Oh Holy Crap, Leverage!

Wow, just wow. As far as season finales go, that was right up there with the greats. Last week, we had the team narrowly escaping from an FBI trap, then the big reveal that Sterling was now on the case. We also had a corrupt mayor and a gunned down cop to deal with.

We start things off with Team Leverage as the focus of a manhunt. Nate figures that the best place to hide is the last place anyone would be looking for them; the hotel where the mayor (aka, FBI snitch) is being kept. The team makes their way into an empty room (thanks to a naked Tara...well played) and Hardison turns the computer checkout system into his own personal hacking station. A couple of nifty cons later, and the team is set up, then makes their move..Let's Steal A Mayor.

Parker in a maid outfit: excellent. Hardison getting tangled up in the rappeling rope: even better. They con the mayor into giving up his arms connection (Paul Blackthorne, who also played Harry Dresden in the way-too-short adaptation of The Dresden Files), thanks to Hardison as a suited thug with a HORRENDOUS Irish accent. Just dreadful. Hilariously so, though.

The team is ready to just turn things over to the pros, but Nate thinks he can still beat the guys involved, so he sends the team off to work while he heads back to the apartment, where Sterling is waiting. Nate left an old drawing of his son's behind, and that's how Sterling knew that he'd come back there. Very sneaky. Sterling offers Nate a deal: help him catch the arms dealer, and Nate walks while the rest of his team gets sent to jail. Not a great deal, but as Sterling points out, he's the only one of them that isn't a thief. Nate appears to mull it over. Meanwhile, Tara makes an ominous phone call. OMINOUS.

Oh yes, and Nate calls Sophie, spilling his guts out to her, only she can't hear him because she's on a helicopter. Great scene, great acting by Mr. Hutton.

Once they start the final con, there are some great moments. Tara, Parker, and Hardison break into the FBI to destroy the evidence that they have on the team. Hardison finds a photo of Tara meeting with the arms dealer, which causes Parker (who already has trust issues) to grab her by the throat and hold her off of a building. That's hardcore Parker right there. Nate and Elliot go on the boat to continue the con of Nate as Mr. Git, only the whole thing almost falls apart when the mayor gets loose and calls the arms dealer. Luckily for Nate, Sophie chooses that time to make her reappearance into the show. Go Sophie! It's about damn time too. Elliot proceeds to take out a whopping thirteen henchmen, then the look that he and Hardison give each other is just priceless as they realize Sophie is on the boat. Everything ends up with the mayor and the arms dealer locked into the boat's cabin together with a cargo hold full of evidence and the FBI on the way. Time enough for a happy reunion with Sophie, who actually gets a hug from Parker (great line from Sophie: "Parker's touching people?"). Tara bails, and the team is about to helicopter away when...Sterling shows up. Nate (who is, by this point, bleeding) cuffs himself to the rail, then tells Sterling all about how he's reversed the deal on him. By destroying all of his evidence against the arms dealer, Nate is the only witness who can help put him away, but only if the rest of the team goes free. They reluctantly go, and as Nate slumps to the deck from his gunshot wound, the FBI agent asks who he is. Sterling tries to play him off as no one, but Nate insists "My name is Nate Ford. And I'm a thief". Pow! There's your season 2 ladies and gentlemen. Sophie is back, Nate has finally come to terms with who he has become, and he appears to like it. Where do we go from here? That is a question for season 3, which had better occur pretty damn quick. I need my Leverage fix, yo.

Thursday coming soon, depending on how the Olympics mess with the schedule.