#MAINLY SOPHIE AND HARDISON

[aardvaark]

i think hardison would be in lost media recovery communities online but he’d also be trying his hardest to make all recordings of a certain country singer named "kenneth crane" become lost media, and feel really kinda bad about it

[deconstructthesoup]

Thoughts on a Leverage-Dead Boy Detectives crossover that I'll probably never officially write but still:

-The Leverage crew (Redemption timeline because it lines up with the DBD show, but Hardison's there in person) is staying in London for a little while, mainly because Sophie's trying her best to reconnect with Astrid again

-They get hired by a woman who says that her younger sister, who was a student at St. Hillarion's (which went co-ed sometime in the 90's), died mysteriously and she's absolutely sure that the school covered up the circumstances

-And guess what? Meanwhile, the DBD crew's been hired by the ghost of the girl who died, and while it is a pretty personal case for Edwin and Charles, they agree that not solving the case would be a disservice to themselves

-So, the two teams make gameplans---Hardison, Eliot, and Parker infiltrate the school as teachers (Breanna is Hardison's TA, much to her irritation) while Sophie and Harry act as shady lawyers who tell the headmaster that they're very good at burying secrets; and Crystal and Niko get enrolled as exchange students while Jenny gets a position in the cooking staff (the Night Nurse absolutely refuses to actively take part in the case-solving, and of course Edwin and Charles don't need aliases)

-However, things start to go south for both teams pretty quick

-For starters, Sophie and Harry know Crystal, at least by way of her parents---Sophie attempted to pull a con on Maddy back in the day, failed, and convinced her to con her rival instead, and Harry helped the Surname-von Hoverkrafts out of some legal trouble when they still lived in the States

-Not to mention, Breanna's very tapped into the social media circuit, and she knows that a) Crystal used to be the epitome of the entitled rich showbiz kid, b) that she dated some guy named David and then went completely off-grid for weeks, and c) she's suddenly had a complete personality and lifestyle change

-And on the flip side of things, Charles is a little too interested in the weirdly high-tech things that the new computer science teacher and his TA have hanging around, which means that Breanna and Hardison are convinced that someone is sabotaging them when it's really just Charles accidentally breaking their gadgets

-This comes to a head when the OT3's having a lunch break on the grounds, Parker points out Niko, and Hardison and Eliot immediately begin making fun of the stuffy-looking kid in a bow tie that she's talking to... and when Breanna comes up with her sandwich in hand, she's incredibly confused, because all she sees is Niko talking to herself

-So, naturally, Hardison, Parker, and Eliot wind up scouring the school records until they eventually find a boy who matches Edwin's description... who, of course, vanished mysteriously over a century ago, along with five or six of his classmates

-Hardison talks Eliot and Parker into doing a stakeout of the computer lab, and they wind up catching Charles in his "fiddling with electronics" act---and, well, it turns out that a) Eliot can beat up a ghost, even one who's a fairly decent fighter himself, and b) Parker carries a pair of iron cuffs with her (why? she's Parker, next question)

-There's a little interrogation action between Charles and the Leverage crew... except, of course, Breanna and Harry still can't see him, and they don't understand why all of these legendary thieves are yelling at an empty chair

-And then the electricity cuts out and everyone hears whispers

-And suddenly someone puts their hands on Hardison's shoulder and he's thrust back into that time with the coffin

-And Eliot turns around and sees the mean goth from the kitchens pointing a knife at him, and the two of them wind up facing off

-Everyone else is stuck in a full-ass vengeful haunting, but Parker notices Crystal holding onto Hardison, Niko sneaking over to Charles, and Edwin standing at the center of the room with his eyes glowing and a hellish aura radiating off of him

-Parker does the sensible thing and, after getting Sophie to pull Crystal off of the boys, takes the cuffs off of Charles's hands

-The haunting immediately stops, Breanna and Harry can definitely see Edwin and Charles... and both teams have some explaining to do

-Once they figure out that they're here for the same reason, Niko's the first to suggest that they work together

-There's a lot of arguing over that, but the general consensus is that they're after the same goal, they're on the same side, and clearly if they don't actively work together, things are gonna go sideways

-Also, once they start talking, Breanna is very psyched to know everything about the supernatural side of things, and Parker decides that she's going to make Niko her apprentice (mostly because they have been getting along in the girl's gym class---and yes, St. Hillarion's does have different gym classes for boys and girls, despite it being co-ed now)

-Once they begin comparing notes, Charles mentions that he recognizes the headmaster---it's the same one he had when he was a student, and the man was already ancient then

-And... yep, turns out that the headmaster is a supernatural entity that's been doing some seriously messed-up shit in order to stay alive

-The two teams settle on a double-pronged attack---some of them will figure out how to get rid of the headmaster for good, while the others will figure out a way to expose the school's habit of covering up hate crimes

-I don't know how it finishes, but... uh, yeah, if anybody wants to take a crack at this, in fic form or comic form, you're free to

(Also, Eliot pretty much adopts Edwin and Charles the second he learns how messed up their lives were, there's also a few schemes from Niko, Crystal, and Breanna to get Payneland together, and Sophie somehow finds out Nate's afterlife placement and is beyond relieved to find out that he's living his afterlife in peace after all)

[churchofthecomet]

gamers, the target audience of this post is roughly zero people. but in case you're one of those zero people, you should know:

Neurolinguistic programming (NLP), the psychological manipulation technique that Sophie Devereaux claims to use on Leverage, doesn't actually work. It's a discredited/pseudoscientific branch of psychology that's only good for selling self-help books and sham therapies. The manipulation Sophie does with marks is more accurately called covert hypnosis or conversational hypnosis (since NLP is mainly used in pseudo-therapeutic environments -- taking it "on the street" is its own thing). It's slightly more controversial than therapeutic NLP, but it probably isn't effective either. See the Talk page for the covert hypnosis Wikipedia article since the article itself is being skewed by an NLP true believer.

What Sophie is doing is 10% blatant, obvious, simple manipulation that has little to do with NLP (eg acting really sexy about cars in s3e8) and 90% magic because she's on a TV show (eg implanting ideas about the guy's new password in s3e2).

Everyone's skills on this show are presented unrealistically. Hardison's hacking is completely nonsensical, and Eliot's victims routinely pass out for 5-10 minutes, but don't end up brain damaged or dead. I think Sophie's "skills" deserve a special mention because the idea of NLP is still being sold by actual con artists. If you give money to an NLP therapist, you'll at best see no change in your mental state, and at worst miss out on real life-saving treatment or end up in a cult.

[thirteenashmctrash]

okay so i have gained a new species of spore for my collective brainrot and i have found the perfect selling pitch to drag everyone i care about down with me. if you know the show this is hilarious. if you haven't watched it pay attention:

the show's called leverage. you know how there's those crime serials that aren't good at all but we've all watched a little too much of at least one of them even though they are blatant copaganda which is morally terrible? take your favorite one of those, but remover the copaganda. all the characters are criminals but their only victim is capitalism. every cop in the show is stupid at best and blatantly corrupt to a disgusting level most of the time. there is just as much genuine and intelligent social commentary as this premise demands.

i sense i already have you hooked. i can make this better. stick with me for a minute on this: the character dynamic is a muppet movie but also the Scooby gang

stick with me here!

You have Parker, who fit into the Scooby gang as Scooby and would be played by Gonzo. her crime thing is that she is a cat burglar and she is very good at it. her skill with it is borderline slapstick (hence Scooby) and she is very autistic coded and misunderstood (hence Gonzo)

You've got Eliot, who is the Shaggy and is played by Sam Eagle. He is the brute force of the team and he wants you to think he is all serious and grimdark. but he loves making the employees and victims of their capitalist targets aware of unions and he is a big himbo. i say he is shaggy because he plays Parker's straight man, he has the second most cartoonlike abilities, and he has a passion for cooking

Hardison is Velma as played by Kermit. he is a geeky hacker with a passion for orange soda and he is the heart of the team. he gets overlooked as leader even though he is the driving force of everything they do. like Velma. he also has that trademark Kermit brand of slapstick and deadpanned humor in balance.

Sophie is Daphne as played by miss piggy. she is basically the world's best grifter, she usually the front man interacting with the target the most. she has that crazy streak and the self defense capacity that miss piggy and Daphne (when she's done right) both have. she also has the confidence and style.

Nate is Fred and he is the human character. Fred has "let's split up gang" and Nate has "then we have to steal *fill in the blank with something comedically unfit to finish the sentence*" Fred and Nate are both flat characters with the main trait "i think I'm the leader but my smart friend does all the work" and the main interest of "trapping and screwing over capitalists" he mainly gets to call himself the leader because he's the idea guy and he has an apartment. his role in the muppet analogy is the peak of my pitch if you're still here. because while this is definitely not the Christmas Carol, Nate is the human character because he is Ebenezer Scrooge if instead of being a capitalist, Scrooge was an alcoholic and instead of character growth he was just steadily losing his mind. his moral compass and general intelligence are on a roulette wheel that is spun at random intervals lasting from seconds to the occasional few hours. also he and Sophie have divorced parents of grown children syndrome and the other three are said children. in vibes, of course, they aren't actually related.

if anyone stayed with me through all of that you should seriously watch it. even if i sound like i pulled this all out of my ass. it's so good.

it's an actively anticapitalist, copaganda free crime show where you get to see fun characters beat up every thing bad in society and fuck it all over. it balances fun comedy and wild characters with serious topics and moments in a way that is very natural and genuine. it also has one of my favorite autistic coded characters, a positive and healthy relationship that develops in a way that feels natural to the characters (as well as a rockier one if you're into drama) and it is in the midst of what looks to be an actually well handled revival series with the original cast. i haven't caught up yet but I'm so excited for it. the original had 5 seasons and the revival is waiting to be renewed for season 3.

please go watch leverage. it's so good and it deserves more fans. also i want more fic and that next season

[independent-fics]

Leverage OT3 Casual Touches

(Cont.)

This is mainly for @werewolfsmile and anyone else who wants to shout into the void with me about this ot3!

So far season 4 started off strong with lots of little ot3 moments I’ve been clocking on my latest rewatch. Today I watched “The Office Job” through “The Gold Job” and wanted to recap. Ngl it isn’t much…

Still good things but it was a lot of what we already see which is still beautiful. But mainly it was a lot of leaning, being in each others spaces, and a lot of the handshake. (For the purposes of this post I’m skipping “The Girls Night Out Job” and “The Boys Night Out Job” simply because those two are a whole other beast of ot3 moments that I would like to gif separately and also not a lot of touching (besides the handshake in the boys night) which is what we’re focusing on here.)

“The Office Job” is my favorite comfort episode of Leverage. Everything about is pure gold. Despite Hardison and Eliot arguing the whole time about a sandwich they still manage to pull together in the end and have one of the funniest moments in the episode which is of course topped off by the handshake. Once again mainly in each other’s spaces or leaning this episode.

“The Lonely Hearts Job” also such a great episode of basically the ot3 parent trapping Nate and Sophie and Eliot out here doing the absolute most showing he knows his team in the end of the episode.

As for casual touches a lot with Eliot and Parker (I feel like there’s always more with Eliot and Parker in trying to find more with Eliot and Hardison but mainly they just always lean in each others spaces and orbit each other, compared to Eliot and Parker which sometimes have a similar but different dynamic due to comparing how Parker in the beginning of the series was very adverse to touch. Not from Hardison and Eliot now though:)).

This scene starts out with them with a gap but they gradually get closer (I know this can happen when scenes are reshot. As I always say though let me read the subtext how I want. They were further apart then they got closer soooo)

My favorite thing is the shoulder bumping as they’re walking out. All I have to say.

