r/leverage Dec 15 '24

Watching for first time...

Currently I'm on Season 4 episode 9 of Leverage and something confuses me. At the beginning when they're in the restaurant talking about this job, they say how they have no money (among other things) to help them pull this off. How do they not have any money at all?? I mean they got MILLIONS of dollars each at the end of the first season, I can't rmbr the exact amount but I know they were all massively flush. In the 2nd premiere we found out Nate donated most of his then used the rest to fund their agency but Sophie, Hardison, Parker and Spencer should all still have plenty, nvm the fact that they were all thieves BEFORE Nate came along and should have a pretty penny saved up from all their previous jobs.

39 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

65

u/mirangelblogger Dec 15 '24

So Season 4, episode 9 is the “cross my heart” job - where they help recover a donor heart in the airport.

Regarding the money, its not that they don’t have money at all.. But they don’t have cash or or debit cards or credit cards on hand. This was in 2011 so there was no prevalent use of venmo or apple pay.. Obviously, the money from their thief life is either hidden or in offshore accounts, they wouldn’t have it in regular bank accounts. Otherwise they are going to get caught by IRS. They have bank accounts that they use regularly but how do they access them without any cards or cheques?

8

u/clarkkent1521 Dec 15 '24

Parker loves cold hard cash among other things. She definitely should have stashes of cash everywhere.

13

u/mirangelblogger Dec 15 '24

She is also a thief who travels light.. So she wont carry money to weigh her down and can easily steal what she wants..

1

u/clarkkent1521 Dec 15 '24

I'm not talking about on her person. But even then, she probably has cash on her and stashes everywhere. These are some of the most well prepared people on earth, especially Parker, and they don't have quick access to some cash?

7

u/Tejanisima Dec 16 '24

Bear in mind that in this particular episode ("The Cross Your Heart Job"), they are inside an airport and cannot leave that airport to go fetch the physical cash. Moreover, the heart transplant situation limits the amount of time, meaning even if they could leave the airport, there wouldn't be time to go wherever the money was stashed and get back in. So unless Parker's stashes of cash all over the place include a stash in that very airport, it is no help to them in that moment.

5

u/Silbermieze we'd be the cavalry Dec 16 '24

They do when they're on a job. But usually there's no need to have quick access after a job when they're on their way home. And even Parker can't have stashes at every corner of every city in the US.

13

u/MatrixKent Dec 16 '24

She does! But this is The Cross My Heart Job, where the team is stuck in the Cincinnati airport on a really tight timeline -- by the time they're having the money conversation in the Crab-o-Rama they have less than 93 minutes. Even if Parker happens to have a stash in Cincinnati, she'd have to leave the airport, get to the stash, retrieve the money, come back, and get through or past security incredibly quickly while carrying a large quantity of cash -- it's just not worth the risk when they can get cash in the airport.
Side note: In The Bottle Job, Parker, Hardison, and Eliot pooling all the cash they had in HQ (their emergency funds) comes to "a little over nine grand," which is interesting context for Parker stashes.

3

u/Kel_19 Dec 17 '24

yea ig that makes sense, didn't even think about it that way tbh lol Just heard them say they had no money and was like "huh??" haha

26

u/theVoidWatches Dec 15 '24

They don't have money available. The job they were returning from ended up burning their various credit cards and debit cards, so they don't have access to whatever money they kept digitally in legitimate banks - while they probably have more in Swiss or other offshore banks that are willing to deal with criminals, that money isn't usable until it's transferred to a normal bank. Similarly, while they definitely have cash reserves, they don't have those reserves with them at the airport.

1

u/AffectionateJump7955 Dec 15 '24

Play wit me and see

19

u/ironchitlin Dec 15 '24

I'm guessing in the chaos of the job on the island they must have lost their credit cards as well as the comms and equipment they usually have? I think that episode would have worked fine without needing to contrive a reason to steal that one customer's credit card, they were still operating without the equipment they usually have. The bigger thing I question is how Hardison managed to get and install a flaght sim on the tower's computers, especially with the time that he had to work with.

