The Gold Job Episode Reaction
So, I watched this earlier and I’ve been thinking a lot about it because, while there are lots of nice moments I can pick out of it, I wasn’t entirely sure what to think at first when I reached the end of the episode. I’ve decided that, overall, I do like it as an episode - it was an interesting one to watch, I thought, and a little different.
I think the episode showed off a lot of what Leverage does well - the little details that make us dislike the mark even more, the simplicity which is what sometimes makes the cons that much more impressive, the seemingly innocent lines that, when you think about them, resonate deeper than you first think (I’m going to go into these in more detail.)
But I do think that the way Hardison was written was a little OTT because, yes, he does have a tendency to lean towards the complicated and the dramatic but I don’t think it was necessarily as in character for him to constantly insult Nate’s style because I think that Hardison does respect Nate. Especially after that lovely scene between him and Nate in The Boys’ Night Out Job, it seemed to go a little too far (I think that’s first time I’ve ever criticised something in one of these posts!)
That said, it was still a good episode. Even though I sort of knew that Nate was going to do something, I didn’t know quite what form it was going to come in so the twist towards the end was still nice - especially when Nate turned it into something more positive, giving Hardison constructive criticism.
Like I mentioned earlier, the little details in this episode were really lovely. The crew really has a knack for giving the marks things to do or lines to say that really make us feel like they deserve to be taken down by the team, like the way the mark in this episode wore the necklace that belonged to the victim. There were some other nice touches in this episode, too. The bit with Eliot and Parker on the couch that was an echo of season two, the fact that Parker took a bite out of every donut, the fact that Sophie doesn’t high five but does do jazz hands. They’re the sort of details that make them characters we like, not just a bunch of thieves.
I also loved the fact that there are always some lines that really have some interesting connotations. The one I noticed in this episode was near the start, when Nate and Hardison were talking to the victim.
‘You do what you have to do and you did it for your family. That’s nothing to be ashamed about.’
This is such a loaded, loaded piece of dialogue when you stop and think about it. There’s all of Nate’s history entwined in it; his relationship with his Dad (he still let him go to Ireland despite everything), what happened with Sam. And then there’s the team as a family aspect - they look out for each other, make sure they’re all doing okay and that’s very relevant for Nate because that’s part of his role.
It also makes me think of Eliot and The Big Bang Job, especially because Nate was the one who said this line. It pretty much sums up what Eliot did for them - he picked up that gun for Nate and for the rest of him and Nate knows that. I’m not saying Nate’s happy about that and I’m not saying he isn’t ashamed by that but maybe these words say more about where his head is at right now than he’d like to admit.
Other things I really liked about this episode:
-The way Nate couldn’t work the technology - I wasn’t so keen on Hardison refusing to do it but the results of that were definitely funny.
-How much Eliot liked Mr Punchy - it reminded me of his glee over the Super Power Happy Go ad.
- The fact that Eliot got so angry about Hardison letting them break in when the vault was empty. Apart from being an obvious reaction, it also spoke volumes about how seriously he takes his role as protector of the team - they took an unnecessary risk by breaking in and he can’t let that slide.
There’s other things I could mention but I don’t want to ramble too much, especially when I have a meta post coming up soonish!