‘Leverage: Redemption’ Recap – ‘The Museum Makeover Job’ & ‘The Crowning Achievement Job’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the Season Two Finale of ‘Leverage: Redemption’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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For the most part, the Amazon Freevee series, Leverage: Redemption, has followed a fairly standard and crowd-pleasing formula. Wherein Team Leverage is alerted to an ugly injustice in the world. One where an everyday person, is left holding the bag emotionally and monetarily and they need help in being made whole again… and that is where the team comes in. So, they swoop in and teach the villain a lesson in humility by making them pay for hurting innocents and well, as mentioned before… we love this. In large part because it offers catharsis. Because the world is a rotten place at times, where bad people win the day. So, to see them suffer helps our souls and… we get to learn a lot from a commentary perspective.
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But season two of this series, has offered up some vastly different types of stories. For this year’s adventures, became quite intimate on several occasions, allowing for us to learn the backstories of iconic characters that we genuinely love and… we were even given new perspective on how the team operates. But the season two finale of this series, well it went all out in offering up perhaps the most unique adventure for this team to date. Because ‘The Museum Makeover Job’ and ‘The Crowning Achievement Job’ are a pair of stories that really didn’t focus on all that much on commentary and catharsis. These were stories that saw the team… face the past and handle a critical crisis.

For one fine day, Team Leverage: London, found themselves under fire and were unable to complete a job. For they swarmed upon by INTERPOL agent extraordinaire, Astrid Pickford, and well… it seemed as though she had prior knowledge of this heist. Which meant that the core team was off to London to learn more about this and well, that pulled them into a web of treachery. One where Sophie revealed to the team that Astrid was in fact, her stepdaughter from long ago, and that, Ramsey, her old boss… was likely involved. Which prompted her to lead the team to take down Ramsey, only to learn, that he was merely bait. For Arthur Wilde was the real culprit of the team’s troubles, and of course he had a heist of his own, and revenge in mind, and well… that put the team on law enforcement’s radar. Wherein they had to work hard to avoid capture whilst garnering revenge against Wilde. Which they did, because… come on… there’s no way Team Leverage is going down like that. 

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But what mattered more here… were two key aspects of this episode. First and foremost, the fact that there was no lesson or commentary here… just the team fighting for their lives. Which was amazing because we’ve never seen them in such dire straits, nor have we ever seen them have to fight in such a reactionary manner. So really, this segment of the story, was everyone’s chance to grow and they most certainly did. Since Breanna had to step in and wear multiple hats to keep her extended family safe, and Harry had to learn how to handle vents alongside Parker, like it or not, and it was just amazing to see them grow and be fearless along the way. Because that’s the stuff that makes heroes legendary and it elevated this team like never before and that… helped the other amazing aspect of this story come to life.
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In that, this was Sophie’s ascension into true leadership. A feat that she could only accomplish, by properly facing and closing out her past. Which was no easy task. After all, she had a lot to answer for since she abandoned Astrid one fine day, because that is what the job required, and of course… she worked hard to just abandon the past in the hopes of never dealing with it again. But here, there was no running or hiding anymore. Just standing tall against bad memories and foolish mistakes and setting them right, and even then… she needed an assist. For she really viewed this as her moment of reckoning through karma. But Eliot gave her the same care and understanding she often gave him, and once he pointed out how far she’d come and how good she was… she was finally able to put the past to bed and move forward as a true leader.

All of which made, for one epic two-part finale. One that was also filled to the brim with delightfully fun moments as well. Because the whole ‘Nemesis’ thing between Parker and Astrid was just a pure delight. Plus, the aforementioned vents sequence really let Noah Wyle bust out the comedic chops. Not to mention, seeing teams from around the world come together to end Arthur was just magical, as was watching Sophie make amends with her stepdaughter, and well, that’s that. There’s no more story to tell about season two of Leverage: Redemption. Just hope, hope for a third season so we can enjoy more of this brilliant series and all the brave stories that it loves to tell and also… hope that the team finds a quick way to bring Hardison home, as promised. Until next year.

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