| 1 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 2 | !!The Team: Leverage Consulting and Associates |
| 3 | [[folder:The team as a whole]] |
| 4 | * AntiHeroTeam: Most of the team's members used to be criminals, and even as good guys their methods cross several legal and sometimes even ethical lines (i.e. they have resorted to {{Gaslighting}} in no less than three episodes). Eliot is also implied to have innocent blood on his hands and Sophie's past as a grifter is shown to have hurt innocents despite her intentions in "The King George Job". |
| 5 | * BadassCrew: The Leverage crew consists of the world's greatest grifter, a mercenary with fighting skills beyond compare, a hacker who robbed the Bank of Iceland as a teenager, an expert thief who has been committing crimes since she was a kid, and a former insurance investigator whose career has granted him the expertise to be a mastermind. |
| 6 | * CriminalFoundFamily: They're a group of criminals trying to bring justice to society. Over the course of the series, they grow to be incredibly tight-knit and almost emulate a "normal" nuclear family. |
| 7 | %% * TeamDad: Nate |
| 8 | %% * TeamMom: Sophie |
| 9 | %% * BigBrotherInstinct: Despite his fractious relationship with Hardison, Eliot is very defensive of the team. |
| 10 | %% * AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Hardison, at least to Eliot. |
| 11 | %% * EveryonesBabySister: Parker (don't make her relationship with Hardison creepy, you creep) |
| 12 | * DysfunctionJunction: |
| 13 | ** Nate was an honest man before the insurance company he worked for as an investigator rejected the policy on his son's health coverage, leading to his death. As a result of this, his marriage ends in divorce, he becomes an alcoholic, and turns to a life of [[JustLikeRobinHood Robin Hooding]] to give his life meaning again. He also has a pretty crappy relationship with his father. |
| 14 | ** No one actually knows who Sophie really is, as she is a grifter who is constantly living in new identities. She has a lot of angst about it in Season 2. |
| 15 | ** As the only member of the team to have physically hurt people in the past, Eliot takes [[TheAtoner atonement very seriously]]. It's heavily implied he did something he considers unforgivable under the orders of [[spoiler: Damien Moreau]], possibly killing children. WordOfGod has it that Eliot is a man who has "accepted that he is damned." It's also mentioned in one episode that he and his father had a falling out when Eliot joined the military. |
| 16 | ** Parker grew up on in the foster system with a series of terrible foster parents -- one of whom she may have blown up after they stole her favorite toy. She had a brother who died at a young age when he was hit by a car while on his bike, and feels guilty about his death because she taught him to ride. She was driving getaway cars when she was 10. After being caught for car theft when she was 12, she was thrown into juvenile detention. She trained under the greatest thief in the world as a teenager who kept her away from his real family because he thought she wouldn't fit in. To top it off, WordOfGod indicates that she also has UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome, meaning that she never really fits in well in social situations. |
| 17 | ** Hardison is the only member of the main cast that seems to be relatively normal as the PlayfulHacker. He grew up in the foster system, but unlike Parker was in a stable situation with Nana. He {{lampshades}} the difference in their backgrounds in one episode. |
| 18 | %% * FiveManBand: |
| 19 | %% ** TheLeader: Nate |
| 20 | %% ** TheLancer: Sophie |
| 21 | %% ** TheBigGuy: Eliot |
| 22 | %% ** TheSmartGuy: Hardison |
| 23 | %% ** TheHeart: Parker |
| 24 | %% ** TheSixthRanger: Tara in season 2 during Sophie's temporary departure. Maggie in "The Second David Job" and "The Last Dam Job." |
| 25 | * FireForgedFriends: Over the course of the show, the team go from a group of criminals who are only out for themselves and can barely stand each other to having a bond comparable to family. It can be easy to forget that in the first episode Hardison pulls a gun on Eliot. |
| 26 | * GoodFeelsGood: As pointed out by Hardison in the season 2 premiere, Nate Ford not only took a bunch of thieves and made them into heroes, but he made them ''enjoy'' being heroes. |
| 27 | * HeelFaceTurn: Eliot, Sophie, Hardison and Parker are career criminals in the pilot episode. After taking down Dubenich, they decide to use their various skills to help innocent people who have been wronged by the rich and powerful. |
| 28 | * JustLikeRobinHood: The rich and powerful take what they want from the poor and the vulnerable. The Leverage team steal it back and return it. |
| 29 | * WeHelpTheHelpless: If you've got a problem the law can't help you with, the Leverage team are there for you. And they won't charge you a single cent. |
| 30 | [[/folder]] |
| 31 | |
| 32 | [[folder:Nathan Ford: The Mastermind]] |
| 33 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leverage_nathan_ford.jpg]] |
| 34 | '''Played by:''' Creator/TimothyHutton |
| 35 | ->''"I'm a [[FunctionalAddict functioning alcoholic]]. The trick is not to get hung up on the 'alcoholic', but celebrate the 'functioning' part of the sentence."'' |
| 36 | |
| 37 | A former insurance investigator at IYS Insurance turned leader of a band of thieves. |
| 38 | ---- |
| 39 | * AddictionDisplacement: In season 2, Nate goes on the wagon, and starts drinking [[MustHaveCaffeine a lot of coffee]]. And running [[TheBerserker very scary cons]]. |
| 40 | * AdvanceNoticeCrime: In the Season 1 finale, Nate announces to his CorruptCorporateExecutive ex-boss Ian that he is going to rob the Two Davids exhibit. Ian already figured Nate would try this because the crew already tried to steal the Two Davids before. Ian thought he would be able to catch Nate in the act so he didn't bother to call the cops. But then came the reveal that Nate wasn't planning to steal the Two Davids, he stole everything else in the gallery, leaving Ian on the hook for hundreds of millions in insurance payments, and the reason he announced his crime in advance was so that he would have a recording of Ian choosing not to call the cops so he would look completely incompetent. |
| 41 | * AggressiveCategorism: As noted in the DVD commentary & shown in "The Lonely Hearts Job", Nate is this towards the rich, who he tends to automatically assume are all corrupt people out to screw over the common man. |
| 42 | * TheAlcoholic: He was one before Season 1 and it shows by the end of the season when he is getting more and more drunk on each episode. He eventually sobers up but fails and in the end simply settles on being a functioning addict. |
| 43 | * {{Antihero}}: While acting towards a moral good, he does lead a group of people in breaking dozens of laws on the local, state, and federal level to pursue said good. |
| 44 | * AmicablyDivorced: He and Maggie are about as amicably divorced as you can get. Nate sometimes even forgets to add "ex-" when saying "ex-wife." |
| 45 | * AwesomeByAnalysis: He demonstrates he can do this on the fly in the series finale. Explains a lot of how he's able to IndyPloy his plans throughout the series. |
| 46 | * BadassBookworm: He rarely gets physically involved with most of the jobs, but when he does, he knows how to hurt you. |
| 47 | * BatmanGambit: Being TheChessmaster, Nate is very good at these. His real genius is that often, his marks are smart enough to know they're being played and take steps to play Nate instead, only to find out that that was [[AllAccordingToPlan part of his plan all along]]. |
| 48 | * BatmanGrabsAGun: In the fourth season finale, he loads a revolver, [[spoiler:his father's own, because he ''really'' wants to avenge his father's murder]]. |
| 49 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Being the only member of the team who is not a former criminal, it's his job to keep the team on noble causes. But if you ever manage to piss him off, he will personally [[{{Fingore}} break your fingers]], or worse. [[spoiler:The guys who REALLY pissed him off aren't alive anymore. He got them ''to kill themselves''.]] |
| 50 | * BigGood: He thinks himself as this before realizing [[spoiler:that he truly is a thief now, and so a criminal. No criminal could be a BigGood, so he is simply a very smart and dangerous BigBad who stands on the side of the weak and oppressed good people.]] |
| 51 | * BrokenAce: In the early seasons. He is a gifted people-reader and situation analyst tempered by years of insurance investigation, familiarity with the criminal mindset, and natural talent for adjusting on the fly, but it comes at the expense of personal tragedy coloring his characterization and motivation, drinking himself under the table, and self-loathing. Nate tries to channel this into helping others with his and his team's talents but he is frequently questioned by the team about what he actually hopes to get out of their jobs; if it's for the good of the client or his own way of being able to live with himself. He starts to become better once his acceptance of being a black hat settles in at the end of season 2. |
| 52 | * ByronicHero: He is a thief who commits fraud, theft, and dozens of other crimes, but because of his emotional baggage, the loss of his son, his drinking, and his social problems, he qualifies for this term. |
| 53 | * TheCallKnowsWhereYouLive: And will walk into your living room, use it as a base, and WILL NOT LEAVE. |
| 54 | * CatchPhrase: "Let's go steal [[MadLibsCatchPhrase (something crazy)]]." Examples: |
| 55 | ** "a fashion show." |
| 56 | ** "the man on the street... in Africa." |
| 57 | ** "Parker." |
| 58 | ** "a country." |
| 59 | ** "the future." |
| 60 | ** "a mountain." Twice. |
| 61 | ** "We're going to steal the wake?" "Have some respect. We're going to ''borrow'' the wake." |
| 62 | ** "a miracle." "Aw, we ''all'' going to Hell." |
| 63 | ** "the Department of Defense." "Isn't that treason?" "...We'll give it back." |
| 64 | ** [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking "a potato."]] |
| 65 | ** The trope gets a lampshade in "The Three Days of the Hunter Job" when Sophie, taking over as leader for the con, says "We need to steal a general." |
| 66 | --->'''Nate:''' No, it's, "Let's go steal a general." You know, it's a rallying cry. "We need to steal a general," it's a little naggy. It's kinda like, "We need eggs," you know? |
| 67 | * TheChessmaster: His label in the team is Mastermind. He has at least, on average, a dozen plans to take down his targets. He very adept at not only thinking up a long plan but using spur of the moment bits to help move the plan along. He knows the team members' strengths and weaknesses and how best to use them in plans. Also, quite literally: he's very good at the game of chess itself. In "The Queen's Gambit Job", he reaches the final of a world-class Blitz invitational, beating two grandmasters (''entirely fairly'') to do so. The only person he can't defeat at chess? [[WorthyOpponent Sterling.]] |
| 68 | * CombatPragmatist: As of season five, he likes to begin/end every fight with a single punch to his opponent's face. |
| 69 | * CrazyPrepared: Rarely does he come upon a situation either he or his team cannot help someone through. |
| 70 | * ControlFreak: Really comes to a head in "The Three Days of the Hunter Job" and "The Gold Job", when other team members (Sophie and Hardison, respectively) take over as leader; he tends to be more on edge if he's not leading the team. It's also the key signal to his style as a grifter. |
| 71 | * CreepyGood: When ''Parker'' finds your plans and willingness to really mess with the mark's mind creepy, you are definitely edging into this. |
| 72 | * CunningPeoplePlayPoker: Nate has already been established as TheChessmaster. But when a group of Irish Mob thugs try to strongarm the woman who owns [=McRory's=], Nate challenges the leader to a poker match [[spoiler: with three members of law enforcement who knew Nate's criminal father, and gets the Irish mobster to confess to several crimes in front of the cops.]] |
| 73 | * FunctionalAddict: He's a functional alcoholic, most of the time. There are a few jobs where it screws him up, but not many. |
| 74 | * GoodIsNotNice: Oh boy. He is acting on the side of moral good and breaking dozens of laws along the way. If you stand between him and helping the client, be prepared to suffer. |
| 75 | * GuileHero: Rarely is he unable to think up a way around an obstacle. |
| 76 | * HatesRichPeople: Nathan Ford has developed an intense hatred of wealthy industrialists and [=CEOs=], the sort of people he holds accountable for the death of his son. In Season 4, the {{Big Bad}}s of the season try to entice him by offering him targets to go after, playing on this very hatred. And when their plans are unfurled and they both find themselves at gunpoint, one of them points out that the other is a wealthy CEO who can go on to hurt a lot of people. There are a couple of episodes where Nate is forced to admit that they've run into an HonestCorporateExecutive, but he still sees them ultimately as pawns to use in his schemes, even if not outright enemies. |
| 77 | %% * TheHeart: Particularly when he brings the team together at the start of the series. |
| 78 | %% * TheHero: If this is a FiveManBand, anyway. |
| 79 | * IntelligenceEqualsIsolation: While he does fine dealing with people when he is manipulating them or when dealing with the team, he is often incapable of dealing with normal people, most notably shown in "The Boys' Night Out Job". |
| 80 | * ItsPersonal: On multiple occasions. |
| 81 | ** In "The First David Job"/"The Second David Job", [[TheCon the mark]] is Ian Blackpoole, Nathan's former boss--and the man who in effect killed Sam. |
| 82 | ** In "The Cross My Heart Job", the villain is an [[EvilOldFolks aged]], terminally ill arms manufacturer who tries to hijack a heart transplant from a 15-year-old boy who will die without it. Reminded of Sam's fate, Nate goes a little crazy; he not only tells the villain his real name and gives him an epic TheReasonYouSuckSpeech, he actually threatens to kill him ''personally'' -- the only time he's ever done so. [[spoiler: His actions do ensure the mark's death from his illness, but Nate makes it clear he'd do the deed himself if anything happened to the kid.]] |
| 83 | ** "The Three Card Monte Job", "The Radio Job", and "The Last Dam Job" all involve [[spoiler:Nate's father, Jimmy Ford]]. For better and for worse, Nate takes those jobs personally. |
| 84 | * InTheBlood: Nathan seems to view his relationship with his father like this, to an extent. While he rejects his father's nefarious traits, he doesn't deny he picked up a fair bit of expertise that he applies to his exploits. This is relevant in "The Bottle Job" (where he reminisces about his time in the bar with his father and uses it to cozy up to some off-duty cops) and particularly in "The Three-Card Monte Job" (where his father is directly involved in the story and we can see how much Nathan gleaned from his Pops). |
| 85 | * JackOfAllStats: Nate is the team's MissionControl, but isn't shy about doing field work himself. He may not be the best fighter, grifter, or thief, but he is competent in all those skills, and often performs as a secondary or distraction while the team's specialists do the heavy lifting. |
| 86 | * KnightInSourArmor: He has a ton of emotional baggage that he tries to get out by helping others with his skills. At no point does he ever seem legitimately happy that he did some good in the world, at best basking in a smug cynicism that yet another unsympathetic power broker got what was coming to them. The rest of the team is in it for GoodFeelsGood but Nate is only trying to make peace with himself. |
| 87 | * LargeHam: Nate Ford the guy is a soft-spoken, unassuming, if a little intense guy. Nate Ford the grifter is often an obnoxious, sleazy loudmouth, the kind of person that people can't wait to get rid of. |
| 88 | * TheLeader: He's even called The Mastermind. |
| 89 | * ManipulativeBastard: Normally he leaves this part of the planning to Sophie, but when he wants to, Nate can be a very good manipulator in his own right. He's not such a good ''actor'', but can even use that to his advantage. He notes this is one quality Hardison lacks to run his own crew because a leader would have to do things others object to for the sake of the goal, like [[spoiler:hypnotizing Hardison so he could play ''Scheherazade'']]. In "The Studio Job", he's locked in a room with two {{Mook}}s, who are going to beat the crap out of him. A few minutes later, the crew busts in and... he's just sitting there, and the two mooks are unconscious on the ground. Nate says they got in a fight... As a con-man/grifter, he's not on Sophie's level, and he also has a very different style. She usually ingratiates herself with the mark. Nate usually irritates them. She's alluring, he's an asshole. |
| 90 | * MissionControl: Shares this with Hardison. |
| 91 | * TheMissusAndTheEx: Sophie and Maggie respectively. They are friends and respect each other, which puts Nate on edge just slightly. |
| 92 | * MirrorCharacter: With Starke. When Sophie is saying how a brilliant man whose pride has been hurt and personally challenged, will lead him to do a bigger, more dangerous con, one of the team asks if she's talking about Starke or Nate. This is emphasized by interspersing clips of Nate and Starke giving pretty much the same speech and even putting their suit coat on in the same fashion. |
| 93 | %% * OfficialCouple: With Sophie, beginning in season 4. |
| 94 | * TheOneWithAPersonalLife: Inverted in the back-to-back episodes "The Girls' Night Out Job" and "The Boys' Night Out Job" lampshade the fact that while everyone, even [[NoSocialSkills extremely socially unaware]] Parker, has some friend or life outside the crew,''except'' Nate. |
| 95 | * PassingTheTorch: To Parker in the GrandFinale. |
| 96 | * PayEvilUntoEvil: The whole gang is here for this, but Nate thinks a lot bigger and long term than the rest. When he runs a con, he always aims to utterly expose, destroy, humiliate, and leave the marks destitute, ''and'' get restitution plus interest for the victims. If he leaves a mark with their limbs intact, he's being merciful. |
| 97 | * ThePromise: In the pilot, after Nate and his team take down Dubenich for double-crossing them, Nate warns him that if they ever meet again, he won't be so nice. [[spoiler: Nate makes good on that promise after Dubenich has his father killed in the 4th season finale by tricking him and Latimer to fight over a loaded gun near the edge of a dam, and they both plummet to their deaths]]. |
| 98 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Nate delivers these to some of his marks after he and his team run a con on them. |
| 99 | * RunningGag: Nate tends to get punched in the face approximately OnceAnEpisode by either an enraged mark or a furious goon. |
| 100 | * SharpDressedMan: Almost always slickly dressed, unless the con needs him to a bit grittier (as in "The Reunion Job"). |
| 101 | * SinkOrSwimMentor: In the fifth season, [[spoiler:in preparation for his retirement, he puts the various team members in challenging situations on their own, outside their comfort zones, to see what how they adapt and figure out who's capable of taking over]]. |
| 102 | * SmartPeoplePlayChess: This is his running motif. He even plays in a chess tournament of Grandmasters as part of a con. |
| 103 | * TalkingTheMonsterToDeath: If he's not playing a role, and he gets a chance to speak to the bad guy? It usually means they've already lost. Demonstrated [[MagnificentBastard magnificently]] in the season 4 finale. |
| 104 | * TeamDad: To the Team, especially Parker in the last season as he slowly pushes her and the others [[spoiler:to grow beyond their positions and be able to carry on without him]]. |
| 105 | * ThatsWhatIWouldDo: Whenever they are going up against somebody on his level of analysis. Starke, Sterling, and the marks from "Juror #6 Job" and "The Fifteen Minutes" job are good examples. |
| 106 | * TimeForPlanB: Nate tells Hardison in "The Gold Job" he never runs with Plan A. Plan A has too many coincidences to pull it off right. He starts off lower with a simpler, grittier plan and spruces it up a little. According to WordOfGod, "When Nate gets past Plan G, things start to get very hairy." |
| 107 | ** In the pilot: |
| 108 | --->'''Hardison:''' Going to Plan B?\ |
| 109 | '''Nate:''' Technically that would be Plan G.\ |
| 110 | '''Hardison:''' How many plans do we have? Is there a Plan M?\ |
| 111 | '''Nate:''' Yeah, Hardison dies in Plan M.\ |
| 112 | '''Eliot:''' I like Plan M. |
| 113 | ** In season 4, episode 10: |
| 114 | --->'''Nate:''' That was Plan M.\ |
| 115 | '''Hardison:''' [[CallBack Don't I die in Plan M?]]\ |
| 116 | '''Nate:''' Yeah, usually. Yeah.\ |
| 117 | '''Hardison:''' Whatchu mean usually? How many plans do I die in?\ |
| 118 | '''Nate:''' C, F, and M through Q.\ |
| 119 | '''Hardison:''' Hold up, C? Man, that's a bit close to home man. Need to switch that up. How many plans does Eliot die in?\ |
