Leverage/WMG

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Sophie stole the Holy Grail.

It's the cup we see her dusting off in her storage compartment of stolen goods in "The First David Job".

  • Actually, according to Word of God, that's actually the Judas Chalice in her storage compartment.

Sophie is Lisa del Giocondo.

Since she has the Holy Grail, there's no reason why she couldn't be that old; and she looks vaguely like the Mona Lisa. Clearly, she is the subject of that painting. She is interested in Renaissance art because she grew up with it. This is how she could be sure that nobody's ever stolen both Davids before.

  • Perhaps she is a descendant of Lisa del Giocondo. Her entire family has been art thieves for generations, which would also explain her interest in art and knowledge of the Davids' history.

Sophie and Jane are the same person.

Jane was an identity Sophie was using during a particularly long con.

Whoever Sophie is, that's not her real name.

She practically says as much:

"Start telling the truth all day, stop being Sophie Devereaux."

  • "The Two Live Crew Job" answers this one. Confirmed, unsurprisingly.

There can be a WMG that's not about Sophie.

Like how Nate is secretly a time lord or a doll.

  • Whoa, now you're getting out there!
  • Don't be ridiculous. Parker is clearly the Time Lord. Think about it, it perfectly explains her ability to disappear and reappear wherever she wants- TARDIS!
    • Jossed, she was looking for a time machine in "The Radio Job"

The experimental treatment for Nate's son was fake.

The company offering it was running a scam in which insurance companies were pressured into paying for phony "experimental" treatments. None of them work, but they're considered such long shots anyway that no-one gets suspicious. Nate's insurance company made the right decision in turning him down.

Eventually, Nate will be asked to get revenge on the company for the fake treatment that let someone's child die, and he'll find out everything.

The gang is using Yahoo!'s game site for mind control.

There is a Flash game called "Leverage: The Con Game" on Yahoo!s game page (and possibly elsewhere). It is a match-three with bonus power-ups (you choose which one) and no timer, and it appears to be almost impossible to lose. Clearly, there are subliminal messages in this game which the gang will use on unsuspecting corporate Flash-gaming slackers later on.

Sophie's real name is Alice... and she's the Alice of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass

Her time in other worlds could explain why she's now living in modern time. She can't admit who she is without being considered insane, so she created new identities. She turned to grifting and cons to support herself.

    • Nah, it's Parker - all the headbands? She's even freaking Alice White!

Leverage and Hustle take place in the same world

Starke said Nate's crew was the nastiest this side of the Atlantic. Who has that title on the other side?

  • Great crossover potential.
  • Richard Chamberlain has now appeared on both shows. WMG away!

Parker is a lesbian

The only time she's comfortable acting is when she's pretending to make out with Alex. Obviously, she has a lot of practice acting straight.

She seemed WAY too interested in Nate's ex-wife. In the Juror job, the other juror she was most interested in was another woman.

When she's in trouble, the one she usually calls for help is Sophie.

In the Hunter episode, there's a scene where Hunter tells Parker that if you punch out the camera man, she'll kiss you. Parker immediately looks at the cameraman, like she's considering it.

In the fashion episode, Eliot says that Tara is hot, and Parker agrees before quickly covering.

In "The Maltese Falcon Job," when Tara drops her towel to distract a bellboy, she ogles Tara as much as Eliot does.

  • Since she has a neglected background in the orphanage, has No Social Skills and suffers from Asperger's Syndrome, it wouldn't be surprising if Parker had no concept or understanding of the differences between hetero and homosexuality.
  • Since the Double Blind Job, she has shown definite romantic interest in Hardison . . . or pretzels. She's Parker; maybe she's beyond labels. She could be Bi or insane.


The Leverage team is a Five-Bad Band.

Given that the Leverage team is made up of wanted criminals, they function more as a reforming Five-Bad Band than as a Five-Man Band. Thankfully, the show pits them against non-reforming victims.


Leverage is a prequel to Kaitou Saint Tail.

Think about it. A magician father (Nate knew a lot more about magic than you'd expect), a Classy Cat Burglar mother, and she only steals things that have been stolen before?

Leverage Consulting and Associates is a real company.

