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Sophie Devereaux is the finest actress you've ever seen, when she's breaking the law.

Nathan Ford, The Nigerian Job


Sophie Devereaux is the Leverage team's grifter and second-in-command. She is the leader whenever the team leader, Nathan Ford, is busy or in jail. She's an aspiring actress, capable of convincingly playing any character or nationality... as long as she's breaking the law.

Sophie often plays a variety of characters while on a job, and is as adept with aristocracy as she is with working class characters. She has many other identities from the days before she joined the team, and part of what was thought to be her real name was revealed in The Long Goodbye Job, when Nate proposed to her and called her Lara. As they walk away she says to Nate "You know that's not my name." She has run the long con in the past, and we know of at least one long-con identity, a British duchess.

Aside from that, her background is largely unknown except for the fact that she has a lot of hidden secrets in London, where she also apparently started stealing and grifting. In The King George Job, she also gives up some of the goods that she stole either when or shortly after she started for the good of the con as well as for her own good, more precisely the security of not getting caught for her early mistakes.

Sophie's roles within the team are just as varied. She is the sympathetic, humane figure to Nate's practical, pragmatic one when dealing with clients. Sophie takes on a maternal role at times, advising Parker and Alec Hardison on their budding relationship. However, with Eliot Spencer she is more of a peer.

Sophie has a wide network of friends and colleagues, allowing her to bring fellow grifter Tara Cole onto the team when she needed a break.

History[]

Early Life[]

Sophie was born in London, England. Her first grift involved going to pastry school in Paris, so that she could get a job in an arms dealer's favourite restaurant. She spent six months insinuating herself into his life, and walked away from that job with a Van Gogh and a briefcase full of diamonds.[1]

Sophie worked alongside Arthur Wilde as “street rats in London”. Ramsey discovered Sophie and her talents and recruited her and Arthur into his crew to do art forgeries. Ramsey helped mould and shape Sophie’s skills. He set her up into high society, where she would convince people to buy fakes that Wilde made. This was when Sophie met the Duke of Hanover, most likely William. The two began to develop feelings for each other despite the duke being older than Sophie. Eventually, someone realized the art pieces were forgeries. With the influence of Ramsey, and because she had fallen in love with the duke, Sophie let Arthur take the fall, causing him to go to prison. [2]

At one point, Sophie married the duke, earning her the title of Duchess of Hanover. She also became the stepmother to his child, Astrid.

Sophie implies that Ramsey had her stealing from the duke. To escape Ramsey and his influence, Sophie left the duke and her marriage. Presumably, after this, William realized that Sophie and Ramsey had coned him, breaking his heart. William died shortly, having “drunk himself to death”. [3]

Around 1998, Nate started chasing Sophie in regards to insurance fraud. Nate chased her around the world, and the two formed a romantic connection, of which nothing went any further. At one point, early on in their relationship, the two shot each other in Paris.

Season One[]

Nate goes to recruit Sophie to help him, along with Eliot Spencer, Alec Hardison, and Parker, to get back at Victor Dubenich. Nate finds Sophie performing in a performance of Macbeth as Lady Macbeth. Sophie claims to be an honest citizen, but Nate tells her he’s not anymore, to which she replies, “I always thought you had it in you”. After the job, she joins the team and agrees with the others to keep working more jobs together under Nate’s leadership.[4]

In The Wedding Job, Sophie takes on a case involving a friend of hers. During the con, Sophie gets upset with Nate for not being a romantic. Nate later makes amends with her through his officiant speech.

Due to Nate’s increased drinking, Sophies set up a con in order for him to get revenge on Ian Blackpoole, the head of I.Y.S., who denied Nate’s son’s hospital bills. Their plan is to defraud Ian by selling him a fake Second David while stealing the David figure Ian already owned. Sterling captures the group, revealing to Nate that Sophie has had the Second David all along and stole it from the Vatican 10 years ago. Sophie admits to Nate that while she wanted to help him and take down Ian, she selfishly also wanted both David’s for her collection. While the team manages to escape Sterling’s clutches, they ultimately agree to scatter for a few months until the heat dies down on them.[5]

