#harry wilson

[aardvaark]

i don’t mind suspending my disbelief for leverage’s person-sized ventilation shafts bc that’s pretty standard for the genre, but that doesn’t mean i won’t laugh a bit at some of the egregiously large vents. particularly in the crowning acheivement job (lev: red s2 finale) because - well just look at this lol! harry and parker, two adults, can kneel side by side in those vents. parker can sit upright.

that museum was made for vent crawling purposes. that’s just an extra room in the museum they forgot to decorate. the leverageverse has a thief union that successfully lobbied for a better working environment. these vents double as a playground for museum-goers’ children. i was crying with laughter thinking about this and harry’s vent crisis was NOT helping me remember that there was a serious heist thing going on lol, i love this show.

[maspers]

I understand why they couldn't bring him back, but let's be honest a version of Leverage Redemption with Nate still around would have been an absolute joy to watch.

He'd take one look at Breanna and be like "who's this sassy lost child?" And he'd roll with it but he'd also just completely and possibly deliberately fail to explain ANYTHING to her. Breanna would call Hardison like every other day to complain about how Nate is a complete disaster of a man and Hardison would be like "Yes, I know, we all know, welcome to the club".

Meanwhile Harry Wilson would manage to spend the bulk of the season being even more confused than he already was in canon. Like. That's Nathan Ford??? I know about Nathan Ford, he was a legendary insurance agent! He went rogue and became one of the most successful criminals in the business! How is he A COMPLETE MESS??? Nate for his part is at first very untrusting of Harry and spends the first few episodes subtly manipulating the poor man into unnecessarily weird situations just to see what he'll do. Sophie chides Nate for being mean.

The schemes get changed, naturally, since Sophie is perfectly fine with letting Nate continue to be all Mastermindy, and the end result is very bizarre season that follows the same plot beats as the Canon one but in an inexplicably different way.

To make matters worse, when you have Nate around inevitably Maggie and Sterling show up (Sterling is oozing villainous enthusiasm at the chance to match wits with Nate and a slightly new Leverage Team, Maggie on the other hand does not want to be here but has accepted this is just a recurring part of her life now) and both of them arrive at the worst possible moment for everyone (except possibly Nate, who planned for this). Breanna immediately starts complaining about the sexual tension between Nate and Sterling, causing Hardison and Maggie to bust out laughing. There's a nonzero chance Harry ends up low key flirting with Maggie since Sophie's with Nate here, but it never goes anywhere.

Naturally the Mastermind Job gets significantly more bizarre than it already was. Everyone gives Nate a hard time over it. EVERYONE. The man never catches a break for the entire thing. They don't even let him run the con, partially because they're a bit mad but mostly just to troll him. Eliot grabs Nate and shakes him sternly at least once. Actually probably many times, throughout the season, as things get weirder.

Harry leaves at the end of Redemption Season 1 and Nate just nods knowingly and instructs Hardison to open a betting pool for how long it will be before Harry comes back. Parker wins, successful guessing it down to the exact day. Eliot accuses her of cheating.

Then in Redemption Season 2 Tara Cole shows up and everything gets worse.

[blueskiesandstarrynights]

Say what you will about redemption but the character premises for the two new leads absolutely slap. "Hardison's 20 year old hacker little sister who grew up with the highlight reel of leverage decides to join and learns the gritty details that were left out of storytime" and "guy who would probably be a mark under different circumstances decides to Do Better and get kidnapped into the team about it" are both objectively funky ideas.

[my-beloved-lakes]

Leverage Redemption + text posts

Bonus:

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

"Somebody's burying something there at the end of the train tracks. Maybe that's what's poisoning the land."

Leverage Redemption S01E14 The Great Train Job.

[ageofthegeekdotcon]

It's so them-core

[lindseymcdonaldseyelashes]

Leverage 1x8 - "The Bank Shot Job"

Leverage 3x16 - "The San Lorenzo Job"

Leverage: Redemption 1x2 - "The Panamanian Monkeys Job"

[stompmesqueezeme]

Underrated Leverage: Redemption line from Eliot to Harry in “the great train job”: “we never really discussed this before you joined the team, but you a serial killer???”

