Leverage: Redemptionfeatures a change in leadership for the revival series, but the show proves Parker (Beth Riesgraf) is still the team’s best mastermind. The series is a revival of the originalLeverageshow, which aired on TNT from 2008 to 2012. Though that series ended with Parker taking over the leadership role of a team of reformed criminals, in the first episode of the revival series, Parker turns the reins over to Sophie (Gina Bellman).
Though most ofLeverage: Redemptionfeatures Sophie running the jobs for the team, every so often, another team member gets the chance to do so. Parker returns to the role of mastermind as she runs a con by herself in theLeverage: Redemptionseason 3 finale“The Side Job.” Sophie spends the episode questioning Parker’s decisions and judging her actions. Sophie, however, is wrong in her criticism of Parker in “The Side Job.”
The First Mastermind Hint Actually Comes In The Original Leverage Pilot
Parker Takes An Interest In The Job’s Full Picture
Nate (Timothy Hutton) is the original mastermind ofthe firstLeverageseries. An honest man who previously worked as an insurance investigator, he knows how the minds of criminals work. He can see how every criminal in the group (hitter, hacker, grifter, and thief) can use their own strengths in every con. Because of that, he can see the big picture and understand how the events of a con will play out.
When Parker and Nate first meet, she is known mostly for her art and diamond thefts. She is a cat burglar who knows her way around safes, security systems, grappling hooks, and air vents. She has a very particular set of skills, andas she tells Nate in the pilot episode of Leverage, she is very good at her “one thing,” but she wants to know more. She is intrigued by the realization that he can see how everyone’s job fits together, and she asks to understand it.
It’s the first true hint, right there in the first episode, that she will one day be Nate’s successor and lead the team.
Nate does not start shifting the different members of the team into roles outside of their wheelhouse until a few episodes into the series, but Parker is the first person to truly be interested in everyone’s job. In the first season, she gets tips from both Nate and Sophie about reading people and understanding the big picture, she learns a few small hacking tips from Hardison, and she gets some fighting tips from Eliot.
Everyone else is resistant to change, butParker is ready to learn all of the skills right away. She is also the first person to outright inform Nate that, despite being an honest man, it’s clear he has been having fun with the criminals. It’s the first true hint, right there in the first episode, that she will one day be Nate’s successor and lead the team.
Parker Is The Person Running All Of Leverage International
Parker Runs The World
The first episode ofLeverage: Redemptiongives Sophie the surprise information that Parker, Eliot (Christian Kane), andHardison (Aldis Hodge)have made their criminals-going-good organization an international one following the death of Nate. They have teams that operate all over the world. There are a lot of mentions, especially in the first season, of those other teams.The only team that Parker puts Sophie in charge of is the main teamof Parker, Eliot, Hardison, and later, Breanna (Aleyse Shannon) and Harry (Noah Wyle).
While Sophie is making sure one team stays safe, Parker is making sure all of the teams stay safe.
That means that check-in calls from teams all around the world still go to Parker. At one point, she is seen with knives and watermelons while working something out with the Korean Leverage team on the phone, possibly a nod to the South Korean remake of the original series. She also mentions teams in Brazil, England, and Paris at different points in the show. While Sophie is making sure one team stays safe, Parker is making sure all of the teams stay safe.
Sophie is even initially hesitant to take over just the one team. She says she does not want to get in Parker’s way. It does not take long, however, for Sophie to be the one calling all of the shots, or at least, seeming like she is the one calling the shots. There are plenty of moments where it is revealed that Parker might still sneakily be running things behind Sophie.
One of those hints is played for laughs throughout the run ofLeverage: Redemption. It is mentioned repeatedly that Parker requires Leverage team members to train in the same skills she has. Breanna is seen learning to pick pockets. Hardison does not want to have to do “vent practice.” Parker’s point about vent training is made when Harry freaks out while escaping through an air vent because he has not practiced climbing through them.
Leverage: Redemptionrepeatedly shows that even if Sophie is running the con-of-the-week, Parker is still very much the one in charge.
Parker Sees Steps The Others Miss
In theseason 3 finale ofLeverage: Redemption, Sophie voices her worry about Parker being too emotional about jobs involving children. While Sophie is right to voice her concern, Parker is also right about the progress she has made in processing her emotions and her anger thanks to therapy. Even though Parker is angry at her mark for using child labor in his meat processing plants, she is also very much in control.
When the mark wants to kill Harry, Sophie tells Parker she is not staying ahead of the mark, that she is only “half a step ahead.” Sophie, however, is proven wrong by the end of the episode. Part of Parker’s plan relies on everyone around her believing she is unhinged enough to kill her mark. Parker has never crossed that line, but Sophie certainly believes that she could put herself in danger because of how protective Parker is of children.
As it turns out,Parker has planned for everything.Her plan includes pretending to kill Harry. It also includes terrifying her mark so he will go on the run with a fake identity she plants in his office at the top of the episode. It even includes using that fake identity to further push him. She makes sure that identity is wanted on an international level for multiple crimes, and that he will have to continue to outrun authorities, forcing him to experience the same fear and unstable life the children of undocumented immigrants he employed in his factory had.
Sophie does not see the bigger picture in the same way that Parker does…
This twist of Parker actually being multiple steps ahead of the mark and Sophie is foreshadowed in an earlier season 3 episodeas well. In “The Cooling Off The Mark Job,” Parker encourages the team to allow their friend Hurley (Drew Powell) to help let their latest mark down easy. He has just come off a job that went badly, and he could use a win. With Hurley involved, the “cooling off” does not happen, as it turns out their mark is not such a bad guy after all, but had actually stolen money to help a coworker.
It’s revealed at the end of the episode that not only is Parker aware of there being something off with the mark the entire time, but that she also took the job with the intention of using it to help Hurley. She stays multiple steps ahead of Sophie yet again. It can be inferred that the only reason Parker is still hanging back and Sophie is leading the team is becauseParker knows that with Sophie in charge, Sophie is able to grieve the loss of Nate, process her new life, and take new steps forward.
Sophie does not see the bigger picture in the same way that Parker does, which is why Parker is still the best mastermind inLeverage: Redemption, even if Sophie is the one she allows to plan the day-to-day cons.
Leverage: Redemption
Cast
Leverage: Redemption reunites The Hitter, The Hacker, The Grifter, and The Thief, joined by a new tech expert and corporate fixer. The group targets contemporary villains, from an opioid crisis architect to a secretive security firm, continuing their mission to provide leverage to those in need.
Leverage
Created for TNT, Leverage is a heist-focused action show that follows a team of five hackers, con men, and specialists led by an insurance agent who performs robin-hood-like heists against the government and corporate entities, and wealthy criminals to help everyday people. Their ultimate goal is to dole out financial justice where the system fails.
