You kids stop fighting or we will turn this van around
My favorite thing about this is that everyone Knows™️ what Eliot is capable of, but they tease him anyway because they know it’s safe for them to do so. They know that not only will Eliot never hurt them, but they can safely test that in a way that shows how deeply they trust him to never cause them harm.
It’s like… how do I say this. They poke him with a stick to show him that they know he won’t bite, he isn’t violence incarnate. He’s family, and family gets on each other’s nerves and they tease each other, and they’re showing him he’s family.
Parker first, because she’s the one who runs into danger with glee. Eliot snitchesinformsthe team dad Nate about it, expecting him to reprimand her. Instead, Nate also pokes Eliot. On the surface, it says “you’re our trusted teammate, we get have fun with you.” But on a deeper level, it says “She’s right, you’re not dangerous to us. We trust you, and you’re family.”
Nate and Parker are always very in sinc when it comes to pushing people the right way (it’s The Mastermind in them), and their love language is pushing people in a way that brings them closer, in a way that reveals how close they’ve already gotten.
Because there’s only a handful of people Eliot will let touch his bruises, his most tender spots, and walk away with their hands intact. And those people are all in the room with him.
My other favorite thing about this is how childish it is. They’re like kids in kindergarten, with Parker being a little shit and Eliot telling on her to the teacher Nate. These two, the ones with the darkest pasts and most unspeakable traumas in the crew.
Where else could they have acted like this? We’ve seen Eliot with the men he considers his friends: with them it’s all macho posturing, war stories, serious professionalism, or some combination of all three. He hasn’t been a kid in a long, long time, in a way that’s measured by more than just years.
And Parker, as far as we know, never had anyone for very long. She lost her brother young, was betrayed by those kids who taught her to steal cars, and she was moved around too much in the foster care system to make lasting friends. She would not have been like this with Archie. She even called him “sir.” There was love in that relationship, but not much room for playfulness.
The way that they are with each other, the way that they are with this team, is indescribably precious. When they poke and prod at each other, when they tease Hardison, when all three of them get so deep into fun but impractical plans like the Batcave that Nate and Sophie have to step in, they’re getting a little bit of their childhood back. They’re losing a little bit of the weight they carry. And I’m glad we get to see it.
I can’t believe Eliot was married for over nine years and didn’t notice.
Anyone want to elaborate on that?? Orr??
Eliot Spencer is the king of denial.
He has spent the last eight years after the end of Leverage with Parker and Hardison, have gone on to run a brewpub (that Hardison bought for him), they have a “gigantic house that they all share” (per John Rogers), the food trucks are basically Eliot AND Hardison’s combined babies, is ridiculously domestic with both Hardison and Parker in every scene the share together (the OT3 as well as Hardison + Eliot / Parker + Eliot), is quite hesitant to pursue a relationship (The Double Edged Sword Job) and only “seems happy” (Eliot’s description of Parker’s assessment) (The Hurricane Job) when he is in that other relationship.
Dude is fucking MARRIED in everything but name to Hardison and Parker and does not realize it.
Think about Eliot FINALLY breaking down and conceeding the annual winter argument of:
“You don’t… you just don’t take coworkers to family holidays, Hardison! That’s… That’s a couplething!”
“Uh, no, it says it right there in the title, fam-uh-ly holidays, see, family. When’s the last time you been back to your apartment to sleep, huh?”
“That’s not-”
“When’s the last time we ate a meal together you didn’t cook?”
“Because if I didn’tthen you’d never-”
“How many handknitted sweaters did Nana send over this year, Parker?”
“Three sweaters.”
“Three sweaters. One that fits Parker here just perfect, doesn’t it babe?”
“Mmnnn,snugly.”
“And this one here, doesn’t it just really bring out my, my shoulders, and my waist ‘n stuff and like-”
“Ooooh yeah, very dashing figure. For sure.”
“Except, you see this one here… It’s way too big for Parker, but the shoulders don’t quite line up the same on me, and it’s a lil short right… right here at the waist, and-”
“Comeon, man, she probably just-”
“So we’re basically all living together above in the restaurant we own, you’re cooking all our sit-down meals, and my Nana - who hasn’t even met you - is including you in our annual tradition.”
“Sure sounds like family to me!”
“Mmn. Boom. Thank you mama. Right there.”
“Damnit.Hardison.”
“Whatever, man. Talkin’ bout coworkers. What’s wrong with you. We ain’t just been "coworkers” since we chainsawed a hole through Nate’s old apartment wall. Put the damn sweater on and get in the van.“
And they’re almost a full two hours late because even tho he won’t say it Eliot is desperate for this woman to like him. To approve of him. To impress her. For reasons he can’t unpack right now.
So he’s rifling through his ENTIRE closet trying to pick out an outfit that makes him look as small and unassuming and innocent and gentle as possible while somehow still seeming approachable and well-socialized - like when he’s on the grift.
