Leverage/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Nate has sociopathic tendencies in terms of the way he manipulates others. While Parker is seen as a Heroic Sociopath, Nate is a much darker version in that he genuinely doesn't care about the people he must manipulate to help others, while those people almost certainly deserve it, it is still interesting how little he cares about their fates. He also has a habit of risking himself and his team in ways that are almost unnecessary for the purpose of truly defeating his enemies. This is also seen in The Boys Night Out job in which Nate is shown to literally have no friends outside of work, while his team is making fun of him over this fact, it is shown to in fact be true. Later in this episode he even has difficultly making small talk with a former client. Even Parker is capable of this with her friend Peggy.
    • Interestingly, related to the above, in the Five-Man Band, Parker could be seen as The Lancer and Sophie as The Chick. Parker does seem to have some similarity to Nate in terms personality as compared with Sophie. Sophie is also more worried about the emotions of the rest of the team, while Parker is a mild sociopath. In addition, Parker is the one with the least leadership potential relative to the rest of the team, also fitting into that requirement.
  • Author Filibuster: In Season 2 premiere, the villain of the week takes a moment to boast about how the government will bail his bank out even though he intentionally ran it badly for profit. This commentary about the real life economic bailout isn't very subtle.
  • Cargo Ship:
    • Sophie and diamonds
    • Parker and money of any kind.
    • Hardison and his van, Lucille, in "The Three Strikes Job".
  • Come for the X, Stay for the Y: Come for the actors you know, stay for the top-notch stories, characteyr development, and acting (from everyone).
  • Complete Monster: While Leverage has its share of these (to the tune of one a week), one particularly notable example in-universe is Dr. Ann Hannity from "The Inside Job." She engineers a coup on her own wheat company in order to cause an outbreak of a wheat-killing fungus that will cause a massive worldwide famine, holding children hostage in order to force a thief to cooperate. She is prepared to kill anyone who stands in her way. Why? Because her company owns a type of wheat immune to the fungus. She's not concerned about the millions who will starve to death in her near-apocalyptic famine, since it's all a part of her scheme to make a profit.

Archie: It's so arcane. Brutal. She'd have to be a monster.
Nate: Yes, she would.

"Yeah, well, I stole the Hope Diamond. Then I put it back. Yeah. Because I was bored. Didn't care."

    • Pretty much the whole team. Nate for the plans, especially.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: The song that plays at the beginning of "The 12-Step Job" and during the poker game in "The Bottle Job", called "Can't Go Home Again." Many fans were sure it was a song by Dropkick Murphys or another Boston-area punk band, but it was actually written for Leverage by the show's composer because the show's budget wouldn't allow licensing music.
    • Actually, in "The Two-Horse Job", when Eliot and his old flame get back together, the backing track is a song by Kane's band called "More Than I Deserve". Why license when you have the actor working for you anyway?
    • The violin solo in "The Scheherazade Job."
    • Elliot singing country in "The Studio Job."

Hardison: Nate, something's wrong. The system's not correcting his voice.
Nate: That's because it doesn't need correcting.

