{"id":4417,"date":"2015-01-27T08:00:17","date_gmt":"2015-01-27T16:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4417"},"modified":"2015-01-22T11:45:27","modified_gmt":"2015-01-22T19:45:27","slug":"mark-watches-leverage-s01e07-the-two-horse-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/01\/mark-watches-leverage-s01e07-the-two-horse-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Leverage’: S01E07 – The Two-Horse Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the seventh episode of the first season of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>, Eliot clashes with an ex while the team tries to con a hedge fund manager\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i> the man who took over Nate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s job. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

SWEET JESUS, HOW IS THIS SHOW SO GOOD SO\u00c2\u00a0QUICKLY<\/i>?<\/p>\n

Eliot \/ Aimee<\/b><\/p>\n

The way this show reveals backstory is just so satisfying. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a perfect mix here in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Two-Horse Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of a plot that grounds us in the present but reminds us that each of these characters has a past that MATTERS. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainly the case for Nate, who I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to. But I wanted to focus on the relationship between Eliot and Aimee Martin first. (Oh god, Julie Ray Newman was on\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i>, but I recognized her more because she was Mindy O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Dell on Veronica Mars<\/i>! Oh, great, now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m missing that show a lot.) Thankfully, this show doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t undermine the reason for Aimee\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anger by the end of the episode. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brutal towards Eliot throughout this story, and even if she does grow comfortable around him, she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fawn over him. His good works don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t solve the outstanding problem she had with him when they were seeing each other.<\/p>\n

And I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something each of these characters has had to deal with over the years. None of them are in relationships or seem to be able to maintain them. In Eliot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case, his life of\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 shit, excessive violence? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite know how to quantify Eliot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s past. Regardless, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s obvious that he hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been able to stay in one place for very long, and Aimee grew tired of him leaving all the time. Which is understandable! That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t attracted to one another anymore, but it also doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that Eliot could just sweep Aimee up into his arms again. She clearly appreciated his work here to help her father, but she also recognized that Eliot could never be the kind of partner she wants.<\/p>\n

THEN SHE TELLS HIM HE HAS A FAMILY AND HE SCOFFS AT HER BUT\u00c2\u00a0YOU KNOW IT<\/b>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TRUE Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL<\/b>. Whew, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve melted from cute.<\/p>\n

Sterling<\/b><\/p>\n

What show\u00c2\u00a0isn<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>Mark Sheppard on??? Goddamn, I love the introduction of Sterling here because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not entirely an antagonist so much as a\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 foil? Rival? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definitely an antagonistic aspect to his character and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to deny that. But he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mostly a variable, a human rogue who appears and FUCKS EVERYTHING UP. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worried that the team would be unable to complete the con because of Alan Foss; he seemed easy to manipulate right from the start. He was greedy, motivated, and horrifically arrogant. He couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t put his ego aside, and the team played him brilliantly. However, Sterling\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presence in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Two-Horse Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d made me unbearably nervous. He was\u00c2\u00a0too<\/i> good, and to borrow a line from Parker, HE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S BASICALLY EVIL NATE. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got the kind of mind that can unravel complexity quickly, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very easy for him to be steps ahead of everyone else. However, I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s his moral stance that terrifies me the most. Unlike Nate, Sterling has no problem operating within the law and existing power structures. His goal? To make money and to get away with it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a form of greed, sure, but then why oppose Nate? Why even bother to try to upset his plans? Why follow him around?<\/p>\n

Within the\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i> universe, Sterling is the status quo. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the man who has no problem with massive international corporations treating people like collateral damage. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fine viewing everything in the world through abstract numbers and dollar signs. He sees statistics as nothing more than information. And when he gets to the end of his day, as long as he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s made money, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happy. My guess? Nate infuriates him. Nate has found a way to operate outside of the system, to find the same loopholes that Sterling exploits, except he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not using them for the same means. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s little greed here, and I imagine that pisses Sterling off.<\/p>\n

I love the idea that this season has a quiet arc concerning Sterling. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO SATISFYING.<\/p>\n

Parker<\/b><\/p>\n

Okay, this character is so entertaining to me, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m convinced that no member of the Leverage team makes better faces in the background than her. NO ONE. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve started paying attention to her whenever someone else is talking and it is a rewarding journey, I tell you. But I also want to know so much more about her (and Hardison, for that matter), given that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen so little of her past. Her phobia of horses ends up being an adorable bit of growth, since she ultimately decides that horses aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite as scary as she thought they were. (I LOVED THAT SCENE.) But how did she get into all of this??? Her father clearly influenced her interest in stealing, but what happened between then and now? MORE PARKER.<\/p>\n

The Con<\/b><\/p>\n

Aside from the pleasure of getting to know more about Eliot, I also appreciated that his love of horses was used to its fullest extent. CHRISTIAN KANE ON A HORSE OH MY GOD. This also felt like one of the more complex cons, so much so that I almost didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t realize how the team had pulled it off. Of course, I was super nervous to begin with, and I credit Sterling\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appearance with most of that. But I also think that the writers put the team closer to calling the whole thing off more than they ever had before, and that contributed to how uncomfortable this was. There was a very real chance that if the con failed, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d\u00c2\u00a0all<\/i> go to jail, including Willie Martin. That risk was always there, and it made this a whole lot more stressful than I was ready for.<\/p>\n

But in the end, the team uses a couple of nice redirects and swaps to not only get Willie the revenge he wanted, but A TON OF MONEY, TOO. Holy shit, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, the Leverage team has acquired so much cash in these seven episodes GIVE SOME TO ME.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Two-Horse Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

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