{"id":4607,"date":"2015-04-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-17T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4607"},"modified":"2015-04-13T17:27:59","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T00:27:59","slug":"mark-watches-leverage-s04e18-the-last-dam-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/04\/mark-watches-leverage-s04e18-the-last-dam-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Leverage’: S04E18 – The Last Dam Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eighteenth and final episode of the fourth season of Leverage<\/i>, the team decides to take down Latimer once and for all. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For nonconsensual drugging<\/b><\/p>\n

Good lord, what an EPISODE.<\/p>\n

Victor Dubenich<\/b><\/p>\n

That opening scene in the penitentiary gave me chills<\/i>, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. HOW IS THIS SHOW ALLOWED TO BE THIS GOOD? I thought it was brilliant of the writers to open with Nate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s confrontation of Dubenich because it sets the tone for what comes after it. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no build-up to the fight \u00e2\u20ac\u201c at least not initially \u00e2\u20ac\u201c because we immediately get to see Nate dealing with the man responsible for killing his father. Well, one of them, that is. And jesus christ, Dubenich is so upsetting. It was difficult to watch this man equate what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done \u00e2\u20ac\u201c something that was absolutely terrible \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with what Nate and the Leverage team had done over the years. I mean, I was utterly bored by all his claims that Nate had to face the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153consequences\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of what he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d done. In this context, Victor viewed himself as the true victim here, the one deprived of his business, his possessions, and his name. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a deeper crime than anything that he did to all those innocent people in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Nigerian Job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of course! Those don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t count, apparently.<\/p>\n

Still, Victor Dubenich had, with Latimer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s helped, pulled off a brutal con from within jail<\/i>. Certainly, Nate knew that these two had the power and access to do pretty much whatever they wanted. But it was Victor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unique knowledge of the Leverage team that frightened me the most. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d actually forgotten that Dubenich had assembled this group all those years ago. It makes sense that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d been able to determine their targets and pass that info to Latimer. And that means that this episode has a cloud hanging over it: Dubenich knows the teams\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 faces. Their techniques. Their cons. He knows everything about them, and he can use that against them.<\/p>\n

So Nate uses Victor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s original plan against him.<\/p>\n

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

We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen Nate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s darker side before in this show and even within this season. (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Cross My Heart Job.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d) But his behavior in this episode is ruthless, more so than anything else we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen before. In rapid succession, he moves through on con after another in order to destroy all of the things he took from Dubenich in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Nigerian Job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d only he focuses on Latimer instead. Of course, in order to do that, he realizes that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only one way to get around Dubenich: assemble a second team of people that Victor doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know and won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t suspect.<\/p>\n

IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SUCH A BRILLIANT WRITING CHOICE. I mean, not only does it make the cons and grifts that much more exciting, but it allows Leverage<\/i> to invite a ton of people back to the show and BLOW MY MIND. Chaos! Quinn! Archie! MAGGIE, HOLY SHIT. The dynamic wavers between adoration and respect \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Maggie and Archie are more than pleased to take part in this con \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to constant aggravation. (Seriously, I could listen to Chaos and Hardison insult one another for hours.) And while the main players distract Dubenich and his team, the secret second team slips into place to pull off the actual<\/i> con. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO GREAT TO WATCH. And what do they start with? Ruining Latimer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s business, specifically his ownership of major waterways in the U.S.<\/p>\n

The more I think about what they do here, the more I appreciate it. The team devises a method of destroying Latimer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s business that relies on entropy. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bad enough that they managed to get quagga mussels into the water of the dam. I initially thought they were just trying to buy time, but nope. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much more devious than that. The dam closes, the investors get cold feet, and the news begins to report of difficulties. Slow at first, but as the other cons roll out, the news gains momentum, doing most of the work for the team.<\/p>\n

Brilliant, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.<\/p>\n

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

So how does the team get ahold of the possessions that are worth the most to Latimer? This is where Parker and Archie get to use their best techniques. Namely? Getting Dubenich to do their work for them. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand Archie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cake cutting analogy until I watched Dubenich fall for the red herring that is Parker and OPEN THE VAULT FOR HER WHILE SHE WAS RIGHT NEXT TO IT. Why bother trying to break in? Even then, I still didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figure everything out. I, like everyone else, assumed that the goal was to destroy<\/i> the items in Latimer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vault.<\/p>\n

Well, why do that when they can be used to definitely ruin<\/i> Latimer?<\/p>\n

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

At this point, the media was already working in the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s favor, and I imagine that they wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to do much to push Latimer over the edge. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why I think that, at this point in the episode, Eliot confronts Nate about revenge. Merely stopping Latimer was never in the plan, was it? Nate isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t practicing with his father\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gun to release some steam or for catharsis. He wants revenge, the cold and dirty kind. I see Nate as the kind of character who is obsessive and stubborn, one who would absolutely<\/i> consider murdering someone who wronged him as much as Latimer and Dubenich had done.<\/p>\n

But first, he ruins Latimer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name with Maggie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s help. I think there are a few stumbles in the final third of this episode, and one of them is the strangeness of Latimer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story. I get why they drugged him and shipped him to the Cayman Islands, but\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 how??? How did they get him on a plane if he was unconscious? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pretty sure you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stick a high\/unconscious person on a plane. How did he get back? I almost thought that the Cayman thing was another con and that he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really there, but he had<\/i> to be in order for it to look like he ran from his congressional hearing. So when he showed up at the end of the episode\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 where did he come from? Did I miss something?<\/p>\n

Nate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s confrontation with Latimer and Dubenich is fantastic and thrilling and then gets REALLY WEIRD??? I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d shoot either of them, but I still felt unbearably tense as he shouted at them. It reminded me so much of the Nate we saw in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Cross My Heart Job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d only\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 shit. A lot scarier. Way more intense. But the actual ending? Like\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 do Latimer and Dubenich die? Did both of them seriously<\/i> fall off that ledge into the water? It felt strangely lazy for a show that has never really had a problem committing to huge, dramatic plot twists. The end just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 happens? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know, I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a letdown or anything. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got one more think to talk about.) It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a bit anti-climactic, you know?<\/p>\n

Moving Forward<\/b><\/p>\n

If I felt a bit weird about the resolution of the Latimer\/Dubenich plot, I was FREAKING OUT about Nate\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to make it clear to Sophie that he wants her, and not just in a casual sense. YES. YES<\/i>. I SUPPORT THIS WHOLEHEARTEDLY, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a natural development, too; it works surprisingly well as a season closer. After all that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happened to Nate, he wants to keep certain people as close to him as possible. Number one on that list? Sophie Devereaux.<\/p>\n

y e s.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Last Dam 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. My next Double Features for Mark Watches will be the remainder of The Legend of Korra<\/i>, series 8 of Doctor Who<\/i>, and Kings<\/i>. On Mark Reads, Diane Duane’s Young Wizards<\/i> series will replace the Emelan books.
\n<\/b>– Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a> I’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, I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!
\n<\/a>– Please check out the MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"