afraschatz

Leverage OT3 edit, anyone?

It‘s been a while since I‘ve done one of these, but I‘m rewatching Leverage yet again (SHOW, I MISSED YOU) and here are plenty of things I love about ‚The 12 Step Job‘: I love…

… The montage of Hurley in the car and how he walks into his office. Man, that is one NEAT character introduction because when you first watch this, of course he could pass as an absolute jerk and the baddie of the week – despite the client‘s description of him as enthusiastic and sweet. But at the same time this is just how he is later on in this ep and when he returns in The Boys‘ Night Out Job: An absolute slob and a complete mess but also very congenial (how much he knows about all his co-workers? Sweet) and with his heart in the right place.

… Nate being a complete dick and so fucking in denial about his alcohol problem here. I haven‘t watched season one in a while and it‘s so interesting how his and Sophie‘s relationship is so different here (the biggest shift of course being between s2 and s3 where Nate decides to take a vacation in prison and Sophie runs the crew in the meantime – this changes things forever). But it‘s so cool how Gina‘s acting walks the thin line between being the one who is absolutely in the right here and being just that bit annoying that allows Nate to justify implying that she‘s overly dramatic

… Eliot‘s hair is ON FIRE in that episode, wow and that blue shirt *chef‘s kiss*

… how the team works together in figuring out where Hurley might be. Yes, it‘s season one and Nate is very much calling the shots – and he is the one narrowing it down here – but Eliot and Hardison specifically absolutely pitch in.

… Sophie‘s and Eliot‘s little eyeroll at Hardison‘s dropping strip club knowledge

… ‘if Billy was a drunken sex fiend’ – hahaha, Parker, spot on as always – and Eliot‘s and Hardison‘s responding expressions. Come on, boys, don‘t deny it, you‘re in love with her already.

… that look on Nate‘s face when he figures out how to find Hurley. His whole expression changes, his gaze focusses, he leans forward and that drunken haze is gone for the moment

… how Eliot and Hardison constantly share the same frame <3

… Eliot‘s little DELIGHTED smile. Okay, his and Hardison‘s delight in strip joints doesn‘t quite fit later seasons, so we all can just agree that Hardison asking for change for 100 in singles is just because they really want to tip generously for the chicken wings there or something :)

… Eliot‘s and Hardison‘s synchronized walk off

… ‘Don‘t get mad, Eliot, I may have spilled slushie in your car’ and his badly acted expression of contrition hahaha, no one is buying that, Hardison

… Eliot and Hardison being extremely sexy in sitting in Eliot’s car (and as so often, look at the perfect way that shot is lit! Hardison’s and Eliot’s faces both fricking glow)

… very smartly dressed random thugs

… the messy way the fight scene is shot – close ups and very wobbly camera moves, and how you can still tell how efficiently Eliot fights and how… well not all that efficiently Hardison is. And yes, again, it’s season one, so Hardison grabs the gun and shoots it, too, instead of just sitting back and chilling while he watches Eliot beat people up (which is way better than the strip joint idea anyway)

… Eliot being annoyed with Hardison

… ‘Is he sleeping?’ LOL, yes, Sophie, that’s why Hurley is using the air bag as a pillow

… Nate looking progressively more like the absolute mess he is as the episode progresses

… - how confusing is it that Sterling’s Theme is used and Sterling isn’t immediately around the next corner? That is SO cool because yes, he shows up later, or rather: withdrawal!Nate hallucinates him; and so his theme music this early in the episode is almost like foreshadowing

… everyone in group therapy apparently understanding Sam perfectly well aside from Nate

… Parker having to read from the cheat sheet she wrote onto her lower arm to get her three-sentence-character-intro right

… Hurley’s massive list of addiction, with the climax of “Tacos”

… “Uh-huh” - and Sophie and Nate having another fight while everyone else in the group is already tired of it. Especially Parker, if one were to judge by her VERY subtle expressions.

… Parker aggressively chewing on the meds the doctor gave her. I absolutely LOVE the way she constantly gives other people this uncensored WTF-look in season one

… Eliot being smart in the parking lot. I have so much love and respect for how that’s played here again – Eliot is the one who has to have 360 vision, it’s his job to anticipate problems in all forms and sizes

… Hardison’s bricks-on-the-seat plan. That’s so great because he might be the smartest guy Eliot knows TM, but he is fucking afraid here and panicking and that’s not conducive to coming up with super clever plans, is it?

… Hardison and Eliot working together while bitching at one another - “Yes, there are a lot of wires! It’s a Com-Pu-Ter!!”

