My thoughts on Middle Men
The basics of my thoughts have been covered already by myself and by most everyone else. It’s a wonderful episode that shows Lynn cares for Lincoln. The “Lynn doesn’t like him/she hates him” bullshit is dead now. Lincoln and Clyde were good in the episode too. It was great, but y’all heard that before. So I just want to add a little something that may have been touched, but I haven’t really seen.
I just want to talk about Lynn's insecurities. The episode establishes very clearly that she had to become tough and aggressive. The only thing we really know about her younger years was that she was competitive, but competitive doesn't equal roughness and general jock attitude. She herself says that it's some sort of defense mechanism to keep people from messing with her. She described her first year of Middle School as a nightmare, and that's truly sad and awful. And in the end, it's because she cares about what people have to say about her, and that's usually the sign of someone who's insecure about themselves.
She's the ultimate athlete, she has a case full of her trophies. Only on screen we've seen her win a bike championship, a baseball league, and become the star of the football league. She's clearly a gifted girl who can do amazing stuff. Why is she so insecure, then? Why isn't she more confident? Why does it matter so much for her to lose a simple board game?
It's because of the appearances and the image she wants everyone to see of herself. She wants people to know that she's a champion, to know that she's not someone you can mess with. She wants respect, she wants to be respected, probably praised, but definitely not being made fun of. She cares about appearances so much that she passed out just because of people thinking that she lost against a dork.
She truly just wants to have fun, but she cares about winning because that's what makes her who she is, or maybe that's what keeps her from being who she was. She's all in for the fun, and she truly just wants everyone else to have a good time along with her, but sometimes her over-competitiveness gets the best of her, and she realizes that maybe the defense mechanism took the best of her.
She's so insecure of herself that, as talented as she is, she decides to rely on luck. She treats luck as the definitive factor that decides whether she wins or loses, much to some people (the fandom)'s annoyance. Like Myrtle said, as talented as she is, she wouldn't really need luck, but here we are.
Now, whether her insecurities caused her to be picked on or if being picked on caused her to develop some insecurities, I don't know. But I do think that that's the key here, insecurities. I firmly believe that everything that I've been talking about finds its roots in that issue, which could potentially be her major character flaw, as crazy as it may sound. And I don't think that this is all just headcanon or wishful thinking, I think there's one thing (or one person, I should say) in the show that establishes a precedent for this, and that's no other than Lincoln himself.
He's not beyond feeling embarrassed or ashamed of being humiliated in public...
But he does have one trait that makes him stand out, and that's that he can have tough skin. Sure, he'll dress up to impress Stella, and he'll wonder if maybe he's too old for Ace Savvy, but in the end, he accepts himself, as it's been firmly established.
Whereas Lincoln is a softie that can take one for the team and even endure some teasing and public humiliation, Lynn was just a softie that couldn't really stand it. She fell under the pressure, and it's my belief that it was, again, because of her insecurities. And that's where Lincoln triumphs over Lynn. He's comfortable with who he is. He calls himself the man with the plan, he appreciates his wit and cunning skills. He basically has the will to keep going.
And I think that's what Lynn can and should learn from Lincoln. That's where he can help her, that's what she needs him for. He could be the one to teach her to believe more in herself and realize that she doesn't need to pretend or anything. She's fine the way she is.
I think it was bluntly implied that Lynn saw bits (if not big parts) of herself in Lincoln in Middle Men. She saw him making the same mistakes she made, and that's what she tried to avoid. And that's why I think the ending of Middle Men was so powerful. Because she saw that people accepted Lincoln and Clyde for who they are.
And since she sees herself in them, maybe, just maybe, that means that people could accept her the way she is, too.
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