Leverage: The Two Horse Job
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The usual caution: If you haven’t yet caught up with Leverage on TNT, you are depriving yourself of the best new TV series of 2008.
Episode 3 aired on Tuesday and I finally saw it this afternoon, due to, um, time-shifting. Time-shifting which is done for Post Pimpage Purposes. That’s almost like, um, a license (really, Your Honor, guv’nor!).
Let me show you some of what you missed. But first, let me start out as usual, rolling the credits so everyone can take a bow:
Under the credits is this episode’s premise. A stable full of racing horses burns down. The stable owner is certain it was the investor who did it, to collect on insurance he had on the horses. Being an animal lover, he wants justice. His requested payoff: That the sole surviving horse be transfered from the investor to his ownership.
And, oh yeah, Eliot personally knows this family and was involved with the young blonde you saw under the titles!
At the Leverage HQ briefing, something unexpected happens …
… Parker raises her hand and asks to be excused from this con because she has a fever …
… but Nathan doesn’t buy it. Parker admits as a child she “saw a horse kill a clown.”
God, I love Parker! (Let’s be clear here: The all-grown-up legal-age one!)
What follows is a story that unfortunately aims straight at two of my (many) ignorances: race horses and cards!
Sophie gets to play a Southern Belle …
… while Nathan sets up a technotastic card game scam involving hi-tech marked cards …
Sophie skillfully lifts the wallet from the vic …
… and passes it …
… to Parker …
… who then takes his gold card (product placement alert?) …
… and swipes it …
… on a device …
… attached to a garter belt! OMG, this show is good to me!
The data is relayed to Hardison …
… hp has notebooks with light-up logos? (Product placement alert?)
When the time comes to drain the investor of his money via the marked-card game, the vic pulls out a new deck. Nathan doesn’t object to this …
… but in the adjoining room, running the notebook to see the marked cards …
… Parker has an OMFGZ! Moment.
But Nathan has the winning hand anyway. The team wins the old-fashioned way …
… by cheating …
… card-passing old school-style.
Nathan does some wonderful handwork to diss the loser, who dares to accuse Nathan of cheating!
Afterwards, in the parking lot outside, we run into someone who could be a running series complication. A guy named Sterling, who now has Nathan’s old insurance investigator job and sees Nathan as a crook.
Later, Eliot and his old flame tear at old scabs. Eliot can only say she never heard from him because he was “working” …
It’s hard to believe someone — anyone — getting the drop on Eliot like this, so clearly it was earlier in his career!
That’s enough major spoilerage. Now for the minor. A funny in-joke:
And here comes the tech pr0n portion:
That’s a chip scanner, by the way.
Again: Where did Hardison’s iPhone go?!
At his blog, John Rogers reveals that ten pages were cut from this script. Also, shockingly to me (for I can usually spot it), “We were on the track for precisely one day. There are 116 green screen set replacement shots.” I didn’t spot even a hint of green screen!
This episode was a bit less thrilling than episode 2. I think my ignorance of race horses and cards lessened my potential enjoyment. It also got very twisty, trying to keep track of which scam was being played when and on whom. I was losing track (ugh, no pun intended!). Yes, Leverage wants to keep viewers off guard, but not like that! Maybe the ten pages cut were a bit too much to have go away.
Nonetheless, it’s still the best damned thing on TV and each week we get to see more aspects and more background of each cast member. I still look forward to that and will keep watching. So should you!
OK, because it’s my blog, dammit, this episode’s lust-o-licious Parker Pr0n!
Oh. My. God. Those seductive eyes. And lip gloss too!
Thanks, everyone.
I look forward to the spin-off series: Parkerage!
Aw, I can delude myself dream, can’t I?
Supplemental:
LEVERAGE: The Two Horse Job — Kung Fu Monkey behind-the-scenes
Embed test — production videos!
LEVERAGE: 2 Horses 1 Post — this episode Q&A
Mike Cane 2008 
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