Mark Watches ‘Leverage’: S02E13 – The Future Job

In the thirteenth episode of the second season of Leverage, the team goes after a con man who uses his “psychic” powers to exploit people. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Leverage. 

Trigger Warning: For discussion of death and grief.

What a fantastic episode, y’all. Which I’ve been saying a lot, I know, but GODDAMN, this show just never stops being good. Specifically, the writers ground “The Future Job” ground this story by showing us the emotional toll of Dalton Rand’s type of manipulation. It was bad enough watching Jodie fall victim to him, all because she’s still grieving the death of her husband. Like many of the antagonists within the Leverage world, Dalton preys on those who often have little recourse once they’ve been harmed. How could you ever get justice against someone like him? These people gave him their money willingly, everything he does is legal, and there’s a stigma around the use of psychics in this country. So even if Jodie eventually realized she’d been conned, she most likely would hear nothing but criticism from everyone she knew.

And then he goes after Parker.

Now, having the mark go after one of the main characters is obviously a great way for us to understand the villain/hero dynamic of the story. Anyone who hurts our PRECIOUS BABIES deserves to be destroyed. But what’s so fantastic about “The Future Job” is that Parker is not merely a device to build sympathy or to get us to care. We’ve gotten hints about Parker’s childhood before (in “The Stork Job,” for example), but “The Future Job” makes part of her past a lot more explicit: she lost her brother to a tragic accident, one that she still blames herself for ever occurring. And the way we learn this? By watching Dalton manipulate Parker into revealing the truth through body language.

To say it was heartbreaking is an understatement. Parker is, generally speaking, the kind of character who is not quick to show her vulnerability. Which is, of course, not to say that she can’t be vulnerable. And seriously, that’s why she’s such an intriguing character. The writers allow her to be multiple things at once; she’s not written as a monolith or as a one-note source of humor. To me, it shows care. It shows me that the writers want to give us a character who isn’t just entertaining, but is a whole person.

I certainly want to see more of this in the future, and not just for Parker. What about Hardison? Eliot? What were their lives like before they joined the team? I think most of the non-case stories we’ve gotten this season revolved around Nate, so I hope the show expands the other characters, too.

Anyway, THIS CON IS SO GREAT. Tara Cole is a delight as the “real” psychic, and christ, JERI RYAN IS SO GOOD IN THIS ROLE. Of course, I miss Sophie. DEARLY. I hope she comes back soon, but, again, I’m so pleased that the show was able give us a character like Tara so suddenly without making the show’s dynamic feel weird. That’s not an easy thing to do! But Tara feels like she was meant to be a part of the Leverage team. IF SOPHIE COMES BACK, CAN TARA STAY? BECAUSE Y E S. Could you even imagine how good the team would be with TWO professional grifters?

But that’s for another time. The con that the team runs on Dalton is one of the more incredible ones they’ve done. Convincing him that Tara was a REAL psychic? A work of art. However, I’m actually curious how they were going to plan to out him as a fraud prior to him getting kidnapped. Were they always going to use the storage unit con? Probably not, I imagine, and they had to make do with what they were given. AND THEY DID SO BEAUTIFULLY. I was so confused by the kidnapping because… what? Just… they did such a good job conning Dalton that SOMEONE ELSE TRULY BELIEVED HE WAS A REAL PSYCHIC. It’s just too perfect y’all.

The video for “The Future Job” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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