Warning: The following contains spoilers for Leverage: Redemption Season 3, Episode 10.

Leverage: Redemption season 3 ends with a caper inspired by film noir in “The Side Job.” The episode follows Parker (Beth Riesgraf) as she takes on an outside job, and the team decides to see just what she is up to. Throughout the hour, Parker sets her sights on a factory owner who employs children of undocumented immigrants, and the team has to scramble to make sure that Parker is working the con without her own feelings distracting her.

The episode is more high-concept than most Leverage: Redemption episodes, making the con actually look like a film noir while Parker’s interactions with the team resemble the usual episode format. It makes for an interesting way for the audience to view the episode, but it does mean there are points where Parker’s con actually bleeds into her real life as well, since Parker is, by her own ission, not good at lying when playing a long con.

What Happens In The Leverage: Redemption Season 3 Finale Ending

Parker Seemingly Goes Off The Rails

The final episode of Leverage: Redemption season 3 sees the team becoming increasingly worried about whether Parker can handle the con. Sophie (Gina Bellman) and Eliot (Christian Kane), especially, instruct her to end the con immediately when she is determined to get every last cent the man has in his s to make sure he cannot take advantage of any more kids in his line of work. Though she tells them she will, Parker actually makes a drastic decision when she goes to see Ramirez (Ricardo S. Chavira).

She tasers him, ties him up, and puts him in one of the bins used to dump meat into the grinder at his processing plant. Parker talks to him as she turns the grinder on, about not having the same kind of feelings as other people, trying to figure out who she is, and more. Eliot interrupts as she wheels Ramirez closer to the grinder and reminds her that he understands her feelings, and whether she kills Ramirez or walks away, he will her. He won’t even tell anyone, not even Hardison (Aldis Hodge), about what she is doing.

While this is a touching moment between Eliot and Parker, it all plays right into Parker’s plan, since the mark believes she is willing to murder him, and he escapes. He uses the fake ID card, port, and birth certificate she planted in his office to escape to Colombia, where she finds him and reveals that the identity he is using is wanted by the authorities. Now, he will have to live on the run, just like the undocumented parents of the kids he took advantage of.

Following the successful completion of her con, Parker returns to the team, satisfied with a job well done, and ready to discuss why she is the way she is with Hardison. She took his decision to take a six-month sabbatical very seriously, and she spent the last six months studying both crime and philosophy to address why Leverage International works for them. To her surprise, Hardison has not put the same kind of thought into this project, but the episode ends with it clear that they are both still on board.

Would Parker Have Really Killed Her Mark?

Parker Wanted To Terrify Him

Parker’s plan is never to actually kill Ramirez. She might hate the man, and she might often embrace her violent tendencies, but as she points out at the top of the episode, she has spent the last few years in therapy. Parker has come a lot farther than others give her credit for. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t embrace her dark side in order to threaten him.

Eliot and Parker have a kinship that the rest of the group does not have.

When Parker repeatedly pushes Ramirez toward the meat grinder while giving him her speech, that part of the episode remains in black and white, and with Parker still using the voice and mannerisms she has been using for the con itself. The con all occurs in black and white while Parker’s real life occurs in color.

When Eliot stops Parker and reminds her that he knows how much she wants to do the right thing like other people do, that occurs in color. His speech is real. Eliot and Parker have a kinship that the rest of the group does not have. They are both willing to kill if they feel the need to, but that does not mean Parker plans on killing Ramirez. The con, however, relies on Ramirez believing she will kill him, and Eliot showing up only adds to the man’s fear.

How Parker Pulls Off Her Double Con

Parker Proves Herself A True Mastermind

As Sophie points out, Parker is pulling elements from two different classic cons (The Lost Heir and El Dorado). One requires a mark to believe that a long-lost relative or descendant is about to get a big inheritance. The other relies on making the mark believe there is a large payout that has never been found. While Sophie understands the mechanics of combining the cons, she also points out that she believes Parker is running a con on the team as well, and she is not entirely wrong.

