In the Leverage: Redemption season 3 finale, Parker (Beth Riesgraf) takes on a side job conning a man who uses child labor in his meat processing plants, and a reference is made to a past job through “that time on the mountain.” The complicated con in the season finale involves her combining two classic styles of cons into her own new one, but the angrier she gets with her mark, the more it seems like she is losing her cool. Eliot (Christian Kane) seemingly talks Parker out of simply killing the mark at one point, and it is Eliot who makes the reference to their past job.

Leverage: Redemption employs a lot of references to the original series for long-time fans. Since the original show aired on TNT beginning in 2008, it’s possible that the revival series has audience who are unfamiliar with the original show. Because of that, many of the show’s references are often nods that do not necessarily need context. With Eliot’s speech about Parker and Eliot’s time on a mountain at the end of Leverage: Redemption season 3, however, fans get to see the kind of bond the two share and just how much they understand one another.

The Time On The Mountain References “The Long Way Down Job”

“The Long Way Down Job” Is Leverage Season 4, Episode 1

“The Long Way Down Job” is a job the team takes on in season 4 of the original Leverage series. By this point, the team has gelled nicely, and their personal relationships have progressed from reluctant teammates to found family. Nate (Timothy Hutton) meets with a widow (Haley Talbot) whose husband died, supposedly in an accident, on a mountain climb in Alaska, and the widow requests that Nate and his team locate her husband’s journal on the site of his death.

She believes the journal contains information about a scheme to foreclose on houses for families who cannot afford to fight the foreclosure - whether it is legal or not. While Sophie (Gina Bellman) spends time conning the wealthy climbers being kept at base camp because of a blizzard, Hardison (Aldis Hodge) monitors communications and researches in the mountain’s version of an internet café, and Parker and Eliot make the climb in the blizzard to locate the man’s body and his journal.

When Parker and Eliot locate the man’s body, it is because they fall through a hollow area of ice and snow. They find the journal and his cell phone on him, and argue about whether or not to bring the man’s body back to his wife. Parker tells Eliot she wants to be good “like them,” referencing Nate, Hardison, and Sophie. Eliot understands her desire to do the good thing, but they do not have enough rope to carry the weight of all three of them when they try to climb out of the cavern they have fallen into.

While the actual con involving the financial business being bought out goes on without them, Eliot is referencing the experiences Eliot and Parker have when they find the man’s body. Eliot and Parker have to make the decision to save themselves and leave the man’s body behind. In doing so, they are able to take the journal and get the man’s phone back to an area that has cell service, allowing the last recording on his phone, revealing he was actually murdered by his business partner, to be seen.

“The Long Way Down Job” Provided An Emotional Breakthrough For Parker

Parker Has Always Had The Most Difficulty With Emotions

Eliot and Hardison become the first people that Parker is willing to be vulnerable with...

“The Long Way Down Job” sees most of the team separate from one another for a good portion of the episode, but it provides a huge emotional breakthrough for Parker. It’s the first time Parker its she wants to do the thing that would make her be seen as the better person. Parker is used to being a criminal out for herself, and while she cares about the team, she does not usually extend that care to strangers.

She cries while explaining her feelings to Eliot:

This is what we’re supposed to do. We’re supposed to get him back to his wife. Nate would do it, Sophie would do it, Hardison would do it. They would do the right thing! I want to do the right thing!

It’s a huge moment for her because even with the team, Parker has to be coaxed to explain any feelings that do not revolve around pulling a heist or setting something on fire. She typically leans into anger and runs away from anything that makes her feel any other emotion.

Eliot, for his part, understands that desire to do the right thing, but he explains that they have to leave the man’s body behind. He gives her a speech of his own, making sure she understands that it is better for them to survive to complete their part of the job than it is for them to die on the mountain as well:

It’s a good thing it was us… because they would have kept trying and they would have froze to death right next to him, especially Hardison. So, it was a good thing it was us. The two of us, we do things they can’t. Won’t.

Parker’s emotional breakthrough does not just end with wanting to do the right thing, though. At this point in the show, she and Hardison have both made it obvious to the rest of the team that they have feelings for one another, but Parker has been reluctant to have any kind of relationship with him. When Hardison tries to hug her before she and Eliot leave on the climb, Parker just keeps walking. It’s only after their experience on the mountain that Parker hugs Hardison and is ready to start a relationship with him.

Eliot and Hardison become the first people that Parker is willing to be vulnerable with, and she continues to share those vulnerabilities with them in the revival series. She has different kinds of bonds with both of them, but they are her strongest in the show.

Both Leverage and Leverage: Redemption are available to stream through Prime Video.

Why Eliot References “The Long Way Down Job” In “The Side Job”

Eliot Understands Parker’s Darker Tendencies

Eliot references their “time on the mountain” in the Leverage: Redemption season 3 finale because he understands both Parker’s vulnerabilities and the times that she has shown her darkness. Every time Parker has made a comment about wanting one of the bad guys dead in the past, Eliot is the one who its that he can make that happen if that is what she really wants.

Eliot has never shied away from the darkness that the others find scary. He might be ashamed of some of the actions he has taken in his own past, but he understands the tendency to solve problems with violence. That is why he is the one who sees that Parker becoming unhinged and wanting to get every last cent of the mark’s money might not be where she is willing to stop.

Parker acting that way is actually part of the con. She needs the mark to believe that she is willing to kill him, and Eliot plays into that because he believes Parker would be willing to kill the mark if pushed too far. It works out in her favor for the con, but it’s also another way for Leverage: Redemption to show that Eliot and Parker have a special bond they do not have with the rest of the team. They are willing to let one another see the bad parts of each other, and they still one another unconditionally.