#tony kadjic

[lindseymcdonaldseyelashes]

Leverage 2x15 - "The Maltese Falcon Job"

[netflixpaused]

[nightmarebeforechtistmas]

Thoughts on Leverage (The Show)

*SPOILERS FOR LEVERAGE EPISODES - BE FOREWARNED*

Ok, so I’m just going to say from the beginning that my watching of Leverage is haphazard at best, so if I get something wrong please be kind. But I was watching an episode of Leverage the other day with my friends and a thought struck me that I kinda wanted to say. This might have been mentioned before, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record here goes.

This one episode had Sterling and Ford facing off against each other in a battle of wits and at one point in this episode (don’t remember which it’s called, sorry) Sterling says something along the lines of ‘you were always right Nate, you aren’t a thief’. This is referenced back in the last line of the episode when someone asks who Nate is and he responds with “I am Nate Ford, and I am a thief.”

Now, the conclusion that my friends took from this was that Nate was choosing in this moment to become a thief and making the decision to commit to this new life he has made for himself. Which, while I agree with, I think this has another meaning as well. This is the first time Nate properly steals anything, thus he is now officially a thief.

I say this because up until this episode, Nate and the gang never took anything that truly belonged to someone else. The whole premise of the show is the idea that the wealthy and powerful steal legally from the average Joe then Nate comes back Robin Hood style to take back what was taken. In this way Nate and gang are more like the Monuments Men or private detectives tasked with returning stolen goods to their owners rather than thieves. This doesn’t mean that they don’t break the law (multiple times), however it means that the entire time they aren’t stealing things that rightfully belong to the person who has them. Even the amount they steal extra to continue paying themselves, I would argue, doesn’t rightfully belong to its owner as I think they always take from money that was illegally generated or generated in ill faith. This includes bribe money, tax evasion money, as well as drug money, fenced goods money, etc. So even when the team was ‘stealing’ for themselves, they in a way weren’t stealing at all.

However, in this episode Nate actively steals something that ‘belongs’ to another person. First he ‘steals’ the case file containing all the evidence regarding Tony Kadjic. That was evidence that was obtained through hard work and perseverance of numerous FBI and Interpol agents, not just Sterling and Nevins which we see on screen. In doing this, Nate is stealing the case and the opportunity to put Tony behind bars where he belongs from law enforcement who, no matter how unpleasant they are personally, ‘earned’ the right to that case. 

Second, he in a way steals the arrest of his crew from law enforcement. At this point Interpol and the FBI have evidence convicting everyone in Nate’s gang of crimes and they even manage to surround the gang in such a way that getting out of the stalemate alive would require them to submit to FBI/Interpol custody. In this way law enforcement ‘earned’ the right to arrest Nate’s crew and charge them with the crimes that they did commit, whether or not it was for a good reason. However, by destroying the Tony case evidence in the first place, Nate has forced the FBI/Interpol to decide between making the arrest of the entire crew or to make the arrest and conviction of Tony Kadjic (who is all around a much worse person, in my opinion) as all the evidence needed to convict Tony is in Nate’s head. In this way he is stealing the rightful arrest away from FBI/Interpol. 

That is why I feel that that closing line of Nate’s saying he is a thief, isn’t just him choosing to associate himself with his people and thieves. I think it is also an almost meta acknowledgement that not until that moment had Nate actually stolen anything and now that he has stolen the case evidence and the arrest of his crew from law enforcement, he is now officially a thief.

[pass-the-bechdel]

Leverage s02e14 ‘The Three Strikes Job’

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

Yes, once.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Six (40% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Nine.

Positive Content Rating:

Three.

General Episode Quality:

Excitement!

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

Parker passes with Tara over comms.

Female characters:

Mrs Bonanno.

Sophie Devereaux.

Tara Cole.

Parker.

Mary.

Amy Nevins.

Male characters:

Patrick Bonanno.

Nathan Ford.

Alec Hardison.

