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underrated feminist Ethan Hunt moment is when Benji says “SHE SHOT AT ME” and Ethan’s like “that doesn’t make her a bad person 🥺”

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someone on the plane was watching Dead Reckoning and I'm pissed all over again because like

Rebecca Ferguson: I don't want to be a love interest I'd rather be dead

MQ and Tom Cruise: okay we'll kill you off for manpain and then forget you existed instead

How is that better, for fuck's sake, for the time they did have her in Dead Reckoning they could have done so much with her and they wasted it, and also do you realize that you can't just kill off a woman and slot another one in like we're interchangeable?? Not to mention that "love interest" sure is an interesting way to describe the only woman who has ever been Ethan's equal and who could very much be his partner without being reduced to the typical female love interest?

But instead, they killed her off, invented one of the most infuriating female characters I've ever seen (Grace), and turned the whole thing into U.S. military propaganda that rivals fucking Top Gun

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I love how The Entity (the AI in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning) hosts a EDM dance party as part of its evil plan.

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My Rambling Thoughts on ‘The Mastermind’

One of the things I love about the original Leverage is that it takes these characters with their very distinct titles and skill sets who are used to working alone, and finishes with each character still mostly being known by their monikers, but having learned how to work together and becoming that much better because they learn from each other. However, there was no doubt that Nate was The Mastermind. Nate, who had plans from A to M, who saw the world on a different plane, who poured his fury into his work to take down those who hurt people with poetic and destructive flair.

We see some of team try to mastermind in the original with Sophie taking the reins for The Three Days of the Hunter Job and Hardison in The Gold Job. Sophie masterminds in a very grifter way, reading the mark easily and trapping her with her own desires.

Hardison masterminds in a very hacker way, using video game logic and excellent graphics, trying to “update” the art of the con.

Both of their cons succeed, albeit with some mishaps, but are, imo, very well thought out. The overall message in both of these episodes though, is that no one can do it like Nate. No one can anticipate the sudden curveballs and all of the ways that a job can go haywire, so the team needs a mastermind that can. Nate does get the job done, and there is something to be said for Sophie and Hardison learning the intricacies of masterminding, but I don’t like the way Nate pats them on the head and is essentially like, “Good try sweetie, it’s time for the adults to take over.” Nate is arrogant, and so it’s not at all shocking to assume that he thinks there’s only one way to mastermind.

Which is why I LOVE that Redemption does not fill that mastermind role with really any of our team! Sophie eventually leads the team and decides what cons they’re going to do, but we see her grappling with the burden of leadership and trying and failing to be Nate because she’s not Nate. None of them are!

This idea is really expounded upon in The Turkish Prisoner Job in the conversation between Sophie and Harry (where Harry takes his turn masterminding through his evil lawyer lens). She mentions the different people that run the Leverage International crews and how they each mastermind based off of their own profession/life experiences.

This concept of masterminding your own way while still paying tribute to your roots really stood out to me with my rewatch of season 3, starting with The Scared Stiff Job. Sophie, in true Nate fashion, goes after the mark hard, but it’s Breanna who ultimately pulls off an incredibly complex con with her own style and flavor. It’s The Order 23 Job: Dystopian Sci-Fi Hellscape Edition. We’ve seen Breanna mastermind in previous seasons, but her running this intensive targeted con filled with righteous indignation side by side with Sophie contemplating Nate’s legacy is just *chef’s kiss*

The immediate next episode is The Hustler Job, where Sophie really steps up and becomes a mastermind.

Leaving Breanna in the ceiling and stealing all of the money early on while the mark is distracted is very Nate “Plan M” Ford, but true to form, she masterminds in a very Sophie way. She reads the mark instantly and needles him in just the right way to keep him off balance, calling his tells and keeping him guessing with her motivations. It’s a very grifter approach to masterminding again, but you can see her growth from The Three Days of the Hunter Job and how she honors Nate but stays true to herself. Letting Harry have his pound of flesh was very Nate-coded as well.

Next, we have The Grand Complication Job, where Parker seamlessly slips back into the mastermind role.

She is Nate’s heir, she thinks the most like him and her plans are flawless. However, what does she help Tara to do? Steal the watch. Yes, it’s a diversion tactic against Bligh, but she’s a thief! Of course she would mastermind like a thief!

Obviously, Parker is brilliant and the finale really puts to sleep any doubt that she is a mastermind. She doesn’t use thievery in the traditional sense in the finale of this season other than viewing philosophy as a heist but as many more eloquent users have noted, the con and her final speech is 100% Nate Ford. And while she may not be a thieving mastermind in the finale, she is able to grow her masterminding abilities by perfecting her skill at the long con, influenced by both Nate and Sophie.

