(Season 1, Episode 3 – “The Two-Horse Job”) 
I thoroughly enjoyed the first two episodes of Leverage, and was left with just one nagging little question in the back of my mind. The show is really well done, and a big ol’ ball of fun, but how are they going to keep it from falling into a caper of the week pattern? It’s the classic serial/stand-alone conundrum. Too serialized and you eventually have a story so dense nobody new wants to come and play. Too stand-alone, and you run the risk of boring those fans you do have. With episode three, we got a good look at the Leverage solution to that particular problem, and his name is Badger.
Well, it was Badger, when he was on Firefly. And it was Lampkin when he was on Battlestar. Or maybe you are more of a Medium fan and remember him as Walker? The Middleman’s Manservant Neville, anyone? Perhaps you’re clairvoyant and think of him as Tanaka, from Dollhouse, even though it hasn’t premiered yet. I’m talking, of course, about Mark Sheppard, or Sterling, as we’ll be referring to him throughout the Leverage season.
To be honest, while there was a lot of great stuff in “The Two-Horse Job,” the highlight for me was Sterling rolling up on Nate and kicking off what should be a fantastic battle. I mention all of those other roles because Sheppard’s presence has been a huge bonus on each of those occasions, and I fully expect the same thing here. We’re still going to get those fun weekly capers, which will repeat so well when TNT kicks this thing into heavy rotation. But those that are playing along with the home game get a nice little bonus as we watch this rivalry develop over the course of the season. Good stuff.
The other nice bonus was a little deeper look into the past of one of the team. The quick shots like we saw tonight with Parker’s traumatic childhood introduction to horse violence, or Eliot in the great monkey conspiracy, are great, but the one that got away? Even better. Watching Amy and Eliot transition from a somewhat disappointing memory, to happy you’ve found a family, added a little emotional weight to the story. It’s not a well they can go to every week, but I wouldn’t mind a couple more of these peeks into the past later in the season.
It all made for what was an entertaining, if occasionally confusing, case. The introduction of Sterling complicated the plan to the point that I was starting to get lost, but in the good mystery way, when they finally opened the stable to reveal Baltimore. In trying to keep it all straight I missed the biggest clue — Nate asking Sophie if she had Foss turned around enough. It all came back into focus with the flashback to the switching of the nameplates.
Things got a little murky, though, at the finish. The fraud invalidates the second sale, so ownership reverts back to the previous owner? I’m still not exactly sure how that worked. Sure, Foss did try to insure his $200,000 horse for $12,000,000. But how does that invalidate the fact that the investment group did pay $12,000,000 for the horse? Was ‘Gibson’ saying that he didn’t sell Baltimore to Foss? Or was it that the paperwork didn’t have Baltimore as the horse being sold? Because, either way, it seems like ‘Gibson’ and ‘Kitty’ would have been pretty scarce right about then. It would have made more sense had they used some of the Foss money to buy Baltimore back from the investment group, at a drastically reduced price, so they could give him to Willy.
Ultimately, it’s an awfully small nit to pick, because the rest of the episode was so good. In addition to Mark Sheppard, Rick Hoffman was also well cast as Foss. He’s done that overbearing jerk character plenty of times before, most recently on Samantha Who?, and he does it very well. When he’s mad, it’s like he’s on the verge of a heart attack.
A few of my favorite bits from the crew this week:
Parker stole the show with the crazy looks on her face. From the scrunched up nose when she realized that Sterling was on to them, to the confusion when the marked cards didn’t work, to the terror of coming face to face with not just a horse, but a horse that was about to be teased…. She also had a great line with, “A talking animal that nobody else can hear? That never ends badly.”
Hardison was once again fighting the good fight, for what it is he does. His reaction to the group interrupting his presentation was great. “A little something visual for the visual learners, and for the audio learners.” He takes it so seriously. Aldis Hodge was the one I was least sure of coming into the show, because Voodoo Tatum (Friday Night Lights) and Jake Talley (Supernatural) are about as far removed from cyber ninja as you can get. He’s won me over though, and I buy him when he tells Nate, “Couple years ago, all the cell phone companies went digital with their voicemail systems. Man, it was like somebody put a new swingset on my playground.”
When Nate returned to Leverage HQ, you knew Sterling was going to be there, right? I really liked that scene because they have now set the two of them up as the unstoppable force and the immovable object. Sophie even hinted that Sterling might be better than Nate. I think we’re all pretty safe in betting that Nate comes out on top in the end, but it does look like it is shaping up to be a heck of a fight.
Finally, I’ll close with a picture. Just because it was so oddball and random that you had to laugh at it. Where is the monkey?!
Clacked by Brett Love 
on Dec 17, 2008 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
I enjoyed this except for one shark-jumping moment when Hardison used his laptop to wirelessly “hack into” Sterling’s car. That’s right, THEY PULLED A KNIGHT RIDER. I haven’t seen a portrayal of computers that silly on TV since the 80s.
I almost wonder if it was intended as comedy, since this was a very funny episode in general – the “I once saw a horse kill a clown” comment/flashback was pure Arrested Development, and the random “Where is the monkey” was even better.
On top of that, 10 minutes later Hardison says “Hack the lock? You still don’t understand what I do, do you.” So maybe it was intended as comedy, but it was still pretty annoying.
The more I think about it the more I loved this episode, though. And the characters are already all likable and completely believable as a team after only 3 episodes, something I haven’t seen since the first episode of the BBC’s “Hustle.”
*POST AUTHOR*
I have to agree with you about the car gag, Michael. I rolled my eyes a bit at that one as well. Mostly though, I’m giving them a pass on the computer/tech shenanigans for now. In part because the rest of the show has been so good. And also because they certainly aren’t the worst offenders where that is concerned. You mention Knight Rider, but I still think the lab over at CSI:Miami is the reigning champ.
Let’s hope future episodes of Leverage get back to the level of the first 2. This one was horrible. It was confusing, full of cliches, bad science, bad acting and bad law.
I know it’s tough to pull off a high quality caper each week but this one was ridiculous. For a guy that’s supposed to have a plan, Hutton’s character was a moron this week.
Not that I’m complaining but I’ve said here before that this is basically The US version of Hustle. And this confirms it. They used this almost exact con at the start of the last series.
Oops, forgot to add, it’s like they took the episode and stuck it in a room of writers. It worked. And I really like this show. Well TBH anything with Gina Bellman is a win for me :)