#leverage s1

[theinfinitedivides]

'somebody kiss this man so i don't have to' ykw what we call that in this house. we call those some famous last f*cking words, Eliot Spencer sir

[theatrical-penguin]

Starting my annual rewatch of Leverage in the wake of the CEO shooting and it stands out that the whole team comes together because IYS denied treatment to Nate’s son.

With no real-life Leverage team, these assholes who play with people’s lives are gonna get targeted another way.

Also particularly relevant right now is the quote from the second episode: “You know the great thing about Congressmen? $50, 100 grand well spent will get one elected. But then, once they're in, the incumbency rate is over 95%! So you can get on an average 18, 20 years use out of one of them. In these uncertain times, buying a United States Congressman is one of the best investments a corporation can make!"

John Rogers and Dean Devlin had it right 18 years ago and the corruption barely bothers to hide anymore.

And there seems to be a distinct shortage of good-hearted thieves going after the assholes.

[cressida-jayoungr]

One Dress a Day Challenge

October: Black Redux

Leverage (s1e12, "The First David Job") / Gina Bellman as Sophie Devereaux as Portia del Duccio

I think this is one of Sophie's best looks in the whole series. She's posing as an Italian museum curator at a fancy party for patrons of the arts. The off-the-shoulder gown is sleek and sophisticated, with a hidden fullness to the skirt that helps it "tulip" out when she walks. The froufrou on the shoulder gives it just a touch of quirkiness without losing the high-fashion aura, and also mirrors the loose side-twist of her hair. For accessories, she has a multi-strand gold bracelet and a colorful clutch purse. Magnifico!

[thegroundhogdidit]

i love that none of the leverage team have misplaced confidence like they all really are THAT good. hardison hacked into the bank of iceland as a teenager. parker can crack almost any type of safe in seconds. sophie is a famous art thief and has played such long cons that she became a duchess. eliot is an internationally renowned hitman and retrieval specialist FOR A REASON. nate literally gave a guy a nosebleed with the power of his mind. no wonder the five of them are the only people who could possibly figure out how to beat a steranko twice

[aardvaark]

i love that leverage sets up nate "marriage is a contract" ford x sophie "all relationships are about manipulation" devereaux as its main love story. (and that it turns out to be an excellent love story).

[transsophiedevereaux]

been rewatching s1 of leverage and it really hammers home how down bad hardison has been from the start. and it's not even the stupid flirting and telling parker she looks good in the bridesmaid dress.

when the team first gets together they don't really get parker. eliot calls her crazy about twice per episode, sophie clearly feels bad for her, and nate barely cares for anyone at this point. hardison, by contrast, always engages with her, answers her questions, listens to her concerns about the orphanages in the stork job, explains to her that they're a little more than a team, cheekily adresses her, while in character for the juror #6 job, just to make her smile. yes we all remember how parker stabbed the guy from the stork job with a fork, but also remember that, just moments before, while talking stone-faced to this guy she clearly loathes hardison managed to make her laugh with only a stupid vampire joke mocking the mark's accent. she thinks he's funny! they're in love your honour!!

[wordpress-blaze-15182341]

Missiles and Meal Service: The Hidden Toll of Flying in War-zones

Common occupational hazards in aviation; the not so new flight deck stressors would encompass turbulence, delayed pushbacks, and that one passanger having an issue with someone reclining their seat (this is so very common, believe me). Let’s not forget another one who thinks the seatbelt sign doesn’t apply to them while on active runway (because they are just itching for a snack they left inside their carry-on luggage in the overhead bin. Opens bin, then bag falls off on them and everyone around. SMH)

Back to business. Pilots and cabin crew flying over the Middle East lately, especially in and out of Qatar, well, there’s a new, less subtle source of anxiety: missile attacks. Who doesn’t know the news by now?

Yes, flying into Doha these days might involve dodging airspace closures, U.S. airbase targets, and the occasional Iranian and Israeli news. Glamorous, right?

Very.

