History Headscratchers / Leverage

** It's amazing what you can do with a BavarianFireDrill.
* In "The Stork Job", why didn't the villain just let the couple ''keep'' the kid? It's not like they didn't have plenty more . . .

*** Hardison's style in that flashback is more '[=90s=] than '[=80s=], bringing to mind the aesthetic of (for example) Series/FreshPrinceofBelAir. Still going a bit too far back for a character meant to be 24 in 2010, but not quite as bad as suggesting he was in high school in the '[=80s=].

** What bugs me about this is during The Renuion Job you see Hardison during his prom hacking into iceland, it looks like a scene from the 80's. Though he would have graduated in like 2004 or so.
*** All of the flashbacks, even Nate's, are subject to UnreliableNarrator, says WordOfGod

* It bugs me at the end that Parker is the new Mastermind. She's never run a con herself, she doesn't have the "do anything it takes to your own people" quality that Nate thinks is important, and while she's improved, she's still got a lot of social awkwardness. Also, we never saw him groom her for this position, or show any personal interest in this position (unlike Hardison, who was practically ready and just needed a few lessons) so it seems weird she's suddenly thrown into the foreground like this.
** There are a few gradual hints toward this though. But I think the point here becomes that they no longer need a mastermind to function. The whole point of the mastermind bit was that Nate was the only one who knew everyone's skills and how they could function together. But as the one episode where its just those three shows, they have gotten to that point where they understand each other enough to work without Nate directing.
** People seem to assume that Parker is 'in charge', because she's the one talking to the client. But Nate, as he leaves, never says that she's in charge. And it's pretty clear in that scene that the entire team is 'in character'...they're pretending to be 'serious business', with her as a professional and the two guys as 'muscle' in the background looming. So I'm not sure that scene tells us ''anything'' about the actual inner workings of the team. By the end of the series, we see that all three of them can plan in different ways. Parker thinks three, or even four, dimensionally, works perfectly under pressure, and doesn't let feelings get in the way, but sometimes doesn't understand people. And Hardison can plan and does most of the research, but over-complicates his plans and sometimes freezes under pressure. Whereas Eliot is really good at just knowing things and understands people, and can get everyone out when things go south, and will keep the gang on the moral path because he knows what it's like to veer off it, but is often more direct than wanted. I suspecting the team ends up basically being a democracy after Nate leaves, because everyone now understands each others' strengths and weaknesses. Or better than a 'democracy'...everyone just understands what needs to be done, and who would be best doing it.
** The last season has a couple hints that Parker is being considered as the new leader of the group. At the end of "The White Rabbit Job", when they are talking about how the con had actually worked, Nate says "Parker, huh?" and Sophie nods and says "Parker", as if they'd come to some sort of decision. And then in the last episode, Parker asks Nate why he's been explaining all his plans to her more than before, and he says that he likes the way she thinks.
*** On the contrary, however, it could be that they want to make sure that all three are able to lead if necessary. They knew Eliot would be fine with his background, and Hardison seemed to be coming along. Parker had a lot more to learn. Once Parker showed that she could grift and mastermind as well as the other two, that was the sign that Nate and Sophie could leave. That would fit in with the "it's a democracy now" theory above.
*** More support for the "democracy" theory: In the DVD commentary for "The Double Blind Job," the writers point out that although Nate started out as the group's boss, he becomes much less so over time. In particular, his near-meltdown over the course of season 2 makes the rest of the group less subordinate to him than they used to be. So if Nate wasn't really "the boss," there's no reason to think Parker will be.
** Parker's also the only one who ran a con without the help of the rest of the team, and her only help was from a waitress. She figured out their plan on her own, and even though she called Nate to get his specific area of expertise, he didn't give it, and Parker was able to figure it out by herself. Parker conducted a con, albeit a small one, all by herself. With a torn ACL/sprained knee/broken leg (depending on who you ask). She foiled a kidnapping, and wasn't detected until the last few seconds and was able to come up with a plan on the fly. Also, Parker is the fastest thinker of the group- she can do maths in her head very quickly, she knows security systems like a priest knows their religious text- she knows how to piece something together without overcomplicating it. She does go for the simple methods and builds on it, rather than going for broke. Parker knows how to run a con on a security system, and she shows in "The Broken Wing Job" that she knows how to conduct a heist. Parker does start contributing a lot to the plans, and even runs part of the "Girls Night Out Job". Sophie and Tara followed more of Parker's orders than she followed of theirs. Nate didn't need to "groom" Parker for the position- Parker already proved she could do it without even really thinking. "Inside Job" refers to Parker constructing a plan as good as Nate's to break in. Everything she does to prove she's just as good, if not better, than Nate is not in your face unless you know to look for it. Parker is good at improvising, Parker knows how to not get emotionally invested (which is a problem Hardison and Eliot have), Parker knows how to keep a clear head. Eliot and Hardison lack the qualities to be a Mastermind- Hardison always overcomplicates things, and Eliot tends to put the job second to his other tasks (such as in "the French Connection Job" and "The Underground Job" and "The Three Strikes Job"). Eliot is also Hardison's opposite in that he's too direct. Parker knows how to keep a con simple, not get distracted, quit when there's no choice, and yet, not make it all obvious. Parker makes the most sense. Just re-watch the series and look for moments, especially in seasons 4 and 5, where she demonstrates Mastermind traits.
** Alternate answer: Any of them ''could'' do it. Nate and Sophie pick Parker for reasons of their own--maybe because her management style is closest to Nate's, or because they know the others will forgive her if she manipulates them in the course of a job--but not because they think the others aren't capable. In the same episode, Nate goes out of his way to tell Hardison that he's the smartest guy Nate knows, so it's not just about cleverness. Hardison also clearly learned from his mistakes in "The Gold Job," plus he earlier ran a small con virtually solo in "The Mile High Job." And Eliot is very capable of toning down the threatening aura when he plays various doctors or geeks, or when he's turning on the charm. He can also plan, assess, and adapt on the fly, and that scene between him and Parker in "The Long Way Down Job" was all about how they were both capable of making the hard decisions. Frankly, the team has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to potential leaders; they have to choose someone to be in the chair, but they'll most likely all take the lead from time to time.