All of this rambly nonsense aside, I just love that Redemption doesn’t have a mastermind, because it shows that there’s not one way to do good or to succeed. You can bring something to the table because of your unique skill set and experiences, and you can also grow and become better through the advice and experiences of others!

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"I know you're bluffing because you have yet to explain how you're getting out of this building."

Leverage Redemption S01E16 The Harry Wilson Job.

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Ooh, good catch! I also spy Percy Jackson, some poetry by Shel Silverstein and what looks like Angels and Demons? Arizona Mike sucks, but he has good literary taste.

Rewatching The Weekend in Paris Job and noticed that Arizona Mike has A Series of Unfortunate Events on his bookshelf to the right of his safe.

It made me laugh because a) why would a hot sauce guy have this series in his Big Important Offshore Office and b) what is the point of Leverage International if not to create a series of unfortunate events for their much deserving marks?

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many people can say their favorite character is dead but not many can say their favorite character got eaten by lions in a show with nothing to do with lions

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Rewatching The Weekend in Paris Job and noticed that Arizona Mike has A Series of Unfortunate Events on his bookshelf to the right of his safe.

It made me laugh because a) why would a hot sauce guy have this series in his Big Important Offshore Office and b) what is the point of Leverage International if not to create a series of unfortunate events for their much deserving marks?

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And most important of all they both stay silly

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So is Kiki Sophie’s London 80s street punk alias? This raises so many questions.

Arthur calls her by that name in the One Man’s Trash Job so he’s aware of it. Were the two of them conning Ralphie Roy pre joining up with Ramsey? What was the con? Were Ralphie and Arthur part of the sextagon (lmao)?

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desperately holding out for a hardison sophie episode next season, they’re such an under utilized duo… if og leverage was like hardison’s criminal college then sophie was his favorite professor for a class that technically wasn’t part of his main curriculum but he ended up enjoying the class so much he ended up getting like a whole degree on the track

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'Mission: Impossible 8' Needed Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust

Spoiler Alert: Spoilers follow for Mission: Impossible - The Final ReckoningAs (ahem) impossible as it sounds, Ethan Hunt’s journey has reached its end. Audiences recently saw the long-awaited release of Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise’s last hurrah in the franchise that arguably made him a household name. While it’s a slightly bumpier ride than previous installments in the series, on the whole, it’s a satisfying conclusion and yet another sterling showcase of Cruise’s willingness to defy death for our entertainment. It takes a while to get to the stunts, but when they arrive, they showcase some of the best action in the franchise.

The Final Reckoning also ties up a surprising number of loose threads from previous installments, finally revealing what the Rabbit’s Foot from Mission: Impossible III actually is, and bringing things full circle with Jim Phelps, the antagonist of the original film. Almost all the fan-favorite characters get one last chance to shine, reminding us how much we will miss Benji, Grace, and especially Luther (RIP). Yet we can’t help but feel that the film, and by extension, Dead Reckoning, did one of the franchise’s best characters, Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), dirty.

Wherefore Art Thou, Ilsa Faust? 

One of the most surprising moments in Dead Reckoning saw the villainous Gabriel corner series newcomer Grace, only for IMF veteran Ilsa Faust to come to her defense. As Ethan races to the rescue, Gabriel gains the upper hand and stabs Ilsa, seemingly killing her. It was a death so out of the blue that fans almost unanimously didn’t believe it would stick, and it would later be revealed to be a fakeout.

Alas, this wasn’t the case: Ilsa is entirely absent from The Final Reckoning, confirming that she died in the prior installment (the fact that she faked her death in the opening of Dead Reckoning was maybe a hint that the next time would be permanent). Obviously, the Mission: Impossible films are no strangers to killing off characters in shocking ways, as the TV show’s protagonist dies at the end of the first installment, and Luther meets his end in the opening act of The Final Reckoning.

But ever since she joined the series in Rogue Nation, Ilsa has become a fan favorite, thanks to Rebecca Ferguson’s effortlessly charismatic performance. Such an abrupt departure immediately raised eyebrows, especially since, as delightful as Hayley Atwell is as Grace, her character fulfills a lot of the same functions as Ilsa, and thus it was easy to see her as a replacement.

So why was Ilsa killed off? In a 2024 interview with The Wrap, Ferguson stated that while she’d enjoyed her time with the series, she was ready to move on. Additionally, since the films leaned increasingly into the team dynamic, she felt Ilsa didn’t fit within that: "Ilsa was becoming a team player. And we all can want different things, but for me, Ilsa was rogue… there were a lot of characters coming in, not leaving enough space for what she had been."

