Eliot Spencer would have his only massive, ridiculous gunfight in a lube warehouse

Just for you: This scene made possible by industrial-sized vats of lube

"Why does Leverage act as though Nathan Ford chose not to kill on the Last Dam job? He definitely killed those guys!"

So, this is a thought that's haunted me since I first watched leverage. A distinction that the show makes between two points that took me almost a decade to understand. To really get it though... Let's start from the top.

Nathan Ford has just watched his father die. Their relationship may have been godawful, but he just watch the last living member of his family throw himself on a grenade for him. And the two arrogant bastards that did it are so smug, so sure they're smarter than him, that when he delivers his vengeance they never see it coming. When the dust settles, they are ruined, disgraced, and destitute with a price on their heads- and also, standing on the edge of a cliff with Nate pointing a gun at them.

Nate knows these men. Nate knows how they tick. Nate knows every single button that needs to be pressed to make them do whatever he wants. And Nate proceeds to point out that the only way that either of them could escape the consequences of their actions, would be with the other dead. And with that... He "spares" them. Sets the gun on the edge of the cliff, and walks away as they fight for it, fall, and die. And with that act, Nate had vengeance, his hands were clean, the narrative lauded him as having showed mercy.

And that just didn't sit right! Leverage was far too well written to flub that major of an arc. Nate knew what they would do, and used that to make them kill each other. Except... Leverage is a story about- among other things- Nate accepting that the world is not black and white. It's a story about him realizing that he doesn't get to make people's choices for them. And it's a story about second chances.

Nate has a mind of clockwork. It is a place of spinning gears and perfect solutions. Nate knows, in his heart of hearts, that he can predict everything, that he knows the lines, he knows the play, he knows where the curtain will fall. Why even bother letting it play out? And here in this moment, with the two men he has proven, again and again, that he knows them better than they know themselves? The two men who killed his father? Who could even blame him for skipping to the punchline?

And yet. In that moment, he stops. He looks at his team, each villains, criminals who chose another path. Who changed. And he says 'Maybe there's another way. Maybe nobody has to die. We can all choose to go home and face the consequences of our actions.' And he sets the gun down, and gives them the choice. He knows what will happen. Or at least he thinks he does. But he accepts that he doesn't have the right to make that choice for them.

And the fact that he's right? Isn't important. He doesn't even look back as the scene plays out. Because he chose to be better; and with that his story is complete.

Leverage is finished- even though another season remains, it's entirely epilogue, falling action. And that, I think, is a Dam fine conclusion to the story.

I know, I know we all talked about it before, but listen.

The anger in his voice. The anger is Sterling's voice when he thought Nate let his Team die for the black book.

Sterling might have wanted them in jail, tho at this point probably not even that, but not dead. Not for something he views useless.

He is so angry Nate let them die.

preg tags from @tracing-lines-in-the-infinite: #when I watched the finale back in 2011(12?) I was surprised at the anger at first#but rewatching it and every time it makes complete sense- Jim didn't just want to take them down. he respected them all so much#he recognized them for who they were and enjoyed the cat & mouse type shit they had going on#and the idea that Nate- his best friend- not only lost his family again but is responsible for it? that's deserving of all the anger

thinking about the long way down job again. there are two hardison & eliot hugs in that ep. the first one hardison initiates because he’s cold on the mountain & eliot returns it briefly but then rejects it violently. the second one eliot initiates happily for like no reason just because he saw hardison with his arms open. either he knew hardison wanted parker to hug him so eliot hugged him in her place. or he thought hardison wanted to hug him again and was like ok why not.

The Rundown Job was really the OT3 episode, uh?

I knew they worked well together, that's been obvious for a while. But in an episode of just them, it really hits how in sinc they are.

Hardison and Eliot doing their little handshake after watching Parker do her acrobat thing through a lazer grid.

Eliot's first concern being to get Hardison and Parker to safety. Them refusing to let Eliot go up against a terrorist attack. Parker's line about how they change together, for better or worse.

Eliot not being scared of the terrorists attack because he has Hardison and Parker on his side and he believes in them more than anything.

Also when Eliot put his hand on the back of Hardison's neck and looked into his eyes? That was so intimate. The tension was serious with undertones of sexual. It had the same tension as Parker diffusing the bomb.

The silent communication. The celebrating each other's victories.

Eliot throwing down the crutch in favor of leaning on his partners.

I'm sure other stuff I missed, it being only my first watch through and all. But that's the stuff that stood out the most to me.

OK, turns out I'm not done way overanalyzing the hospital scene from "The Nigerian Job." But in the interests of not continuing to spam the poor stranger who touched off that conversation, I'll dump the new overanalysis into its own post. @trivalentlinks @wolves-in-the-world

As I've been thinking about this, I'm just fascinated by what the setup seems to imply about their choices here:

1. Nate and Hardison are both handcuffed to hospital beds--Nate unconscious, Hardison apparently only still on the bed because he doesn't know how get himself out of handcuffs.

