- According to Word of God, that's actually the Judas Chalice in her storage compartment.
- Perhaps she is a descendant of Lisa del Giocondo. Her entire family has been art thieves for generations, which would also explain her interest in art and knowledge of the Davids' history.
- Well, we already know that Jane was a made up character In-Universe, so that sort of makes sense.
- "Start telling the truth all day, stop being Sophie Devereaux."
- "The Two Live Crew Job" answers this one. Confirmed, unsurprisingly.
In other words, she is using her awful acting to prove that she is a world class grifter. By making these people believe that she is good, despite showing that she is awful, she is continually showing off, or honing her skill as a grifter. In fact, every time that we see Sophie act, the reviews are very awful, and yet, she still continually gets on high class plays.
So not only is she proving that she is a world class grifter. But not a challenge that will leave her in danger if things go badly.
It's not a passion, or a challenge, it's all a game for her.
- Also, she might even be making sure that quite a few people definitely remember her, "Sophie Devereaux", as being an absolutely terrible actor intentionally. If she is forced to go under the radar for a while without pulling a con, then "Sophie Devereaux" would be the last person that anyone who had seen her perform would ever think of as a grifter. She couldn't act to save her life!
- Whoa, now you're getting out there!
- Don't be ridiculous. Parker is clearly the Time Lord. Think about it, it perfectly explains her ability to disappear and reappear wherever she wants- TARDIS!
- Confirmed. She all but admits knowing about the existence of time machines in "The Radio Job", when she spends some time looking for one, then suggests that Nate's dad stole it. Also, Hardison may be another Time Lord. "Bow ties are cool."
Eventually, Nate will be asked to get revenge on the company for the fake treatment that let someone's child die, and he'll find out everything.
- Alternately, it was a real experimental treatment at the time, but it failed the medical trials. It didn't work well, or had unavoidable dangerous side effects. Or maybe it only delayed things for a few months. It's worth noting that no one has ever said Sam would still be alive if he had gotten the treatment. And it's entirely possible that Nate already knows this, but it doesn't matter one bit to his guilt.
- Nate's guilt might even be compounded by his subsequent success as a "bad guy". He did the Nigerian Job (the pilot episode) in his first week as a crook, using a team he could probably have formed himself, and immediately made enough money that even the career crooks on his team considered it to be "retire and buy an island" money. If he'd been willing to break the law for his own son, he could have easily paid for the treatment.
- Nah, it's Parker - all the headbands? She's even freaking Alice White!
- It's why her white rabbit meant so much to her as a child. It wasn't just a toy...
- Great crossover potential.
- Richard Chamberlain has now appeared on both shows. WMG away!
She seemed WAY too interested in Nate's ex-wife. In the Juror job, the other juror she was most interested in was another woman.
When she's in trouble, the one she usually calls for help is Sophie.
In the Hunter episode, there's a scene where Hunter tells Parker that if you punch out the camera man, she'll kiss you. Parker immediately looks at the cameraman, like she's considering it.
In the fashion episode, Eliot says that Tara is hot, and Parker agrees before quickly covering.
In "The Maltese Falcon Job," when Tara drops her towel to distract a bellboy, she ogles Tara as much as Eliot does.
- Since she has a neglected background in the orphanage, has No Social Skills and suffers from Asperger Syndrome, it wouldn't be surprising if Parker had no concept or understanding of the differences between asexuality, bisexuality, heterosexuality, and homosexuality.
- Since "The Double Blind Job", she has shown definite romantic interest in Hardison . . . or pretzels. She's Parker; maybe she's beyond labels. She could be Bi or insane.
- Officially, she and Hardison are dating.
- She seems to have a romantic interest in Hardison at least, and maybe in men generally. Which doesn't preclude a sexual interest in women. Maybe she's heteroromantic and homosexual? Or biromantic and bisexual? Or any other combination that allows for romantic interest in Hardison and sexual interest in women.
- Maybe LCA isn't "far away", it's just a company that is so small, compared to the team and their usual marks, that Hardison bought them outright for the legal rights to use the name and trademark, but left them to carry on operating as standard legal consultants. He'd only need to step in if somebody tried to hire the actual LCA for their pro bono services and seemed like a viable client.
- Based on the final episode, maybe Nate and Sophie finally did get reavowed and "retired" from a life of crime to return to a life of spying.
