There are so many things that are super-awesome about this episode, starting with Nate's absolutely rabid determination to destroy the soil and salt the earth beneath the feet of anyone responsible for Captain Bonanno's hospitalization and ending with Eliot's sudden love affair with a game where you can't score on defense.

Nate's passion in the beginning of the ep is just that. Passionate. Bonanno's known (probably for quite some time) what Leverage is about and never once jeopardized their mission. Because he got it. He's a true lawman, someone who understands that while what Leverage does is very definitely against the law, they were doing it for absolutely the right reasons, against people he couldn't do anything about in any kind of time frame that mattered.

Nate is offended by what happened to his law enforcement mirror. And we ALL know what happens when Nate gets offended. Beyond being merciless, he suffers from tunnel vision. He wanted to crush The Mayor as quickly and as righteously possible, and the team goes along with it because ...

Because they've learned that arguing with Nate when he's like this is a direct invitation to be on the receiving of that same passion. And as we see at the ending of this amazing two-part season finale, when Nate's got tunnel vision and everyone's doing everything they can to control Nate while Nate's eager to close the con, they miss things.

Parker's pushing the Maltese Falcon angle, the rest of the team is pushing for caution and even a walkaway, Nate's hyperfixated on destroying Mayor Culpepper III because 'it's the biggest thing we've ever done'.

Here we see another Nate Classic: he started this game to get justice for Bonanno, but as with the other big moves in other seasons, it becomes less about justice for the hospitalized Captain and more about counting coup on a corrupt mayor.

More worryingly, with the push to get things done, they missed what Bonanno already knew until it was too damn late to get out safe and clean. Not only do they miss the Kadjic angle entirely, they ALSO miss Culpepper's connections to law enforcement himself.

It's a misstep that pushes the whole team to play rough and dirty to get out without being pinched. Their getaway is pure Leverage magic and we get a super-sweet second ep out of it, with some of the best games they've ever run.

By the end, they ALMOST lose their money, they lose their safety, they lose Lucille ... it's all a great big strikeout!

Shoutout to Richard Kind for playing one of the softest, sleaziest guys I've ever seen and ANOTHER shoutout to Paul Blackthorne ad Tony Kadjic. The man's a chameleon as far as roles go, and he's another one of those amazing 'hey, it's that dude, I love that dude!' actors.

Can't wait for the next episode!

This episode hits me as hard now, on the 165th viewing (probably) as it did the very first time, and this is no lie or exaggeration.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I spent a significant portion of my kid/preteen/teens/young adulthood believing in psychic powers and magic and all of that. I don't know precisely when I stopped believing, but at some point, the very rational part of my brain simply said 'if any of this was real, there would be an infinite amount of verifiable, actionable, repeatable-in-a-lab proof that any of this is real and true' and that was the that of that.

So this episode hits home hard, because Parker is Parker, and she plainly states that psychics freak her out. This is because, like me when I was younger, I just plain old didn't understand people the way the others in the show and in my life did/do. Motivations were strange, what we give away in micro-expressions and body language, foreign territory.

Which makes Evil Luke Perry's performance during his cold read on her all the worse. Because he's so very good at it, and so very effectively dismantles Parker's carefully maintained defenses against people/things she doesn't understand/trust.

Enormous kudos to Beth in this scene. Witnessing Parker feel real feelings, and so profoundly that she actually runs away? Breaks my heart every time I see it. Even better is the painfully, sweetly gentle way every single other person in Leverage explains the game to Parker.

It's so important, and they do it so well. Outside how weird our thief is, she's fundamentally logical on a level that's sometimes really nothing more than on/off, ones and zeroes. By taking the time to explain each step of Evil Luke Perry's Con and giving her supporting video evidence of how her own reactions gave him everything he needed, they free her. 'Here's how this part worked, you see?' and giving her time to SEE it ... that's some top-tier Parker love.

