Leverage: Redemptionreunites most of the originalLeverageseries cast for new adventures, but Hardison does not have as much screen time in the revival series. The revival, like the original series, sees a group of criminals team up to take on the wealthy and powerful on behalf of the victims who have been wronged by them. Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge) is the team’s original hacker, though he does go on to wear many hats in both shows.
InLeverage: Redemption,Hardison leaves the Leverage teamfor extended amounts of time as he works on other projects. That’s because Hodge is a very busy actor who has been signed onto multiple movies and shows while the revival series is in production. For fans of the revival who have missed out on Hardison’s contributions to the team, his best episodes of the originalLeverageseries make for a fantastic watch.
10The Mile High Job
Season 1, Episode 8
It’s the first time in the series that he gets to be the hero of the episode.
“The Mile High Job” is a great standalone episode inthe originalLeverageseries. It’s a risky episode as it steps away from the usual format of the series, and the show had only been on the air for about two months at the time. It treads more in thriller territory than the series usually does. It is also, however,a great episode for Hardison as it separates him from the rest of the team and gives him a huge level of responsibility.
The episode kicks off with the entire team being mad at Hardison because he did not show up to help them on a job. It’s eventually revealed that he stayed up all night playing World of Warcraft and overslept, completely forgetting about the job they were working on. It’s an early indication of how young and inexperienced Hardison is when it comes to working with a team andsets the stage for him to mature as the series continues.
It also means that Hardison is the only team member on the ground when everyone else ends up on a plane, trying to figure out just what the company they have been targeting is hiding on board. It turns out the company plans on crashing the plane, sacrificing everyone on board just to tie up a pair of loose ends. Hardison is tasked with taking over the plane’s controls from the ground and landing it successfully. It’s the first time in the series that he gets to be the hero of the episode.
9The Juror #6 Job
Season 1, Episode 11
“The Juror #6 Job” is often viewed as a big episode for Parker rather than Hardison because it is Parker who brings the job to the team, and Parker whose alias has jury duty because one of her cover identities is so realistic. It is also a standout episode for Hardison, though, becauseit’s one of the earliest episodes in the series to really put him far outside his comfort zone.
Hardison is the member of the team chosen to pretend to be a lawyer. He brings all of the research he has gathered on the villain of the episode and spends much of the time attempting to stall the court proceedings. Hardison pulls out both his most charming and his most pedantic speeches for the episode, even as he is panicking about having to pretend to be a lawyer in front of an actual judge.
The episode is a confidence builder for Hardison. Though he often acts self-assured, or even cocky, when it comes to research and technology in the series, playing other parts in a con can sometimes push him too far. Here, he gets to take a step toward becoming a more well-rounded member of the team, and he gets to offer an emotional speech for the client who does not even know Leverage is working for them.
8The Ice Man Job
Season 2, Episode 8
During the original run ofLeverage, everyone got the chance to run the con of the week at least once. Everyone also got the chance to be the grifter - the person actually interacting with and tricking the mark - multiple times.“The Ice Man Job” is the first time that Hardison is placed into the role of grifterbecause the team’s grifter took a leave of absence (Gina Bellman was pregnant at the time and took maternity leave).
The con involves tricking a mark into believing that he can remove the laser inscriptions on stolen diamonds without anyone being able to tell. Hardison pretends to be someone who knows his way around stolen diamonds, but he gets in over his head, selling his skills just a little too well. He ends up getting kidnapped, forcing the team to pull together around him and help him get out alive while still pulling off a different version of their original con.
The episode isgreat for character growth for Hardison, even if he pretends that he learns nothingfrom it. Hardison always acts like there were no problems on the job when it’s brought up by his friends, even inLeverage: Redemption, but he exercises more caution after this episode. It leaves a mark on him, and it’s important to see him have to pivot and think on his feet in the field.
7The Scheherazade Job
Season 3, Episode 4
“The Scheherazade Job” involves the team needing to get into a vault that will set off the alarms with noise and vibrations at a specific level. In order to negate the censors triggering the alarm, the team comes up with the idea of getting an orchestra to play the song they choose.Hardison becomes the centerpiece of the con, pretending to be a violin prodigywho has a lengthy solo during the song.
While it is revealed in the episode that Hardison took violin lessons as a child, he does not believe he has the necessary skills to play the song. Sophie uses her considerable skills to hypnotize Hardison so that he can play the solo without the anxiety that comes along with it.
The episode provides a great way to show the extreme lengths the team will go to to pull off a complicated con. It alsoallows Aldis Hodge to play Hardison’s anxiety perfectly. It’s also notable because Hodge is actually a skilled violinist and plays the instrument himself for the orchestra sequence.
6The Gone Fishin’ Job
Season 3, Episode 7
Some of the most interesting episodes ofLeverageprovide stories in which the team is not together. That is the case in “The Gone Fishin’ Job” in season 3. Hardison and Eliot end up separated from the rest of the team in the middle of a con when they are kidnapped by a militia group in the woods.
Eliot is much better suited to handle being kidnapped by a group of men in a militia group. Hardison, on the other hand, is completely out of his element. Hardison, even three years into working with the group, is not the best fighter, does not use weapons, and has a hard time in places where there is no internet or cell service. The two have to find ways to work together while both trying to stay alive and trying to find a way to contact the team.
