[[WMG:[[center:[-''{{Series/Leverage}}'' '''Trope Examples'''\\
[[Leverage/TropesAToD # - D]] | '''E - I''' | [[Leverage/TropesJToM J - M]] | [[Leverage/TropesNToS N - S]] | [[Leverage/TropesTToZ T - Z]]-]]]]]
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* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The Nigerian Job has a lot of this:
** Parker is seen wearing a swimming cap to hide and contain her hair when infiltrating Pierson Aeronautics; while practical, it was never seen again. Also, she addresses Nate as Nathan at one point.
** Nate takes a completely hands off role in the Pierson break-in. He runs the operation from a separate building over the radio. In almost all future episodes he plays a face-to-face role in the cons along with the actual planning.
** Both Hardison and Parker draw guns when they meet Eliot and Nate after Dubenich screws them. Likewise, in a flashback, Nate and Sophie used guns as they shot each other.
** It's set entirely in Chicago; the rest of Season 1 is in LA, seasons 2 through 4 are in Boston, and Season 5 relocates back to Portland.
** Parker and Hardison seem to be more well-rounded in this episode. Parker is much less socially awkward and more focused, her quirks portrayed as more of an act than a central personality trait. Hardison is more capable outside of hacking, sucessfully pickpocketing a cell phone, and his mannerisms are more easily frustrated and angry.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler: Nate and Sophie's]] eventual end.
* EarpieceConversation: Common, since the gang wears their earpieces all the time when on the job (and Hardison has his in 24/7.) Usually it's Nate feeding people their lines, as in "[[Recap/LeverageS01E01TheNigerianJob The Nigerian Job]]":
-->'''Sophie''': I represent a group of investors who are looking to start an airline for short tour flights in Africa.\\
'''Dubenich''': Out of Johannesburg?\\
'''Nate''': Okay, he’s testing you. You want Bloemfontein.\\
'''Sophie''': Keep away from the hubs. Revitalize the regional airports. In South Africa - Bloemfontein, for example. But really it’s Nigeria we’re focused on.\\
'''Nate''': Yeah, perfect.
** See "The Stork Job" for one of many incidents of this leading to hilarity:
-->'''[[TheCon The Mark]]''': Where are you from?\\
'''Nate''': UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}, UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}}, UsefulNotes/{{Atlanta}}.\\
'''[[CloudCuckoolander Parker]]''': [[ComicallyMissingThePoint Pittsburgh, Detroit, Atlanta.]]\\
'''Nate''': No, pick one, Parker.
* ElectionDayEpisode: "The San Lorenzo Job" has the team go to that country to make sure a new president is elected, so they can see that ArcVillain Damien Moreau is put away for good. To that end, they install themselves as the opposing candidate's campaign team and employ all manner of trickery to stir up public support for him, from running a series of [[BlatantLies over the top political ads]] to sabotaging the incumbent during a debate so that he looks drunk to having Sophie pose as their candidate's fiancee. Then on election day they release information to make the entire country ''think'' they won, to the point that even if the president does come out with a count indicating that he received more votes, everyone will assume that he's falsified it in a bid to stay in power. [[spoiler:Between this and the lure of being able to legally claim Moreau's property in San Lorenzo, they are thus able to persuade the president to voluntarily concede defeat with Moreau's arrest as his last official act as president]]. As Nate points out, they're thieves: they don't win elections, they ''steal'' them.
* EmotionlessGirl: Parker, sort of. It's not exactly that she doesn't have emotions, or doesn't display them, it's just that they're typically the ''wrong'' emotions. Played with in "The Twelve Step Job" when she goes on anti-depressants as part of her cover and suddenly becomes a more or less normal, well-adjusted human being.
** In "The Snow Job", Parker has to pretend to be a patient dying of a brain tumor and Sophie is trying to help her prepare for the role.
--> '''Sophie''': Think about something sad. Like, think about when your father died.\\
'''Parker''': (laughs hysterically)
** In her defense, her parents were pretty awful. Also a nice ContinuityNod, since we may have seen her blow up her parents.
*** Later the Mark comments about that, stating her eyes looked like there was no soul.
** This is slowly changing as her CharacterDevelopment continues in Season 4 -- for example with her "I want to do the right thing!" monologue in "The Long Way Down Job."
** She's getting much better--crying at the StarCrossedLovers story in "The Van Gogh Job", for example.
* EnemyMine:
** The team works with [[ArchEnemy Sterling]] to help save [[SixthRanger Maggie]] in "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job."
** Also [[spoiler: To save Sterling's daughter in "The Queen's Gambit Job", although they are unaware that this is the real reason until Sterling double crosses them to achieve it. He needed the best, so he manipulated them]]
** Also for "Last Dam Job" episode, they recruit a few old faces to help them out, including Hardison's EvilCounterpart Chaos. This is because the BigBad is looking for Team Leverage and notable allies. People they have a minor relationship, or previously antagonistic, with won't be noticed right away.
* EngineeredPublicConfession: The end of "The Homecoming Job", "The Future Job", "The Inside Job", "The Studio Job", and "The Low Low Price Job". From the first of those examples: A congressman and [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the head of a Blackwater-style security company]] are basically [[RefugeInAudacity using the Iraq War as a giant money laundering operation]]. The crew sends earlier proof of their collaboration the news outlets, and when reporters catch the two together they try to play it off as a secret plan to expose corruption. Cue the ''really'' incriminating conversation they had ''minutes earlier'' being sent to the reporters.
* EpiphanyTherapy: The entire premise of "The White Rabbit Job."
* EpisodeOnAPlane: "The Mile High Job." The mark has put his assets onto a plane that's headed for the Cayman Islands; the team (sans Hardison) get onto the same jet and spend the five-hour flight foiling his plans.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: FunWithSubtitles.
** Nathan Ford: Ex-Insurance Investigator. A downtrodden man drinking in a bar with another man who's pleading with him to recover stolen property. Nate refuses to take the job, even when he realizes that the people his client has hired to work on the job will need someone skilled to co-ordinate them. Nate repeatedly insists that he's not a thief, but an honest man (and continually states this), but when the client tells him that the people who stole his property had links to the people who killed Nate's son, Nate agrees to work on the job. We also get a flashback to Nate's son Sam dying, wherein Nate practically knocks down the door to get into the hospital room, and tries to revive Sam's lifeless body. Throughout the job, he's calm, effective and unfazed, a skilled leader despite his alcohol problem.
** Alec Harrison: Internet and Computer Fraud. First shown as the arrogant, playful hacker, who shows off his much more up-to-the-minute technology and constantly snarks with Eliot. His flashback shows that he managed to hack into a hotel's computers to make it look like [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Mick Jagger]] was staying in his rooms, and he hired women to dress in [[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi slave Leia costumes]] and have a [[Franchise/StarWars lightsaber]] fight. Security busts in and Hardison waves his hand slowly, "This is not the room you're looking for." Major geek.
** Eliot Spencer: Retrieval Specialist. A flashback to Belgrade, Serbia. He walks into a BadGuyBar, looking very calm and non-threatening (especially with his glasses), and calmly states that he's there for the merchandise. Almost all of the men in the room pull guns on him; unfazed, Eliot sips from a mug of coffee. Cue a huge gunfight, and when we see the room next, all of the men who drew guns on him are dead, and Eliot is still standing there holding the mug of coffee without a mark on him. The last remaining man hands over the merchandise - a baseball card. This combined with his intro, where he playfully banters with Hardison, shows the audience that Eliot is capable of handling extremely dangerous situations calmly and capably, is willing and able to face a high level of danger for an apparently trivial goal, is no stranger to killing, and really likes coffee.
** Parker: Security Circum... Infiltration and Alter... Thief. (The subtitler gives up trying to sugar-coat her profession) Appears abruptly hanging upside down from above Hardison and Eliot to ask if she can have one of their comm units. She perches above them, smiling happily. Then we get her flashback, where her foster father hits her foster mother, mocks her for thinking that he wouldn't find her toy bunny, and tells her to be a good girl 'or, I don't know, a better thief'. Then she walks out of the house with her bunny... and it blows up.
** Sophie Devereaux: Grifter. (The subtitler doesn't even try this time) Initially shown as one of the worst actresses you will ever see. A flashback shows that she forged art (and she and Nate once shot each other). All of this clues in the audience that while she's a terrible actor, Nate wouldn't have approached her unless she had some useful skill, and she's not afraid to get rough. She then immediately turns around and gives an amazing performance as a grifter, despite being unable to act. As Nate tells Eliot, "She can only act, when it's an act".
** Tara first appears as the client's lawyer in "The Lost Heir Job". By the time the team realize that she's not who she says she is, she's broken into Nate's house and is waiting for them, with her introduction from Sophie. Throughout the ensuing conversation, she's calm, gracious and always has an answer ready.
** In "The Underground Job" the corrupt mine owner's first reaction when a large explosion happens at his mine is to tell his assistant to call his attorney, not emergency services. In fact, he says this when the fire is still spewing out of the mine's entrance.
** In "The Hot Potato Job", the CEO talks about how covetous he is of his job and smugly claims to have done the people whose agricultural product he stole a favor by taking it, due to his ability to mass distribute it. A couple scenes earlier, his right-hand woman is seen using LoopholeAbuse to seize that new potato from its owners, efficiently and unquestioningly following the company's orders.
* EurekaMoment: Hardison gives Nate one in "The Two-Horse Job".
** A RunningGag[=/=]OnceAnEpisode is that Nate will say some non-sequitur code/con-speak when he figures out how to pull off the con and then walks off. Tara lampshades this (and several other team quirks) during her stint with the team in the second season. In "The Maltese Falcon Job," ''Eliot'' does it, again to Tara's exasperation.
* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: In "The Homecoming Job" a German thug has his gun trained on Eliot, then a phone rings. Eliot suggests it's his but the gunman doesn't move the gun. Then Eliot suggests it could be the guy's mom and could be important. The gunman glances down, giving Eliot the chance to disable him.
** Hardison hacked the national bank of Iceland to take care of his Nana's medical bills.
* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: In "The Queen's Gambit Job", it's revealed that [[spoiler:Sterling manipulated the entire con so that he could rescue his daughter from her controlling, overbearing stepfather.]]
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** "The Miracle Job"; A priest gets beat up, and two of our heroes go looking for the "local talent" involved. When they question a Hispanic gang, the leader goes "We're not ''monsters''." It turns out one of the gang members was involved, whereupon the leader asks for his gun back so he can point it at the guy's head.
--->You got a long penance ahead of you. Start by answering the man's questions. Now!
** From "The Homecoming Job":
--->'''Dufort:''' ...buying a United States Congressman is one of the best investments a corporation can make.\\
'''Hardison:''' Oh, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. I'm a professional criminal and ''I'' find that disturbing.
** Sophie has done some bad things in the past and even now lies and tells half-truths all the time but the amount of it in ''politics'' disturbs her in "[[Recap/LeverageS03E16TheSanLorenzoJob The San Lorenzo Job]]."
--->Nate, I have to say, of all the deceitful, unprincipled, corrupt things I’ve done in my entire life, nothing is as bad as...
*** Shortly before that in "[[Recap/LeverageS03E12TheKingGeorgeJob The King George Job]]", Sophie is horrified to find out that a chain of art smugglers/grifters (i.e. her earlier profession) use children to smuggle their goods, and worried if her antics had similar victims without her knowing.
--->How do I know that innocent children were never used to shift ''my'' merchandise?
*** The client in "The Three Card Monte Job" is a man named Andrei whose family is being threatened by the Russian Mob in order to force him to help them with one of their crimes. Sophie in particular is appalled by this; as a grifter the worst she did was steal money and art from rich people who could afford it but she never terrorized or threatened people and she never blackmailed innocent people into helping her commit her own crimes. It is for this reason that she is ''very'' eager to take the villains down.
