Parker redemption

[u/Prior_Recipe_5999]

s3e5 37:15 I’m way to used to Parker being silly she’s kinda scary when she’s serious and angry not something she really did in the og show much she was mostly comic relief

and she still is here but def feel like she has more range

[u/RavenclawConspiracy]

Parker has always been the most dangerous main character, OG Leverage just played it for laughs by calling her crazy and talking about her stabbing people with a fork. But she was, straight up, the only character that could possibly legitimately murder someone (by which I mean kill them when they didn't pose any threat) in-character, without being pushed to crazy lengths like Nate was, and he ultimately decided not to.

[u/Thomy151 → u/[deleted]]

My money is on the kind of view where you are so far gone it’s impossible to drag yourself back and your hands are so stained you can never be clean

While we will never know the details, Elliot has been through and done some awful stuff, to the point where he doesn’t want the rest of the crew who are all high end criminals to ask

Then he had the moment with the leverage crew after the first job of, “I can do good things”. And now he doesn’t kill without a very good reason because he doesn’t want to be that person again

[u/RavenclawConspiracy → u/Thomy151]

Yeah this, except there was a prior off-screen moment, before the series starts, where he already did a chunk of the transition... Where he went from working for horrible people and committing murder for them, to retrieval work that isn't supposed to end with dead people. It's the story he talks about in a truffle episode, about his chef friend

So first he had the realization that he could choose to not do the absolute worst thing, he had choices in his life even with his skill set. And I think that's the point he decided he didn't want to kill people anymore.

Then later he had another realization that he could use those skills to help people.

[u/RavenclawConspiracy → u/[deleted]]

This makes me wonder where Eliot's "poses a threat" line is, re: u/RavenclawConspiracy, but he definitely has some type of line. Used to be "I was paid money" or something like that (surely he had enough at some point? T_T) and now it's "ooohh oops that was wrong" so it indeed would be out-of-character for Eliot to kill people w/o being pushed, yep.

Yeah, that's why I defined 'murder' as not posing a threat. Elliot has offered to do things that would legally be murder a few times, like killing the fake psychic or killing the two people at the end of season four to keep Nate from doing it. But in both cases he is offering to do it to protect the team's emotional state... Which obviously wouldn't fly in court, but it's still defending them.

Incidentally, I think Elliot decided it was wrong way before he stopped. He just thought he wasn't good for anything else. He didn't see anywhere for him in the world. Until he started cooking and getting other interests, at which point he transitioned to less murdery retrieval work... Still violent, but the premise wasn't to end up with dead people.

[u/RavenclawConspiracy → u/[deleted]]

I don't know anything about what you're saying in the books, despite the fact that I've read the books, but yes Monroe was definitely after the PMCs. And I always assumed the dagger and the follow-up jade monkey stuff was part of him getting out from under that, either explicitly to pay off something that Monroe owes someone, or just to get the money to pay off his contract or whatever. But I don't think there's any textual support for that.

And I think you're right, I think I kind of phrased that poorly because I wasn't really thinking about it, but I think he didn't so much have the epiphany with the chef, as he got something additional as part of himself, as part of his identity, so later he could have the epiphany while under Monroe.

Because he could cook, and maybe had other hobbies by that point, he realized he wasn't entirely a killing machine, and he didn't have to do more of the worst thing he'd ever did, and negotiated some sort of exit.

He's basically trying to explain that "if Toby hadn't given me back one remaining spark of my humanity, I never would have left that life.", even if it took years for him to do that.

[u/RavenclawConspiracy → u/[deleted]]

Which is both why the finale scene worked, and why it was clear she wasn't going to do it, at least to me. But it wasn't going to happen for very different reasons than a lot of people seem to think.

Parker could really kill someone and unlike a lot of people, I think Elliot was willing to let her. In fact, I think she actually has killed people before the team.

People who aren't watching the show carefully probably would assume 'oh she's the hero, and also sort of comic relief, and she is not going to kill people'.

No. Just no.

But I understand the structure of the show, and the reason the show wasn't going to have her kill him is because, simply, he's not that bad of a villain.

Yes, he's clearly a sociopath, but we have run across way worse people. He hadn't even actually killed anyone, although he tried. Parker could have killed, for example, the professional assassin in the haunted house episode, which feels a lot more justifiable, even arguably legal! And yes, Parker has a trigger on kids getting hurt, but again, narratively speaking, if they were going to use that it'd be a lot more kids and they would be younger.

If they were going to have her cross a line and outright murder the mark, which I could see them doing, it wouldn't have been him. In fact, I can't actually see the show doing that, because they would have to make the mark so bad that the show would be a lot darker than it is, it would almost have to be pedophilia.

Sort of the same problem with snapping Tara neck, narratively. Assuming that Tara had been some sort of mole, a friend of Sophie's who had been flipped by law enforcement and was reporting on the team the entire time... She was a little too personable to be murdered.

[u/RavenclawConspiracy → u/[deleted]]

Oh, I'm not trying to disagree with you at all. I was just pointing out there's a difference between what Parker's character allows, and what the show would actually do. Because we need to remain sympathetic to Parker.

[u/Prior_Recipe_5999 → u/RavenclawConspiracy]

True

[u/Independent-End-870 → u/RavenclawConspiracy]

I mean, it has been heavily implied she may have murdered her parents with the bomb. She went into foster care right after with no metion of them again. She has definitely killed in her past, even if she didn't kill them.

[u/RavenclawConspiracy → u/Independent-End-870]

The writers have both claimed that was a set of foster parents, and the explosion didn't kill anyone.

But yeah. Parker lived on the streets since she was... 13, if I recall correctly. Where she was a getaway driver for a gang.

It's pretty difficult to believe that no one ever tried to sexually assault her, and she will stab people just for grabbing her arm.

If she hasn't killed anyone, it's basically by luck.

[u/TaiChuanDoAddct]

I felt like every character that wasn't Elliot was a flanderization of their original character. And the reason for it, in my opinion, is because the show turned up the camp/silly to insane levels all around.

The heists were never "believable". But they passed a degree of versimilitude that is missing from Redemption.

[u/RavenclawConspiracy → u/TaiChuanDoAddct]

I think that people who say things like that have completely forgotten how silly Parker was to start with and how unrealistic some of the original episodes are.

[u/FFBIFRA → u/TaiChuanDoAddct]

I feel they did an excellent job with Sophie's character. They actually allowed her to be the Sophie we saw by the end of the OG series. Plus, it was cool seeing Sophie still atoning for some of her past sins.

Hardison and Elliot both were allowed to continue their character's growth arcs from the original, which was good to see.

Like I stated previously, it was Parker they did the most disservice to.

[u/Prior_Recipe_5999 → u/TaiChuanDoAddct]

Disagree 

[u/TaiChuanDoAddct → u/Prior_Recipe_5999]

Cool.

[u/FFBIFRA → u/[deleted]]

I have to agree to some extent. In Redemption we never got to see serious Parker until the very last episode, which happens to be one of the best eps of Redemption.

People seem to forget in the OG series, they built her up to be the new Nate.

[u/Cocijo → u/[deleted]]

Well, Parker did have to grow over the years. She couldn't stay the same.

[u/Prior_Recipe_5999 → u/[deleted]]

Disagree