TV Review: Leverage 1.05 – “The Bank Shot Job”
Judge Roy and Nate in the bank
Episode: Leverage 1.05 — “The Bank Shot Job”
Original Air Date: December 30, 2008
In this episode, the Leverage team is in the process of pulling a “rip job,” which is a con that takes time to set up. The mark is Judge Roy, the county judge who thinks he runs the small town of Juan (I’m not sure where it is, but presumably near Leverage HQ). They are almost finished with the con, and Nate is just about to leave the bank where the finale has gone down, when the bank is robbed by a father and son. Nate and Sophie get caught inside.
The robbery goes as planned, but the robbers don’t leave. They “need more money.” It turns out that the son, Michael (played by Devon “teenage Dexter” Graye) has gotten involved with drugs and owes dealers a lot of money. They have kidnapped his mother and are holding her for ransom. Nate and Sophie manage to convince Michael and his father, Derrick, that they can help them.
Hardison and Parker pose as the FBI agents that the local police called. Parker looks particularly cute in her cop glasses and tie (have you noticed that I have a bit of a crush on Parker?). She’s going to break into the bank to take the money Judge Roy gave Nate earlier. Elliot will then deliver that money to the drug dealers and rescue the mother.
Parker takes the Judge's money
Unfortunately, as usual, not everything goes according to plan. Judge Roy discovers Nate and Sophie’s duplicity when Nate is accidentally shot. He also realizes his money has been stolen. He destroys their communicators, leaving Hardison, Parker, and Elliot on their own. Fortunately, Hardison turns out to be a competent mastermind in Nate’s place. He manages to arrange things so that it looks like Judge Roy was the one robbing the bank due to his own involvement in meth dealing. In the end, real FBI agents come in and take the credit for the Leverage team’s work (and this won’t be the last we’ll see of the two agents who appear).
This was not one of the stand-out episodes of the show, although the twist of having Hardison play mastermind was a preview of things to come. It felt kind of weak, and I found myself not wanting to revisit it to write this review. If it had been an earlier episode, I’m not sure I would have been as enthusiastic about the show as I am now. But every show has to have its rather “meh” episodes — this is one of those.
Illegal downloading is wrong, but apparently not burning evidence
Despite this, there was some solid dialogue, like Hardison and Parker’s conversation about BitTorrent. Hardison had to repurpose two satellites to get WiFi and says that it took him an hour to Torrent the latest episode of Doctor Who. “Hey! Illegal downloading is wrong,” says Parker, who then lights a trash can of papers on fire. And when Hardison first meets the local sheriff, he claims he was investigating a chupacabra. “Chupacabra?” says the sheriff. “I thought those things were urban legends.” “You’re adorable,” is Hardison’s reply.
When Elliot rescues the mother, she asks who he is. “Well, ma’am, I’d be the cavalry,” says Elliot after having beat up the drug dealers, in part using the van door as a weapon. As usual, though, Parker gets the best lines (or maybe it’s just my bias). When she meets Derrick in the bank, she tells him, “Sometimes bad guys are the only good guys you get.” And at the end she accepts a compliment from Sophie about her acting — “I think I can act okay when I’m yelling at people and bossing them around.” As Hardison might say, “Adorable.”
Rating: 2.5 / 5