While passengers worry about delayed in-flight meals and Wi-Fi speeds being too slow or disconnecting , the crew up front and in the aisles are dealing with something much much heavier: the psychological toll of flying through a region where geopolitics are very unpredictable, stormy, and always just over the horizon.

What Happened in Qatar Exactly, you ask?

In resent years, we’ve witnessed sensitive airspaces and in response, airlines have shut down their airspaces. Flights being rerouted faster than a teenager dodging chores have become commonplace, and airline dispatchers around the world had one collective panic attack.

Now just imagine this. Inflight, flight crew are prepping beverage carts while air defence systems light up the radar. Boom-Chaka-Boom! Just another day in the skies.

Cabin Pressure: Flying with a Side of Adrenaline

Yes, crew (deck crew and cabin crew) are trained to handle demarcates, but war is not an average Emmergency! It’s one thing to worry about fuel efficiency. It’s another to fly over a region where missiles are a real-time hazard.

There is a huge difference between trusting an aircraft, the team, and trusting geopolitics.

Constant anticipatory anxiety.

Hypervigilance, even on layovers.

The unsettling knowledge that their aircraft might share airspace with defense drones, military jets, and… well, more missiles.

Hospitality Meets Hostility

Cabin crew, as you know, are the face of calm, smile and all. Even so, smiling while you serve fish, beef and a gluten free meal on a flight skimming a conflict zone? That’s dark art right there.

Results:

Crew becoming emotionally disconnected from their jobs.

Guilt when evacuating people while others are left behind. 2020 clears throat!

Luxury inflight service inside a pressure cooker floating mid air at 40,000 feet while those on ground are ducking. Definately dystopian!

More Fuel, More Detours, More Fatigue

Yep! Practical stress:

Flights being rerouted to avoid hot zones, adding hours to duty time.

Longer flight hours mean more fatigue, which affects both performance and emotional bandwidth.

There’s no glamour-AT ALL in a 15 hour turnaround because there is no clearance to land.

What Airlines Are Maybe doing

Critical Incident Stress Management teams.

Therapy appointments.

Pre and post dispatch briefings.

Even so, lots of crews feel out of the loop. Why you ask?Because, you get the news that you’re flying a risky zone when you’re already on it.

Hidden Costs: Forget Fuel and Insurance

Mental Health RiskWhat It Looks LikePTSD or traumaFlashbacks, fawning, sleep interruptions, avoidanceBurnoutEmotional numbness, lack of purposeAnxietyReccuring worry, overanalysing proceduresIsolationFeeling detached and lack of support on layovers or at home

These risks don’t show up on a flight log, but hey, they impact safety, morale, and retention. We talk about maintaining aircraft fatigue limits. What about crew fatigue limits?

Where Do We Go From Here?

How about a Flight Plan for Mental Health in Conflict Zones:

Transparent Security Briefings.

Weight & balance before takeoff is paramount, so is mental health balance.

Flight Debriefs After High-Stress Flights.

Better Global Oversight, meaning ICAO, IATA and other relevant bodies must update protocols for mental wellness involving high-risk routes.

Bottom line, pilots and cabin crew are indeed professionals for they train, adapt, and make sure to get the job done. But, they are people too and not robots. People who fly into the world’s most dangerous zones with nothing more than a safety manual and nerves of steel.

We owe them patience, understanding, protection and genuine support as they navigate war zones with grit and grace.

Fly safe. Check on your crew friends, and just maybe skip the missile jokes during boarding.

Source: Missiles and Meal Service: The Hidden Toll of Flying in War-zones

[eeveesanddragons]

Just thinking about Breanna outside the Joseph Chang's house in The Double Edged Sword Job

Thinking about her speech in The Card Game Job

How she's not even thirty yet and has grown up and literally watched the world set itself on fire. How she has found pockets of the world where she's found her people, carved herself into something with teeth because who else was going to?

How Eliot immediately has her back, keeps an eye on her, let's her talk things out when she needs to. This kid who grew up on stories of him and his family's jobs and how he immediately folds her into it.

