LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION Recap: The Grand Complication Job

Best. Episode. Ever. Seriously, if there were ever a flagship Geek Girl Authority Leverage: Redemption episode, “The Grand Complication Job” would be it. Not only is it triply woman-led, with Parker (Beth Riesgraf) and Astrid (Alexandra Park) facing off in a save-Sophie (Gina Bellman) scenario orchestrated by Alexandra Bligh (Lucy Taylor), it blows the roof off the whole operation with the return of Tara Cole (Jeri FREAKIN’ Ryan).

Brief refresher: Tara Cole is an old friend of Sophie’s and a fellow grifter. She appeared in the back half of the original Leverage Season 2, episodes 9-15, when Gina Bellman took a hiatus for her pregnancy. This is her first appearance in Leverage: Redemption.

Leverage: Redemption, “The Grand Complication Job”

But we’re getting ahead of the story. Or behind it, depending on your perspective. Another reason we love Leverage: Redemption Season 3 Episode 5, “The Grand Complication Job,” so much is its twisted narrative structure.

We begin with Parker timing herself on a laser obstacle course. As she disarms the lasers, her phone buzzes. A live-feed video of Sophie appears, and a garbled voice instructs her to steal the Grand Complication Marie Antoinette watch in the next hour. If she doesn’t, Sophie dies. She must steal the watch with no help.

Elsewhere, Astrid jogs out of the NOLA Training Facility to a gurney where an injured sparring partner lies. Astrid apologizes for hurting him while demonstrating a kimura armlock. Paramedics wheel him away. Astrid’s phone buzzes. The same live-feed of Sophie appears, and the same garbled voice directs her to stop the theft of the Grand Complication Marie Antoinette watch. If she fails to protect the watch, Sophie dies. Astrid gets on her motorcycle and speeds off.

The Game Is On

At headquarters, Parker activates the team locator. Hardison (Aldis Hodge) is in Paris, France. Harry (Noah Wyle) is located in Montreal. Meanwhile, Eliot (Christian Kane) is in Pakistan. Breanna (Aleyse Shannon) is verified in transit. Sophie, however, comes up as “location not found.”

Knowing the kidnapper is tracking and monitoring her phone, Parker upturns a bag of burner phones and grabs one.

Dressed in navy fatigues, Breanna drives a food truck, talking with Parker over the team coms as she runs along the rooftops of New Orleans towards the watch’s location. Breanna changed the frequency of the coms after receiving Parker’s text from the burner.

Speeding through the streets on her motorcycle, Astrid calls the New Orleans regional Interpol office. Agent Sharon Healey (Donna Duplantier) is not enthused to get the call.

On Site

Breanna parks the food truck and moves into the back to provide Parker with technological backup. She shares that Sophie’s credit card pinged at 5:32 pm for high tea at The Proper Petal. Parker rappels down to street level in the alley behind the building where the watch is displayed for a fundraiser. Astrid arrives just after her.

Both women realize the fundraiser attendees are dressed as ladies of Marie Antoinette’s court. Astrid tries flashing her Interpol badge to get the security guard to shut the event down. The guard informs her that Interpol isn’t a real thing and refuses.

In split-screen synchronicity, Parker and Astrid have Breanna and Sharon, respectively, run the plates of the cars outside the fundraiser. They each grift a different woman and get their outfits.

Sophie’s Plight

In an abandoned power station, Sophie sits, handcuffed to her chair. Alexandra Bligh enters, and they rehash their history a bit before Bligh shows Sophie how she’s set Astrid and Parker against each other to save Sophie. Sophie’s quite incensed, warning her that they despise each other. Astrid gloats, admitting she knew that.

At the fundraiser, Astrid and Parker, both sporting masquerade masks, crisscross paths as they search for the watch. Hostess Beatrice (Angelena Swords) addresses the fundraiser attendees. She reminds the crowd that they’ll be recreating the contredanse allemande as it was danced at Versailles.

Obstacles

Breanna hacks the building’s cameras and informs Parker that the watch is on display in the vault. Astrid stops a woman in pink to ask where the watch display is. The woman shrugs and giggles. Astrid storms off in frustration. At the vault, Parker overhears the attendant’s speech about the watch, valued at $30 million. Parker realizes the line’s too long and plans to go in through the vents.

