Billy Spencer

Billy Spencer
Affiliation	Army Veteran Hardware Store Owner (previously) Football Coach
Family	Eliot Spencer (son) Deceased wife Unnamed child Unnamed grandson
Adversaries	GreenSlate Energy
First Appearance	The Fractured Job
Played by	Keith David

“	What smells like fracking rig and screams like a girl?	”
— Billy, The Fractured Job

Eliot spoke about and went to see his father in Leverage Season 5’s “The Low Low Price Job”; no one answered when he knocked on the door. Then in Redemption Season 1’s “The Bucket Job,” he once again failed to connect with his dad.

Like father, like son, Billy also helps people. In The Fractured Job, Billy and the Leverage crew work to take down a corrupt politician who’s profiting off a fracking rig that’s making the town’s residents sick. Not only do they succeed — and Billy works with them and fights alongside Eliot — but the father and son also talk about the distance between them. Eliot enlisted against his father’s wishes (but did so because he wanted to be like him), then he wasn’t allowed to come home for his mother’s funeral. He came home to tell Billy he was sorry.

At the end of the episode, Billy tells Eliot he’s proud of him. “We wasted a lot of good years,” Eliot says, but his dad points out they still have some ahead of them. “You may not have got a medal for what you did [helping people escape a prison camp], but in the eyes of all the guys you saved, you’re a hero, and for what it’s worth, in my eyes too,” Eliot tells him.

History

Billy served in the military, saving people from a prison camp. After the rescue, a white boy was given the medal of honor in place of Billy. Billy ended up with a “bum” hip after his time in the military, which killed his chances of playing football professionally.

At one point, Billy got married. His wife worked as a nurse, and one day she found an abandoned baby at the hospital she worked. The pair adopted the child despite him being of a different race. They presumably named him Eliot.

Eliot's Mother

Eliot grew up hearing his father’s glory stories from his time in the war and wanted to be a hero just like him.

Billy ran a “hole in the wall” hardware store and wanted Eliot to take it over, but Eliot wanted to get out of the small town and change the world. When Eliot was eighteen, he enlisted in the army and the night before he left, he and his father got into a fight as Billy didn’t want him to enlist.

While Eliot was in the army, Billy’s wife, and Eliot’s mother, passed away. Eliot wasn’t able to come home as he was on tour.

In “The Low Low Price Job,” Eliot admits that he hasn’t spoken to his father since he was eighteen. At the end of the episode, Eliot goes to Oklahoma City, seeming to visit his father. But when Eliot knocks on the door, his father either isn’t home or doesn’t answer.

In “The Bucket Job”, Eliot gets kidnapped by RIZ. The head of RIZ, Alexandra Bligh, mentions how Eliot’s reluctant to spend the holidays with his father, having found out that Billy’s friend from Vietnam invited Eliot to join them for Christmas. After the con, encouraged by conversations with Robert, Eliot intends to visit his dad for Christmas. When Eliot gets a text from a “J” said his dad was a no-show, Eliot goes off in the opposite direction, defeated. Eliot refers to J as Billy's buddy from Vietnam.

The Fractured Job:

The episode starts with Billy convincing a mother to stay despite a local fracking rig’s impact on the town, such as poisoning the tap water with methane. Billy tells her he has been gathering evidence to shut the fracking rig down.

A few days later, Billy gets beat up by GreenSlate Energy Security. Some good Samaritans save Billy, only to realize one is his son, Eliot, who he hasn’t seen since he was eighteen.

Eliot, Parker, and Breanna go back to Billy’s house to patch him up. Billy explains to them how GreenSlate sent out a hit on him due to his digging into the company. Billy’s managed to get them to take an environmental review, but he thinks the company hired to do the review is shady. Parker and Breanna leave to let Eliot talk to his father, but Billy doesn’t want to talk.

Later, Eliot finally gets to talk to his father and apologizes for missing his mom’s funeral. Eliot explains that he joined the army because he wanted to be like his dad, who always told him glory stories of his time in the army. Billy expresses that his military time wasn’t so glorious as he got injured, and a medal that should have gone to him instead went to a white boy.

After their conversations, the two return inside, where Parker shows them the key card she stole from the fracking rig. Billy doesn’t want any part of their plans anymore and decides to go to the town hall meeting to stop the passing of building more rigs. Eliot goes with Billy, but they are stopped by the security men, who they take on together. Billy is too late to the meeting, and the building of new rigs is passed.

The next day, a press conference is held for the reopening of the rig. The rig explodes when turned back on, and Billy proves the water is contaminated with methane in front of the reporters.

At the end of the episode, Billy and Eliot reconcile as Billy says he’s proud of Eliot, and Eliot assures his father that he’s a hero.

Appearances

Leverage: Season 5

• The Low Low Price Job (mentioned)

Leverage Redemption: Season One

• The Bucket Job (mentioned)

Leverage Redemption: Season Two

• The Fractured Job