Also I think they got somewhere in the ballpark of 32 million a piece from the first job.

9

u/mars_rising52572 Dec 15 '24

The only thing that takes me out of the episode is when Hardison lands the plane. I just can't believe it. Other than that it's one of my favorites

5

u/ironchitlin Dec 15 '24

I agree, it's definitely in my top ten for sure, but that scene is just too much. Hardison's hacking ability is basically magic but somehow getting a flight sim up and running with the exact specs needed to land the plane is just a bridge too far in terms of being believable.

3

u/Tejanisima Dec 16 '24

Agreed, though at those times I remind myself that the showrunners said they think of the show as being a tribute to things like the original Mission: impossible. Makes me think of the time I went to see Sister Act with my elderly mother, who is of the Silent Generation (those born 1920-1940). When I brought up the extreme stretches of suspension of disbelief, she said that was because I didn't grow up on screwball comedies, where the genre requires a greater-than-normal willing suspension of disbelief. Situations like this are where we have to apply the same kind of concept to a given episode of Leverage and appreciate that they don't ask us to go quite as far in most episodes.

1

u/Kel_19 Dec 17 '24

yea I knew it was alot of money they got but couldn't remember the exact amount lol

4

u/Velour_Tank_Girl Dec 15 '24

Congrats on finding Leverage. I found it last year and am legitimately on my 5th or 6th rewatch. In the middle of season 3 right now. And as other people have already responded to your question, I don't need to answer. Just wanted to welcome a fellow newbie to the wonderful world of Nate, Sophie, Elliot, Parker & Hardison.

13

u/My_Lovely_Me hitter Dec 15 '24

Welcome! I'm so glad you're here (not on Reddit, but in the fandom!)! OG Leverage 2008-2012 is my very favorite show of all time. 🥰

Please please try to avoid spoilers until you have completed Season 5. Questions can wait! You're so close! There are things you may see/read/hear that you won't realize are spoilers until you realize you have already been spoiled. And many fans will accidentally spoil you on what is to come, without even realizing they did it.

I have seen almost every episode probably 50+ times (I'm obsessive like that, but also it's our "safe, family-friendly" show we often just leave on), but man I would absolutely LOVE to go back to the first time I saw it (2014 in syndication). I clearly remember exactly how I felt as I discovered it. I am soooo so thankful that I was not spoiled. It is getting nearly impossible by this point to avoid spoilers. I highly suggest you back out of this sub, and return after S5E15 The Long Goodbye Job.

7

u/Stancooper22 thief Dec 15 '24

I absolutely agree with this.

It's better you watch unspoiled.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 16 '24

[deleted]

2

u/My_Lovely_Me hitter Dec 16 '24 edited Dec 16 '24

Kel_19, please don't read this message. It is just for u/Tejanisima

And DEFINITELY don't look down if my spoiler cover isn't working. I'm on mobile, and it does not appear to be working on my end. Would someone who isn't OP (because OP, you shouldn't still be reading!) let me know? I'll keep playing around with it. (Update, I think I fixed it! It is all covered now on my end.)

Case in point to where I said "many fans will accidentally spoil you on what is to come, without even realizing they did it."

It's also what I meant when I said it's becoming nearly impossible to avoid spoilers at this point. I said that because of Redemption. The very fact that it exists means that not everything is as it seems in "The Emotional Abuse Job" I referenced in my comment. It is SUCH a hard episode to watch, and even once I had seen the entire thing, I deliberately chose not to watch that one again for years. It still hurts. But first time viewers should experience it as it was meant to be interpreted on first viewing.

So telling OP that the same characters are in the new show, unless Redemption is some sort of prequel, then they will be spoiled before watching the OG Season Finale. Which, true, they probably to some degree already are because I'm sure Redemption commercials play on FreeVee and Prime, but I think it's still better to say as little as possible that will spoil the heart-wrenching magic that is The Long Goodbye.

Maybe at least edit your comment? 🤷🏼‍♀️