Sophie is gone, but to fill in, Hardison becomes the grifter and boy does does he overstep. After a security guard gets accused of helping diamond thieves, he turns to the team for help. The man who owns the diamonds is doing insurance fraud, so Hardison poses a "The Ice Man," the best thief alive. The takes credit for Parker's jobs and she is obviously trouble by this. The owner's goons grab Hardison to help them steal more diamonds while Nate poses as an insurance investigator. Parker helps Hardison break into the vault and ends up trapping the goons and owner in for the police. The plot wasn't anything special, but the episode was very solid.

Aldis Hodge (and Hardison) did a great job with the accent. He managed to keep it up the entire episode and was convincing. I loved the interaction between he and Eliot, especially when Hardison pretended to beat Eliot up. Parker was awesome doing what she does best: stealing things. Beth Riesgraf really does a great job acting as a thief and looked great in those dresses.

Sophie who is in England was relied on by several of them. Of course none of them wanted to others to know where they were getting help. They definitely needed her, but they succeeded in the end without her though it was very difficult. Could the team replace her with someone else and still be successful? Maybe if they found the right person they could, but realistically they need her. The question is, does Sophie need them?

I suspect her absence may be prolonged due to Gina Bellman's announcement of her pregnancy earlier this year though it does make sense as an arc. Maybe the writers are trying to hide the bump, maybe they'll even get rid of her until next season. There's lots of questions right now and it's worrying me.

Score: 9.0/10