Leverage‘s summer (or is that season?) finale made me laugh out loud, but it was a bit of a whimper when it came to resolving the Moreau deal, which leads me to believe this was a summer finale cliffhanger and not the end of season three. The TNT website calls it the summer finale, but all the promos that aired referred to it as the season finale. Seeing as Wil Wheaton‘s episode hasn’t aired yet, I’m definitely in the summer finale camp. I’m just wondering if there are only two episodes left, though, and why they’d air them so much later than the others….
As funny as Parker the corpse was (and Parker the FBI agent), Hardison and Eliot stole the funny this week. I thought it was hysterical when they were smacking each other in the van, when using the computer to mimic the lawyer’s voice, but that was only the beginning.
There’s something so magical about the way they’ve developed Eliot and Hardison’s relationship. When they began the series, it was those two that I thought would never become close. They had nothing in common and seemed to not even respect what the other did. Now when I see the two of them interact, it goes beyond sibling rivalry … all I can think of is Bert and Ernie. Even though they interact so well and can work together now, they still stick to their strengths.
You see this in spades when they worked together tonight as Officers Hardison and Spencer. Hardison, still not quite confident out in the field, takes the prisoner back because he’s afraid to blow their cover. Eliot, always the protector of kids, takes a domestic abuse call. But again, it’s their interactions (Bert and Ernie) that make their scenes so enjoyable to watch. Getting the paperwork to Sophie could have been bland, but it was my favorite part of the episode.
So now we’re left with the team taking on Moreau themselves — exactly where The Italian wanted them. I suppose I’m mildly intrigued by who she’s working for and why they want Moreau taken down (with their hands clean), but mostly I’m just looking forward to seeing how the team delivers the con of the season. I’m left wondering if The Italian’s threats to the team were empty or if that will rear its ugly head in the next episodes. I just hope they find a way to make Moreau as fun as Sterling.
Worth mentioning:
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Sep 06, 2010 @ 10:00 EST5EDT
Everyone talked about how brilliant and funny the Rashomon Job was, but to me, this episode was 10x better. This, to me, was the quintessential Leverage episode. The team is so much better when they are working together instead of against each other (In that special Leverage way that working together is working against each other.
And Parker still rocks.
*POST AUTHOR*
Yeah, I really didn’t say it in my write-up, but I loved this episode. I also loved “The Roshomon Job” but it was great to really see them all working together so well … it was reminiscent of the old days, like the orphanage ep.
Frakes directed this episode… I’ll bet, if you compared a list of the best Leverage episodes, and the ones Jonathan Frakes directed, it would be very similar :)
This episode was awesome … hell the whole season was awesome. As for it being the finale, I thought they made it pretty clear at the end of the episode with the whole “Leverage is still in production” bit and how new episodes will return in December … and that they referred to it as the summer finale and all …
*POST AUTHOR*
Ah! Thank you for that. My DVR cut off the end so I didn’t hear that part, and all the TNT promos called it the season finale. Thank you!
You know, I enjoyed this episode – I pretty much always do – but I’m still hung up on how awesome The Rashomon Job was. It’s hard to live up to that level of genius. I do agree with Ivey the team is best when they work together, but the brilliance of Rashomon was proving that notion by showing how badly everything went when there working at odds.
Something I wondered, but failed to mention in my review, why did they make Parker up to look soooo pale? If it had only been a couple of hours, and had been no blood loss, would she look that way? And if so, why didn’t they make hands or feet look pale?
Hardison and Eliot were definitely the best part of the episode. Their “Cops” moment was hilarious.
My favorite line of the episode? “Don’t stab…don’t stab….don’t stab” in reference to “The Stork Job” in Season One.
I disagree that the season was awesome…as a whole. If you take each episode individually, they were all great, but I think the way they handled the Moreau storyline really bit. Introduce it whiz bang in the first episode, but rarely mention again till the last two episodes, and even then with a whimper? If you can’t follow through on a “big bad” storyline and nuture it throughout the season, as Burn Notice does so effectually, then just stick to the week to week capers.
Yes it was the summer finale. There are three episodes coming in December, but only showing for two weeks. Two of them will show back to back.
Hope this helps :)