[[AC: Season Specific]]

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*** He probably wasn't ordered to do the hit on the plane, but rather to take out the accountant discreetly after they landed (maybe at the hotel). He'd be out of the country already and presumably would find it easy to disappear into the Caribbean. Of course, the orders were fake because they expected the plane to blow up en route; it was just a way to make sure he would be on the same plane as her.

* How did Nate beat up those guys in "The Studio Job"? Eliot even asks, and Nate says multiple times "They got into a fight."
** He may have talked them into fighting.
** He could have encouraged it,
** There is proof they were gonna fight before
* How exactly did Hardison and Eliot trigger that make shift bomb at exactly the moment they wanted it to go off in "The Gone Fishin' Job"? Even the flashback didn't help make it any clearer....
** Rogers said that there was a scene cut that explained it.
** On that note, why did Hardison even pick up the cigarette again?
*** The cigarette served as a makeshift fuse, and these guys are always thinking ten, twelve steps ahead. He probably figured it could be of use somehow.
* At the end of "The Studio Job", it seemed a bit presumptuous of Kaye Lynn to make that "We could be the next [[Music/JohnnyCash Johnny and June]]" comment to Eliot when asking him to go be a country star with her. Not only does that comment imply she thinks they'll be insanely famous, but it also implies an intent to marry Eliot, who she couldn't possibly have known more than a few days. Even if she meant it only on a professional level, would she really want to keep working with him after finding out he used to be, essentially, a hired killer?
** Presumptuous, maybe, but it seemed in-character from what we saw of her. Plus, don't lie. If you had a chance to spend lots of time with Christian Kane, you totally would.
* In "The Stork Job", why didn't the villain just let the couple ''keep'' the kid? It's not like they didn't have plenty more . . .
** The kid might have let his guard down and said something about their operation. Not to mention that if they had this policy very often, they would soon be out of children to use in scams.
* In "The Bank Shot Job", Hardison [[spoiler:posing as an FBI agent, takes a brief phone call, no more than five seconds at most, and then, to distract the local cops from Parker entering the bank, gives off a lengthy list of the bank robber's "demands"]] The cops never stop to wonder how he could have gotten so much information from such a short call.
** It's amazing what you can do with a BavarianFireDrill.

