12th Feb: A new policy is being put in place for TRS threads: Make your case that the name/page is broken in the Opening Post, or the thread will be nuked immediately. See Everything You Wanted To Know About Changing Names for what "Make your case" means.
5th Feb: Echo Chamber Season 1 blooper reel on Youtube here
Leverage is a crime dramedy which follows the exploits of Leverage Consulting & Associates, a team of criminals led by a former insurance investigator. The team takes a modern-day Robin Hood approach of finding people and corporations who have committed wrongs and attempting to restore justice as they see it, using their skills to run elaborate Ocean's Eleven-style cons on their targets. Think of them as a modern-day version of The A-Team.The series just ended its fourth season and has been renewed for a fifth.One of the show creators is John Rogers, better known on the Internet as Kung Fu Monkey. If you see something about the show cited as Word Of God, it probably comes from somewhere on his blog.This show has a work-in-progress character sheet.It's also so full of Shout Outs it's practically Reference Overdosed, so be sure to check out the new Shout Out page.It has an across-the-pondcounterpart in Hustle. While the general concept is the same and at least one prominent guest star appeared on both shows, the two shows are unrelated.
In "The Studio Job", the villain is savvy enough to make sure none of the live mics right in front of him can pick up his whispered confession/threat to Eliot. Unfortunately for him, he whispered it directly into Eliot's ear (and thus his tiny two-way ear-piece communication device), so Hardison is able to record it and play it over the sound system for everyone to hear.
Eliot as a baseball player in "The Three Strikes Job." Christian Kane (Eliot) was also a baseball player in the Angelina Jolie film Life Or Something Like It. He also played a baseball player in Summer Catch with fellow Whedonverse alum Marc Blucas (Riley Finn), which starred Freddie Prinze Jr and Matthew Lillard who starred in Scooby Doo., with a certain Sarah Michelle Gellar. The circle goes round and round. Sarah Michelle Gellar starred as the lead of our other favorite Scoobies with David Boreanaz as Angel who starred on his own show with...you guessed it - Christian Kane. Whew. How's that for a small world?
Nate spends the majority of "The 10 Lil Grifters Job" trapped in an office while the rest of the team plays detective for him; just like his old boss Nero Wolfe. The episode was a somewhat missed opportunity as Nate's fictional detective wasn't Archie Goodwin, but it was made up for by the fact that Nate's fictional detective wasEllery Queen, one of the best-known TV roles of Timothy Hutton's father, Jim Hutton.
In that same episode, one of The Mark's employees calls him a vampire, and says he wants to put a literal stake through his heart. While talking to Eliot, i.e. Lindsey from Angel, who has some experience with vampires.
In the Reunion Job, Hardison guesses that Eliot was the quarterback in high school. Ironic that it is Aldis Hodge who plays star high school QB Ray "Voodoo" Tatum in Friday Night Lights.
Towards the end of season four, Saul Rubinek once again has a minion named Latimer.
Action Girl: While they aren't the main fighters, Parker and Sophie have both had their extremely kick-ass moments: Parker fighting arms dealers in Serbia and Sophie knocking out goons with a fire extinguisher. They are also extremely, extremely competent in their own fields.
Actually Pretty Funny: Eliot has to admit that the animated "Mr. Punchy" avatar Hardison made of him in "The Gold Job" is kind of cool.
Adam Westing: Wil Wheaton as snarky jackass hacker Chaos.
Addiction Displacement: Between seasons 1 and 2, Nate quits drinking alcohol and starts ingesting massive amounts of coffee. Sophie also suggests that the cons themselves are becoming an addiction for him. And now he is mixing both! (alcohol + cons)
In the last couple of episodes, Nate may be back to coffee.
Aerosol Flamethrower: Nate creates one when attempting to escape his captors in "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job".
Affectionate Parody: Both "The Order 23 Job" and "The Three Days of the Hunter Job" feature homages to B-movie archetypes when the POV switches to the victim, specifically the "Viral Outbreak" and "Government Conspiracy" templates respectively. This extends from the team's hilarious characterizations, to even the direction and background music.
"The Bottle Job" also references a con called "The Wire" which is the subject of the movie The Sting
"The Office Job" is one for the American version of The Office.
Affectionate Pickpocket: In "The Inside Job", Parker and her mentor Archie share an embrace — and then Archie asks for his wallet back.
Alice Allusion: In "The Juror #6 Job," Parker operates under the alias "Alice White," and even styles her hair with an Alice band.
Possibly also an allusion to 'Alice White', a character in the board game 'Clue'.
Parker uses Alice as an alias again in "The Morning After Job", and the mark actually says, "Alice in Wonderland."
All Girls Like Ponies: Hilariously averted. Parker is absolutely terrified of horses, stemming from a traumatic childhood incident in which a man in a horse suit beat up a clown during a birthday party.
All Women Love Shoes: Played straight with Sophie, who bought a 'frightening number of shoes' with the money she made in "The Nigerian Job." Subverted with Parker, who wonders in response what it is with women and shoes.
Sophie: "I have some Jimmy Choos in my closet..." Parker: "You have a dead guy in your closet?"
Almost Kiss: Nate and Sophie at the end of "The Two Live Crew Job."
Ambiguously Tanned: Sophie has passed for everything from English to Arabic to Indian to South American.
A Million is a Statistic: In "The Scheherazade Job," Sophie observes that this applies to good deeds as much as bad - if you buy the town a new school, it just reminds people how rich you are, but if you help raise one person out of poverty, you're a hero. This turns out to be an integral part of The Con - she convinces the autocrat potential dictator to set up a concert for an impoverished young violinist from his country, who turns out to be Hardison, so that they can break into his concert hall.
Annoying Younger Sibling : Eliot often seems to see Parker this way. And Hardison. The Word of God actually calls Eliot, Hardison and Parker "the kids" vs. Sophie and Nate "the adults/parents" WOG also says that they are growing to be more like Nate's peers a la Sophie.
Complete with "She's touching me!" argument from Eliot
Parker:(poking Eliot's injured arm) Does that hurt? Eliot:Yeah. Parker:(pokes arm) Does that hurt? Eliot:Yeah. Parker:(pokes arm again) How about now? Eliot: Stop! Nate: Eliot, guys? Eliot, what are you doing? Eliot: She was poking me!
At the beginning of "The Miracle Job," the night after watching one of Sophie's plays.
Eliot: That was the worst night of my life. Hardison: Come on, man, you've been in worse situations. (Eliot flashes back to some dark den with a Korean-speaking man playing Russian Roulette with Eliot as the target) Eliot: (snaps back to the present) No. No, that was the worst.
During "The Wedding Job," when the team realizes someone from Eliot's past may blow the con.
Hardison: No - the Butcher of Kiev. Nate: Think he'll recognize you?" (Eliot flashes to a room full of flames with the Butcher holding a meat cleaver to Eliot's neck) Butcher of Kiev: I kill you! Eliot: (Eliot snaps back to the present) Yeah, I think he'd remember me.
Used in "The San Lorenzo Job" when Vittore asks what's worse than sex when Nate suggests creating a scandal for Ribera to be involved in. Turns out it's dog fighting.
From "The Long Way Down Job":
Sophie: Nate, how dangerous is this gig you took without checking with us? Nate: (stammers) Hardison: (flashback to the office) Ridiculously dangerous! It's like a danger cupcake with murder icing!
Arc Words: "Alternative revenue stream." "Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys" (and variations). "It's what we do." Also variations - "We're (a bunch of) thieves" Nate's automatic response: "I'm not a thief." ...until the season two finale "My name is Nate Ford and I'm a thief!"
Arson, Murder, and Admiration: After Nate cons his dad into a situation where the Irish mob puts a contract out on him:
"You're more ruthless than me, crueler than me. Maybe you are better than me. I'm proud of you son."
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: In "The Tap-Out Job", Parker invokes this when the team sets up their mark to be found crossing state lines with a ton of money, which is his, and six grand worth of guns, which Parker bought and stashed in his trunk for the cops to find. Along with a saxophone.
A Simple Plan: A common theme. Of course there's a reason it takes five of the world's best thieves to pull these cons off. Even the simplest plans have potential to go all to hell for reasons as simple and unpredictable as a mook of the bad guy calling his cousin or as large as someone trying to crash land the plane they're on-board while running a con.
Asshole Victim: A prerequisite for being targeted by the team. Though at least one episode ("The 12 Step Job") plays with this, as their target proves to be better than they expected - and throws a bit of their own logic back in their face.
"If you're doing it to help someone, doesn't that make it okay?"
In one episode they feel sorry for their victim and Nate tells Sophie that hating their victim is "a perk, not a requirement."
They end up helping said victim when his daughter is kidnapped.
The Atoner: Eliot confesses in "The Big Bang Job" that he used to work for season 3's Big Bad Damien Moreau, and that he did something on Moreau's behalf that he can never make up for. When the rest of the team asks what, he all but begs them not to press him for details, "because then I'd have to tell you." Based on comments by Moreau's other henchmen and Eliot's reaction to victimized children in past episodes, it is heavily implied that Eliot has murdered children on at least one occasion.
Word Of God is that Eliot isn't trying to atone for anything. He knows — or at least believes — that the things he's done in the past are too horrible to atone for. "This is a man who's, well, not at peace but at equilibrium with being damned."
Attack Pattern Alpha: The team frequently refers to cons by their nicknames, such as "The Turnabout", "The Mona Lisa", and "The Lost Heir".
They begin mocking this by the third season, where Sophie, Eliot, and Hardison almost always argue over what the proper name of a con is. It seems that only Sophie and Nate share a playbook. Parker generally doesn't know plays by names.
Attending Your Own Funeral: Sophie in "The Two Live Crew Job." As the corpse. And again in "The San Lorenzo Job."
Lampshaded by Nate in the latter episode: "You are utterly unclear on how to be dead. This is the second time in two years that you've shown up at your own funeral."
Author Avatar: John Rogers mentioned on a blog post that after three seasons of researching white collar crooks who - unlike the show's villains - tend to get away with it, he was suffering from 'asshole fatigue' as the production process for Season 4 began. Nate seems to be having the same problem as of "The 10 L'il Grifters Job."
Eliot's speech about why he dislikes baseball in "The Three Strikes Job" was taken word-for-word from a conversation between Rogers and producer Dean Devlin.
Authentication By Newspaper: Used by the team as part of their sell of a fake Michelangelo in "The First David Job."
Auto Tune: In "The Studio Job," Hardison attempt to pass Eliot off as a country music star by providing a real-time auto-tune effect for him. He's horrified when he realizes it's not working, but it's okay: it turns out that Eliot doesn't need it.
Avengers Assemble: Happens at the beginning of "The Homecoming Job" as Nate gathers the team: everyone is in the midst of various solo jobs and they drop what they're doing (Eliot had a gun pointed at him and took the guy out, Parker was hanging from a ceiling, etc) to answer their phones.
Also in "The Grave Danger Job," when Eliot gives Hardison a tight hug after they pull him out of the coffin and tells him 'don't do that again.'
B
Back Story: We learn more and more about each team member as the series progresses, notably Parker's past as an orphan and the death of Nate's son due to the heartlessness of his insurance company.
Both Hardison and Parker are foster children, but had wildly different experiences with their families.
Parker had at least one abusive father (whose home she blew up - he may or may not have been in it at the time). In fact, he was the one who *cough* inspired *cough* her career choice. He told her "be a good girl [or] a better thief." She was also a car thief and a getaway driver at the ripe old age of twelve. Her proficiency as an expert thief, however, is due to her relationship with ArchieLeach, who foundher,trained her,but didn't take her home to his own family because he didn't think Parker would fit in. However, Leach still refers to himself as Parker's father.
Hardison had a good childhood with a foster mother he calls Nana. He has a tendency to quote Nana and he "never does anything his Nana said don't do." Somehow he's still an internationally wanted hacker, especially in Iceland. Over Nana's medical bills. Who he still lived with at the time of "The Rashomon Job" He does, however, fake a miracle even though it was something Nana said not to do, leading him to worry about getting smited that entire episode. He spoke of her so often that Parker actually thought she was his grandmother. After Parker has a minor breakdown over the children in the Serbian orphanage, Hardison in a moment of bonding reveals that in fact Nana is not his grandmother but his foster mother. This is also one of the first moments of UST between Parker and Hardison.
Hardison: I know growing up was tough, I-I know that you grew up in the system and that it was, it was bad, I know it-it was worse than bad, but that doesn't mean that all foster parents are monsters. Mine wasn't. Parker: You grew up with your grandmother. Hardison: We called her Nana, but she was our foster mom. She, uh, she would cuss like a sailor an' old girl wouldtan your ass just as soon as look at you, but, but she fed us, she bathed us, she put a roof over our heads, and, oh, she would raise hell if you so much as looked at us crooked. Parker: Yeah? Well, you were lucky. No. We put these kids in the system and odds are, they're gonna... they're gonna... [tearing up] they're gonna turn out like me. Hardison:I like how you turned out.
Of course, most of Sophie and Eliot's appeal comes from their near complete lack of a backstory whatsoever.
Due to her nature as a grifter, it's difficult to tell whether anything Sophie or anybody else says about her past is really true or not. In fact, "Sophie" is not even her real name. The only thing we really know is that she used to be Nate's nemesis during his time as an insurance investigator.
Eliot never mentions where he got his Special Forces level training from or precisely what he did as a "retrieval expert". The only concrete fact about his past that was revealed was that he used to work for Moreau, and did something he considered as totally unforgivable.
Badass Creed: "The rich and powerful take what they want. We steal it back for you. Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys. We provide... Leverage."
Badass Crew: Every single member of the team is extremely badass in their own unique way. Also, Sterling, because Sterling. Never. Loses.
Badass Grandpa: Archie Leech, most definitely. In "The Last Dam Job" when Chaos makes a snide comment about his age, Archie sticks his cane under Chaos' chin and tells him that he has two canes. One of them has a high-voltage taser in it. The other has a six-inch stiletto spike, but he can't remember which is which because of his old age. Later on, Chaos says something snide again and Archie tases him.
Badass Israeli: Raquel, the hitter from Starke's team in "The Two Live Crew Job."
Badass Longhair: Eliot slightly-below-shoulder-length hair; usually it hangs loose but he occasionally pulls it into a ponytail, especially when he knows he's about to get into a fight. Moreau comments in the "Big Bang Job" that the 'white hat' doesn't suit Eliot, but he loves the hair.
Bad Bad Acting: As mentioned above, Sophie is an absolutely horrible actress when she's onstage rather than running a con. Possibly the funniest part of it is that she seems to think she's a great actress. Played with in "The Stork Job," where she has to pretend to be an actress as part of the con, and pulls it off well. The following conversation ensues:
Eliot: (bemused) She can't act. Nate: She can act . . . when it's an act.
Sometime before that, Sophie invites the team to the opening of one of her plays.
Eliot: That was the worst night of my life. Hardison: Come on, man, you've been in worse situations. (Eliot flashes back to some dark den with a Korean-speaking man playing Russian Roulette with Eliot as the target) Eliot: (snaps back to the present) No. No, that was the worst.
"Never before has a production of The Sound of Music made me root for the Nazis."
Bad Habits: Nate dresses up as a Catholic priest in "The Wedding Job".
We also get Hardison as a priest and Parker as a nun in "The Beantown Bailout Job." Eliot is relieved to discover that Parker is wearing the habit for a con, as opposed to just being Parker.
"The Miracle Job" features a variation on this: Nate is trying to help out an old friend, now a Catholic priest, against that friend's will. The friend demands Nate see him in the confessional so they can talk in private about what's going on. Nate goes along with it — but sits in the priest's side of the box. After their conversation is over and the priest leaves, Nate lingers in the priest's half long enough that the mark's assistant comes in to give his confession, which allows Nate-pretending-to-be-the-priest to push the assistant towards publicly exposing the mark later in the episode.
"The Boys' Night Out Job" has a two-fer: "Sister Lupe" is definitely not a nun, and Nate pretends to be a Catholic priest (again!) to avoid the hitmen after them.
Bad Santa: Chaos gets a group of criminals hired as mall Santas for his caper in "The Ho Ho Ho Job."
Sterling: You realize that your entire plan relied on me being a self-serving, utterbastard? Nate: Ha, yeah, that's a stretch.
In the last 10 minutes of every episode, if the villain thinks they've figured out they're being conned, or have a member of the crew in danger, 99% of the time it's all part of the plan.
Bavarian Fire Drill: Also almost Once an Episode. Hardison is the absolute master of this trope, with occasional backup from Parker and/or Eliot optional. He even turns the tables on an Army interrogator after he was caught breaking into an Army base using just his Social Security number and his Army record. He even ordered him not to leave the interrogation room during his own interrogation.
"The Three Strikes Job" has a humorous non-evil version of the trope. Eliot has to play the part of a baseball player as part of a con, but as he tells Hardison before the con, he doesn't like baseball. However, as the con goes on, it turns out that not only is Eliot really good at baseball, but he starts to enjoy it too. He even gets a sandwich named after him. It leads to the following exchange:
Nate: All right, good news, bad news. Tara: Good news? Nate: The mayor's hooked. We're in the pinch. Tara: Bad news? Nate: I think we lost Eliot until the playoffs.
