The Leverage: Redemption team has taken on grave-robbers before. They might’ve even robbed a few graves themselves. However, in Season 3 Episode “The Scared Stiff Job,” they come up against a man who takes bodies that never make it to the grave.
It’s a winter holiday episode with all the warm fuzzy feelings, decorations, and comeuppance for would-be Scrooges that could be hoped for. There’s even a special Santa in the stockings for the final scene.
Leverage: Redemption, “The Scared Stiff Job”
Leverage: Redemption episode three opens with a family gathering to say goodbye to an elderly man, Ben Akondro (Chauncey Slack). His tearful pregnant daughter, Gisele (Kanesha Washington), promises his grandson will carry on his name. As he flatlines, they all break down in tears. Seconds later, Pete Luna (Sam Witwer) with The Gift of Time sweeps in with his crew and carries off the man’s body to be stored cryogenically. While the family protests, Luna presents a contract that the man signed, committing the family to the storage fees.
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Seven years later, the late man’s daughter meets with Sophie (Gina Bellman) at Akondro Plant Nursery and tells her the storage fees ballooned at the seven-year mark. She believes Luna exploited her father’s cancer diagnosis and wish to meet his grandson, coercing him to sign the contract. Now, the storage fees are bankrupting the family business.
She tells Sophie about the banana tree. An old folk tale from Madagascar says that God gave the first man and woman the choice of how they would die — like the moon or like the banana tree. The moon dies monthly and resurrects in a cycle that repeats forever. The banana tree dies once forever, but sends out little green shoots that become new banana trees first.
Setting Up Luna
Sophie briefs the team on Luna and his scam. Harry (Noah Wyle) has to tell them that the contract Luna uses is solid and legal. They all take a turn sharing what they’d like done to their bodies after they die, with Parker (Beth Riesgraf) intuiting Eliot’s (Christian Kale) to his distress.
Breanna (Aleyse Shannon) wants to The Christmas Carol Luna. Eliot argues Hardison (Aldis Hodge) always proposed that con, but there were too many moving parts. Breanna isn’t deterred by Hardison’s past setbacks. Sophie insists they prep more and investigate Luna and his business.
Parker and Eliot present as a squabbling couple. Eliot hijacks a flower arrangement en route to Luna’s office. He sweet-talks his way past the front desk and delivers the flowers to Bobbi (Mary Hollis Inboden) at The Gift of Time. Watching through the surveillance cams, Breanna and Sophie learn that Luna is afraid of aging/dying; there’s someone named Danielle; and Bobbi has an unrequited crush on him.
Zombie Army Potential
Parker finds the neighboring office’s front desk staff, Garrett (Yadin), distractedly sketching pentagrams and the number six. The New Orleans Life Insurance office staff are predominantly goth-leaning. Garrett has a crush on the surly Gail (Zarah Hokule’a Spalding). Parker lets him know the basement is full of frozen dead people. Garrett excuses himself to go to the restroom. Parker finds a vent that gives her access to Luna’s office.
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Luna’s meeting with a man named Tom (Billy Blair), who’s demanding body parts, specifically tendons. Luna bemoans the fact that he doesn’t get any credit or appreciation for monetizing death. The families of his clients just complain.
The Con Is On
Sophie walks into Luna’s office as a prospective client. She will draw Luna out so Parker can ransack the office. Breanna’s job is to find his digital assets. Bobbi welcomes Sophie and explains that she was the company’s first investor. She’s a faithful believer in cryonics and Peter Luna. She tells Sophie about Luna and his late wife, Danielle.
Luna and Tom finish their meeting. Seeing Sophie in the waiting room, Luna ushers her in and gives her the pitch. Sophie balks, saying she can’t commit today. She keeps picturing herself in an ice tray at the back of the freezer. Luna offers to give a tour of the facilities to set her mind at rest.
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When they get downstairs, they find Garrett trying to pick the lock to the cryonics facility. Luna yells at him, and he runs off. Luna and Sophie walk around the space for a while, but Breanna and Parker come up empty on finding his assets.
What Is a Body Worth?
At Leverage HQ, Breanna breaks down the value of a legally acquired cadaver. Parker turns over a receipt she found in Luna’s safe for a cash-to-gold transaction. Harry admits that’s a common way to hide assets. Luna owns several properties where he could hide a box of gold.
Sophie opens the floor to con pitches. Breanna breaks out A Christmas Carol again. Eliot points out they don’t do ghosts because Luna’s never going to buy them as ghosts. Breanna presents her plan binder and explains that her con makes Luna the ghost.
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Harry’s feedback is that Luna isn’t Scrooge. He isn’t redeemable because he doesn’t want to be redeemed. Breanna counters that they don’t have to change him for good. They just have to scare him enough for him to lead them to his gold. Sophie gives Breanna the go-ahead.
Stealing the Ghosts of Christmas
The plan involves steampunk goggles, sedatives, silver lamé fabric jumpsuits, and a shock collar. Cue holiday music-scored preparation montage.
On Christmas Eve, Luna leaves the office on the phone, making up a reason he can’t spend the evening with Bobbi. Eliot bumps into him outside the building, jabbing him with a sedative. Luna gets in his car but passes out soon after and never gets out of the parking lot. Eliot comes by to check on him and pronounces him “Dead.”
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From a monitoring station, Breanna calls everyone to their places. The only activity in the building is the insurance company’s Christmas party. Down in the cryonics lab, Parker unzips the covering on Luna’s face. He’s lying on a medical gurney. She’s done up like Nurse Ratched and pronounces that his cranial reassembly makes the “entity” unsuitable for knowledge work. When she flashes red pupils at him, he sits up suddenly, screaming in terror.
