#everage

Ooh, good question! And one I'm honestly quite conflicted on.

First, to get the elephant out of the room, I fucking love the Hurricane Job and you're welcome to go read my old post about that. I still stand by everything I said there (if anything I like it more nowadays) and Hurricane is very very much a contender for favourite episode - but in order to not repeat myself, I'll discount it from this discussion.

Other than that, it's between Tower Job, Bucket Job, Muddy Waters and Walk in the Woods.

(Belly of the Beast deserves an honerable mention for being objectively the best episode and a stunning exploration of a gimmick in just the best way, but my hook for Leverage has always been the characters first and foremost - sorry, John Rogers, I agree with Downey and Devlin on that one - and it's an episode which has that juice sorely lacking for obvious reasons.)

Tower Job is I think the quintessential Redemption episode, and it's one that executes everything it wants to in exactly the way in which it wants to. If you have to watch one episode to sell someone the show, it's this one. Is it perfect? No, but all it's problems are things that apply to the whole rest of Redemption and are things that Redemption the show does not think to be problems. Also, it's got some beautiful Harry moments and a really, really, REALLY good Eliot callback - I can't explain Eliot's character now without referencing that scene in the elavator.

Bucket Job... okay, well, it's the episode that made me love Redemption. Because when it comes down to it, Redemption might have problems but it's the thing I love more than anything else, it's Leverage. It's this franchise, it's these characters. I watched that Red Haze scene for the first time and pretty much said aloud "Well, as long as Eliot Spencer's past is still haunting him, I'm in." And while I don't neccessairaly stand by that statement? It captures the allure of the episode quite well. Oh! And it's a christmas episode so in my mind that forgives it's goofiness even if the goofiness is the fault of the show and not the premise. Also, that closing fight scene is gooooood, and Beth can direct pretty damn well.

Muddy Waters!!! Like Tower Job, it's an episode that executes the premise of Redemption really damn well, and in my mind it's only major problem is the fact that it's so f*cking forgettable I had to look up the name for it on wikipedia just to make this list. But it's the payoff of a season's buildup for Harry and a damn good penultimate episode to boot - everyone gets their little moments.

Walk in the Woods - firstly, Noah Wyle needs to be allowed to direct and write the entire show if he wants to, because I cannot BELIEVE that an episode this good came from someone with nothing to do with original leverage. Does it have problems? Yes. As is par for the course for Redemption, the whole thing is way too goofy - but it's got a solid solid emotional core in Eliot and a few frankly awesome lines and scenes.

Overall.... hmm. I don't know. Genuinely. I think Bucket Job is maybe my personal favourite? But in terms of the best episode, that goes to Tower Job or Belly of the Beast or heck, even Date Night, which I didn't even mention here. But there are a few contenders.

And in conclusion - screw y'all it's Hurricane 😂

(Kidding.)