Three months after the team’s covers were blown, each individually stakes out the art gallery to rob it, as none of them felt good having not finished the job. Once back together, they work as a team to defraud Ian, staging a robbery at his art gallery. After taking down Ian and I.Y.S., the team reluctantly agrees to break up once again. [6]

Season Two[]

Sophie invites the team to watch her performance in The Sound of Music. After Sophie’s performance, they all return to Nate’s place, which is above a bar. With Sophie feeling horrible due to negative reviews on her performance, Parker suggests they steal something to cheer Sophie up. The team takes on a case Nate accidentally got involved in.[7]

It’s revealed that Sophie has started dating someone, whom she breaks up with in The Fairy Godparents Job.

During a con, while at her apartment, Sophie receives a vase of flowers with a bomb in it. The team immediately comes to her aid in an attempt to defuse it. After, they have a funeral for Katherine Clive, an alias of Sophie’s, to weed out whoever tried to kill Sophie. Marcus Starke arrives at the funeral, and Sophie believes he’s to blame as they used to work together back in the day. It’s later revealed that Marcus didn’t plant the bomb but actually Chaos. After the con, Sophie begins to feel as though she’s lost who she truly is.[8]

Sophie leaves the team to go on a journey of self-discovery. She contacts Tara Cole, a friend of hers, to take her spot on the team and to watch over them for her.

The team gets themselves into some high stakes, taking down a corrupt mayor. Tara realizes that Nate’s gotten the team into too much heat and calls Sophie for help, setting up a meeting with the Russians to get Sophie an in. Sophie arrives and saves the team, offering them an escape via helicopter. Nate makes a deal with Sterling, offering himself up to let his team go free. Nate kisses Sophie, who slaps him in return, for messing with her feelings. Ultimately, Sophie goes free with the rest of the team, leaving Nate behind to get arrested. [9]

Season Three[]

After Nate’s arrest, the team tries to devise a plan to bust Nate out of jail. Nate tells them he wants to do his time and thinks it’s too risky. While talking to Nate in prison, Sophie reveals that the rest of the crew has been calling her by her real name while Nate has been in prison. Sophie doesn’t tell Nate her name as she believes he hasn’t earned it yet. While in prison, Nate finds a client and the crew break Nate out of jail. However, their escape is not without harm. In the process, they attracted the attention of a woman who says she wants the Leverage team to take down an extremely corrupt man, Damien Moreau, threatening to send Nate back to jail if they don’t.[10]

For a job, the team heads to London. Sophie offers the mark a baron title, using her alias as Charlotte Prentiss, Duchess of Hanover. The mark invites the Countess of Kensington to ensure Sophie’s legitimacy, but the Countess and Sophie know each other.[11]

When the team learns that Damien Moreau is coming to Boston, they realize it’s the perfect opportunity to take him down. Ultimately, Damian runs to San Lorenzo. The team helps a small politician rise up, with Sophie pretending to be his fiancé. When Sophie fakes getting shot, the politician they are helping wins the race, and they are able to take Damien down. At the end of the episode, Nate and Sophie are shown having slept together.[12]

Season Four[]

During Season four, Nate and Sophie begin to start a friends-with-benefits relationship. Initially, they try to hide it from the team, but the truth comes out eventually.

Season Five[]

Hardison contacts Sophie, Nate, and Eliot for a new job. Hardison has opened a new Leverage H.Q. in Portland, Oregon. Sophie says Portland was originally just supposed to be a stopover while things cooled down, and she isn’t happy about having to stay.[13] Sophie quickly finds something to enjoy in Portland in a local theatre about to be closed down. Sophie soon begins running a group out of the theatre, which she uses during some of their cons.

