Leverage – The Cakemaker of Kiev would whoop your ass

(Season 1, Episode 7 – “The Wedding Job” )

Last week we saw how the team is becoming “a little more than a team.” Maybe even, a family. The thing about families, they don’t always agree. And sometimes, the kids just won’t do what Dad says. For the second week in a row, Nate’s authority was usurped, and he was forced into another gig he would have rather walked away from. It makes for an interesting dynamic between all the players. In addition, “The Wedding Job” also gave us just a little more where the relationships of Parker & Hardison and Nate & Sophie are concerned. All that, and Eliot almost had to type. The horror!

Starting with the caper of the week, the first thing that comes to mind is the casting. As someone who never missed an episode of The Wonder Years, I’m always happy to see Dan Lauria again. He handled the mobster role well. Nicole Sullivan (Shego!) was a bit over the top, but it worked with the spirit of Leverage. Finally, if you need a bad guy, that’s badder than the main bad guy, you can never go wrong with Andrew Divoff.

The opening had a very Sopranos vibe. Moscone and Ray were borrowing heavily from Tony and Artie. It was a good scene, but the devil was in the details. The dead man from five years ago flashed a hammer and sickle tattoo, adding weight to Sergei’s arrival at the wedding. While I made the connection, I hadn’t guessed brothers until the cat was out of the bag.

That was just one of the twists that was to come as the crazed wedding unfolded. What looked like a straight burglary morphed into something else entirely, but finished in what is becoming the Leverage style. The daughter gets the cash, the client gets the restaurant and her husband, while the team, it would seem, gets the balance. And the mobster? He loses everything.

Getting back to the team dynamics, there was just a bit of a continuation from the flirtation between Parker and Hardison. It started with the awkward moment with the bridesmaid dress, and continued with one line that threw a lot of worms on the table. It seemed to be part Parker’s matter-of-fact oddness, and part just getting the idea out there, when she explained, “I told them I was drunk and we were meeting down there to have sex.” And Hardison’s reaction was priceless. I like the two of them together and welcome more time spent on that.

Meanwhile, Nate and Sophie were also continuing the feeling out of their relationship. Much like we saw in “The Stork Job,” they did so as part of the mission. I’m not as much on board with this one, because both times it has felt like they were compromising the con with their personal junk. I do like the pairing of the characters though, and it did lead to a fantastic scene where Sophie gave Maria the worst pre-wedding speech possible.

Elsewhere, there were a ton of great lines and gags. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Agent Taggart — I don’t know if that was an intentional reference to Beverly Hills Cop, but Rick Overton does have a certain John Ashton feel about him.
• “Why do you think I had to let out the waist? To make you look more skinny?” – Parker just doesn’t have a filter.
• Chef Eliot — Did you think all he could do was beat people up? At least there is no typing involved.
• Parker teaching the little girl to pick locks. So cute.
• The Butcher of Kiev, who set the stage for the line of the night. “Have you ever been to Kiev? The Cakemaker of Kiev would whoop all our asses. This is the Butcher.”

Overall, another fun entry and things seem to be moving along nicely. Given the choice, I could go for a little more on the Sterling front, sooner rather than later, but we’ll get there. For now, I’m pretty content just seeing what the next caper brings. Finally, in case you missed it, Deb talked with Dean Devlin, Leverage‘s creator, about how the cast came together and what kinds of things are in store for the second half of the season.

Clacked by Brett Love
on Jan 14, 2009 @ 10:00 EST5EDT