In the thirteenth episode of the third season of Leverage, the team goes after yet another associate of Damien Moreau, and IT SPIRALS TERRIBLY OUT OF CONTROL. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Leverage.
You know why this episode is so great? Because it’s a goddamn mess.Â
There’s an air of realism to the absurd nature of what’s pulled off in “The Morning After Job,†and that’s because the team has less than 24 hours to pull off this con. Instead of doing so perfectly, it’s a chaotic disaster. It’s perhaps the messiest end we’ve seen to an episode, and I totally dig that. Not only does it make this feel like a last-minute con, but it helps me to understand just how intimidating Damien Moreau is as an adversary. This is what he’s capable of. Hell, at this point, we don’t even know if The Italian is working for Moreau or not. (I suspect not, but I’m clearly not ready.)
This is a brutal and violent episode right from the start, and that’s because it’s centered around someone like Mark Vector, who wears his rigid masculinity on his sleeve. And then on other people’s faces because he’s one of those assholes who doesn’t ever bother to deal with his anger issues since it’s so much easier to rely on his ego and his status. You know the type. I’ve known the type. They’re the kind of guys who are eager to fight others to prove some sort of misguided virility, but then they come up with all these bullshit excuses for their behavior instead of being responsible for them. I mean, Mark Vector is a coward, plain and simple. Look how he reacts when David calls him out on the unauthorized trades; he can’t even have a simple uncomfortable conversation without relying on his fist. And his reaction to Parker’s “murder†is yet another example of this behavior! Watch how quickly HE BLAMES HER FOR THE MURDER. Because someone scratching your face is absolutely worth murder, isn’t it???
In Mark Vector, we’ve got a brilliantly defined mark for “The Morning After Job,†and then we’ve got one of the most complex cons the team has ever worked running alongside it. Again, you can tell that while they do a damn fine job within their time constraints, this is a very rough con. They had a single night to prepare, and very little leeway time to deal with any obstacles put in their path. Of course, THERE WERE A MILLION OBSTACLES. From the passenger transport (which turns into a miniature case itself) that Hardison and Eliot had, to Agent McSweeten showing up as Vector’s FBI handler, to Eliot’s decision to answer a police call (BLESS HIS GODDAMN HEART, I LOVE WHEN HE DOES THIS), to the LITERAL SNIPER, this team was thrown one wrench after another.
And shit, they deal with all of them! There’s a part of me that’s certain that if they had more time, this con would have gone without a hitch. It was designed perfectly to fuck with Vector because the Leverage team came up with a crime that he believed he couldn’t get out of. That element was crucial because it was obvious that Vector had gotten away with SO MANY other crimes over his life. He’s white. He’s a famous athlete. He took advantage of his fans to build a fortune for himself, and he then used his prestige and privilege to assure that he’d get immunity in a deal. So how do you break that streak? How do you get a man to believe that his professional life might be over? How do you convince someone that their privilege and wealth is finally irrelevant?
I fear I’m making this sound a lot simpler than it was, and that’s definitely not how I read this episode. Like Eliot vocalized at one point, this whole thing felt wrong. And it wasn’t just the person in the building across the street or the corrupt cops waiting to get Vector before he could make it to court. I’m curious how far Moreau’s grasp extends. How much does he control? Obviously, he’s got the tech and manpower on his side that allowed him to monitor Vector. Does that mean he’s well aware of the identities of Nate and the team? Will he know they’re coming for him? That’s what I took away from this episode, more than anything else. The man kind of scares me. If he was willing to treat these people like collateral damage, all so he could kill Mark Vector, what else is he capable of?
Don’t answer that. DON’T ANSWER THAT.
Let’s talk about feelings. Because wow, Sophie and Nate have a couple of unbearably cute scenes here, and then there’s the OT3 brilliance of Parker, post-tasing, draping her arms around Hardison and Eliot. They’re all quick, relatively subtle moments, but they’re the kind of scenes that fuel SO MUCH speculation and adoration on my part. But that’s not only because I care about these characters or I’m obsessed with shipping them. (I AM. GUILTY AS CHARGED.) There is a thrill and a satisfaction in watching the actors grow close over the course of this show. The same goes for the writing. I never know what’s written into the script versus what’s improvised by the cast themselves, but it all contributes to a fabric of familiarity between the Leverage team. They know one another so well, and they truly seem like a family. Hell, Hardison and Eliot basically are the bickering married couple, no?
Go write about that, oh gods.
The video for “The Morning After Job†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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