… Hardison’s brain rebooting as he figures out that it’s a computer bomb and the system needs to be re-booted

… Eliot trusting Hardison’s knowledge, and Christian’s acting here – knowing Hardison is right, being low key annoyed by it, being just a bit unsettled (that lip quiver!) “Run that sack of bricks by me again…” - “Are you ready?” - “NO!”  and his trembling hand - he is so good at rapidly changing expressions and tones

… “I’m gonna go and freshen up a little bit. Maybe cry a little”

… Hardison thinking on his feet and that sweet Jamaican accent – Eliot thinking that is sexy, and backing him up with a bomb

… and again, Kane’s acting – that beat and that look before he says “Sure” when Hardison asks whether he’d have saved him as well

… Nate’s withdrawal. So well done. Over all, the show is SO good at showing that alcoholism is a sickness and a serious problem, even if (especially if!) Nate doesn’t acknowledge it

… HARDISON AND ELIOT’S DATE AT THE RECEPTION DESK. - So, while in the scene before, Hardison takes the lead in acting their way out of the situation, here it’s Eliot by shamelessly flirting with the receptionist. And Hardison’s FACE throughout this. Like, bro, do we have time for this? DO WE? - And then “I’m with him”. And Eliot trying so hard not to burst into laughter, especially when Hardison is doing that thing he is famous for which is shamelessly over-acting just to piss Eliot off. - The ringing of the reception bell and “Bring yo ass”. And none of that even being mentioned in the next scene. - So much quality content in this episode.

… Sophie taking over for Nate when Nate very obviously can’t, and her tone of voice changing to what we’ll get to know from season three Sophie

… Parker coming up with a believable story and selling it. Up to the point where her make believe parents found gold under their trailer…

… Nate’s withdrawal getting worse, Tim’s acting is brilliant here.

… Sophie talking differently to Nate than before. Yes, she still seems to focus on Nate and how Nate is being a dick to them and particularly her, but her voice is different and she uses the real emotion between her and Nate’s exchange to get what they need from Hurley; the list of people he wronged. Brilliant little twist here, because of course Sophie is focused on the con and on helping their client, especially now that Nate is threatening to lose his focus entirely

… that Genesis? Veeeeery subtle product placement, Leverage hahaha

… “I checked your notes - he seems like a deeply troubled man” - Thank you, doctor, yeah. Nate IS a deeply troubled man. And again: Nate’s withdrawal getting much worse, and the con threatening to get out of hand. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: It’s really great how they used this episode to focus so much on Nate’s alcoholism. It’s something so important not only for later seasons but also for the upcoming s1 finale, and we’ve watched enough episodes at this point that we understand WHY this happened to him. And this episode doesn’t offer an easy fix, nor do the following seasons. “Just give me something to do” is what Nate says here, and Sophie has to decide whether or not this is really the right thing to do

… “He is an addict, he knows how to manipulate people, my father was an addict, my grandfather was an addict, I know how these people operate” - yes, Nate, we know who you’re talking about. And so does Sophie

… Sterling as the one Nate hallucinates. Because Sterling knows him, because they used to be friends, because Sterling is as ruthless as Nate is (well, nearly), because Nate is still projecting and in denial that he is in fact talking about himself. So what does he do? He imagines his former friend who is now on the other side, chasing him. - I’m not too big a fan of Sterling in later seasons but this is such a STELLAR use of his character, and Mark’s acting is brilliant here, and so is, of course, Tim’s.

… “Knocking on heaven’s door” - ouch

… Nate’s aggression towards Hurley, first in a physical form and that is scary but also less dangerous because it’s unfocused; and then when his mind has something to focus on, that sharp sharp focus – fuck, he’s one scary dude indeed, it’s rather disconcerting that one is looking at Hurley for emotional reassurance in this scene…

… Parker’s strange walk because of her meds and the return on her focus when her thief-self kicks back in

… “If you’re doing it to help someone, doesn’t that make it okay?” Good question, Hurley. Your answer, Nate?

… Nate shoving Hurley in the hallway rather than explaining what’s going on. Funny, and sliiiightly sloppy, Mr Ford

…Tacos :)

… Eliot and Hardison sharing the same level of annoyance and then acceptance. So in tune in this episode, these two

… re-using that bomb. Everyone does their part in sustainability and careful usage of resources ;)

… the thugs thinking the bomb thing was done by the Jamaicans, aka Hardison and Eliot

… Eliot’s and Hardison’s reservations in the flashback. “Uh—why?” from Hardison and Eliot’s emphatic headshake

… the cash in the tire. Very practical choice, Hurley

… HURLEY JUST WANTS A HUG

… Hardison going the extra mile with Hurley’s new identity by getting him a gym membership

… Parker’s brilliant drawing!!!

… Parker smelling the Sharpie

… Parker running, PARKER HUGGING ELIOT AND HARDISON!!!! OT3!!!

… and that song, that is a variation of “What shall we do with the drunken sailor”, right?

Then I think about how I got hit in all the feels by Hardison doing the SAME THING to Parker in The Rundown Job, with a nearly identical plea.

