i finished leverage and suddenly understand how you perverts and degenerates on this site are about Your Shows.

The Nigerian Job.png

So one of the things that cracks me up about Leverage is that Eliot is, as far as I can tell, good at everything. Like they’re like, “Okay Eliot, you have to handle X” and he’s like “[sigh] FINE” and then he owns it.

Thus far just off the top of my head he has been:

a gourmet chef

a star baseball player (when he DOESN’T EVEN LIKE BASEBALL)

a hit country singer/guitar player

knows a ton of languages

has a lot of weirdly specific trivial knowledge that reliably comes in useful

I’m sure in some future episode he will turn out to know how to race cars or breed shih tzus or something (I am only partway into season 3)

(even apart from his skill with beating people up and related hitter talents, which I am not counting because that is the premise of his character)

Plus also he is apparently irresistible to women, a trope that I normally find obnoxious but that I cannot really argue with in this case because I would find him sort of hard to resist. (Hardison is far, far more my type, but Eliot is hot. Also I have a weakness for men with long hair. Well, anybody with long hair really but especially men. I should put ‘having your hair look silky and glossy even after you’ve beaten up fifteen people’ on the list of skills above, I think. I would like to know what conditioner he uses.)

…And all this ought to make his character insufferable. And yet he isn’t. Because he is hands-down the most put-upon member of the team. He may technically be the hitter, but he’s also the one where people are like, “Eliot. You have a bag of jelly beans. Use that to convince them that you are an orca trainer and should be permitted in the tank with the angry Shamu” or “Eliot, we need you to pretend to be an Olympic snowboarder, you have ten minutes to find a snowboard, GO.” 

And then afterwards he puts his head down on the table and moans quietly to himself while getting surprisingly little respect for being able to yank expert cooking/singing/baseball/whatever skills out of his ass.

Oh, Eliot. This is why I want to give you five hundred hugs. 

(This is inspired by having just watched the episode where Eliot has to masquerade as a country music star and gets a fan club in like fifteen minutes. Mr Badger and I had this conversation:

Me: I have figured out who Eliot is.

Mr Badger: Who?

Me: Barbie.

Mr Badger: Elucidate?

Me: He is good at everything, apparently. And Barbie was, what, a doctor, a lawyer, a presidential candidate, an astronaut, a veterinarian–

Mr Badger: –and got shockingly little respect for it.

Me: And had beautiful hair.)

I was just gonna send a thousand porno magazines to his office, but hell yeah man, let's kick him up

LEVERAGE "The Nigerian Job" [S01E01]

Anytime I hear the phrase "rich and powerful" I feel like I'm a sleeper agent and someone's uttered my trigger words

the way the leverage team make a mess of nate’s apartment on multiple occasions is so much funnier when you consider that none of them are particularly messy people. in the pilot, hardison has a very nice apartment that he is clearly proud of & has kept very tidy. parker’s warehouse is almost disturbingly neat, her tools and weapons are kept clean & shiny and are laid out in perfect rows, her bed is made, her clothes and rappelling gear is hung up. eliot likes things done properly and certainly at least cares for his car’s cleanliness. idk about sophie, but she would at least know how to act neat for a grift, and she’d be aware of how a guest to supposed to treat their host’s home.

but they all put unwashed dishes in nate’s sink, do spur of the moment renovations, set up new gear in his living room, leave clothes/costumes, plans & random items strewn about the place, and even tear up his stuff without fixing it. i love it. his apartment is their playground. they half live here now. nate just needs to chill out and let them saw into his walls, geez calm downnnn. i know nate’s eye was twitching when he saw that parker’s warehouse was so perfect meanwhile there’s probably 5 bowls of unfinished cereal hidden in his house like a damn look-and-find puzzle

What I thought the dynamic was before starting Leverage:

What the dynamic actually is:

Breanna: "Hey, look. We're gonna mess this guy up pretty hard. Are we the... bad guys, here?"

Sophie: "Oh, yeah. Never forget that, Breanna. We're not heroes. We're just necessary."

It's 'sometimes bad guys are the only good guys you get' restated! And it's so important to establish. Because they are doing good, for sure, but their methods are never pure and righteous. They do damage along the way sometimes. Their methods can be cruel, and they can be selfish too. They're no paragons of virtue, but they are better than they were and they are helping people who would otherwise never get any help at all.

And that conversation is immediately followed by this one:

Eliot: "For what it's worth, we all got regrets. You'll move past it."

Harry: "How did you learn to live with what you've done?" [there's a long pause before Eliot answers]

Eliot: "I decided not to care. I didn't care who I hurt, who paid me. When Nate put this team together, I thought it was one and done, that I'd go back to that. But Sophie, Parker, Hardison... and Nathan Ford showed me there was another way." [Harry nods silently; a brief pause] "And little by little you get a piece of your soul back. Ain't that right, Parker?"

