" I imagine the tournament Nate steals is a life-long goal that some of these people trained for, and seeing Sophie make certain that Nate wins actually makes me a bit sad. "

It's not that bad -- Hardison mentions that Livingston hosts chess tournaments all over the world but this is the first time *this* tournament has been held, and Livingston later comments about hoping it puts Dubai on the map for chess. They can't have had very long to get attached to the idea.

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"Woah. Eliot can’t tell the Green Lantern from the Green Hornet? How very dare you, sir. "

Actual conversation I had with my mother a few years back:

~watches commercial for Green Lantern~

"Didn't this movie come out like 6 months ago?"
"No, that was The Green Hornet. Was a tv show back in the olden days when you were a teenager, had Bruce Lee on it? Ringing any bells?"
"Oh. Wait, isn't Green Hornet the bad guy from the Spiderman movies?"
"No, that's the Green Goblin."

~significant pause~

"Okay, now you're just fucking with me, right?"
"So you're saying I shouldn't bring up Green Arrow*?"

Really drove home how obscure geek culture can be to the unfamiliar sometimes, because even with only a passing familiarity with GL and next to no knowledge about GH, it wouldn't occur to me to conflate those. Also provides a reason why Hornet is the name Eliot would vaguely remember -- the Bruce Lee connection.

* I got to tease her about this all over again when Arrow started! (She doesn't really watch superhero stuff, but she'd heard about it.) That was fun.

(It occurs to me I may have mentioned this at some point on MR/MW and am repeating myself, but I really enjoyed that conversation so... )

And people are happy to recognize him! As opposed to his regular line of work where presumably different varieties of fear (or at least very serious concern) are more common.

According to the KFMonkey question post from "The Stork Job":

"Oh, and those weren't her parents who lived in that house she blew up. Now whether those nasty abusive people were still in there or not ... choose the answer that you like. "

Funny, I read it the other way around -- that he's been trying really hard *not* to kill people, but he'd make an exception for someone who made Parker cry.

That was always basically how I heard it too -- I always assumed it was about meeting someone in person rather than getting conned for money supposedly intended for airfare or whatever. Probably helped along by the fact that it's a show *about* scams.

I think I'm holding onto it just for headcannon purposes as well. Like you said, it doesn't help the damage caused by the other option, but at least it means I don't have to be horrified at Hardison.

"If you wouldn't say something to the person or group you're referring to, then maybe that's a sign that you shouldn't say it at all. "

I think this is where we differ the most. (In this case. There are situations where I'd be on the 'why would you say that in front of anyone?' train.) Like I said, I don't care for the comment itself (on first viewing, I'm pretty sure the eyeroll from this redhead was epic) but personally I put more weight on how the comment would affect the person than on the comment in isolation. (Which is a matter of preference and I see where you're coming from, I'm just trying to explain why I'm coming from somewhere else.)

Plenty of people, regardless of gender/orientation/etc. of the speaker, have a momentary reaction to someone they find attractive and make an offhand comment to a friend that they wouldn't say to the person or in a less private conversation because it's inappropriate with a stranger. Eliot was talking to Nate, someone he knew well enough to talk to about Nate's son in the pilot, and the person who directed his attention to her in the first place. For me, that has a different standard than saying it in a more public conversation. It's more relevant to me that he didn't belittle her anger like the Tara situation, and far more important that Cora is never affected by any of this.

I also don't think the audience is intended to be as okay with it as I think I'm getting from your comment. We've had time to get attached to Cora and know how bad her situation is, and Nate's response sets her up as basically family. I think it was supposed to be an eyeroll moment, one that's quickly repudiated with sympathy and an offer to start breaking knees.

That does not make her any less of an asshole for it. Tara has all of the cards at that point -- she knows exactly what's been going on while they're still reacting to a presumed threat. She should know both from personal observation over the past few days and from Sophie that Parker's reactions aren't typical and personal skills her weak point.

Saying something that patronizing to Parker in front of her friends and coworkers (and possibly ableist depending on your view of Parker's issues) is not acceptable. Tara deliberately caused the situation -- laughing at someone for failing to process that as quickly/in the same way you would is a Grade A Asshole move.

Hardison did try to use "you were afraid to fight a giiiiirl" in "The Two Live Crew Job". And failed.

(I wanted to hear the rest of the mop story!)