Jan Hits The Fan

“Parker cycles through every character in this episode. This episode’s the one where we show you she can inherit the mantle. She manipulates like Sophie, she masterminds like Nate, she does electronics like Hardison, and she takes advantage of her surroundings like Eliot.” - John Rogers, ‘The Broken Wing Job’ DVD Commentary

“It’s a couple moment and like I said before, we’ve been trying since the inception of this relationship, we’ve been trying to figure out what their chemistry is, you know, for the audience, how they have fun and we want the audience to enjoy them. Cause we want to be an exciting couple. We want to make GQ magazine’s sexiest couple of the year. Just saying.” - Aldis Hodge, The Low Low Price Job DVD Commentary

Thanks for not hanging up the phone.

leverage + family: 2/?

Leverage (2008-2012)

2.12 | The Zanzibar Marketplace Job

Hardison/Parker/Eliot in The Inside Job LEVERAGE, 3.03

Out of this whole episode the thing that always, ALWAYS gets me most is the

“I’m in-”

“We’re already here, mama.”

“You are?! All of you?!”

Just that

That sharp whiplash of. She fucked up she’s in her over head because she tried to do it like she used to alone but 1) she makes the choice to reach out to people she trusts because maybe they can get to her maybe they can help her maybe they can forgive her, 2) she actually makes the words happen actually says she screwed up actually does the hard part and starts the physical asking for help, but 3) they’re HERE, they’re here already, all of them, no apology needed no asking needed they know already and theyre here already and a situation that seemed insurmountable a second ago is suddenly 4) a victory, because she knows the moment they get involved, the moment they have their eyes on her, theyve won. Because they always do. And just.

That sharp one-eighty in the span of as many seconds. It’s gotta feel like the good part of falling. When you first leave the roof and your stomach twists with that first fear but then list up light floaty into your chest as your plummet knowing your rigging is gonna catch you so you can just.

Let go and do your thing.

They’re the most dangerous crew this side of the Atlantic.

Parker thinks the tooth fairy is the most wonderful idea ever, but seeing that there aren't people loosing teeth around her, she never mentions it. Until Eliot gets a tooth punched out he wakes the next morning to find a 100 dollar bill under his pillow. He knows it must be Parker since she is the only one he trusts enough that his body wouldn't wake up that has the skills to do this and asks about it. She insists it's the fairy and when he tells her the tooth fairy takes the teeth, she asks him in turn if he has seen his lost tooth recently. Eliot doesn't know what to think of that (but next time he looses a tooth, Parker finds it in a vault with a little note addressed to the tooth fairy but also obviously for her). Hardison thinks it's hilarious and tells her whenever a kid at Nana's lost a tooth so that the tooth fairy can visit them.

It's a treasured collection she keeps in a vault at home.

#parker actually becoming the tooth fairy for Nanas kids#hardison gets messages of excited squee whenever one of the kids finds the TF money#but no one knows its Parker besides Hardison#they are just a foster family that unironically has a tooth fairy looking out for them (tags via @wish-i-had-a-sourwolf)

(really in my feels about the ot3 because of the @powerpolyculeshowdown so here's some propaganda)

parker and hardison allow eliot to be sillier. more ridiculous. outragous, even. eliot sings the stupid ditties hardison writes special for him, and he rolls his eyes at parkers pokes and prods and the occasional "accidental" face slap, and eliot can express himself for what actually bothers him no matter how nitpicky, versus having to calculate what he should say. (he still argues with hardison that throwing in on a brewpub was a stupid plan given its risk, no matter how many times hardison claims it was always a gift for him.) eliot laughs more. real laughs; you can tell because his smiles look more and more like grimaces: the way his ma perked her mouth which his dad always teased her about (though it was his favorite thing about her), rather than the wide toothy grins eliot learned because he knows, tactically, they are best for charming. parker and hardison let him not feel like he's a monster. or... parker tells him she always thought the big bad wolf had a bad rap, and hardison says some stupid shit about monsterfucking being the hip thing the kids are into these days, anyway.

hardison and eliot allow parker to feel deep. it's food that tastes like a hug and it's gadgets made just for her and it's loving and being loved and it's being one another's real families. she doessn't want to run away, anymore. or... she wants to run but with her friends beside her. or... running cons is all she's ever wanted to do, and all she did, for so long. parker is good at it. she loves it. she loves that hardison and eliot love it too. but... feeling deep is also being deep. she's no longer just her piles of money because she is no longer afraid of herself. her past. the memories that hurt. the habits she thought she needed to grow out of but always missed. these habits, like bleeping sounds that arent words and hands move move moving. hands that were once made to stay now can fly because hardison buys her fidgets and designs some just for her and keeps locks in lucille for when parker feels like infinity and needs the vibrations of ticktickticks to bring her back to herself. and eliot lets her braid and unbraid his hair; he won't let her blow dry it, not yet, but... he lets her pet his hair while it's still hot, now. it frizzes his hair a little, and parker feels her pulse rush throughout the day knowing she did that to him. eliot and hardison kiss her knuckles when they burn.

parker and eliot allow hardison to be mean. vindictive. he is nicer than he needs to be. wants to be... what he needs to be is nonthreatening, for the most part, in many places. he knows what it means to be him: tall and black and queer and gaining muscle and too smart for his own damn good and so very, very tenderhearted. hardison loves so damn deep, and he cares so damn much, but part of caring (the other side of a coin) is not giving a fuck. it's the boiling point of rage and betrayal. the i need to walk away from this fight because you are dead wrong and imma about to say something imma regret, so go fix yourself. the im not gonna forget, im not going to forgive, and im going to get my revenge. parker and eliot would not have questioned hardison's joy at securing the capture of the men that put him in that damn coffin; they hold space for him to be fully himself with all his ugly parts and his petty parts and the parts that do bring hardison shame if he thinks about it for too long. they know he's not perfect, and that? that feels like safety and love and forever to hardison.

Beth Riesgraf as Parker in Leverage: Redemption (2021—)

The Leverage ot3’s three-way competence kink is so real and so crazy. Have any people ever before been so horny about other people Doing Their Jobs. I am always thinking about that bit in the beginning of The Rundown Job where directly in order we have Hardison deeply appreciating Eliot beating up guards, then Parker and Eliot both watching Hardison hack with visible boners in their eyes, and then Hardison and Eliot fist-bumping about Parker flipping through a laser grid. Like. Guys?

Hardison’s SQUEAK when Parker says she likes CGI Yoda

he’s too offended to even exposit

Parker, Hardison and Eliot in Leverage (2008-2012) and Leverage: Redemption (2021-)

Hey, welcome to the land of the living.