'Mission: Impossible' Wasted Ilsa... And Rebecca Ferguson 

But even if director Christopher McQuarrie’s hands were tied, it’s still not hard to think that he could have given Ilsa a better ending. For starters, she was always one of the most capable fighters in the franchise, so it doesn’t feel believable that she’d get overpowered in hand-to-hand combat. Even if Ilsa had died taking a bullet meant for Grace, it would’ve felt more in character for her and illustrated her loyalty to her teammates despite being a rogue player in most instances. Because the actual circumstances felt so out of character, it is no wonder that fans first thought it was a fakeout.

But more frustrating is how Ilsa’s death serves as a prominent example of “fridging”, a storytelling trope that’s undergone increasing criticism over the last decade. “Fridging” refers to any instance in which a female character is unceremoniously killed off to motivate a prominent male character. Despite often being derided as sexist, it remains depressingly common in modern blockbusters. Several MCU installments have fridged fan-favorite characters as part of key plot points, while Deadpool 2 received vocal backlash for fridging the female lead early on. Even Christopher Nolan has received criticism for often using this trope in his films.

Especially considering how quickly the Mission: Impossible films effectively swapped out Ilsa for Grace, it feels like a genuine disservice to a fan-favorite character. Fans loved Ilsa because, while she was a lone wolf at heart, she genuinely cared about Ethan and company and was always willing to help them when push came to shove. As such, when the films barely mention her again after her death, it doesn’t ring true at all.

All this being said, The Final Reckoning was still a satisfying wrap-up to an all-time great action franchise, and a love letter to the fans who’ve spent almost three decades invested in the journey. Yet it’s a testament to how much the film gets right that the abrupt sidelining of such a great character and performer feels all the more disappointing. Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is now playing in theaters.

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Finally watched the Leverage Redemption s3 finale and holy shit Beth Riesgraf's acting was on a whole other level!!! She was stunning, amazing! Like this was a whole other level of Parker that I feel like we've never seen from her before and I was EATING IT UP!!!

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I finished my rewatch of OG Leverage a couple of weeks ago and Leverage Redemption S1 yesterday and can’t stop thinking about this line from the conversation between Harry and Sophie at the end of The Harry Wilson Job.

“They are my family, but they’re used to seeing me a certain way. As Sophie Devereaux. You see me as I could be. I’m gonna miss that.”

With Nate haunting the narrative so much in S1, I’m wondering if she’s also including him in that line? Mostly because something that stood out to me in my OG rewatch is how much Nate kind of pigeonholes Sophie into this “untrustworthy mysterious femme fatale” stereotype and despite her undergoing significant character development as the show goes on, he doesn’t really allow his vision of her to change.

Of course she is untrustworthy when the show begins, because that’s the whole point. They’ve been playing the cat and mouse game for years, so Nate doesn’t really know anything besides “Sophie Devereaux” the persona that he puts on a pedestal, the persona he chooses. So when she does lie to him and the team in The First David Job, it’s like he holds it against her for the rest of the show, despite her showing up and risking her life over and over again for the team. She betrayed them once, thereby playing into his preconceived ideas of her and so he boxes her in there.

I do believe that Nate genuinely loves Sophie and Sophie genuinely loves Nate. However, though Nate respects her talent as a grifter, I don’t feel like he really respects Sophie as a person because of this idea he has of her. There are lots of little digs that he makes about her lying, her acting/theatre dreams, her self-discovery, even her telling the truth that he makes light of.

But then we have this conversation with Harry, and the entirety of LR. Harry does meet Sophie at a very different time in her life, but it is so so obvious how much respect and admiration he has for her. He respects her talent as a grifter as well as her role in leading the team. He helps her see her blind spots when she makes mistakes, but doesn’t hold her mistakes against her, instead reminding her that she’s a good person. He wants to prove himself to her and get better at the con through her mentorship. She has evolved into his one true thing (aaaaaaahhhhh). While their skills might not be on equal footing, their friendship and respect for each other definitely are.

Maybe I’m reading into it, but that was my take on this line, that she’s relieved to be around someone that allows her to grow and respects her while doing it?

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Phineas and Ferb is the perfect example of how children's media can be made with "adult jokes" that go over kids' heads (without losing their interest) that aren't sexual or at all inappropriate. My parents always enjoyed watching it with us when me and my brother were kids, it holds up as a show over the years beyond being nostalgic, and as I've gotten older I've noticed so many jokes that I didn't get when I was younger. But never once have I thought "wow I can't believe it was watching this as a child"

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Theory:

Reality:

Leverage Redemption Season 1 Gag Reel

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I have watched way too much Leverage to ever believe that I've won a vacation from some random place. Y'all just need me out of the way for some reason. I'm onto you. 😆