Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Leverage - The Broken Wing Job


After tearing her ACL, Parker (Beth Riesgraf) is stuck in the office with the rest of the team in Japan on their latest job. Going stir crazy, Parker bonds with one of the waitresses (Aarti Mann) who looks in on here as a favor to Hardison (Aldis Hodge) and stares at the pub's security feed where she begins to notice a suspicious pair of regulars who she believes are thieves casing the jewelry store across the street for a future job.

While spying on the thieves Parker also learns quite a bit about the other bar patrons, including a man grieving at the recent loss of his wife. Unable to follow the robbers herself, Parker enlists the help of her new friend to find the rest of the gang and prevent them from committing a crime literally in the Leverage team's back yard. But Parker is surprised to learn that it's not a robbery but a kidnapping the thieves have planned. Even on one leg, however, the thieves will learn their lesson not to mess with one of Parker's friends.

We only see the rest of the cast in cameos including Hardison dressed as a general and Eliot (Christian Kane) preparing for a fight with a samurai, as Parker takes center stage relying on a variety of skills the thief didn't have when the show premiered four years ago. Even Nate (Timothy Hutton) is impressed. You've come a long way, baby. I'm always up for an episode that gives the audience more Parker and Riesgraf is terrific here balancing a variety of emotions from Parker's early insane boredom to showing a great deal of compassion in reaching out to one of the pub's regulars during a time of need.

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