{"id":4476,"date":"2015-02-26T08:00:13","date_gmt":"2015-02-26T16:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4476"},"modified":"2015-02-03T20:58:05","modified_gmt":"2015-02-04T04:58:05","slug":"mark-watches-leverage-s02e15-the-maltese-falcon-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/02\/mark-watches-leverage-s02e15-the-maltese-falcon-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Leverage’: S02E15 – The Maltese Falcon Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifteenth and final episode of the second season of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>, everything hurts. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

I guess this is what happens when Nate loses.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still reeling from this episode. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a monster of a con. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also incredibly upsetting, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done well. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done with an acknowledgment that Nate is flawed and that he can make (and has made) mistakes. In hindsight, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d even say that this is the logical end to Nate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story this season. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how well-written this arc is.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make this easier to handle.<\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s little closure here aside from Tara\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s departure, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bold risk for the show to take. Sure, the con is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153successful,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d since the team locks Culpepper in with Kadjic, handing them over to Sterling and Interpol. But what did they win? Did Bonanno survive? Can the Leverage team manage without Nate? Is Nate the glue that holds them together, or can Sophie play that role?<\/p>\n

Those are questions that will have to be answered in the next season. (Whew, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got so much to predict! How exciting!) This episode is somehow even more thrilling than the last one, and the stakes are even higher than the season one finale. I think a lot of that rests on our fear for Nate and how his actions might affect the team. When he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s caught \u00e2\u20ac\u201c relatively early into \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Maltese Falcon Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c everything felt off. EVERYTHING. Of\u00c2\u00a0course<\/i> I trusted the rest of the team to come through, but having Nate get \u00e2\u20ac\u0153nicked\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by Sterling set an uncomfortable pall over the rest of the episode. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if I ever believed that Nate would sell out the rest of the team. Honestly, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m certain I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t entertain that notion. But what that scene did was twofold: It showed me that someone was going to lose, and it showed me that Nate had truly had gotten in over his head. I suppose I should have put two-and-two together then. Nate had<\/i> to be the one to lose. (Lord, the show had foreshadowed this. I KNEW THIS oh my god.)<\/p>\n

There are also a ton of other ways that this episode builds suspense\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i> keeps it consistently part of the story. First of all, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about them hiding IN THE FBI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S HOTEL. Oh my god, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so perfect and brilliant. Why is this so satisfying to watch, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all??? Like, when I sit here and think about the 28 episodes I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen so far (how????), it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very clear that this show is made up of these people doing the same things over and over again, and yet I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m never bored. The details might be different, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the same scenarios, right? I suppose that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a simplistic way of looking at the show, and yet I like examining why this specific type of story just fills me with joy. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been hyping heist stories for YEARS on this goddamn site, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever stopped to ask myself\u00c2\u00a0why<\/i> they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so great to me.<\/p>\n

At the same time, I know that the fun of trying to figure out these cons and heists is not my sole love for\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>. I think that it\u00c2\u00a0is<\/i> fun to try to stay ahead of the show\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s logic. (I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been able to do it once, goddamn it! One day, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll guess the con. ONE DAY.) But would\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i> be as rewarding as it is without Eliot counting down the guards on the\u00c2\u00a0Maltese Falcon<\/i>? Or without Hardison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absolutely terrible accents? Or Tara and Parker bonding? OR SOPHIE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S GLORIOUS, PERFECT RETURN TO THE TEAM? Look, gnarly plots full of twists and turns are fun. But I want to care about the people these stories are about. AND I CARE SO MUCH IT HURTS. Seriously, Sophie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appearance alone was too much to handle. Parker hugged her. PARKER HUGGED HER. How does that not speak volumes about what Sophie means to these people? And that aspect of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i> is what makes me want so much more from this show. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say that because I feel like this show is disappointing or anything; no, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s already given me SO MUCH. I just want to spend FOREVER within this world with these people, acting out their modern Robin Hood adventures.<\/p>\n

So let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talk about Nate. Nate, who begs Sophie to come back not because the con has been disrupted, but because he\u00c2\u00a0needs<\/i> her. Nate, who faced down the feds and Sterling, a lifeline extended to him, and still chose to offer up himself in place of his friends. Nate, who tries to good here, but still pisses off the woman who flew back home for him because, in the end, Nate has a problem with his own ego. The ending to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Maltese Falcon Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is so wrought with tension and emotion because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not\u00c2\u00a0easy<\/i>. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel a sense of victory. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a mixture of betrayal and relief, of terror and joy, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all a goddamn mess. The team is surely mad at him for having a backup plan that he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t share with them. Sophie is furious that she returned home, only to find him handcuffing himself WILLINGLY. The con was a success, but at what cost? How does Nate escape both Interpol and the FBI when his decision puts him directly into their hands?<\/p>\n

THIS IS SO FUCKED UP, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. And on top of it all, he got shot and is bleeding out and this cliffhanger is so unfair. So unfair. SO UNFAIR.<\/p>\n

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

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

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