  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Patrick Bonanno, a police detective the team tips off when they need someone to arrest the bad guy. He and Nate have a fascinating mutual respect even if they don't see eye to eye. The writers were really surprised at how happy viewers were to see him appear in "The Jailhouse Job."
  • Evil Is Cool: Sterling. He is played by Mark Sheppard, after all.
    • Subverted in that Sterling may be the team's Arch Enemy and a Magnificent Bastard, but he is in fact the good guy. The True Companions themselves might count.
    • Chaos is a more straight example in that he largely adopts this as his personal philosophy.
  • Evil Is Sexy: Parker possibly qualifies, although she isn't truly evil she is one of the greatest thieves in the world. The pure pleasure she shows when pulling of a job or when surrounded by money also helps this.
  • Family-Unfriendly Aesop: The government is corrupt and it's totally ok to trust a group of strangers who happen to be career criminals to give you your house, money, property back. You wanna know why? They have a fancy looking office!
    • Well, we never get to see their first (external) job, and later they note that they take clients by referral only. Several characters have heard of the team before, so they must have a good reputation. And finally, they generally don't involve their clients in their cons at all, so said clients don't really have anything to lose.
    • There is also that the Leverage crew are experienced con artists, so convincing skeptical clients that they are a legitimate private investigation/litigation consulting firm is trivially easy for them.
  • Fan Dumb: People complained on John Rogers' blog about how the Irish thugs from "The Bottle Job" had terrible fake Irish accents. These Irish thugs were played by Irish actors from Ireland. Many jokes were made at these fans' expense about how terrible Timothy Hutton's fake American is.
    • During the first season, some fans complained that Nate's alcoholism came out of nowhere, apparently not having noticed that he had a drink in his hand at some point in every episode.
      • This one is understandable. The first season was aired completely out of order, and Nate drinking is an arc that builds as the season progresses. So, if you watched it as it aired instead of on DVD, sometimes an episode would go by where Nate took one drink socially and then in the next episode he's completely sloshed off his ass, when they were supposed to be separated.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple:
    • Hardison/Parker was this until it actually became canon. There is a healthy shipping base for Elliot/Parker because so many of their surrogate sibling moments, especially the ones when Elliot is the one who calms Parker down when she's upset and irrational are profound and emotional enough that they could be turned romantic very easily.
    • There's also a shipping base for Elliot/Hardison. Their Vitriolic Best Buds routine does border at times on UST.
  • Fashion Victim Villain: Nate has an uncanny ability to pick out the worst possible outfits for his characters to wear.
  • Fetish Fuel:
    • Parker as a stewardess in "The Mile High Job". The stewardess outfit comes back in "The First David Job."
    • Earlier in that episode, Sophie pretends to be a Frenchwoman.
    • Parker and Sophie jumping off the building together in the first season finale.
      • In the pilot, when Parker hooks Sophie into her rappeling gear and pulling her so close to her face that their noses bump.
    • Earlier in that episode, Parker and Hardison make out so they have an excuse for pumping a secured door open, while Sophie hides around the corner. Nate and Eliot can hear everything over the earbud, and when Sophie heads back outside:

Eliot: (smirking) So which one of you did she kiss?

Sophie: (sighs)

