Episode Review: LEVERAGE, "The Gold Job"

Leverage followed up "The Lonely Hearts Job" with another standard episode, but "The Gold Job" touched on one of my favorite plots that has been underlining the show's run, so it was ultimately a solid outing in my opinion.

This week's marks were a sister and brother who owned a cash for gold business and made a fortune by ripping off their customers. The Crew was hired by a client who wanted to get her grandmother's antique necklace back, and Hardison took it upon himself to lead the grift. The team was off to Portland to take down the bad guys, and once there Hardison unveiled his revolutionary new con based on video game design fundamentals called the Double-Pronged Monkey Con.

Hardison's master plan involved hooking the marks with a treasure hunt that involved a gold watch, Shanghai tunnels, a big drill, Nate dying, and a land deal. Unfortunately for our favorite geek, the job became too complicated, and the marks realized that they were being conned, but of course Nate had a contingency plan. So, instead of everything blowing up in Hardison's face, Nate saved the day as the team was able to steal the baddies' gold, get their client's necklace back, all while implicating the siblings of insurance fraud. Once back in Boston, Nate informed Hardison of what went wrong, but he was also supportive of his drive and ambition, and it was a nice learning moment for both of them.

The main reason I like "The Gold Job" so much had to do with the fact that Leverage revisited the idea of Hardison learning how to run his own crew which has always been interesting. I've also liked Nate and Hardison's bond because it has felt like a teacher/student relationship, and I was so happy that we got to see more of these kinds of interactions.

Other Odds and Ends:

• I love it that Portland got to be Portland this week.
• Two words: Mr. Punchy.
• Voodoo Doughnut, Shanghai tunnels, and Hobo's! This episode was a love letter to Rip City.
• "That's his very serious arm-cross."
• "I had a lot of psych exams as a kid. They're actually pretty easy. Only, sometimes I made my doctors cry."
• "What? That's not puppetmaster. That's jazz hands."
• Eliot: "Did you have to take a bite out of all theses?"
  Parker (with mouth full): "I had to see which one I wanted."
• "Oh, you know how to hang loose, but you don't know how to high five?"
• "Hey, it was a good plan. It was a smart plan. Clever. Don't sell yourself short."

Once again, Leverage didn't break any molds with "The Gold Job," but an emphasis on one of the show's more entertaining relationships and all of the PDX awesomeness was bound to make me happy.