mild spoilers for season finale but also a glimmer of hope: https://twitter.com/rsadelle/status/284504310291767296
Looking back at the church miracle episode, Spoiler: spoips while I'm not sure they could've pulled it off quite as well any other way, I really wish that Nate had listened to Hardison's discomfort about "what the fuck, you want me to fake a miracle, are you serious? Oh lordy, we're all going to hell and I'm going to stand well away from you so that I don't get hit with lightning when you do" instead of that whole bit being played for laughs. Because the implication is that Hardison actually does believe, to some degree, and does have genuine concerns that he's going to get a spiritual black mark for his participation in this. ...honestly, "Nate doesn't listen to other people's concerns" is a running issue in the show, and I wish they'd ever properly addressed it beyond the rest of the team expressing discomfort and irritation at Nate for not listening.
A little over halfway through season 2, and Sophie's personal crisis is infinitely more compelling than Nate's. Also I can see the Maltese Falcon waiting for me a couple episodes away and I am the hypest.
Spoiler: fun fact re sophie's personal crisis fun fact when she leaves the team to roam the world and she has a bunch of just videos, apparently it was because the actress was pregnant and it didn't fit the show so they were able to toss this in on one hand, it was a really fun switch up on the other hand, imagine the team with a baby
That is a way better way to handle it than killing her character off like some people do to actresses *glares at the entire Buffy franchise*.
It was also a cool way to temporarily work in another actress I'm fond of! Spoiler: re Sophie's crisis According to my roommate we never hear her original/real name, or even confirmation if the English noble backstory is the real backstory?
Spoiler: Sophie's name stuff Gina Bellman came up with Sophie's real name, apparently, but it will never be mentioned.
Yes, hello, I am here for this! :D I started watching a couple of weeks ago as a way to distract myself from *cough*stuff I should be doing *cough*, and it makes for excellent procrastination.
Also, if you like Leverage, you will probably like Hustle. :) It's British, and more focused on stealing for stealing, but the seasons I've seen were really good.
Spoiler: re: Sophie's name stuff We don't ever hear her real name, no, and we never find out if the English noble backstory is who the "real" Sophie was or if it's yet another fabricated identity. If it's a fabricated one, it's one good enough that the Duchess seems to genuinely like Sophie despite Sophie apparently having driven her nephew to drink.
Spoiler: Sophie background I assumed it's the most real since in that episode somebody made a remark about early jobs being the ones where people make the most mistakes that give themselves away... And that was her earliest caches, one of her earliest identities.
Fun thing I just learned: Apollo Robbins, who is both a very accomplished thief in his own right and the pickpocketing consultant for this show, played Parker's counterpart in The Two Live Crew Job. He also does talks. Here is one, because I am ridiculously impressed and wish to share.
Hooooo boy that end of season 4. Spoiler I was not prepared for suddenly sincere fathering or suddenly sincere worried son. I absolutely adored the number of callbacks. The way Dubenich&Latimer caught Jimmy the same way Nate got the team to escape. The flashback to Nate and Jimmy doing the subtle snatch and grab and the display of bonding they were both somewhat faking but argggh. "Say my name :)" Chaos says as his main condition "My daughter" Archie says, cheerfully strolling away with his protege daughter to join her on the job she came to recruit him for, instead of capitulating to the living home suggestion of his birth daughter. "I'll owe you a favor," Eliot concedes "She's becoming quite the excellent grifter," Sophie compliments The way Nate turned his intended double murder into giving them the extra push to kill each other, a nice echo of the skill with the politician and the contractor. The way Jimmy's playful Irish music started up as Nate advanced with the gun And dang it you guys, just because Mate won't let the bat cave be headquarters doesn't mean you can't get it as one of your sillier safehouses It's disappointing that we don't seem to get any friends or family from Hardisen's past the way we do for all the others. Eliot's serious ex with the horses, Nate's ex-wife, Parker's mentor, even Sophie's auntish lady from (one of) her first identities.
Spoiler: end of season 4 I think they choose not to have it be a safehouse because Chaos would know where they might go hide. And Chaos tends to be obnoxious and backstabby, so it'd be a risk. It is disappointing that we haven't seen any of Hardison's past, yeah - but I figure part of that is, we tend to only see the parts of their pasts that are relevant to the job at hand. Hardison has been very very careful about keeping his friends and family the hell away from his work. The closest we ever get to a suggestion of his family being involved at all was that he hacked into that first bank so that his Nana's medical bills could be paid off. Honestly, I think the other part is: there's an implication that Hardison might not have anyone left from his past. We know that his very first job was hacking into a Swedish (I think?) bank to get the money to pay for his Nana's medical bills. We don't, I think, ever find out what those medical bills were for or whether his Nana's even still around; it's entirely possible that she isn't, and that he's got no family till he starts bonding with the Leverage crew.
That's good to hear, since I was worried while writing that, that she'd had cancer or something. ...I'm still sad now, because thinking of how rarely he must get the chance to visit her.
I'm into the fifth season and I've had many feelings but I suspect there are still some feelings to come. Spoiler: end of fourth/start of fifth Like whatever ominous stuff Nate arranged with Hardison which, due to long since fragmented spoilers I got off Tumblr, I think are just some kind of plans and insurance put into place for if Nate goes off the rails and the triad mini team in the team needs to cut ties with him and branch off on their own but I'm not sure and I'm not sure how it'll end if it'll end, or if it'll just be an episode that's the end of what they show us