    • In the second half of the Season 1 finale, Parker sniffs and pets Nathan's ex-wife.
    • In "The Tap-Out Job", we learn that Eliot's been teaching Parker basic fighting techniques. She applies them on Hardison, and she seems rather pleased he can't escape her arm bar. She then moves into a choke (using her thighs). Hardison: "She's... killing... me..."
    • Averted in "The Order 23 Job", when Parker informs Eliot and Hardison that nurses haven't worn white skirts and pantyhose since the 70s. They look disappointed.
    • In "The Two Live Crew Job", Eliot's Distaff Counterpart on the opposing team is an attractive Badass Israeli woman. Strictly speaking, the gradual stripping of their clothes and mushing their wet bodies together wasn't necessary. The handcuffs, oddly enough, were. And someone had to get a kick out of Parker with her foot on the rival thief's back, in a police uniform.
    • Parker looks amazing in a suit (like the one she wears when masquerading as an FBI agent).
    • Let's just make it easy on ourselves and say "Parker in any kind of uniform or professional wear."
    • In "The Maltese Falcon Job", Parker dresses as a French Maid, complete with accent. Later on, she dangles Tara off a building, by holding her by the throat.
    • Eliot and Sterling fighting seems to cause an in-universe example for Parker, as shown in "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job." Eliot punches Sterling and the camera zooms over to the bar. Hardison hands the bartender a wad of cash to look the other way and Parker stands there with a very... questionable... smile on her face. She also licks her lips. Interpret that as you want. Of course, at the same time, it could just be normal happiness at seeing the team's nemesis getting the everloving crap beaten out of him, but it doesn't look like a normal smile.
    • Another in-universe example, possibly related to the above: Parker explicitly has a Money Fetish. When they recover a shipping container full of cash she is ... very happy. Then there is her Christmas present - a stack of unmarked non-sequential hundreds.
    • Hardison and Eliot handcuffed together, running through the woods while being hunted.
    • Sophie in any kind of dress suit, but especially in "The Jailhouse Job" with that miniskirt....
      • She poses as a Chauffeur in "The Ho, Ho, Ho Job". Hnnngh.
    • Parker dressed as Nancy Drew in the "The 10 Lil' Grifters Job".
    • Forties!Everyone in "The Van Gogh Job". Also doubles as Costume Porn.
    • Parker dressed like a french artist and pretended to be a french photographer in the "The Queen's Gambit Job".
    • Hardison running in his skivvies (for a frat initiation).
  • Fetish Fuel Station Attendant: Parker. Should I even explain? Flexible, cute, long blonde hair, tight leather suits, not to mention the lack of boundaries. (Only mentioning that because it resulted in sniffing Maggie's hair.) Oh, and the back shots... Yum.
  • Foe Yay: Nate and Sterling
    • Elliot and his "Two Live Crew" counterpart. Taken up to Slap Slap Kiss.
    • Also taken to near-ridiculous levels with Nate and the Italian.
  • Funny Aneurysm Moment:
    • "The Mile-High Job" (set largely on a plane) occurs the week after a plane made a (safe) water landing on the Hudson. Parker, as a stewardess, even makes a joke about a water landing being likely to kill everyone. Funny thing is, the episode was long finished by the time of the accident, and it's entirely within Parker's character to make such a joke. Rogers, commenting on his blog, says: "We of course didn't write a water landing, because at that point, every water landing had fatalities. Didn't bank on a miracle."
    • The plot of "The Homecoming Job" (head of PMC firm tries to off witness to company's illicit activites) qualifies as well.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Hardison's comments about the "Butcher of Kiev," after the team goes to Kiev to rescue Maggie in "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job."

Hardison: Have you ever been to Kiev? The Cakemaker of Kiev kick all our asses! This is the butcher.