Making up an entire 80-year corporate history is absurd overkill, so Hardison just picked a real company and borrowed their details, inserting the protagonists and their office as required. The real LCA is located far enough away that he thinks they'll never find out. Until they become the next target.

One (or more) of the Leverage Consulting and Associates crew is a disavowed member of the Impossible Mission Force.

Most probably Nate, given his overtly compassionate and yet chessmasterly nature. He pulls together another team like the one he lost: "muscle" - Eliot, "faceman" - Sophie, "techie" - Hardison, and "legman" - Parker. Given their prior relationship, then Sophie could also be a disavowed member of either his old team or another team they worked with prior to be disavowed. Nate is angling on getting reavowed.

Parker is the daughter from Con Air

If you don't remember the movie, Nicholas Cage's character gives a white stuffed bunny to his blond daughter. The first time his daughter saw her father out of jail, he was covered in blood. Obviously, this greatly affected her psyche.

Eliot is a reformed Lindsey McDonald.

He survives his gunshot wounds, retains his utter badassery, goes on to become a renowned hitman/bruiser in the intervening years, before finally hooking up with Nate. It would certainly explain his resistance to injury and his incredible skill.

  • Eliot does have an evil hand... He uses it to hit people, just like the other one.

Parker is a kleptomaniac.

When Parker said she was a kleptomaniac, it was just supposed to part of her rehab patient cover. But she keeps stealing things even though she has plenty of money. She even compulsively steals a gun from an armed man for no reason, which is incredibly dangerous. So she has Nate's definition of an addiction - a compulsive behavior that negatively affects her life.

  • ...Is this supposed to be a WMG? It just seems like it was stated outright on pretty much the whole first season, at least.

Elliot is a deep cover agent of some kind.

Seriously. He's introduced as a "retrieval specialist" and is grouped in the same mold as criminals like Hardison and Parker, but everything about his background speaks government spook. Liberating Croatia?

Of course, since it's brought up at least Once an Episode, it's not good deep cover. Maybe shallow cover.

  • Alternately, Eliot quit the spy business and became a "hitter" because he was bored of the complicated stuff and just wanted to punch people.
  • "The Beantown Bailout Job" all but confirms that Eliot was involved in the "hinky stuff" the U.S. government was doing in Pakistan, so he's definitely done work for the government and could still be doing it on the side.

One of the team is going to jail.

And I'm betting it's Eliot. The title of 301 is apparently a "huge spoiler," which means the location or item to be stolen would reveal tons about the season finale. And there's a promised Kane fight at the very beginning of the season 3 premiere. And Nate is completely losing his shit. The end of season 2 is going to be disastrous and Eliot is going to do some time. Until, of course, he's busted out of prison.

    • Busted. It's Nate that's going to jail.

Sophie's real name is Carmen Sandiego.

She's got the look (long, dark hair), keen fashion sense, and penchant for stealing rare items. And traveling freakin' everywhere.

  • If that is the case, then.... there she is! She's right there! that's where she is! It wasnt THAT difficult to find her, now was it?

Team Leverage is a Solar Perfect Circle.

  • Eliot is a Dawn Caste specializing in Martial Arts.
  • Sophie is a Zenith Caste with high Performance.
  • Hardison is a Twilight Caste with high Investigation and possibly using Sorcery through his computers somehow.
  • Parker is, obviously, a Night Caste.
  • Nate is an Eclipse Caste using tons of 1E Sidereal Dodge and Awareness charms. Or, since nobody else besides Ian, Sterling and Maggie ever seems to recognize him including the FBI, is just an undercover Sidereal himself - fitting with the chessmastery. (In which case he's probably Chosen of the Maiden of Secrets.)

Not sure why they all seem to have the Night Caste anima power, but that's hardly the most notable obstacle here.

Sterling is God. Or Jesus. Or a god.

  • Sterling. Never. Loses. 'Nuff said. Of course, the fact that "Sterling never loses" is Word of God straight from John Rogers, what does that make Rogers if Sterling is a god?

Sterling and Nate DID used to be friends. Something happened which Nate doesn't remember but Sterling does, which is why both Sterling and Nate have above-human levels at predicting and manipulating 'normal' people.