Here they’re betting whoever gets the highest bid gets a steak which is super cute later because Eliot loses and puts up a fight about making it but then totally has heart eyes and smiles when he “loses” that argument too. Why wouldn’t he make his boyfriend a steak. There’s also a later scene I totally forgot to gif when they’re getting the guy flirting with Sophie out of the way and he calls Hardison (who’s in character) an idiot and I know Eliot did not need to take him down as hard as he did all I have to say.

And once again we have the leaning in each others spaces, shoulder touching, and once again the handshake. None of the other bachelors were standing this close on stage just saying.

Then we have “The Gold Job” where Parker literally gets up to sit next to Eliot? Wonderful. But then there’s some shoving but for context the whole scene was kinda tense because Hardison was running his first con. But then right before the camera changes Eliot moves closer!!!

But then they end up further apart again which I’m assuming may be due to reshoots.

Just generally the comfort between all of them gets me in these scenes. They’ve come a lot way and even though the beginning of season four I feel like shows this a lot more I’m still glad I’m finding scenes with their casual touches as I’m finishing out season 4.

That’s all I have for tonight :D I’m finishing up season 4 tomorrow so I’m sure I’ll be adding to this later.

Hope you like my gifs :) haven’t gifed in so long but I’m happy I’m learning again. Quality still needs work though.

Bonus:

Here’s a bonus gif of Eliot looking like he’s blowing a kiss in the button cam footage in “The Office Job” because I thought it was funny. This is once again getting added to my “why didn’t I notice this before” list. I just wanna know for whom Eliot. :)

[tam--lin]

Headcanons: The Leverage team as readers

Nate: Nate's not a big reader, but will occasionally read dense some dense new tome on white collar crime or US politics. Once a year or so, he'll crack open a dense sci-fi classic like Neuromancer.

Sophie: Has a whole shelf of acting books like Blumenfeld's Accents for Actors and that collection on Stella Adler. She reads memoirs of various famous people for work - it's a great way to pick up tidbits of flavor she can bring to cons. When not reading for work, Sophie's partial to untranslated foreign-language literature, especially Russian. We know how she feels about wellness scams specifically, so I think she's read books like The Gospel of Wellness. She has a battered copy of the Nagoski sisters Burnout next to a small library of workout DVDs. When she's really down in the dumps, she'll pick up a romance with half-dressed men and women in bodices on the cover. She sometimes picks up books like The Body Keeps the Score and Unmasking Autism, which she reads mainly to leave sitting around the office in the hopes that some specific other person will read them.

Hardison: Hardison loves modern science fiction, although he generally avoids anything that's too technical because he can't keep himself from picking it apart. (The exception is Andy Weir. He loves Andy Weir.) He likes Star Trek tie-in novels (only the good ones), Cixin Liu, Ann Leckie, and The Expanse. He'll also occasionally dip his toes into scientist or astronaut memoir or non-fiction about crime (he likes Mike Massimino's memoir and tell-alls on Theranos and Scientology, specifically). He loves Murderbot and has somehow managed to convince both Parker and Eliot to read it.

Eliot: Eliot wouldn't deny reading, but you certainly won't catch him doing it. He's partial to food-related microhistories - he's read every Mark Kurlansky book. He's read Emily Nagoski's Come as You Are and is not ashamed about it. He has a sticky-noted, dog-eared copies of The Professional Chef and Mastering the Art of French Cooking in his kitchen, but nothing else - beyond the basics, he mostly cooks on vibes. Every language he knows he's either learned through whatever the US government recommends or through an ex. He read the first Murderbot book because he lost a bet to Hardison. He'll never confess to also having read all of the rest of them, and enjoying them.

Parker: Parker is either reading nothing or spending all her free time reading - there's nothing in between. She's read a few books on crypto because she wants to understand it, but she just doesn't get the appeal. (It's not cash, you see.) Parker has also read all of the Murderbot books, because Hardison got her into them. Parker loves Murderbot.

[bisexualeliotspencer]

A muppet version of leverage:

Obviously Kermit plays Nate - ringleader/mastermind. The vibes are there okay.

Miss Piggy is Sophie also for obvious reasons.

Parker is played by both Gonzo and Rizzo - gonzo does all the stunts and a key plot point is how rizzo keeps pickpocketing critical objects but not realising they’re important until someone else mentions it.

Eliot - now here me out - is played by Rolf. A key part of his backstory in this muppet version is that moreau was not only using him as a hitter but also was a seedy music producer.

(Side Note: all hitters are played by members of the muppet band Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem)

Hardison is Hardison. He is not a muppet. This is important to me.

I have more thoughts about this but I’m at work rn so will expand later. (Mainly muppet Eliot was taught how to cook by the Swedish chef)

[ghost-in--the-room]

@leverage fandom I really want to read some Eliot whump, so i would love some recs!! If anyone wants some Eliot Whump prompts (random thoughts to spring off off) here are some that you can use or talk to me about

It's a wonderful life au - I have yet to watch the original I have seen many references in media, when you have done bad things in the past and realise your mistakes you have to live the rest of your life repenting for what you have done. Eliot knows this and will live with his sins until he dies. But when the actions of the present and not the past cause his family to be in danger with him around he starts to wonder if it would have been better for the team if he was never there to begin with and if he does not stand by then but in their shadow to protect them he will. This could be solved by mystical means with someone magical showing Eliot both how his absence made some lives better but how his absence made things worse overall. Or the team figures out that Eliot is spiralling and they stage a con to show him how much he helps people (I personally like the idea that they don't know he was "leaving" and them cheering him up had unknown positive effects like how Eliot had unknown positive effects on others lives) This is mainly inspired by how a saw a post that talked about Eliot knowing he was going to hell but how I like to think that he has made his redemption, not because he has saved more lives then he made lost but because even when he has saved 100x more live then lost he still save more.

Chronic Pain - With how long he has been a hitter Eliot there is not doubt that he has injuries that will cause pain for the rest of his life. Hardison and Parker have figured it out over the years working together (OT3 for the win) and have worked to make secret plans for each con if they see Eliot is not having a good day but cause lord knows he won't say it him self, not when he won't let it effect theirr safety. But they aren't just the three of them, they aren't all together, they aren't the ones calling the shots. Sophie hasn't been there enough, she doesn't realise. Breanna has heard stories of the invincible man, someone who never stays down. Our Mr. Wilson is new, he doesn't fully understand the life and the roles in it. Eliot won't speak for himself so Parker and Hardison will have to. Either a con uneedingly dangerous for Eliot or "friendly" ribs that hit too deep and someone, Parker or Hardison, snap. ( I think Hardison snapping would have the biggest effect with Parker silently storming.) I kinda dislike the idea of the second one being where one of the team says something that finally makes one snap but rather they have made similar but lighter comments and they didn't think to the pain Eliot goes through to protect them/ underappreciated him for that job. While Eliot whump I think it would be more focused on team dynamics and Parker and Hardison thoughts then Eliot's own.

The Long Lost Father Job- In the process of writing this I haven't recently watched episodes with mentions of Eliot's father but we know he has a bad/absent relationship with him. In this there is a job where one of the victims (but not the client) is Eliot's father. When Eliot release his father is there he has to balance working the con and reconnecting with his father. The three ways I see this going are: one Eliot and his father reconnect. With (I think they parted after an argument/Eliot believes he is some what to blame) them forgiving each other with promises to meet up in the future. Two while they don't reconnect they make amends with each other to neutral. As in they forgive each other but the father thinks that it's too late for them to be a family and points to the team and says Eliot already has one. The father being shown to the reader as bad dad but not an evil one. Three the one where CONTENT WARNING the father Eliot remembered wasn't the whole picture and he down played his father's abusive tendances. Where the team and Eliot learn the man is not as he remembers. While with the og teams dynamic was that of Nate being the father of the group I think Eliot had less of that dynamic with Nate and more of a mother in Sophie. So that instead of saying Eliot had a father in Nate (which is true) he says something like "I may not have a Dad I have a mot- erm a Sophie"

Eliot gets hurt in the field - There are so many ways this can be done. But the shortest one I can explain is that as Eliot is the one who throws himself into danger most often he deserves something like the coffin job or the bank job where the job goes south when Eliot gets injured (protecting one of the team because jumping in front of a bullet format it mwa) and the team scramble to save him while getting revenge 10 fold of what they originally planned. And you can easily add in some Eliot being like it's ok it's what I do and the team being like it's not ok, it's never ok and we will try even harder to protect you. (beautiful)

bonus 5 + 1 format five times the team protected Eliot without him knowing and the time he found out (about it all)

[incomingalbatross]

Hitter:

Eliot was from one of the Blues, though I don’t know which. A quiet island, in whichever sea it was.

Joined the Marines in order to See The World, got very good at the fighting parts, but didn’t like the Marines enough to stick around. I don’t know if they have tours or equivalents, but he did his time and then he left.

Got into bounty hunting, mercenary work, etc., mainly on the Grand Line.

Fell into Joker’s organization. Worked his way up. (Sometime after Law’s time there, probably in the Dressrosa period.) Became part of the Family.

Did something for Joker heinous enough that he snapped, cut ties (did Doffy LET him, or did he fake his death? IDK), and left the Grand Line to try and figure out what to do with himself in a quieter sea.

Washed up at the Baratie broke and half-starved; Zeff gave him a job and he learned how to cook there. And live. Knew teenaged Sanji.

(Might have recognized Sanji’s background, though he wouldn’t have said anything. It’s a very distinctive eyebrow.)

Eventually left the East Blue to start his work as a “retrieval specialist” (essentially his old bounty-hunting skills, though applied to things instead of people) in more dangerous and profitable waters. Avoids Joker’s territories but might operate in the first half of the Grand Line.

Hacker:

Hardison is a Whitebeard kid, a Grand Line orphan who grew up in one of the Emperor's towns. Has a lot of Grand Line connections because of this.

I’ll be honest, the real struggle with Hardison is figuring out how “hacker” translates into a world without the Internet. Is he an information broker? More emphasis on forging? Is he just really good with snails?

…It might be all of the above.

He knows lots of people, and he grew up learning money laundering and intel-managing from the people who protect Whitebeard’s territories. He knows how everything works. He can forge just about anything, given prep time.

He may also have a devil fruit power that gives him control over snails. If he can manipulate and/or intercept the information they send, receive, and store… it could work.

(It’s also very silly to have a snail-related power, but this IS One Piece. That's a plus here.)

He set out into the Wide World to learn exactly what he can do with his abilities for himself, and he’s been enjoying it. The Paramount War might send him running home, though.

Grifter:

Listen. I don’t know Sophie’s background here but THAT’S NORMAL FOR SOPHIE.

She is a thief and swindler of all kinds of treasures. She has stashes and caches and identities set up everywhere.

The Revolutionaries know her by several names. Several different Marine bases still think she’s an officer. She’s passed as a noble, as a Celestial Dragon, as a member of half-a-dozen different famous pirate crews, and never in a way that leaves anyone coming after her for the imposture. She’s built covers as a Baterilla survivor and as an Ohara survivor, when it was useful. She’s done everything.

Everyone knows people she’s pretended to be, and nobody knows her. She’s the grifter. This is how she rolls.

(However, the equivalent of the Charlotte Prentiss identity tease would be a strong indication dropped that she was one of Big Mom’s family. For the name coincidence, but also it doesn’t not fit Sophie as an origin.)

Thief:

No one knows where Parker came from either. She’s a master-thief who defies gravity like she’s got a devil fruit, who likes money and shiny things and doesn’t understand people.

