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#sophie devereaux meta
leverage-ot3 · 5 months
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notable moments from The Cross My Heart Job
leverage 4.09
(team comes down an escalator toward the main floor)
Sophie: Well, that trip was a complete disaster.
Hardison: It was a train wreck.
Eliot: No, it was a shipwreck. And you know how I know that? 'Cause I was in the wreck.
Hardison: Hey, man, I don't want to hear you complain. At least you don't have to fix th-the ear buds. You know what?
Eliot: Man, don't talk to me about the ear buds! I just fought three ex-Brazilian combat divers with spear-guns, underwater!
Hardison: I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear it.
Eliot: You believe this? (taps Sophie’s arm)
Sophie: Ow, don't touch me. I am sunburnt everywhere. I hate playing the French heiress on the topless beach.
Parker: Oh, I don't know what you're complaining about. I didn't even get to see the emerald.
Hardison: Are you for real?
Eliot: Oh, my god, for the last time, it's not an emerald. All right? It's an island. It's the "Emerald of the Caribbean."
chaotic family on an escalator
- - - - -
Parker: The heart could be anywhere by now. They could have jumped in a taxi and driven off.
Sophie: No, no, we have to assume it's still in the airport, that they're planning to fly it out.
Parker: Why?
Eliot: 'Cause otherwise, we've already lost
- - - - -
Eliot: All right. They're in there. We're gonna need a distraction.
(Sophie takes off her pants and uses her long shirt like a dress, then shakes out her hair and pulls a pair of heels from her purse. Parker counts some cash)
Parker: All right, they told Linda to call from a pay phone for instructions once she made the drop.
Eliot (hands Parker money): Better hurry up, or they're gonna start getting suspicious.
Parker: It's a good thing we didn't stay on that island to see those emeralds.
Eliot: Parker, I just t...
(Sophie leans on Eliot to put on her shoes)
Eliot: You carry high heels in your purse?
Sophie: I always travel with heels. (takes Parker’s scarf and ties it around her waist) How's this? Distracting enough?
Parker: Hmm.
parker and eliot both look away, partially to give her privacy but partially to act as a wall so that other people won’t see her changing
notice the stark contrast between this scene and the other changing scene in this episode
- - - - -
(the clerk closes the doors. Inside, Eliot pulls the kidnapper between two tables while Parker talks to Tanya)
Paker: Yeah, that will work. We'll get you a little taser, carry it with you wherever you go-
parker and her tasers + being surprisingly good with kids
- - - - -
Nate (to Eliot): What do you got on this guy?
Eliot: He's not a professional. He has no combat training. Lousy Zanshin.
Parker: The what?
Eliot: He's a loc... It means "personal awareness." Thug for hire, but very well funded. (hands Nate tickets) Two first-class tickets, one for him and one for the girl, and that's how they got past security, and (hands gun to Nate) plastic gun. One or two shots in the barrel warps, but that's pretty much all you need, very pricey hardware.
Parker: Why would someone pay for that but not hire a professional?
Eliot: He doesn't want a professional. He wants a local so we can't trace him back to him.
- - - - -
(Eliot uses a cord to tie the kidnapper’s hands)
Eliot (to Sophie): Don't suppose you travel with handcuffs.
Sophie: No, not on this trip.
👀👀👀
- - - - -
Parker: Plus the ear buds are busted.
Hardison: And I burned our phones and our credit cards so we can't be traced.
Sophie: Most of our money went on bribing the waiter.
Eliot: We're operating in a secured area.
Parker: And my lock picks are checked.
Hardison: And airport wi-fi is a joke. Face it, we're practically naked.
- - - - -
(Eliot and Parker walk out of the Restaurant and part ways. Parker approaches a kiosk that sells computers and looks around, then crouches to look at the locks before walking away. Eliot approaches an electronic store before yelling catches his attention from a check in desk not far away)
Platinum Flyer: You guys! Hey! Platinum flyer over here. Come here. Somebody look at me.
Airline Clerk: Sir, please calm down.
Platinum Flyer: Ju... let me stop you right there, okay? I don't care what seats you have left, all right? Do you see this? (holds up a card) I am a vista Atlantic platinum flyer, all right? Is this card gold? No. Look at it. Is it silver? No.
(Eliot looks around, sees a magazine and picks it up)
Platinum Flyer: It's platinum, all right? So if you think that I am sitting back in coach with the rabble, you got another think coming, all right?
(Eliot puts the magazine over the Platinum Flyer’s briefcase as the man tries to drop his wallet into it)
Platinum Flyer: You can just forget it. I don't even want to talk to you anymore. Who's that? Thing one and thing two, come here. You guys. Hey!
(Eliot walks back to the electronics store and pulls the Platinum Flyer’s credit card from the wallet. He enters the store and grabs several packages of walkie talkies, then flags down a clerk)
Eliot: Yo, yo, yo. Come over here.
(Parker tries on various sunglasses, stealing a pair before walking away. She walks past again and steals a snow globe. On another pass she steals a bag. She returns to the computer kiosk and breaks the sunglasses to picks the locks, revealing an old style CRT monitor)
all this competence porn, it’s SO GOOD
- - - - -
(later Parker and Eliot take apart the walkie talkies at a table while Hardison uses an old computer at the bar with Sophie and Linda watching while Nate paces)
Nate: Hardison, come on.
Hardison: Look, man, this is like stone knives and bearskins, okay? Nobody's asking Eliot to fight a guy with a nerf sword.
Eliot: Damascus, 2002.