| 120 | '''Nate:''' Uh, none. (''turns to Parker'') And none. (''turns to Sophie'') And...(''{{Beat}}. Turns back to Eliot'') But there is one where you come out with a scar. |
| 121 | ** Inverted in at least one instance, "The Boiler Room Job". The team goes in knowing that their mark is beyond their ability to con him as he's just too good at it himself. So they attempt to rob him blind...which he catches onto. Nate then adjusts their approach so the mark ''knows'' he's being conned...all so they can go back to Plan "A" and rob him blind while he's too focused on exposing the con. |
| 122 | * TokenGoodTeammate: |
| 123 | ** Dubenich deliberately picks Nate to lead the team because he needs one honest man to keep them in line. |
| 124 | ** Early on, Nate is the only team member who is genuinely interested in helping people. By the beginning of the second season, however, this is no longer the case, as he's gotten the others to realize that GoodFeelsGood and they have all become committed to continuing to help people (to the point of all but forcing Nate to go along with it despite his protests that he's trying to live a normal life again). |
| 125 | * {{UST}}: With Sophie and Maggie. |
| 126 | * WellDoneSonGuy: |
| 127 | ** In a weird, kinda twisted and ruthless way, as seen in "The Three-Card Monte Job." |
| 128 | ** Played more straight (and tragic) in "The Radio Job." When [[spoiler: his dad is trapped in a warehouse with explosives about to go off, he tells Nate over the phone, "Tell them how much Jimmy Ford loved his son." Nate, who is [[LeeroyJenkins about to rush into the warehouse]], is so stunned he stops in his tracks and can only watch helplessly as the building explodes.]] |
| 129 | * WillTheyOrWontThey: He and Sophie for most of the show. |
| 130 | * WouldHitAGirl: Cold cocks a nun in "The Boys' Night Out Job." [[spoiler:Though, she isn't really a nun.]] |
| 131 | [[/folder]] |
| 132 | |
| 133 | [[folder:Sophie Devereaux: The Grifter]] |
| 134 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leverage_sophie_devereaux.jpg]] |
| 135 | '''Played by:''' Creator/GinaBellman |
| 136 | ->''"Thieves find entrances, but grifters? Mm-mm. We make them."'' |
| 137 | |
| 138 | Terrible actress and world-class confidence trickster. |
| 139 | ---- |
| 140 | * AccidentalTruth: More than once, her lies while grifting have actually turned out to be ''right''. |
| 141 | * AllWomenLoveShoes: In "The Nigerian Job", Nate mentions that Sophie used her money from the eponymous job to "buy a truly impressive number of shoes." In "The 15 Minute Job", after the mark fails to respond to her running past while chasing a baby carriage, she gives up and gets distracted by a shoe sale. She also always carries an emergency pair of high heels with her, and has a second emergency pair stashed at Nate's apartment. In "The Frame Up Job", Nate's able to deduce she is playing him ''and'' find out where she is going based on ''the sound her shoes make''. |
| 142 | * AmbiguouslyBrown: Ethnically ambiguous (Bellman is just of Eastern European extraction, but her complexion is dark enough to pass for a variety of south- and west-Asian ethnicities) and uses it to her advantage in cons, [[PlaysGreatEthnics portraying an enormous variety of nationalities]] InUniverse. |
| 143 | * AttendingYourOwnFuneral: Does it twice. |
| 144 | ** The first time being the apparent victim of a bombing in her apartment and she joins the team in watching the mourners for the possible bomber making sure Sophie is dead. The funeral itself is for one of her aliases. |
| 145 | ** The second time after she "saves" a presidential candidate from would-be assassins, she is on the balcony overlooking where a makeshift memorial with flowers and her picture are hanging. This time Nate addresses her insistence at basking in the attention she’s getting from the mourners. |
| 146 | * BadActorGoodLiar: Sophie can assume fake identities as easy as a chameleon changing color. Despite this, her theatrical acting is so atrocious that Eliot finds it worse than the time he was forced to play Russian Roulette. In one episode, a critic says her production of ''The Sound of Music'' was so terrible it made them root for the Nazis. However, Sophie can act well when a con requires her to play the role of a talented actress. |
| 147 | * BadBadActing: One of her quirks is that any time she's not conning someone (a.k.a. when she has to perform as a real actor), she is an absolutely terrible actress. So terrible that she should be the patron saint of Bad Bad Acting. It is so bad, when she played Maria in ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'', one reviewer comments she was so bad he was rooting for the ''Nazis''. |
| 148 | --> '''Eliot''': She can't act.\ |
| 149 | '''Nate''': She can act... When it's an act. |
| 150 | ** [[spoiler: In the finale, she finally gets a standing ovation on-stage for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth.]] |
| 151 | * ConArtist: She was a confidence trickster before the team formed. |
| 152 | * DistractedByTheSexy: Part of her MO is that her looks help to blind male marks to any ulterior motives she might have. |
| 153 | %% * TheDragon: Was once one to Starke, in a sense, and now is Nate's NumberTwo. |
| 154 | * TheDreaded: According to Chaos, Sophie is such a feared person in the world of professional thieves that they generally go somewhere else when she's in town. It's why Chaos, upon learning there's even a chance of her joining his crew (which he planned on betraying), simply tries to blow her up. |
| 155 | * EvenTheGirlsWantHer: In "The Experimental Job", [[FairCop Detective Grayson]] indicates that efforts to charm information out of her might be more successful if they came from Sophie instead of Eliot. Eliot takes it in stride, and Sophie, for her part, seems flattered. |
| 156 | * FemmeFatale: Channels this in most of her cons. |
| 157 | * GiftedlyBad: As an actor, and as a singer. Eliot says her singing is even worse than her acting...so it's especially atrocious. |
| 158 | * GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: The key to her CharacterDevelopment, best demonstrated in her throwing down with the female hired gun "The Reunion Job." |
| 159 | * GuileHero: Everything she does is about using her brain to manipulate people into doing what she wants. The show even gets into the psychology behind her manipulations. |
| 160 | -->'''Sophie:''' I'm a grifter. If I'm doing my job right, they just... turn the alarm off for me. |
| 161 | * TheHeart: Ironically, as Nate is the "honest man" who gets everyone to work together, she becomes Nate's moral compass and the emotional center of the group. |
| 162 | * HypnoFool: Her use of neuro-linguistic programming on others verges on this. Just ask Eliot. |
| 163 | * IndyPloy[=/=]SeamlessSpontaneousLie: All the time. |
| 164 | --> '''The Mark''': [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe You're questioning a botanist, an accountant, and the in-house masseuse.]] |
| 165 | --> '''Sophie''': Yes... yes I am, The three of them are having quite the affair. He fathered children with both these women. The paternity expenses? Enormous. Motive to betray your company for the right price. ''[mutters]'' [[BorrowedCatchphrase Damn it, Hardison...]] |
| 166 | --> '''Hardison''': How do you come up with this stuff? |
| 167 | * JourneyToFindOneself: She temporarily leaves the team in the second half of season 2 to do this. See Lost in Character below. |
| 168 | * TheLancer: If this is a FiveManBand, anyway. |
| 169 | * LostInCharacter: During the middle of season 2, she realizes she no longer knows who she is anymore. She is so lost in all her false identities which are more than words on paper because she knows everything about them, from where they were born to how their parents died. She has to leave to find herself. |
| 170 | * MaleGaze: Sophie's wardrobe, even when not on a con, seems almost calculated to appeal to the opposite sex. |
| 171 | * ManipulativeBitch: It's part of her job. She doesn't always mean for it to become a part of her personal life, but it occasionally does. |
| 172 | * MasterOfDisguise: Hey, when you're a grifter, you can't afford not to be one. |
| 173 | * MysteriousPast: We know practically nothing about her from before she met Nate. |
| 174 | * NoNameGiven: "Sophie" is one of many, many aliases. The audience doesn't know her real name, and Nate... forgot it. In bed. |
| 175 | ** [[spoiler: WordOfGod finally said that the name Nate used during the proposal]] in the series finale, "The Long Goodbye Job", may or may not be her real name. Her "you know [[spoiler:Lara's not my real name"]] comment was intended to give them cover for if they got a sixth season. They didn't, so that name was canon... until the new series got picked up. ShrugOfGod? |
| 176 | * OfficialCouple: With Nate. |
| 177 | * {{Omniglot}}: Speaks Chinese and Serbian and presumably other languages. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] because she is a world traveler with a professional need to speak local languages. |
| 178 | * OohMeAccentsSlipping: Gina Bellman does an incredible job, but considering the number and scope of the accents she has to do, it is inevitable that eventually she'd slip on a couple. Her Southern Belle has been specifically mentioned. |
| 179 | * PickyEater: She seems appalled by the fare available in the Nebraska town the team visits during "The Tap-Out Job," complaining that "everything on my plate is yellow" and recoiling from the concept of "chicken-fried steak." (She does eventually gain an appreciation for pork rinds, however.) |
| 180 | --> '''Sophie:''' "Meat" should never be used as an adjective. |
| 181 | * PrettyInMink: At the end of "The Ice Man Job", she's at a high-class diner and wearing a hooded white fur coat. It looks glamorous and also helps cover Gina's baby bump during that season. |
| 182 | * RealLifeWritesThePlot: Bellman's pregnancy forced the [[JourneyToFindOneself Journey to Find Herself]]. |
| 183 | * TheSocialExpert: Her core skill, seeing as how she's their Grifter. |
| 184 | * SugarWiki/SheReallyCanAct: Invoked in-universe. After seeing her BadBadActing on stage, this is the reaction the team gets after realising she's the best grifter there is. |
| 185 | -->'''Hardison:''' She's not awful. |
| 186 | -->'''Nate:''' This is her stage. Sophie Devereaux is the finest actress you've ever seen... when she's breaking the law. |
| 187 | * ShotInTheAss: Implied during her first confrontation with Nate, in the flashback sequence for "The Nigerian Job." She shoots him in the shoulder and gets answered with a shot of his own the instant she turns her back. |
| 188 | * SureLetsGoWithThat: Like any good grifter, she can work with this trope very well. |
| 189 | --> '''Executive''': Excuse me, what are you doing there? |
| 190 | --> '''Sophie''': ''[Southern accent]'' Well, I do... |
| 191 | --> '''Executive''': Are you here with the Australian group? |
| 192 | --> '''Sophie''': ''[Australian accent]'' Wish you blokes'd put some maps up around here! |
| 193 | * TeamMom: |
| 194 | -->'''Hardison:''' We trust Nate to come up with the plan. We trust ''you'' to make sure we're all taken care of. |
| 195 | * ThatsWhatIWouldDo: How she works out what antagonist grifters are doing. |
| 196 | * TookALevelInBadass: While she is never an outright ActionGirl like Parker, she becomes a much more competent fighter in the second season. |
| 197 | %%* {{UST}}: With Nate |
| 198 | [[/folder]] |
| 199 | |
| 200 | [[folder:Eliot Spencer: The Hitter]] |
| 201 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leverage_eliot_spencer.jpg]] |
| 202 | '''Played by:''' Creator/ChristianKane |
| 203 | ->''"Does anybody wanna do my job, huh? I get punched and kicked!"'' |
| 204 | |
| 205 | "Retrieval specialist", mercenary, and badass supreme. |
| 206 | ---- |
| 207 | * TheAce: He is consistently excellent at whatever he tries his hand at, from combat to cooking to country singing to professional baseball. |
| 208 | * ActionHero: Eliot is an excellent martial artist and weapons expert with military experience. He frequently uses his combat expertise to take down any henchmen the team runs into. |
| 209 | * TheAtoner: After a fashion. Eliot has done some very bad things in the past, and his guilt and regret over that seems to be a large part of why he becomes so fiercely committed to helping others and protecting the rest of the team. WordOfGod is that Eliot is more or less at peace with the fact that there is no redemption for him. But he'll fight to the last drop of blood to stop anyone else going down that road, especially his teammates. |
| 210 | * AwesomeByAnalysis: Very much so. He can tell the make of a gun by the sound it makes when it fires, and identifies the {{Mooks}} as ex-CIA/Marine/dirty cops by the way they stand, their haircut, their shoes. Can we say GeniusBruiser? |
| 211 | * BarbarianLonghair: Downplayed. He's a total badass with long hair who is distinctly more rough-around-the-edges than his colleagues. That said, he's still fairly civilized, and can fit in to high-class company if needed. |
| 212 | * BatmanGrabsAGun: |
| 213 | ** In the third season [[spoiler: he picks up a couple of guns in "The Big Bang Job" and mows down a dozen-plus of Moreau's hitmen.]] |
| 214 | ** He does so again in the fourth season finale, [[spoiler:when he seriously considers killing Dubenich so that Nate won't have the chance to commit that sin.]] |
| 215 | * TheBerserker: |
| 216 | ** There are times when he gets worked up enough that he'll charge like a bull and keep punching no matter what. The mere sight of Jim Sterling is one way to set this off. |
| 217 | ** In "The Tap-Out Job," Sophie warns a mark that putting Eliot in a fight where he's handicapped is the same as "taking the safety off the gun." Subverted, in that it's all an act. They removed the drugs from his water before he drinks any. |
| 218 | * BerserkButton: |
| 219 | ** As seen in "The French Connection Job", he has an extreme dislike for people [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking who don't appreciate his cooking]], or food in general since he's a highly trained chef. |
| 220 | ** If you spill his coffee, especially on him, better have a good dental plan. |
| 221 | ** If you hurt a child... |
| 222 | * BigDamnHeroes: Almost literally his job description. When the plan goes awry and someone's in trouble, Eliot's job is to be there to knock some people out and cover his companions. |
| 223 | * BrickJoke: In "The Morning After Job," he makes an offhand remark about watching hockey videos because he never knows when he'll have to fight a guy on ice. In "The Blue Line Job" he poses as a hockey player and does indeed have to fight on the ice. |
| 224 | ** This gets a CallBack in "The First Contact job" when he reveals he studies sci-fi stuff because he never knows when he'll have to fight an alien. |
| 225 | ** Yeah. ''THAT'S'' where he learned it... Word is that [[spoiler: while he was in the military (and ''this was going to be shown on-screen'', except that the sets were already taken down!)... Eliot was ''a member of an SG team.'']] |
| 226 | * TheBigGuy: If this is a FiveManBand, anyway. Though he's the [[TheNapoleon shortest guy]] in the group. Shortest ''person'' in the group, when the girls are wearing their heels. |
| 227 | * BoisterousBruiser: A rather mild example, as he seems full ready to throw himself into action at any given moment. In "The Boiler Room Job," he indicates he is happy towards the end when a mook tries to take him by stating he "hasn't hit anybody in over 2 weeks". |
| 228 | * BrainsAndBrawn: When partnered with Hardison, he's the Brawn. |
| 229 | * TheBrute: To Damien Moreau, in the past. Nowadays he's TheBigGuy. |
| 230 | * ButtMonkey: Usually when Hardison pulls a prank or botches an element of the job. |
| 231 | * CatchPhrase: |
| 232 | ** "Dammit, ([[PhraseCatcher Teammate's name. Usually Hardison]])!" (which is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Hardison in a few episodes), and "It's a very distinctive [[MadLibsCatchPhrase (impossibly small detail he can use to identify something or someone)]]." |
| 233 | ** Given that it is used as a TrustPassword in "The San Lorenzo Job," "We'd be the cavalry," may also qualify. |
| 234 | ** "I used to date a [[MadLibsCatchPhrase (random career)]]" as a reason for knowing details about a specific job. Examples include flight attendants, neurologists and supermodels. (He's claimed to have been with only one of each of those, but it could still count since he's said it twice.) |
| 235 | ** "There's something wrong with you." Says this to Parker a number of times. |
| 236 | * CharlesAtlasSuperpower: Eliot has performed a number of borderline superhuman feats throughout the show. These include taking out four guys in the time it takes a bag to hit the floor, throwing a dart into a bullseye without looking, and surviving getting smacked in the head by a tilt-a-whirl at an amusement park. |
| 237 | * ChefOfIron: Eliot is well versed in fighting with kitchen utensils. ''Especially'' [[BerserkButton if you insult his appetizers.]] |
| 238 | * ChivalrousPervert: Eliot is often frequently seen flirting with women before, after, and sometimes even ''during'' a con, most notably in "The Two Live Crew Job" ''in the middle of a fight'' when his opponent loses her shirt and he stops attacking to check her out (and they are later implied to hook up off-screen). At the same time, he genuinely pays attention to the women he hooks up with and takes interest in them as people rather than just as sexual conquests, which also accounts for the broad variety of things he's learned from women he's slept with. |
| 239 | * CrazyPrepared: In "The Morning After Job," it's noted that he's studied footage of hockey games - or, more accurately, fights during hockey games - because "you never know when you might have to fight on the ice." He makes a similar comment in "The First Contact Job," this time about the possibility of fighting ''aliens''. |
| 240 | * CrypticBackgroundReference: We never learn ''what'' Eliot did when he worked for Damien Moreau. This is almost certainly for the best. We're also still waiting to find out about [[NoodleIncident the monkey]]. |
| 241 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: [[NoodleIncident Whatever he did]] for Moreau is so heinous and vile that he will ''never'' discuss it any more than warning people how much they do not want to know what it is. |
| 242 | * DeadpanSnarker: Has a very sharp tongue when in the right mood. |
| 243 | -->'''Nate:''' Hardison's gonna pretend to break into the vault.\ |
| 244 | '''Eliot:''' Yeah, well, hopefully the Russians will only pretend to kill him. |
| 245 | * DeathGlare: As called by Tara, he often does "this thing with your eyes that scares people". It's enough for the mark to start spilling his guts on the spot. |
| 246 | * {{Determinator}}: On the very rare occasion he comes up against someone who can actually give him a real fight, it becomes clear that it's all but impossible to ''keep'' Eliot down for any length of time. It takes being clocked in the head by a ''speeding tilt-a-whirl'' in "The Carnival Job" to knock him out, and even then he's back on his feet and fighting a few minutes later. |
| 247 | -->'''Quinn:''' WHY WON'T YOU GO DOWN? |
| 248 | * DirtyBusiness: Both his current career and his MysteriousPast are full of it. Little has been given in detail, but he has clearly done some awful, awful things. Season 4 outright states he was doing wetwork. |
| 249 | * DistractedByTheSexy: Only two things will throw Eliot's focus: a child in trouble, or a pretty woman. |
| 250 | * DoesNotLikeGuns: Any time he gets his hands on a gun, it's so that he can eject the bullets and throw it away, often stating in as many words that he doesn't like guns. [[spoiler:In the season three episode "The Big Bang Job," matters become dire enough to force Eliot to pick up a pair of handguns and demonstrate that just because he doesn't ''like'' guns doesn't mean he's not very capable of using them.]] |
| 251 | * TheDreaded: Anyone who knows Eliot's reputation takes him ''very'' seriously. Mikel Dayan in "The Two Live Crew Job" [[BilingualBonus cusses Starke out in Hebrew]] for pitting her against Eliot. When he announces himself by name to Moreau's bodyguards, an entire roomful of people draw guns on him and the closest ones actually look ''worried''. |
| 252 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: He's not evil, but he ''is'' a ruthless hit man, con artist, and thief; but he's also the one who comments when the bad guys cross the line by, say, shaking someone down at a funeral. |
| 253 | * FriendToAllChildren: Surprisingly and rather scarily. He has particular compassion for kids who've drawn the short stick in life, but even spoiled rich kids love him. Then there's the argument he has with Hardison in "The Morning After Job" until Hardison agrees to detour from a job to stop a domestic dispute because there ''could possibly'' be children involved. [[TheAtoner Non-fluffy reasons]] for this have been strongly hinted. |