Her mentions of her past involve blurry memories of a family, but are mostly stories about running with pirates and criminals since early childhood. She was always strange. Always hostile to the world, ready for violence.

There are things she doesn't talk about, though, because she knows they're only safe as secrets. For instance, she doesn't talk about having a hidden brand.

She doesn’t talk about being one of the youngest escapees in Fisher Tiger’s breakout.

But she recognizes Boa Hancock’s face in the papers, a little bit. She likes fishmen. And she’s terrified of the entire concept of dragons.

(I do not know how Archie fits into this world because One Piece is honestly low on master thieves. I will have to consider if there’s an Archie-type character out there or if he’s just…present. Being a thief.)

Mastermind:

I think Nate’s from West Blue. After all, it is the organized crime sea from what we know of it, and his dad’s mob status had to come from somewhere.

Nate was, of course, Cipher Pol. (Not CP9, one of the more normal ones.) He was good at it -- probably started in the Marines and got headhunted for his talent. Tracked Eliot, Hardison, Sophie, and Parker at different points, when their crimes caught the World Government’s attention.

I do not have specifics for his son’s death because there are no canon atrocities in the right timeframe, but… “child died because the government wouldn’t let his dad access the necessary healthcare” is hardly a surprise in One Piece’s world.

Nate tossed out the metaphorical white hat, tried to drink himself to death, got hired to do a job by a sleazy Marine officer, and the rest is history.

MAY know secret World Government lore that he'd get killed for. I wouldn't be at all surprised.

I don't personally know a single person who would have the full context for a Leverage/One Piece crossover, but Leverage transfers into the One Piece world well enough that I have partial biographies for the whole team in my head anyway.

[vickyvicarious]

We have gotten Girls' Night Out and Boys' Night Out and both were glorious. We have gotten the Thiefsome Episode and the Sophie/Nate (+ Sterling) episodes and those were glorious.

But I'd really love to have seen some more episodes with heavy focus on all sorts of combinations. We got all of them in small doses for sure but imagine an entire episode with heavy focus on/primarily involving only, say:

Sophie+Hardison (social skills social skills bonding also gossip, competence vs. Drama at all moments)

Eliot+Nate (sad past man angst probably but also some nerdy hidden childish thing)

Parker+Sophie+Eliot (they all take turns corralling one another probably. all 3 thinking they are the only one holding this con together)

Hardison+Parker+Nate (nate is so tired)

Sophie+Hardison+Eliot (I feel like insightful conversations abound)

Nate+Sophie+Parker (depends SO much on when in canon it's set honestly)

They just would all have different dynamics than usual in very fun ways and I want to see them! Especially if it had the odd cutaway to whatever the hell the other team is up to.

[aardvaark]

heyy was wondering about your leverage takes, do you have any favourite endlessly rewatcheable episodes?

this is ben from @transsophiedevereaux fame btw

hi!! and ooh good question, i do have some particularly rewatchable faves! it depends what im wanting to watch/think/feel at any given point, though.

if i want a funny episode, i go for the wedding job, the juror #6 job, the mile high job, the gone fishin’ job, the boys night out job & the hot potato job. i think wedding is the most comedy-heavy of season 1 at least & i love how the wedding con makes them all do the weirdest stuff. like, sophie is so wrapped up in her own emotions about romance & relationships that she tells the bride to be to "never put your faith in a man", has the most awkward convo with nate where she thinks he’s asking "where are we at" in their relationship rather than the CRIME AT HAND, and then her line of "is this about fear of the russian mob, or fear of intimacy?" is just. absolute gold. one of my fave ever sophie lines. and everyone’s reactions are priceless.

for The Feels TM, i watch the grave danger job, the san lorenzo job, the inside job & the long way down job. but especially long way down. "i want to do the right thing!" "it makes us, us" um someone is cutting onions nearby im not crying im notttt!!

for the action - so my favourite cons/heists - i watch the order 23 job or the first & second david jobs. i also love the eliot moments in order 23 & the sophie moments in first & second david.

while i love all the characters, and i think they’re all very well-made and im Rotating Them In My Mind all the time lol, parker is def my favourite. so episodes that feature her prominently or have lots of her character development are often my faves - especially the juror #6 job, the stork job, the future job & the long way down job.

i have to fly often and i really, really hate flying. ironically i watch the mile high job on planes and its somehow calming despite it being about a plane very nearly crashing lol. so i rewatch that pretty often. i love (world’s worst) flight attendant!parker & bickering married couple nate x sophie. but mainly - hardison in that ep?? fully being his genius self and tons of classic hardison comedy beats. love it.

wow i have given the most ridiculously long answer to this oops lol. thanks so much for asking :) <3 !!

[copperbadge]

Brick & Basil & DJ

@ppb12345​ gave to the successful fountain fundraiser and requested: Foodiverse….dj meets the leverage crew.

Title: Brick & Basil & DJ

Rating: General

Notes: Parker and DJ was just too adorable to resist. 

“He must belong to someone,” Sophie said, studying the little dark-haired boy worriedly. “Someone’s looking for him. He’s adorable.”

“I know someone’s looking for him,” Eliot said, sitting on the back bumper of his own personal Brick & Basil truck. Next to him, the child was unconcernedly eating a lemon ice. “I don’t know how to figure out who.”

“Sweetheart,” Sophie said, leaning over to catch the kid’s eye. “Have you lost your mummy or daddy? Can you show us where they might be?”

The child gave her a deeply unimpressed look. 

“Backpack’s got a beat-up kid’s tablet, some extremely good cookies, and a hat in it,” Hardison said, rifling through the backpack the child had shown up with. “I can probably pull something off the tablet.”

“Did you eat the kid’s cookies?” Eliot asked, appalled.

“Just one. Bet you his parents are in one of the food trucks at this rally. Hey, little man, can I play with your computer?” he asked. This earned him a less scornful look and a nod. 

“I wanna keep him,” Parker said. She was dangling off the roof of the truck, upside-down, studying the kid; when he looked up at her she unbent her knees, lowering herself another few inches, and held out her hands. “Alley-oop!” she said, and the boy set down his lemon ice. Before any of the other adults could stop her, Parker had grasped his upraised hands, flipped her body upwards in a demonstration of insane core strength, and landed both her and the kid safely on the roof. 

“If you point out someone who knows your name, I’ll teach you to pick locks,” she said. The boy considered this, then pointed at a bright blue truck, three trucks down from theirs. Two men were standing at the back of it, both looking agitated. 

“Hey!” Parker called, cupping her hands around her mouth. “War On Hunger!”

The men -- she knew them mainly because Eliot was a big dorky fanboy about Steve Rogers, and Steve Rogers’ Instagram was at least half photos of his equally famous chef boyfriend Tony Stark -- looked up. Parker picked up the child and held him bodily over her head. “This yours?” 

“Well, it’s efficient,” Sophie remarked, as the men came hurrying over.

“That’s Steve Rogers!” Eliot hissed. 

“I’m DJ,” DJ told Parker. “Can you lift me again?” 

“Aw, little boo,” she said. “Someone needs to teach you to zipline.” 

“No!” came a chorus of voices, but when Tony Stark arrived to collect his kid he didn’t seem phased that she threw him bodily over the edge so Stark could catch him.

[party-gilmore]

Okay okay okay follow me here for a minute, it gets a little winding about halfway through.

Everybody's roles in a film noir style Leverage case/au -

Nate & Sophie: there's no way around it no trope subversion here it's GOTTA be The Hardboiled Alcoholic Ex-Cop Private Eye thinking about giving up this thankless job, and The Dame With A Case that walks into his office on a rainy night and kicks off all the trouble, asking him to track down a stolen "family heirloom" (which never belonged to her family nor was even ever actually in her possessiom)

Parker: seems like The Girl Friday at first glance, working as Nate's secretary/assistant, but is actually secretly The Informant - the protégé of the master thief (Archie) who stole the pendant in the first place. She's been working for Nate to feed information back to Leach to warn him of their movements ahead of time or even plant false leads to keep Nate off his tail... but the problem is, she's finding her loyalty drawn more towards Nate nowadays. He lets her get involved with his cases and openly values her opinion, and has even started possibly showing her "the ropes" and making her into sort of an apprentice. By the climax of the plot, she comes clean and fully chooses Nate over Archie, at which point Nate reveals he knew some of it but not all of it - applauding her for her skill and cleverness and welcoming her fully into his practice. So long as from now on, she's in this with him 100%.

Hardison: [boys night out job voice] he's the Dirty Cop! Well, not quite so much traditionally... he views it as more of a Double Agent type approach, pretending to work for the boys in blue while actually fully invested in helping folks avoid and even actively work against them.

He's faked his way through actually giving a damn about the precinct and doing juuuuust enough police work that he's now in a position to ferry information to his friends in the life of crime - patrol routes, information databases, who can be bribed to look the other way once or twice versus who can't (a very small list, in this town), and more importantly, who is SAFE to bribe to look the other way once or twice versus who might get greedy and start coming back for more. Has been a consistent Informant for Nate for a few years now, and has kind of a little somethin' somethin' going on with his assistant Parker. Maybe. He's... he's working on it.

Eliot: fuck all those hitman/bodyguard for the mafia don tropes I mean I LOVE them and yeah he still also does that but mainly I mean fucking FIRST AND FOREMOST much like his fake persona for the tap out job, Eliot gets the Tragic Lounge Singer Working In The Employ Of Their Abusive Lover role. Damien Moreau runs half the town, which includes the San Lorenzo Lounge. Eliot, who is in deeper debt than he can ever hope to payback, used to just bodyguard for the man - until the fateful night Damien heard him crooning to himself out on the balcony of the penthouse. Now, Eliot continues putting his body in harm's way for the man Monday through Thursday as Moreau's Dog - a faceless myth (for none who've gotten close enough to se it have lived to tell the tale) passed from seedy bars to seedier motels. However, Friday through Sunday, he's sent out on stage at the San Lorenzo Lounge in various finely tailored (if a touch risqué) clothing - sometimes a sparkling gossamer suit, sometimes a clingy velvet piece that one could barely consider a wrap if they were being generous, whatever happens to suit Damien's fancy that particular night - and sings for the crowd to rake in the dough. Moreau watches from his reserved table during Eliot's evening timeslots on Friday evenings, and sometimes on Saturday afternoons as well depending on how early he has to get to work... but the Sunday nights? Eliot loves the Sunday nights. Damien always has other business, and the crowd's a little lighter, so he gets to drop the Act a little and actually sing, as himself, rather than perform.

And there's usually this guy, this... this fucking cop of all things (even though he doesn't get that usual very distinctive vibe, which means he SHOULD be suspicious, but... but there's just something... he can't put his finger on it) sitting at the bar in the back of the room. Even with the distance between them, Eliot can see the emotions play across this guy's face as he sings. He's expressive as hell, likes to get a little lost in the music, and Eliot finds himself focusing in and working for this one guy's reactions rather than working the crowd the way he should be. Sometimes, in between sets, he'll even take his break down at the bar. Sit with him a bit. Talk.

They don't use their names, even though Eliot's is on the marquee. Eliot gets the feeling he's not supposed to be here, or at least trying to fly under the radar (considering the rest of the boys in blue don't seem to have any problem breaking precinct policy and carousing here on their own nights off). As far as Eliot's own reluctance to share personal information goes, he doesn't exactly want to give this guy the low down on just how far under Moreau's thumb he actually is, though he may have... alluded, to the fact that he's not really supposed to take his breaks mingling on the floor.

