Tropes - Characters

## The Team as a Whole

* Anti-Hero Team: Most of the team's members used to be criminals, and even as good guys their methods cross several legal and sometimes even ethical lines (i.e. they have resorted to gaslighting in no less than three episodes). Eliot is also implied to have innocent blood on his hands and Sophie's past as a grifter is shown to have hurt innocents despite her intentions in The King George Job.
* Badass Crew: The Leverage crew consists of the world's greatest grifter, a mercenary with fighting skills beyond compare, a hacker who robbed the Bank of Iceland as a teenager, an expert thief who has been committing crimes since she was a kid, a professional doctor and world's best forger, and a former insurance investigator whose career has granted him the expertise to be a mastermind.
* Criminal Found Family: They're a group of criminals trying to bring justice to society. Over the course of the series, they grow to be incredibly tight-knit and almost emulate a "normal" nuclear family.
* Dysfunction Junction:
	+ Nate was an honest man before the insurance company he worked for as an investigator rejected the policy on his son's health coverage, leading to his death. As a result of this, his marriage ends in divorce, he becomes an alcoholic, and turns to a life of Robin Hooding to give his life meaning again. He also has a pretty crappy relationship with his father.
	+ No one actually knows who Sophie really is, as she is a grifter who is constantly living in new identities. She has a lot of angst about it in Season Two.
	+ As the only member of the team to have physically hurt people in the past, Eliot takes atonement very seriously. It's heavily implied he did something he considers unforgivable under the orders of Damien Moreau, possibly killing children. Word of God has it that Eliot is a man who has "accepted that he is damned." It's also mentioned in one episode that he and his father had a falling out when Eliot joined the military.
	+ Parker grew up in the foster system with a series of terrible foster parents - one of whom she may have blown up after they stole her favourite toy. She had a brother who died at a young age when he was hit by a car while on his bike, and she feels guilty about his death because she taught him to ride. She trained under the greatest thief in the world as a teenager who kept her away from his real family because he thought she wouldn't fit in. To top it off Word of God indicates that she also has autism, meaning that she never really fits in well in social situations.
	+ Christine [add info here. especially about being in a strained relationship with her son and having an ex-husband who thinks she isn't fit to be a mother]. She was driving getaway cars when she was 10. She was caught for car theft when she was 12 but [her family managed to get her off with it? maybe?]
	+ Hardison is the only member of the main cast that seems to be relatively normal as the Playful Hacker. He grew up in the foster system, but unlike Parker was in a stable situation with Nana. He lampshades the differences in their backgrounds in one episode.
* Fire-Forged Friends: Over the course of the show, the team go from a group of criminals who are only out for themselves and can barely stand each other to having a bond comparable to family. It can be easy to forget that in the first episode Hardison pulls a gun on Eliot.
* Good Feels Good: As pointed out by Hardison in the season two premiere, Nate Ford not only took a bunch of thieves and made them into heroes, but he made them *enjoy* being heroes.
* Heel-Face Turn: Eliot, Sophie, Hardison, Christine, and Parker are career criminals in the pilot episode. After taking down Dubenich, they decide to use their various skills to help innocent people who have been wronged by the rich and powerful.
* Just Like Robin Hood: The rich and powerful take what they want from the poor and the vulnerable. The Leverage team steal it back and return it.
* We Help the Helpless: If you've got a problem the law can't help you with, the Leverage team are there for you. And they won't charge you a single cent.

## Nathan Ford: The Mastermind

Played by: Timothy Hutton

A former insurance investigator at IYS Insurance turned leader of a band of thieves.

