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20poundsofcrazy) wrote2008-09-20 03:48 pm
20poundsofcrazy) wrote2008-09-20 03:48 pm
[archive] from iFMagazine
Gina Bellman’s character of Sophie Devereaux on LEVERAGE is one of the biggest enigma’s stuffed into a mystery and wrapped in a puzzle. As a grifter, she’s been so many different characters that we may not even know if her personality is her own any more or just a sampling of all the people she’s played over the years in order to pull off a con. That’s what makes her perfect for the Leverage crew because she is damn good at what she does.
With LEVERAGE beginning its third season with a two-hour event on Sunday, June 20, 2010 at 9:00 pm PT on TNT, we offer up the 10 things you need to know about Sophie Devereaux (The Grifter) that will remind fans (and those just jumping into the series) of where the show's been and where it's going.
1) She’s the grifter. Sophie has a number of talents, but above all else she excels at playing someone she is not. From a Southern Belle to a German to someone from France, Italy, New Zealand or even as far as Nigeria. Pretty much every episode she’s in, you can count on Sophie to have some sort of a special accent that appeals to the job at hand. The cool thing too about Sophie is that she knows many or most of these languages and can fluently speak them to cover her tracks.
2) She’s a horrible actor. Now, I’m not talking about the acting she does while on a con. She’s freaking amazing when she does that and has serious skills when it comes to pulling off the job. However, Sophie has ambitions to be an actress and star in film and stage. There’s only one problem. She sucks as an actor. No matter what it is, she just can’t seem to pull off acting when it comes to something outside of a con. This has led to many hilarious moments on LEVERAGE throughout the first two seasons. Now that she is back full time with the crew, hopefully we’ll see more of these moments.
3) She left the team to discover herself. Sophie left in Season Two in order to find herself after a number of revealing episodes happened that focused on her own past and her place in the world now that she is one of the good guys. Sophie only appeared in the second half of Season Two as a shoulder to cry on for the other members of the crew or to offer advice to the crew in whatever job they were pulling off. It wasn’t until the end of Season Two when she returned to get the crew out of a jam. What did she do all this time away from the team? Did she really discover herself? Will we learn any words of wisdom and will she come back a different person? We will have to wait and see.
4) Her past is a mystery. More so than the rest of the team, we know pretty much nothing about Sophie other than she has had a laundry list of names over the years, had at least one run-in with Nate (Timothy Hutton) prior to them forming the team and at the beginning of Season Two, she had a boyfriend who didn’t know her real name or anything really about her (more on this below). Sophie is extremely guarded. She keeps her secrets so close to the vest that no one really has a clue as to where she came from or why she does what she does (unlike some of the others such as Parker (Beth Riesgraf) and Eliot (Christian Kane)). Will we learn more about her this season?
5) We don’t know her real name. Sophie Devereaux is not her real name. She won’t tell anyone either. Not even her boyfriend that she had early in Season Two. She has her guard up at all times and was unwilling to share even her newly-adopted family in the Leverage crew what it is. Of course, heading into Season Three, everyone on the team now knows her real name except Nate. Will he find out? We'll have to wait and see.
6) She dresses to impress. Sophie takes care of herself. She takes obvious pride in her appearance with clothes that cost a’plenty and an addiction to high-cost shoes. Obviously, having such an expansive and amazing wardrobe costs a lot of money. And with her having bought numerous vacation homes, she had to get this money somewhere. Is this why she turned to a life of crime? Is this why she goes after stealing priceless artwork because she wants to keep an appearance of being high-brow even in the criminal world? Maybe we’ll find out.
7) The new Sophie. Before she left to “discover herself,” the old Sophie “died” in the “The Two Live Crew Job”. They used a con to have Sophie killed off in order to pull off the job. But for Sophie it was more than symbolic, it was her chance at a fresh start. She was tired of the lies and cons that have perpetuated her entire life, culminating in her boyfriend dumping her for not telling her the truth or anything about herself. That ended up being a blessing in disguise as it opened Sophie up like never before and we had a number of episodes where Sophie began to embrace her new life as one of the good guys. Thus, burying herself was a way for her to become this new person we saw in the earlier episodes of Season Two before she left. What Sophie will come back to the team in Season Three?
8) She has associates in grifting. When Sophie took a break from the team in order to “discover herself” she sent some help along so that the crew wouldn’t be minus a grifter. That was Tara (Jeri Ryan) who filled in for Sophie on the back half of Season Two. Tara did a great job in filling in and brought a similar, but different dynamic to the team. But is there a network of grifters out there just waiting for jobs? Where did the relationship between Tara and Sophie begin and why are they happy to help each other out – especially when it involves not gaining any money? Hopefully Tara will make a return appearance in Season Three and we’ll get some answers.
9) Sophie has feelings for Nate. But how far or deep do these feelings go we aren’t clear. We know that Nate is in love with Sophie – almost saying the "L" word to her in the finale of Season Two. And while we know that Sophie has similar feelings for Nate, we aren’t sure if they are real or genuine. We assume so, but with not knowing everything about Sophie as we should, it is hard to tell whether she is playing him or what she wants is a true relationship. Presumably, their relationship should grow in an interesting direction in Season Three as Nate is in prison and Sophie is back with the team. Plus, there was a kiss and slap during the Season Two finale between them - and the ramifications (and dealing with that moment) will linger throughout Season Three.
