LEVERAGE: 2.02 “The Tap-Out Job”
Of course I was looking forward to this episode. Christian Kane himself told me it’d be a good one! And I enjoyed it, which was surprising because I’m not one that usually cares for lots of bloody fighting.
But I’m a sucker for Eliot and Christian Kane, so there you go.
What grabbed me here was not the sob story of the fighter. It wasn’t why they were doing it. It was the fact that they were caught. In a way they couldn’t have avoided. And that was an interesting moment: Nate telling Parker and Hardison to pack it up (they didn’t hesitate for a second), while Nate and Eliot–clearly the muscle–barge in to save Sophie.
But despite the fear, it was kinda funny. Just hearing Hardison say that he can’t hack hick–and discovering that their whole plan fell to pieces because someone happened to have a cousin in the fighting scene in South Dakota. Do people still live in South Dakota? (To people in South Dakota, I apologize. That’s merely a joke. Curse me in the comments below.)
Anyway, it’s random that someone in Nebraska would happen to have a connection right in the middle of their cover story.
What’s more funny? Sophie’s aversion to the food in Nebraska. The fact that her phone call to room service (all of her food is yellow!) took precedent over anything else. But really? Despite the end, I don’t really see her having pork rinds in the end. But hey, she was starving.
But back to the matter at hand, I’m glad we got some good fighting scenes of Eliot. As you know, Christian Kane has a background in wrestling and does the stunts for the show. It’s nice to have an episode center on him. And I know he was excited about fighting people like Matt Lindland and Ed Herman (if you didn’t know he was excited, just follow the link above).
So did you fall for it? Did you think that he really killed him?
I’ll admit. I did. Until “Omaha,” as Nate so cleverly called him, ran out the door and decided to flee. Something just seemed too simple. Now, to me, I thought he got to the fighter. I thought that they talked to him, maybe bribed him, to go down.
But now that I think about it, that wouldn’t necessarily work. Which is where the doctor came in. If you recall, he was the one that injected Tank with something. I didn’t think of anything at the time–Sophie’s exclamation about how he just took the safety off the gun was still going through my brain and shock wouldn’t allow me to believe that anything was amiss. But thinking about it now, there you go. That’s what kept him down.
It was nice. Two-two-two cons in one! Pretty sweet.
So despite the sweaty, bloody mess, I enjoyed it. I liked to see Eliot play the more vulnerable character. You know, when he was in the office, playing the kid who owed money? Definitely a new side, at least in the episodes I’ve seen so far (and there are still a handful of episodes in season one that I need to see). It was great.
And what’d we think of Sophie and Eliot’s chat? They’re definite a duo that we don’t see put together all that often. It was different. Nice. A reveal into Eliot without finding out more about him.
And definitely effective for the con in the end. Well done, Leverage, well done.