* Addiction Displacement: In season two, Nate goes on the wagon, and starts drinking a lot of coffee. And running very scary cons.
* Aggressive Categorism: As noted in the DVD commentary and shown in The Lonely Hearts Job, Nate is this towards the rich, who he tends to automatically assume are all corrupt people out to screw over the common man.
* The Alcoholic: He was one before season one and it shows by the end of the season when he is getting more and more drunk on each episode. He eventually sobers up but fails and in the end simply settles on being a functioning addict.
* Antihero: While acting towards a moral good, he does lead a group of people in breaking dozens of laws on the local, state, and federal level to pursue said good.
* Amicably Divorced: He and Maggie are about as amicably divorced as you can get. Nate sometimes even forgets to add "ex-" when saying "ex-wife."
* Awesome by Analysis: He demonstrates he can do this on the fly in the series finale. Explains a lot of how he's able to Indy Ploy his plans throughout the series.
* Badass Bookworm: He rarely gets physically involved with most of the jobs, but when he does, he knows how to hurt you.
* Batman Gambit: Being The Chessmaster, Nate is very good at these. His real genius is that often, his marks are smart enough to know they're being played and take steps to play Nate instead, only to find out that that was part of his plan all along.
* Batman Grabs a Gun: In the fourth season finale, he loads a revolver, his father's own, because he *really* wants to avenge his father's murder.
* Beware the Nice Ones: Being the only member of the team who is not a former criminal, it's his job to keep the team on noble causes. But if you ever manage to piss him off, he will personally break your fingers, or worse. The guys who REALLY pissed him off aren't alive anymore. He got them to *kill themselves*.
* Big Good: He thinks himself as this before realising that he truly is a thief now, and so a criminal. No criminal could be a Big Good, so he is simply a very smart and dangerous Big Bad who stands on the side of the weak and oppressed good people.
* Broken Ace: In the early seasons. He is a gifted people-reader and situation analyst tempered by tears of insurance investigation, familiarity with the criminal mindset, and natural talent for adjusting on the fly, but it comes at the expense of personal tragedy colouring his characterisation and motivation, drinking himself under the table, and self-loathing. Nate tries to channel this into helping others with his and his team's talents but he is frequently questioned by the team about what he actually hopes to get out of their jobs; if it's for the good of the client or his own way or being able to live with himself. He starts to become better once his acceptance of being a black hat settles in at the end of season two.
* Byronic Hero: He is a thief who commits fraud, theft, and dozens of other crimes, but because of his emotional baggage, the loss of his son, his drinking, and his social problems, he qualifies for this term.
* The Call Knows Where You Live: And will walk into your living room, use it as a base, and WILL NOT LEAVE.
* Catchphrase: "Let's go steal (something crazy)." Examples:
	+ "a fashion show."
	+ "the man on the street... in Africa."
	+ "Parker."
	+ "a country."
	+ "the future."
	+ "a mountain." Twice.
	+ "We're going to steal the wake?" "Have some respect. We're going to *borrow* the wake."
	+ "a miracle." "Aw, we *all* going to Hell."
	+ "the Department of Defence." "Isn't that treason?" "... we'll give it back."
	+ "a potato."
	+ The trope gets lampshaded in The Three Days of the Hunter Job when Sophie, taking over as leader for the con, says "We need to steal a general."
		- **Nate:** No, it's, "Let's go steal a general." You know, it's a rallying cry. "We need to steal a general," it's a little naggy. It's kinda like, "We need eggs," you know?
* The Chessmaster: His label in the team is Mastermind. He has at least, on average, a dozen plans to take down his targets. He is very adept at not only thinking up a long plan but using spur of the moment bits to help move the plan along. He knows the team members' strengths and weaknesses and how best to use them in plans. Also, quite literally: he's very good at the game of chess itself. In The Queen's Gambit Job he reaches the final of a world-class Blitz invitational, beating two grandmasters (*entirely fairly*) to do so. The only person he can't defeat at chess? Sterling.
* Combat Pragmatist: As of season five, he likes to begin/end every fight with a single punch to his opponent's face.
* Crazy-Prepared: Rarely does he come upon a situation either he or his team cannot help someone through.
* Control Freak: Really comes to a head in The Three Days of the Hunter Job and The Gold Job when other team members (Sophie and Hardison, respectively) take over as leader; he tends to be more on edge if he's not leading the team. It's also the key signal to his style as a grifter.
* Creepy Good: When *Parker* finds your plans and willingness to really mess with the mark's mind creepy, you are definitely edging into this.
* Cunning People Play Poker: Nate has already been established as The Chessmaster. But when a group of Irish Mob thugs try to strongarm the woman who owns McRory's, Nate challenges the leader to a poker match with three members of law enforcement who knew Nate's criminal father, and gets the Irish mobster to confess to several crimes in front of the cops.
* Functional Addict: He's a functional alcoholic, most of the time. There are a few jobs where it screws him up, but not many.
* Good is Not Nice: Oh boy. He is acting on the side of the moral good and breaking dozens of laws along the way. If you stand between him and helping the client, be prepared to suffer.
* Guile Hero: Rarely is he unable to think up a way around an obstacle.
* Hates Rich People: Nathan Ford has developed an intense hatred of wealthy industrialists and CEOs, the sort of people he holds accountable for the death of his son. In season four, the Big Bads of the season try to entice him by offering him targets to go after, playing on this very hatred. And when their plans are unfurled and they both find themselves at gunpoint, one of them points out that the other is a wealthy CEO who can go on to hurt a lot of people. There are a couple of episodes where Nate is forced to admit that they've run into an Honest Corporate Executive, but he still sees them ultimately as pawns to use in his schemes, even if not outright enemies.
* Intelligence Equals Isolation: While he does fine dealing with people when he is manipulating them or when dealing with the team, he is often incapable of dealing with normal people, most notably shown in The Boys' Night Out Job.
* It's Personal: On multiple occasions:
	+ In The First David Job/The Second David Job, the mark is Ian Blackpoole, Nathan's former boss - and the man who in effect killed Sam.
	+ In The Cross My Heart Job, the villain is an aged, terminally ill arms manufacturer who tries to hijack a heart transplant from a 15-year-old boy who will die without it. Reminded of Sam's fate, Nate goes a little crazy; he not only tells the villain his real name and gives him an epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech, he actually threatens to kill him *personally* - the only time he's ever done so. His actions do ensure the mark's death from his illness, but Nate makes it clear he'd do the deed himself if anything happened to the kid.
	+ The Three Card Monte Job, The Radio Job, and The Last Dam Job all involve Nate's father, Jimmy Ford. For better and for worse, Nate takes those jobs personally.
* In the Blood: Nathan seems to view his relationship with his father like this, to an extent. While he rejects his father's nefarious traits, he doesn't deny he picked up a fair bit of expertise that he applies to his exploits. This is relevant in The Bottle Job (where he reminisces about his time in the bar with his father and uses it to cosy up to some off-duty cops) and particularly in The Three Card Monte Job (where his father is directly involved in the story and we can see how much Nathan gleaned from his Pops).
* Jack of All Stats: Nate is the team's Mission Control, but isn't shy about doing field work himself. He may not be the best fighter, grifter, or thief, but he is competent in all those skills, and often performs as a secondary or distraction while the team's specialists do the heavy lifting.
* Knight in Sour Armour: He has a ton of emotional baggage that he tries to get out by helping others with his skills. At no point does he ever seem legitimately happy that he did some good in the world, at best basking in a smug cynicism that yet another unsympathetic power broker got what was coming to them. The rest of the team is in it for Good Feels Good but Nate is only trying to make peace with himself.
* Large Ham: Nate Ford the guy is a soft-spoken, unassuming, if a little intense guy. Nate Ford the grifter is often an obnoxious, sleazy loudmouth, the kind of person that people can't wait to get rid of.
* The Leader: He's even called The Mastermind.
* Manipulative Bastard: Normally he leaves this part of the planning to Sophie, but when he wants to, Nate can be a very good manipulator in his own right. He's not such a good *actor*, but can even use that to his advantage. He notes this is one quality Hardison lacks to run his own crew because a leader would have to do things others object to for the sake of the goal, like hypnotising Hardison so he could play *Scheherazade*. In The Studio Job, he's locked in a room with two Mooks, who are going to beat the crap out of him. A few minutes later, the crew busts in and... he's just sitting there, and the two Mooks are unconscious on the ground. Nate says they got in a fight... as a con-man/grifter, he's not on Sophie's level, and he also has a very different style. She usually ingratiates herself with the mark. Nate usually irritates them. She's alluring, he's an asshole.
* Mission Control: Shares this with Hardison.
* The Missus and the Ex: Sophie and Maggie respectively. They are friends and respect each other, which puts Nate on edge just slightly.
* Mirror Character: With Starke. When Sophie is saying how a brilliant man whose pride has been hurt and personally challenged, will lead him to do a bigger, more dangerous con, one of the team asks if she's talking about Starke or Nate. This is emphasised by interspersing clips of Nate and Starke giving pretty much the same speech and even putting their suit coat on in the same fashion.
* The One with a Personal Life: Inverted in the back-to-back episodes The Girls' Night Out Job and The Boys' Night Out Job lampshade the fact that while everyone, even extremely socially unaware Parker, has some friend or life outside the crew, *except* Nate.
* Passing the Torch: To Parker in the Grand Finale.
* Pay Evil unto Evil: The whole gang is here for this, but Nate thinks a lot bigger and long term than the rest. When he runs a con, he always aims to utterly expose, destroy, humiliate, and leave the marks destitute, *and* get restitution plus interest for the victims. If he leaves a mark with their limbs intact, he's being merciful.
* The Promise: In the pilot, after Nate and his team take down Dubenich for double-crossing them, Nate warns him that if they ever meet again, he won't be so nice. Nate makes good on that promise after Dubenich has his father killed in |the season four finale by tricking him and Latimer to fight over a loaded gun near the edge of a dam, and they both plummet to their deaths.
* "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Nate delivers these to some of his marks after he and his team run a con on them.
* Running Gag: Nate tends to get punched in the face approximately Once an Episode by either an enraged mark or a furious goon.
* Sharp-Dressed Man: Almost always slickly dressed, unless the con needs him to to be a bit grittier (as in The Reunion Job).
* Sink or Swim Mentor: In season five, in preparation for his retirement, he puts the various team members in challenging situations on their own, outside their comfort zones, to see how they adapt and figure out who's capable of taking over.
* Smart People Play Chess: This is his running motif. He even plays in a chess tournament of Grandmasters as part of a con.
* Talking the Monster to Death: If he's not playing a role, and he gets a chance to speak to the bad guy? It usually means they've already lost. Demonstrated magnificently in the season four finale.
* Team Dad: To the Team, especially Parker in the last season as he slowly pushes her and the others to grow beyond their positions and be able to carry on without them.
* That's What I Would Do: Whenever they are going up against somebody on his level of analysis. Starke, Sterling, and the marks from The Juror Number Six Job and The Fifteen Minutes Job are good examples.
* Time for Plan B: Nate tells Hardison in The Gold Job he never runs with Plan A. Plan A has too many coincidences to pull it off right. He starts off lower with a simpler, grittier plan and spruces it up a little. According to Word of God, "When Nate gets past Plan G, things start to get very hairy."

>
> **Hardison**: "*Going to Plan B?*"
> **Nate**: "*Technically that would be Plan G.*"
> **Hardison**: "*How many plans do we have? Is there a plan M?*"
> **Nate**: "*Yeah, Hardison dies in Plan M.*"
> **Eliot**: "*I like Plan M.*"
> — The Nigerian Job
>

>
> **Nate**: "*That was Plan M.*"
> **Hardison**: "*Don't I die in Plan M?*"
> **Nate**: "*Yeah, usually. Yeah.*"
> **Hardison**: "*Whatchu mean usually? How many plans do I die in?*"
> **Nate**: "*C,F, and M through Q.*"
> **Hardison**: "*Hold up, C? Man, that's a bit close to home man. Need to switch that up. How many plans does Eliot die in?*"
> **Nate**: "*Uh, none. (*turns to Parker*) And none. (*turns to Christine*) And none. (*turns to Sophie*) And... (*Beat. Turns back to Eliot*) But there is one where you come out with a scar.*"
> — The Queen's Gambit Job
>
>

* Inverted in at least one instance, The Boiler Room Job. The team goes in knowing that their mark is beyond their ability to con him as he's just too good at it himself. So they attempt to rob him blind... which he catches onto. Nate then adjusts their approach so the mark *knows* he's being conned... all so they can go back to Plan "A" and rob him blind while he's too focused on exposing the con. Token Good Teammate:
	+ Dubenich deliberately picks Nate to lead the team because he needs one honest man to keep them in line.
	+ Early on, Nate is the only team member who is genuinely interested in helping people. By the beginning of the second season, however, this is no longer the case, as he's gotten the others to realise that Good Feels Good and they have all become committed to continuing to help people (to the point of all but forcing Nate to go along with it despite his protests that he's trying to live a normal life again).
* UST: With Sophie and Maggie.
* "Well Done, Son" Guy:
	+ In a weird, kinda twisted and ruthless way, as seen in The Three Card Monte Job.
	+ Played more straight (and tragic) in The Radio Job. When his dad is trapped in a warehouse with explosives about to go off, he tells Nate over the phone, "Tell them how much Jimmy ford loved his son." Nate, who is about to rush into the warehouse, is so stunned he stops in his tracks and can only watch helplessly as the building explodes.
* Will They or Won't They?: He and Sophie for most of the show.
* Would Hit a Girl: Cold cocks a nun in The Boys' Night Out Job. Though, she isn't really a nun.

## Sophie Deveraux: The Grifter

Played by: Gina Bellman

Terrible actress and world-class confidence trickster.

