Use of "le" in "para que le echara un vistazo"

Question

From the movie (translated from English to Spanish) I saw in subtitles the following:

"le dio el programa a Peter para que le echara un vistazo."

In original, in English it was: "He gave the program to Peter and asked him to take a look at it."

Questions:

1) Is it grammatically correct in this sentence to replace "le" with "él" OR even to omit pronoun?

2) What is grammatical explanation of use of "le" in this sentence? Is it idiomatic phrase "para que le + echara un vistazo" or it is one of types of dativos (for indirect object)?

Answer 1

The verb phrase "echar un vistazo" (in which "echar" is the verb and "un vistazo" is the direct object) usually takes an indirect object to refer to the person or thing somebody takes a look at. However, it can be used alone when the indirect object is implicit in the context.

• Hay ruidos en el fondo. Voy a echar un vistazo. (There are noises in the backyard. I'm going to take a look.)

In the sentence provided:

• Le dio el programa a Peter para que le echara un vistazo.

"le" refers to the indirect object "el programa" and is required because reference needs to be made to the thing that would be taken a look at.