“I tend to construct the villain plan absent the heroes, then drop them in. Also, I favor multiple little cons on the way to the big con – witness the pilot, Homecoming, and the season finale, along with various tweaks along the way. A lot of times I start with “What will we steal?”, while Chris [Downey] starts with “where are we?” There’s a fair bit of cross-pollination in the room, of course, and we’ve spot-welded our approaches several times – [Amy] Berg and Chris worked together on The 12 Step Job, while our Filthy Assistant’s first script, The Juror #6 Job, shows the taint of both Chris and I. Layered on the plots, of course, are the stories. Which, as we all know, are not the same thing. Homecoming was about the team learning that being good guys is a lot harder than being bad guys. Two Horse is about dealing with your past. Bank Shot is all about the team growing up, cementing the family bond – the ‘kids’ having to pull off the gig on their own. Miracle is about faith and hubris, of course, and you can go on and on. We don’t like to lay it on too thick, but the team story is the top layer. End of day, it’s very hard to get the audience to give a shit about the vic-of-the-week. In 42:30 they just don’t have the screentime. So tying our guys in – in hopefully non-hacky ways – is the key to the show’s emotional grounding. For what it’s worth, Mile High Job is a trust episode betwen the rest of the team and Hardison. I’d put it in the first half of the season arc. For those of you playing the home game, Bank Shot is the swing episode – the transition to where the team is fully invested in each other, and walking away is not really an option.”
— John Rogers, on building the first season of Leverage.
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