This was also played straight and subverted with Sophie's absence when Gina Bellman went on maternity leave. Sophie had become so many different personae as a grifter that she wasn't sure who she was anymore, and she needed time to really find herself.
Sophie: Stark was right. I'm not Sophie Devereaux anymore. I haven't been for ages, I- you killed her, you and your silly crusade. Nate: It's just a name - Sophie: No, they're not just names - not to me. All my aliases, every one of them, I know when their parents died, I know when they had their first kiss. They -
Nate: Sophie - Sophie: You're the closest thing I've ever had to a real friend and I've never heard you say my real name. How sad is that? Nate: So tell me. Sophie: Let me, let me finish burying Sophie first, finish burying the rest of them until all that's left is me. Just me.
Played straight and subverted once more when Eliot poses as a country music singer. He turns out to be an excellent singer and guitar player, and gets lots of groupies after just one performance. However, he doesn't want to be famous, and he finds the fans annoying. By the end of it, however, he's used to being chased and signing autographs, and seems to rather enjoy it.
Also the entire Leverage crew had this after they split up at the end of the first season. Claiming that they can't go back to their usual con or thieft for profit because helping people was more rewarding.
Bedmate Reveal: Nate and Sophie at the end of "The San Lorenzo Job".
Nate REALLY doesn't like it when you bring up his dead son. It's a bad idea even for the team.
Parker has a really big soft spot for orphans, since she is one. Also, anything to do with dead children and Nate. If you try to use his dead child to screw him over, he will not only destroy your company, he will destroy the entire field your company works in.
Eliot really dislikes child abusers, as seen in "The Order 23 Job".
Hell, don't threaten a child—the client's child, the mark's child, your own child—when the team is around. Just don't. Or they will reset and unleash Holy Hell upon thee.
Have it be implied you betrayed the team and Parker will go into her Summer Glau mode and hang you off the side of a building.
Actually betray the team and Eliot will go into his Depraved Dentist mode and pretty much scare everyone involved. Including the viewer, a little.
The mark from "The Boiler Room Job" really doesn't like it when people can't remember his nickname.
Also, don't spill Eliot's coffee on him. He'll be cleaning your blood off of his shirt afterwards.
Sterling is one for the entire team. Eliot has to be physically kept away from the guy after the "Queen's Gambit Job".
Eliot's persona in "The Tap-Out Job" once he's drugged.
Big Brother Instinct: Sophie, for Parker especially. Eliot has this towards Parker and Hardison, though he typically doesn't show it and would never admit it. When a fake psychic caused Parker to break down in tears and run away in "The Future Job," Eliot semi-seriously volunteers to kill him.
"Semi"?
Big Store: The pilot is one example - so is "The Boost Job."
Inverted in "The Gone Fishin' Job" where the team makes a legit business look fake as bait for a mark looking for a way to launder money. They get a small gym cleared out during peak hours (except for one intense woman who keeps up with Parker on the exercise bike) so it looks like an operation set up to cover "fake" membership dues as a laundering set-up with no real costumers (for an added twist, the list of fake members is just the names of all the people the mark had stolen money from, he doesn't even recognize their names).
Bilingual Bonus: "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job" has an aerosol can very descriptively titled "Олій".*
Ukrainian for "Oils"
One in "The Two Live Crew Job" if you know Hebrew. When Starke's team meet, there's a line spoken in Hebrew by Raquel Diane that isn't translated, because she said something pretty nasty: "And you lead me straight to the hands of Eliot Spencer, you son of a bitch" (roughly translated, the actual literal translation is 'Your mother's vagina', which in this context means the same in Hebrew slang).
Black and Nerdy: While Hardison definitely acts cool, he is a computer genius who once hired girls to dress up in Princess Leia-esque gold bikinis while brandishing lightsabers and skipped his high school prom to hack into the Bank of Iceland. For his Nana.
Black and White Morality: For a show centered on a bunch of thieves and liars, there's a surprising lack of depth to almost all the villains of the week. There's never any doubt about who the good and bad guys are because the villains have no redeeming features whatsoever. For these people, puppy kicking is more than a calling—it's a way of life.
Bland Name Product: The show used an interesting twist to this in season 1: Instead of having fake products, they would have *real* products, but would never show their names or labels. For example, Hardison is clearly seen drinking orange Jones soda, but the front of the label was always against his palm or otherwise turned away from the camera.
Also subverted at times with the product placements for Hyundai and Nate's Tesla Roadster.
On the other hand, "The Cross My Heart Job" has airlines such as Vista Atlantic, Global Vista and Air Uruguay, an electronics store called "Modern Image," "Linguistic Mystic" language learning products, the "Crab-a-rama" restaurant
Blind Without 'Em: Possibly played straight with Hardison, as we've seen him two or three times (mostly in flashback) with glasses on, and he may wear contacts. Averted with Eliot, who wears glasses about 35% of the time (Word Of God is that they're not for show).
A Bloody Mess: Ketchup for blood in the second season premiere. It fools Nate, as well as the mark.
Bond One-Liner: Eliot gets one of these in "The Bank Shot Job."
"What smells like crank and screams like a girl?" Kicks meth dealer's knee inside out, prompting aforementioned scream "Huh...right answer."
Book Ends: The pilot has a scene where the team (minus Sophie, who had not been introduced yet) started out standing in a circle, but then walked away, with an overhead shot. The episode ended with the team (included Sophie this time) standing in a circle and not separating. The season ended with an overhead shot of them (again in a circle) going their separate ways - but hesitating. "The Jailhouse Job" ends with them preparing to split up again... but this time making plans to reunite once they've shaken the authorities.
Bottle Episode: It took place mostly in a bar-room set (for the double meaning) and Nate's apartment. They lampshaded it by calling the episode "The Bottle Job". Also, as the team has to hastily assemble a scam in a fraction of the usual time — Nate calls it "The Wire in a bottle". Finally, this is also the episode where Nate, a recovering alcoholic, starts drinking again, after going the entire season without alcohol. MEANINGPOCALYPSE
There were plenty of times that he could have been reloading. Just because he's never shown reloading doesn't mean he never reloaded, especially since we didn't get many close-up shots of the shooter. However, that still doesn't explain half a minute of sustained fire from one gun.
Boxed Crook: The Italian's plan for Nate and the team in Season 3.
Played with in one job, where Sophie played a internal investigations Hitter (ie, Eliot's role, though she never actually had to fight) and in doing so we get this line
Eliot: *after hearing Sophie speak* "Is that supposed to be me?"
Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Parker has one in "The Mile High Job," as she plays her role as a flight attendant and tries to comfort a nervous passenger:
Parker: When you think of it, there are many ways to die besides on a plane. Car crash, electrocution, drowning, auto-erotic asphyxiation.
Breaking the Bonds: Eliot does this in the second season finale. However, considering that he's the show's Lightning Bruiser and the cuffs were of the plasti-cuff variety, rather than metal cuffs, it's not surprising.
Word Of God says that their research showed that with plastic ties, this is possible given the right training and skills.
Break The Fake: In the episode "The Rashomon Job", with a bejeweled dagger.
Breather Episode: The "Juror #6 Job" (at least in broadcast order), "The Ho Ho Ho Job," "The Van Gogh Job."
At the beginning of "The Homecoming Job," as Hardison is introducing the rest of the team to the Leverage Consulting & Associates offices, he suggests that they personalize their offices, perhaps buy a plant. At the end of the episode, the following exchange occurs.
Parker: I bought a plant. Hardison: Nice. Team spirit. Parker:What does it do?
There was originally supposed to be a much longer, season-spanning joke about the plant, but it was cut for time.
The exchange is referenced again in season 4's "The Lonely Hearts Job" when Parker a carnivorous plant from Hardison (although it's actually from Eliot). She notes that she now has a plant that does something.
There's also that the painting of what was supposed to be Nate's relative who started the firm, which Hardison painted himself. Later in the season he goes back to get it before their offices blow up, and it shows up again in the next episode. It's revealed in "The Bottle Job" that Hardison keeps a large stack of cash hidden behind the painting. The painting is still intact as of "The Last Dam Job" at the end of season 4 as the team is seen moving it into the "Batcave" when they're forced to leave Nate's apartment.
The Sapphire Monkey.
Hardison's Rocks Paper Scissors tell in "The Snow Job." Eliot informs him that he STILL has a tell two seasons later in "The Gone Fishin' Job."
A year after that, Hardison STILL has a tell in "The Boys Night Out Job."
Parker's bunny.
Hardison dies in Plan M.
In the briefing in "The Last Dam Job", Nate predicts that Dubenich will personally fall out of the sky if Sophie goes anywhere near anyone Latimer knows. Late in the episode, sure enough, Sophie talks to Latimer and gets him a drink in a bar and Dubenich appears out of nowhere.
Bring It: Eliot does this to some mob hitmen in "The Beantown Bailout Job" before proceeding to beat the crap out of them. Actually, he does this with nearly every fight he's in. Taunting must be part of the criteria for a retrieval specialist.
Nate does this to an extent. He takes on nearly any job, regardless of the difficulty or danger.
British Accents: Sent up in "The Rashomon Job", when only Sophie and Nate's recollection of her accent is accurate. Eliot recalls her with a Cockney accent, Hardison with a Scottish one, and Parker imagines her speaking pure gibberish.
Bruce Wayne Held Hostage: Subverted in "The Bank Shot Job." The "villains" weren't looking for the heroes (and didn't know they were there. They interrupted the team as they were about to rob The Mark, leading to a cross between this trope and Mugging the Monster.
Maid of Honor: You don't think it makes me look fat? Sophie: (shakes head no) Uh-uh. Parker: Oh, definitely. I mean, why do you think I had to let out the waist, to make you look less skinny? What do you weigh, anyways, a buck fifty? Maid of Honor: (whimpers)
And in "The 15 Minutes Job:"
Nate: The question is, how would I destroy myself? Parker: Yeah, and you can't say booze.
Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Parker is possibly the best thief on the planet but she has...quirks. Enough so that she spent an entire scene dressed as a nun in "The Beantown Bailout Job" - and Eliot wasn't sure whether she was wearing it for a job or just being Parker. This borders on Crazy Awesome, in that it's implied in "The Inside Job" and elsewhere that her quirks are the result of her having been thieving as opposed to having a normal childhood.
We get this gem from the "10 Li'l Grifters Job," coming immediately after she pulls Hardison into a previously undiscovered secret passageway:
Hardison: "Is that music?"
Parker: (casually) "Oh, you hear that, too?"
In other words, Parker may well be regularly hearing things when no one around her can, and is not at all concerned about that fact.
Buried Alive: "The Grave Danger Job" (season four) includes Hardison being buried alive by a Mexican drug cartel.
Busman's Holiday: "The Juror #6 Job" features the team sending Parker to jury duty so she'll have a chance to interact with people normally. Of course, there ends up being a big corporation trying to buy the trial.
Also "The Girls Night Out Job" and its counterpart "The Boys Night Out Job" where each half of the team independently finds itself drawn into a completely unrelated job.
The Butcher: The Butcher of Kiev appears in "The Wedding Job". Eliot, acting as the chef at the wedding, briefly misunderstands the reference to "The butcher is here!" and asks if he brought the lamb chops.
Callback: Word Of God says there isn't a show bible but Leverage has an enormous amount of callbacks that often come from throwaway lines like the infamous "Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Thief, Mastermind" which was a tossaway line in the season 1 premiere.
After beating Hardison in Rocks, Paper, Scissors in "The Snow Job," Eliot informs him that he has a tell. Two seasons later in "The Gone Fishing Job," Eliot beats him in Rocks, Paper, Scissors again - and informs him that he still has a tell.
And Eliot lets him win one despite the tell in "The Boys Night Out Job."
Of course, the one he "won" led to Eliot flirting with a police clerk and Hardison getting chased by two very...enthusiastic dogs.
In the season four opener, "The Long Way Down Job" there's a callback to the Snow Job from season one. (And Nate's rampant drunkenness...)
Nate: Okay, people, Let's go steal a mountain. Parker: Again. Nate: What? Parker: Again. We already stole a mountain, two years ago. Nate: Really? Eliot: Technically, it was a mountain resort, not a mountain, but yeah. Hardison: You were also very drunk on that one.
The team also makes quite a few references to the mark Parker stabbed with a fork in "The Stork Job".
Parker: I think I'm getting better at this! Hardison: I'm cloning Rockwell's cell phone right now. Good work, girl. Parker: And I didn't even stab him! Hardison: Yeah—we—you—we are so proud of you. Uh, no stabbing Wednesdays. New tradition.
When Eliot and Hardison can't communicate over walkie-talkies in "The Cross My Heart Job," Eliot signals him by having "Kirk Picard" paged - a callback to the Star Trek-based system the two of them worked out in "The Order 23 Job."
Also in "The Cross My Heart Job," Nate and Sophie refer to the repeated calls in to the National Weather Service claiming they saw a tornado as a "MASSDOT Special" - referring to the similar tactic they used on the Massachusetts Department of Transportation to steal a train in "The Gone Fishin' Job."
In "The Queen's Gambit Job," Nate references using Plan M. Hardison, alarmed, asks about the prospects of him dying - a callback to way back in the pilot, when Nate jokes that "Hardison dies in Plan M."
In "The Lonely Hearts Job," Parker gets a carnivorous plant and notes that it's a plant that does something. This is a reference to Parker and Hardison's conversation in "The Homecoming Job" (see Brick Joke above).
California Doubling: Starting in season 2, Portland doubles for Boston. Really, really, really obvious when Portland's PGE Park is used in the "Three Strikes Job." Starting in season 5, though, the trope will be averted, as the episodes will take place in Portland.
The Call Knows Where You Live: Nate can't escape helping people. He finds a client while on a job interview in the season two premiere and another one while serving time in prison during the season three premiere. Not to mention Hardison bought the building his apartment was in and turned into their new base of operations.
Camera Abuse: Deliberately incorporated into a fake news broadcast which the crew staged as part of their scheme to discredit Moto in "The Scheherazade Job." "Reporting" in front of a green screen, Eliot ducked on cue as Hardison shook the camera, and a thrown bottle that struck the "lens" a glancing blow was later inserted into the shot.
Cannot Spit It Out: In the Leverage episode "The Double Blind Job", Parker, who often has trouble in social situations, can't quite bring herself to tell Hardison that she has feelings for him, and ends up blurting out "I have feelings for... pretzels." Unusually for this trope, Hardison knows exactly what she really means, and responds, "They're right here when you want them."
The Chick: Parker, though she's not a normal chick
Four Is Death: After Sophie leaves the now Four-Man-Band is thrown off very badly (to the point where Hardison, playing Sophie's role, is captured by Russians) and keeps calling her for help.
Guest Star Party Member: Maggie in "The Second David Job". Sterling in "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job" and "The Queen's Gambit Job."
Catch Phrase: "Age of the geek, baby." Also "global economy" and "alternative revenue stream" might count as either this or Arc Words.
Not to mention the ubiquitous phrases "We're going with a much bigger scam" and "Let's go steal ourselves a <something improbable>," which is a classic Mad Libs Catch Phrase.
The best one is "Let's go steal ourselves the future" from the aptly named "The Future Job".
Also one of the best "Let's go steal a Parker." from "The Inside Job."
In "The San Lorenzo Job", they steal a country.
"Let's go steal ourselves the Pentagon." "Isn't that treason?" "Well, we're gonna give it back."
"Are we going to steal the wake?" "Show some respect. We're going to BORROW the wake."
"...the man on the street... in Africa."
"...a miracle."
"...a movie."
"...a concert."
"...an auction."
"...some cars."
"...a federal witness."
"...a royal title."
"She's gonna buy a jury!" "Not if we... steal it first."
"We're gonna steal this ballpark. And then the team. Not necessarily in that order."
Sophie: "Now here's the hard part. We need to steal a general." Nate: "No, it's let's go steal a general!"
Also, "We pick up where the law leaves off."
And finally, "This is what we do"/"It's what we do."
"It's a very distinctive _______"— Eliot's response whenever someone's astonished at how he can identify people/weapons using cues like knife fighting style/stance/sound of a gunshot/shoeprints.
Gets lampshaded by Parker after Eliot identifies the mark's hireling as being former Spetnaz based on a single bootprint in "The Long Way Down Job".
"I don't like guns" — Eliot, right before or after disarming an armed man and unloading the gun in the very same motion.
"Dammit, Hardison!" —Eliot's response to being the recipient of Hardison's mistakes or pranks.
Hardison finally gets a turnabout in The Gone Fishin' Job and gets a "Dammit, Eliot!"
"You're adorable." — Whenever you need to explain to someone exactly what genre of show they are on.
"Seriously?" — A go-to expression of dismay or surprise. Usually said by Hardison, though Sophie seems to have started saying it occasionally too, and everyone's said it at least once. (Nate upon opening the fridge to find lots of orange soda, Eliot when Hardison just happens to have a blacklight on him, Parker when Eliot goes on about sleeping with lots of models...) It's a habit of co-showrunner John Rogers, who gets a kick out of how each actor has made it his/her own.
Also "Really?" used in the same way as "Seriously?
"I've dated a lot of _____s." — Eliot's excuse for knowing whatever random fact he needs to know for the episode. So far, flight attendants, models, and a neurologist, at least.