Hardison: Like you've been to Damascus.
domestic parker and eliot taking apart walkie talkies? eliot legit sword fighting with a nerf sword? amazing
- - - - -
(the clerk watches from behind them, amazed)
Hardison: Wh-what? Come on, man. Like you've never seen a man travel with a desktop before. Go.
LMAO
- - - - -
Nate: Right there! Right there. Him.
Sophie: Dean Chesney?
Nate: Dean Chesney, CEO of Vertronics defense contractor. I had my eye on him for quite a while, but he was never a high-priority target.
Hardison: Why not?
Nate: He was dying.
- - - - -
(Eliot sits down and his feet hit against the struggling kidnapper. Eliot kicks him in the head but he continues making muffled sounds)
Nate: Are you done?
(Eliot kicks the man again)
Eliot: Yeah
- - - - -
Hardison: After we get out of the public areas of the terminal, we work on level two. It's ground crew, tarmac access. It gets us from here to the private terminal.
Parker: How do we get that? Break Eliot's wrist?
Hardison: What? N-no, no. We just pick one up from where the ground crew left it.
[Locker Room]
Parker (opening combination lock): Yeah, this will keep my stuff safe, from a 6-year-old with the DTs.
(Parker opens the locker and removes a jacket. Eliot closes the locker and hits the lock on the one next to it, opening the lock. He pulls out a level 2 badge and hands it to Parker)
Eliot: That's two.
(Parker and Eliot begin to change clothes)
🔥🔥🔥 scene tho 🔥🔥🔥
also, notice how they start getting changed without turning around or anything, like hardison would have immediately turned around because that’s who he is. she literally immediately takes her shirt off without a care. he doesn’t even blink at it. eliot and parker have a very strong, nonverbal, physical bond because they’re similar entities. they understand each other on a deep level because of their pasts and there isn’t that type of need for modesty between them.
also they’re literally so close to each other when they’re doing this??? literally, personal space? they don’t know her
ALSO, eliot throws his shirt at the camera and idk it feels like he’s giving parker privacy from the “onlookers” (aka the camera) if you get what I’m saying,,,
- - - - -
Sophie: Well, we have to lure them out.
Parker: Oh, okay. Set Nate on fire?
Eliot: Settle down
she mouths “no” back at him and they have a silent exchange where she ends up smiling I love them
- - - - -
Hardison (pacing): Come on, Eliot. Come on, come on. Come on, man.
Announcer: Mr. Picard. Mr. Kirk Picard, please meet your party at door "E.
ELIOT KNOWS HOW TO GET HARDISONS ATTENTION. HE KNOWS TO MAKE A STAR TREK REFERENCE AND BAM HARDISON KNOWS WHATS UP. WHAT D O R K S
- - - - -
(Eliot gets into a cart that Parker is sitting in. She holds up the keys and hands them to him)
Parker: Let's ride
her SMILE and EXCITEMENT
- - - - -
Hardison: Excuse me. Uh, something's wrong with my pin. Can you reset it for me?
(Hardison hands the card to the guard, who scans it)
Guard: Can you confirm your old pin?
(the screen shows that the card belongs to a woman and the guard looks at Hardison in surprise)
Guard: Uh...
Hardison: What?
Guard: Wh—
Hardison: what? You got a, you got a problem? My little transformation? Go on, speak your mind. Yeah, I had some surgery, huh? A little nip, a little tuck, a little pop, okay? And now I am who I'm supposed to be. I used to be Francesca. Now my name is Frank!
Guard: Um...
(a second guard turns to look at Hardison)
Hardison: You got a problem? You... excu—excu—I didn't know this was the club. You all up in the mix, don't even know the flavor. What's your problem? (walks around the desk aggressively) You got a, you—everybody got a problem with this? Look, racism, sexism, anti-semitism? That's how you y'all want to play this? Cool. I thought it was a no-no in airport security, but I see y'all profilin' me right, left, and center, everywhere. You know what? Shame on you. Shame on your mama. Shame on your kids.
(Hardison glances at the monitor to see the pin number, then walks back around the desk)
Guard: I-it's fine. I-it's fine. I got no problem with anything. Uh, it-it looks like you used to, used to be a-a really pretty girl.
Hardison: Used to be?
Guard: A-and n-now you're a-a very handsome gentleman.
Hardison: You hitting on me?
Guard: C-can you confirm your old pin?
Hardison: It's 5135.
Guard: Uh. (scans the card) Okay, there. Try that.
Hardison: Thank you. (looks at second guard) You better re-adjust your peripherals.
Guard 2: Real smooth.
(Hardison returns to the card reader and scans the card, entering the pin)
Reader: Pin accepted.
Hardison: Don't care what anybody else says. Next time, I'm taking the train.
I can’t tell if this scene was transphobic or not ??? like, it could have been worse and he called out people who would be judgmental of his “transformation” ???
like there was like one other kinda transphobic thing they did in the show but I forget the episode
- - - - -
Nate: I know what you're gonna say.
Sophie: I think you should have a drink.
Nate: Okay, I didn't know what you were gonna say.
Sophie: Look, we don't like it when you drink, (pours him a drink) but we trust you when you do. We both knew this was gonna get personal. We need you to stay clear-headed. You let it get to you now, it's gonna go bad for all of us. Be very careful, Nate.
- - - - -
Nate: Sam would have been 13 this year. A teenager. Almost a man. I mean, you know, probably a big pain in the ass, but… Joshua Spin is getting out of that hospital bed.