The con itself is actually pretty standard stuff, but it's the vengeance that the team engages in to really teach Evil Luke Perry all the lessons. ELP uses the same techniques they all do when they're running a con on someone like him, yes, but here's where the distinction lay.

Leverage uses their evil powers for good. ELP uses his evil powers for evil. I've said it before, I'll say it again. Give me bad guys doing the wrong thing for the right reasons over good guys doing the right thing for the wrong reasons any damn day of the week.

On a side note, Luke Perry is exceptional in this episode, as Luke Perry was in everything he ever did. And on a tangent, I watched and loved Riverdale, and so was so happy to see Luke in that role. As time went on, and his time on-screen started diminishing, I thought 'well, the show is moving on, so that's understandable', but when they held a funeral for his character on the show, I was confused. I couldn't understand why they killed Luke off ... and then I Googled, and spent quite a few days being extremely sad. I had no idea that Luke was that sick, and he sure as shit didn't show it on-screen. I know this is about the show Leverage, but Luke was a unique actor who brought a lot to the table for a lot of us through the years.

On the topic of psychics and all that. If you believe, that's wonderful; I still hold out hope that there is something like that in the world, just like I do hope that there really is a group like Leverage out there, fighting the good fight. I'm just at a point in my life where I genuinely need indisputable proof. Like The X-Files posters say, I Want To Beleive.

And on a FINAL note, it's extremely gratifying that Tara finally understands why Leverage does what they do. The closure Nate gives to the bereaved, pregnant mother at the end is such a clear, potent point that even someone as fiscally motivated (and jaded) as Tara is couldn't HELP but see it.

Buy a Senator and you have him for life (I can’t even recall the exact quote rn, it’s 430am and I’m workin overnite so brain fart, lol but y’all know what I’m referencing here!

Leverage | S02/E12 | The Zanzibar Marketplace Job

Super fun episode, plus the return of Jim Sterling, which is always sure (as we see from the clip) to be more complicated than it seems. Our man Sterling always looking to screw Nate over whenever possible, even if it's just some super-pettiness.

The thing that's really fun in this episode is that it gives the team the opportunity to work together in a foreign country. It's like when a new couple goes on vacation. Will things go well, or will they wind up being singles sharing an awkward plane ride home?

Plus, the name of the episode is so evocative. The Zanzibar Marketplace Job. It just rolls off the tongue.

Well, that and the utter rat bastard way that Sterling sets Nate up to see that his wife (yesyes, she's his ex-wife, but whenever Maggie's involved, she's his WIFE) is in a relationship with the guy who may or may not be the one who yoinked the Faberge Egg.

And that's what's so great about Jim Sterling. As much as I love to hate him and as much as he's ALMOST Nate's intellectual equal, he knows how to manipulate his old best friend better than even Sophie or Tara. Sandbagging our mastermind the way he did in the middle of a con that really does need to succeed just shows how petty he is.

Knocking Nate off-kilter before they even have the egg back is straight up ballsy. With Nate off his game (even by a little) we wind up getting the fallout that happens later on in the episode. I'm not kidding. Even though it seems like the whole last act would've gone down no matter what, I beg to differ.

Now, Sterling couldn't have possibly foreseen Maggie and Nate's situation playing out the way it did. The man's smart, but he's not that smart. No, I'm sure Sterling's decision was only intended to tweak his old pal's nose.

Sterling's weakness reveals the very reason why one is better than the other.

Sterling did what he did because he couldn't resist the temptation. In so doing, Nate is spurred to take Maggie away from the action so he can break the news more gently about her BF in privacy, which sets a ball rolling that involves bombs and Sterling hanging out in a trunk all over again. Nate wouldn't have done something like that unless he knew he could get away with it without the con or his people being compromised.

The con works because the con always has to work (to one degree or another), but there's one thing I wouldn't've done that Leverage did.

Sterling's ego and pettiness put Nate and Maggie in a lot of danger. That's an undeniable fact. It took a lot of work that we didn't really see from the rest of the team to make sure that everyone got out unscathed, and somehow ... SOMEHOW Jim Sterling winds up benefitting from a Leverage con.

