Leverage

(even with the example early on of Eliot using this trick - anger as a performance, quickly switched off - to get Sophie to admit that she wasn’t apologising. I will never be over season one Eliot successfully tricking the team’s grifter that way. And for such a gentle reason.)

so we get Nate strolling casually up to the table to ask Sterling what he’s doing here - which, big mob boss vibes there, it’s gorgeous - and I’m just thinking about how Eliot ‘snapping’ and going after Sterling allows Nate to be civilised, because Nate doesn’t have to threaten Sterling or remind him not to mess with them; his man, working for him and under his control, has already done that. And Nate being civilised and calling the shots allows Eliot to safely lean into his don’t-mess-with-me angry hitter persona, probably to make a point, probably to have a little fun as well. (Really I don’t even stop to justify that scene. It just causes me so much joy as it is.)

the first time I saw the french connection job, the ‘call off your dog’ bit bugged me. Nate hearing that and (after a moment) doing so meant he was implicitly agreeing with the idea that Eliot was his dog, and that Eliot wasn’t capable of standing down by himself. Which goes entirely out the window if it’s a grift. Reading it as almost transactional, an agreement between the two to enable each other to lean into their respective roles in little plays for their marks’ benefits - and their own - makes it so much better. Nate gets to come across as reasonable and in control of powerful assets; Eliot gets to scare people into believing that he really would hurt them badly if they gave him a reason, and his reputation survives another day, and people don’t look too closely.

“You know, people underestimate you, Eliot.” “That’s kind of the point.”

But at the same time, I think it's because some part of him thinks that if he and Maggie had been able to scrap together enough money, they would have been able to save Sam. They mortgaged the house and sold their car, and they still didn't have enough.

Nate knows the power that money has. He's not stupid, he's grieving a little bit every time someone comes to him asking for help. He's thinking, maybe this time the kid gets to live.

tara: wait, THE parker?? shit, isn’t she crazy?

sophie: no! don’t say that, she’s so sweet! we’ve been working hard on grifting skills and she’s really improving! no more stabbing - well, knock on wood - and the other day she even offered to throw me off a building. i think we’re really making progress.

tara: are you hearing yourself

sophie: wait wait wait, just look at this photo! here she is dressed up for a grift - i picked the costume out for her - isn’t she just adorable? <3

tara: …alright. next time maybe just adopt a cat instead of, you know, the world’s greatest thief.

——

sophie, circa 2023: my stepdaughter, astrid, who i [presumably] never told you about came back into my life recently.

tara: i - okay. sure.

sophie: she’s an interpol agent working for sterling and she’s doing such a great job hunting people down. she even found out multiple aliases of mine! i’m so proud! i initially thought she’d want to toss me in prison or get revenge on me because her father sort of died of a broken heart when i left, but she’s actually very kind and just as adorable as ever! we’re getting tea next monday :)

tara:

But the way they handle it? God!

It feels like after someone has a scandal, people want to pretend like the person and everything they touched was never likeable or good. I get it (believe me). But the Leverage team decided to go a different way.

Nate was integral to the original Leverage. He was the fulcrum for the arcs everyone else went on. The first series is really framed as his journey through his rage and grief. And by the end of the series, he's come to the end of his journey. In reality, any sequel to the original didn't need him to begin with.

Oh, I'm sure that they could have found a good use for the character, but he wasn't really necessary anymore.

Instead, Nate's still treated like an important character, his shadow's still there but he's dead and gone. And so the series moves from having Nate in the center to Sophie. Sophie is the new emotional core. The same way Nate's grief drove him, Sophie's grief drives her. But Nate died not because of some rich asshole, but likely due to his years of alcohol abuse. There is no one to lash out at or take revenge on.

But now is also not 2008 when the first series started. It's 2021, and I believe it hits harder to have a character to decide to get into hunting horrible people not because of a need for revenge, but for a need to have a life and a purpose outside of who they lost.

Sophie's journey so far has never undercut her loss or her grief. It's still there, even when she's happy, even when she's working, even when something's going wrong. It's there. It's raw. It can stop her short and also drive her forward. But also, her grief isn't just tying her down anymore. She has something to focus on now. The balance Leverage Redemption strikes is so perfect and necessary. It feels real.

Nate was an important character in the last series. And not bringing him up regularly, when he's only dead a year, would seem cheap and hollow. They don't over do it, so that when Nate is mentioned it can be a gut punch, but the importance of that character isn't undervalued.

In both removing Nate, but also acknowledging what he meant to the characters, the show reminds the audience of an inportant fact: it's not 2008 anymore. It's a different time, and things we treasured are gone. The road ahead is less clear. Plans are broken. Things are darker. But there's still hope.

"Timothy Hutton?"

"Yeah, him. So I used to make his secret hair color."

???????

After much vague and circuitous discussion, I learned:

Timothy Hutton went completely gray well before Leverage started.

This was supposed to be Not Okay for a star at the time so this was supposed to be a big secret

His stylists developed a special custom hair color for him

The formula for this color was ALSO a big secret

When production moved to Portland they revealed the secret formula to MY stylist

She did not DO his hair, her role in this process was specifically to MAKE THE SECRET FORMULA and then give it to the people who did his hair

I asked her if she would get in trouble if I shared this. She said "I mean it's embarassing so he'd probably just deny it. So go ahead."

But then, Parker!!!! Parker, the one who stabbed a guy after she was triggered and jumped off of a balcony in a foreign country. Parker, who used chloroform coz she couldn’t distract a guy away from his desk. Parker, who used excessive borderline obsessive note taking to talk to a mark. Parker, who cried when a mark read her trauma from her micro expressions.

But then. Then it just, makes sense! It makes sense because like she says, she has gone through extensive therapy for YEARS! She has processed her trauma, her grief, her years of being ‘othered’ till she found her people. Parker has lived, and loved, and toppled empires of crime.

And none of this has made her more ‘palatable’. It would’ve been so easy, SO EASY, to put forth a more ‘easy to go’ Parker to the audience and tell them OH! She just ‘grew up’.

But from there it's all in the production and camera work. The little diner set feeling like the old bar. The courtroom set. The fuckin hallway outside the courtroom idk what it is but I was transported back to 2008 from that hallway alone.