--->'''Sophie''': You blackmail an innocent man into breaking the law, the rest of his life he's gonna feel shame over how you made him feel helpless or guilt over what you made him do. We chose crime. Andrei didn't.
*** The VillainOfTheWeek in "The Grave Danger Job" is a woman who scams money out of dying people. Sophie considers this tacky and says that even she never used that type of grift.
** The entire basis of the show. It's a team of the greatest career criminals in the world, but they're using their skills to stop even worse people.
** The Irish Mob in "The Boys' Night Out Job" have serious issues with shooting a man in a church. Even their boss agrees that it's a bit much, though he isn't above having his people drag their intended target out of the church so they can shoot him.
* EverybodysDeadDave: [[spoiler:Nate wants Interpol to think this happened to the rest of his team in "The Long Goodbye Job".]]
** [[spoiler:FakingTheDead: What ''actually'' happened.]]
* EveryCarIsAPinto: The accident at the beginning of "The Beantown Bailout Job". Of course, given that it was an engineered crash...
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: In "The Bottle Job," the villain's two henchmen are repeatedly introduced as "Liam" and "Liam's Brother".
* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Nate and Sophie's attraction to each other, from Hardison's reaction to her "This time you really are inside my head" in the pilot, to Parker pointing out that Nate wouldn't have left Sophie behind in The Bank Shot Job, to Eliot making pointed comments to Sophie about her sabbatical being about Nate, to Maggie asking what happened to Sophie when she sees Nate seemingly dating Tara. WordOfGod says that the team's reaction upon finding out about their RelationshipUpgrade was "It's about damn time".
* EverythingIsOnline: Sometimes {{averted}}, other times played straight. While Hardison does frequently hack into systems that would realistically not be remote-accessible, there are several occasions where he requires a hard-line tap to get access to the information he needs. In "The Tap-Out Job", [[spoiler:he spends time faking the records of Nate's cover, and the mark simply calls his friend. Hardison points out that he can hack a computer, but he can't hack a hick.]] Also averted pretty hard in "The Double Blind Job" where every ''single'' record from birth to death of the victims has been erased from the Web.
* Also seriously averted in "The Wedding Job", where the surveillance tapes are not only not accessable on-line, but are also [[spoiler:on cassette tape instead of being digitally stored.]]
* EveryoneLooksSexierIfFrench: Sophie's Michelle the Rave Girl character from "The Mile High Job."
* EveryoneHasStandards: One of the harder-hitting of John Rogers' anvils in "The Homecoming Job".
-->'''[[MonsterOfTheWeek DuFort]]''': You know the great thing about congressmen? Fifty, a hundred grand well spent will get one elected, but then once they’re ''in'', the incumbency rate is over 95%! So you can get an average 18, 20 years’ use out of one of them. In these uncertain times, buying a United States congressman is one of the best investments a corporation can make.\\
'''Hardison''': Oh, I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. I’m a professional criminal and ''I'' find that disturbing!
* EverythingsBetterWithSamurai: Nate and Sophie get Eliot a UsefulNotes/HattoriHanzo sword for Christmas in "The Ho Ho Ho Job." Nate knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a samurai.
* EveryScarHasAStory: In "The Two Live Crew Job," at the end, Eliot and his counterpart exchange scar stories... turns out she might have given him one of his.
* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Quite often the downfall of so many of the marks, they can't understand why anyone would go to so much trouble to take them down for their misdeeds. The idea they actually deserve this fate seemingly never occurs to them.
** Probably the only time we see Sterling truly off-balance is when [[spoiler:Nate gives himself up to the Feds rather than the rest of his team]] at the end of "The Maltese Falcon Job".
* EvilCostumeSwitch: When Maggie is 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 dark colours for the remainder of the episode.
* EvilCounterpart:
** Sterling.
--->'''Parker''': He's like Nate. ''Evil'' Nate.
*** The difference between Nate and Sterling is that [[WordOfGod Sterling never loses.]] Also, [[WordOfGod Sterling is the good guy.]]
** And Starke, who is Nate's rival in masterminding and Sophie's rival in grifting.
*** Along with Starke's team in "The Two Live Crew Job," which features an EvilCounterpart for everyone.
** Nate sees [[[[TheCon Rockwell]] as this in "The 15 Minutes Job."
** The others see the Chief of Security from "The Rashomon Job" as Nate's counterpart, but Nate [[SeeminglyProfoundFool knows better.]]
* EvilGloating: The downfall of Hannity in "The Inside Job"; not only does she fall prey to JustBetweenYouAndMe / EngineeredPublicConfession, but earlier she confesses almost the whole plan to Sophie just to prove that she's smarter.
* EvilIsPetty: In the "The Nigerian Job," the pilot, when Dubenich betrayed the team, Hardison's first plan of revenge was just to send the man 1,000 porn magazines. Nate talked him into something bigger.
* EvilSpeechOfEvil:
** A standard tactic of the VillainOfTheWeek. Notable examples include Dr. Hannity in "The Inside Job" and Rockwell in "The 15 Minutes Job."
** Pretty much happens OnceAnEpisode and gets name-dropped fairly often in the commentary tracks. Creator/JohnRogers is definitely JustForFun/OneOfUs.
* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Numerous episodes. "The Beantown Bailout Job," "The Maltese Falcon Job," "The Wedding Job," "The Jailhouse Job," "The San Lorenzo Job" in particular. This was pretty standard in the first three seasons, but was shaken up a little starting from Season 4.
* ExactWords:
** Comes into play sometimes. A specific example occurs in "The Second David Job": Nathan said [[spoiler:he would rob the Two Davids Gallery on its opening day]]. He never said [[spoiler:he would take the two priceless statues. Instead, he and the crew take everything ''else'' in the gallery - over a hundred million dollars' worth of art, all of it insured through IYS.]]
** Col. Vance can't use "strike teams" of government agents against terrorists. Fortunately Eliot, Parker, and Hardison aren't (real) government agents.
* TheExitIsThatWay: When the team [[SwappedRoles swaps roles]] in "The Three Days of the Hunter Job", Sophie takes a turn planning a con. She finishes telling the team all about the mark, but her closing line falls flat. [[LampshadeHanging Nate tells her she should turn and leave the room at that point to make it more dramatic.]] She does, and Nate quietly remarks, "She's walking into the closet."
* ExplainExplainOhCrap: The very first episode has it when Nate realizes they are about to be killed to clean up loose ends.
-->'''Nate''': (Laughing) In fact the only way to get all of us in the same room at the same time would be to tell us we are... not... getting... paid. (They all run to the exit)
* ExpospeakGag: From "The Underground Job":
--> '''Hardison''': There are anomalies in the levels of the northeast quadrant.\\
'''Eliot''': Speak English!\\
'''Hardison''': Turn right, find bomb.
* ExternalCombustion: Played with.
* FailedAttemptAtDrama: See TheExitIsThatWay.
* FaithInTheFoe:
** In "The Last Dam Job", the team recruit Chaos, who had once tried to murder Sophie, to help perform the hacking since the BigBad of the episode was familiar with and prepared for Hardison's software. They also recruit Mr. Quinn, who once beat down on Eliot. In Quinn's case, it helps that he's a professional who is in it for the money, and has no actual enmity with Eliot. The Leverage team knows they'll both get their jobs done.
** Chaos demonstrates faith in the Leverage team, though in his case it was part of a BatmanGambit. He staged a credit card heist at a mall, then sent the VictimOfTheWeek to the Leverage team knowing they would be able to shut down his digital credit theft. But in doing so, they cut off the security to a nearby bank that the maintenance tunnels under the mall had access to.
** [[ArchEnemy Sterling]] recruits Nate and his team to help steal a specially made weight for a nuclear centrifuge. In truth, this was one of Sterling's objectives, but not his sole, or even primary objective. The Leverage Team was there to serve as a distraction while Sterling rescued his daughter from the clutches of her stepfather, a corrupt businessman who was selling the weight to a hostile nation. But Sterling knew that the Leverage team would also succeed in rendering the weight non-functional ([[{{Foreshadowing}} It was revealed earlier in the episode that if so much as a speck of dust landed on the weight, it would be useless]]), keeping a dangerous foreign power from obtaining obtaining a functional nuclear centrifuge.
** Sterling trusts Nate and Sophie enough that when they inform him that the paintings in an art collection are all forgeries, he takes them at their word. He didn't expect the suspect to flee when he asked point blank about it, though.
* FakeActionPrologue: The season 3 premiere starts with an over-the-top jailbreak, which turns out to actually be Sophie's ''plan'' for an over-the-top jailbreak. [[spoiler:They don't use it.]]
* FakeIdentityBaggage:
** "The Ice Man Job": The team plans to take down a diamond merchant who has framed their client for theft. This involves Hardison posing as a diamond thief nicknamed "The Ice Man". Unfortunately, the plan hits a snag when the Russian crooks working for the merchant kidnap Hardison in order to make him steal diamonds from their boss after he screws them out of a payment deal.
** "The Future Job": The Mark in this episode is a PhonyPsychic named Dalton Rand whom the team are trying to expose as a fraud. However, their plan hits a snag when Dalton is abducted by an ex-con named Nikolaus Kusen who wants Rand to use his "psychic powers" to find stolen money that was hidden by Kusen's partner. However, the Leverage team are able to use this to their advantage by having a terrified Rand reveal his fraudulence to Kusen in an EngineeredPublicConfession.
* FakeInTheHole: In "The Van Gogh Job", Charlie Lawson does this; pulling the pin on a dud grenade he brought back from the war in order to scare off some thugs who are closing in on him.
* FakeKillScare: Done by the heroes in "The Maltese Falcon Job". They have a corrupt mayor held hostage in a warehouse and make him call a criminal he's been working with (who they're running a con on). Then they make it sound as though the mayor has just been killed. [[spoiler: Which blows their cover the moment the mayor escapes and shows up alive.]]
* FakeNationality: In-universe example in "The Juror #6 Job". Eliot has a friend help with a very minor part of the con. He plays an Indian man and looks and sounds the part, only to revert to his (presumably native) strong Scottish accent as soon as the conference call is over.
** Hardison is often a FakeBrit when he grifts. He's also come in as a fake African and a fake Saudi on a couple jobs.
** Sophie has been a FakeAmerican along with fake French, Indian, South African, Australian and Austrian/German, among others.
** Not exactly a nationality, but Nate's grifts often play him up as a Southerner, (or a New Jersian) mostly so he can come off as abrasive and simple so his mark will underestimate him.
* FakeoutEscape: A crucial part of the plan during "The Jailhouse Job".
* FakeOutMakeOut:
** Parker and Hardison during "The First David Job." Cue {{UST}}.
** They do it again in "The Jailhouse Job"
--->'''Hardison''': You know I like this, when we pretend to kiss.\\
'''Parker''': Pretend?\\
'''Hardison''': Heeey...
* FakingAndEntering: In "The Iceman Job," a diamond seller has some thieves steal a shipment of his diamonds so he can claim the insurance while selling the diamonds on the black market.
* FakingTheDead: Periodically someone fakes their death in order to sell the con du jour. The audience isn't often warned ahead of time, although LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt usually applies.
** In "The Beantown Bailout Job," Eliot (posing as a Massachusetts state trooper) is apparently shot to death... by Sophie, who is posing as a London gangster. They pull it off by way of a gun loaded with blanks, several of Hardison's little remote detonators, and some packets of ketchup.
