Leverage Review: "The Morning After Job"

at .

Okay, Sophie, go steal his lawyer...

Someone remind me again how and/or why Nate and his team were being blackmailed to go after Moreau? Because tonight’s episode, "The Morning After Job," appeared to negate the majority of blackmail story plot.

I had such high hopes for the Moreau storyline when it was introduced in the season premiere, a mysterious hot woman with sultry accent that was well connected in the government blackmailing Nate and his team to take down an untouchable criminal for her. That sounds awesome. How could that go wrong?

The Morning After Job Scene

Well, for starters, when you neglect to use, address, or mention it again for more than 10 episodes, it tends to derail your ability to take full advantage of it.

However, the biggest mistake is when you do remember to include it, you cram it into one episode to actually advance the story forward and then the following week, negate 80 percent of the entire premise without ever really using it.

It really felt like the season premiere writers came up with the hook for season three. But then all the subsequent writers that worked on the show had no idea how to use it, so it just wasn’t mentioned for the majority of episodes.

Clearly as the main storyline, it should have some form of resolution, so the show tried to fix the problem by having last week’s episode remind us of it and this week was meant to “resolve” it by removing the majority the complexity. Now, Nate and his team can just go after Moreau at their leisure without the pressure of HIC (Hot Italian Chick) applying deadlines, threatening them, expecting results, etc.

I will give credit to the writers for figuring out a plausible way to write HIC and the power struggle with Nate out of the story by having her tricking Nate into going after Moreau on his own without her help. Honestly, I'm glad that the whole blackmail portion is gone.

What Nate and his team does best is help the little guy, that is what they live for, and being blackmailed to bring down an untouchable criminal for some shadowy government person really didn’t fit the basic premise of the show. The Nate I know would have turned the tables on HIC and had her under his thumb in no time. Oh wait, that is what Nate did (he just took a long time to do it).

HIC, blackmail, and Moreau aside, I must admit that I truly have enjoyed how much the team has grown this season. Parker is now able to pull off multiple roles, Hardison’s hacking is to the point he got a police car, and Eliot shows more and more how much he cares about other people. Tonight’s complex and fluid con was Nate and his team’s masterpiece of work.

Adjusting to curve balls like the sniper, FBI agent, crooked cops, and Vector getting away was some of the best work they have ever done.  I really hope when the show returns that we get to see a lot more of their growth. I'm sad the season has ended so quickly, as there are still some many questions left unanswered:

  • What is Sophie’s real name?
  • Are Hardison and Parker going to become an item?
  • How has being a “drunk con” worked out for Nate?
  • Is HIC really gone?
  • Finally, will we ever get to meet Damien Moreau? 

Remember: Leverage returns in December with new episodes - and TV Fanatic will return to cover each on in-depth!

The Morning After Job Review

Editor Rating: 4.4 / 5.0
  • 4.4 / 5.0
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
User Rating:

Rating: 4.7 / 5.0 (15 Votes)

Jim G. is a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow him on Twitter.

Show Comments
Tags: ,

Leverage Season 3 Episode 13 Quotes

Sophie: Do you watch hockey fights, alone, at night, in your room?
Eliot: Yeah, you never know when you have to fight a guy on ice.

Parker: Maybe she is his imaginary Italian friend, like Pinocchio
Eliot: How old are you?