izz2267

[izz2267]

zac oyama is the funniest man alive

[izz2267]

[izz2267]

Knives Out AU where Marta never read the labels. She gives Harlan the 3mg of morphine, he goes off to bed, both of them blissfully unaware of the attempted murder/framing.

Meanwhile Ransom is completely losing his shit.

[izz2267]

but redemption really does have the same sauce as the original. like this is a show that is good and all but every now and again will abandon the righteous monster of the week premise to have a stupid fucking situation where they have to save christmas with a spy-turned-librarian (special guest star levar burton) all while only peppering in a tasteful amount of trek jokes. and it's still good

[izz2267]

Fifteen: I have healed from my trauma

Fifteen: *Regenerates into Billie Piper*

[izz2267]

Parker using the name ‘Marta Cabrera’ to con a man who exploits and abuses the poor and the immigrants and children for profit. Marta Cabrera, the same name for the poor immigrant who was pushed around and intimidated and harassed and lied to by an entitled rich white family for a fortune they didn’t deserve in a story about justice and worth and what people do to take what they think they deserve. Man I love this show so much

[izz2267]

ncuti was amazing, i want that to be remembered. this season has been a joy to watch because of him. he brought such joy and love and wonder and i wish he had more time. i hope he knows he is loved

[izz2267]

leverage has always been a profoundly unserious show (except for when it is actually deadly fucking series) and the bits have always come first but after the recent trend of 2000s shows getting dark and gritty reboots let's all take a moment to appreciate that one of the changes that redemption did actually make to the original formula is that whenever parker hits someone with a taser the editors now add a flashing cartoon skeleton silhouette

[izz2267]

today's mini fellas are the snails selling diamonds!! 💎 🐌✨

[izz2267]

technically sort of true things harry could potentially tell his mom that aren’t "i’m working with a team of thieves now":

"i do pro bono/volunteer work - using my legal knowledge and experience - for an international organisation which helps people seek justice from exploitative employers" (very true, sounds very reasonable, but why not spice it up a little?)

small theatre productions of original plays for private audiences

"well it’s not worse than what i was doing before, soooo…"

show her a picture of the Old Nate portrait and tell her thats the founder of the company

"have you ever heard of robin hood?"

joined a very intense improv class

working with some very high profile people and companies, naturally it’s all very confidential

"sophie provides advice for the people we work with. she’s… a consultant."

cosplay (explains the costumes)

"you know how i used to fix rich people’s problems? well, it’s kind of the other way around now."

criminal justice

financial planning

"thats classified"

helping to settle legal matters out of court

"breanna does the tech work, so does hardison when he’s available, though he’s often travelling to help manage other teams. to be honest i don’t really understand all the computer stuff so i can’t explain it."

"parker’s part of the work largely involves finances."

well, it definitely has a lot to do with the law!

"we provide… leverage"

[izz2267]

This fucking episode. This fucking episode was sooo good. Parker as a femme fatale is sooo fun, and I enjoyed being able to see how far she's come. Parker from Leverage season 1 would not have been able to pull off a femme fatale for more than 5 minutes, nor would she have wanted to, and now she can pull off a con for several days acting as someone so unlike her. I just like to see how far she's come. Also, Parker's rant in the warehouse hit me in like, 37 different parts of my body. The inability to feel emotions the "normal" way, and so she started stealing emotions from everyone else, but then she forgot to stop doing that at some point was just. Autistic Parker is and basically always has been canon, but I like when they do it in a good way. Also, the fact that Sophie, Breanna, and Harry projected their own wants onto Parker, but Eliot just had her back. The Parker/Eliot dynamic was on fire this episode (as it has been throughout all of LevRed), and I knew they would come through for me, but holy shit! Holy fucking shit! The callback to the mountain conversation! The fact he has her back no matter what! The fact that he didn't need to ask about her reasons (I firmly believe if he hadn't heard her rant, if he even heard the whole rant, he wouldn't have cared because he doesn't need to understand her reasoning to back her) and would have just backed her on whatever she chose! They were on the same wavelength the entire fucking episode, and it was everything to me! I did enjoy the look into Parker's mind and the fact that she was kinda lying the entire time. Nate has been haunting this season more than normal, and I like the reminder that he chose Parker to be his successor for a reason. Not just that she's a great mastermind, but also that she's just as ruthless and willing to do what she wants/needs to do to achieve her goals. Also, the fact that Harry wanted Sophie to meet his mom because she was his best friend and one true thing! I no longer care about Harry/Sophie as a romantic ship, as an aromantic person that ending made me tear up. While this wasn't a regular 2-ep Leverage finale, it was truly an amazing finale, and I can't wait for season 4 to get renewed (it will, it willll) so we can see more. (And have more Hardison, I miss him sooo much)

[izz2267]

The year is 2056. The 30th doctor is David Tennant. He took over from David Tennant. His companion is played by David Tennant. The villain is David Tennant as David Tennant. The showrunner is David Tennant. You hear a knock on the door. It's David Tennant. He gives you a pocket watch. You open it and remember who you are. You were David Tennant all along.