  • Hollywood Homely: Peggy is actually a rather attractive girl, particularly in her second appearance. She's treated like a dateless weirdo in that same appearance.
  • Iron Woobie: It's not true all the time, but Eliot is this to the hilt in "The Big Bang Job" and "The San Lorenzo Job."
  • Large Ham:
    • Nate's director persona in "The Stork Job".
    • Sophie when she's acting onstage--in a bad, non-endearing way.
    • Nate in "The Fairy Godparents Job", as the "German" Dr. Heinlin Melcher.
    • Nate again as an Army General in "The Three Days of the Hunter Job". And Monica Hunter in general, though in an evil way.
    • In "The Iceman Job", Alec Hardison is...The Iceman. Lampshaded repeatedly by the team.
    • Really, pretty much all of Nate's in-con personas. This show has allowed Tim Hutton to ham it up at near Shatner level. Hutton has said that Jimmy Papadokalis is his favorite.
    • Parker's Bjorn/Gaga-esque character in "The Studio Job."
    • Many, many of Hardison's characters.
  • Les Yay: Parker seems to have a crush on Maggie. Being Parker, she expresses this by, at one point, sniffing her.
  • Like You Would Really Do It: You didn't really think Sophie was killed by Chaos's bomb in "The Two Live Crew Job," did you? Or again in "The San Lorenzo Job," right?
  • Love to Hate: Sterling, as a Magnificent Bastard par excellence was designed to channel this. Colin "Chaos" Mason may be another example. Unlike Sterling he has no redeeming features whatsoever, and is a treacherous slippery little weasel, yet he's such an over the top example of a Laughably Evil Smug Snake that it's hard not to find him very entertaining.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Jim Sterling, Nate's Not So Different Evil Counterpart and insurance investigator turned Interpol officer, played by none other than the extremely smirk-ey Mark Sheppard. The universal rule of Sterling's appearances on the show is that Sterling never loses, meaning he's immune to Villain Decay. The only way the gang can win when Sterling shows up is to make sure that he wins, too.
    • Nate, as well.
  • Memes:
  • Memetic Badass: Eliot has attained this status, thanks to "The Big Bang Job."
    • STERLING. NEVER. LOSES.
    • There's an in-universe example as well. In "The Rashomon Job", the team collectively remember the Chief of Security as a clever, cool-headed and perceptive Sterling Expy. That is, until we get to Nate's, who actually knew the guy, and as it turns out, he was none of the above. He's just a guy who had a crush on Sophie's cover. Unless Nate's exaggerating his flaws, considering that Sophie just said that the guy "could be even smarter than Nate."
  • Narm: Eliot's "Matrix Moment" towards the end of "The Big Bang Job" is either this or a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
    • To elaborate - Eliot slides across a wet floor on his knees, dodging bullets despite the fact that he's moving slowly and in a straight line and there are like fifteen guys shooting right at him. Well, maybe dodging isn't the word - he simply leans backward as if he were in a limbo contest and everyone shooting is polite enough to aim right above where his body is. And evidently Eliot can see bullets as they move through the air. There's literally no plausible explanation for this but Eliot being the One.
    • "The Morning After Job" has Eliot telling Hardison to turn out hte lights. But he says it like "Hardison. Dark." Which is extremely funny because it sounds like caveman speak for calling Hardison black.
  • Never Live It Down: The rest of the team periodically pokes fun at Hardison for getting kidnapped by Russians in "The Ice Man Job."
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In "The Carnival Job" when Parker climbs a Ferris Wheel, disables a sniper, ties him up with duct tape, and takes his gun. All in a matter of seconds, all off-screen.
  • Replacement Scrappy: Tara has come under serious fire by the fanbase for potentially replacing Sophie. She has been in the show with her real personality for all of five minutes. The most common complaint is that she's a Mary Sue, since it's impossible that she called in a favor from a Hardison-level hacker to get her cover ID, Sophie gave her a key and the security code, and she's simply as good a grifter as Sophie.
    • Also, it's heavily implied by her...unusual facility with codes, ex-Soviet bureaucrats, and surveillance techniques that Tara was trained by the government (or, A government) as an intelligence operative before turning to a life of crime. It's conceivable that she has the skills or contacts to generate a false ID that would fool Hardison.
  • Some Anvils Need to Be Dropped: The first quarter of "The Future Job" has the team show Parker exactly how a phony psychic's "cold read" con works -- how he reads tiny facial indicators and makes good guesses to create an illusion of psychic knowledge. Since the show hardly ever takes time to show how the bad guy's trick works, one wonders if there's an author somewhere with a point to make. Word of God says that episode was written to disprove psychics because an EP's family member was about to give money to one.
    • Justified that they were doing it to calm her down when he managed to point out that Parker killed her younger brother years ago, driving her to tears on stage. Needless to say, it definitely got personal for her after that stunt.
  • Special Effects Failure:
    • While not a special effects-heavy show to begin with, and while most effects seen in the show are perfectly acceptable, the car crash in the first episode of Season Two (where a Cadillac hits a curb, leaps a dozen feet in the air while doing a 720' flip right over Nathan's head before landing on it's hood) is pure 100% distilled Narm.
    • The plane landing on a bridge in "The Mile-High Job" was also a special effects failure. The bridge seems to be too small for a plane to land on, but the next scene shows that the bridge either got bigger, or the plane shrank to the size of only two lanes. And that's not even pointing out that the turbines of the plane would have blown off any cars traveling on said bridge. Or the fact that the passengers AND pilots would have passed out from such a rapid descend.
    • The explosion special effect used for the house bomb in The Runway Job is perfectly acceptable. The only problem is that the commercial break that follows holds off exactly one second too long: Just long enough for the flame and smoke to dissipate and reveal a perfectly intact house with perfectly intact windows.
    • The DVD case for the first season had a picture of the team standing on a street, while dollar bills rained down on them. One dollar bills.
      • Well, how do you make it rain?
  • Tear Jerker: Every moment Parker is onscreen during "The Stork Job" is either a Crowning Moment of some stripe or one of these.
    • The flashback in "The Second David Job" where Nate watches his son die certainly qualifies, especially since we as an audience know exactly what it did to him. The fact that the same flashback is shown several other times doesn't make it any less painful to watch.
      • Nate's whole conversation with Maggie, wherein we first see that flashback, where he confesses the truth about Sam's death is also pretty tearjerker-y.
    • Invoked by Sophie and the crew in the climax of "The San Lorenzo Job" to turn the people of the titular country against corrupt President Ribera.
    • Two for the price of one episode in the season 4 premiere, "The Long Way Down Job": Parker's pleas of wanting to bring the body of the dead husband of their client, and the victim's goodbye message to his wife from his phone.