This is very deliberate parallel. The writing on this show is too good for it to be accidental!

They're *both* meant to be romantic! We even have the showrunner confirming no less than THREE TIMES that he created an intentional, canon OT3.

These hugs just... They're everything.

BONUS FROM THAT EPISODE:

Vance calling Parker Eliot's girlfriend, while facing Eliot, and the OT3 just rolling with it.

Leverage showrunner John Rogers was pretty open about the fact that the show’s scriptwriters utilized plenty of tropes in their stories. In his blog, he often wrote, “You say trope, I say well-honed narrative tool.” However much they used those tools in the writer room, Leverage somehow managed to escape being a showcase of stereotypes, and no example is more obvious or satisfying than the character of Alec Hardison, the team’s expert hacker with a plethora of other talents, one of which is avoiding  becoming a walking, talking cliché. Can I just say how very much I enjoy the fact that the black male member of the cast is the least physically aggressive man on the crew?  Dear god, Hardison, you know I love you, but you are the most hilariously unconvincing hoodlum I have ever seen, and it is glorious. I loved this exchange, right after a confrontation with a street gang in The Miracle Job:

HARDISON: How about that, man? Did you see me? ELIOT: He was injured.

HARDISON: Well, somebody gotta fight the injured. Shoot, that’s my niche!

Hardison can do any number of incredible things: he can disarm a bomb on a plane while he’s miles away on the ground, he can forge an antique artifact in less than a week, he can even manipulate a mark’s perception of reality to a truly astonishing degree. And he’ll try really, really hard to be intimidating when the job needs it, but more often than not he’ll end up shooting a car engine while aiming for the enemy, or needing a rescue after his tough guy act gets him kidnapped. And that’s more than okay.  I’m happy that Hardison escapes the racist stereotype of black guys as hardened gangsters, that he tells Nate when he has to pretend to rob a grocery store that he has “no frame of reference” for that kind of violence. It’s great that Hardison portrays a different kind of masculinity than Eliot’s, that he’s allowed to express fear and panic without being declared a coward or somehow less than a man. Who the hell cares how hard this hacker genius can throw a punch? He certainly doesn’t need that skill set to overthrow a president. Another stereotype that Hardison definitively rejects is the image of the shy, socially awkward nerd. Hardison is charming, witty, and self-assured–he can smooth talk his way in and out of most situations as long as he doesn’t get overly cocky, which is the opposite problem of being shy. Also, next to Sophie, he’s the most stylish member of the group, with his scarves, vests, and bowties–and dear god, the man looks stunning in a suit. And for all of these, he is proudly and unapologetically a geek, with passionate opinions about Star Wars and a healthy obsession with fantasy RPGs. Also, his artistic, creative gifts are shown to be as much a part of his genius as his more “masculine” engineering skills. He paints, he sculpts, he plays the violin, he mixes his own music–he’s a goddamn Renaissance man, and nobody ever questions it. One more facet of this character that doesn’t play according to formula is Hardison’s history as a kid in the foster system. While Parker shows how very, very badly this situation can go wrong, Hardison’s story proves that not all foster kids end up traumatized. He was raised by a foster mom who cared, his Nana, who instilled in Hardison not only his convictions but the healthy self-image of a child who grew up knowing he was loved. Of everyone in the group, Hardison seems the most emotionally secure, the one who sleeps peacefully through the night. He has his own inescapable issues, sure, but his life as a foster kid is no cause for pity. He had Nana. He was loved. Basically, Alec Hardison is a foster kid, a geek, and a black man, and he owns the hell out of these identities while rejecting the tired clichés associated with them. What’s more, he does it all with a sexy, confident flair, and we can’t help but fall in love with him for it. After all, it’s the age of the geek, baby. Age of the geek.

Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I am going to do my best not to just “asdfghkjl” at you and answer coherently.

In a nutshell, Leverage is about 5 people. 4 are criminals (Parker, Hardison, Eliot and Sophie) with different and unique skill-sets and 1 is an ex-insurance investigator (Nate) who, at one point or another in his career, has tracked down (or at least attempted to) the other 4. The whole show is essentially: man reluctantly reforms 4 criminals to use their criminal powers for good and 4 criminals move into man’s life and stubbornly refuse to leave because, goddammit, now they have morals. 

I’ve got a lot of favourite things about the show but the main ones are as follows:

1. Found family. And I’m not talking about loners who come together to fight crime and happen to co-exist to the point where they realise they happen to have found themselves a family. I mean, Nate and Sophie are the Drunk Uncle and Wine Aunt who somehow become Mom and Dad to 3 beautiful criminal children. Mom and Dad love their criminal babies and the kids love them (as well as each other, but we’ll come to that in a moment). You get amazing family moments such as: Mom and Dad packing the kids lunch before sending them out to kick corporate greed’s ass; Mom and Dad giving the kids ridiculously expensive and personal Christmas presents causing their most Grumpy Kid to go very very quiet and soft as he runs off to gleefully play with his new murder toy; the kids interrupting Mom and Dad’s big Movie Style Kiss to ask if they can please keep their new underground layer and huffing and puffing when Dad tells them no.