(Sophie nods. Nate sighs and takes the drink, looking down at Sophie’s hand over his)
- - - - -
hardison’s GRIN when he sees all the computers in the tower 🥺
- - - - -
Parker: It took us 8 minutes to get there. It's gonna take us 8 minutes to get back. Wait. (goes around to the front of the cart)
Eliot: What are you doing? Wait. No way!
(Parker lies on the ground and reaches under the cart)
Eliot: Come on, Parker, we got to go! We got to get-- Let's go! What are you do-- Quit monkeying around under there!
(Parker stands up holding a piece of electronics)
Eliot: Did you just pull something out of the engine?
Parker: Yeah. Spark regulator, keeps the cart from going more than 25 miles an hour. Now we'll get there in 4 minutes.
(Eliot starts the cart and takes off quickly)
Parker: Hey! Whoa! Whoa! Yeah!
- - - - -
Nate: Last week on that island, you faked a volcanic eruption. How is this harder?
HE DID WHAT NOW
- - - - -
Nate: You just sell it to the tower.
Sophie: Massdot special?
Nate: Massdot special.
Linda: Massdot special?
Sophie: Yes! (takes Linda’s phone and makes a call)
[National Weather Service]
Rachael: National Weather Service. This is Rachel.
Sophie: Oh, thank God!
[Crab-a-Rama]
Sophie: I was just out walking my dogs, and I saw a tornado touch down!
(Nate pulls up pictures of tornadoes on the computer)
Rachael: Are you sure?
[National Weather Service]
Rachael: The current forecast don't indicate any severe-weather patterns.
Sophie: I'm sure.
[Crab-a-Rama]
Sophie: I took a photo of it with my phone. I'm sending it to you now.
(Nate sends a picture of a tornado to Rachael as he dials the phone)
[National Weather Service]
(Rachael looks at the picture in shock)
Rachael: Uh, please hold, ma'am. (places Sophie on hold and takes another call) National weather service. This is Rachel.
[Crab-a-Rama]
Nate: Are you asleep at the wheel? There's a tornado out here by the airport right now! A freaking tornado! Come on!
[National Weather Service]
Rachael: Bill. Bill!
Bill: What is it?
Rachael: We got calls here. I think we need to issue a tornado warning for the Cincinnati metropolitan area.
- - - - -
Chesney: --to make the top of the list. This is my only chance. I've planned for months. I have eight backup contingencies. I'm fighting for my life, Mr. Ford! What are you fighting for?
[Crab-a-Rama]
Nate: I am fighting for that 15-year-old boy that you're going to kill.
[Chesney’s Room]
Chesney: God helps those who help themselves.
Nate: And I help people who can't.
[Crab-a-Rama]
Nate: And God help you if anything should happen to that boy, because if he spends more than one second longer in that hospital than he needs to, I will make it my mission in life to end you.
[Chesney’s Room]
Nate: I will ruin you.
[Crab-a-Rama]
Nate: I will ruin your name. I will ruin your company. I will bring down everything you have ever touched. And when I am done, I will hunt you down--
[Chesney’s Room]
Nate: --and I will kill you myself.
[Crab-a-Rama]
(Nate hangs up the phone)
- - - - -
parker yells “yee haw” a lot and I love her for that
- - - - -
Pilot: Tower, field is in sight.
Program: We have you in sight. Clear to land on runway 1-8.
Hardison: Okay, flight 4-0-9. W-we have a visual. You are clear to land on runway 1-8.
Pilot: Roger. Clear to land.
(the airplane lands safely)
Pilot: Tower, we are down.
Hardison: Yes! Hell yeah! That's what I'm talking about.
Pilot: Say again, tower?
Hardison: I'm sorry. No, no, I'm sorry. It's cool. It's cool. It's cool. Celebrate with me. All right.
hardison managed to land an airplane with 300 people on it with nothing more than a computer and a flight simulator and we STAN our intelligent man
- - - - -
eliot was always standing next to hardison in all the extra scenes in this episode and we love to see it
- - - - -
(Eliot looks at Nate and Sophie, then nudges Hardison)
Eliot: Let's go.
(Eliot grabs Parker on the way down the hall, Hardison follows them)
his lil pat on hardison’s shoulder? how he places a guiding hand on parker’s arm, leading her away? we LOVE to see casual touches and casual intimacy between them
- - - - -
so hardison likes to assemble model helicopters in his spare time sometimes and nate assembles model ships in his ???
- - - - -
Chesney: So now what? You can't report me without exposing yourself. And what's to stop me from trying again?
[Leverage HQ]
Nate: I am. (hits remote to bring up information and a video feed on the monitors) I'm watching you. I'm watching your money, your people, your company. What have you got there, a pulse rate of 86?
[Chesney’s Room]
(Chesney looks around in alarm)
[Leverage HQ]
Nate: Oh, look at that.
[Chesney’s Room]
Nate: Just jumped up to 104. That can't be good for you.
[Leverage HQ]
Nate: Make your peace now, Chesney. (continues putting model together) Because if I see anything, anything I don't like...
[Chesney’s Room]
Chesney: Well, Mr. Ford it seems you've killed me after all.