| 254 | * FromCamouflageToCriminal: One of the things he confesses to Nate is that he was once "a kid with a flag on his shoulder" before he got recruited into mercenary work and lost his way until he found the team. |
| 255 | * GeniusBruiser: WordOfGod compares Eliot to Franchise/{{Batman}}. And played by Christian Kane, it's to be expected. |
| 256 | * HairTriggerTemper: A man barrels into him and causes him to spill coffee on his shirt; Eliot knocks out a few of his teeth. Sterling walks into a bar; Eliot throws him over a table. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking A woman insults his appetizers;]] he goes after her with a knife. (The last example is PlayedForLaughs but still true all the same.) To sum up what's above: DO NOT MESS WITH THE GUY. Even if you're a woman. |
| 257 | * HasAType: Given Aimee and Kaye Lynn, plus [[RunningGag many of the women he flirts with]], it appears to be [[EveryoneLovesBlondes blondes]]. |
| 258 | * HatesBeingTouched: Portrayed subtly, but confirmed by WordOfGod. Played for laughs. |
| 259 | * SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: In universe example, along with Hardison. Despite being the "muscle" of the team, Eliot has proven himself to be a surprisingly good actor, being able to convincingly pull off multitude of vastly different personas, including health inspectors and doctors. |
| 260 | * HeartIsAnAwesomePower: Among others, he’s a trained chef and amateur country singer. Pretty handy in situations where his usual M.O. would give him, and probably the rest of the team, away. |
| 261 | * HeelFaceTurn: At some point pre-series, upon giving up whatever he did for Moreau. |
| 262 | * HeroesFightBarehanded: Eliot prefers to fight bare-fisted or using an object as a club, even when faced with guns. He constantly says he [[DoesNotLikeGuns Doesn't Like Guns]], thinking they're too sloppy. |
| 263 | ** The third season shows us he ''can'' use guns, but he will ''not'' use them because he's TheAtoner. We don't know exactly what for... |
| 264 | * HeterosexualLifePartners: |
| 265 | ** Really driven home in "The Experimental Job" when [[spoiler: after discovering Hardison has been kidnapped]] he ''immediately'' turns the tables on his captor and in the span of 30 seconds figures out where he is being held and busts out of his cell to go get him. |
| 266 | ** Also in "[[Recap/LeverageS04E07TheGraveDangerJob The Grave Danger Job]]" he pulls Hardison into a bear hug and tells him never to do that (get BuriedAlive) again. Bear in mind, Eliot HatesBeingTouched. |
| 267 | ** Played for laughs when Hardison pretends to be his boyfriend. |
| 268 | * HiddenDepths: Out the wazoo. And he keeps uncovering more. |
| 269 | * HiredGuns: An ex-mercenary. |
| 270 | * HyperAwareness: Eliot is very adept at noticing details. For example, in "The Homecoming Job," he's searching for a couple of PrivateMilitaryContractors in a hospital looking to murder a witness. He notices that a doctor in the hospital is wearing crocs, and immediately remembers that two other doctors he passed by moments ago are wearing ''boots''. Naturally, they're the would-be killers. In the subsequent brawl, he's able to ID one of the killers as a former Marine, likely Force Recon, just by the way he handles his knife. |
| 271 | * ImprobableWeaponUser: |
| 272 | ** In "The Fifteen Minutes Job" he beats up a guy with a screen door. In "The Wedding Job", during his fight with [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Butcher of Kiev]], he uses a whisk and the ''food'' as weapons. |
| 273 | --->'''Nate:''' Did you just kill a guy with an appetizer?\ |
| 274 | '''Eliot:''' I don't know, maybe. |
| 275 | ** In "The Cross My Heart Job", Eliot reveales he once fought an assassin in Damascus with a ''nerf sword''. |
| 276 | ** During "The Studio Job", he takes down two mooks sent to silence him, using a pair of drumsticks. |
| 277 | * InvincibleHero: |
| 278 | ** For a while early on, Eliot doesn't even fight anyone who gives him a challenge. Since then, he's taken a few serious beatings, but has yet actually to ''lose'' a fight. It certainly makes him immune to TheWorfEffect. Until "The Carnival Job"...[[spoiler: He ends up unconscious on the floor, unable to help a little girl. He does still win the fight in the end, though.]] And even on that occasion he's smacked in the head by [[http://www.amusementsofamerica.com/aoa/midway/images/56L1.jpg a moving ride]]. |
| 279 | ** And then, of course, there's [[BossInMooksClothing Moto's very determined bodyguard.]] The man fought Eliot to a draw... after getting knocked around and BLOWN THROUGH THE FLOOR. Seriously, what the hell was that guy made of?! |
| 280 | ** WordOfGod (on Creator/JohnRogers's blog) is that Eliot could probably fight '''Franchise/{{Batman}}''' to a tie. He's that good. |
| 281 | ** Eliot's opponents who can seriously give him a challenge in the first series can be counted on one hand: Quinn, Mikel Dayan, Alexander Moto's bodyguard, Roper, and the Butcher of Kiev (with a bald {{Mook}} from the premier and Brock being addititional examples from the revival). |
| 282 | * {{Kiai}}: Does this in "The First Encounter Job". |
| 283 | * LightningBruiser: He specializes in quick disabling strikes. |
| 284 | * MadeOfIron: Eliot can take a lot of punishment due to his occupation as a hitter. He gets hit by a ''car'' in "The Boost Job" and doesn't suffer lasting injuries. |
| 285 | --> '''Eliot:''' I GOT HIT BY A CAR!\ |
| 286 | '''Parker:''' ''(mockingly)'' I got hit by a car! Get over it! |
| 287 | ** Sometimes the job makes use of this for serious effect, as in "The Radio Job", when he allows himself to be beaten by three guys for a few minutes to sell a role. |
| 288 | * MrFanservice: As a physically fit man with obvious arm muscles, he will flaunt them and other parts of his body as parts of various cons. |
| 289 | * TheNapoleon: A rather minor version. In the Season 5 premiere, Eliot is implied to be slightly insecure about his height with one of his old friends, even though he is about average at 5'9". The friend in question is played by Creator/AdamBaldwin. |
| 290 | * NerdsSpeakKlingon: In "The Nigerian Job," Eliot is posing as a geeky IT technician. When the secretary he is distracting comments on how strong he is, he says he works out because he likes to go to conventions as a Klingon. He then pretends to speak Klingon which causes her to laugh. |
| 291 | * NoodleIncident: |
| 292 | ** Played for disturbing implications. He did ''something'' while working for Damien Moreau that was incredibly horrible. He begs the team not to ask what it was, because if they ask, [[YouDoNotWantToKnow he'll tell them]], with the implication that they truly do not want to know what he did. |
| 293 | ** Eliot is also, like most of the team, full of offhand played-for-laughs references to odd incidents in his past that go unexplained. Most of them seem to involve implications of violence. |
| 294 | --->'''Eliot:''' ''(laughing)'' Never tell a Chechen his sister has a nice smile. |
| 295 | ** WordOfGod states that if [[Franchise/StargateVerse those particular shows]] hadn't already broken down their sets, Season 2 would have had Eliot having a flashback ''where he was about to go to'' '''Stargate''' ''as a member of an SG-team.'' |
| 296 | * NoodleImplements: He has fought people with some truly out there weaponry. |
| 297 | -->'''Hardison:''' Nobody's asking Eliot to fight a guy with a Nerf sword.\ |
| 298 | '''Eliot:''' Damascus, 2002. |
| 299 | * ObfuscatingStupidity: When he's not being overtly menacing or [[TheCharmer turning on the charm,]] Eliot's style as a grifter often involves getting people to underestimate him by [[Fridge/{{Leverage}} acting dumber and more simplistic than he really is and playing to their expectations of the thickheaded country boy.]] Maggie points out in "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job" that people underestimate Eliot, to which Nate replies is "kinda the point." |
| 300 | * {{Omniglot}}: Speaks Hebrew and Arabic and possibly other languages. [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], he is a world traveler with a professional need to speak local languages. |
| 301 | * PapaWolf: Eliot has a tendency to find various strays that strike a chord with him for whatever reason. He becomes extremely (read: scarily) protective of them for the rest of the job. (Safe to say, if you're a child, a soldier or ex-soldier, or a working-class stiff, he'll probably be kindly-disposed towards you.) |
| 302 | * PintsizedPowerhouse: As mentioned, he's not especially big (though not very short either), but he undoubtedly has the asskicking capabilities that go with this trope. |
| 303 | * PreAsskickingOneLiner: "'Sup?" KAPOW! |
| 304 | * ProperlyParanoid: He gets leery about the idea of his face being widely circulated. Having multiple bounties on his head from several countries ''plus'' a fatwa gives him good reason. [[spoiler: The 'punchline' of when this was revealed would originally have been the Butcher of Kiev almost seeing his website.]] |
| 305 | * RealMenWearPink: He takes his cooking [[SeriousBusiness very seriously]], and he actually ''is'' shown wearing a pink shirt several times. He's also quite well-informed on fashion, as seen in "The Runway Job," though unlike the cooking he seems somewhat defensive about this. |
| 306 | * ReallyGetsAround: If we take his claims about his own love life to be truth. (To put things in perspective, he also claims to grow his own food and to sleep only ninety minutes a day.) Then again, he's been shown to pick up women quite easily, so it's not beyond plausibility that he could have dated a neurologist and slept with a flight attendant. And the supermodels. And the Japanese policewoman who taught him how to trim a bonsai. WordOfGod confirms that Eliot "has a full social life" but "doesn't bring it into the office" (save, presumably, for the rare on-screen exceptions such as in "The Studio Job"). |
| 307 | * SeenItAll: |
| 308 | ** What makes him so effective as the team's "Hitter". His ability to analyze any potential conflict comes from his years of experience in dealing with every kind of dangerous situation and encountering every type of enemy combatant. He's the one Nate asks when the team needs to know how a violent crime is likely to go down, and he's rarely wrong. He can also recognize undercover hit men and the like by observing small cues in the way they dress, stand, move, or hold equipment. |
| 309 | ** He can identify a helicopter by the sound it makes...as ''relayed to him by another person on the phone'' doing an impression of the sound. |
| 310 | * ShipperOnDeck: He sent both [[spoiler:Parker and Sophie flowers with the implication that they were from Hardison and Nate respectively, helping the guys out as they aren't the best at being romantic.]] |
| 311 | * SinkOrSwimMentor: As an instructor at a [[InsistentTerminology culinary institute]] in "The French Connection Job." |
| 312 | * SkewedPriorities: If a job ever requires him to use his culinary skills, it's guaranteed that he will become preoccupied with serving up a meal rather than whatever Nate needs him to do. |
| 313 | * SouthernFriedGenius: In and out of universe, we've received repeated confirmation that Eliot has a great big brain that mostly gets used to make his big ol' muscles go boom boom. |
| 314 | * StrongAndSkilled: Combine his role as the team muscle with his broad arsenal, and there you go. |
| 315 | * StoutStrength: He usually wears shirts that show off his shoulders and arms, but when he loses the shirt to pose as an MMA fighter in "The Tap-Out Job" we see that, unlike Hardison, he's not sporting a six-pack. |
| 316 | * SupremeChef: He is a world class chef who takes great pleasure in serving fine food. Expressing displeasure at his cooking is a good way to set him off. |
| 317 | --> '''(to Nate in "The Wedding Job"):''' What, do you think the only thing I know how to do is bust heads? |
| 318 | * TalkToTheFist: His usual M.O. |
| 319 | * TellMeHowYouFight: Driven home by the page quote, this is how he identifies particular combatants. |
| 320 | * TheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: With Hardison, driven home hard in "The Experimental Job" and "The Grave Danger Job". |
| 321 | * TinMan: Particularly in the first season. He ''is'' developing a sense of compassion and empathy, though. |
| 322 | * TechnicalPacifist: Refuses to kill people. Has no problem kicking their knees backwards to make them scream like a girl. |
| 323 | ** Also, seriously, start tallying the number of ''innocent people just doing their job'' he has to wade through just to keep the team safe. If he ''did'' kill instead of merely incapacitate/[[TapOnTheHead knock out]], the crew would probably lose any hope of that "good guy" status they're trying to maintain. |
| 324 | * TookALevelInBadass: In terms of development, he goes from a brilliant fighter, to [[spoiler:a capable grifter able to see what the mark wants and use that to get it for them. Basically the flip-side to Sophie.]] |
| 325 | * TortureAlwaysWorks: It doesn't work on Eliot. However, when HE'S the one who's doing the torturing... |
| 326 | * UsedToBeASweetKid: He claims this of himself when he's trying to stop Nate from killing someone. |
| 327 | --> You have no idea who I was before all this started. That guy—kid—he had God in his heart, a flag on his shoulder. Clean hands. I haven't seen him in the mirror in over ten years. And believe me, I get up every morning looking for him. So you can trust me when I tell you that if you pull that trigger, two men die: the guy you kill, and the guy you used to be. |
| 328 | * ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: |
| 329 | ** Subverted, for the most part. |
| 330 | ---> '''Nate:''' Eliot, I'm going to have to ask you not to do anything violent.\ |
| 331 | '''Eliot:''' What are you talking about. I only use violence as an appropriate response.\ |
| 332 | '''Sterling:''' [[CatchPhrase Hello, Nate.]]\ |
| 333 | ''(Eliot's nostrils flare, his eyes narrow, and he punches Sterling in the face. He doesn't stop there.)'' |
| 334 | ** Occasionally Eliot does this for laughs: like in "The Homecoming Job". |
| 335 | ---> '''Hardison:''' I just have to spoof the IP address and overlay a digital duplicate on the wi-fi—\ |
| 336 | Eliot throws a rock at the camera\ |
| 337 | '''Hardison:''' —Or that.\ |
| 338 | '''Eliot:''' Let's go.\ |
| 339 | '''Hardison:''' I'm sorry it was too far away for you to punch; I'm sure that really frustrates you. |
| 340 | %% * VitriolicBestBuds: With Hardison. |
| 341 | %% * WouldHitAGirl: But only if she hits him first. |
| 342 | [[/folder]] |
| 343 | |
| 344 | [[folder:Alec Hardison: The Hacker]] |
| 345 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leverage_alec_hardison.jpg]] |
| 346 | '''Played by:''' Creator/AldisHodge |
| 347 | ->''"Age of the geek, baby. We run the world."'' |
| 348 | |
| 349 | Computer expert and technologist. |
| 350 | ---- |
| 351 | * AccidentalAimingSkills: In "The 12-Step Job," he takes out a loan shark's engine block while aiming for the man's leg. This probably helps more in the end. |
| 352 | * TheAce: While primarily the tech guy, he is also proficient in cons that depend on the BavarianFireDrill, has shown some basic skill in fighting and ordinary stealing, and he manages the team's money. |
| 353 | --> '''Hardison''': Hack it, repel it, hell put me in a damn dress, I can do all of your jobs. |
| 354 | * AmbiguouslyJewish: The first time, he claims to be Jewish to invoke EverythingIsRacist, but he mentions Jewish concepts of repentance in "The Too Many Rembrandts Job" and says that Nana runs a multi-denominational household, which some fans have taken to mean that he really is Jewish. |
| 355 | * AnnoyingYoungerSibling: Certainly has this dynamic with Eliot, who is the more mature caretaker of the team, and often has to bail out Hardison's ass. |
| 356 | * BadassBookworm: While he's nowhere near Eliot's level, he's learned to handle himself in a fight after a few seasons. |
| 357 | * BavarianFireDrill: When he's not behind the keyboard, this is Hardison's other specialty. Best exemplified in "The Three Days of the Hunter Job," where, with a quick little background check courtesy of Eliot, he turns around his interrogation to the point where ''he becomes the interrogator''. This actually makes alot of sense. For Hackers, Social Engineering is often just as important as actually computer skills. |
| 358 | %% * BetaCouple: With Parker. |
| 359 | * BlackAndNerdy: He's an extremely skilled hacker who as a teen got busted with a couple of girls in [[Franchise/StarWars slave Leia costumes having a lightsaber fight]], and he tends to create aliases that reference things like Series/DoctorWho and Franchise/StarTrek. |
| 360 | * BlackDudeDiesFirst: Discussed. Of Nate's many back up plans, Hardison is the only one person on the team whose potential death is planned for. |
| 361 | -->'''Hardison:''' Don't I usually die in Plan M?\ |
| 362 | '''Nate:''' Yeah. Usually.\ |
| 363 | '''Hardison:''' What do you mean usually? How many plans do I die in?\ |
| 364 | '''Nate:''' C, F, and M through Q. |
| 365 | ** In "The Too Many Rembrandts Job", Hardison mentions how he hates Plan M, and suggests a "Plan S" for "Hardison Survives". |
| 366 | * BrainsAndBrawn: Often plays the Brains to Parker or Eliot's Brawn. |
| 367 | * BreakTheHaughty: In "The Iceman Job" and again in "The Gold Job," in which he allows his InsufferableGenius tendencies to rage out of control and ends up having to be bailed out by the rest of the team. However, Nate does reassure him that his plan in "The Gold Job" is a genuinely good one, his problem is that he doesn't have a back-up plan. |
| 368 | * BrilliantButLazy: He has shades of this in season 1, most notably in "The Mile High Job", but he gets over it as the series progresses. |
| 369 | * BringMyBrownPants: He pisses himself in fear after rappelling down an entrance into a building in "The Radio Job". Not just a joke. The foley sells it. |
| 370 | * BuriedAlive: He gets buried in a coffin in a cemetery during "The Grave Danger Job". |
| 371 | * ButtMonkey: More and more so recently. Probably because the production crew is taking advantage of the fact that Aldis Hodge knows how to act as one in an especially funny way. |
| 372 | * CatchPhrase: |
| 373 | ** "Age of the geek, baby." |
| 374 | ** Used just as often is "Oh, ''hell no''!" (his stock dismayed/indignant reaction). |
| 375 | ** And before that, "Seriously!? ''Seriously!?''" |
| 376 | * CharacterDevelopment: By the third season, he's started thinking about someday running his own crew. |
| 377 | ** [[spoiler: Ironically, it is Parker who gets to run the crew... likely, "The Gold Job" pointed out why he shouldn't.]] |
| 378 | * ComplexityAddiction: Has a thing for making things as grandiose and expansive as possible to satisfy his need to demonstrate how skillful he is at coordinating and managing. Unfortunately this causes his plans to backfire, most notably in "The Gold Job". His attempt to "game-ify" the art of conning by turning what should have been a fairly simple land deal con into an elaborate FetchQuest that, in theory, would keep the mark hooked through a series of chained hoops only results in the marks giving up and {{Rage Quit}}ting, which Nate points out in the post-mortem. |
| 379 | * CowardlyLion: While he often complains about the situations he is involved in, he never backs down. |
| 380 | * DeadpanSnarker: Like others on the team, he has a sharp wit to match both Nate and others with their snark. |
| 381 | -->'''Hardison:''' Hey, Eliot, what is that blocking your button cam? Oh yeah, it's your ''ego.'' |
| 382 | * DistressedDude: He's had to be rescued the most out of everyone of the team. (Sophie's skilled enough she doesn't end up in those situations and Parker is second to Eliot in physical danger. Nate... is a crazy drunk Irish boy from Boston.) |
| 383 | * EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Thinks very highly of his foster mother "Nana", occasionally referring to her regarding his backstory or questioning the team’s decisions. |
| 384 | * EverythingIsRacist: Often uses the race card as a deflection the moment someone begins to question him as to why he is in a given position or place. It works every time. |
| 385 | -->'''Hardison''' (at gunpoint and in disguise): This is because of my ethnicity, isn't it? 'Cos I'm [[BaitAndSwitch Jewish]]? |
| 386 | * EvilGenius: He's a thief, and a genius. When they find a deserving mark, he's plenty happy to combine those traits. He's not evil, though. |
| 387 | * GangstaStyle: He points a gun this way at Eliot in "The Nigerian Job". |
| 388 | * GeniusSweetTooth: He's a technological genius who pretty much runs solely on orange soda and gummi frogs. |
| 389 | * HappilyAdopted: He calls his foster mom "Nana" and speaks of her with great fondness. She was apparently a powerfully positive influence in his life. A flashback has him using his skills to steal money from a foreign country to pay her medical bills. Mainly PlayedForLaughs. |
| 390 | --> '''Hardison''' (''sitting at his computer''): "Looks like the Bank of Iceland's paying Nana's medical bills. That's dope!" |
