{"id":4557,"date":"2015-03-23T08:00:30","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T15:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4557"},"modified":"2015-03-17T09:36:57","modified_gmt":"2015-03-17T16:36:57","slug":"mark-watches-leverage-s03e16-the-san-lorenzo-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/03\/mark-watches-leverage-s03e16-the-san-lorenzo-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Leverage’: S03E16 – The San Lorenzo Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the sixteenth and final episode of the third season of\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>, the team steals a country. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bless this show forever.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is an ambitious episode, and the writers make that clear from the start. The opening scene sets a terrifying tone to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The San Lorenzo Job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know that Damien Moreau was despicable. But as we watch him take out General Flores, well aware that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get away with it, we understand just how\u00c2\u00a0impossible<\/i> this con seems. (Well, we also get a huge dose of angry-face Eliot, which is almost\u00c2\u00a0more<\/i> upsetting.)<\/p>\n

So how does this team steal a country? I went into this episode thinking that the Leverage team would have to somehow compel Moreau to leave San Lorenzo, but it was pretty damn obvious that literally nothing would get him to leave. Why would he? With President Edwin Ribera firmly on his side, able to bend San Lorenzo law on a mere whim, he had every chance to wait out the storm while living a life of luxury. And with Ribera firmly winning the first election in history in his country, there wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a reason to worry that this would ever change.<\/p>\n

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

Look, I thought the odds were ridiculous enough, but what made \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The San Lorenzo Job\u00e2\u20ac\u009d so thrilling and exciting was the decision to have the team pull off a con ENTIRELY IN THE OPEN. While Sophie\u00c2\u00a0does<\/i> grift the general public in San Lorenzo, the rest of the team quickly blows their cover. How long does it take for Moreau to threaten Nate and Hardison? Ten minutes? And from that moment on, the team has to delicately move Michael Vittori into position so that he can not only beat Ribera in an election, but\u00c2\u00a0want<\/i> to be president himself. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a two-pronged job, and while the rest of the team does what they can to manipulate events in Vittori\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s favor, Sophie has to work on Vittori himself.<\/p>\n

AND WHAT A GLORIOUS SPECTACLE THAT IS. I found it very satisfying to watch Vittori\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s journey because Sophie helped him find confidence. I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always good at speaking public, and I honestly\u00c2\u00a0hated<\/i> it until I got to high school. I was coached by my freshman year English teacher into\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, who I am today, if I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m being honest. She was the one who taught me how to keep an audience\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attention. She taught me how to project my voice. She helped me developed my voice \u00e2\u20ac\u201c both my physical one and the written voice, since writing for public speaking is different than writing otherwise. I mean, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not born knowing what to do with your hands while you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re speaking. (Trust me, if that trips you up, it trips\u00c2\u00a0everyone<\/i> up. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s such an awkward thing!!!) So I got a real kick out of watching Sophie coach someone to feel better about themselves, to believe in being president. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about\u00c2\u00a0worth<\/i>. Sophie had to make Vittori feel like he deserved to run his country.<\/p>\n

Of course, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a\u00c2\u00a0lot<\/i> of conning and manipulation here in this episode. From spreading rumors, to sending utterly ridiculous advertisements through email, TO ELIOT HOLDING THE CUTEST PUPPY EVER WHILE COMPLETELY SLANDERING PRESIDENT RIBERA ON TELEVISION, the team slowly and confidently chipped away at Ribera\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lead. Given this, I assumed that the plan was to use the cover of the U.N. election monitors to put Vittori in office, who could then take away Moreau\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s safe haven. But would that be enough? I mean, couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he just find a new place to live that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t honor extradition requests?\u00c2\u00a0How do you take down someone who has used his wealth and power to get away with\u00c2\u00a0everything<\/i>?<\/p>\n

Can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see this: you use his pawns against him.<\/p>\n

The solution to this con wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t in winning the election, though that certainly played a part in events. The goal wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t ever to win the election, so much as it was to turn events so wholly\u00c2\u00a0against<\/i> President Ribera that he would turn on Damien Moreau. How do you do\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i>? Well, you insult him, you have the entire country believe he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a monster, you keep the threat of U.N. intervention just barely out of reach, and then you offer him an option that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much better than the endless stress and terror of Damien Moreau. (Did anyone else notice that Nate did the same thing Sophie told Vittori? Frame the choices so that one of them is clearly more appealing.) They didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to steal the country because in the end, they just had Ribera hand Moreau over to them.<\/p>\n

IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO MISCHIEVOUS AND I LOVE IT.<\/p>\n

I also feel like echoing what Sophie said towards the end of this episode: this team is a\u00c2\u00a0real<\/i> team. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so evident in how they look at one another, such as when Flores asks Eliot if he could leave anyone behind, AND HE STARES AT PARKER AND\u00c2\u00a0HELP<\/i>. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all far less sloppy then they were years ago. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like watching a well-oiled machine at times, except I ship everyone. (Oh god, do I ever. OT3, Parker\/Hardison, Nate\/Sophie, me\/Hardison.) There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no huge cliffhanger here, aside from Sophie and Nate finally sleeping together again. Which is a big deal, yes, but last season\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s closer was LITERALLY UNFAIR. But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m okay with that. I like that this chapter has closed so definitively. A part of me will miss watching Goran Visnjic act because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so entertaining, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also quite interested to see what the next big adventure is for the Leverage team.<\/p>\n

THIS SHOW IS SO GOOD.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The San Lorenzo 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":"