In the fifth episode of the third season of Leverage, Parker develops feelings; Nate may have gone too far; Eliot gets rejected. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Leverage.Â
It’s never easy to tell someone that you like them. But for someone like Parker, that task must seem monumentally terrifying, despite that Hardison had given her a number of signals along the way that he dug her. But what I appreciate about this episode – and Parker’s continued characterization – is that ultimately, the writers care about her. I laughed as she shot daggers at Ashley, and the show definitely uses Parker for comic relief at times. But it does for almost all of the characters at one point or another. At the heart of her character, though, is a young woman who is still trying to figure out how to navigate a world that seems to come easily to everyone else. As I said, it’s been no mystery that Hardison is attracted to Parker, but the show still respects that even this fairly basic gesture is challenging for her. What do you do to reciprocate that kind of a feeling? That might be a little simpler to deal with, but throughout “The Double Blind Job,†Parker is totally bewildered by a different emotion, one she may not have ever had in the romantic sense: jealousy. As far as I can tell, she’s always been on her own. She’s never really expressed interest in anyone before Hardison, and yet there are growing feelings within her towards him.
So what happens when he is kind and flirty with another woman? Parker hasn’t even returned Hardison’s affection yet, and now she’s being dealt another feeling??? WHAT ARE FEELINGS? HOW DO THEY WORK? And look, as someone who grew up perennially awkward and possessing a remarkably sensitive anxiety trigger, I like that at the end of the day, Parker has someone in Sophie to help her navigate this shit. A lot of us don’t. Human interaction can be a perplexing and horrifying thing for anyone, but compound that with any number of factors, and it becomes more than just scary, you know? There’s self-doubt; a lack of self-worth; disabilities; mental illness; sexuality; internalized oppression; being neuroatypical; THERE ARE SO MANY MORE. And Parker’s own anxieties are unique to her and her situation.
I love Hardison’s response to all this because he recognizes that Parker has a lot of trouble communicating something like romantic attraction or even physical attraction. So he leaves a door open. He tells her that whenever she’s ready to take things further, he’ll be waiting for her. It’s such a good response because it removes the pressure on her to figure out what she wants RIGHT NOW. She can take things at her own pace, you know? I think that’s important and respectful, and it’s just damn good writing. Shit, y’all, this romance is such a slow burn, BUT IT DESTROYS ME SO COMPLETELY.
Anyway, I had to open this review with FIVE HUNDRED WORDS ABOUT PARKER because I JUST ADORE HER SO MUCH. This is yet another solid episode that, at times, felt a tad bit similar to some of the other corporate corruption schemes. There were aspects of it that kept it from feeling to repetitive. Namely, this episode opens with a death: Ashley’s sister, who died during a drug trial. The threat of death gives “The Double Blind Job†and eerie and unnerving edge to it, especially since the team discovers that Darren Hoffman is so openly willing to kill people so he can make a profit for PalloGen. Again, there is truth in fiction: that cost-benefit analysis is something nearly all major corporations do, and that’s especially the case with big pharmaceutical companies. It’s sometimes worth it for them to break the law because the penalties are so low relative to their profit margins. (And note that these fees that Hoffman speaks off are a percentage of a PROFIT, not a percentage of the gross earnings.)
So that’s the threat that hangs over this episode. If the team doesn’t expose Darren Hoffman, he helps release a drug that is almost precisely identical to the one that killed Ashley’s sister. There are great performances all around in “The Double Blind Job.†It’s always a bit surreal to see Eliot doing grifting because he often chooses characters who are polar opposites to his own personality. Of course, the hilarious irony here is that Jennifer Pearson, the actual FDA representative, craves a man who is much more like Eliot REALLY is. WHOOPS, YOU GOT REJECTED. (I kept expecting “Shake It Off†to start playing, and then I remembered this aired like four years before that song even came out.) Sophie is also a delight as the faux FDA rep. Once again, her character uses her sex appeal to disarm and distract her mark, and it’s just SO SATISFYING to watch. This show often demonstrates how using people’s prejudices against them is incredibly effective, and Sophie’s an expert at that.
Nate… well, Nate has an interesting role here, too. He seems to have settled into a regular drinking habit again, and while it’s not nearly as bad as it was at the end of season one, he seems willingly to push the team’s safety fairly quickly. He swears that’s not the case, but he cuts it terrifyingly close with Parker at one point. Then, he injects himself into the con as a character that doesn’t even have a name or a backstory. While it ultimately works to push Hoffman in the right direction, it seemed super risky to me, you know? How risky is Nate willing to get? I don’t want him to go too far again, but with the Moreau threat hanging over them all, I’m worried he’ll have to.
WHAT IS THIS SHOW DOING TO ME?
The video for “The Double Blind Job†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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