S01.E04: The Tower Job

[tessaray]

Drops July 9, 2021 on IMBd TV's free streaming service. 

One member of the team seeks redemption and justice by convincing Leverage to con a developer out of an entire luxury apartment building.

[Prevailing Wind]

There's a remote that can give you nausea and vertigo??  COOL!!

[Gigi43]

3 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

There's a remote that can give you nausea and vertigo??  COOL!!

 

This amused me since I had the episode on as I was doing some of my vestibular/vertigo therapy exercises! 

 

I like the conversation between Elliot and Harry in the elevator about Elliot's own past/path and then the reveal that Parker was hiding in something. 

 

This is a decent episode for Harry to explore redemption for his past deeds. I know they want knew viewers so they have to go into the core teams pasts, but those of us who watched the original have a good handle on their pasts, the focus on Harry and the others guiding him is a good way too to not just make everything a rehash of the original. 

 

There was a disclaimer in the episode description about some scenes may be difficult due to recent events and yeah, I get that one. Not the best timing given the Miami collapse and yet it makes it accidentally extremely topical though I'm not sure if it's been announced what the cause was.

 

It seemed to my ears Noah Wyle wasn't doing the accent as much in this episode, thankfully. I'd be happy if this is them dropping it.

[leighdear]

Eliot has definitely come a long way in opening up to the crew.  It's nice to see the trust, and I was also glad when Sophie said "Time to earn your way back, Mr. Wilson" and sent him after Jason after he had his melt down. 

And they're doing great with Noah/Harry's wardrobe.  Those light colored suits and lace-up buck shoes they have him in are still the classics you see all over Louisiana.   I also like how they're keeping Breanna's clothes very gender neutral and casual.  I'm really enjoying all the aspects of her character, and the actress is great.  I can imagine her growing up with Hardison.  

[Chaos Theory]

I found it comforting that both Parker and Eliot knew Klingon.  

“Hardison bet me I couldn’t learn the language.  He lost.”

”Did he?”

This was another good episode to further Harry’s redemption arc.  Loved that he tried out the “Let’s go steal a…” and no one bought it.    I continue to like that Harry is a completely different character then Nate but  at the same time has the inside track with a lot of shady people so it’s a quick and dirty way for a lot of stories to start.  “Oh Harry got the guy off”  well let’s go after them.  Great.  

Breanna continua to be a fun addition to the team.  Loved 6daze.
 

Loved the wife’s (Krista I think) repeated line that she attended the Royal College of Art in London even though she actually had no taste and no actual ability to pronounce words correctly.  
 

I actually do like Breanna asking Sophie if they are the bad guys and her actually telling her that they are.   That they’re not heroes.  They’re just necessary.

“Wow Harry was a good bad guy.”

 

[DearEvette]

Hardison bet me I couldn’t learn the language.  He Lost.
“Did he?”

And

“She did a year at the Royal College of Arts in London so she thinks she has taste.”

Breanna So young, so snarky.  I love it. Also she was the comedy MVP of this episode.  I especially loved her play by play of Elliot’s fight including both her glee and her cringe and her acknowledgement that she was out of her lane when she tried to “help”.

Hardison is not there, but the scene with Sophie speaking ‘art’ over Breanna’s terrible painting with Elliot feeling justifiably flummoxed that it looked nothing like him felt very Hardison in spirit.

Parker’s French accent was both great and over the top exaggerated at the same time.  I love that we see all these years later how comfortable Parker has gotten with the grift part of what they do. And I liked the reminder that before they teamed up they were the bad guys, people who thieved for profit and Elliot was basically a mercenary,

On a final shallow note: that black and white outfit of Sophie’s was so very chic and fierce.

[leighdear]

This episode was directed by Noah Wyle.  Cool.  I like when the frontside talent knows about the behind-the-camera stuff too.  

13 hours ago, DearEvette said:

On a final shallow note: that black and white outfit of Sophie’s was so very chic and fierce.

