{"id":4616,"date":"2015-04-21T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4616"},"modified":"2015-04-13T17:29:59","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T00:29:59","slug":"mark-watches-leverage-s05e02-the-blue-line-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/04\/mark-watches-leverage-s05e02-the-blue-line-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Leverage’: S05E02 – The Blue Line Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the second episode of the fifth season of Leverage<\/i>, the team is tasked with saving a man from himself. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think this is one of the stronger episodes of this show. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll admit that I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even have a passing interest in hockey, though I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen a live game before and it <\/span>was<\/i> pretty entertaining. A great deal of this episode is on the ice, so I know that my attention was waning a bit. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like the show relies so heavily on this that I was a) super bored, or b) unable to understand what was going on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Honestly, I think that the framing of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Blue Line Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is fascinating because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such a strange case. While the team does discover that Pete Rising is exploiting his players, the con doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t start off with that knowledge in mind. The mark initially is Craig Marko, whose son is so concerned about the health of his father that he begs the Leverage team to somehow get his dad to stop fighting during games. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no monetary gain here, and on top of that, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got to convince someone to stop doing something that they love.<\/p>\n

Which is then complicated by the contract that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s under, of course. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s where the exploitation comes in. For Pete Rising, the Oregon Otters are a business. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fair, since he owns them, and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s welcome to do what he sees fit for the team. The problem is that he soon realizes that the violence that often comes with hockey guarantees higher ticket sales. So what does he do? He compels Marko to fight more<\/i> by sticking a qualification into the contract covering his last year; he makes sure the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doctor lies and covers up evidence that his players are severely injured; and then he PAYS OTHER TEAMS TO TRY AND TAKE MARKO OUT OF THE GAME SO THAT HE DOESN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T HAVE TO PAY THE HALF MILLION DOLLAR BONUS HE OWES. Like??? HOLY SHIT, YOU\u00e2\u20ac\u2122RE THE WORST.<\/p>\n

What I enjoyed most about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Blue Line Job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d though, was the fact that this con was never an easy thing to pull off. Fooling Rising? A piece of cake. Making sure to manage Craig Marko on top of that all? A billion times harder. Even if the man was aware of the deck stacked against him, he still wanted to play and he still wanted to fight. Why? Why would he do that knowing how much it affected his memory or his physical health? Craig Marko had one motivation in mind: to provide for his son. I imagine that since his wife died, Marko knew that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be the only one his son could depend on, and thus, he justified putting his body in harm\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way \u00e2\u20ac\u201c literally so \u00e2\u20ac\u201c in order to make sure that his son has a future. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heartbreaking when you think about it because Rising was orchestrating events so that Marko\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s efforts would be in vain. He would have gone an entire season taking blows to the head, all for Rising to back out in the end with the protection of that contact.<\/p>\n

Fuck him. What a terrible person. Oh, and he was also STEALING MONEY FROM THE TEAM ANYWAY. Bury him! FINISH HIM. Or just do that really eerie and totally intimidating circle of hockey players in suits things. THAT WORKS AS WELL. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also glad that the team got to demonstrate to Craig the importance of his own health, though. HOW CHILLING WAS THAT SCENE WHERE EVERYONE REFUSED TO FIGHT HIM? So great, and a little sad, I think. The irony of Craig\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan was that he could have died doing it, when all his son wanted was him alive<\/i>.<\/p>\n

There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another aspect of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Blue Line Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d worth commenting on. Did anyone else pick up on how the two relationships onscreen are growing<\/i>? Now that we have on-screen confirmation that Parker and Hardison are actually dating, it was lovely to see them work with one another. I felt like they behaved slightly differently than they usually do. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re more willing to touch one another and show affection. Parker is also staying over at Hardison\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she??? THIS IS A HUGE DEVELOPMENT, I must add it to my Spreadsheet<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I think you can see some added maturity between Nate and Sophie, too. Normally, Nate is quick to jealousy, but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s significantly not<\/i> that way here. It actually surprised me! He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s far more interested in Sophie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s theft of the Stanley Cup than her past relationship with Vladimir. And when Vladimir asks Sophie if her new partner makes her happy? She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s giddy. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the cutest thing EVER to see her like that because we know how rare<\/i> it is. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M JUST EXCITED ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS, OKAY.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Blue Line 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":"