How Parker worries about being a good mentor to her (and how Harry becomes another father figure at time to Parker herself), how easily she pulls Breanna into a big sister/little sister dynamic. How she sees parts of herself and everyone she loves in her.

How Sophie meets Breanna where she's at and treats her like an adult, but also with the same nudging guidance she did with Parker and Hardison.

How Harry must see his daughter in Breanna, and how the world they grew up in was made by men like him.

How Breanna grew up with criminals who take down the actual bad guys of the world for older siblings and can see the tsunami of terrible things and still tries to do what she can against it.

How Hardison's crusade is building a wall against that tidal wave, and Breanna sees her older brother trying to help the world, and she wants to be like him - in her own way. Hardison, who in the original series tried to leave things better than they were. Hardison, who is flying around plugging holes in the sinking ship that is the world because that's where his skills are most useful.

Hardison and Breanna, who want to tear the system down and make it better because it ruined so many people's lives, and they refuse not to believe that things could be better.

Just - Breanna.

[nyxthedragon225]

I CANT GET A SCREENSHOT RN but you know that part in the Nigerian Job where they're all running out of the warehouse and parker points out where the exit is and nate stays behind to keep the door opening and eliot helps hardison up when he slips and hardison makes sure there was no chance of anyone knowing they were there and in that moment even though they're all still enemies (pr at the very least they're not friends) and they're angry at each other they work together seamlessly without even speaking?

Yeah I'm thinking about that scene a lot.

[reflectingiridescent]

Something about how in The Second David Job, Sophie is physically and emotionally incapable of apologizing to Eliot (or anyone!) for what she'd done to the team - she just gets as close as she can and everyone understands that's how far she can go, and accepts it - but how in The Crowning Achievement Job, we actually get an "I'm sorry" from her, with very little prompting from Eliot.

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

[theinfinitedivides]

can't believe i'm saying this but i may have just tracked down the possible location of the Eliot flashback in The Miracle Job by the split second frame of the f*cking currency on the table. what can i say it's a very distinctive banknote

[bananaphone---t]

The only things that can defeat Eliot:

- RIZ (using their "Red Haze" drug)

- A carnival ride

- The occasional taser

- LESBIANS ("How was I supposed to know it was a lesbian bar?")

- Pipes

- Coffee (drugged)

[jourke-rourke]

Leverage (2008) // more parker

[faorism]

beth you are doing SUCH a good jobbbbbbb i really love seeing actors step up and rock directing. i noticed parker was less active and that's because she had a bigger con job at hand!!!!

[aardvaark]

objectively the funniest thing you could say before having a whole season (redemption s2) focus on something you did so terribly wrong that it still has serious repercussions decades later.

[aipurjopa]

to be honest every time i watch the spoke uus2 episodes i always find myself circling back to the ending of the big wormhole vid.

something about how he questions why he did any of that, and more specifically: why he followed the rules of his challenge. something about how the 100 days format is a challenge, how spoke refuses to leave until those 100 days are up, and how power hungry he’s been getting i think is what makes me always end up thinking about that clip again.

he doesn’t know why he’s doing this, only that he needs power, he needs to be at the top, to call himself the most powerful. and only when he’s at the bottom does he understand why he needed to do it in the first place… like he’s blinded by the pursuit to be the best and doesn’t stop to think. and it’s so similar to what he says at the end of that wormhole video.

and tangentially:

it’s like it’s the more childish part of him that just needs to be up there, does anything to climb up there, who doesn’t know when to stop and who doesn’t know what the boundaries are… everything is apart of this game everything is apart of this challenge; i will trample whoever i need to get to where i want.

it’s like he’s detached from everything, and that’s where i think the editing choices come in. the more “childish” music and style, the narration, it’s all showing this sense of detachment and disassociation from the people in the server and his actions. it’s just a game. it’s just a challenge. it’s something that he has to win no matter what.

he doesn’t regard himself as a “villain” because isn’t this what everyone wants? to be the most powerful? he’s not a villain because everyone wants this.