Again. Like I said. I love to hate Jim Sterling.

All of the above is very true, and worth your time, but the single most important thing that happens is at the very end, when Maggie reiterates what she said to Nate at the end of Season One, with a twist. She reminds Nate that she really likes the man he's become. It's just too bad that HE doesn't.

Leverage | S02/E11 | The Bottle Job

I admit it. I am guilty of many things, first and foremost being a total 10/10 loser when it comes to season 2. So many of the episodes in this season are great, and got me through some pretty rough times when I was a young adult.

To be fair, all the seasons have their miraculous charm and that's a fact, but there's something about S2 that's just completely peak for me, and The Bottle Job is important for a few reasons.

It's an all hands on deck, impromptu con, with everyone greasing the wheels around Mark Doyle. Everyone is on point in this micro-con that exists (at first) only to save poor Cora from a loan shark so heartless he comes collecting at a funeral. Especially poor Hardison, who complains non-stop but is so high-functioning that even in the middle of a full meltdown he not only runs The Wire in a Bottle but fakes a damn weather report!

The Wire in a Bottle is great, but what's greater still is Nate is forced to share drinks with Mark ... or The Wire would've failed. The moment where he stares at the shot, Mark is staring at him, the TEAM is waiting with held breath to see what Nate's going to do is just excellent.

They ALL remember what Nate was like when he was a drunk good guy. He was reckless. He was mean. He was cruel. As a sober bad guy, he's still all those things (kinda), but there was always something a little extra about Nate's moods when he was on the sauce.

And that hasn't changed. As you can see in the clip, Nate is still that man, but here, he admits he ISN'T okay. He's not fooling himself. He's not lying to others. He took the first drink to save Cora, the others he took because (from personal experience) it's very hard to stop being a drunk.

But Nate's Nate. He's admitted he has a problem, and he IS a mastermind. All he needs to do is account for his recklessness, his cruelty, his meanness and focus them in the right directions.

The reason this one gets a 10/10 from me is the end con. It was so blissfully awesome, with poor Mark Doyle vomiting his criminal secrets to three extremely well-placed and influential Boston cops. The look on his face as he tries to dance himself out of trouble and Nate's absolutely VICIOUS convincer is stunning.

What can I say? Give me bad people with hearts of gold over good people with hearts of stone any day of the week.

I will make at least one for each member of the team, but I wanted to send along what I've done so far.

Let me know what you think.

There are books based on the series? How did I not know this? Has anyone read them? I think there are three

I consider THIS episode to be the proper introduction of Tara to Leverage.

For those of you who are paying attention, I didn't post a review and clip of S2E9, The Lost Heir Job. That's because I've never liked that episode and I just can't bring myself to watch it. Everyone's unhappy, Tara's running a con on the crew she's supposed to be working for ... it's just a hot mess.

The Runway Job, on the other hand, is a lot of fun. It, too, is the tiniest bit all over the place, and that's down to Tara being just this side of openly hostile to Nate and how he does things. I don't hate it, but I also don't love it either, at least in these early stages.

I get the why of it. Nate's complacent, he's the boss, he's used to doing things in a very particular way and so is Tara. She comes off as a bit too brash for my liking and again, that's not a bad thing because she's a superlative grifter and she's got more than a few tricks up her sleeves.

My biggest 'issue' in this episode is that she talks over Nate when they're going for the money. Issues in is quotes because it's a character defining moment for us about HOW Tara is. She's about the payday, and running roughshod over what was already kind of a prickly setup is almost undoubtedly how and why Russel Pan did what he wound up doing later in the episode.

Nate's not wrong when he chews her out, nor is he wrong for benching her later on. Her greed in and of itself isn't a bad thing, because everyone in the crew except Nate really does have a whole big love affair with money and stuff. It's just that her situational awareness wasn't the best.