* Accidental Truth: More than once, her lies while grifting have actually turned out to be *right*.
* All Women Love Shoes:
	+ In The Nigerian Job, Nate mentions that Sophie used her money from the eponymous job to "buy a truly impressive number of shoes." In The 15 Minute Job, after the mark fails to respond to her running past while chasing a baby carriage, she gives up and gets distracted by a shoe sale. She also always carries an emergency pair of high heels with her, and has a second emergency pair stashed at Nate's apartment. In The Frame Up Job, Nate's able to deduce she is playing him *and* find out where she is going based on *the sound her shoes make*.
	+ To mark the anniversary of her and Nate's first meeting, she plans to go out and spend a large amount of money on clothes.
* Ambiguously Brown: Ethnically ambiguous (Bellman is just of Eastern European extraction, but her complexion is dark enough to pass for a variety of south- and west-Asian ethnicities) and uses it to her advantage in cons, portraying an enormous variety of nationalities In-Universe.
* Attending Your Own Funeral: Does it twice.
	+ The first time being the apparent victim of a bombing in her apartment and she joins the team in watching the mourners for the possible bomber making sure Sophie is dead. The funeral itself is for one of her aliases.
	+ The second time after she "saves" a presidential candidate from would-be assassins, she is on the balcony overlooking where a makeshift memorial with flowers and her picture are hanging. This time Nate addresses her insistence at basking in the attentions she's getting from the mourners.
* Bad Actor, Good Liar: Sophie can assume fake identities as easy as a chameleon changing colour. Despite this, her theatrical acting is so atrocious that Eliot finds it worse than the time he was forced to play Russian Roulette. In one episode, a critic says her production of *The Sound of Music* was so terrible it made them root for the Nazis. However, Sophie can act well when a con requires her to play the role of a talented actress.
* Bad "Bad Acting": One of her quirks is that any time she's not conning someone (aka. when she has to perform as a real actor), she is an absolutely terrible actress. So terrible that she should be the patron saint of Bad Bad Acting. It is so bad, when she played Maria in *The Sound of Music*, one reviewer comments she was so bad he was rooting for the Nazis.
	+ In The Long Goodbye Job, she finally gets a standing ovation on-stage for her portrayal of Lady Macbeth.
	+ While trying to keep a quirky creative genius occupied, she enters a sonnet recital and briefly puts on a Large Ham reading reminiscent of her Lady Macbeth in The Nigerian Job.

>
> **Eliot**: "*She can't act.*"
> **Nate**: "*She can act... when it's an act.*"
> — The Stork Job
>

* Con Artist: She was a confidence trickster before the team formed.
* Distracted by the Sexy: Part of her MO is that her looks help to blind male marks to any ulterior motives she might have.
* The Dreaded: According to Chaos, Sophie is such a feared person in the world of professional thieves that they generally go somewhere else when she's in town. It's why Chaos, upon learning there's even a chance of her joining his crew (which he plans on betraying), simply tries to blow her up.
* Even the Girls Want Her: In The Experimental Job, Detective Grayson indicates that efforts to charm information out of her might be more successful if they came from Sophie instead of Eliot. Eliot takes it in stride, and Sophie, for her part, seems flattered.
* Femme Fatale: Channels this in most of her cons.
* Giftedly Bad: As an actor, and as a singer. Eliot says her singing is even worse than her acting... so it's especially atrocious.
* Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: The key to her Character Development, best demonstrated in her throwing down with the female hired gun in The Reunion Job.
* Guile Hero: Everything she does is about using her brain to manipulate people into doing what she wants. The show even gets into the psychology behind her manipulations.
	+ **Sophie:** I'm a grifter. If I'm doing my job right, they just... turn the alarm off for me.
* The Heart: Ironically, as Nate is the "honest man" who gets everyone to work together, she becomes Nate's moral compass and the emotional centre of the group.
* Hypno Fool: Her use of neuro-linguistic programming on others verges on this. Just ask Eliot.
* Indy Ploy/Seamless Spontaneous Lie: All the time:

>
> **The Mark**: " *You're questioning a botanist, an accountant, and the in-house masseuse.*"
> **Sophie**: "*Yes... yes I am. The three of them are having quite the affair. He fathered the children with both these women. The paternity expenses? Enormous. Motive to betray your company for the right price. [*mutters*] Damn it, Hardison.*"
> **Hardison**: "*How do you come up with this stuff?*"
> — The Hot Potato Job
>

* Insistent Terminology: Where everyone else calls Harry by his first name, she insists on calling him Mr. Wilson.
* Journey to Find Oneself: She temporarily leaves the team in the second half of season two to do this. See Lost in Character below.
* Lost in Character: During the middle of season two, she realises she no longer knows who she is anymore. She is so lost in all her false identities which are more than words on paper because she knows everything about them, from where they were born to how their parents died. She has to leave to find herself.
* Male Gaze: Sophie's wardrobe, even when not on a con, seems almost calculated to appeal to the opposite sex.
* Manipulative Bitch: It's part of her job. She doesn't always mean for it to become a part of her personal life, but it occasionally does.
* Master of Disguise: Hey, when you're a grifter, you can't afford not to be one.
* The Mentor: She takes this role for Harry and Breanna, as they aren't as familiar with the world Team Leverage works in. With Harry, she tries to familiarise him with the dangers he didn't consider when he started his redemption crusade. With Breanna, she tries to show her that it's not a betrayal if she tries to build a life for herself beyond her team and family.
* The Mourning After: Redemption opens on a shot of her waking up alone in bed, then shows her studying her engagement and wedding rings. Then she meets the team at Nate's grave. She continues to wear her engagement and wedding rings until The Harry Wilson Job.
* Mysterious Past: We know practically nothing about her from before she met Nate.
* No Name Given: "Sophie" is one of many, many aliases. The audience doesn't know her real name, and Nate... forgot it. In bed.
	+ Word of God finally said that the name Nate used during the proposal in the series finale, The Long Goodbye Job, may or may not be her real name. Her "you know Lara's not my real name" comment was intended to give them cover for if they got a sixth season. They didn't, so that name was canon... until the new series got picked up. Shrug of God?
* Official Couple: With Nate.
* Omniglot: Speaks Chinese and Serbian and presumably other languages. Justified because she is a world traveller with a professional need to speak local languages.
* Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Gina Bellman does an incredible job, but considering the number and scope of the accents she has to do, it is inevitable that eventually she'd slip on a couple. Her Southern Belle has been specifically mentioned.
* Picky Eater: She seems appalled by the fare available in the Nebraska town the team visits during The Tap-Out Job complaining that "everything on my plate is yellow" and recoiling from the concept of "chicken-fried steak" (She does eventually gain an appreciation for pork rinds, however).
	+ **Sophie:** "Meat" should never be used as an adjective.
* Pretty in Mink: At the end of The Ice Man Job, she's at a high-class diner and wearing a hooded white fur coat. It looks glamorous and also helps cover Gina's baby bump during that season.
* Rank Up: In the wake of Nate's death, she steps into the team's leadership role. This rankles Parker somewhat, as she'd been leading the team during Nate and Sophie's retirement.
* Real Life Writes the Plot: Bellman's pregnancy forced the Journey to Find Herself.
* The Social Expert: Her core skill, seeing as how she's their Grifter.
* She Really Can Act: Invoked in-universe. After seeing her Bad "Bad Acting" on stage,, this is the reaction the team gets after realising she's the best grifter there is.

>
> **Hardison**: "*She's not awful.*"
> **Nate**: "*This is her stage. Sophie Deveraux is the finest actress you've ever seen... when she's breaking the law.*"
> — The Nigerian Job
>

* Ship Tease: With Harry. For example, at the end of The Jackal Job, where coffee was a major characteristic of the client who "loved to get coffee with Jo" (with her wife), he asks her out for coffee. He's the one who usually sits down and talks to her about Nate and his own estranged family. The season ends with her thanking him for seeing her differently than the team, giving him a kiss on the cheek, calling him by his first name, and taking off her engagement and wedding rings on her way back to the team.
* Shot in the Ass: Implied during her first confrontation with Nate, in the flashback sequence for The Nigerian Job. She shoots him in the shoulder and gets answered with a shot of his own the instant she turns her back.
* Sure, Let's Go With That: Like any good grifter, she can work with this trope very well.

>
> **Executive**: "*Excuse me, what are you doing there?*"
> **Sophie**: "*[*Southern accent*] Well, I do...*"
> **Executive**: "*Are you here with the Australian group?*"
> **Sophie**: "*[*Australian accent*] Wish you blokes'd put some maps up around here!*"
> — job
>

* Team Mom:
	+ *Hardison:* We trust Nate to come up with the plan. We trust *you* to make sure we're all taken care of.
* That's What I Do: How she works out what antagonist grifters are doing.
* Took a Level in Badass: While she is never an outright Action Girl like Parker, she becomes a much more competent fighter in the season two.

## Eliot Spencer: The Hitter

Played by: Christian Kane

"Retrieval specialist", mercenary, and badass supreme.

