Welcome to this week’s installment of Geek Girl Authority Crush of the Week, wherein we spotlight strong women and nonbinary folks who inspire us. This includes fictional characters and creators in geeky media. They are a prime example of empowerment and how crucial it is for youth to have said example to follow.
Leverage: Redemption’s Parker
Fast Facts
Parker (Beth Riesgraf) is the world’s greatest thief. She doesn’t steal for power or assets, only cash value. And, as part of the O.G. Leverage team, she steals as part of their cons to right wrongs and deliver justice to wrongdoers. On her own, she just steals because she can. Sometimes, she puts it back.
She grew up in the foster care system, constantly being moved from home to home, with no lasting home or family. An abusive foster father took her favorite toy, a stuffed rabbit, and told her she had to become a better thief to get it back. She did, got it back, AND blew up his house. (Audio commentary on the show insists no one was in the house at the time.)
When she tries to pickpocket a legendary master thief, Archie Leach (Richard Chamberlain), he spots her talent and becomes her mentor, training her into the “perfect thief.” Building on her natural abilities, his training adds gymnastics, acrobatics, lock-picking, safe-cracking, and a well-honed spatial intelligence to her arsenal.
RELATED: A Leverage: Redemption Primer: Get Ready to Steal Season 3
Whether caused by nature, nurture, or a combination of both, Parker’s social intelligence is deeply hampered by deep distrust of others and an inability to read emotional cues. With the support of the Leverage team, she’s made significant progress, able to describe and predict emotional factors even if she doesn’t identify with them. More importantly, she’s formed meaningful relationships.
The Real Deal
Parker — no indication if that’s a first name, last name, or adopted alias — is truly the world’s greatest thief. As such, she must, of course, have a nemesis, a law-enforcement supersleuth intent on stopping her. Of course, her nemesis can never stop her, but they are good enough at tracking her and getting in her way to be annoying. That this nemesis turns out to be Astrid Pickford (Alexandra Park), Parker’s teammate, Sophie’s step-daughter, is karmic.
Parker knows what she’s good at and enjoys being good at it. In the original Leverage series, she initially joins up with Nate Ford (Timothy Hutton) to experience new thieving opportunities. By the end of the series, Nate recognizes in her a fellow Mastermind. When he “retires” from Leverage, he leaves her in charge. In the eight years between Leverage and Leverage: Redemption, she grows the Leverage movement into 12 international con teams with the help of Hardison (Aldis Hodge) and Eliot (Christian Kane).
RELATED: Read our Leverage: Redemption recaps
When Sophie decides to stay on with the Leverage team in Leverage: Redemption, Parker readily relinquishes the Mastermind seat to her. But the elegance of Leverage: Redemption is that the team’s roles are no longer rigid niches. Parker’s learned enough over the 17 years of continuity to work any of the positions, although she’s more keen to hit than hack.
Why She Matters
While Parker is on record for hating the “feelings stuff,” she has deep emotions that elicit big reactions. In her early days, they included stabbing the source of the intense emotions, but she’s gotten better about not doing that since acquiring her favorite taser. The point is that Parker may be a savant mastermind because, as Nate put it, she doesn’t let emotions cloud her planning, but she is far from devoid of feeling.
Recognizing that her traumatic upbringing changed her in ways she’ll never be able to reverse, her most motivating trigger is preventing other children from being harmed or exploited. And while that upbringing made her deeply distrustful of people in general, the safety she found in the Leverage team allowed her to connect and even fall in love. (Although she’d probably never phrase it like that.)
Over five seasons of Leverage and two (plus the current airing one) of Leverage: Redemption, Parker has grown from a “nearly-feral” compulsive criminal to a highly effective leader and mentor. While her thinking is never conventional, she understands what Leverage and its team members are better than anyone. As she tells Harry Wilson (Noah Wyle) in the Season 1 finale, “Harry, you’re the best bad guy who tried to be a good guy that learned to be the best good-bad guy we ever had.”
RELATED: Looking for another crush? Check out our Geek Girl Authority Crushes of the Week
So, be like Parker. Embrace your superpowers. Speak your mind. Right wrongs. Believe that happiness is something you can make a reality. Treasure your loved ones more than diamonds. Be magnificent.
Leverage: Redemption Season 3 streams on Prime Video with new episodes every Thursday.
- LEVERAGE: REDEMPTION Recap: (S03E07) The Shakedown in Clone-Town Job - May 15, 2025
- The New BALLERINA Trailer Is Pure Fire - May 13, 2025
- On Location: The Armour-Stiner Octagon House on POKER FACE - May 12, 2025
