The Weekend In Paris Job – The episode opens at Sommersby’s Auction House in Paris. The Leverage team is tasked with finding a golden owl statue stolen from a Ukrainian museum. Aldis Hodge (Alec Hardison) believes they didn’t prepare well enough. Parker (Beth Riesgraf) assures him it will be easy because they have plenty of experience. The statue is in the possession of a Russian terrorist, Gustav Ekimov (Artur Zai Barrera). Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman) utilizes her wit to pickpocket room keys and phones from unsuspecting men. Parker enters a ceiling vent with the help of Hodge. Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane) utilizes his muscles to deal with difficult subjects. Parker finds the statue. Gustav finds it missing and raises an alarm. The Leverage crew flees in a van.
Sophie is working on a reconciliation with her stepdaughter, Interpol Agent Astrid Pickford (Alexandra Park). Astrid’s birthday is approaching, and Sophie wants to give her something meaningful. Eliot and his father are trying to reconcile and hasn’t been easy. Hodge is keeping a secret from Parker. Breanna Casey (Aleyse Shannon) is touring college campuses with Harry Wilson (Noah Wyle) and his daughter.
The crew is speeding down the road when they are joined by two cars carrying armed gunmen. They come under fire. Parker swerves from side to side to miss the bullets. Sophie questions why Sommersby would send armed guards after them. Eliot says the men were hired by Gustav. Hodge recalls telling them that they were ill-prepared. Parker yells, “Weekend in Paris” and takes a sharp right, mowing down a construction barrier. The armed guards are on their tail. Sophie assures them it won’t be long before the police join in the high-speed chase. Hodge searches the CCTV cameras for a blind spot. Parker tells them it will be impossible to ditch the guards in the van. They speed past a packed outdoor café. The gunmen don’t let up. Parker brings the van to a halt and the doors swing open. Eliot throws a bag of flour on one of the cars, deploying the airbag. He punches a guard and moves on to the next car. A struggle ensues and ends with Eliot defeating the guards. He suffers a knife wound on his arm. Hodge sarcastically asks how his first day of school was. Eliot gives him a murderous look and hops in the van. Parker speeds away from the scene.
The crew is parked across from a historical building where a private event is taking place. Eliot wraps duct tape around his injured arm. Hodge complains about it being nasty. Eliot angrily mumbles shut up and says he needs stitches. Parker approaches with servant uniforms. Utilizing an app, Hodge picks up a listing for the International Trade Summit. CCTV within a mile radius has been deactivated to avoid the eye of UK regulators. Sophie and Eliot enter the building via the front door. She believes the owner is American based on a painting of a man in a western hat. Dressed in servant uniforms, Hodge and Parker drink champagne. Armed guards everywhere make Eliot uneasy. An angry Isabelle Dulotte (Tyla Harris) accuses Arizona Mike (Jack Coleman) of taking their water and selling it back to them. He argues that it is a fair price. A guard escorts her to the vault. The guests laugh. Sophie sends Harry to Nettleton, where Isabelle lives.
Parker and Hodge find the vault guarded by a tall guard. She suggests searching the catacombs for an entrance. He reluctantly agrees. Sophie greets Mike and introduces herself as Russian-born Victoria Chernnkov of Kurchatov Investment Group. Eliot recognizes him as the owner of Arizona Mike’s Hot Wings. She pretends to run the family uranium business. Mike was supplying water to farms owned by the Middle Eastern cartel until the government shut it down. He appreciates how Russian businesses operate with little government interference. In the catacombs, Parker asks Hodge if he would like to talk about Breanna. He says it is understandable why she doesn’t want to do something else. She claims to think about it when she jumps off a building, not the answer he was expecting. He utilizes pressurized water to cut through the limestone mortar. Sophie asks Mike why he invited government officials when he clearly finds them an issue. He says most auctions are government auctions that generally have side deals that regulators need not know about. Hodge breaks through the vault floor. Parker pops up through the opening and introduces herself. Isabelle claims Mike tapped into the Nettleton aquifer and is selling them their own water. Government fines are minimal and their civil lawsuit could last for years. Mike invites Sophie to bid on a tanker ship of water at the Port of New Orleans. A call to Harry confirms Isabelle’s claim. She informs him of Mike’s tanker of water. He believes Mike has been selling Nettleton water to his overseas clients.