When he comes down, Parker almost says something - taking one look at him and frowning and murmuring to Hardison about how they want to take Eliot to meet Nana, not whatever character he’s apparently come up with in the 73 minutes it took him to get ready - but Hardison stops her.
"Small victories, mama,” he whispers to her and Eliot does one last perimeter check of the locks and security system before leaving for the week. “We’re just shipping him down there, so that’s fine for now. Trust me, we’ll let Nana and The Cousins do all the hard work prying him outta that shell.”
Rewatching the pilot and watching how, when he sees how much that score made him, Eliot’s tucking his head and just staring at that number and laughing - not throw his head back, but like the kind where you’re almost fighting it but not quite not really, tight but wide grin that’s not really open but still splits your face and makes your cheeks hurt, and almost manic about it, and thinking bout someone kiss this man so I don’t have to, and like
I know metatextually they hadn’t even STARTED working on that plot yet but like
Knowing what we know later, i can’t help but think back to that moment and Eliot staring at that number and thinking holy shit. this is it. this is as free as I’m gonna get.
Because shit was getting tight, as a freelance retrieval specialist I think. Eliot’s name was… starting to collect black marks. Failures.
He couldn’t retrieve the monkey. He couldn’t retrieve the dagger of Aku Abi. The community talks. Who knows what else had gone wrong in the year between the Rashomon flashback and the Nigerian Job? Nate said he chased them all, at one point or another. For Eliot, since Nate didn’t know about the Moreau connection, that would’ve been in his freelance retrieval phase.
And Nate’s good.
How many jobs did Eliot lose to him? How did his reputation fare, after those last couple failures? Did some of the higher ups know about his connection to Moreau? Did Damien have him blacklisted from certain circles, keeping him from taking more lucrative jobs with people who knew his full skillset, leaving him with the penny-ante players paying him well below what he should be getting (“why are you sending second-rate thugs after me?” perhaps because that’s the price range you have to work in now, that’s the only tax bracket that will hire you, the kind that hires second-rate)?
Had Eliot been considering it, until that moment? The possibility that Damien was right? That he would, inevitably, come crawling back after failing on his own? Maybe he could make it another couple months… a year or two even, if this success could bolster his flagging rep -
(there’s a moment in the hospital, when all seems lost. they’ve been busted. the job that was supposed to save him doomed him. he’d find his way out, but after this colossal failure who’s gonna hire him? he resigns himself to it happen sooner rather than later. then Parker gets Nate a phone, and he watches the man work a miracle)
- but he could see it looming on the horizon. The encroaching fear of knowing what was at the end of the road for him, the inevitable return to…
Then he opens that envelope. Sees that payout. TheScore.
And in one singular fucking moment, one fell swoop, it comes crashing in on him that he’ll never have to work for Moreau again.
Hell, he’ll never have to take a single job he doesn’t want to again. He can pick and choose his clients. Pick and choose his methods. The non-lethality that he was fearing was becoming a liability, just like Damien had said it would, suddenly no longer an issue. He could choose jobs he knew he could handle, instead of jumping at whatever was offered to him and hoping it worked out.
All because of this job. The one he’d hope would get him by just a little longer. The one that for a moment he feared had ruined him.
Because of this team. This ragtag little group of people he was trying so hard not to enjoy the company of. Not to get attached to, even after such a short amount of time.
Because of Nate Ford.
So when Hardison calls him up later, with a story about another job and vet who needs their help, there’s no hesitation in the “yeah, I’ll be there.”
Eliot had already decided the moment he saw the caller ID.
I love how he tries to argue . He’s really attached to the idea that he’s this tough guy that doesn’t worry incessantly about his family to the point it probably keeps him up at night but damn if he won’t go to his grave rather than ADMIT THIS OUT LOUD and instead choose to grouse and grump like the big angry goose that he is about all this.
Look, bud, your big sister, wife, and husband Sophie, Parker, and Hardison know damn well that you’re both TOUGH and SENSITIVE AS ALL FUCK and they love you for it so stop trying to pretend you aren’t you big grumpy marshmallow.
Okay maybe he’s making a show of it in the 2nd and 3rd gifs for Breanna and Harry because surely THEY think he’s a tough guy without the marshmallow bits.
Of course, Breanna totally knows and is making a list of extortion material for Eliot with all his soft moments that he thinks that Breanna hasn’t picked up on. She will share that list later with Alec and Alec will be so goddamned proud of his little sister for taking up the mantle of annoying Eliot when he was away.
As for Harry, he’s totally picked up on the fact that Eliot’s a bit soft for his family but to him that makes sense so he would never question it. (Also, he’s not in the habit of questioning the team hitter because, wow that would be stupid.)
“The thing I’m sad about is I ran out of time. I had a longer sequence of Christian teaching her how to use the knife and it was just really sweet ‘cause Christian’s really good with kids. You got it, you understood, it’s just you understood he finds refuge in talking to children, you know? That he can be himself in a way, talking to children. Both the character and Christian to a great degree, having known him for a bunch of years now. He’s great with kids.” - John Rogers, The (Very) Big Bird Job DVD Commentary