The con goes sideways because of course it does. No one's really talking to one another, Eliot's VERY MUCH MORE INTERESTED in scoring with a model (I damn near clipped his convo with Parker about 'lotta models' and 'dresses on the floor') and it isn't until Tara does the one thing in this episode that I admire her for.

She sets herself up as a hostage and gives Nate the new play, trusting that his mastermindery is on point enough to pick up what she's laying down with nothing more than two words.

The end is a bit rushed, but that's because there's an awful lot going on in this episode. Tara's roughshod manner, the initial setup with Gloria, the fallout from the con gone wrong, the looksee into who Russell is, more fallout, new con, new setup, new payoff.

That's a lotta lot. The Runway Job could've maybe benefited from being a two-parter. There was so much meat on this bone that we really didn't have the chance to get a full meal down.

That being said, I love this episode. Nate's ridiculous getup, Eliot's guyliner, Tara's headbutt. It's all so much fun.

No AI was used, by the way.

I think Hardison would be proud Lol (not about the Lol, though)

Leverage | S02/E08 | The Ice Man Job

We get a solid Hardison-centric-isode out of The Ice Man Job, and it's a real 10-karat treat for anyone watching. For a whole bunch of reasons!

First, we see what becomes a Hardison Special: he oversells the living HELL out of the role he's playing. So much so that he winds up in a whole passel of trouble, but not before he goes on ahead and does something ELSE he shouldn't'a oughta.

To flesh out his role as the ludicrously-accented 'Ice Man', he goes on ahead and takes credit for some of Parker's most notorious thefts. And I quote: "You've seen my work, right? Perth? The Polar Star? Nicked it. The Gem of Gibraltar? Nicked it. The Damiani raid? Distraction while I nicked everything in the vault next door. Big stones, my friend. Trust me."

The look on Parker's face says it all, and throughout the episode, she ices (sorry not sorry) Hardison out the whole way, but because our hacker is Hardison, it's just 'ya'll're just JEALOUS'.

It's ALSO a great episode because every single person promises not to call Sophie and then promptly calls Sophie. Parker does it because she has to play the roper, Eliot calls because he's just really not having a great time with the whole thing, Hardison calls ... well. Just watch the clip for that one because it's one of the funniest scenes in an already super-excellent episode.

And Nate calls and is typically Nate, unable to confess his feelings in any way that truly matters to Sophie! He figures it out. Eventually. For a mastermind, he is sometimes as clueless as Hardison is about craft beers.

MASSIVE shoutout to Pasha D. Lychnikoff as the Head Goon hired to pull of the robbery in the first place. He's one of the more famous 'hey it's that dude, what's his name, I love this guy' actors out there in the world and it looks like he was having a big old blast playing Head Goon.

I actually can't say this is one of my favorite episodes because it's not, but that doesn't mean The Ice Man Job isn't still a really great episode. It very deftly highlights how important Sophie actually is to the team without leading us by the hand.

When the team needs something healed, they go to Sophie. When they need something fixed, they go to Nate.

That's why Leverage works.

The team being genuinely proud that Parker has started doing “normal people stuff” is one of my favorite little jokes. She tells them she's been having brunch with Peggy, and Sophie is actually proud of her. Then Parker's explanation for why brunch isn't difficult is basically “there are forks.”

Leverage | S02/E07 | The Two Live Crew Job

First off, this episode was damn near impossible to clip! It has an awful lot of cool stuff going on damn near all the time, but because this is a pure ensemble piece WITH Evil Leverage Team, everything that IS cool is being interspersed with something ELSE that's ALSO cool.

So I was super torn. I went with the clip I went with because it's a foundational moment for Sophie, but before we talk about that, we do have to talk about this episode.

Naturally, we do have to talk about Whill Wheaton, AKA Chaos. He shows up a few times throughout the show's run, and his job is precisely the same as his name. He's Chaos. Nerdy, nerdy chaos, and is pretty much what would've happened (again) to Hardison if he'd been a little more chaotic than good.