And he's seen the guy eyeing the bruises that peek around cuffs of sleeves and from under draped collars and shadowing his cheeks even deeper under the rouge that can't quite hide it. He knows the guy's got his own suspicions, but is kindly refraining from bringing them up. That's fine by Eliot. He'd rather be the target of some daytime domestic gossip the next morning than have folks getting suspicious about the other half of his career... and sometimes, it wouldn't even be entirely untrue.

Regardless, they mutually restrict their conversation to more inane, casual topics - bickering from either end of opposing opinions more often than not - and somehow it always winds up feeling Iike a far deeper conversation than the subject matter might suggest. It's a refreshing change of pace compared to Eliot's usual social interactions, but he can tell its... starting to get a bit dangerous.

Its risky, how much he looks forward to their Sunday nights. It's risky, how much he enjoys this man's specific company. Even when the guy starts bringing this new doll along with him, a pretty little blonde gal who clearly doesn't even like jazz. He'd hoped the disappointment of the guy being firmly off the market would quell the tentative little flicker that had been starting in his chest lately, but damn if this bird wasn't just as whip smart and fascinating as the not-a-cop-cop.

Nothing could ever come of it. Not with them being together already. Not with Damien's hold still firm on both his ledger and his waist, breath snuffling quiet and even into his ear most nights.

But maybe, on the Sundays when she's at the bar too, he has the band switch it up to something a little more country. Just cause the crowd seems to like a little variety, that's all. Cuz if he was changing the routine Damien set just for one or two particular customers... that could get real dangerous real quick for anyone involved.

Anyway shit there was supposed to be plot about a stolen necklace in here somewhere wasn't there uhhhhhhhhhhhh...

...yeah right so Archie pawns the thing off to Moreau, who pulls a doublecross and says he never got the merch in order to tarnish Archie's rep and land the man in debt to him, demanding Archie return the money he paid (which Damien never actually gave him in the first place) or work it off by pulling various heists for him instead.

Archie tells Parker to stay out of it, but she knows he can't complete this heist so she goes in instead and goes AWOL. Nate's path looking for the heirloom crosses with Parker’s sudden disappearance, so he decides to trace her steps back over the past couple days. This leads him to the San Lorenzo Lounge and Damien Moreau (and Eliot). Once Eliot finds out the girl in trouble is His Girl the girl from the bar, and that Nate, Ms. Devereaux and His Cop Hardison are trying to help her... fuck, he knows this is going to come back to bite him in a big way, but he tells them what Moreau's after and goes with them to rescue her.

Something something they managed to pull it off by some miracle without Moreau finding out specifically what went down... but the fact that "Archie's" attempt at a heist no one should even have suspected would happen was "thwarted" in progress by some rando P.I., then the man himself disappeared out of even Damien's reach?

Moreau's a little extra suspicious suddenly, and keeps a closer eye on everybody on his payroll for a few days... which ends up not boding well for certain people on certain Sunday nights.

[takaraphoenix]

Now that I finished my Leverage rewatch, I do have some things that I would simply love to see in Leverage: Redemption season 2.

For one, McSweeten, actually on screen. The name-drop about him made me giddy in season 1 but it would be so lovely to see him again. Also because I really love Hardison and Parker’s FBI personas.

Since Jack Hurley was in season 1, it’d be amazing if we could have Peggy in season 2? I would also like to know if those two are still together and might have gotten married? Does Peggy know about Leverage? Is she a part of it?

I’d like to meet at least one other Leverage team too, by the way. The original show ended on them taking it international and season 1 of Redemption confirmed that there are other teams but... we never met any of them. I’d like to see an episode where maybe one of the newer teams is in over their head and needs help from the OG squad, or something like that. Perhaps a big fish so big they’d need more than just one team.

And something that definitely still needs to happen is for Harry and Breanna to meet James Sterling. When Tara joined the team, she got to learn to hate Jim. Hating Jim Sterling is a vital part of being a member of the Leverage fam and both Harry and Breanna are still owed that too. I know he was mainly a foil for Nate, but honestly it could actually turn into quite a heartfelt episode around the team’s feelings for Nate if we brought James back.

Emily. She’s the one thing from season 1 that I absolutely need back. She needs to become a recurring character, I want to see how her and Breanna’s relationship unfolds. I mean, she could have been a one-off flirt. But Breanna took her to the celebratory dinner with the entire team at the end of the episode and that’s... kind of a big deal, honestly? I’m expecting a pay-off from that.

I also do think that Redemption needs to feature another “love story of the past as told through flashbacks with the main cast in the roles” episode, for one because I love them and they’re my favorites so that’s a selfish wish, but also because the original show had one Hardison/Parker episode and one Eliot/Parker episode and Redemption gave us a wlw episode with Sophie, so I do think that the logical conclusion would be a mlm centric episode where Hardison/Eliot take the roles of the lovers.

Another take on the Boys’ Night Out/Girls’ Night Out formula. I always had a lot of love for that because it established the fact that they do have a social life, even friends outside the team, it was a chance to bring back recurring characters and... seriously, an entire episode about four women, two of them leading characters, and just about them.

One of the thing I love about Leverage, and always have, was that this team of 5 had 2 women in it. That’s... one woman more than most others would have done heck that is one woman more than Marvel and DC do when they have teams of 6 or 7 characters... So the fact alone that we have multiple women, even in a relatively small cast, getting to see them be badass together, it always delighted me.

And even beyond that; Breanna is still rather new to the team, I’d like to see her get some bonding time with Sophie and Parker. It’d be great if Maria would be part of this episode too, considering she is Eliot’s first serious relationship - so to see her interact with Eliot’s family without Eliot around would be great. This could also serve to bring back Emily and show that Breanna/Emily is an actual thing. Personally, I would also love to see Tara come back for a cameo because I have a whole lot of love for her, but I guess that might be asking too much.

While on the other side, this would be a great episode to bring Hardison in, since he’s only been in a limited amount of episodes so far, that’d make it feel all the more special. And give Harry a chance to bond with Hardison and Eliot. His main focus so far has been Sophie and they’re not subtle in the romance they’re setting up there, I think the teasing between him and Breanna is nicely established and we’ve had Hardison and Harry work together before, but I really don’t have much of a grasp for the dynamic between Harry and Eliot so far.

And I think that’s a shame, because one thing Leverage absolutely exceeded in was very easily establishing the exact dynamics between all five leads, individually, within the first season. And Redemption only introduces 2 new characters; the majority are already established and have established relationships with each other, so I think it’s a bit of a shame that the individual dynamics for Breanna and Harry with everyone don’t feel as fleshed out after this first season.

That’s it, that’s essentially my wish-list for a season 2.

[leverage-commentary]

Leverage Season 2, Episode 14, The Three Strikes Job, Audio Commentary Transcript

Dean: Hi I'm Dean Devlin, Executive Producer and Director of this episode.

John: John Rogers, Executive Producer, Writer of this episode.

Chris: Chris Downey, Executive Producer, and this is the Three Strikes Job.

John: This is the first half of the big season finale which we like to do. And we are meeting our favorite recurring character Detective Bonanno, played by our friend Mr. Blanche, right?

Dean: Yes, Robert Blanche.

Chris: Robert Blanche.

John: Fantastic find; local actor. And it was interesting because really as we had come to- first time dealing with split season, first time Sophies not around, we had to- you know, we really hunted around for the character we would be emotionally anchored to for the season finale; you don't want it to be a random vic. And- cause last year was the whole Nate arc- 

Chris: Right.

John: And having- Robert having established his character made him really beloved, made it easier.

Dean: And we've never really done a pre-opening like this that's quite this violent.

John: Yes.

Chris: Yeah.

Dean: So it was a little bit out of our tool box, but yet we tried to do it in a way that it didn't seem like a completely different show.

John: This is the edited version. In the original version, a toddler wanders through the field of fire and is brutally mowed down.

[Laughter]

John: I'm glad we cut that out, that was weird.

Dean: That wasn't good.

John: Just seemed odd.

Dean: Especially when the toddler pulled out a gun and-

John: And was doing the [unintelligible] the dubs were cool though. I liked those.

[Laughter]

John: So this is Sonny at the toll booth; there's no two ways around this.

Chris: Oh, yeah.

John: How tough was this to shoot?

Dean: You know, it was actually pretty easy. We had about six cameras shooting simultaneously; we did it 3 different times and moved the camera each time. And this van you may recognize from Beantown Bailout-

John: Yes

Dean: Which also got shot up. So whenever we need to shoot up a car, that’s the car.

Chris: And did we add-? Or did we-

Dean: Now here’s the interesting thing-

John: We putty it in.

Chris: We putty it in? Oh.

Dean: The actor was not available this day to shoot. So that’s a different actor made up to look like Robert Blanche.

Chris: Oh wow, that’s great.

John: That's great. So our local Portland actor has a double? A stand in? 

Dean: Has a double. [Laughs]

John: Wow, that's great. Oh, she's fantastic. And now this is- again, one of these sorts of things where we’re trying to anchor all of Nate Ford’s emotional cues. And you actually tried to shoot this identically, if I remember correctly.

Dean: That's right. We wanted to try and match the look and feel of the hospital scene from the pilot, but just skewed enough so that we know we’re someplace else.

John: Paul Blackthorne's name. And this was a lot of fun. This was a big giant episode concept.

Dean: One of the things you have to understand is- you gotta know when we do these two-part season finales, they're really shot like a movie, cause you shoot them all at the same time. And this one is, as you will see - far more ambitious than what we did in season one. Yet because it’s at the end of a very tough season where the writers actually ended earlier than normal; we only have four days to prepare to shoot this two-part season finale.

John: Yeah. We actually started prepping off outlines.

Chris: Yeah.

John: And then I think I turned in the first half? First half first? Second half- 

Dean: Yeah.

John: I think I kept in order at least. And then, you know, turn them each in. And by that point, nicely enough, the Portland crew was such a well oiled machine that they knew what they wanted. Also, we had learned by this point to really try to find anchor locations. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: To build and tie our acts around. So knowing that we were gonna do the baseball scam, they knew they could start processing all that was needed.

Dean: This is also the first time in season two that we brought back this recurring nightmare of him reliving the death of his son. The idea was that he had to some degree resolved it at the end of season one, but yet it’s still there just below the surface, and then suddenly kicking in to the end of season two it comes back up again.

John: And it was really the last trigger. If you’ve been watching the arc all the way through, we’ve been playing with his control issues and the fact that he's drinking again, and that feeling of helplessness has triggered him back into his addictive behavior. I mean, he’s already kind of bathing in his addictive behavior at this point in the previous episodes, but this is what really pushes him over the edge.

Chris: Yeah.

Dean: Also normally we like to have fun kick in pretty early after the opening scene, but yet this- because we're trying to set up a larger emotional arc in this two-part season finale. We have an emotional opening with Bonanno getting shot, then we have another emotional beat where he’s reminded of his son, and here another emotional beat where he’s trying to connect with Sophie and his frustration of not being able to reunite with her is bubbling. So we really actually took a long time on this before we let the fun kick in, which is not usual.

John: Because we were really gonna screw with Nate Ford in these two episodes, and you really feel like you just can't, ‘Oh, remember that stuff you should have noticed in previous episodes? That’s why he's doing this.’ We really needed to reset it.

Chris: One of the reasons that I think this plays so well is that if you watch them back to back, which I'm so glad they were broadcast that way on TNT, is that this scene here really pays off in part two.

Dean: Yeah.

Chris: And it’s- you know, it's a little ways to go if you have to wait a week between them. 

John: Yeah.

Chris: But now it really plays like a movie.

Dean: And big kudos to Jeri Ryan because she had- she only had a few episodes to create an arc, and really everything she did in the previous episodes come together in these last two. 