* The team goes through con after con without making any real effort to cover up their faces and fingerprints. We know from the Pilot episode that their fingerprints are on file. We know that the bad guys have access to tech too. So why is it that they're not being arrested and/or tracked preemptively in their schemes?
** The same way that organized crime like the Mafia is well-known, but ultimately can't be easily arrested. They always manage to pin ''everything'' on the BigBad of the week, so really all they can be accused of is impersonating officials, and whenever that happens they pull a BavarianFireDrill.
** Also, Hardison spends some boring off-camera time between jobs clearing out their paper trail. And of course, as we know, [[spoiler: someone does indeed track them pre-emptively in season 4.]]
** I wonder why they don't at least use makeup to defeat the face scanners they run into sometimes, like in the final episode. You'd think that a little putty (or whatever you call it) to build up the cheekbones and chin would be enough to fool the system.
** Thing about facial recognition is... you need actual records to compare it to. Most law enforcement agencies don’t actually share information that much, due to professional jealousy or even just jurisdiction (that’s why they had to build the Intersect in ''Series/{{Chuck}}''). They might make exceptions for things like sex offenders or serial killers, but that’s about it. So while, say, Eliot might have a file with the CIA, the DEA wouldn’t know him if he walked into their headquarters. Not to mention, facial recognition software isn’t actually all that common, because it’s expensive as hell to acquire and needs constant records updating. In fact, the most likely place to find it as standard is in a place like a casino, because they use it to spot cheating rings – and they do share records. Come to think of it, I don’t think the team ever did a job in Vegas…
** AND There’s also the part where Hardison has built several disposable, but high-quality ID’s and personas for each of the team… the whole reason for the Juror #6 Job back in s1, was that one of Parker’s Hardison-made aliases was so good that ‘Alice White’ was called up for jury duty. Hardison can hack into pretty much any US government agency there is, and seems to have several permanent backdoors into each of them. He’s very probably got an automated system embedded in the government network that means every law enforcement agency that could run a facial recognition scan on them gets a different result.


* Maybe I am mistaken in the plot, but in "The Mile High Job," they help protect a woman who a company has put a hit out on. Let me get this straight... a company hires a hit man to kill a woman who knows all their secrets, and then sabotages the plane, making it crash, so as to hide the fact that they hired a hitman? Seems a bit redundant to me.
** I have not seen the episode in a while, but as far as I remember Team Leverage overhears that the firm put all evidence they wanted to keep hidden an that plane. They board that plane to steal the evidence. Hardison finds out that there two employees on the plane, an accountant and a someone from security. Team Leverage thinks that the accountant knows to much and the other guy is there to kill her, but later find out that both know to much and the plane crash is supposed to kill both. We never see who sabotaged the plane.
*** I get that, but my question is why bother with the hitman? The plane crash should take care of the woman without hiring an expensive assassin. In fact, hiring an assassin just draws more attention to the crime itself. Just sabotage the plane!
*** The second guy isn't a hitman, he was the one the BigBad of the episode used to bribe some researchers, so that they would fake the safety studies/wouldn't testify in court. Team Leverage thinks at first that he is a hitman, but later find out that he is another target. In fact, he is the reason the big bad had someone sabotage the plane: as a former navy seal who knew he was a liability he was prepared for an assassination attempt (that's why he had the knife) the big bad couldn't get the drop on him easily. As Eliot says "I would take him out in transit." That the big bad could get the accountant with the same plane crash is just a bonus.
*** Short version - they're trying to wipe out EVERYONE who knows about the scheme, which includes the second guy - they've conned him into thinking he's working on a hit to get him and the accountant in the same place.
*** Honestly I'm having trouble figuring why the head of security/that "hitman" didn't find his orders odd: murder this chick on an aeroplane. You know, the one vehicle he couldn't just get off from en route? It's going to be really, really obvious. Isn't the point of putting a hit on someone so it's not obvious they were murdered for a specific reason? Isn't, y'know, discreetness like a huge part of being a hired hit? Murdering someone in a confined area thousands of feet in the air really, really doesn't scream "discreet", does it? If they just wanted her dead, they could have murdered her outside the office, seeing as they don't care if there's witnesses. So... IdiotBall in the hitman's court?
*** He probably wasn't ordered to do the hit on the plane, but rather to take out the accountant discreetly after they landed (maybe at the hotel). He'd be out of the country already and presumably would find it easy to disappear into the Caribbean. Of course, the orders were fake because they expected the plane to blow up en route; it was just a way to make sure he would be on the same plane as her.