Nate had them stay in Portland because he was after the Black Book, a record of all illegal transactions made by bankers and wealthy people that led to the financial crisis of 2007–08 that Interpol has. After the team successfully pulls off the con, Nate decides to retire, proposing to Sophie. Sophie says yes, ensuring the team will be okay without them and agrees to leave with Nate. [14]

Leverage Redemption[]

Season One[]

Eight years after Sophie and Nate leave the Leverage team, Sophie begins to get texts from Eliot, Hardison and Parker, all of which she ignores. Later she goes to Nate’s gravestone, where the others meet up with her. The group is meeting up to mark the 1-year anniversary of Nate’s passing. The others tell Sophie what they’ve been up to and how they’ve set up twelve international Leverage teams.[15]

Concerned about Sophie, they suggest Sophie steal something. They go to the Boston Museum of Art, but Sophie’s a bit apprehensive as it’s been eight years since she stole anything or was on the con. While perusing the gallery, Sophie notices someone else is about to steal one of the paintings. Sophie and the others stick around to watch the thief. He triggers the security alarm, Eliot knocks him unconscious on his escape, and the team takes him back to Sophie’s. The team learns his name is Harry Wilson, a lawyer. They agree to help Harry take down his former employer, Fletcher Maxwell. Sophie then takes Harry under her wing as her little “project.”[15]

On the day of the anniversary of when Sophie and Nate first met, the first draft of a book telling all of the stories of the Leverage crew reaches Breanna’s notice. The book’s writer claims to be the Leverage team’s mastermind, Nate himself. The book contains all of the crew, except for Sophie. The crew try to scare the writer off from publishing his book, but he and Harry ultimately get kidnapped and the team is pulled into a heist. During the ordeal “Fake Nate”, Milton Friedlander, realizes that Nate never told him about Sophie because he was protecting her. [16]

In The Muddy Waters Job, Sophie receives an offer as artistic director of a theatre in London. She seems keen to accept the offer, saying that coming back to the Leverage crew was just a stopover for her, and it’s time for her to find herself.

By the end of The Harry Wilson Job, Parker asks Sophie to stay and lead the team, and Sophie decides to stay.

Season Two[]

Hardison surprises the team by showing up at their base to ask them for help. Sophie hesitates to take on the job, recognizing they need Harry’s help. She then surprises Harry by showing up at his legal case, and she and the team help Harry wrap it up so that he can lend aid to their job. While on the job, Sophie is confronted with a former flame of hers, a musician Ralphie Roy who wrote a whole album about an alias of hers, Kiki.  [17]

While undercover, pretending to be an art authenticator, Sophie comes face to face with someone from her past, an art forger Arthur Wilde. Sophie assures the team that her history with Arthur won’t conflict with their job, and they work alongside him. Everything ultimately leads with the mark, Hammond, shooting Arthur and getting away on a motorboat. Harry had earlier switched out Hammond’s bullets with blanks, so Arthur is unharmed. Sophie tries to make amends with Arthur by apologizing for what happened in the past. Arthur tells her that even though she put her past behind her, that doesn’t negate the harm she’s done. Arthur tells her she hasn’t changed and walks away without accepting her apology.[2]

In “The Fractured Job”, Sophie talks to Harry about how Arthur has made her aware of the collateral damage she and the team may have or are unknowingly causing. When the team helps out Eliot’s father, Sophie begins to worry about Eliot getting hurt if they mess things up. In her concern about ruining things, Sophie accidentally misreads a mark.

Sophie is contacted by an old friend of hers, Billy the Gent, to help his daughter. Billy guilts Sophie into helping him as he goes to prison alongside Arthur. The mark is able to catch Sophies lies, forcing her to be truthful. Sophie tells the mark how she had someone who trusted her, someone she chose to leave and how the choice should have haunted her, but she never let it; she moved on and made herself forget. Sophie realizes later that Billy used her and is still working for her old boss, Ramsey.  [18]

When the London Leverage team’s con goes sideways, Sophie agrees for their team to head to London to investigate after hearing the name of the museum they were hired to rob. Sophie picks up Harry, telling him she needs him for one last job as she’ll be swimming through her collateral damage. Sophie assumes Ramsey’s hired the London team to steal from the museum after finding the intended target to be Greek death masks, one of which he forged. Upon seeing a reaction to hearing the Interpol agent’s name working the case, Astrid Pickford, Harry asks how Sophie knows her. Sophie explains that Astrid is the duke of Hanover’s daughter and, thus, her stepdaughter, but she hasn’t seen or talked to her in 20 years. With Billy the Gent’s help, they set Ramsey into a trap in the museum, where Astrid arrests him. Later, Sophie gets a call from Arthur, who had orchestrated everything to set his own trap for the Leverage crew, setting them up to seem to be behind the thief of the Maharaja crown.[3]

