You know what gets me about leverage? Every single villain is absolutely and utterly boring. And I mean that in the best way possible. No dark and mysterious sexy villains or misunderstood extremists who actually had the right idea maybe hmmm it’s complicated. NO. Just corrupt white guys (and sometimes non-white non men but 9 times out of 10 it’s an old white guy in a suit) being greedy, and greed and or overconfidence being their downfall. There are a few instances where the show grants some sympathy for the villain of the week who “can be a decent guy but currently kinda going through something and not realizing the damage they are causing but start doing better once they are confronted (pretty dramatically) about it, and also usually after most of the consequences of their actions have already started biting them in the butt big time” (Hurley, Molly’s dad).
But other then that? The show is committed to showing that all these evil things are happening due to greedy people with too much power, and most importantly, that’s not interesting. Those people are boring.
Even Moreau? Hyped up for an entire season, complicated dark past to one of the team members? Boring, greedy, overconfident dude. Gets taken down by his own overconfidence more than the “24 year old genius with a smartphone and a problem with authority”. Not once does the show try to spin him in a more compelling, intriguing light. We get “He prefers beer” and then like, two episodes of proof that Moreau didn’t pay much attention to Eliot after he left (and is in general not that smart of a dude but that’s a different post). Moreau was only “interesting” as far as Eliot’s character development was concerned but beyond that he had the depth of an origami clown.
Latimer and Dubenich? Same hype, same downfall. Same lack of depth.
Udall? Who I think is one of the only “ideological” villains in the show? Not for a second are his ideas entertained, instead they hint strongly that Vance (one of the “good guys”) is on pretty thin fucking ice as well for someone on the “”“opposite end”“” of that spectrum (I do not expect criticism of the US military/police state in US television at all, so I felt like that leeway was as good as it gets, lol).
I’m not saying villains in fiction shouldn’t be interesting or have a point or whatever, because that’s literally their narrative function. But I do appreciate how Leverage came to point out the problems at the tip of the system and went “these kinda guys exist irl, they have blood on their hands, and they are not sympathetic or compelling. They are just greedy and they suck.”
Imagine you’re some big time lawyer for a multinational, multimillion dollar company and you’re walking into court to defend your company against charges for crimes they absolutely committed. And you’re thinking to yourself, “I’m a big time lawyer for a multinational, multimillion dollar company— I can win this case in my sleep and if I can’t, I can always buy it out.” And you walk into court on the first day of trial thinking you’ve got this in the bag, thinking there’s no way you could lose. And you walk into the court room, and you approach the bench. And you’re confronted with fucking Jimmy Papadopoulos. And he WINS.
Dream melodramatic ot3 declaration of feelings scenario (that I’m thinking about post-s5, but could certainly work for Redemption) is this:
This time it’s Eliot who steps on the bomb.
They’re only meant to be doing recon, and he almost wants to laugh when he hears the click, a little past the boundary of their mark’s sprawling land. Years of precautions and paranoia and he’s about to get taken out by a fucking booby-trap like an expendable character in one of Hardison’s action movies.
Parker and Hardison are still walking up ahead, and for a second he thinks about letting them go, letting them get clear of the danger zone and then just lifting his foot. Only he swallows, watching them, lump rising fast in his throat—he hasn’t been scared of death itself for a long, long time, but the idea of never talking to them again, never looking at them again, never telling them—
Well. It’s unbearable.
Besides that, while the placement of the device suggests it’s the only one, he can’t be sure, and besides that, it doesn’t take them long to notice he’s no longer right behind them.
‘You okay?’ Hardison calls, and the look on Eliot’s face must be answer enough, because they’re both coming back to him before he can choke out a warning.
‘So yeah,’ he manages, when they’re within a few feet of him. He holds himself very, very still, even as his heart seems to hurl itself over and over at the walls of his chest. ‘Looks like our guy went to the Udall school of home security.’
‘Eliot,’ Parker whispers, eyes dropping to his feet. Her mouth sets into a firm line. ‘How do we fix this?’
‘You can’t.’
‘It’s okay; we’re gonna figure it out,’ Hardison assures him.
‘You should get out of here,’ Eliot says, through gritted teeth. There are no wires for Parker to pull this time, no clever computer resets for Hardison to try.
‘We’re not doing that,’ Hardison says immediately, dropping to a crouch to try to get a better look at the barely-buried pressure plate, and Eliot wants to scream.
‘You need—I’m serious, you both need to get as far away as possible. We don’t know if this thing’s on a timer or—’
‘Then we’d better figure it out fast,’ Parker says, squatting down next to Hardison.