2. Parker is free of her cuffs and pacing. (She gets handcuffed to the bed after feigning nausea to lure the doctors in.) Her dialog implies she has already formulated a plan for getting at least herself out (that will be ruined if Eliot kills someone).

3. Eliot is sitting in a chair, handcuffed to the arm. Going off of other Hollywood hospital scenes, I assume Eliot being in a chair reflects both being very minimally injured and some off-screen grifting on his part. He'd want to be cuffed to the relatively light-and-compact chair instead of a bed, since he could maneuver and fight without necessarily having to get the cuffs off first, which would be consistent with his assertion that "I can take these cops"--he's got an escape plan, too.

The dialog also indicates that 1) they have been in the hospital with Nate unconscious for at least 20 minutes (because that's how long ago they were fingerprinted) and 2) everyone else has been conscious since before getting brought to the hospital (Parker: "Cops and firemen got there just as we were waking up.").

So, all three of them sat there for at least 20 minutes waiting for Nate to wake up, knowing their time before their identities were uncovered was ticking away, and none of them just ditched the others and left.

Source: LEVERAGE #506 “The D.B. Cooper Job” Post-Game [caps]

finding out that quinn was initially gonna be the sniper in the rundown job really did ruin my life actually

“over-acting magnificently” 

tag yourselves guys

Hardison knowing how to defuse this influenza bomb further supporting my headcanon that he studied up on bombs after the team ran into enough of them

(Tags from @darkfinch )

eliot and hardison deciding to fight an entire militia with makeshift wooden spears, booby traps and cigarettes in the gone fishin’ job

pk_sullivan | jonrog1 | pk_sullivan | jonrog1 | "The Rundown Job" Post-Game (10 Jan. 2013)

Leverage - The Toy Job

Watching “The Toy Job” and naturally (no surprise there) am falling in love with EVERYTHING all over again. Particularly with…

… the team having gone completely overboard with Christmas presents the year before

…Eliot being angry for not having gotten that 100k motorbike (which is how I read this)

…aaaall the shitty toys and Hardison being “I had one of these”. Yeah, not just you, mate :)

…Parker stealing the toy of horror and instead of everyone commenting on it being THE TOY OF HORROR the team just rolls with it. Because yeah, like Eliot says, you can sell anything

…the drug dealer approach. Oh Nate, rarely have I loved you more

… “Eliot, get on the moms. Not literally.”

…all of Hardison playing the serious educator with the fucking specs and the fucking black turtle neck and the pronunciation of hilariousness. If that guy worked on a home shopping channel, I would be broke

… Hardison having seriously read up on early child development and Eliot being angry that he even asked and had to listen to just two minutes of this

… “I wanna be a tough dad” “Strict, but fair” - and what Hardison makes of it

… Dashiel. Hardison, you are fucking evil. And Eliot just goes ahead and SELLS it. To a lawnful of ladies, all right, so there is NO ulteriour motive there, of course

…all the sensitive background moms just not paying ANY attention at all to wherever their kids are because holy fuck, this is Christian Kane

…the weird and creepy human sized costumes for toys on the con

… BELIEVEABLE FATHER AND SON STUFF

… And Nate sitting in the middle of Eliot-and-Hardison-feeling-sharing-time-of-the-week

… Hardison doing the voice of Chardonnay Mom

… Nate ruining Christmas. Ho-ho-ho.

…Hardison being equally scared and turned on by Parker doing voices

…Nate, the owner of Lucky Beans toys, communicating through Baby-Feels-a-Lot. I love episodes in which Nate is just being needlessly scary all over the place just because he can

… the Busey’s MASSIVE crush on his boss (like in every episode)

…Eliot hanging out at the miniature golf course again like the mom-catnip / kids-Batman that he is

… Nate and Sophie being smug and married together

…the client’s awesome Christmas tie

…Hardison sharing his feelings with Eliot of being traumatized by Parker’s Joy-Rage army

…Hardison and Parker having done trust-exercises off-screen together and Parker having dropped Hardison <3

…Nate’s trumpet story about him and Sam, and Sophie being so very in love with him. Fuck, Tim Hutton’s acting kills me. He is so good.

