Episode Title: "The San Lorenzo Job"
Writers: John Rogers & M. Scott Veach
Director: Marc Roskin
Previously on "Leverage":
The mysterious woman known as The Italian (Elisabetta Canalis) informed Nate Ford (Timothy Hutton) and his team that Damien Moreau (Goran Visnjic) — the elusive and criminal banker who funds international terrorists in addition to being the team's primary target for the last months — was coming to Boston to sell a weaponized EMP bomb to the highest bidder. While trying to go undercover at the auction, it came out that Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane) used to work for Moreau and Eliot pretended to take on an assassination in order to get back in.
However, Moreau captured The Italian and sent a team to kill Nate and Eliot. Meanwhile, Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge) and Parker (Beth Riesgraf) managed to find and disable the bomb. Eliot covered Nate as he escaped the trap with The Italian and managed to kill all of Moreau's men. Nate and The Italian confronted Moreau at a private airfield where Nate revealed that since they couldn't prove that Moreau committed any crimes, they framed him. To cover his own escape, Moreau shot The Italian and boarded his plane. But Nate vowed to finish the job that he started.
Story:
In San Lorenzo, President Edwin Ribera (Alastair Duncan) throws Nate up against a table before Moreau follows up with a punch. While Moreau taunts him, Nate admits that he never had a chance. Flashback to one week earlier, Nate tells his team that Moreau fled to San Lorenzo but he could eventually return. They all agree to take him down and Eliot introduces them via video phone to his friend and ally and in San Lorenzo, General Flores (Tim Blough). Even though he is running for President against Ribera, he agrees to help the team, but his transmission is traced and he is arrested while the team watches helplessly. Moreau then appears on the the video screen and taunts the team for leading them to Flores.
Enlisting the help of The Italian, the team enters San Lorenzo under the assumed identities of political consultants for Flores' Presidential campaign. And since Flores is in jail, they recruit Michael Vittori (Gilberto Martin Del Campo) to run for President in his place. Despite a well written speech, Vittori stumbles on live television leading Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman) to jump in and pretend to be his fiancée. Her presence galvanizes Vittori's campaign, but alerts Moreau to the team's whereabouts. Confronted by Moreau, Nate bluffs and says that he has already hacked the Presidential security feeds and will expose the election as a shame if Moreau doesn't back off.
As the days pass, Sophia is a hit with the people as she accompanies and trains Vittori for the job. Vittori also rises in the polls when Hardison releases an over-the-top anti Ribera ad online that demonizes the President. Eliot also pretends to be an animal rights activist who slams Ribera on TV for hosting dog fights at the Presidential palace, a lie which quickly gains traction. At the Presidential debate, Parker doses Ribera with nicotine that makes him appear to be drunk on stage. On the day of the election, the polls are dead even and the team realizes that Moreau will have them all killed as soon as the polls close.
The early election results are announced in Vittori's favor, despite Moreau's clampdown on the local TV stations. Nate manages to warn his team that Ribera's men are after them before he is captured. Ribera orders the death of Flores and sends his men to take Vittori into "protective custody." Sophie leads Vittori away from his would-be killers and begins to give a victory speech to the crowd before she is gunned down by an armored assassin. Catching up to the present, Nate admits that he never had a chance... that's why they stole the election. The early results were wrong, but they made the people believe that it was true and made a martyr out of Sophie.
With the people on the verge of rioting in the streets, Nate offers Ribera a deal: if he throws Moreau into jail then he can seize his assets and step down from the Presidency to live a life of luxury. To Moreau's shock, Ribera quickly takes the deal ahead of the arrival of Flores and Vittori who watch as Moreau is led away. Nate and The Italian witness him being locked up with no hope of release. As they turn away from him, he demands to know who they are. Later, Nate catches up to the very much alive Sophie, who marvels at the admiration that the people now have for her. She and Nate seem to bond further over the experience.
The next morning, Eliot arrives to get Nate out of his hotel room, unaware that Sophie is still naked and in bed with him, having apparently consummated their longstanding relationship.
Breakdown:
After a sometimes uneven third season, "Leverage" ended with its best episode of the year. Although Moreau never quite lived up to his status as the untouchable villain that we had been hearing about intermittently throughout the season, it was fun to see him get his comeuppance at the end. However, it flies in the face of Nate's claim that he had a plan for Moreau in the previous episode. Rather than just capturing Moreau on the airfield, he'd rather go through the dangerous Presidential campaign of an island republic? Sure, that's believable...
Now, the Presidential campaign was very entertaining and served up a much needed fresh con for the show. And it was hilarious to see the team running a dirty American style election against a dictator completely unfamiliar with the rules of those kinds of politics. The fact that Nate and his team only pretended to win the election actually gave it more credibility. With Ribera in control, there was no way that he would have let the polls go against him. So it was a brilliant touch to make the threat of a violent overthrow the key to ultimately unseating him.
Sophie's Eva Peron turn and faked assassination were a little obvious, but still enjoyable. She would have actually made a better President than Vittori and its easy to see why the people loved her. It would have been interesting if Sophie actually had to stay in the country for a while to make the transition work. The only problem with these elaborate cons that play out on "Leverage" is that the team rarely pays any sort of price for their success. Rather than hoping to see her really become a martyr, a forced separation between Sophie and Nate would have given it some emotional punch.
In the end, it was also nice to see Nate and Sophie finally come together. That's been a moment that's been a long time coming. Although it's a little annoying that Nate knows her real name now but the audience hasn't been let in on that yet. And now that he knows, there's not much reason to share it.
"Leverage" works best as escapist entertainment and this episode lived up to that. If the series attempts to do another season long story next year, I'd suggest looking to "Burn Notice" for an example of how to keep that alive over the course of several episodes. But either way, when summer comes around, we're going to be glad to have "Leverage" back on the air.
Crave Online Rating: 9 out of 10.