** In "The Three Days of the Hunter Job," they convince the mark that she's onto a high-stakes government conspiracy by having Parker's reporter character apparently run over by a car on the street in front of the mark's building. Once Hardison has ushered the mark away, Parker startles the gathering crowd by suddenly popping up alive and unhurt.
*** Shortly after that, they fake Hardison's death by having his RoomFullOfCrazy empty, and having Eliot come out of the bathroom wearing thick yellow gloves[[note]]the kind you use to handle acids strong enough to dissolve a body.[[/note]]
** In "The Two Live Crew Job," someone sends Sophie a bomb which blows up her apartment, so they pretended the attempt succeeded -- complete with funeral -- to try to flush out whoever was responsible.
** They fake Parker's death in "The Morning After Job" to convince [[TheCon the mark]] he killed her in a drunken rage, drugging his drink and giving her a death-like makeup job complete with bruises around her throat so that he thinks he's woken up next to her corpse. It helps that Parker's very good at keeping still.
** In "The Big Bang Job," [[spoiler:Damien Moreau]] demands that Eliot assassinate General Atherton for him in return for an invite to his AuctionOfEvil. The crew secretly tips off Atherton and fake his death at Eliot's hands.
** They fake the assassination of Sophie's fiancee character in "The San Lorenzo Job" to help complete the election victory (and ensure that she can leave the country).
** They fake [[spoiler: the entire team's death (sans Nate)]] in "The Long Goodbye Job."
** Sophie does it again in the TieInNovel ''The Bestseller Job''. [[spoiler: The team's client, a former black-ops ColdSniper, had already done this as part of her BackStory.]]
* FalseFalseAlarm: Some examples:
** Parker trips a door with a silent alarm, leading to an art vault, using a FakeOutMakeOut with Hardison.
** Motion detectors are tripped with a bird, of a species with a large wingspan that fits in a small cage.
** Hardison sets off all the car alarms in the area at the same time Parker sets off a vibration alarm. As they're in Los Angeles, the guards assume it's a small earthquake.
* FalseFlagOperation: In "The Rundown Job", an extremist attempts to demonstrate that the US is unprepared for bio-terrorist attack by launching his own bio-terrorist attack while posing as Muslim extremist.
* FamousForBeingFirst: In "The First Contact Job", the Mark of the episode is an egomaniac who, among other things, is obsessed with being the one to make First Contact, which he lampshades by noting how it's called first contact for a reason.
* FanMob: Eliot gets one during the team's Fiddle Game in Memphis during "The Studio Job". Later in the episode Hardison weaponizes it against their mark by tipping off the fan community that Kenneth Crane (Eliot's alias) is in the mark's truck, causing it to be swarmed by squealing women.
* FanService: Equal-opportunity! On one side, Sophie's role as a grifter means that she's often dressed to accentuate her legs and cleavage, and several cons require Parker to don tight-fitting mini-dresses (to say nothing of the times she performs hasty costume changes on-screen). On the other side, Eliot frequently wears tight-fitting t-shirts or tank tops that show off his arms and shoulders, and now and again Hardison strips down to show off Aldis Hodge's toned build.
* FatalFlaw:
** Nate's anger when a case takes a personal hit, his desire for control, and his alcoholism.
** Sophie's desire to make history and go for the big score causes major problems in "The First David Job." Her habit of casually manipulating others also applies to the team in this case.
** Hardison's tendency to go WAY over-the-top when he grifts gets him into trouble on occasion, like in "The Iceman Job," when he is kidnapped by Russians. More generally his pride is an issue, especially in "The Gold Job" in which he takes over Nate's job and loses badly.
** Parker's inability to interact with other people on a normal social level is frequently an issue. Notably, all of her team members work with her by turns throughout the series in an effort to help her overcome this problem; an entire episode, "The Juror #6 Job," is touched off by Nate's decision that serving jury duty would be a useful learning experience for her, and by the series finale she's made enough progress [[spoiler:to take over in the role of the team's Mastermind after Nate retires]].
** Every villain of the show has one primary flaw, whether greed, anger, pride, or others, and that flaw will become the lynch pin in the Leverage Team's plan to finally destroy the villain.
* FatBastard:
** Ultimately averted with Jack Hurley, who fits the trope, until it's revealed that he's actually a pretty decent guy who made bad decisions.
** Brad Lee, the sleazy, porcine ex-con who's [[TheCon the mark]] in the TieInNovel ''The Bestseller Job''. When Brad's estranged brother Gavin (a photojournalist who once saved Eliot's life) writes a bestselling novel, then dies mysteriously, Brad steals the rights to the book from Gavin's girlfriend--who calls in Leverage Associates to get them back.
* FauxAffablyEvil: Damien Moreau.
* FauxtasticVoyage: In "The (Very) Big Bird Job", the crew do this to convince the mark that he has stolen, and then crashed, the Spruce Goose.
* FauxYay: In "The 12-Step Job," Hardison spontaneously pretends to be Eliot's boyfriend in order to get into a rehab center, while he [[LargeHam hams it up]] and Eliot visibly struggles to stay in character because he had been flirting with said receptionist...''and had just kissed her hand.''
-->'''Hardison:''' See he thinks the flirting just makes me jealous but it doesn't. You know, but if you was like Brad Pitt or Denzel or somebody? Oh girl, it would be on. Seriously!" *ring desk bell* "Bring yo' ass. ''Bring yo' ass!''
* FBIAgent: Taggart and [=McSweeten=], ThoseTwoGuys who show up and get credit for the team's work in "The Bank Shot Job," "The Wedding Job," "The Fairy Godmother Job," and "The Morning After Job." Their appearances are a RunningGag -- they're well-meaning but incompetent, and they have benefited from high-profile arrests that are handed to them by the TrueCompanions.
** Parker, Hardison and Eliot frequently play FBI agent characters.
** FBI agents are among the antagonists in "The Three Strikes Job" and "The Maltese Falcon Job."
* FictionalCountry: The titular nation in "The San Lorenzo Job".
** {{Bulungi}}: Wadata from "The Scheherazade Job". Also, part of the TieInNovel ''The Zoo Job'' is set in a west African nation called Malani.
* FightingFingerprint: Eliot routinely identifies people and weapons by the way they stand, by their sound...
* FifteenMinutesOfFame: In the aptly named "The Fifteen Minutes Job", the crew takes the mark down by briefly making him famous.
* FilmFelons: Part of TheCaper in "The Stork Job."
* FirstNameBasis: Parker may or may not be an example.
* FiveFingerDiscount: Parker's specialty. [[ShownTheirWork An actual pickpocket, Apollo Robbins, was called on as a consultant]] so that all of the scenes where she "acquires" things are realistic. Said consultant played Parker's counterpart on Starke's team in "The Two Live Crew Job." He also has mentioned in interviews that Beth Riesgraf, who plays Parker, learned to be a pretty damn good pickpocket and could probably make a living at in real life.
** In "The Reunion Job" (second episode aired, sixth episode written and shot), Parker has to squeeze between two men, one of them carrying a satchel with a large bound document, and lift said document. Per WordOfGod: after instruction from Robbins, they first rehearsed the scene just to block the movements, then the director said "let's try it with the lift." Beth Riesgraf turned around, grinned hugely, and held up the book; she already had it, and the director hadn't noticed her doing it.
* FiveManBand: A well-bonded team turned found-family of five whose strong and interesting dynamics are deeply explored over the course of the series.
** While not all of the archetypes are cleanly represented, the overlap honestly contributes to the interest of the dynamics, and the show often uses this as a device for tension; some jobs will place members of the band in each other roles (often at Nathan's order, and often to help train them or teach them something. However, each character does still have their own particular recognizable strength.
** Nathan Ford is generally the TheLeader, for example, and while being TheChessmaster does imply that he's highly intelligent, Hardison is far more obviously the TheSmartGuy. Elliot is of course TheBigGuy. Additionally, Parker may be TheHeart of the team and Sophie is in many ways a strong [[TheLancer foil]] to Nathan Ford.
* FiveSecondForeshadowing:
** In the pilot: The only way to get us all in the same spot at the same time is to tell us we're [[OhCrap not... getting... paid.]]
** In "The Two Live Crew Job:"
---> '''Sophie:''' If we hadn't come along, when do you think you'd be getting in your car?\\
'''[[spoiler: Stark]]:''' Huh? Right about n-- ''(looks over at his car. [[ExternalCombustion It explodes.]])''
* FiveSecondRule: Hardison in one early episode drops a Hot Pocket on the floor, then blows on it before picking it up and eating it. He makes no invocation of the "Five Second Rule", possibly because the rest of the team were absent, so he didn't need to justify himself to anyone.
* FlashbackCut: Used for comedy and to explain TheCaper.
** The comedy ones tend to be memorable. Witness:
*** Young Parker seeing a (man dressed as a) horse kill a clown.
*** Young Parker blowing up her foster parents' house (possibly with them in it)[[note]]WordOfGod says they were at work[[/note]] for taking The Bunny away.
*** Eliot concluding that the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Butcher of Kiev]] will probably remember him.
*** Eliot remembering being forced to play Russian Roulette -- and finding it better than having to go see one of Sophie's plays.
*** "It's ridiculously dangerous! This is like a danger cupcake with murder icing!"
*** Hardison sitting next to Halle Berry when she won her Oscar.
*** Young Parker willingly locking herself in a small trunk while having two friends bury her in a twisted attempt to get over her fear of the dark. The others look at her disturbed.
*** Teen Hardison hacking into some Icelandic bank accounts in his room when asked what he did during his high school prom.
*** Teen Eliot getting called out on his decision to take home ec class despite being a quarterback. The reason why he took the class was because his tutor was a hot woman.
* {{Foil}}:
** The classy, social, likable, completely fake consummate liar Sophie and the crazy, NoSocialSkills CloudCuckoolander but always honest Parker have this feel at times.
** The honest and rule-abiding but sleazy and self-serving Sterling to the cunning liar, but friendly and self-sacrificing (or self-destructive) Nathan.
** The wise-cracking, friendly, BrilliantButLazy hacker Hardison to the focused, serious, hardworking hitter Eliot. This slowly fades away over time as Eliot loosens up, Hardison starts taking things more seriously, and they both learn more of the other's skill set.
* ForcedFriendlyFire: Happens during "The Lost Heir Job". Eliot disarms somebody, who then pulls a taser on him. Eliot uses his taser against another mook sneaking up behind him.
* ForeignCussWord:
** Eliot's EvilCounterpart BadassIsraeli calls Starke "your mother's cunt" in Hebrew in "The Two Live Crew Job."
** Sophie calling Nate a wanker after he shoots her in "The Nigerian Job" flashback.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Hardison in "The Reunion Job," when Nate and Sophie ask if he rigged the Reunion King and Queen ballot for them:
--->'''Hardison:''' "Naw, man. I don't rig elections. I mean, I could..."
** They end up [[spoiler: defeating Moreau]] in "The San Lorenzo Job" by [[spoiler:having Hardison rig an election.]]
** "The Queen's Gambit Job":
*** Where whenever anyone calls Olivia Livingston's daughter, [[spoiler:Sterling]] corrects them by saying tersely "''Step''-daughter". Because [[spoiler: she's actually [[PapaWolf his daughter, and he hired the team to distract her step-father so that he could help her.]] ]]
*** It's also foreshadowed when she talks to Nate about her real father [[spoiler: Sterling's]] three-note {{Leitmotif}} plays in a different key.
** In "The White Rabbit Job", Sophie and Nate are discussing striking the right balance between pulling someone back from the edge without being pulled over yourself. Then Parker arrives and they look at each other meaningfully. As of the end of "The Long Goodbye Job", [[spoiler: Parker is Nate's heir apparent as the new Mastermind of Leverage International.]]
