Oooh can I ask another one? The scene where Nate tells Elliot not to get violent and Elliot gets all hurt and offended but then it’s sterling and he beats his ass?
One of the funniest scenes in the entire show honestly.
Especially since Eliot’s right. He’s not overly violent. Compare him to any other brute in any other show - and Eliot is damn near reserved. He enjoys fighting, makes a skill of it, but he’s not excessively violent, and if he can end a fight quickly, he does. I think the only times they actively play up Eliot being violent is once in the Double-Blind Job, which was played for a laugh, the Tap-Out Job and the French Connection Job - where Eliot immediately shows that both were a farce. (An argument can also be made for the Big Bang Job’s whole…thing with the floor sliding and explosions, but hey, it’s a campy ass show. It needs a campy ass scene. And even then - when he takes out Chapman? It’s dramatic, but efficient. And Chapman’s a child killer. So. You know. Shooting him in the face is appropriate.)
So he has every right to be offended when Nate asks him not to do anything violent. Like, what the hell is he talking about? Eliot is the pinnacle of self-control - literally. Like, that’s a main character point.
…And it goes right out the goddamn window as soon as Sterling talks. And, you know? I really, really can’t blame him. Sterling hasn’t even shown the full lengths he’ll got to be an asshole yet. But, Sterling’s part of the reason they had to break up at the end of the first season. He’s part of the reason Eliot lost one of the first stable things he’d had in awhile. Sterling put all of them in very real, very physical danger - and that’s a blow to Eliot’s pride in his work, on top of, you know, those being his friends.
On top of that. Even by early season 2, we know Eliot has a very strict way of carrying himself, and dealing with other people - not necessarily a code of honor, but something pretty close. He literally only puts up with Nate’s bullshit because he’s an ‘honest man’ - and as soon as that shiny veneer starts falling off? Eliot gets in his face a lot easier. So, Sterling? A version of Nate without even the fresh coat of paint?
Yeah, that’s the kind of man Eliot beats into the dirt and leaves there.
Sterling has pushed every single one of Eliot’s buttons.
Violence is a totally appropriate response here.
And you know what’s really great?
Yeah, Eliot beats the crap out of him - but. Sterling’s still walking after. We know by now Eliot can put down most men with a single hit when he wants to. Even ‘uncontrolled’, Eliot isn’t doing damage he doesn’t mean to. He’s pissed at Sterling, rightfully so, and he’s showing it - but he’s not putting Sterling down, because that’s not the appropriate response.
So, even when the show plays up the ridiculousness of what Eliot does, and the violence he can dish out - it’s never not the appropriate response, and it ends when it’s supposed it.
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