Episode Title: "The Reunion Job"
Writers: Michael Colton & John Aboud
Director: Jonathan Frakes
Previously on "Leverage":
After refusing an escape attempt to break out of prison, Nathan Ford (Timothy Hutton) changed his mind when he discovered how the privately run prison he had been sent to was bribing a judge to get more prisoners with unreasonably longer sentences, in order to keep the prison federally funded. Nate's team came together with an elaborate ruse that included a fake Senate campaign for the warden of the prison, before framing him for Nate's eventual escape.
Later, the team was confronted by The Woman (Elisabetta Canalis), who blackmailed them into going after their biggest target yet: an international criminal named Damien Moreau.
Story:
An Iranian college student named Cyrus Madahvi (Ricki Bhullar) is attempting to access Iranian government systems from the US, when a group of masked men enter his room, beat him and steal his computer. Cyrus arranges a meeting with Nate and Alec (Aldis Hodge) before warning them that the Iranian government is using a program called Manticore to track and identify dissidents online. While Cyrus is convinced that the Iranian secret police are behind the theft of his computer, Elliot (Christian Kane) has a different theory and infiltrates the local Iranian safe house — a restaurant — while he and Alec pretend to be health inspectors.
Using the information stolen from the Iranians, the team learns that software tycoon, Larry Duberman (Arye Gross) has the Manticore program and plans to sell it to the Iranians. When the team breaks into his office, they discover that they can't simply hack into his computer — which is nearly 30 years old — and his office is a shrine to his high school years. Theorizing that his password is linked to his high school days, the team stages a reunion with dozens of Duberman's actual classmates along with Sophie (Gina Bellman), who poses as one of the former students.
Nate soon arrives as well, having taken on the identity of Drake McIntyre, a former rival of Duberman's. Another former student named Nikki (Kari Wuhrer) approaches them claiming that she dated Drake in high school and drags Nate off to make out with him. However, she turns out to be another fake when she locks up Nate and attempts to kill Duberman on behalf of the Iranians. Meanwhile, back in Duberman's office, Elliot fights off the Iranians from the restaurant, who recognize him as the health inspector.
Nate and Sophie subdue Nikki, but Duberman realizes that they are fakes as well and instantly changes his password. To his shock, he realizes that they now have access to his system. They tell him that they have subliminally bombarded him with the eventual replacement password "badger85" all night, including a brief encounter with Parker (Beth Riesgraf) in a Beaver suit. Duberman tries to flee, but is quickly arrested by the FBI in front of his former classmates. Cyrus reaches his family in Iran and plans another protest without fear of being traced. Back at the reunion, Nate and Sophie are named the king and queen and share a dance together.
Breakdown:
After the last episode, this one was a little bit of a let down. It had more of a cartoon sensibility than the more serious tone from the previous show. Case in point: Duberman's obsession with the '80s, right down to the horribly antiquated computers of the time. Have you ever used a computer with disks that were actually floppy? They are the cavemen of computers. It's really hard to believe that anyone would still use a computer like that for any reason, let along a super-secret spy program. It's like playing an Atari 2600 when you could be playing an X-Box 360 or a PS3.
But the biggest cartoon moment came when Parker and Alec escaped from Duberman's security guards while dressed as Japanese artwork. If that's not a "Scooby Doo" reference, I don't know what is.
It seemed strange to see a real world issue like the Iranian uprising married to a ridiculously silly plot line. Everything up to the initial break-in was treated more seriously. And after the broad comedy of the reunion itself, the tone of the episode seemed uneven.
Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy the episode. It just played more like a straight-up comedy than it usually does. Nate's Drake McIntyre was pretty funny to watch — he was also one of the only guys at the reunion who wasn't appropriately dressed for the occasion. Hilariously, he was almost immediately the most popular guy there.
Arye Gross was a good villain in that he was entertaining to watch and you wanted to see him fail. He basically represents the dark side of nerd culture. Imagine if Bill Gates was evil. (Or is that a bad example?) It did seem a little far-fetched for him to be working with the Iranian government, but not quite as ludicrous as the Iranian agents working in a local restaurant.
Although, it was a nice bit of poetic justice that Duberman was taken away into custody in front of all of the people that he tried so hard to impress. "Leverage" does seem to hand out satisfying fates for its villains. The subliminal beats with "Badger85" were also interesting on second glance and the producers actually introduced the idea earlier in the episode.
Kari Wuhrer also had a good turn as Nikki, though it would have been hilarious if she was simply trying to seduce Duberman instead of trying to kill him.
It also appears that the show is pushing Nate and Sophie together, as the two are named king and queen of the reunion. Their last dance was diverting as well.
Overall, this was a good episode. But I want the series to be great again.
Crave Online Rating: 8 out of 10.
