Running the full emotional gambit - from completely silly to heart wrenchingly sad - "The Radio Job" will go down as one of my favorite episodes of Leverage.

On one end of the emotional spectrum, we had some of the funniest moments this show has offered. How could you not love the nod to Die Hard from Eliot as he was communicating with Special Agent Dennis Powell? The latter was on the verge of being over acted by the always great Michael Paré, but just when I thought it was going over the edge, he reigned it back in. 

We also had Parker, Hardison and Eliot's initial break in. If I was Hardison, I would have asked the same thing about why he is always being pushed off of stuff. Was anyone else waiting for Eliot to knock him out after Parker suggested he be unconscious? 

The icing on the hilarious cake was Eliot’s running commentary with the last goon he was fighting about being too greedy and not bringing any backup. This is the attitude and scenes that I for which watch this show.

Then we had the emotional side of this episode, as it went in a direction I would never have imagined it would go. While Jimmy Ford has been mentioned many times, we have only met him once before. It's taken more than 18 months, but I got my wish that the writers figured out how to bring Jimmy back again to work with his son.

When Jimmy revealed that he was doing the job to keep Nate safe because Latimer threatened to kill him, I literally sat with my mouth gapping. First, from the fact that Jimmy Ford was capable of putting someone else’s needs first, but also that the laid back Latimer had used that kind of threat. 

That was only one of several slack-jaw gapping stares I gave the TV as the one-two punch of Jimmy being blown up in the warehouse was followed by the fact that Victor Dubenich (Saul Rubinek) had been behind the plan to kill the Ford family.

For the third time this season we are getting a blast from the past, given that Victor was Nate and the team's very first take down. It's going to be very interesting to see how Latimer and Victor are connected and what Nate decides to do.

Nate has been content to leave Latimer alone because none of Latimer’s hijinks have affected him or the squad. Now that he will feel that Latimer is involved with the death of his father, Latimer may have wished he had never met Nate Ford. I may be most curious to see how Nate moves forward after learning that his father cared about him enough to sacrifice his life. Nate’s had father issues from the very start.

Of course, it's the goal of any parent to keep their child safe. But it took until this episode for us to buy into Jimmy Ford as that kind of parent. I hope that his last message to Nate helps Nate find closure, though I have a feeling full closure is going to come in the form of bringing Latimer and Victor to their knees next week on the conclusion of this caper. 

How do you think Nate is going to react to his father's death? By climbing into a bottle? Climbing out? Murder? Post your thoughts below.  

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