"I can explain!" — Nate's go-to whenever his ex-wife Maggie realizes that Nate's involved her in a con somehow. Word Of God says that Nate said it a lot to Maggie during their marriage whenever he was in trouble.
"Run it." — Nate telling Hardison to start the briefing about whoever the subject of their job is.
"There is something wrong with you!" — Usually uttered by Eliot whenever he finds out about another one of Parker's quirks.
Nate Ford in the first two seasons has always drawn a moral line between himself and his crew - always responding with some Arc Words version of "I'm not a thief" which makes it especially awesome as a catch phrase in the second season finale when Nate is caught by Interpol Sterling and the FBI ask who he is. His reply? "My name is Nate Ford...and I'm a thief!"
Also, Parker's "What? I'm a thief!"
Hardison's got "Do you know who I am/do you know what my name is?" whenever the team asks how they're going to do something that falls within his skill set.
Nate: The First and Second David Jobs, The Three-Card Monte Job, The Miracle Job
Sophie: The Two Live Crew Job, The King George Job
Eliot: The Two Horse Job, The Studio Job, The Big Bang Job
Hardison: The Mile High Job, The Scheherazade Job
Parker: The Stork Job, The Inside Job, The Boost Job
Character Name Alias: The aliases used in Leverage generally have some connection to the heist they're pulling. Word Of God states that this is because Hardison picks them.
The Cheerleader: Nikki pretends to be this in "The Reunion Job." In fact, she's just a hired gun assassin trying to get close to her target by driving away a witness, albeit a pretty bitchy one.
Chef of Iron: Eliot. In "The Wedding Job", he demonstrates that he's eerily schooled in the differences in proper knife-holding techniques for different tasks, causing Nate to become visibly disturbed.
Eliot:"Hold a knife this way, dice an onion. Hold a knife this way, slice through eight Yakuza in four seconds..."
That same episode has Eliot dispatching a thugThe Butcher ofKiev by shoving a pair of hors d'oeuvres in his eyes that he squirted lemon juice on.
Nate: "Did you just kill a man with an appetizer?"
Eliot: "I dunno...maybe..."
This is set up as early as episode 2 ("The Homecoming Job"), in which he assembles a pile of phonemes into a convincingly French name for the hors d'oeuvre he's holding.
Almost, he managed to get all of them except the phonemes for "F," "U," and "K." Although, he deliberately annoys the guy he's trying to record them from, who then puts them together for him (really loudly.)
Hardison makes sure they save the "Old Nate" painting before they blow up the season one headquarters in "The First David Job". In "The Bottle Job", he reveals that's where he keeps his "emergency fund".
In the season three premiere, "The Jailhouse Job", Hardison is seen building a toy helicopter. That helicopter plays a role in fooling the prison guards into thinking Nate is trying to escape from the rooftop.
"The Boost Job" has a literal gun. Well, an EMP gun...
The season 3 finale is called "The San Lorenzo Job". Two episodes earlier, in "The Ho Ho Ho Job", the mark is headed for San Lorenzo when he decides to flee the country.
Moreau is able to hack into Hardison's secure video feed at the beginning of "The San Lorenzo Job" because Larry Duberman's software and servers went on the black market after the team took him down in "The Reunion Job".
More of a Chekhov's Fake Gun: The prop machine guns in "The Stork Job" - as soon as Hardison complains that no one would be fooled by them, you know they're going to come up later. The team ends up using them to replace some of the arms dealer's products. Nate also specifically mentions earlier that all they have is a prop truck - which they end up putting to good use.
The pipe wrench in the library in "The 10 Li'l Grifters Job."
Nate talks to Maggie on the phone in "The Miracle Job" before she makes her first onscreen appearance later in the season in "The First David Job." Word Of God says that Maggie was originally written into the episode.
The daughter Hayley keeps popping up in "The 10 Li'l Grifters Job" without much relevance to the plot until the very end.
Eliot, 'taking the rest of the job off' in "The 15 Minutes Job." Longtime fans had a sneaking suspicion he'd still end up playing an important role in the con.
In "The Bottle Job," we see a flashback to Nate's dad breaking a guy's fingers while young Nate watched. At the end of the episode, Nate breaks Doyle's fingers in the same way to provide a little extra emphasis to telling Doyle to get out of town and never come back.
In "The Reunion Job," Sophie demonstrates "neurolinguistic programming" by using the power of suggestion to get Eliot to pour her tea. At the end, the same skill is used to manipulate the bad guy into changing his master password to something chosen by the team.
"The San Lorenzo Job" features a call back all the way to season two when Sophie fakes her death the same way Eliot did in "The Beantown Bailout Job"
Sophie mentions this in “The Queen’s Gambit Job” when she notes that Nate is always playing chess.
Chess Motifs: "The Juror #6 Job" and "The Queen's Gambit Job" are full of them, and the whole series has them to a lesser degree. Nate is referred to as either a "White Knight" or a "Black King". (Obviously, he's black—Leverage Consulting & Associates moves second.) Not for nothing, the show does work with this.
Nate: Black King. Powerful enough, but important, and if he's without an escape or protection, the game is over.
Sophie: Black Queen. The most versatile and dangerous piece on the board, but vulnerable if threatened.
Eliot: Black Rook. The muscle. Fast, dangerous, and when well-placed ("specific range of efficacy") able to dominate the game.
Hardison: Black Bishop. Confined to only one type of square, he's a tiny god in cyberspace but unable to do a pick to save his life. A good long-range piece.
Actually, in "The 12-Step Job" (and others) he kicks serious ass.
Parker: Black Knight. So stealthy, she's seemingly able to turn herself invisible and teleport from place to place. Her moves are erratic and she's the only piece that doesn't in some way emulate the Queen.
With the added bonus of her knight's move thinking.
Everyone Else: The pawns. Not able to do much on their own, but together, they decide where and how the game is played.
We could go on. White Turned Black Pawns (no pun intended) could very well be the victims. White King can be the head of the villains they face off. Other White pieces would be another major bad guy except for the White Pawns. They would be the stereotypical henchmen. Black Pawns can be the few allies like Nate's wife in "The First and Second David Job" and the doctor in "The Tap-Out Job".
"The Three-Card Monte Job" explicitly contrasts Nate's game (chess) with his father's (by a spectacular coincidence, three-card monte).
Christianity is Catholic: Nate went to seminary (but dropped out), his friend became a priest, the girl in "The Beantown Bailout Job" has a Saint Brigid pendant. However, it's largely justified since Boston, where most of the show takes place, is roughly 50% Catholic. In "The Miracle Job," they even show a fairly accurate portrayal of a Roman Catholic mass except for the colloquialization of the Gospel text.
CIA Evil FBI Good: The CIA (or one of its agents) used homeless veterans with PTSD to experiment with "hands-off" torture; when one of them died of a heart attack he got replaced by Eliot. They're also aware of the Leverage crew.
Class Reunion: Duberman from "The Reunion Job" was a software mogul obsessed with proving he was better than the classmates who had tormented him in high school. To get his computer passwords, the team set up a Class Reunion with Nate taking on the role of a Jerk Jock who had degenerated into a drunken slob.
Classy Cat Burglar: Parker is arguably a subversion of this archetype; while she has all of the thieving skills, she has none of the typical seductiveness. This isn't to say she can't pull it off, as she showed quite well in "The Iceman Job". Whatever her emotional eccentricities, she is the Best Thief in the World.
Clean Up Crew: Eliot pretends to be this twice (once in "The Maltese Falcon Job,") both times to scare a mark into panicking and doing something stupid.
Cliché Storm: In "The San Lorenzo Job", the team writes a speech for a politician that is intentionally made up of nothing but political speech cliches. The public eats it up. invoked
Cliffhanger: The second season finale ends with Nate turning himself in to Interpol and the FBI to save his team. Also, he's got a gunshot wound in the gut.
Cloud Cuckoolander: Parker. Dear God, Parker. Word Of God says that she has "a touch of Asperger's Syndrome," which would explain her behavior and also attributes that make her a good thief (like enhanced perception of small changes in familiar objects). It also says "I think she channels anxiety and aggression into precision and control" Not to mention she had a messed up childhood. The rest of the team is used to it. Eliot is usually the one who comments on it ...frequently
Parker: What is it with women and shoes? Sophie: There is something wrong with you. Eliot: That's what I said!
Eliot: Oh, she's dressed up as a nun for a con. Nate: Did you think she was just dressed up like a nun for no reason? Eliot: It's Parker. (beat) Nate: ...Fair enough.
Parker: "Oof. I'm so glad I don't live in the real world."
A really quick example of this pops up in "The 10 L'il Grifters Job" - while wandering through a secret passageway, Hardison asks about the music playing in the background - Parker responds with "oh, you hear that, too?"
She seems to be the perfect mixture of bizarre nurture and crazy ass nature, for instance, we learn she came by her love of Tasers from Archie Leach, her adoptive father.
Cold Reading: Dalton Reed's SOP in "The Future Job."
Nate, Sophie, and Hadison (in that order) occasionally use this when they have to make-up or adjust a con on the fly.
Comm Links: Hardison invented an earpiece called the Earbud that hides almost undetectably in one’s ear and can be used in all but the most extreme situations. The entire team nearly constantly has them, allowing them to easily communicate with each other and listen to any conversations that the others are having. Commonly somebody (mostly Hardison and Eliot) will mutter to themselves, forgetting others can hear them. Losing or turning off an Earbud is always a dramatic turn.
Sophie: Parker, you're jealous. Parker: I'm not jealous! It's just when I see them together... I don't... like it...
Starts with Parker as early as the pilot.
Hardison: He tried to kill us! Parker: More importantly, he didn't pay us.
Complexity Addiction: This is Nate Ford's shtick. Numerous characters have pointed out that he's addicted to running increasingly complex cons.
In "The Gold Job" we see that Hardison's susceptible to it too. And Nate points out the BEST cons, are where your back-up is the quick and dirty route...Kansas City Shuffle for the win!
The Con: And pretty much all related tropes. While the team's activities normally fall under The Caper, they usually run The Con as part of The Caper.
The Shill (Eliot or Nate normally plays this part.)
Concealing Canvas: In "The Bottle Job," we find that Hardison has hidden large quantities of cash inside the frame of his painting of Harlan Leverage III (AKA Old Nate).
Concealment Equals Cover: Played ludicrously straight in "The Big Bang Job" where Eliot takes cover during a gunfight behind a large cardboard box and it's shown stopping all of the bullets.
The question that needs to be asked here is not "Dude, how did that cardboard stop it?" Instead, I'd try for something more like "Dude, what was in that box?" It was a warehouse, and the sides and front WERE being shot up pretty well. That said, it was a pretty big risk to take... but I guess when you don't have a lot of options, risks are the way to go.
Confess In Confidence: Nate (a mostly-trained former seminary student) uses the sanctity of the confessional to achieve his aims as a conman in "The Miracle Job." He gets in on the wrong side to talk to the priest, and when the priest steps out, the mark's beleaguered assistant steps in... putting Nate in the right position to sway him into exposing the mark's plans.
Conspiracy Theorist: "Wade Perkins" (Hardison) in "The Three Days of the Hunter Job", complete with a standard-issue Room Full of Crazy. Hilariously, Eliot and Hardison start telling Parker the stuff on there is real, just to mess with her.
Several throughout the series, but, during "The Fairy Godparents Job," recurring FBI agents Taggart and McSweeten mention the events of "The Wedding Job" as well as "The Bank Shot Job," which they don't realize the Leverage team was involved in. Technically, they know that Hardison and Parker were involved in the events of the former, but they think that Hardison and Parker are fellow FBI agents.
Basically, whenever the show wants to use FBI agents for some gags, Taggart and McSweeten are the go-to characters, so it's not surprising that they'd be the ones making the references.
When the Yakuza show up in "The Runway Job," Eliot comments "Huh, cleavers. Haven't done that in a while." This refers back to his cleaver fight in "The Wedding Job," and the conversation he and Nate had in that episode:
In "The Reunion Job," it turns out Eliot originally heard the "people are like knives" speech from his high school home ec teacher.
When Bonanno shows up in "The Jailhouse Job" he's walking with a cane, obviously still recovering from the injuries he sustained in "The Three Strikes Job". He's also now a Detective Captain.
Nate has continued to use him as an ally, getting the evidence against Moreau to him in "The Big Bang Job" and calling him to arrest the killers in "The 10 L'il Grifters Job." They're even friendly enough to play poker together in "The Boys' Night Out Job" (which means Bonanno is conveniently around to arrest the bad guys again, too).
A commenter on Rogers' blog asked if the Stradivarius violin being smuggled in "The Mile High Job" was the same one Hardison used in "The Scheherazade Job," which Rogers liked so much he declared it canon.
In "The Underground Job," Sophie and Nate refer to a "fiddle game," which was run a few episodes earlier in "The Studio Job." Highlighted by Parker in this exchange:
Parker: Is Eliot gonna be the fiddle again? Nate and Sophie: No. Parker: Can I be the fiddle? Nate and Sophie:No.
In "The Rashomon Job," Hardison caustically brings up the hypnosis from "The Scheherazade Job" while giving Nate a very unfunny glare.
In both "The Iceman Job" and "The Morning After Job," Parker is nervous about having to seduce a target (normally Sophie's job), and brings up how things didn't go so smoothly when she tried that during "The Stork Job."
Parker: Remember the last time I was the "carrot?" Remember how I stabbed a guy with a fork?
She's gotten more confident in herself by "The 15 Minutes Job."
Parker: I think I'm getting better at this... I didn't even stab him!
In "The Inside Job," when the team finds Parker's not-so-strange living quarters, the bunny from the very first episode is there.
Janet Lin, the Channel 6 reporter who the team uses to bring down Dr. Hannity in "The Inside Job," is the newscaster doing the story on the dagger that kicks off the plot in "The Rashomon Job."
At the beginning of "The Long Way Down Job," Nate opens the mission by saying "Let's go steal a mountain." Parker immediately comments "again," clarifying that they'd stolen a mountain - well, really more of a mountain resort - two years ago. This was a reference to "The Snow Job." As Word Of God says, "after three years, you've earned your in-jokes."
At the end of "The Long Way Down Job," the team finds a bug in Nate's apartment and speculates as to who may have done it - suggesting Sterling, Starke from the "Two Live Crew Job," Moreau from "The Big Bang Job" and "The San Lorenzo Job," Nate's father from "The Three-Card Monte Job" and the Irish Mob from "The Beantown Bailout Job."
Parker telling Sophie she likes her crazy driving in "The Big Bang Job," calling back to everyone's complaints about Parker's own driving in "The Boost Job" and "The Gone Fishin' Job."
Eliot uses the car he loaned to Nate for the con in "The Boost Job" to track a mook in "The 15 Minutes Job."
In "The Cross My Heart Job," Nate and Sophie agree to use the "MassDOT Special" to convince the National Weather Service that a tornado is headed for the airport. They do, indeed, run the same con they used on the Massachusetts Department of Transportation in "The Gone Fishin' Job."
In "The Queen's Gambit Job," the team has a conversation at the end that refers to the fact that Hardison "dies in Plan M," referring back to the pilot.
Convenient Slow Dance: Sophie and Nate share one at the end of "The Reunion Job" - as do Hardison and Parker.
Conviction by Counterfactual Clue: In "The Homecoming Job," Sophie reveals that Congressman Jenkins lied about not knowing about their client's shooting in Iraq because he looked her straight in the eye when he said it, rather than at any other part of her anatomy. Apparently, the only time any man ever looks a woman in the eye is when he's making an effort to lie to her. Alternate explanations (e.g., he's Straight Gay, Asexual, or just Happily Married) apparently do not exist.
Admittingly, she is a world class grifter who can presumably read people very well. It is likely that there were other signs as well, that was simply one of the most notable. Also, it is Gina Bellman in a cocktail dress.
Courtroom Antic: Hardison's part of the con in "The Juror #6 Job." He started by bringing in a massive amount of information so boring and irrelevant that the judge was falling asleep, when by that point she should definitely have been demanding an actual justification for why it was important. Then he discredited his opposition's expert witness by bringing up the fact that he was on the no-fly list, which he only knew by hacking into their database and so had no proof of, and claiming that if the government didn't trust him to fly how could they trust his testimony. The judge ignored their objection and didn't give so much as a Disregard That Statement.
Crazy People Play Chess: Nate's first opponent is this in "The Queen's Gambit Job". He literally sleeps through most of the match, only waking up to make a single move. And he's so good that Nate tries to very quietly move and press the chess timer. It doesn't work.
Parker apparently spends her free time thinking up ways to rob stuff. "Some people do crosswords."
Also Nate, who, as noted below, made at least 13 different plans for the first job the team (minus Sophie) pulled (see the quote for Time for Plan B.)
Nate now has at least 26 standing plans. Allegedly, Hardison dies in about 6 or 7 of them (including Plan M, which they actually did, causing Nate to clarify that he only "is likely to die" in that plan, but is guaranteed to die in all the others, including plan C). Nobody else dies in any plans, so he's probably teasing Hardison. Eliot gets a trendy eye scar in one of them too.
When the team needs an ultraviolet light, Hardison casually pulls a portable one out of his bag, prompting Eliot to wonder why he would be carrying something like that.
