"But you're not a fugitive. You were released, not broken out."

“I know her… And I know her heart” 🤍

“Elliot, we need you in position we do not have any alternatives.”

“I will, I just- there’s this sad kid, I’ll wrap things up quick-“

Why is this actually such a good summary of both of their teaching styles though?

Sophie came from an environment where street smarts saved your skin, you didn't study; you did. I mean, you can't exactly learn out of a book how to take a car hit or steal a painting. Over time, she gradually refined her techniques by running scams and stealing priceless artifacts until she became the best. That's not to negate the loads of research she probably did to get as good as she is, but as we see in Tournament Job, a lot of the time she is able to con without much preparation at all.

So it makes sense when she's teaching Parker, Hardison, Harry, Breanna, and even Maggie how to grift that she doesn't actually grift on their behalf or by having them follow behind her when she plays a character. She gives them a few suggestions and lets them try it out for themselves. This also relates to non-grifting teaching as well, like when she's teaching the crew about the nature of smuggled artifacts in The King George Job. She allows for each crew member to tell their observations about the statue of Ra before she details why that's significant. With Sophie, you learn and you con by doing.

Eliot came from a sports and military background, where you receive a looooot of feedback, a lot of the time in insult or brutal honesty. Depending on the person, feedback combined with further training and repetition can lead to solid improvement. You best believe that Eliot has taken every piece of advice to heart so that he could be the best. He has cultivated his skills through many different facets, namely in black ops, retrieval assignments, and culinary school. We see evidence of the years of training and experience in every single episode. With Eliot, you learn and you con by honesty (ironically) and correction.

So again, it makes sense that Eliot's the most brutally honest out of the whole crew and uses that to his advantage when teaching. Because he calls the crew out on their individual shit, it allows for them to assess dangerous or painful situations accurately and work together to evade or conquer. They improve because of his feedback. That's not to say that Eliot is not an incredibly gifted teacher or that he doesn't tune his feedback to who he's teaching (I love how gentle he is with kids and Parker for example), but he doesn't sugarcoat to spare people's feelings. He wants them to succeed, but he's not above knocking them out in the name of showing them proper technique to do so. We see this time and time again with his interactions with Hardison and Nate.