2. Found family: the OT3 edition. To answer your question, the OT3 is indeed canon, confirmed by the creator. Now, usually, “confirmed by the creator” infuriates me because most of the time it’s a way for a creator to be seen as “progressive” without doing anything to actually be progressive. That isn’t the case here. The OT3 are built up carefully and while it is obvious the creators didn’t originally intend for all 3 of them to become a relationship in the romantic sense, by mid-season 5 we are given a very clear picture of where Parker, Hardison and Eliot are heading in their relationship. There aren’t any kisses at the end to signal this but there are solid marriage vows in not only one but two episodes. (And by marriage vows I mean literal equivalents of marriage vows: “for better or worse” and “’til death do us part”. I’m not even exaggerating). The OT3 also doesn’t need explicit romantic narratives to convey how much they love each other. Their love is laced through the whole show, from the way they teach each other things to the way they respond to each other and work as a unit. The way they fiercely protect and admire each other. Like someone once said, if you need characters to kiss or say I love you to let the audience know they love each other, you are writing them wrong. 

Aside from that, each of the parings in the OT3 are just. Gah. They are so well done, with friendship being the solid basis for them all. The creators never expect the audience to assume anything about them or fill in the gaps. They give us their relationships on screen and reference many things off-screen to show us how these relationships continue to build in between episodes.

Hardison and Parker are a canon couple and date in the show: it’s approached slowly and they are so goddamned sweet. They are basically every fluffy slow-burn trope with a healthy dash of mutual pining in the mix. They are basically that quote “love is patient, love is kind”. (I would like to add their romance never becomes the focus of the show or overrides the importance of any other relationship they have with the other characters, especially Eliot.)

Hardison and Eliot are the Old Married Couple and from day one are already bickering and looking at each other/making comments that are found in every UST fic ever (not to mention Hardison has a very good knack for making Eliot grin like a little kid, when usually he’s basically an Angry Little Chef Man). They argue, they play, and love each other plain as day. 

Parker and Eliot are more subtle but every bit as wonderful. They have an unspoken connection and understand each other on a level no-one else can. Parker and Eliot are not good with giving themselves over to affection for different reasons (and Hardison plays a central role in helping them realise it’s okay to want it and have it- that boy has endless patience) but there is something so beautiful in the way the two of them come together on their own and develop their own special bond that works for them. Parker and Eliot are that trope where the characters don’t need to speak to understand each other perfectly. They just do. Their love language is a lot of the time non-verbal but speaks volumes. (Parker also likes to annoy the hell out of Eliot and Eliot….just…..lets…her. Because he’s soft. The softest, grumpiest boy.) 

I could go into so much depth for each pairing and their dynamics as a 3 but that’s for another post.

3. Subverting stereotypes. There is the occasional hiccup in the show regarding stereotypes but ultimately, Leverage gets an A+ when it comes to writing characters and making them 3 dimensional people who are not defined by certain characteristics or events. Nate could so easily fall into the White Man Pain trope where he uses the trauma of losing his kid as a reason as to why he is entitled to act like a dick. Nate is a dick but he doesn’t use his pain to excuse it and I appreciate that. Hardison is a black man who is soft and nurturing. Easily the most empathetic and patient of the group. He’s nerdy, an actual genius, and has the biggest heart of all the characters. Nate is maybe the glue but Hardison is definitely the heart. Media’s usual aggressive, amongst other, racist stereotypes can fuck right off. Parker is canonically autistic (I am sure this was confirmed by one of the creators) and she is not defined by it. It’s not written as some kind of singular personality trait. It’s part of what makes up Parker but it’s only one facet of who she is and not once is her actions, thoughts or feelings treated like a joke. Sometimes people don’t understand why she does and says the things she does but it’s met with patience and fondness over the course of the show. Equally, it’s not met with over-caution. Parker is just Parker. No-one tries to change her. The other nice thing is Hardison, who always makes sure Parker knows she’s amazing because of who she is and not in spite of it. Finally, Sophie is in her 40s. She’s not treated like she’s past her prime. Ever. She’s sexy, smart and never is she pitted against or compared to Parker (who is younger) for anything. Sophie is amazing and there’s never even a conversation of “I may be older but I am still *insert adjective typically associated with younger women here*”. Sophie is possibly the first female character I’ve ever seen who isn’t just unapologetic about her age but has never had to apologise for her age. It’s a non-issue and that’s that. The women on the show are written so well, right down to secondary characters and it’s beyond refreshing.  

