(no subject)
The first half of the show went like normal, except for higher emotional stakes and Deep Awkwardness on pretty much all sides. (The look on Eliot's face when Nate's ex introduced herself was...memorable. Wow, moments you never ever want to have.) Lots of good con bits, Parker and Hardison maintained their utter adorability, and if Nate was having more trouble keeping his mind on the job than usual, well it's only to be expected. But so I was sort of thinking maybe the previews had overdramatized the episode, as is their wont, and then we hit the halfway mark and ohmygod, bang bang bang eek Hardison eek Parker is Eliot losing a fight? Er. Yeah. It was a little distressing.
And then things got worse, because oh Sophie, Nate wasn't being oversensitive, you really were conning him; you conned your TEAM. I mean...*flail* And I totally believed that she did it, and that she did it...partially for the right reasons, and she thought the wrong reasons didn't matter. But still *flail*, and the way Nate looked when Sterling broke it to him, and Sophie's voice as she admitted it...can we have emotional repercussions, can we can we huh? (For the record, while I really liked the "we're all addicts" moment, Sophie doesn't get moral equivalency here because Nate's issues have always been completely out in the open; everyone knows he's a drunk, everyone knows what his motivations for this job were. Nobody knew about Sophie's.)
And then Nate broke out the plan, and oh man, this is why he does the scheming. Parker! Hardison! Drawing on each other's strengths has always been what made this whole thing work, and this was an extra-cool way to implement that. Not to mention the dead-calm expression on Nate's face, and the way Sophie was laughing all the way down...oh, that whole sequence was a thing of beauty. Go all of you! Even if you lost the money and screwed the con and blew up your headquarters, it still counts as a moral win! I think!
Other comments:
* They had...index cards for the intervention? And Parker was very clearly reading off hers. Oh Parker.
* It is so very, very Leverage that Parker and Hardison's first kiss is for purposes of conning security guards. And that he's going "uh, can we talk about this?" while she's going "whee, shiny theft challenge!" (I think it is possible that she's just tormenting him, but Parker being Parker there are at least even odds that she really has no idea what's going on.)
* The revelation that Nate's ex-wife doesn't know why her kid died had me shrieking at the screen; yeah, yeah, you didn't tell her, Nate, I get that, now WHY? And you have picked the wrong moment to expect me to feel sorry that she pities you, because--seriously, Nate, what the hell? Do you not think you deserves to know this? That maybe she would like the option to refuse to work with the people who killed her kid? We had better be getting back to this.
*Also, if the con had gone as planned (well, as on-the-fly replanned), wouldn't she kind of been screwed as well? What with having attested to the veracity of a fake? I am not sure that Nate thought his cunning plan through.
* I really love the constant use of the team's comlinks--I think it feeds into the teamwork and competence thing, they're always in communication so they're always working together--so Sterling casually appropriating one was downright creepy. Hands off, dammit, not yours!
* Nate taking that drink on the roof was a *flinch* moment.
* For a non-action guy, Hardison does...not bad in a fight. Nate too, actually; have we ever seen him in a fight scene before?
* The guys doing their "You!" "No, you!" "Both of you!" moment was...very cute, actually. Also hysterical. *g*
* Hardison doggedly rescuing the painting. I can tell right now, he's going to find some justification for putting it up in any headquarters they ever set up in, while Nate reminds himself that it is a small price to pay for Hardison's skills. Probably. And Parker refuses to steal it (she says it'd be too easy, but Nate thinks she may have other motivations), and Eliot says that if Hardison insisted on carrying the thing out of a building that was going to explode, Eliot is not going to get between them (he likes having functioning cable TV), and Sophie just laughs. A lot.
*Of course Hardison has a self-destruct in their offices. I'm only surprised he doesn't have, like, lasers that target anyone who comes in who isn't them. (Well, okay, not lasers, and they have clients up there sometimes, but still, I would expect Hardison's security systems to be amazing).
* Okay, obviously everyone walking away from each other at the end is a fake--we can hardly have the Leverage finale without the Leverage characters, even if they hadn't obligingly shown us the promo--but it's still kind of heartbreaking to see. Or possibly I am being oversensitive.
*Next week: everyone is in really big trouble.
Also, this week's NCIS cracked me up no end (peacocks! campfires! wrong phone!) except for the parts where it was really intensely sweet and...surprisingly dark. Oh, Tony.