Sophie hesitates with the alarms going off in the museum, causing her and Eliot to get locked in. The other team members work to free Eliot and Sophie, trying to slip unnoticed out of the museum which is now swarming with law enforcement. When the team gets free of the museum, Sophie realizes that Arthur must have hidden the crown in the museum and suggest that the team find it to take him down. The team goes back in, and Sophie comes face to face with Astrid. The pair talk and  Sophie asks Astrid to give her a chance so that she can deliver the crown and the culprit. Astrid plays along with Sophie’s plan and Arthur leads them right to where he hid the real Maharaja crown.[19]

After everything has gone down, Sophie and Astrid talk. Astrid reveals that she wears the diamond Sophie gave her the day before she left as a necklace. Astrid gives the necklace to Sophie to give the diamond back, deciding not to arrest Sophie. Astrid tells Sophie she got a call from section chief James Sterling, promoting her. Sophie and Astrid hug goodbye, and Sophie slips the necklace back into Astrid’s pocket.[19]

Relationships with Other Characters[]

Nathan Ford[]

The two of them disagree often, but this is usually because of personal issues between them. Sophie often puts certain expectations on Nate that he seems unable to fulfill. The two of them had a somewhat romantic--although strictly non-sexual--relationship predating the series when Nate chased her as an Insurance Claims Investigator. Throughout Season 1, they occasionally entertained the notion of being more than friends, though neither appeared ready.

In The Miracle Job, Sophie seems to indicate that she is waiting on him to make a decision about his feelings.

In The Wedding Job, Sophie says, “Do you know how hard it is to wait for someone?” implying she was waiting for Nate. Later, when Nate asks Sophie, “where are we at?” regarding the con, Sophie misunderstands him and thinks he’s asking where they stand in their relationship. Nate implies that he is not ready to start dating and makes an allusion to their past, stating love is not "running across rooftops in Paris", but rather it is "pushing a cart around Home Depot". This seems to suggest Nate believes Sophie may be equally unprepared to undertake any kind of romantic involvement with him.

Nate's alcoholism also proves to be a constant strain on their relationship in Season 1. After Sophie betrays the team in The First David Job, any romantic feelings between the two of them seemed to be put on hold.

In the beginning of Season 2, Nate asks Sophie out to dinner but she has already begun dating someone else. Even after Sophie's boyfriend breaks up with her in The Fairy Godparents Job, neither she nor Nate make a move. Throughout most Season 2, their relationship is largely platonic, though their friendship is strengthened as Nate attempts to be there for her during her internal struggle with her identity. When Sophie leaves the team for the second half of Season 2, her relationship with Nate becomes strained in her absence, and Nate slowly loses control of his alcoholism. Sophie returns at the end of Season 2 just in time to save the team from an out-of-control con and she and Nate share what was likely their first kiss.

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The first kiss between Sophie and Nate.

Season 3 places the two of them on more of an even keel. After Nate is released from jail following the Season 2 finale, Sophie and Nate resume their relationship as it was for the first part of Season 2. They seem to be, for the first time, on the same page about their friendship, and seem very much compatible in terms of their working relationship (planning the cons, etc). In the end of Season 3, just as they seem to hit their stride in their friendship, however, the two of them share a drunken one night stand, throwing a wrench into things. The two of them agree, in the Season 4 premiere, to act as if it never happened but it does not last.

As of Season 4, Nate and Sophie have a no-strings-attached relationship. It is implied that their relationship deepens over the course of the season, though neither outwardly acknowledges it. As of Season 5, the two are in a relationship. In the series finale, the couple became permanent when Nate asked her to marry him and she agreed.

It is implied during the Season 3 episode The Ho Ho Ho Job that Nate had earned Sophie's true name, still unknown to the audience, and then it is confirmed that he does indeed know her name after the San Lorenzo Job. Her true name is never revealed, not even in the series finale.