Hardison also spends his weekends making disguises and extremely detailed fake identities (the basis for the plot of Juror #6) for the group.
Eliot spends free time watching hockey fights. "You never know when you'll have to fight a guy on ice."
The team works so well together that often when one of them turns out not to be Crazy Prepared enough, another team member has already prepared for the possibility.
When Parker does not bring a parachute for one job it turns out that Hardison packed one for her and snuck it into her gear.
Cringe Comedy: Not every episode, but some of them just pile it on. In "The Top-Hat Job", when half the crew is onstage performing a magic show they haven't exactly rehearsed for, not only do they keep cutting back to that part just to keep up the "comedy," but they add in some even worse Cringe Comedy when they have to use the magic show to get not only a thumb print but a retinal scan in order for the other half of the gang to do their job.
Crossover: Averted, unfortunately. Word Of God says that if Psych hadn't made Leverage a fictional show within Psych's universe, Eliot would have had an uncle named Henry.
In addition, Word of God has stated on several occasions that Eliot frequently takes jobs offscreen for a certain Miranda Zero, as in Global Frequency. Rogers was one of the showrunners on the original failed TV pilot for GF.
Cryptic Background Reference: Leverage has several of these, such as the named cons that we never see the team run, like the "London Spank," the "Genevan Paso Doble" and the "Apple Pie," which is a "Cherry Pie" but with lifeguards. Also, there's what Nate did at the Russian border. Word of God says that he may have technically hijacked a train, but that hasn't been mentioned on the show and likely never will be.
Curb-Stomp Battle: A surprisingly one-sided fight scene in "The First David Job." Eliot can't even get a punch in until the very end, when he works out how to take down his unexpectedly fast opponent. By that time, he's barely able to stand and is impaired for the rest of the episode. Fortunately, he's stubborn.
In "The Homecoming Job", Hardison wants to spoof the IP of a webcam and broadcast a fake signal; Eliot just throws a rock at it. It ends up being subverted when the lost feed alerts the guard to the fact that there's something going on.
Parker plays this straight in "The King George Job" when she has to replace the auctioneer.
Parker: Sophie told me to find his true heart's desire and give it to him, but that would have taken way too long. FLASHBACK TO AUCTIONEER'S OFFICE - Parker: Does this rag smell like chloroform?
D
Darker and Edgier: Season Three by comparison. People often die either before or during cons, the stakes are raised, and Nate seems even more out of control.
Dating Catwoman: Nate and Sophie's pre-series relationship... even though he remained faithful to his wife and she believes he was never really tempted. (He was.)
A dead little son in Nate's case, whose needed medical treatments were denied by the very insurance company he worked for, resulting in quitting his job, divorcing his wife, and becoming an alcoholic. Not necessarily in that order.
In "The Future Job" it was revealed by a fake psychic that Parker had a Dead Little Brother who died in a car accident when they were both little. What makes it especially painful to her is that she was the one who taught him how to ride a bicycle, which was what he was doing when he was hit.
Deadpan Snarker: Everyone has their moments, but most notably Hardison and Eliot, particularly around each other. As in this hissed exchange while Hardison pretends to beat Eliot up as part of a con.
Hardison has been using an unconvincing fake accent with the character he is portraying:
Eliot: Next time, man, I’ll play the thief. Hardison: I’d like to hear you do an accent! Eliot: I'd like to hear you do an accent! Hardison: I went to Second City Chicago! Eliot: Where did you find time between that and Karate at the Y?
Nate gets a good one in "The Wedding Job": "Yeah okay, yeah. Let's go rob Nicky Moscone. A guy who kills people, and lives in our city. Yeah, let's do that."
Deal with the Devil: A wealthy investor(?) who is powerful enough to plant a bug in the team's office and reinstate a greedy agriculture company's second-in-command after the team framed her offers to hook Nate up with loads of inside information on potential targets in exchange for a heads-up so he can sell his stocks before the team destroys the companies. Nate walks away, for now.
Death In The Clouds: A variation in "The Mile High Job", where someone on the plane has evidence they plan to destroy before it can be used against their company in court. The "evidence" turns out to be another employee, who the company wants assassinated before she can testify. And just to be certain, they try to bring down the whole plane...
Defeat Means Friendship: Nate chased all of the team members when he was previously an insurance investigator. One flashback reveals that Nate and Sophie even shot each other when he was chasing her.
Delayed Wire: The original con in "The Bottle Job."
Designated Parents: Nate and Sophie, with Eliot as the older brother and Hardison and Parker as the younger kids.
Determinator: Eliot. Nate, often to the chagrin of the team.
Digital Piracy Is Evil: In "The Bank Shot Job," Hardison mentions having to route through three different satellites to get a decent signal and download the latest Doctor Who torrent — Parker turns on a lighter and says: "Hey... Illegal downloading is wrong." Then she sets fire to a wastebasket inside a small van. This is especially ironic because Parker is nothing if not a thief.
I think that, as someone who steals things like the hope diamond for the challenge, she more likely finds it wrong as it is cheating, like reading the last page of a mystery first.
Or that it's too easy. She might think that if he wants to see Doctor Who he should either hack into the BBC or deal with the alarms and guards to steal the hard copy.
No, dealing with alarms and guards to steal the unseen episodes, and the 'lost' episodes.
Dirty Business: Eliot Spencer is the team's "hitter" and is the only one on the team to physically hurt people on a regular basis. Even if nearly everyone he takes down is asking for it and he doesn't seem to have a problem with doing what has to be done he's the only one on a team of career-criminals-turned-Robin-Hoods who describes himself as a bad guy (and not in a way that suggests he's proud of it either).
His dialogue in "The Tap Out Job" to Sophie and the "Gone Fishin' Job" to Hardison before they return to the militia camp illustrates that he has no illusions about the nature of his work, but he also knows that he is particularly suited to it and that it's sometimes entirely necessary, so he shoulders the responsibility. He takes the pain so others don't have to, because he is the one who CAN take it.
It is repeatedly indicated that in the past Eliot commited acts for which there is no excuse or justification and it is the guilt over this that drives him to do what he does. Word Of God describes him as a man who has accepted that he is eternally damned.
In "The Long Way Down Job," Eliot and Parker are trapped and their only way out is to abandon the body of the man they wanted to rescue. Eliot points out that they are the only two on the team that are cold enough to do it, which is why they are there. The only difference between them is that Parker is trying to become a better person, whereas Eliot has accepted his role.
Disappearing Box: The team performs this trick during their "Top Hat Job" magic show in order to get the CEO up to unlock a door requiring a retinal scan. Their way of doing it: they switch his box with an empty one when it passes behind a sheet.
Discriminate And Switch: Hardison in the "Homecoming Job": "This is because of my et-ni-ticity, ain't it? Cause I'm Jewish?" Bonus points for the nametag on his shirt reading "White."
Gets a callback in "The Cross My Heart Job" when Hardison has to use a woman's ID badge. When someone questions him about his gender, Hardison claims he's being sexist, racist, and anti-Semitic.
Disguised Hostage Gambit: In "The Bank Shot Job," Nathe is about to con a corrupt judge out of thousands of dollars when the bank is robbed and the robbers take everyone hostage when the police arrive. The robbers turn out to be father and son who only rob the place to get money to pay off some thugs holding the father's wife for ransom. The judge figures out that he is being scammed and when he disarms the robbers, he uses the gun to shoot Nate. When the cops storm the bank in the end, the team has arranged things to look like the judge was the sole robber and hostage taker. All the witnesses back them up since the judge is reviled by everyone and the cops will not investigate further since they hate his guts as well.
Disney Villain Death: In the finale of Season 4, Nate is holding Latimer and Dubenich at gunpoint. Nate reasons that if he kills one of them, the other goes free and becomes a Karma Houdini. Latimer and Dubenich are already pissed at each other, so he takes a fourth option (his third option was to shoot them both dead) and spares them, but sets the gun at the edge of the concrete platform they're standing on and walks away. Both Dubenich and Latimer go after the gun and get into a struggle causing them to fall off the platform.
Does This Make Me Look Fat?: In "The Wedding Job", one of the bridesmaids asks Parker and Sophie if the dress makes her look fat. Sophie reassures her, but Parker being Parker, she tells her the truth.
Parker: Oh, definitely. I mean, why do you think I had to let out the waist, to make you look less skinny?
Doing It for the Art: Part of the team's entire schtick (the other part being Good Feels Good). They certainly aren't doing what they do for a living (consider that at the end of the pilot, the entire team was wealthy enough to live extravagantly for the rest of their lives).
Parker: Gimme three days of prep. It'd be like taking diamonds from the French National Bank. beat Parker: That's like taking candy from a baby. Hardison: I got it. Parker: A very easy thing to do. Hardison: Got. It.
In "The Runway Job."
Eliot: ...if you ask me. What? I date a lot of models. Lot of private fashion shows, if you know what I mean. Parker: Yes, yes. Eliot: But the dresses usually ended up on the ground. Parker: Yup. I get it. You're a guy. Eliot: Means they werenaked. Parker: Okay! Seriously?
Double Meaning Title: "The Bottle Job" is a Bottle Episode. They also describe the con they're running as "The Wire in a bottle," since they have to run it in a limited amount of time. Finally, it's the episode where Nate falls Off The Wagon.
Tara does a Towel Hits Floor variation in The Maltese Falcon Job, to Parker and Eliot's shock.
Drives Like Crazy: Parker, if "The Gone-Fishin' Job" is to be believed.
Parker: Who knew a sedan could hit 140? Sophie: Parker, never get behind the wheel of a car again.
The very next episode, "The Boost Job", reveals that she used to be a getaway driver for a gang of car thieves — as a twelve-year-old, so this is likely subtle foreshadowing.
Sophie, for all her complaining in "The Gone Fishin' Job," qualifies as well as of "The Big Bang Job."
Parker: Who taught you how to drive? Sophie: A taxi driver in Istanbul. Parker: I like it.
Dueling Hackers: Hardison got into one of these in "The Two Live Crew Job". Bonus points for the fact that the antagonist is played by Wil Wheaton.
Dumb Muscle: Eliot Spencer subverts this trope hard. He knows fashion, plays chess, cooks like a master chef, and can think on his feet in bad situations.
Eliot also parodies this trope in "The Three Days of the Hunter Job", when Hardison is stuck in the field and he has to look info up.
The "http" goes before the "www dot", right?
He then proceeds to point out to Hardison that now he knows how it feels to have Mission Control sitting behind a keyboard making jokes.
Nate was an honest man before the insurance company he worked as an investigator rejected the policy on his son's health coverage causing him to die. As a result of this, he gets divorced and becomes an alcoholic and turns to a life of Robin Hooding.
No one actually knows who Sophie really is as she is a grifter who is constantly living in new identities. She has a lot of angst about it in Season 2.
As the only member of the team to have physically hurt people in the past, Eliot is The Atoner. It's heavily implied he killed children for Moreau.Word Of God has it that Eliot is a man who has "accepted that he is damned."
Parker grew up on in the foster system with a series of terrible foster parents - one of whom she may have blown up after they stole her favorite toy. She had a brother who died at a young age in when he was hit by a car while on his bike - she taught him to ride. She was driving get away cars when she was 10. After being caught for car theft when she was 12, she was thrown into juvenile detention. She trained under the greatest thief in the world as a teenager who kept her away from his real family because he thought she wouldn't fit in. To top it off she also has Asperger's Syndrome meaning that she never really fits in in social situations.
Hardison is the only member of the main cast that seems to be relatively normal as the playful hacker. He grew up in the foster system, but unlike Parker was in a stable situation with Nana.
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Earpiece Conversation: 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 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:
Emotionless Girl: 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 Continuity Nod, since we may have seen her blow up her parents.
This is slowly changing as her Character Development 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 Star-Crossed Lovers story in "The Van Gogh Job", for example.
Also for the upcoming "Last Dam Job" episode, they recruit a few old faces to help them out, including Hardison's Evil Counterpart Chaos.
Engineered Public Confession: The end of "The Homecoming Job", "The Future Job", "The Inside Job", and "The Studio Job". From the first of those examples: A congressman and the head of a Blackwater-style security company are basically 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.
Estrogen Brigade Bait: Eliot and Hardison both fall under this. The show's writers and directors know it, too, providing many instances of suit-wearing, arms-showing-off, and other (usually subtle) instances of fanservice.
Eureka Moment: Hardison gives Nate one in "The Two-Horse Job".
A Running Gag/ Once an Episode 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.
"The Miracle Job"; A priest is 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're gonna have a long penance. Start by answering the man's question."
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 "The San Lorenzo Job."
Shortly before that, 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.
Arguably 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.
Even Evil Has Loved Ones: In "The Queen's Gambit Job", it's revealed that Sterling manipulated the entire con so that he could rescue his daughter from her overbearing stepfather.
Every Car is a Pinto: The accident at the beginning of "The Beantown Bailout Job". Of course, given that it was an engineered crash...
Everyone Calls Him Barkeep: In "The Bottle Job," the villain's two henchmen are repeatedly introduced as "Liam" and "Liam's Brother".
Everyone only knows her as Parker. Word of God states that her name is actually just Parker.
More than word of god. When she picked up her ticket to Sophie's play, it was under "Parker. No first or last name. Just Parker."
Everything is Online: 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", 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.
Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Probably the only time we see Sterling truly off-balance is when Nate gives himself up to the Feds rather than the rest of his team at the end of "The Maltese Falcon Job".
Evil Speech Of Evil: A standard tactic of the Villain of the Week. Notable examples include Dr. Hannity in "The Inside Job" and Rockwell in "The 15 Minutes Job."
Exactly What It Says on the Tin: 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 has been shaken up a little so far in Season 4.
Exact Words: Comes into play sometimes; specifically in "The Second David Job."
Fake Action Prologue: 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. They don't use it.
Fake Kill Scare: 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. Which blows their cover the moment the mayor escapes and shows up alive.
Fake Nationality: 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.
Sophie has been a Fake American along with fake French, Indian, South African, and Austrian/German, among others.
Not exactly a nationality, but Nate's grifts often play him up as a Southerner, mostly so he can come off as abrasive and simple so his mark will underestimate him.
Fakeout Escape: A crucial part of the plan during "The Jailhouse Job".
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...
Faking And Entering: 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.
Faking the Dead: The team uses this every so often to convince their mark of the seriousness of the situation - in one notable instance in "The Three Days of The Hunter Job," Parker was run over by a car, with the mark standing right there.
In "The Two Live Crew Job," Chaos tried to assassinate Sophie, so they pretended the attempt succeeded - complete with funeral - to figure out who it was.
They fake Parker's death in "The Morning After Job" to convince The Mark he killed her.
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).
Fan Mob: Eliot gets one during the team's Fiddle Game in Memphis.
Fanservice: Aside from Parker as Ms. Fanservice (see below), Hardison spends most of "The King George Job" in a tank top with his well-muscled arms showing. And Sophie's outfits always accentuate (and reveal) her long, long legs.
Sophie's desire to make history and go for the big score causes major problems in "The First David Job."
Hardison's tendency to go WAY over-the-top when he grifts gets him into trouble on occasion, most notably in "The Iceman Job."
Faux Yay: In "The 12-Step Job," Hardison spontaneously pretends to be Eliot's boyfriend in order to get into a rehab center, leading to a Crowning Moment of Funny while he 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!
FBI Agent: Taggart and McSweeten, Those Two Guys 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 Running Gag - they're well-meaning but incompetent, and they have benefited from high-profile arrests that are handed to them by the True Companions.
Parker, Hardison and Eliot frequently play FBI agent characters.
An FBI agent is the antagonist in "The Three Strikes" and "Maltese Falcon Jobs."
15 Minutes of Fame: In the aptly named "The Fifteen Minutes Job", the crew takes the mark down by briefly making him famous.
Five Finger Discount: Parker's specialty. 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 Word Of God: 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.
Five Foundations of Morality: The show builds off the conflict between Care/Fairness and Authority, that certain victims are not treated fairly or kindly because of failure in the current system. So the problem is that if the good guys all played by the rules (honoring Authority), the victims would continue to pile up in the wake of unchecked villainy (failing to honor Fairness and Care). Because of this, the audience can root for the heroes even though they're disobeying the law (grandly) and even hurting people. If you stop to think, though: To what extent are they free to inconvenience or even harm innocent bystanders (for example, honest guards just doing their jobs) in order to accomplish the mission?
(Of course, once you're past the premise, you can see that it's not "harm five innocents" vs. "let bad guy go free"; it's "harm five innocents" vs. "allow harm to continue to plague 500 others" and then we're into the Utilitarianism mindset. If this leads you to mull over your own moral and ethical inclinations in these matters, the show may have done good by that alone.)
It gets a little more edgy when the dichotomy is Authority vs. Ingroup: To what extent are they free to harm innocent bystanders in order to ensure the team's safety and freedom even when the mission is (at that point) a wash? If Eliot breaks a guard's arm to keep Nate from going to jail, is he still a heroic type? *
Don't try to keep a running total of Eliot's victims, it'll only make you depressed. Plus in the "Maltese Falcon Job" he'll just do it for you
Young Parker blowing up her foster parents' house (possibly with them in it) for taking The Bunny away.
