Leverage/Fridge

"Hardison: (angry) Did no one think that I might like to meet Andre V.?"
 * Fridge Brilliance:
 * One episode has Eliot and Parker go to Fashion Week to sneak into famous hip-hop clothing designer Andre V.'s show. Upon their return:

"Eliot/Girl: Knives are like people. Everything's in context"
 * Parker mentions in "Ten Lil Grifters" that her first grab was a palace in the Philippines full of shoes. She robbed Imelda Marcos.
 * Hardison mentions offhand in "The Reunion Job," right at the beginning of Season 3, that he is capable of rigging an election. Nate apparently stored this tidbit somewhere in the back of his mind for six months in which it was completely irrelevant and then made it central to his plan in "The San Lorenzo Job."
 * In the pilot episode, when Nate states that Hardison dies in Plan M, Eliot comments "I like Plan M." Fewer than twenty-four hours later, guess who helps Hardison to his feet when fleeing a bomb?.
 * There are multiple layers of Fridge Brilliance in that scene. As everyone is fleeing the bomb, pay attention to what order they're in. Nate is in the lead because despite being one of the slowest runners he was the first person to find and point out the most efficient exit route, being the Mastermind. Parker, who is the fastest person in the group and at this point feels no loyalty to anyone except herself, then outraces Nate as she sprints for said exit. Hardison, who is not particularly athletic or experienced in crisis response at this point, falls behind Nate in the race (and, as previously mentioned, trips). The one person out of 'logical' order is Eliot; he's almost as athletic and quick as Parker and by far the most combat-experienced of the bunch, so you'd think he'd be well out in front. Until you factor in that Eliot is also the only ex-military member of the group and knows he's working with a bunch of civilians; he's (without even thinking about it) hanging back to cover the rear guard and pick up the wounded, and that's exactly what he does with Hardison.
 * More pilot episode Fridge Brilliance: the Leverage team is composed of veteran professionals perfectly suited to their roles, ideally suited to the task. Just the sort of team that Nathan Ford would be expected to pick, what with his deep knowledge both of heists and the elite thieving community. Except that Nate didn't pick them -- Dubenich did. This is your first clue that he's nowhere near the innocent businessman he presents himself as.
 * One might wonder how an actress as bad as Sophie keeps getting cast as the lead in various productions. Simple enough: she's a grifter. She just cons her way through an audition until she gets the part. The problem begins when she actually has to play a part onstage.
 * Which then makes you wonder why she never tried "conning" the audience into "believing" she's a great actress (which would in the end be no different to actual good acting).
 * Sophie doesn't usually try to con an entire auditorium full of people at once.
 * Eliot at first seems like just the average Handsome Lech trope. He hooks up with a different girl every week, but besides one ex who appears in an early episode, none of them seem to stick around more than a night. Then I really thought of the Ironic Echo in "The Reunion Job" about knives


 * You know how Eliot always explains away knowing various things as "slept with a ____"? He really pays attention to the girls he picks up, and he learns from them. It's not much, but it certainly plays into the "big softie" theme they have going with him.
 * The opening narration mentions that the Leverage team "steals back" things that have been taken. One of the recurring themes is people slighted or humiliated publicly. In addition to money, the team steals back their dignity.
 * Victor Dubenich says that all a man has in the world are his business, his possessions and his name. So to ruin Jack Latimer the Leverage team sets about stealing those three things, pretty simple. But remember the end of the speech, if you take away those three things "any man will kill" Nate wasn't just trying to bring Latimer down so that he would stop protecting Dubenich, no, Nate was systematically ruining Latimer to the degree that he would be willing to kill Dubenich himself!
 * In "The Stork Job", the team goes to rescue an abused Serbian orphan named Luka, who Parker finds with a bunch of other orphans in the upper floor of a warehouse. So, his name is Luka, and he lives on the second floor.
 * Fridge Horror: One episode has Eliot knock out a mob assassin in a hospital morgue and stash him in an occupied drawer. Now, you imagine waking up in a cold, dark, confined place with a dead body.
 * Watch Eliot's flashbacks very closely and consider what they imply about his pre-Leverage body count. It's... disconcerting.
 * In "The Long Way Down Job" it is revealed that Nate remembers little if any of stealing a mountain resort in "The Snow Job." While that was one of his drunkest episodes, this sets up the distinct possibility that Nate was too drunk to remember large portions of season one.
 * Second episode of season one, the group dispatches the thugs sent to kill the witness. Nate uses a defibrillator to drop one of them. The thing is, though, when you use a defibrillator, it doesn't just give you a shock - it STOPS YOUR HEART. Nate just killed that man.
 * It was a Magical Defibrillator. All it did was provide a shock that restarted and regulated the guy's heart. He's just fine.
 * And to be fair, the man was a heavily armed mercenary who was trying to kill them all. Nate's actions were legitimate self-defense.


 * Fridge Logic
 * After the pilot ("The Nigerian Job"), the team rightfully concluded they would need to learn the basics of each other's expertise and cross-trained accordingly. By the start of the second season, they are all adept at an opening strike, against identically-trained opposition (defending in a short-term fight, cracking the opening passcode, establishing a short-term cover identity, lifting wallets and ID or breaking the first lock, or assisting at the Short Con).  This is also useful when dealing with situations where their normal methodology wouldn't work.  A few such cases:
 * They need a male grifter or more than two at once;
 * A Honey Trap is either useless or counterproductive;
 * It would take only one punch by Elliot to blow their position;
 * The women come out to play and (continuing the above point) Elliot is Trapped Behind Enemy Lines;
 * Their expert (for the necessary skill) is decommissioned at the worst possible time;
 * The inevitable retirement (as a Swapped Roles episode makes only too clear).