When you spend most of your time getting inside the minds of bad people, looking for their flaws and their weaknesses, it's pretty much all you see... in everyone.
”
— Nate
Nate becomes obsessed with the legendary D.B. Cooper when a dying FBI agent's request puts him on the trail.
Special Agent Todd McSweeten, the team's occasional FBI contact, and his father, Special Agent Pete McSweeten. The elder McSweeten was the case officer on the original D. B. Cooper investigation, and spent the remainder of his career investigating the case. Working with him were his partners, Reggie Wilkins and Steve Reynolds, the husband of the flight attendant on the infamous flight.
The Mark[]
D. B. Cooper, the infamous hijacker of Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 305.
Oliver Schmitt (delayed)
Locations[]
The Con[]
Agent McSweeten has come to Parker for help. His father Peter, a former agent, is dying of pancreatic cancer, and he wants the teams help tracking down the one felon his father wasn’t able to catch, D.B. Cooper. Nate is reluctant, but relents and allows them to help.
Hardison and Nate meet with the Peter McSweeten's partner, Steve Reynalds. His wife was a stewardess on the plane that was hijacked and so it’s personal for him. They ask him if he has a theory on who D.B. Cooper was, and he tells them several that are all as plausible as the other.
Nate later meets with McSweeten's father who begins to tell them about the case. (These scenes are Flashbacks in which the major characters are played by the Leverage cast, as in "The Van Gogh Job".) It was his first day as chief of the Portland area. As he arrived at work he gave a short speech about the values of their motto, but feels there should be one word added, “compassion.” On Trans Pacifica 305, a stewardess, Stephanie Ritter, is handed a note by a passenger. At first she thinks it’s a love note, but when she reads it she finds a message telling her he has a bomb.
On the ground, McSweeten is heading for the airport after the plane lands. He reviews the demands and is informed that there is a tactical response team ready to go, on McSweeten's say-so. All the shades on the plane are down so police snipers can’t hit him. Aboard the plane, Cooper is talking to Stephanie until she goes to answer a knock on the door. McSweeten is there with the demanded money and parachutes. Cooper instructs the pilots to fly to Mexico City, at 10,000 feet, flaps at 15 degrees. McSweeten arranges to intercept the plane in Reno, but Cooper jumps out the back of the plane and vanishes. McSweeten is then transferred back to his old position.
Hardison and Steve find a possible match and Nate sends Sophie to check it out.
After losing Cooper, McSweeten become nearly obsessed with finding him, chasing down leads wherever they turned up. He goes to see the stewardess from the flight and asks him to identify a man in a photo claiming to be D.B. Cooper. She isn't sure, and as he’s about to leave, she and her husband Steve offer him some coffee. Inside they discuss Steve’s military service and McSweeten decides to sponsor his admission into the FBI, after which they become partners.
Steve and Hardison are discussing the same thing. Steve tells him and says McSweeten quite probably saved his life that day.
McSweeten's first break came when money from the hijacking was discovered and they went to search the area. Realizing they’re not really doing anything useful, they decide to take over the cold case files, tracking down many other unsolved mysteries.
Peter’s story is interrupted by a call from Sophie, who has located the suspect Hardison and Steve found…in a graveyard. He died three years before the hijacking, in Vietnam. It’s another dead end. Hardison finds the file on him, but notes there isn't any DNA evidence. If there is still some to be had, it will be at the forensics lab.
Back in McSweeten's story, he starts talking about the effect the search had on his son. He laments that his son will probably try to avenge his father’s failure and asks Nate to make sure he doesn't lose himself to it.
When they get the DNA evidence, they find it’s been contaminated because it was before DNA evidence was really relevant. Then a call comes in. Peter just died. They all gather for a little memorial and Steve reminisces about his partner. McSweeten announces that the hunt is now his and gets up.
That night Nate is up staring at the picture of Cooper. He and Hardison brainstorm trying to track down anything. Nate realizes the only thing that’s never been questioned is the sketch of the stewardess’ description of Cooper. He decides to do just that and finds out that the face of Cooper was actually on the back of the airline’s inflight magazine. Nate realize what's going on the moment they know the stewardess lied.
Nate goes back to see Steve and manage to stop him from leaving with the help of McSweeten. He confront Steve about what really happened on flight 305 since he realize he's DB Cooper. Steve then begins to relate the events of the flight from his point of view. He talks to Stephanie and asks "Do you think I look scary to you?", eventually winning her sympathy. He even tells her that he’s doing it for a friend, PFC Dan Cooper, to get money for his family, as he's one of his close friends. The bomb is a fake and he tells the stewardess to tell McSweeten that if they try anything he will set it off. Before she walks off he ask for a drink. Later as he prepares to jump, she goes back to try and talk him out of it. He asks why she cares but she can’t answer. He promises to see her again and then jumps. One night afterward, he appears outside her house and later they get married. The day McSweeten comes, she tries to tell him to run, but he decides to face him. After he leaves, she tells him to accept the job offer, because that way they will never find him as the 'DB Cooper' is right in front of them.
McSweeten asks Nate how he figured it out, and Nate says Dan Cooper died in the Tet Offensive, and Steve was in his unit. Steve tells McSweeten his father was like a brother, even as McSweeten slaps the cuffs on him. He adds that the money was given to Cooper's family and the rest hidden in the forest, until the money was found by some hikers. Before he carts Steve off, Nate comes out and talks to him. He tells him that his father had the gift to see the good in people and because of that, he did bring D.B. Cooper to justice. McSweeten eventually relents and lets him go. At his apartment he finds a copy of The Odyssey, and inside is the Christmas list he wrote all those years ago, asking for a bike and D.B Cooper. Later he thanks Nate for his help.
Guest Cast[]
Sean Cook (Dale Stanton) FBI agent that goes head to head with McSweeten.
Gerald Downey (Todd McSweeten): An FBI special agent determined to grant his father's dying wish.
Fred Ward (Steve Reynolds): McSweeten's partner.
Episode Notes[]
This episode is very similar to The Van Gogh Job, in that much like that episode, this one is split between the team's present day search for D.B. Cooper and the 1970s as Pete tells Nate of his efforts to find Cooper and bring him to justice. Accordingly, we see the team as people in Pete's past in flashback sequences: Parker as the flight attendant on Flight 305, Nate as Pete McSweeten, Hardison as Reggie Wilkins, Sophie as Mrs. McSweeten, and Eliot as Steve Reynolds.
D. B. Cooper (aka Dan Cooper) gained notoriety and status as a folk hero in the days following November 24, 1971, when he hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines Flt. 305 from Portland, OR to Seattle, WA, parachuted from the plane with $200,000 and disappeared. To date, he has never been found, and the FBI believes it was unlikely he could have survived the jump from the plane. The only evidence of Cooper ever found was $5,800 of the ransom money, which was discovered along the Columbia River in February 1980.
Trivia[]
Northwest Orient Airlines later became known as Northwest Airlines before it was purchased by Delta Airlines, which took over its routes, in 2008. It ceased to operate as a brand in 2010.
The hijacker actually used the name "Dan Cooper", but a media miscommunication caused the name "D. B. Cooper" to come into common usage, despite having no actual connection with the case.