-->'''Sophie''': Parker, hm?\\
'''Nate''': Parker.
** The ultimate fate of the Leverage crew ([[spoiler:Nate and Sophie getting engaged and retiring, and the remaining three continuing on with Parker taking Nate's role]]) is foreshadowed a few times throughout the final season:
*** "The Broken Wing Job" has [[spoiler:Parker successfully running a con and defeating a criminal while the rest of the team are in Japan, thus establishing her skills as a leader and Mastermind.]]
*** "The Rundown Job" features [[spoiler:Parker, Hardison, and Eliot in another city, wrapping up one job and taking care of another without Nate or Sophie's help, proving that they can manage a crew with just the three of them.]]
*** "The Frame-Up Job" gives us [[spoiler:Nate and Sophie's time during the events of the above episode. They spend a good deal of the episode acting LikeAnOldMarriedCouple, while at the same time working through any lingering trust issues, and have firmly cemented their relationship by the end.]]
* ForHalloweenIAmGoingAsMyself:
** In "The Snow Job," Nate uses his own identity as an ex-insurance investigator to convince the mark to buy into a life insurance scam.
** He tries again in "The Iceman Job", posing as an insurance investigator to get a way into the mark's vault. By he time he's found out, it's too late.
* FourIsDeath: The episode after Sophie leaves, "The Iceman Job," does not go well for the team. They get their groove back when Sophie sends in SixthRanger Tara to fill her role while she's gone.
** Also happens briefly at the beginning of "The Gold Job", when Hardison decides he will sit the con out if he can't run it. So the team attempts to go on without him. The briefing (led by Nate attempting to control Hardison's infoscreens) is a farce. Things go downhill from there.
* FormulaBreakingEpisode:
** "[[RashomonStyle The Rashomon Job]]" doesn't feature a client or case, but rather the crew reminiscing about an old job before they met and determining what actually happened; arguably the most light-hearted episode in the series, since there's no victim to help or BigBad to take down ([[AndTheAdventureContinues until the end]]).
** "The Van Gogh Job" has a client but no mark, instead Team Leverage is competing against a series of recovery specialists in a treasure hunt. More than half the episode is actually flashbacks to Charlie Lawson's (the guy who stole the painting) history in and around World War II.
** "The Carnival Job" starts out like a usual job but then completely inverts the formula. The mark isn't really a bad guy and becomes the client. The plan gets scrapped for real. Eliot loses the initial fight and actually gets knocked unconscious.
** Season 5 adds quite a few of these (likely since the show was ending and the writers wanted to try some ideas out before it sailed off). "The D.B. Cooper Job" isn't a con at all but rather a favor to the son of one of the investigators on the D.B. Cooper skyjacking case from 1971. Most of the story is told in flashbacks and it's a cold-case mystery story. "The Frame-Up Job" is a murder mystery and "The Rundown Job" is like something out of ''Series/TwentyFour''.
* FosterKid: Both Hardison (whose Nana was a great foster mom) and Parker (who had not quite so good an experience and may have blown up her foster parents).
* FramingTheGuiltyParty: One of the staples of the show. Bad guy is untouchable normally, so they sucker him into committing a crime, often fabricating another crime in the process. On some occasions, this bites them in the keister, as when they instigate a mole hunt to send security on a tail-chasing operation, and accidentally find a mole.
-->'''Nate:''' Now, I just delivered proof of your crimes to the police.
-->[[spoiler: '''Moreau:''']] You don't have any proof of my crimes.
-->'''Nate:''' Hey, you're right. You're right. I don't, no. That's right. But I'm framing you with her crimes.
* FreeWheel: The "12 Step Job" uses it for misdirection: it'd be natural to think that the camera's focusing on the wheel rolling out of the wreckage just because that's a standard convention for filming car explosions, but it's actually because that wheel is where all the money got hidden...
* FreezeFrameBonus:
** In the pilot, the shot of Hardison's skimmer as the door unlocks shows that the first seven digits are [[JennysNumber 8675309]].
** Also in the pilot, a poster for Film/TheLibrarian in the background, another project that Dean Devlin worked on, [[Series/TheLibrarians2014 and would later return to]].
** In numerous scenes in this series, if you freeze on the electronic dossiers, you'll see nonsensical writing, and it's not "Lorem Ipsum".
** The book that Eliot is reading at the beginning of the first scene of "The Lonely Hearts Job" is ''Literature/{{The Art of War|SunTzu}}''.
* FreudianTrio: In the series finale, the new PowerTrio is: Ego Parker, Superego Hardison, and Id Eliot.
* FriendlessnessInsult: In the Pilot episode, Eliot tries to offer some advice to Nate, only for Nate to coldly brush him off.
--> '''Nate''': We're not friends, Eliot.
--> '''Eliot''': Yeah. [[SarcasmMode Because you've got so many.]]
* FriendOnTheForce: FBI agents [[ThoseTwoGuys Taggart and [=McSweeten=]]] and [[ReasonableAuthorityFigure Massachusetts State Police Detective Captain Patrick Bonano]]. Of course, Taggart and [=McSweeten=] don't actually realize they're fulfilling this role -- they still believe that Hardison and Parker are fellow agents, and they think they're solving the cases themselves.
* FriendsWithBenefits: [[spoiler: What Nate and Sophie are telling themselves and others that they are, as of season 4. (The rest of the team seems skeptical.)]]
** [[spoiler: As of "The Last Dam Job" they may be finally admitting to an actual relationship, as Nate talked about "plans" and then kissed Sophie when she asked him to clarify.]]
** [[spoiler: And as of "The Long Goodbye Job", they are engaged.]]
* FriendshipMoment:
** Everyone coming to save Parker in "The Inside Job."
** "You killed my friend's van."
** Nate going to jail for the team in "The Maltese Falcon Job," and everyone helping to break him out in "The Jailhouse Job."
** The occasional team dinners, such as at the end of "The Boost Job."
** Hardison and Eliot apparently have a secret handshake as of the end of "The Van Gogh Job."
* FriendToAllChildren: Parker and especially Eliot both exhibit these traits. Heck, if the kid drew the short stick in life, they'll go into PapaWolf ("The Order 23 Job," "The Carnival Job") or MamaBear ("The Stork Job") mode to help them.
** Nate has this trait too, although it mostly shows up if a child is in trouble. Good examples include "The Maltese Falcon Job" and the "Cross My Heart Job"
* FryingPanOfDoom: Parker's normally mild-mannered friend Peggy manages to beat off an assailant with a knife using nothing but a frying pan, and from the look of it leaves him with a nasty lump on the head.
** In "The French Connection Job", Eliot is posing as a chef and uses a frying pan to casually knock out a thug who comes to try and drag him out of the kitchen
** When a hitman comes after Nate, Sophie hits the hitman (and Nate) with a cookie sheet.
* FullyAutomaticClipShow: When Parker is unconvinced Hardison really wants to climb a mountain and he asks why, there's a supercut of Hardison failing at pretty much every building climb he's done in the show.
* FunctionalAddict: Nate Ford could be the TropeNamer. He acknowledges it himself:
-->'''Nate:''' "I'm a functioning alcoholic. The trick is not to get hung up on the "alcoholic," but celebrate the "functioning" part of the sentence."
** That particular instance is actually a subversion; the team immediately points out that while he ''used'' to be functional, he's been steadily getting worse over the course of the season.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In "The Studio Job." Hardison and Parker are in a sound studio, distracted, while behind plexiglass in a soundproof room Eliot furiously tries to get their attention while a hitman tries to kill him.
** Parker continuing to do MMA moves on Hardison while the conversation continues in "The Tap Out Job."
** Parker sliding back and forth on a rolling chair behind the back of the innocent civilian Hardison is trying to con in "The 15 Minutes Job."
** Parker grabbing the kidnap victim and Eliot taking out the kidnapper while Sophie yammers on to distract the waiter in the "Cross My Heart Job."
** Eliot beating up people in the background of Hardison's attempts to scare one of the people into giving themselves up in "The Boys' Night Out Job".
* FunWithSubtitles:
** In the pilot episode, the subtitles describe Parker as "Security Circum—" then are deleted and replaced with "Infiltration and Alter—" which is also deleted and replaced with "Thief."
** In the first episode of season three, "The Jailhouse Job," the subtitle "Nate's Apartment" is deleted and replaced with "Leverage HQ."
* GambitRoulette: A few of their more complicated schemes edge into this.
* {{Gaslighting}}: Some of {{the con}}s at least flirt with this trope, if not play it straight. Certainly we can assume that the mark needed extensive amounts of therapy after "The Order 23 Job," (where the team convinces a germaphobic CorruptCorporateExecutive that he has a fast-moving fatal disease) and the same goes for Vector in "The Morning After Job."
** In the latter example, they convinced a protected federal witness that he had ''killed his one-night stand,'' played by Parker, to convince him to give them evidence against Moreau. [[spoiler: [[OnceAnEpisode The plan goes awry,]] so they end up bringing Parker into the courtroom when he's about to give his testimony and escape all consequences for his actions. Needless to say, he flips out and ends up being tased after leaping off the stand screaming "WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR?" at Parker and poor [=McSweeten=].]]
** "The Three Days of The Hunter Job" is another one. The team convinces the corrupt reporter that there's a deadly chemical in the water supply, and give her pills to counteract it -- pills that were actually just caffeine pills in a jar labelled "anti-psychotics". Guess what happens when she interrupts a broadcast for "breaking news" and her producers tackle her...
** And played very straight in "The First Contact Job"--where they steal an ''alien encounter''.
* GambitPileup: Considering the genre, they happen frequently. One notable example is "The Second David Job," where Nate's gambit essentially depends on Sterling's.
** "The Rashomon Job" in spades. It's five years before the team's founding, meaning each thief is an independent operator after the MacGuffin. Each has a really good plan to get their mitts on it using their particular specialty. Each one manages to screw up each others' attempts to get the MacGuffin in the most spectacular way possible. In the end: [[spoiler: Nate, who was still working for the insurance company at the time, exposes the MacGuffin as a fraud. This theft (specifically Eliot's role via a proxy), and three others, were arranged by the MacGuffin's owner, who was pulling an insurance scam.]]
* GayBarReveal: [[NoodleIncident How was Eliot supposed to know it was a lesbian bar?]]
* GeekyTurnOn: Played with in "The Mile-High Job."
-->'''Hardison:''' I'm just remote-accessing the plane's electrical system from 3,000 miles away. You know, if you were a geek, you'd be really turned on right now.
** Hardison also hits it off with a female "co-worker" in "The Mile-High Job" when they discuss the new expansion for World of Warcraft.
** In "The Double-Blind Job," the client's less-than-platonic interest in Hardison is suddenly heightened when she sees him at work.
* GenderSeparatedEnsembleEpisode: split into the two appropriately-titled episodes "[[GirlsNightOutEpisode The Girls' Night Out Job]]" and "The Boys' Night Out Job".
* GeniusBruiser: Eliot is a perfect example; besides being an accomplished martial artist, he apparently has professional training in the culinary arts, speaks multiple languages, and in general is a lot smarter than the others (or at least Hardison) give him credit for. This tends to annoy him a bit. He ''finally'' gets credit for it after [[spoiler: rescuing Nate and Maggie]] in "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job".
-->'''Maggie:''' You know, people underestimate you, Eliot.\\
'''Nate:''' That's kind of the point.
* GeniusDitz: Parker, and to some extent Hardison.
* GentlemanThief: Archie.
* GetOut: The First David Job: HEY [[spoiler: STERLING]]! '''GET OUT MY HOUSE.'''
