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wolves-in-the-world · 2 years

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Good Things in The First Contact Job:

- "They used to stamp their logo on the engine cowls of our chopper, and we’d have to file them off before we... went fishing. For fish."

- "Hardison, I said sea salt. This is iodized salt— who got the military satellite intercept? You’re not supposed to..."

- the sheer boldness and style of 'let's make this dude think he heard from aliens'

- "You know, Fermi’s Paradox says that it’s improbable for other life-forms to exist." "Yeah? Well, Drake’s equation shows that orbiting around the hundred billion stars in our galaxy, there’s up to ten thousand planets with technological civilization. [pause] You never know when you might have to fight an alien."

- "Five more steps left... two steps forward... two steps back... now hop."

- "Nate, we have liftoff. Get it? 'Cos of the..." "Yes. Yes, Parker, I get it."

- "Oh, that's chase music, baby."

- TWO GOOD OLD BOYS BEHIND THE WHEEL

- Willie Riker!! (this episode, of course, was directed by Jonathan Frakes)

- how he kept a straight face while talking about aliens wanting to breed with him I do not know

- "Eliot, I am just loving the choices you're making with this character." (Sophie 'Positive Reinforcement' Devereaux; you learn and you con.)

- "Can I get an orange soda?" "Yeah, yeah, you can get an orange soda."

- date competitions, negotiations and miscommunications! they're both Trying and it's Great.

- "The higher you go, the stronger the sky clarity. You got atmospheric dilution. You've got wind vector fluctuations." "I taught him that." —compare and contrast— "Do you want me to teach you about the wines again." "That's just hurtful . . . Yes, I need you to teach me about the wines again, yes."

- Sophie's codebreaking professor character seems like a LOT of fun at parties actually, at least any parties with puzzles and people to geek out with.

- the rare and exquisite Hardison & Parker fistbump

- the gentleness of Nate's lesson that he needs to learn to listen. the fact that he does. all his character stuff is so soft at this point and it's lovely.

- LOVE a show where you get to cheer from the sidelines as they gaslight an evil rich person into believing aliens are after him for fun and profit <3

- the muttered "put your hands on me, I'll break your frigging clavicle" because. it's Eliot. he's being very good about staying in character but Kanack is Incredibly Annoying.

- "Know the difference between us and them? We make this look good." YEAH YOU DO.

- the warrant that reads 'candlelight picnic under the stars' because Hardison is a dork and it's excellent.

- (this one is about Parker learning to listen, too, in such a gentle way.)

- "Each number represents a different character in the Mayan alphabet." "She gets it, man, she really gets it." Willie Riker and Dr Pearl O'Neal are terrible influences on each other and we should see more of them.

- 'Eliot has to successfully fend off mediocre security' is, by this point in the show, not hugely compelling. 'Eliot has to fend off mediocre security while preventing any breakages because it needs to look like they were abducted by aliens' is EXCELLENT.

- 'character wins a fight and has to deal with the indignity of being trapped under dead or unconscious bodies' will never grow old.

- Parker and Eliot sharing a look over an unconscious body. Eliot getting an idea. Parker grinning.

- the shoes are SO much fun you can't tell me they didn't enjoy that

- the odd mix of funny and touching and impressive acting on the character's part that is ex-picasso-of-the-hired-killer-world Eliot Spencer collapsing into the mark's arms and making like a terrified conspiracy theorist. power negative turned up to eleven.

- "That sucked." bet you're glad no-one else saw it, huh

- they maybe didn't NEED to be this extra with the visual effects and Sophie's abduction, but it IS glorious. they're really breaking this dude.

- "This gives me a good idea." "Whatever it is, no."

- "Oh, man, he flipped. He flipped like a coin. I wish Lenny would have seen it."

- followed by Eliot getting self-conscious and a little grumpy again

- followed by Sophie realising she really enjoys directing and is good at it

- ♫ two good old boys behind the wheel chasing down bad guys in Lucille ♫

- Nate Learned His Lesson. it's nice to see.

- ending on the promised picnic under the stars and shared geekery as a love language <3

#this started in the tags of darkfinch's 'which episode of leverage is you-shaped' post #but even at a fraction of the length it was Too Much #I ended up reading through the episode transcript for this and had a Fantastic time #a list of reasons this episode sparks me-shaped happiness #the first contact job #leverage

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