The Weekend In Paris Job (S03E01) LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION (2021—)

Headcanon: Eliot can ballroom dance as well as any professional. Better, in some instances. And no one knows this until they have to work a con at a dance studio that's a front for trafficking. He has to compete, which adds another pseudo-celebrity persona to his identities.

Of course this naturally also results in him acquiring a ton more fangirls - and fanboys! - because a) hyper competent dancing is HAWT and b) he's going to be in a male ballroom dance competition outfit which... well, I'll leave y'all to try Googling that and picture Eliot in something like it. #AHEM

So poor Hardison is on full time social media/attempting to control the hype duty while also trying to do the digital stuff for the actual job AND making sure to needle/mock/jab at Eliot at every possible opportunity... until the team actually sees their hitter, their punchy grump-up artist, dancing in one of the competitions and. Well. It's basically a Scheherazade moment that nearly blows the con because hey, this grade of dance is supposed to be emotive, right, and they're all gawking so hard they nearly miss their marks.

The fact Eliot refuses to actually acknowledge how good he is, just growling and stomping off when someone tries to actually compliment him, only adds to the effect.

Nate meanwhile is in Actual Hell because let's set this theoretical episode in early to mid S5 as, of course, Sophie just LOVES the idea of "going dancing" and is thoroughly miffed that her newly sort-of s/o can barely do a basic waltz. Bonus points if she suggests, in either or both of their hearing, that Eliot could maybe teach Nate some moves to help.

Only later it turns out the only person who Elio has actually volunteered to teach some steps to is Parker, firstly because she's competent enough to actually follow along, and secondly because that way she can take Hardison dancing on one of their date nights, which of course leaves Alec melted into an absolute puddle because he's essentially just an enormous ball of squish in the shape of a boy.

And we fade out the episode as Parker and Hardison head for their night out while Sophie is trying to teach a purposefully-failing Nate some basic steps, seeing Eliot in the kitchen of the brew pub humming to himself and, secure in the moment of being entirely unobserved, execute an absolutely perfect reverse fleckerl with a bowl and whisk as his only partner.

leverage has always been pretty obvious with it's messaging, but redemption season 3 starts off with a generic american white guy who sells hot wings stealing water from american towns and then selling it to the highest bidder on an international auction from his private villa in paris that is attended by government official and terrorists both.

this is as subtle as a cannon shot.

In The Toy Job, at the very end, Sophie suggests they give each other trust for Christmas.

We hear Nate's story, the one about the trumpet, but then the episode ends and we never hear anyone else's story.

Are there any fics or even ideas or prompts about what the rest of their stories were?

did no one else think Mr. Romance Novel Heartthrob was a little too perfect? he’s a vet and a fire captain and runs the bnb and is the only good one on the town council and is hot and kind and- like no one’s actually LIKE that in real life. this is the kind of character eliot would play in a con. I get that this is sophie’s little hallmark fantasy but I did spend the entire episode waiting for the other shoe to drop with this guy.

John Rogers, co-creator + executive producer: "Look, if we told you Eliot's entire timeline or Nate's entire timeline, you wouldn’t be able to have then have enough flexibility to fold that timeline in with Supernatural in your fanfics because they'd be no space for that. The space we leave is the space for you to write your slash! That's super important for us to do! We do that for you, people! The fans appreciate the empty space we leave so you can write your Buffy, Supernatural, NCIS, Criminal Minds, Leverage crossovers."

Geoffrey Thorne, co-producer + writer of this episode: "But don't do any Doctor Who ones because…"

John: "You're writing those."

Geoffrey: "Just don't do it."

Chris Downey, co-creator + executive producer: "You've staked those out?"

John: "He's staked those out."

— Leverage 10 Podcast: 512 The White Rabbit Job

*Kung Fu Monkey blog: LEVERAGE #205 "The Three Days of the Hunter Job" Post-game (August 24, 2009) for the original "I think fanfic is the sign of a healthy show" short essay

first rule of fandom is everything goes back to destiel

second rule of fandom is everything goes back to kirk/spock

third rule of fandom is everything goes back to holmes & watson

fourth rule of fandom is everything goes back to achilles & patroclus

there's an incomplete list here on the leverage wiki!

i could have sworn i saw a compilation on tumblr at some point too but i can't find it

there has to be a wiki or a fan page of all the different mentioned leverage scams/plays/etc across all five seasons. Right? And like the history associated and the context and what the play looks like/aspects of it when given, right? right?

Inspired by pg.23 of artificial condition.

The Swipe Right Job (S03E06) LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION (2021—)