Then they’re talking to each other, the two of them, but he’s not really processing what they’re saying. Instead his pulse is thundering in his ears and he’s thinking about the pie he’d planned on making later. How they’d have both picked at the raw pastry and he’d have pretended to be annoyed at them. How they’d have argued they had just as much say in how this pie came together, because Eliot had dragged them out of the city to pick the berries specially (had watched the two of them goof around—Parker smushing a ripe blackberry against Hardison’s mouth and then kissing the deep purple stains away, Hardison putting Parker up on his shoulders so she could reach high into the hedgerows—and felt the odd mix of longing and deep contentment that is sunk into his bones by now, thrumming warm and sweet through his veins, settled forever into every atom).
It would’ve been good, that pie, and it would have been even better to watch them eat it, Parker with so much ice cream she’d get brain freeze, Hardison with that awful powder mix custard, at their dinner table in their home that they built together.
‘I need to tell you something,’ Eliot says.
‘—makes sense that it’d be deactivated remotely,’ Hardison is saying.
‘I need to tell you something,’ Eliot says, louder.
It really IS like [Eliot in the shower, curtain pulls back, Hardison: “hey are we - stop screaming it’s just me - are we past your emotional and physical barriers yet?”] tho.
I want this fic. I want BOTH of these fics. I want Hardison & Parker deciding that if Eliot isn’t going to be talkative on his own, the occasional fun and festive Shower Ambush is the way to go. He’s flustered enough to shoot answers from the hip, and naked enough to not escape easily. The escalation from ‘where’s the orange soda?’ to ‘you know we know you love us, right?’ would be a thing of beauty.
Plus, who’s going to pass up that gun (…and etc.) show? (Hardison is, because he’s a gentleman whose Nana raised him right. He [mostly] doesn’t look. Parker looks. Unabashedly. And occasionally tries to poke a scar that she hasn’t seen before. At one point a slap fight may or may not happen.)
AASJSHDHSHDHHSD“flustered enough to shoot answers from the hip and naked enough to not escape easily”
I’LL TAKE PHRASES THAT WILL LIVE IN MY HEAD RENT FREE FROM NOW ON FOR 500 ALEX
…so I wrote this It turned out SLIGHTLY more intense in places than I’d anticipated, but I kept my goofy first title idea anyway… and a lot of specific lines from this thread. So thanks to @eliot-wolfgirl-spencer,@bisexualeliotspencer, and @sun-lit-roses for the inspiration!
And I hope you all enjoy my offering of Shower Thoughts: Five times Hardison and Parker interrupt Eliot’s shower and one time he gets revenge interrupts Hardison’s
i’m just obsessed with the fact that the three of them still work so many years later. from what i’ve gotten textually from the show, yes, hardison and parker are dating, but the family unit is hardison/parker/eliot.
hardison and parker are shown to be physically affectionate, but there’s an electric and stable type of connectedness between all of them showing how in each other’s lives they have been:
eliot and hardison pointing where the stolen art belong,
parker and eliot always ending up together,
parker and hardison getting excited together,
the inside jokes,
the big decision making.
parker highlights his emotional connection to this specific team and eliot brings out his sense of duty. the other couldn’t provide the emotional support the other can, but as a unit, there’s help at every corner. parker still has eliot who has been her partner in (undoing) crime for years. eliot has parker, his partner that keeps him sharp. and both of them rest easy knowing hardison is using his big heart for good.
however, while canon has established that they have thoroughly,
thoroughly,
thoroughly
been in each other’s lives, it has not been explicitly stated it’s a polyamorous thing. canon, for me, would be them saying in no uncertain terms that eliot has also lived with them, or something like that. or perhaps, they would establish it in the middle of the second half of the season.
that being said, i have an enormous amount of fun with the show, and for whatever reason we haven’t been able to get our canon ot3, i’m so happy we see them as a family first and foremost, because it would have been so easy to let that disappear between the years.
Headcanon that right after THAT scene in redemption, the next moment Hardison and Parker have on their own Hardison turns to Parker and goes “What do you mean ‘Eliot’s looking for romance’? What do you mean "It’s not the same with us?! Babe, are we- are wenot dating Eliot, somehow?” “I don’t think he thinks he is dating us. He’s just dating us… platonically.” “We said "til death do us part”.“ "Hm-hm.” “We’ve been living together for the past 8 years. We have cuddle piles. I figured he isn’t into the sexy stuff with us but more power to him and-” “Maybe we should have talked about it.” “I thought we did! I bought him a brewpub! I thought it was obvious! Who says 'til death do us part’ platonically!” “Eliot.” “… But we’re still good, right?” “Yeah, of course, all the pretzels.” “And we’re both still in love with Eliot.” “Naturally.” “Good. Okay, cool, that’s a relief, at least that.” “…” “…” “Let’s go steal us an Eliot?” “Let’s go steal us an Eliot. Properly this time.”
