Tear Jerker / Leverage

• In "The Homecoming Job", Hardison reveals that Nate donated almost all of his take (assuming everyone got an equal share, $32 million) from their initial job to "some children's hospital." It doesn't take much to figure out which one.
• It's Played for Laughs, but Parker bursting out laughing when Sophie encourages her to think of the death of her father in "The Snow Job." Sophie's trying to get her to think of something very sad, and Parker thinks it's funny that the death of her father might be something sad to her.
• Parker's fear for the orphans in "The Stork Job":
  "You put these kids in the system, and odds are, they're gonna, they're gonna...they're gonna turn out like me."
  • Every moment Parker is onscreen during "The Stork Job" is either a Crowning Moment of some stripe or one of these.
  • Especially when Parker points out how Luka flinches in the video when Mrs. Morton touches him. She trails off before actually spelling out what the poor kid is expecting to happen to him (and by implication what she had expected to happen to her in her own situation), but Sophie's and Hardison's reactions says it all.
  • Not on the same level, but the fact that they don't get a recording of Sophie's death scene. That was some of the best acting that she has ever done when not pulling a grift, and it's gone forever, as if it had never happened. Considering her acting skills on the stage are frequently the subject of the Running Gag of her being horribly bad when she is acting (as in being an actor), it's like losing the only copy of a lost Shakespeare manuscript.
  • Hardison finally confessing that "Nana" was not his grandmother but rather his foster mother, something he clearly intended to keep to himself, to try to convince Parker to rescue the orphans. Becomes Heartwarming when you realize that it actually worked.
• From "The Miracle Job":
  • In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment while talking to Father Paul, Nate has a silent, visibly suppressed reaction to the calm announcement of a "Code Blue in pediatrics" over the intercom in the background. He knows exactly what that means. He's been there. He knows what's happening, somewhere else in that building.
  • When in the confessional, Father Paul recites precisely how long it's been since Nate last confessed as that was the day of his son's funeral.
• The flashback in "The Second David Job" where Nate watches his son Sam die (complete with a particularly harrowing use of the Big "NO!") certainly qualifies, especially since we as an audience know exactly what it did to him. The fact that the same flashback is shown several other times doesn't make it any less painful to watch.
  • Nate's Big "NO!" is especially heartbreaking as it's more of a scream of pain than anything else.
  • Nate's whole conversation with Maggie, wherein we first see that flashback, where he confesses the truth about Sam's death is also pretty tearjerker-y.
    Nate: Maggie, I have something to tell you... When Sam was in stage four, I found a treatment that would've helped him. And I went to Ian to pay for it, and he wouldn't.
    Maggie: He wouldn't?
    Nate: He wouldn't. I told him we had mortgaged the house, sold the car, that we were broke, and he still wouldn't pay the claim. Twenty years at that company, and he wouldn't help save our son.
    • That last line also adds a sense of betrayal for Nate. It's little wonder he wants revenge on his former boss.
    • We saw the flashback two or three times previously, only this time it's revealed that Maggie was there too. As Nate barrels into the hospital room and breaks down over their son's body, Maggie is standing just outside crying, looking like she's on the verge of collapsing.
• "The Beantown Bailout Job": The client's hospitalized and probably concussed daughter desperately and repeatedly telling Nate that something is wrong with the car.
• "The Tap Out Job": When Sophie belittles the fighters at the MMA gym, Eliot fiercely defends their motivations and points out the downward spiral of the town and the sad state its in, plus the likely fate its headed towards.
  Eliot: These guys don't fight because they like hurting other people. They fight to gain some sort of control over their opponents, over their environment, over their lives. Have you seen this town? The farms are drying up! The only stores are bail bondsmen and pawn shops, and there's nothing they can do about it. So yeah, they get in the ring and...try not to let it all suffocate them...and it's about two guys trying to beat the crap out of each other.
• Sophie's growing struggles with identity crisis over the course of Season 2. As a professional grifter, she's played so many different people over the years that she's not even certain who she is anymore.
• "The Lost Heir Job" actually gave a tragic backstory to a character who in almost any other episode would have been the Villain of the Week. Corrupt Corporate Executive falls for the stripper he got pregnant and plans to marry her. His lawyer who cleans up after him doesn't want the scandal and sends her off to Las Vegas, where she has their daughter and dies of cancer two years later. Decades later, the now terminally ill man manages to track his Happily Adopted daughter down and begins to gradually build up a relationship with her through her charity. But then his lawyer cuts off contact with anyone and he never gets to explain anything to his daughter. The last time he sees his daughter in the hospital, he mistakes her for her mother, who he thought had abandoned him, and is thrilled to see her. And then he's distraught again when his lawyer drags her away, thinking the woman he loved is leaving him again.