Isabelle refuses to leave the vault. The crew discusses a plan to stop Mike from auctioning off the tanker of water. Sophie tells Hodge to put money into Mike’s accounts. Parker and Hodge lure a guard away and enter Mike’s office. She cracks the safe. He claims to enjoy the dangers of their job only because they do it together. He transfers $2.70 to every holding account linked to Mike’s primary account. Sophie asks Mike if he will accept the owl statue as a bid because their accounts have been sanctioned. Eliot warns that Interpol is piggybacking on Mike’s legal accounts to find off-books accounts for everyone there. Sophie claims Interpol utilizes micro-deposits to test accurate account details. Mike alerts the bidders of a potential unusual account activity and offers them a proposal. At the Port of New Orleans, Harry must find a way to get inside. At the auction, the investors offer up their valuable art as wagers. Mike has the valuable stored in the vault with Isabelle. Unable to steal all the art, Sophie chooses pieces belonging to the wealthiest investors. Dressed in a matador outfit, Harry notifies Sophie that the tanker will sail to King Abdul Aziz Port. The crew knows the only way to stop Mike is to disrupt his business model.
Gustav approaches Mike and accuses him of being a thief. Eliot and the others watch from nearby. Sophie tells them to forget about stealing and just get Isabelle out. Sophie is going to do the one thing no one expects her to do. She’s going to go say hello. Sophie translates for Gustav who says men stole valuable art from him. He found their van outside this house. Mike insists there are no thieves in his house. He questions whether Gustav knows what they look like. Gustav says they’ll have security footage soon. Eliot complains about losing a lot of blood. They find a man blocking their exit. Parker tells Alec to fight him while she picks the lock. She handcuffs Eliot to prevent him from fighting. Alec doesn’t do well in the fight. The conversation with Mike and Gustav continues. Mike worries about his antiquities although Gustav says they’re his. Alec eventually breaks free and deals with the guard. Parker gets the door open and they go through.
Mike finds the guard knocked out on the ground. Gustav gets a picture of the thief. Sophie shows them that thieves did try to get into the vault. Sophie reminds Mike that he demanded that people bring items of value. Gustav shows him a picture of Isabelle. Alec sent the altered picture to him previously. Sophie accuses Mike of setting them up to steal their belongings. As Gustav and Mike argue, Sophie manages to escape. Sophie calls Astrid to apologize and offer her a makeup gift. She tells her where to find the stolen goods. Harry briefs the team when they get back. Isabelle and her neighbors were able to freeze Mike’s activities near Nettleton. Harry says they’re well on their way to getting their lives back. Sophie believes they got into this a little too late. Alec says he wants to fix things for the long term. He can never do that in this job. He wants to figure out how he can keep doing this.
Alec is going to take six months off. He figured out that Violet Cesario is Sophie’s dating profile. Harry suggests they can be app buddies and double date. Sophie has no interest in that. Eliot tells Alic that Parker could use his help on this one. Alec says he doesn’t like watching someone he cares about taking punches meant for him. He doesn’t want to do a job that involves him watching Eliot get hurt all the time. Alec speaks to Parker who seems upset. Parker thought they were done changing. Alec says people change at their own rate and in their own direction. They share pretzels.
Leverage: Redemption Review
The layout took a bit to get used to. The pace fluctuated from incredibly fast to painfully slow. It required extreme concentration and patience to follow the progressing storyline. Lose an ounce of focus and lose sight of what is going on. Be prepared to frequently rewind and view more than a few segments again. It was frustrating to watch at times.
The acting was good for the most part. The cinematography is fitting for the execution. As the heist played out, a topic was introduced, and the characters took turns adding to it or giving their view. Now this is where it got confusing and took a while to realize what was going on. The episode deserves a 5.6 out of 10.
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Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.