4.) It’s just fun. The show has a “monster of the week” type format. Except instead of a ghoul or a ghost, the monster is some corrupt wealthy and powerful individual or organisation. The show draws on real-life individuals to do this and therefore closely parallels real-life people and events. It addresses important political, economical, social and environmental issues while at the same time remaining fun and light-hearted. The characters constantly get the chance to play dress up and by GOD do they have fun with it. You get to watch Eliot beat up bad guys in the most delightful of ways, usually after a witty non-sequitur and with a weapon you’d never think could be a weapon. The dialogue and back and forth between the characters is everything. And finally - my favourite thing- the team can never resist striking a dramatic pose after they’ve taken down the bad guy, making sure the bad guy sees them. I mean, they COULD just walk away, satisfied they’ve taken the person down, but nope. They gotta be dramatic bitches 24/7 and pose like they are models for every single month of this year’s Criminal Calendar.  

5.) Competence Porn. So. Much. Competence Porn.  

Let me talk about Leverage some more because, well, it’s Leverage. And let’s talk about Nate.

Mastermind Nate Ford.

When you first watch the show, Nate is the character that you possibly just kind of tolerate while you instantly fall in love with Hardison (or Eliot / Parker / Sophie). Nate is probably not the one you’d name as your favourite.

And let’s get this straight: John Rogers repeats over that Nate Ford is not a nice man. And boy, he isn’t kidding. Nate Ford is, in fact, a massive dick.

One of my favourite, and soooo not-talked-about-enough things about Leverage is the reason why the team comes together: Dubenic kinda underestimates just how vengeful and smart Nate is, yes, but he is spot on when he - very deliberately - picks Nate Ford, a supposed white hat, to CONTROL a group of the world’s greatest criminals.

I think we tend to underestimate just what that means at that moment. That’s because we all know very early on - thanks in huge parts to the tongue-in-cheek nature of the flashbacks - what good people Parker, Hardison, and Eliot actually can be. And because of that we underestimate who they are at that moment, to the world: Eliot is Moreau’s favourite and most efficient killer (“Please, don’t ask me, Parker”), Hardison is the a brilliant hacker in the age of the geek whose fingertips could unleash the collapse of civilization, and Parker is a loner thief who actually blew up her parents’ house as a kid, with them potentially inside. These are SERIOUSLY dangerous people.

Yes, Dubenic kindles Nate’s need for revenge and strokes his ego by telling him that he needs an honest man. But the real reason why he picks Nate to wrangle those three is that he rightfully assumes that Nate is both smarter AND more ruthless than the world’s best criminals combined.

Nate Ford is not a nice man.

Nate is the one who figures out that Dubenic withheld the money in The Nigerian Job, so he can get them all in one place to kill them. And his reaction is to LAUGH OUT LOUD and wait with a fucking smirk on his face until the slower kids in the class figure it out, too.

Nate is the one who, throughout the show, easily plays the sleaziest of lawyers, the hardest of CEOs and five-star-generals. Sure, because the cons often call for such a character (someone the mark can focus all their hatred on, distracting him from what is really going on), and someone has to do it. But it’s usually Nate playing them because he really doesn’t mind being the asshole that everyone hates and wants to get rid off.

Nate is the one who goes after the world’s most influential and ruthless villains with just his brain as a weapon, and he is not afraid, not for a single second. Nate takes on Moreau, the man even Eliot is fucking afraid of. It’s very likely that he kills Chesney - a man who was perfectly okay with letting a boy die, so he could get the donor heart - with just his voice and over the fucking phone. And he absolutely manipulates Dubenic and Latimer into killing each other (the look when he walks away and the two of them fall in The Last Dam Job? SO underrated).

Nate is the one who has Jimmy Ford for a dad, a character even less likable than Nate himself - apparently near to no empathy, very egotistical / self-centered, hella manipulative, very set in his ways. And it’s Jimmy who actually kind of fears Nate, not the other way around; he fears both his incredible cleverness as well as his ruthlessness, even if he does a good job of hiding it behind contempt.

Nate is the one who runs a con on his own team in season two and who deliberately keeps secrets from them in season three AND four. Hell, he runs a con on US throughout the entire first half of the series’ finale by making us believe everyone died.

Nate is also the one who, week in and week out, has to run dozens of scenarios in his head, including several in which members of his team die. “Hardison dies in plan M” is played off as a joke in The Nigerian Job, yes, but The Long Goodbye Job lets us experience first hand what that ACTUALLY means. I am still fucked up from that, even after seven years, and even though the OT3’s death is fiction within fiction. Nate lives with that scenario week in and week out.

Nate Ford really is not ‘hard on the outside, soft on the inside’. He is granite on the inside.

And yet?

Maggie, “the most honest person we know”, loved him and - even more importantly - still loves him. Eliot, who time and time again proves that he has the best people skills of them all (fight me on this), trusts his judgment right from the start. (Seriously, watch The Nigerian Job solely for the interactions between Nate and Eliot, oh God, it’s soooo good. - Parker and Hardison are great as well, sure, but nearly all of the serious conversations have Nate and Eliot at the center - and for a reason!).