* The Ace: He is consistently excellent at whatever he tries his hand at, frm combat to cooking to country singing to professional baseball.
* Action Hero: Eliot is an excellent martial artist and weapons expert with military experience. He frequently uses his combat expertise to take down any henchmen the team runs into.
* The Atoner: After a fashion. Eliot has done some very bad things in the past, and his guilt and regret over that seems to be a large part of why he becomes so fiercely committed to helping others and protecting the rest of the team. Word of God is that Eliot is more or less at peace with the fact that there is no redemption for him. But he'll fight to the last drop of blood to stop anyone else going down that road, especially his teammates.
* Awesome by Analysis: Very much so. He can tell the make of a gun by the sound it makes when it fires, and identifies the Mooks as ex-CIA/Marine/dirty cops by the way they stand, their haircut, their shoes. Can we say Genius Bruiser?
* Barbarian Longhair: Downplayed. He's a total badass with long hair who is distinctly more rough-around-the-edges than his colleagues. That said, he's still fairly civilised, and can fit in to high-class company if needed.
* Batman Grabs a Gun:
	+ He picks up a couple of guns in The Big Bang Job and mows down a dozen-plus of Moreau's hitmen.
	+ He does so again in The Last Dam Job, when he seriously considers killing Dubenich so that Nate won't have the chance to commit that sin.
* The Berserker:
	+ There are times when he gets worked up enough that he'll charge like a bull and keep punching no matter what. The mere sight of Jim Sterling is one way to set this off.
	+ In The Tap-Out Job Sophie warns a mark that putting Eliot in a fight where he's handicapped is the same as "taking the safety off the gun." Subverted, in that it's all an act. They removed the drugs from his water before he drinks any.
* Berserk Button:
	+ As seen in The French Connection Job, he has an extreme dislike for people who don't appreciate his cooking, or food in general since he's a highly trained chef.
	+ If you spill his coffee, especially on him, better have a good dental plan.
	+ If you hurt a child...
* Big Damn Heroes: Almost literally his job description. When the plan goes awry and someone's in trouble, Eliot's job is to be there to knock some people out and cover his companions.
* Brick Joke: In The Morning After Job, he makes an offhand remark about watching hockey videos because he never knows when he'll have to fight a guy on ice. In The Blue Line Job he poses as a hockey player and does indeed have to fight on the ice.
	+ This gets a Call Back in The First Contact Job when he reveals he studies sci-fi stuff because he never knows when he'll have fight an alien.
	+ Yeah. *THAT'S* where he learned it... word is that while he was in the military (and *this was going to be shown on-screen*, except that the sets were already taken down!)... Eliot was *a member of an SG team*.
* Boisterous Bruiser: A rather mild example, as he seems fully ready to throw himself into action at any given moment. In The Boiler room Job he indicates he is happy towards the end when a mook tries to take him by stating he "hasn't hit anybody in over two weeks".
* Brains and Brawn: When partnered with Hardison, he's the Brawn.
* The Brute: To Damien Moreau, in the past. Nowadays he's The Big Guy.
* Butt-Monkey: Usually when Hardison pulls a prank or botches an element of the job.
* Catchphrase:
	+ "Dammit, (Teammate's name. Usually Hardison)!" (which is lampshaded by Hardison in a few episodes), and "It's a very distinctive (impossibly small detail he can use to identify something or someone)."
	+ Given that it is used as a Trust Password in The San Lorenzo Job, "We'd be the cavalry" may also qualify.
	+ "I used to date a (random career)" as a reason for knowing details about a specific job. Examples include flight attendants, neurologists and supermodels. (He's claimed to have been with only one of each of those, but it could still count since he's said it twice.)
	+ "There's something wrong with you." Says this to Parker a number of times.
* Charles Atlas Superpower: Eliot has performed a number of borderline superhuman feats throughout the show. These include taking out four guys in the time it takes a bag to hit the floor, throwing a dart into a bullseye without looking, and surviving getting smacked in the head by a tilt-a-whirl at an amusement park.
* Chef of Iron: Eliot is well versed in fighting with kitchen utensils. *Especially* if you insult his appetisers.
* Chivalrous Pervert: Eliot is often frequently seen flirting with women before, after, and sometimes even *during* a con, most notably in The Two Live Crew Job *in the middle of a fight* when his opponent loses her shirt and he stops attacking to check her out (and they are later implied to hook up off-screen). At the same time, he genuinely pays attention to the women he hooks up with and takes interest in them as people rather than just as sexual conquests, which also accounts for the broad variety of things he's learned from women he's slept with.
* Crazy-Prepared: In The Morning After Job, it's noted that he's studied footage of hockey games - or, more accurately, fights during hockey games - because "you never know when you might have to fight on the ice." He makes a similar comment in The First Contact Job, this time about the possibility of fighting *aliens*.
* Cryptic Background Reference: We never learn *what* Eliot did when he worked for Damien Moreau. This is almost certainly for the best. We're also still waiting to find out about the monkey.
* Dark and Troubled Past: Whatever he did for Moreau is so heinous and vile that he will *never* discuss it any more than warning people how much they do not want to know what it is.
* Deadpan Snarker: Has a very sharp tongue when in the right mood.