Eliot concluding that the 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.
Foe Yay: The interaction between Nate and The Italian is thick with it. Also implied to be how Nate and Sophie initially became attracted to each other.
Foil: The classy, social, likable, completely fake consummate liar Sophie and the crazy, No Social SkillsCloud Cuckoolander but always honest Parker have this feel at times.
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.
Four Is Death: The episode after Sophie leaves, "The Iceman Job," does not go well for the team. They get their groove back when Sophie sends in Sixth Ranger 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.
Foster Kid: 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).
Free Wheel: 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...
Friends with Benefits: What Nate and Sophie are telling themselves and others that they are, as of season 4. (The rest of the team seems skeptical.)
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.
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."
Friend To All Children: Parker and especially Eliot both exhibit these traits. Heck, if the kid drew the short stick in life, they'll go into Papa Wolf ("The Order 23 Job") or Mama Bear ("The Stork Job") mode to help them.
Frying Pan of Doom: 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.
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".
Fun with Subtitles: 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."
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Gambit Roulette: A few of their more complicated schemes edge into this.
Gaslighting: Some of the cons 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 germophobic Corrupt Corporate Executive 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. 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 tazed 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 caffiene pills in a jar labelled "anti-psychotics". Guess what happens when she interrupts a broadcast for "breaking news" and her producers tackle her...
Gambit Pileup: 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: Nate, who was working for the insurance company, exposes the MacGuffin as a fraud. The art thefts were done by the curator, who had an antiquities smuggling "side business."
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.
In "The Double-Blind Job," the client's less-than-platonic interest in Hardison is suddenly heightened when she sees him at work.
Hardison also hits it off with a female "co-worker" when they discuss the new expansion for World of Warcraft.
Genius Bruiser: 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 rescuing Nate and Maggie in "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job".
Maggie: You know, people underestimate you, Eliot. Nate: That's kind of the point.
Du Fort:You stupid f-- (Listening through earpieces)Parker: Oh! There it is!
Sophie, about her donation to an art exhibit.
"It's nothing compared to the magnificent beauty of your dagger."
Don't forget the scene Hardison spends with Parker's legs wrapped around his head. It's Played for Laughs, but if you ignore what's being said it's a rather compromising position.
The Two Live Crew Job: When Starke's team meet, there's a line spoken in Hebrew by Raquel Diane that isn't translated, because she said something pretty nasty: "And you lead me straight to the hands of Eliot Spencer, you son of a bitch" (roughly translated, the actual literal translation is 'Your mother's vagina', which in this context means the same in Hebrew slang).
Eliot's story about "trimming a banzai" with a Japanese policewoman in "The Reunion Job."
Giant Mook: The random security guard from "The Schaherezaede Job." Standing roughly One Head Taller 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 unconcious. The plan goes wrong, Moto rushes in, and the guy wakes up, dusts himself off, and proceeds to ready himself for a rematch. Essentially the TV version of a Boss In Mooks Clothing.
Giftedly Bad: 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."
A Glass in the Hand: In "The Double Blind Job", the sight of the client of the week flirting with Hardison leads Parker to utterly demolish her beer bottle. With her fingers.
Going Cold Turkey: 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.
Gone Horribly Right: 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 a good guy.
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.
Gory Discretion Shot: It's probably best that we didn't see Eliot beating up those two 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. Don't spill Eliot's coffee.
Go-to Alias: 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; he's used Tom Baker and Bob Gibson multiple times as well.
Eliot has used the name Wes Abernathy at least twice.
Great Escape: 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/Corrupt Corporate Executive as his accomplice in one episode.
Groin Attack: 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.
Groupie Brigade: Eliot acquires one when posing as a country and western singer in "The Studio Job".
Guns Akimbo: Eliot does this in "The Big Bang Job." Also a good example of Gun Kata.
Guyliner: Eliot has to wear some for his character in "The Runway Job." Hardison, quite naturally, mocks him for it.
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Hair Flip: Sophie and Eliot performed a double hair flip while riding down a window-washing elevator in "The Inside Job."
Half-Arc Season: 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.
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 he points out They put him in a coffin!
Hates Being Touched: 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.
Hattori Hanzo: Nate and Sophie get Eliot a Hanzo sword for Christmas in "The Ho Ho Ho Job." Nate knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a samurai.
Heroic BSOD: Nate has one in "The Radio Job" when he sees his father blown up by Dubenich's henchmen.
"Hey, You!" Haymaker: 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 one of the meth heads holding the mother hostage.
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, if you know what I mean. Parker: Yes, yes. Eliot: But the dresses usually ended up on the ground. Parker: Yup. I get it. You're a guy. Eliot: Means they werenaked. 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, she's really handy with engines.
While 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.
Hide Your Pregnancy: Done on Gina Bellman in "The 2 Live Crew Job" by holding a bomb to her belly. And later stuffing her in a coffin. Take that, How I Met Your Mother!
At the end of the episode, she goes on a journey to "find herself"; the next episode, she's only present in phone calls from the main team, usually shot from the chest up behind a bar or in the back seat of a cab. Of course she came back for "The Maltese Falcon Job" and was running around on a freighter while seven-and-a-half months pregnant.
Hilariously Abusive Childhood: Subverted, in that the humor in Parker's childhood comes not from the abuse, but from her revenge on the abusers.
Hoist by His Own Petard: The writers prefer their villains to be taken down this way. They even use the phrase in the DVD commentaries.
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.
Hollywood Hacking: Hardison may be the greatest hacker in the world, but even then what he can do is unrealistic.
Hollywood Nerd: Monkeywrenched every which way with Hardison, who is confident with girls, and openly admits to playing World of Warcraft (and even bonds with a "coworker" over it in a cover!) and torrenting Doctor Who. And he's not exactly "Hollywood" good-lookin', either, but he can rock a suit when he needs to. In "The Bottle Job" Hardison strips to arrange a last minute weatherman job and trust me - he is definitely Hollywood Nerd!
Hollywood New England: Subverted in that while Boston is played by Portland, Oregon, they actually do a better job than most shows of staying true to New England realities.
Home Base: The Leverage Consulting and Associates offices in Season 1. McRory's and Nate's apartment from Season 2 on.
Honey Trap: 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."
How We Got Here: "The Second David Job", begins with a moment from the climax of the episode, then spends the episode showing How We Got Here.
This is done in a couple other episodes, including "The First David Job," "The San Lorenzo Job," and "The 10 Li'l Grifters Job."
Humiliation Conga: Happens to many marks, and to the Chief of Security in "The Rashomon Job."
Hustling The Mark: 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.
Hypno Fool: "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. The Reveal 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 What the Hell, Hero? from the rest of the team, with callbacks to it in future episodes.
I
I Call It Vera: Hardison's van, "Lucille." And then, after it gets blown up, "Lucille 2.0". Unfortunately, Lucille 2.0 has also been blown up with Hardison's own EMP gun by Chaos in the "Ho Ho Ho Job". And yes, there is a Lucille 3.0. This may end up being a Once a SeasonRunning Gag.
I Can Explain: Nate says this in every episode when he interacts with his ex-wife Maggie.
Word Of God is that he said it a lot when he was in trouble during their marriage.
I Can't Hear You: Nate, in a low moment in the season two finale, calls Sophie 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.
Identical Grandson: 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..
I Know Mortal Kombat: In "The Cross My Heart Job," Hardison lands a passenger jet using skills he learned from a flight simulator video game.
"I Know What We Can Do" Cut: 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 has been replaced with a stock Dogs Playing Poker.
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.
Implacable Man: The Giant Mook 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.
His Evil Counterpart Raquel Diane would mop the floor with you. Because she once killed a guy with a mop.
Incredibly Obvious Bomb: 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.
Dubenich: I found the transmitter! Nate: Ah, you found the transmitter with the blinking light. Yeah, we wanted you to figure some of it out.
Induced Hypochondria: Used for Gaslighting in "The Order 23 Job." The team notices a Corrupt Corporate Executive about to go away to Club Fed and escape with his stolen seems to have germophobia... 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. Maggie tells him it's ridiculous - everyone knows it's just a deadly fungus.
Indy Ploy: 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 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."
Insecurity Camera: 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.
Insecurity System: The bank in Juan, in "The Bank Shot Job". Something of a mixed blessing, as they're not the ones robbing it...
Inspector Lestrade: Played with with FBI AgentsTaggart 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.
Instant Drama Just Add Tracheotomy: 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.
Instant Mystery, Just Delete Scene: 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.
Instant Sedation: 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.
Instant Web Hit: Used in "The Tap Out Job" to convince 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 The Mark's fake act of heroism famous in "The 15 Minutes Job."
Goon: You know when I said earlier you had pretty hair? I lied. Parker: Yeah, well, I lied when I said you didn't. Wait... dammit. ('jumps off bridge to escape')
In the Blood: In "The Queen's Gambit Job", The Mark's stepdaughter is an undefeated chess prodigy who is able to beat even Nate at the game. It comes to no surprise when it was revealed that her real father is Sterling since He. Never. Loses.
In Love with the Mark: Happens to one of the grifters in "The Lonely Hearts Job," kicking off the plot.
Invincible Hero: 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 The Worf Effect.
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.
Nate: (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 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," Jimmy Ford repeatedly accuses Nate of thinking he's better than him. At the end of the episode, 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 with the knee." Sophie: "Just trying to sell the bit."
Hardison: Li'l Jennifer Pearson's wearing you out, ain't she?
Eliot: Dude, we walked the Freedom Trail twice.
Hardison: Nice!
Eliot: No, man, the actual Freedom Trail. We took paddle boats to the public gardens, shopped on Newbury Street, and went to something called the Boston Duck Tour.
For all you Spec-Monkeys out there: never be afraid to call someone. A very nice lady from the 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.
It's Personal: "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, and for everyone else it's personal because they 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-fiancee's father.
"The Stork Job" for Parker - she identifies with the orphans as a Foster Kid. "The Boost Job," because she identifies with Tagalong Kid Josie. She does "The Inside Job" because her old mentor was 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 Eliot, his former employee.
The "15 Minutes Job" for Nate - the client is an old friend and The Mark is an Evil Counterpart. (Noticing a theme in this category?)
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:
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.
It Was Here, I Swear: Subverted in "The Three Days of the Hunter Job." Nate and 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.
I Uh You Too: 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. As of "The Long Way Down Job," They Do.
Jail Bake: In "The Jailhouse Job", the team sends Nate a kielbasa with an earpiece hidden inside it. Another prisoner sees him tear apart the kielbasa and stick something into his ear and is suitably grossed out.
Japandering: In "The Three Strikes Job," part of Eliot's baseball player cover is a (fake) Japanese energy drink commercial that Hardison whipped together.
Jury Duty: Parker (or rather, one of Parker's cover identities) gets called to jury duty in "The Juror #6 Job" and stumbles upon a plot by another group to mess with the proceedings.
Just One Little Mistake: The fake FBI agents chasing the client at the beginning of "The Double Blind Job" make two little mistakes - they show Hardison their fake badges... and they spill Eliot's coffee.
In The Boiler Room Job, they pull a massive shuffle on The Mako. The team thoroughly convinces the guy that they are going to try to short the market on cocoa bean shares, going so far as to falsify a chocolate persona so Sophie can steal the show at a chocolate festival, pretend that Nate (going by the name Count Chocula)owns the market on cocoa futures, fly the Mako out to South America to view the deforestation, and get an entire roomful of actors to pretend they are a legit stock brokering firm - and then when the Mako is gloating about how he saw through the whole thing They rob him blind and take everything out of his bank accounts.
Keep The Reward: The Leverage team work like this, doing jobs where all the profit goes to their clients. Somewhat justified in that their first job (a vengeance gig against the guy who tried to screw them) made them filthy stinking rich.
Plus, Hardison is a Wall Street-level genius at shuffling money around.
Averted, however, when Tara filled in for the absent Sophie - she very specifically demanded her cut of the take each week.
Well, not ALL the profits...the pilot implies they take a bit from the marks, to cover expenses.
Kick the Dog: The wealthy guy who stole a heart destined for a teenaged boy. Nate gives him a snow globe instead.
Knife Nut: Eliot. He's also a chef when he's not killing people.
Eliot: Hold a knife like this (normally), cuts through an onion. Hold a knife like this (switches to a backhand grip), cuts through, like, eight yakuza in four seconds. Screams, blood, carnage. People are like knives. Everything's in context.
Kinda Busy Here: Used by name on several occasions by both Hardison and Eliot.
Kiss-Kiss-Slap: Nate and Sophie at the end of The Maltese Falcon Job.
In "The Second David Job", Maggie joins the team, and comments on how annoying it must be to have Nate talking to them all the time. Nate disagrees, then Hardison and Eliot basically go "Actually...".
"The Three Days of the Hunter Job" is full of lampshades hung by Nate while critiquing Sophie's leadership technique.
And in "The Runway Job" an irritated Tara repeatedly lampshades Nate's catch phrases and general style of speech. After "Let's go steal a ..." she looks at the others and says, "Steal a fashion show... Does he always talk like that?"
Tara: So he just says things... and walks away? Parker: Yeah... you're gonna have to get used to that.
In "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job" Hardison casually pulls a ultraviolet light out of his backpack when Sophie tells him he needs one. This is commented by Eliot with a "Seriously? You just happen to have one lying around?".
After Nate criticizes The Mark for his business practices in "The 15 Minutes Job":
Sophie: "Like I've never seen you take any victory lap after you've pushed us to the edge or stick around to gloat while the bad guy's being dragged away."
Parker in "The Boiler Room Job."
Parker: "So what is it we're stealing? I mean, is it 'let's go steal a mountain, a funeral, a panda, what?"
Doubles as a Continuity Nod, as earlier in the season the team had indeed stolen both a mountain ("The Long Way Down Job") and a funeral ("The Grave Danger Job").
Landmark Sale: In "The Three Strikes Job", Nate poses as a real estate developer planning to build a baseball stadium to con a corrupt mayor. This requires him to make it look like an actual team was planning to move to the stadium.
Large Ham: A lot of the grifter characters. Sophie, when she's acting.
Laser Hallway: Guarding the vault in "The First David Job". Parker gets around it with acrobatics and aluminum foil.
In a flashback in "The Inside Job," a teenage Parker is shown doing something similar to get to an ice cream sundae as part of her training. Her mentor then holds up a spoon, and she presumably does the entire thing backwards without spilling the ice cream, although it cuts back to the present before we can see her try. The same spoon shows up earlier in the episode, in a shot of her apartment / supply cache, so she did.
Law Enforcement, Inc.: IYS, the insurance agency that Nate worked for, seems to be this in part—if he can go after Sophie with a gun instead of having to call the local cops, well...
Leverage & Associates does not work this way, however—it takes up "where the law leaves off".
The Law of Conservation of Detail: The team needs to create elaborate schemes in order to manipulate their mark. This means that side comments to the mark often end up being important later, and their importance becomes apparent during the "how it was done" flashback scenes. This is a trait shared with its spiritual predecessor Hustle.
Like A Son To Me: Well, niece, actually. Nate goes back a long ways with John McRory, so his daughter Cora is like a niece to him. That also means that she's off-limits.
London Gangster: Annie Croy, one of Sophie's recurring personae, is a London Gangster.
So are many of Hardison's disguises.
Lonely Funeral: Subverted in that Sophie's first funeral is actually pretty crowded - but no one there knows who she really is.
Lost In A Crowd: Variation in "The Second David Job:" the team plants fake David statues in everyone's bag at the museum coat check. The real Davids were both in the display case the whole time, covered by a cloud of steam. The whole thing was a decoy while the team stole every other work of art in the gallery.
Love at First Gunshot: Sophie and Nate's first chronological meeting involves Nate interrupting Sophie as she tries to steal a painting. Their eyes meet, a quick smile, then they shoot each other.
John Rogers is proud to have written "The first Meet Cute sequence I can think of that involves the principals shooting each other."
Luke You Were My Father: a dying industrialist gives his fortune to a charity because its operator is his long-lost daughter. He didn't tell her the truth because he didn't want her to hate him for (accidentally) abandoning her and her mother.
Luxury Prison Suite: Used in several episodes, most notably in "The Lost Heir Job." They have a witness who is in jail. They offer to break him out if he helps them. He laughs at them, because he is quite happy in the minimum-security prison. So they frame him as the leader of the Aryan Nation and threaten to send him to a maximum-security prison if he doesn't give them the info they need.
M
MacGuffin: For one, the Van Gogh painting itself in "The Van Gogh Job." It's very valuable, a lot of people want it, and it's part of an epic Star-Crossed Lovers story. What it is exactly beyond that is completely irrelevant.
Magic Floppy Disk: Well-averted in general, but Played for Laughs in "The Wedding Job." When Eliot infiltrates the FBI in order to steal the audio surveillance on the target, he finds that the FBI is still using cassette tapes to record their audio. Hardison is dumbfounded, and ends up having to set off the fire alarm so that Eliot can get out of the building with a box full of tapes.
Mall Santa: The Client in "The Ho Ho Ho Job." The mooks are also playing Santa to get into position.
The Man Makes The Weapon: Eliot, most notably in "The Wedding Job." He disarms a man holding a huge knife, using a whisk. He then kills the man with an appetizer and a tray.
