Hard Out
episode

Hard Out

Director: Craig Siebels

Year: 2011

Season: 5, Episode: 8

Episodes: 111

Plot: Michael goes on a CIA mission to stop a team of mercenaries in the Bahamas, while Fi is forced to turn to a shady arms dealer from her past to get information for Michael.
Original Title: Hard Out
Director: Craig Siebels
Writer: Rashad Raisani , Matt Nix
Producer: Alfredo Barrios Jr. , Ben Watkins , Jason Tracey , Craig Siebels , Mikkel Bondesen , Tony Lara , Craig S. O'Neill , Rashad Raisani , Erik Lee , Lisa Joy , Michael Wilson , William Burns , Jeffrey Donovan , Michael Horowitz , Elayne Keratsis , Terry Miller , Matt Nix
Type: episode
Year: 2011
Genres: Action, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Cast: David Dayan Fisher , Tim Pulnik , Tom Stedham , René Granado , Terrance Murphy , Richard Haylor , Steve Gebara , Arthur Joseph , Richard Cravens , Helmy Lavezzari , Mike Rio , Tay Lindsey , Jeffrey Donovan , Gabrielle Anwar , Coby Bell , Bruce Campbell , Sharon Gless , Lauren Stamile , Henri Lubatti , Gavin Rossdale , Steve Zurk , Dean Napolitano
Runtimes: 42
Countries: United States
Languages: English
Color Info: Color
Original Air Date: 11 Aug 2011
Rating: 7.9
Votes: 410
Year: 2011
Akas: Hard Out (United States)
Production Companies: Flying Glass of Milk Productions , Fuse Entertainment , Fox Television Studios , Fabrik Entertainment
Distributors: USA Network , 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Synopsis: Fiona is examining the complex bomb that someone tried to use to kill Jacob by looking for clues as to how it was made. All Fi knows that is that maker is a "master." An analysis by a friend of Jesse's of the C-4 in the bomb showed it was stolen from the Soviets in 1988. Fi thinks she knows someone who can help.MIchael is taking Maddy to lunch on a glass-bottom boat, but he's distracted by the whole international conspiracy thing. A quartet of dudes on motorcycles traps the car and Fi says she knows what it's about. She gets out and gets onto the back of one of the bikes, and is gone in an instant. We next see Fi in an airport hangar, meeting a guy named Armand, "a 'friend' to those in need." He asks a small favor. He wants Fi to steal a truck full of armor-piercing bullets in exchange for telling her who built the bomb.Sam thinks Michael and Fi are nuts for considering the theft. Michael can't join in on it because he has another top-secret mission for Pearce. Sam isn't happy about it, but he'll go along.Michael meets with Pearce, who is tired from a red-eye flight from Cairo that was a bust. She wants to refocus the investigation in Miami, where the murder happened. That leads to the new assignment: Steve Cahill. The CIA wants to extract him because they want to know what he's up to. Pearce can get the help of one more person -- but that person must have a security clearance. It's Jesse, who's not happy about it.Michael and Jesse get ready to head to the assignment in the Caribbean. As Fi drops them off, Agent Pearce walks up and Fi notes that Michael left out some details when describing Pearce. When Pearce tells Fi she'll "take good care" of MIchael, he just smiles.The trio arrives on a remote island in the Caribbean to find Cahill. They also see Miles Vanderwaal, a "sadistic mercenary." Pearce wonders what they're meeting about. Cahill hands over a briefcase and gets tossed a bag of money.Meanwhile, Fi and Sam are staking out the weapons facility. Fi is looking from the outside and Sam is getting a tour, posing as someone with clients who need intellectual property safely stored. Sam gets a chance to talk to the facility's security team. He learns that if an alarm goes off anywhere in the facility, guards show up within 30 seconds. They'll have to think of something clever.Michael and Jesse take down Cahill and subdue him with an injection. Vanderwaal has a large group of mercenaries arriving on the island, and they're blocking our group's way off the island.The mercenaries are unloading crates onto the island, and Michael and Pearce