S01.E15: The Muddy Waters Job

[tessaray]

The Leverage team infiltrates an oil rig and a small-town trial to find evidence that a corrupt oil CEO is hiding a dangerous oil leak in the gulf, causing illnesses along the spill zone.

Original air date: October 8, 2021
 

[SnapHappy]

Oh Harry, you have just downed an entire barrel of the Leverage Kool-Aid.  You are completely in now, going rogue.  

That ex-wife of his is just as amoral as Harry & Ethan.  What an excellent role model for Becky.  

I did love the surprise baby shower.  That was a strangely cute and bizarre plot point!

Edited October 10, 2021 by SnapHappy

[Maelstrom]

Overall a good episode that started in one place and ended up somewhere completely different, in typical Leverage fashion. It sure did a good job of amping up tension for the finale!

Starting off with a mail call full of aliases and callbacks made me smile. The theatre reference was nice too, though of course I selfishly hope that Sophie doesn't go to London. We want the crew together, dammit!

I agree Marshal Maria, Teddy Bear Eliot is very cute when he's grumpy. And since it seems to be his default setting, all the better for us.

I do believe Breanna was wearing a Spirit's Ruse t-shirt during the briefing. Nice touch.

And we finally get to see Harry in action as a lawyer. He certainly has the drive and personality for it, and we can only imagine what he could have been doing had he not joined the dark side. (Noah Wyle's never been in a legal show, right? I don't know why I'm thinking he was). And his ex-wife is almost as bad as their marks! Blithely sitting back while someone harms others isn't that much better than being the one doing the harm, Grace.

Lovely moment between Eliot and Parker on the rig when he asked for relationship advice - "can I talk to you?" "Always." What growth for both of them since we first met them all those years ago - Eliot opening up enough to not only want a relationship but to confide his confusion to Parker; and Parker being someone that Eliot - or anyone - would turn to, someone with years of a solid, loving relationship to draw on. I so love that Parker has grown and matured in this version, become someone caring and compassionate and able to express those feeling, without losing the edge of insanity (as Nate put it in the pilot) that makes her, well, Parker. Most writers would just have her as an over the top nutbar in a reboot like this, but Leverage writers are really a cut above.

Some nice moments of levity as well, such as Breanna interrupting Eliot's rundown of the plan and him breaking the fourth wall mid-fight to explain himself to her. And the baby shower was a refreshingly unexpected twist! I can only hope that Breanna saves images of Eliot in that hat for blackmail/entertainment purposes. You know Hardison won't let him live it down once he sees it!

That ending though... oof. All those innocent workers, Eliot's rage... can't wait to watch the final ep this evening!

Favorite line: WaittressParker comparing Harry's looks to the "haunted baby doll kept young by the screams of its victims." LOL

Edited October 12, 2021 by Maelstrom

[DearEvette]

Not much to say and I fee like a broken record.  The back half of this season has been very good between the cons, the callbacks and the easter eggs.

I did like Elliot's baby shower.  Reminds me of when Hardison got the going away party after being "fired" from a job he had only been in for a few days and hadn't really had anyway.  His 'I've been fired'  box 'o stuff was really other people's pictures and plants etc.  LOL.

Wow, Harry's wife.  Ok maybe Harry was a terrible husband, but man, to not even give a thought to the people her own husband was hurting because 'he takes care of us' is rather callous.  Sure, stand by your man but damn, take a minute to feel some type of way about it.  Small reminder, but it was the present husband whose actions was causing people to skulk around your house.  This time it was someone rather harmless who was just tying to get info, next time it could be someone worse.

 

[helpmerhonda]

The name Sophie gave to the lawyers - Darby Shaw - is the name of the female character in The Pelican Brief, also about the oil industry.

[snarktini]

On 10/10/2021 at 2:18 PM, SnapHappy said:

That ex-wife of his is just as amoral as Harry & Ethan.  What an excellent role model for Becky. 

I was surprised that Harry was surprised his ex wasn't going to leave...she was okay with one shady husband, why not two? She has a type!

[Abra]

The deaths of the oil rig workers who accepted Eliot as family after less than a day got to me more than I'd expect. They're taking the whole damn company down in the next episode, right?

I'm assuming Grace married Harry when he had already been converted to Evil Lawyer Man, so I'm not surprised at all that she's staying with Ethan. Hopefully Becky makes it out of that household with a decent moral code intact. (Also cute that she was played by Noah Wyle's real life daughter. She really looks like him.)

[Captain Carrot]

On 10/15/2021 at 11:43 PM, snarktini said:

I was surprised that Harry was surprised his ex wasn't going to leave...she was okay with one shady husband, why not two? She has a type!

