Harvey’s Flaw

Harvey’s got a real complex going on, and it’s kind of frustrating to watch

Harvey genuinely understands how to play on people’s emotions to get what he wants. But, more than just being a manipulator, Harvey has also shown that he understands what it takes to build relationships, which is where results come from. He’s greets people, he makes it personal, he does nice things for them with no strings attached, he demonstrates loyalty, etc… and, he’s also very charming

But there’s a limit to when Harvey chooses to use his social skills. His default tactic is to bully/blackmail/threaten other people to do what he wants, or else. He’d never do that to a client, or to people he didn’t really know. For them, he’s Mr. Social

But, to his enemies, but more importantly to neutral parties who he doesn’t trust, his first instinct is to bulldoze them. And this bites him A LOT. I’m specially watching through the early seasons, and there are two examples where this happened: When Harvey was trying to get the guy he put in jail out, and when he was trying to block Daniel Hardman. Harvey asked the DA to overturn his previous ruling, and when he said no, Harvey threatened him. Or, insinuated bad things would happen if he didn’t. This resulted in the DA pushing for lifetime sentence and made an enemy to Harvey where before he was simply neutral

Then with Daniel. While I haven’t gotten far in S2, I don’t actually know if he would’ve joined Pearson and Hardman if he hadn’t felt so compelled to spite Harvey for trying to blackmail him into staying away. Which means, Harvey just made the problem worse, because he made an enemy where he could’ve done something better

Harvey’s tactics are counterproductive. Despite his social savvy, and his seeming understanding of influence and politics, and his charming demeanour, he is nice to strangers and a bully to everyone else, which means he’s nice to the people who don’t matter, and a bully to everything who does

I think this speaks to a potential flaw that Harvey has. This is purely a theory, made by observation, and seeing some things in him that I see in myself.

Harvey exists in a world where power and influence is king. The wolrd is nicely divided into “strong and weak.” He wants his way when he wants it. And he resorts to bullying and threatening as his go to tactic because… well, because when things don’t go his way, he feels his grasp slipping, and so reacts hostily to the other person. Which means, when he could’ve schmoozed people, he resulted to trying to dominate them.

Harvey bullies people because that’s how he knows to stay on top. And the reason he needs to bully is because he doesn’t feel he has time, or need, for anything else. Which means, if he feels he doesn’t have time or a need, it means he feels incapable of delivering results in time. Which means, his bullying is a result of insecurity in himself, which is completely contrary to what he projects outward. Or, what he even believes about himself.

Now, I don’t actually have any proof of this. I’m just theorizing.

But Harvey’s go to tactic is to bully someone into conceding to his point, which makes a lot of enemies. Which ultimately makes Harvey’s job harder than it has to be. And the reason he feels the need to bully people is because, for some reason, he feels very insecure in himself to do it in any other way. Because, why else would you feel the need to bully someone? Because it’s efficient and faster? As I’ve just pointed out, it’s not actually

These are my thoughts in early S2. What do you think?