LEVERAGE: The Office Job

It’s another week of conmen going down at the hands of our fearless Leverage team, but sadly the poor recapper is so tired that this is just a stream of conscious reaction as it was watched. That doesn’t mean the episode was anything less than amazing, merely what is going on in the world. It also seems like an episode that is best observed through random thoughts as the episode played out–if it’s making fun of The Office as I expect it will.

The president of Good Cheer Greeting Cards is running the company into the ground, and a former employee fears that the entire town will die if its biggest employer goes under.

Anytime an employee wants to have a causal conversation with someone else in the office, you now it’s a very bad sign. Then we meet our Evil Man of Evil, who seems to be interested in fantasy football than the business of making greeting cards.

Fighting between the Leverage team is never a good sign, but while Eliot and Hardison have a tiff over orange soda, there’s also the knowledge that the company is already drowning.

With the Leverage team working as an efficiency team, I’m already expecting to be laughing. Especially if Hardison keeps wearing a sweater vest.

Now this episode has gotten better, if there’s a documentary film team at the company while the Leverage team is at work. That director already seems like a cannon waiting to go off. To end the first act, we have Nate in front of a camera, looking every bit like he’s on The Office.

When the CEO overuses sports metaphors and the employees just stare, well, that’s a great start to the process.

I’d be so scared if Sophie told me to stick a finger into someone’s ear.

Parker trying to work with the cards–that’s horrible and oddly fitting for her lack of social cues.

If I were Eliot in this moment, I’d punch the camera in the lens to get their work done. Of course, having to hide their true plan is hard with a crew around all the time. Hardison and Eliot, the job should be about trust and respect. Arguing in front of the crew is even more hilarious, though.

Parker should be nowhere near the creative process of writing cards. Nor should she be allowed anywhere near a video camera.

So this isn’t about embezzling, it’s about counterfeiting. Now that the team has to hide the truth about the counterfeiting from the camera crew, I’m sure that this episode is going to be much more interesting.

The HR woman is so concerned about Nate and Sophie that I want to laugh. Then at the same time, I wish that Sophie had kept her mouth shut about their relationship.

From what I remember of The Office, this scene with the janitors is reminiscent of season one.

Is it sad that I want that sandwich that Eilot made? Nate’s so preoccupied with his own life that he doesn’t actually get that the issue is between Eliot and Hardison?

I love that Hardison is the one to figure out is wrong with the copy machine. If the CEO is not the evil man of evil, is it the HR woman?

Sophie having to watch all of the video footage to find the correct counterfeiter is hilarious. I’m also trying to figure out why Nate just admitted the con to the director.

If Nate and Sophie are arguing about their myriad issues (alcoholism, a god complex, leaving), I really have to wonder what else is in store. (I totally love the F*ck This card that they keep using.)

Please stop explaining the con to the director, team. This is going to backfire so badly. Like when the director is wearing a hidden camera around Parker, who he has a huge crush on at this point. The director is really a creepy man, and I’m so glad that Parker figured out that he was trying to get her to say something else.

The custodial pool steals post-it notes. I’d laugh, but it’s not that sad.

I feel so very vindicated that I claimed that the HR woman was the evil mastermind! It’s no longer just a frame job either, but murder. Good to know.

Now to watch the con play out in real time. I’m so glad to see this all run its course. The fact that everyone wants to know where the CEO is, well, that scares me. How is a company that hopeless to function.

Barkley is off the non-smoking wagon, and that’s what might keep him safe. Not really, now that I see a ring of janitors beating on him. Good thing that Eliot is there to take down almost all of them. Eliot’s still fighting the bad guys and Hardison is nearly thrown off the roof. Eliot’s side comment that no one else should do that, but him, was a nice touch of the anger that’s going on between the two of them all episode.

Parker’s card presentation–that might have been the worst thing ever.

As the printer starts to print money, I’d be really worried. But now it means we’re all treated to how the con was playing out. Barkley’s “evidence” is hilarious. But the HR lady is going to go down, I’m sure of it. I pretty much love all of the subtle small cameras that the team used to foil the HR woman’s plan.

When Sophie’s explanation of the story didn’t play out, I love how Nate went to the sports metaphor to explain the whole con. And then she writes it down in her “ways Nate has disrespected me” journal.

Have I watched too much Supernatural and hope that Hardison is going to fry the video footage so that no one see it? No, I’m not getting that, instead because Parker doesn’t understand the movie, the director is going to destroy the video.

Actually, I spoke too soon–there was the erasing of footage.

Sophie and Nate are still the most dysfunctional couple on the show. But I do have to appreciate Hardison admitting to taking the sandwich, and eating it on camera.

Leverage airs Sundays at 9/8c on TNT.