10) She's the Mother of Leverage 'Family'. If Nate is the de facto Father of the team, Sophie is the mother hen and everyone looks up to her for advice. Even when she was gone, the team knew, when Nate was out of control or impossible to talk to, they could get Sophie on the phone and work out their "issues." As Season Three begins, Nate (the father) has been in prison, and the mother has taken over the crew. How that plays out? Find out Sunday night on TNT.
With LEVERAGE beginning its third season with a two-hour event on Sunday, June 20, 2010 at 9:00 pm PT on TNT, we offer up the 10 things you need to know about Sophie Devereaux (The Grifter) that will remind fans (and those just jumping into the series) of where the show's been and where it's going.
1) She’s the grifter. Sophie has a number of talents, but above all else she excels at playing someone she is not. From a Southern Belle to a German to someone from France, Italy, New Zealand or even as far as Nigeria. Pretty much every episode she’s in, you can count on Sophie to have some sort of a special accent that appeals to the job at hand. The cool thing too about Sophie is that she knows many or most of these languages and can fluently speak them to cover her tracks.
2) She’s a horrible actor. Now, I’m not talking about the acting she does while on a con. She’s freaking amazing when she does that and has serious skills when it comes to pulling off the job. However, Sophie has ambitions to be an actress and star in film and stage. There’s only one problem. She sucks as an actor. No matter what it is, she just can’t seem to pull off acting when it comes to something outside of a con. This has led to many hilarious moments on LEVERAGE throughout the first two seasons. Now that she is back full time with the crew, hopefully we’ll see more of these moments.
3) She left the team to discover herself. Sophie left in Season Two in order to find herself after a number of revealing episodes happened that focused on her own past and her place in the world now that she is one of the good guys. Sophie only appeared in the second half of Season Two as a shoulder to cry on for the other members of the crew or to offer advice to the crew in whatever job they were pulling off. It wasn’t until the end of Season Two when she returned to get the crew out of a jam. What did she do all this time away from the team? Did she really discover herself? Will we learn any words of wisdom and will she come back a different person? We will have to wait and see.
4) Her past is a mystery. More so than the rest of the team, we know pretty much nothing about Sophie other than she has had a laundry list of names over the years, had at least one run-in with Nate (Timothy Hutton) prior to them forming the team and at the beginning of Season Two, she had a boyfriend who didn’t know her real name or anything really about her (more on this below). Sophie is extremely guarded. She keeps her secrets so close to the vest that no one really has a clue as to where she came from or why she does what she does (unlike some of the others such as Parker (Beth Riesgraf) and Eliot (Christian Kane)). Will we learn more about her this season?
5) We don’t know her real name. Sophie Devereaux is not her real name. She won’t tell anyone either. Not even her boyfriend that she had early in Season Two. She has her guard up at all times and was unwilling to share even her newly-adopted family in the Leverage crew what it is. Of course, heading into Season Three, everyone on the team now knows her real name except Nate. Will he find out? We'll have to wait and see.
6) She dresses to impress. Sophie takes care of herself. She takes obvious pride in her appearance with clothes that cost a’plenty and an addiction to high-cost shoes. Obviously, having such an expansive and amazing wardrobe costs a lot of money. And with her having bought numerous vacation homes, she had to get this money somewhere. Is this why she turned to a life of crime? Is this why she goes after stealing priceless artwork because she wants to keep an appearance of being high-brow even in the criminal world? Maybe we’ll find out.
7) The new Sophie. Before she left to “discover herself,” the old Sophie “died” in the “The Two Live Crew Job”. They used a con to have Sophie killed off in order to pull off the job. But for Sophie it was more than symbolic, it was her chance at a fresh start. She was tired of the lies and cons that have perpetuated her entire life, culminating in her boyfriend dumping her for not telling her the truth or anything about herself. That ended up being a blessing in disguise as it opened Sophie up like never before and we had a number of episodes where Sophie began to embrace her new life as one of the good guys. Thus, burying herself was a way for her to become this new person we saw in the earlier episodes of Season Two before she left. What Sophie will come back to the team in Season Three?
8) She has associates in grifting. When Sophie took a break from the team in order to “discover herself” she sent some help along so that the crew wouldn’t be minus a grifter. That was Tara (Jeri Ryan) who filled in for Sophie on the back half of Season Two. Tara did a great job in filling in and brought a similar, but different dynamic to the team. But is there a network of grifters out there just waiting for jobs? Where did the relationship between Tara and Sophie begin and why are they happy to help each other out – especially when it involves not gaining any money? Hopefully Tara will make a return appearance in Season Three and we’ll get some answers.
9) Sophie has feelings for Nate. But how far or deep do these feelings go we aren’t clear. We know that Nate is in love with Sophie – almost saying the "L" word to her in the finale of Season Two. And while we know that Sophie has similar feelings for Nate, we aren’t sure if they are real or genuine. We assume so, but with not knowing everything about Sophie as we should, it is hard to tell whether she is playing him or what she wants is a true relationship. Presumably, their relationship should grow in an interesting direction in Season Three as Nate is in prison and Sophie is back with the team. Plus, there was a kiss and slap during the Season Two finale between them - and the ramifications (and dealing with that moment) will linger throughout Season Three.
10) She's the Mother of Leverage 'Family'. If Nate is the de facto Father of the team, Sophie is the mother hen and everyone looks up to her for advice. Even when she was gone, the team knew, when Nate was out of control or impossible to talk to, they could get Sophie on the phone and work out their "issues." As Season Three begins, Nate (the father) has been in prison, and the mother has taken over the crew. How that plays out? Find out Sunday night on TNT.