| 391 | * SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: In universe example, along with Eliot. For a hacker with presumably no acting experience, Hardison turns out to be an incredibly talented actor able to convincingly pull off many different personas. That said, he's leagues behind the rest of the team, maybe even Parker (who gets extensive training and encouragement from Sophie).. Cause, effect, he stays in the van. |
| 392 | * TheHeart: As the youngest member of the team, he frequently acts as this. From insisting that they should help the orphans in "The Stork Job" to insisting that he and Eliot go back to stop the militia from using a fertilizer bomb in the "The Gone Fishing Job", he very much cares about helping people and doing the right thing, to the point where in "The Long Way Down Job", Eliot believes that unlike him or Parker, Hardison would have kept trying to rescue the dead climber's body until he froze to death, too. |
| 393 | * HiddenDepths: During "The Toy Job", he comes up with a psychological lecture about the toy they're trying to popularize that's actually sound. When Eliot asks him how the hell he did it, Hardison admits that he studied early childhood development. |
| 394 | * HollywoodHacking: Oh so very much. With just a few keystrokes he often rewires entire security systems and uncovers money trails not even a team of highly-trained FBI forensic accountants would be able to do in the space of time he has. However some of his cool hacking stuff is justified in the show beyond existing for the sake of the plot. For instance, he modifies the team's phones to make them more useful as tools for their line of work, such as being able to spoof RFID information via the cellular radios so they can break into keycard-protected areas if the card and the break-in location are separated from each other. |
| 395 | * InsufferableGenius: |
| 396 | ** Interestingly, he's so charismatic by nature that he's generally easy to forgive when he gets into a bragging spiel. The other characters aren't quite as charmed as the audience, though. |
| 397 | --->'''Hardison:''' You're wondering if I have an answer? I do! BAM! |
| 398 | ** In "The Gold Job", Hardison comes up with a new con that actually works pretty well -- and he spends nearly every one of his scenes reminding people of how "perfect" his plan is. [[spoiler: Cue the end, where his con is just about to succeed [[BreakTheHaughty when the plan falls apart.]] Nate points out that the problem with his plan is that games need a delicate balance between boredom and frustration, with Hardison's plan being too frustrating. Basically, the {{Aesop}} is that there is no perfect plan and that it's always good to have some backups.]] |
| 399 | * LastNameBasis: Everybody else is called by their first names, but the creators loved the sound of "Dammit, Hardison!" |
| 400 | * MasterForger: Whilst primarily a computer expert, one of his [[RenaissanceMan many talents]] is creating forgeries to the point that he teaches himself how to create period-looking art that can hold up to close inspection. |
| 401 | * MissionControl: Often holed up somewhere safe, hacking and providing support. But no one seems to appreciate his contributions. |
| 402 | --> '''Sophie:''' You monitor all of us the whole time?\ |
| 403 | '''Hardison:''' And analyze your actions and provide intel. ({{Beat}}) You didn't think I did all that, did you? Does no one respect the van? |
| 404 | * TheMovieBuff: Hardison is such a ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fan that he devises a coded message system for when he and Eliot have to communicate in front of their marks. Eliot rolls his eyes, but it comes in handy later. In "[[Recap/LeverageS04E09TheCrossMyHeartJob The Cross My Heart Job]]," the team have to split up in an airport terminal and Eliot is unable to reach Hardison via their usual ear-bud comms. Desperate to warn his friend of danger, he has "Kirk Picard" paged over the loudspeaker. |
| 405 | * MrExposition: Usually the one who briefs the mission. Shares the role with Nate. |
| 406 | * MrFanservice: In a less obvious way than Eliot, but the costume director sure likes to show off Aldis Hodge's fine figure in a suit or tank top. They also get him to strip down a few times. One episode has him join a fraternity... (Fraternities humiliate pledges. Nudity is humiliating...) |
| 407 | * NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: |
| 408 | ** While everyone on the show necessarily expands their skill-sets, Hardison is the one who usually gets called upon to do things completely outside the team's experience. In addition to being a hacker, he can make spot-on forgeries and land planes. |
| 409 | ** Sometimes averted, as in the "King George Job", when he '''doesn't''' have the skill necessary and has to research it and master it on the fly. |
| 410 | * PlayfulHacker: In his downtime (like he knows the contents of Nate's Netflix queue; apparently the man has a thing for ''Series/SexAndTheCity''). |
| 411 | * ProudToBeAGeek: "[[VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft For the Horde!]]" *[[HandshakeSubstitute fistbump]]* Age of the geek, baby. |
| 412 | * PunnyName: He's a smart Alec. |
| 413 | * RapidFireTyping: It's a requirement for his HollywoodHacking. |
| 414 | * RefugeInAudacity: His grifting style relies heavily on {{Bavarian Fire Drill}}s and fast-talk, asserting a ridiculous demand or implausible character with so much confidence that marks are thrown too off-guard to question. |
| 415 | * TheReliableOne: Since he's most often behind a desk and not in the field, whenever the team is in trouble or their plans go tits up, they have to call on Hardison to save them. The whole team acknowledges that despite his incessant whining, when the chips are down, Hardison ''will'' find a way to save them. |
| 416 | * RenaissanceMan: |
| 417 | ** Paints, sculpts, hacks, plays violin, and he's a decent actor to boot. Oh, and he teaches himself a crash course in creating period-looking art that holds up to pretty amazingly close inspection. "I hacked ''History'', people!" |
| 418 | ** Also lawyering on the fly. |
| 419 | ** Sophie and Nate often ask him to do things trusting on this trait. He either has the skill, or can learn it pretty quickly. |
| 420 | * ScienceHero: He's responsible for the group's computer hacking, bugging and minor inventions. |
| 421 | * SharpDressedMan: When he wants to, Hardison [[SheCleansUpNicely cleans up very nicely]]. |
| 422 | * TheSmartGuy: If this is a FiveManBand, anyway. |
| 423 | * {{Technobabble}}: So. Much. |
| 424 | * TechnoWizard: Hey, it comes with being a Hacker. |
| 425 | * TooCleverByHalf: This is a frequent failing of Hardison's. On multiple occasions the other characters point out his tendency to get himself and the rest of the team into trouble by being a little too convinced of his own cleverness. In "The Iceman Job", he goes so overboard in playing the part of a diamond thief that it gets him kidnapped by Russian mobsters who want him to steal some diamonds for them. In "The Gold Job", he demands to be allowed to run what should have been a simple con and makes it so needlessly complicated that the marks start questioning all the hoops they're having to jump through, nearly ruining the entire job. Nate explains to him that he always avoids this by having a relatively simple backup plan, and advises Hardison to take his failure as an object lesson to apply to future jobs. |
| 426 | * TookALevelInBadass: From just a physically lacking, but supreme hacker, by the end of the series [[spoiler:he becomes a more than capable fighter and forger, as well as a minor thief and grifter.]] |
| 427 | * TrademarkFavoriteFood: Orange soda and gummi frogs. He needs his gummi frogs. |
| 428 | * TheTroublemaker: Hardison is frequently on the receiving end of someone [[PhraseCatcher saying "Damn it, Hadison!"]] when he's caused trouble. Hardison's troublemaking is usually due to his more easygoing nature in the team. In "The Carnival Job", when attempting to clear out a carnival to hunt for an abducted girl, Hardison tells Eliot to grab a list of chemicals, throw them in the hottest non-water liquid he can find, and "run like hell." When a cloud of toxic smoke puffs up in Eliot's face, he replies with the standard "Damn it, Hardison!" But Hardison counters with, "What did you think 'Run like hell' meant?" |
| 429 | * UnresolvedSexualTension: With Parker. A bit more one-sided than some cases, as she's pretty hesitant about it, but he's willing to wait. [[spoiler: They're together as of "The Long Way Down Job"]]. |
| 430 | * VitriolicBestBuds: With Eliot. |
| 431 | * WellDoneSonGuy: The team really becomes his family, with Eliot his big brother, Sophie a foster mother, and Nate a distant and demanding father. On several occasions, Hardison makes it clear that he wants to succeed Nate some day and ''really'' wants the latter's approval on that. |
| 432 | * WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: |
| 433 | ** Hardison is highly allergic to dust and is a bit of clean freak. Unfortunately for him, sometimes he's forced into very dusty or dirty places when in the field. |
| 434 | --->'''Hardison:''' ...These files are scrubbed clean. Which I will never, ever be, again. |
| 435 | --->'''Parker:''' Sorry. |
| 436 | ** He's also not comfortable in small spaces. This causes something of a problem when he's BuriedAlive. |
| 437 | * YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: When Hardison is freaking out after having been BuriedAlive, it's Parker's talking to him over the phone and calling him "Alec" that grabs his attention and keeps him going. |
| 438 | [[/folder]] |
| 439 | |
| 440 | [[folder:Parker: The Thief]] |
| 441 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leverage_parker.jpg]] |
| 442 | '''Played by:''' Creator/BethRiesgraf |
| 443 | ->''"Looks like [[ThirdPersonPerson Parker's]] gonna have to crawl through the air duct again. God forbid anyone else would have to learn how to fricking crawl on their stomach through a tiny space. It's not rocket science, people."'' |
| 444 | |
| 445 | The world's greatest--and most eccentric--thief. |
| 446 | ---- |
| 447 | * ActionGirl: Can definitely hold her own, as seen in the "The Stork Job". WordOfGod says she's the second most dangerous team member. |
| 448 | * AmbiguouslyBi: Eventually she gets together with Hardison but has some suspicious LesYay from time to time. |
| 449 | * BadassAdorable |
| 450 | * BadBadActing: Due to not really being good interacting with people outside her group and utter lack of social skills, Parker can't blend in well, as opposed to Sophie. In "The Snow Job", Parker has to create a distraction on the stopped ski lift by faking she is in danger of falling. |
| 451 | --> ''(jumps off ski lift and hangs one-armed from the seat)''\ |
| 452 | '''Parker:''' ''(completely deadpan)'' Help. Help. ''(looks up at other passenger)'' How's it going? |
| 453 | ** Around Season 3, through her many experiences in cons she gradually becomes much better at acting, though still the worst of the group and tends to handle simpler roles compared to the rest of the team, unless they're roles that take advantage of her eccentricity i.e. playing an avant-garde musician in The Studio Job. |
| 454 | * BetaCouple: With Hardison. |
| 455 | * BrainsAndBrawn: Sometimes plays the Brawn to Hardison's Brains. |
| 456 | * BrokenBird: It's not readily apparent because she doesn't interact with other humans that much, but on several occasions she reveals that she has a very fragile emotional core. |
| 457 | * BunnyEarsLawyer: WordOfGod is that Parker may have UsefulNotes/AspergerSyndrome. |
| 458 | * CannotSpitItOut: Has a hard time saying she loves him, but Hardison understands. [[ItMakesSenseInContext He's her pretzel.]] |
| 459 | * TheChessMaster: [[spoiler:When the series ends, Parker takes on this position as Nate and Sophie leave.]] |
| 460 | * ChronicallyKilledActor: InUniverse. Whenever Parker grifts, there's a good chance her character will be killed off to sell the con: Cindy [=McAllen=] in "The Three Days of the Hunter Job", Pat the French maid in "The Maltese Falcon Job", and Alice White in "The Morning After Job" to name a few. "The Snow Job" has her posing as a patient who is barely clinging to life with her brain tumour. |
| 461 | ** Justified, when you realize that, besides being adorable, Parker has no ability whatsoever at the long con. Quickly getting her away also lets her use her real skills. |
| 462 | * ClassyCatBurglar: Well, a cat burglar, anyway... she has the look, but none of the attitude. |
| 463 | * CloudCuckooLander: She's pretty eccentric, to say the least: |
| 464 | --> '''Parker:''' What is it with [[AllWomenLoveShoes women and shoes]]?\ |
| 465 | '''Sophie:''' There's something wrong with you.\ |
| 466 | '''Eliot:''' That's what I said. |
| 467 | * CuteAndPsycho: She's not a murderer or anything, but Parker has the loosest understanding of right and wrong within the team. Her friends take turns to gently rein her in. |
| 468 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: Bordering on HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood at some points. |
| 469 | * DarkIsNotEvil: She wears a lot of comfy black clothes, even when she's not on the job. |
| 470 | * DeadpanSnarker: She has her moments when she's not being a complete space cadet. |
| 471 | * DrivesLikeCrazy: If Sophie's reaction in "The Gone Fishin' Job" is any indication. |
| 472 | -->'''Parker''': Who knew a sedan could hit 140? |
| 473 | -->'''Sophie'''(''clearly rattled from Parker's driving''): Parker, you are never to get behind the wheel of a car again, okay? Never! |
| 474 | ** At the end of the same episode, Sophie reiterates her insistence that Parker not drive. |
| 475 | ** We get to see her driving skills on screen in "The Boost Job" and it is as wild as you would expect. A flashback shows her driving a stolen car ''at age 12'' while her partner is visibly panicked. |
| 476 | ** Her bad driving skills briefly return onscreen in "The Lonely Hearts Job" where she steals a cab. The instant she starts driving, the other characters start freaking out. |
| 477 | * ExactWords: Sometimes, though it decreases as her time with the team increases, she will take an instruction to its literal meaning. One instance is when Nate asks her to start a "fight" with a woman near Hardison. Instead of a yelling match, as Nate hoped for, Parker starts out with punching the woman. Nate later apologizes for his vagueness and says next time he'll use "argument" when he wants just the verbal fight. |
| 478 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: In "The Miracle Job," Parker shows quick insight into how best to take down the mark. It hints at her capacity to [[spoiler:eventually become the Mastermind in the finale]]. |
| 479 | * FriendToAllChildren: Not just orphans, either. In "The Wedding Job," she is seen teaching a young girl how to pick a lock. There are [[ParentalAbandonment pretty]] [[DarkAndTroubledPast specific]] [[AbusiveParents reasons]] she is drawn to kids. |
| 480 | * FunPersonified: Beth Riesgraf is this, if the gag reels are anything to go by. |
| 481 | * GreenEyedMonster: She becomes jealous when Hardison is a little too friendly with other women. This is most notable in "The Double-Blind Job." |
| 482 | -->'''Parker:''' (Discussing a woman with whom Hardison is flirting) Did you do a background check on her? She could be a spy, or a terrorist. \ |
| 483 | '''Hardison:''' She's not. She's just a nice girl who needs our help.\ |
| 484 | '''Parker:''' She looks like a terrorist. |
| 485 | ** Later she [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9waEwRU7oBw shatters a beer bottle with her bare hands]] in a fit of jealous rage. |
| 486 | * HeroicComedicSociopath: To the point that when she claims to have put a razor blade in an apple Eliot not only stops eating but tears it apart to make sure she didn't actually tamper with the food. |
| 487 | * HiddenDepths: She's extremely skilled at portraits, which comes so naturally to her that she actually thought it was just something everyone could do. Also, she knows the basics of quail hunting and what Schelling's theory of rational deterrence is. |
| 488 | * InHarmsWay: She's a heck of an adrenaline junkie who's happiest repelling down or jumping off of buildings. |
| 489 | * InnocentlyInsensitive: She grows out of it, but close to the start of the series, she's...not great with the whole empathy thing. |
| 490 | -->'''Parker:''' So Hardison's really scared when I push him off buildings? He's not just joking? |
| 491 | * KleptomaniacHero: She steals so much that pickpocketing is pure instinct to her. In "The Twelve Step Job," she figures out bad guys are in the rehab clinic because she instinctively picks ''the gun'' out of one's ''concealed holster.'' |
| 492 | * LiteralMinded: Early on and occasionally afterwards, Parker does not understand subtlety or metaphors. |
| 493 | -->'''Eliot:''' She is hot.\ |
| 494 | '''Hardison:''' Hot.\ |
| 495 | '''Parker:''' Hot.\ |
| 496 | ({{beat}})\ |
| 497 | '''Parker:''' Warm? Cold? Why are we staring? |
| 498 | * MasterOfUnlocking: Picking locks and cracking safes comes with the job. |
| 499 | * MischievousBodyLanguage: Parker is the world's greatest thief. She also has a bit of arrested development, and can be something of a WomanChild from time to time. This includes a mischievous grin whenever she gets a notion in her head. One of the earliest examples is in "The Bank Shot Job" when Nate asks her if she's ever robbed a bank ''while'' it was already being robbed. You can see the twinkle in her eye as she says, "First time for everything." |
| 500 | * MoneyFetish: |
| 501 | ** "I don't like stuff, I like money." Nate even gets her to stay in the first episode after [[spoiler:they are almost blown up by Dubenich]] by saying if the plan works she will get lots of money and possibly some payback. |
| 502 | ** Nate gives her the perfect Christmas gift: Non-sequential bills. |
| 503 | * MundaneSolution: Parker is tasked by Sophie to replace an auctioneer by charming him away. She thinks trying to get into his head will take too long, so she opts to chloroform him unconscious instead. |
| 504 | * NoSocialSkills: At first, but as her time with the team increases, she becomes more like a nice young lady with some strange quirks. |
| 505 | * OnceDoneNeverForgotten: She once stabs the mark with a fork. In a later con, Nate specifically tells her not to do that again. |
| 506 | * OnlyOneName: Her ExactWords at one point. The audience is never told her given name. |
| 507 | * PassingTheTorch: On the receiving end in the GrandFinale. She becomes the new Mastermind. |
| 508 | * PhantomThief: According to WordOfGod, Parker alone of the group has ''never been caught.'' [[spoiler:WordOfGod may not be taking "The First David Job" into account.]] |
| 509 | ** From John Rogers' blog, post-"The Ice Man Job": |
| 510 | --> "Sophie's been arrested, Hardison's definitely been arrested, Eliot's been in prison in a lot of places where due process isn't a big part of the culture, Parker's never been caught." |
| 511 | ** But she has been in Juvie. |
| 512 | ** This would seem to be contradicted in "The Broken Wing Job," in which she reminisces about briefly serving time in a French prison. |
| 513 | *** Note that she mentions being ''in'' a French prison, and not being there as long as the French thought she'd be. It's never explicitly stated that she was ''serving time.'' |
| 514 | *** The most logical interpretation is that she was serving time... on purpose, because she needed something from inside the prison. It's not really 'being caught' if it happens deliberately. |
| 515 | * PintSizedPowerhouse: |
| 516 | ** She hangs off buildings by her fingertips, so she is pretty strong. |
| 517 | ** She's the team's second best fighter after Eliot, and the only reason why she doesn't fight more is because she doesn't get caught enough to warrant fighting. But make no mistake, if she thinks you've threatened anyone on the team, ''especially'' Hardison... |
| 518 | * RequiredSecondaryPowers: Mentioned in "The Maltese Falcon Job". |
| 519 | --> '''Tara:''' You're really strong.\ |
| 520 | '''Parker:''' I hang from buildings with my fingertips. |
| 521 | * SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: Started down the path of a master thief as a young child, and was only encouraged further (to the exclusion of all else) when Archie started mentoring her. Consequently, she's a [[GoodWithNumbers human calculator]] who cases banks and devises complicated heists in her head for fun, but she never went to high school, has NoSocialSkills or conscience, and seems to subsist solely on cereal and takeout. The Leverage team helps her become more well-rounded. |