    • Sterling and Nate are canonically friends. They both remember it perfectly well, they reference their past together all the time when they're in the same room. (Nate probably feels that Sterling betrayed him (by not taking his side, and continuing to work for IYS), and Sterling's actions towards Nate are clearly those of someone trying to save an out-of-control friend from himself.)
      • The First David Job had the following bit of dialogue:

Sterling: Do you remember when we were friends? After work we used to come up here, have a drink, watch the sunset?
Nate: We were never friends, Sterling!
Sterling: So the answer to my question would be "no", then.

        • I think what Nate actually meant was along the lines of "We used to hang out together, but you were always a weasel."

"Parker" is an alias.

Whatever her real name is, she's a big Richard Stark fan.

  • Word of God has already confirmed this. The alias, that is.

Elliot, Hardison and Parker are mutants.

It is so obvious. Elliot has super strength, speed and resistance to injury. Able to take bone crushing blows and keep hitting. Parker can teleport short distances once a day and Hardison is able to manipulate images on computers with his mind.

Nate is going to retire at the end of season 3.

In the season premiere, he says he's been an honest drunk and a sober thief, and now he's going to try being a drunk thief. Once he's done with that, there's only one corner of the square left to explore...

    • Jossed, we're headed into season FIVE! Woohoo.

Sophie was formerly an assassin or spy.

Think about it. She's delivered a brutal headbutt when she was protecting Nate and taken on an armed hitperson using a fire extinguisher. These two alone could be things she learned from Elliot, but, she was able to up a rifle with alarming quickness. Elliot has remarked on his own dislike of firearms, meaning this would have to be something she learned on her own. It would also explain why she's so skilled at making up a cover: it used to be her legitimate job.

  • In "The San Lorenzo Job," Sophie shoots a government Mook with a bottle of champagne.

The Italian is a Catholic Church Militant, a roving Agent for Good authorized by the Pope.

What do we know about the Italian?

  • She threatens Nate with imprisonment in Rome.
  • She speaks with a thick Italian accent.
  • She has enough pull to command a millionaire businessman with state contracts and to keep the cops off of Nate even though he's still in Boston.
  • She works outside, above, and beyond police and government ("Damien Moreau buys police. He buys governments"), but has access to FBI, CIA, Interpol, and Japanese Security files, among others.
  • She does what she has to do for the greater good.
  • She knows what Nate and his team are capable of.

Nate was a seminary student; he helped out his friend the priest by faking a miracle (to the point that Vatican officials got involved); the Church operates with a certain amount of freedom and Diplomatic Impunity in many countries; and at least in theory, they believe in defending the innocent and righteous and in stopping evil. In the past, regrettably, that was the Inquisition. Now, perhaps, it's a bit of To Catch a Thief?

Moreau is related to Kate Moreau, Neal's girlfriend on White Collar.

  • Criminal genius runs in the family!

"Archie Leech" is really John Robie from To Catch a Thief

  • His pseudonym is a play on the guy who played him in the movie they made based on the book about his little excursion in the French Riviera.

The Leverage Team is a modern day group of Adventurers .

Basically they travel the land on a Quest to right wrongs and bring down the all powerful evil Lords = CEOs.

  • Nate is the Paladin. Driven and unforgiving, almost bloodthirsty in his drive to punish those who are evil no matter the cost. While a good man, he will let nothing stand in his way in his holy mission.
  • Sophie is the Bard. With the gift of persuasion, able to charm and win over with a song or dance. And Nate's only voice of restraint, as seen in season two when she left.
  • Elliot is a Dwarf. Gruff, Earthy and Direct. A good drink and a good fight, great strength and high constitution. Behind his gruff lies a deep and intelligent being.
    • Would his character class be Monk, then?
  • Hardison is a Wizard. Able to rewrite reality with a motion of fingers. Changing backgrounds, images and conception with a coded word and a smile.
  • Parker is the Thief. Flighty, unchained and unrestrained. Deft of finger, short of sanity. And able to rob you blind before you even open your eyes.
  • Partially Confirmed and Partially Jossed in the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Strategy Guide: (John Rogers) created the show Leverage, the story of a party of 10th-level rogues who take on corporate bad guys.
    • What does that make Sterling, Tara, and the other recurring characters then? Chaos is of course a rival Wizard with a Chaotic Evil alignment.

Tara Cole is named after Tara King of The Avengers.

