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When you tune in to an episode of\u00a0Leverage<\/a><\/em> and the sequel\u00a0Redemption<\/em>, you know you\u2019re in for an entertaining 40-something minutes. The crew of bad guys will take down the corrupt and powerful, and along the way, the heist of it will provide some solid entertainment. Fifteen years ago, during the original run on TNT, \u201cThe Rashomon Job\u201d aired, and it is not only one of the best episodes of the franchise but also just so quintessentially Leverage<\/em>.<\/p>\n At the time, the crew \u2014 mastermind Nate (Timothy Hutton<\/a>), grifter Sophie (Gina Bellman<\/a>), hitter Eliot (Christian Kane<\/a>), thief Parker (Beth Riesgraf<\/a>), and hacker Hardison (Aldis Hodge<\/a>) \u2014 are three seasons into working together. But in that episode, they discover that they actually crossed paths five years earlier when Sophie, Eliot, Parker, and Hardison were all trying to steal the Dagger of Aqu\u2019abi and Nate still worked at IYS, the company that insured the artifacts in the museum. Each person tells their side of the story, with Nate the one to put the pieces together to form a complete picture, and that means we see how they all view each other \u2026 to hilarious results.<\/p>\n When TV Insider spoke with Beth Riesgraf, Christian Kane, Gina Bellman, and executive producers Dean Devlin<\/a> and John Rogers<\/a> (who wrote the episode) during\u00a0Leverage: Redemption<\/em> Season 3<\/a>, we had them reflect on this outstanding episode.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that may have been the greatest piece of writing we ever did. John Rogers did it, and it nearly put him in a hospital, it was so difficult,\u201d shared Devlin. \u201cBut what I love about that episode and the original Rashomon<\/em> is by telling the story several times from different points of view, you really get to see how the characters view each other. And it\u2019s done as a joke. But I love in that episode how everyone hears Sophie\u2019s accent completely differently, and it tells you a lot about who they are by the way they perceive the others around them.\u201d<\/p>\n Rogers agreed with Devlin\u2019s assessment. \u201cIt nearly killed me writing it,\u201d he said \u201cThere\u2019s actually a photo you can find online of me at the table with three shot glasses with the character names on them as I explained to the room exactly how, who, and what object. What it does is it allows \u2014 in a way very few episodes are structured \u2014 each character to take the showcase fully. And so you get a full dose of each one of them, and you get their own impression, and each actor reveled in both playing the best version of themselves and then in the other people\u2019s versions, the worst version of themselves. So it\u2019s one of the few episodes where all five of them just get to bang it off the guardrails both sides, of being hyper competent and cool and being goofy and useless and bad, and actors revel in it.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued, \u201cIt comes across in their performances, and I think all of the performances elevated it well beyond the script. There\u2019s a moment where Sophie is doing her horrible British accents because that\u2019s the viewpoint of everybody. When it comes to Parker\u2019s, all it says is in the script is \u2018indecipherable British gibberish,\u2019 and so everything Gina does after that is her interpreting that one line read. I didn\u2019t write anything. Gina knows, Gina\u2019s a great comedic actor, she\u2019ll get this. And she does. It\u2019s hilarious every time she talks for that entire act. It\u2019s a real actor showcase. I think that\u2019s what makes it stand out.\u201d<\/p>\n Bellman, Riesgraf, and Kane also pointed to Sophie\u2019s accents, with the women admitting they got the giggles.<\/p>\n \u201cI had to make up that language and she kept laughing and every time she laughed, she set me off, and then we were so tired and we just couldn\u2019t recover,\u201d Bellman recalled of Riesgraf. \u201cIt was such a complex episode. I think we were all feeling the strain of that. We had to hit so many comedy notes. We had to hit so many action notes. We had to hit so many character notes. And we all were playing multiple characters.\u201d<\/p>\n Added Riesgraf, \u201cIt\u2019s quintessential because it\u2019s all of us getting to be campy and funny and silly and goofy and nonsensical at the same time. Gina\u2019s speaking in a language that doesn\u2019t even make sense. The comedy between Aldis and Christian, Eliot and Hardison, it\u2019s all of it wrapped in there. It was just letting us run with the imagination in a great way while keeping the thread of a flashback con vibe, right? It just shows this chemistry in the characters and also cast. It was just so iconic. It was so great.\u201d<\/p>\n Kane agreed, \u201cIt\u2019s the best episode. It\u2019s so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Watch the video interview above for more from Gina Bellman, Christian Kane, and Beth Riesgraf about this episode.<\/p>\n