* GiantMook: The random security guard from "The Scheherazade Job." Standing roughly OneHeadTaller than the rest of Alexander Moto's security detail, he gives Eliot a surprisingly tough fight and is knocked out. He then wakes up and attacks him again, forcing Eliot and Parker to blow him up, dropping him thirty feet into a safe and knocking him unconscious. The plan goes wrong, Moto rushes in, and the guy wakes up, dusts himself off, and proceeds to ready himself for a rematch.
** Said Giant Mook was played by NFL Star/Philanthropist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nnamdi_Asomugha Nnamdi Asomugha.]]
* GiftedlyBad: Sophie, at acting, except when it's a con. "The Stork Job" shows a particularly interesting example when Sophie pulls off an excellent acting job. Eliot is shocked and Nate explains that "she can act when it's an act."
* GilliganCut: Often to Hardison:
** From "The Long Way Down Job":
---> '''Sophie''': Nate, how dangerous is this gig you took without checking with us?\\
'''Nate''': (stammers)\\
'''Hardison''': (GilliganCut to a flashback in the office) Ridiculously dangerous! It's like a danger cupcake with murder icing!
** From "The Ten L'il Grifters Job":
---> '''Parker''': We have the blueprints.\\
'''Hardison''': (GilliganCut to a few hours later in the office) We do NOT have the blueprints!
* GirlOnGirlIsHot: In "The First David Job", Parker and Hardison stage a FakeOutMakeOut while Sophie hides. Nate and Eliot hear the sounds of the make-out session over their ear-pieces. When Sophie returns, Eliot eagerly asks her which one of them Parker was making out with.
* GiveMeAWeapon: Parker tosses Elliot a crowbar while he's fighting off a Russian Mob member in "The Three Card Monte Job". To his chagrin, she accidentally hits him in the head before he picks it up and uses it.
-->'''Eliot''': You don't throw crowbars at people!
-->'''Parker''': Sorry.
* GiveMeBackMyWallet: In "The Inside Job", Parker and her mentor Archie share an embrace -- and then Archie asks for his wallet back.
* GirlWithPsychoWeapon: Parker has been [[StuffBlowingUp exploding things]], possibly human things, [[DependingOnTheWriter depending on the viewer]], since [[LittleMissBadass the age of six]]. She's also a fan of tasers.
* AGlassInTheHand: In "The Double Blind Job", the sight of the client of the week flirting with Hardison leads Parker to utterly demolish her ''beer bottle''. ''[[PintSizedPowerhouse With her fingers.]]''
* GodGuise: In "The Miracle Job", Parker gets mistaken for an angel while she is stealing a statue of Saint Nicholas (ItMakesSenseInContext).
* GoingColdTurkey: Subverted in "The Twelve-Step Job" when, after a forced stint in rehab and a fair amount of withdrawal, Nate ends the episode with the line "I'm ready for a drink." Averted in season two when it's clear that even though Nate has quit drinking, he's still an addict and trying to control everything.
%% * GolfClubbing: "The Rundown Job." Trying to throw a loaded bag at Elliot is TemptingFate.
* GondorCallsForAid: Done in the episode [[spoiler: The Last Dam Job]]. Notable in that it is one of the few examples where the heroes are clearly not okay working with their enemies.
* GoneHorriblyRight: One of the more frequent way that the team's plans go awry.
** The team does such a great job of making everyone believe that their mark is a true psychic in "The Future Job" that he's kidnapped by some criminals who want the mark's help finding a lost bank heist stash.
** Hardison convinces the Russians in "The Iceman Job" that he's an expert diamond thief -- which becomes a problem when they kidnap him and force him to steal a diamond.
** In "The Underground Job," the mine owner is accidentally convinced to fire his workers, shut down his mine, and blow it up -- which is a problem since they're trying to help the workers keep their jobs.
** Shows up as early as "The Nigerian Job" -- they did everything perfectly, it just turns out that they did it to someone who didn't deserve it.
** In "The Miracle Job," they try to dissuade a real estate developer from shutting down a church and turning the area into a mall by faking a miracle -- which convinces the develop to buy the church anyways and set up a Bible-themed entertainment and shopping center instead.
** In "The Morning After Job," Hardison's "foolproof, absolutely perfect" cover for him and Eliot as police officers deceives everyone... including a prosecutor at the courthouse who ropes them into delivering a prisoner back to lock-up for her!
** Similarly, in "The Juror #6 Job" Hardison's cover for Parker is so thorough that she gets called in for jury duty.
** In "The Blue Line Job", the team tries to put together a con on a corrupt minor league hockey owner by making him think that the World Hockey League is making a play for an American franchise in order to trick him into investing. But Hardison's background materials are so good that the owner is so convinced that the [=WHL=] is moving in whether he likes it or not that he [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere backs out of the deal entirely]] and declares bankruptcy rather than expose his team's crooked financials to an international-level audit or compete with a quote/unquote "real" [=WHL=] team homebased in his back yard. This forces the team to scramble a makeshift heist to steal the team's profits he tries to embezzle before the bankruptcy goes through.
* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Usually, how the team finds customers, regular people who can't conceive they could have been ripped off. Often times, it's folks who truly trusted the con artist and never thought the person could have been using them.
* GoodFeelsGood: The end of "The Homecoming Job." Seems to have brought about ChronicHeroSyndrome on the team by season two.
** Averted with Tara. While she enjoys taking down bad guys, she remains unimpressed with the whole "Robin Hood thing" and demands a cut of every theft.
* GoodGuyBar: [=McRory's=] pub, where Leverage Consulting and Associates meet their clients. Now, the "Brew Pub" no name yet, that Hardison bought in UsefulNotes/{{Portland}} [[WordOfGod (mostly to occupy Eliot)]].
** Their Portland base has "Bridgeport Brew Pub" on the doors, so presumably that's its name.[[note]] The name in question is based on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BridgePort_Brewing_Company actual Bridgeport Brew Pub]] that let the production crew use their logos for the set. [[/note]]
%%* GoodIsNotNice: Nate like whoa.
%%** Parker and Eliot also have this quality. Sophie and Hardison have a very minor level of it.
* GoryDiscretionShot: It's probably best that we didn't see Eliot beating up those two [[{{Mook}} mooks]] in the beginning of "The Double-Blind Job," since Hardison later said that Eliot was cleaning blood and teeth off of his shirt in addition to the coffee. [[BerserkButton Don't spill Eliot's coffee.]]
** It's not gory (no bloodshed) but a considerably less light-hearted example happens in the ColdOpen for "The Studio Job" when a mean-spirited record producer smashes a guitarist's hands who dared to challenge his claim to one of his songs. The SickeningCrunch and the agonizing scream more than convey what's happening even if they don't show him put his foot down on camera.
* GoToAlias: Rogers says the {{Doylist}} reason for doing this is to lessen the number of names they have to run by their lawyers.
** Nate uses Jimmy Papadokalis every time he's playing a lawyer, specifically of the LargeHam sleazy ambulance chaser variety; he's used Creator/TomBaker and Bob Gibson multiple times as well.
*** The first time the alias Tom Baker is used (in "The Mile High Job"), they also mention having fake [=IDs=] in the names of Creator/PeterDavison, Sylvester [=McCoy=], and Sarah Jane Baker - no surprise since Hardison is an admitted Whovian and makes all the team's paperwork.
** Eliot has used the name Wes Abernathy at least twice. "The Rashomon Job" implies that he first picked it up by mugging the real Dr. Abernathy for a disguise, and simply kept it to use when he needs to pose as a doctor for cons like the one in "The Jailhouse Job."
** Parker has used [[AliceAllusion Alice White]] at least twice.
** Sophie uses "Charlotte Prentice, Duchess of Hanover" whenever a persona with a built-in peerage or a suitably high class British background is called for. In "The King George Job" it is heavily implied that while "Charlotte" is not her real name, her marriage to the eighteenth Duke of Hanover was real and her claim to the title of Duchess is (more or less) legitimate.
** Unfortunately, as of season five, most of these aliases have been burned, although WordOfGod says there might be a few that survived the purge out of sheer fan-love.
* GrandFinale: "The Long Goodbye Job". [[spoiler: The team go for a "black book", a record that has the names of all the rich and powerful who ruined the world economy. Nate proposes to Sophie and they leave the team to be run by Parker. AndTheAdventureContinues.]]
* GranolaGirl: Sophie poses as one in "The French Connection Job".
* GreatEscape: "The Jailhouse Job" opens with the team busting Nate from a courthouse. It soon cuts to Nate, behind bars, pointing out to Sophie that it would never work, and he points out the numerous flaws in it. He then breaks out of prison anyway, and pins the warden/CorruptCorporateExecutive as his accomplice in one episode.
%%* TheGreatestStoryNeverTold: The team members have done some amazing things that few people will ever know about.
%%* GreedMakesYouDumb: Nearly every VillainOfTheWeek does this twice. First, even though they're already rich, they try to get even richer by hurting innocent people, which attracts the attention of the Leverage crew. Then the Leverage crew destroys them by playing on their greed, often causing them to lose everything and/or end up in prison.
* GreenEyedMonster: If you're a girl taking an interest in Hardison, beware of Parker...
* GreenEyedRedhead: Denise Gallo from the TieInNovel ''The Bestseller Job''.[[spoiler:..once she changes her appearance to hide her old identity as ColdSniper Vicki Rhodes.]]
* GriefInducedSplit: Nate's career change from honest insurance investigator to [[JustLikeRobinHood robin-hooding]] {{Chessmaster}} was caused by his insurance company denying his son's health coverage, a move that led to the boy's death. Nate and Maggie divorced in the aftermath, though they remain AmicableExes.
%%* GroinAttack:
%%** Done hilariously by Eliot in "The Three Card Monte Job".
%%** Sophie does this to Nate in "The Boost Job" to create a distraction. In her defense, he had slapped her ass earlier.
%%* GroupieBrigade: Eliot acquires one when posing as a country and western singer in "The Studio Job".
%%* GuileHero: The whole team, Nate in particular.
%%* GunsAkimbo: [[spoiler: Eliot]] does this in "The Big Bang Job." Also a good example of GunKata.
* {{Guyliner}}: Eliot has to wear eyeliner for his character in "The Runway Job." Hardison, quite naturally, mocks him for it.
* HairFlip: Sophie and Eliot performed a double hair flip while riding down a window-washing elevator in "The Inside Job."
* HalfArcSeason: Attempted with Season 3, but due to availability, odd timing, lack of scripts, etc. the arc episodes are heavily concentrated at the end of the season and most of the first two-thirds goes by without anything involving the arc happening.
* HandicappedBadass: Parker in "The Broken Wing Job". For reference, the "Broken Wing" is her ACL tear, and she STILL climbs through vents and beats down the villains of the week.
* AHandfulForAnEye: In "The Wedding Job", Eliot wins his fight against the Butcher of Kiev by jamming an appetizer in his eyes. The Butcher is blinded by [[BrickJoke the fresh lemon juice]].
* HandsomeLech: Eliot Spencer, both on and off screen. On the other hand, everyone else in the TrueCompanions gets to be part of an OfficialCouple, so it seems only fair.
* HandsOnApproach: In "The Studio Job", Kaye Lynn sits in Eliot's lap while helping him get the hang of playing her song on the guitar.
* HannibalLecture: Good guy version "The Experimental Job," in which an Ivy League fraternity / secret society is using an undergratuate "psych study" involving homeless military veterans as cover for the CIA to experiment with interrogation techniques. Eliot goes undercover as a test subject, and ends up thoroughly rattling the interrogator who's trying to break him.
* HappilyAdopted: Hardison loooooves his Nana.
%%* HappyDance:
%%** Parker does one after stealing the dagger in "The Rashomon Job."
