Just as Lin Li was dazedly watching the three of them devour all the food, feeling that he was going to starve, Barry and Joe were having a deep conversation.
During today's battle, Barry and Joe had already forgiven and understood each other.
In Barry's lab, three pizzas lay on a desk covered with files.
Barry tore off a slice of pepperoni pizza, took a bite, and said, "Joe, thank you."
Joe leaned half his butt on the desk, watching Barry chew his pizza, just like he did when he was a child. He said with emotion, "Barry, you've grown up. You should have your own ideas. You're right, you're not my child, I…"
Barry stopped the pizza at his mouth and interrupted, "NO, Joe, you are my father."
"You are the father who made sure I was well-fed and warmly dressed."
"The father who sat by my bed every night waiting for me to fall asleep because I was afraid of the dark."
"The father who taught me how to do my homework, how to drive, and how to shave."
"The father who put me through college and taught me all the good qualities of a person."
"Everything you've done, everything, is what a father does. You are my father, and I'm so glad you became my second father."
Joe was too moved to speak. He wiped his face, his eyes brimming with tears, picked up a slice of pizza, and 'cheersed' Barry, touching their slices together, and they smiled at each other.
After they each ate a slice of pizza, Joe said, "Barry, I don't approve of you being The Flash, but you have your own ideas. I can only silently support you, but you must accept my supervision and be honest with me."
Barry understood Joe's meaning. He excitedly gesticulated and said, "Joe, that's great! I've always longed to work alongside you to fight crime."
Joe raised an eyebrow and said, "From now on, can we have no secrets?"
Barry paused, then said hesitantly, "YES… YES."
Joe once again gave him that look, 'Son, I've seen through you again. You're lying, but this time I'm going to expose you.'
Joe turned and rolled up a world map on a blackboard, revealing the hidden information underneath.
This was something Joe had inadvertently seen in Barry's workspace the day he and Barry argued at Star Labs. It made him inexplicably sad, because he had been involved in the on-site judgment of Barry's father back then, and he had also concluded that Barry's father had killed his wife. At the time, no one believed Barry and his father's statements, thinking they were just trying to evade responsibility. It wasn't until Barry gained his super speed that everything, everything, matched what Barry had said as a child, despite a fourteen-year difference.
On the blackboard, there were newspaper clippings about Barry's mother's murder, news about a doctor killing his wife, images of Barry's father being arrested by the police, and many notes with strange events, numbers, and dates, all neatly organized.
"Joe…"
Barry stammered, various excuses flashing through his mind, but in the end, he only called out Joe's name and then said nothing more. He knew Joe strongly disapproved of what he was doing, so he had been keeping it a secret from him all this time.
Joe had initially believed Barry's father killed his wife, and because he was good friends with Barry's father, he adopted Barry. He had privately investigated the case of Barry's father's wife's murder for a long time, but with no results, it eventually became an unsolved mystery.
He believed Barry shouldn't be affected by his father's situation; at the very least, he should have a healthy upbringing. Therefore, from the beginning, he strictly forbade Barry from looking into his father's murder case. For a child, the psychological pressure and the judgment from outsiders, with the constant knowledge that his father was a murderer who killed his mother, was a very cruel thing.
Of course, this was just Joe's understanding until Barry displayed his super speed, witnessed the terrifying artificial tornado, Lin Li's various strange abilities to control electricity, and the things he found in Barry's workspace that day, which made him instinctively feel that perhaps his judgment fourteen years ago was truly wrong.
Joe looked at Barry very seriously and said, "Barry, you're absolutely right. Fourteen years ago, I made a wrong judgment. I also bear some responsibility for your father being wrongly imprisoned. This mistake should be corrected. Your father shouldn't be in jail. I believe what you've said. I will thoroughly investigate everything in this case, son. Your father will be alright."
Tears welled in Barry's eyes as he said emotionally, "Joe, thank you, thank you for believing me, but it's no use. All the evidence, everything related to it, I've checked over a hundred times, and found nothing. Not a single entry point, not a single clue to investigate further. I've been going in circles."
As Barry spoke, he became disheartened. It was simply too difficult to overturn the case; there was literally no evidence, not even a starting point for investigation. It was because of this that he had been paying attention to all sorts of supernatural phenomena, hoping to help his father clear his name. But even after becoming a supernatural phenomenon himself, he still had no clue where to start.
Joe tapped his finger on the desk and said with conviction, "Barry, I've been a police officer for many years, handled countless cases, and my accumulated experience and intuition tell me that we should investigate the source of your abilities."
"Me?"
"NO, Harrison Wells."
"He took you from the hospital back then, and you gained your super abilities after you woke up."
"He gives me the feeling that he knows everything, that he knows about your abilities."
"Moreover, your abilities are, according to your description, the same as what happened the night your mother died."
"My experienced intuition tells me we need to investigate Harrison Wells."
After hearing Joe's words, Barry frowned in thought, recalling the red and yellow electrical arcs surrounding his mother the night she was killed, and how he was instantly transported several kilometers away from home, and how similar that was to the scenes he displayed when saving people.
Barry wasn't like his original self yet; he hadn't spent much time with Wells, hadn't been diligently taught and guided by Wells, and hadn't formed that trusting teacher-student bond with Wells yet.
Currently, Wells was merely a highly respected and admired physics expert to him. When it came to his mother's murder, Barry didn't immediately dismiss Joe's point of view.
In the TV series, because he had spent time with Wells, and felt gratitude for being taught and guided, coupled with Wells's superb acting skills in his disguise, he deeply trusted Wells and immediately dismissed Joe's suspicions about Wells. It wasn't until later, when Wells killed a reporter and left behind clues, that Barry began to suspect Wells, and subsequently investigated him thoroughly.
Barry's disheartened expression vanished, and he looked at Joe with hope. Joe's words gave him a new lead, and although it wasn't definitive, it was a hope. Having a lead meant there was a path, and by following it, there was a chance his father could eventually be cleared of the charges.