The reason Parker is able to pull the con off and fool her team into thinking she is unhinged enough to go too far with it is because of how well she knows them all. She initially asks Breanna (Aleyse Shannon) for help with the side job, getting her to bug Ramirez’s office and hack into his computer, but she leaves everyone largely in the dark until their parts of the con come up.

She anticipates Sophie “checking her work” and leaves nothing more than brochures, glasses, and a headband as prep and a disguise for her. She anticipates Eliot following Harry (Noah Wyle) to keep him out of trouble and trusts him to take on any physical aspects of the job. She even plans on “killing” Harry to have more leverage on the mark and for Eliot to track her down. Parker plants the very identification information the mark uses to run. She stays multiple steps ahead of the mark and her entire team, even if it doesn’t seem like that at first. Parker proves that she is every inch a mastermind, just as she was trained to be in the original series.

Why Sophie Does Not Trust Parker In The Episode

Sophie Still Sees Parker Like A Daughter Figure

In the original series, Sophie is the one who actually invests the most time in training Parker to be more than a thief. Nate (Timothy Hutton) might have been the original mastermind of the team, but it is Sophie who teaches Sophie to better manage her emotions, how to grift, and how to read people. Sophie takes Parker under her wing and takes care of her the way a mother would a daughter. That’s evident when Astrid (Alexandra Park) is jealous of Parker’s relationship with her stepmother in Leverage: Redemption.

It’s because of that relationship, and Sophie knowing Parker’s difficult history with cases involving children, that she does not trust Parker to be impartial on the con. The very first time they ever worked a job involving kids, Parker stabbed an arms dealer with a fork, jumped out a window, and tried to rescue a group of Serbian orphans by herself, leading to the team to have to blow up a building to help cover their escape with a busload of children. Sophie still sees Parker as that traumatized woman.

The events described take place in the original Leverage episode “The Stork Job.”

The Real Meaning Of Leverage: Redemption Season 3’s Finale

The Finale Is One Of Growth

The theme of Leverage: Redemption has been the growth and change of the characters. While much of that has been on Harry’s desire to be a better person in the first two seasons, or on Sophie’s new love interest in Jack in Leverage: Redemption season 3 and attempt to be vulnerable with a new romance and with Astrid, season three is really more of an examination of Parker. In this episode in particular, Parker is intrigued by the idea of someone being forced into changing for the better.

Parker was never forced to change, but decided to try to do good as part of the team because she loved learning new things alongside the original Leverage team. The changes come to her gradually in the original series, and Parker has rolled with those changes ever since.

Leverage: Redemption’s season 3 finale provides an exploration of just what those changes really mean for Parker.

Leverage: Redemption’s season 3 finale provides an exploration of just what those changes really mean for Parker. She is still allowed to be dark when needed, but she is better in touch with her own emotions, she is sure of herself, and she is the epitome of the growth that the Leverage organization encourages among its .

How The Leverage: Redemption Season 3 Finale Sets Up Season 4

Leverage: Redemption Season 3 Does Not Leave Many Loose Ends

Leverage: Redemption season 3 has an unusual season finale for the series. There is not a big villain the audience has already seen for the team to take on again. There is not a tease for a new big bad for them to go up against next season. The episode is essentially a standalone, apart from a few personal teases for the team.

Parker and Hardison, for example, are clearly on board to continue their work with Leverage International. That means that Aldis Hodge will continue to appear in whatever capacity he can, though that might only be in one or two episodes in Leverage: Redemption season 4. There is no continued talk of Breanna and her examination of different college campuses, but that does not mean that it will not resurface in the new season either.

Most intriguing might be Sophie and Harry’s relationship. While Sophie is starting to move on with her romantic life after the loss of Nate three years earlier, Harry is trying to move on from his ex-wife as well. They are also both rebuilding relationships with family. Harry asks if Sophie would be willing to meet his mother so that he can introduce her to his best friend, since he cannot tell her about the work they do. It’s the one thread that is really left dangling for the audience. Thus, the Leverage: Redemption season 3 finale proves that the series will continue its theme of growth and redemption for its characters in season 4.

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