Sophie loves him. Hardison loves him. Parker loves him.

Why is that? Is it because Maggie doesn’t see the ‘real’ Nate behind the insurance man? Is it because Nate plays to Eliot’s own need for revenge (and eventually: redemption)? Is it because Sophie is forever blinded by her crush on him, Hardison too naive, Parker too broken to know better?

We know it’s not that.

Maggie is fucking smart, and we get ample proof for that in The Second David Job alone, where we also see how well she understands Nate. Eliot is the team’s shield from the moment in The Nigerian Job where he hauled Hardison out of the warehouse. He can kill people with an horsd’oevre; he knows how to run risk assessment. Sophie proves time and time again over the course of the five seasons how well she knows Nate, Hardison’s heart is never wrong, and Parker? She understands Nate as well as she understands herself (which is, I realize, an ambiguous statement, but one to explore in another post :)).

They trust Nate because Nate IS granite on the inside. Because his moral code is unwavering.

They trust Nate because Nate is smart enough to surround himself with people to call him on his bullshit. They compensate with their compassion what he seems to lack. They could very well get by on their own but chose that they are better together. They know that he might run the occasional con on them but he would never try and twist them into something they aren’t or don’t want to be.

And they love Nate because Nate’s capability to love is unconditional and boundless. All it takes to prove that to us is that gut-wrenching six second long scream when Sam dies. Watch that scene again, I dare you, and then try to contradict me. And if you then haven’t tortured yourself enough yet, watch the bookend scene to that in The Long Goodbye Job when he pretends to grieve for his dead team. That grief is so real because Tim Hutton is a brilliant, brilliant actor, and it’s so real because that is what Nate feels, every time he thinks of fucking plan M.

And while it could be argued that years and years of being involved in art theft and smuggling also mean that Sophie (and Parker) indirectly have blood on their hands / harmed innocent people more than just art-hogging millionairs - like The King George Job shows and Sophie acknowledges -, Nate is definitely more closely linked to Eliot than anyone else. Eliot who, as John Rogers puts it, knows he is going to hell.

Neither of them sees themselves as a hero, definitely not, and Nate doesn't see himself as likable, definitely not. What he is doing for a big part of the show (4 of 5 seasons, at least) is trying to find a way of hating himself a little less, yes.

Unlike Eliot, Nate only very rarely explicitly states/acknowledges to which extent he includes (people like his old self, so to speak) as part of the problem. Still, his patterns of behavior - which, apart from very effectively helping people in getting justice or revenge, include but are not limited to repeated relapse into heavy drinking, denying his alcohol abuse problem, massive catholic brooding, shutting himself off from his team and taking vicious and absolutely remorseless revenge on people like Blackpoole - imo are testament to how he feels and thinks about himself and the world; now and in the past.

Unlike Eliot, who knows he is going to hell but vows to help his friends before that time comes, Nate is fighting on a much larger scale. That's what I meant when I said that his moral code is unwavering - while Eliot wants to help individual people (particularly when they are under 10 :)), Nate is waging war against the system itself. That does make him lose sight of the individual victim and their needs on occasion (like at the beginning of The Grave Danger Job), yes, but it also make him so relentless and fearless that he can take on Moreau et al.

Let me talk about Leverage some more because, well, it’s Leverage. And let’s talk about Nate.

Mastermind Nate Ford.

When you first watch the show, Nate is the character that you possibly just kind of tolerate while you instantly fall in love with Hardison (or Eliot / Parker / Sophie). Nate is probably not the one you’d name as your favourite.

And let’s get this straight: John Rogers repeats over that Nate Ford is not a nice man. And boy, he isn’t kidding. Nate Ford is, in fact, a massive dick.

One of my favourite, and soooo not-talked-about-enough things about Leverage is the reason why the team comes together: Dubenic kinda underestimates just how vengeful and smart Nate is, yes, but he is spot on when he - very deliberately - picks Nate Ford, a supposed white hat, to CONTROL a group of the world’s greatest criminals.

I think we tend to underestimate just what that means at that moment. That’s because we all know very early on - thanks in huge parts to the tongue-in-cheek nature of the flashbacks - what good people Parker, Hardison, and Eliot actually can be. And because of that we underestimate who they are at that moment, to the world: Eliot is Moreau’s favourite and most efficient killer (“Please, don’t ask me, Parker”), Hardison is the a brilliant hacker in the age of the geek whose fingertips could unleash the collapse of civilization, and Parker is a loner thief who actually blew up her parents’ house as a kid, with them potentially inside. These are SERIOUSLY dangerous people.