%%** Hardison does one after busting the guys who put him in a coffin. Nate calls him out on it, until Hardison points out [[BuriedAlive They put him in a coffin! A DAMNED COFFIN!]]
* HatesBeingTouched:
** Both Eliot and Parker tend to dislike being touched. Parker in particular has no problem with getting up in people's space to distract the guards when necessary, but she once broke a guy's fingers for putting a hand on her leg.
** As part of her CharacterDevelopment, we see Parker hanging all over Hardison after they start dating. It's a little annoying, since they're in the middle of a job and he's trying to work, but he deals with it. Also, it's frickin' adorable.
* HeelFaceTurn: Most of the Leverage team have done this; they're still technically criminals, but they're now using their skills to [[WeHelpTheHelpless help the helpless]]. Also, at least two villains wind up reforming thanks to the protagonists:
** [[spoiler:In "The Ho Ho Ho Job", Eben Dooley Jr. gets a taste of the Christmas spirit (and heavy, medical-grade pain medication), rehires Frank (the SantaClaus he'd fired previously), and gives a bunch of toys to charity.]]
** [[spoiler:In "The Carnival Job", software mogul John Connell steals a valuable chip from an employee and plans to sell it to TheMafiya. At first, Connell seems to be just another CorruptCorporateExecutive, but it turns out that he did a FaceHeelTurn in response to his wife's death (apparently she was his MoralityChain). When the Russian gangsters kidnap Connell's daughter and the Leverage team rescues her, he becomes a good guy again.]]
* HeistClash:
** Invoked in "The Bank Shot Job" where Parker has to break into a bank where Nate and Sophie are being held hostage along with several other people.
--> '''Nate''': Parker, have you ever robbed a bank that's being robbed?
** In "The First David Job", the team are forced to scatter after Sterling exposes their identities and foils their plan to steal a piece of artwork from the man who denied the insurance claim that could have saved the life of Nate's son. In "The Second David Job", Sophie, Hardison, Eliot and Parker each try to individually steal the artwork from the museum in which the piece was displayed. They all end up getting made but fortunately, Nate is able to come to their rescue and convince them to [[PuttingTheBandBackTogether reunite]].
** In "The Two Live Crew Job", the Leverage team attempt to recover a painting for one of their clients only for another team of thieves successfully steal it at the same time the Leverage team is making their own attempt. This was merely a TrialRunCrime for the other team, so the Leverage crew decides to go after the other team's true target in order to negotiate for the first painting. Naturally, the Leverage team's heist happens at the same time the other team attempts theirs.
** "The Rashomon Job" reveals that all five members of the team were present in the same place years before they all teamed up. Nate was still an insurance investigator at the time while Parker, Eliot, Hardison and Sophie were each trying to steal a valuable dagger from a museum for their own reasons while unaware of each other's goals. [[spoiler:Between Nate's investigation and the commotion caused by the four thieves, it is revealed that the dagger's owner had actually sold it and replaced it with a fake as part of an insurance scam.]]
* HeroAntagonist: As WordOfGod has often pointed out, the team's nemesis James Sterling is to all intents and purposes a law-enforcement official attempting to arrest a group of criminals.
* HeroicBSOD: Nate has one in "The Radio Job" when he sees [[spoiler: his father blown up by Dubenich's henchmen]].
* HeroicSecondWind: Eliot often pulls these against the rare equally strong opponents.
* HeyYouHaymaker: Used by Eliot when he grabs a security guy who was tailing an accountant with a hit on her when he drags him into an airplane bathroom and knocks him out in "The Mile High Job."
** He does something similar in "The Bank Shot Job" to [[spoiler: one of the meth heads holding the mother hostage.]]
** This is something of his modus operandi. Typically if he has to engage somebody, he'll walk up to them, ask "sup?" and then deck them.
* HiddenDepths:
** Eliot is smart, ''and'' an excellent cook. Oh, and a pretty good judge of fashion.
--->'''Eliot:''' ...if you ask me. What? I date a lot of models. Lot of private fashion shows, [[LampShadedDoubleEntendre if you know what I mean]].\\
'''Parker:''' Yes, yes.\\
'''Eliot:''' But the dresses [[OverlyLongGag usually ended up on the ground]].\\
'''Parker:''' Yup. I get it. You're a guy.\\
'''Eliot:''' Means [[DontExplainTheJoke they were]] ''[[DontExplainTheJoke naked]]''.\\
'''Parker:''' Okay! Seriously?\\
'''Eliot:''' I'm just sayin'. [''Parker stalks away; model walks by''] How you doin'?
** Hardison, meanwhile, is a kickass artist and craftsman. (As is Aldis Hodge in real life.)
** Parker, despite her small frame, is extremely strong. It comes from, in her own words, hanging off of buildings by her fingertips. She's also picked up quite a few skills from her long career as a professional thief (she was a getaway driver at age ''twelve'' before becoming a car thief, and there's no word on how long she was a driver). Among other things, [[WrenchWench she's really handy with engines]].
** While [[ThoseTwoGuys Taggart and [=McSweeten=]]] may seem like standard bumbling FBI agents, in season 3, it's revealed that Taggart is a Krav Maga instructor for the FBI.
* HideYourPregnancy: Gina Bellman was pregnant in the second season, so they sent Sophie on a sabbatical to rediscover herself after a lifetime spent grifting and replaced her with SixthRanger Tara. A lot of the time Bellman spent on camera was under heavy coats or sitting down.
* HighSpeedHijack: Parker attempts to rob an armoured car while it is motion in "The First David Job".
* HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood: Subverted, in that the humor in Parker's childhood comes not from the abuse, but from her revenge on the abusers.
* HitThemInThePocketbook: Many of the villains faced in the show are well above the law, so the team either has to trick them into committing crimes, or, alternatively, bankrupt them.
** "The Two Horse Job" has Alan Foss, a broker who was trying to create an investment line using race horses, was not seeing the performance he wanted, so he had the stables torched for the insurance money, leaving only one horse alive and the stable owner blamed for the fire, and thus blackballed in the industry. Nate tricks Foss into thinking another horse is a lost heir to Secretariat, and "sells" him the horse, which he then insures for a large sum. However, they then swap in his old horse, so when [[ArchNemesis Sterling]] scans the microchip that identifies the horse, it shows he insured his old horse for a substantially higher sum, constituting insurance fraud, and allowing Sterling to smugly deny the insurance claim for the fire, causing his investors to seize his remaining assets to cover the loss.
** "The Thin Blue Line Job" has the team bankrupt a corrupt hockey owner, stealing his receipts for the night of a match because he'd let the insurance lapse and if they hit it at a certain point, the insurance for the armored car company would have kicked in. After leaving him with nothing, they force him to sign the rights to the team over to his players, so he won't even be able to profit from selling that.
** "The Real Fake Car Job". The mark of the week (played by Creator/MatthewLillard) is a fraudulent securities investor who gave state's evidence about a mob family, and has a large sum of money he stole from his victims which he's hiding. The team get him to pull his money out of hiding while pretending to offer him a rare and valuable car (and acting like Hardison was an eccentric artist who had already dismantled some of the man's previous collection for "art"). The mark is also being hunted by the mob. Nate manages to steal the money, which the man can't file a theft claim on, and void his plea deal with the government. He also has a frank sit-down with the mob boss, asking him to let the man rot in prison instead of killing him. The mob boss notes that his organization originally began as a way to protect the people from corrupt government, and agrees to Nate's terms. Of course, he may have also heard about what Nate did to Mickey Mosconi in "The Wedding Job" which may have also informed his decision.
* HitYouSoHardYourXWillFeelIt:
** In "The Nigerian Job," Eliot growls that he's going to beat Dubenich so badly "people who ''look'' like him are gonna bleed."
** He does it again in "The Grave Danger Job" when, due to a mixup in Hardison's information, he ends up dressed as a thug at a police funeral full of uniformed cops.
--->'''Eliot:''' Hardison, when I see you, I'm gonna hit you so hard your ancestors hurt.
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The writers prefer their villains to be taken down this way. They even use the phrase in the DVD commentaries.
** In "The Miracle Job" Parker has the idea to use the mark's own want of good publicity to take him down.
** One example in the episode "The 15 Minutes Job" -- not only do they bring a crisis PR consultant down using his own business methods, they also set him up for a drunk driving accident to make up for an earlier incident in which he'd set someone else up for a drunk driving accident in which he WAS driving.
* HollywoodHacking: Hardison may be the greatest hacker in the world, but even then what he can do is unrealistic.
* HollywoodHealing: Parker has torn her ACL, then in the very next episode performs gymnastic maneuvers that require a very flexible stunt double with apparently no pain.
* HollywoodNewEngland: Subverted in that while UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} is played by UsefulNotes/{{Portland}}, Oregon, they actually do a better job than most shows of staying true to New England realities.
** "The Gone Fishin' Job" averts the idea that Western Massachusetts doesn't exist by having Nate, Sophie, and Parker re-route a train on its way to Fitchburg, a city in North Central Mass.
* HomeBase: The Leverage Consulting and Associates offices in Season 1. [=McRory's=] and Nate's apartment from Season 2 on. The "Brew Pub" in UsefulNotes/{{Portland}} in season five.
* HonestCorporateExecutive: A few times the crew comes across them.
** In "The Nigerian Job" Mr. Pierson, CEO of Pierson Aviation, is one as he legitimately worked on the information Dubenich wanted the team to steal. Later, when what was stolen and Dubenich destroyed, Pierson saw no reason to pursue the crew.
** [[spoiler:"The Lonely Hearts Job"]] has one. Nate was doubtful about him, but realized the executive was genuine and just wanted to find the woman he fell in love with.
** Another example: William Taylor Price, CEO of Lillian Foods from "The Top Hat Job". He doesn't realize that his VP is knowingly distributing unsafe food, and he fires the VP the moment he finds out.
** The exec in "The White Rabbit Job," once the team helps him get over [[spoiler: his grief and guilt about his cousin's death]].
* HoneyTrap:
** Sophie usually fills this role, as does Tara while Sophie is gone in late Season 2. Parker also gets her shot, such as in "The Iceman Job" and "The Morning After Job."
** In "The Lonely Hearts Job" [[spoiler:the team discovers a whole ring of these run by the emcee and photographer of a rich bachelor charity auction, where the women betting are the the "honey." Eliot and Hardison are set up as extremely rich bachelors to create a honey trap for the honey trappers]].
* HonorableMarriageProposal: "The Lost Heir Job" deals with a millionaire who years before had had a relationship with a stripper who he had suddenly decided he wanted to marry one day, but his AmoralAttorney sent her away to prevent any threats to taking over his fortune. Nate correctly figures it meant she was pregnant, producing a legal heir, [[spoiler: who is actually the girl heading the charity he was going to leave his fortune to when he died]].
* HonorAmongThieves: The team has a strong sense about this. Sophie finds criminals using innocents to do their dirty work as vile and Eliot says no one on the same team should ever run a con on their team members. Nate isn't particularly good about this in the early going, since he denies being a thief (and thus sees no reason to honor their conduct towards each other), which has him running up against the others' sense of shared nobility.
* HospitalHottie: "Nurse Gail," the private nurse Eliot hires to take care of him following the severe beating he took in "The Carnival Job" in lieu of actually going to the hospital, proves to be an attractive young blonde. At least, one ''hopes'' she has some legitimate medical credentials given the condition Eliot is in by the end of the episode, although Hardison voices doubt that she's registered.
* HostageSituation: Nate and Sophie wind up in one during a con in "The Bank Shot Job."
** And fake one in "The Radio Job."
* HotForTeacher: This is why Eliot took home ec in high school, as seen in his "Reunion Job" flashback.