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First Parker, then Astrid, discover that the access grate to the vent system is corroded and won’t open. From the factory, Sophie and Bligh watch the surveillance on a laptop, with Bligh calling the play-by-play. Sophie warns her that this won’t end well for her. Bligh demonstrates little fear of Interpol arresting her. Sophie cautions that Parker’s who she should actually be worried about. “Parker is not like us,” she says.

Bligh’s security system blips a warning. She discovers someone is hacking her cameras inside the fundraiser. After blocking the hacker, she calls her goons to deal with the hacker. In the truck, Breanna loses access to the cameras, but tells Parker she spotted a Bussmann glass fuse from 1915-ish in the background of the footage of Sophie. By searching the city database for buildings of that era, she narrows down where Sophie is being held.

Cake Watch

Wandering over to Catering, Parker discovers the cake toppers are edible replicas of the Grand Complication watch. Finding a liquid nitrogen torch, she lets Breanna know she has the means to open the access panel. She leaves just as Astrid sneaks in to steal a knife. Parker treats the panel with the liquid nitrogen, but is interrupted. Astrid steps up with the knife, but also stops due to the number of people around. She and Parker both conclude that they need to clear the queue to the vault.

Parker drops the torch in a nearby potted plant. Both she and Astrid overhear the attendant at the vault explain that the dance will start in half an hour when the vault will be closed. Astrid approaches Beatrice and urges her to get the dance started since the Mayor will be arriving soon to give her an award. The music begins, and Beatrice rushes out to get people into place. The attendant starts closing up the vault. Parker sneaks in while her back is turned. Astrid scoots in as the vault door shuts. They face off over the watch’s display.

As they prepare to do battle, with only ten minutes left in Bligh’s ultimatum, Sophie and Bligh watch on the surveillance camera. Bligh digs at Sophie’s alleged abandonment of both women. Sophie points out that she has a team and family, while Bligh has no one.

A Smash and Grab

Astrid and Parker circle each other, keeping the watch between them as they argue over whose fault Sophie’s endangerment is. Suddenly, a high-pitched sound causes them to cover their ears and the watch’s case to shatter. The lights go out for a second, and when they come back on, the watch is gone.

Astrid and Parker look up at the open vent above the watch’s display plinth. Sophie accuses Bligh of double-crossing both Parker and Astrid. Bligh denies it. She also states it wasn’t the hacker either because she had her goons take care of them. Breanna hears someone banging on the food truck and reports that they’ve found her. In the vault, Parker climbs up into the vent with Astrid not far behind. They end up on the roof.

There’s a grappling hook and a rappel line leading off the building. Astrid starts dialing her phone, but Parker knocks it out of her hand. Astrid pulls out the knife she took from catering. They argue. Parker blames Astrid for chasing her and Hardison across Europe, causing them to split up, and leaving Parker feeling like she’d never see him again. Astrid accuses Parker of stealing Sophie away from her, leaving her feeling abandoned and replaced. Holding the knife on Parker as she leans back over the edge of the building, Astrid tells her that Parker doesn’t know love, only steals other people’s love. Parker admits she could never steal a mother’s love because she doesn’t know how it works.

Blood on the Rooftop

Astrid hesitates, and Parker thrusts herself forward. Someone gets stabbed. Astrid’s phone begins to ring from an unknown caller. Astrid picks it up, one hand covered in blood. Bligh, voice garbled by a filter, announces that she failed because the watch is gone. Astrid insists she can still get the watch. Bligh directs her to bring it to her in half an hour, then asks about Parker. Astrid says that Parker is dead. Overhearing it, Sophie gasps.

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Astrid hangs up and turns her computer screen to show Sophie that Astrid’s tracked phone is moving while Parker’s remains still. She doubts that Astrid will catch the real thief, so the $30 million she was counting on is in the wind. She picks up the gun to kill Sophie. Sophie tells her to consider who was with Sophie when she was kidnapped.

