- Title: Leverage – The (Very) Big Bird Job
- tv.com: link
To take down a shipping CEO (Cary Elwes) responsible for a plane crash the Leverage team comes back together after their separate vacations to run an elaborate con involving Howard Hughes‘ vintage aircraft, the Spruce Goose. The team also has mixed feelings about moving into their new Portland headquarters, in the back of a microbrewery, following the events of last season’s finale that left their former home base burned and staked out by several members of law enforcement.
Given the fact that all of the team’s old fake identities are burned and Hardison (Aldis Hodge) hasn’t yet had time to create new ones that will stand-up to a thorough check, the team has to get a little creative this time around. What they come up with is a multi-level con that takes advantage of their mark’s paranoia and love of mysteries, and will make him distrust everyone he usually relies on – even his head of security (Jay Acovone) – and make him believe he has stolen, and crashed, the world’s largest plane to keep Hughes’ 70 year-old super-secret stealth technology out of the hands of terrorists.
The con involving the theft of the Spruce Goose sets new levels of ridiculousness for the show but there’s plenty here to enjoy including a perfectly cast cameo by Adam Badwin as a fellow soldier of fortune friend of Elliot’s (Christian Kane), Elwes as a fun-to-hate villain, the pretty cool new offices, and the news that Parker (Beth Riesgraf) and Hardison have finally started dating.
As to what meaning the intentionally vague final conversation between Hardison and Nate (Timothy Hutton) has to do with the future of the team, and whether or not Sophie (Gina Bellman) plans on buying that empty theater, well, we’ll just have to wait and see how things play out. One thing is for sure, the Leverage team is back in action, and I’m damn glad.