Yes, the similar names may be a coincidence, but consider: both Taras are replacements for a departed main character in their respective series. Also, Leverage has done at least one Shout-Out to The Avengers (see the main page for details).

Eliot used to be black ops.

He used to work for the government, and it's implied that he used to be an assassin. He's wanted in several countries, and has made vague references to having done some very, very bad things.

  • He 'liberated Croatia'. He spent six months in Pakistan at the same time the White House email hack revealed that the US was up to 'hinky stuff' in Pakistan. The show's hinted pretty blatantly that Eliot got his initial start in US military special operations, before he lost his way somewhere and ended up being a merc for guys like Damien Moreau. Heck, what with 'Pakistan' apparently he still did contract work for a government spook job during the Leverage crew's downtime.
  • And the promo for "The Queen's Gambit Job" reveals that according to Eliot's file, he once 'crawled three miles through a sewer to kill the head of Al-Qaeda in Yemen'. I think we can call this one confirmed.

Sterling is Crowley from Supernatural.

Sterling was possessed sometime after Nate lost his son and pretends to be Sterling to screw with Nate because it's fun.

Sophie really is the 18th Duchess of Hanover. And was married.

At first I just assumed the Countess was another con artist, but that would require a pretty staggering coincidence. Even with that, though, faking a Duchy? I'm pretty certain that is, to all intents and purposes, impossible. The College of Heralds puts not their trust in computers -- you'd need to be a master forger with full access to their archives if you want your story to hold up for more than half an hour, much less seven years. More than that, though, you'd need to fool multiple official publications, including Burke's Peerage, which employ people to check these things. And most importantly -- 18th Duchess. For that to hold up, there would have to be an extant or recently extinct Duchy of Hanover (which, in the real world, there isn't) -- otherwise you'd be spotted in ten seconds. The solution to all this: Sophie was, at some point, married to the 18th Duke of Hanover. Not least because you don't get to be a duchess without marrying a duke (peerages are sexist like that). Presumably 'William' was the Duke of Hanover, to whom Sophie was married for seven years. Whether she married him under her real name, on the other hand...

  • But this would certainly explain how she knows the intricacies of nobility and has been able to masquerade as royalty rather successfully. It's nothing you just do as you need time to learn from models. I was thinking more on the lines that this family are nobility AND also happen to be a family of con artists. If your family's been at it for generations, Sophie is just carrying on the "family" business so to speak. I thought of the Countess more to have been a family member and that "William" was her husband the Count. They might have raised her, Sophie dutifully married the Duke of Hanover, and then she went on with her con business...breaking William's heart.

Alternately...

Sophie really is the 18th Duchess of Hanover, and the "William" mentioned by the Countess was her father.

The Countess never indicates what her relationship to William was, except that he was clearly someone close to both Sophie and the Countess. Also, the story about the prize petunias sounds an awful lot like the Countess knew Sophie as a child. A possibility not mentioned above is that William was Sophie's father and the Countess' brother.

Eliot doesn't use Guns because it makes things too easy.

Just look at how he demolishes an entire team of trained assassins while barely breaking a sweat. Clearly having a gun put Eliot into God Mode and he doesn't like guns because he likes a fair fight.

  • Hinted at in the fourth season's finale: "You know I have a gun." - "I know. That's what makes it fair."

Sophie's real name is....

  • ....actually Sophie Deveraux. (Because someone had to posit the possibility.)
    • Jossed As of The Inside Job we know it is a six letter name that ends in "a"
      • Sophia.
        • Un-Jossed. Word of God says that Sophie didn't actually enter her name into the keypad on Rogers' say so. He didn't want to give any actual clues to Sophie's real name.
  • ....something we're never actually going to learn.

Beck fom The Rundown is Elliot

Both are extremely good fighters, both prefer to not use guns because they do too much damage with them, but if they think the cause is worthy they are able to shoot down 50 people in under a minute. Beck collects recipies and wants to open a retaurant, Elliot is able to cook for a wedding party. Both are introduced per subtitles to the viewer as "retrieval expert".

    • Alternately they know one another and have worked together in the past.

The final episode of Leverage will be a casino heist.

It would be a great way to end the show with a big finish. If they do one at all, they will save it for the series finale. Or they'll just decide that casino heists are unoriginal.