[Leverage HQ]
Nate: Oh, I didn't kill you. God killed you. I just made sure it took. (hangs up)
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fallonash · 1 year
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Sophie Deveraux - timeline
Is anyone else confused by the timeline suggested by Sophie and Astrid claiming they haven’t seen each other in 20 years? That’s only 5 years before the pilot of the original series. Wouldn’t 30 years have made much more sense? Or at least 25. I’ve gone back and collected a handful of canon dates for the timeline from previous eps and come up with the following:
1989 – Jean Mettier dies (so the painting of Sophie from ”The Frame-Up Job” must have been made mid-80s, suggesting Sophie is born late 60s at the latest)
1997 – Beaten to stealing the Vermeer at the Louvre by the Jackal (The Jackal)
1997 – The Copenhagen job with Stark (Two Live Crew Job)
1998 – The Berlin Politic Job with Stark (Two Live Crew job)
1999 – Steals the David from the Vatican (”10 years ago” according to the First David Job in 2009)
2001 – Sophie and Nate meet for the first time (”Paris 7 years ago” according to the pilot in 2008)
2002 – The Duke DIES (”dear William gone these 8 years” in ”King George Job” 2010)
2003 – Sophie sees Astrid for the last time (”20 years ago” according to Redemption 2x12+13) and escapes Ramsey
2004 – Matevan fraud (mentioned in Harry Wilson Job)
So not only does that technically mean the Duke died BEFORE Sophie left him, that can be fudged with rounding a bit up or down, but:
Are we to believe that while she was married to the Duke, she was simultaneously running around Europe, stealing paintings and doing long cons, and flirting with Nate Ford? Would Ramsey really let her work with other crews like Stark so much? And when would she have time to amass all those caches of treasure? I mean, if she stole the David on Ramsey's order, would he really let her keep it??
I feel like it would make much more sense for the Ramsey time to have been late 80s/early 90s, give it a few extra years for the marriage to the Duke, and then she makes her break for it in say ~95 or so, and spends the next 10 years establishing herself as a grifter extraordinaire on her own terms, while the Duke slowly dies of a broken heart and drinking over a period of several years, rather than it being a quick process of a few months at most.
(Auntie from the King George Job says ”he never blamed you” and ”the drink helped” - I recruited someone unfamiliar with the show to watch that scene and give me a rough interpreted timeline, and they said 'it sounds like the blame thing was something they talked about many times over a longer period of time, so that he had ample opportunity to change his mind if he wanted, and that he was drinking but also had periods when he was doing better, so I would guess 4-8 years from the time Sophie left him until he died'. That was pretty much my initial interpretation of that scene as well, as far as I remember it.)
I am very interested to hear people’s takes on this, but unless someone has a very compelling argument I think I’ll headcanon that they meant 25-30 years instead. (Couldn’t they just have said ‘we haven’t see each other since Astrid was 10′ and left it vague instead???)
(Also, if anyone can add canon dates to this, please let me know and I’ll add them in! This was just off the top of my head times when I remembered them mentioning specific years for things.)
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my-beloved-lakes · 9 months
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Several times throughout leverage, the team tells Nate he's taking a job too personally and that it's dangerous and someone could get hurt because he's not thinking clearly. And just about every time, Nate denies there's any issues and agrues that he has it under control and that everything will be fine. Then we have the last episode, their last job together. When the Interpol agent asks Nate what his mistake was and how his friends died, he starts by establishing that the job was very personal. His mistake was not miscalculating the guards, it was letting his personal feelings get in the way. (The very thing he said Parker doesn't do before passing on the roll of mastermind to her, but that's not the point.) The point is, that the Interpol agent had no way of knowing about all the times Nate took a job too personally and it made the job more dangerous. She didn't know it had been an issue before, so it was almost like Nate only added that detail to the story for the team. It's like Nate was admitting to them that they had been right and that he did have a bad habit of putting them in danger because he was taking a job too personally. It was like an apology.
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zero-buds · 2 years
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Everytime someone says bring back Nate, I shiver with dread.
And for someone who's a really big fan of Nate, I really would hate having to see him come back to Redemption. I saw on a Facebook group I'm in where someone asked how Nate would react to the Jackal Job, and I remember thinking that Nate, the Catholic man, would either not be a supporter or simply not be able to empathize or participate in the con without prejudice.
Look, OG Leverage has a place in my heart for a reason, but I cannot justify bringing back Nate at all. Nate's story could never fit into Redemption for a variety of reasons.
OG Leverage took the experiences Nate had and made a point in every episode why the man does what he does.
OG Leverage was about revenge first and foremost, then doing the right thing after, then building something more.
You know the reason why the stories never mentioned the disabled, the LGBTQ+, or the plain old voiceless of immigrant communities (this one was touched on but not really)?
It's because it wasn't Nate's story to tell. The original message was, if you are in a position where you have been wronged, then you should have the power to make it right. You deserve a second chance. That's why he always dealt with the scammers, the rich white men, the corporate greed, etc. He always tried to give people a second chance from a dumb or honest mistake, or to right someone's wrong.
That's why the Black Book was so important by the end of OG Leverage. It closed Nate's story with the idea that what has been wronged will be righted even if it meant taking a less than legal approach by others who are willing to bring justice to light.
Redemption is not that story. I mean it is, but it isn't. Redemption is the story where those less fortunate, those who are inherently going to lose no matter what they do, get a voice. They deserve a say in how they are treated, and they, as much as the impoverish and the naive, can have the power given back to them.
It's shown with victims like the elderly, the disabled, the people of color, the young who don't quite fit the social norm, and the LGBTQ+ community.
Through Harry Wilson, Redemption also shows us that those with power, need to take responsibility for their actions.  It is not enough to fight those in power, but that people like Harry - who do have power, are vitally needed to change the system.
Redemption does not need to see Nate to accomplish this story, but the fact remains that the message Nate started is still here, if not more refined and nuanced than ever before.
Nate should not come back to Redemption because his story was told in OG, and now, a new story can begin where the crew can be expanded and fight for what's right as well as give every victim of an injustice, an opportunity to tell their story as well.
