{"id":4618,"date":"2015-04-23T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-23T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4618"},"modified":"2015-04-13T17:31:18","modified_gmt":"2015-04-14T00:31:18","slug":"mark-watches-leverage-s05e04-the-french-connection-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2015\/04\/mark-watches-leverage-s05e04-the-french-connection-job\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Leverage’: S05E04 – The French Connection Job"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fourth episode of the fifth season of Leverage<\/i>, the man responsible for Eliot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s love of cooking asks for help. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Leverage<\/i>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Goddamn, this episode was fantastic. I suppose I never thought about how similar Parker and Eliot were, but this episode draws an interesting parallel to them. I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve asked for a lot of backstory on these characters, but I<\/span>\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve also enjoyed watching the show without much of it, too. I have a basis for understanding the motivations of these characters, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s generally been enough. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just the kind of person who wants to know <\/span>literally everything<\/i> about a character when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m reading or watching something.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one of the reasons that episode that are based in character flashbacks are so rewarding for me. (And one of the major reasons I love LOST<\/i> as much as I do.) There have been a few glimpses into Eliot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life prior to this, enough that we understand that he spent time in the military and then moved on to being a mercenary\/assassin for hire. He takes his job and his life seriously \u00e2\u20ac\u201c immensely so \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fiercely loyal. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also alone most of the time; we never see him with a girlfriend, at least not since we met his ex in season one. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always been independent, and I imagine that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had to be.<\/p>\n

So the introduction of Toby Heath is significant for his character because it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the closest we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever seen to\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 shit. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. A loved one? A father figure? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not many people in the world who Eliot would speak of as highly as he did about Toby. So that aspect alone was surprising. I guess I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never considered that there was a reason<\/i> that Eliot had such an affinity for cooking, but this adds so much more to his characterization, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all! Not only that, but we also<\/i> get growth for Parker in the process. Toby taught Eliot something that made him feel<\/i> again. While Eliot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s experience was more with numbness, he can certainly relate to Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fear that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not interested in anything. He ends up walking her through his thought process when he makes a dish and when he eats one. Yes, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of the con, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because<\/i> it helps Parker develop that sense of empathy. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s able to understand Eliot through the food that he cooks.<\/p>\n

Now, on the surface, that might seem like an absurd thing to say, but I totally got it. It was about understanding passion<\/i>. The dishes that Eliot makes are good because<\/i> he works so hard on them and because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so passionate about that. Recognizing that is something that Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s never done before! To her, food is merely something she has to eat because that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how the human body works. Why care about it? (Well, aside from chocolate, of course. CHOCOLATE ALWAYS MATTERS TO PARKER. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious why Eliot didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t reference her chocolate binging from last season here.) Well, Eliot teaches her how to recognize the sensations that food causes her to experience. He teaches her that there is joy in creation, and that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s okay to feel things because of it. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great about this is that the show doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t suddenly make Parker a foodie. No, at the end of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The French Connection Job,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she is able to recognize that her \u00e2\u20ac\u0153thing\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is<\/i> being a thief. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a joy in it that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hers<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I definitely found that parallel to be the strongest part of the episode, but this was also solid story regardless. David Lampard was particularly slimy. (And now I realize that not only did I recognize him from one of the worst Supernatural <\/i>episodes ever, but his VOICE was familiar. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the voice of Alistair from Dragon Age<\/i>!) I just love it when this show features antagonists who are taken down by their own arrogance. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so pleasing to watch the team turn his faults against him! In this case, his greed leads him to attempt to smuggle a bunch of truffles out of the country because he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an utter fool. GOOD FOR HIM. Toby gets the restaurant! Everyone wins! We also win because we get HARDISON obsessed with LASERS and SOPHIE pretending to be A WEIRD UK HIPPIE. She had terrible white people dreads!!! It was SO PORTLAND!!!!<\/p>\n

All in all, I had a great time watching this episode. Those three fights in the kitchen were so fucking funny, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. No one even bothered to ask why Eliot was knocking people out during all of it! And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of the sense of humor that this show has about itself. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not meant<\/i> to be realistic, and I dig it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part of the humor attached to a character like Eliot, you know?<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The French Connection 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":"