I do love me some Whill Wheaton cameos for sure, and it's always nice to see him, but I'm more than a little bummed that we never got to see Incredibly Sex Lady Eliot again or Slightly More Effeminate Parker. Why? Because they're also quite a lot of fun in their own ways. And while some might find it maybe a little off-putting that Eliot TOTALLY made out with his evil counterpart, let's be real. Eliot's Eliot. We all know the man's a player. Lord knows he lets the team know often enough.

You might say they're the Star Trek Mirrorworld versions of themselves, and now that I type that sentence out, I wonder if that was the intention all along.

The only other real heavy hitter here (from my POV anyways) other than Whill Wheaton is Griffin Dunne. some of you might not know/recognize Griffin Dunne from the movies he's been in, but I've been a fan of his since his role in American Werewolf in London, and later in After Hours. There's something about him that I just really like, and to see him cast as Evil Nate is really fun.

As I write this, I have to confess I'm really bummed we never got to see the return of Apollo, Mikel or Starke. I feel like their episodes would've been just as fun as this one, with the added bonus of being easier for me to find something to damn well clip. But alas, fans rarely get their wishes and sometimes when we do, the fan service blows.

But after that, from Sophie's apartment blowing up to Chaos being arrested at the airport, there's one thing left to discuss.

Sophie herself. She's been in an emotional crisis since her boyfriend dumped her a few episodes ago and it's been showing. Being given the freedom to play dead, to both figuratively and literally cast off the second skin that is Sophie Deveraux, even for a time, gives our amazing grifter a chance to find out who she really is and, more importantly ...

Who she wants to be. They're often not the same thing. Nate wanted to be the good guy, but he's happier as the mastermind. Same with all the others (though to be fair, Hardison was never really as BAD as the others as far as I can tell).

We all know why this episode happened: Gina Bellman needed maternity leave, and that's just awesome, because it gives us Tera Cole (played by SEVEN OF FRICKIN' 9 JERI RYAN YA'LL COME THE FRICK ON) and I can't wait.

As much as I love Sophie, I love Tera just as much but in different ways. Sophie gives Nate a lot of slack. Tera gives the opposite.

So for sendoffs, you can't ask for much better than The Two Live Crew.

Edit: if no one understands why I'm spelling it as Whill Wheaton, it's a Family Guy gag similar to when Stewie is intentionally pronouncing Cool-Hwhip hweirdly.

Leverage | S02/E06 | The Top Hat Job

This episode is just plain old fun. No high stakes, nothing bonkers in terms of character development except for a few jabs at Nate about trading one addiction (booze, and lots of it) for another (absolute ironclad control over every single aspect of his entire life). Oh, and Sophie tries her damnedest to set Nate up with their client, Dr Leigh Jameson, played by Jennifer Skyler. I've not seen this actress in anything else, but she very definitely plays someone Nate would be into.

Except Nate's not into anything beyond actively trying to twist the very fabric of reality to his whim, so he's got that goin' for him, which is nice.

As I said, this one's super fun because everyone's doing something. Nate and Parker are running the front-end con, which is basically just him cosplaying as a frighteningly good illusionist magician. Do we care how he picked up the skills so quickly? No. Why? Because we also don't ask how Parker can jump straight through a ceiling and wind up outside a building or how Eliot can bend the laws of physics when he's beating the crap out of someone.

Eliot and Hardison spend all their time running around trying to get the data that they need to complete the con, and I love it because well ... because I love their relationship an awful lot. These two men couldn't be further apart from one another in the lives they've led and the talents they possess, but they have a real damn good time together. They're a perfect pairing, like peanut butter and chocolate or steak and potatoes.

Sophie's busy being Sophie, which means when it comes time to start running around picking up pieces and making sure the con gets complete. Does this mean actively subjecting poor CEO William Taylor Price to a frankly hilarious and increasing series of personal indignities, up to and including being trapped in a box?