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tarragonthedragon · 1 year
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neither nate positive nor nate negative but a secret third thing (rooting for sophie to get the nate of her exact choice like shes at sad angry man build-a-bear)
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faorism · 1 year
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trying to determine everything on the crew's lovingly made santa hats and omg they are just so goddamn adorable. [img desc: above and at the bottom of this post are screenshots of sophie, harry, eliot, and bre at several angles receiving their custom santa hats from parker, showing details to try and determine what decorations are on it. ilist what i think is on it below]
SOPHIE: covered in costume jewelry gems (but you know parker switches out at least one to be a real one every year, to keep things fresh). there's a queen's crown in a black emblem, another sparkly crown near the top, many pearls, a couple peppermints, several small snowman beads, a union jack pin, a pair of blue barbie boots (one of them is on top of a blue gem, so it can be easily missed), several curly embellishments with white dots/mini pearls, and of course a big ass old fashion doll head of the queen. there is definitely things on the back as well, maybe a tassel and/or a christmas tree?
HARRY: the new guy has an emptier hat because his is fresh, but he's got one this year which shows he's officially part of the family. he's got lawyer-y stuff right now: a gavel, one set of law books, a set of law books with a man and a girl (presumably harry and becky), something on top i couldnt see, and the cutest fucking scroll that says VERDICT in black and then NAUGHTY in red like a stamp. there's a lot of room for new things!
PARKER: she is not wearing hers because she has one to match her outfit, but she has chosen for herself just lots of money and also a creepy ass elf on a shelf.
BRE: several game controls of various colors, a few ball ornaments, a laptop pin, yellow barbie skates/sneakers, a pair of big headphones, several spirits ruse cards, a dragon, a laptop with a :) face, an action figure of some kind, and i think a gem or two.
ELIOT: easily the most personalized, with very little christmas stuff so its just a lot of him. so. front - guitar, a fucked up santa pin (if human, but maybe it is actually a lion santa??), a foot soldier, with a rolled up flag, a green toy soldier, horse in armor, number seven (font like a jersey), whisk, egg in a bowl, butcher knife, football, black boots, and beer stein. on the right side - a knight with a sword, knight with a mace, knight with a flag, horse in armor, black buttons?, dog tags, football, and binoculars. on the left side - sheriff badge that says HERO, two more green toy soldiers, and a toy tabasco sauce bottle. on the back - a big solider in camo ornament, a boxing bag, boxing gloves, a small pair of binoculars, a small ketchup bottle, maybe a can, maybe a small bottle with a label, another football, and a big wolf. there's a few things i really cannot make out. like the big grey thing on the back, and the white cirles with red and blue dots on the back.
IN ANY CASE. these are fucking adorable and i want parker to make one for me.
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4acesofspades · 1 year
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Okay, but one of the things that Leverage: Redemption does beautifully is not try to be something it’s not.  
And by that I mean it knows it’s not the original.  It knows there are gaping holes in its cast, it’s ten, twelve years removed from its original context, etc. etc. etc.  And it doesn’t try to pretend that none of that happened.  
The ongoing tension between Breanna and Hardison is an excellent example of this.  “I am not you.”  That is something the writers knew their audience may complain of when faced with a “replacement” for Hardison; she’s not Hardison, so she’s not good enough before they even give her a chance.  But by giving the character herself those lines, they are admitting that they’re not so comfortable with it, either.  They’re acknowledging they feel the loss, too.  Nobody is safe here. 
It’s similar on the leadership side of things.  Harry is not and will never be Nate.  For one, he’s much more stable.  But also, he’s just a completely different personality.  He and Sophie get along differently, Sophie has a different role here.  Instead of spending all of her energy trying to prevent an explosion, she’s able to burn a little herself.  
And the best thing they do for either one of them, I believe, is allow Sophie to grieve.  The character of Nate does not disappear with the closing of his coffin.  He lives on through his wife and their memories; he is a part of her.  And by doing this, Redemption acknowledges most deeply that Leverage will never be the same.  But it’s okay, because they still have each other.  
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evasleveragefanshit · 11 months
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I wanted to talk about The Broken Wing Job and a thing I noticed about Parker.
I think we all know that Parker is definitely Autistic-coded, though to exactly what extent that was directly intentional depends largely on who you ask.
What I noticed is Parker's initial hostility toward Amy. She gets upset because Amy is trying to be friendly towards her in a way Parker interprets as insincere.
I think a lot of Autistic people can relate to the experience of being suspicious towards people who act friendly, especially if it might be insincere, because social interaction can be filled with invisible landmines. This can result in people who do the opposite of masking. Basically, seeing conversation/ friendly overtures as a type of conflict and refusing to play the game. Rather than try to figure out the rules for optimal conversation (and risk getting them wrong and being ostracized), they just skip to choosing to make things as uncomfortable for the other person to avoid trying and failing.
I think we see Parker do this a lot throughout the series. I mean, her first instinct when she feels social conflict while grifting is literally to start stabbing. She never masks to make the team more comfortable, even when she learns how to play the game to grift.
So, when it comes to The Broken Wing Job, Parker acts as weirdly as possible. See: "Best meal I ever had was in French prison." I see this as her trying to communicate 'I am not like you' in an attempt to get Amy to acknowledge the communication barrier and leave her alone.
HOWEVER, as the episode goes along, Amy not only accepts all the strange Parker gives off, but shows Parker some of her own strangeness back. (See: all of the people watching).
Amy met Parker on her level and communicated in a way Parker understood.
