It’s another two-hour Leverage event — and it begins with an episode in which Richard Chamberlain (yes, that Richard Chamberlain) plays Parker’s old mentor, getting the crew mixed up in something involving genetically engineered wheat and a planned famine. If that sounds weird, it is.
We open at Wakefield Agricultural Corporation, where there’s a ton of alarms and poor Parker is in a whole lot of trouble. Cut to Nate attempting to cook while watching the news, and Sophie dropping in to say hello (or hit on him). Their snark is interrupted by a call from a guy named Archie, who tells him Parker is in trouble and needs their help to survive. Obviously, it’s go time for the whole team.
The team turns up at Parker’s place, which is a big warehouse with not a whole lot in it, trying to figure out what’s going on. Apparently she’s up against the toughest security system in the world. Finding out where she is, Nate decides, ‘Let’s go steal Parker.’
Wakefield, as it turns out, is a major player in the agricultural world. Nate sends Sophie and Hardison right through the front door while he goes to look for the guy that called him, who turns out to be Archie Lynch, Parker’s mentor. Meanwhile, an Evil Scientist and her people are freaking out over Parker’s break-in. Freaked out enough they believe Sophie and Hardison are corporate auditors, complete with cool codenames — Steed and Peel from The Avengers, really? They decide to go floor by floor for the next hour and lock every floor down.
Nate and Eliot find Archie and also find security. Oops. After everyone dispatches with security, Archie spins a story about being held hostage, Parker there to rescue him and him being her father. Uh…okay. At least the last part is metaphorical, but we learn she met him in New York when she was 12 and he molded her into who she is today. Of course, it would be less creepy if he didn’t talk about her like he owned her.
While Hardison jumps into computer mode, Sophie pulls all the executives into a conference room to stall them. Nate finds out from Archie he’s been forcibly recruited to steal something from the Evil Scientist, and that Parker volunteered herself for the job. Nate sends Eliot to extract Parker as soon as Hardison can get her out, and I sense trouble brewing.
Nate and Archie are busy playing alpha male as to who’s actually in charge of the job, leaving Sophie, Hardison and Parker trapped inside all looking for direction. Hardison is able to direct Parker to where Eliot is waiting to break her out, but she hesitates. She realizes that if she leaves, the Evil Scientist will get away with it, and that’s contrary to the new principles that Nate has taught her. Impressed, Nate gives her the green light, which ticks off Archie to no end. Witness that great Timothy Hutton stare.
Eliot comes in to team up with Parker, and Hardison guides them through the building but not without problems (Eliot: ‘Dammit, Hardison, you’re supposed to keep these guys off our backs.’Hardison: ‘Do you want my job?’Eliot: ‘Do you want mine?’). Of course, this gets them and their cool Avengers codenames totally blown. Eliot would rather take the stairs than go down a zip line with Parker, and Sophie and Hardison disappear. Parker and Eliot break into the vault, but of course all the alarms go off. Bad news.
The Hazmat team enters the building, except it’s not the Hazmat team. It’s Archie double-crossing everyone, or so it looks because the other Hazmat people are journalists. The alarms were fake. Win. Meanwhile, all our guys escape gloating out the window. Archie has to admit that Nate is actually right, and gets a hug from Parker. You read that right: Parker hugs someone! (But she lifts his wallet, too. Just for old time’s sake.)
In the second episode, a bunch of foreign dignitaries meet with some non-foreign dignitaries to talk about Big Things and a journalist nearly gets killed in a hit-and-run. Hardison and Eliot argue over who gets to accompany Nate to the client meeting, in which Hardison admits he wants to run his own team someday. Also, pro football player Nnamdi Asomugha makes his pro acting debut (as a Chargers fan, I will refrain from bashing his being an Oakland Raider). Back to the plot: the journalist tells the team about the conditions in her country, and Nate is able to figure out how the president’s corrupt brother (and I think that’s Giancarlo Esposito) does all his money-laundering in Boston so he can get elected president himself. Nate meets with George Clooney’s girlfriend again to try to get information on the president’s brother, and finds out he’s a paid informant to the CIA for finding terrorists, which is how he gets away with everything.
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Richard Chamberlain's character is Archie Leach, as in Archibald Leach, you know, Cary Grant's real name, as in To Catch a Thief…