Several times throughout leverage, the team tells Nate he's taking a job too personally and that it's dangerous and someone could get hurt because he's not thinking clearly. And just about every time, Nate denies there's any issues and agrues that he has it under control and that everything will be fine. Then we have the last episode, their last job together. When the Interpol agent asks Nate what his mistake was and how his friends died, he starts by establishing that the job was very personal. His mistake was not miscalculating the guards, it was letting his personal feelings get in the way. (The very thing he said Parker doesn't do before passing on the roll of mastermind to her, but that's not the point.) The point is, that the Interpol agent had no way of knowing about all the times Nate took a job too personally and it made the job more dangerous. She didn't know it had been an issue before, so it was almost like Nate only added that detail to the story for the team. It's like Nate was admitting to them that they had been right and that he did have a bad habit of putting them in danger because he was taking a job too personally. It was like an apology.
Okay this is amazing because I guess I usually think about this story from a Doylist perspective, like obviously all the callbacks and themes in it are what the WRITERS needed to make it a satisfying series finale for the VIEWERS. But what happens if you look at it as the story Nate chose to tell to the Interpol agent? I love this idea that the Interpol agent is sort of a blank slate here and so when he's talking to her he's really talking to the crew. So what all does he say to them?
An apology, to all of them. An acknowledgment of the struggles he's had and the danger he's put them in. Described perfectly above. I don't really need to say any more.
A blessing, to the OT3. You know that great post about how cute and funny it is that he's insisting to the agent "No this is important you need to write this down -- AND THEY DIED HOLDING HANDS." I can't find it right now unfortunately, but you know the one, right? Yeah it's funny but it's completely true, he wrote them together, till their last breath, caring for each other and holding onto each other. Very important heading into that final proposal scene -- to say that they are seen, that he understands and trusts them to be there for each other (which is a wild thing to say for a control freak who usually doesn't think the show can go on without him).
A warning, to Parker. The hardest part of this episode for me is Hardison's death. Because for the ENTIRE series, his fear of heights and Parker dropping him has been treated as a joke. And it's so tonally dissonant and horrifying to suddenly make it extremely real, to have Parker let him down and make that fear real in the worst way. I literally can't watch that scene half the time. So why would Nate write it that way? Because he's acknowledged his own flaw, now it's time to acknowledge hers, to make sure he passes on a warning before he puts her in charge. She has trouble with understanding and valuing the people she cares about. And that will put them in danger when she's the Mastermind, just like his personal overinvestment does. This is a message directly to Parker of what could happen if she doesn't pay attention to that.
A gift, to Sophie. Not only did he give her a beautiful hand-in-hand death scene (she loves a good death scene), but more impressively, he created a con where being onstage was PART of the con, and so she could act. Well. Onstage. He's tried so fucking hard to be supportive of her acting while knowing she will never be good at it but he made a way for her to be good at it. If you don't think that's the cutest shit then get out of my face.
That's all the messages I found, but I think there's one other thing to note here. He's not JUST telling this story to the unknown Interpol Agent. He's also essentially telling it to Sterling. And one of the ways that Sterling is a foil for Nate is that he's often Nate But Moreso. If one of Nate's flaws is a tendency to see the worst in people, Sterling has that times ten. So leaning into his own flaw and illustrating Parker's flaw creates exactly the kind of story Sterling is likely to swallow. Just like referencing Sophie's supposed bad acting makes Sterling unlikely to question the setup. Not sure how the OT3 part factors into that. That might not be helpful for selling the story at all, but it probably makes Sterling gag so that's just a fun bonus :)