Manipulative Bastard. Sophie's job. Nate. Sterling. Chaos, for sure. A number of the marks. It's a pretty common trope on this show.
Manipulative Editing: Hardison uses this on the jury room footage in "The Juror #6 Job" to convince the mark that she was about to win the trial. He also does so in "The Bank Shot Job" to make it look like the judge had taken the hostages from the beginning.
This ends up being critical to the con in "The 15 Minutes Job."
Martial Medic: Played straight in "The Bank Shot Job" - Eliot is the only member of the group whose job regularly involves violence so it stands to reason that he's the one who's going to know what to do with a gunshot wound.
Matzo Fever: Eliot seems to get a mild case of it toward Mikel Dayan, his counterpart in the rival crew in "The Two Live Crew Job."
Meet Cute: Implied in the pilot that Nate and Sophie had one - that ended with him shooting her.
Metal Detector Checkpoint: In "The Lost Heir Job," a corrupt lawyer is delayed by Hardison stuffing him full of keys in all of his various pockets before he can enter the court house security check.
Metaphorgotten: Nate's homily for the wedding during "The Wedding Job". Marriage is a sacred bond, which is a contract, which is a lousy way of relating between two people, I mean, you might as well try to explain baseball to a dog but at least the dog will bring the ball back to you . . .
"The Homecoming Job". Coverup of a friendly fire investigation -> multi-billion-dollar money-laundering scheme.
"The Snow Job". Negligent home contracting job -> nationwide foreclosure-related fraud.
"The Stork Job". Spanish Prisoner scam with orphans -> weapons smuggling.
"The Gone-Fishin' Job". People being scammed by fake IRS agents -> anti-government militia planning a terrorist attack
Missing Episode: TNT pulled "The Mile High Job," which was set on a plane and devoted much of its comedy to making fun or water landings after the Miracle on the Hudson. The episode was later aired in its original form after the media frenzy had died down.
Mission Briefing: Done Once an Episode to describe The Mark and his various evil activities using fancy slideshows, unusual in that it's Hardison who does it instead of Nate, the team's leader. Usually, everyone butts in with their own comments or the character who actually knows what they're talking about takes over the briefing.
Mission Control: Nate, or sometimes Nate and Hardison, and on one occasion Hardison and Sophie.
Mission Impossible Cable Drop: Parker's trademark maneuver is to jump off the side of buildings and lower down on a cable, instead of doing this on the inside. She then goes in through the window. No one but Parker is crazy enough to do it willingly, though they are often forced to anyway.
Monumental Theft: The team specializes in some amazing tactics to get what they're after and leave their client's enemies holding the proverbial bag. The targets of their clever thefts and elaborate con-jobs are never small-time, either. Their first job netted them millions of dollars and upset the entire industry of the guy who double-crossed them, on top of causing an international incident. It helps when you have four amazing thieves lead by a grandmaster of the Batman Gambit.
Mood Whiplash: The show can often veer from a breezy Ocean's Eleven-esque tone to a very serious, dramatic one (such as flashbacks to the death of Nate's son, Eliot threatening a child abuser or Parker finding an arms smuggling ring running out of a Serbian orphanage) in a matter of minutes.
Motive Misidentification: In "The Ho Ho Ho Job," the team believes that the plot at the local mall is to steal everyone's credit card numbers for massive identity fraud. So they shut down the power in the whole area. Then it turns out that Chaos wanted them to do just that. The power outage disabled the security system at the nearby bank (their real target) and he and his goons were free to move in and rob it. Of course, this being Leverage, they were still able to stop him in time. Still one of the only times when the villain was a step ahead of the team.
Ms. Fanservice: If someone's going to be in a fetish-y position, it'll almost always be Parker. However, as demonstrated by several episodes, such as “The Snow Job,” Sophie is more than capable of filling this role.
Parker in a French maid outfit in "The Maltese Falcon Job".
No love for Tara? This troper must cite “The Bottle Job” for her hooker-ish cover.
Tara: (hikes skirt, sticks out chest, pouts lip) “My name’s Trish and I’m lonely…” I think her hips were bouncing off opposite walls as she approached the mark.
Mugging the Monster: A Loan Shark targets Nate's favorite pub after its owner had borrowed money from him. He does this after the funeral of the original owner.
Musical Spoiler: During "The Order 23 Job", an out of place bit of Middle-Eastern music cuts in when Hardison gets into a Marshall's car to search it. Except that the Armenian assassin's car is actually the second one he searches. And Armenia is in the Caucasus. Someone on the sound team screwed up.
There's a Getting Crap Past the Radar moment there if you're paying attention - she is clearly using different Serbian words when she tells the kids "I will make your tomato shiny" and when she exclaims "Oh, Shiny Tomato!" on getting caught, making it clear that the subtitles have been sanitized.
My Sister Is Off Limits: Nate sees Cora McRory like this, though she's more like a surrogate niece to him.
Myth Arc: There's one introduced in the season 3 premiere, where the team is essentially blackmailed into trying to find a way to take down the world's most feared criminal banker in six months.
Hardison: Have you ever been to Kiev? The Cakemaker of Kiev kick all our asses! This is the butcher.
The Napoleon: The younger son in "The Snow Job" is the brains behind the operation, despite his short stature, and resents the cavalier attitude of his much taller brother.
This actually creates a bit of an unreveal at the beginning of "The 10 Li'l Grifters Job," when a man addresses a shadowy man about a murder. The second man steps out to reveal that it's Nate, but anybody familiar with the show has already figured it out since he's wearing one of his trademark fedoras.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In "The Underground Job", the team tries to con a corrupt mine owner. However, their original plan backfires when the mine owner decides to pay off a corrupt attorney general by firing his workers and using their payrolls. Then he plans to destroy the mine, which would also destroy the local town's only source of employment.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Victor Dubenich, the bad guy from the first episode, he formed the team, then tried to off them when they got the job done. That gave them motive for revenge and since Good Feels Good they decided to stay at it afterwards. Fridge Brilliance kicks in when you realize that compared to their lives before the pilot, they're much better off because of it.
This is alluded to in "The Last Dam Job" when Nate visits Dubenich in prison. Nate mentions, "my team..." and Dubenich retorts, "my team!"
No Celebrities Were Harmed: Parker is disguised as Lady GagaBjor-- "Don't say her name!" At one point she's worried that "she's not being weird enough". Needless to say, even with Nate reply, "Somehow, I doubt that.", she is.
A scare tactic-obsessed cable news anchor character who is definitely not Nancy Grace appears in "The Three Days of the Hunter Job".
Word Of God confirms that they work to disguise the identities of all the real people they base each episode on - mostly to avoid doing anything actionable. In the case of the villain in "The Scheherazade Job," John Rogers extended that to "Also, I did not want to get shot in the face."
Noodle Implements: Most of the scams - i.e. the Cherry Pie, the Cuban Sandwich, the London Spank, the Genevan Paso Doble, etc. - many of which the team disagrees on the exact elements of.
We never find out exactly what happened to the people the team was helping at the end of "The Nigerian Job" or how the team helped them.
The Sapphire Monkey, which Eliot was supposed to steal in North Korea. In "The Two-Horse Job," we see that he failed to acquire the Monkey, since he was being interrogated by two North Koreans who demanded to know where the Monkey was. Later on, in "The Rashomon Job," Eliot is given the task of stealing the Dagger of Aqu'abi because he failed to get the Monkey.
In "The Bank Shot Job," we never find out the full details of the con at the beginning of the episode.
In "The Order 23 Job", what the actual Order 23 is.
What Nate did at the Russian border. (Word Of God says that he "may have technically hijacked a train.")
Lots of the unexplained cons fit under this, like the "Apple Pie," which is a "Cherry Pie" but with lifeguards.
One of the other retrieval specialists that Eliot runs into in "The Van Gogh Job" owes him $27,000 for something that happened in Singapore.
What exactly it was the team did in Juarez.
The time they stole a panda, as referenced in "The Boiler Room Job." Word Of God has it that the team does a lot of complicated and interesting jobs that are not included in episodes...
...as we see in "The Cross My Heart Job" at the beginning, where the team is returning from a job in the Caribbean where all the earbuds and Hardison's laptop got wrecked, Hardison faked a volcanic eruption, Eliot apparently fought three combat divers with spear guns, underwater, on a shipwreck, and Sophie played a French heiress on a topless beach.
In that same episode, Hardison is working without his usual setup and complains when Nate pressures him that no one is asking Eliot to fight a guy with a Nerf sword. To which Eliot responds: "Damascus, 2002."
No Name Given: Sophie, technically. By season 3, everybody but Nate (and the audience) learns her real name.
Apparently, Nate learned it during their night together in "The San Lorenzo Job" but was too drunk to remember.
Liam's brother ("The Bottle Job") is only ever referred to as...Liam's brother.
Word Of God says Parker has a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome.
My favorite:
Cindy: You don't think it makes me look fat? Sophie: (shakes head no) Uh-uh. Parker: Oh, definitely. I mean, why do you think I had to let out the waist, to make you look less skinny?
Hardison actually had to teach Parker the hand-quote motion in "The Beantown Bailout Job," and even then she wasn't confident she was doing it right.
Eliot mentions that he got over his fear of the dark and/or claustrophobia as a kid by locking himself in a shed for a few days. Parker says she did the same thing (cut to Parker locking herself in a trunk and having some other kids bury her alive):
Eliot: That's NOT the same thing. What's wrong with you?
In "The Runway Job," when Sophie asks the team to give Tara a chance, Parker seems to be trying to fit in/play along, but apparently misjudges the expected response:
Eliot: She is hot. Hardison: Very hot. Parker: Hot. (Everyone stares) Parker: Warm? Cold? Why are we staring?
Also, from "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job":
Parker: So, I took your advice and did the whole touristy thing. Went to the museum, and it was amazing. Hardison: See? Parker: Yeah. They have a Guardian T-840 Security System. I've only seen those in books. And the motion detectors—ooh, gorgeous! Six digital receptors. Six! Hardison: What about the paintings? Parker: What about the paintings?
Also also, Parker got a hug from the client at the end of "The Future Job" and clearly had no clue how to deal with it.
Juror #6 Job, where she keeps referring to her alias as a different person (and makes one of her first, non-criminal friends)
Parker: Aww, Alice made a friend. Eliot: Let me tell you one more time. You made a friend. Not Alice. Parker: Oh cool... Think she'll want to steal a painting with me? Sophie: Start small, Parker. Try coffee.
As of "The Double Blind Job", Parker's actually getting jealous of Hardison showing some attention to the current client. She has a hard time dealing with it. It seems to give her feelings for... pretzels.
Gets a Continuity Nod in "The Big Bang Job", after she and Hardison destroy the Big Bad's bomb.
In "The Three Card Monte Job" the others are about to look up what kind of security systems three banks have when Parker casually starts talking about them (and laughing at them, of course). Cue blank stare — "Well, what do you guys do on your weekends?" She's apparently scoped out all the banks in Boston.
"The Rashomon Job" shows how far she's come in two years from gleefully handing a giant knife so someone can do an impromptu tracheotomy to actually feeling sorry the head guard, who isn't a hardass tactical genius but a wuss who had feelings for Sophie's "character".
Not Just A Tournament: In "The Queen's Gambit Job", the team sets up — and then rigs — a blitz chess tournament as a way of distracting the mark of the week during a theft.
Not so Different: Nate and Sterling. Nate and Rockwell in "The 15 Minutes Job."
Eliot: Did you do it? You're the only one that's ever played both sides.
Nate: Yeah, and you seem pretty relaxed for a guy with a gun pointed at him.
Eliot: Safety's on.
Hardison: Like I'm gonna fall for that.
Nate: No, no, actually he's right. The safety is on.
Hardison looks down to check, and Nate grabs the gun.
Nun Too Holy: Parker pretends to be a nun in "The Beantown Bailout Job."
And "Sister" Lupe in "The Boys' Night Out Job."
O
Obfuscating Stupidity: "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job" shows that Eliot is actually much smarter and more devious than he's generally given credit for, and Nate notes that's the entire point.
Obstructive Bureaucrat: Eliot and Hardison try to get Maggie out of a Ukrainian prison by forging documents to have her transferred to the US Embassy. However, the police chief refuses because he knows Maggie will go the Embassy and never reappear for trial. Tara Lampshades this by telling the duo that the police chief has spent decades cheating Soviet bureaucracy and that there's no possible way to outsmart him with paperwork.
Of Corpse He's Alive: In "The 10 Li'l Grifters Job", The Mark is killed during his own murder mystery-themed dinner party. Nate, realizing that he would be the prime suspect, tries to pretend that the really obvious corpse on the ground is a lifelike dummy, and that the whole thing is actually all part of the game, while figuring out who actually did it.
Offhand Backhand: Parker does this at long range with a stun gun in "The Lost Heir Job."
Nate saying something meaningful that's ambiguous or in code and then walking offscreen dramatically.
Many of these were lampshaded by Tara in "The Runway Job."
One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Happens frequently. One notable example being "The Three Days of The Hunter Job": The mark for the episode, a journalist, has been steered towards a politician to ask about an alleged government project called "Destiny". The Destiny that he thinks she means is his favourite stripper.
As of "The Queen's Gambit Job", this holds true for Sterling's daughter, especially when it comes to chess.
Only One Name: Parker. When picking up a will call ticket at a production of The Sound Of Music (starring Sophie) in "The Beantown Bailout Job," she literally says "Only One Name".
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: In the episode "The Two-Horse Job," Sophie attempts what sounds like a Dixie accent. She slips into her British accent just about every other word, however.
In "The Ten L'il Grifters Job," the detective calls Sophie out on this after she tells him that she works for the murder mystery company, rather than a client of The Mark. She tells him she finds it's adorable that he thinks that's her real accent.
Open Sesame: A safe in "The Homecoming Job." The team is able to get a voice-activated safe open by being able to record every possible sound from the safe's owner by getting him to say the name of a very complicated French dish, then have him drop the F-bomb when he realizes it's raw shrimp.
Out Of Order: According to Word Of God, the order in which Season One was meant to be aired (accompanied by broadcast order number) was as follows: Nigerian (1), Homecoming (2), Wedding (7), Snow (9), Mile-High (8), Miracle (4), Two-Horse (3), Bank Shot (5), Stork (6), Juror #6 (11), 12-Step (10), First David (12), Second David (13). This leads to some... interesting jumps in continuity:
There are a couple references where the payoff occurs before the setup. For example, Hardison asks Eliot if he'd ever thought about getting married in "The Wedding Job," when in broadcast order Hardison had already met Eliot's ex-fiancee Amy in "The Two Horse Job."
In broadcast order, Taggart and McSweeten appear for the first time in The Stinger of "The Bank Shot Job" to take the credit for taking down the bank robber - the audience was intended to meet them in their much longer appearance in "The Wedding Job," making the bit a lot funnier.
Nate's alcoholism gets stronger and weaker over the course of the season, and it was meant to climax with "The 12-Step Job" just before the two-part finale; the broadcast order gives us "The Juror #6 Job" as a Breather Episode before the finale instead.
The level of trust the team has for each other varies considerably over the season as well - particularly noticeable in broadcast order with Nate and Hardison, who have a breakthrough moment in "The Mile-High Job" which seems out of place coming after Hardison's leadership in "The Bank Shot Job."
The Season One DVD set contains the episodes in intended order.
Pair the Spares: "The Girls Night Out Job"/"The Boys Night Out Job": apart from official couples Nate/Sophie and Parker/Hardison, we also have Eliot/Not-a-Sister Lupe, Tara/Mattingly and Hurley/Peggy.
Pants Positive Safety: Played with hilariously in "The Miracle Job" when Eliot and Hardison run into some street thugs and the leader tries to intimidate them by lifting up his shirt and revealing the gun tucked into the front of his pants. Eliot just grabs the gun and flips the safety off without ever removing it from the guy's pants. It's very effective.
Also, Archie to an extent towards Parker. Watch the two times he confronts Chaos in "The Last Dam Job." The first time, he only looks mildly annoyed by Chaos's insults until he makes a snide comment towards Parker, and then Archie rests his cane against his neck. Later, when Archie actually does taser him, it's only after he makes yet another snide comment towards Parker.
Hardison: "It's cute how you still believe in privacy."
Also played with in-universe with the paranoia wall in The Three Days Of The Hunter Job. Parker's not sure if all the conspiracy theories are fake or not, and Hardison and Eliot don't help.
Parker: Eliot, these conspiracies aren't real, right? Eliot: What do you mean? Parker: Like that one over there that says all the major wars of the past fifty years were ordered by members of the council. Eliot: (suddenly on edge) Parker, I'm not at liberty to discuss that with you. (Walks away, looking at her suspiciously) Parker: Wh- Well, you're not a member of the council, are you? Eliot. (To Nate) Is he? (Nate mumbles and leaves) Is he? Nate?
From "The Mile High Job," when Eliot has adopted the guise of an air marshall:
Sophie: What if there's another air marshall on the plane? Eliot: There's only an air marshall on one out of every 100 flights. Sophie: Ahhhh... I know that's good for us, but I so wish I didn't know that.