>
> **Nate**: "*Hardison's gonna pretend to break into the vault.*"
> **Eliot**: "*Yeah, well, hopefully the Russians will only pretend to kill him.*"
> — The Ice Man Job
>
> * Death Glare: As called by Tara, he often does "this thing with your eyes that scares people". It's enough for the mark to start spilling his guts on the spot.
> * Determinator: On the very rare occasion he comes up against someone who can actually give him a real fight, it becomes clear that it's all but impossible to *keep* Eliot down for any length of time. It takes being clocked in the head by a *speeding tilt-a-whirl* in The Carnival Job to knock him out, and even then he's back on his feet and fighting a few minutes later.
> 	+ **Quinn:** WHY WON'T YOU GO DOWN?
> * Dirty Business: Both his current career and his Mysterious Past are full of it. Little has been given in detail, but he has clearly done some awful, awful things. Season four outright states he was doing wetwork.
> * Distracted by the Sexy: Only two things will throw Eliot's focus: a child in trouble, or a pretty woman.
> * Does Not Like Guns: Any time he gets his hands on a gun, it's so that he can eject the bullets and throw it away, often stating in as many words that he doesn't like guns. In The Big Bang Job matters become dire enough to force Eliot to pick up a pair of handguns and demonstrate that just because he doesn't *like* guns doesn't mean he's not very capable of using them.
> * The Dreaded: Anyone who knows Eliot's reputation takes him *very* seriously. Mikel Dayan in The Two Live Crew Job cusses Starke out in Hebrew for pitting her against Eliot. When he announces himself by name to Moreau's bodyguards, an entire roomful of people draw guns on him and the closest ones actually look *worried*.
> * Even Evil Has Standards: He's not evil, but he *is* a ruthless hit man, con artist, and thief; but he's also the one who comments when the bad guys cross the line by, say, shaking someone down at a funeral.
> * Friend to All Children: Surprisingly and rather scarily. He has particular compassion for kids who've drawn the short stick in life, but even spoiled rich kids love him. Then there's the argument he has with Hardison in The Morning After Job until Hardison agrees to detour from a job to stop a domestic dispute because there *could possibly* be children involved. Non-fluffy reasons for this have been strongly hinted.
> * From Camouflage to Criminal: One of the things he confesses to Nate is that he was once "a kid with a flag on his shoulder" before he got recruited into mercenary work and lost his way until he found the team.
> * Genius Bruiser: Word of God compares Eliot to Batman. And played by Christian Kane, it's to be expected.
> * Guttural Growler: His common manner of speaking. Played for Laughs in The Hot Potato Job when he has to stop and make a conscious effort to make his voice a little less gritty because he's playing the role of an accountant (and because Sophie is mimicking his usual tone in her role as a security expert).
> * Hair-Trigger Temper: A man barrels into him and causes him to spill coffee on his shirt; Eliot knocks out a few of his teeth. Sterling walks into a bar; Eliot throws him over a table. A woman insults his appetisers; he goes after her with a knife. (The last example is Played for Laughs but still true all the same.) To sum up what's above: DO NOT MESS WITH THE GUY. Even if you're a woman.
> * Happily Adopted: Less happily in his adult years until The Fractured Job but he was adopted by a black couple when he was abandoned in a hospital as a baby.
> * Has a Type: Given Aimee and Kaye Lynn, plus many of the women he flirts with, it appears to be blondes.
> * Hates Being Touched: Portrayed subtly, but confirmed by Word of God. Played for laughs. Subverted slightly in that he only lets Christine touch him.
> * He Really Can Act: In universe example, along with Hardison. Despite being the "muscle" of the team, Eliot has proven himself to be a surprisingly good actor, being able to convincingly pull off a multitude of vastly different personas, including health inspectors and doctors.
> * Heart Is an Awesome Power: Among others, he's a trained chef and amateur country singer. Pretty handy in situations where his usual M.O. would give him, and probably the rest of the team, away.
> * Heel-Face Turn: At some point pre-series, upon giving up whatever he did for Moreau.
> * Heroes Fight Barehanded: Eliot prefers to fight bare-fisted or using an object as a club, even when faced with guns. He constantly says he Doesn't Like Guns, thinking they're too sloppy.
> 	+ The third season shows us he *can* use guns, but he will *not* use them because he's The Atoner. We don't know exactly what for...
> * Heterosexual Life-Partners:
> 	+ Really driven home in The Experimental Job when after discovering Hardison has been kidnapped he *immediately* turns the tables on his captor and in the span of thirty seconds figures out where he is being held and busts out of his cell to go get him.
> 	+ Also in The Grave Danger Job he pulls Hardison into a bear hug and tells him never to do that (get Buried Alive) again. Bear in mind, Eliot Hates Being Touched.
> 	+ Played for laughs when Hardison pretends to be his boyfriend.
> * Hidden Depths: Out the wazoo. And he keeps uncovering more.
> * Hired Guns: An ex-mercenary.
> * Hyper-Awareness: Eliot is very adept at noticing details. For example, in The Homecoming Job, he's searching for a couple of Private Military Contractors in a hospital looking to murder a witness. He notices that a doctor in the hospital is wearing crocs, and immediately remembers that two other doctors he passed by moments ago are wearing *boots*. Naturally, they're the would-be killers. In the subsequent brawl, he's able to ID one of the killers as a former Marine, likely Force Recon, just by the way he handles his knife.
> * Improbable Weapon User:
> 	+ In The Cross My Heart Job Eliot reveals he once fought an assassin in Damascus with a *nerf sword*.
> 	+ During The Studio Job he takes down two mooks sent to silence him, using a pair of drumsticks.
> 	+ In The Fifteen Minutes Job he beats up a guy with a screen door. In The Wedding Job during his fight with The Butcher of Kiev he uses a whisk and the *food* as weapons.
>
>
>
> >
> > **Nate**: "*Did you just kill a guy with an appetiser?*"
> > **Eliot**: "*I don't know, maybe.*"
> > — The Wedding Job
> >
> > * Invincible Hero:
> > 	+ For a while early on, Eliot doesn't even fight anyone who gives him a challenge. Since then, he's taken a few serious beatings, but has yet actually to *lose* a fight. It certainly makes him immune to The Worf Effect. Until The Carnival Job... he ends up unconscious on the floor, unable to help a little girl. He does still win the fight in the end, though. And even on that occasion he's smacked in the head by a moving ride.
> > 	+ And then, of course, there's Moto's very determined bodyguard. The man fought Eliot to a draw... after getting knocked around and BLOWN THROUGH THE FLOOR. Seriously, what the hell was that guy made of?!
> > 	+ Word of God (on John Rodger's blog) is that Eliot could probably fight Batman to a tie. He's that good.
> > 	+ Eliot's opponents who can seriously give him a challenge in the first series can be counted on one hand: Quinn, Mikel Dayan, Alexander Moto's bodyguard, Roper, and the Butcher of Kiev (with a bald Mook from the premier and Brock being additional examples from the revival).
> > * Kiai: Does this in The First Encounter Job.
> > * Ladykiller in Love: Finally gets into a long-term relationship.
> > * Lightning Bruiser: He specialises in quick disabling strikes.
> > * Made of Iron: Eliot can take a lot of punishment due to his occupation as a hitter. He gets hit by a *car* in The Boost Job and doesn't suffer any lasting injuries.
> > 	+ Sometimes the job makes use of this for serious effect, as in The Radio Job when he allows himself to be beaten by three guys for a few minutes to sell a role.
> > * Mr. Fanservice: As a physically fit man with obvious arm muscles, he will flaunt them and other parts of his body as parts of various cons.
> > * The Napoleon: A rather minor version. In The (Very) Big Bird Job, Eliot is implied to be slightly insecure about his height with one of his old friends, even though he is about average at 5'9". The friend in question is played by Adam Baldwin.
> > * Nerds Speak Klingon: In The Nigerian Job Eliot is posing as a geeky IT technician. When the secretary he is distracting comments on how strong he is, he says he works out because he likes to go to conventions as a Klingon. He then pretends to speak Klingon which causes her to laugh.
> > * Noodle Incident:
> > 	+ Played for disturbing implications. He did *something* while working for Damien Moreau that was incredibly horrible. He begs the team not to ask what it was, because if they ask, he'll tell them, with the implication that they truly do not want to know what he did.
> > 	+ Eliot is also, like most of the team, full of offhand played-for-laughs references to odd incidents in his past that go unexplained. Most of them seem to involve implications of violence.
> > 	+ Word of God states that if those particularly shows hadn't already broken down their sets, season two would have had Eliot having a flashback *where he was about to go to Stargate as a member of an SG-team.*
> > 	+ He once overthrew an entire country on a budget of just $80 million (a task that would normally require $150 million just to be safe) but doesn't explain where and how.
> > * Noodle Implements: He has fought people with some truly out there weaponry.
> > * Obfuscating Stupidity: When he's not being overtly menacing or turning on the charm, Eliot's style as a grifter often involves getting people to underestimate him by acting dumber and more simplistic than he really is and playing to their expectations of the thickheaded country boy. Maggie points out in The Zanzibar Marketplace Job that people underestimate Eliot, to which Nate replies is "kinda the point."
> > * Official Couple: With Christine.
> > * Omniglot: Speaks Hebrew and Arabic and possibly other languages. Justified, he is a world traveller with a professional need to speak local languages.
> > * Papa Wolf: Eliot has a tendency to find various strays that strike a chord with him for whatever reason. He becomes extremely (read: scarily) protective of them for the rest of the job. (Safe to say, if you're a child, a soldier or ex-soldier, or a working-class stuff, he'll probably be kindly-disposed towards you.)
> > * One-Man Army: He can mow through multiple foes with ease. He does this especially well in The Harry Wilson Job when he takes out an entire building's worth of security guards in just sixty seconds.
> > * Pintsized Powerhouse: As mentioned, he's not especially big (though not very short either), but he undoubtedly has the asskicking capabilities that go with this trope.
> > * Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: "Sup?" KAPOW!
> > * Properly Paranoid: He gets leery about the idea of his face being widely circulated. Having multiple bounties on his head from several countries *plus* a fatwa gives him good reason. The "punchline" of when this was revealed would originally have been the Butcher of Kiev almost seeing his website.
> > * Real Men Wear Pink: He takes his cooking very seriously, and he actually *is* shown wearing a pink shirt several times. He's also quite well-informed on fashion, as seen in The Runway Job though unlike the cooking he seems somewhat defensive about this.
