'Leverage: Redemption' Finally Let Noah Wyle Be Sexy

I know everyone’s hot for Noah Wyle after his turn as scruffy Dr. Robby in the first season of The Pitt. But let’s be honest. He’s not as hot on Leverage: Redemption as formerly corrupt lawyer Harry Wilson.

Dr. Robby and Harry Wilson are solar systems apart in terms of allure. And, I don’t want to yuck anybody’s yum, but Dr. Robby definitely has the edge. Harry Wilson is what I would affectionately refer to as a herb. Do you remember that term from the ’90s? He’s a nerd, a dork. His hair is always plastered to his head, and he buttons his shirts all the way up to the top. And they insist that Wyle keep his face freshly shaved, his skin pink like a baby. It’s not great. It’s still Noah Wyle, but come on. Aldis Hodge and his upper body strength are nowhere to be seen this season. And, as much as I truly enjoy watching Christian Kane smash people’s heads together (it’s a little sexy), he’s not a sex symbol. Why does Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman) get to be the only pretty one?

Last week, in episode six, ‘The Swipe Right Job,’ the show took steps to address that. The episode focused on Sophie and Harry navigating the world of online dating apps. It didn’t go well for either of them. Sophie was catfished by Neal Trividi (30 Rock’s Maulik Pancholy), who worked with his sister (Annet Mahendru) to pose as a millionaire, tricking lonely, well-off women and men out of their savings.

First of all, let’s admit it’s pretty stupid for even a low-level grifter to try and snare Sophie Devereaux in a trap. She is renowned in the criminal underworld. What was this Trividi guy thinking? As usual, the bad guy deserves every bit of punishment rained down upon him at the end of the episode. Trying to grift Sophie Devereaux? Please.

Harry Wilson was reluctantly dragged into the con because Sophie’s cover got blown, and Parker (Beth Riesgraf) is too feral for dates. Breanna (Aleyse Shannon) gleefully gave Harry a wardrobe makeover. But Harry also had to overcome the emotional scars his ex-wife left on his heart (awwwww) and also be comfortable enough with himself to feign attraction to and a relationship with a man.

There’s not a lot of talk about sexual orientation on Leverage. I think we were supposed to assume that until Breaana joined the team, everyone was pretty heterosexual. Eliot only ever talked about dating hot chicks. Sophie only talked about dating men. And Parker and Hardison are together-together, although very far apart for the past couple of seasons.

In “The Swipe Right Job,” Harry shows no qualms about going out on a date with a man and really gets into the whole thing. To the point where I was thinking it was kinda hot that Harry’s into guys. It’s the sexiest Harry Wilson has been since he joined the team. The riz upgrade was only part of it.

I’m not fetishizing bisexuality or homosexuality. It’s more about the fact that Wilson was able to throw himself into the con without hemming and hawing over having to pretend to be attracted to a man. He saw it as a badge of honor that the team thought he could pull it off. And he didn’t need to be coached through being attracted to a man. Harry is usually comic relief in a costume; he needed to be coached on the part of the long con that involved becoming a character. Acting the part of someone who isn’t heartbroken.

That was the most charming part of the whole episode, and what finally made Harry sexy. Harry’s daughter even catches her dad out with Trividi on their first date. On a lot of other shows, that would have been the moment for a character to explain away the gay. But we didn’t get that moment. We got Harry’s daughter letting him know how happy she was that he was finally being his authentic self. That was super sweet, even though it was quite authentic. Now that Harry has spent time living as this “Arthur” character, maybe he’ll take Sophie’s advice and let parts of Arthur inform his own life moving forward and be more authentically like him. He can still be a herb, but with fewer shirt buttons, more joy, more confidence, and more dates. Then he’d be the sexy herb we all know Noah Wyle is capable of being.

Leverage: Redemption is streaming on Prime Video. New episodes are available on Thursdays.