While Santa does a keg stand at the Christmas party, Breanna sends Sophie in as the Ghost of Christmas Past. Luna recognizes her as the client from a few days ago. She informs him that it’s been 30 years. Doctors found a cure for cancer six months ago, so she was reanimated. Now she helps others who have been vitrioled as a Reanimation Specialist. He doesn’t believe her and tries to leave. She zaps him with the shock collar.
He insists on seeing proof that he died. Sophie pulls up a doctored video reporting his car crash and an obituary that states no one preceded him and he left no one behind. Footage of his funeral shows an empty room. Sophie tells him that even Bobbi didn’t attend, and he’s very belittling of Bobbi.
Moving Parts
When the drunk Christmas Party Santa tries to get downstairs, Eliot intercepts him, and Santa picks a fight in the stairwell. Meanwhile, it’s Harry’s turn in the con. In the role of Ghost of Christmas Present, he introduces himself as Ashton Mountebank. He owns Gift of Time now. He gives Luna the rundown on the past 30 years.
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When Luna asks him to take off the collar, Harry explains he can’t because Luna is a F.O.E. — a Fully Owned Entity. Reanimated people have to work off their time in indentured servitude before pursuing a free life. Harry plays the nice card and offers to knock ten years off the total.
Breanna sends Eliot after the Goth couple, Garrett and Gail, but he’s busy chasing down Santa Claus. Garrett has a master access key and opens the Gift of Life doors, revealing all the cryonic chambers. Gail grabs him by the lapels, incredibly turned on by the adventure. Parker interrupts them, freaking out about being bitten by a supposedly dead body. She flashes the red eyes at them, and they run.
Retrieval Specialists and Coyotes
Santa wanders in after they leave. As Sophie returns to Luna, Santa stumbles by. Sophie distracts Luna with details about the lives of F.O.E.s and the Retrieval Specialists that prowl the streets looking for escaped F.O.E.s. Eliot tackles Santa and gets him out of sight.
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She gets worked up and shares that to escape, he’d need money to hire a Coyote to escort him to the Freelands. Having said too much, she leaves him alone again and rejoins Breanna in the monitoring station. They both blanche when they see Bobbi appear on the surveillance camera, carrying a picnic basket. Sophie offers to take care of her and heads out. Breanna congratulates everyone on wrangling things expertly, then announces that Peter has escaped.
As Luna runs out the front doors, Eliot, dressed as a futuristic bounty hunter, snares him and threatens him with a machete. Brandishing the blade, he prepares to harvest Luna but gets tasered by Breanna, dressed as a Coyote. She offers Luna a chance of survival by getting into the van.
Driving away, he asks her if she’s a Coyote. She replies that she is if he has anything valuable with which to hire her. He says that he has gold. They end up at the cemetery. He hid the gold bars in Danielle’s crypt, admitting he made up Danielle as a cover story. They load the gold into the van. Breanna tells him that if they separate, he must follow the fires to the Freelands. He acknowledges this, pushes her to the ground, and drives away.
The Freelands
Luna spots fires in the distance and heads their way, keeping Breanna’s words in mind. Seeing a sign for the Vreelands Restaurant & Bar, he pulls in and parks. Running inside, still only dressed in a silver lamé jumpsuit, he hugs people to celebrate making it out of the District.
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He sees an ad on the big-screen TV for a Leukemia Fundraising Tournament and realizes cancer hasn’t been cured. Over by the juke box, Sophie, Parker, Harry, and Eliot are watching him. He tells them they won’t get away with this because he’s going to sue them. Turning around to call the police, he runs right into a couple of officers. But when he turns back to accuse the team of drugging and abducting him, they’re gone.
He tries to explain everything to the police in a confused, garbled way. Breanna comes in, wearing a Santa hat, and identifies him as the man who stole her van. He accuses her of wanting his gold. She hands the officers a mesh bag of gold chocolate coins. The police feel Luna’s probably high on something and agree to detain him under a 72-hour psych hold.
Three Days Later
Still wearing the metallic pantsuit, Luna returns to his office to find it all packed up. Bobbi’s packing his office. He asks her why she didn’t come bail him out. She replies that that’s not what she does anymore.
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Flashback: Bobbi sits in the monitoring station with Sophie as Luna calls her a gold digger. She gasps when he admits that Daniella was made up.
When he asks what happened to the office, she explains that she called in her investment note. Now, she owns the company and they’re closing it to be sold off in parts. The IRS is waiting out front to discuss the gold assets he never paid taxes on. Tom, the tendon guy, is also looking to talk to him. Bobbi gives him a public dressing down, reminding him that he will die one day and that she will not be at his funeral.
Little Green Shoots
At the plant nursery, the client finally lays her father’s ashes to rest with a banana tree. Sophie invites Harry back to the HQ for a Christmas gathering. He chooses to go see his mom.
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Back at HQ, Breanna is gloating over the success of the mission. Hardison pops out and congratulates her on being the first to successfully A Christmas Carol a mark. Parker arrives, jumping on Hardison’s back. Sophie’s with her, and Hardison lets her know a gift arrived for her. It’s a banana plant from Cesar.
Eliot pours drinks for himself and Sophie. She thinking about Nate and how, like the banana tree, he died but sent out little green shoots in the Leverage team that have grown into Leverage International, all teams that operate as families and make a difference.
Leverage: Redemption Season 3 streams on Prime Video with new episodes every Thursday.
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