Hi. I asked about why you liked Elliot Spencer a while back, because he was always so angry and rude to Hardison. I'm in season 5 now, and I really do like them together. I wish we'd gotten more of that kind of relationship between them earlier on. And it wouldn't have had to be immediate...but at least some more obvious, gradual transition. Because in season 5, they're great. I'm going to just assume there was some of that going on and we just never got to see it on screen. I get it now.
Hey, Anon! I'm happy to hear from you again.
I'm also happy to hear that you now understand my love for Eliot! I don't know if I agree with you that it all happened off-screen; I think we got some of the development onscreen. The Gone Fishin' Job, for example, is basically an entire episode dedicated to the Hardison/Eliot friendship. Or think about the scene at the end of S3, when Hardison and Eliot go to see Moreau, and Hardison gets pushed into the pool. That scene would not have been possible two years before, or even one year before, because they weren't at the point of trusting each other implicitly yet. And in The Long Way Down job, at the beginning of S4, Eliot casually gives Hardison a hug before he and Parker climb the mountain, which never would've happened a couple of seasons before.
Anyway.
Your ask made me think about one of my favorite characters a lot, and write about him, and then secretallie wrote this great response to my post complete with lots of gifs, and I made a new Tumblr friend. :-D So thank you!
Actually I made two new Tumblr friends, because goblinconceivable also wrote an amazing response to my post, in which Eliot's role on the team is considered, and which archetypes and stereotypes he fulfills. I'll quote the last part here because I love it so much:
In the end, for myself I define him as The Cowboy Who Stayed. Because I am obsessed with the archetypes of Westerns, particularly the notion that the Sheriff brings law and peace to a town through an act of violence. And that violence invalidates him as part of the new society such that he dies/is exiled. And hey, Eliot himself is rooted in this western ranch past. It’s where he grew up, where he fell in love, where his heart is. But also, as we saw early on, where he can never go back to, because of violence, what he did and what he’s become.
Actually, that works. Since Eliot enters in the pilot episode as the exiled Sheriff, a ragged gunslinging Cowboy, his change-of-state ending would be to find a home. True, he becomes a dedicated part of the Team early on. But we can see this as the Cowboy finding a new Town in need of law and order. It comes down to the same duality: he’s the violence aspect of the Team, which restores law and order in the world by creating it. And he holds the “creating orderly society” function of late-game Team as he helps to create the romantic relationships which by all rights should force him out. Once everyone else hooks up, he should cut and ride off into the sunset. Either into a blank future, a new Team, or by hanging up his hat and going back to his childhood home.
The last would not be a good option since it’s not forwards progress, and it was already shown he can’t go home. The first is too bleak for a character we’ve come to love, and not a tonal fit for the show. The second was what I expected, to be honest. Not necessarily a whole new Team, but I’m super shocked that it was just the three of them, we didn’t get a new face or two to indicate a new generation of Leverage was about to begin.
Yet what we get: he stays. And maybe that works best of all. Because he’s found a home, without hanging up his hat. He’s got his cause, his path to redemption, and the family he craves. People he can cook for. People who are Cowboys too.
I bolded the part that makes me tear up, every time I read it. (x)
I think, too, that if you ever go back and rewatch the whole series, you might see some of Eliot's actions, and Eliot and Hardison's interactions, in the first couple of seasons in a different light, knowing where the characters are going. I find that is usually true when I rewatch TV series, especially ones with excellent character development.
Have a great day, Anon, and write again anytime. :-)