go question Cahill. He says they're launching attacks in South America and the island is their operating base. They're wiping out American outposts -- DEA secret bases and CIA safehouses. He delivered to Vanderwaal files of all the outposts. He says he got them from a guy from the NSA. Pearce and Michael agree they need to get those files back.Michael suggests that if they can't beat the mercenaries because they're outnumbered, they should join them. They will pose as a covert team sent by the company that hired the mercenaries. He wants to wipe out their communications link before the group has a chance to check out their backstory. Pearce says it's the craziest idea she's heard in the field and Jesse tells her, with a laugh, that she just hasn't hung around with Michael long enough.Jesse and Pearce bond for a moment, then use some basic camping supplies to burn up the group's satellite, cutting off their communication.Sam and Fi want Maddy to sneak into the secure storage complex and plant a smoke bomb in a trash can. She asks questions about Armand and Fi finally opens up, saying he got her out of Ireland when no one else could. "But his help wasn't free," and she had to serve as a lookout on a kidnapping. Maddy agrees to do it.Fi goes back to the loft to find Armand there. He offers her some machine guns and she says she doesn't want to use guns on this mission. Armand asks where Fi's boyfriend is and she says he's busy. Armand tells her, "I hope he's worth it."Back on the island, Michael puts duct tape over Cahill's mouth and tells him to nod and go along with everything Michael says. Michael and Pearce walk right up to the mercenaries and he asks to talk to "the idiot who's in charge of this fisaco." He asks for Miles Vanderwaal by name and says they're a security team sent by the company. When Vanderwaal tries to dial out, Michael says there's no signal because "this weasel" -- he whistles to Jesse to march Cahill out -- burned up the satellite. Michael demands that Cahill not be touched until he gets some answers, and tells Vanderwaal to help secure the island. Vanderwaal puts his gun down. Michael convinces Vanderwaal they're a security team from Pyramid, the company looking to take over the American outposts.Jesse is suddenly in the role of a sergeant mocking the mercenaries for being lax on security. He takes all their radios with the real goal of preventing them from talking to each other. Michael and Pearce, meanwhile, tell Vanderwaal they need to be sure that the outpost files are secure. They suggest he might be keeping them because he's working with Cahill, but Vanderwaal doesn't take kindly to this. He offers to take them to the other side of the island, where the files are hidden. Michael and Pearce try to disperse the guys with guns by sending them off into the jungle to "secure" other parts of the island. Vanderwaal agrees to send the men off.Fi and Sam are about to launch their heist. The smoke bomb sets off a fire in a gift basket Sam and Fi sent to the place. While the security team goes to check out the fire, Sam and Fi bust in and hot wire the truck Armand wanted. They get away.Vanderwaal takes Michael, Jesse and Pearce to the outpost where the files were hidden, only to find that there's another security team there and that Jackson -- Vanderwaal's boss -- has taken the files to Grand Cayman. Vanderwaal asks the leader of the other security what Jackson said about Michael, Jesse and Pearce, and the man says he knows nothing about them. Vanderwaal asks Michael why Jackson left another team of commandos and didn't mention Michael's team's existence. He hits Michael in the temple with the back of his gun and tells him to get used to the pain because "there's plenty more where that came from."Now cuffed, Michael, Jesse and Pearce are being questioned. Michael decides on the fly to "swing for the fences" with a new strategy. He starts to laugh and goes on to explain that Jackson must be behind the whole operation to sell the files. Pearce and Jesse go along right