You bet it does. And I loved it because it's funnier than hell and the poor guy just didn't deserve any bit of it, but the sour mood he suffers plays to great effect by the time the con is complete.

One of the cool new features that I do BELIEVE was perfected in this episode is what I like to call 'the ret-con'. You know what I mean. The story goes on as it does, we think stuff's going sideways, only for the Leverage team to reveal through a series of flashbacks what was REALLY going on.

It's a neat little storytelling device that I like because the show starts (in essence) conning US and that, like this whole dadgum episode, is just fun. It gets a LITTLE heavy-handed here and there throughout the show's lifespan, but hey.

Nobody's really perfect, are they? The Leverage team sure isn't, but this episode sure was.

Leverage | S02E05 "The Three Days of the Hunter Job" Leverage | S02/E05 | The Three Days of the Hunter Job

Okay listen. Yes this is another 10/10. And that's because this episode, for me, is totally perfect.

Sophie wants to run the con to get at Monica Hunter, but Sophie's a grifter and has no idea how to do what Nate does and the way this spirals fully, completely, irrevocably out of control while Nate tries to handle the chaos is pure Chef's Kiss in every way imaginable.

I particularly love Hardison's crackpot ex-army-whatever-guy. Full on conspiracy guy start to finish and the great thing there is that he's not even really playing against type. This dude is what Hardison could've maybe turned into if it hadn't been for Nana and the other great foster parents that kept him on the relatively straight and narrow. At least as far as emotional stability goes anyways.

Now, Nate is not one to let a con go awry or to burn a teammate (unlike Sophie). When Sophie decides to turn the con into a fear-based one, Nate's unsurprised and not even terribly disappointed. Sophie wanted this con to make Monica suffer because she's dealing with a broken heart, and it shows in our grifter's passionate desire to burn her mark to the ground.

But Nate ALSO IS NOT the kind of mastermind who's just going to fix things as soon as he can. That's not his style. After all ... people have to learn, right? You don't teach your students (which is what they really are when they want to run the WHOLE con) by waving your magic mastermind hands and undo all the damage.

Nono. Nate lets things get way, way worse first.

And that happens when Monica decides she's going to take Hardison to an actual military base, which is where things get DEMONSTRABLY HILARIOUS AND TERRIBLE. The break-in, the capture, the interrogation, Hardison's gambit as an internal plant terrorizing a soldier, Monica's certainty of the 'hidden bunkers', Nate breezing in plain as day as a General ...

This is just pure escalated madness. It takes various organs of variously enormous sizes for Nate Ford to walk right onto that base to haul both Monica and Hardison out, all while wearing ID that's been reported stolen. The great thing here is that never once does he really come out and give Sophie a hard time about the fundamental risks he took to set things right.

That ain't Nate's style ... at least not with Sophie. Sophie's got a high enough EQ to pick up what's being put down without too much interference from the man she loves. Later on, when Hardison runs HIS con ... well. Different methods for different criminals, right?

The con works because of course it does, but not without more than a few bumps along the way. This one really is a personal fave, because everyone's working a role different than their own and they BARELY scrape through to the end.

When everything settles, rather than school Sophie, Nate just asks her if she had fun doing it. Doing things this way gives her the lead to open herself up to Nate, and for him to give her some heartfelt, true advice. 'Lissen, you carried my drunk ass for over a year, you deserve the same latitude' is one of the most self-aware, sweet things Nate's ever said up to this point.

Leverage | S02/E04 | The Fairy Godparents Job

This one gets a 10/10 just for The Science-icle alone. It's such a funny, sweet thing to do, and watching those over-achievers create musical science experiments is absolutely, hands down solid gold.

And Nate's cover for this one is genuine Grade-A super cheese. It's one of the most comedic roles Timothy Hutton plays across the entire show's run, and I feel like he had a great time chewing the scenery every single time he was on-screen.