Parker, muffled inside a box: "Absolutely."

At the same time as they establish they are not Good People, the show also clarifies that they are people. That they've come back from being completely lost - from being monsters in their own right, some of them - and they help one another. They grow and learn and change, together. They find themselves and they find a place to belong, and they allow themselves to care again.

These two conversations together build a lovely depiction of a morally grey but fundamentally helpful group. That no, they aren't Good Guys, but they can aim being bad guys at worse people. They can better themselves - there's hope for all of them. They are learning and maybe other people can learn to be better too. It's all about context and action - redemption is a process, not a goal. Bad guys can be the only good guys you get, and it's far better than getting no one at all.

(And they always have each others' backs.)

“It wasnt the real mona lisa bc the real mona lisa was painted on wood and thats clearly canvass” versus “It was the real Mona Lisa, just suspend your disbelief for a second” — fam. Both options are good. Both options are great.

Either it was the real mona lisa, in which case, Miles Bron is a murdering idea-stealing phony who will be forever known as the guy who destroyed THEE mona lisa, and there is absolutely no coming back from that —-

OR, it was a fake, bc the museum was like “lmfao this joker thinks we’d loan him the ACTUAL mona lisa? Ahahahahaha” in which case, there’s all the initial press coverage of the explosion and the shitty fuel and the murders and then the revelation that THEE MONA LISA was destroyed on Miles Bron’s watch, and all of that plays out across the media, and THEN!!! the Lourve gets to step forward saying “dont worrry guys. We never gave him the real painting. We didn’t trust him with it. We gave him a fake and he never noticed,” which the media would have a FIELD DAY with, because it’s like the resurrection of Jesus only with a painting, instead of a person, and also, the whole thing is funny as FUCK, bc they gave him a fake and he didnt notice, and also-also, clearly the Lourve was ahead of the curve when it came to recognising Miles’ stupidity, and it’ll stay in the media for WEEKS, that Miles was conned by the lourve and clearly they were right to trick him because LOOK WHAT HAPPENED to the fake Mona lisa, PLUS of course all the rest of the stuff like the 2 murders and the hydrogen fuel and the idea theft and etc.

Like?? There’s no losing here. Both options are great. If it was real, then he’ll never live it down, and if it was fake, he’ll never live it down. Either way: fantastic

we provide... beverage

(coffee shop au!) "Hardison." Eliot says, measured and even. " What's the rule?"

"Look," Hardison responds, holding out the drink placatingly. "Just try it. it's gonna be the perfect winter drink, I'm telling you--"

"We spent a fortune on these espresso machines, do not! Use the steamer! On your damn! Orange! Soda!" 

Hardison wilts. "It's good, though! Orange with cloves is a perfect winter flavor combination, it's traditional, it's--"

"It's carbonated!" Eliot says. "No. Do not add it to the menu. I swear to god, Hardison, do not--"

"Please?"

Eliot stands very firm. "No. We agreed. Parker handles the money, I make the coffee, and you-- you make sure the equipment doesn't break, and that means both wear and tear AND you putting Orange soda through the-- I can't believe I'm even having to say this. Why am I having to say this? did you learn nothing from the Gummy frog mochas?"

"Oh, are you bringing those back?" A customer asks from the other side of the counter. The guy smiles sheepishly. " Sorry, don't mind me, I can wait. I just.. those were actually really good, can I...?" he trails off, looking between Hardison's pure elation, and the look of absolute murder on Eliot's face. "Right, no, uh... one.......regular mocha?"

Eliot goes to make the drink. Parker slips behind the man, borrowing his wallet long enough to learn his house is about to be foreclosed on. Medical bills for a sick aunt climbing higher. 

Well, they'll fix that. One mocha, and a mortgage, coming right up.

leverage season 1 plot

@gnar-slabdash how very fucking dare you be so so correct and break my heart like this 😭😭😭

My favorite thing about Eliot Spencer is how invested he gets in whatever job/role he’s doing for the con. He has to play a caterer? He will give you a gourmet menu and poach some pears for dessert. He has to play a minor league baseball player? He will hit a home run and he will be excited when the local deli names a sandwich after him. He has to play a police officer? He will make Hardison respond to a call that’s nearby because there might be kids in that house. Eliot commits.

Harry Wilson and the legacy of Nathan Ford

Harry Wilson has heard the many legends and exploits of one Nathan Ford. The man is painted as a ruthless, cunning, unstoppable force of nature that Harry is mildly relieved to never have met. On the other side is the fingerprints he’s left on the team that aren’t so much spoken about as they are shown:

…

The way Sophie’s smile turns a little more genuine when someone mentions her late husband, the ever-present mask she wears cracking a little to show something a little more real.

