The Snow Job

Nothing drives a show like this like a set of villains who feast on the most vulnerable. This is about desperate people having to take out mortgages to pay off shoddy contractors. They are unable to meet payments and the contractors take the property for peanuts.

The scam involves the ringleader, the father, and his two sons, one a playboy and the other a very serious businessman (though nasty and corrupt).

Of course, the way in is the dangling of a carrot in front of the weak link, then bringing in the one who controls the pursestrings. Greed speaks the loudest here and the die is cast. While this goes on, there are some personal conflicts.

One of the underappreciated aspects of Leverage was its relevancy to its times. For all of its light-hearted tone and its comedic elements, its plots were often premised on real-life scams and criminal activity. There are few better examples of this than "The Snow Job," which opens with a National Guardsman, Wayne Scott, and his family having their home foreclosed because of their failure to pay their contractor for the shoddy work done to their house - only to have that same contactor, Henry Retzig, then buy the house from the bank. It's a premise that was inspired by the activities of construction companies in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, who used a similar crooked-but-legal approach to defraud their victims of their property.

Sympathizing with the plight of an honest man fighting for his family, Nate takes their case. Targeting Henry's dim-witted son Randy, the team succeeds without too much difficulty in conning the family out of the money owed to the Scotts. When Nate discovers that they aren't the only victims of the Retzigs' operation, however, he decides abruptly to take their entire company instead. The scam is complicated not only by a state police investigation that threatens to ensnare them along with the Retzigs, but Nate's own alcohol-fueled impulsiveness, which prompts the team's concern that he is spiraling out of control - and that he will drag them down as well.

Nate's recklessness injects an extra element of drama to what is overall an entertaining episode. It's also one that benefits from having a trio of marks off of whom to play, with the team working their way from Randy to Henry to Dennis, Henry's other son and the brains behind their operation. The three make for an interesting mix, and the actors involved (two of whom - Sam Anderson and Danny Strong - are familiar to fans of the Buffy/Angel TV series) do a nice job of capturing the family chemistry that is key to the scam's outcome. Though it's not one of the best episodes of the season, "The Snow Job" is a nice, solid episode of a show that by this point had found its stride.

A reservist is activated and goes off to serve his country. In his absence, a contractor who is supposed to fix up his house actually manipulates the situation and ends up taking the family's home! How can this happen? Well, Leverage wonders as well and decides to take the case. But, oddly, this case takes them to in slightly different direction when they learn these jerks have done this before...to about 400 families! It also has a hiccup when Ethan's drinking starts to spiral out of control.

This is a very good episode...and wow, is it fun seeing these greedy jerks get their comeuppance at the end. Well written and dare I say fun.

By the way, Jonathan Frakes (#1 on "Star Trek the Next Generation and director of some of the show's episodes) plays a guy wearing a neck collar sitting in the waiting room. He has no lines and they just slipped him into the episode for this quick cameo.