Care to overanalyze that scene where Eliot goes to visit his dad but didn't get an answer? I think it was season 5, and that scene... it just hit me in the feels so bad. I think it was the only time in the series he ever cried.
The one where everything hurts? Absolutely
And yes, season 5, the Low Low Price job!
And it is indeed the only time we see him cry (he does get red-eyed in the Big Bang Job, but not quite as much).
So, first thing’s first - I’m glad they went the way they did. I’m...okay not glad he didn’t get to see his dad. But I am glad that the show went with that option, if that makes sense?
Like, it sounds mean, I get that. A happy ending where he sees his dad and they mend their relationship would’ve been great.
But goddamn, no other show does character consistency like Leverage.
And Eliot showing up out of nowhere and mending things with his dad? Just...doesn’t fit. It’s a nice warm and fuzzy - but it doesn’t fit. Eliot, for all intents and purposes, walked out on his family. Walked out on his fiance (”promise ring” bull, Aimee thought she was getting married. And she doesn’t strike me as a woman prone to exaggeration).
He walked out. Now I’m not saying what he did is unforgivable, or any shit like that. He was 18 (at least, maybe up to 21, we never get a good date, but it’s heavily implied that he left really young and as soon as he could). He was a kid. And kids fuck up.
But - by his own admission - the kid that walked out? He died.
The Eliot that walks up on that porch is not the Eliot that left. And that’s important. There’s a really big difference in the grown-up kid that walked out coming home again, and a stranger trying to take his place.
And I think that’s why this is when we see him react like he does.
It’s him realizing exactly what’s been lost. Because it doesn’t matter what you build out of the ruins. It doesn’t matter what you craft yourself into. If you’re happy, in a better place, or at least, in a place where you can be happy again. Where you started is always going to be important, and realizing that it’s just...gone? Hurts.
But I think it’s something Eliot - this Eliot, our Eliot - ...not ‘needed’, but something that was necessary. Especially after he gave that speech to Nate in the Last Dam Job. This is Eliot dealing with the fallout of that exact speech, in a slightly different context.
This is Eliot realizing that something vital broke, years ago, and it can’t be fixed. Something that is entirely essential to Eliot’s character as a whole. The entire Moreau arc? Was the idea that, even if you can’t make up for what you’ve done, you can move forward.
On a hopeful note - I don’t think Eliot would’ve been able to completely and totally commit to Leverage International without something like this happening. Without something that swept the rug out from under his feet and made him actually look at himself, and where he is, and where he’s going.
