{"id":4530,"date":"2015-03-13T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T15:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4530"},"modified":"2015-03-08T17:23:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T00:23:52","slug":"mark-watches-leverage-s03e10-the-underground-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/03\/mark-watches-leverage-s03e10-the-underground-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Leverage’: S03E10 – The Underground Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the tenth episode of the third season of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>, the team tries to take down a corrupt mine owner\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i> a corrupt politician. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

EVERYTHING\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S GREAT, I LOVE THIS SHOW, WHAT IF THAT WAS MY WHOLE REVIEW.<\/p>\n

Dan Blackwell<\/b><\/p>\n

This show is so\u00c2\u00a0good<\/i> at creating villains that I am destined to despise with my entire being, and now, Dan Blackwell joins that group. BECAUSE HOLY SHIT, WHEN HIS MINE EXPLODES, HE ASKS FOR HIS LAWYER FIRST. Dan Blackwell represents that kind of business owner who unabashedly pursues his own interests and profits over\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, literally everything and everyone else. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d seem more cartoonish at times except that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0too real<\/i>. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doubt that there are plenty of people like this in my country\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i> others\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i> EVERYWHERE. literally every place on this planet<\/i>. Thanks, capitalism!<\/p>\n

Debra Pierce<\/b><\/p>\n

A double dose of awfulness! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Underground Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is a portrait of greed, and in that sense, Debra Pierce and Dan Blackwell are perfect for one another. Both use their power and money to get exactly what they want, and along the way, they use other people to do so. In Pierce\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s case, she knows that her role as the Attorney General in West Virgina has afforded her a power that others don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have access to. She uses it to better her own political career and help out Dan, who she is in a secret relationship with. And both of them don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care that in the end, the poor miners are the ones who pay for their indiscretions and poor decision making. In the case of Cory, his father paid his life to that mine. But do Debra and Dan care? No, because it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t affect them.<\/p>\n

So the Leverage team\u00c2\u00a0makes<\/i> it affect them.<\/p>\n

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

This was definitely a con that I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand until a third of the way through this episode because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, how the hell were they going to get Blackwell to buy his own mine? That seemed like such an absurd notion to me! But this was a two-pronged approach: 1) Sophie and Nate had to get Blackwell to believe that he was sitting on a store of a valuable and rare metal, enough so that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d ask Pierce for money from her PAC; and 2) Parker had to pull off getting Pierce to believe that she was ahead enough in the polls that she could risk giving Blackwell money, violating campaign finance law in the process.<\/p>\n

It really sounds a lot more complicated than it was, but then it really\u00c2\u00a0did<\/i> get horribly complicated.<\/p>\n

A Successful Con<\/b><\/p>\n

Blackwell is so perfectly manipulated here that he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doubt a word of what Hardison and Sophie have sold him. That becomes a problem, though, when he realizes that he can just abandon his mine and destroy it, laying off\u00c2\u00a0everyone\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>along with it. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, the conflict of this episode changes because THEY WERE ALL TOO GOOD AT THEIR JOBS.\u00c2\u00a0That<\/i> is new. But this team is also fantastic at altering their cons in real time that I figured they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d come up with something, right? So, Nate comes up with the perfect plan: convince Blackwell that Sophie lied to him. That would be easy enough to do, since Sophie\u00c2\u00a0did<\/i> lie, but that con is derailed right when Sophie learns that her con of Pierce was\u00c2\u00a0also<\/i> too good.<\/p>\n

IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S A MESS.<\/p>\n

Education<\/b><\/p>\n

But y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, as much fun as this con was (particularly the resolution of it), I will forever remember \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Underground Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The One Where Sophie Continued To Teach Parker How To Grift.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M JUST SO INTO THEIR FRIENDSHIP. Sophie hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hesitated\u00c2\u00a0to take Parker under her wing (and we saw aspects of this in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Boost Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d), and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of my favorite serialized subplots in this show. Due to the demand of this specific con, Parker has to be the sole grifter working on Debra Pierce. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not entirely without skill, and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen her work a number of great cons by staying in character. But she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not perfect either; she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got a lot to learn, and Sophie is there to help her re-think how to do that.<\/p>\n

And goddamn, that might be the best part of this. Sophie teaches Parker how to read people\u00c2\u00a0in terms that Parker will understand<\/i>. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t try and force Parker to see things as she does, and I think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s spectacular that Sophie recognizes that. She isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t condescending when she explains to Parker that Parker can view people the same way she views bank vaults. They have weaknesses, and they can be exploited through them. Now, that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s able to perfectly recognize what those weaknesses are, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what the notepad is for! Well, and also giving me a fic prompt because now I want to write out Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s list for Hardison and you have to stop me, I have no time to do this,\u00c2\u00a0god<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Eliot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plot here is also applicable, since he takes Cory under his wing, too. It reminded me of what Parker did in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Boost Job.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Eliot was able to recognize that Cory was on his own down in the mine, eager to learn and eager to do better, but without any direction. I appreciate that these characters notice their surroundings, that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re aware of little things like this. Eliot pays attention\u00c2\u00a0all the time<\/i>, too! Remember that little kid he helped in the hospital last season? This is what he does. He can recognize when someone is in need, and he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hesitate to help them.<\/p>\n

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

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

– The Mark Does Stuff Tour 2015 is now live and includes dates across the U.S., Canada, Europe, the U.K., and Ireland. Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be the remainder of\u00c2\u00a0The Legend of Korra<\/i>, series 8 of\u00c2\u00a0Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!
\n– If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running,\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!
\n<\/a>– Please check out the\u00c2\u00a0 MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"