Parker's real parents are Haley and Elan from Order of the Stick

She got her mother's incredible thief skills, and her father's personality. She doesn't understand how 'normal' people are supposed to act because on some instinctive level she knows she should be in a fantasy world rather than the one she somehow ended up in.

Sterling has a crush on Maggie

Who is the one that contacts Nate when Maggie's in trouble? Sterling is. And he's brought up "Maggie's continuing poor choice in men". Jealous much?

  • I agree. And in the first season, he kept trying to stop her from getting involved with Nate.
  • As of The Last Dam Job, it seems to be mutual.

In the Leverage-verse, the Star Trek franchise ended after The Undiscovered Country.

Hardison's Trek references have all been from TOS and its associated movies. This explains why he has failed to notice that his Arch Nemesis is Wesley Crusher, or that Sophie's temporary replacement was Seven of Nine.

Leverage is eventually going to jump the shark, get very weird and do an episode based on The Prisoner

Eliot as Number Six (much like Patrick McGoohan he's good at punching and raising one eyebrow), Sophie as Number Two until halfway through the episode, when Nate takes over as the new Number Two. Parker and Hardison are Villagers who Eliot may or may not be able to trust and who may or may not be working for Number Two. In the end it'll just turn out to be a dream Eliot had while suffering from a concussion. But then the door to Leverage HQ opens by itself! *dramatic sting*

Parker and Elliot are Wedy and Aiber, respectively.

Wedy is a master thief who can sneak past any security system. "Parker" is already confirmed by Word of God to be an alias, so Wedy is probably an alias as well (especially since Kira can kill using just a name and a face). Aiber Does Not Like Guns, and is a con man, and "Aiber" is probably an alias as well. As for how they know L (and what they're doing in Japan), L probably got involved with one of the Leverage team's cons, and saw right through it. Rather than turning them in, he kept in contact with them so he could call on them should he ever need their assistance. As for why it's just Parker and Elliot, he may have just called on the two of them instead of the whole team.

Leverage and Criminal Minds take place in the same universe

Gideon and Nate are BFFs. Garcia and Hardison are online friends who don't know that they're on opposite sides of the law (both of them even say similar lines about how they don't control the internet). Someday the two teams are going to have to work together to catch a serial killer who the law can't bring down.

Leverage is some sort of Limbo for Supernatural characters

People who died in the Supernatural-verse get a second chance to live "normal" lives after death before getting to go to Heaven/Hell. Jake gets to be rich and (mostly) safe from harm, Jo gets to have a non-Hunting career, and Sterling/Crowley has the ability to travel to Limbo to relax every once in a while by messing with a new set of morons.

  • Then it's also a Limbo for Star Trek characters, which is why Seven of Nine and Data get to be fully human and "normal". Even Wesley Crusher is now a hacker instead of a child prodigy/chosen one.

The FBI is on to the Leverage crew

They keep them around because they know they can take down criminals the FBI could never get at. Someone at the top is fully aware of "Special Agent Hegen"'s true identity, and is intentionally spreading the deep cover agent story to explain her long absences to the rest of the bureau.

    • With the help of Lt. Bonanno.

Out of all the marks, Larry Duberman will be the one that comes back for revenge

  • "Doucherman" in addition to having his company ruined and being hauled off to federal prison, the man stuck in high school had his night of rubbing his success in the faces of his school peers ruined by the team. He's also the one that tipped off Jack Hurley to what the team does.
    • Right theory, wrong mark. Dubenich is the one who came back. Of course, it's always possible that Duberman could also come back. We shall see.

Roper will be hired as the muscle by whoever puts together a Leverage Revenge Squad

