So does Eliot's ponytail match Buffy's ponytail of righteousness?

Have to share - Kane and Devlin both just tweeted that while everyone else went down in the ratings because of the Olympics, Leverage went UP 12%.

My gosh, I don't know how to deal with liking a show that goes UP in the ratings.

I know, right?

Seriously. It's weird not to be constantly worried about cancellation.

I get the same disconnect watching Glee. But then I remind myself of how glad I was that Lost was so popular right off the bat, and how that turned out.

Re-watching the finale now. Damn - still getting worked up by the stuff I already know is going to come out OK.

And still love the ending something wicked. Oh my.

I am glad the ratings are good. My priorities match. My Tivo right now is literally seven different Olympic recordings and Leverage. It`s the only one of my regular shows that took precedence over the Olympics.
 
I don`t think I can do the stick because it`s so fine and straight. And I`m crap at braiding. I never mastered French braiding on myself.
 
I think CK must just have a ton of hair, like me. But with his curly, there`s just all this volume there...hmm...you know how we get writers and actors in here sometimes? I will be mortified if we ever get Leverage folks. Yeah. The Hair.

Okay, back to substantive analysis. Morgana, I agree that the drawn guns were overkill, but I liked the way the visual echoed and contrasted with the S1 final shot with them walking away from each other on axis. That was on equal footing, but expecting to be (mostly, other than "find me") done with each other. This, they were a unit, but losing themselves in a different way by losing Nate, by accepting his sacrifice. I liked that the viewpoint drawing away from Nate, alone, was like our team`s viewpoint.
 
Nate`s sacrifice was such a great juxtaposition, doing the good thing, acknowledging himself, even identifying himself as a bad guy. Life ain`t black and white, is it, Nate?
 
At what point do you think Nate decided what he was going to do? I think his fatalism gave him the freedom to do some of what he needed to do, including what Sophie was naturally upset by. And yet, they really were caught. All their skills weren`t going to let them wiggle out this time. They had to let Nate go. And he knew it.

Scrambled eggs and toaster pancakes:
 
Parker! Agree that she is scarier than Eliot because of his moral code. He enjoys his violence, but there is structure to it. Parker is amoral in her expression of it. I love her so much, partly because I don`t understand this in her. I don`t know where she`ll go, what she`ll do, but I know she`ll be utterly Parker in it.
 
It`s why the false psychic tearing her up was so brutal. He was ripping at her closely guarded identity, the bit of her she keeps from everyone that lets her be so self-possessed.
 
That`s what I love about this show. Her character is so fully realized. And it`s not an archetype. I can`t think of any Parker analogues in popular media. She just is who she is, and it`s so fresh and new to me.
 
I want the Hardison hookup partly because that`s how I came to like her, because Hardison does, and he`s my avatar here. I like how he sees past her awkwardness and respects her competence. With him, she need never hold back. But show`s gotta show me something! Next season better move this along.
 
I am willing to accept Nate and Sopie as our resolving sexual tension for this arc, but I need me some Hardison/Parker and soon.