Leverage S1.E9 The Snow Job: 
Last night’s episode was not the greatest Leverage episode. The case was solid, there were plenty of laughs, and the story was pretty strong all around. So how could last night’s episode be one of the worst Leverage episodes. It simply was because Leverage is truly that great. Even when the show is off it’s game it is still one of the best shows on television.
In this week’s case the team tries to bring down the Retzing family. They run a corrupt construction company that pretty much scams people out of their houses when natural disasters hit. The Leverage team at first targets the womanizer son (Randy) since they think they only need to get their client’s house back. Well things get much bigger when they find out that they scammed over 400 families out of their homes. The team then decide to shift their attention to Dennis (the smarter son).
They decide to get Dennis to buy into an investment company that specializes into buying up people’s life insurance policies. The company pays people for their life insurance policies so they can enjoy their last days. Then when they die the company gets their life insurance settlement. Dennis is hesistant at first but when he gets to see one of the patients (Parker pretending to be a terminal patient) he decides to buy into the company. Dennis’ father and brother notice that Dennis is moving around money and they think he is stealing money. They head to the bank in order to shift all their money so Dennis can’t steal any of it.
While at the bank, the team tricks them into signing over a majority of their company to them. All their transfers of money also alert the authorities so they are arrested for all their illegal activities. Now owning the company, the Leverage team gives all the families their houses back. They also give the Retzing’s family mansion to the clients that hired them.
So this week’s case was pretty interesting. I don’t know how but the Leverage team truly knows how to find the biggest scumbags in the country. I don’t know how someone could take advantage of someone who either lost their house in a natural disaster. I also wonder how they weren’t breaking the law with their plan of acquiring houses.
The case was solid all around and we did get to find out more about Nate as he dealt with memories of his son coming back to the surface (while also being drunk for most of the episode). The heist kind of developed pretty slowly but it at least had a satisfying conclusion. The only problem I had with this week’s case was that it just wasn’t as funny as most of the other episodes. It still had it’s fair share though including:
- Randy’s business ideas including hot air balloon paintball. Come on. Who wouldn’t want to play paintball a couple hundred feet in the air? Just as long as none of the paintballs pop your hot air balloon.
- The names of the gang’s group of heist ideas which include The London Spank and The Cherry Pie (which just so happens to be similar to the Apple Pie).
- When Hardison and Eliot played rock, paper, scissors to determine who would inject the liquid into the cadavers brain. First I don’t know how Eliot could find Hardison’s tell in rock, paper scissors. I also want to know why Eliot couldn’t have just done it since he ended up stabbing the needle into the body so he could clear his hands to play rock, paper scissors.
- Sophie teaching Parker how to act. Then Parker doesn’t even use any of her techniques and Dennis still thought she was dying.
Finally I am guessing Joss Whedon fans, along with myself, were quite pleased with the Buffy/Angel reunion in last night’s episode. Obviously Christian Kane (Eliot) is a series regular on Leverage and he was also Lindsey on Angel. Meanwhile Sam Anderson who played the crooked father in last night’s episode, was also an Angel alumn since he was the head of Wolfram and Hart (the bad guys in Angel). Finally Danny Strong who played the corrupt son, was Jonathan in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Quotes:
Eliot (about Nate usually being on time): “He sets an alarm for his alarm.”
Nate: “Okay, let’s steal a mountain.”
Hardison: “Space mountain is now closed.”
Hardison: “Why do they all have to be this hard.”
Elliot (to Hardison): “Cut the geek.”
Parker (about Nate): “Is it me or is he getting creepier?”
Dennis: “Your strip club must be going under a tunnel.”
Sophie: “All we need to do now is find a brain with a tumor.”
Photo Credit: © 2009 Turner Network Television