Parker: Forty-two seconds. Hardison: What? Parker: To rob this bank. One security guard who's never fired his gun before, two closed-circuit cameras outside, one inside, and a Glenn-Reider safe built in the '50s whose default combination is the birthdate of the manager's wife! Get in, get out, forty-two seconds.
Patron Saint: Saint Nicholas' other patronage (that of thieves—more accurately, repentant thieves) is mentioned in "The Miracle Job," where Sophie tells Parker (who is only aware of the Santa Claus version) that St. Nick is also the patron saint of thieves.
Nate is also handed a Brigid medal in "The Beantown Bailout Job."
In the "The Cross My Heart Job" this is taken to a level unusual for Nate when he threathens to kill the villain of the week and further terrifies him at the end of the episode, further worsening the dying man's condition
Given that the dying man in question was already quite old himself, and was willing to let a young boy die just so he'd getmaybe 3-5 years more, it seems fairly justified
"Someone tricked you into carrying the evidence for your entire operation to the police? Now that would be impossible."
Although it's implied later that Bonanno realizes that's exactly what happened.
Period Piece: A good deal of "The Van Gogh Job" takes place in the 1940s.
Pet the Dog: One of the bad guys in "The Ho Ho Ho Job" seems to be genuinely happy to be handing out toys to kids, even giving a young girl a cute kiss on the nose...
Phoney Call: Hardison does this in "The Iceman Job," telling a mark he has to call his girlfriend, then calling Sophie and managing to signal to her that he's in trouble.
In "The Boys Night Out Job" Nate and Hurley, hide from Mooks in an addiction support group meeting. (A callback to Hurley's original appearance in "The 12-Step Job." After trying unsuccessfully to get a cellphone from various attendees so he can contact the team, Nate volunteers to talk next, laments about how he hurt his ex-wife, Maggie, and says "If I had a cellphone right now I would call her..." Naturally everyone in the crowd offers him their phones. Of course, Hilarity Ensues as he attempts to maintain his cover.
Hardison: "Why did Nate call me 'sweetheart?'"
Nate: "I'm sorry about the bag of drugs..."
Crowd: "Ooh..."
Pint Sized Powerhouse: Parker turns out to have a lot of strength in her skinny little body when she grabs Tara by the throat with one hand, then holds her over the roof of a building.
Police Are Useless: The FBI and local cops are generally portrayed as being well-intentioned, but incapable of catching the episode's villain either due to ineptitude or legal procedure. Interpol, on the other hand, is quite capable and feared, and Detective Bonanno is always on top of his game.
Poor Man's Substitute: Subverted. They wanted someone like Timothy Hutton to play Nate - and ended up with Timothy Hutton.
Porn Stash: The second season premiere plays with this when Sophie stays over at Nate's apartment to make sure he was ok after he was injured in a fight. She notes that she didn't look under his bed because she knows that's where guys keep all of their "weird kinky stuff." Nate, of course, denies that there's anything under his bed. (There is. Sophie actually looked.)
One of the group members drinks a Jones soda in most episodes; the logo is never facing the camera, but it's a very distinctive label.
Not to mention the gratuitous shots of the Hyundai Genesis in both seasons.
Reaches an apotheosis in "The Maltese Falcon Job". While Parker and Tara are on their way to the waterfront in a Hyundai Genesis, Tara, out of the blue, asks if they're taking the fastest way to get there. Parker replies in a voiceover, "Yeah, see? There's no traffic this way", while the camera practically makes sweet love to the car in a slow pan across the car's dashboard and front console, lovingly displaying the steering wheel options and leather interior before lingering sexily for several seconds on the built-in GPS display.
Properly Paranoid: Sterling in "The Second David job". This is what Nate was counting on.
Protagonist-Centered Morality: Nate and company lie, cheat, steal, and inflict emotional trauma, yet they're the good guys. Somewhat justified in that (A) their victims are clearly shown to be unremitting jerkasses, and (B) what they do, they do on the behalf of people that their victims screwed over.
Proud to Be a Geek: Hardison is the resident hacker and very proud of his geekery, with such lines as, "Age of the geek, baby. We rule the world." He's also a fan not only of Star Wars but also of Doctor Who.
In the "15 Minutes Job" he complains about the use of CGI in the Star Wars prequels.
Put Off Their Food: Parker's attempt at social skills in "The Juror #6 Job". When told to convince Eliot to eat an orange instead of an apple, she chooses this tactic.
Put on a Bus: Done slightly differently. While Sophie couldn't do anymore cons halfway through season 2, due to Gina Bellman's pregnancy, Sophie is still in almost every episode, appearing in a different part of the world every time the team calls complete with regional get up and cheesy background. It's becoming apparent that while the character was Put on a Bus, she never really left.
Kind of amounts to Present Absence in a way at times, given that her absence is escalating Nate's behavior as well.
R
Rashomon Style: "The Rashomon Job". Sophie, Eliot, Hardison and Parker remember a heist that happened five years ago, when they were each independently trying to steal an ancient dagger. The details of their stories can vary greatly, like Sophie's accent.
Real Estate Scam: One example that stands out is "The Miracle Job" — a priest is assaulted by gang members, who were paid by a real estate mogul trying to buy up the land his church (which is in danger of closing) is on. The gang tries to prevent the church's closing by faking a miracle... which backfires, as the mogul's now going to build around the "crying statue" and turn the place into a faith-based moneymaker.
Reality Is Unrealistic: In interviews and episode commentary, the writers take great pains to point out how few of their villains' atrocities are NOT things that actual white-collar criminals have gotten away with.
Real-Life Relative: Aldis (Hardison) Hodge's brother Edwin guest-starred as the client in "The Jailhouse Job". His character isn't related to Hardison, but the scam relies on Hardison being able to act as a Body Double for him.
Real Life Writes the Plot: Sophie was Put on a Bus to "find herself" earlier than the showrunners had originally planned, so actress Gina Bellman could go on maternity leave.
The villain in "The Underground Job" has an attorney general in his pocket, since he made major campaign contributions to her. This is a direct jab at the 2010 US Supreme Court ruling rescinding campaign contribution limits for politicians.
Refuge in Audacity: Hardison any time he has to improvise in character - throwing himself a birthday party to distract everyone in the office building in "The Mile High Job" and convincing the police that bank robbers want 25 large pizzas and the equipment to hold a tail-gate party in "The Bank Shot Job", to name but a few examples.
This gets him in a lot of trouble in "The Iceman Job."
Reliable Traitor: Nate counts on Sterling to be this to pull off his plan in "The Second David Job."
Retirony: Jimmy Ford kept saying he would retire after one big score. Let's just say he bit off more than he could chew in The Radio Job.
Ripped from the Headlines: The aforementioned Kung Fu Monkey says that the show rips plots from the headlines as much as your Law and Order or CSI: Crime Scene Investigation does, only instead of focusing on people who get sodomized with violin bows, they focus on white-collar crime. The Madoff scandal in particular has been a gold mine for the writers. Kung Fu Monkey often uses it and the story of a man who pretended to be a DEA Agent as an example to skeptics of how outrageous and unbelievable cons do actually happen in real life, and also how gullible people in all walks of life can be.
Notable examples being the use of the Supreme Court's campaign finance decision in "The Underground Job."
From "The Reunion Job," Hardison and Eliot are pretending to be health inspectors to get into a Iranian secret police safehouse disguised as a restaurant. With each violation ("cockroach in the shisleek," "shwarma is only lukewarm"), they say with righteous indignation and in the exact same tone of voice each time "That's going to cost ya" and "I've gotta dock ya!" Leads to a Crowning Moment of Funny later in the episode, when one of the secret policemen breaks into a locked room and is confused to find 'health inspector' Eliot there. To which Eliot shrugs and says "I've gotta dock ya again!" And then beats him up.
Eliot keeps running into other hitters he knows while hunting for the painting in "The Van Gogh Job."
In "The Boiler Room Job," either no one can remember the mark's nickname—"The Mako"—or people are deliberately misremembering it to hit his Berserk Button.
McSweeten: "What was it again?" Hardison: "I don't know, the Blowfish, maybe?"
Russian Roulette: Eliot has a flashback to being tied up playing this in a Season 1 episode. He was the only one playing. Apparently it was still better than going to one of Sophie's plays.
S
Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Parker. An incredibly talented thief who plans complicated robberies the same way normal people do crosswords, she nonetheless has serious problems interacting with people on an everyday basis. Because of an abusive childhood (during which she may or may not have blown up her foster parents) and later being raised/trained by a master thief, she comes across in non-heist situations as awkward, disturbing, or somewhere in between.
Word Of God says she has autism, which would explain a lot of the problems she has interacting with people.
Sadly Mythtaken: Saint Nicholas of Bari (who was part of the inspiration for Santa Claus) is the patron saint of repentant thieves (among other things), none of which feature on the cast.
Not in the classic sense, but the team doesn't keep anything they steal and they are trying to be better people.
Saving The Orphanage: In "The Miracle Job", the team of former crooks tries to save a church from being bought by a real estate developer. They also save actual orphans in "The Stork Job," which wasn't really an example of this trope.
Screams Like a Little Girl: A meth dealer in Juan, Texas, after being hit by Eliot in "The Bank Shot Job."
Also Chaos in "The Last Dam Job" when he is thrown off of said dam.
Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: The judge in "The Bank Shot Job" relies on this. It's not enough to save him due to the Leverage team.
The Shill: As a show focusing on cons, this is a frequent part of the plot.
Ship Tease: Nate/Sophie since day one. Parker/Hardison here and there. Season three ramped it up (including an absolutely adorable dance at the end of "The Reunion Job") and ended with Nate and Sophie in bed together and Parker finally admitting she wantspretzels.
"The Rashomon Job" had enough Sophie/Eliot Ship Teases to drive even a casual 'shipper neurotic.
"The Two Live Crew Job" has a fair amount of it between Eliot, Parker, and their respective counterparts from Starke's crew. Nate and Hardison.... do not.
Though the prospect of Hardison interacting with one of the original casting choices for Chaos - Zoe Saldana - is intriguing.
The Leverage team themselves, in "The Two Live Crew Job". Starke mentions some of their earlier jobs, and the audience realizes that if you don't know they're the good guys, they sound like one of the best (criminal) crews ever. Also, Starke's hacker gets so panicked at the thought of Sophie being anywhere near his upcoming double-cross he promptly tries to kill her.
Also, Nate is so good at keeping himself and his team under the radar that the FBI has absolutely no idea who he is.
We also have "The Rashomon Job", in which the main characters (with the exception of Nate) all remember the Chief of Security as being...rather different then he actually was.invoked
Sidetracked by the Analogy: Mrs Cox, a victim of the mark who helps out the team in "The Boiler Room Job" is informed that they will be running the "Moonwalking Bear": namely, have the mark so focused on one particular thing that he fails to notice anything else, up to a moonwalking bear. For the rest of the episode, she is worried: where is the bear? Is it going to eat her?
Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: A Word Of God variant; in answering questions from fans about why the cops and the court system is so ineffective in Leverage-land, John Rogers commented that "There are times you people's faith in law enforcement is genuinely touching." Since the whole premise of the show involves (often not very altered) fictionalized versions of real-life crimes, it's not a surprising attitude to find in the show's creators.
Similar Squad: The rival team in "The Two Live Crew Job", which is basically Leverage without Sophie. Their Parker is a tiny guy with a goatee (played by the show's pickpocketing consultant), their Eliot is a hot Israeli Action Girl, and their Hardison is white!Jerk!Hardison. In fact, you might even call him...TheWesley?
Slap-Slap-Kiss: Between Eliot and his counterpart in "The Two Live Crew Job", not that you couldn't see it coming a mile away. It's one of the hottest scenes on the show, though it's technically more of a "Slap Slap Strip Slap Slap Strip Slap Slap Press Kiss Handcuffs".
And in "The Juror #6 Game", Earnshaw, the lawyer opposing them, also plays chess. Ford uses Chess Motifs to explain her tactics.
Smug Snake: Very frequently the case with the Villain Of The Week, but Ian Blackpoole (Nate's former boss) deserves special mention; his policies were a direct contributor to the death of Nate's son, but he doesn't even pretend to feel remorse or regret about it, and in fact seems almost surprised that Nate would be angry at him about such a thing.
The conman in "The Order 23 Job."
Chaos.
The judge in "The Bank Shot Job."
"The Mako," the villain of "The Boiler Room Job" who combines it with Insufferable Genius by virtue of being the son and grandson of the best con-men of their times, meaning that he knows every trick the Leverage team do, and he will not shut up about this fact.
Marcus Starke
So What Do We Do Now?: The second season opener reveals that the entire team has been suffering from a combination of this and Chronic Hero Syndrome brought on by Good Feels Good since they broke up at the end of the previous season. Parker even stole the Hope Diamond and then put it back because she was bored and didn't see any point to it.
Spanish Prisoner: Name-checked in "The Stork Job." The Mark is in with the Russian Mafia, and runs a version using Serbian war orphans where the prospective parents have to keep paying "overhead" costs. Sophie explicitly makes the comparison.
Spelling Bee: In an attempt to make a student look good in "The Fairy Godparents Job," Sophie rigged a spelling bee to give him easy words and the other students impossible ones. This backfires when the student's opponent is capable of spelling everything up past Antidisestablishmentarianism, and he is unable to spell "bicycle".
The FBI surveillance team does this in "The Wedding Job." They're pretty noticeable.
Spit Take: The gang cons a reporter into covering a fake story about the U.S. water supply being poisoned in "The Three Days of The Hunter Job." When the reporter announces it on the air, a studio employee with a water bottle does a Spit Take.
Eliot has one after Parker tells him she put a razor blade in his apple during Sophie's persuasion tactics lessons in "The Juror Number Six Job."
Spoiled Brat: The mark's daughter in "The 10 L'il Grifters Job."
Spotting The Thread: Maggie is tipped off that Eliot is working for Nate in "The Second David Job" when she sees that he is wearing the button camera she gave Nate for his birthday.
Squee: Parker actually uses the phrase as part of her Honey Trap for The Mark in "The 15 Minutes Job."
Staged Shooting: Used twice in "The Beantown Bailout Job." First, "gunshots" were fired at a Corrupt Corporate Executive to convince him that he had hitmen after him, and he should go to the cops. Then, when that plan backfired spectacularly, Sophie "shoots" Eliot so that he could play dead, since the villains of the episode were actually going to shoot him.
Stairs Are Faster: In an effort to delay Sterling, who's taking the elevator, Nate runs up the stairs and pushes all the elevator call buttons, causing Sterling's elevator to stop at every floor.
Star-Crossed Lovers: Charlie!Hardison and Dorothy!Parker in "The Van Gogh Job."
Star Trek Movie Curse: Referenced in "The Order 23 Job"; Hardison says he'll say the name of an even-numbered Star Trek movie over a hospital intercom for bad news, and an odd-numbered one for good news. Shortly after, a "Dr. Ralph O. Khan" gets paged...
Stealth Hi/Bye: Parker is really good at vanishing at a second's notice, so much so that Hardison ends up just planting a GPS locator on her. Even Nate and Hardison manage one in "The Stork Job." It gets lampshaded in "The Mile High Job".
Eliot: How does she do that? Nate: I don't even ask anymore.
Stealth Insult: "I'll bet you're very good with your hands."
"We're moving in on someone. You see, most thieves aren't as smart or good looking as they think they are."
Straw Hypocrite: The episode with the anti-IRS militia (because the IRS impinges on personal freedom and STEALS our hard earned money) has the group drawn in because the militia's leader/financial backer has been scamming people with massive IRS debts by extorting them for all their credit card information and then stealing their identities.
Stuck on a Ski Lift: Invoked in "The Snow Job"; the gang intentionally stops the lift while Parker is on it in order to distract the mark.
Suddenly Always Knew That: Every once in a while, a character (Parker especially) will pull some hitherto unknown skill from the ether, which is usually just Handwaved as being something that they picked up over a long career of professional theft.
Swapped Roles: The team tries this in a few episodes, most notably in "The Three Days of The Hunter Job," when Sophie masterminds, Parker and Hardison grift and Eliot hacks.
Deliberately invoked in their second encounter with Sterling. Sterling knows exactly how Sophie and Nate think, so the only way they are able to beat him is by thinking "What would Parker/Hardison (respectively) do?"
Sword Sparks: Eliot and a Russian mob thug generate sparks while fighting with crowbars in "The Three Card Monte Job".
Sterling is also an interesting example because he doesn't actually care all that much about capturing Team Leverage unless it somehow serves his own purposes and ambitions. Most of the time, he just leaves them alone.
Eliot did pummel him brutally at the beginning of one of their encounters, so he does get a little humiliation just not within his field.
T
Tactful Translation: From "The Iceman Job," after Hardison is kidnapped by the Russians.
Eliot: I had court-side seats, tell Hardison if he makes it out alive I'm going to snap him in half! Nate: Eliot says "Hi."
In the same episode, Nate says that they ran an American campaign by declaring victory and pushing it regardless of what the actual results are. Bush v. Gore, anyone?
