‘Leverage: Redemption’ Recap – ‘The Great Train Job’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Fourteen of ‘Leverage: Redemption’.
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There was a time when it was extremely easy to spot evil in our world. For it was boisterous and brave and had no qualms in making it and its intentions known to the world, and that was helpful for the rest of us. Since it allowed for us to quickly target it, and fight it and defeat it, and keep it away from the rest of mankind for ages on end. A reality that evil wasn’t good with and sadly, its absence gave it time to think and realize that if it put on a fake smile and pretended to be good, it could fool people and go about its twisted business and sadly, this plan is working. Since we are seeing evil work behind the guise of good, often, and its resurgence in this manner has left all of us wondering exactly how it can be defeated, now that it likes to hide in plain sight.
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Well as it turns out, this is a question that Dean Devlin and the writers’ room of Leverage: Redemption were curious about as well and that led them to explore how we could bring down hidden evil, and evil in general, in the next episode of this storied franchise and that made ‘The Great Train Job’, one poignant and powerful tale. One that oddly enough, seemed as though it was going to focus on a different topic early on. As evidenced by the fact that this episode opens up with a hate crime involving an interracial and same sex married couple. For these intrepid farmers, find themselves under assault from white supremacists that ‘don’t take kindly’ to well… anyone different than they are, making it appear as though this was going to be an episode that focused heavily on hate in America. 

But that act was designed to hide a bigger secret. Because there was something incredibly wrong with this farm, and while Eliot and Harry went to figure out what exactly… Sophie and Parker and Breanna went after a man named Blake Whitcomb. Who had uncomfortably coincidental ties to this group, despite being an innovator that claimed to want to make the world a greener place, and well, what they learned about this man was horrifying. In that, he was also a white supremacist and used goodwill and charm and boatloads of money to hide his real intentions. Which was to bring old school Nazi values back to life, under the guise of philanthropy and innovation so people would more easily follow his twisted views, and that uh, that makes Whitcomb the most horrific enemy the team has faced to date.

For that is the worst-case scenario when it comes to hidden evil and well, to stop him and people like him, the solution was quite clear. In that, what evil tends to forget, is that it is supremely weak at its core, and it loves operating with impunity. So, if by chance it was exposed and stood up to by the masses… it would likely back down and that is precisely what happened here, since Whitcomb cowered and eventually ran when exposed and of course, went to jail with the help of Canadian Mounties. But what matters more here is that Whitcomb’s exposure and the underlying lesson in defeating him, provides the audience with homework of sorts. The kind that asks us to be vigilant and unwavering in exposing this type of evil so that it never has a chance to hide and so that others who ponder upon indulging in it… choose to do something else instead.

Plus, this episode also pointed out, it would be best for lawmakers to be a bit more proactive and close loopholes that evil uses to thrive and give law enforcement whatever it needs to intervene before guys like Whitcomb can even remotely enjoy any semblance of power. But while we wait and hope for those kinds of collective changes to arrive, we can in the meantime… celebrate one brave episode. Because these kinds of scumbags are somewhat taboo in popular culture, so it is wonderful to see a show point out how bad they are and how thirsty they are for power in a manner that is just light-hearted enough to make it all palatable, and hopefully this episode inspires other shows to put these unsavory individuals on display. So that they are indeed exposed and so that the conversation about how to put an end to any tolerance of their beliefs and behaviors… can begin. Until next time.  

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