* Okay, I understanding I'm going back a bit here, but I just got into this series, and something is really bothering me. In "The Homecoming Job", are we just supposed to take it at fact that the PMC can just have dudes armed with carbines hanging around their one shipping container in a private port, which has its own specific Law Enforcement Division? And, that they are allowed to just pull over people and threaten to shoot them with guns? I've done a bit of research about PMCs before, and while I know some of the large ones have small armies and intelligence assets and so on, I'm pretty sure they do not have the legal ability to do some of those things.
** Rule Of Awesome. Or, as per the commenters on Kung Fu Monkey, "no impediments to the fun train."
** The entire caper started because this PMC was willing to murder US soldiers in a war zone just for having looked at their precious container. Its not exactly a stretch for them to be willing to break the law detaining and threatening people outside their legal remit. (As for hanging around the port, presumably there was some kind of legal paper trail saying they were hired to guard a shipment; it is, after all, a security company.)
** Blackwater was the first armed group to deploy in UsefulNotes/NewOrleans after the flood. There is unfortunately a real prescendent for this type of thing. These companies are actually getting domestic contracts in addition to their more common and well known foreign contracts.

* The shooter in "The Morning After Job." He goes to all this trouble to set up the gun, line up a shot..... and fires on full auto. With frightening accuracy. For noticeable lengths of time. And no reloading shown. All from a gun that looks like a sniper rifle. And when the police are on the way, he just grabs his gun and runs. What about the metric ton of shell casings he just left behind? How did he manage to bring so much ammo without attracting attention, for that matter?
** This troper knows from a conducted study that if you have relatively neutral clothes, a clipboard and look busy, you can carry a large cardboard box just about anywhere. Fairly easy to slip a broken-down rifle into a large box. Depending on the gun (didn'T get a good look) it could be belt-fed, hence no reloading - Valkyrie Armament makes a conversion kit for AR-15 style rifles. A Brass catcher would account for the lack of shell casings.
** If the show took itself more seriously, I would say this is a valid question. But... this is Leverage. And after what happened in "The Big Bang Job" I feel its safe to say we can throw out most of the logic around firearms in the series.

* There seems to be an unfortunate tendency to cast unrealistically sociopathic CardCarryingVillain types as marks. The ep "Experimental Job" has a college student getting all lulzy about how he gets to ''torture people'' for just $50 each a day! Of course, there's also the way there seem to be ''no'' good rich people. Basically, rich=evil. Not exactly subtle.
** It's not so much that rich=evil its just that you don't find yourself in a position where you can commit the kind of wrongs that the Leverage team get called into solve unless you have enough power of one form or another to be able to beat the system, which is why the villain is always "rich"/"powerful". As for their being no good rich people, Nate, Sophie, Haridson, Eliot and Parker. Given that in the very first episode the payoff was described as "It's go legit and buy an island money," it'd be foolish to think that they don't count as being rich.
** "The Lonely Hearts Job" addresses this. The client is quite rich (it's noted that he donated more money to charity than Bill and Melinda Gates) but apart from Nate's initial apprehension, which is quickly dismissed, he's not treated as a bad guy.
*** And according to WordOfGod, most of their marks are based upon REAL people whose actual crimes and deeds were actually far worse than their fictional counterparts. They actually had to tone down them down to make them believable. Scary thought.
*** One can do the research as well to find the various real life people who these ones are inspired by. For instance, Season 3's opening mark who sent prisoners to private prisons on minor charges purely to make a profit is actually toned down compared to the real life person he's based on, Mark Ciavarella Jr. The real life equivalent is the Kids for cash scandal. He made money giving lengthy sentences to juveniles for such offenses like mocking a principal on Myspace, trespassing in a vacant building, and shoplifting [=DVD=]s from Wal-mart. As they comment on the [=DVD=]s, they never actually make up what the actual KickTheDog moment for the mark is. Also, the reasoning they give is generally based on the same logic these real life people tend to use to justify themselves. RealityIsUnrealistic.