| 522 | * SeenItAll: Connected to the above. Like Eliot when it comes to dealing with any form of hostile situation, Parker can break down and analyze a security measure to its finest detail on sight and immediately contrive a circumvention because of how much experience she has dealing with every form of access denial the world over. There have occasionally been situations where she can't beat something, however, but these matters are due to the fact ''no one'' can period (such as the Sterenko security system in "The Inside Job" or cleanly unlocking electronic car locks in "The Boost Job", where she has to rely on Hardison to bypass the lock -- once inside she quickly uses the keyless ignition's backup sequence to actually steal the vehicle). |
| 523 | * ShamelessFanserviceGirl: Wastes no time switching between disguises in front of her colleagues, to Hardison's chagrin. Or joy. |
| 524 | -->'''Hardison:''' ''Why am I looking away?'' |
| 525 | * SingleTear: She sheds one during Hardison's violin solo in "The Scheherazade Job". |
| 526 | * StealthHiBye: Parker sometimes tends to appear suddenly right next to her surprised targets. |
| 527 | ** In "The Stork Job", after running away after stabbing the mark with a fork, the rest of the team wonder where she's gone. |
| 528 | ---> '''Hardison''': ''She could be halfway around the world by now. Trust me, she's gone.'' |
| 529 | ---> '''Parker''': ''Who's gone?'' (pan to right to show Parker {{Right Behind|Me}} them) |
| 530 | ** Does this again in "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job" when she suddenly appears sitting on the bar counter and casually explaining how the supposed theft had occurred. Sterling questions where she came from while Nate doesn't even bother anymore. |
| 531 | * StaticStunGun: Parker likes tasers. |
| 532 | --> Parker: "He could've just let me taser him." |
| 533 | * StickyFingers: The girl's a kleptomaniac. So much so that she occasionally doesn't even realize she's doing it. |
| 534 | * TomboyWithAGirlyStreak: Breaking into buildings, check. Freakishly strong, check. And comfortable in a (colorful!) dress and clunky heels, as "The Studio Job" shows. |
| 535 | * TheTroublemaker: Parker's troublemaking comes from her impulsive nature. She once stabbed a man with a fork for making light of the plight of orphans (and Parker as a former orphan was NOT amused), she once accidentally warned a mark that trouble was coming because she was trying to get a young girl out of a car theft ring, which Sophie actually defended her on, "She was trying to do the right thing, which meant she was actually thinking about doing the right thing." And once, when a mark lifted her wallet, which Nate informed her they needed him to do, she took it as a personal slight to her abilities as a thief, and lifted ''his'' wallet in return, stealing his credit card and using it to purchase a large number of computers later. She also once hit Eliot in the head with a crowbar trying to toss him a weapon, earning a stern "Parker, you don't throw crowbars at people!" |
| 536 | * TroublingUnchildlikeBehavior: The pilot episode has a flashback to her blowing up her foster parents' house. In "The Gold Job", she mentions having made grown psychiatrists cry when she took their psych exams as a kid. |
| 537 | * UnresolvedSexualTension: With Hardison. [[spoiler: They're together as of "The Long Way Down Job"]] |
| 538 | * ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend: She can and will [[ChairmanOfTheBrawl smash chairs on people]] if Hardison is in trouble. |
| 539 | * WeNamedTheMonkeyJack: In the TieInNovel ''The Zoo Job'', Parker bonds with a capuchin monkey. To Hardison's chagrin, she calls it Alec: "I named him after someone I've always been able to rely on to be there for me". |
| 540 | * WhenSheSmiles: Parker is quite pretty regardless, but something about her smile/laugh is just so ridiculously charming and heartwarming (especially when paired with moments of her being goofy). It's grown steadily more frequent as she adjusts to being on the [[TrueCompanions team]]. |
| 541 | * WomanChild: Has a few vague traces of this, especially of the "emotionally stunted" variety. |
| 542 | ** When a con man posing as a psychic does a cold read on her to suss out that her brother died in a car accident while riding a bike when they were children, she gets ''very'' upset and is convinced he's for real. The entire team (including SixthRanger Tara) gathers round to explain exactly how it was done and that everything's going to be okay. |
| 543 | --->'''Parker:''' ''But I didn't say anything.'' |
| 544 | ** She also still believes in Santa. |
| 545 | --->'''Parker:''' Please. You know how many chimneys Santa has to go down tonight? You only had to go down ''one''. |
| 546 | [[/folder]] |
| 547 | |
| 548 | !!Allies |
| 549 | [[folder:Maggie Collins]] |
| 550 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leverage_maggie_collins.jpg]] |
| 551 | '''Played by:''' Creator/KariMatchett |
| 552 | -->''"Nate, you can't just make people do what you want."'' |
| 553 | |
| 554 | Nate's ex-wife, expert in art. |
| 555 | ---- |
| 556 | * AmicablyDivorced: She still tries to be friends with Nate. |
| 557 | * EvilCostumeSwitch: PlayedWith, considering that in this show [[AntiHero the bad guys are the good guys]]. When she's introduced in "The First David Job", she's wearing a white dress. In "The Second David Job", she's also wearing white to meet Eliot for coffee. Then, she finds out the truth about Blackpoole from Nate. In the next scene as she discusses the con with the crew, she's wearing black, and she continues to wear black for the remainder of the episode. |
| 558 | * HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Really needs to pick boyfriends and business associates better. Nate has admittedly changed quite a bit, and to be fair she has no idea that [[spoiler:Blackpoole had denied the insurance for Sam's treatment]] because Nate didn't tell her... but he is still crooked as hell, and [[spoiler:Alexander Lundy]] in season 2's "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job" is simply an idiot. Sterling even points out Maggie's unfortunate taste in men in that episode. |
| 559 | * HoneyTrap: In the season 4 finale, Sophie can't get close to [[spoiler:Latimer]] because [[spoiler:Dubenich]] knows who she is and won't let her near... so the team has Maggie approach and drug [[spoiler:Latimer]] instead, counting on the fact that [[spoiler:Dubenich]] is so busy looking out for Sophie that he won't even notice Maggie. |
| 560 | * HotLibrarian: She is well-versed in various forms of art and histories of certain pieces. And she looks very good in certain dresses. |
| 561 | * InsistentTerminology: She must remind Nate to call her his "ex-wife" because of how few times he does say it. |
| 562 | * SixthRanger: She joins the team to help out with their cons in "The Second David Job" and "The Last Dam Job." |
| 563 | * SpottingTheThread: In "The Second David Job," she realizes that Eliot's alias is working with Nate when she notices that [[spoiler:Eliot is wearing a button cam that she gave Nate for Christmas]]. |
| 564 | * {{UST}}: Still seems to have some with her ex-husband. And possibly with Sterling. |
| 565 | * VaporWear: On formal occasions, Maggie wears a lot of gowns which are visibly too skimpy for a bra, including the gold gown with the plunging neckline that she wears in her introductory scenes in "The First David Job" and the spaghetti-strap blue dress with the keyhole cutout on the lower chest in "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job" (pictured above). |
| 566 | [[/folder]] |
| 567 | |
| 568 | [[folder:Tara Cole]] |
| 569 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tara_cole.jpg]] |
| 570 | '''Played by:''' Creator/JeriRyan |
| 571 | |
| 572 | A grifter who replaces Sophie on the team during Sophie's JourneyToFindOneself. While little is known about her, a few details are clear. She worked for the army, and was trained by either the FBI or the Marines. Once Sophie returns, the two women meet off-screen, but do not work together due to their clashing styles. |
| 573 | ---- |
| 574 | * ActionGirl: Tara's more willing and able to fight on a physical level than Sophie. |
| 575 | * TheBusCameBack: She returns in "The Girls' Night Out Job." |
| 576 | * ConMan: She's a fabulous grifter, but tends to play characters that are completely different from any of Sophie's. |
| 577 | * ConsummateProfessional: Unlike the permanent roster of Team Leverage, she's never shown to get emotionally invested in a job, always insists on her cut, and frequently admires or deconstructs aspects of a mark's actions for the benefit of the rest of the team. [[spoiler: Her hinted background in espionage and/or law enforcement may have something to do with it.]] |
| 578 | * DistractedByTheSexy / ShowSomeLeg: The infamous [[DressHitsFloor dropping]] of the ModestyTowel scene. As with most of the female grifters on the show, she also regularly weaponizes her impressive physique to fake out male marks during cons. |
| 579 | * FakeGuestStar: She's a main cast member in all but name for six episodes. |
| 580 | * FemmeFatale: She flirts a lot for her grifting. |
| 581 | * HiddenDepths: "The Girls' Night Out Job" reveals that she was trained at Quantico. Even before that, she lets slip to Parker that she is trained in cryptography, and then cuts herself off. |
| 582 | * HotterAndSexier: Than Sophie, whom she's temporarily replacing. |
| 583 | * MsFanservice: Generally wears tighter dresses for her cons than Sophie does. |
| 584 | * OnlyInItForTheMoney: Her rule for helping the team out is that she always gets a cut of what they take from the mark. She also remains the most emotionally removed member of Team Leverage's temporary roster [[spoiler: until "The Last Dam Job"]], lacking the personal investment in [[WeHelpTheHelpless helping the helpless]] that motivates the rest of the team. That said, she does gradually gain an appreciation for the good that they do their clients, commenting at the conclusion of "The Future Job" that she's beginning to understand why they do it. |
| 585 | * PutOnABus: When Sophie's bus comes back. |
| 586 | * ShamelessFanserviceGirl: Has no qualms about being seen naked or using her sex appeal if the job demands it. |
| 587 | * SixthRanger: While Sophie is on her JourneyToFindOneself, Tara fills in as the Grifter. |
| 588 | * SuckSessor: For a while, until the team learns to trust her. |
| 589 | * XanatosSpeedChess: She isn't bad at improvising on the fly when a plan goes bad. |
| 590 | [[/folder]] |
| 591 | |
| 592 | [[folder:Archie Leach]] |
| 593 | [[quoteright:341:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leverage_archie_leach.jpg]] |
| 594 | '''Played by:''' Creator/RichardChamberlain |
| 595 | |
| 596 | Retired thief who was Parker's teacher in the arts of theft. He was formerly known as the "World's Greatest Thief". |
| 597 | ---- |
| 598 | * AffectionatePickpocket: Parker's original introduction to him and her way of introducing herself to him. |
| 599 | * BerserkButton: While Archie simply ignores Chaos when he mocks his advanced age, the moment the hacker makes a lewd comment towards Parker, Archie threatens to kill him. |
| 600 | * TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler: Brought on to be Parker's replacement]] in the Season 4 finale. |
| 601 | * CoolOldGuy: He has children and grandchildren, and has been long retired from the game, but is a witty and very competent professional. |
| 602 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: Despite being a thief, he is the first to point out what a monster the villain of the week is in "The Inside Job". |
| 603 | * FakingTheDead: Offhandedly mentions doing this in the past. |
| 604 | * GentlemanThief: He is almost always courteous and respectful, especially to ladies. |
| 605 | %%* OohMeAccentsSlipping |
| 606 | * PapaWolf: Don't disrespect Parker in front of him. He might just taser you. Or stab you. He nearly shoots Nate when he thinks Nate has nearly gotten her killed. |
| 607 | * ParentsAsPeople: Trained Parker as a thief and never brought her home to his family. He later admits he now regrets this. |
| 608 | * RetiredBadass: While he's out of the business, he was the one who taught Parker. |
| 609 | * ShockStick: His cane can deliver electric shocks. He uses this to stun Chaos when the latter makes lecherous comments about Parker. |
| 610 | * ShoutOut: Archie Leach is the real name of Creator/CaryGrant, who, among many other roles, played the (retired) GentlemanThief in ''Film/ToCatchAThief''. |
| 611 | * SwordCane: One of his canes contains a 10,000 volt taser. The other one contains a six-inch stilletto. And he sometimes "forgets" which one he has. Chaos learns this the hard way. |
| 612 | [[/folder]] |
| 613 | |
| 614 | [[folder:Patrick Bonanno]] |
| 615 | [[quoteright:242:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leverage_patrick_bonanno.jpg]] |
| 616 | '''Played by:''' Creator/RobertBlanche |
| 617 | |
| 618 | Police detective with whom the Leverage group occasionally crosses paths. |
| 619 | ---- |
| 620 | * FriendOnTheForce: For the obvious reason; as the team knows he's willing to let their socially beneficial crimes slide, he's their go-to man for {{Engineered Public Confession}}s. And he ''loves'' it. |
| 621 | -->''Somebody tricked you into bringing a briefcase full of evidence of your own crime straight to the police. Come on, Mr. Leary, nobody’s that smart.'' |
| 622 | * HeKnowsTooMuch: Is shot and almost killed by gangsters over one investigation. |
| 623 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: |
| 624 | ** WordOfGod notes that [[spoiler:he knows Nate brought down the guys who shot him up, and if you're Irish or Italian from UsefulNotes/{{Boston}}, you do not let that just slide. Especially since Nate went to jail with a bullet in his stomach to pull that off. And the cherry-on-top is that the FBI was perfectly willing to let the guilty parties not only go free but continue committing crimes. Help Robin Hood catch more bad guys, or help out the people who got him shot then lied about it?]] |
| 625 | ** In "The Boys' Night Out Job," Bonanno reveals that he's definitely well-aware of Nate's activities (even [[ContinuityNod knowing about Nate's escape from prison]]) but isn't particularly interested in bringing Nate down. |
| 626 | [[/folder]] |
| 627 | |
| 628 | [[folder:FBI Special Agents Taggert and [=McSweeten=] ]] |
| 629 | [[quoteright:247:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leverage_mcsweeten_and_taggert.jpg]] |
| 630 | '''Played by:''' Creator/RickOverton and Creator/GeraldDowney, respectively |
| 631 | |
| 632 | Two FBI agents Leverage Consulting & Associates tends to come across from time to time. They're not aware of the Leverage group, however, as they believe that Parker and Hardison are FBI superiors. |
| 633 | ---- |
| 634 | * DayInTheLimelight: We find out a lot more about [=McSweeten=] and meet his father in "The D.B Cooper Job." |
| 635 | * DoggedNiceGuy: [=McSweeten=] has a crush on Parker, thinking she's a fellow FBI agent. While Parker doesn't reciprocate, she still acknowledges McSweeten is a NiceGuy and is willing to help him. |
| 636 | * HeterosexualLifePartners: Played with, as they have a conversation at one point about seeing other partners. |
| 637 | * HiddenDepths: They may appear to be your run-of-the-mill bumbling cops, but in season 3, Taggart is revealed to be a Krav Maga instructor for the FBI. |
| 638 | * InspectorLestrade: To some extent. Leverage works alongside them as if they were FBI agents sent as reinforcements; Leverage delivers the bad guys so they can make the arrest. |
| 639 | * PutOnABus: Taggert. Later appearances of [=McSweeten=] always have him offhandedly mentioning a reason why Taggert couldn't be with him. |
| 640 | * ThoseTwoGuys: In their first three episodes, they're almost inseparable and have a good dynamic. |
| 641 | [[/folder]] |
| 642 | |
| 643 | [[folder:Jack Hurley]] |
| 644 | [[quoteright:312:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Leverage_Jack_Hurley_4116.jpg]] |
| 645 | '''Played by:''' Creator/DrewPowell |
| 646 | |
| 647 | An investment banker with a large number of addictions, he steals from a charity in a flawed attempt at helping them, making himself the target of one of Leverage's cons. He proves to be an alright guy underneath everything. Appears in "The 12-Step Job" and "The Boys' Night Out Job." |
| 648 | ---- |
| 649 | * TheAlcoholic: Formerly. As of "The Boys' Night Out Job," he's been sober for two years. |
| 650 | * AntiVillain: He wants to help people, he just has no idea how. |
| 651 | * BigFun[=/=]FatBastard: Toyed with. He tries to be the former, appears to be the latter, and falls somewhere in the middle. |
| 652 | * DidntThinkThisThrough: Stole money from a charity with the idea that he would help them by tripling their investment because he admired the sincerity of the woman running it. But to do so, he also stole money from several criminal organizations using his firm to launder their money. How many did he steal from? A Mexican drug cartel, a North Korean counterfeiting ring, and an unknown group of Chileans who set a bomb in Hurley's car. |
| 653 | * GenreBlind: He honestly thought that smoking hot "Sister" Lupe was a real nun. |
| 654 | * HeelFaceTurn: In his second appearance. |
| 655 | * HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: One of Hurley's flaws is that he tends to accept outward appearances, meaning he's easily deceived. "Sister" Lupe uses this to her advantage to smuggle prescription drugs from Mexico to help people, and the Mexican cartels use ''that'' to stash their own narcotics in Hurley's car, planning to lift the drugs and kill Hurley when he reaches Boston. |
| 656 | * KindheartedCatLover: He notes in his second appearance that he has bought a cat. |
| 657 | * NiceGuy: Outgoing and always quick to help people (albeit in sometimes questionable methods). |
| 658 | * ThatManIsDead: Nate tells Hurley that thanks to the team, Hurley is officially dead, giving him a second chance (though he's still going by Hurley in his next appearance). He invokes this in his next appearance when Nate tells him he's (unwittingly) smuggling drugs. "I'm not that guy. I don't hurt people, anymore!" |
| 659 | * TrademarkFavoriteFood: Tacos. It's one of his many addictions, in fact, and as they go a harmless one comparatively. Nate actually feeds this addiction, literally, to ply Hurley for information in "The 12-Steps Job", and Hurley bonds with Parker's friend, Peggy, over talking tacos in "The Boys Night Out Job." |
| 660 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: He really does think stealing money to increase it was for the best. |
| 661 | [[/folder]] |
| 662 | |
| 663 | [[folder:Peggy Milbank]] |
| 664 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Leverage_Peggy_Milbank_6852.jpg]] |
| 665 | '''Played by:''' Creator/LisaSchurga |
| 666 | |
| 667 | A friend of Parker's whom she met while on jury duty, Peggy is the only person outside of the team whom Parker regularly talks to. Appears in "The Juror #6 Job" and "The Girls' Night Out Job." |
| 668 | ---- |
| 669 | * BadassAdorable: Briefly becomes one when she wales on a would-be assassin with a frying pan. The fact that she catches him totally by surprise probably has a lot to do with it. |
| 670 | * BerserkButton: Don't ruin her kitchen knives. A Venezuelan assassin tries to stab her with one of them, and she is angrier about the damage to the knives than the fact that he tried to kill her. |
| 671 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: When an assassin tries to attack her, instead of getting scared, she gets angry in a way that implies the rage has been building for a while and beats him with a frying pan. |
| 672 | * {{Foil}}: Literally everything Parker is not. |
| 673 | ** Except that they're both badasses. |
| 674 | * FryingPanOfDoom: Beats a Venezuelan bomber up with one. |
| 675 | * KindheartedCatLover: Meets guys through websites about cats. One of the flat-out nicest people to ever appear on the show. |
| 676 | * LockedOutOfTheLoop: Thinks Parker is a bookkeeper and then a spy; has no idea she's good friends with the world's greatest thief. |
| 677 | * NiceGirl: If rather frustrated when it comes to dating. Subverted when someone targets her kitchen knives. |
| 678 | * TookALevelInBadass: First appears to be a meek young adult, but can lay it out when properly armed. |
| 679 | [[/folder]] |
| 680 | |
| 681 | [[folder:Colonel Michael Vance]] |
| 682 | [[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Leverage_Colonel_Vance_9589.JPG]] |
| 683 | '''Played by:''' Creator/AdamBaldwin |
| 684 | |
| 685 | An old friend of Eliot's who fought alongside him in their Black-Ops days. Now employed in the anti-terrorism business. Makes a brief cameo in "[[Recap/LeverageS05E01TheVeryBigBirdJob The (Very) Big Bird Job]]" and has a substantial role in "The Rundown Job". |
| 686 | ---- |
| 687 | * BadassInANiceSuit: Lampshaded by Eliot. |
| 688 | * ColonelBadass: Goes into the field to blow up missile silos himself and clearly loves it. |
| 689 | * CowboyCop: Almost deconstructed; his reliance on Black-Ops and love for jurisdiction-trespassing seems to be causing him trouble with the government. |
| 690 | * GeneralRipper: Shows some traits of this. Eliot calls him out on it. |
| 691 | * MadeOfIron: Eliot has to punch him ''three times'' to knock him down for good. |