> > * Really Gets Around: If we take his claims about his own love life to be truth. (To put things in perspective, he also claims to grow his own food and to sleep only ninety minutes a day.) Then again, he's been shown to pick up women quite easily, so it's not beyond plausibility that he could have dated a neurologist and slept with a flight attendant. And the supermodels. And the Japanese policewoman who taught him how to trim a bonsai. Word of God confirms that Eliot "has a full social life" but "doesn't bring it into the office" (save, presumably, for the rare on-screen exceptions such as in The Studio Job and when he and Christine become a couple).
> > * Seen It All:
> > 	+ What makes him so effective as the team's "Hitter". His ability to analyse any potential conflict comes from his years of experience in dealing with every kind of dangerous situation and encountering every type of enemy combatant. He's the one Nate asks when the team needs to know how a violent crime is likely to go down, and he's rarely wrong. He can also recognise undercover hit men and the like by observing small cues in the way they dress, stand, move, or hold equipment.
> > 	+ He can identify a helicopter by the sound it makes... as *relayed to him by another person on the phone* doing an impression of the sound.
> > * Shipper on Deck: He sent both Parker and Sophie flowers with the implication that they were from Hardison and Nate respectively, helping the guys out as they aren't the best at being romantic.
> > * Sink or Swim Mentor: As an instructor at a culinary institute in The French Connection Job.
> > * Skewed Priorities: If a job ever requires him to use his culinary skills, it's guaranteed that he will become preoccupied with serving up a meal rather than whatever Nate needs him to do.
> > * Southern-Fried Genius: In and out of universe, we've received repeated confirmation that Eliot has a great big brain that mostly gets used to make his big ol' muscles go boom boom.
> > * Strong and Skilled: Combine his role as the team muscle with his broad arsenal, and there you go.
> > * Stout Strength: He usually wears shirts that show off his shoulders and arms, but when he loses the shirt to pose as an MMA fighter in The Tap-Out Job we see that, unlike Hardison, he's not sporting a six-pack.
> > * Supreme Chef: He is a world class chef who takes great pleasure in serving fine food. Expressing displeasure at his cooking is a good way to set him off.
> > * Talk to the Fist: His usual M.O.
> > * Tell Me How You Fight: Driven home by the page quote, this is how he identifies particular combatants.
> > * They Really Do Love Each Other: With Hardison, driven home hard in The Experimental Job and The Grave Danger Job.
> > * Tin Man: Particularly in the first season. He *is* developing a sense of compassion and empathy, though.
> > * Technical Pacifist: Refuses to kill people. Has no problem kicking their knees backwards to make them scream like a girl.
> > 	+ Also, seriously, start tallying the number of *innocent people just doing their job* he has to wade through just to keep the team safe. If he *did* kill instead of merely incapacitate/knock out, the crew would probably lose any hope of that "good guy" status they're trying to maintain.
> > * Took a Level in Badass: In terms of development, he goes from a brilliant fighter, to a capable grifter able to see what the mark wants and use that to get it for them. Basically the flip-side to Sophie.
> > * Torture Always Works: It doesn't work on Eliot. However, when HE'S the one who's doing the torturing...
> > * Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Christine. [explanation] They're together as of [job].
> > * Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He claims this of himself when he's trying to stop Nate from killing someone.
> > 	+ You have no idea who I was before all this started. That guy - kid - he had God in his heart, a flag on his shoulder. Clean hands. I haven't seen him in the mirror in over ten years. And believe me, I get up every morning looking for him. So you can trust me when I tell you that if you pull that trigger, two men die: the guy you kill, and the guy you used to be.
> > * Violence is the Only Option:
> > 	+ Subverted, for the most part.
> > 	**Nate:** Eliot, I'm going to have to ask you not to do anything violent.
> > 	**Eliot:** What are you talking about. I only use violence as an appropriate response.
> > 	**SterlingL** Hello, Nate.
> > 	*(Eliot's nostrils flare, his eyes narrow, and he punches Sterling in the face. He doesn't stop there.)*
> > 	+ Occasionally Eliot does this for laughs, like in The Homecoming Job.
> > 	**Hardison:** I just have to spoof the IP address and overlay a digital duplicate on the wi-fi-
> > 	Eliot throws a rock at the camera.
> > 	**Hardison:** -or that.
> > 	**Eliot:** Let's go.
> > 	**Hardison:** I'm sorry it was too far away for you to punch; I'm sure that really frustrates you.
> >
> >
> > Christine Cameron: The Forger
> > -----------------------------
> >
> >
> > * Action Girl: [can hold her own as seen in "job". She is the third most dangerous team member]
> > * Badass Bookworm: [only person with a university degree and has learned to fight after a few seasons]
> > * The Heart: She genuinely cares about helping people. Even before joining the Leverage team she used her forging skills to create aliases so she could still work as a doctor after she is suspended. In The Gone Fishin' Job she insists that she and Eliot go back to stop the militia from using a fertiliser bomb.
> > * Official Couple: With Eliot.
> > * Master Forger: She is able to create forgeries to the point that she has taught herself how to create period-looking art that can hold up to close inspection.
> > * Took a Level in Badass: [something about learning to fight from Eliot]
> > * Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Eliot. [explanation] They're together as of [job].
> >
> >
> > Parker: The Thief
> > -----------------
> >
> >
> > Played by: Beth Riesgraf
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > | “
> >  | Looks like Parker's gonna have to crawl through the air duct again. God forbid anyone else would have to learn how to fricking crawl on their stomach through a tiny space. It's not rocket science, people.
> >  | ”
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > The world's greatest - and most eccentric - thief.
> >
> >
> >
> > * Action Girl: Can definitely hold her own, as seen in The Stork Job. Word of God says she's the second most dangerous team member.
> > * Ambiguously Bi: Eventually she gets together with Hardison but has some suspicious Les Yay from time to time.
> > * Badass Adorable
> > * Bad "Bad Acting": Due to not really being good interacting with people outside her group and utter lack of social skills, Parker can't blend in well, as opposed to Sophie.
> > 	+ Around season three, through her many experiences in cons she gradually becomes much better at acting, though still the worst of the group and tends to handle simpler roles compared to the rest of the team, unless they're roles that take advantage of her eccentricity i.e. playing an avant-garde musician in The Studio Job.
> > * Beta Couple: With Hardison.
> > * Brains and Brawn: Sometimes plays the Brawn to Hardison's Brains.
> > * Broken Bird: It's not readily apparent because she doesn't interact with other humans that much, but on several occasions she reveals that she has a very fragile emotional core.
> > * Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Word of God is that Parker may have autism.
> > * Cannot Spit It Out: Has a hard time saying she loves him, but Hardison understands. He's her pretzel.
> > * The Chess Master: When the series ends, Parker takes on this position as Nate and Sophie leave.
> > * Chronically Killed Actor: In-Universe. Whenever Parker grifts, there's a good chance her character will be killed off to sell the con: Cindy McAllen in The Three Days of the Hunter Job, Pat the French maid in The Maltese Falcon Job, and Alice White in The Morning After Job to name a few. The Snow Job has her posing as a patient who is barely clinging to life with her brain tumour.
> > 	+ Justified, when you realise that, besides being adorable, Parker has no ability whatsoever at the long con. Quickly getting her away also lets her use her real skills.
> > * Classy Cat-Burglar: Well, a cat burglar, anyway... she has the look, but none of the attitude.
> > * Cloud Cuckoo Lander: She's pretty eccentric, to say the least.
> > * Cute and Psycho: She's not a murderer or anything, but Parker has the loosest understanding of right and wrong within the team. Her friends take turns to gently rein her in.
> > * Dark and Troubled Past: Bordering on Hilariously Abusive Childhood at some points.
> > * Dark Is Not Evil: She wears a lot of comfy black clothes, even when she's not on the job.
> > * Deadpan Snarker: She has her moments when she's not being a complete space cadet.
> > * Exact Words: Sometimes, though it decreases as her time with the team increases, she will take an instruction to its literal meaning. One instance is when Nate asks her to start a "fight" with a woman near Hardison. Instead of a yelling match, as Nate hoped for, Parker starts out with punching the woman. Nate later apologises for his vagueness and says next time he'll use "argument" when he wants just the verbal fight.
> > * Foreshadowing: In The Miracle Job Parker shows quick insight into how best to take down the mark. It hints at her capacity to eventually become the Mastermind in the finale.
> > * Friend to All Children: Not just orphans, either. In The Wedding Job she is seen teaching a young girl how to pick a lock. There are pretty specific reasons she is drawn to kids.
> > * Fun Personified: Beth Riesgraf is this, if the gag reels are anything to go by
> > * Green-Eyed Monster: She becomes jealous when Hardison is a little too friendly with other women. This is most notable in The Double-Blind Job.
> > * Heroic Comedic Sociopath: To the point that when she claims to have put a razor blade in an apple Eliot not only stops eating but tears apart to make sure she didn't actually tamper with the food.
> > * Hidden Depths: She's extremely skilled at portraits, which comes so naturally to her that she actually thought it was just something everyone could do. Also, she knows the basics of quail hunting and what Schelling's theory of rational deterrence is.
> > * In Harm's Way: She's a heck of an adrenaline junkie who's happiest repelling down or jumping off of buildings.
> > * Innocently Insensitive: She grows out of it, but close to the start of the series, she's... not great with the whole empathy thing.
> > * Kleptomaniac Hero: She steals so much that pickpocketing is pure instinct to her. In The Twelve Step Job she figures out bad guys are in the rehab clinic because she instinctively picks *the gun* out of one's *concealed holster*.
> > * Literal-Minded: Early on and occasionally afterwards, Parker does not understand subtlety or metaphors.
> > * Master of Unlocking: Picking locks and cracking safes comes with the job.
> > * Mischievous Body Language: Parker is the world's greatest thief. She also has a bit of arrested development, and can be something of a Womanchild from time to time. This includes a mischievous grin whenever she gets a notion in her head. One of the earliest examples is in The Bank Shot Job when Nate asks her if she's ever robbed a bank *while* it was already being robbed. You can see the twinkle in her eye as she says, "First time for everything."
> > * Money Fetish:
> > 	+ "I don't like stuff, I like money." Nate even gets her to stay in the first episode after they are almost blown up by Dubenich by saying if the plan works she will get lots of money and possibly some payback.