Parker[]

Sophie has a special relationship with Parker. Sophie mentors Parker in both the art of the grift and in her relationship with Hardison, as Parker has anxiety when it comes to connecting with others. Parker relies on Sophie for advice and respects her immensely. Sophie is protective of Parker and often behaves as a mother figure for Parker, who never had one.

Alec Hardison[]

Sophie and Hardison have a mutual respect for one another, as with the other members of the team. She is one of the people to appreciate him the most although she still considers him a geek.

Eliot Spencer[]

As with the rest of the team, Sophie trusts Eliot with her life and Eliot is fiercely protective of her. Their relationship hit a bit of a road bump at the end of Season 1 when Sophie betrayed the team in The First David Job. Eliot took her betrayal more personally than the rest of the crew. Perhaps because while he is very close with Hardison and Parker, he often has to be a big brother to them due to their various forms of immaturity, whereas with Sophie, he is able to relate more as an equal. This subsided quickly, however, and they went back to having the familial relationship they once had.

Family[]

  • Sophie has an Aunt Emily, whose house she visited at Christmas.
  • Sophie had a boyfriend we know only as "William". We know very little about him except that he was of British nobility and his death hit Sophie very hard.
  • William's aunt, the Countess of Kensington, lives in London.

Sophie's Real Name[]

One of the biggest secrets in the series is Sophie's real name. In The Girls' Night Out Job, she and Tara lament that they have so many identities no one knows who they really are. By this time, Sophie has at least come to terms with this fact of her life, having taken her personal voyage of discovery. But even in the series finale viewers had not yet learned her name, and according to show creator John Rogers, may never learn it.

Sophie has a long history of using assumed identities, and routinely uses them during cons with the team. In The First David Job, James Sterling refers to Sophie as "Jenny", the first indication that Sophie is not her real name. She is comfortable with many of the identities she uses in the short term, but seems less so with some she has built long-term and used in relationships. Sophie reflects on not using her real name with her then-boyfriend, Jake, and questions her own honesty with her friends when Jack refers to her as Katherine Clive in The Fairy Godparents Job. In The Two Live Crew Job, Sophie realizes that Nate is her closest friend, yet she had never heard him say her real name. Before leaving the team in order to embark on a voyage of self-discovery, she tells Nate that she will tell him her real name when she "buries" Sophie Devereaux.

As of The Jailhouse Job, Sophie tells Parker, Hardison and Eliot her real name while Nate is in jail, but refuses to tell Nate when he is released. Rather, Sophie uses her name to tease Nate until he "earns" the right to know it; he, in turn, claims he will discover her real name in time. In The Inside Job, Sophie correctly guesses that the password to Parker's warehouse is Sophie's real name. She enters this code which consisting of six digits ending in 7-2-# (which represented prs-abc-# respectively) into a numerical keypad. However, showrunner John Rogers indicated in his blog that this was a tease for Nate onscreen, and the viewers off screen, and the numbers entered do not indicate Sophie's real name.

For a time, they joke about her name, until The Ho Ho Ho Job, when Sophie and Nate window shop and spot an ID bracelet. Nate says if she wants it inscribed she'd have to tell him her name. Later after the con is over during the gift exchange she writes either her name or a hint to it on a napkin. Sophie eventually does tell Nate her name, in the throes of drunken passion after The San Lorenzo Job, but Nate does not remember it, and suggests he continue to call her Sophie to keep their sex life a secret (as well as to hide the fact he can't remember it).

In the series finale, The Long Goodbye Job Nate calls Sophie "Lara", suggesting this was her real name. However when the two walk out she chides him that Laura is not her real name, which Nate acknowledges. In the audio commentary for this episode, John Rogers dismisses the "not my real name" comment as a safety net in case the series was picked up for another season and they would have to continue using "Sophie" for the character. As the show never returned, it is confirmed to be her real name.

Recently however a new series leverage: redemption was announced and is airing July 9 2021.

