In Review: Leverage: Redemption (S2 – EP8) The Turkish Prisoner Job

Synopsis: In The Turkish Prisoner Job. The team uses the true story of a World War I P.O.W. escape to free an innocent man framed by a pair of dirty cops.

The Story

When Line Cook Romero Delgado gets arrested and framed for a crime he did not commit. A friend of Harry’s reached out asking for his help on the case as the two dirty cops that did the arrest have planted some pretty compelling evidence.  In order to help Delgado. Harry looks to take the lead on the con to get Delgado released, but when his first two ideas fail spectacularly. Sophie lends Harry a hand by providing him with a treasure trove of famous con jobs that he can look at for inspiration. Having stayed up all night reading famous con jobs. Harry chooses to use The Turkish Prisoner Job, which was formulated by two British Army officers during the first world war. The con involves convincing the authorities, in this case, the two dirty cops that Delgado holds the key to where there is some buried loot. That way it means that they do not have to break Delgado out of prison as the two Detectives will do that for them on the proviso that they can have a cut of the loot. 

The Acting

Noah Wyle puts in a solid performance this week as we see Harry run his first con and initially fail miserably. Wyle does a great job of showing us how deflated harry becomes when his first two plans fail. But he also does a great job of portraying that surge of energy that you get when you become inspired. Gina Bellman also does a great job with Sophie who has kind of become a mentor figure to Harry when it comes to running confidence scams. The scene where she shows him Victor Lustig’s treasure chest, which contains information about all the greatest cons ever ran was nicely done and fits in really well with the mythology of this series.

As with last week. We also get a great performance from Christian Kane as Elliot had to stay close to Delgado to protect him from other prisoners. But he is also a key part in helping sell Harry’s variation on The Turkish Prisoner Job, which for the first time ever involves Alligators. Kane also gets a brilliant fight scene to further underline Elliot’s role as The Hitter.

In terms of guest performers. Xingu Del Rosario puts in a likable performance as the wrongly convicted Romero Delgado. While Alanna Masterson gives us a convincing performance as the ambitious, but crooked Detective who convinces her partner to help her bust Delgado because of his family connection to a gang banger. 

Overall

A terrific episode, which makes clever use of a couple of real-life con jobs in order to concoct a fairly compelling tale that made use of every team member. I really enjoyed the reference to Count Victor Lustig who rather famously sold The Eifel Tower.