* In "The 10 Li'l Grifters Job" the Corrupt Cop mentions that Nate was arrested five years ago for making threats against IYS. Clearly this was pre-series, but if this occurred before his divorce wouldn't Maggie have wondered why Nate was suddenly threatening the company? (She did not know about IYS/Ian Blackpool's role in Sam's death at the time.) Or did she just assume that Nate was doing crazy stuff because he was drunk? Or did that happen after the divorce? It's only brought up once.
** It's possible that while he was arrested, he actually spent a night in a detention centre, not the actual prison part of the building, and was only there for a night (if that) or he was arrested but not really detained. His old bosses don't seem to regard him as much of a threat, so they may have dropped charges and he was only arrested because he was caught making the threats there at IYS. Maybe Maggie passed it off as mingled being drunk and being mad with grief. I was under the impression they divorced months after Sam's death, and that his death was a huge cause of their split.
** It's also possible that Maggie was away working on a case at the time.
* This can probably be explained away by Dubenich not being as cool/smart as he thinks he is, but did he forget that Nate had chased everyone on the team BEFORE Dubenich ever assigned him to run them? Furthermore Nate chose Sophie, not Dubenich, which is specifically mentioned in "The Lonely Hearts Job." How can Dubenich possibly think he knows them better even than Nate with these things taken into consideration?
** Just like you said; ego.
* Why didn't the team take Latimer's offer? I mean sure they'd be working for him, but they could have taken down people they didn't even know about! I mean the only way they even found out about the guy in "The Cross My Heart Job" was due to luck! If Nate had taken Latimer's option there is the possibility that they could have prevented the entire situation. And when they had what they needed from him, they could burn Latimer at almost any point!
** The point was that is exactly how a con works. It looks like there's no downside, everyone wins, everything perfect...except they would have been working for a guy who would eventually sanction the [[spoiler: murder of Nate's father.]] How long do you think it would have been before they were just taking down people Latimer wanted out of his way. Not to mention, Latimer was working for [[spoiler: Dubenich, who really only wanted revenge for being put in jail. Eventually, they'd be working on something for Dubenich without even knowing about it.]] How long would it have been before one of their cons went bad? Obviously, foresight would have let Latimer be able to call the cops in the middle of the con and get everyone arrested...at the very least of things that could go wrong.
--> '''Latimer:''' A finder’s fee. You punish. I profit.
--> '''Nate:''' Well, it sounds tempting, Latimer, I’ll give you that. Something I want, no downside. Problem is, I’ve made that offer a hundred times to a hundred marks. I know a con when I spin one.

* It seems a little weird that, in "The Rundown Job", nobody seems to be even vaguely worried at Elliot getting shot in the chest (at most, Hardison says off-handedly "You're alright, man?"), even though he has visible difficulty to walk and the wound is bleeding.