Tara Cole

Fast-reverse to before the abduction. Sophie and Tara Cole leave The Proper Petal together. Sophie’s asking Tara’s advice on navigating her relationship with Astrid. Men jump out of a nearby van, punch Tara, and grab Sophie. Tara breaks a taillight as the van drives away. She pulls out her phone and calls Parker.

When she tells Parker that Sophie’s been kidnapped, Parker immediately realizes they did it purposefully when the rest of the team is out of town. She deduces they’ll call with a ransom demand, forcing Parker to steal something. Realizing that they’ll have the frequency of the coms from Sophie’s phone, she warns Tara not to call her phone again. Breanna will be their go-between.

Tara is Parker’s wild card. Parker points out that if the kidnappers knew who Tara was, they’d have taken her too or killed her. Killing her would’ve been Parker’s play. Tara says she would’ve killed Parker, too, which Parker takes as a compliment. Parker sends Tara to search for the kidnappers’ vehicle and says she’ll go do lasers until they call her.

Replay

That brings us back to the opening scene of Parker running the laser course. Breanna contacts Tara, quite tongue-tied at speaking with the legendary Tara Cole. She fills her in on the kidnappers’ demand and sends her the coordinates to the watch. They’ll meet up at the fundraiser.

Flashforward to Parker and Astrid’s arrival at the fundraiser. Tara joins Breanna in the food truck with a plan to slip in with the catering. Breanna kits her out with a com earbud and a sonic detonator in a sleeve equipped with a retrieval wire. Once Tara has a catering uniform on, she looks for a way into the vault. When Astrid stops the woman in pink to ask where the watch is, it’s Tara shrugging and giggling.

Tara’s the reason the music starts playing early. Changing out of the uniform, she grabs the torch from the plant and uses it to open the panel. In the vent above the vault, Tara hears Parker arguing and realizes Astrid is involved too. She uses the sonic detonator and retrieval wire and steals the watch. Bligh’s goons are banging on the food truck just as Tara reaches the roof. Using the rappel rope Parker left there, Tara gets to street level and helps Breanna take care of the goons.

On the rooftop, Parker and Astrid have their knife moment, cutting Astrid’s hand. They agree to work together to save Sophie. When Astrid’s phone starts to ring, Parker tells her what to say to Bligh. After Astrid tells Bligh that Parker’s dead, they join Breanna and Tara in the food truck.

Let’s Go Steal Sophie Devereaux

Breanna spoofs Astrid’s phone so the kidnappers won’t know they’re going to Sophie’s location. At the factory, Bligh’s about to kill Sophie as Parker and Astrid creep over a high catwalk above them. Sophie tells Bligh she read Astrid correctly, but was out of her depth with Parker. “Parker is magnificent. She has no weaknesses: she’s laser-focused. She’s been three steps ahead of you the entire time.”

Outside, Tara takes out the remaining goons. A gun goes off. Astrid realizes that Parker’s not by her side. Astrid jumps down to shield Sophie. Parker enters from the shadows. She tells Bligh her biggest mistake was messing with her family. Bligh fires the gun, but Parker’s holding the clip. Parker and Astrid double-team Bligh, leaving her unconscious on the ground. Sophie frees herself from the cuffs easily. Agent Sharon and three police officers enter and arrest Bligh on 29 outstanding warrants.

Family

Back at headquarters, Parker and Astrid compare notes on thefts over Chinese takeaway. Sophie and Tara come in and spot them getting along. Sophie is speechless with joy. Tara leaves, telling Sophie that motherhood suits her. She hands Sophie a tin for Parker.

Parker opens the tin to find the Grand Complication watch. In cake form. Prompted by Sophie to share nicely, she cuts it in half and shoves half in Astrid’s mouth. Astrid responds in kind. Everyone laughs. Driving away, Tara picks up the real watch and admires it.

Leverage: Redemption Season 3 streams on Prime Video with new episodes every Thursday.

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Diana Keng

Diana lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she invests her time and energy in teaching, writing, parenting, and indulging her love of all Trek and a myriad of other fandoms. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. You can also find her writing at The Televixen, Women at Warp, TV Fanatic, and TV Goodness.

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