I love this meta, and I also think there’s an element of something Len says to Barry much later, in Infantino Street: “I see the bad in you.” When Joe says, “You really think we’d do that for you?” I don’t think it’s just him giving his verdict as the final say–I think he genuinely thinks he and Barry are on the same page.
Barry holds his opinions so strongly that it comes off as black and white morality, but really, it’s not anything close. I think Joe, naturally enough, sees Barry’s inflexible belief in his father’s innocence and the way he’s capable of locking the metas in the pipeline as signs of a binary view of right and wrong. Joe raised Barry, and Joe has the moral compass of someone who’s been a detective for decades. He projects that on Barry, the same way parents always project parts of themselves onto their kids. On top of that, Joe loves Barry, and that lets him see the good in Barry to the almost complete exclusion of the bad: the mistakes, the temper, the morally dubious choices.
But Len isn’t blinded in the same way. He does the same thing Joe does, but in the opposite direction. He recognizes the parts of Barry that are similar to him—the anger, the isolation, the selfishness, the ruthless way he protects his own even if it means hurting others—and he gives them the same weight that Joe gives the good.
And just as much as he knows that he has Barry right where he wants him, he knows what he’s asking for is something Barry is morally capable of. Barry already rejected one price: whatever it was Len asked for on that napkin at Saints and Sinners. So Len has thought about it, and the destruction of his records is his compromise. It’s exactly what Barry offered him in the bar: “Something you want that I can get.” Can, both physically and morally.
And Barry acknowledges it. Joe asks, “Do you really think we’d do that for you?” and the answer is no. Because Joe wouldn’t. But Len looks at Barry instead, and Barry tips his hand. Len is right about him. “I’ll do it.” His morality is far more muddled than Joe’s, and if that’s what lets him get things done, then he can live with that.
Len acknowledges Barry is in charge here, not just in terms of respect, but in terms of the burden of leadership. Barry will stoop to Len’s level so Joe doesn’t have to, so the rest of his team doesn’t have to. And Len knows that. Barry’s morality is a double-edged sword, and that’s what Len uses to cut him every time. He understands Barry in such a clear-eyed way: like recognizing like. And when Lewis does the same thing to Len by holding Lisa hostage in “Family of Rogues,” Barry is there to recognize Len right back.
janainaart
romaincrisis
origamiaround
discoholicmusic
blakekathryn
stormborns
dededos
prguitarman
ellievsbear
