In the fifth episode of the second season of Leverage, the team switches their roles for a case that involves conning a manipulative media personality into ruining her own career. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Leverage.
Trigger Warning: For suicide, ableism
This show continues to impress me, y’all!
Monica Hunter
Well, that was all a clear reference to Nancy Grace, wasn’t it? If you’re not familiar with this particular media phenomenon, then this episode is a good place to start to understand why Nancy Grace is so despicable. Her specific brand of fear mongering is a form of manipulation, as far as I’m concerned. There’s a lot to criticize about how she approaches stories or what sort of victims make “good†victims. At heart, there’s a lot of respectability politics wrapped up in her intentions, and Nancy Grace truly believes that there’s a dichotomy to human morality, at least for her television show and media empire. There’s a right kind of victim – often white, straight, cis, traditionally attractive, a good ol’ American – and there’s the wrong kind, which is anything she can use to denigrate people and moralize from her ridiculous pulpit. While Monica Hunter is cleverly designed to make us think of Nancy Grace, that doesn’t mean we should ignore the ways in which this episode rightly dismantles this type of reporting.
Look, there’s a bias in everything we do; everything we do is political. (The absence of politics is a political stance, and apathy and disinterest support the status quo.) Monica Hunter’s behavior supports a very specific narrative about the world. For instance, her public humiliation of Ray Pennington is highly ableist. It’s very easy for Monica to blame a tragic bus accident on someone who has (or had) a mental illness because our society places stigma on those with mental illness. And even Ray’s suicide attempt itself is a reference to actual people who have committed suicide in the wake of Nancy Grace’s media onslaughts. Monica is irresponsible about what she reports because it gets her ratings, not because she’s concerned with actual victims’ rights. That’s so far from her radar, y’all! Her own reputation is more important than any sort of justice.
So it’s a perfect case for the Leverage team, who honestly try to bring about justice to those who have been left without it. They know that Monica’s report on Ray ruined his reputation and his mental well-being. So how the hell do you get that back? Well, you ruin Monica to the point where all her reports are suddenly cast into suspicion. It’s an ambitious case for the team, which made it all the more fun when this turned into a vehicle for Sophie.
Switching Roles
Oh my god, IT WAS SO PERFECT. Eliot was the hacker; Parker, Hardison, and Nate were the grifters; and Sophie was the one in charge. And you know what? They fared pretty damn well, considering just how chaotic this particular con got. I mean, as soon as Monica jumped over the fence to the military base, I thought this would all be over. How? How could they con their way out of a military base? No, scratch that – how could they help a black man dressed like Hardison was out of a military base? (On that note, I’m so endlessly pleased by the way this show engages with race. Hardison often uses people’s racist assumptions and stereotypes against them within cons. The writers are also aware enough of Hardison’s blackness to call attention to it in situations like this one. Since it’s set in our world, it felt appropriate for Hardison to express fear over being black and committing a federal crime.) It’s always a thrill to see how these characters come up with cons on the fly, and goddamn, this one was ESPECIALLY amazing.
I’d be completely fine with the team switching roles again, y’all. IT’S SO ENTERTAINING.
Sophie
Again, I was satisfied with the way Leverage has serialization within a narrative that doesn’t seem to allow it. Episodic-style television like Leverage – where there are cases resolved every week – usually stays away from the sort of detail-oriented storytelling we have here. It makes so much sense to come off of “The Fairy Godparents†job, where Sophie’s boyfriend dumped her, to have a story like “The Three Days of the Hunter Job,†where Sophie tries to find comfort through experimentation. She doesn’t know if being the con operator will help her feel better, but Nate allows her to do it anyway. He suspects that this is what she needs: a distraction and a reminder that she’s good all on her own, that her value is not tied to someone else. It’s not the answer to her insecurities, of course, but it’s a step in a direction that helps her find her ground. Often times, surrounding yourself in work can help keep your mind off of something like this, but I also think that Sophie wanted to be challenged, too.
It was a nice change of pace for her, but it’s obvious she’s more comfortable being a grifter rather than sitting back and observing from the sidelines. She’s good at that, too, but that’s not precisely what she wants. There’s that point at the end of the episode where she tells Nate that she feels lost, and it’s a touching moment between the two of them. So what will help her feel grounded? More work? A better sense of self? “The Three Days of the Hunter Job†doesn’t give us the answer to that question, but it’s not supposed to. Sophie still has a long way to go on this journey.
The video for “The Three Days of the Hunter Job†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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