When I was a kid, I was like eight-years old, I had a foster mom who was a Jehovah’s Witness. Used to dress me up in a suit and a bowtie, take me door to door to spread the word. Black neighborhoods, white neighborhoods, didn’t matter. I would kick, I’d scream, or whatever, but she would say, “Alec, you need to learn to talk to people.” See, everything I learned about people, I learned ringing doorbells in a bowtie. Parker never had that.

You think you know a show…you think they’re pulling out a jury show because they want to save a few bucks and do a bottle episode. And then they whip name guest stars at you with reckless abandon – a Brent Spiner here, an Armin Shimerman there, and what the hell, let’s top it off with a Lauren Holly for good measure – and dress a bunch of sets we’ve never seen before. What I’m saying is, this isn’t your usual jury episode.

It’s a little lighter on the action – not a fireball in sight – than some other episodes, but Jonathan Frakes manages to keep the pace brisk from behind the camera. Even courtroom scenes, which are normally the bane of any action show with all their talky-talky, don’t feel like they’re slowing down the proceedings at all.

By the way, if you didn’t catch our interview with Jonathan Frakes yesterday, be sure to go clicky-clicky right here with your mouse, touchpad, rollerball, or alternate pointy device.

Hardison makes good identities. Really good. So good, that one of Parker’s covers – “Alice White” – gets called for jury duty. The team is a little upset with Parker when the episode starts – something to do with elevators and decapitation and her willful disregard for the needs, feelings, and apparently spinal columns of anyone else – so Nate decides she should fulfill her civic duty and see if she can’t learn to play well with others.

In a sign that the California economy is truly in the crapper, the first day of the trial is a Sunday. At least it appears to be a Sunday, what with all the NFL games playing back at Leverage HQ. Look guys, I know you’ve got a sweet product placement deal with DirecTV, but couldn’t it have been ESPN Full Court or MLB Extra Innings so it would make a *bit* more sense that Parker was returning from jury duty? ((DirecTV advertising department, please make the checks out to CASH. Thank you.))

No matter the day, Parker’s stumbled upon the crookedest trial on the docket. Cameras, comms, hacked video feeds, and a foreman on the payroll stack the deck against the poor widow who lost her husband thanks to William Quint’s dangerous energy drink. All this chicanery comes courtesy of Tobey Earnshaw and her quest to protect the $20M she secretly funneled into the R&D on Herbal Live’s killer supplement, FastLife.

Unfortunately for Earnshaw, Team Leverage is on the case. Parker makes quick work of the foreman by lifting everyone’s valuables and planting them on the sap. Earnshaw counters by buying off the plaintiff’s attorney, but then Hardison puts on a suit and does a little razzle-dazzle. Sophie runs a con on Quint to get him to settle, but Earnshaw buys the real-fake company ((Fake-real company?)) Sophie was mis-representing.

Hardison beats up on the defense’s hired gun, Dr. Patemkin, on the stand, discrediting him and his facade of scientific evidence supporting FastLife. ((Tortured, I know. But I *had* to bring Potemkin Villages in somehow.)) Finally, Nate convinces Hardison that he can win the case, and Parker learns how to (sort of) talk to regular people.

This crux of this episode is the team’s attempt at softening some of Parker’s more destructive social tendencies so she can at least perform her job, though I must say her method of getting Eliot to want to give up the apple was very effective. The writers and Beth Riesgraf have to walk a very fine line here. Make Parker too crazy and she’s a turnoff. Smooth out too many of her edges in episodes like this one and she becomes too plain. So far, I think the character has been balanced perfectly between quirky and annoying. But history shows that characters can too easily become stereotypes – Ross Geller, anyone? – or lose the edge that made them interesting and dangerous to begin with like Faith Lehane ((Unlike many, I’m only moderately excited by the prospect of Dollhouse. I just don’t think much of Eliza Dushku’s acting ability and the way she disappeared into the background of scenes in later Angel and BtVS seasons is all the evidence I need.))

Parker is the biggest character challenge for Leverage in the years ahead. She can’t grow much, or she’ll become uninteresting; she can’t not grow or she’ll become predictably unpredictable and boring. I’m interested to see how the writers and Riesgraf navigate this problem.

Some other thoughts:

• Quite a little Star Trek reunion going on this episode. That’s three actors and one director. Geek cred +7 for the night.
• Did you see the phone lift? That sweet, sweet setup with Quint’s broken down car (thanks to Eliot,) Nate on foot, and Sophie on the drive-by? CG phone.
• I admit it. I’ve got a crush on Parker. I even thought she ate that damn burger cute. So sue me. Plus? I love a girl with ZERO tact.
• Seriously? Back to the football on the wall…was no one paying any attention to the fact that made it Sunday?
• Nate’s off-the-grid hippie was equal parts awesome and awful: “The feeling you get when you close the digestive to internal combustion cycle,” is wonderful indeed.
• Jones Orange Soda spotted…on Sunday.

What did everyone else think?