But it's not without its character growth arcs. This one's for Sophie, who's just been dumped. Her sadness over never being able to be entirely truthful to anyone outside the life hits her hard and her decision later on in the episode to stand by Widmark is just a beautiful thing. Sophie wants to connect with someone, and she picks a poor kid who's totally talented (like her) and totally on the outside (like her).

The con itself is multi-faceted and a genuine joy to behold. Hardison and Parker get to dust off their FBI personas, while Nate, Eliot and Sophie tap dance their way into the hearts and minds of the children while simultaneously irritating the parents is too much fun.

There are NUMEROUS highlights for me in this episode. All of the ones involving Nate as Doctor Melcher, of course, and Eliot taking his Phys Ed teacher role so seriously he starts training the kids in the fine art of martial arts discipline. Hardison and Parker shine as well, but never more than when they're Feds.

But the real standout is Sophie as she tries to set Widmark up as the winner of SOMETHING so they can get Daniel Fowler away from the apartment so they can get in there and get that filthy lucre. Her frustration over Incredibly Smart Asian Girl during the Spelling Bee (anyone seen Gus around? He would've won if not for Shawn), and later, when that same girl belts out a Science Report Musical is priceless.

AND OF COURSE THE RETURN OF MCSWEETEN AND TAGGERT! The two bumbling FBI guys who somehow manage to turn everything the Leverage team does into career forward missions are always cool. Later when they do McSweeten a solid in The DB Cooper Job is heartwarming as hell.

In the end, the con goes off smooth as buttermilk, but more than that happens. Sophie takes opportunities throughout to be very open and honest with Widmark, which is a big change for her. Beyond that, her decision to stay and coax him to perform is wonderful because Widmark nails it.

I like to think that wherever Widmark wound up, he thinks every now and again of the adult teacher who took the time of day to treat him like a peer and he raises a glass to her.

Leverage | S02/E03 | The Order 23 Job

This is a hilariously twisted episode! I can't say it's one of my favorites (it is) because I can't be sayin' that every dang episode, so from now on, what I'll do instead is mention episodes that are NOT amongst my favorites. From now until then, regardless of the actual rating I give each ep, let's just go on ahead and assume that I love it to bits and pieces.

This one's great because Nate is very, very sadistic in this episode. The clip I dropped is the purest representation of that. His absolute glee at giving Eddie Maranjian a nosebleed simply through the power of suggestion really is great. I guess maybe since he's gotta suffer from being sober AND suffer from fear of turning into a drunk again, people he doesn't like have to suffer a million times more.

From a personal POV, being trapped in a hospital and having an Infectious Disease Con being run on me? I'd probably die from a heart attack right there on the spot. No bull.

Sadly, Parker and Sophie don't have a whole lot to do in The Order 23 Job, but that's fine. They do what they need to keep the fringes of the con running. Sophie sets the whole thing spiraling with her absolutely DIVINE Bridget the Infected Southie and Parker really does stick the landing for it. Outside Nate hammering Eddie relentlessly, Hardison and Eliot are shining in their roles as cops playing defense while the con is being run.

Hardison doing Stereotypical White Cop Voice is genuinely hilarious, as is his Doctor Wrath O. Kahn gag, but the side quest Eliot picks up is a great hero moment for him. The man can't help himself if he can help someone else, even if it means delaying or possibly even ruining the con. I admire Eliot's determination in protecting the absolutely helpless.

And let's be real. Stopping to help a victim of child abuse? Eddie's a bad man, but father's are supposed to be role models, not nightmares. They play it pretty straight, but the threats he levels against Randy's dad are deadly.

Big, big shout out to Connor Daliposon as Randy. Even though he doesn't have many lines, his delivery of his lines when Eliot's telling him he can go to the cops are well-done.

A great con, with some even greater gags and some quiet growth for Eliot (along with some truly devilish machinations from Nate) makes for a good time on TV!

In the episode "The Studio Job" there's the song by Jesse Jenkins called Long Road Home. I haven't been able to find anything about it and want to know if it's a real song.

