Showstopping, immaculate, glorious

The scene on Leverage where the Team made up an entire elaborate cover story only for Eliot Spencer to step forward, straighten up, roll back his shoulders and go “I’m Eliot Spencer” gaining them immediate audience

Throwing your (team’s) cover to the wind because your real identity grants you so much more leverage (hehe), perfection

Eliot Spencer has biggest dick energy. Hardison has the most golden heart energy. Parker has unchecked chaotic energy.

Leverage did so many things with what I consider a gold standard.

One of the best depictions of Found Family there ever will be.

An awesome slow-build hetero relationship that feels organic, natural,

Never putting that romance before the familial love they have for the team

And Parker is still one of my favourite aroace autistic headcanons. She is oblivious to her own feelings for Hardison. But she is never belittled for it, she doesn’t get made fun of for not being able to name/ distinguish what she feels.

And Hardison, oh my goodness Hardison. Alec Hardison is the absolutely most loving (familially and romantically) man.

He is patient with Parker. He understands she struggles to understand how she feels.

He is encouraging and never pressures her.

And “I’m here, if you want” is still one of the most wholesome pre-relationship tropes.

Pretzels.

Promise me you'll keep them safe.

Till my dying day.

Always ensure your resident hitter receives adequate enrichment to fulfil his needs.

Leverage S04E10 The Queen's Gambit Job.

Bonus:

The Rundown Job was really the OT3 episode, uh?

I knew they worked well together, that's been obvious for a while. But in an episode of just them, it really hits how in sinc they are.

Hardison and Eliot doing their little handshake after watching Parker do her acrobat thing through a lazer grid.

Eliot's first concern being to get Hardison and Parker to safety. Them refusing to let Eliot go up against a terrorist attack. Parker's line about how they change together, for better or worse.

Eliot not being scared of the terrorists attack because he has Hardison and Parker on his side and he believes in them more than anything.

Also when Eliot put his hand on the back of Hardison's neck and looked into his eyes? That was so intimate. The tension was serious with undertones of sexual. It had the same tension as Parker diffusing the bomb.

The silent communication. The celebrating each other's victories.

Eliot throwing down the crutch in favor of leaning on his partners.

I'm sure other stuff I missed, it being only my first watch through and all. But that's the stuff that stood out the most to me.

Eliot: I stay close to protect Hardison and Parker. I suppose I’m third wheeling but if that’s what it takes to keep them safe then so be it

Hardison: Eliot is our boyfriend. We take him on dates all the time

Parker: he hasn’t figured it out yet

Hardison: I suggested we tell him

Parker: but this is more fun

Hardison: yeah it is

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRvLvJAP/

Is this not the Leverage trio

absolutely it is 😭

hardison drinking nothing but orange soda is bASICALLY already canon and it's just *chef's kiss* perfect that elliot is stressing about both of their health while simultaneously successfully taking out the mark (in two ways!) (let's say that was a tranquilizer dart💀)

Parker doesn't drink that much water btw she was just Lying

MAY THE BEST OT3 WIN!!!

okay I absolutely get and adore harry being oblivious about ot3 developments, but consider:

after breanna makes it explicitly clear she’s queer in the card game job, harry starts Researching™

he’s trying to be good, be better. he likes this girl and wants to be there to support her and be her friend, someone she can trust. it doesn’t help that she’s around the same age as his daughter, who barely wants to associate with him anymore

he learns breanna is queer and dives into researching. watching TED talks in his spare time. reading ebooks on his phone in between playing roles in a con (bringing a physical book is less convenient and he doesn’t want to wave around the fact that he’s researching like he’s trying to be performative about it). he reads about legislation and book bans and wonders about how they could work their magic through a con to fix those things. he reads about asexuality and recognizes the flag colors from the sticker on breanna’s laptop, which he files away for later

he learns a lot! he has been peripherally aware of queer stuff- it’s kind of hard not to be in the 2020s, but now he is much more informed on a lot of issues. he has memorized at least 50 different labels and terms and has an index of resources in his head (and on his phone) if anyone might need them. he wants to understand the people he loves and cares about, whether it’s breanna or one of his daughter’s friends, or anyone in his life that is queer and he doesn’t know it yet. he wants to be ready and prepared to support them!

he learns about sapphicness and bisexuality and intersex rights and the gender spectrum. he learns about karyotypes and stonewall and other queer history. he learns about kink (blushing, but still reads because it’s important!) and relationship diversity… which leads him to discover the term polyamory

he tries not to actively apply the terms he has learned on the people in his life because he knows it’s wrong to assume things about other people. BUT. harry spends a few days reflecting on parker, hardison and eliot’s interactions and wonders. he thinks about the long hugs and lack of personal space and near telepathic communication not just between parker and hardison, but parker and eliot AND hardison and eliot. how parker knows how to make eliot take care of himself, how he knows when she forgets to eat because she’s so hyperfixated on planning a con. how parker jumps on his back for fun and no matter what, he always catches her. hardison’s absence is felt when he’s gone, deeply by the both of them.

it could just be a deep friendship, he knows. they have been working and living together for over a decade, of course they would be close!!! maybe they could even be queerplatonic! (another new word he learned!)

but. still. he quietly observes, watches closely, and thinks.