The way Eliot gets frustrated sometimes and looks a little to the left of Sophie, as if expecting someone to be there and intercede on his behalf. As if he got used to having someone to complain to, commiserate with. Someone he could confide in and be a little childish with, too.

The way Hardison will pull off an amazing forgery, crack an impossible code, create a piece of tech that borders on science fiction and look around the room with a megawatt smile that dims a bit when he realizes the person who’s approval he’s looking for isn’t there. He goes from youthful jubilance to suddenly looking his age in a fraction of a second, but Harry don’t miss the turn. Harry don’t miss when his eyes went from wide-eyed excitement to a more subdued pride.

The way Parker seems to compare Harry to another man and then dismiss the thought entirely. Because Harry isn’t him, could never be him. She doesn’t seem disappointed or relieved, just neutrally accepting. He catches her talking to an old painting a few times. Talking to it like she’s seeking guidance. Hardison catches him watching her one time and says “She’s just rubber-ducking,” but Harry thinks there’s more to it than that. She tells Old Nate about her latest social interactions and asks why people behave the way they do. Her body language is different–more open, vulnerable. She is completely herself with the painting, unafraid of being questioned or laughed at. Comfortable in the belief that she won’t be judged or mocked. It tugs at something in Harry’s chest and he’s reminded of his daughter for a moment. Not because Parker is reminiscent of a child, but because she’s reminiscent of a daughter who has all the faith in the world that her dad will have all the answers for her. 

…

Nate Ford is a superhero he could never live up to and will never attempt to replace. Besides, the team doesn’t need another Nate Ford. They seem to be happy enough with the ghost of him. So Harry has two Nathans warring in his head: the relentless predator staking his prey, and the once-broken alcoholic who helped give a remarkable group of people a reason to stick together.

For many reasons, Harry Wilson is glad he never met Nathan Ford. The man who could and would have terrified him. The man he could never live up to. That is, until Sophie begins telling the story of one Jimmy Papadokalis and the memory of the most frustrating court proceedings of his life surface to mind. He surprises the team (and himself) when he suddenly yells out, “You mean Nathan Ford was THAT ASSHOLE??”

I can appreciate a man who's normal but I LOVE a man who's comparatively normal. A man who seems like a mess in a vacuum but as soon as you compare them to their friend circle you're like "oh. Oh wow. You're their idea of sensible."

The Nigerian Job is such a special pilot to me. “THE Parker?” “Is there someone better?” “No, but Parker is insane”. “I don’t even know what it is you do” to “That’s what I do”. The OT3 elevator scene. Eliot helping to haul Hardison out of the warehouse before it explodes. Their mini-con escape from the hospital. “What’s in it for me?” “Payback, and if it goes right, a lot of money” “What’s in it for me?” “A lot of money, and if it goes right, payback” and “I was just gonna send 1000 porno magazines to his office but hell yeah”. The Sophie “this isn’t her stage” reveal. The bait and switch that they meant for Dubenich to know he was being conned. “It’s a walk away job” but none of them do. “So go find some bad guys. Bad guys have money.” It does so much good work to establish what this show and these characters could become without jumping the gun on making them get too close too fast.

Like, the thesis of the episode is Nate’s “You all know what you can do, but I know what you can do together” and it’s such a fantastic way to handle a pilot because it’s all about potential: we understand immediately that these people are already hyper competent, but by the end of the episode we see what they could become together too. It’s about showing you the tentative beginnings of this partnership and all the space it still has to grow.

I forgot how hilarious The Juror #6 job is. The episode opens with Nate trying to socialize his crime daughter by having her do civil service. "There is not some evil conspiracy lurking behind the curtain of every routine civic activity." *four minutes later* "Uh, apparently there is an evil conspiracy lurking behind the curtain of every routine civic activity." Brent Spiner plays a hippie spiritualist pharmacist. We have to get Parker from thinking hiding knives in food is a good prank to having her charm an entire room of people. The kids leave for the day and Nate and Sophie line up at the door; they hand Hardison his briefcase, Parker her sacked lunch, and they present Eliot with the exciting news that today is the day he is going to be hit with a car.

FOUND family??? you think i just found them like this??? babes this is FORGED family. Me & the bros were scrap metal in a junkyard (very valuable, very sharp, very dangerous, uncared for) and we GOT IN THE FUCKING FIRE TOGETHER. WE did this. we said I AM NOT LEAVING YOU and melted into each other for better or for worse (it’s for better) and we are A FUNCTIONAL UNIT now. DO NOT SEPARATE. BATTERIES FUCKING INCLUDED. FOUND family my ass, we built this non-nuclear family unit from the ground up, don’t devalue this!!! it was is and will be a labour of love!!!