Faking It was the second episode in the first series of the BBC crime drama Hustle, which aired on March 29th 2005.
Synopsis[]
After Danny makes a big mistake and blows a simple con, Mickey question if he is good enough to be on his crew. That question is soon tested, when Albert is viciously beaten by a crooked casino and hotel owner after they catch him cheating in a card game.
The stakes are higher than normal as the crew decided to con Albert's attacker in revenge, and for once, Danny must follow things exactly as planned. But are the gang truly aware of the nature of their mark, or could Danny be heading for a fall he doesn't deserve?
Full Plot[]
Cold Open[]
Mickey and Danny are huddled around a case containing a large amount of money, alongside a fireman they are conning. The pair naturally discuss on what to do with the money, despite the fact its bait to lure their target into parting with a smaller stake of cash than is contained in the case. Danny naturally plays along as expected, including convincing the mark to draw out money from their bank to pay them while he looks after the case; unaware the case will be switched for a duplicate.
When the mark agrees to this, Danny gets excited about their "find", to the point he looks forward to splitting up the £25,000 in the case. At this point, Mickey steps out of character to question Danny on how well their score is going. Natually confused, he soon realizes his mistake when the fireman suddenly asks him how he knew how much was in the case. Danny, realizing they hadn't counted the money yet, is forced to flee with Mickey, with Ash and Stacie, waiting to do the switch, forced to escape with them, disappearing from sight.
Episode[]
At Eddie's Bar, Mickey chastises Danny for failing to stick to the plan and not controlling himself in the scenario they had worked on. Stacie, speaking to him alone, questions why he must be hard on Danny because of him being new to the crew, but Mickey makes clear he must be tough to ensure he learns how to conduct long cons properly. Just at that moment, Eddie interrupts the crew from what they are doing to reveal that Albert has been rushed to hospital - he had been playing poker, but was beaten up by one of his opponents who discovered he was cheating. Ash identifies the culprit as Frank Gorley (Robert Pugh), a violent criminal who runs a hotel and casino in London - he makes his money from rigged roulette tables and prostitutes he entertains male guests, and beats up anyone causing trouble.
Needing an angle, Ash and Danny are assigned to investigate Gorley's background for an edge, leading them to tail him to a restaurant and hack into his laptop for its contents - after distracting their targets: Danny using eyedrops in Gorley's coffee being prepared for him, forcing him to go to the toilet as they kick in like a laxative; and Ash hitting Gorley's car, causing its alarm to go off outside the restaurant. Meanwhile, Albert, having recovered, admits to having messed up and hides how dispondent he is about what happened; Stacie, however, brings him out of this by conning the hospital administrator into giving him top priority care. When the crew reunite with Ash, he reveals how he has found what they need - having overlooked something so obivious whilst tailing their mark, the contents of Gorley's laptop had made him realize that Gorley is a film buff; a classic film buff to be precise, with particular interest in the classic dance and music numbers.
Mickey decides the team shall con him with the Angel scam - tricking him into investing into a film, before making out that something has gone wrong. Against his better judgement, and at Stacie's insistence, Danny is tasked to be the inside man on the job, posing as a movie producer, but instructed to do things "by the letter", following his earlier mistake. To authenticate their scenario, the crew conduct several jobs: Stacie gets several movie studios to send faxs with directions to Gorley's hotel; Ash arranges for several posters detailing Stacie's character - an up-and-coming actress in the film industry, and rigs up a faked film magazine edition to catch Gorley's attention to begin with; and Mickey secures a flash car for Danny to drive in. With everything in place, Danny begins the con by heading to the hotel to secure a room the crew had booked for him, catching Gorley's attention in the reception area, in order to rope him in.
That evening, Danny is in the hotel's casino, joined by Mickey, who poses as a friend of his and a fellow investor, and Ash, who poses as mob investor who is quite bullish. Interesting Gorley with his work, Danny and Mickey secure a private meeting in Gorley's office, in order to go over plans to conduct a small deal with a film they are working on regarding financial extras (which will provide a healthy return), but state that Ash must be kicked out of it despite his connections. Danny tries to convince Gorley to join in, touching on his love of classic Hollywood films, and succeeds in getting him interested to invest in their deal. Both insist on cash when he tries to give them a cheque, prompting him to collect what is needed; however, neither notice Gorley's safe, carrying his money, contains a handgun as well. Danny takes the money, and tells Gorley to see them in the morning to oversee their transaction and collect his profit. Whilst working on the con's details outside the hotel, following the meeting, Mickey finds Rachel is back to see him at Eddie's Bar. Once there, she reveals she does not see much in their marriage to each other, and tells him she intends to divorce him. A despondant Mickey is left thinking back to their relationship, including a passionate night they once spent, while considering if he could salvage the marriage, or accept it is over.