The clothes are as integral part of their characters as the accents and mannerisms.  I LOVE commenting on the clothes, and do a lot!  *LOL*  Nothing shallow about it!  

[Johannah]

Klingon.  Hee.  I hope they never let us forget Hardison and Nate.

I find it hard to believe that Harry couldn't control himself around the mark.  I'm sure he had plenty of practice being stonefaced and quiet in his line of work.

Loved that Parker was going down the slide multiple times after the con, just for fun.  That thing went straight down.  How was that safe?

Why did they have 6Daze drop out of getting the apartment so soon?  It gave the mark too much time to find an alternative money source.  I think all they had to give him was a contract using collateral from her next art show and since that wasn't happening, binding or not, that contract could never be enforced.

[Mirabelle]

The slide was a spiral - the tube we see is just the casing around the actual slide. 

[Johannah]

39 minutes ago, Mirabelle said:

The slide was a spiral - the tube we see is just the casing around the actual slide. 

I know they said it was spiral, but other than the bracing in the lining, it didn't really spiral.  As in, it looked like a Slinky with material around it.  The tubing itself wasn't spiral.   It didn't seem wide enough for anything more than one body going straight down.  Maybe I should look at it again.

[MissLucas]

I'm always struggling a bit when they perform cons that hit psychological problems (even when said problems affect scumbags) so I was glad when Breanna brought it up and Sophie's reply was spot-on. 

Breanna was great this episode, another fine pratfall and her trying to help with the fight was very Hardison. 6days reminded me of Parker going all Björk in 'The Studio Job' - but I'm not complaining.

I was surprised the team did not notice that Krista had a thing going on with her chauffeur/body guard. The clues were certainly there.

Parker quoting Klingon proverbs and Eliot translating should become a thing.

Edited July 17, 2021 by MissLucas

[Maelstrom]

Good but again not as strong as the first two eps IMO. I get that this was a Harry-focused ep and went a long way to filling in why and how he came to repent his ways and join the team, but still. He jeopardized the job way too much with his omissions, and as I've stated before I'm not the biggest NW fan so that didn't help. Also, I felt that Parker got pushed to the background a bit in this one, which was a bummer (though I know that of course every episode can't focus strongly on every character, but still. More Parker!)

Breanna's reaction to watching Eliot's fight was very Hardison - the actress has captured a lot of AH's mannerisms and inflections so it's very believable that they grew up together. It really makes her feel like she belongs on the team, and helps ease Hardison's absence a little.

I too got "Pjarker" vibes from 6Days, lol. Also, Breanna's comment about her brain hurting after Parker scoffed at the mark "only" having ten million was exactly my reaction too! (That was this episode, right? I broke my own rule and watched two last night)

And of course Parker and Eliot learned Klingon! 😄

[DoctorAtomic]

On 7/10/2021 at 8:18 AM, Gigi43 said:

I like the conversation between Elliot and Harry in the elevator about Elliot's own past/path and then the reveal that Parker was hiding in something. 

I like Eliot's more philosophical outlook in this series.

On 7/10/2021 at 4:12 PM, Chaos Theory said:

“Hardison bet me I couldn’t learn the language.  He lost.”

”Did he?”

They're doing a really good job on giving us a glimpse at all three over the last eight years. 

On 7/12/2021 at 8:49 AM, Johann said:

I find it hard to believe that Harry couldn't control himself around the mark.  I'm sure he had plenty of practice being stonefaced and quiet in his line of work.

I thought that was a little bit much. I can chalk it up to having a lot happen so fast to Harry. Sometimes I say things and I know I should have just shut up. People did die here; Harry wasn't just hiding money, so it's not that bad he blew it. 

I was surprised Eliot didn't see Krista canoodle with the other guy after she 'reviewed' the menu, but I assume he was nauseated at her butchering the pronounciations. 

I know Miami is fresh in our minds, as it should be, but this also has shades of the Hyatt in the 80s too. Probably more strongly imo because there was deliberate negligence. 

