Christian Kane

Listmania: EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE FIRST HALF OF ’LEVERAGE’ - SEASON TWO AND MORE!

With LEVERAGE picking up season two on Wednesday on TNT at 10:00 p.m., here are some things you should know to help you catch up

Now the series is returning to TNT for the second half of Season Two this Wednesday, January 13 at 10:00 p.m. for five additional episodes as the team of thieves led by Timothy Hutton attempt more good deeds as their moral compass continues to straddle that thin, grey line.

But before you jump into "The Runway Job," we thought it’d be a good idea to catch you up on what’s happened with the series so far.

1. The team is now based in Boston, MA.

After blowing up their offices in Los Angeles to throw Sterling (Mark Sheppard) off their trail, the Leverage team scattered. Six months went by after they finished the job where they took down Nate’s old boss from IYS, and they find themselves together again surprisingly because of Sophie’s “acting” career. Sophie invites them all to her production of “The Sound of Music” (which apparently made one reviewer want to root for the Nazis), and with some sneaky manipulation from the rest of the team, they basically con Nate back into running their little group of misfit thieves.

2. Nate’s sober.

Season One was filled with Nate being drunk and belligerent. We watched him struggle with his addiction and come to terms with it - realizing that he’s either got to get sober or he’s going to drink himself to death – and probably take the rest of the team with him. Season Two started out with Nate having kicked the habit, choosing instead to fill his life with coffee and control. While he ironically lives over a bar, maybe as a way to test his resolve, he has so far been successful. Of course, getting over an addiction isn’t easy. He seems to have traded one for another, and as his control issues become more predominant, it makes you wonder if during the last half of this season we’ll see him go too far.

3. Sophie (Gina Bellman) is completely aware that her acting sucks.

It’s no secret that the rest of the team would rather poke their eye out with a hot rod than watch one of her plays, but Sophie for a long time seemed to not understand how the rest of the team felt about it. She’d always be all smiles and glee as the rest of the team struggled to say something nice about whatever performance she just did. But during “The Fairy Godparents Job,” Sophie tells a kid that acting is about truth, and since all she is is a liar and a con artist, that’s why she can’t act. She also says that she’s aware that no one else thinks she’s a good actress. But it makes you wonder why she continues to do it if she knows that she isn’t any good and that the key to getting better is something she doesn’t think she can bring herself to do.

4. Nate and Sophie’s roles in their little dysfunctional relationship have seemed to switch.

Let’s be honest here; Sophie completely followed Nate around like a puppy in season one. In season two however, Sophie got herself a boyfriend and has tried to move on. But even after they break up, Sophie still seemed to be trying to thrust Nate away from her; like trying to set him up with one of their clients. It’s an odd switch, seeing as how Nate, now sober, is finally starting to show that he’s taking a real interest in her. After asking her out to dinner and being rejected because of said boyfriend, it’s the one time you see him almost break his sobriety, which means more than words could ever say. But even with getting a boyfriend and trying to set him up, Sophie is very obviously not over him. Nate’s problem is that he can’t ever seem to say the words “I need you,” which is all Sophie needs to hear from him. It seems like they’re on this never ending merry-go-round of love and angst and it makes you wonder whether they are going to try to get off of it together or just end up puking from the intensity.

5. Parker’s starting to look like a girl.

As the tomboyish one of the two women, Parker (Beth Riesgraf) has always been more comfortable in jeans and a T-shirt. She’s completely oblivious to how beautiful she really is, and is a little uncomfortable when she’s made to look that way. But with Gina Bellman’s pregnancy, Beth Riesgraf has needed to become the sex appeal of the show, which leaves Parker in all her awkwardness to put on some heels and a tight dress to try to get the attention of the mark. While watching Parker freak out a bit over trying to be sexy is always a good time, it does seem a little weird and out of character to see her in clothes like that. But with the arrival of the new grifter, maybe things will go somewhat back to normal for her.

6. Parker and Hardison seem to be getting a little closer, no matter how slowly.

Anyone with eyes can see how Hardison (Aldis Hodge) feels about Parker. Even when the girl tries to be oblivious to it, it’s obvious that she knows too. After Parker’s little challenge at the end of season one of “let’s see how hard you look,” in reference to him trying to find her, Parker did end up successfully evading him for the whole six months. But he told her that he looked for her the entire time, which makes her give him a metaphor about locks that basically meant he needs to have patience with her. But their almost-moment in the vault in “The Ice Man Job” made it look like things might be starting to heat up a little more. Neither of them seem to have much knowledge in the relationship area, and it’s really cute to see those two try to figure out how they can fit together.

7. Sophie’s having an identity crisis.

Sophie, Catherine, Elizabeth, Alice, whoever she really is… is having a bit of a problem. Her entire identity is made up of dozens of fake ones, so much that she seems to have lost sight of who she really is in the process. After burying “Catherine”, she mourns the loss of her like she was a large part of herself. Nate doesn’t seem to understand that at first, telling her that it’s not really her. But every identity that Sophie has is almost like their own person. They have their own lives, their own stories… she even knows when they had their first kiss. “Sophie Devereaux” is not her real name (though no shock there), and because Sophie is having this little moment of self-crisis… she left Boston, left the team, and ran off to go find herself.

8. Insight into Eliot’s view on violence.

Eliot (Christian Kane) has always been mainly backup - the guy they all rely on to help them out when things go south. Eliot has never really explained how he feels about all the violence that he does, but his conversation with Sophie in the ring during “The Tap Out Job” gave us a little bit more insight on the subject. He learned a long time ago that he couldn’t control the violence, and that what he needs to control isn’t “out there, it’s in here [his heart]”. While we may never know how Eliot got started in this lifestyle, it was nice to finally find out something like that about him.

9. A new grifter has stepped in.

With Sophie gone, the team is short a grifter. Hardison does a horrific job of trying to fill in, and with Parker not being the best at it, Nate having to run the con, and Eliot having to be backup, they really needed to find someone else. But they didn’t find someone else: Sophie found her for them. Tara makes her appearance in “The Lost Heir Job”, conning the crew into believing she was a lawyer. It was sort of like her audition of sorts and yes, she passed with flying colors. While none of the team seems very happy with having her around, she’s going to have to try to fit in as best she can, and we’re all excited to see how it turns out. Is anyone besides me thinking she might end up double-crossing them? Hm…

10. They went head to head with another team awesome.

You didn’t think the Leverage team was the only group of thieves out there, did you? While maybe no other’s have enough trust with each other to stick together full time, there are a few scattered around. The team comes across one headed by one of Sophie’s old grifter friends in "The Two Live Crew Job," and it makes finishing a job very difficult. It seems like everything they do they end up being outsmarted by this other team. But of course, because the Leverage team is made of win and everything else in between, they end up on top and laying a smack down, especially to the hacker, Chaos, who ends up getting caught going through airport security with a stolen painting and a couple forgeries.

11. They conned with the best of them, like always.

From the Irish mob to a sleazy, selfish lawyer, the Leverage team always manages to con everyone they come across. As much fun as it is seeing them take out the bad guys, I’m still waiting for the day that they don’t win, though mainly cause I’m sure it’ll break Nate. But one things for sure, they don’t give up, and they sure as hell don’t take second best.