* HotLibrarian: Tara in "The Lost Heir Job" is a lawyer, but the team refers to her as "the librarian" throughout the episode and acknowledge that she is indeed very hot.
* HowDidYouKnowIDidnt: In "The Snow Job," Parker jumps from a second story window onto Eliot who catches her. He asks for warning next time and then adds "How'd you even know I'd be here?'. Parker replies "I didn't".
* HowWeGotHere: "The Second David Job", begins with a moment from the climax of the episode, then spends the episode showing HowWeGotHere.
** This is done in a couple other episodes, including "The First David Job," "The San Lorenzo Job," "The 10 Li'l Grifters Job," "The Grave Danger Job," and "The Frame-Up Job".
* HugeGuyTinyGirl: Hardison is about a foot taller than Parker. Played with in "The Reunion Job" where the two share a face-to-face slow dance while she is still in rappelling gear--and then the camera shows that her feet aren't even touching the ground.
* HumiliationConga: Happens to many marks, and to the Chief of Security in "The Rashomon Job."
* HustlingTheMark: Subverted in "The Bottle Job," in which Nate pretends to pull this trick on his mark in a game of poker. When the mark realizes he's been scammed, he pulls a gun on Nate. Which is a problem, since he's in a room full of off-duty cops who he's just confessed his involvement in a major heist to.
* HypnoFool: "The Scheherezade Job". In order for their heist to work, they have Hardison infiltrate an orchestra since he had been a violin prodigy when he was young. He was nervous about not having touched a violin in years, but when his solo comes he plays his part beautifully. TheReveal at the end is that Nate had hypnotized him to return to his childhood level of skill, 'shaking the cobwebs out' as he put it. It still earned Nate a big WhatTheHellHero from the rest of the team, with callbacks to it in future episodes.
** Sophie uses a lower level of hypnosis to condition responses out of marks (and Eliot)
* HypocriticalHeartwarming: Eliot toward Hardison, as seen in "the Office Job". "Nobody throws Hardison off a roof. Except maybe me."
* IAmNotLeftHanded: In "The Tap Out Job," Sophie ''panics'' when she realizes that the mark, not trusting Eliot's promise to [[ThrowingTheFight throw an MMA bout]], has drugged his water and thus removed his self-control. [[spoiler:Turns out it's all part of the con, but the episode implies that her description of Eliot isn't untrue]].
-->'''Sophie:''' [Eliot] fights to survive, that's his training. It takes all his control not to kill somebody! You've just made him more dangerous! ''You've taken the safety off the gun!''
* ICallItVera: Hardison's van, "Lucille." And then, after it gets blown up, "Lucille 2.0". [[spoiler: Which is fried with Hardison's own EMP gun in "The Ho, Ho, Ho Job." Lucille 3.0 fares better, surviving until the series finale... in which Nate drives her off a bridge in order to fake the deaths of the rest of the team.]]
** In "The Iceman Job" Hardison calls the laser he uses "Glinda."
** In "The Boost Job", [[TheCon the mark's]] prized racecar is named 'Veronica'. Nate wins her off him in a bet as the opening gambit in TheCon.
* ICanExplain: Nate says this in every episode when he interacts with his ex-wife Maggie.
** WordOfGod is that he said it a lot when he was in trouble during their marriage.
* ICantHearYou: Nate, in a low moment in the season two finale, calls Sophie [[spoiler: to tell her the team's in trouble and confess that he needs her.]] Unfortunately, she's on a helicopter and can't make out... at least some of what he's saying.
* IdenticalGrandson: Played with. Hardison paints a picture of the "founder" of their "firm" to make them seem more legitimate. He looks like Nate aged fifty years..
* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: All the episodes are named according to TheCrimeJob.
* IdiotBall: Or maybe VillainBall, since they are technically bad guys. In "The Nigerian Job" Parker, Eliot, Hardison, and Nate get together at Dubenich's factory because they weren't paid. Nate quickly connects the dots and realizes that not getting paid is the only thing that would get all four of them back in the same place. Cue OhCrap as they realize it was a trap.
* IgnoredConfession: Nate, even while drunk, hoped so. He goes and tells [[spoiler:Ian Blackpool he planned to rob the Two Davids Gallery at the start of the first season's last episode. Blackpool laughs it off. At the end of the episode the gallery is robbed and Blackpool's company is liable for all the payouts. Then Nate revealed he ''recorded'' his own confession and Blackpool's lack of response, thus making Blackpool criminally liable for not contacting the police when Nate told him this and he knows Nate is a thief.]]
* IHaveYourWife: In "The Bank Shot Job", Nate and Sophie are caught in the middle of the bank robbery being staged by a military vet. He is doing so because meth dealers have kidnapped his wife and are threatening to kill her if he doesn't pay his son's debts.
* IKnowMortalKombat: In "The Cross My Heart Job," Hardison lands a passenger jet using skills he learned from a flight simulator video game.
* IKnowWhatWeCanDoCut: Played with in "The Two Live Crew Job," where Nate describes how impossible a painting would be to steal, including all the specific next-to-impossible obstacles they'd have to overcome... while a different group of thieves are busy overcoming all those obstacles. The team gets in just as the {{painting|s}} has been replaced with a stock "Art/DogsPlayingPoker".
* ImagineSpot:
** When The Italian invites Nate to dinner, he briefly visualizes himself getting strangled from behind while she casually drinks a glass of wine.
** Eliot and his counterpart play out their entire fight in their heads in "The Two Live Crew Job." They're both beaten up by the end. Everybody else in the room is dead.
** Parker has one in "The Radio Job" where she imagines Nate's father going back in time to 1963 (ItMakesSenseInContext), [[ShoutOut complete with]] a SuspiciouslySimilarSong to the ''Series/DoctorWho'' theme playing.
* ImColdSoCold: Eliot experiences this in the TieInNovel ''The Con Job'' after he's shot and loses a lot of blood.
* ImGoingToHellForThis: Hardison's reaction to Nate's plan to steal a church in "The Miracle Job."
* ImpersonatingAnOfficer: A regular part of the team's plans. Across various episodes they've posed as agents of all kinds of different law enforcement agencies, from local police to FBI and Homeland Security. It backfires in "The Morning After Job": Hardison is very proud that the cop [=IDs=] he made for himself an Eliot were so convincing that they were able to requisition a real police cruiser, until it ends up getting them drafted to transport a prisoner and then dragged into a domestic disturbance call because theirs is the nearest car and [[FriendToAllChildren Eliot is worried there might be children involved]].
* ImplacableMan: The GiantMook from "The Schaherezade Job" who seemingly cannot be stopped by any means. Knocked out, blown up, dropped a full story into a vault, he inevitably returns for more.
* ImpossibleThief: "Let's go steal an X", though they usually do this through BavarianFireDrill or similar means.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Eliot DoesntLikeGuns. He'll use pretty much anything else.
** His [[ImprovisedWeapon Improvised Weapons]] included an egg whisk and AN APPETIZER in "The Wedding Job."
** In "The 15 Minutes Job," Eliot uses a screen door.
** It wasn't seen in series, but allegedly [[NoodleIncident Eliot fought a man]] [[NoodleImplements with a nerf sword]] in Damascus in 2002.
** His EvilCounterpart Mikel Dayan would mop the floor with you. Because she once killed a guy with a mop.
* IncrediblyObviousBomb: Subverted in "The Two Live Crew Job." The bomb sent to Sophie is very subtle, as it's motion sensitive and hidden in the bottom of a vase. No timer, no wires, just the bomb.
* IncrediblyObviousBug: {{Subverted}} and {{lampshaded}} in "The Nigerian Job."
-->'''Dubenich:''' I ''found'' the transmitter!\\
'''Nate:''' Ah, you found the transmitter with the blinking light. [[BatmanGambit Yeah, we wanted you to figure ''some'' of it out.]]
* IndignantSlap: "The Maltese Falcon Job". The team is preparing to escape via helicopter, but Nate reveals to them that he torched all of Sterling's evidence against them, meaning that in order to build his case against a dangerous arms dealer again, he will have no choice but to arrest Nate, and so Nate is willingly surrendering to buy safety for his team. After spending the whole time away from the team finding herself [[note]]In reality to cover for Gina Bellman's pregnancy[[/note]], she slaps Nate for leaving her just as she had returned. She later alludes to this in "The Inside Job", when Nate asks if they're ever going to talk about the moment where they kissed, and she says she doesn't remember a kiss. She remembers a slap, and he's still working it off.
* InducedHypochondria: Used for {{Gaslighting}} in "The Order 23 Job." The team notices a CorruptCorporateExecutive about to go away to Club Fed and escape with his stolen seems to have germaphobia... so they drug his water, send him to the hospital, then hijack an entire wing to make him think he's ended up in the middle of a pandemic.
** In "The Second David Job," the crew convinces the curator of a museum that he has fallen ill due to a mummy's curse. [[SixthRanger Maggie]] tells him it's ridiculous -- everyone knows it's just a deadly fungus.
* IndyPloy: There's often some twist at the end of the episode that throws the con off track, resulting in them having to make it up as they go along. One of the most notable is "The Beantown Bailout Job," where [[spoiler:the guy who was supposed to run to the police turned out to be the head of the operation they were trying to take down]].)
** The Ho Ho Ho Job: "The plan is... to figure the plan out in the car."
** In episodes where they run out of time to plan, the mark moves before too quickly, or they just stumble upon a victim and pretty much have to make something up on the fly. To note: In "The Bottle Job", [[RaceAgainstTheClock they're running against a two-hour gap to save the bar]]. In "The Inside Job" and "The Hot Potato Job", they infiltrate a high-security building on short notice (Parker got stuck and [[TheCon the mark]] moved too quick respectively). "The Cross My Heart Job", [[MissingMissionControl they have no earbuds, no gear and Hardison's dropped his laptop in the ocean]]. In "The Boys/Girls Night Out Job", [[BusmansHoliday the victim fall into their hands.]]
** At the end of "The Real Fake Car Job", Hardison asks Nate if he had anticipated all of the unexpected factors that showed up, and Nate replies that he only planned for about half of them, never mentioning which ones.
** Nate explains to Hardison in "The Gold Job" that really complex plans have a tendency to fall apart, so he prefers brute force, ugly plans that can be modified as needed.
* INeedAFreakingDrink: Nate, most notably at the end of "The 12 Step Job."
* InHarmsWay: The entire team has a touch of adrenaline junkie about them.
* InjuredLimbEpisode: In one episode, Parker tears her leg and is stuck at Leverage HQ.
* InMediasRes: "The First David Job," for one.
* InnocentFanserviceGirl: RaisedByWolves Parker has a touch of this. YMMV on how innocent it is as the series goes on -- it almost always happens around [[UnresolvedSexualTension Hardison.]]
* InsecurityCamera: They take out the security cam with a thrown rock. Somewhat averted as when the guard's captain is told something is wrong with the camera, he goes running to the site.
* InsecuritySystem: The bank in Juan, in "The Bank Shot Job". Something of a mixed blessing, as ''they're'' not the ones robbing it...
* InsistentTerminology: In "The Frame-Up Job" Sophie keeps reminding people that she's an ''ex''-art thief.
* InspectorLestrade: Played with with [[FBIAgent FBI Agents]] [[ThoseTwoGuys Taggart and [=McSweeten=]]], in that they think that the team is actually also with the FBI and don't realize that they're not solving the crimes themselves.
* InstantDramaJustAddTracheotomy: Played for laughs in "The Rashomon Job." Everyone except Hardison thinks he's having an allergic reaction and requires a tracheotomy, with the knife being handed to Eliot getting progressively larger each time the story is retold. Subverted in that Hardison does not actually want or need said tracheotomy, and has to con his way out of the procedure.
