Okay I saw a post like a week ago that casually mentioned that Leverage: Redemption decanonized ot3 Hardison/Parker/Eliot and I really don’t think it does.
Like I get the whole thing with Eliot dating Maria makes it complicated but when was any part of a relationship with the three of them going to be simple?
- “Besides we already measured your head for the robot bodies.” Y’all. Hardison and Parker have access to where Eliot sleeps. If that’s not an indicator of intimacy for Eliot I don’t know what is. And his response of “well if you’ve already measured” to accept that strange little token of their commitment to him beyond natural lifespans? 😍
- Repeated reaffirmations of their dedication to taking care of each other.
- After Hardison comes back from one of his long ass trips and Sophie walks into the room right after a Hardison/Eliot hug saying, “have we gotten past the part where Hardison apologizes to Eliot?”
- When Eliot and Hurley are on the golf job and Hurley realizes that he needs to annoy Eliot like Hardison does to give him the chaos he needs to excel, and Eliot slips and almost “dammit Hardison”s at him. Because Hardison uses their combative, sarcastic love language to help Eliot be his best and Eliot didn’t realize he was missing that until Hurley figured it out for him.
- Literally every time Eliot makes a nerdy reference - even numbered Star Trek films, translating Klingon- and you get a glimpse of the time spent together away from the job.
It’s true that Hardison and Parker have a kind of connection that Eliot doesn’t share, but that’s true of any pair of them. Eliot and Parker have a unique connection that Hardison doesn’t share, and Hardison and Eliot have a connection that Parker doesn’t share. I think Eliot dating Maria (which is the first time we see him dating long term as opposed to one-off hook ups etc) is him exploring how it feels to have the kind of connection that Hardison and Parker have. He sees it between them, and even if it’s a totally subconscious desire, he wants to see if he is even capable of that.
It’s evident in Redemption that Eliot is still struggling to see himself as redeemable. Hardison tells Harry that every day Eliot gets up (at their shared home?) and says “I still have more to do.” And it’s clear that Hardison and Parker know they can’t convince Eliot that he is a good man; he has to come to that himself.
I get the feeling that if Eliot believed he deserved that kind of connection with Parker and Hardison, they would welcome him into that dynamic in a heartbeat. But they can’t and won’t push it on him; that would only push him away. So they meet him where he’s at and cherish him in ways he can accept. That’s why his relationship with Maria is so important. He’s learning that he can have that kind of connection; he can be vulnerable and open, and he can be loved romantically for who he is, after all that he’s done. There was no way he would have tested that out with Hardison and Parker- those relationships are too important to risk losing. But now that he knows the potential is there, maybe things will shift.