The next day, Mickey returns the car he borrowed to where it originally came from, while Stacie heads to a film set the crew have targetted for the convincer, passing the mark's returns to a grifter posing as a member of the film crew. Danny and Gorley soon arrive at the film set, where Stacie greets them and distract the genuine film crew from interfering. Gorley takes delight on being on a real film set, alongside receiving his returns, and is eager to stay and watching some filming taking place. Danny initially agrees, but seeing a security member notice them, decides against it, in order to lure the mark back to his hotel, on the grounds he and Mickey need to discuss a bigger deal they have planned. At the hotel, Danny points out that they have plans to sell the rights to their non-existent movie to oversea market contacts, which will net huge profits, but that they need a healthy sum of cash to ensure it can happen. Gorley proves problematic, showing less interest in joining into the deal, prompting Mickey to secretly speak to Danny to find another way. He does this by touching on what Gorley loves most - this prompts a fantasy scene where time in the casino stops, and Danny and Mickey become song and dance men, performing a muscial number with Gorley. Implied that he was talked into it through what he loved most, Gorley decides to invest in their deal.
That same day, Ash checks in on Albert, and plays cards with him. He remarks how Mickey has been tough on Danny since his earlier mistake, but Albert points out that the tough lessons he must give will help Danny, though admittedly he feels concerned that he might be pushed too hard. As they play, Ash discovers Albert has come into a sizeable amount of money in hospital - brought about by Albert sneaking out of his room, stealing a doctor's coat, and posing as a doctor to con private, wealthy patients, into paying him on claims of a discount for treatment; none of his victims realize they have been conned when the hospital adminstration comes to talk about payment. Meanwhile, Danny and Mickey collect Gorley's payment, a banker's draft of £200,000, following their earlier conversation, with Stacie in attendance; she later asks Gorley to help her with her lines, for unknown reasons.
With the money cleared into their account, Mickey decides the crew must now complete their con with a blow-off - Gorley must be made to believe the money has gone and cannot be reclaimed. At his office that evening, Gorley looks forward to celebrating his involvement with the group, as Mickey and Stacie discuss their "future plans", when Danny arrives and pours himself a drink. He quickly points out that Ash, while no longer on the scene, has taken all of their money because he still had access to their accounts, and apologizes heavily for this mistake. Mickey, pretending to be irrate in their blow-off scene about losing his "money", pulls a gun and fires blanks, as Danny pretends to be shot dead. To the horror of the grifters, Gorley then takes hold of his own gun and shoots Danny out of rage. Panicked, Stacie convinces Gorley to get her out of there, while Mickey claims he will clean up the "mess". Once the mark is gone, Mickey calls for an ambulance, horrified he put Danny in danger.
At the hospital, the same one Albert has been in, Mickey blames himself for not forseeing this happening and for leaving Danny exposed, but Albert convinces him that Danny had done well, and no one could have predicted Gorley's actions; Ash also notes that Gorley will likely go underground on the belief he will be wanted for murder. To the relief of the crew, Danny recovers, the bullet just missing his vital organs. Joined by the others, they take him to see Albert, who is delighting in the money he made while in hospital, and even more delighted when he learns of the amount that Gorley was conned out of. Stacie then reveals how she further conned Gorley into making an apology - under the pretense of needing help with her lines, which she recorded so that the crew can watch him unknowingly demean himself for the crew's pleasure and Albert's satisfaction. The group delight in what they did, as they look forward to further scores.
Characters[]
Team[]
- Mickey Bricks
- Danny Blue
- Ash Morgan
- Stacie Monroe
- various extras
Sideline[]
Mark[]
Trivia[]
- The mark of the episode is Frank Gorley.
- If a con is big enough, sometimes a crew will use Extras for small minor roles. This is very similar to how Extras are used in movies and television. Extras are typically made up of friends and unemployed con men and their role is to add small nuances to the con in order to make it more believable.
- For example, in this episode an Extra is used to ask Stacie/Jenny for her autograph and another Extra is used to hand off the money to Danny/Jason for the Convincer.
- Adrian Lester's dance ability was put on show for this episode. From the DVD commentary, Robert Vaughn commented that Adrian Lester's ability to dance and has shown on Graham Norton that he can breakdance, body pop and do electric boogaloo [1]
External links[]
- Faking It at TV.com
Gallery[]
