Tsunami, Ch. 1: Turnabout is Not Fair Play

[jet44]

Author: Jet44
Genres: Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Whump, Humor, Friendship, Gen
Relationships: Peter and Neal bromance, canon pairings
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: PTSD, drowning, physical assault, prisoner abuse, a sprinkle of swearing. I'm not going the stereotypical "beaten and raped in prison" route. What happened to Peter and Neal was

Comments

[jet44]

Yeah....their relationship is one of one man holding another man prisoner against his will. It may be a compelling relationship involving deep trust, affection, and love, but healthy it's never going to be. At least not until Neal is off his anklet and can make choices of his own.

I am sort of one of those fans who idolize Peter. I've never been blind to his faults, but I can certainly look at his actions with empathy.

I agree with you that there always have been huge conflicts and trust issues between them; it's always been part of the dynamic and a primary driver of the show. I think the difference is that most of the time, it didn't hit too deep for either of them. The worst as far as true anger was concerned was probably in Gloves Off/Vested Interest - but it still took all of one episode to patch things up. They sort of cheated their way out of what could have been a huge one with Kate's death.

In S5, Neal did things that Peter couldn't forgive or cope with emotionally or ethically, and Peter did the same to him. Okay, WC business as usual. The problem I had with it was that A. They really, genuinely hurt each other, and B. Neal was acting out of caring for Peter, whereas Peter was acting out of pure anger and self-protection.

Neal, as per usual, did all the wrong things for all the right reasons. Peter usually does all the mean things for all the right reasons, but in S5 he was just plain hurting and hating someone who behaved exactly in character (Peter knows who Neal is, and decided a long time ago to care about him regardless) out of a desire to help a friend.

Thinking he did the right thing locking Neal up? That he was helping him? He was probably right about that. Neal was racketing around the world playing high-stakes games with nasty people. He could have very easily wound up in an awful foreign prison, kidnapped with no FBI at his back, or simply murdered. Or kept racking up so many charges that he really would go away for life. Yes, Neal hated it, and yes, we as viewers sympathize and don't want him going back. But getting caught by Peter when he did may have saved his life.

I can see how devastating it was for him to A. be arrested, and B. have Neal get him out in a corrupt way that will probably mean he has the potential of being rearrested for murder hanging over his head for life. He's completely comfortable making major life decisions for Neal, but he's controlling enough to completely flip out over Neal having done the same to him.

He idolizes the FBI and rigid concepts of law and justice. Neal has helped loosen him up a lot over the years, (Cape Verde, anyone) and turn him into a person who can be a caring human being first and a law enforcer second....part of the time. Seeing that much corruption in law enforcement and being forced into being somewhat corrupt himself, seeing how easily he could lose everything he cares about, and having wound up in the whole situation because of Neal's father (and thus, because of Neal) obviously rattled him deeply, and I think that's where we as viewers are expected to accept his behavior.

It's human. But this is also WC, fluffy fiction where an FBI agent and his con-artist prisoner are partners and best friends who constantly try to outwit each other. It's not a dark drama about two dysfunctional people hurting each other.