** The therapist said the treatment involves she literally getting "inside his dreams" allá ''Film/{{Inception}}'', not that a subconscious reflective of her would be inside his dreams, but quite literally her [somehow].
* WordOfGod always went out of its way to mention that our protagonists are [[FiveBadBand the bad guys]]---but we surely wouldn't realize that from watching the show. Eliot is a hitter whose main job is knocking people out - some of which are just doing their jobs. We never see any of them suffering injuries, although every single one of them has [[HardHead at least a concussion and is at risk of serious brain damage]]. Hardisson never screws up and deletes data which will set half the company back several years, or causes sensitive data to leak out and destroy the entire company's business. Not to mention the collateral damage (also mentioned in YMMV) caused by taking down these huge companies. Innocent workers being thrown into unemployment, pension funds being flushed down the drain, investors, any other company who relies on this one, be it as huge part of their supply chain or as their main customer... Never explored. Sure, we get a lot of info on how being criminals affected THEM (Eliot's life changed completely by killing people, Parker never got a chance to develop normally, Sophie's grifting leads to an identity crisis...), but for a show that's so proud of its BlackAndGrayMorality, the heroes appear as exactly that - heroes.
** You say it yourself: "we never see..." who is to say what the Domino Effect is on the Leverage-verse in general or on the Economies of LA, Boston, or Portland. We only got to see a small slice of their world from their perspective for maybe 5 years.
** It's Hollywood, and even among such, the writers seem to get their ethics from [[UpToEleven Occupy]]. The idea that economic might actually be a lot of interrelated things doesn't occur; the so-called BlackAndGreyMorality is in fact simply large business=EVIL.
** I always assumed it was like a controlled explosion. They knew the parts they wanted to take out and set up contingencies for when their plans failed. We probably just didn't get to see a lot of the off-camera boring-type stuff that the team does to make sure the employees aren't harmed by the fallout.
** It wouldn't surprise me if they claim they are the bad guys for legal reasons, or stuff. The show itself never claims they are bad guys except in the phrase "sometimes bad guys make the best good guys" which is using the context of them being thieves. I'm sure Nate has contingencies in place to minimize/repair the collateral damage he does. As for Elliot, it's Hollywood fighting, so we can assume that there's no lasting damage.
** I sincerely doubt the Leverage team would leave a company so thoroughly destroyed it has to liquidate and fire people left and right- it would go against everything they do. They probably leave measures in place so that a new, better person can take over. Eliot is by far the hardest on members of the mafia and hired hits, people who WILL kill him. Security and the pink-shirted men who get their clothes stolen (seriously- two men in pink shirts at least!) only get knocked out, and Eliot is supposed to be very, very, ''very'' skilled- he probably only hits them hard enough and in just the right spot to knock the out- no more, no less. And they ''are'' bad guys- they frame people for things they never did all the time. Just because the crimes are related to what they were hired for doesn't make it right. Take "The 15 Minutes Job" for example- the mark is mostly just your garden variety douche, rather small potatoes compared to Monica Hunter even though they do the same thing. Later they find he killed his prom date while driving drunk and framed his friend for it. So what do they do? Build him up as a great vigilante and public hero, then rip him down by framing him for an additional DUI which he ran from, and provide evidence to the police that he committed the first DUI. Two counts of murder. Nate fully intended to use a child to get to his scheming father in "The Fairy Godparents Job" and wanted Sophie to just leave him once he fulfilled his usefulness in getting his dad out of the house. At the end of the first season, Sophie did exactly what Dubenich did at the start- used Nate's son's death selfishly. In her case, she wanted to target Blackpoole to get the First David, with Nate's revenge as just a nice plus. Her doing that forced the team to break up. They're not good people- they're just ''noble''. They care about justice, but not the truth. It's the end, not the means that matter.
* It bugs me at the end that Parker is the new Mastermind. She's never run a con herself, she doesn't have the "do anything it takes to your own people" quality that Nate thinks is important, and while she's improved, she's still got a lot of social awkwardness. Also, we never saw him groom her for this position, or show any personal interest in this position (unlike Hardison, who was practically ready and just needed a few lessons) so it seems weird she's suddenly thrown into the foreground like this.
** There are a few gradual hints toward this though. But I think the point here becomes that they no longer need a mastermind to function. The whole point of the mastermind bit was that Nate was the only one who knew everyone's skills and how they could function together. But as the one episode where its just those three shows, they have gotten to that point where they understand each other enough to work without Nate directing.