- Actually, the daughter from Con Air already acted quite shy and avoided eye-contact, without speaking to anyone. She may have already had social anxiety before the film.
- Eliot does have an evil hand... He uses it to hit people, just like the other one.
- ...Is this supposed to be a WMG? It just seems like it was stated outright on pretty much the whole first season, at least.
Of course, since it's brought up at least Once an Episode, it's not good deep cover. Maybe shallow cover.
- Alternately, Eliot quit the spy business and became a "hitter" because he was bored of the complicated stuff and just wanted to punch people.
- "The Beantown Bailout Job" all but confirms that Eliot was involved in the "hinky stuff" the U.S. government was doing in Pakistan, so he's definitely done work for the government and could still be doing it on the side.
- Later episodes explain. He did work for the government, but when his tour was up, he took some jobs on the side. PMC, along with some other people.
- Though that could still be part of his cover story; by not hiding his government involvement, he's following the principle of "always tell as much of the truth as possible."
- Confirmed. But it's Nate that's going to jail.
- If that is the case, then.... there she is! She's right there! that's where she is! It wasnt THAT difficult to find her, now was it?
- Eliot is a Dawn Caste specializing in Martial Arts.
- Sophie is a Zenith Caste with high Performance.
- Hardison is a Twilight Caste with high Investigation and possibly using Sorcery through his computers somehow.
- Parker is, obviously, a Night Caste.
- Nate is an Eclipse Caste using tons of 1E Sidereal Dodge and Awareness charms. Or, since nobody else besides Ian, Sterling and Maggie ever seems to recognize him including the FBI, is just an undercover Sidereal himself - fitting with the chessmastery. (In which case he's probably Chosen of the Maiden of Secrets.)
- Eliot is an Ahroun, a supernaturally proficient sacred warrior.
- Sophie is a Galliard, the bard and prophet and emotional center.
- Nate is a Philodox: judge and jury, the ethical heart of the party—if not the moral one.
- Hardison is a Theurge, a mage, competent at potent and subtle magics.
- Parker is a Ragabash, thief and spy, supernaturally silent and unnoticeable.
- Sterling. Never. Loses. 'Nuff said. Of course, the fact that "Sterling never loses" is Word of God straight from John Rogers, what does that make Rogers if Sterling is a god?
- His mother?
- Sterling and Nate are canonically friends. They both remember it perfectly well, they reference their past together all the time when they're in the same room. (Nate probably feels that Sterling betrayed him (by not taking his side, and continuing to work for IYS), and Sterling's actions towards Nate are clearly those of someone trying to save an out-of-control friend from himself.)
- "The First David Job" had the following bit of dialogue:
- Sterling: Do you remember when we were friends? After work we used to come up here, have a drink, watch the sunset?Nate: We were never friends, Sterling!Sterling: So the answer to my question would be "no", then.
- I think what Nate actually meant was along the lines of "We used to hang out together, but you were always a weasel."
- "The First David Job" had the following bit of dialogue:
- Jossed, with explanation confirmed. Nate, in a later scene, clarifies that he is wondering why Sterling never told him a secret "When we were friends".
- That's not necessarily true, though. Nate might just be using the phrase "when we were friends" because he knows that Sterling claims to think that they were friends once.
- In a later episode, Maggie mentions Nate bringing Sterling home with him on multiple occasions. They were friends, but their current situation makes it easy for both of them to engage in selective denial when it suits them.
- Word of God has already confirmed this. The alias, that is.
It is so obvious. Elliot has super strength, speed and resistance to injury. Able to take bone crushing blows and keep hitting. Parker can teleport short distances once a day and Hardison is able to manipulate images on computers with his mind.
In the season premiere, he says he's been an honest drunk and a sober thief, and now he's going to try being a drunk thief. Once he's done with that, there's only one corner of the square left to explore...
- Jossed, we're headed into season FIVE! Woohoo!
- Now confirmed, except for the end of season five, instead.
Think about it. She's delivered a brutal headbutt when she was protecting Nate and taken on an armed hitperson using a fire extinguisher. These two alone could be things she learned from Elliot, but, she was able to up a rifle with alarming quickness. Elliot has remarked on his own dislike of firearms, meaning this would probably be something she learned on her own. It would also explain why she's so skilled at making up a cover: it used to be her legitimate job.
