leverage

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

I love that Leverage really goes out of it’s way to show us that just because you break the ‘rules’, it doesn’t mean you’re breaking the rules. Rules and laws and society are all made up, at the end of the day, and all you really have is your own moral compass and sense of justice; is this just to you? Is it right? Should it be OK for companies to put people in insurmountable debt for the rest of their lives just because our medical care is so expensive in this modern day and age? No law or rule should change what you know in your heart is right and wrong, and I think that’s the key thing that makes someone a good person in my eyes.

#there was a time when parker wouldn’t have noticed, #not because she lacked the capacity to care, #but because she had narrowed herself, #to stay alive she cut off as many unnecessary things as possible, #watching her get them all back, #is one of the glories of this show (via @seananmcguire)

Leverage hands down has the best character development I’ve ever seen.

This scene hit me like a brick. My parents were hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt when I was 16 bc I’d had cancer the year before (my treatment ended up being free but the initial ER bills and such were not).

But somewhere along the line they just… Disappeared. My mom says they’re not being paid and they’re not in collections. It’s almost as if someone out there did…exactly what Parker did.

Ever since I saw this the first time, I’ve imagined it was Parker doing it. That she and Hardison had a free weekend and decided to take it out on a collections agency. That I was one of the lucky ones who got a little Leverage.

Okay but like yeah, that is actually a thing that happens, albeit not exactly like this. I don’t remember the exact process but basically there’s a booming industry to sell peoples debt - the business you owe money to sells it to someone else for a fraction of the money owed, wipes their hands of the whole affair, and now whoever bought your debt is riding your ass to get you to give the money to the. But it’s also entirely possible for people to just… buy up massive amounts of debt for pennies on the dollar, and then just. Forgive it. Because capitalism is a living nightmare, but the system is broken enough that it’s possible to exploit it for good sometimes.

Like, the main reason I know about this is because John Oliver did a piece on debt buying a few years ago, and ended it by revealing that he’d bought 15 million dollars worth of medical debt just so he could forgive all of it. Both to expose how broken the system was because some random fucker like him could buy millions of dollars in peoples debt with zero regulations, and also just to take the record for biggest TV giveaway in history.

A charity where you can do this, right here.

Be Parker!

if eliot wasn’t in love with hardison before the gone fishin’ job, that was the job that did it imo

hardison put the puzzle pieces together and said “actually we’re not going to hop the train, we are going to do something very brave and badass and kind” there is simply no way eliot was not done for right there

Eliot, who definitely has committed crimes against the Geneva Convention: … I mean sure yeah that’s a clause, you don’t want to commit a war crime do you?

hardison: a quick thinking king

eliot: 😍 but it’s not the time

Dude, I don’t know what you’re complaining about, all right? I got us the bank. We’re in, we’re out, and we get to go throw a worm in the water.

Tell me that isn't how the gone fishin' job went

JDJSJNSNNSJJAJS

The Gone Fishin’ Job

Hardison + 3x07

Parker + 3x07

I just rewatched The Gone Fishin’ Job, and wow. Hardison and Eliot sure are dating, aren’t they?

Evidence: 

1. Eliot claims the bank visit for himself and Hardison specifically so that they can then go fishing afterwards. Of course, being Eliot, he can’t just ask Hardison out on a fishing date, because he’s a ridiculous romantic — he has to surprise Hardison with it once they’ve arrived at the bank.

2. Hardison does not want to go fishing, because bugs and worms and ew, but he totally would have, y’all. Because Eliot went to all this trouble to arrange this date for them. It’s like when Parker pushes him off he and Parker go jumping off buildings — he’ll do it for them, because he loves them.

3. They then spend the next two thirds of the episode practically holding hands. Okay, they’re handcuffed together, but still. Neither of them seems in any hurry to try to get free of the cuffs. You CANNOT convince me that, by this point in the show, Parker has not taught every single member of her team how to slip handcuffs. I will not hear of it. It’s too useful a skill not to share. And even if Eliot and Hardison aren’t very good at it yet (and I don’t believe for one moment that Eliot “I break out of zip ties like they’re nothing” Spencer, at least, hasn’t mastered the ability), it’s not like they’re working with both hands behind their backs — they’ve each got one hand free. They absolutely could have gotten out of the handcuffs earlier.

Therefore, I humbly submit: In the heat of the moment, running from the militia dudes, they didn’t have the time to stop and try to slip the handcuffs. And then, when they had a bit of breathing room they would have done it, but neither of them wanted to be the first to suggest it. And eventually it’s too awkward to bring it up, because then you have to face the fact that you didn’t bring it up sooner, which begs the question, Why, up until now, did you choose to run through the woods still handcuffed to your maybe-not-boyfriend? So they have to wait until that one militia guy provides them with a convenient excuse hatchet, and cut the chain linking the handcuffs.

(Note that this is only after they’ve decided to go back and take down some redneck terrorists, so it’s now officially more advantageous to not be joined at the wrist. As much fun as it was to (not)hold hands on their nature hike, it’s more of a liability when taking on an entire camp of bad guys. Note also that Hardison is not for a single second worried about Eliot being able to cut the chain without injuring either of them. Eliot wields that hatchet and Hardison’s just like, “Yeah, man, I am into this.”)

4. This entire exchange: 

Like, c’mon Eliot, buy a man dinner first. This is not how Hardison expected this date to go.

5. This one is very important. Hardison is the one who insists they go back and stop the terrorists. Eliot is the one who wants them on the train. But what he says after the train has passed is very revealing: “We’re gonna get bloody on this one.” And he gives Hardison a significant look. A look that says, “Are you sure?” That says, “I’m giving you one more chance to back out, here,” and “You ready for this, baby? ‘Cause it’s gonna get messy, and I know you don’t usually like messy.” A look that leaves no doubt in my mind that if Eliot were by himself, he would have stayed at that camp and taken those bastards out one by one like some terrifying monster in the woods.

Eliot wants them on that train because he wants Hardison on that train, because keeping Hardison safe is his number one priority.

Hardison mostly wants to go back because he’s a greater good kind of guy; his morals won’t let him risk people getting hurt when he has a chance of stopping it. And a little, it’s because Eliot is rubbing off on him; Hardison still mostly doesn’t go in for violence, but he’s getting more comfortable with it when the target is really deserving, and he’s gotten a lot better at it, too. And part of it that he’ll never admit to anyone else is that there’s nothing like letting your angry punchy man (maybe-?)boyfriend go Rambo on a bunch of wannabe tough guys to make up for the fact that those assholes ruined the date he had planned for you. It’s not fishing, but it is an activity Eliot will enjoy that they can do together, in the fresh air and everything.

6. And then at the end, they do go fishing together after all. But it’s Hardison’s version of fishing, because Eliot chose the last date, so now it’s Hardison’s turn.

this is PERFECT

"Go down, man. I didn't mean it like that."

"Oh I have fear. And doubt. And really serious regrets, I should be fine."

"Science. It works." *Hits evil militia man extra hard*

"High five, for morale!"

"Next time I steal you a train, get on it."

I just love The Gone Fishin' Job