| 692 | * NoodleIncident[=/=]OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: When Vance is testifying before Congress about his use of unregistered Black Ops teams, there seems to be an interesting story in there. [[NoodleImplements All we hear is the characters involved]]: A [[AcePilot naval aviator]], an [[CowboyCop FBI profiler who shot up a cafe in Rome]], two electrical engineers from [=NASA=] without security clearance, and a [[JurisdictionFriction CIA agent operating domestically]]. |
| 693 | * ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: But it gets him in trouble with his bosses. |
| 694 | [[/folder]] |
| 695 | |
| 696 | [[folder: Amy Palavi]] |
| 697 | -> '''Played By:''' Creator/AartiMann |
| 698 | A waitress at the brewery the team works out of in Season 5, who hangs out with an injured Parker in "[[Recap/LeverageS05E08TheBrokenWingJob The Broken Wing Job]]." |
| 699 | ---- |
| 700 | * FireForgedFriends: She's initially a bit weirded out by Parker's activities of spying on some criminals in the building but comes to join in on them. |
| 701 | * NonIdleRich: Comes from a very wealthy family but is fine just working as a waitress. |
| 702 | * {{Sidekick}}: To Parker, for her one episode. |
| 703 | * TookALevelInBadass: An ordinary waitress who, under Parker, becomes more adept at surveillance and helps foil a crime. [[spoiler: Especially impressive since that crime turns out to be her own kidnapping]]. |
| 704 | [[/folder]] |
| 705 | |
| 706 | [[folder: Shelley]] |
| 707 | -> '''Played By:''' Creator/SeanFaris |
| 708 | An Special Forces buddy of Eliot who shows up for the poker game during "The Boys' Night Out Job." |
| 709 | ---- |
| 710 | * TheCavalry: Shows up in the climax of the episode to knock out a couple of fleeing bad guys. |
| 711 | * IdTellYouButThenIdHaveToKillYou: Said nearly verbatim when Bonanno asks about his current operations. He is not, in fact, joking. |
| 712 | * IntergenerationalFriendship: He's about twenty years younger than Bonnano, but befriends him over the course of the night while everyone else is out on a job, and is shown teaching him a martial arts move in one scene when the others call back requesting for information. |
| 713 | * PerpetualSmiler: He's pretty laidback and cheerful. |
| 714 | * PopCulturedBadass: When Hardison wins a poker round on low cards and says "Never tell me the odds", Shelley recognizes it's a reference to [[Franchise/StarWars Han Solo]], to which Hardison replies, "Hey Eliot, I like your friend." |
| 715 | [[/folder]] |
| 716 | |
| 717 | !!Recurring Antagonists |
| 718 | [[folder:Victor Dubenich]] |
| 719 | [[quoteright:319:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Victor_Dubencih_7902.jpg]] |
| 720 | '''Played by:''' Creator/SaulRubinek |
| 721 | |
| 722 | -> ''"I am Victor Dubenich. I am gonna beat this."'' |
| 723 | |
| 724 | The first antagonist of the series, Victor Dubenich of Bering Aerospace brings the Leverage team together to steal files from a rival of his, while claiming that they were originally his. His attempt at murdering the team to cover up his own tracks makes him the victim of their first con; he returns in [[spoiler:the Season 4 finale]] to get his revenge. |
| 725 | ---- |
| 726 | * BestServedCold: Spends [[spoiler:three years]] setting up his vengeance on Nate and the team. |
| 727 | * BitchInSheepsClothing: He pretends to be an honest businessman who was wronged by his competitor and uses the memory of Nate's dead son to manipulate him into helping him steal from Pierson Aviation. Nate says that had Dubenich outright said he wanted them to commit a crime they would have suspected a double cross immediately. By pretending to be an honest citizen way in over his head, he is able to more easily fool them. |
| 728 | * BottomlessMagazines: Averted during [[spoiler:his final confrontation with Nate, when he gets too enraged to keep track of how many shots he's fired.]] |
| 729 | * BullyingADragon: After getting taken down by the Leverage team the first time and getting a firm warning by Nate to never mess with them again, you'd think he'd take the warning to heart. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, he doesn't as he wants petty revenge on them. He REALLY should've listened to Nate's warning [[TooDumbToLive because then at least he'd still be alive]].]]. |
| 730 | * TheBusCameBack: Returns in [[spoiler:the Season 4 finale.]] |
| 731 | * TheChessmaster: By his second appearance, he has been attacking the team via a middle man, spying on the team, trying to ally with them in order to take them down, and messing with Nate's game in an escalating pressure cooker situation with [[spoiler:Nate dealing with his father while being surrounded by Federal agents]]. |
| 732 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: Heads the civilian wing of Bering Aerospace. He appears to be an honest man in over his head, but in truth is willing to lie, steal, and then kill the thieves he hires to prevent them from telling anyone or possibly being blackmailed. |
| 733 | * DemotedToDragon: [[spoiler: During the finale of Season 4 he basically acts like Latimer's security adviser.]] However, since he becomes TheHeavy in the process, it's not that big a demotion. |
| 734 | * DirtyCoward: [[spoiler: The minute Nate has him dead to rights,]] Dubenich desperately attempts to talk his way out of the situation. |
| 735 | * DisneyVillainDeath: He falls [[spoiler: off of a dam's concrete platform in a struggle with Latimer going for a gun Nate set down at the edge to get them to kill each other.]] |
| 736 | * DragonTheirFeet[=/=]ScrewThisImOuttaHere: [[spoiler: In the Season 4 finale, after the team successfully deals with Latimer,]] Dubenich decides to try and run off with [[spoiler: the remainder of Latimer's money. Of course, the team is waiting for him.]] |
| 737 | * EvilGenius: Something that Nate is more than willing to admit to in the [[spoiler:Season 4 finale.]] |
| 738 | * EvilIsPetty: In the series premiere, Sophie hooks him with basic jealousy and envy of his professional rival. |
| 739 | * FatBastard: He's not a slim man by any means, and ''boy'' is he a piece of work. |
| 740 | * FatalFlaw: {{Greed}} and [[HairTriggerTemper Wrath]] both cause him serious problems, as he can't seem to commit a crime without profiting in some way, and tends to utterly lose focus when he gets mad. |
| 741 | * FlawExploitation: He is excellent at recognizing the flaws of his enemies to use against them. He uses Nate's messiah complex and [[spoiler:Jimmy's need to protect his son against them in "The Radio Job"]]. However, Dubenich is not immune to this himself as shown by Nate twice. |
| 742 | * TheFixer: He hires Parker, Hardison, and Eliot to be the underlings for Nate in order to "retrieve stolen merchandise." |
| 743 | * {{Greed}}: Dubenich's defining trait, and his FatalFlaw, as his refusal to abandon a plan without profiting from it to the max is what brings him down [[spoiler:twice]]. |
| 744 | * TheHeavy: [[spoiler: In Season 4 he is technically working for Latimer, but]] functions as a more direct antagonist to the team. |
| 745 | * HijackedByGanon: [[spoiler: The ending of Season 4's penultimate episode, shows he is behind the episode's events...which include the murder of Nate's father. The finale shows him acting as Latimer's Dragon.]] |
| 746 | * ItsPersonal: With Pierson Aviation [[spoiler:and Nate after he gets sent to prison.]] |
| 747 | * ItsPersonalWithTheDragon: [[spoiler: He acts as Latimer's Dragon in the Season 4 finale, but Nate's hatred of him - and his hatred of Nate - mean he's the more personal villain.]] |
| 748 | * ManipulativeBastard: He goes to Nate, Eliot, Parker, and Hardison with a sob story about his business competitor stealing from him and his dire straits in order for them to not realize they are stealing from the legitimate owner. For Nate, he adds in that [=IYS=] will have to pay out a huge sum of money if Pierson is robbed. This is all done so they don't foresee the double-cross when he tries to kill them. |
| 749 | * MightAsWellNotBeInPrisonAtAll: Masterminds the entirety of [[spoiler:Season 4's overarching plot from his jail cell. He certainly wants out, but he doesn't need to leave in order to be a problem.]] |
| 750 | * MoralMyopia: He views himself as Nate's victim and hates the Leverage team for costing him his business and getting him imprisoned. Except he is the one who incurs their wrath by deceiving them into stealing airplane designs from his competitor and then trying to kill them after they do what he wants. |
| 751 | * NiceJobFixingItVillain: |
| 752 | ** He single-handedly forms the team of operatives who turn around and make him penniless. Congrats. |
| 753 | ** His words about how the most precious things to a man are his business, his possessions and his name are what inspire Nate's revenge plan against him and Latimer as Nate takes them on by attacking those very things. |
| 754 | ** They also only turn around and make him penniless in the first place because he tries to kill them instead of just paying them for their services and letting them go their separate ways. |
| 755 | ** Trying to kill Nate is understandable, as his assumption might be that Nate might figure things out and go to the police. But trying to kill the ''extremely good'' professional criminals is really stupid, because he knows both Parker and Alec Hardison could easily ruin his life, and trying to kill Eliot Spencer seems almost suicidal (Eliot is probably at a place where he wouldn't have killed Dubenich for that, but Dubenich can't know that.) A single person escaping ruins everything. |
| 756 | * OutGambitted: Come on Victor, did you really expect Nate and Sophie to lose control of the situation for more than a minute? |
| 757 | * RevengeByProxy: [[spoiler:Kills Nate's father to get to him.]] Note that this isn't intended;[[spoiler: he's really trying to kill Nate.]] |
| 758 | * TheRival: Seems to see Pierson as his personal rival as well as a financial one. |
| 759 | * SmugSnake: Rarely is he oozing anything but overconfidence and smugness. He really believes he has the upper-hand in any situation. |
| 760 | * StarterVillain: In an interesting way. He hires the team, sans Sophie, to steal goods that he claims were stolen from him. Had he just let things lie and paed them, the Team would have not been a danger to other corrupt forces. He chooses to become their enemy by trying to kill them (and not paying Parker). |
| 761 | * StupidEvil: If he had just paid the team off instead of trying to kill them to get out of it, he would have gotten away with it. |
| 762 | * TooCleverByHalf: This is largely how he is defeated in the pilot episode. If he wasn't smart enough to figure out what they were doing, the KansasCityShuffle would have never worked. [[spoiler: It is helped by the use of Nigerians which is so obviously a con they couldn't possibly be real, which, surprise surprise, they are.]] |
| 763 | * TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: Nate calls him out on this, saying Dubenich had been too angry and unfocused to pay attention to the small details, like keeping track of how many bullets he had fired, and didn't realize he was empty until it was too late. He practically starts pissing his pants when Nate pulls out his father's FULLY-LOADED gun on him, and proceeds to beg for his life. Nate then also brings out Latimer and mocks out a dilemma that if he kills one of them, the other will profit in some way from their death. Instead, Nate doesn't bother and leaves the gun between them on the ledge of the dam before walking off. Predictably, Dubenich and Latimer take the bait and immediately began to fight over the gun, then both wind up falling over the edge to their deaths, saving Nate the hassle]]. |
| 764 | * TookALevelInBadass: While no dullard in his first appearance, he seems a lot craftier when he returns [[spoiler:in Season 4. He's also far more willing to get his hands dirty, even if he isn't much of a fighter.]] |
| 765 | * TookALevelInJerkass: He is a prick in his first appearance, but he's a pragmatic prick, whose attempt at killing the team is far from personal. In his second appearance he's [[spoiler:become a gloating sadist who takes a sick delight in having killed Nate's father.]] |
| 766 | * TreacherousQuestGiver: He hires Nate to gather a team of criminals to steal back airplane plans that he claims were stolen from his company. It turns out they were never his to begin with, and he tries to cover his tracks (and avoid paying the team) by [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness blowing up Nate and the others]]. They decide to get revenge, and by the end of the episode Dubenich is in FBI custody and his company is ruined. |
| 767 | * UnstoppableRage: Nate claims this is Dubenich's biggest problem, as he gets so angry that he loses track of the little details. |
| 768 | * VillainBall: First appearance: Dude, if you had just ''paid'' them, you'd still be rich and free. Second appearance: Dude, if you'd just taken advantage of the situation to get rich and out of prison, you'd be fine, instead you had to go after them ''again''. |
| 769 | * VillainsWantMercy: [[spoiler:In "The Last Dam Job", Dubenich corners Nate with intent to kill, but unfortunately his gun is empty as he failed to keep track of how many shots he fired while chasing Nate. Nate, however, does keep track, then pulls his own fully-loaded gun on Dubenich. He immediately starts begging Nate not to shoot him while trying to pin blame on Latimer to save his own hide.]] |
| 770 | * WhyDontYaJustShootHim: [[spoiler:Averted in his final confrontation with Nate, wherein Dubenich does just try to shoot him.]] |
| 771 | * WoundedGazelleGambit: In his first appearance, wherein he pretends to have been robbed by Pierson (in reality he wants the team to rob Pierson for him). |
| 772 | * YouKilledMyFather: [[spoiler:After using his son to get him to do the first job, Nate has this reason too.]] |
| 773 | [[/folder]] |
| 774 | |
| 775 | [[folder:James "Jim" Sterling]] |
| 776 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/leverage_sterling.jpg]] |
| 777 | '''Played by:''' Creator/MarkSheppard |
| 778 | |
| 779 | ->''"You know your entire plan depended on me being a self-serving, ''utter bastard''."'' |
| 780 | |
| 781 | Formerly an insurance investigator at IYS, now member of Interpol (which, in the ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' universe, is akin to [[Series/TheManFromUNCLE U.N.C.L.E.]] or ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}). |
| 782 | ---- |
| 783 | * AffablyEvil: He may be a bastard but he knows how to treat his enemies well. |
| 784 | %%* AmbitionIsEvil: |
| 785 | * BackForTheFinale: He comes back for the season 1 finale, season 2 finale, and series finale. |
| 786 | * BeardOfEvil: As of "The Frame-Up Job". And inversion, since he is a good guy. |
| 787 | * {{Catchphrase}}: He is fond of announcing himself with "Hello, Nate." |
| 788 | * TheChessmaster: There is a reason Nate is fearful of him and always careful. He is a brilliant tactician who will always play to ensure his endgame comes out, regardless of the consequences. He's also a ''literal'' chessmaster, and the only one who can beat Nate. |
| 789 | * EvilBrit: Inverted because he is a good guy, just antagonistic to the Team, most of the time. |
| 790 | * EvilCounterpart: "He's like Nate... [[LampshadeHanging Evil Nate]]." |
| 791 | * GuileHero: Guile AntiHero if one views him as the good guy. The creators do. |
| 792 | * HeroAntagonist: Depending on how you look at it. [[spoiler: Definitely in "The Frame-Up Job".]] |
| 793 | * IFightForTheStrongestSide: Pretty much how he decides ToBeLawfulOrGood. He doesn't bat an eye at legal atrocities like stalling insurance payments until clients lose court cases or die of diseases with expensive treatments, using Eastern European gun-running human traffickers as criminal informants, or even [[spoiler:covering up that a consortium of most of the corporations in the world stole one-third of the world's wealth during the 2008 financial crisis, as he believes the deluge of court cases would cause a global economic collapse]]. However, if Nate and the Team do all the work for him, he'll cheerfully take less despicable alternatives to all of that - and all the credit as well, of course. This is why '''[[RunningGag Sterling. Never. Loses.]]''' |
| 794 | * InterpolSpecialAgent: He becomes one, thanks to the Team helping him. |
| 795 | * InvincibleVillain: It's an unwritten rule by the Leverage writers that (their emphasis, even) "'''[[RuleOfThree Sterling. Never. Loses.]]'''" The absolute best the Leverage team can do about it is [[BatmanGambit make damned sure that he has bigger fish to fry]] (the VillainOfTheWeek, usually). |
| 796 | * KarmaHoudini: Keeps getting promoted through the hard work of Leverage Consulting and Associates. Also, '''[[RunningGag Sterling. Never. Loses.]]''' |
| 797 | ** In "The Two Horse Job", all he cares about is keeping IYS from having to write a check, and does his best to sabotage the con. When it goes through anyway, he gets credit for stopping the mark from taking IYS for a ride. |
| 798 | ** In both "The First and Second David Jobs", he is present in the room when Ian Blackpoole admits that IYS is engaged in an outrageous scheme to cheat its clients; like in Creator/JohnGrisham's ''Literature/TheRainmaker'', Blackpoole has IYS purposefully stall paying all its claims as long as possible. This often results in people losing their homes after disasters, and the death of numerous people who expected IYS to pay for medical care such as Nate's son - but it keeps IYS from having to write checks. Sterling is able to spin the effects of the con into getting Blackpoole's job. |
| 799 | ** In "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job", he is perfectly willing to let Maggie Collins take the fall for "stealing" a Fabergé Egg, leaving her to the tender mercies of the Russian "justice" system. He ends up getting the credit for catching the real thief and retrieving the egg. |
| 800 | ** In "The Maltese Falcon Job", he rubs elbows with a crooked mayor, an ultraviolent Eastern European gunrunner, and the FBI agent using them both as informants while letting the gunrunner shoot up a Boston police detective. Nate is forced to fall on his sword to protect his team - and Sterling gets the credit for capturing the gunrunner. |
| 801 | ** In "The Queen's Gambit Job", he blackmails the team into aiding him in rescuing his kidnapped daughter, and is willing to let terrorists get a hold of nuclear weapons technology in order to do it. Luckily, Parker sabotages the technology, but ''he gets credit for sabotaging the terrorists.'' |
| 802 | ** In "The Frame-Up Job", he tries to arrest Nate and Sophie out of spite, and instead ends up taking the credit for preventing a multi-billion-dollar heist of hundreds of valuable paintings. |
| 803 | ** In "The Long Goodbye Job", he's all but gleeful when he [[spoiler:believes he's killed Nate's entire team while protecting evidence that the 1% stole ''one-third of the entire world's wealth'' during the 2008 financial crisis. He secretly lets them go, but still gets credit for capturing Nate, despite the team rescuing him in transit]]. |
| 804 | * LastNameBasis: Even Nate, who has known Sterling a long time, never calls him "Jim." |
| 805 | * LawmanBaton: He uses a collapsible baton when Eliot starts beating him up in "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job". Given this is Eliot, it doesn't do him any good. |
| 806 | * ManipulativeBastard: Generally the team ends up going through with what he wants whether he likes it or not. |
| 807 | * PapaWolf: Revealed in "The Queen's Gambit Job" where [[spoiler:he must rescue his daughter, also his mole in her step-father's business]]. He uses Nate and company to do another job just to be able to do what is spoiled. |
| 808 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: In "The Frame-up Job", one of the few times Sterling is (more or less) on Nate's side. When Nate brings up that the curator is a suspect of stealing paintings and replacing them with forgeries, Sterling casually brings it up before the suspect, which causes said suspect to run in panic. |
| 809 | -->'''Sterling''': ''Hey! I don't suppose anyone here spent the last few years secretly replacing every Mettier in the house with forgeries while no one was looking?''\ |
| 810 | '''[[spoiler:Katrina Hardt]]''': (bolts)\ |
| 811 | '''Nate''': '' '''[[SarcasmMode Very]]''' slick interrogation.''\ |
| 812 | '''Sterling''': ''I didn't think that would work.''\ |
| 813 | '''Sophie''': ''[[spoiler:She's]] getting a-wayyy...''\ |
| 814 | '''Sterling''': '''''I didn't think that would work!''''' |
| 815 | * SmugSnake: Falls into this in "The Frame-Up Job". BARELY keeps his "always wins" title. |
| 816 | * SympatheticInspectorAntagonist: Despite what Sterling says, his one-upmanship with Nate is treated as a game of wits -- not the pursuit of some high ideal. |