- In "The San Lorenzo Job," Sophie shoots a government Mook with a bottle of champagne.
What do we know about the Italian?
- She threatens Nate with imprisonment in Rome.
- She speaks with a thick Italian accent.
- She has enough pull to command a millionaire businessman with state contracts and to keep the cops off of Nate even though he's still in Boston.
- She works outside, above, and beyond police and government ("Damien Moreau buys police. He buys governments"), but has access to FBI, CIA, Interpol, and Japanese Security files, among others.
- She does what she has to do for the greater good.
- She knows what Nate and his team are capable of.
- Criminal genius runs in the family!
- His pseudonym is a play on the guy who played him in the movie they made based on the book about his little excursion in the French Riviera.
- Nate is the Paladin. Driven and unforgiving, almost bloodthirsty in his drive to punish those who are evil no matter the cost. While a good man, he will let nothing stand in his way in his holy mission.
- Sophie is the Bard. With the gift of persuasion, able to charm and win over with a song or dance. And Nate's only voice of restraint, as seen in season two when she left.
- Elliot is a Dwarf. Gruff, Earthy and Direct. A good drink and a good fight, great strength and high constitution. Behind his gruff lies a deep and intelligent being.
- Would his character class be Monk, then?
- Hardison is a Wizard. Able to rewrite reality with a motion of fingers. Changing backgrounds, images and conception with a coded word and a smile.
- Parker is the Thief. Flighty, unchained and unrestrained. Deft of finger, short of sanity. And able to rob you blind before you even open your eyes.
- Partially Confirmed and Partially Jossed in the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Strategy Guide: (John Rogers) created the show Leverage, the story of a party of 10th-level rogues who take on corporate bad guys.
- What does that make Sterling, Tara, and the other recurring characters then? Chaos is of course a rival Wizard with a Chaotic Evil alignment.
- Confirmed by Word of God. See here.
- He 'liberated Croatia'. He spent six months in Pakistan at the same time the White House email hack revealed that the US was up to 'hinky stuff' in Pakistan. The show's hinted pretty blatantly that Eliot got his initial start in US military special operations, before he lost his way somewhere and ended up being a merc for guys like Damien Moreau. Heck, what with 'Pakistan' apparently he still did contract work for a government spook job during the Leverage crew's downtime.
- And the promo for "The Queen's Gambit Job" reveals that according to Eliot's file, he once 'crawled three miles through a sewer to kill the head of Al-Qaeda in Yemen'. I think we can call this one confirmed.
- Confirmed all over the place with the season five, he has both mentioned scrubbing logos off helicopter when he'd gone...fishing. For fish. He also worked for a PMC doing very, very bad things and worked as one of Vance's now illegal "little dance teams." Previously he worked with Vance in the service together and "got his hands dirty." There is literally no more confirmation without Eliot saying "I used to be black ops."
- But this would certainly explain how she knows the intricacies of nobility and has been able to masquerade as royalty rather successfully. It's nothing you just do as you need time to learn from models. I was thinking more on the lines that this family are nobility AND also happen to be a family of con artists. If your family's been at it for generations, Sophie is just carrying on the "family" business so to speak. I thought of the Countess more to have been a family member and that "William" was her husband the Count. They might have raised her, Sophie dutifully married the Duke of Hanover, and then she went on with her con business...breaking William's heart.
- Leverage: Redemption confirms that Sophie really did marry the Duke of Hanover, whom she'd met in her younger years while working grifts among high society, having genuinely fallen in love with him.
- The Countess may be a grifter herself who became a countess under similar circumstances (by marrying the Earl of Kensington, for love or for a job), befriended Sophie in that setting, and helped out a young grifter in over her head by claiming to have known her as a child and legitimizing her cover.
Alternately...
- It is possible for a woman to hold a peerage outright (referred to as a duchess suo jure), but these are exceptions. The letters patent creating the peerage must explicitly allow a female heir of the body (aka a blood descendant of the original holder) to inherit; they can be amended, but it is relatively rare. It seems more plausible that if Sophie was really a duchess, it was by marriage.
- Also worth noting that the Duchy of Hanover is fictional, and may well have been created to allow both male and female heirs to inherit. However, the fact that she identifies herself as the eighteenth Duchess of Hanover implies that the duchy was created some three hundred years ago, at which point this would not have been completely out of the question, but certainly not a normal arrangement.