[izz2267]

"I see my own feelings through the feelings of others because I don't feel in ways that they do" is some brilliantly respectful fucking writing for an autistic character. She feels very deeply, but she can't explain it, not even to herself. And when she tries to, everyone else scoops in with their guesses and she just gets more confused, but ends up agreeing with whatever they're saying because in the moment she feels like they must be right. Because they know her and they're better at the feelings stuff. Truly, all Parker wants is to be understood. But not only by others - by herself as well. Feelings and intentions are confusing to everyone, but more so to the people whose brains work so very differently from what is considered "the norm" in most any modern society.

In short, I love this episode. It showed me that this new Parker is still my Parker. My first ever favourite and one of the first I've related to without realising it. She's weird and she's honest, and she's bad at socialising, and people confuse her, (especially when they hurt others). And she's also brilliant, funny and loving and incredibly protective, in ways that only a Parker can be. I'm so glad Beth understands her as she does. I love her.

[izz2267]

You get the notifications that oh! Leverage redemption is doing a noir episode! And you think of course, of COURSE THE Sophie Devereaux will be the femme fatale. Makes sense right? Earth revolves the sun, moon makes the tides, and Sophie Devereaux is a femme fatale running a con. Right. Right?

But then, Parker!!!! Parker, the one who stabbed a guy after she was triggered and jumped off of a balcony in a foreign country. Parker, who used chloroform coz she couldn’t distract a guy away from his desk. Parker, who used excessive borderline obsessive note taking to talk to a mark. Parker, who cried when a mark read her trauma from her micro expressions.

But then. Then it just, makes sense! It makes sense because like she says, she has gone through extensive therapy for YEARS! She has processed her trauma, her grief, her years of being ‘othered’ till she found her people. Parker has lived, and loved, and toppled empires of crime.

And none of this has made her more ‘palatable’. It would’ve been so easy, SO EASY, to put forth a more ‘easy to go’ Parker to the audience and tell them OH! She just ‘grew up’.

But they didn’t. She’s still a thief, she’s still unnerving, she’s still doing things that can’t be explained using classical physics because she is Parker. Moreover, she is a mastermind, she is the head of Leverage International managing many teams at the same time. OG Parker couldn’t be the femme fatale for a noir episode. However!!!! In the original series, Parker held Tara by the throat threatened to throw her off of the roof and said ‘I dangle off of rooftops with my fingertips’. She has always had the capacity it. But Redemption Parker? She has had time! She has had time to process and hone that capacity. So femme fatale? Of course. Of course!

[izz2267]

i’m actually gonna be obsessed with “i’ll be outside if you need me” forever. because it’s just at its core so simply who eliot is, especially to his team, and most of all to parker, in a single sentence. like goddamn.

[izz2267]

I love the idea of Parker's POV being black and white, especially in the context of one of this season's main themes: legal doesn't mean right, and illegal doesn't mean wrong. When you look at things within rigid categories of Right and Wrong but can't use the law to guide you, what can you use? Parker's emotions and insights are colored by the people she loves, and that's represented literally in this episode. The con, aka the story she tells the mark and herself: black and white. The interactions between her and her crew, her family, her complicated loved ones who don't fit perfectly into definitions of "good" or "bad": color.

John Rogers wrote the hell out of this episode. Marc Roskin directed the hell out of it. The actors acted the hell out of it. This honestly was The Episode.

[izz2267]

Also fascinated by the parallel with how Nate chose not to kill Dubenich and Latimer in front of the team but absolutely orchestrated their death via their own actions vs Parker choosing not to kill Ramirez with Eliot waiting outside but absolutely orchestrating his own personal nightmare by leaving him broke and alone in a foreign country and about to be arrested (while telling him it's his chance for redemption) via his own actions. One feels a lot more ruthless than the other, and while Ramirez may have lived, Parker's final words to him definitely had "God killed you, I just made sure it took" vibes.

Nate would be so proud of her.