Leverage – The D.B. Cooper Job

• Title: Leverage – The D.B. Cooper Job
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Parker (Beth Riesgraf) is approached by FBI Agent McSweeton (Gerald Downey) who needs help solving his father’s (Ronny Cox) most famous unsolved case before the man dies. Parker, in the guise of Agent Haggan, introduces Nate (Timothy Hutton) as a FBI consultant and profiler to McSweeton, his father and his father’s old partner (Fred Ward) in hopes that Nate can come up with a theory as to what really happened to D.B. Cooper (Matt Nolan).

Much like last season’s episode “The Van Gogh Job” much of the episode is told through flashbacks with the Leverage cast members standing in for the various people involved the famous 1971 airplane hijacking. Parker stands in for the stewardess aboard the plane, Elliot (Christian Kane) is her unemployed husband who McSweeton drafted into the Bureau to help hunt down D.B. Cooper, Hardison (Aldis Hodge) is another FBI Agent, and Nate takes on the role of the elder Agent McSweeton who becomes more and more obsessed with the case that came close to costing him his wife (Gina Bellman) and family.

The 70’s flashbacks (and Eliot’s insanely great mustache) are terrific. The Leverage take on the real-life mystery that hooks Nate so completely and the late twist and revelation as to the real identity of Cooper all add something to the episode, but it’s the emotion inherent to the relationships between father and son and longtime partners and friends that really make “The D.B. Cooper Job” stand out as one of the best episodes of the season.