John: Yeah.

Dean: She’s really part of the team by now.

John: Yeah. And that bit where she drinks his booze in order to get it away from him was actually the first physical bit we ever pitched talking about the character. We were trying to figure out a way to differentiate between Sophie and Tara, and the idea where Sophie is a little more sensitive, a little more coddling...

Chris: More empathetic.

John: More empathetic, yeah. Tara will just basically drink you out of your own problems. 

Chris: Right.

John: This was a tough day. Mainly because Tim really dug in on this.

Dean: Yeah.

John: This rage- this was a tough day. You know, he’s angry. And you can hear him- 

Chris: Yeah.

John: And you can- he really- this was a small set for them to be screaming at each other on. It was really nice.

Dean: Yeah. And it really helped the other actors as you’ll see just in the way they are reacting. I mean, you see Christian is really messed up by this. 

John: Yeah.

Dean: And it was a great way to-

John: Yeah cause one of his best friends in the world is sitting eight feet from him screaming at his face. 

Dean: Yeah.

John: I mean, you know. And yeah, they're all really digging in on the idea that Nate Ford has gone off the rails. 

Dean: But once they jump in, then the fun begins again. 

Chris: Yeah.

Dean: And now we start to get into that rhythm of, ‘Ok.’

Chris: You can see his little look on his face right here is the cue for the fun on Hardison.

John: Yeah. As soon as- yeah, as soon as the sarcastic ‘these guys are goons’ face comes up.

[Laughter]

Dean: Now by the way, those goons faces on the board are actually people who work here at post production at Electric.

[Laughter]

John: So don't be alarmed if you see them at your local bank or supermarket.

Chris: And I'll call out another couple of people whose faces are on this, too, you two guys a little later.

John: Oh yeah, we’re a little later. Exactly. This was also fun because this was something we kind of picked up on if you watch the second season episodes. A little bit more of detective Nate Ford. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: You know, he was a guy who hunted bad guys.

Dean: Right.

John: And we put him back in the context a couple times this season of hunting bad guys. You know, and this one in particular he figures out exactly the situation in which case they should pursue. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: Good crime scene photos. Big shout out to Derek.

Chris: Gruesome, yeah.

John: Gruesome, yeah. Nice.

Dean: But because we shot this scene before we had shot the scene with Bonanno getting shot-

John: We had no footage, that’s right.

Dean: We had no footage, so we had to make up fake crime scene photos and hoped that they would somehow-

Chris: Derek had those crime scene photos pretty easily, don’t you think?

John: That was a little disturbing.

[Laughter]

John: ‘I just went out and did it in a back alley in Chicago.’ This is also fun because this is one of the few times we’ve had Hardison of all people go, ‘I don't want to do this one. This one seems like a bad idea.’

Chris: Yeah. Now look at this shot.

Dean: Now this actor here- those of you who may have seen my film Flyboys, he was one of the pilots in Flyboys. And he did me a solid and came and did this little guest spot. And this is Richard Kind, who I had not worked with since Stargate-

John: Wow.

Dean: -and has been a family friend forever, and I think one of our most underrated actors in this country.

Chris: Yeah, I mean, it's the kind of part you typically don't see him in. I mean he plays kind of a nebbish-y guy. 

John: Yeah.

Chris: And boy, did he just bring a gravitas and a menace and really built a whole backstory to his character. 

John: Well let's talk about it- that’s where this story comes from. We really wanted to do our city of industry, corrupt east coast port town. I grew up near Boston, you grew up in New York- 

Chris: Yeah.

John: -and, you know, this is very much based around that, sort of, north of Boston, Route 1 type of town. 

Dean: Right.

John: And so getting an east coast actor, just a guy who could bring you that kind of New York power family vibe made a difference. And he showed up- he loved the script, showed up with three ideas. Three lines of dialogue, in three scenes that gave this character backstory, depth, and pathos. It’s like, ‘Wow, that’s a very good actor.’

Chris: And what the fact to do is Brad Culpepper the Third. I mean that he was from a long line-

John: Yes. And he dug in on that and he found something that just made you, you know-

Dean: He also came up with this concept that he wasn’t in it for the money, he was in it for the power and the legacy. 

Chris: Yeah.

Dean: Which is an interesting distinction.

John: Yeah, exactly. There is- he really dug in on the evil speech of evil. The idea that he is not a bad guy in his own head in any way shape or form. This was- what hotel was this? Was this the Governor?

Dean: This was the Governor Hotel. 

John: They really did us a solid this episode, they did a fantastic job.

Dean: We ended up shooting three different episodes at the Governor, and then they were our host for the Leverage convention.

John: Oh, also the wrap party.

Chris: Which was fantastic.

John: I don't remember that much.

Chris: The Leverage convention, which was awesome.

John: I can't believe you people missed it.

[Laughter]

John: We’re gonna assume nothing horrible happens. The horrible irony of when we try to recall these DVDs. 

Chris: Oh, no, please.

[Laughter]

John: Lovely little- this was a great neighborhood; they put up with us. And this was a lot of fun, whenever you can play the annoyed brother vibe between the two of them.

Dean: Oh, I could watch it all day long.

John: Yeah. This was also the night we found out we got picked up for a third season.

Dean: That’s right.

Chris: Oh yeah, that’s right.

John: This is fun, that’s Beth in the rig on the ledge. If you go to my blog, you’ll see the pictures of her doing this. It’s insane. There's just no way we should be allowing her to be on the edge.

Chris: Oh that’s great.

John: That’s city hall, by the way, in Portland. That’s city hall.

Dean: That is, that is.

Chris: They let you just jump off the roof in city hall?

John: You know what- if you're in Portland, show up, ask, and they'll let you. I'm sure there will be no repercussions to me saying that. And this is kind of fun, Paul Blackthorne as the shadowy character that you kind of touch on. And this is all based on- his character’s actually based on a guy down in Florida-

Dean: Yes.

John: -who got an arms deal with the US government, who was like a bar guy.

Chris: Yeah, he was kinda like a party kid. 

John: Yeah, who somehow got a 300 million dollar contract with the US government selling recycled arms from Eastern-

Chris: Recycled arms from Eastern Europe, yeah.

John: That’s Beth on the rappelling line. Remember that? We shot that.

Dean: And I’ll tell you, this is an example of how Beth, even alone, just completely captures your imagination. She has no one else to act with here except for our AD off camera reading dialogue, and yet she's completely engaged in the story, in the character.

John: Yeah, this was a lot- this was- actually you wrote this whole chunk.

Chris: Yeah.

Dean: Oh, here's another great local guest star.

John: Yeah. And that was another thing that Portland gave us. There's a lot of great local theater guys, a lot of local great actors who can really land a joke.

Dean: Yeah, it was so surprising.

Chris: I love that he has the ice tea, it's such a great-

[Laughter]

Chris: Such a great touch.

John: I like- and also the sort of- I don't know if it’s the weird veiled hostility between Hardison and Eliot gets turned outward whenever they run one of these cons- 

Dean: Right.

John: -but that guy is going to be the subject of their rage at each other. This guy was really great. 

[Laughter]

Chris: And this is a crime lab bit. I mean, let’s be honest, there are eight different CSIs on; we wanted to have a little fun.

John: Yes. We were kind of making fun of the CSI- the whole idea that CSI shows up at your house. I had my house broken into, they didn’t show up.

[Laughter]

Chris: The fact that the beat cop could be-

John: Bossed around by-

Chris: Bossed around by CSI guys was born out of those shows

John: And this, by the way, the bit with the balloons, was Richard. 

Dean: Great.

John: Just awkward, just trying to shift it, trying to ground it. And again, this- what amazes me when we got into the research of it, was how cheap it was to buy these guys. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: I mean really- like $10,000 gets you somebody's kid in city politics.

Dean: That's true.

Chris: The promise of a job when you're out of the office. You know, I mean, that's what brought down the Illinois governor.

John: Yeah, that's right. That’s right. And that's what is kinda fun is we do- oh, I love this bit.

Dean: Comedy frame.

John: Comedy frame! What is this? A locked off comedy frame.

Dean: Exactly.

John: Locked off frame, two people come in facing each other-

Dean: And I love this little smile right there on Christian’s face .

[Laughter]

Dean: He was just enjoying the bit until he realized, ‘Oh wait, I have to perform in the bit.’

John: Is that on the X? Is that- how did you get the RED so low?

Dean: Oh we just put it right on the floor on a sandbag. 

John: Oh that's good. 

[Laughter]

John: Thanks to these nice folks for letting us trash their home, by the way.

Dean: Yes. And for those of you who may have noticed in the wide angles, just the little numbers on the evidence things on the floors.

John: Yes, that they’ve scattered all over the ground. Yeah no set-dec did a great job.

Dean: You can see the numbers in the background.

Chris: Oh those are great!

John: And- and earning his pay-

[Laughter]

John: Nicely done.

Chris: That’s a nice little transition there.

John: It is a nice- almost like you put some thought into this.

Dean: And I swear I didn't. And this is our line producer’s wife .

John: Yeah.

Dean: Who also did a guest star in last year’s two-part season finale.

John: Last year’s finale! 

Chris: Oh, that’s right!

John: I like the idea she was on vacation in LA last year.

Dean: Exactly.

John: And now she’s back and involved in another Leverage scam. In my head it's the same person.

Dean: And this is an interesting scene for their arc, because, you know, Beth - Parker - really didn't trust Tara coming in.

John: Well she's not part of the family.

Dean: And only in this scene does she actually start to earn her trust, and they start to bond.

John: And we also wanted to reset the fact that, again, Parker is good in the short con. If you throw a surprise at her she doesn't handle it well, because talking to people doesn't even go well. Interestingly enough, she relates to people better in character than as Parker. 

Chris: Yes.

John: Yeah. And so until Tara gives her- so yes, the awkward- we really pulled up every political trope we could find. 

Chris: Oh, sure.

John: I think we sat down - adultery, pregnancy, corruption. Then we just went through the Times one day, just pulled up every scandal from that summer.

[Laughter]

John: And the 4-18 months. And there's actually a mayor’s conference, too.

Dean: That’s right.

John: We found out where the mayor’s conference was.

Chris: It's in Vegas. Sure that's where you would have the mayors conference, and that’s where he would meet her.

Dean: I like the little turn Parker makes here, after she’s been coached part way through it, now she gets it. So now she’s feeling comfortable doing it.

John: Now she understands, yeah.

Dean: And you can see her-

Chris: ‘Yeah, I'll just wait out there.’

John: And that is an actual office- that's a conference room at the city hall?

Dean: That sure is.

John: That we rappelled down into.

Dean: We had to use it as the mayor's office, cause the actual mayor's office was too small.

[Laughter]

John: That's right.

Chris: Oh, yeah.

John: Infamously the mayor took the smaller office in the city of Portland cause he just felt like he only needed that much work space.

Dean: That's right. Mayor Sam Adams who’s been incredibly helpful to this show, and we’re very grateful.

John: Yes. Very cool guy. I don't regret that duffle bag full of cash at all.

Chris: That is a great shot there.

John: That is a great shot. That really establishes that space. 

Chris: She’s- jeez.

John: She's beautiful, yes. I was referring to the setting, but-

Chris: Sorry, I was just-

John: Yes, Jeri Ryan was very beautiful, too.

Chris: I was just lost in Jeri Ryan.

John: It happens. And this is the great speech. And again, we listened to transcripts and looked at testimony. I mean if you look at Blagojevich-

Chris: Blagojevich, sure.

John: The remarkable bluntness with which they announce their terms and prices always amazes me.

