Leverage August 1--The Fan Girl Review

Oh, this episode of Leverage is going to be good! We have Bill Engvall guest starring, and this fan girl LOVES her some Bill Engvall.

Episode starts with a high speed chase that gets a guy arrested for grand theft auto of a car that he bought legally. Hmmm.... sounds like a case for Nate and the gang, dontcha think?

The guy bought the car from a used car lot and when he took it in to get it fixed, he found out the VIN number came up stolen.

Where does our good friend, Bill come in. Engvall plays Duke Penzer, a former race car driver who now runs the used car lot that is selling the stolen cars. Duke likes to race on the weekends at a local track, and that is how Nate and the gang get to him.

Nate plays AJ Lucas and proceeds to break Duke's track record and then, while betting for Penzer's vintage race car, races Penzer and beats him-- using some patented Leverage team tactics (i.e. a well timed eletromagnetic pulse aimed right at Penzer's car)

Nate and the gang also take over another car lot and start giving Penzer a run for his money... while also raffling off Penzer's lost race car. Watching Sophie use all of her grifter Jedi Mind Power tricks on the customers was a thing of beauty... and had Penzer foaming at the mouth to get her on his staff.

While Nate and Sophie work Penzer from the auto lot angle, Parker and Hardison has to infiltrate the car theft gang that is supplying Penzer's car lot. The leader of gang, Lefty, gets introduced to our dynamic duo after they steal HIS car. Then, after they steal an almost unstealable car, Lefty lets them into the gang and Parker gets introduced to a little brunet version of her as a child, named Josie.

Nate has Sophie imply to Penzer that AJ (Nate) is running the same scam that Penzer is. They then plant some extra innuendo to Penzer about a rival boost gang by having some of Penzers cars destroyed and implying that it was done by a gang working with AJ. This sets in motion the main con of the program.

Penzer plots with Lefty to steal a shipment of cars that are supposed to go to AJ.

Parker tries to talk Josie out of going on the boost tomorrow... Parker sees what happened to herself as a kid (getting screwed over by her car their boyfriend and doing time for it) happening to this little girl and she doesn't want that to happen again. I have seen quite a bit of growth from Parker this season, and that has been a very good thing.

Josie ends up telling Penzer and Lefty about Parker; and he and Lefty decide to go after the cars early and kill Parker and Hardison.

The team comes close to getting busted in this episode. Eliot gets the shit beat out of him AND hit by a car. Parker and Hardison get shot at and Nate and Sophie get pinched by Penzer. Leave it to the team, though. They find a great way to use the cars that Penzer re-stole from Nate, to bust him AND Lefty. And while they are doing all of that... they also perform the extra good deed of turning Josie away from her life of crime. GO TEAM GO!!!

Another outstanding episode from the Leverage team. I love seeing the character growth and I thought Bill Engvall did a great job as the baddie of the week. This show definitely keeps my summers entertaining and TNT better do everything they can to keep this show on for a long time.

Next week... we get the one and only Tom Skerritt, guest starring as Nate's dad. Now THAT should be an interesting episode... can't wait to watch.

Tomorrow, a new Lie to Me and the summer finale of The Good Guys.

Til Then!
Alexis-Rueal
(fan-girl confessor)