• "The Bottle Job" has Nate falling off the wagon to sell a con, which is bad. At the end of the episode, he keeps drinking, which is worse.
• "The Future Job": A fraudulent psychic uncovers a secret Parker has never told anyone: that she witnessed (and blames herself for) the death of her brother when they were children. Made worse by the fact that Parker has No Social Skills — she can't interpret normal nonverbal cues, and thus has a hard time understanding cold reading.
  • The story of her brother's death gets even worse when you remember she's also an orphan.
• "The Maltese Falcon Job", The season two finale. After spiraling further and further out of control following the loss of Sophie, Nate finds himself at the mercy of his rival Sterling, who wants to exchange a gun smuggler he's pursuing and Nate's team in exchange for Nate's freedom—because Nate is not like them. In the end, Nate captures the smuggler, then exchanges him for his teammates' freedom. While the team escapes, an FBI mook asks, "Who is this guy?" It's Nate, bleeding and exhausted. For the last two years, he prided himself for being above his team. Now, he laughs and says, "I'm a thief."
  • Not to mention his distraught phone call to Sophie. If you say you didn't tear up, ya'll lying.
  Nate: Sophie. It’s me. I uh...I screwed up. I...I need you to come back. I need you. I need you. Not for the team. Me. For me. Listen, I just...I don’t know who I am anymore, Sophie.
  • Sterling manages to catch Nate before he can clear out with the team because he knew Nate would return to HQ to retrieve a Tragic Keepsake: a drawing Nate's son made of his family. Possibly one of the last times they were happy together before Sam's illness and death.
• "The Inside Job" has Parker's old mentor/father figure Archie having no idea why Parker would jump the gun and try to infiltrate the world's most advanced security system all alone. When they're finally in contact over comms, Parker simply says, "You were gonna get caught, and they were going to hurt you and your family — your real family." The way she says it and the look on Archie's face are heartbreaking, as she has clearly felt the difference between herself and Archie's "real" family, thinking that they've been more important to Archie than she was.
• The Once More, with Clarity flashback in "The Rashomon Job" is hilarious when it reveals that the seemingly impressive security chief is also a geek with a crush on Sophie's scientist alter ego. Still, his crushed reaction when he misses a chance to say goodbye to her and admit his feelings is sad enough to elicit some pity from even the team members.
• "The Big Bang Job," where Eliot reveals that he worked for Moreau.
  Eliot: You think you know what I've done? The worst thing I ever did in my entire life, I did for Damien Moreau. And I- I'll never be clean of that.
  Parker: What did you do?
  Eliot: Don't ask me that, Parker. Because if you ask me, I'm gonna tell you. So please, don't ask me.
• Sophie and the crew invoke one of these in the climax of "The San Lorenzo Job" to turn the people of the titular country against corrupt President Ribera.
• Two linked tearjerkers for the season 4 premiere, "The Long Way Down Job": Parker's pleas of wanting to bring the body of the dead husband of their client, and the victim's goodbye message to his wife from his phone.
  Parker: You mean... he died down here? ...Alone?
  • Eliot telling Parker that if Hardison had been the one to find Alan's body, he would never have stopped trying to get him out and would have died himself.
• The Star-Crossed Lovers backstory in "The Van Gogh Job".
  • In particular, Dorothy!Parker's face when Charlie!Hardison jumps on the train, leaving her forever. Not to mention the fact that Dorothy had already died several years prior, meaning Charlie will never be reunited with her in life.
• In the "The 15 Minutes Job", while the team is following the mark, they come across a woman whose high school boyfriend has been in jail for the last 14 years. He was framed as the drunk driver in an accident caused by the mark. She's spent the entire time fighting on his behalf, with nearly nothing to show for it. It's by pure chance that the team was able to find and help her. At the end of the episode, when her innocent boyfriend is freed, she is right there beside him.
• "The Grave Danger Job": Parker talking Hardison through being Buried Alive.
  • The very first person to do anything after Hardison is let out is Eliot, who Hates Being Touched and is so visibly relieved that he pulls Hardison into a hug that actually lasts several seconds, complete with Eliot telling Hardison, "don't do that again, man."
  • And after Parker has held it together to keep Hardison calm on the phone, when he's finally rescued, she's too distraught and overwhelmed to do anything but walk away from him.
• At the beginning of "The Lonely Hearts Job", a wealthy executive who would normally be a target walks in. Nate tells him to leave and the man just breaks down crying, begging Nate to find his wife.