Accomplishments[]

Skills[]

  • Counterfeiting
  • Inside Man, often posing as inside roles in various long cons.
  • Neuro-linguistic Programming
  • She can hold her own in fights, and overcame assassin Miranda Miles in a fight.
  • High knowledge of history, culture and art objects.
  • High Speed Driving
  • Languages

Languages[]

  • English
  • Spanish
  • Mandarin
  • French
  • German
  • Japanese
  • Russian
  • Hebrew
  • Serbian
  • Italian
  • multiple dialects

Weaknesses[]

  • Of the Leverage team, the least is known about her, since she can change identities so easily. This has caused some friction and distrust.
  • Blind confidence in her on-stage acting skills (which Alec Hardison has called "very awful" and "the mountain of suck").
    • In "The Fairy Godparents Job", Sophie admits to being a poor actress. She reveals that acting requires telling the truth, and sharing a part of yourself inside of the role. Sophie then admits that she has been lying about herself for so long she does not have any truth to her stage roles.

Notable Episodes[]

Season 1:

Season 2:

Season 3:

Season 4:

Season 5:

Leverage Redemption[]

Season One

Season 2

Notes[]

  • Gina Bellman, who plays Sophie, was pregnant during the filming of the second season, and had to be written out mid-season for maternity leave. The writers ended the storyline involving her new boyfriend, and sent Sophie traveling the world on a voyage of self-discovery. While she was gone, the character Tara Cole, also a grifter, was introduced as her temporary replacement.
  • During season three, Gina Bellman began wearing a gold dog tag necklace made by Portland designers. The dog tag was blank. During her appearance at Con-Con 2010, she said that she hoped there would be a name on the dog tag by the end of the season. However, John Rogers has been quoted as saying he doesn't necessarily plan for the audience to ever to learn Sophie's real name.[20]
  • Gina Bellman wrote on Twitter: "SOPHIE'S REAL NAME IS LARA!!!!"[21] but in the series finale, Sophie said that Lara is not her real name.

Trivia[]

  • Sophie first met Nate ten years before the events of season one, when she was stealing art in Prague. Two years later, he caught her in Damascus.
  • She and Nate also had encounters in Paris and Tuscany. In Paris, she and Nate exchanged gunshots with the two gunshots injuring each other.
  • According to Jim Sterling's people, Sophie is wanted in England, France, Spain, Luxembourg and much of the rest of Europe.
  • After The Nigerian Job it is rumored that Sophie has property in Ireland, Dubai and Tokyo.
  • Sophie has a safe-house, and at least one storage facility, in London, England.
  • In The Lost Heir Job, Sophie mentions that she had taken viola lessons as a child but that she was "absolute rubbish" and couldn't play a note.
  • It is stated that Parker knows her real name.

Links[]

  • http://www.tnt.tv/series/leverage/characters/?contentId=41359

References[]

  1. The Unwellness Job. Leverage: Redemption, Season 1, Episode 10
  2. 2.0 2.1 The One Man’s Trash Job. Leverage: Redemption, Season 2, Episode 2
  3. 3.0 3.1 The Museum Makeover Job. Leverage: Redemption, Season 2, Episode 12.
  4. The Nigerian Job. Season 1, Episode 1.
  5. The Frist David Job. Season 1, Episode 12.
  6. The Second David Job. Season 1, Episode 13.
  7. The Beantown Bailout Job. Season 2, Episode 1.
  8. The Two Live Crew Job. Season 2, Episode 7.
  9. The Maltese Falcon Job. Season 2, Episode 15.
  10. The Jailhouse Job. Season 3, Episode 1.
  11. The King George Job. Season 3, Episode 12.
  12. The San Lorenzo Job. Season 3, Episode 16.
  13. The (Very) Big Bird Job. Season 5, Episode 1.
  14. The Long Goodbye Job. Season 1, Episode 15.
  15. 15.0 15.1 The Too Many Rembrandts Job. Season 1, Episode 1.
  16. The Mastermind Job. Leverage: Redemption, Season 1, Episode 8
  17. The Debutante Job. Leverage: Redemption, Season 2, Episode 1.
  18. The Pyramid Job. Leverage: Redemption, Season 2, Episode 9.
  19. 19.0 19.1 The Crowning Achievement Job. Leverage: Redemption, Season 2, Episode 13
  20. Cari Jewelry worn by Gina Bellman in LEVERAGE Season 3!
  21. https://twitter.com/ginabellman/status/282428945557770240
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