There are two queens in Team Leverage and currently Sophie is leading the Home Team, and we might see Sophie as the active leader but when all is said and done, Parker is still the one with the final say.
And in the Harry Wilson Job we can see Parker in the background, pacing like a caged tiger. She’s already angry from what happened to the people in the oil rig, but this new supposed betrayal by Harry? She’s beyond that now.
Look at her pacing in the background, she’s trying to contain her anger here and then she stops pacing and stands with Eliot. She’s still and quiet and tbh, Parker is all the more scary when she isn’t moving.
Seriously, Parker is the calm stillness before the storm, I know I’ve been enthusiastic about Sophie’s mastermind energy this season, but Parker is also a power. She’s just not choosing to wield it.
The way she’s even framed in this scene, in all black, with the sunlight behind her. It’s amazing tbh.
Eliot and Sophie know that with the reputation and cred Harry gathered, he’s a prime and ideal candidate for R.I.Z.
But Sophie can’t let it go, she’s still wondering why Harry still let her go.
Parker, however, was having none of it. The way she says, quietly but firmly, Harry Wilson was all out of chances.
But also this is Team Leader!Parker, this is the time where we’re reminded and Sophie is reminded that Sophie is leading the team because Parker is letting Sophie lead the Home Team.
Look at Parker’s body language, her whole vibe doesn’t brook any arguments and Sophie can read it plain as day.
Parker is reminding Sophie Harry was her project but Parker is done.
Parker’s voice gentled a bit when she reminded Sophie ‘Not everyone can be saved.’
I think one other reason why Parker is happy that Sophie is the Team Lead because as the Team Lead, Parker found she has to put herself at a distance because of some decisions she has to make. And we’re seeing here is that Parker, Parker who is the Head of Leverage International for 9 years running.
In a way, this reminds me of the Genetic empire in the current Foundation series where there is a balance of leadership between the Three Cleon Emperors, but also they can take the current emperor in the middle seat to task when needed.
It’s a subtle moment between Sophie and Parker but we can see it hear and I love it.
Two powerful women in their prime and never butting heads but also holding the other accountable when needed. I love this show so much.
eliot’s wrist is killing him in the toy joy, and nate doesn’t include any risk of eliot punching someone, which is why eliot’s out as super sensitive blogger dad. right at the end, nate realizing how to, yknow, work in eliot’s pain to the plan.
i am THINKING again abt the qwat vibes circa 2005. eliot’s just left moreau and is compulsively stress-making bread for the fourth day in a row like “yeah but how do you live with all the Guilt” and quinns like. *around a mouthful of bread* “the what”
Can someone smarter than me please explain why the lift handoffs in leverage are so goddamn intimate?
Like, I am handing you this stolen object discretely and out of sight from everyone else. Our hands are touching but we’re not looking at each other at all. We are passing through a crowded room heading in opposite directions yet we are on the same team and we are having a brief point of contact to exchange something important and illicit. We are complementary parts of a greater design, two fitting cogs of a machine we’ve built together.