[andromeda331]

I loved that Hardison got Eliot to learn Klingon.

I liked that Eliot was the chef. 

Breanna happy that Harry was messing up because it made her look good and Sophie correcting her on that.

I didn't like Harry breaking cover or that he kept so much from the team. I did like his and Eliot's talk in the elevator. 

Parker is always awesome.

[Prevailing Wind]

2 hours ago, andromeda331 said:

I loved that Hardison got Eliot to learn Klingon.

I liked that Eliot was the chef. 

Breanna happy that Harry was messing up because it made her look good and Sophie correcting her on that.

I didn't like Harry breaking cover or that he kept so much from the team. I did like his and Eliot's talk in the elevator. 

Parker is always awesome.

But Eliot knew a bit of Klingon back in the Nigerian Job. He used it when he was flirting with Dubenich's secretary as the IT guy.  "baghHa' "

Parker's beyond awesome - she's legendary.

Although, I must say Parker's & Eliot's hair both look like they could use a good shampoo. (As does mine right now.)

[akg]

On 7/12/2021 at 10:49 AM, Johann said:

I find it hard to believe that Harry couldn't control himself around the mark.  I'm sure he had plenty of practice being stonefaced and quiet in his line of work.

Yes, he's had plenty of experience being stone faced but, in the past, he wasn't emotionally involved in his cases. Winning for his clients was the challenge, with no moral implications. It's only now that he realizes what he actually took from the people who lost so he's much more invested.

I didn't really understand why they included the Krista/driver stuff since it didn't end up affecting anything (except maybe it was the only reason the writers could come up with to get her to find the team?). I kept expecting someone to comment on the affair and discuss using it in the plan so it was weird that it went unmentioned.

 

7 hours ago, Prevailing Wind said:

But Eliot knew a bit of Klingon back in the Nigerian Job. He used it when he was flirting with Dubenich's secretary as the IT guy.  "baghHa' "

I've always assumed Eliot was just making up a Klingon sounding word, assuming the assistant wouldn't know either way (which still implies Eliot has watched enough of the show to know what Klingon sounds like) but I looked "baghHa' " up and it means "decrypt, break, crack (a code) [without permission, by unauthorized means]" which was actually relevant to the job.

[aradia22]

Perfect little scene with all of the characters' reactions when Elliot realized the "bet" was just Hardison tricking him into learning Klingon. 

Parker's French accent was distinctly froggy. As in, it reminded me of John Cleese voicing Jean-Bob the frog in The Swan Princess.

The competing building tours were very silly. The wacky plots are fun once in a while.

It was odd that no one thought to question why Harry wanted to take this case until the mark spotted him. 

I think they need to get better actors for the villains. These two were okay but they were like made-for-TV-movie actors. Au Pair instead of The Parent Trap. Or like a Hallmark movie. 

6Daze was a little too goofy. It made sense to have an artist to play on Krista's pretensions but the character was too cartoonish and unbelievable. I'm glad it was a short con. I do like Breanna outside of that. I think they're figuring out how to write her. She's similar enough to Hardison that they feel like siblings but not like they're writing the same character for a different actor. 

I don't know if it's always been like this or if it's just this episode but Breanna's face makeup seems off. Like the foundation/concealer seems like the wrong shade for her. But I do like the outfits they're choosing for her. 

I feel like they're laying the groundwork for potential romantic feelings between Harry and Sophie and I object. 

I don't know if I want all these episodes where Harry and/or Breanna almost blow the con. I didn't love the structure with all the little cons either. This episode felt sloppy.

Why is Sophie wearing those clompy boots 1 floor above the marks? And how did Sophie and Breanna sneak into the building?

I didn't really understand what Krista saw in Jason. Like, he's generically handsome. But she didn't seem to like him much and I didn't get what use he was to her from a business standpoint. She was clearly having an affair with the bodyguard. Why didn't she divorce him much earlier?