just rewatched the broken wing job recently and am thinking about how in the grave danger job we see parker admitting she needs hardison, and then in the broken wing job we see her acknowledge (just to herself, but still) that she also needs to be needed. she wants to be integral to the team, wants them to miss her, to not function without her. which is just so real and so emblematic of an assortment of insecurities in parker that i don't think we talk about enough: being left behind, forgotten, not useful or needed, left out of the group (hashtag relatable autism things).
(sidenote- this is the first in a series of season 5 episodes that don't feature the full crew tackling a job, which really shows how far they've come as a team that they can work so effectively in smaller numbers. it also shows their trust in each other to do their own jobs well, and to adapt when needed. i just think it's neat)
this episode is great for a lot of reasons, one of them being that we learn a lot about how parker functions when she needs help from others- that is to say, not well, at least not at first. after a conversation with eliot (and it feels significant that it's eliot, not sophie, that she talks to here when she's freaking out; the trust and intimacy there is palpable), she realizes she has to adapt and change her typical planning process to successfully catch the thieves.
the plot device of having her do a job by herself + needing to team up with amy is so clever because it also serves as a great vehicle for character development. what does parker want in this episode? she wants something to do, she wants to not be injured, she wants to not have to lean on anyone or ask for help, she wants to feel needed. enter Thieves, who are the type that will get someone hurt in their process. suddenly she has a job, people to protect, but she can't do it on her own. she is needed, but she also needs. she has to adapt, and change- and we see her do this not just by asking for amy's help, but by calling the team and asking for their help too.
by the end of the episode, she has grown enough to have asked several people for help in her plan, and has adapted to her limitations and turned them into advantages, as eliot advises her to do. but when nate asks, she says nothing about the job she did- which i think is interesting. i think it's because she doesn't want them to worry about her or berate her for trying to take down two thieves with guns while healing a torn ACL. it's also probably partially because when she asks about japan, the team says it was normal and boring, to spare her feelings about being left out. so when they ask her, she says nothing.
she's not stupid, though, and neither are the team- nate notices the bullet holes in the wall, and i'm sure the others do too at some point. (plus the pub staff is probably not gonna just leave out the fact that there was a fire alarm and several gunshots and a wounded cop in the pub while they were gone?) parker knows it's only a matter of time before they're aware she's lying. this is a great example of how much the team trusts each other! they notice that parker is not telling the full truth, but since things seem to be resolved, they trust her to have handled it. and she trusts them not to push her on her lie, just as she's not pushing them for info on the japan job.
this team is not without its secrets, but in this case i think it's more about trusting each other to speak up when it's needed. almost all of them got a call from parker this episode, so at this point they know she can and will ask them for help when she needs to. they give each other space to have lives away from each other, but they also trust that if there's a problem, it will be brought up and dealt with. which is so far from the juror no.6 job in season 1 when parker was doing things without thinking of/ informing the crew, or even the inside job in season 3 when she took on an impossible job on her own without telling them. they've grown so much by season 5, and it shows.
anyway. ramble over, i just love this show and this episode in particular and will always thank the leverage writers for giving us a parker-centric ep with strong character development!!!