what she means: when parker tells eliot, “i’m scared you’ll move on from all this and i can’t do this without you,” it’s a direct parallel to the, “can you hear me, alec? i need you” scene in the grave danger job ep of the og show. that parker can express this to eliot without the pressure of a life-or-death situation is an enormous testament to her growth over the past offscreen decade, and the line also thematically establishes eliot as a part of parker’s life who is just as important as her current romantic partner. we thought these three people had sorted their shit a decade ago, but what we’re actually watching unfold is the slow coalescing of this found family, as eliot realizes he doesn’t want to deprive himself of good things and parker realizes she feels upset and threatened by eliot’s relationship without understanding why. parker’s jealousy is ALSO new and seems to have taken her by surprise, which means that as eliot is realizing he’s been repressing his desires, parker herself is realizing she has wants and needs that she’s never quite quantified before. add to all this the absolute fucking hilarity of eliot’s Viscerally Disturbed reaction to being called parker’s brother, and you have two people who are transparently in love but not quite far enough in their character arcs to be able to acknowledge it. hardison’s absence has made both eliot and parker way crazier to both their benefit and detriment. he needs to come home but all three of them are in fucking love and every arc choice happening here is amazing holy god i can’t believe i get to watch this i’m losing my fucking mind
I have come to the decision that I need to read more Leverage fics where Eliot goes on a rampage and just absolutely obliterates a bunch of people for taking/hurting Parker or Hardison. This could mean him slipping back into Murder Eliot mode, ruthless and calculating and efficient no one who gets in his way is left alive or this could mean him going off script; Nate, Sophie and Parker or hardison (whoever wasn’t taken ofc) try to make a plan and figure it out but when they finally look up to ask Eliot his input he’s just fuckin gone, and they’re all like shit fuck Eliot’s about to kill people, but Eliot only knocks everybody out and comes back in later with whoever was taken/hurt cradled in his arms and he’s just whispering reassurances and comfort to them and maybe he’s injured bc he couldn’t care less about being hurt he just had to get them back and eventually he’ll tend to himself but right now parker/hardison is the priority and besides, he’s always had worse and is well equipped to handle a “little” pain (depending on how much you like whump) and just aidbsbsndjxj
Lots of protective!Eliot and ot3 vibes
Anyway hit me up with links if ya know anything like that pls or maybe I should write smth like this myself
Hardison was the first to run across videos of “the chocolate guy.” When he excitedly shoved his phone under Eliot’s nose (while Eliot was cooking, as if he didn’t have to keep an eye on the pan on the stove to keep it from burning), Eliot pasted on a resigned smile and obediently watched whatever Hardison was so excited about this time.
His eyebrows climbed higher and higher as the concoction progressed to become an incredibly realistic ornate compass. (Hardison was the one who had to pause the video and ask if the stuff on the stove was supposed to be starting to smoke like that.) After salvaging his recipe, Eliot oh-so-casually asked who the video was of and if there were any more.
Parker required no convincing to be interested. Any chef described as “the chocolate guy” was worth checking out in her book, although after the first few she insisted on having cookies or something around when watching, because her mouth was watering by the end of every video.
Which was why, some months later when Nate and Sophie dropped by for a visit, Nate was flummoxed to have a large model ship set in front of him on a platter after dinner.
Eliot presented it with a grin and a flourish. Parker hovered over his shoulder, bouncing on the balls of her feet. Sophie tried and failed to cover her smirk across the table, eyes sparkling with glee. Hardison was filming.
Nate shot a suspicious look at all of them. “…What’s this?”
“Dessert,” said Eliot, innocently.
Nate took a second look at the ship, baffled. It looked like one of his models, albeit perhaps slightly smoother and glossier in places than usual. The majority of the ship was a deep brown with a subtle grain and accents of a paler wood. The daintily carved figurehead of a woman had Sophie’s face, and the name painted in gold on the side was “Leverage.” The rigging…wait.
Nate leaned closer to peer at it. The rigging looked right at first glance, and second, but upon closer inspection the lines were too smooth and they appeared to be fused rather than knotted together.
His brow furrowed.
The sails…weren’t fabric. They had a subtle texture resembling woven threads, but a look at the edges revealed that the furled sheets were a little too thick and solid to match the “weave.”
Nate sat back, frowning. The others were still grinning at him.
“OK, I give up. How is a model ship ‘dessert’?”
Eliot pulled out a large knife and sliced cleanly through the deck, placing the prow of the ship onto a smaller dessert plate and revealing the layers of decadent fillings inside.
“Like that.”
“You…Youmadethis?”
“We all made it!” Parker burst out, in a rush. “Eliot made the hull and all the fillings and flavorings, and Hardison cast the masts and stuff out of chocolate and molded all the details, and I assembled all the finicky stuff!”
“And ate slightly excessive quantities of chocolate while working,” chuckled Hardison, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder.
Nate shook his head. He shot Sophie a vaguely accusatory look. “You knew.”
“I did show you those videos Hardison sent months ago, you know” she said. Her amusement faded into a fond smile. “Happy birthday, Nate.”
[id: 3 screenshots from the show leverage and leverage: redemption: Hardison as Wade Perkins from the 3 days of the hunter job, Eliot as Willie Riker from the first contact job and Parker as Dire Wrath from The Bucket Job. End id.]
i feel like quinn will make it the problem of Everyone in a Ten Mile Radius if he’s forced to wear denim for a con, he’s in crisis, he’s never experienced this level of hardship in his Life, but if he gets shot during the same con he’s just like. “this is honestly so annoying”
bitches will be like “my ot3 ” and it’s a woman who could murder them, a guy who hasn’t had a good night’s sleep in six years, and another guy who almost got both of the other two murdered. it’s me i’m bitches
Imagine you’re some big time lawyer for a multinational, multimillion dollar company and you’re walking into court to defend your company against charges for crimes they absolutely committed. And you’re thinking to yourself, “I’m a big time lawyer for a multinational, multimillion dollar company— I can win this case in my sleep and if I can’t, I can always buy it out.” And you walk into court on the first day of trial thinking you’ve got this in the bag, thinking there’s no way you could lose. And you walk into the court room, and you approach the bench. And you’re confronted with fucking Jimmy Papadopoulos. And he WINS.