Some Thiefsome shots

which fucking queer sat down in the writer’s room for leverage and wrote the rundown job huh ??? HUH ???

why is hardison fist bumping his “best friend” about how hot his girlfriend is ?? why is eliot grabbing hardison by the back of neck, pulling him in with the most intense stare ever, and then doing the verbal praise equivalent of making out with him ??? eliot is an obviously traumatized self reliant prickly bastard, and yet he decides to throw away his crutches and completely rely on the other two for support ???

god take me now. leverage writers had absolutely zero business drenching this episode with all this polyamorous energy in the year of our lord 2012– hell gay marriage wasn’t even federally legal yet. they knew exactly what the fuck they were doing and i am kissing them on the mouth for it.

Somethin' I'm Good At - Alec Hardison

Watch it on Youtube

Oh my gosh it's finally done!! I've been obsessing over this video for a few days now and ahhh I'm so excited that it's finished and I can share it with people!!

And of course I know Hardison is insanely competent at anything and everything, but this song just fit his personality so perfectly, I had to make the video! No insult towards him, just a fun and silly video that I can't stop dancing along with. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

So I’m rewatching Criminal Minds for the 2nd time and last time around (2019) I had started writing a cross-over fanfic with Leverage

Using Beth Riesgraf’s characters as the connection – as in, her CM-character “Maeve” was just a cover identity for Parker at some point between the Leverage seasons

And the idea I had (and started writing) wasn’t all that huge, simply the platonic OT4 (Reid, Morgan, Garcia, JJ) walking into the Brew Pub and the OThief3 (Hardison, Parker, Eliot) all reacting accordingly

Eliot being on alert because “there are FBI agents here”

Parker freaking out because “that guy is somewhat my ex-boyfriend”

And Hardison being the heart of the family and talking sense into everyone as per usual

I’m now contemplating whether to re-start that

One of my favourite things about Leverage is in The Future Job 2x13, when the psychic does a cold read on Parker and reveals the story about her brother's accident and upsets her. I love how Nate and Tara sit her down and explain to her what happened with details, but what I love the most is the Leverage OT3 reactions.

Alec, immediately after the read:

Then when they explain it, Parker:

And Eliot, who doesn't even hesitate:

I just think they're neat and that they exhibit the exactly appropriate level of violent intent in this situation 🥰

every once in a while, when it's a quiet moment between him and one of his partners—could be anything from a stake out to a long drive in lucille to the warm moments between making love and sleep—eliot will turn to them and say, tell me something i don't know.

parker will usually tell him secrets. the bits of history that only exist between her, bunny, and now eliot. there's a lot from living on the streets, when she was young. she tells him about training with archie; eventually, she tells him what it felt like. she tells him about loneliness and not understanding and frustration and how her hands hurt when she wants to flicker them around; when he asks her why she doesn't let them, she says to ask another night. that's too big a secret to share when another's been revealed already. he does ask, and she does answer. once, she says in a shaking voice, i love you and hardison so much, and parker feels silly because duh eliot knows that, hardison knows that, but eliot heard something deeper than she could express, so he held her tight and kissed her hair as she shivered through the weight of her confession. after sharing with eliot, sometimes parker feels comfortable enough to share with hardison, peggy, sophie, or a client who needs to know they are not alone in the mess and hardship of the world. much later, the fact that parker has shared something once makes it easier to tell her shrink as she gets on SSRIs, which she seeks out after confessing to eliot that even if it had been based on a lie to grift hurley, maybe there was something to her treatment at the second act rehabilitation center that she missed. occasionally, she'll tell him about art. he listens just as patiently as anything else she decides to divulge and she loves him all the more for it.

hardison infodumps. parker didn't press eliot for what he meant the first time he asked; hardison did. eliot had shrugged, anything you wanna share. hardison nips out a testy, so if i go off about (he paused thinking of something that would surely turn eliot off) optimal simcity street design strategies, you wouldn't mind? eliot didn't back down, even when hardison went into a two-hour spiral that branched into different iterations on the concept, including rollercoaster typhoon. eliot made a few comments here and there, asked some clarifying questions now and again, but otherwise let hardison rail on. the next time, the question was framed as what you working on? but the effect was the same. eventually, hardison stopped hesitating and started looking forward to these monologue sessions. hardison doesn't think anything of them other than he's got some quality time with his partner, until one day on a job with some leverage international trainees, eliot manages (elle woods style) to untangle the lie at the heart of a condo scam with a few pointed questions about the plumbing. when one of the trainees asked how the hell he knew that, hardison expects to hear over the comms how eliot once dated a plumber or an architect; instead, eliot scoffs, you met my partner. genius knows a little of everything. which is when hardison remembers once infodumping about sprinkler systems. eliot gets the tightest of hugs when he gets home for truly listening to hardison.

in the lonely hearts club job leverage asks the question "does romantic love exist?" and answers it by having eliot buy parker a venus fly trap on hardison's behalf, expecting no recognition and revealing eliot remembers a throwaway comment parker made on their second job together.

we all know this.

but was anybody going to tell me hardison already had a browser window open looking for restaurants to buy eliot in portland in response at the start of the episode immediately after that? or was i supposed to figure it out on a rewatch all by myself?!