Chris: Yeah. And it almost sounds like movie dialogue, but it’s not! It’s just the way they talk!

John: Yeah.

Dean: The evil speech of evil.

John: And we come up with evil speeches of evil, and then when you go find the real ones it's like, really? You said that? With a straight face? Alright. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: No, research is your friend. We really- you know, this is a remarkable static act with an awful lot going on. I never noticed that before.

Dean: Well I think- again, this is- when we separate our team into different locations, but yet having them communicate, it really gives a sense of energy to it. 

John: But we only have, like, three agendas.

Dean: Right.

John: You know, running it at any one time. This was a tight little shot. I remember this. This was- we were in that back bedroom, and trying to shoot. And then you had to- you had a totally different blocking, if I remember correctly.

Dean: Yeah, instead of being in the room with him, we decided we’d squeeze him through the doorway and make him feel like he’s in an even tighter space than he was by framing it that way. But it also gives a chance to use this hallway and bring in our guest performer.

John: Yeah. And the clue that travels over two different episodes. Hopefully, again, I'm glad that they aired these back to back because it would be tricky to-

Chris: Yes it’s- to track- there's a lot of stuff that this really did play like a movie.

Dean: And once again, we got to the-

John: Oh, the big smile.

Dean: -comedy frame.

John: Yes.

[Laughter]

John: That’s for all you young filmmakers out there, that is the comedy frame. And then the look- just the look of pity on his face. Yeah. 

[Laughter]

John: And the badge on the- there's no reason the CSI guys should have a badge on a shield. Chris just loves the badge on the shield- the badge on a chain. 

Dean: Exactly.

Chris: He likes that.

John: He really likes that look. If he can be doing like a 1970s- if he could be doing the British version of Life on Mars, he’d be the happiest man alive.

Dean: Oh yeah.

[Laughter]

Chris: Now I got a question for you. So was- now we had a Maltese Falcon joke, just one line in-

Dean: The previous episode.

Chris: -the previous episode. Did that give you the idea for the Maltese Falcon? Who came up with the Maltese Falcon bit?

John: No, you know it was- it was literally, I was trying to figure out, ‘What's the MacGuffin? What’s the maltese falcon? You know what, it'd be actually kind of fun to just call it that.’

Chris: Just the Maltese Falcon, OK.

John: Cause it’s so famous now, it's a little meta. And, you know, the fact that it would be called something rather than a shorthand for something- 

Chris: Right.

John: Cause we use that in the writers room all the time.

Chris: Yeah, we do.

John: The maltese falcon, what's the thing? Macguffin, Hitchcock famously defined it as. And this is Nate deciding to bail on the pitch and making- and this is tough. He’s basically processing offscreen dialogue and acting like he’s coming to a decision. 

Dean: I love Richard’s reaction to it, it's like ‘What?’

John: We just went for the whole-

Chris: ‘You just paid all this money, you don't want to engage in graft with me?’

John: Behind though-

Dean: Even out of focus he's stealing the scene.

John: I know. He's really upstaging the hell out of- out of focus. Look how far back he is. Aaand you're back. 

[Laughter]

John: And we've announced our agenda.

Chris: We've announced our agenda, we know our- and here we go.

Dean: Now this place was great, this ballpark. We wanted to shoot here all year and hadn’t really found a way to do it.

John: And that's why I give full props to Chris, is cuz I had the crime story back half of this done, and I could not figure out what the con on the mayor was. And you had fallen in love with this location you had seen- you were like-

Chris: This was great, I had gone to a game here.

John: We can finally pay off this location. And that’s- again, that's an advantage of being a city where you get to know- cause the baseball con was always a half an episode.

Chris: Right.

John: And we could never quite get it to be a whole. And then it was like, ‘Oh, we need half an episode. Boom.’

Chris: Well also there's a lot of public corruption around building ballparks, and we did a little research that minor league ballparks bring 30 million dollars into the local economy.

John: That was great. The day we did research and found out it was just a flat 30 million for almost every ballpark, it’s like, that’s just a great number.

Chris: Yup.

Dean: And by the way, I think some of the best special effects we’ve ever done are in this two-part season finale, but I don't think you'd even notice it. For instance all these shots in the ballpark, we had to erase and change all the signage-

John: Oh, that’s right.

Dean: -because we didn't have permission. And then later, we had to put in the crowds that were reacting. So there are amazing special effects in this, but they are so real you didn’t even know.

John: That’s right. Utterly seamless. If you see them, we screwed up. Yeah, and this particularly since those aren’t lockoff, the camera is moving, you know, the character is wiping in front of it, yeah.

Dean: And again, I love what David is doing in this scene, he is just channeling Smithers.

John: Yes.

[Laughter]

John: And there’s Paul Blackthorne, he’s really doing the job for us as evil European dude. He has a large black car- 

Chris: Yeah.

John: He's got a halfway rolled down window. We know what his job is in the story, we know what his job is in the narrative. 

[Laughter]

John: But what I love here is the fact that Richard there's just so dismissive. I mean the body language here besides- Why is this a good shot? Because you don’t have to turn around to get both of them.

Dean: Exactly.

John: He’s very casually powerful. 

Dean: Right.

John: This is a man who’s used to the world running the way he wants it to run.

Chris: Right, in this little burg of Bellbridge.

John: Yes.

Dean: And this is such a terrific location, and we were there early in the morning, got this great light. I was so excited to shoot this. 

Chris: And they have a nice-

John: Story shcmory. Pictures.

Chris: They have a nice rapport here, too. They have this kind of easy going, you know, banter.

Dean: You know, so much of this episode- these episodes, was wish fulfillment. We wanted to be in that ballpark all year, we wanted to get near the water under the bridges...

Chris: Yes.

John: You also- in case you're skipping through the commentaries, you’ll notice this happens in Bellbridge, Massachusetts. Bellbridge is the corrupt town in Chris’s episode, Order 23.

Chris: Yes, yeah.

John: We decided to create just one imaginary Massachusetts city we could crap on for an entire season.

Chris: Yes.

John: Just to make sure we had clearances, and we always knew- 

Dean: Exactly.

John: So please, if you're from a real Bellbridge, don’t be angry. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: Yeah, their rhythm here is lovely. They are partners by this point, in a very different way. And the fact that Jeri has established that over six episodes is pretty cool. How tough is it to shoot in a ballpark, my friend?

Dean: Well some of this we actually stole footage at a real- during a real game, but the rest was very easy because they were so cooperative. I mean, this is the actual locker room and they let us have it for the day, and gave us equipment and were-

Chris: And those are the- are those the uniforms?

Dean: Just terrific. Those are the actual uniforms. The ‘P’ is actually for Portland. 

[Laughter]

Dean: But in our show it’s-

Chris: Palmerstown.

John: And I love the fact it's actually the Portland Beavers, because if we come up with a comedy mascot we couldn't have beat beavers.

Dean: No.

John: And by the way the Portland Beaver? Good guy.

Dean: Very good guy.

John: Very good guy. Really cool. We hung out, everything.

Chris: Oh apologies to Crash Davis here, but boy does he do- he does-

John: Oh he's so digging in.

Chris: Does a great Bull Durham.

John: Really digging up. This is- we went back and forth- are we doing Major League or Bull Durham here?

Chris: It's pretty Bull Durham here. 

John: It’s pretty Bull Durham.

Chris: The journeyman catcher who shows up unannounced, it’s- 

John: Yeah, and also the idea that these- you know, talking to a lot of these guys who play this level ball, the precarious nature of their lives- I mean the guys who are kind of on rota from a major league team make a lot of money. 

Chris: Yeah.

John: The guys who are journeymanning this out, a lot of them have day jobs, man.

Dean: What I love about this is that Eliot himself doesn’t like baseball. Because we’ve already established what a big, giant sports fan he is. 

Chris: Yeah.

Dean: About how excited he was about all the sports channels in- both season one and season two.

John: But it's hockey- and it’s always hockey and football. And interestingly, we gave him your problem with baseball.

Dean: Exactly.

Chris: Yes we did, it really worked great.

John: I love baseball and I'm like, ‘I have no idea what he wouldn't like.’ And you said, I don’t like-’ Oh.

Chris: Oh, and John did a beautiful job directing this.

John: This is my directing debut right here 

[Laughter]

Chris: Mark it down folks.

John: Japanese power drink commercial. Because it really was one of those things I had in mind and it's like, ‘Alright describe it. You know what? I can't describe it, I'll just shoot this.’

Chris: I think I originally wrote it as it’s like a car- like a local car ad. 

John: Yeah.

Chris: Oh my god, how great is this Japanese sports drink commercial?

John: Also, again, you're lucky to have Chris Kane because a lot of actors wouldn't do the comedy beat in the commercial.

[Laughter]

Dean: Nails it.

John: He nails it. Look at the big smile! 

Dean: And he enjoys it!

John: Look at that, having a good time.

[Laughter]

Dean: But he hates baseball, and then he comes in here and the minute he cracks that bat you just see- you know, heroin to the junkie.

Chris: He really did- he gave it a real arc, you know. 

John: And also, I like the fact that this is the first time he uses a baseball bat for what it's actually meant for.

Dean: Right.

[Laughter]

John: He's been beating people up with baseball bats for like 20 years, and never really hit a ball with one before. Also, by the way, cool digital ball.

Chris: Oh watch this.

Dean: Exactly.

John: There you go.

Chris: Oh that is great.

Dean: I'm telling you some of our best digital effects-

Chris: That’s fantastic.

John: Oh look at that look.

Dean: And the second one- watch the indentation on the pad on the wall when the ball hits it. Small thing for effects artists, but really lovely, just oh that little indentation.

John: Oh that’s nice, the shadow. And there we are.

Chris: Oh there you go folks, there's Dean and John.

Dean: Oh dear, oh dear.

John: We’re also doing the voices here on the radio shows. On the DVD there should be about nine takes of this scene. Because the two of them, at one point it got very weird and sexual with her speaking Spanish, and Hardison getting all ramped up.

[Laughter]

John: It- this was definitely one of the ones where you just, like, park the camera and let the two of them go.

Dean: Yeah.

John: Yeah.

[Laughter]

John: Interesting, one of the challenges of shooting the greenscreens is color temperature.

Dean: Yes.

John: We actually had a little bit of trouble with this shot because- most people don’t understand, there’s a lot of different greens that go on green screens. It was not dead right, doing the special effects goes from easy to unspeakable.

Dean: Exactly, and so this one had- a lot of work had to go into being able to see what was on the screen.

John: Ironically, a lot of this was harder to see than the incredibly complex crowds and baseball stuff.

Dean: The stands, exactly.

John: This was a lot of fun. Outside real city hall, outside Portland city hall, at a coffee shop across the street at some ungodly hour of the morning.

Dean: Yeah, this was the first thing we shot that day.

John: And again, this is- it was interesting how originally there was an entire subplot where, how they’d been lured there, how the mayor- and you don’t need it.

Chris: Yeah. This is much better.

John: Yeah.

Dean: He just sees them, he walks across the street.

Chris: Yes.

John: We even took that bit out. We originally had him see them.

Dean: I love the really, really bad heist.

[Laughter]

John: The bad lift.

Dean: Smithers stumbles into the table.

John: And Kind just drops the look there a little bit.

Chris: A little disgust right there.

Dean: Just a little squint.

[Laughter]

John: And the turnaway when it’s like, ‘Oh horrible lift.’ They don’t even have to- they both know what happened, they both know it was unspeakable. 

Dean: Well, you know, amateurs to pros, you know?

John: And this was fun, these are based on real blueprints.

Chris: Yeah, real blueprints for-

Dean: This was that other shot was the beginning of the day. This was the last shot of the day, and we’d run out of time. So I had to shoot this all in one shot.