  • Mixed with heartwarming, the revelation that the executive's much younger wife was really in love with him, and only ran off with his money to protect him from her ruthless boss. When Eliot and Sophie find her, she is initially terrified for her husband's safety, begging them not to hurt him, until they reveal he sent them to find her. The woman crumbles, both touched and heartbroken — far from believing that she was just a gold-digging Trophy Wife, her husband loved her so much he potentially risked his life to find out what happened to her.
  • It's subtle, but the woman's dilemma over whether to tell her husband the truth about her past clearly resonates with Sophie. Makes you wonder how many times she struggled with the same.
    Sophie: Do you let them hate the real you or love the fake you?
• The second-to-last episode of the season: "The Radio Job". Jimmy Ford makes a deal with Latimer, despite his son's warnings, because it was all to keep him safe (and for two million dollars). He gets knocked unconscious and wakes up slowly by Nate's phone calling him, and realizes he's surrounded by explosives and a timer just about to go off. Jimmy calmly tells Nate to stay away, while his son keeps telling him he's going to get him, losing his cool and raising his voice to the point of fear because he knows what's about to happen. He gets out of the car and hears his dad say he loves him... forcing him to a shocked stupor. Then the building blows up, all in slow motion.
  Jimmy: Tell them stories about me. Tell them...tell them how much Jimmy Ford loves his son.
• "The Last Dam Job" has this Not So Stoic speech from Eliot as he urges Nate not to cross a line and kill Dubenich and Lattimer to avenge his father.
  Eliot: You know a lot of things Nate, but you don't know how this is going to change you.
  Nate: You handled it.
  Eliot: You have no idea who I was before all this started. That guy, kid, he had God in his heart, and he had a flag on his shoulder, clean hands, and I ain't seen him in the mirror in over 10 years. And believe me, I get up every morning looking for him. So you can trust me when I tell you, you pull that trigger and two men die. The guy you kill and the guy you used to be.
• The entire plot of "The D.B. Cooper Job". Over Nate's objections, the team helps McSweeten's dying father, an FBI agent, with the one case he could never solve—the Real Life D.B. Cooper skyjacking. It turns out that Cooper was actually Steve Reynolds—the elder McSweeten's own partner, whom he himself recruited into the FBI. While McSweeten never caught "Cooper", he did something even better by turning him into a good person. While this plot is heartwarming, it also belongs here because it's possible that the elder McSweeten dies without realizing the truth. Some fans theorize that he figures it out, but the episode doesn't say.
  • Towards the end of the episode, McSweeten picks up his dad's copy of The Odyssey and removes the bookmark he always used. It's the Christmas list McSweeten wrote some thirty-odd years ago, and there's only two things he asked for: a bike, and D.B. Cooper. There's not a word spoken in the whole scene but it's easily one of the most somber moments in the show.
• "The Broken Wing Job", when Parker goes through the voice mail of the doctor who orders Chicken Parmesan every day. The thief thinks she can crack some jokes at the guy for always eating one bite before returning it, but then hears some unsettling news...
  27 days ago: Hi James? It's Larry, at the hospital. We, uh... just heard about Emma. My god, I'm so sorry. We're all so sorry.
  11 days ago: Hey James, it's me, uh... just checking in. If there's anything you need, just call, OK? The service was beautiful.
  Today: I just want to let you know we've shifted your surgeries to Doctor Phillips. But we could really use you back here, buddy.
• At the end of "The Low Low Price Job", Eliot returns to his childhood home to try and make amends with his father, whom he had left on bad terms with years prior. However, nobody answers the door, and the look of crushing defeat on Eliot's face as he walks away is heartrending. It's not clear if his father refused to answer the door, or had already passed away in the time they were apart.
• At the end of "The Toy Job", Nate's story to the team about a trumpet he had as a child. He eventually gave it to Sam—who got sick and died before he could learn to play it. Eliot and Sophie both looked like they were about to cry.
• In "The White Rabbit Job", the mark's feelings of guilt. He blames himself for the death of his cousin, who he was closest to in the world, and it sent him into a self-destructive spiral to the point his panic attacks and feelings of guilt are so bad, he's trying to sell off his family business as fast as possible.
• THE FINALE. It starts off bad, then the emotional baggage just piles on and on. Then you hit the bridge scene, where Nate's driving the truck, and he looks back. It's heart-wrenching. And it's not even real. Nate, you bastard.
  Hardison: Did Eliot make it?
  Eliot: Here I am. Age of the geek, brother.
  • And then they clasp each others' hands. In context, this is devastating.
  • Even before that, there's Eliot's use of "Dammit, Hardison!" It's a phrase we've heard everyone use in anger at various points in the series, but this time, it's after Eliot has been told that Hardison has been badly hurt, and it's not anger, but concern and worry in Eliot's voice.
  • Nate's table-pounding breakdown as he tells the story, too devastated and furious at himself even to cry.

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