> > 	+ Nate gives her the perfect Christmas gift: non-sequential bills.
> > * Mundane Solution: Parker is tasked by Sophie to replace an auctioneer by charming him away. She thinks trying to get into his head will take too long, so she opts to chloroform him unconscious instead.
> > * No Social Skills: At first, but as her time with the team increases, she becomes more like a nice young lady with some strange quirks.
> > * Once Done, Never Forgotten: She once stabs the mark with a fork. In a later con, Nate specifically tells her not to do that again.
> > * Only One Name: Her Exact Words at one point. The audience is never told her given name.
> > * Passing the Torch: On the receiving end in The Long Goodbye Job. She becomes the new Mastermind.
> > * Phantom Thief: According to Word of God, Parker alone of the group has *never been caught*. Word of God may not be taking The First David Job into account.
> > * Pint-Sized Powerhouse:
> > 	+ She hangs off buildings by her fingertips, so she is pretty strong.
> > 	+ She's the team's second best fighter after Eliot, and the only reason why she doesn't fight more is because she doesn't get caught enough to warrant fighting. But make no mistake, if she thinks you've threatened anyone on the team, *especially* Hardison...
> > * Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: Started down the path of a master thief as a young child, and was only encouraged further (to the exclusion of all else) when Archie started mentoring her. Consequently, she's a Human Calculator who cases banks and devises complicated heists in her head for fun, but she never went to high school, has No Social skills or conscience, and seems to subsist solely on cereal and takeout. The Leverage team helps her become more well-rounded.
> > * Shameless Fanservice Girl: Wastes no time switching between disguises in front of her colleagues, to Hardison's chagrin. Or joy.
> > * Single Tear: She sheds one during Hardison's violin solo in The Scheherazade Job.
> > * Stealth Hi/Bye: Parker sometimes tends to appear suddenly right next to her surprised targets.
> > 	+ In The Stork Job after running away after stabbing the mark with a fork, the rest of the team wonder where she's gone.
> > 	+ Does this again in The Zanzibar Marketplace Job when she suddenly appears sitting on the bar counter and casually explaining how the supposed theft had occurred. Sterling questions where she came from while Nate doesn't even bother anymore.
> > * Static Stun Gun: Parker likes tasers.
> > * Stern Teacher: She's very tough on Breanna because slip-up in their line of work can result in injury and death.
> > * Sticky Fingers: The girl's a kleptomaniac. So much so that she occasionally doesn't even realise she's doing it.
> > * Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Breaking into buildings, check. Freakishly strong, check. And comfortable in a (colourful!) dress and clunky heels, as The Studio Job shows.
> > * Trickster Mentor: When teaching Brenna how to sneak up on people, she coats the bells on her jacket with a numbing cream powerful enough to knock Breanna off her feet.
> > * Troubling Unchildlike Behaviour: The Nigerian Job has a flashback to her blowing up her foster parents' house. In The Gold Job she mentions having made grown psychiatrists cry when she took their psych exams as a kid.
> > * Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Hardison. They're together as of The Long Way Down Job.
> > * Violently Protective Girlfriend: She can and will smash chairs on people if Hardison is in trouble.
> > * We Named the Monkey "Jack": In the Tie-In Novel *The Zoo Job* Parker bonds with a capuchin monkey. To Hardison's chagrin, she calls it Alec: "I named him after someone I've always been able to rely on to be there for me."
> > * When She Smiles: Parker is quite pretty regardless, but something about her smile/laugh is just so ridiculously charming and heartwarming (especially when paired with moments of her being goofy). It's grown steadily more frequent as she adjusts to being on the team.
> > * Womanchild: Has a few vague traces of this, especially of the "emotionally stunted" variety.
> > 	+ When a con man posing as a psychic does a cold read on her to suss out that her brother died in a car accident while riding a bike when they were children, she gets *very* upset and is convinces he's for real. The entire team gathers round to explain exactly how it was done and that everything's going to be okay.
> > 	+ She also still believes in Santa.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Alec Hardison: The Hacker
> > -------------------------
> >
> >
> > Played by: Aldis Hodge
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > | “
> >  | Age of the geek, baby. We run the world.
> >  | ”
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Computer expert and technologist.
> >
> >
> >
> > * Accidental Aiming Skills: In The 12-Step Job he takes out a loan shark's engine block while aiming for the man's leg. This probably helps more in the end.
> > * The Ace: While primarily the tech guy, he is also proficient in cons that depend on the Bavarian Fire Drill, has shown some basic skill in fighting and ordinary stealing, and he manages the team's money.
> > * Ambiguously Jewish: The first time, he claims to be Jewish to invoke Everything Is Racist, but he mentions Jewish concepts of repentance in The Too Many Rembrandts Job and says that Nana runs a multi-denominational household, which some fans have taken to mean that he really is Jewish.
> > * Annoying Younger Sibling: Certainly has this dynamic with Eliot, who is the more mature caretaker of the team, and often has to bail out Hardison's ass.
> > * Back for the Finale: Via a Big Damn Heroes moment in The Harry Wilson Job. Insert the entire audience squeeing.
> > * Badass Bookworm: While he's nowhere near Eliot's level, he's learned to handle himself in a fight after a few seasons.
> > * Bavarian Fire Drill: When he's not behind the keyboard, this is Hardison's other specialty. Best exemplified in The Three Days of the Hunter Job where, with a quick little background check courtesy of Eliot, he turns around his interrogation to the point where *he becomes the interrogator*. This actually makes a lot of sense. For Hackers, Social Engineering is often just as important as actual computer skills.
> > * Black and Nerdy: He's an extremely skilled hacker who as a teen got busted with a couple of girls in slave Leia costumes having a lightsaber fight.
> > * Black Dude Dies First: Discussed. Of Nate's many back up plans, Hardison is the only person on the team whose potential death is planned for.
> > 	+ In The Too Many Rembrandts Job Hardison mentions how he hates Plan M, and suggests a "Plan S" for "Hardison Survives".
> > * Brains and Brawn: Often plays the Brains to Parker or Eliot's Brawn.
> > * Break the Haughty: In The Ice Man Job and again in The Gold Job in which he allows his Insufferable Genius tendencies to rage out of control and ends up having to be bailed out by the rest of the team. However, Nate does reassure him that his plan in The Gold Job is a genuinely good one, his problem is that he doesn't have a back-up plan.
> > * Brilliant, But Lazy: He has shades of this in season one, most notably in The Mile High Job but he gets over it as the series progresses.
> > * Bring My Brown Pants: He pisses himself in fear after rappelling down an entrance into a building in The Radio Job. Not just a joke. The foley sells it.
> > * Buried Alive: He gets buried in a coffin in a cemetery during The Grave Danger Job.
> > * But Now I Must Go: Leaves the reformed original Leverage team to attend to Leverage International, but he still keeps in contact with them.
> > * Butt-Monkey: More and more so recently. Probably because the production crew is taking advantage of the fact that Aldis Hodge knows how to act as one in an especially funny way.
> > * Can't Hold His Liqour: In The Too Many Rembrandts Job, Eliot cuts him off from the alcohol, pointing out that he's a lightweight. Sure enough, a few scenes later Hardison has a hangover.
> > * Catchphrase:
> > 	+ "Age of the geek, baby."
> > 	+ Used just as often is "Oh, *hell no*!" (his stock dismayed/indignant reaction).
> > 	+ And before that, ""Seriously?! *Seriously?!*"
> > * Character Development: By season three, he's started thinking about someday running his own crew.
> > 	+ Ironically, it is Parker who gets to run the crew... likely The Gold Job pointed out why he shouldn't.
> > * Complexity Addiction: Why his plans tend to fail, as Nate points out in The Gold Job.
> > * Cowardly Lion: While he often complains about the situations he is involved in, he never backs down.
> > * Deadpan Snarker: Like others on the team, he has a sharp wit to match both Nate and others with their snark.
> > * Distressed Dude: He's had to be rescued the most out of everyone on the team. (Sophie's skilled enough she doesn't end up in those situations, Parker is second to Eliot in physical danger, and Christine has the medical skills and gains enough fighting skills to be dangerous. Nate... is a crazy drunk Irish boy from Boston.)
> > * Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Thinks very highly of his foster mother "Nana", occasionally referring to her regarding his backstory or questioning the team's decisions.
> > * Everything Is Racist: Often uses the race card as a deflection the moment someone begins to question him as to why he is in a given position or place. It works every time.
> > * Evil Genius: He's a thief, and a genius. When they find a deserving mark, he's plenty happy to combine those traits. He's not evil, though.
> > * Gangsta Style: He points a gun this way at Eliot in The Nigerian Job.
> > * Genius Sweet Tooth: He's a technological genius who pretty much runs solely on orange soda and gummi frogs.
> > * Happily Adopted: He calls his foster mom "Nana" and speaks of her with great fondness. She was apparently a powerfully positive influence in his life. A flashback has him using his skills to steal money from a foreign country to pay her medical bills. Mainly Played for Laughs.
> > * He Really Can Act: In universe example, along with Eliot. For a hacker with presumably no acting experience, Hardison turns out to be an incredibly talented actor able to convincingly pull off many different personas. That said, he's leagues behind the rest of the team, maybe even Parker (who gets extensive training and encouragement from Sophie) Cause, effect, he stays in the van.
> > * The Heart: As the youngest member of the team, he frequently acts as this. From insisting that they should help the orphans in The Stork Job. He very much cares about helping people and doing the right thing, to the point where in The Long Way Down Job Eliot believes that unlike him or Parker, Hardison would have kept trying to rescue the dead climber's body until he froze to death, too.
> > * Hidden Depths: During The Toy Job he comes up with a psychological lecture about the toy they're trying to popularise that's actually sound. When Eliot asks him how the hell he did it, Hardison admits that he studied early childhood development.
> > * Hollywood Hacking: Oh so very much. With just a few keystrokes he often rewires entire security systems and uncovers money trails not even a team of highly-trained FBI forensic accountants would be able to do in the space of time he has. However some of his cool hacking stuff is justified in the show beyond existing for the sake of plot. For instance, he modifies the team's phones to make them more useful as tools for their line of work, such as being able to spoof RFID information via the cellular radios so they can break into keycard-protected areas if the card and the break-in location are separated from each other.