John: Oh this is a one-er!

Chris: This is a one-er, take a look at that.

Dean: This is a very hard steadicam shot. While it’s not that impressive of a shot, it's a very difficult shot.

John: And also-

Dean: Cause you’re doing all the coverage with one camera.

John: And you're banging focus like crazy.

Chris: You’re getting a lot of information, right.

John: And also the actors can’t mess up.

Dean: That’s right.

John: At no point can they stop, can they drop a line, can they, you know.

Dean: The only thing we did is one little reverse at the very end on David’s character. But as you can see all of this-

John: To give you a cut, or?

Dean: Just to give us a cut in case we needed to combine.

Chris: It’s interesting how great these end of day one-ers come out.

Dean: Yeah.

Chris: And they're born of necessity.

Dean: That’s what so interesting about television is, you know, it really forces you to be creative.

John: Yeah. Oh there you go, I see what you did.

Chris: Oh here's the ballpark.

Dean: Now this is a mixture of stuff that we staged and stuff that we stole during an actual ballgame. But all the-

Chris: The actual ballgame you shot before, I think, the script was written.

John: I think I sent the outline saying we would be at the ballpark. And so Dean had to come up with a shot list based on basically our friendship- 

Chris: This is great.

John: -figuring out what I would probably put in the script.

Dean: These are all real things there. 

John: Yeah.

Dean: That we shot. Now all the crowds, though, we added digitally.

John: Yeah.

Chris: Oh that’s great.

Dean: So in all these wide shots when you see these full crowds, they had about- there was a scattered amount of people. In all the shots where it’s full, that’s us.

John: Yeah.

Chris: That’s great.

Dean: For all these shots here. And of course all the signage is changed digitally.

John: And Kane went down, caught a couple pitches, and actually on the shot we have him hit, he actually connected, put it on the warning track. It was a good day for Chris Kane.

Chris: That’s a beautiful shot, too, there; love that.

John: That's a beautiful one, yeah.

Dean: And this actor is actually a state senator.

[Laughter]

Dean: Who had helped pass the legislation for us to-

John: I actually think we’re the bad guys at this point. Seriously, we’re doing an episode about graft and corruption and- 

Dean: Well the hilarious thing is, he wanted to play the corrupt mayor.

John: I know. And we were like ‘You know dude, that's probably not the best idea for you to play the corrupt mayor.’

Chris: I can see the campaign commercials.

Dean: All those crowds, digital. 

Chris: Wow, that’s great.

Dean: I mean that's really something.

John: And look at that, through a moving shot.

Dean: And then all the signage behind them is changed as well.

John: And that’s our-

Dean: And if you notice, that’s Hardison’s orange drink on the sign.

Chris: Oh that’s great.

John: Oh my god, that's right.

Chris: And to do with- with a moving camera is very difficult.

Dean: Very difficult.

John: And this is a conference on the mound from both Major League and Bull Durham.

Dean: And the pitcher is actually our second AD.

John: Kyle, yeah.

Dean: Yeah.

John: That's right, you give him a nice hero shot here, too.

Chris: Oh, that's a great shot of Kyle.

John: I also love- This helps lock in the arc where he’s like, ‘I'm now fully committed to winning baseball as much as I am to winning fights.’

Dean: Exactly.

John: No this was a lot of- and this is a lot of fun. This was- it's amazing what you can do with implication.

Dean: Right.

John: You know, just put two people in the same geography and let the characters draw their own conclusions. 

Chris: Yeah, let them do the math.

John: A lot of time you'll try to oversell the con, and what you have to remember is people create narrative about the world around them, you know?

Dean: Oh and I love this bit.

John: Yeah this is a lot of fun, the stuntie really took a hit. And down!

Chris: Oh, oh, oh!

[Laughter]

John: I love he does kind of the -

Dean: Notice that the ref is cross eyed; he's a real ref! 

[Laughter]

Dean: That is not something that- I didn't ask him to act cross eyed.

John: I love this- that dude is dead. That dude is dead. He’s plainly just- he's not getting up. Right now they're asking people to leave the park quietly.

Chris: I think he did that in one or two takes, I mean, he just got it.

Dean: Yeah.

John: He just- it was a beautiful fall.

Dean: By the way, this is another one-er and this is a very difficult scene to light for television where you don't have that much time. And our DP was really creative in the way he made the sun blazing through the back to light up pretty much the entire set.

John: Yeah.

Chris: Now was it easier because you're working with the RED camera for something like this? Available light...

Dean: The RED helps, but at the end of the day it’s about your DP and your gaffer, and we really have, really, two of the best guys in the business.

John: And again, this is also- so much help to be able to do the research on this. Where it’s like, ‘Well, how could he possibly communicate in code how much money-?’ No, he would write it down and give it to him.

Dean: Right.

John: That's what they do, apparently, I had no idea. 

[Laughter]

Dean: Right.

Chris: Yeah.

John: Or they'll just say it, unaware. And this yeah, this was a lot of fun, because also- Richard really found the idea that he was supposed to help Nate feel overconfident. 

Dean: Right.

John: You know, he's supposed to play into it a little easy. And he's- now he's totally into it.

Dean: I love how cross eyed the ref is, that's so great. I mean, the umpire, that's just so great.

John: Boom! That was a good solid hit. That's- Chris Kane put it on the warning track ladies and gentlemen.

Dean: And if you listen carefully in the background, you can hear the crowd chanting ‘Roy, Roy.’

[Laughter]

John: Oh he's become a hometown hero in roughly two weeks. What's the next shot up? Oh there we go, back at McRorys.

Chris: Now- now we're back.

John: Now this is one of our lovely roundy- and oh, this is great. One of our roundy-rounds where we just basically- script kids, when you want to communicate pipe and reset, the way to do it is have somebody not give a crap about the pipe that you're talking about. 

[Laughter]

John: He has his own agenda, it makes it instantly amusing.

Chris: Somebody comes in irritated.

Dean: And boy did he knock this out of the park. 

Chris: Yeah, yeah.

Dean: Kane, who didn’t care- I mean Eliot, who didn't care about baseball at all, is so proud of himself and he's so mad they didn't share his moment of glory.

John: His joy. They named a sandwich after him. Also, that’s a nice beat that they all chose. It’s like, you know, alright, you gotta give it up. That's a nice moment; boom, boom, and the fistbump.

Chris: You got a sandwich named after him.

Dean: Eliot has a hoage? No a reuben.

[Laughter]

John: I also like- I had not noticed before because I was kind of- Nate’s taking a phone call and I was watching it for that beat, the, sort of, fun that Jeri Ryan’s playing there, it's like, ‘OK, I'm part of the family now, this is genuinely amusing.’ 

Dean: Now this is a fun reveal shot. 

John: One of the cross cuts that I gave you again as your birthday gift. Moving in opposite directions?

Dean: Moving in opposite directions so that they are always looking at each other screen direction wise.

Chris: Right, right.

John: Cause we know awful things happen when you cross the lines.

Dean: If you cross the line, cities fall.

[Laughter]

Chris: No, but I mean, when you do phone calls that's an important thing to do.

Dean: For me I think so. I’m old school.

John: What I love is the fact that he starts the incredibly confident powerful guy that we know. And by the end of this swing around, Richard lets himself just kind of look- just 

Dean: Now he's-

Chris: Nice reveal there.

John: Yeah, and nice reveal on that blown out window. And now he's just a pawn, he's just a broken little man, you know. And that's very- the last shot is plainly Nixon. 

[Laughter]

John: It’s plainly like- what's that famous shot of Nixon at 2am in the oval office?

Dean: Right.

John: It’s that look at him. And he did all that in one take, conveying pipe to Nate.

Dean: And now we switch to our handheld, because our guys are in trouble. And I love how much Nate is overcompensating. Whenever Nate’s overcompensating, you know something has gone horribly, horribly wrong. 

John: And his addiction is taking over. Be it booze or control.

Dean: And in this case, both.

John: Yes. He's not really got his head on in this particular case. Yeah, everyone's arguing with him, everyone- and this is another great thing, when Nate spins out you don’t ever have a problem with the plot, because the problem with the plot is the point of the plot. 

Chris: Right.

John: Like with, ‘That doesn't make sense. That doesn't make sense.’ Exactly! Tell that to Nate!

Chris: Yeah.

John: It's important for him to know.

Dean: Our editor did- Brian Gonosey, did a very interesting choice here from cutting from Nate to Nate. Which we almost never do, and it gives it, kind of, strange, nervous energy.

Chris: Well you're kinda-

John: It's claustrophobic.

Chris: You get the sense of people's eyes on him.

Jon: Right.

Chris: A lot of people looking at him.

Dean: But it’s not- again, that kind of cut we don't normally do on the show, and it really makes this a nervous scene.

John: Yeah, you’re going-

Dean: Nate to Nate to Nate to Nate.

John: Yeah, cause you're hopping- Jeri to Parker, you're seeing him plead his case. Jeri to Beth, Jeri to Beth, you know, you're seeing him through their eyes. And then back to the reactions where they know, yeah.

Dean: Something’s wrong.

John: And each one of them is making a very specific decision at that point.

Dean: Again, this port- these guys were so great to let us shoot there.

John: Oh man.

Dean: Gave us such wonderful access.

John: That’s the real port, that's not stock, baby, that’s-

Dean: That’s right, that’s the real deal.

John: And- and a lot of fun doing the TSA stuff, doing the Homeland Security stuff. The research on this was as horrifying as you'd imagine. Most of this is security theater, your ports are not secure, sleep tight America. 

Dean: And this actor was also discovered in that same improv group that we found the actor from the doctor episode.

Chris: Oh that’s interesting.

Dean: The Order 23.

Chris: John, you made a good point about how Order 23 pays off. A question about Order 23, about security at the courthouse. 

John: Yes, in Order 23 there's a beat like ‘How do they get the gun in there?’ And it’s because the courthouse has not been refurbished, because the budget on the town-

Dean: Right.

John: The city is so poor. And that's also why he felt confident hiding the money there. 

Chris: Right, right.

John: That pays off here in the- you find out the reason there's no money for the city is the mayor has grifted it all.

Dean: Right.

Chris: All the security money that he got, federal anti-terrorism money went into his own pocket.

Dean: And I love how Eliot is now playing a celebrity.

[Laughter]

Dean: And he's so proud that he's a celebrity.

John: And we also flipped roles for once, cause Hardison is usually not the one who’s annoyed, it’s-

Dean: Right.

Chris: Yeah, no it's true, he is.

John: It's really he’s- and it’s really both, ‘Get back on the job,’ and, ‘I'm not the center of attention.’

Chris: Yes.

Dean: These two are magical together.

John: Yeah, that's a great- this is a great noir set up.

Dean: Yeah, even with the black car in the distance, which is a bit of red herring.

Chris: Look at this shot, I mean this is a movie shot.

John: Beautiful. Now how do we- was this at night? Or were we during the day here on this?

Dean: This was at the end of the day, so we actually spilled into night and had to light it to keep it looking like this. And that's an actual oil tanker that they allowed us to shoot at.

John: Yeah.

Chris: Wow.

John: And then that- this walkway is actually exactly where we just located it. It's directly below the docks. And it really was- a lot of the fun was walking around the location going, ‘OK, this scene can happen here, this scene can happen here.’ And we didn't get too poisoned shooting in this warehouse. We all had funny coughs for about a week, but we were OK.

Dean: They warned us about spiders and raccoons under this- 

John: Yeah.

Dean: So we were looking for eight-legged raccoons at some point.

