#and their absolutely adorable queerplatonic vibes. god i love writing these two so much

[cosmic-day]

Leverage: Redemption – finally got to see it and loved it. So happy to have my fave comfort show and my best found family back together. More rambling under the cut:

I did think it took a few episodes for them to find their groove – the Paranormal Hacktivity Job in particular felt weirdly “off” in ways I can’t quite articulate – but once they settled back in to it, it was just like having the old show back in the best way, with the second half being a particularly strong run of episodes.

Leverage does feel like a show we need now more than ever. “It’s gotten worse out there,” says Elliot early on and my god, is he ever right. Which in some ways made me love the show even more, but also at times made it harder to watch in an unexpected way. I thought I’d find the “let’s take down the Sackler family, I can’t believe our lawyers are letting us not even disguise this a little bit” episodes cathartic, but they just made me depressed because fuck knows nothing like that is happening in real life.

Breanna is adorable. I mean, I know we can’t agree on much, fandom, and women of colour have traditionally had a hard time of it, but we can at least agree that Breanna is adorable and awesome? Missed Hardison, but loved how he felt like a presence in the team even when he was not there. And, as previously mentioned, Breanna = made of win. If there’s a season two, can we keep both of them?

Similarly, the way they wrote out Nate, and the way they portrayed Sophie’s grief really worked for me. That said, I did miss Nate more than I thought I would. He was my least favourite character in Leverage by some margin, but sill a brilliant character. His sheer rage was the engine that drove the original show, and I did find myself missing that energy, especially in the early episodes.

On the other hand, Nate’s righteous anger and manpain could often end up taking up all the oxygen in the room and leaving less space for the other characters, meaning his absence did lead to a better balance in the team. Sophie in particular flourished without him. I loved the way she took on the mastermind role, while Parker retained her leadership role with Leverage:International. It was also clear that Parker was stepping aside at least partly for Sophie’s sake, and Sophie continually consulted with and deferred to Parker, so they felt like co leads.

Speaking of masterminds, thank you show for not making New Guy automatic mastermind, I should have known better than to worry. Our Mr Wilson was an really good addition to the team. I loved how relaxed he was about being out of his depth, how open to learning, and how generally kind and nice and supportive he was, while also being a guy who had clearly enabled real evil. And I loved how Hardison laid out for him what redemption actually means. I guess if we never see him again he had a good arc, but if there’s a season 2 I’d love to see him back.

Finally, my OT3 is intact. Sort of. I mean, I didn’t really expect a canon poly relationship. And I’m fine with them being queerplatonic, especially given I always headcanoned Parker as ace and Elliot as aro. But Elliot’s line about wanting what Parker and Hardison had made me a little sad. Still, the whole “till our dying day” vibe was present and correct, and seeing them reunited in the last episode was as joyous as expected.

In conclusion, more please.

p.s. now we know that Mounties are the only thing our crew is afraid of, they must have had a run-in with Benton Fraser at some point, right? Which would actually be a really interesting crossover. Fraser would sympathise with them a lot, but absolutely reject their methods. I don't think I'm up to writing that crossover, but I hope somebody is.

#leverage #leverage redemption #reaction posts #cosmic posts #general incoherent flailing #ot3 to end all threes