| 817 | * ToBeLawfulOrGood: Lawful. ''Very'' Lawful. ''[[EvilPaysBetter And he thoroughly enjoys all the perks that come with it]].'' In the first season finale, he gleefully {{Curb Stomp}}s the team, and after they evade him, he mockingly states that Nate will ''never'' get his revenge against the CEO of IYS Insurance for letting his son die. He's wrong about that, but still manages to [[IFightForTheStrongestSide twist the team's efforts]] in fighting corruption into his own healthy career in law enforcement, culminating in the series finale where he [[spoiler: finally [[EveryoneHasStandards has his fill of it]]. When the team successfully steals the ultimate black book of {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s, he looks the other way for the first time in his life, acknowledging Nate's condemnation that "[[MoralEventHorizon They broke the world]]" and stating, "Justice is always easy."]] |
| 818 | * TheUnfettered: He emphatically does ''not'' care about right and wrong - only about ''winning''. At any cost. [[spoiler:Though it turns out letting the Team subvert a global conspiracy just by looking the other way - knowing he won't be punished for it - is something he's willing to fudge on.]] |
| 819 | -->We're insurance men, Nate. We don't care about who's guilty or who's innocent - just who pays. |
| 820 | * VillainWithGoodPublicity: He is, by his own admission, a self-serving bastard. He also is considered one of the absolute best members of Interpol. |
| 821 | * VillainyFreeVillain: Objectively, all of his actions are perfectly legal and are designed to catch criminals. |
| 822 | * WeUsedToBeFriends: Though Nate would beg to differ. Sterling later admits that he no longer recognizes the person Nate has become while Nate seems upset by Sterling's willingness to abet the man whom they both know let Nate's son die in season 1. |
| 823 | ** [[spoiler: And Nate admits they were friends!]] |
| 824 | * WildCard: Whose side he's on generally depends on which side will serve him best. So basically his own. |
| 825 | * WorthyOpponent: Even Nate concedes that Sterling has integrity -- even if he's not awash in the kinder human traits. |
| 826 | ** Sterling himself considers Nate to be one as well, since he considers Nate one of the best thieves in the world. Also, he even offers to let Nate and Sophie join Interpol. |
| 827 | |
| 828 | Was it mentioned that '''[[RunningGag Sterling. Never. Loses?]]''' |
| 829 | [[/folder]] |
| 830 | |
| 831 | [[folder:Colin "Chaos" Mason]] |
| 832 | [[quoteright:287:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Chaos_Mason_4672.jpg]] |
| 833 | '''Played by:''' Creator/WilWheaton |
| 834 | |
| 835 | ->''"Hardison? I heard you sucked! Guess I was right."'' |
| 836 | |
| 837 | A hacker with skills that rival Hardison's. Initially hired by Marcus Starke, he betrays Starke and sets off on his own. |
| 838 | ---- |
| 839 | * BeardOfEvil: He has a short beard and is one of the more sinister criminals on the show. The commentary even uses the phrase "Beard of Evil'' in his second appearance. |
| 840 | * BrainsAndBrawn: With Quinn in "The Last Dam Job". |
| 841 | * CardCarryingVillain: In the most fun way possible. He honestly seems to believe EvilIsCool. |
| 842 | * TheChessmaster: He's able to stay one step ahead of first Starke, and then Nate for an impressive amount of time. |
| 843 | * ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: He backstabs Starke, Dooley, and his own henchmen, all in the space of two episodes. [[spoiler:Averted when he helps the Leverage team for three likely reasons. First, he enjoys the fact Hardison comes to him for help. Second, he knows that the team will most likely see a double-cross coming and will ''certainly'' succeed in making him pay for it. Thirdly, the con has no monetary payout, so he can only profit if the con survives long enough to get paid. Additionally, according to WordOfGod, he is also angling to get a position on the team, [[IFightForTheStrongestSide seeing them as the best around.]] You don't betray the people you're looking to impress. ]] |
| 844 | * TheCracker: Very adept at hacking into security systems. |
| 845 | * DeadpanSnarker: He likes to shoot jabs at the people around him. |
| 846 | * DrunkenMaster: Invoked in [[spoiler: "The Last Dam Job", where he contrasts his own hacking method, "drunken mastery", with Hardison's "kung fu".]] |
| 847 | * EnemyMine: [[spoiler:With Leverage Consulting in "The Last Dam Job". It's solely for payment.]] |
| 848 | ** [[spoiler: WordOfGod is that Chaos was also trying to impress the crew the entire time & treating the experience as an audition because he wants to work alongside the best.]] |
| 849 | * EvilCounterpart: He's basically Hardison with none of his redeeming qualities. |
| 850 | * EvilGenius: To Starke's crew, and then on his own behalf. |
| 851 | * {{Geek}}: To Hardison levels. |
| 852 | ** ProudToBeAGeek: Makes many references to ''Franchise/StarTrek'' and other sci-fi works. |
| 853 | * HollywoodHacking: He hacks through expensive security systems with little visible effort. |
| 854 | * InsufferableGenius: He is as smart as he claims to be, but still a Jerkass. |
| 855 | * {{Jerkass}}: To pretty much everybody, eventually betraying his own crew. He's not the most evil character in the show, but he's a good contender for biggest jackass. |
| 856 | * LargeHam: You really can tell that Wil Wheaton has had a lot of fun playing Chaos. |
| 857 | * MadBomber: Tries to blow up both Sophie and Starke. |
| 858 | * NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: His handle advertises his ChaoticEvil status. |
| 859 | %%* OnlyInItForTheMoney |
| 860 | * OutGambitted: By Nate in "The Two Live Crew Job" and Hardison in the "The Ho-Ho-Ho Job." He himself inflicts this on Marcus Starke in the former, and the entire Leverage crew during the first part of the latter. |
| 861 | * RapidFireTyping: Just like Hardison. |
| 862 | * TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Gives a pretty nasty one to Marcus Starke, telling him flat out that Sophie's the one people are really afraid of. |
| 863 | * RecurringCharacter: An unusual one who is a villain most, but not all, of the time. |
| 864 | * TheRival: To Hardison. |
| 865 | * ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: [[spoiler: When Quinn throws him off the dam so they can escape from Dubenich's goons in "The Last Dam Job."]] |
| 866 | * SmugSnake: The DVD commentary even notes that he doesn't get a MotiveRant as much as monologuing for the sake of monologuing, and he still ends up losing to the team multiple times. |
| 867 | * TheBusCameBack: Twice. [[spoiler: In season 3's "The Ho Ho Ho Job" and "The Last Dam Job".]] |
| 868 | * TokenEvilTeammate: Quinn and Eliot at least respect each other and have no hard feelings over being on opposite sides in the past while Archie obviously cares about Parker. [[spoiler:In "The Last Dam Job," Chaos is only recruited because of his hacking skills and the other characters make it clear they neither like nor trust him.]] |
| 869 | * VillainOfTheWeek: Twice. |
| 870 | ** Also in the tie-in novel "The Con Job" |
| 871 | [[/folder]] |
| 872 | |
| 873 | [[folder:The Italian]] |
| 874 | [[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TheItalian_945.jpg]] |
| 875 | '''Played by:''' Creator/ElisabettaCanalis |
| 876 | |
| 877 | Name unknown, origin unknown. What is known is that she has a lot of behind-the-scenes power (she can keep Nate out of jail and in Boston after he has escaped a Massachusetts state prison), and has blackmailed the team into taking down the world's most powerful criminal banker. |
| 878 | ---- |
| 879 | * AmbiguouslyEvil: She's certainly not someone to trust, but her actual motivations are not revealed. Crosses over with HiddenAgendaVillain. |
| 880 | %%* TheChessmaster: Heavily implied. |
| 881 | * EverythingSoundsSexierInFrench: Oh yes, and more mysterious in Italian, too. |
| 882 | * FemmeFatale: Her meetings with Nate have a hint of seductiveness to them. |
| 883 | * HiddenAgendaVillain: We know she wants Moreau out of the way. We don't know is why. |
| 884 | * ManipulativeBastard: She's behind Nate's moves even as he thinks he's asserting independence from her. |
| 885 | * MysteriousEmployer: All that's known about her is that she has loads of recourses and hates Moreau. |
| 886 | %%* MythArc: She kicked it off.%%Kicked what off? How? |
| 887 | * NoNameGiven: Name unknown, origin unknown. |
| 888 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: As the series was canceled, the truth about her was never revealed. |
| 889 | [[/folder]] |
| 890 | |
| 891 | [[folder:Damian Moreau]] |
| 892 | [[quoteright:312:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DamienMoreau_7949.jpg]] |
| 893 | '''Played by:''' Creator/GoranVisnjic |
| 894 | ->''"I'm a banker, Ford. Some banks buy land, I buy politicians. Some banks invest in business, I invest in countries. And I think big. And I don't judge the men I do business with. That's not a sin. [[AboveGoodAndEvil That's vision]]."'' |
| 895 | |
| 896 | The world's most feared criminal banker and target of Season 3's MythArc. |
| 897 | ---- |
| 898 | * BigBad: Of Season 3. |
| 899 | -->'''Hardison''': Moreau is ''the'' [[InvokedTrope Big Bad.]] He is the ''central bank'' for international crime. |
| 900 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: Kicking Hardison (handcuffed to a wooden swivel chair) into a swimming pool and letting him flail underwater helplessly for a full minute before throwing the keys in. Taking a nonchalant sip of brandy as Eliot stands helplessly, knowing that if he goes for Hardison, the dozen armed guards will blow him into sushi. |
| 901 | * EvilCannotComprehendGood: By his last scene in "The San Lorenzo Job" he still has ''no earthly idea'' who most of the Leverage team are, how they so completely got the better of him, or ''why''. He also fails to comprehend that [[spoiler:Eliot]] is no longer the same man he knew when [[spoiler:Eliot]] was working for him, and his baffled expression as he sees [[spoiler:his former [[TheDragon Dragon]] on television posing as an animal rights activist to accuse President Ribera of hosting dogfights, complete with an adorable puppy to cuddle]], is priceless. |
| 902 | * FauxAffablyEvil: Moreau may talk like a civilized man, but all that charisma does nothing to hide the violent, brutish despot he is. |
| 903 | * HoistByHisOwnPetard: At the end of ''The Big Bang Job'', Monreau flees to San Lorenzo, a tiny European nation with no extradition treaties with anyone and where the President is in his pocket. [[spoiler:At the end of ''The San Lorenzo Job'', the Leverage team get a new, more honest president elected leading to the old one throwing Moreau under the bus and Moreau is imprisoned in San Lorenzo for life with no way out entirely ''because'' they have no extradition treaties]]. |
| 904 | * TheManBehindTheMan: To several [[VillainOfTheWeek villains of the week]] and [[PresidentEvil President]] [[PuppetKing Ribera]] of San Lorenzo. |
| 905 | %%* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast |
| 906 | * PaidHarem: Surrounds himself with a travelling parade of women in bikinis. |
| 907 | * PraetorianGuard: Every single one of his henchmen have innocent blood on their hands. [[spoiler: Including Eliot.]] |
| 908 | * RunForTheBorder: In the SeasonFinale, he's fled to the tiny nation of [[FictionalCountry San Lorenzo]], which has no extradition treaties, and the [[PresidentEvil President]] is in his pocket. |
| 909 | * SinisterShades: Wears dark sunglasses that make him more imposing. |
| 910 | * SmugSnake: Moreau's smarter than most of the marks that the team goes after, but for the most part he relies on his money and connections to keep him out of prison. He has no idea how to cope with the unexpected, and his inability to adjust once Nate sets his sights on him contributes immensely to his downfall. |
| 911 | * TallDarkAndHandsome: It's emphasized by the large number of women he keeps around him. |
| 912 | * TheUnseen: Until ''The Big Bang Job''. |
| 913 | * VillainousBreakdown: Slowly, but does break down over the course of his story arc as he realizes a handful of people he's never heard of [[spoiler: and one former employee]] are destroying everything he's built. |
| 914 | --> '''Moreau''': Who ''are'' you?! |
| 915 | * VisionaryVillain: How he sees himself. |
| 916 | [[/folder]] |
| 917 | |
| 918 | [[folder:Jimmy Ford]] |
| 919 | [[quoteright:202:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Jimmy_Ford_9014.jpg]] |
| 920 | '''Played by:''' Creator/TomSkerritt |
| 921 | |
| 922 | Nate's father, and a former South Boston bookie, loan shark, and fixer, Jimmy has a strained relationship with his son. He appears in "The Three-Card Monte Job" and "The Radio Job". |
| 923 | ---- |
| 924 | * AbusiveDad: Emotionally abusive if nothing else. Though the way Nate talks about his "blind rages"... |
| 925 | * AlwaysSomeoneBetter: The cause of Nate's WellDoneSonGuy persona. |
| 926 | * ArchnemesisDad: Doesn't hesitate to go after his son on the job. |
| 927 | * ArsonMurderAndAdmiration: For the way Nate set him up. |
| 928 | * TheChessmaster: Played with. Nate states that his father's game is [[ShellGame Three-card Monte]], not chess, and Jimmy is nothing if not opportunistic, keeping his cards close to his chest and improvising as need be. That said, he does have an overall plan, and it's very nearly as detailed as one of Nate's. And intriguingly, it's not all that different from Nate's plans; the key is [[KansasCityShuffle making the marks outsmart themselves]]. |
| 929 | * ConMan: He has a past as one. |
| 930 | * DyingDeclarationOfLove: His last words in life are to ask Nate to tell people how much Jimmy Ford loved his son. This admission of parental love [[spoiler:stuns Nate so much he stops far enough away from the explosion that kills Jimmy]]. |
| 931 | * EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Clearly cares very deeply for his late wife. As he says, his wife may not have always got him, but they loved each other. His last words are to let his son know that he loves him, too. |
| 932 | * EvilOldFolks: He is the VillainOfTheWeek once and has a middle-aged son. |
| 933 | * FaceDeathWithDignity: In "The Radio Job". [[spoiler:Once he realizes there are bombs around him and he doesn't have strength to escape the building, he spends his time on the phone telling Nate to keep out to protect his son]]. |
| 934 | * TheFixer: Moves up from con-games, loan sharking, and book-making to be the best fixer in the neighbourhood, linking up bad guys and henchmen for the Three Families. |
| 935 | * GracefulLoser: Bears no ill will for Nate pulling a fast one on him. He is even proud of his son for actually beating him. |
| 936 | * InTheBlood: ManipulativeBastard clearly is. |
| 937 | * TheIrishMob: Works for the Three Families for thirty years. |
| 938 | * LoanShark: One of his main sources of income. |
| 939 | * {{Leitmotif}}: A brief but rather somber Irish folk tune. |
| 940 | * TheMafiya: Is working with the Russians when the Leverage team encounters him. |
| 941 | * ManipulativeBastard: He's ok at tricking his son and his crew into helping him. |
| 942 | * OneLastJob: How he views his scheme. He wants his payout from the Three Families, and then he's thinking about moving back to Ireland. |
| 943 | * OutGambitted: By Nate. Nate permits him to take the ledger detailing payments to many corrupt people, so Nate can call the people who would reward Jimmy for taking it and blackmail them on Jimmy's behalf to pay Jimmy or the book is returned to the cops. |
| 944 | * PapaWolf: One of the few noble parts of his character is that he loves Nate deeply. He may not always have liked his son or respected his son's choices in life, but he loves him. [[spoiler:So when Latimer tells him to steal a patent or Nate will be killed, Jimmy does the job. He then sneaks away from Nate once they escape the patent office to keep him safe as he confronts Latimer's crew]]. |
| 945 | * RefugeInAudacity: Tries to [[spoiler:rob a police station]]. |
| 946 | * SmugSnake: Not as bad as others in the series, but in both his appearances he's a little too confident for his own good. [[spoiler: The second time his overconfidence gets him killed.]] |
| 947 | * SoProudOfYou: |
| 948 | ** In "The Three-Card Monte Job" seeing Nate's evolution from the young boy who didn't understand the trick to Three-Card Monte, to an adult criminal schemer who is able to pull cons off that outwit even Jimmy has him depart with a smile on his face saying maybe Nate is the better criminal. Nate is not happy with this comparison. |
| 949 | ** His final words to Nate are that of how much he loves Nate. |
| 950 | ** In "The Last Dam Job" Nate notes that while his dead son probably wouldn't want him to kill Dubenich and Latimer, "my father would buy me an ice cream." |
| 951 | * {{Southies}}: The area of Boston that the team operates out of was his neighbourhood back in the day. |
| 952 | * TakingTheHeat: Went to prison because the Three Families needed him to. Their refusal to pay him what is owed him for this plays a major role in "The Three-Card Monte Job". |
| 953 | * ThickerThanWater: His reason for taking Latimer's job in "The Radio Job". Yes, the two million dollar payout is important... but he also does it to protect his son. |
| 954 | [[/folder]] |
| 955 | |
| 956 | [[folder:Jack Latimer]] |
| 957 | [[quoteright:319:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Jack_Latimer_116.jpg]] |
| 958 | '''Played by:''' Creator/LeonRippy |
| 959 | |
| 960 | A professional investor who's been keeping tabs on Leverage Consulting since their run-in with Dubenich, Latimer repeatedly tries to get the team to work for him. A recurring menace throughout Season 4. |
| 961 | ---- |
| 962 | Tropes associated with Latimer: |
| 963 | * BigBad: The main villain of Season 4, although... |
| 964 | * BigBadWannabe: [[spoiler: He's very easily outwitted by the team, to the point where his major ally decides to just take the money and run. Latimer also gets captured twice by the team in quick succession.]] |
| 965 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: He's been using Nate's job as a form of insider trading to bet against the companies he goes after. |
| 966 | * DiscOneFinalBoss: Is set up as TheBigBad of Season 4, [[spoiler: but is dealt with before Victor Dubenich in the season finale]]. |
| 967 | * DisneyVillainDeath: He falls [[spoiler: off of a dam's concrete platform in a struggle with Dubenich going for a gun Nate set down at the edge to them to kill each other.]] |
| 968 | * EvilOldFolks: An older man with a strong indication of ruthlessness about him. |
| 969 | * {{Greed}}: Seeks to profit from Leverage Inc's activities. This is why he agrees to [[spoiler:work for Dubenich]] in the first place. |
| 970 | * HijackedByGanon: [[spoiler:Hijacked by Dubenich]]. Kinda - [[spoiler: Dubenich works for Latimer in the finale, but it's clear Dubenich is the main threat.]] |
| 971 | * TheManBehindTheMan: To Earnshaw Pharmaceuticals, [=DuberTech=], Wakefield Agricultural, and Merced Financial, all of whom are exposed by the Leverage team. |
| 972 | * ManipulativeBastard: Tries to get Nate to bring down companies to make him richer, with there only being Latimer's word that they'll be crooks themselves. |
| 973 | * SelfMadeMan: A farm kid who mortgaged his house to start his first company. That being said, he needs help to stay on top. |
| 974 | * SmugSnake: Shows no signs of fear or guilt when [[spoiler: Nate first declares war on him]]. |
| 975 | * TooDumbToLive: Latimer is far dumber than his [[TheDragon Dragon]], [[spoiler:Dubenich]], and is repeatedly fooled by relatively simple tricks in the finale. Sophie and [[spoiler:Maggie]] manage to use the identical grift on him without Latimer ever cluing in. [[spoiler: Then the scene at the edge of the dam]]. |
| 976 | * UnknownRival: Unbeknownst to the Leverage team, Latimer has been profiting off their crusade against corrupt companies and is secretly working with [[spoiler:Victor Dubenich, the first person they put away]]. |
| 977 | [[/folder]] |
| 978 | |
| 979 | !!Other Characters |
| 980 | |
| 981 | [[folder:The Butcher of Kiev]] |
| 982 | '''Played by:''' Creator/AnthonyDeLongis |
| 983 | |
| 984 | --> '''Hardison:''' "Have you ever ''been'' to Kiev? The ''Cake Maker'' of Kiev could whup all our asses, and this is ''TheButcher''." |
| 985 | |
| 986 | A hulking giant from the Russian Mafia, with a grudge against Eliot, a penchant for using cookware as weaponry, and a very ugly reputation in the underworld. Appears in "The Wedding Job." |
| 987 | ---- |
| 988 | * TheBrute: A nearly unintelligible psycho who's too stupid to be TheDragon, and relies entirely on his size to overpower his opponents, he escapes being a mere GiantMook by virtue of his reputation. |
| 989 | * TheButcher: Lampshaded by Hardison and justified by the fact that he favors cleavers and kitchen knives as weapons. His fight with ChefOfIron Eliot is truly hilarious. |
| 990 | * TheDreaded: Nate, Sophie, Hardison, and Parker have all heard of him, and are tempted to abort the mission when he shows up alongside the other Russians. See quote above. |
| 991 | * DumbMuscle: He certainly doesn't do much to demonstrate his intelligence, spending almost all his onscreen time ranting "I kill you!" |