- Perhaps the Countess was a real relative of Sophie, and William was the Duke of Hanover (or more likely, given everyone's relative ages at the time of the relationship, the heir to the duchy) and a family friend or the son of a family friend. Thus all three have relatively close relationships, and the relationship between the Countess and William was probably heightened after Sophie left him. Thus Sophie really is royalty by birth and a duchess by marriage, and no dueling cons were necessary.
- The two being actual relatives, or at least having a strong personal relationship in which at most one of them is a con artist, is strongly supported by the fact that their intimate, personal conversation takes place without anyone involved in the job to hear them. If they both knew it was an act, there's no reason to keep it up without Keller around. So there must have been at least some kind of relationship that one or both of them believes is/was real.
- Leverage: Redemption confirms that Sophie legitimately married the Duke of Hanover, also confirmed to be William, and wasn't the Duchess herself by birth or otherwise.
- Hinted at in the fourth season's finale: "You know I have a gun." - "I know. That's what makes it fair."
- ....actually Sophie Devereaux. (Because someone had to posit the possibility.)
- Jossed As of The Inside Job we know it is a six letter name that ends in "a"
- Sophia.
- Un-Jossed. Word of God says that Sophie didn't actually enter her name into the keypad on John Rogers' say so. He didn't want to give any actual clues to Sophie's real name.
- Jossed As of The Inside Job we know it is a six letter name that ends in "a"
- ....something we're never actually going to learn.
- Alternately they know one another and have worked together in the past.
- Jossed. The series never did a casino episode.
- I agree. And in the first season, he kept trying to stop her from getting involved with Nate.
- As of The Last Dam Job, it seems to be mutual.
- Word of God (possibly jokingly) states that they would be dating in Season 6, if it had aired.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation was in its fifth season when that came out. Either Hardison is one of those "Ruined FOREVER!" fanboys, or Wesley and Seven were played by someone else in the Leverage-verse (like someone else starred in Avatar in the Bones-verse).
- Jossed in "The Last Dam Job" when Cha0s himself references TNG.
- Double Jossed - after having half the Star Trek franchise on his show, and a character named Willie Riker in an episode known as "The First Contact Job". Word of God has just stated that that he's calling TV Tropes Different World, Different Movies to solve the Celebrity Paradox and saying that Star Trek had a slightly different cast and character list.
- Jossed in "The Last Dam Job" when Cha0s himself references TNG.
- Would be a Moment of Awesome!
- Then it's also a Limbo for Star Trek characters, which is why Seven of Nine and Data get to be fully human and "normal". Even Wesley Crusher is now a hacker instead of a child prodigy/chosen one.
- Don't forget that Quark is now a lecherous lush legal consulting Doctor who is on the US no-fly List, Dr. Phlox becomes a Love Sick Security Guard who most of the team (except Nate) think is a Super Genius in 'The Rashomon Job', and Riker is a random guy in a neck brace in the Waiting Room with Nate in 'The Snow Job'.
- With the help of Lt. Bonanno.
- "Doucherman" in addition to having his company ruined and being hauled off to federal prison, the man stuck in high school had his night of rubbing his success in the faces of his school peers ruined by the team. He's also the one that tipped off Jack Hurley to what the team does.
- Right theory, wrong mark. Dubenich is the one who came back. Of course, it's always possible that Duberman could also come back. We shall see.
- When Eliot fought Quinn in 'The First David Job', there was no personal recognition between the two and Quinn didn't hesitate to just keep attacking Eliot while he was down. Quinn was clearly just there to be paid for taking out his target (and because he liked hurting people, any people). But Eliot recognizes Roper (played by Urijah Faber) and calls him by name in 'The Carnival Job', and Roper likewise mocks his opponent as if its It's Personal ("The great Eliot Spencer, heh"), and keeps letting Eliot get back up after he's knocked him down instead of just finishing Eliot off when he has the chance. It wasn't just enough for Roper to beat Eliot, he had to defeat him. So I'm definitely calling old martial arts rival here, and why build that kind of thing up onscreen if you're never going to use the guy again? And since Roper is clearly not the brains of any operation, if he shows up later it'll be as part of some other team that somebody is putting together to go after Leverage. And he'll be glad to take the job cheap because it'll give him another shot at Eliot.