It’sa great bonding episode for Eliot and Hardison. The two have one of the best friendships on the team. While the Leverage team is seen as a found family, the individual relationships are just as compelling as the group dynamics.
5The Rashomon Job
Season 3, Episode 11
WhileLeverageandLeverage: Redemptionhave both played with the formats of different episodes, “The Rashomon Job” is notable because it offers one of the most unique episodes of the series. It is both a flashback to before the team ever worked together anda story about differing perspectives. TheLeverageepisode explores why the cons work- the mark’s perception is key.
“Rashomon” gets its name from the 1950 movie and has become a classic technique for storytelling in both tv shows and movies.
This episode sees every member of the Leverage team tell the story of the same night when all five main characters were after the same dagger. Each Leverage team member provides hilarious takes on how they see one another, which means each version of the story sees them get to play their own characters slightly differently.
Hardison’s time in the flashback involves him hacking the guest list at an event and posing as a foreign minister to steal the dagger. Hardison does not quite get the dagger though, and it’san interesting reminder of just why he works better as a member of a team than on his own.
4The Grave Danger Job
Season 4, Episode 7
…Hodge and Riesgraf do some of their best work in the show here…
“The Grave Danger Job” is quite possibly the most tense episode of the original series other than the series finale. That’s because Hardison spends a good chunk of the episode buried in a coffin and trying to lead the team to him to save him.
This is sucha great acting showcase for Hodge, who spends so much time with a camera squarely focused on his face while he talks into a cell phone, struggles to control his breathing, and tries not to panic while he is trapped in a coffin. Hardison is terrified. He has never been shy about admitting his fear of jumping off of buildings or being in tight spaces, so here,he is at his most vulnerable in the series.
It takes Parker talking him through his confinement and helping him control his breathing for him to be able to focus on the problem at hand. Parker and Hardison largely communicate without the actors even being in the same place, and Hodge and Riesgraf do some of their best work in the show here, demonstrating not just the vulnerability of their characters but also how much the two of them have grown to care for one another.
They make for a fan-favorite relationship, and this episode drives home how good Parker is for Hardison instead of the other way around.
3The Experimental Job
Season 4, Episode 11
Leverageheads to college in this episode. It’s another episode in which Hardison is central to the con, though this time, he poses as a college student. The team is pulled into an investigation of fraternity members performing illegal psychological experiments on homeless men. While Eliot poses as a homeless veteran, Hardison gets in with the fraternity.
The episode allows Hardison to see how he does and does not fit into the more typical world or the path that might have been expected of him. Hardison has been a hacker since he was a teenager, and the series only ends with Hardison in his twenties, so he learned his way around technology very quickly and became the best in his field at an exponential rate. This episode is something of a “what if?”
What if Hardison had not become a criminal? What if Hardison had used his skills to get himself into a top-tier university?Hardison is both uncomfortable with the world he ends up in and also right at home, and it’s fascinating to watch that kind of conflict play out for him and the team.
2The Gold Job
Season 4, Episode 16
Though Hardison became the team’s grifter for the first time in season 2, it is not until season 4 that Hardison actually runs a job. Nate is usually the mastermind, running most of the jobs in the original show. Sophie is his backup, which is why it makes sense to see Sophie running so many of the jobs inLeverage: Redemptioninstead ofParker as the mastermind. Each of the team, however, gets the chance to run a job themselves, trying out the con they think best fits the mark.
Here, the aim is to scam a brother and sister who own a “Cash for Gold” business. Hardison plans his con like a video game that involves puzzles inside its adventures, adding layers upon layers to what could have been a basic con. It’sa great examination of how Hardison’s mind works.
Even though the con goes too far and Nate has to bail Hardison out, Nate also offers Hardison advice for the next time he might end up in charge. Nate believes in Hardison’s abilities, even beyond his computer skills, andthis is the episode that helps to provide the foundation for Hardison as one of the future leadersof the international teams inLeverage: Redemption.
1The Rundown Job
Season 5, Episode 9
In season 5,Leveragesplits the team up again. This time around, one episode features Nate and Sophie on their own adventure while Eliot, Parker, and Hardison end up helping out one of Eliot’s old friends in Washington, DC. Helping the old friend, however, is very different than the usual cons employed in the show’s storylines.
“The Rundown Job” is more like an action moviedistilled into a 45-minute TV episode. The trio is tasked with stopping a virus from getting out into the general population. It means that they have to use all of the skills they have learned while working as part of the Leverage team to help save lives instead of stealing money, and it’s a fun thrill ride.
It also allows the audience to see what the three of them mean to one another after starting as complete strangers who did not trust one another in the pilot episode. It’s a preview of how well the three characters work together without Nate and Sophie being a part of the team.
“The Rundown” lays the groundwork forLeverage: Redemption, even more so than the series finale.
Leverage
Cast
Created for TNT, Leverage is a heist-focused action show that follows a team of five hackers, con men, and specialists led by an insurance agent who performs robin-hood-like heists against the government and corporate entities, and wealthy criminals to help everyday people. Their ultimate goal is to dole out financial justice where the system fails.
Leverage: Redemption
Leverage: Redemption reunites The Hitter, The Hacker, The Grifter, and The Thief, joined by a new tech expert and corporate fixer. The group targets contemporary villains, from an opioid crisis architect to a secretive security firm, continuing their mission to provide leverage to those in need.