away, saying Jackson was the only person who knew they were coming and he cut out the communication. He says that when Jackson knew they were coming to run a security test he would have know he was busted and had to think of a fall guy, which would be Vanderwaal, because Jackson would have expected him to kill Michael, Jesse and Pearce ("any intruders"). Pearce then tells Vanderwaal that Jackson's commandos will probably kill him. Vanderwaal tells his men to hold Jackson's men until further orders. He says that he and his new friends are going to go to Grand Cayman and visit Jackson.Michael and Vanderwaal arrive on another island to visit Jackson. On their way to see him, Michael tells Vanderwaal not to mention that he's a member of Pyramid's security team, but to say he's a tech who went to fix the satellite. Once Vanderwaal agrees to lie for Michael, their fates are tied together. Vanderwaal does just this, and they both get past security to see Jackson. Vanderwaal pulls a gun on Jackson and tells him he knows Jackson stole the files. Jackson holds them up and says he "secured" them. Jackson tries to convince Vanderwaal that Michael is the one who's lying and Vanderwaal turns him gun on Michael, who must act quickly. Michael tells Vanderwaal that there were two possible scenarios: Either Jackson is lying and stole the files from him, or Vanderwaal let "some super-genius" take over his island, take out his communications and turn his operation upside down. He asks which is more likely. He then tells Vanderwaal he can get rid of Jackson or kill Michael and then be shot by Jackson's men. Vanderwaal shoots Jackson and declares that he's taking over the operation.Michael is about to leave with the files, telling Vanderwaal that Pyramid will reward him nicely, but Vanderwaal isn't letting them go just yet. He wants a signed contract putting him in charge before giving up the files. He gets close to Pearce, saying he wants "something I can touch; something I can feel." Michael asks Pearce to arrange a flight back to headquarters.We next see Michael, Jesse, Pearce, Vanderwaal and several of his men arrive on a helipad with men in suits standing next to a helicopter. The men tell Vanderwaal the guns can't go on the chopper and he resists at first, but Michael smiles and tells Vanderwaal it's time to take it easy and celebrate, and the guns would make the helicopter overweight. He agrees to put the guns down and as soon as he does, Jesse reveals that they're all CIA and Vanderwaal is suddenly defenseless. Pearce gives him a knee to the gut and an elbow to the back of the head. As he writhes on the ground, she bends down and asks, "How's that for something you can feel, Mr. Vanderwaal?"She hands the files to one of the men in suits and says it shouldn't be hard to find the NSA leak.Fi meets Armand in an airplane hangar. He asks her if she's happy and whether it was worth it to follow Michael to Miami. He hands her the information on the bomb maker in exchange for the truck with the bullets. He tells her she can feel glad she spared the guards and didn't use guns to get the truck, but that the truck was supposed to be delivered to a rival of his who pre-sold the ammunition to a Mexican cartel. He's been dismembered. Fi is shaken by this and Armand reminds her that "we know what kind of man I am." He then asks, "What kind of man sends you for my help?" This scores with Fiona. She leaves.Fi is still upset when she meets Michael that night. She doesn't say much but makes it clear she isn't happy that Michael is only now asking questions about Armand after having gotten the information he wanted. She admits to him that she and Armand used to be an item but she left him after learning that Armand had killed a British customs agent in order to meet her. Maddy and her new boyfriend show up and are all smiles. They raise their glasses of wine and Michael toasts "to supportive partners."
Cinematographer: Bart Tau