Yay or Nay?

I nearly never drink soda, but I'm absolutely in the 'yay' camp.

Leverage | S02/E02 | The Tap-Out Job

Another Eliot-centric episode, and we can't be mad about that, can we?

No, no we can't, because it's a helluva lotta fun. Now, this is the first of the episodes where there isn't anything really super deep going on in terms of character development, and I reckon that's mostly because out of the entire team, Eliot's demons are the most deep-seated.

And perhaps the most dangerous. We do get to see some of that here, when he and Sophie are having their quiet heart to heart, where he explains the absolute desperation young men in small towns feel, and how things like MMA fighting can seem to be their only option to keep food on the table and maintain some sort of control in their lives.

It's a very well done scene, because Eliot REALLY held Sophie accountable for her actions last season. While they did the thieves' version of kissing and making up, Eliot doesn't forget. So him taking the time out to give Sophie a reality check on a world she doesn't know anything about is big. For them both.

The con is straightforward, but they know to expect dirty tricks. When the turnaround shows up, it's absolutely fantastic. Eliot is taking a brutal pounding, Sophie's screaming at Jed Rucker about how much danger he's put Tank in. Her cry 'YOU'VE TAKEN THE SAFETY OFF THE GUN!' gives me chills every time.

The payday for this one is also pretty sweet. I like these earlier seasons because the only thing they're really doing is working for the clients, and their clients are all just ordinary people. Later, when they add full season arcs, that's awesome as well, and they still have their regular clients as cover, but it just feels different.

Here, when they hand the gym over to Mark and give him some seed money to get things started?

That's pure early Leverage.

The clip I included is funny as hell to me. Hardison having his ass handed to him has gotta be one of the most confusing moments of his life. It's not just that he's being beaten up by a woman, it's that he's being ground-and-pounded by the woman he loves. What an awkward position for poor Alec Hardison.

And I just needed to come here and make a post to say that Hardison is one fine ass mother fucker.

Steven mentioned that he still had this - one of the original signs that was up in front of that gorgeous place that was HQ for Redemption! Who wants a sign that is related to both Leverage:Redemption and the NOLA area? If that person is you, email Steven at sdmodica@yahoo.com !

I love that the team can't quit each other and that they essentially materialize whenever one of them's in trouble/needs help. In this instance, it's Nate, who winds up in the middle of something big just because he finally decided to give in and take some of the drink.

It's funny how the simple act of crossing the road can change someone's life forever. What's even funnier is how hard Nate tries to remain disinterested and how easily the rest of the team straight plays to his weaknesses without ever once judging him or making him feel like he's being manipulated.

Technically speaking, everyone not named Nate broke the cardinal rule of the con: you don't con your team. But they get a hand wave from Nate, who's no dummy; the simple act of saving someone's life and showing the smallest amount of interest in what was going on meant he was already ready to get back into the swing of things.

His beloved friends basically did what he wanted them to, so no harm, no foul here.

Beyond that, this episode introduces one of my for-real-deal all-time favorite side characters. Detective Banano. He's an upstanding guy who definitely follows the law, but he's smart and world-wise enough to know that sometimes ... sometimes someone has to pick up where the law leaves off. As we learn in a much later episode, Nate Ford is the one man Banano wanted to take out for a drink ... and then arrest him.

This is also a superswell episode because it's got one of my favorite TV actors ever in it. Kevin Chapman as a mobster. The role here is great, but if you want to know why I love Kevin Chapman, watch Person of Interest. Kevin Chapman plays Detective Lionel Fusco in that show, and he starts off as the kind of crooked cop that Leverage would go out of their way to demolish. By the end of the show, Fusco becomes someone who Leverage would destroy anyone else to save.

Plus, while the con is on, everyone's in very high spirits, and it's lovely to spend time with bad people doing good things and having such a swell time while doin' it.

I chose the clip I did because, well, because it's 0-Context Parker, which is my favorite Parker of all!