{"id":4586,"date":"2015-04-06T08:00:58","date_gmt":"2015-04-06T15:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4586"},"modified":"2015-03-31T09:35:31","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T16:35:31","slug":"mark-watches-leverage-s04e09-the-cross-my-heart-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/04\/mark-watches-leverage-s04e09-the-cross-my-heart-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Leverage’: S04E09 – The Cross My Heart Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the ninth episode of the fourth season of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>, the team picks up a case at an airport as they come home from another job. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For talk of transphobia<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, this was disturbing. PAINFULLY SO.<\/p>\n

Dean Chesney<\/b><\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a particular sort of evil to Chesney portrayed here that fits perfectly within the show\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s motif. Chesney has enjoyed a life of privilege and power, much like many of the other antagonists in this show. His entitlement \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a common phenomenon amongst the rich in this country \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is on full display here. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad enough that he stole a heart from a fifteen-year-old boy who still might have a long life ahead of him. But to Chesney, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0owed<\/i> that heart. Because he has money, which gives him the power to get what he wants, he feels entitled to guaranteeing that someone else die in his place. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s horrifying to think about, and I also think we needed a villain like him in order for Nate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story to work.<\/p>\n

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

Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I love when we get an episode where the team has to come up with a con on the fly, and this one is RIDICULOUS. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the sole issue at hand, since the writers commit to the fact that the team was coming off of a flight. (And ostensibly connecting to another flight?) Their luggage? Checked and inaccessible. Security? A million times harder for them to deal with. Their tools? Well, some of it is at the bottom of the ocean. (I WANT TO SEE THE JOB WHERE HARDISON FAKED A VOLCANIC ERUPTION, OH MY GOD.) With limited resources at their disposal, this job ends up being one of the more creative ones. It has to be! From Parker using sunglasses to pick a lock (!!!!), to Sophie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s last-minute grift of multiple people, to the sheer amount of theft done in this episode, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Cross My Heart Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is full of some of the more wacky schemes perpetrated by the\u00c2\u00a0Leverage team. AND I LOVE IT.<\/p>\n

Hardison<\/b><\/p>\n

I do like Hardison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s role in this episode, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pretty fantastic that he uses a Microsoft Flight Simulator to land a plane. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so perfectly nerdy and so perfectly Hardison. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a giant stain in the middle of this episode, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible to ignore it. Look, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I understand that this team often has to be creative in order for their grifts and cons to work. I also understand that the way that Hardison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grift is framed is meant to exploit the other men\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discomfort with trans people so that he can get past them. But even if the intent here is positive, the execution of it is just a massive mess.<\/p>\n

Why? Because in the end, trans people get to be the butt of a joke and a gag, and they aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t represented in the narrative. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a little similar to what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been complaining about over in my\u00c2\u00a0Supernatural<\/i> reviews. That show feels comfortable making jokes about gay people, but then rarely has ACTUAL GAY CHARACTERS in their narrative. So how else am I supposed to read the scene with Hardison when it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s guilty of the same phenomenon? It certainly doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t count as representation. On top of that, this show is about the rich and the\u00c2\u00a0powerful<\/i> being held accountable. In this context? We cis people are absolutely the powerful, so it feels gross and exploitative for the show to use trans people or trans narratives in this manner.<\/p>\n

Nate<\/b><\/p>\n

GOOD LORD.<\/p>\n

As hard as this was to watch, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a part of me that loves that the show had Nate openly admit that he was emotional about this case, and\u00c2\u00a0he didn<\/i>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care<\/i>. That motivating factor was the major character focus of this episode, and it made for one hell of a story. Obviously, Nate was going to have a difficult time working a case where a young child (one who was just barely older than his son would have been) was at stake, and I understood why Sophie was so concerned. But she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop him. She gets that this is an important case for him because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so cathartic.<\/p>\n

That being said\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 holy shit, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. As I mentioned earlier, I think that Chesney\u00c2\u00a0had<\/i> to be despicable in order for the tone of Nate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anger to work as well as it did. This is a much darker side than we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen from Nate, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not without a historical context for him. We know\u00c2\u00a0exactly<\/i> why Chesney infuriates him so much, so when Nate begins to take a personal interest in ruining Chesney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel like the writers are introducing an incoherent or nonsensical aspect of his life. No, it makes sense, and we comprehend why he was triggered in this way. Now, that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t disturbing because THAT FINAL SCENE IS UTTERLY TERRIFYING. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t doubt Nate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s commitment to Chesney either. I fully believe that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll monitor that man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life until he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dead. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s messed up, but I honestly don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel bad about it at all. Fuck Dean Chesney. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reaping what he sowed.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Cross My Heart 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":"