| 992 | * EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Name unknown. Everyone refers to him as "The Butcher of Kiev." |
| 993 | * EyeScream: Eliot defeats him by shoving appetizers in his eyes. The lemon juice does bad things to them. |
| 994 | * TheGiant: He's huge. |
| 995 | * GoodScarsEvilScars: His last encounter with Eliot leaves him with some very evil burn scars on one cheek. |
| 996 | * ImprobableWeaponUser: His and Eliot's fight using a large amount of kitchenware, including knives and his trademark cleaver. |
| 997 | * IronicEcho: "It burns!" Shouted in flashback when Eliot smacks him in the face with a burning piece of plywood, shouted in the present when lemon juice is sprayed into his eyes. |
| 998 | * ItsPersonal: With Eliot |
| 999 | * KnifeFight: With Eliot, complete with the requisite fighting for control of the blade. |
| 1000 | * TheCameo: Was originally planned to appear, or at least his daughter to do so, in "[[Recap/LeverageS03E06TheStudioJob The Studio Job]]", but the scene was either deleted, or never filmed. |
| 1001 | * TheMafiya: A career killer for Sergei of the Russian Mob. |
| 1002 | * MusclesAreMeaningful: Very large, very bulky, and portrayed as frighteningly strong. |
| 1003 | * ProfessionalKillers: A world-class killer in Nate's words. |
| 1004 | * {{Revenge}}: Why he attacks Eliot. |
| 1005 | * RuthlessForeignGangsters: Both he and his boss, Sergei. |
| 1006 | * SlasherSmile: Only has two facial expressions--grimacing and this. |
| 1007 | [[/folder]] |
| 1008 | |
| 1009 | [[folder:Mr. Quinn]] |
| 1010 | '''Played by:''' Creator/ClayneCrawford |
| 1011 | |
| 1012 | --> "They told me you'd be tougher than this." |
| 1013 | |
| 1014 | A nondescript mercenary employed by Sterling in "The First David Job", Quinn ambushes Eliot and gives him an absolutely brutal beating, before being taken down himself. |
| 1015 | ---- |
| 1016 | * AffablyEvil: Despite being a violent mercenary, he is a rather pleasant fellow. When he reunites with Eliot, he greets him cordially like an old friend despite thinking that Eliot is there for a rematch. |
| 1017 | * AttackHello: His first shots in the show have him nearly knocking Eliot off his feet. |
| 1018 | * BadassInANiceSuit: He's dressed like some yuppie banker. He's also the first character in the entire series to do Eliot any significant damage, putting up a strong enough fight to stand a convincing chance of beating him. |
| 1019 | * BerserkButton: Quinn is typically incredibly calm and relaxed, very rarely losing his temper. However, when he's dealing with Chaos he becomes much more irritable (though one can't really blame him, considering it's Chaos). |
| 1020 | * BrainsAndBrawn: The Brawn to Chaos' Brains in the Season 4 finale. |
| 1021 | * TheBrute: He's got just enough personality to escape being a GiantMook or EliteMook, but isn't important enough to Sterling's plan to qualify as TheDragon. Definitely this. |
| 1022 | * TheBusCameBack: Returns in the season 4 finale. |
| 1023 | * CasualDangerDialogue: He doesn't seem fazed when handcuffed and surrounded by hostile men with guns. When [[spoiler:Eliot shows up to discuss a job offer]], Quinn chats pleasantly with him as the two of them systematically beat up the gunmen. |
| 1024 | * CombatPragmatist: Sucker punches Eliot at the start of the fight, then proceeds to KickThemWhileTheyAreDown. Definitely. |
| 1025 | * DeadpanSnarker: Very much so. He taunts his opponents in a polite yet condescending manner as he fights. |
| 1026 | * {{Foil}}: He's very similar to Eliot, but with [[ManOfWealthAndTaste higher-class tastes]], a suave demeanor, and greater amorality. Compared to the brusque and aloof Eliot, Quinn comes across as much more cheerful, laid-back, and professional. Combatwise, they both fight pragmatically, but Quinn prefers precision strikes designed to stun and disable (the first thing he does to Eliot is deliberately break one of his ribs) while Eliot prefers stronger blows designed to knock out opponents quickly. |
| 1027 | * HiddenBadass: Eliot really doesn't see that one coming.[[note]]This serves as a bit of FridgeBrilliance. This quiet, nobody goes from unimposing to severely beating Eliot. Now we - the viewers - know what all those mooks feel when they go after Eliot in disguise.[[/note]] |
| 1028 | * HiredGuns: Sterling actually refers to him as "not as good as advertised." |
| 1029 | * KickThemWhileTheyAreDown: Literally. Quinn uses his first punch to knock Eliot to the floor, than proceeds to try and kick him into submission. |
| 1030 | * LightningBruiser: Just like Eliot, but in contrast to Eliot being a fast-moving tank, Quinn is more of a hard-hitting speedster as shown in their fight where he's able to dodge most of Eliot's attacks and lay a beatdown, but Eliot soaks up the attacks before [=KOing=] Quinn in a few hits. |
| 1031 | * ManOfWealthAndTaste: Dresses in better suits than most hitters on the show and seems more high class than Eliot. |
| 1032 | * OnlyInItForTheMoney: He has no personal stake in this, and doesn't even seem particularly sadistic (especially when compared to TheButcher or Roper). He's doing this because Sterling pays his bills, nothing more, nothing less. [[spoiler:This is given further credence in "The Last Dam Job" when Quinn is shown to be on perfectly amicable terms with Eliot and even willing to work with him when it's not his job to kick Eliot's ass.]] |
| 1033 | * PopCulturedBadass: Quotes ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'' in the middle of a fight. |
| 1034 | * PunchedAcrossTheRoom: Does this to Eliot. |
| 1035 | * PunchClockVillain: Shades of this, along with OnlyInItForTheMoney, as seen above. |
| 1036 | * SmugSnake: Has an arrogant bearing and displays a very cocky attitude throughout the fight. |
| 1037 | * TalkToTheFist: Belts Eliot mid-threat. |
| 1038 | * WakeUpCallBoss: Very much so. He's the first person in the show to genuinely threaten Eliot's life, and his attack (much like the rest of Sterling's plot in that episode) serves to demonstrate that the show is about to get serious. |
| 1039 | * WhyWontYouDie: Demands to know why [[{{Determinator}} Eliot]] won't go down and stay down. |
| 1040 | * WorthyOpponent: He sees Eliot as one after their first encounter. [[spoiler:When Eliot finds him handcuffed in a warehouse, the two greet each other with respect and discuss Eliot needing Quinn for a job while beating down the men who just had Quinn at gunpoint.]] |
| 1041 | [[/folder]] |
| 1042 | |
| 1043 | [[folder:Ian Blackpoole]] |
| 1044 | '''Played by:''' Creator/KevinTighe. |
| 1045 | |
| 1046 | Nate's former boss at IYS, and the man who let Nate's son die. Serves as the final mark of Season 1. |
| 1047 | ---- |
| 1048 | * TheCollector: An art nut. |
| 1049 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: He is determined to screw over stagers and employees alike to get richer. |
| 1050 | * EvilOldFolks: Utterly remorseless about letting children die for the little extra money that witholdidng payment on their policies saves. |
| 1051 | * FauxAffablyEvil: He pretends to be a reasonable, easygoing person who doesn't hold grudges, but he's really just toying with people that he thinks are beneath him. The facade falls apart during his VillainousBreakdown when he points a gun in Nate's face. |
| 1052 | * ItsPersonal: For Nate it is, due to the death of his son. |
| 1053 | * LackOfEmpathy: He has no empathy for Nate, dismissing his son's death (and all the other deaths he's responsible for) as good business. |
| 1054 | * ManOfWealthAndTaste: An avid, well-dressed art collector. |
| 1055 | * OutGambitted: Underestimates Nate's brains and Maggie's complicity, and overestimates Sterling's loyalty. |
| 1056 | * RulesLawyer: Takes every opportunity he can to default on policies, even if it means people die. |
| 1057 | * SmugSnake: More high-functioning than your average mark, but not nearly as smart as Nate or Sterling. |
| 1058 | * VillainousBreakdown: When he realizes that Nate's target is [[spoiler: the $150 million worth of ''other'' art in his gallery, which was loaned to him and insured by IYS... and that Nate has him on record being warned of an impending robbery and outright refusing to call the police because he wants to catch Nate himself]]. |
| 1059 | * WickedCultured: A greed, evil guy who loves his art. |
| 1060 | [[/folder]] |
| 1061 | |
| 1062 | [[folder:Marcus Starke]] |
| 1063 | '''Played by:''' Creator/GriffinDunne. |
| 1064 | |
| 1065 | A superb grifter and forger who operates out of Europe. He shows up in "The Two Live Crew Job," where his and Nate's cons cross paths. He plays both The Mastermind and The Grifter on his team. |
| 1066 | ---- |
| 1067 | * TheChessmaster: He is pretty good at planning things out. But he fails to fully see Nate's plan or Chaos'. |
| 1068 | * TheDreaded: He thinks himself to be a fearful, and powerful figure. [[spoiler:This is not the case. He is only seen this way because he is working with ''Sophie'', the real dreaded]]. |
| 1069 | * HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: He trusts [[CardCarryingVillain Chaos]]. Not the best move there, buddy. |
| 1070 | * ManipulativeBastard: Part of his job. |
| 1071 | * MirrorCharacter: With Nate. When Sophie says that a brilliant man's pride has been hurt and personally challenged, it will lead him to do a bigger, more dangerous con, one of the team asks if she's talking about Starke or Nate. This is illustrated by interspersing clips of Nate and Starke giving pretty much the same speech and even putting their suit coats on in the same fashion. |
| 1072 | %%* OnlyInItForTheMoney |
| 1073 | * OutGambitted: By Chaos and Nate in rapid succession. |
| 1074 | * RedemptionRejection: Unlike the Leverage team, he is not moved at all by helping people and finds it to be a waste of time. |
| 1075 | * SharpDressedMan: Wears expensive jackets. |
| 1076 | * SimilarSquad: His team is set-up along very similar lines to Leverage Consulting & Associates, though his team lacks a grifter - [[spoiler:because ''Sophie'' used to be his grifter, and she was in fact the real star talent of his previous teams]]. He's TheBigBad, ex-mercenary Mikel Dayan is TheDragon, Colin "Chaos" Mason is TheEvilGenius, and world class thief and infiltrator Apollo rounds the team up. |
| 1077 | * SmugSnake: Of the "failed Magnificent Bastard" variety. He's very good, but just not up to Nate's (or presumably Sterling's) level, and makes the key mistake of trusting Chaos. |
| 1078 | [[/folder]] |
| 1079 | |
| 1080 | [[folder:Mikel Dayan]] |
| 1081 | '''Played by:''' Creator/NoaTishby in "The Two Live Crew Job." |
| 1082 | |
| 1083 | A former UsefulNotes/{{Mossad}} agent who serves as The Hitter in Marcus Starke's crew. Has a confrontation with Eliot. |
| 1084 | ---- |
| 1085 | * BadassIsraeli: She gives Eliot a run for his money in a fight. |
| 1086 | * BloodKnight: She is clearly disappointed when her first fight with Eliot is broken up. |
| 1087 | ** InterplayOfSexAndViolence: She and Eliot strip to their undershirts during a fight when a pipe bursts over them, and their wrestling turns into hugging and kissing. |
| 1088 | * ChainedHeat: She and Eliot end up handcuffed together. |
| 1089 | * ColdSniper: A fairly cold woman who once served as a sniper, albeit apparently in a legitimate military capacity. |
| 1090 | * CombatStilettos: Faces off with Eliot while wearing heels. |
| 1091 | * DarkActionGirl: Works for mercenary criminals and is a very tough fighter. |
| 1092 | * DefrostingTheIceQueen: Her character arc for the episode involves showing a little more warmth through her interactions with Eliot, even after her crew gets thwarted. |
| 1093 | * TheDragon: To Marcus Starke |
| 1094 | * FromCamouflageToCriminal: Like Eliot, she was once a soldier for her country, now she just works for whoever pays. |
| 1095 | * HiredGuns: Currently employed as a mercenary. |
| 1096 | * ImprovisedWeapon: Once killed a man with a mop. |
| 1097 | * OnlyInItForTheMoney: Apparently is motivated simply by money. |
| 1098 | [[/folder]] |
| 1099 | |
| 1100 | [[folder:Apollo]] |
| 1101 | '''Played by:''' Creator/ApolloRobbins in "The Two Live Crew Job." |
| 1102 | |
| 1103 | Starke's Thief, Apollo specializes in infiltration, corporate espionage, and bypassing physical security. |
| 1104 | ---- |
| 1105 | * BeardOfEvil: Has a light one, although he's not too evil. |
| 1106 | * CeilingCling: He's often shown hanging down from the ceiling by a bungee during robberies. |
| 1107 | * FiveFingerDiscount: Engages in a pickpocketing battle with Parker. |
| 1108 | * GentlemanThief: A well-mannered professional pickpocket. |
| 1109 | * HiddenDepths: He and Parker share a surprisingly thoughtful conversation about the right birds to use as a misdirect during heists. One of the ambiguously canon tie-in novels also has him stay in touch with Parker and the two send each other Christmas presents. |
| 1110 | * HiredGuns: A corporate spy and infiltrator for hire. |
| 1111 | * OnlyInItForTheMoney: Although unlike Starke, he and Mikel don't outright mock the team's more altruistic motives. |
| 1112 | * OnlyOneName: Never gets a second name. |
| 1113 | * PhantomThief: Steals a painting from one side of a wall right as Parker tries to get through the other side to steal it. |
| 1114 | * TheRival: To Parker, whom he repeatedly competes with during robbery and pickpocketing scenes, although it gradually turns into a FriendlyRival vibe. |
| 1115 | * WhiteCollarCrime: Nate lists this as his specialty. |
| 1116 | [[/folder]] |
| 1117 | |
| 1118 | [[folder:Bradford Culpepper III]] |
| 1119 | '''Played by:''' Creator/RichardKind in "The Three Strikes Job" and "The Maltese Falcon Job." |
| 1120 | |
| 1121 | The Mayor of Belbridge, Massachusetts and apparent FinalBoss of Season 2. |
| 1122 | ---- |
| 1123 | * DirtyCoward: He's quaking and terrified when he thinks his life or freedom is in danger. |
| 1124 | * DiscOneFinalBoss: Episode 1 Final Boss anyway. He's set up to be the season's [[FinalBoss toughest challenge]], much as Ian Blackpoole was in Season 1. Yet it's quickly revealed that he's an imbecile and that Kadjic is the real brains of the operation. |
| 1125 | * MayorPain: A self-interested crook. |
| 1126 | * PermanentElectedOfficial: He's a third-generation corrupt mayor. Thanks to his connections with the FBI and his own spin machine, other people inevitably take the fall for his actions. |
| 1127 | * ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Uses his status as an FBI snitch to stay abreast of state police investigations into his activities and keep law enforcement away from Kadjic's business. |
| 1128 | [[/folder]] |
| 1129 | |
| 1130 | [[folder:Tony Kadjic]] |
| 1131 | '''Played by:''' Creator/PaulBlackthorne in "The Three Strikes Job" and "The Maltese Falcon Job." |
| 1132 | |
| 1133 | Mayor Culpepper's partner-in-crime and the real brains of the operation, Kadjic makes his living running guns from Third World countries to American gangs. |
| 1134 | ---- |
| 1135 | * ArmsDealer: Uses his shipping business to move weapons from the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia to street gangs and militias in the States. |
| 1136 | * FauxAffablyEvil: Tries to be charming but is very superficial, and the guy is a very dangerous criminal. |
| 1137 | * LackOfEmpathy: Has a cop gunned down, listens to Culpepper's "death" without batting an eye, tries to cut a deal with Nate's character (who supposedly offed Culpepper)...not a lot of empathy going on there. |
| 1138 | * TheManBehindTheMan: They look like a BigBadDuumvirate but scratch the surface and Kadjic's control over Culpepper becomes very apparent. |
| 1139 | * ManOfWealthAndTaste: He pulls it off better than Culpepper, given the scope of his operations. |
| 1140 | * RuthlessForeignGangsters: Albanian and without a conscience. |
| 1141 | * ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Uses Culpepper's status as mayor and job as an FBI informant to keep police away from his shipping business. |
| 1142 | * TallDarkAndHandsome: Has the look, though with a personality like that... |
| 1143 | * TrueFinalBoss: Of Season 2 (unless you want to give that position to [[HeroAntagonist Sterling]]). |
| 1144 | [[/folder]] |
| 1145 | |
| 1146 | [[folder:Doctor Anne Hannity]] |
| 1147 | '''Played by:''' Creator/LisaBrenner |
| 1148 | |
| 1149 | A psychotic doctor in the employ of Wakefield Agricultural who conspires to unleash a blight on the world's wheat so that the company can benefit. Appears in "The Inside Job". |
| 1150 | ---- |
| 1151 | * AxeCrazy: She practically vibrates in every scene she's in. |
| 1152 | * BigBad: The team is initially just trying to get Parker out of trouble when she's on a solo run rather than targeting anyone, and then think the CEO is the one behind things, but Hannity is the one with the EvilPlan they need to thwart, and whom they sic the authorities on. |
| 1153 | * LackOfEmpathy: She is willing to kill all the wheat in the world, the most common grain and source of food, just so she can have a monopoly and make a profit. The death toll from the resulting famine would easily be greater than any other villain in the entire series. [[spoiler: The only one comparable would be weaponized [[UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu Spanish Flu]].]] |
| 1154 | * MadScientist: She wants to destroy half of the world's wheat. |
| 1155 | * OnlyInItForTheMoney: Seeks to engineer a genocide so she can profit from it. |
| 1156 | * SmugSnake: She speaks like she's in complete control when talking to Sophie. When the latter brings up her failures with the company, Hannity all but states that she's plotting to unleash the blight, purely because she can't stand to have her intelligence challenged. |
| 1157 | * TheSociopath: Doesn't care one bit about starving the world for her own profit. |
| 1158 | [[/folder]] |
| 1159 | |
| 1160 | [[folder:Roper]] |
| 1161 | '''Played by:''' Creator/UrijahFaber |
| 1162 | |
| 1163 | --> "The ''great'' Eliot Spencer, heh." |
| 1164 | |
| 1165 | A nasty piece of work who seems to have some history with Eliot, he appears in "The Carnival Job", where he provides the muscle for the Russian VillainOfTheWeek. |
| 1166 | ---- |
| 1167 | * ActorSharedBackground: Faber is an accomplished mixed martial artist. As a result, Roper is quite badass as well. |
| 1168 | * TheBrute: Seems to have this role in the VillainOfTheWeek's gang. He's probably the most dangerous member of the group, but isn't her NumberTwo, and appears to have been hired solely for his skill as a leg-breaker. |
| 1169 | * CombatPragmatist: He engages a concussed, injured Eliot in a carnival funhouse filled with disorienting mirrors, and even then makes sure to bring back-up and have a hostage. |
| 1170 | * EvilGloating: Takes the opportunity to taunt Eliot while the latter is lying flat on the floor, bleeding. |
| 1171 | * EvilLaugh: Gives a few, which reverberate throughout the funhouse. |
| 1172 | * HiredGuns: Works for kidnappers and gangs who want muscle. |
| 1173 | * ItsPersonal: Implied. |
| 1174 | * TheMafiya: Works for the Russian mafia in "The Carnival Job" though he's clearly not a member of their organization. |
| 1175 | * MysteriousPast: He and Eliot obviously know each other from somewhere, but we're darned if we know where. |
| 1176 | * PsychoForHire: One gets this vibe from him. |
| 1177 | * VillainousCheekbones: And ones that are surprisingly unmarked for a man who gets into so many fistfights. |
| 1178 | * WouldHurtAChild: He's part of a gang that kidnaps a young girl. |
| 1179 | [[/folder]] |
| 1180 | |
| 1181 | [[folder: Frank and Randall]] |
| 1182 | -> '''Played By:''' Creator/TimGouran and Creator/TimHarrold |
| 1183 | Retrieval experts after a missing painting in the ''Van Gogh Job''. |
| 1184 | ---- |
| 1185 | * AffablyEvil: They're somewhat professional, cordial guys, who don't actually hurt anyone over the hunt for the Van Gogh. |
| 1186 | * CoDragons: Ultimately turn out to be working together and for the man after the painting. |
| 1187 | * FriendlyRival: Frank and Eliot's interactions have a degree of cordiality, albeit cockiness. |
| 1188 | * KnowWhenToFoldEm: Frank quickly retreats once Eliot begins winning their fight. |
| 1189 | * MercyLead: Frank offers one to the old man with the painting at the episode's beginning, although he suggests that the guy just use it to turn over the painting. |
| 1190 | * OvershadowedByAwesome: Both of them are decent hitters, but they aren't Eliot. |
| 1191 | * NoodleIncident: Eliot says Randall owes him $27,000 over a job involving a Beatles guitar. |
| 1192 | * ThisIsGonnaSuck: Randall's expression really says this when he runs into Eliot after having cheated him on a previous job. |
| 1193 | [[/folder]] |
| 1194 | |
| 1195 | [[folder: Mr. Geary]] |
| 1196 | --> '''Played By:''' Creator/AlexCarter |
| 1197 | ---- |
| 1198 | * AntiVillain: He's just working to prevent a bunch of thieves from robbing IYS, and doesn't seem to have any knowledge of Blackpoole being a CorruptCorporateExecutive. |
| 1199 | * MookLieutenant: Leads Sterling's security thugs at the end of season one. |
| 1200 | [[/folder]] |
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