To my eye, as an Australian with decades of exposure to English Lit., long form essays, and technical writing (UK|Commonwealth English moreso than the central north american offshoot) it's a common idiom that describes other agents acting { in kind, in a similar manner, just as the first person voice did }.

I can see the confusion if that's your absolute first parsing of an unfamilar English turn of phrase.

For better of worse the language is riddled with such things and they can be very locale centric.