I think that Harry misunderstood the reason for the divorce. On some level he thought it was because he was into some shady things. That's why he was OK with the new husband since he was a 'good' guy. I feel like he put her on a bit of a pedestal and thought she was a better person than him.

He must have been gutted to find out that she didn't care about the shady business and just thought that he was a bad husband.

[blueray]

I was shocked when they blew up the oil rig at the end. The one scene with Elliot's party made me care about them. 

I didn't think she'd leave Ethan. From her pov, he said that "he would have paid the family money" but was told not too. Which puts it on the company not him, he just "works" there. Maybe some day she would realize it but right not she still in love. I'm not sure why her relationship fell apart with Harry but it wasn't his job. Of course now he's going further down the rabbit hole. 

[Mabinogia]

21 hours ago, blueray said:

I'm not sure why her relationship fell apart with Harry but it wasn't his job. Of course now he's going further down the rabbit hole. 

My impression is that Harry spent more time working than taking care of her while Ethan puts at least as much if not more time and effort into his marriage than his job. She likes the money and the security and nice things but she also wants to be doted on by a loving husband. Ethan can do both so she isn't about to give him up. 

[marceline]

I'm rewatching this episode and I need to talk about the different pronunciation of "data" from every character.

Some say "day-ta" like the Star Trek character then those same people say "daa-ta." Hardison would be the first to call this out.

I'm guessing all these scenes were shot days/weeks/months apart which only makes me love it more that we have these new episodes.

[Llywela]

1 hour ago, marceline said:

I'm rewatching this episode and I need to talk about the different pronunciation of "data" from every character.

Some say "day-ta" like the Star Trek character then those same people say "daa-ta." Hardison would be the first to call this out.

Call it out, why? Neither pronunciation is wrong, just different. It is both realistic and normal that different people pronounce the word differently. Just like in real life. 

[Prevailing Wind]

2 hours ago, Llywela said:

Call it out, why? Neither pronunciation is wrong, just different. It is both realistic and normal that different people pronounce the word differently. Just like in real life. 

My mom used to watch a soap opera about a large family. Everybody but one guy referred to "Ant" Liz, while he called her "Awnt" Liz.  He was also the only one in the family who said Nye-ther when everyone else said Nee-ther.  I would just say diiferent pronunciations, no big deal. But it was kind of weird with him being in the same family as the others.

[DoctorAtomic]

I liked that Eliot knew right of the bat that the 'Ms. River Song' et al. aliases were Hardisons. 

I also had a huge laugh over the baby shower too. 

One thing I really liked was Sophie totally conning the head lawyer with just the clipboard and an eyebrow raise. 

I don't recall them showing Harry in the courtroom before. I was actually thinking they would pull a twist and the oil company would actually not be at fault. 

Although, I was saying the same thing - the evidence couldn't count because they actually stole the information. I guess saying verifying it covered it. 

Kane really killed it with the shock, sorrow, and rage, when they were showing the explosion. For a second, I thought Harry might have blew up the rig. I don't quite get the motive though - they already showed that the pipes were leaking. 

I didn't think she was going to leave Ethan either. I think he kind of didn't know what marriage he was in. 

 

 

Edited October 24, 2021 by DoctorAtomic

[chaifan]

I really thought they were going to overhear one of the other oil bigwigs saying something about Ethan not knowing anything about the cover up, using him as good PR so they could get away with the oil leaks.  But, nope, Ethan was one of the bad guys after all.

The pro bono lawyer guy was a little too inept for me.  I was expecting the associate from The Golf Job to show up and help him out. 

In the end, I think they set it up well for the finale.

 

 

[blueray]

On 10/30/2021 at 10:57 PM, chaifan said:

I really thought they were going to overhear one of the other oil bigwigs saying something about Ethan not knowing anything about the cover up, using him as good PR so they could get away with the oil leaks.  But, nope, Ethan was one of the bad guys after all.

 

Me too. I thought it would have been a good twist to have him really have nothing to do with it and just works there.

[Mabinogia]

47 minutes ago, blueray said:

Me too. I thought it would have been a good twist to have him really have nothing to do with it and just works there.

Same. I thought it would turn out the Company was using him as a scape goat but nope, he was evil. Honestly, his actually being evil was more of a twist to me because I expected it to go the other way, it just wasn't a good twist IMO. Though the twist of his wife not batting an eye about it was quite a surprise to me so well done there. 

[AzraeltheCat]

First, I'm a little sensitive about the "Evil Lawyer" thing as I am an attorney...though it seems Harry did civil [and maybe criminal?] defense and I do not.  He says he never broke the law, and I'm assuming that means the ethical canons for lawyers so  I get kinda irritated that everyone acts like he was horrible.  We don't always like our clients but we advocate for or defend them within the bounds of the law.  Just because you or I might not want to be involved with some of the folks Harry represented doesn't make him an Evil Lawyer.  