** People seem to assume that Parker is 'in charge', because she's the one talking to the client. But Nate, as he leaves, never says that she's in charge. And it's pretty clear in that scene that the entire team is 'in character'...they're pretending to be 'serious business', with her as a professional and the two guys as 'muscle' in the background looming. So I'm not sure that scene tells us ''anything'' about the actual inner workings of the team. By the end of the series, we see that all three of them can plan in different ways. Parker thinks three, or even four, dimensionally, works perfectly under pressure, and doesn't let feelings get in the way, but sometimes doesn't understand people. And Hardison can plan and does most of the research, but over-complicates his plans and sometimes freezes under pressure. Whereas Elliot is really good at just knowing things and understands people, and can get everyone out when things go south, and will keep the gang on the moral path because he knows what it's like to veer off it, but is often more direct than wanted. I suspecting the team ends up basically being a democracy after Nate leaves, because everyone now understands each others' strengths and weaknesses. Or better than a 'democracy'...everyone just understands what needs to be done, and who would be best doing it.
** The last season has a couple hints that Parker is being considered as the new leader of the group. At the end of "The White Rabbit Job", when they are talking about how the con had actually worked, Nate says "Parker, huh?" and Sophie nods and says "Parker", as if they'd come to some sort of decision. And then in the last episode, Parker asks Nate why he's been explaining all his plans to her more than before, and he says that he likes the way she thinks.
*** On the contrary, however, it could be that they want to make sure that all three are able to lead if necessary. They knew Eliot would be fine with his background, and Hardison seemed to be coming along. Parker had a lot more to learn. Once Parker showed that she could grift and mastermind as well as the other two, that was the sign that Nate and Sophie could leave. That would fit in with the "it's a democracy now" theory above.
*** More support for the "democracy" theory: In the DVD commentary for "The Double Blind Job," the writers point out that although Nate started out as the group's boss, he becomes much less so over time. In particular, his near-meltdown over the course of season 2 makes the rest of the group less subordinate to him than they used to be. So if Nate wasn't really "the boss," there's no reason to think Parker will be.
** Parker's also the only one who ran a con without the help of the rest of the team, and her only help was from a waitress. She figured out their plan on her own, and even though she called Nate to get his specific area of expertise, he didn't give it, and Parker was able to figure it out by herself. Parker conducted a con, albeit a small one, all by herself. With a torn ACL/sprained knee/broken leg (depending on who you ask). She foiled a kidnapping, and wasn't detected until the last few seconds and was able to come up with a plan on the fly. Also, Parker is the fastest thinker of the group- she can do maths in her head very quickly, she knows security systems like a priest knows their religious text- she knows how to piece something together without overcomplicating it. She does go for the simple methods and builds on it, rather than going for broke. Parker knows how to run a con on a security system, and she shows in "The Broken Wing Job" that she knows how to conduct a heist. Parker does start contributing a lot to the plans, and even runs part of the "Girls Night Out Job". Sophie and Tara followed more of Parker's orders than she followed of theirs. Nate didn't need to "groom" Parker for the position- Parker already proved she could do it without even really thinking. "Inside Job" refers to Parker constructing a plan as good as Nate's to break in. Everything she does to prove she's just as good, if not better, than Nate is not in your face unless you know to look for it. Parker is good at improvising, Parker knows how to not get emotionally invested (which is a problem Hardison and Eliot have), Parker knows how to keep a clear head. Eliot and Hardison lack the qualities to be a Mastermind- Hardison always overcomplicates things, and Eliot tends to put the job second to his other tasks (such as in "the French Connection Job" and "The Underground Job" and "The Three Strikes Job"). Eliot is also Hardison's opposite in that he's too direct. Parker knows how to keep a con simple, not get distracted, quit when there's no choice, and yet, not make it all obvious. Parker makes the most sense. Just re-watch the series and look for moments, especially in seasons 4 and 5, where she demonstrates Mastermind traits.
** Alternate answer: Any of them ''could'' do it. Nate and Sophie pick Parker for reasons of their own--maybe because her management style is closest to Nate's, or because they know the others will forgive her if she manipulates them in the course of a job--but not because they think the others aren't capable. In the same episode, Nate goes out of his way to tell Hardison that he's the smartest guy Nate knows, so it's not just about cleverness. Hardison also clearly learned from his mistakes in "The Gold Job," plus he earlier ran a small con virtually solo in "The Mile High Job." And Eliot is very capable of toning down the threatening aura when he plays various doctors or geeks, or when he's turning on the charm. He can also plan, assess, and adapt on the fly, and that scene between him and Parker in "The Long Way Down Job" was all about how they were both capable of making the hard decisions. Frankly, the team has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to potential leaders; they have to choose someone to be in the chair, but they'll most likely all contribute.
* Why does Parker wear her hair loose when breaking into buildings? It can get caught on things, and particularly when she's flipping through lasers, can get caught in the beam. It's especially strange because she wears a cap in the pilot.
** Possibly because Parker is just that good, and also possibly because the cap makes her look more conspicuous. We see in Rashomon Job that she infiltrates, she doesn't just break in from outside all that often. While she could stash it with her gear, it would be a deterrent in the end, because getting it and tucking her hair in it would take precious time. In the pilot, she was there to be in then out, there and gone, but once she works with the team, she's always grifting or there's always a danger that she has to grift, so her hat would just hinder her, even for just a few seconds. Oh, and they have to hide that it isn't Beth Riesgraf performing those gymnastics stunts.