Parker: You mean... he died down here? ...Alone?

    • Dorothy!Parker's face when Charlie!Hardison jumps on the train, leaving her forever, in "The Van Gogh Job."
    • Season 4 in general is shaping up to be filled with tearjerkers galore.
      • Especially with the second-to-last episode of the season: "The Radio Job". Jimmy Ford makes a deal with Latimer, despite his son's warnings, because it was all to keep him safe (and for two million dollars). He gets knocked unconscious and wakes up slowly by Nate's phone calling him, and realizes he's surrounded by explosives and a timer just about to go off. Jimmy calmly tells Nate to stay away, who keep telling him he's going to get him, losing his cool and rising his voice to the point of fear because he knows what's about to happen. He gets out of the car and hears his dad say he loves him... forcing him to a shocked stupor. Then the building blows up, all in slow motion.
    • The Grave Danger Job: Parker talking Hardison through being buried alive
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Some of the cons, as described, are utterly awesome; impersonating a priest inside a confessional in order to get the Corrupt Corporate Executive's personal assistant to go to the media, or altering the text of a Congressional bill by somehow stealing it and replacing vital pages before it's placed in the hopper. However, they are thrown off in thirty-second asides.
    • The confessional bit fell into Nate's lap due to luck and a subtle bit of manipulation. In "The Miracle Job," Nate and the priest need a private place to talk and Nate goes in the left side of the confessional box (where the priest is supposed to sit.) After the priest leaves but before Nate does, the assistant enters the box on the right side, leaving Nate an opportunity to pull off the plan.
    • Hardison and Nate do, in fact, note just how awesome the concept of stealing a law is. Hardison even goes so far as the say that Parker would be a legend for successfully pulling it off.
    • How about the awesome fight we were gonna get between Eliot and his double in "The Two Live Crew Job", which apparently ran out of time via setting up the battle, and so left us with a couple punches and a handcuffing? (sob)
      • I'm pretty sure you can't waste the plot to a porno unless whatever you're watching actually is, you know, porn.
        • Didn't want porno; Fetish Fuel's to be expected, but I wanted to see a fight. (Eliot may look pretty, but that isn't his main function, it's a very enjoyable side benefit.)
  • The Woobie: Parker. When this girl cries, the entire group rallies for revenge.
    • And so does the audience.
    • Arguably, Coswell, the hapless security chief from "The Rashomon Job," qualifies when we get to see what he's actually like.
    • Widmark, the mark's stepson from "The Fairy Godparents Job". He tells Sophie that no matter how hard he tries, he never gets anything he wants, and when Sophie asks him what he wants, he says that he just wants someone to like him. Did we mention that he's 10?
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