In the first episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>, Nate is drawn back to his associates after he witnesses a car crash that may have been an attempted murder. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I was so right, and then COMPLETELY WRONG.<\/p>\n
I did not expect that there was going to be a six-month gap between last season\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s finale and this premiere, and yet, it makes sense that these people would not immediately seek one another out. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of information passed along to the audience about what these characters tried to do in their six months off the job, but the main thing I took away from this episode was that they were all miserable. Eliot says it best: after learning what it feels like to be the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good guy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he found it harder and harder to stay away. Hell, Parker stole the Hope Diamond and then IMMEDIATELY PUT IT BACK BECAUSE SHE WAS BORED. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sign, then, that Parker was able to tap into something in each of these people so that they developed an emotional aspect to their stealing. That emotion?<\/p>\n
An appreciation for kindness.<\/p>\n
Of course, it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to be easy for Nate to suddenly fall back into this life. One of the things I appreciated about this premiere was Nate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s character development. If we accept that his revenge against Blackpoole was the greatest roadblock in his growth, then it makes sense that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d give up drinking\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i> that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d resist the pull to bring the Leverage team back together. It served a purpose \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and a very good one at that \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but the team had a much bigger effect on the four thieves than it did Nate. I think they needed it more than he needed them, at least in terms of his emotional development.<\/p>\n
But could he\u00c2\u00a0really<\/i> stay away from this life and this world? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s that moment early in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Beantown Bailout Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d where we see him court the return to a life in the insurance world, but that could never work for Nate, especially not after Leverage. And yet, he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just leap back into things when the team tries to compel him to get involved. He resists every step of the way, no matter how adorable everyone else is being. (Because seriously, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all so cute in this episode, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a crime that these characters exist in our world. A CRIME OF CUTENESS.) They all desperately try to pique his interest with the apparent conspiracy that Matt Kerrigan discovered, but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reticent to do anything that would bring him back into this world.<\/p>\n
Now, I think that the Leverage team is largely responsible for manipulating him into taking the case, but I think that Zoe got to him, too. The show doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t let us forget that Nate has a soft spot when it comes to children who have been wronged. Still, I believe that eventually, Nate would have done this. Part of his identity is tied to being a good guy, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? (Though he does spend a lot of time claiming he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not a thief in this episode. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s real sensitive about that, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he?) I think that even more so than the other members of the team, Nate must do good things for other people.<\/p>\n
And lord, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all wish that someone had actually gotten revenge on the shitty bankers who exploited the poor and the needy so that they could further benefit from the government bailouts? Seriously, I love that this show doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t invent villains so much as borrow from ACTUAL REALITY. And like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Bank Shot Job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the writers also stick the team into a situation where they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to improvise in order to pull off their heist. In this specific case, we see how the team has misjudged the organization of power. I actually think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a clever inversion of the tropes surrounding mob stories. We expect O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Hare to be the head of the Irish mob, but NOPE. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S LEARY. Leary is in charge, and that messes\u00c2\u00a0everything<\/i> up. The entire con was designed with O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Hare in mind, so how can they manipulate events to force Leary to implicate himself as the mastermind?<\/p>\n
BY SHOOTING ELIOT.<\/p>\n
Holy shit, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I forgot about the explosives. I FORGOT, AND IT FUCKED ME UP. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so astounding to me to see how this team figures shit out on the fly, and I think that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a sign of just how amazing they are when they work together. They had to come up with a plan that would move suspicion away Nate in a way that would also cause Leary to turn on O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Hare AND go after Matt Kerrigan. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S A LOT TO HANDLE. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, this show has hidden a reveal in misdirection and omission\u00c2\u00a0every<\/i> single time, and I never get sick of it. How do people write this? How do you come up with shit that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so complicated, yet seems written and acted effortlessly? On that basis alone, I think this show is worth watching. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S A GODDAMN SPECTACLE.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the sole reason I like this. The acting is wonderful. The further hints at romance keep me interested, and I like that the show teases a possible relationship between Parker and Hardison without teasing\u00c2\u00a0me<\/i>. The writers make this feel like a natural development, particularly for someone like Parker, who doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem like someone who has EVER rushed into a relationship. (I actually wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be surprised if she had never been committed to anyone, either.) Parker has a lot to learn about socialization, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s well aware of that. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think she wants to pursue anything with Hardison until she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ready.<\/p>\n
And then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the leap forward in Sophie\/Nate that is IMMEDIATELY SWATTED AWAY A BILLION FEET BACKWARDS. Whew, lord, that was so exciting, and then DEVASTATING, and then\u00c2\u00a0I \u00c2\u00a0really want to meet her boyfriend<\/i>. My god, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m already wrong about them. Already!!! But hey, I was right about the new headquarters. Boston! Nate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s apartment! HARDISON BOUGHT THE WHOLE BUILDING AND IS NATE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S LANDLORD. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so excited for this season, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. So excited!<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Beantown Bailout Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n -\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is now on Facebook<\/a>! Feel free to Like the page, which I’m running myself, for updates and SILLINESS. In the first episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage, Nate is drawn back to his associates after he witnesses a car crash that may have been an attempted murder. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Leverage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[625],"tags":[626],"class_list":["post-4433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leverage","tag-mark-watches-leverage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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