- The problem with that theory is that when Eliot fought Roper he had just gotten hit in the head by a carnival ride and was still able to take him down. His fight with Quinn was on much more level ground, so in theory so long as Quinn has been making sure to do plenty more training since season one he'd have a much better chance against Eliot in a rematch than Roper would have.
- Level ground? Quinn? Quinn started that fight by sucker-punching Elliott and then kicking in his ribs while he was down. Basically, the man supplied his own carnival ride.
- Hmmm...tough choice. Quinn's the better fighter but is Only in It for the Money. Roper's obviously got some sort of personal stake in beating Eliot and would thus make a better bad guy from an emotional angle. Is it too much to ask that we see them both again? Maybe there could be some sort of "Eliot Spencer Revenge Squad." They could both be in it, along with The Butcher of Kiev. As for Roper or Quinn needing to put up a better fight in the future they could always bring a weapon next time. Also, just because somebody beat you once under one set of circumstances, doesn't make beating you again under a different set of circumstances any easier.
- The problem with that theory is that when Eliot fought Roper he had just gotten hit in the head by a carnival ride and was still able to take him down. His fight with Quinn was on much more level ground, so in theory so long as Quinn has been making sure to do plenty more training since season one he'd have a much better chance against Eliot in a rematch than Roper would have.
- Confirmed, Nate's dad dies, although the team gets out of with their location burned, but otherwise unscathed.
- Unless Sterling comes to their aid, because Sterling. Always. Wins.
- Or one of his foster siblings, for that matter. Unless Hardison uses the Royal "We", his Nana took care of more than one kid. Then take the Sibling Trope of your choice and go with it. (And god forbid that siblings turns out to be a white woman he happens to meet in secret. This would be so clichéd and yet so fitting.)
- Hardison’s foster sister is confirmed to be a new team member in Leverage:Redemption
- Hardison could be a son of Hephaestus.
- Even if not, it makes a GREAT idea for a Scion chronicle.
- The backstory doesn't really line up, though.
- If they both fell off the dam at the same time (as implied), then there would only be one splash, since they'd fall at the same rate and hit the water at the same time.
- Confirmed.
- Jossed
- Jossed by Leverage: Redemption.
Maybe that wasn't entirely coincidental. Perhaps Billy and Alec were also brothers (or half-brothers) who got put into the foster care system young. Either the system split them up or Nana couldn't taken both of them in, and since he wasn't very old, Hardison has few memories of his older brother.
As to why no one makes the connection that they're really related:
- Billy never really interacts with Hardison
- Many years have passed since they last saw each other
- It was an intense situation with Billy trying to prove his innocence and the Leverage team trying to get Nate back so no one had time to pause and think about it
- "'Age of the Geek', baby!"
- "You're adorable."
- "I'm not at liberty to discuss that with you."
First, realize this entire episode was multiple layers of con...and every single flashback is suspect. And then realize we have an entire missing year in Sterling's life, when he first started working for Interpol.
What if Sterling was working on the black book investigation, and got pissed when it got shut down under him? And Sterling, of course, never loses. He could have stolen the files at any time, but that would have been obvious. So the entire purpose of the team's song and dance was to present a reason for Agent Casey to cover up the theft. The reason being that she (and Sterling, at least it looks like) so badly screwed up security that to admit what had happened would ruin their career.
Afterwards, after Sophie drives off, Sterling's going to stand there while Agent Casey 'convinces' him that not only do they need to cover up the entire thing, but not even mention what the team was after. The official story will be that there was just a security breach of people entering the building, which was quickly discovered and they were chased out. And afterwards the server room was checked routinely but nothing was missing and there's no sign of entry. (They will probably put an empty hard drive in place.)
A few points:
- It's Sterling that tells Casey to wave the coroner van drivers through security, and then he immediately distracts everyone by, somehow, knowing to get them to count the bodies and sending everyone elsewhere.
- And he is also the one to explain 'They'll be hiding in the audience' to the Interpol agents at the end. Why does he think that? Why that oddly specific and wrong instruction? He knows it's their play, they are the people running it, so logically they could be hiding anywhere within the show. Cast, crew, ushers, whoever. He already 'knew' Sophie had played Lady Macbeth at the matinee, and he knows the exit is backstage, which makes it much easier to get to, duh, backstage than into the audience. But he just tells security to look at the audience.
