Let’s Talk About This...
TW: child abuse
Something about this bugged me. Other than the typical, Eliot Spencer grazing over and minimizing a tramatic event, there was a hesitation in how he described getting ‘dropped off.’ And this is definitely something that I think Christian Kane took creative license on, filling in the script where it left off. But as someone who has gone through child abuse, there was something I recognized here—and it actually wasn’t the first place that I saw it.
Oh yeah, you know where I’m going with this.
To state the obvious, recognizing and dealing with child abuse is always—always—a horrible thing, and it’s expected for someone who genuinely cares to react vicerally, as Eliot did throughout the entire episode. However, there was something more, and I always thought so, but “The Fractured Job” just sealed the deal for me. Something about how Eliot recognized what Randy was going through just by seeing his back, standing next to his dad. Obviously, Eliot shows throughout the show that he’s great at reading body language, and he is very observant, but he also phased out so many times in the episode. There was a personal element here, something that Eliot recognized in Randy off of personal experience.
We were never told how old Eliot was when he was saved from or abandoned by his biological parents, just that he was young enough to be in a picture with Billy Spencer around the age of 10 or 12.
But with how he acted in “The Order 23 Job” and “The Fractured Job”… there is nothing I can think of that would convince me his story wasn’t very similar to Randy’s.
And working off of this, however his biological parents abused him, it adds so much depth to the why of how he treats kids, treats Parker.
Which leads me to point out his conversation with Randy, and how well he handles all of it: he has brief moments of intense eye contact and facial expression, that he breaks off just as fast—engaging, but not intimidating. He always is the one who looks away first.
And when Randy comes out of his shell a bit, he doesn’t bombard him with questions—he never even asks Randy directly, ever, in this conversation, if his father is the one who broke his arm—he just shows Randy that he knows, and takes the pressure off for him to tell the truth.
Which plays back into his conversation with Randy’s dad in the stairwell...
And this one line that just guts me every time:
And when he tells Randy:
“You could go up to one… and tell them what happened to your arm."
There’s this moment, this moment:
The look on his face here, made me know something was up. Yes, absolutely, Eliot is a compassionate and highly protective person, especially when it comes to kids—he would have helped Randy either way, but there’s something else here too: personal experience.
If it wasn’t obvious enough in everything else, we have this:
Hardison jump-scares him. And Parker, in “The Studio Job,” was super surprised whenever she was able to shock him, because she—cat-burglar extrodinare, was never able to sneak up on him before. And Hardison… sorry buddy, you aren't quiet.
Eliot’s there, talking to Randy, but the whole time half his mind is somewhere else.
And now I can’t get it out of my head, so I’m putting it in yours.
I can’t stop seeing Eliot, at however young an age—young—with a broken arm and bruises he keeps explaining away, because his daddy taught him how to lie. Then a young woman seeing him at the hospital—actually seeing him—and taking him home to a place where she became his mother and Billy Spencer his father. Where he later locked himself in the woodshed to get over his claustrophobia...
…all of it, something to think about, right?