This is really important because even her teammates sometimes fail to do this. They don't always 'get' Parker, and because of this they can sometimes dismiss her. I think Eliot and Sophie are the worst about this.
Sophie gets Parker sometimes, but as a grifter she relies on the rules of neurotypical interaction, and can sometimes get frustrated with Parker, or try to get her to do it the "normal" way.
Eliot out of all of them is the most stereotypical man out of all of them, and as such he has a strong tendency to enforce this worldview. He does this to Hardison, at least originally, when he sincerely does not value computer skills because he deems them "geeky/ nerdy". Similarly, he is the one who most frequently chides Parker to get her to be less weird. That said, he tends to speak straight forwardly, say what he means, and honor his word. So out of all of them, he may be the one she understands the best.
Anyway, that's all.
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eyrieofsynapses · 2 years
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Been thinking about The Two Live Crew Job again, specifically about Sophie and Eliot with the bomb, and... y'know, it's interesting to me, how Sophie looks to Eliot while they're trying to figure out what to do with the bomb. He's not the expert in the room, not really—that’s Parker and Hardison, truth be told, though Eliot’s got more field experience with explosives, and we see that in how they're the ones providing feedback. Heck, Parker's the one that comes up with the solution with the instant pudding. Nate takes the natural leader position, and he and Sophie are... Nate and Sophie. But it's Eliot that we see Sophie consistently coming back to, who she locks eyes with.
That could be for plenty of reasons. He does seem to have the steadiest control of the situation, likely because he's the best at dealing with high-stakes life-threatening issues (the hitter with extensive military experience is, of course, going to be better under that kind of pressure than the ones who are technically civilians). But I think maybe there's another layer there: he's the one she can trust to be blunt.
See, Eliot's not going to try to soften this. He's a tactful person as a general rule, but he also knows when to be honest. Sophie doesn't want this to be softened. I suspect that's because it introduces a layer of instability; if she only hears optimistic viewpoints, there's an uncertainty in what could go wrong, a fear about what might really happen. But Parker and Hardison and Nate don't necessarily get that—in fact, they themselves won't want to stare down the flat truth, and they may take the optimistic standpoint simply to keep themselves comfortable, even without realizing it.
Conversely, Eliot's not (and never has been) the type to try to look only on the bright side. You don't get to do that in his line of work. He knows how to look at all possible outcomes and take the scene in as-is, and he understands that some people don't want platitudes. Sophie's one of them. She knows, then, that she can trust him to tell her exactly what's happening and what the stakes are, no sugar-coating, no shaky voice, just steady truth.
And she knows, too, that he knows when something is a lost cause—and he understands when to cut his losses. Eliot can be impartial in the moment, no matter how much he beats himself up about it later, and he can weigh the odds and decide, coldly, when to abandon her.
The others can't do that. Parker, even here, even now, two years before The Long Way Down Job, could never choose survival over Sophie in that way. Hardison and Nate? They'd stay, no matter how bad the odds, no matter if it was sure that they wouldn't make it. But Eliot can. More importantly, he's the one who can drag the other three out of there.
He's the one Sophie can depend on to keep them alive. Even if it means she dies alone, even if it means she loses that slim, tiny chance she could live—he'll get them out, and they'll live. She won't let them stay behind, and she even shouts that at them, yells at them to get out, and she knows even as she does so that Nate and Parker and Hardison might not listen. But Eliot will. No matter what, Eliot will, and he'll listen to her and follow her orders.
It's Eliot that she watches, and it's him that she keeps steady with, because he'll be honest with her, and he'll be honest with them, and he'll keep them safe, the same way she "[makes] sure we’re all okay," as Hardison so poignantly puts it.
And do you know what else? In spite of all of it, though, in spite of being the one to be blunt, he still manages to be gentle. He's reassuring, holds her gaze and speaks soft and even and gentle, calming, steady, sure. He's the one who hates explosives, who knows exactly how bad this could be, and he stays steady for her.
This is their second year working together. It's mere months after she apologized for lying to them, point-blank, in The Second David Job. Yet there's still this trust, this holding anchored balance, that they'll keep the crew safe together.
But here's the other thing. It's not just that they trust one another with the rest of the crew. It's that Sophie trusts him to keep her safe, and Eliot trusts her to keep him safe, even if "safe" doesn't mean physically. Because sometimes "safe" isn't about that. Sometimes it's safety in reassurance, even when everything is going to go horribly wrong. Sometimes it's safety in keeping secrets, or listening to each other without judgement.
And sometimes, it's about safety in knowing the truth, no matter how vulnerable and terrible it may be.