- The plan for Nate to distract Sterling from noticing the team entering and exiting the server room by staring at him seems a bit dubious. Even if Sterling hadn't guessed the team would use that enter, he sure as hell could guess Parker would attempt to disguise herself as security to exit. And, indeed, by the end, we can see the staring contest was over, so there's no way he'd fail to notice the team exiting. (So what was the staring contest about? Nate knowing that if Sterling was planning on double-crossing them, that would be the moment to do it.)
- In fact, sending a dozen people into a room with no other exits and no real hiding places except behind some shelves is so silly it's almost impossible for Sterling to have thought it was a good idea. Parker is literally imprisoned if she's in there. Send one guy in, lock the door immediately behind him. They'll quickly know if Parker is in there.
- Sterling has seen them use a remote control van before, so the idea he'd just blithely accept that their van dove into the river and they mostly drowned is a bit odd. (Granted, his assumption would be 'they faked their deaths by driving a remove control van into the river', when actually they faked the entire van crash from top to bottom, but he'd still check.)
- Most importantly of all, this is the only time that Sterling has interacted with the team and he hasn't come out ahead. Which violates a basic premise of the show. The most logical assumption is that we are wrong about what he wanted.
- And Nate could have presented the coverup option, at the end, to Sterling in that manner. He could have said 'If you want to come out of this with your job intact, you need to cover up that we succeeded.'. Because Sterling will do anything for his own self-interest. But Nate didn't say that, because it wasn't Sterling he was trying to convince...it was Agent Casey. (So instead Nate presented the moral reasons to cover it up, and lets her figure out the 'also it means I won't get fired' thing herself, or Sterling, playing the amoral bastard that he is, can present that if she doesn't.)
- Additionally, it's implied at one point that the team has been working for months, doing research and planning for this job. A theatre's season is released almost a year before the first rehearsals begin, so just to get Sophie's troupe in the theater across the street would require a lot of time. If we assume that Sterling has done some work on the Black Book, and that the first time he saw the team in a year was during "The Frame-Up Job" (six episodes before the finale), it's likely he guessed that's why Nate and the gang were there. Maybe he even did some research and confirmed they had been doing cons in the area for long enough to be planning to go after the Book. Then, because Sterling never loses, he figured out some way to contact Nate and offered his assistance—he wanted to set the information on the Book free, and knew the team was his best chance at doing it. They all met up, worked out the perfect plan, and pulled it off without a hitch.
- Alternately, Sterling is the one who somehow got them on the job in the first place, without them knowing, years ago. Except he wasn't sure if they were doing it until he ran across them in Portland.
- Or possibly he did know they were already in Portland (And lied about it), which is why he was working out of there, and why he gave Nate and Sophie a lot of slack during The Frame-Up Job.
- He asks, specifically, 'Does Parker even know you got Hardison killed?' How does he know about their relationship? The last time he saw them, they weren't dating yet. The time before that, Parker and Hardison did have a bit of a moment with her jumping off the roof, which would actually be relevant here about how Parker would feel if he was dead (With her being alone and trapped.)...except Sterling was long off coms by that point.
- Sterling's odd willingness to let Agent Casey lead the investigation and discover things on her own seems rather out of character of him. In what investigation has he ever done that? Instead, he's content to let Casey figure all that out. Yes, the logical theory is that he was trying to trick Nate so he only shows up after Nate explained that it wasn't a hospital, but that doesn't explain why we don't see him investigating outside the interrogation room.
- He somehow knows Sophie is driving the van at the end. Now, the audience knows it must be her because we saw the rest of the team during the flashback to the theft. (Assuming the flashback is accurate.) But how does Sterling know it was Parker, Elliot, and Hardison that went into the server room, and not, for example, Parker and Sophie? He can't even know it was three people...the security people he's talking to just talk about the 'van drivers'. Heck, we have no evidence three of them went in except a flashback, and flashbacks are dubious evidence in this episode, so Sterling somehow knows something even the audience is not quite sure of! He supposedly believed it was just Parker until only a few seconds ago...and yet somehow when he realizes the entire thing is a con, he manages to figure out who's doing what, where? Sterling is smart, but he's not psychic!
Nuff said.