Eliot Spencer.

Brad Culpepper III.

Tony Kadjic.

Billy.

Harris.

Jim Sterling.

OTHER NOTES:

“It took me thirteen hours” delightful.

I’m with Eliot, baseball stinks.

Aww man, Eliot’s so happy now he’s playin’ ball. What a cutie. Sorry everyone else, Eliot is my fave.

“These beans are made of guns...and hand grenades.”

Jabberwocky! Great code word.

Poor Lucille. 

Nate, you killed Lucille! Love you Hardison. 

Sterling, here to mess everything up. 

I am thinking back to last season, and how the penultimate episode set things up to be super exciting and then the finale was a let-down, so I’m not holding my breath here. Good action-y fun though! Stakes raised, beloved location (Lucille counts as a location) destroyed, the future cast in some doubt - let’s see what’s next, huh?

[lindseymcdonaldseyelashes]

Leverage 2x15 - "The Maltese Falcon Job"

[pass-the-bechdel]

Leverage s02e15 ‘The Maltese Falcon Job’

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

Yes, four times.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Four (36.36% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Seven.

Positive Content Rating:

Three.

General Episode Quality:

A worthy, action-packed finale.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

Tara and Parker pass talking about ‘briny despair’. And later, re: the long metal coffin...with wind. Tara explains things to Parker, twice.

Female characters:

Tara Cole.

Parker.

Amy Nevins.

Sophie Devereaux.

Male characters:

Nathan Ford.

Eliot Spencer.

Alec Hardison.

Jim Sterling.

Brad Kulpepper III.

Bob.

Tony Kadjic.

OTHER NOTES:

Eliot, telling Nate off but not turning on him. I like this kind of constructive criticism thing.

I love Eliot growling around counting off the armed men as he knocks them out. I have rarely enjoyed a violent guy quite as much as this.

I knew Sophie was gonna sweep in to save the day, but that doesn’t make it any less fun when it happens. And this was a way better season finale than the last one! To be honest, Nate’s whole ‘I don’t know who I am without you, Sophie’ thing felt totally out of left field to me and I don’t feel like his behaviour this season stands out as being reckless ‘because Sophie isn’t there to be his compass’ when, um, she WAS there last season while he was being an alcoholic disaster, and he was way worse then, so??? It smacks of him putting off responsibility for his behaviour onto her, and/or just generally NOT taking responsibility for it himself, finding any excuse, etc, and I’d feel more comfortable with that if I felt like the show acknowledged it and explored it deliberately. That’s always the sticking point for me with realistic bad behaviour - everyone is flawed, yeah, that’s natural and unavoidable, but it is your responsibility as a storyteller not to treat character flaws like virtues or to misplace blame for them, etc, in short, it is your responsibility as a storyteller to BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE STORY YOU TELL. That’s essentially exactly why I write this blog. I don’t advocate for censorship of any part of life, because denying a thing exists doesn’t make it stop, it just makes it harder to understand and harder for those afflicted by it to get help or even to realise they’re not alone - the same reason that fair and honest representation of race, gender, and sexuality is important extends to all aspects of the human psyche. The things considered ugly or difficult should not be censored, no, but their inclusion in a story should be handled sensitively and intelligently, and above all with moral integrity. Leverage certainly is not getting into the kind of deep-dark stuff that really tests that concept (and would leave me writing multiple-paragraph analysis/praise/condemnation as I have for episodes of other shows), but the standard applies nonetheless. Nate is a depressed and off-the-rails drunk after the loss of his son? Absolutely, tell that story, but be responsible. Don’t treat grief as a free pass to being a jerk, don’t let Nate outsource the blame for what is under his control, and don’t normalise poor behaviour and treatment of others because ‘he’s the hero’. And if you’re afraid that it would be too morally preachy to take an explicit tone in regards to these things, you’re not emotionally mature enough to be fashioning media for mass consumption, so sit down and learn better. Well...this took a turn, huh?