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wistfulwatcher · 1 year
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Leverage Redemption | 2.13 "The Crowning Achievement Job"
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leverage-ot3 · 1 year
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thinking about how certain characters on the leverage team have been in mortal peril and why it was one person vs another and what that means
nate has been shot, like, multiple times. he’s the leader, the planner, the mastermind. he may not be the hitter but he takes risks that might not always pay off or be in best fortune for him, and he knowingly does that anyway. not much regard for his life sometimes to be completely honest. he’s also easily the most volatile (lesser as the seasons go on but still) and most likely to make a rash decision (season four season finale I’m looking directly at you)
I’m not going to talk about eliot too much because he experiences a lot of pain, but, also, it’s almost always pain that he can endure. he is the hitter- he’s the one that is supposed to take the brunt of the pain, the one prepared to get injured for the sake of the con and the safety of the team. he knows exactly what he is getting into when he throws himself into the situation. knows the risks, the damage he’s putting himself in for
hardison is frankly the biggest example of someone who is put into grave danger (ha). I’m thinking about possibly being murdered in the experimental job, buried alive in the grave danger job, drowning in the pool in the big bang job, etc. he’s not a hitter, doesn’t have the maneuverability or stealth of a thief. he can talk himself out of situations (within reason) but that can only go so far. and he’s not nate, making plans before they act. there’s lowkey a reason why he’s in the van besides the fact that his job necessitates it. barring sophie, he’s probably the least equipped/experienced to deal with real danger, real violence
on the other hand, sophie almost never gets hurt. sure, a gun may get pointed at her, but she can surely talk her way out (‘it’s not loaded’ ‘it was’ ‘not to a grifter’). I honestly can’t remember a time that sophie was ever seriously injured??? she is so meticulous about setting herself up in situations that will specifically not get her hurt, or where she has some sort of safety net or backup plan. I’m thinking about the quote where she says she gets people to unlock doors for her vs having to pick the lock herself
parker is somewhere in the middle of the spectrum but leans more towards sophie. she’s been in some scrapes and close calls (the inside job, the hot potato job with the burn room, the long way down job). but in nearly every situation like this she finds herself in, she can also work herself out of. she can run fast enough and climb and crawl far enough, dodge lasers well enough that she can manuver herself out of the problem. the few times she was ever in real danger was when she put herself there (I’m specifically thinking about the stork job when she puts herself between children and people with guns) (albeit fake guns)
some underdeveloped thought in the back of my mind is turning around the idea of importance to the show/team’s core and the likelihood of getting hurt
(talking eliot out of the equation so as not to skew the data, hardison is hurt the most because he is the heart of the group. nate is hurt so much because he is the leader. sophie and parker are undoubtedly still important, but have the skills to maneuver out of those situations before they spiral out of control)
(although the act of taking eliot out of the equation says something in of itself. something about the only person capable of taking that amount of pain for those he loves, etc, etc)
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greaseonmymouth · 1 year
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leverage s5 revised episode order
so it's my understanding that it's pretty much general consensus that s5 is setting up the ot3 endgame, showing us throughout the season how close they are and how well they work together and establishing their relationship the best way they can without the network realising, right? we see this in how they do historical episodes, always pairing Nate and Sophie but they've paired Parker and Hardison and Parker and Eliot, and in the present they've done Eliot and Hardison enough times. and so the finale, The Long Goodbye Job, is the final dot over the i to make that clear - Eliot, Parker, and Hardison die together in the fake scenario because anything else would be anathema, and they skip off into the sunset together as a three person Leverage team while Nate and Sophie skip off together as Out Of The Game, For Good
The Frame Up Job and The Rundown Job support this by showing us how well Eliot, Parker, and Hardison work together, how flawless a team (how thoroughly established an ot3) and by showing us Nate and Sophie as a thoroughly established married couple disgustingly in love and bickering and on the same wavelength
now I propose (and not just because of Eliot's haircut in The Rundown Job clearly indicating this episode should've come later in the season) that The Long Goodbye Job was not intended to be the series finale, and that The Frame Up Job and The Rundown Job were supposed to form a two-episode series finale directly following The Long Goodbye Job. soft epilogues, if you will
points to consider:
in both of those episodes, the other half of the team does not appear and is not even mentioned. it's not like the Girls / Boys Night Out episodes, where the episodes are mirrored and the team is working on related problems, and is then reunited at the end - these are entirely separate episodes featuring two independent teams
Vance to Eliot: "Hell, your girlfriend's already out of her cuffs." Nobody corrects him. Not Parker, not Hardison, and not Eliot. Ok this one doesn't prove episode order I just love this subtle ot3 confirmation moment
Sterling, to Nate and Sophie: "Now I know where you are. Call me. I'm hiring."
this was already funny as is, and we're presuming this is because Sterling hasn't found out where the team relocated to after Boston, but imagine if this is actually after The Long Goodbye Job? Sterling let them go. Nate pushed him and he came down on the side of thieves, and he let them go, and then couldn't find them but now he has and his frustration with the case and Nate and Sophie's casual disregard and the final 'I'm hiring'? It's been a couple of months since The Long Goodbye Job and this is the most fun Sterling has had in ages
but the ot3 half ok. so The Long Goodbye Job tells us that they die together and they live together, and they continue Leverage as a 3 person team. Give it a couple of months and they're in DC and they face a real life and death moment - and they live together.
and also, you get Eliot telling Vance "I work with them now" and then he limps bloodily off into the sunset squished between Hardison and Parker like the three of them are off to have some incredible sex
listen I just think season 5 makes so much more sense if we consider those two episodes as the episodes establishing the happily ever after epilogues after The Long Goodbye Job
also in Leverage: Redemption the very first episode we find out that Nate had a shady stash of paintings and materials and whatnot so what if that is actually a hint that Nate and Sophie did actually get back into the game, with Sterling, until Nate passed away and Sophie clocked out?
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my-beloved-lakes · 10 months
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I just now noticed the dirty/scolding look Sophie gives Breanna when Breanna asked if Eliot was off to kill someone in The Fractured Job. It was very subtle, but if you watch carefully it's there.
While I did think it was funny, her question also bugged me a little, even though I know she was joking, cuz it felt a little insensitive considering all the guilt Eliot feels about his past. But now that I think about it it actually kinda makes sense that she wouldn't understand how insensitive it could be. Like yes, she knows Eliot and she's known him for a long time. But she knows a different side of him than everyone else. She knew him as the cool, badass uncle who her older brother always brought to family gatherings and Christmas and stuff. She probably knows little snippets of Eliot's past but not enough to fully realize that her joke might be a little insensitive. (She would never intentionally be insensitive about it!) Eliot probably never let her see the guilt ridden side of himself because she's like his little kid niece.