Producer: Alfredo Barrios Jr. , Ben Watkins , Jason Tracey , Craig Siebels , Mikkel Bondesen , Tony Lara , Craig S. O'Neill , Rashad Raisani , Erik Lee , Lisa Joy , Michael Wilson , William Burns , Jeffrey Donovan , Michael Horowitz , Elayne Keratsis , Terry Miller , Matt Nix
Production Manager: Moshe Bardach
Certificates: Australia:M , United Kingdom:15 , United States:TV-PG , United States:TV-14
Composer: John Dickson
Editor: Casey Brown
Editorial Department: Eric M. Barker , Louis DeSanto , Sabrina Steinglass , Derrek Brajkovich-Horn , Bill Missett , Brad Schreiber , Jay Steinberg , Wes Irwin
Sound Crew: Bob Arons , Andrew Morgado , David Raines , Mark T. Williams , Scott Clements , Adam DeCoster , Albert Ibbotson , Jacob Kemp , Sherry Klein , Fred Kupfer
Visual Effects: Leslie Allen , Pitir Furch
Music Department: Alec Puro , Chris The Glove Taylor , Michael Phillips Keeley , Robin Fujiwara , Ran Shir , Jim Baldree , Kevin Bassinson , Robin Urdang , John Dickson
Miscellaneous Crew: Mario Xavier , Cordell Willis , Cornell Willis , Colleen McCarthy , Peter Monella , Carlos Vega , Sophia London , Reynaldo Rodriguez , Mike Estes , Barbara Biddle , Jelena Panfilova , Jacci Herman , Jonna Kowsky , David Calisti , Brandon DePaolo , Christopher Ganze , Lizzie Sam , Alex Puma , Jorge Luis German , Joanna DeJesus , Greg Hart , Phillip Anderson , Tory Miller , Pete Mongelli , Rico James , Pamela Alessandrelli , Robin Cousart , Gino Falla , Allison A. Millican , John Patteson , Simi Wein
Thanks: Rick Scott
Other Companies: Zane/Pillsbury Casting , Florida Legislature , The Governor's Office of Film & Entertainment , TVM Productions , IVC
Costume Designer: Danny Santiago
Make Up: Dolly Djuric , Erin Koplow , Linda Schonning , Gianna Sparacino
Assistant Director: Jana Camacho , Oscar Aguirre , Stephen P. Del Prete , Brian Moon , Greg White
Art Department: Joe Saitta , Maureen Hendricks , Esteban Hernandez , Nancy Sivitz , Sarah Arvanites , Sergio Roque , Daniel A. Davila , Becca Kenyon , Xavier Cortes , Larry Bates , Jeremy Koenig , Roger Amador , Danny Bower , Ashley Metzel , Charlie Guanci III , Chris Stone , Dustin Read , David Alban , Michael Charboneau , Mark Dane , Charles Guanci Jr. , Paul J. Hendricks , Heather Holmes , Robert Kopp , Mark McCarthy , Regina McLarney , Michael Metzel , Greyson Miller , Jeremy Alan Read , Paul Vistocco
Camera and Electrical Department: David Kimelman , David Clark , Daniel Demirgian , Bradley Everett Wilson , Joseph B. Dare , Garry Hirt , Roberto Ballesteros , Alexandra Kenyon , John L. Gibson , Frankie Zamora , Ben Stinson , Grant Valentine , Daniel Lago , Jason Barfield , Peter Farber , Arturo García , James J. Green , Paul Krumper , Rick Lacoste , T. Michael McLean , Sean Meyer , Kai Morbey , Casey Osborne , David Ray Robinson , Jack Rose , Wayne Schneiderman , Thomas Smaling , Hank Starling , Fred Valentine , Billy Wells , David Giesbrecht , Mike McGowan
Set Decoration: Barbara Peterson-Malesci
Costume Department: Julie S. Siegmund , Kristen Lucio , Olga Meverden , Alfred J. Barrera , Susan Salzano
Production Design: J. Mark Harrington
Special Effects: Kurt Harris , Kevin Harris , Jeffery D. Woodrel
Script Department: Emily Pendas , Aaron Fullerton
Stunt Performer: Dean Grimes , Reece Fleetwood , Amy Jordan , Christopher Parker , Jessika Brodosi , Henry Gilbert , Joe Dryden , Travor Murray , Juan Carlos Hernandez , Kevin Ball , Artie Malesci
Location Management: Ian A. Williams , Joanne Gelberg-Justiz , Aaron Schwartz , Jeremy N. Hernandez , Stacy J. Morris , Beverly Visitacion
Number of Seasons: Christopher Cockroft , Melvin A. Turner , Stephanie Lundy , Jimmy Wray , Rodney Thorpe , Patricia Mathis , Ronnie Williams , Chris Chiffalo , Javier Armesto , Larry Crenshaw , Dennis Detoro , Richard F. Diez , Pirty Lee Jackson , Huey Laborde , Dean Pazin , Vince Pecora
Seasons: Gayle Pillsbury , Bonnie Zane
Casting Department: Rebecca Mangieri , Samantha Stiglitz , Erin Fragetta , Susan E. Ryan , Barbara Fiorentino , Wendy Weidman , Lori Wyman
Season: 5
Episode: 8
Number of Episodes: 111
Episode of: Hard Out
Special Effects Companies: Cinergy Creative