> > * Insufferable Genius:
> > 	+ Interestingly, he's so charismatic by nature that he's generally easy to forgive when he gets into a bragging spiel. The other characters aren't quite as charmed as the audience, though.
> > 	+ In The Gold Job Hardison comes up with a new con that actually works pretty well - and he spends nearly every one of his scenes reminding people of how "perfect" his plan is. Cue the end, where his con is just about to succeed when the plan falls apart. Nate points out that the problem with his plan is that games need a delicate balance between boredom and frustration, with Hardison's plan being too frustrating. Basically, the Aesop is that there is no perfect plan and that it's always good to have some backups.
> > * Last-Name Basis: Everybody else is called by their first names, but the creators loved the sound of "Dammit, Hardison!"
> > * Mission Control: Often holed up somewhere safe, hacking and providing support. But no one seems to appreciate his contributions.
> > * The Movie Buff: Hardison is such a *Star Trek* fan that he devises a coded message system for when he and Eliot have to communicate in front of their marks. Eliot rolls his eyes, but it comes in handy later. In The Cross My Heart Job the team have to split up in an airport terminal and Eliot is unable to reach Hardison via their usual ear-bud comms. Desperate to warn his friend of danger, he has "Kirk Picard" paged over the loudspeaker.
> > * Mr. Exposition: Usually the one who briefs the mission. Shares the role with Nate.
> > * Mr. Fanservice: In a less obvious way than Eliot, but the costume director sure likes to show off Aldis Hodge's fine figure in a suit or tank top. They also get him to strip down a few times. One episode has him join a fraternity... (Fraternities humiliate pledges. Nudity is humiliating...)
> > * Playful Hacker: In his downtime (like he knows the contents of Nate's Netflix queue; apparently the man has a thing for *Sex and the City*)
> > * Proud to Be a Geek: "For the Horde!" \*fistbump\* Age of the geek, baby.
> > * Punny Name: He's a smart Alec.
> > * Rapid-Fire Typing: It's a requirement for his Hollywood Hacking.
> > * Refuge in Audacity: His grifting style relies heavily on Bavarian Fire Drills and fast-talk, asserting a ridiculous demand or implausible character with so much confidence that marks are thrown too off-guard to question.
> > * The Reliable One: Since he's most often behind a desk and not in the field, whenever the team is in trouble or their plans go tits up, they have to call on Hardison to save them. The whole team acknowledges that despite his incessant whining, when the chips are down, Hardison *will* find a way to save them.
> > * Renaissance Man:
> > * Hacks, plays violin, and he's a decent actor.
> > * Also lawyering on the fly.
> > * Sophie and Nate often ask him to do things trusting on this trait. He either has the skill, or can learn it pretty quickly.
> > * Science Hero: He's responsible for the group's computer hacking, bugging and minor inventions.
> > * Sharp-Dressed Man: When he wants to, Hardison cleans up very nicely.
> > * Technobabble: So. Much.
> > * Techno Wizard: Hey, it comes with being a Hacker.
> > * Too Clever By Half: This is a frequent failing of Hardison's. On multiple occasions the other characters point out his tendency to get himself and the rest of the team into trouble by being a little too convinced of his own cleverness. In The Ice Man Job he goes so overboard in playing the part of the diamond thief that it gets him kidnapped by Russian mobsters who want him to steal some diamonds for them. In The Gold Job he demands to be allowed to run what should have been a simple con and makes it so needlessly complicated that the marks start questioning all the hoops they're having to jump through, nearly ruining the entire job. Nate explains to him that he always avoids this by having a relatively simple backup plan, and advises Hardison to take his failure as an object lesson to apply to future jobs.
> > * Took a Level in Badass: From just a physically lacking, but supreme hacker, by the end of the series he becomes a more than capable fighter, as well as a minor thief and grifter.
> > * Trademark Favourite Food: Orange soda and gummi frogs. He needs his gummi frogs.
> > * Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Parker. A bit more one-sided than some cases, as she's pretty hesitant about it, but he's willing to wait. They're together as of The Long Way Down Job.
> > * Vitriolic Best Buds: With Eliot.
> > * "Well Done, Son" Guy: The team really becomes his family, with Eliot his big brother, Sophie a foster mother, and Nate a distant and demanding father. On several occasions, Hardison makes it clear that he wants to succeed Nate some day and *really* wants the latter's approval on that.
> > * Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?:
> > 	+ Hardison is highly allergic to dust and is a bit of a clean freak. Unfortunately for him, sometimes he's forced into very dusty or dirty places when in the field.
> > 	+ He's also not comfortable in small spaces. This causes something of a problem when he's Buried Alive.
> > * You Called Me "X"; It Must Be Serious: When Hardison is freaking out after being Buried Alive, it's Parker's talking to him over the phone and calling him "Alec" that grabs his attention and keeps him going.
> >
> >
> > Harry Wilson: The Fixer
> > -----------------------
> >
> >
> > Played by: Noah Wyle
> >
> >
> > A one-time corporate lawyer who became disillusioned with helping his high-powered clients make and keep enormous fortunes while causing pain and suffering among regular people.
> >
> >
> >
> > * A Million Is a Statistic: Harry was able to do his job as an Amoral Attorney for years. Then he offered Fletcher Maxwell a solution and drove to every one of his victims, met them face to face, looked them in the eye, and convinced them to take the settlement. And then Maxwell reneged.
> > * Affectionate Nickname: Sophie is fond of calling him "Our Mister Wilson" in a playful tone.
> > * Amoral Attorney: The "Redemption" of the series' title refers to Harry's goal to make amends after spending years as a high-priced lawyer helping the rich and powerful keep their ill-gotten gains. Hardison tells him that it will take a *long* time before he makes any meaningful spiritual progress.
> > * But Now I Must Go: He gets his turn at this trope in The Harry Wilson Job. He decides to leave the team and go back to being a lawyer - specifically, the idealistic kind that he originally wanted to be. However, he returns for the second season and decides to stick around because, he admits, it's more fun to be a part of Leverage.
> > * Contrasting Sequel Main Character: To Nate Ford. Both are divorced men who started out as technically on the right side of the law but on the wrong side of morality. However, there are notable differences.
> > 	+ Nate's crusade was kicked off by a combination of his son's death, his marriage ending and Dubenich's manipulation. By contrast, Harry has his own moral awakening after seeing first hand the result of his clients' crimes and is already on a moral crusade of his own before he meets the Leverage team.
> > 	+ Nate's son was dead before the events of the series. Harry has a teenage daughter who is still alive.
> > 	+ While Nate was the team's leader, Harry is a subordinate to Sophie.
> > 	+ Nate's last job allows him closure and peace with his son's death, while Harry's last job lets his daughter back into his life.
> > * Creepy Good: At least Eliot thinks so in The Great Train Job.
> > 	+ **Eliot:** You just happen to have a bunch of science... and you have a bailout bag with duct tape and plastic. Harry, we never asked before, but are you a serial killer?
> > * Earn Your Happy Ending: His work with the team gave him a new lease on life, allowing him to use his legal prowess to do genuine good in the world. He also gets the chance to improve his relationship with his daughter, as she asks to move back in with him once her stepfather's crimes are exposes.
> > * Fake Defector: He quits the team to work at RIZ, but it turns out that he's trying to take them down from the inside.
> > * Fatal Flaw: His guilt-fuelled hatred for his past; once it dawns on him that he was on the wrong side, Harry embraces the chance for redemption with gusto, but this also makes him prone to keeping secrets from the team out of shame and blowing his cover with angry ruminations on the amorality of his old clients. This is best exemplified in The Tower Job where he takes the job without consulting with Sophie or anyone else, makes a promise to the client which makes things harder for the team, hides the fact that the mark was somebody he represented, and ultimately gets pulled from the job towards the end once he can't take acting like an Amoral Attorney anymore and verbally rips into the mark.
> > * Hidden Depths:
> > 	+ Breanna deduces that he's a hardcore gamer after he references an obscure feature in a mobile game that had been patched out years before. He later says that his hobby came about because he got lonely after his wife and daughter left him and he turned to the online gaming community for company.
> > 	+ He has a keen interest in environmental science and carries a fully loaded kit, complete with hazmat suits and respirators, in his car.
> > * Last-Name Basis: Sophie, and only Sophie, calls him Mr. Wilson.
> > * Ship Tease: With Sophie. For example, at the end of The Jackal Job where coffee was a major characteristic of the client who "loved to get coffee with Jo" (with her wife), he asks her out for coffee. He's the one who usually sits down and talks to her about Nate and his own estranged family. The season ends with her thanking him for seeing her differently than the team, giving him a kiss on the cheek, calling him by his first name, and taking off her engagement and wedding rings on her way back to the team.
> > * Took a Level in Badass: Over the course of Redemption's first season, he learns how to run a con, pick a lock, do some hacking... but not how to crack a safe.
> >
> >
> > Breanna Casey: The Maker
> > ------------------------
> >
> >
> > Played by: Aleyse Shannon
> >
> >
> > Hardison's foster sister. She joins the team after her solo attempts at following in Hardison's footsteps land her in a heap of trouble.
> >
> >
> >
> > * Black and Nerdy: She's an expert at *Spirits Ruse*, a collectible card game, and has a deep knowledge of its lore.
> > * Informed Ability: She says she specialises in physical tech builds, but spends most of her time doing computer hacking.
> > * Distaff Counterpart: She's essentially a younger, female version of Hardison.
> > * Mission Control: Often provides remote support from one of Eliot's food trucks.
> > * Replacement Flat Character: Mild one, as she is cocky and out of her depth, much like early seasons Hardison, as opposed to Hardison now, who runs charities in his spare time.
> > * Soapbox Sadie: Can lean into this at times, prioritising lecturing others or taking shots based around various causes and beliefs she's connected to. She has also expressed a wish for the team to take on larger systemic issues (as seen in The One Man's Trash Job), but she recognises that such things are too big to take on alone, even for them.
> > * Twofer Token Minority: She's both black and a lesbian, and gets a girlfriend late in Redemption's season one.
> > * Worf Effect: Not her hacking, which is good. However, her physical tech builds are utterly annihilated nearly every time she tries to use them.
> >
>
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