Her joke didn't really seem to bother Eliot that much, but Sophie immediately shut it down and I love that. Because Sophie knows just how much guilt Eliot feels and she knows it's something that's caused him a lot of pain. And like Hardison said, they trust her to make sure they're okay. So even if Breanna's joke didn't actually bother Eliot, Sophie still felt like she needed to let Breanna know to back off a bit. And then Breanna did back off.
Idk what point I'm trying to make here but I thought it was an interesting little detail.
Edit: just in case it wasn't clear, (I should have made this more clear to begin with.) This is not a hate post about Breanna or even a criticism really! The way I see it, Breanna didn't know and had no way of knowing what she said would be insensitive because Eliot didn't let her know. That's what I was trying to get at. Eliot has been doing a very good job of shielding her from his past and she knows a different side of him than the others. I don't want negative things about Breanna said on this post (or any of my posts for that matter.) Of course everyone is entitled to their opinions but please don't put that sort of thing on my posts. If you have something negative to say about Breanna go make your own post please and thank you.
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soundsfaebutokay · 2 years
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Still not heroes. Still necessary.
BREANNA: Maybe we can't take on the world's bigger problems. SOPHIE: What we can do is help one person and then the next and then the next….
Okay, I know that these are soundbites with no context, but I'm just really excited by how much this trailer reveals about how self-aware Leverage: Redemption is, both the people making the show and the characters living in it.
Leverage has been yelling from the start that the system is rigged. It was designed from the very beginning to favor the rich and powerful, and it's only gotten worse. Alexandra Bligh came right out and said it in The Harry Wilson Job:
MS. BLIGH: The world has changed. We no longer manipulate the system. We are the system.
Yeah, we're all watching a silly little tv show, but that statement rang with truth you won't hear from pure fiction. It's something that's glaringly obvious from…well, everything. It's why Harry Wilson is all over the trailer still committing crime with the crew despite last his best intentions to go legit season finale. Because working within a corrupt system sometimes means that you have to cheat to win.
HARRY: My friends specialize in fixing problems that the system won't.
Yeah. They're not heroes. They're just necessary. And they will continue to be urgently, desperately necessary until true, substantial systemic change is achieved. I'm reminded of The Homecoming Job in Leverage S1 where a doctor who'd been fighting for resources to help disabled veterans stared in disbelief at a truckful of cash that the crew had just given her.
DR. LAROQUE: The world doesn't work this way. NATE: So change the world.
He didn't tell her, "We will change the world." Not even Nate Ford was that arrogant. That kind of change isn't something that can happen in the shadows. That kind of change has to take place out in the open light of day, where Leverage can't operate. It has to be led by people—like that doctor— who can withstand the glare of spotlights shining into every corner of their lives. Not thieves and conmen, redeemed or otherwise. Leverage isn't a long-term solution—they're a rescue operation. A dirty, dangerous, hands-in-the-muck kind of rescue operation. And while the heroes of the world are fighting for change, these bad guys turned good guys have work to do.
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applejuiz · 1 year
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Obsessed with the idea that the first three seasons of leverage end with somebody on the team running a con on the team: season 1 with Sophie and the Davids, season 2 with Nate and his plan to sacrifice himself, season 3 with Eliot and lying about Moreau. Also obsessed with the fact that Eliot is always the most offended about being conned and then that the trend ends with him. Mostly obsessed with the fact that the pattern doesn’t continue and that Hardison and Parker never run a con on the team (or Eliot).
Openly requesting the thoughts of others so maybe I can finally stop thinking about this and get some sleep…
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faorism · 9 months
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why does it seem like every tv character with an established shitty relationship with a parent (whether abusive or otherwise) has to reconcile with them lol i hate it so much
[context: this post on billy and eliot]
i have no fucking idea, other than that lev:red found ways to insist on your current (queer) found family is not enough to soothe one's soul. there is no true going forward, if you havent gone backward in order to fix something that we didnt see as broken; instead, it was a complexity that humbly fades into the background of the cool characters we love to untangle in our own projections.
reconciliation is not always the answer. the pressure to reconcile (and specifically to do so before i was ready) did irreparable damage. sometimes things happen where we came from, but we find our people. it is not a wish fulfillment fantasy i feel is necessary for leverage. archies first episode ended with difficult parent relationship done right: parker, realizing archie is not who she wanted him to be but settling into the fact that she has family now. real family. they backtracked in the last dam job, sadly.
billys wife, eliots mom, the REASON billy gave up on eliot due to the funeral absence.... she didnt warrant a first name.
they also did the billy&eliot from the other side with sophie and her first crew, but especially sophie with her stepdaughter. sophie didn't need to have a mothering role thrown on her after six seasons without it being mentioned or hinted at. (dont you think that when nate was grieving once against over sam, sophie might have mentioned ANYTHING about being a parent??). sophie suddenly became a Bad Mother that we had to just accept haunted her. and then astrid (A FUCKING SUPER COP, UGH ACAB, HATE THAT LEVERAGE LOVES COPS SO MUCH) had to just.... reconcile with the woman who broke her father's heart, broke her heart, and is still working with the tools that helped deceive her father.
is that was redemption is to lev:red? tracing back the supposed "core" of you (bio/in-law family) so you can confess your wrongs and get a stern pat on the back? maybe nate is there as a ghost but as the earlier version where he was a priest, cuz this is all sounding mighty catholic to me......
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