‘Leverage: Redemption’ Recap – ‘The Work–Study Job’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode 210 of ‘Leverage: Redemption’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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It is definitely safe to say, that teachers are in a unique place in America right now. Because there was a time where they were viewed as heroes really. People that chose to do so much for the world, since their grand understanding of a particular subject… would nourish children’s minds and prepare them for life ahead. But these days, they are seemingly viewed as enemies. As individuals that ‘hamper’ and ‘hinder’ because some parents can’t see their children’s bad behavior in a realistic light, and they are oft being told what they cannot teach in the classroom, holding them back from properly educating the kids in their classrooms and their profession has become something of a hobby and passion project really, since their pay is just… awful. 
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Which leads one to worry about what the future of teaching is going to look like in a few years, especially when it comes to public schooling, and it also leaves one to wonder… what the teacher is going to transform into. Because their working conditions are awful, and in some cases… their lives are at risk since weapons in schools has become quite the problem. Oddly enough, the next episode of Leverage: Redemption on Amazon Freevee, visualizes what could become of teachers if they don’t receive the financial care and respect their profession is due. A feat that ‘The Work–Study Job’ accomplished, by introducing us to a professor that represented what a teacher could become if they were jaded enough by a broken system.

In that, they might become nothing more than a mercenary for hire, for information of course. Since money is what talks in schools these days, and the chance to do whatever must be done to get money into their school when it could net them respect and value… could be too big of an opportunity to pass up. At least, it certainly was for Dr. Daniel Gray. Who loved attention and accolade and went to extreme measures to get it since he wasn’t getting it from his peers and the senior staff at a local university. So, he was quick to steal from his students, specifically one named Emma in this tale, and sell ideas to keep the university on the map and to receive accolades untold for keeping the cash rolling into the university for improvements and prestige projects. But what he wasn’t counting on here, was being taught a lesson by Team Leverage.

Because they were brought in to handle this mess and Gray actually proved to be quite the formidable challenge. Because a guy like him, with nothing to lose and an eye on everything, who also knows that money is the name of the game… will use their swagger and standing and cash flow… to out con a con man. Which he did often here. Which forced the team to go lo-fi in their quest to bring him down, and use irrefutable facts to put an end to his machinations. But what mattered more here, is that this episode really did serve as a cautionary tale of sorts. Because while we don’t hear about teachers doing stuff like this on the everyday six o’ clock news, it’s not out of the realm of impossibility. Because anytime good people are pushed far enough, a break is the risk, and one could easily see Gray snapping at not getting what he needed as a teacher.

Which means this story is designed to really inform us… to take care of our teachers and give them everything they need to do their jobs well, and to let them do their jobs, and give them the respect they deserve. For they have a tough job, and we rely on them to do a great deal for us. So, why not put them on a pedestal and invest in their future so we properly invest in society’s? If anything, this was just… a supremely unique and brilliant episode of this series, since this is a show that doesn’t deal in ‘what if?’ all that often, but clearly… going that route made for some powerful entertainment and some wonderful moments as well. Since the Hardison cameo was the stuff of legend and it was great to see Eliot make nice with a bunch of blue-collar college workers and in the end, this writer kind of hopes we get more stories in this vein down the line. Just because it mixed things up and made for an engaging ride. One that hammered home an important lesson in a unique and intelligent manner, and you can never go wrong with that. Until next time.

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