Eliot Spencer - Tumblr Posts - Page 2

Somethin' I'm Good At - Alec Hardison

Watch it on Youtube

Oh my gosh it's finally done!! I've been obsessing over this video for a few days now and ahhh I'm so excited that it's finished and I can share it with people!!

And of course I know Hardison is insanely competent at anything and everything, but this song just fit his personality so perfectly, I had to make the video! No insult towards him, just a fun and silly video that I can't stop dancing along with. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

i like how leverage throws in random details that are never elaborated on. hardison gets himself a front row seat at the oscars each year, but we only see that in a single throwaway flashback. parker broke a guy's fingers for touching her and it wasn't even a plot point, it was just one in a series of memories of stabbings and so forth. eliot continually knows extremely specific information which implies some extremely specific scenarios he's been in. the more we find out about sophie's backstory, the more questions it raises about what the hell is wrong with her. and the more we find out about nate's backstory, the more questions it raises about what the hell is wrong with him.

One thing about Eliot is he's gonna go so in on a grift. A wedding caterer? Get the fuck outta his way he's got two hundred guests to cook for and these canapes aren't gonna plate themselves. A baseball player? Fuck the con he gets a damn sandwich named after him. A supermarket worker? He's doing his full day of work AND THEN starting a union uprising first chance he gets. Sophie is "the grifter" but Eliot is the one who can match her freak for commiting to a character so hard it becomes your new personality for the next week

Either Chris Downey or John Rogers has said on The Official Leverage: Redemption After Show that they knew from the moment they saw the “we provide leverage” scene at the end of the first episode that it would be the ending of the show as well but with Parker in Nate’s seat.

Rewatching the series there is TOTAL foreshadowing that Nate was grooming Parker from the start. He always calmly takes the time to explain what con is what, give little coaching moments (ie “The Order 23 Job”), and towards the end of the series easily lets Parker come up with the plan and follows her lead implicitly (“The Blue Line Job”).

It’s a lot of fun to rewatch and spot the little moments once you know what to look for.

Things I hadn't noticed in the Nigerian Job till my 6th re-watch-

The thing is, Parker does go out on the original count Nate starts on the rooftop, not the one he restarts after Hardison comments. That is her following the plan. The original plan.

Now when Hardison has Eliot at gunpoint in the abandoned factory Dubenich assembled them in, when Nate asked Eliot why he didn't look worried Eliot says 'safety's on', but Hardison doesn't fall for it. It's only when NATE says it he goes to check and gets the gun taken away. He gets the doubt from NATE, not Eliot. Because Nate is the (former) white knight, the straight and narrow, the Not-thief in their merry little band. They show us from the beginning just how powerful Nate's role is, having played both sides of the coin

Thirdly, Nate approaches a pissed off and cheated-out-of-her-money Parker a lot different than he treated the other two. He talks to Eliot in a levelheadedness he knows a professional hitter and extraction specialist like him would have. And he treats Hardison with quick and easy ruses so he's appeased and disarmed for the moment allowing him a moment to calm down. But PARKER, he treats with care and patience. Not condescension. Just a healthy respect for the fact that she is the best at what she does and the fact that she's not gotten her money yet makes her unpredictable and with her skillset nearly unwavering at her stance.

Idk man, every time I watch this show I'm blown away at the details and characterizations

Re: the leverage tipping "discourse", here's my thoughts on the characters' tipping behavior--

Nate: tips 15%

Sophie: tips well as herself but if her persona for a con wouldn't she doesn't

Eliot: always tips well and leaves a note sometimes

Parker: 50/50 if she remembers to tip, but when she does she will leave a vaguely suspicious roll of cash. She gets better at remembering as she gets more exposure to the service industry

Hardison: my man doesn't tip *in cash*. He doesn't have a wallet, and his phone is plenty to let him divert company funds into giving the employees a raise. It's the age of the geek, baby, and that means ensuring a living wage long-term and making up for the assholes who inevitably won't tip at all. He's still gonna rile up Nate and Eliot given the opportunity though

Okay but think of the comedic potential of the Leverage OT3 having been together for years by the time of Redemption, and at one point the others find out.

