#first ep eliot is also grifting as cerebral and nonthreatening at first which kind of only adds to the weirdness

rewatching the first episode of leverage is so funny to me because any time one of the team members goes “yeah, we trust nate because he’s an honest man” oh they have no fucking clue what they’ve just walked themselves into

onyxbird

Wait, did the crew actually say that sincerely in the pilot??? Wild. I remember Eliot saying it really sarcastically in the hospital, so my vague recollection was that they all were aware that Nate was... well, Nate, from having him pursue them in the past.

trivalentlinks

Wait, did people generally understand Eliot's hospital comment as sarcastic?

I understood that to be sincere, since Eliot had just said that he doesn't trust (isn't willing to work with) the rest of them, but he does seem genuinely willing to go along with Nate's plan at that point?

Though I seem to read sarcasm in Leverage very differently from the rest of fandom--I had always read the [Nate:] "Who here plays chess?" // [Eliot:] "I do" // [Nate:] "Sure you do" exchange as sarcastic and a little asshole-ish on Nate's part, but it seems like most of fandom takes that as Nate being genuinely respectful of Eliot's chess skills, so I may just be bad at parsing sarcasm lol

wolves-in-the-world

thrilled and delighted that we don't have consensus on this! (tagging @onyxbird just so you see this)

I'd say I read the phrase as serious but a little ironic, but I know "ironic" is one of those terms that's rarely used correctly, so goodness knows if it even works here. perhaps just "mocking."

it read to me kinda like "well, you say you're an honest man, and it's believable so far." but I also think that attitude - whatever it is - is something we don't see in eliot that often, and it could be down to just how early it is (both in-universe and out), or because things have gone very very wrong in a way we don't really see again.

theory, then: eliot works alone. he makes an exception, doesn't get paid, almost gets blown up while making sure the others get out of there too, then gets cuffed and fingerprinted while he waits for their 'leader' to wake. it's all kinda proof he should work alone, isn't it? I'm sure the others feel the same way, at least until they get out, until there's a plan for profit and revenge. and it could explain eliot's attitude, which to me didn't only show when eliot spoke that line. (I could probably find gifs, but I seem to recall he's rather deliberately casual in a situation that definitely isn't, and I suspect if he did deal with the cops as he offered, he wouldn't have stuck around for long.)

#eliot sitting there like ''you're idiots and amateurs and loose cannons and once we're out of these cuffs I'm gone'' frankly #first ep eliot is weird in so many ways and I suspect a lot of that's doylistic but I like the idea that he's sort of defensive and mocking #about the whole working-with-a-team thing before he realises that these folks are worth it #first ep eliot is ALSO grifting as cerebral and nonthreatening at first which kind of only adds to the weirdness #it's apparently fun to dig into!#the nigerian job #eliot #+#sorry to continue derailing OP I'm just delighted to actually have a thought about this #oh and trivalent I absolutely read that nate+eliot exchange as a little sarcastic too!