RICH COMING FROM ELIOT “don’t use that rope you can chew right through it” SPENCER

[leveragecentral]

Leverage: Redemption 1.02 The Panamanian Monkey Job

[violetdaphne]

i love the scene in episode 10 of season 2 of leverage redemption when breanna says she wants the evil professor dude like bagged and gagged, and eliot and parker are just immediately like "okay bet lets fucking go nab this guy". like no questions asked, breanna asked for it, so they're going to do it. sophie has to step in to stop it and it just has me thinking like damn. breanna really has some of the most powerful and influential criminals in her pocket and wrapped around her finger. the very power she holds, the sway she has. can you imagine just other criminals in the leverage world just knowing this. like, just understanding that you lay so much as a finger on breanna casey, slight her in any way, then they're going to have the wrath of the og leverage team of leverage international against them, the full rage of eliot spencer, alec hardison, and the parker plotting vengeance. like just ugh i love this family and i love how breanna is their (eliot hardison parker) kid, the same way they were nate and sophie's. it's just a beautiful full circle that honestly has to be some of the best media ever written.

[leverage-ot3]

okay I absolutely get and adore harry being oblivious about ot3 developments, but consider:

after breanna makes it explicitly clear she’s queer in the card game job, harry starts Researching™

he’s trying to be good, be better. he likes this girl and wants to be there to support her and be her friend, someone she can trust. it doesn’t help that she’s around the same age as his daughter, who barely wants to associate with him anymore

he learns breanna is queer and dives into researching. watching TED talks in his spare time. reading ebooks on his phone in between playing roles in a con (bringing a physical book is less convenient and he doesn’t want to wave around the fact that he’s researching like he’s trying to be performative about it). he reads about legislation and book bans and wonders about how they could work their magic through a con to fix those things. he reads about asexuality and recognizes the flag colors from the sticker on breanna’s laptop, which he files away for later

he learns a lot! he has been peripherally aware of queer stuff- it’s kind of hard not to be in the 2020s, but now he is much more informed on a lot of issues. he has memorized at least 50 different labels and terms and has an index of resources in his head (and on his phone) if anyone might need them. he wants to understand the people he loves and cares about, whether it’s breanna or one of his daughter’s friends, or anyone in his life that is queer and he doesn’t know it yet. he wants to be ready and prepared to support them!

he learns about sapphicness and bisexuality and intersex rights and the gender spectrum. he learns about karyotypes and stonewall and other queer history. he learns about kink (blushing, but still reads because it’s important!) and relationship diversity… which leads him to discover the term polyamory

he tries not to actively apply the terms he has learned on the people in his life because he knows it’s wrong to assume things about other people. BUT. harry spends a few days reflecting on parker, hardison and eliot’s interactions and wonders. he thinks about the long hugs and lack of personal space and near telepathic communication not just between parker and hardison, but parker and eliot AND hardison and eliot. how parker knows how to make eliot take care of himself, how he knows when she forgets to eat because she’s so hyperfixated on planning a con. how parker jumps on his back for fun and no matter what, he always catches her. hardison’s absence is felt when he’s gone, deeply by the both of them.

it could just be a deep friendship, he knows. they have been working and living together for over a decade, of course they would be close!!! maybe they could even be queerplatonic! (another new word he learned!)

but. still. he quietly observes, watches closely, and thinks.

[serosfan]

Harry is my favorite character in Leverage Redemption because they’ll throw him into a life or death situation and he’s just like :) guess we’re doing this now okay

[spdraws]

Considering both The Librarians and Star Trek are franchises in Leverage canon, Harry is just existing with Noah Wyle's face, Eliot is stomping around with Christian Kane's face, and Chaos is just sneaking around the interwebs looking exactly like Wil Wheaton. You can't tell me Hardison hasn't made fun of them for their celeb lookalikes.

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

"Nana know you're here?"

Leverage Redemption S01E02 The Panamanian Monkey Job.

Bonus Eliot reactions:

[thatsluttytiefling]

Sofie approximately 5 seconds after kidnapping Harry

[lindseymcdonaldseyelashes]

Leverage con where the team enters Eliot into a cooking competition to get right up into the action with the mark, but he fucks up his hands in a dangerous fight at the last minute, and they have to swap him out for Harry, who's guided to victory by Eliot via comms