Take a Third Option: In the Finale of Season 4, Nate is holding Latimer and Dubenich at gun point at the edge of a concrete platform at a dam. If he shoots either one, the other gets away with it. Nate does have five bullets, but he's also having a bit of a moral dilemma on being a killer. He points out that he could just shoot both of them. Since Dubenich and Latimer are pretty pissed at each other, Nate puts the gun at the edge of the platform and walks away. The two criminals then try to go after the gun to try to kill the other, but the ensuing struggle causes them both to fall off the platform to their deaths.
Tap on the Head: Done all the time by Eliot, both as a one-hit punch in the midst of combat and also as a casual way to knock people out, sometimes innocents totally uninvolved in the crime. No side effects ever seem to appear from this.
Team Dad: Part of Nate's Character Development is his growth from mere Mission Control to a true team leader. (This isn't obvious since the episodes weren't shown in the order that the jobs happened.)
Team Mom: Sophie is similarly growing into this role, most obviously in "The Stork Job" when she talks Eliot through how to scam someone. Confirmed after the team fakes Sophie's death in "The Two Live Crew Job":
Hardison:(to Sophie) We trust Nate to make sure the plan works. We trust you to make sure we're all OK."
Tears from a Stone: In "The Miracle Job," the team fakes a miracle by creating a statue that cries when it's touched by smoke from the candles. However, the statue isn't made of stone and the liquid it produces isn't tears, meaning that when the Vatican investigative team shows up to ascertain the veracity of the miracle, they would be found out almost immediately.
Themed Aliases: The team tends to use Doctor Who-themed aliases (probably because they're all arranged by Hardison the uber-geek).
The Name Is Bond, James Bond: Sterling does this in "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job". He's playing hero in front of a bunch of news cameras, so it actually makes sense.
Eliot does it in "The Big Bang Job" to get them into the meeting with Moreau. Makes sense, since Eliot used to be a much feared employee of Moreau's.
There Are No Good Executives: The show pretty much runs on this trope. Many if not most of the episodes are about some evil executive(s) or entire corporations abusing their power.
They Have The Scent: A militia group uses hunting dogs to pursue Eliot and Hardison in "The Gone-Fishin' Job".
This Is Gonna Suck: Parker actually uses the exact phrase in "The Nigerian Job," just before sticking her fingers down her throat to force herself to throw up so the doctor will come so she can pickpocket his phone.
This Trope is [BLEEP]: "The Office Job" features a blurred-out greeting card several times.
Those Two Guys: FBI Special Agents Taggart and McSweeten from "The Wedding Job" show up again from time to time. They even cross over into Heterosexual Life Partners at one point. In "The Fairy Godparents Job," there's an exchange about "[seeing] other partners."
A Threesome is Hot: Hayley Beck offers to let Parker join in when she's caught making out with her boyfriend in the pantry in "The 10 L'il Grifters Job."
Throwing The Fight: In "The Tap Out Job," the team is exposed as conmen and Eliot agrees to take the dive in the upcoming prize fight. (Thanks to some Xanatos Speed Chess, this still works out in the team's favor in the end.)
They Do: Apparently, Parker and Hardison as of "The Long Way Down Job."
Hardison: Going to Plan B? Nate: Technically that would be Plan G. Hardison: How many plans do we have? Is there like a Plan M? Nate: Yeah. Hardison dies in Plan M. Eliot: I like Plan M.
Word Of God has it that things are badly out of whack when Nate gets past G in the alphabet.
As of "The Queen's Gambit Job", Hardison dies in Plans C, F, and M through Q.
Eliot also gets a trendy eye scar in one of the plans.
Title Drop: Nate drops the show title at the very end of the pilot, and the team takes the name "Leverage Consulting & Associates" as a corporate identity in the following episode. Occasionally someone outside the team will use the word "leverage," and all the nearby team members will glance at each other meaningfully.
From the 3rd season opening sequence - "The rich and powerful take what they want. We steal it back for you. Sometimes bad guys make the best good guys. We provide . . . leverage."
Eliot also uses the word "leverage" while explaining the grappling aspect of mixed martial arts to Sophie, while talking Parker through how to beat the snot out of Hardison.
And the judge in "The Bank Shot Job" uses it while holding people hostage.
The season 3 opener, "The Jailhouse Job", features Nate explaining that "they" now have the leverage, referring to the shadowy interests that the Italian represents, and that the team has to "take it back from them."
Also used in "The Long Way Down Job". Upon discovering that a bug has been planted in the HQ, Nate points out that they are at the top of the list of enemies for many people he then states; "When you're at the top, it's a long way down."
Token Good Teammate: Nate Ford to the rest of the team. He was specifically hired to be the "one honest man" on a crew of thieves. However, the distinction gets fuzzier as time goes by, as Nate begins to relish his role of criminal mastermind and the rest of the team discovers they enjoy using their skills to help people
Tomboy and Girly Girl: Parker and Sophie definitely qualify, but it's justified as Sophie's specialty is conning people, often by seducing them, and Parker's specialty is breaking into high-security vaults.
Took a Level in Badass: As of the second season's premiere, Sophie throws a mean headbutt. This troper doesn't remember her getting any fight scenes at all in the first season. In "The "Wedding Job", she was knocked down by a bitchy housewife hitting her with a handbag.
Hardison also learns how to handle himself more as the series goes on. Eliot has presumably been giving them pointers. In "The Tap-Out Job" he asks Parker to demonstrate the choke hold he showed her.
In "The Maltese Falcon Job (Part 2)" Parker dangling Tara over the ledge of a building for a presumed betrayal of the team.
In "The Hot Potato Job" Sophie punches Hardison to sell a con... Eliot's really proud.
Eliot: She popped you, huh? I've been teaching her a couple things. Hardison: Nah man I had to help her out. I had to really sell it. Eliot: She got you man. You got a little blood right there! Hardison: Yea man she got a right hook like a freight train. ... Eliot: She put her hips into it? That's my girl! Hardison: Stop- don't teach people how to do that!!
Victor Dubenich would be a villainous example.
Too Dumb to Live: Many of the marks ultimately prove to be this - the judge in "The Bank Shot Job," who ends up taking a bank full of people hostage to get back the money he was paying under the table to Nate, is a good example.
Too Many Belts: This is the distinctive marker of the mark's clothing line in "The Runway Job."
Tracking Device: Hardison plants one on Parker in "The Stork Job."
In an Easter Egg, if you look close you'll notice that the team's phones all have a feature that gives the exact coordinates of each team member at all times.
Trademark Favorite Food: Hardison and orange soda (and later, gummi frogs). His counterpart in "The Two Live Crew Job" likes strawberry soda.
Parker seems to like cereals, in just about any episode we see her eating some. She even hides her emergency funds in one of her numerous cereal boxes.
In another episode we also see her eating a doughnut covered in cereal.
Trailers Always Spoil: The "Automated Phone Recording" ads for season 2.5 spoil the ending of "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job".
Also, the ending of "The Lost Heir Job" was spoiled by a TNT promo that aired right before the last segment when the uptight lawyer revealed that she was actually Tara Cole and had been putting one over on the team as her "audition". (Not a surprise to anyone who reads John Rogers' blog, but still.)
Tranquil Fury: Eliot goes into this a few times. In "The Order 23 Job," he nearly topples a man down several flights of stairs, speaking softly and calmly all the while, because he takes issue with people who beat up kids. In "The Jailhouse Job," he quietly informs Nate as to his typical handling of people who run a con on their own team while holding a running dental drill in one hand. In short, if angry!Eliot is looking at you with an even expression, it's best to back away slowly. If he's smirking, run away very fast at right angles to him. If he laughs...
Nate also gets his moments. When talking to the villain of "The Cross My Heart Job", who was a terminally ill CEO willing to literally steal a child's heart to survive, Nate slowly and calmly describes how he will methodically destroy him, his company, and everything he owns. It's also one of the few times where he outright threatens to actually kill the villain.
Trash the Set: The team blows up their headquarters in "The First David Job" to keep their secrets from falling into Sterling's hands.On an unrelated note, production moved to Portland for Season 2.
The Triads and the Tongs: The team inadvertently ends up going up against them, cleavers and all, in "The Runway Job."
Parker: It's okay - I wouldn't have fit in with a real family. Archie Leach: You didn't need it anyhow. You went out and made your own.
Amy: (to Eliot) I'm glad you found a family. I'm just sorry it couldn't be me.
True Meaning Of Christmas: In "The Ho Ho Ho Job", Chaos is arrested by FBI agents and has the following exchange with Hardison:
Chaos: You have to admit, it was a good plan. Hardison: It was, but there was one thing you didn't count on. Chaos: Aw, no. Hardison: You forgot... Chaos: No, no, no... Hardison: ...about the true meaning... Chaos: Don't you say it! Hardison: ...of Christmas. Chaos: Gah, come on man, that barely applies here!
Two-Teacher School: Eliot and Sophie seem to be the only teachers at the mark's stepson's school in "The Fairy Godparents Job."
U
Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Used towards the end of "The Zanzibar Marketplace Job", after Maggie kisses Nate, only to be interrupted by Parker dropping in to get the bomb that was about to kill them. When she returns, Maggie, Nate, and Maggie's boyfriend have clearly been standing around awkwardly.
Undercover As Lovers: Surprisingly for a show in which the main characters adopt new identities in every episode, Leverage does this rarely; however, in "The Mile High Job", Nate and Sophie pretended to be a couple while boarding an airplane, and then got into an argument over their past history while working on their cover story.
Hardison and Parker have also posed as a couple a couple of times. Most notably in "The First David Job" where they make out to cover for opening a door. Then there's "The Ice Man Job" where she's the girlfriend to his diamond merchant (the titular "Ice Man"), and finally "The Fairy God Parents" where they pose as newly-weds when looking at an apartment.
Hardison and Eliot also posed as a couple to get in and see Nate in "The 12-Step Job". Eliot was less than pleased.
Unflinching Walk: Happens occasionally, but perhaps most notable Parker's from her introductory flashback. The one that takes place when she was six.
Unorthodox Reload: In "The Big Bang Job" Eliot secures the magazines of his twin pistols by pressing them against his hips and pulls back the slides by holding one pistol upside down over the other so he can hook the rear sights together and pulls the pistols in opposite directions. This example is made even more interesting by the fact that Eliot doesn't like guns.
To quote Quigley: "I said I don't like 'em; never said I couldn't use one."
Unspoken Plan Guarantee: If you hear a plan, you can bet it's actually the fake-out plan. Especially if the spoken plan goes to hell in the final 15 minutes.
UST: Nate and Sophie, Parker and Hardison, and to a lesser extent divorced couple Nate and Maggie.
You could even say Nate and Maggie are really a case of UUUST.
Looks like you can take the U out of Nate and Sophie as of the end of "The San Lorenzo Job."
And seemingly out of Parker and Hardison as of the end of "The Long Way Down Job."
The team itself becomes one of these in "The Ho Ho Ho Job." They think that Chaos is trying to pull off a massive case of identity fraud by boosting credit card numbers from a mall. So they shut off the Internet connection from the trunk line to the mall... only to realize too late that that part of the trunk line goes to the Federal Bank Depository as well, leaving Chaos and his crew free to pick it without worrying about triggering any security he can't hack.
Violin Scam: Used often, and explicitly named in "The Studio Job."
Vitriolic Best Buds: Eliot and Hardison, though whether or not they're really "best buds" is debatable. At least until the end of "The Gone Fishin' Job," when they become openly friendly with each other. Word of God says that events in this episode "did more to cement their friendship than anything else in the last two years. Although, again, neither would admit it."- Of course, the vitriol remains.
Even before this moment, they do seem to spend a fair amount of time together - they find the client in "The Double Blind Job" when she literally runs into them out getting coffee together, which Word Of God says they do more often then they'd admit. They're also paired throughout "The Gone Fishin' Job" because Eliot insists on taking Hardison fishing with him.
Arguably, the interaction between Nate and Sterling smacks of both this and Worthy Opponent.
Vomit Discretion Shot: Luckily Parker ducks just out of view after sticking her fingers down her throat to force herself to vomit (she needed to get a doctor's attention so she could steal his phone) in "The Nigerian Job."
W
Waif-Fu: Parker normally avoids combat, but cracks open a case of waif fu to fight a Serbian gangster in "The Stork Job." As per the trope, when he gets a grip on her she's in serious trouble, but when she breaks free she's able to use her greater speed and agility to knock the crap out of him.
We Interrupt This Program: The climax of "The Three Days of the Hunter Job." The news show is in the middle of the stock report when the mark, reporter Monica Hunter, bursts in and demands that they interrupt the broadcast so she can deliver an emergency bulletin. When she finds that her evidence is gone and starts raving about a government cover-up, the anchorwoman whose broadcast was interrupted turns to the camera and reports the breaking news that Monica Hunter has just had a nervous breakdown right there in the studio.
Weirdness Censor: The folks at the bar in which the team meets with the client. Eliot beats someone down there on a regular basis, and people just go back to their drinks.
"The Zanzibar Marketplace Job" addresses this. When Sterling comes into the bar and Eliot starts beating the crap out of him, the camera pans over to the bar, where Hardison hands the bartender a wad of cash to look the other way. Considering how much money the team has, I'm sure they're capable of making the bartender ignore the fights quite often.
"The Bottle Job" also provides an explanation: it's a thief bar. It's also owned by a friend of Nate's father - and later by his daughter, who Nate describes as like a niece to him.
"Well Done, Son" Guy: Nate has quite a few issues with his father, Jimmy Ford, and is quite eager to prove that he's better than the old man.
We Need a Distraction: In "The Nigerian Job," Nate starts smashing car windows outside the building, intentionally drawing the attention of all the security guards, who go running out the door. Everybody in the lobby, including the mark, becomes curious what's going on and stops what they were doing to look out the window.
We Work Well Together: The team, made up of one honest man and four criminals who had previously worked on their own, makes this discovery after they work together in the pilot.
Wham Episode: "The Radio Job", where Nate's father is killed and the first episode villain Victor Dubenich returns to take revenge on the team.
What the Hell, Hero?: In "The Scheherazade Job", Nate hypnotizes Hardison into thinking he's a violin prodigy so that he can pull off a perfect performance during the concert. Hardison, upon finding out, does not take the news well.
You hypnotize marks, not your own crew.
What Would X Do?: In "The First David Job," Nate and Sophie realize that their main problem is that Sterling knows how they think. Their solution, of course, is to think like someone else - i.e. Hardison and Parker.
Where Everybody Knows Your Flame: At one point, Eliot apparently got beat up at a lesbian bar, presumably for hitting on one of the women there.
Where I Was Born And Razed: Parker, who blew up her foster parents' house after they hit her and took away her favorite toy. No word yet on whether they were in it at the time.
White Collar Crime: The point of the series is getting revenge for this.
Why Did It Have To Be Horses?: Parker's great fear is horses, as revealed in "The Two Horse Job" - she saw one kill a clown when she was a child. (It was actually a guy in a horse suit.) She ends up having to spend time in a stable with one as part of the job.
Why Won't You Die?: In "The First David Job", Sterling's thug demands to know why Eliot won't go down. Eliot laughs. And kicks the crap out of him.
Wig, Dress, Accent: Featured often with Sophie. Lampshaded and almost subverted in "The Rashomon Job" when a museum head of security notes that a duchess in the main hall bears a striking resemblance to one of the lab girls (both are Sophie's acts, one in a slinky evening gown with her usual accent, and the other in a white lab coat with what sounds like a Jersey accent) and almost seems to make the connection.
Would Hit a Girl: From "The Two Live Crew Job," Eliot's Evil Counterpart is an Israeli woman, who asks "You wouldn't hit a girl, would you?" He responds in Hebrew "Not unless she hits me first." When she does, he says "That counts" and they fight, with a lot of Clothing Damage on both sides.
Wrench Wench: Parker is apparently quite handy with engines as a result of a few years spent as a car thief when she was a teenager. Also, Josie, from the same episode where that's revealed.
Written-In Infirmity: Due to Christian Kane's insistence on doing his own stunts whenever possible (and not always getting them right), his character occasionally has to explain away the actor's injuries. Since Eliot is the team's fighter, it doesn't distract from the plot - or from the hilarity.
Eliot: "Well, how was I supposed to know it was a lesbian bar?"
Wrote The Book: In "The Reunion Job", the mark literally wrote the book on database security.
X
Xanatos Gambit: In the mid-season 3 finale, Nate confronts the Italian telling her he had gotten what she wanted, Damien Moreau's accounts, but was not giving them to her and was going after Moreau himself. After he leaves it turns out that this was what her people had wanted all along, Nate's team to take out Moreau, so they could be rid of him without getting their hands dirty.
Xanatos Speed Chess: Most episodes tend to have everything go to plan in the first half of the show, and then nothing going right in the second, forcing Nate to improvise another (and even another on top of it) way to bring down the mark in the intended beneficiary way for his client. Fortunately, Nate is a Xanatos Speed Chessmaster.
You Can Panic Now: What the mark in "The Three Days of the Hunter Job" does for a living on her news show. She actually turned down a fake story they fed her about secret terrorist prisons in the US because she didn't think it would scare her viewers enough.
Your Terrorists Are Our Freedom Fighters: In "The Gone Fishin' Job", a group of militiamen claim to be 'anti-government freedom fighters', which gives them the right to kill two IRS agents as enemy combatants. Later they are revealed to be making a bomb to blow up a civilian target.
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