  • When Eliot fought Quinn in 'The First David Job', there was no personal recognition between the two and Quinn didn't hesitate to just keep attacking Eliot while he was down. Quinn was clearly just there to be paid for taking out his target (and because he liked hurting people, any people). But Eliot recognizes Roper (played by Urijah Faber) and calls him by name in 'The Carnival Job', and Roper likewise mocks his opponent as if its It's Personal ("The great Eliot Spencer, heh"), and keeps letting Eliot get back up after he's knocked him down instead of just finishing Eliot off when he has the chance. It wasn't just enough for Roper to beat Eliot, he had to defeat him. So I'm definitely calling old martial arts rival here, and why build that kind of thing up onscreen if you're never going to use the guy again? And since Roper is clearly not the brains of any operation, if he shows up later it'll be as part of some other team that somebody is putting together to go after Leverage. And he'll be glad to take the job cheap because it'll give him another shot at Eliot.
    • The problem with that theory is that when Eliot fought Roper he had just gotten hit in the head by a carnival ride and was still able to take him down. His fight with Quinn was on much more level ground, so in theory so long as Quinn has been making sure to do plenty more training since season one he'd have a much better chance against Eliot in a rematch than Roper would have.
      • Level ground? Quinn? Quinn started that fight by sucker-punching Elliott and then kicking in his ribs while he was down. Basically, the man supplied his own carnival ride.
    • Hmmm...tough choice. Quinn's the better fighter but is Only in It For the Money. Roper's obviously got some sort of personal stake in beating Eliot and would thus make a better bad guy from an emotional angle. Is it too much to ask that we see them both again? Maybe there could be some sort of "Eliot Spencer Revenge Squad." They could both be in it, along with The Butcher of Kiev. As for Roper or Quinn needing to put up a better fight in the future they could always bring a weapon next time. Also, just because somebody beat you once under one set of circumstances, doesn't make beating you again under a different set of circumstances any easier.

Things are going to get really bad, really soon.

The team already turned down an offered alliance with a very powerful businessman, and they recently attracted the attention of the CIA. These two factors will come together against our plucky heroes, and the results will not be pretty.

    • Confirmed, Nate's dad dies, although the team gets out of with their location burned, but otherwise unscathed.
  • Unless Sterling comes to their aid, because Sterling. Always. Wins.

Hardison's Nana will appear on the show.

We've met Nate's ex-wife, Parker's adoptive father, Elliott's former fiance, and Sophie's (possible) aunt. It's Hardison's turn to have a family member show up, and his foster mother/"Nana" seems to be the only candidate. Plus, a little old lady getting robbed of her life savings is a perfect setup for an episode of this show.

  • Or one of his foster siblings, for that matter. Unless Hardison uses the Royal We, his Nana took care of more than one kid. Then take the Sibling Trope of your choice and go with it. (And god forbid that siblings turns out to be a white woman he happens to meet in secret. This would be so clichéd and yet so fitting.)

The Italian will eventually return as a season's Big Bad

Because let's face it, there's no way that she wanted them to take down Damian Moreau for altruistic reasons. She's probably hoping to pick up where he left off. And when she does, she'll quickly realise that the Leverage crew are the first people she needs to get rid of. Connecting to an above guess, she'll also be the one to put together the Leverage Revenge Squad, hiring Chaos to oppose Hardison, Roper or Mr. Quinn to take down Eliot, and positioning herself as the evil Nate.


Leverage takes place in the same universe as Percy Jackson

Eliot is a son of Ares, Sophie is a daughter of Aphrodite, Nate is a son of Athena, and Parker is a daughter of Hermes (self-explanatory, really). Hardison's the only full mortal, since magic and technology don't work well together.

    • Hardison could be a son of Hephaestus.

Nate's dad will be the companion for Doctor Who's 2012 series

There really was a time machine in the patent office. He went back in time, had a few months' wacky adventures with Eleven and then returned, knowing what would happen, as his death was a fixed point in time. For bonus points: It was the Teselecta which got killed. Again. Also, Hardison's bowtie was left for him by Eleven recognizing someone who agrees that they are cool.

In the end Nate never intended to shoot Latimer or Dubenich

Once Nate had them both at the dam, he wasn't suffering some sort of internal struggle on if he would break a major moral boundary instead he was just being the biggest bastard he could be. He needed to plant the idea in both men's minds that if only one of them was left alive then the other would be able to go free for certain. One the idea was planted in their heads properly... well, surprise surprise! Two greedy men and one precariously-placed gun equals the end of two problems for Nathan Ford.

Parker is a grown-up Brittany from Glee.

They're both beautiful, athletic, flexible blondes, they're both batshit insane, and they both have a habit of hanging around bitchy/bad/morally grey people.

Eliot doesn't mind getting beaten up because he thinks he deserves it.

On some level, he feels that getting beaten up is karma for every time he beat up someone else. Hell, maybe he wants to lose fights for this reason.

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