Leverage <3

it’s the girls night out job (lev 4x13) and parker isn’t interested in fighting robots. it sounds loud.

but she’s concerned that she’s supposed to want to go. supposed to like his interests even if they are compeltely different from her interests. you know, normal-people stuff. like book clubs and brunch and sorta-dates with your sorta-boyfriend.

and the thing is. mattingly is a guy who likes all the same stuff parker does. a thief like her. but he’s not fun. his cons are second-story. he doesn’t care about anything but his next score. he couldn’t even operate a thumb drive. just reads hi for filth and laughs in his face when he tries to offer her 20% of the take. after she did all the work!

and yeah, maybe the short con’s not her a-game. but that’s okay, because she has a team backing her up. sophie and tara’s mentoring telling her to swipe the cocktail dress. hardison’s tech insight about the picture frame. eliot’s fighting lessons when mattingly grabs her arm. even peggy’s willing to throw down with the bomb-planting waiter. because despite everything she thinks has happened tonight, she’s still parker’s alice’s friend. 

because yeah, she’s not big on parties. doesn’t like loud events. she plays by a different set of rules. parker doesn’t need—or want—someone just like herself. she wants people in her life who fill in all the spaces she doesn’t have access to. who can teach, mentor, care about, and protect her. 

the same is boring. and just because her idea of fun isn’t the same as hardison’s. it doesn’t make her uninteresting or her life unexciting.

but then it’s also the boys night out job (lev 4x14) and hardison’s trying to prove something to himself about manhood and relationships. 

because parker’s out with tuxedo guy craig mattingly when she’s supposed to be out with her friend parker. and he’s a thief. a good one. with strikingly good features and a squared-up jaw and wait, where does that leave geek boy hardison?

so he’s not feeling very confident. is parker his girl? he’s been trying with robot fights and video games and chocolate festivals and pedicures. but there’s something missing. and damn the tux because it’s the age of the geek, baby, and shouldn’t that be enough. isn’t he enough?

and since eliot’s apparently along for hardison’s self-esteem crisis he tries to give him advice. if hardison’s so worried about the tux then he can get suited up too. light some candles. put the video games down. be a romantic and sweep parker off her feet.

the problem is. hardison’s not listening. he’s talking over eliot and only hearing what he wants to hear. it’s the worst pep talk ever because hardison’s the computer geek. and cool thieves—cool hitters too!—they don’t want to hang out with him. they don’t need him. he’s not exciting.

and the thing is. what eliot’s actually trying to say is the exact opposite of that. parker’s the cool thief. hardison’s the cool computer geek. but also he’s definitely not thinking about them that way. hardison and parker. in a relationship. being cool together.

sure eliot. this is after all right after the office job (lev 4x12). it’s also happening concurrenty with the girl’s night out job (lev 4x13). which means eliot’s still dealing with all his complicated sandwich feelings. 

because the thing is. eliot’s invested in hardison and parker’s relationship succeeding. he might not be in on the pretzels code, but he wants there to be pretzels. he also wants to be pretzels. except he’s fighting it. cause that’s not the way the world works. that’s not normal-people stuff. 

food metaphors aside, eliot’s still hardison’s friend. and he continues to try and give him good advice. maybe you’re slow-playing it just a, just a little bit. hardison has been absolutely the best in respecting parker’s boundaries. that’s not in question. but parker said she was in the mood for pretzels nearly a season ago. so maybe it’s time for hardison to be brave. make the final leap. and just ask her if they can make it official.

only hardison misinterprets. eliot says assertive but what he really means is confidence. and hardison seems to think that means overconfident swagger. really it’s just a series of no one being able to say what they really mean. more holdovers from the office job. 

and here’s the truly wild thing. eliot lets hardison have his swagger. the boy just needs confidence and if this night will give him that. well, eliot’s got his back. so he takes the two steps backward. and he keeps hardison from being shot or beat-up in the bar. rubs the bridge of his nose and puts up with a night of hardison’s antics. 

because he cares. and it pisses him off and charms him in equal measure. but hardison won’t quit with the prove himself crap. so eliot lets him win at rock paper scissors and goes to flirt the information they need out of security guard clark. lets him work his swagger out running from the security dogs. 

that’s when sophie and tara call him about the bomb. 

which means parker’s in trouble. and he can fix this. seconds to go but he knows exactly how to diffuse it. gives clear and concise as possible directions. and it all works out! how, exactly, the bomb was diffused are just mere details. it’s the age of the geek and you better believe that tuxedo mattingly wouldn’t have been able to save parker, sophie, and tara’s lives.

hardison has his confidence back. his appropriately geeky swagger. and what’s so hard, really, about taking the next step? he’s a catch! and parker’s definitely a catch. and he knows she likes him just as much as he likes her. 

even if he forgot that for a moment. 

now it’s the end of the night out jobs and long-sufferring eliot is trying to leave with sister lupe. don’t talk to them. they’ll make us stay. only he pats hardison on the arm and parker is excited to see him and. well of course he talks to them. of course he stays. 

was there ever any question he wasn’t?