Yes, Dubenic kindles Nate’s need for revenge and strokes his ego by telling him that he needs an honest man. But the real reason why he picks Nate to wrangle those three is that he rightfully assumes that Nate is both smarter AND more ruthless than the world’s best criminals combined.

Nate Ford is not a nice man.

Nate is the one who figures out that Dubenic withheld the money in The Nigerian Job, so he can get them all in one place to kill them. And his reaction is to LAUGH OUT LOUD and wait with a fucking smirk on his face until the slower kids in the class figure it out, too.

Nate is the one who, throughout the show, easily plays the sleaziest of lawyers, the hardest of CEOs and five-star-generals. Sure, because the cons often call for such a character (someone the mark can focus all their hatred on, distracting him from what is really going on), and someone has to do it. But it’s usually Nate playing them because he really doesn’t mind being the asshole that everyone hates and wants to get rid off.

Nate is the one who goes after the world’s most influential and ruthless villains with just his brain as a weapon, and he is not afraid, not for a single second. Nate takes on Moreau, the man even Eliot is fucking afraid of. It’s very likely that he kills Chesney - a man who was perfectly okay with letting a boy die, so he could get the donor heart - with just his voice and over the fucking phone. And he absolutely manipulates Dubenic and Latimer into killing each other (the look when he walks away and the two of them fall in The Last Dam Job? SO underrated).

Nate is the one who has Jimmy Ford for a dad, a character even less likable than Nate himself - apparently near to no empathy, very egotistical / self-centered, hella manipulative, very set in his ways. And it’s Jimmy who actually kind of fears Nate, not the other way around; he fears both his incredible cleverness as well as his ruthlessness, even if he does a good job of hiding it behind contempt.

Nate is the one who runs a con on his own team in season two and who deliberately keeps secrets from them in season three AND four. Hell, he runs a con on US throughout the entire first half of the series’ finale by making us believe everyone died.

Nate is also the one who, week in and week out, has to run dozens of scenarios in his head, including several in which members of his team die. “Hardison dies in plan M” is played off as a joke in The Nigerian Job, yes, but The Long Goodbye Job lets us experience first hand what that ACTUALLY means. I am still fucked up from that, even after seven years, and even though the OT3’s death is fiction within fiction. Nate lives with that scenario week in and week out.

Nate Ford really is not ‘hard on the outside, soft on the inside’. He is granite on the inside.

And yet?

Maggie, “the most honest person we know”, loved him and - even more importantly - still loves him. Eliot, who time and time again proves that he has the best people skills of them all (fight me on this), trusts his judgment right from the start. (Seriously, watch The Nigerian Job solely for the interactions between Nate and Eliot, oh God, it’s soooo good. - Parker and Hardison are great as well, sure, but nearly all of the serious conversations have Nate and Eliot at the center - and for a reason!).

Sophie loves him. Hardison loves him. Parker loves him.

Why is that? Is it because Maggie doesn’t see the ‘real’ Nate behind the insurance man? Is it because Nate plays to Eliot’s own need for revenge (and eventually: redemption)? Is it because Sophie is forever blinded by her crush on him, Hardison too naive, Parker too broken to know better?

We know it’s not that.

Maggie is fucking smart, and we get ample proof for that in The Second David Job alone, where we also see how well she understands Nate. Eliot is the team’s shield from the moment in The Nigerian Job where he hauled Hardison out of the warehouse. He can kill people with an horsd’oevre; he knows how to run risk assessment. Sophie proves time and time again over the course of the five seasons how well she knows Nate, Hardison’s heart is never wrong, and Parker? She understands Nate as well as she understands herself (which is, I realize, an ambiguous statement, but one to explore in another post :)).

They trust Nate because Nate IS granite on the inside. Because his moral code is unwavering.

They trust Nate because Nate is smart enough to surround himself with people to call him on his bullshit. They compensate with their compassion what he seems to lack. They could very well get by on their own but chose that they are better together. They know that he might run the occasional con on them but he would never try and twist them into something they aren’t or don’t want to be.

And they love Nate because Nate’s capability to love is unconditional and boundless. All it takes to prove that to us is that gut-wrenching six second long scream when Sam dies. Watch that scene again, I dare you, and then try to contradict me. And if you then haven’t tortured yourself enough yet, watch the bookend scene to that in The Long Goodbye Job when he pretends to grieve for his dead team. That grief is so real because Tim Hutton is a brilliant, brilliant actor, and it’s so real because that is what Nate feels, every time he thinks of fucking plan M.

https://dawnfelagund.tumblr.com/post/171312723953/list-of-tolkien-archives-updated/

or: Why I will never understand why Miss Fisher isn’t more popular

A feministic crime show set during 1920 in Australia that deals with homophobia, rasism, abortion, adoption, police voilence, communism and sexism 

A female main character who is able to outsmart all the men around her without making it feel unnatural or forced. Also she is really sexual active (nothing explicit, only implied) without making her into a slut but instead the show portrays a sexual active woman as something super normal

Two male characters who are police forces but who are 100% non toxic. They are also willing to change their old fashioned way of thinking (gays belong into prision, married women shouldn’t work) and give women and marginalized groups the space they deserve. Also they are absolut cuties and the promo pictures doesn’t do them justice so i choose other pictures

A lesbian side character who is a female doctor and is looking super hot

A lead woman who really has chemistry with her romantic male lead (including 3 seasons well written slow burn)

well written female friendships

well written cases that include humor

Yeah did i allready said this show has Miriam Margolyes in it?

