‘Leverage: Redemption’ Recap – ‘The Walk in the Woods Job’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 205 of ‘Leverage: Redemption’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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Forgiveness is a word and a concept that carries great weight in our world and understandably so. After all, to err is indeed human and to hold grudges against those who err and stumble through their journey is bad for everyone involved. Since it creates bad blood and promotes more anger and disdain in a world that already has enough negativity to go round. So, we do our best to forgive and forget and heal, in the hopes of making the world a better place in the process. But despite our best efforts to forgive as often as possible, now, and again we come to learn that there moments and acts in this life, that are beyond forgiveness. For when a person crosses that line, forgiveness would only encourage bad behavior further.
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For the individuals that cross that line, only believe in themselves and their actions and will never care about anyone beyond that. And that motivates them to hurt others with impunity and a sick joy that demands retribution if at all possible, and that kind of person and the lack of forgiveness they earn is top of mind today… simply because that was the type of disgusting individual the team encountered in the next episode of Leverage: Redemption. For ‘The Walk in the Woods Job’ saw Eliot get fired up over the fact that a good friend of his, a brother really, likely was killed by a dishonorable man named Austin Kurlander. Who used one seemingly positive brave moment in his life to build a shady mercenary empire, that clearly ran up against that old and dear friend. Of course, Eliot wasn’t going to stand for this and immediately rallied the team to find out why this happened and to bring Kurlander down.

However, there were some roadblocks that sprung up in regard to making that happen. In that, Eliot’s friend, Paul, faked his own death to bring Kurlander’s guard down. All because he wanted a shot at putting Kurlander down himself. Simply because this weasel had risen to prominence through a lie. For his brave moment was nothing more than opportunistic cowardice. The kind that dishonored memories of the fallen to further his interests and Paul felt responsible for taking part in this mess by not bringing that truth to light sooner. Not to mention, Kurlander was hiding amongst other men of his caliber at a remote location, forcing the team to get creative to bring to light his cowardice and dishonor. Which of course, they did, because this is Team Leverage, we are talking about here, and no one escapes them. 

But what matters more here, was how this episode dug deep into how dishonorable acts and lies, truly fire up people like never before. Because we truly do value honesty and integrity above all and seeing someone cast that aside, just disgusts us. Likely because they are values that our parents instill in us at a young age, and we come to see the good they can do. So, to see someone step away from a societal foundation is just unsettling to say the least. However, while that made for some fine commentary, we’d be foolish to not point out… that Eliot is the real draw of this episode. Because we’ve only had snippets of his past pop up on the show, and we only know so much about what formed the man to be so honorable and so heroic, and this episode revealed a great deal about that. Since it did speak to how he came to learn what heroes and cowards look like, and how much honor and integrity mean to him.

All of which was expressed through a top-tier performance from Christian Kane, and it was quite incredible to see Eliot take charge here and that this episode still found a way to keep things light with source material that was a touch dark. Since Parker and Sophie’s bet made for some real fun, and of course Breanna’s decision to help save some frogs added to that and of course… Harry’s impression of Eliot, complete with THE speech from Rocky Balboa was the stuff of legend. Which is a testament to Noah Wyle’s script and direction in this story. But all of that aside, it is also important to point out that in many ways it seems as though, this was a setup episode. One designed to prepare us for an important moment in the franchise’s history, since the teaser and episode description for what comes next, promises a deep dive into the mystery that is Eliot, and it will be fascinating to finally learn more about this enigmatic hero. Until next time.

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