The baby shower thing was cute, but kinda weird. How would they have cake and baby gifts out on the rig if it was Eliott's first day and no one would know his "wife" was pregnant?

The lawyer/courtroom scenes were so wrong, I could hardly watch them. The oil co. lawyer completely would not be so gullible to fall for Sophie's shtick (or at least would check it out]. This woman is likely a senior partner and is handling a multi-million dollar case, she would not be that out of the loop about her firm or client hiring and efficiency expert. Also, I forgot the exact phrase now, but oil co. lawyer used jurisdiction wrong; everyone seemed to use  motion to dismiss and summary judgment interchangeably but they are different things.  If there had been such a lack of evidence, the oil co. would have moved for summary judgment long before the start of the trial, esp a jury trial, which I presumed this one was; so many more.  So many other little things.  

 

Edited January 3, 2022 by AzraeltheCat

[aradia22]

I resisted coming back to this show after the allegations but I needed a TV to watch and I saw that Aldis is in at least some of season 2. It is still weird to see scenes with Eliot. I appreciate Maria returning and how the Redemption series seems focused on longterm character development. But I can't really look past the actor to see the character right now.

The fake security guards seemed pretty unimpressive. Not even worth the fight choreography.

The woman playing Chandis was a terrible actress. Every so often, I'm reminded I'm watching freevee. Her eyes were very red. Also, little to no makeup on the other actors in that scene. They dressed Sophie decently but you can really see them slacking on the costumes. 

I feel like the episode was kind of low energy given the personal connection to Harry. They've been way more fired up about other jobs. Maybe it's the two part episode but I feel like that's a reason to have more buildup, not less. It was dull.

"He takes care of me" is a terrible argument from Harry's ex-wife. She almost came across as more evil than the oil company... at least until they blew up the rig with all of Armus Vagra's friendly coworkers.

[aradia22]

Quote

Same. I thought it would turn out the Company was using him as a scape goat but nope, he was evil. Honestly, his actually being evil was more of a twist to me because I expected it to go the other way, it just wasn't a good twist IMO. Though the twist of his wife not batting an eye about it was quite a surprise to me so well done there. 

Agreed on both counts. I read Ethan as potentially being a super privileged trust fund kid who coasted through life and landed this cushy job. Too dumb to actually know what was going on. (The line he said to Harry at the country club about not getting to where he was without knowing about everything pointed me in this direction.) Maybe he did have some hippie-ish leanings and genuinely believed in the oil company doing good so they used him as a kinder face for the company's evil practices. I think I read a lot into the long hair but yeah, the non-twist was underwhelming though it set me up for the seemingly guileless wife being ruthless and self-serving.

[Prevailing Wind]

3 hours ago, aradia22 said:

I resisted coming back to this show after the allegations

And has there been ANY more reportage of these so-called allegations?  As I said originally, if there were anything to these allegations, TMZ would have been all over it and they weren't. Just someone making false accusations to get attention. You're punishing the wrong people.

[Captain Carrot]

18 hours ago, aradia22 said:

I resisted coming back to this show after the allegations

Is this referring to Timothy Hutton? Because he's not in the current series and I haven't heard of any issues with the remaining cast.

[tessaray]

1 hour ago, Captain Carrot said:

Is this referring to Timothy Hutton? Because he's not in the current series and I haven't heard of any issues with the remaining cast.

I think there were some against Christian Kane semi-recently. I haven't heard about any follow up.

[Maelstrom]

35 minutes ago, tessaray said:

I think there were some against Christian Kane semi-recently. I haven't heard about any follow up.

I’ve been wondering about these as well, but could never find out any more information either, so  ???

[Prevailing Wind]

If you scroll back in the "Media" thread, there are links to articles. If it's true, it makes no sense that other media outlets hadn't picked it up. And it's kind of appropriate that we're discussing this in the "Muddy Waters" thread. LOL.

[Captain Carrot]

Thanks, just looked at it in the media thread and have to agree that it's odd that there's no updates if this is a true story. (I think many of us have leaned to reserve judgement after the initial story the last few years).

One thing I did notice is that they mentioned that Hutton caused issues on set. I have to wonder if that, and not the allegations, is why he's not on the show.

[AncientNewbie]

I am an evil lawyer, but I totally get where AzraeltheCat is coming from...

My use of handwavium varies by episode, but a longrunning bit in our lawyer-filled house is to say "Oh, Louisiana is so different!" every time something in a court room or legal situation doesn't make sense. 

Edited December 5, 2022 by AncientNewbie