John: At some point we were very worried there would be a horrible combination.

Chris: Oh really? Wow, I missed this part.

John: Well you weren't up here for shooting at the oil tanker, getting poisoned by fumes.

Chris: Yeah, yeah. I looked at the schedule and went, ‘What’s the day you hang out in the baseball park?’

John: I noticed that. You came for the baseball park-

Chris: ‘Oh, I’ll come for that.’

John: You really didn't hang out with us in the oil tanker hold. Yeah, black lung kicking in. 

[Laughter]

John: This is a great cross cutting by Brian, this kind of- what he's doing is he's finding some- finding an odd rhythm here. It's not danger, it's unease.

Dean: Right.

John: You know, every shot is a little too short, it's a little too- yeah. And again, sort of end of day shooting, everything in the warehouse from the moment they walk in- like they get to the oil barrel, through the end of the episode pretty much, you did in a one-er. 

Dean: Yup.

John: One direction one way, one direction the other.

Dean: Your easy bake oven reference is awesome. I don't know how many people under the age of 40 are gonna get it, but god I love that reference.

John: Who under 40 watches television anyway? 

Chris: I appreciate it so much. Made me laugh so hard.

John: They've still got those. I got one for my niece.

Chris: With the one little bulb that actually makes the cake. 

John: Who knew? I love, Parker is constantly finding crates full of guns.

[Laughter]

John: I'm fairly sure she could open a gift with purchase from Neiman Marcus and it would have guns in it.

Chris: And by the way, kudos to you to find- when we put this thing together, to find the transition between corrupt mayor and arms deal in the docks. I mean, the thing was built around certain setpieces.

John: Yeah. And also it sort of made sense these- when you research, the amount of legal arms dealing that goes on in the states is magnificent. 

Chris: Right, right.

John: And when you find out these guys run these things out of Boston, New York, Miami, you know.

Chris: Right.

John: It's got to be somewhere.

Dean: And this is one of the rare times where our team is really losing at the end of an episode.

John: Oh yeah, they’ve got to lose. They really- they have- and this was interesting, because it really was one of those times where we sat back and said, ‘In what version of this show are our guys the bad guys that get caught?’

Dean: Right.

John: Just write this section of this show like that show. Like we're writing NCIS or we’re writing CSI or something. And really put our guys in the dead seat. And man he just radiates rage.

Chris: Yeah.

John: And it's not just because Richard Kind is a bad guy, it's because he's lost control.

Chris: Yeah.

John: You know, that is Nate Ford in a world he doesn't want to live in.

Dean: Now we got them in this impossible situation, and- but we can’t end the show without a little bit of fun. 

John: Yeah.

Dean: And the win within the loss here is, I think, is truly inspired.

John: Oh yeah, managing to get them out of there. 

Dean: Yeah.

John: That was a lot of fun. I can't remember where the idea from- the idea of the multiple exits came from. We were playing around in another episode with ambiguity, somebody- signal of, like, time and ambiguity, and that held over, because you use all the parts of the animal, and that hung out and that's of course-

Chris: That's Katie O’Grady.

John: Katie O’Grady.

Chris: She’s a terrific Portland actress. She runs an acting school up there. 

John: Yup, yup. And she really came in as kind of one off, and it’s- after two episodes it’s like, ‘Yeah, I could see this character coming back. I could see this fed,’ you know. A lot of Portland actors did that. A lot of Portland actors turned one day into a recurring role. 

Dean: Yeah.

John: The- and just barely buying him enough time. And that's the important thing here, is that each character is finding a little piece of the solution. That was the fun of this episode is, there's a famous fighter pilot saying which is, ‘Stay alive for the next 10 seconds.’ That's all you have to do. In the next 10 seconds, your wingman will get the guy, or the guy will get out of position, and that's all they are trying to do for this section of this script.

Chris: Yeah.

Dean: Thers a great turn here where he reveals that he was somehow part of this attempted assassination of one of the family- the extended family. 

John: Yeah.

Dean: And the rage that comes out of Nate is everything that’s built up over the entire year. 

John: And what's really interesting is, because you shot this all in one piece- this is not split up into takes, this built in real time.

Dean: That's right.

John: You know, this really builds from that confession- and I was out of position the first time he did the wrench, and I was like ‘What the hell just happened? Did Tim just crush Richard Kind’s head?’

Chris: It's his friend! They're friends!

[Laughter]

John: Yeah, they're friends, but the wrench wasn't in the script. Tim just picked up the wrench!

Dean: Right.

Chris: He just picked up a wrench. And we were like, ‘Is that a rubber prop wrench?’

Dean: I love her character is like, ‘Then just kill him.’ I mean, she has no moral position on this, she just wants to get out alive.

John: Yeah, this- like we were talking the other day, where Sophie still exchanges Christmas cards with people she's ripped off, Tara Cole has walked out of a lot of burning buildings with metal suitcases full of bloodstained cash. 

Dean: And never looked back.

John: And never looked back. And in that moment she is absolutely serious. If you're gonna kill this guy, get it done. You know, but she’s not gonna coddle him.

Dean: Now this may be one of my favorite bits that you guys have ever come up with, and it starts with a great turn.

John: It’s like- you know why? Cause it’s a locked off comedy frame, my friend.

Chris: That is.

Dean: Locked off comedy frame. But it's one of the oldest gags in television. 

John: It is.

Dean: Is that slow turn look.

Chris: The turn look.

John: And then the turn reveal, and this- 

Chris: ‘Oh no. Oh no, you're not gonna do it. Oh no, no way, Jose.’

[Laughter]

Dean: And once again, Aldis Hodge showing why he is a truly, truly special talent. This part is not written.

John: No.

Dean: This part is just him going- 

John: The printed page ends with, ‘They turn and look at the van.’

Dean: Right.

Chris: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John: Yes and- 

Dean: All of this is him being brilliant.

John: And that means also that Beth and Chris had to find the timing to when they were both gonna turn.

Dean: Right.

John: And that's the thing is, they work together a lot, now they've got a lot of, sort of, physical cues from each other. But yeah, this is all him, this is all him going off. And this is born of 207 when we shot him and Will Wheaton versus each other; they spent the whole day in the van alternating. And so Aldis was making a joke about the fact he has a very weird relationship with that van, cause he's in it and nobody else is.

Dean: And he even brought back in the fact that everyone teases him that the van smells.

John: Yes, exactly.

Chris: That the van smells, we made that a recurring thing.

John: So that's become a recurring thing and it was really- it was really the actors discussion of his character that led to the bit. 

Dean: Now a lot of people may miss this-

John: Oh this is my favorite bit-

Dean: -but just watch Parker when the doors shut.

John: Yup.

Dean: Because Parker is so close to Aldis she gives a kiss goodbye and leaves the little lip print.

[Laughter]

John: I never noticed that before. 

Chris: Oh she did, she leaves the lip print, that’s great.

John: Not in the script. 

Dean: One of my favorite camera moves right here. ‘Aaaaand, let’s begin.’

[Laughter]

John: There is- definitely been working together long enough now that we know- and now that jazz music is in the background, we’re up and running.

Chris: There you go.

Dean: It all kicks in. And again, how Richard was able to now change from that dark to humorous. Literally turning on a dime.

John: And this is him-

Chris: Oh there's so many speeches he made saying goodbye.

John: This is him doing the- that is Kirk saying goodbye to Spock.

[Laughter]

John: By the way, from the Wrath of Kahn, that is the speech he's doing right there.

Dean: And we- my favorite digital effect.

John: No van, no van there.

Dean: All painted.

Chris: Oh that’s great.

John: ‘I’ll miss you.’ No and that was- but of course, again, you were blowing stuff up at a dock.

[Laughter]

John: Without any real permission or notifying the authorities. It’s really I think I'd be disappointed now if you called ahead. 

Dean: That’s right.

John: And this is the reveal, and this was really tricky, trying to figure out the timeframe, how they could get around, how quickly they get around.

Dean: So we had to use the bomb as the time signature.

John: Yeah.

Chris: Right.

John: Because the- when we got there originally, this was structured slightly differently, but the exits in the physical locations didn't match. But that’s why TV is great, you have a writer on set-

Dean: Exactly.

John: So you can actually have the director walk around with you and go, ‘This isn't gonna work.’ ‘Sure it will.’ ‘No it won't, fix it.’

[Laughter]

Chris: Well I think originally the thing went inside the- 

John: Yes, yeah. And we couldn't do that, and you couldn't see the blow, and then you had to blow all three doors simultaneously if you did it, and it would've been madness. And Katie's look of rage there is magnificent. 

Chris: That’s great, as the car goes by.

John: It really- ‘I am an angry, angry fed.’ And this is also one of the times when we don’t let Nate off the hook.

Dean: Right.

John: You know and Aldis is genuinely- yeah.

Chris: Yeah, he managed to transition from the fun of saying goodbye to the van, to actual rage.

Dean: Genuinely pissed off. And now another bit of John Rogers directing on this episode is the car getting away.

Chris: Nice!

John: The car- yeah, this is-

Dean: Right here, here we go and then look at this nice power slide.

Chris: Oh, good job.

John: I caught the reflection in the side of the car that was suction cup bounce and they actually hold on. You didn't give me the wet down one.

Dean: And this is my favorite reveal of a character ever.

John: I have no idea how you did this! Did you lower him by rope? How does he get in the shot?

[Laughter]

Chris: Well he comes in-

John: And we’re coming around, this is all a one-er and… he… is… there.

[Laughter]

John: He just- it is one of those things where, much like- 

Chris: How would he fit inside?

Dean: [Mimicking Mark Sheppard] There's no one else that can make an entrance-

John: Quite like Mark Sheppard.

Dean: -like Mark Sheppard.

[Laughter]

John: And by the way, we decided to make him- because we were cooking up a threat, and- we’ll actually continue talking about this in the next episode...

Chris: In the next episode.

Dean: Please stay tuned for the second part of this. 

Chris: Stay tuned.

Dean: But this was a lot of fun, and thank you for listening to the first half. Stay tuned for part two.

[bookcub]

Some thoughts from Leverage Redemption off the top of my head (spoilers ahead)

Brianna was my favorite

She took a moment to grow on me but had some fantastic depth and was quite cute for most of it.

Harry was my second favorite

I was less attached to him but he had an interesting arc and brought good insight and humor to the show.

Mainly because they couldn't mess up their arcs because they were new characters

Hardison was the best adapted (which helped because he was there for only two episodes

Sophie felt like a mostly reasonable version of herself but she lacked the dimension she used to have

Eliot and Parker were just all the jokes of their past self and very very little substance

I would not be upset at the lack of ot3 if I had not been promised the ot3, I did enjoy their scenes in the first two episodes for the most part

I liked some of the inside jokes buy as someone who has watched the series eight times in entirety, I still didn't get them all so, uh, yeah 🙄

The bad guys felt like cartoon villains, it was hard to take them seriously and I think their extended role in the episodes was not beneficial to creating a well rounded villain but simply a joke

Loved seeing Eliot fight with a sword

I tried rewatching with a friend and it was just .. . .so cringy, I had to stop the rewatch

I liked how they handled Nate, it really was the only way for me

Loved how they handled Hardison being gone

Can't believe they brought in a love interest for Eliot, ugh, I even love the actress (Andrea Navedo) but alas, I could not fully enjoy her face because I have only taken one (1) of his love interests seriously (Amy)

I'm seriously so disappointed in how they handled Parker and Eliot smh

I would have preferred to see them training a new crew with limited roles instead of being main characters, based on how they handled their development

Still, it is a better reboot than most, but I will always find them disappointing

I will watch more episodes when they come out