#leverage analysis

[ID: A text message that reads, "Guys I'm reading John Rogers blog post about filming the rundown job and it's got me cracking up. Part of the post is him answering fan questions, and one answer I found particularly hilarious (well, all of them are funny tbh) a user pointed out that Eliot faced down a warehouse full of trained hitters with guns and never got shot once, but when he faced a crazy scientist he got shot twice. John Rogers just said that "Dean wanted him shot. So shoot him we shall" and I LOST IT." end ID]

While the image of John Rogers and Dean Devlin conspiring to shoot Christian Kane is absolutely hilarious, my English major brain got to buzzing about the actual scenes and why Eliot gets shot in the Rundown Job but escapes with hardly a scratch in the Big Bang Job.

It really all boils down to focus. Eliot is, of course, incredibly aware of his physical surroundings at all times, thanks to training (and probably also hypervigilance). But he also has a certain order of priority in his head in terms of what threat needs the most attention.

We see in the Maltese Falcon Job Eliot keeping a count of all the "men with guns", aka the most pressing threat on the ship. He says to Nate simply that there are "a lot", but when he starts fighting them, he starts counting down as he takes them out, demonstrating that he did in fact have a number in his head the whole time.

In the Big Bang Job, Eliot is ready for the fight. He knows as soon as they get to the last corner of cover exactly what will play out. He's ready, he knows where all the gunmen are, and he has a plan of how the fight will unfold. He has practice and experience, and he trusts Nate will get the Italian out safely, so he can focus on the biggest threat: the men with guns.

Eliot was ready for the fight in the Big Bang Job, but not for a mad scientist with a gun. In the Rundown Job, there are a lot more variables he's worried about on the subway train. He has to worry about, first, making sure the bomb doesn't go off, and second, protecting Parker and Hardison. He doesn't clock the doctor as a major threat at any point in that scene.

He's got much more pressing things to worry about than Dr. Udall and his gun, and that's how he gets himself shot. And by the time Udall picks the gun up the second time, Eliot's concern is no longer his own life. His safety doesn't matter to him, as long as Parker and Hardison make it out. He'd take a bullet for Parker and Hardison without hesitation, and he wasn't expecting to make it off that subway train. He just needed to buy time.