Absolut cuties as side character who all get their own story and happy ends

and don’t let me start on the dresses they wear

oh and did i allready say that we will get a movie

and a chinese adaptation?

You may be able to request your Yahoo Groups directly from Yahoo. It will take several weeks for them to prepare and requests must be submitted before the Dec 14, 2019 deletion date to capture the files and other photos.

What will you get?

1. All of the Groups that you have joined.

2. Every message sent by anyone to those Groups.

3. Messages will be in a mbox format (you can read these Files with Thunderbird Email Program or Via MboxViewer)

4. Only some of the Files or Photos (we have no clue as to how they choose what to include. Photos often are missing)

5. Links (if the Group used them)

Databases and polls are not included.

All Groups will be compressed into one single zipped file.

Yahoo will only include Groups you are a member of up to the date of your request.

Go to: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/getmydata

How long and how big?

One Yahoo Group member reported that they have finally received a response to the Yahoo “GetMyData"  Request. 

They were a member of 17 Yahoo Groups. It  took Yahoo 10 days and the zipped download file was 1.1 GB  

Warning: Do not rely on this as your sole backup of your Yahoo Group data 

I want to take a sec to admire Nate’s battle with alcoholism as I re-watch the show. 

Mostly because, imo, it’s so brilliantly done. Think about it. Nate never really wins against it. It’s not something that can be won. It’s something you battle every single day, and sometimes you win, like he did in the break between seasons, and sometimes… sometimes you lose, like in The Bottle Job, the episode I just watched.

But I want to talk about that particular loss, and why I love it so much.

You see, in this episode, Nate acknowledges something very important: before, he was in denial. It is largely because of the events of S1 finale that Nate got sober–he was faced with three crucial things:

1. Failure - that was the first time the team really lost. Sure, they eventually won the game, but they had to scatter and reconsider and rethink, unlike the rest of their cons up to that point where Nate was able to think on the fly and save the situation.

2. Maggie - Maggie is one of the only morally sound people in this show. She is someone who knows and loves Nate, and whom Nate loves and knows. Her opinion is very important to him, and letting her see him like that seriously messed with him. He keeps wanting to tell her he is alright and those things are not true but… but they are. That’s kind of a slap in his face.

3. He losses the team. Sure, later, he is all reluctant to come back and yade yade but in a way, for Nate, THIS is the thing that’s is the hardest hit, because now he has all this time on his hands. He doesn’t have anything–anyone–to distract him from the pain, and that gives him that much needed time to… well, to figure out he is not okay.

Which is the important distinction he shares with Tara in the Bottle Job, the one where he loses the battle. Before, he thought he was okay, and now… now he knows he isn’t. And yet, he picks up the bottle.

Why?

Because of the con. 

Talk about brilliant writing. 

Nate is a strong man. He is someone who could do anything he put his mind to, as shown by the incredible stunts he pulls. The show itself says the world seems to bend to his will, like it’s a superpower. His will power is incredible. 

Which is why I love this episode so much.

The show could’ve made Sophie the unwitting architect of his downfall, caused by her leaving. The loss of her support and their relationship could’ve been used as The Reason it happened, which I would’ve hated, as it would’ve made Nate a bystander in his story, a submissive part of it. Which… Nate Ford has never been in his life.  

Sophie leaving is part of why he start looking for that out again, sure, because he needs her in a way he didn’t realize before and is not ready to face. But she is not the reason. Nate’s willpower is not that weak.

Nate decided to stop drinking on his own, and he decided to pick it up on his own.

Sophie is not the thing that will make or break him–she makes him better, as he makes her, but it’s not at her feet that his drinking again lies.

The reason he drinks again is simple. His determination to win the con clashed with his determination to stay sober.

And finally. FINALLY. He had an excuse to pick the bottle again. The bottle that has been singing for him, but he couldn’t touch because he is Nate Ford. 

This is IT. The only thing that could make Nate drink again. This is a con on himself. He is his own mark, finding that loophole that would bring him to oblivion.

Because Nate is the Mastermind. His ego and pride are tied to the con. This is what he does, what gives him a reason to continue, and therefore the only thing that can “justify” taking the bottle again. 

And once he justifies it once… well, he already broke. No reason not to break again, and again, and again, right?