* Maybe I'm just an idiot, but why is the team so awful to Nate during Season 3? Especially in the opening? Eliot says he ran a con on his own team (which Sophie did and was forgiven nigh instantly when they met up again so I don't buy this), Hardison says he lied to them, and Sophie refuses to let Nate know her real name and the rest of the team practically taunt him with it (to the point it almost sounds like they don't even know it and were just told to taunt Nate with it, were it not for Parker). All because he made a deal with Sterling to go to prison in their place, something he almost had no choice but to do? Eliot at least implies it had to do with Nate being "out of control" in the closing of season 2, but Eliot was also shown earlier in the season 3 opener to be rather forgiving of Nate, at least compared to Hardison and Sophie. And even if I did buy "you don't run a con on your own team", they treat Nate a lot more coldly than they did Sophie, who they just sounded disappointed in. Is it because last they knew, Nate was considered a "honest man"?
** I think part of it was their frustration at his refusal to be "rescued" from prison.

*** More support for the "democracy" theory: In the DVD commentary for "The Double Blind Job," the writers point out that although Nate started out as the group's boss, he becomes much less so over time. In particular, his near-meltdown over the course of season 2 makes the rest of the group less subordinate to him than they used to be.

*** I didn't think he was ordered to do the hit on the plane, but rather to take out the accountant discreetly after they landed. He'd be out of the country already and presumably would find it easy to disappear into the Caribbean. Of course, the orders were fake because they expected the plane to blow up en route; it was just a way to make sure he would be on the same plane as her.

* I didn't think he was ordered to do the hit on the plane, but rather to take out the accountant discreetly after they landed. He'd be out of the country already and presumably would find it easy to disappear into the Caribbean. Of course, the orders were fake because they expected the plane to blow up en route; it was just a way to make sure he would be on the same plane as her.

** Parker's also the only one who ran a con without the help of the rest of the team, and her only help was from a waitress. She figured out their plan on her own, and even though she called Nate to get his specific area of expertise, he didn't give it, and Parker was able to figure it out by herself. Parker conducted a con, albeit a small one, all by herself. With a torn muscle/sprained knee/broken leg (depending on who you ask). She foiled a kidnapping, and wasn't detected until the last few seconds and was able to come up with a plan on the fly. Also, Parker is the fastest thinker of the group- she can do maths in her head very quickly, she knows security systems like a priest knows their religious text- she knows how to piece something together without overcomplicating it. She does go for the simple methods and builds on it, rather than going for broke. Parker knows how to run a con on a security system, and she shows in "The Broken Wing Job" that she knows how to conduct a heist.

** Possibly because Parker is just that good, and also possibly because the cap makes her look more conspicuous. We see in Rashomon Job that she infiltrates, she doesn't just break in from outside all that often. While she could stash it with her gear, it would be a deterrent in the end, because getting it and tucking her hair in it would take precious time. In the pilot, she was there to be in then out, there and gone, but once she works with the team, she's always grifting or there's always a danger that she has to grift, so her hat would just hinder her, even for just a few seconds.

** Process of elimination. There are three people who could have taken over for Parker: Apollo, Craig Mattingly, and Archie. Apollo (and by extension, Mikael and Starke) is out because the only hacker they could use was Chaos and it would be unwise for the team (and writers) to use mostly people from "Two Live Crew Job". That leaves Mattingly and Leach. Seeing as Nate never even knew about Mattingly, he was out. That left Archie. Who, by the way, is not legally dead, considering he works as an accountant, and is known to be alive, just not to Nate, seeing as Anne Hannity knew he was still alive. Further, it was Parker who picked Leach, not Nate, seeing as Nate didn't pick Maggie. Parker probably doesn't like Mattingly for using Peggy, and probably didn't even consider using anyone but Archie. Plus, between Mattingly and Archie, Archie is the better and more subtle thief. AND due to his age, he's a lot less suspicious than Apollo or Mattingly.

** Parker's also the only one who ran a con without the help of the rest of the team, and her only help was from a waitress. She figured out their plan on her own, and even though she called Nate to get his specific area of expertise, he didn't give it, and Parker was able to figure it out by herself. Parker conducted a con, albeit a small one, all by herself. With a torn muscle/sprained knee/broken leg (depending on who you ask). She foiled a kidnapping, and wasn't detected until the last few seconds and was able to come up with a plan on the fly.