mcsweeten being in leverage redemption and still having not a clue that parker and hardison are, in fact, not federal agents and are actually world-class criminals
or at some point between the finale and now he did find out, and then some government official gets wind of one of their heists and is jabbing their finger at a blurry image of parker and hardison mid-thievery and with a completely straight face, mcsweeten explains that guys, those are agents hagen and thomas and they are working on an undercover op and were in no way at all involved of what is inconveniencing the government now
and the government official keeps trying to explain they are criminals but mcsweeten just pulls up their dossiers and credentials and he can literally see the vein throbbing in the man’s forehead but he just smiles says that he has personally worked with agent hagen and would trust her with his life
Ok but consider this the team comes clean and Mcsweeten takes it hard and says he needs some times alone . After a few days they go to check on him and find his apartment empty. Panicking they go to the FBI and find out that his office is empty too. After some discrete probing from Sophie they discover that Mcsweeten never existed . Apparently this was a brilliantly crafted false personality used by a mysterious spy who has managed to infiltrate the highest levels of the FBI
The team stunned and with their professional pride hurt decade to join in on the task force designed to hunt Mcsweeten . They finally track him down and burst into the warehouse only see … a surprise party with every member of the task force they thoguht they left in the dust and Mcsweeten who goes “I loved your prank where you tried to make me think you were criminals so I decided to play one on you as well. Thgouht it would be great for team building !”
And the episode just ends with the team unable to decide if Mcsweeten is really that oblivious or if he really is playing a massive prank on them
sterling is so funny because the leverage crew gives him endless grief and they snark at him and he snarks back but god forbid some other department wants to jail them or something because excuse me that’s his group of bothersome thieves and no one can touch them except him
#idk I just want sterling to be at the ot3s wedding as a joke invite but when he’s asked if he’s going he snatches the invitation and is like #NONE OF YOUR BUISNESS and then proceeds to get a thoughtful wedding gift #or a joke one your choice
The wedding gift is the location and specs of an obscenely high-tech kitchen gadget that actually does something really useful. He doesn’t give them the item, of course–if they want it, they have to come steal it from him. Said gadget is inside multiple nested safes (some computerized, some purely mechanical), inside a secure vault, inside a building with a good security system. There are a handful of not-particularly-assiduous guards (you know, just enough for Eliot to feel like he’s needed, without him having to actually work on his honeymoon). There are elaborate gratuitous laser grids both inside and outside of the vault. Each one has a conspicuously laser-free area just large enough to hold two deck chairs and a mini-cooler of beer and orange soda.
In the innermost safe, next to the gadget, are three feedback forms and a pre-addressed, stamped envelope so they can critique the security measures at their leisure. Mr. Quinn is waiting to “catch” them on the way out to ensure Eliot gets one satisfying, low-stakes fight out of this job. (There are, again, two convenient deck chairs nearby, but this time the cooler is stocked with orange soda and chocolate milk.)
I admire a lot of things about Tara, but the fact that she did not hesitate to back Eliot up on his plan for the hostage exchange in The Zanzibar Marketplace Job, not for a second, even though earlier in the same day she’d used him as muscle in a con and she’s only known him for a matter of weeks has gotta be near the top of the list.
I love this too. Tara’s the equivalent of a freelancer. She clocks in and out and only does as much as she’s paid for. But when she’s at work, she’s at work. They’re only getting out of a con with their clothes on their backs? She hates it, obviously. But she doesn’t bail.
She’s the best, she’s the best in a different way than Sophie is but she’s the best for sure. But also, Tara really, really trusts Sophie.
I’d say they’re not even friends at this point in the show (they definitely are by s4 though, which is a whole other thing I can talk about). But the trust is absolutely there. Sophie calls in a favor, says she’s going to set things up with Nate, and get Tara paid? Tara’s like okay. Sophie says that Tara can trust every single one of them but that Nate’s probably going to be the hardest to get along with? Tara’s like okay.
Tara will complain to Sophie all day and night about Nate. She’ll raise objections with Nate and to Sophie about Nate. But she doesn’t leave a job half-finished, and she trusts the team with her life on like their first job together.
Whatever the hell it is that built that trust between Sophie and Tara? I think about that all the time.