* InstantMysteryJustDeleteScene: The show uses this trick to hide some of the crew's cleverer preparations: the audience usually isn't let in on the entire scheme until it actually goes down, when the missing steps are revealed in flashbacks.
** Veteran viewers will have little trouble identifying the moments when someone in the crew is doing SOMETHING that is part of the unrevealed plan (ex: Sophie borrowing someone's coat, Hardison working on some random little device, etc) but it's not always possible to tell how the pieces all fit together until the end.
* InstantSedation: Played straight in "The King George Job," in which Parker asks an auctioneer the traditional question, "does this rag smell like chloroform to you?", and knocks him out in about 2 seconds.
* InstantWebHit: Used in "The Tap Out Job" to convince [[TheCon the mark]] that hiring Eliot for his MMA fights will help his business. Of course, this is a con -- Hardison set up a script to automatically view the video from many different IP addresses.
** Hardison uses the same trick to help make [[TheCon the mark]]'s fake act of heroism famous in "The 15 Minutes Job."
* InsultBackfire: From "The Top Hat Job":
-->'''Goon:''' ''disguised as homeless vagrant on a bench'' You know when I said earlier you had pretty hair? I lied.\\
'''Parker:''' Yeah, well, I lied when I said you didn't. ''Both pause at that'' Wait... dammit. ('jumps off bridge to escape')
** Played with in "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job". Maggie isn't intentionally insulting Parker and generally respects her.
--> '''Ford:''' We're here to clear your name, Maggie.\\
'''Maggie:''' Yeah, but you're clearing my name with ''thieves!'' ...no offense, Parker.\\
'''Parker:''' (gives her a blank look) At what?
* InterpolSpecialAgent: Sterling. WordOfGod holds that Interpol is something like [[Series/TheManFromUncle UNCLE]] in the Leverage universe, a law enforcement all-star team.
* InterserviceRivalry: Invoked in "The Radio Job", when the crew are in a building surrounded by the FBI. In order to get out, they pit them against Homeland Security and turn it into a turf war.
* InTheBlood: In "The Queen's Gambit Job", [[TheCon the mark]]'s stepdaughter is an undefeated chess prodigy who [[spoiler:is able to beat even Nate at the game]]. It comes to no surprise when it was revealed that her real father is [[spoiler:Sterling since [[WordOfGod He. Never. Loses.]] ]]
* InLoveWithTheMark: Happens to one of the grifters in "The Lonely Hearts Job," kicking off the plot.
* InterruptedSuicide[=/=]HappilyFailedSuicide: Happens in two episodes.
** In "The Three Days of the Hunter Job", when sleazy TV host Monica Hunter blames a school bus accident on the innocent driver, he tries to kill himself. Fortunately, his daughter saves him.[[spoiler: Later, when the Leverage team destroys Hunter's career, the driver is not only redeemed, but gets to comment about it on the news]].
** "The White Rabbit Job'' [[PlayingWithATrope plays with the trope]]. Charles Dodgson is no longer able to tell dreams from reality. He prepares to jump from the roof of his office building, convinced that this will only wake him up; after all, you can't die in a dream, right? [[spoiler:Fortunately, Parker talks him out of it.]]
* IntrepidReporter: In "The Inside Job" Nate offers the reporter coming to report on a break-in a chance to get a Pulitzer over the local Emmys she would normally aim for. Her interest piqued, she and her camera crew follow and [[spoiler:records the Bad Guy planning on shooting her, the crew, and the man the bad guy hired to steal a wheat plague to kill the world's supply of wheat so her company would have the only wheat resistant seeds]].
* InvincibleHero: For a while early on, Eliot didn't fight anyone who even gave him a challenge. Since then, he's taken a few serious beatings, but has yet to actually ''lose'' a fight. At least it makes him immune to TheWorfEffect.
** Although he complains far more often than anyone else about how little time they have between jobs, so there's some indication that he does in fact feel the consequences.
** Largely what makes this work is that punching through bad guys is essentially never the solution to their problems.
* IOwnThisTown: The judge in "The Bank Shot Job."
* IronicEcho:
** In "The Second David Job":
-->'''Nate:''''' [[spoiler: (to Blackpoole)]]''You can't let your personal feelings affect policy! You have a responsibility to the shareholders! No exceptions!
** In "The Maltese Falcon Job":
-->"My name is [[spoiler: Nate Ford]] and I am a thief."
** In "The Juror #6 Job":
-->'''Nate:''' Apparently, there ''is'' an evil conspiracy lurking behind the curtain of every routine, etc, etc, etc.
** In "The Big Bang Job":
-->'''Parker:''' I have an idea.\\
'''Sophie:''' Am I gonna hate it?\\
'''Parker:''' No, but he is. ''(raises eyebrows and smiles at Hardison).''
*** Then later...
-->'''Parker:''' "You got an idea?"\\
'''Hardison:''' "Yeah."\\
'''Parker:''' "Am I gonna hate it?"\\
'''Hardison:''' "No, but I am."
** "You know, the sass? Not helping."
** In "The Three Card Monte Job," [[ArchnemesisDad Jimmy Ford]] repeatedly accuses Nate of thinking he's better than him. At the end of the episode, [[spoiler: when Nate has foiled his plans and is running him out of town,]] Jimmy says "You're more ruthless than me, crueler than me... Maybe you are better than me."
** From "The Boost Job:"
-->'''Sophie:''' "Could have done without the ass slap."\\
'''Nate:''' "Just trying to sell the bit."
*** Then later...
-->'''Nate:''' "Could have done without the [[GroinAttack knee.]]"\\
'''Sophie:''' "Just trying to sell the bit."
* ITakeOffenseToThatLastOne: Sterling calls Nate a common criminal. Nate objects to the 'common' part.
* ItGetsEasier: Parker informs a hostage that they're rescuing (played by [[Series/TheMiddleman Matt Keeslar]]) that "the first bomb is always the hardest".
** Eliot warns Nate this is the path that awaits him if he's going to kill [[spoiler:Victor Dubenich]].
* IThoughtEveryoneCouldDoThat: Parker's sketching ability in "The Fairy Godparents Job".
* ItsForABook: WordOfGod says this is a pretty standard technique for this show:
-->For all you Spec-Monkeys out there: ''never be afraid to call someone''. A very nice lady from the UsefulNotes/{{Boston}} PD Public Relations Department spent a good hour with us on the phone explaining how evidence is stored and transferred in the Boston PD system...Then, we got some vague answers from bank-alarm companies about the protocols for bank alarms and how police deal with them...by cross-referencing the answers we got from the companies to fill in the blanks, we got a very good sense of how these things go down. At which point Boylan and I, who were the ones working on the script (the rest of the room had moved on to #310), realized ''we should totally go rob a bank''.
* ItsPersonal: "The First and Second David Jobs" and "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job" for Nate. "The Nigerian Job" -- for Nate it's because Dubenich used his son, for Eliot and Hardison because he tried to kill them and Parker because he tried to kill them but, more importantly, she didn't get paid. "The Three-Card Monte Job" for Nate because of his father.
** "The King George Job" for Sophie -- she is wondering whether her previous jobs have had consequences for innocent people and it ends up touching on an identity that is very important to her.
** "The Two Horse Job" for Eliot -- the client is his ex-fiancée's father.
** Eliot has a soft spot for kids, so jobs that involve them - especially mistreated ones - generally become personal.
** "The Stork Job" for Parker -- she identifies with the orphans as a FosterKid. "The Boost Job," because she identifies with TagalongKid Josie. She does "The Inside Job" because her old mentor and his family were in trouble.
** Nate in general has a tendency to get personally involved in anything involving prescription drugs or the medical industry, dead kids or hospitals because of his son.
** The fight against Moreau becomes personal for the entire team, but especially for [[spoiler: Eliot, his former employee.]]
** The "15 Minutes Job" for Nate -- the client is an old friend and [[TheCon the mark]] is an EvilCounterpart. (Noticing a theme in this category?)
** The end of the "Grave Danger Job." [[TrueCompanions Team Leverage does not like it when you threaten one of their own.]]
** "The Cross My Heart Job" for Nate, because of the parallels with his own son.
** "The Last Dam Job" for Nate, partially because of [[spoiler: the events of the first episode]], but mainly due to [[spoiler: the death of his father]].
** "The French Connection Job" in the fifth season is personal for Eliot, because the client is the guy who taught him how to cook. He says to Nate:
--->'''Eliot:''' He's one of the guys who kept me from falling all the way down. Now I'm asking the other guy to understand why I'm going to help him, no matter what
* ItsTheBestTropeEver: In "The Ho Ho Ho Job," Eliot and Parker end up playing a mall Santa and an elf, respectively. Eliot hates it, Parker loves it.
--> '''Eliot:''' (grumbling) This is the worst job ever.\\
'''Parker:''' (at the same time) This is the best job ever!
* ItsWhatIDo: From the series premiere:
--> '''Eliot:''' You're not as useless as you look.\\
'''Hardison:''' I don't even know what you ''do''.\\
''A few scenes later, after taking out four guys by himself in the time it takes a bag Hardison dropped to hit the floor, Eliot turns to Hardison, and smiles.''\\
'''Eliot:''' That's what I do.
** Later, in the season finale, we get:
--->'''[[spoiler:[[SixthRanger Maggie]]]]''': You can't just make somebody do what you want them to do.\\
'''Eliot''': Whoa!\\
''[everyone starts chuckling]''\\
'''Hardison''': T-That's what we do. I mean...\\
'''Parker''': ''[pets Maggie's head]'' You're adorable.
** The phrase almost forms the ArcWords for the season two episode "The Tap Out Job," which makes it clear that even more than dishing out beatdowns, Eliot considers it his role to ''take'' beatings in order to protect the team and others. He says as much to Sophie while explaining why he's okay with ThrowingTheFight for the client's sake; towards the end of the episode she echoes the sentiment to their incredulous client. (For context, the con ends up requiring Eliot to take a beating so severe the local doctor wants to take him in for a CT scan.)
--->'''Client:''' You let yourself get hammered like that on purpose? That's a hell of a lot of punishment to take.\\
'''Sophie:''' That's what he does.
* ItWasHereISwear: Subverted in "The Three Days of the Hunter Job." Nate and [[TheCon the mark]] walk into what she thinks is the apartment belonging to someone who is unraveling a government conspiracy, to find the material gone and Eliot coming out, cleaning up.
* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: Parker does this on a fairly regular basis, though they tend to ignore the problem of weight in that the gun would feel too light after the gun is emptied. Which is also the problem with pickpocketing the entire gun which Parker has done as well.
* IUhYouToo: In "The Double Blind Job," Parker proclaims that she has feelings for... pretzels. Hardison assures her that the pretzels will be there when she decides she wants them.
** In "The Big Bang Job," she adds that she's craving pretzels.
* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: Creator/KariMatchett, who plays Nate's ex-wife Maggie, played several characters with Timothy Hutton in ''Series/ANeroWolfeMystery''.
* IWasNeverHere: In "The Bottle Job" rather than [[spoiler:make people jump through bureaucratic hoops to obtain their money from evidence in a loan shark bust, which might not be allowed as the shark has run out of town and the police would need to keep hold in the event he does come back in their jurisdiction, three police officers decide to say they weren't at the bar, didn't see the money nor hear the confession. One was at the movies and two others were at a basketball game, allowing Nate to deliver the money back]].
* IWorkAlone: Parker, Hardison, and Eliot each have this as part of their M.O. before the start of the series. It was only because Dubenich was paying them a load of money did they agree to work together and under Nate's supervision. After that job, they were meant to never see each other again. But after the first job and taking vengeance on Dubenich, they each realized while brilliant in their own line of work, working with each other had some benefits.
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