In the fifteenth and penultimate episode of season three of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>, my body was not built to handle this episode. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not okay.<\/p>\n
Atherton<\/b><\/p>\n
God, I went into \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Big Bang Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d thinking that this episode would focus on the team taking out Atherton so that they could then direct their attention towards Moreau in the finale. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little like the set-up to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Ho Ho Ho Job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in that the target at the start of the episode is a total red herring. By halfway through this episode, Atherton doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even matter anymore. Granted, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a pretty despicable person. I thought it was obvious that the team was going to obliterate him. For good reason! He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a jerk to Yasmin, and he was only\u00c2\u00a0mildly bothered<\/i> that she was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153killed\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by Damien Moreau. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a pretty good sign that someone is an awful person.<\/p>\n
I fell for this, hook, line and sinker, and thus, the remainder of this episode was like being shoved off a cliff.<\/p>\n
Eliot Spencer<\/b><\/p>\n
I fucking\u00c2\u00a0can<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i>.<\/p>\n
How long had this show been waiting to reveal this? Even if it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t something that was planned for years, it still fits so neatly within what we already knew of Eliot. That is not my way of saying that I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shocked by Eliot giving his real name to Moreau\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s henchmen in order to keep the con going. Oh, no, I was FUCKED UP, and it only got worse. Obviously, the fact that Moreau\u00c2\u00a0knew\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>Eliot confirmed that their working relationship was real. But how far had Eliot gone? How\u00c2\u00a0much<\/i> work had he done for Moreau? Well, enough that Moreau chose to trust him over Hardison.<\/p>\n
WHO GETS KICKED INTO A POOL WHILE HANDCUFFED TO A CHAIR.<\/p>\n
This episode does an incredibly risky thing with Eliot Spencer. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always been a likable character to me, and his clear moral standard is what makes him so appealing to me. The man sticks to certain standards; he recognizes injustice and unfairness in seconds; he is\u00c2\u00a0always<\/i> willing to fight for the underdog. And yet, he did some shit. I knew Eliot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s past was wild and storied and violent. But how? How could the Eliot we know now work for someone as despicable as Moreau?<\/p>\n
Of course, it only gets worse.<\/p>\n
The Worst Thing<\/b><\/p>\n
Like Sophie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name, I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that I need\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i> to give me the details about what it is that Moreau had Eliot do that would count as the worst thing in his life. The mystery holds a horror and an uneasiness that details can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite provide. Eliot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s red-eyed glare at Parker when she asks what he did? That says more to me than anything that would spell it out to us. And I could tell that Eliot was serious about this and that more than any person there, he knew\u00c2\u00a0exactly<\/i> how powerful Moreau was. Why else would he be so secretive about knowing him?<\/p>\n
IT GETS WORSE.<\/p>\n
The Bomb<\/b><\/p>\n
Moreau sees everything as an asset or a liability in his world. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what he tells Atherton at the beginning of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Big Bang Job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that he views everything through this lens. In the case of the massive EMP bomb he sold, he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care about the lives lost through its use. He just cares whether or not it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll make him wealthy. HE IS THE ACTUAL WORST, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.<\/p>\n
And yet, what happens because of this? Parker. And. Hardison. Look how quickly Parker\u00c2\u00a0absolutely<\/i> trusts Hardison in that train car. After getting him to jump on a moving train (he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s learning!!!), she then defaults to his expertise when dealing with a device that could kill them in\u00c2\u00a0either<\/i> scenario. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t freak out. She doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t panic. She trusts him, and by god, I thought that was enough for me to run with.<\/p>\n
Pretzels.\u00c2\u00a0Pretzels<\/i>. Stop it,\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n
The Big Bang<\/b><\/p>\n
I have to acknowledge this first. This show has done such a stupendous job building Eliot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s characterization that I\u00c2\u00a0knew<\/i> what a huge moment it was when he looked down at that gun. That scene was years in the making. I am not ashamed at how loud I shouted during that bit because OH MY GOD. I never doubted that Eliot was good with guns. If he read that situation and knew he had to violate his own personal mantra to save others, then that meant EVERYTHING WAS FUCKED UP AND AWFUL. And if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re finally going to put a gun in Eliot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hand and have him shoot it, then\u00c2\u00a0this<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0is exactly what that character deserves.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s is fucking ridiculous, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad it was. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m glad it was visceral and poetic and\u00c2\u00a0incredibly disturbing.\u00c2\u00a0<\/i>Unlike hand-to-hand combat, there is a much higher chance for death with a gun, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one aspect of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i> that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s allowed it to feel so light in tone. But here, Eliot kills \u00e2\u20ac\u201c what? Three guys? Ten? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know. Not only that, but he literally slides on his knees across the floor\u00c2\u00a0while<\/i> shooting and\u00c2\u00a0while<\/i> dodging bullets and then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an explosion because WHY THE FUCK NOT.<\/p>\n
This show isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t okay.<\/p>\n
Cliffhanger<\/b><\/p>\n
THIS FELT ENTIRELY LIKE A SEASON FINALE BUT IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S NOT. While Moreau was given The Italian\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s crimes (OH SHIT, THAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S WHAT WAS IN THE FILE) and Lt. Bonano was roped in to help make him a fugitive, he still escapes. I mean, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a mega-rich dude with a gun and a private jet. HE WAS GONNA GET AWAY. But who is the Italian? Who does she work for? Who is the mole that hung her out to dry?<\/p>\n
Most importantly: HOW THE HELL ARE THEY GOING TO BRING DOWN DAMIEN MOREAU IN A COUNTRY WITH NO EXTRADITION TREATIES? Please tell me they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re going to steal the whole country. PLEASE.<\/p>\n
The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Big Bang 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> In the fifteenth and penultimate episode of season three of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage, my body was not built to handle this episode. 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-4544","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\/4544","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=4544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4544\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\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\u00a0I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!
\n<\/a>– Please check out the\u00c2\u00a0MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"