Breanna would be like "oh my god how did I not see that". Sophie would go "oh that explains a lot of things". (And yeah, it would also be on board for her to know, but one, it's been established that unconventional relationships are kind of a blind spot for her, and two, Parker is weird enough and Eliot's act is good enough that it would help throw her off the scent.)

(Harry wouldn't care much probably.)

And the possibilities of how it could happen. Like. Hardison is up in space, Eliot and Parker are doing something for a con, they see someone coming, Parker is like "quick, let's make out", and throws herself on Eliot. Eliot is like "no, not the lips", but he goes along with it, and then when they're in the clear, he's like "why do you always bite my lips? you didn't have to bite my lips", to which Parker replies "I was playing a character. Clara is a lip biter", and Eliot goes on an angry rant about the whole thing, but also the others overhear it, and Breanna checks in like "Eliot always says it? how often do you guys make out on cons?" and Parker goes "Eliot's not talking about the cons."

OR Parker is upset by something, and leaves the room, and Eliot goes after her, and when he doesn't resurface for a while Breanna goes after him, and they're kissing, and Eliot shouts at her to get out, but she's like "Okay. This is not cool. Eliot, you're super scary and I can see you're pissed at me right now, but I gotta call Hardison," and they're both like no, you don't have to do that, but he's already on call, and Breanna tells him everything. Eliot is facepalming and sighing the whole time. Parker is just like "what? they had to find out eventually." And then Breanna finishes, everyone is dead silent, waiting for his reaction, and Hardison is like "So y'all wasted my time with this? [five-minute rant about how busy he is]" Breanna is flabbergasted. "So Eliot makes out with your girlfriend and that's your reaction?" So Hardison just goes "Damn sis I better damn hope that when my girlfriend is upset our boyfriend would go and comfort him. Get yo act together." He hangs up, camera cuts to Breana, her face frozen while trying to process the information. Then she just goes "HOLY SH-" [commercial break]

The thing about Eliot Spencer is that, whether or not he chooses to go through with it, he always has an eye to 'what is the most annoying thing I can do in this situation.' He only chooses to do the annoying thing about 15% of the time--usually Hardison or Parker has the "annoy the team members" job on lock, a good 20% of the time it's Sophie or Nate, and the rest of the time he's being a professional on job--but the man is always aware of what he could do which would be the most likely to annoy people.

Poke Nate's ego about Sophie having a team before them? On it. Hug Hardison in an annoyingly back-slapping way when his almost-girlfriend refused him? Of course. Giggle and ignore Sophie when she tells him to kill a cockroach? Abso-friggin-lutely. Dead-pan 'yes, and' Parker when she's asking about conspiracy theories? Sign him up.

The man is a little shit who is (unfortunately) also a professional and he loves messing with people.

(^ man two seconds from raining irritation on an unsuspecting mark)

the dichotomy between an attack dog vs a guard dog is like. an attack dog is sent out to carry out violence. it's starved and abused to ensure aggression. it has no other purpose outside of Attacking at the whim of its master. it's constantly on guard because a threat can come from any direction at any time. it's the dog chained up in a basement that's only set loose when there's something to kill.

but a guard dog is protecting instead of attacking. instead of being sent out to fight, it comes home to defend the house. it may be constantly on watch for an external threat, but it is content to lay with the sheep until a wolf comes to the door. the guard dog has a warm place to sleep, and is well fed and treated like a member of the household. it's free to leave at any time but it stays to protect the house anyway. do u get it. do u understand.

My favourite Eliot Spencer character trait is Friend-shaped To Children. Nate can't look at children without crying. Sophie is politely baffled at the concept of Humans Who Don't Understand Complicated Psychological Concepts Because They Are Literally 6 Years Old. Hardison has older brother energy, which is to say children are comfortable in his presence but they don't actively seek him out, unless of course to play an epic prank akin to the great tradition of Ring and Ditch or Spell ICUP. Parker will try to protect any child she can, but under-12s without autistic criminal intent don't really connect with her, unless of course they are Traumatized™.

Eliot Spencer is continuously sought out by children of all ages. Traumatized or not? Does not matter. Literally baby or cool teen? Does not matter. They will come up to him while he is glaring daggers or actively planning to murder someone and ask him to hold their hands through the security check at the airport. And you know what? He does. He holds their hand every single time.