). Stacie approached Neal at his comic book store, flirting her heart out until he invited her (and her
imaginary nephew, whom she was trying to get a hero costume for) to go to the Black Storm auction. Albert, posing as a
pop art enthusiast, struck up a good conversation with Gideon, who later invited him to come along to the Black Storm
auction. Perfect.
Mickey and Danny (and their new third wheel, Sam) had to go speak to the art forger...
Tyres from Spaced! It was such a nice surprise to see him. He pretty much
acted like Tyres, but with longer hair and less raving. Anyway, he showed the team the wonderfully done final piece
and, to Mickey's dismay, revealed that it only cost the crew £15,000. Mickey had previously told Sam that it cost
£25,000, so she got really pissed off that they were trying to fool her out of £10,000. In her fury, she let it slip that it was Eddie who ratted the crew out. They made a quick stop at
the crew's hotel room, where Mickey told Ash the news about Eddie. Afterward, Sam left Mickey and Danny to fume in the
car (handcuffed and without their cell phones, of course) as she stopped by her safety deposit box to drop off some
money. At some point, a young woman bumped into her and made her drop her key. Sam didn't pay any mind. Seriously,
could they have made this any more obvious? Even someone who hasn't seen the show before would have known it was
Stacie. Anyway... as soon as Sam got into the car again, a man, completely clothed in black, ran over, opened the car
door, snatched the briefcase with the artwork off of Danny's lap, and jumped into a getaway car and sped off. Danny and
Mickey ran after the car and proceeded to argue over each other's crappy running abilities. Sam knew that they had
planned this beforehand though and greeted them with sarcastic applause when they got back into the car.
At
the auction house, they did some silly fantasy sequence of Stacie in a Wonder Woman costume. Completely pointless (like
her fantasy pole-dancing from a few episodes back), but, y'know, whatever to keep the male viewers interested. Stacie
managed to find a little boy to pose as her nephew and, despite the nephew's coldness towards Neal and sole interest in
only his balloons, kept Neal around. Albert was also there with Gideon. Mickey and Danny entered with Sam, who offered
to hand over the artwork for authentication because Mickey recognized the expert as someone they had fooled from a
previous con. Gideon ended up winning the artwork for a hefty sum but, after Sam left with her money, Mickey text
messaged Albert, "NOW!!!!". Albert then pretended to just notice a slight flaw in Gideon's new prized
possession... So, Gideon took the piece over the auction house owner and they tracked Sam down.
Sam didn't
have any defense at all. She tried taking them back to the art forger, but it was an empty room. She tried taking them
to the home of the man that Mickey and Danny were trying to con before (in the beginning of the episode) but that
wasn't even the proper address on the business card. She tried showing them the CCTV footage of Mickey or Danny making
the "real artwork - forgery" switch, only to realize that neither of them went anywhere near the artwork at
any point. In fact, Sam was the only one who came anywhere near the artwork and, for part of that time, balloons were
obstructing the view of the camera. Sam looked instantly suspicious. Back at her safety deposit box, they found
blueprints of the auction house and a bunch of counterfeit money (Eddie's no doubt). Sam had no out.
Back at
the bar, it was clear that Eddie had told Mickey very early on about how he had to rat under pressure. The man that they
were trying to con in the beginning of the episode was just another grifter playing along and the art forger's son was
the one who helped Stacie by posing as her nephew. I knew Eddie wouldn't be such a jerk to rat the crew out and leave
it at that, and I also knew that they wouldn't really con Neal and Gideon because they didn't do anything wrong (it
would have broken the "never cheat an honest man" rule). I don't know if this was a predictable episode or if
I've just seen the show so often that I can now pick up on their little tricks. Either way, it was still great fun.

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