{"id":4577,"date":"2015-04-03T08:00:21","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T15:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4577"},"modified":"2015-03-24T23:01:47","modified_gmt":"2015-03-25T06:01:47","slug":"mark-watches-leverage-s04e08-the-boiler-room-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/04\/mark-watches-leverage-s04e08-the-boiler-room-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Leverage’: S04E08 – The Boiler Room Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eighth episode of the fourth season of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>, the team aims to take down one of the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s worst (and most talented) con men. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In a way, I feel like this is a companion to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Two Live Crew Job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the sense that the team goes up against an adversary who is so skilled in what they do that they cannot use their normal techniques to con or grift the mark.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

ALSO: GREG SHERMAN IS\u00c2\u00a0TERRIFYING<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Greg Sherman<\/b><\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s start off talking about him because\u00c2\u00a0what the fuck<\/i>. I thought the Wicketts in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Grave Danger Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d were pretty brutal and unforgivable, but Greg Sherman, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. How do you even start talking about someone as deplorable as him? Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a man who has privilege, is well aware of it, and does not give a shit about it. He knows he is an entitled demon, and he doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care. He has money and power, he uses it because he can, and I JUST HATE HIM EVEN MORE THAN PRACTICALLY EVERY VILLAIN ON THIS SHOW. How much you wanna bet that he probably lied about his family history of conmen and grifters? He seems like the kind of guy who would do that.<\/p>\n

But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s irrelevant, actually, because all that matters is that Greg Sherman runs a killer boiler room con and has been avoiding the authorities for years. Why is that important? Greg Sherman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success is what the team ultimately uses against him.<\/p>\n

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

I fell for the giant red herring in this episode, which was LITERALLY EVERYTHING. The entire episode is a sleight of hand, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only upon finishing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Boiler Room Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m able to appreciate it completely. I figured that if any group of people would be able to expertly con\u00c2\u00a0the<\/i> con expert, it would be the Leverage team. Still, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the source of the unbearable tension in this episode: at any given moment, Sherman could reveal that their cover was blown. They had to\u00c2\u00a0perfectly<\/i> con him so that his astute sense of observation was never triggered. It was unbearable to watch! Hell, even I suspected that perhaps Sherman was aware of what was going on the whole time. I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 Count Chocula? I thought the chocolate tasting ceremony was pretty convincing, but this whole episode wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like other cons. Each part had to be perfect, and the full con had to be perfect. The team has never been perfect about executing their grifts or cons in the past, and they routinely misjudge things or nearly screw it all up. But they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve usually got a lot more leeway to mess up, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the case here.<\/p>\n

So I thought it was pretty smart to do shit like take Sherman all the way to Ecuador to give him the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153evidence\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he needed to believe the whole false cocoa report nonsense. I mean, this was still a great con! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that Sherman is way too observant.<\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exactly what ends up being his weakness.<\/p>\n

Revenge<\/b><\/p>\n

In the end, the moonwalking bear wins. While Sherman is hyper-focused on picking out all the tells of the con, Hardison just steals $30 million from him, and sets him up to be caught for securities fraud. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so deceptively simple that all on its own, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a beautiful form of revenge. Sherman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ego got the best of him. But what makes this such a special con is\u00c2\u00a0who<\/i> the team chose to be part of the entire venture. I assumed that they just hired the best actors they could find to fill the fake trading office, which meant they got a ton of bad talent. Instead, in a beautiful twist of irony, Sherman ends up being surrounded by the very people he cheated out of millions of dollars, and they get to laugh at him, knowing that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll spend a great deal of the rest of his life in jail, all while losing his fortune.<\/p>\n

Bless the Leverage team.<\/p>\n

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

Parker high on chocolate is so beautiful because I deeply, deeply understand her.<\/p>\n

Jack Latimer<\/b><\/p>\n

WHAT THE FUCK\u00c2\u00a0WHAT THE FUCK<\/i>. WHY IS THE SHOW REVEALING THIS SO EARLY. HOW IS THIS OKAY. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DEAL WITH THIS REALITY? Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, someone was spying on the Leverage team SO THAT THEY COULD USE THE STOCK MARKET TO MAKE MONEY OFF OF WHOMEVER THE TEAM TOOK DOWN. That\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that is so messed up. Jack Latimer was so\u00c2\u00a0certain<\/i> that Nate would be interested in supporting this guy. Like???? My god, Latimer has been following the Leverage team since the ACTUAL FIRST EPISODE. How much money has he made? How much has he benefited from the destruction of the numerous corporations and businesspeople in the last four years?<\/p>\n

I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even wrap my head around how messed up this is. Does Latimer truly believe that Nate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sense of moral goodness will compel him to agree to the kind of arrangement he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s offering? This is a team notorious for not taking cuts from their work, so why would they enable that behavior in someone else? I guess the question then becomes whether or not Nate is willing to compromise in order to take down some truly disgusting evils in the world.<\/p>\n

What the hell has this show become, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so in love with this season.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Boiler Room 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":"