White Collar – Life outside the van

Just when you begin to imagine that White Collar will never back off its Neal/Sara pairing, the show goes and gives us one of its most invigorating opening scenes yet: Sara dumping Neal! Man did I feel like I could fly after that … I won’t set myself up for too big a disappointment by imagining that we’ve seen the last of Sara just yet, but for now I am plum overjoyed at her banishment.

Might the show make it two for two? Well, ironically it was Sara’s discovery of Neal’s treasure secret that led her to storm out, which means that, at least for now, the U-boat drama will continue. Not that I’m getting greedy here.

Even so, I’m growing increasingly uncomfortable with how comfortable Neal seems to be going behind Peter’s back. I’m the first to defend his desire to run as believable, but searching Peter’s jacket pockets for a safe key? Breaking into his house? No way.

And as good as that last scene was — and it was great — I don’t accept that Neal would have been there in the first place. Furthermore, I like to believe that Neal would have lied to Mozzie even if Peter hadn’t called him and told him “I’m here for you.” I think just the realization of what he was doing would have led him to lie to Mozzie … assuming he’d even gotten that far in the first place. There’s stretching the imagination, the implausible, and then there’s this scenario.

I was thrilled that this episode focused on Jonesy. While, like with the Mozzie episode, we didn’t get much back story, it was nice for the central character to be Jonesy for once. It felt so unnatural, yet so fresh, for the camera to follow him after he left the surveillance van (which, by the way, is totally conspicuous as long as men and women in suits go in and out of it as it’s parked in one spot forever).

Anyway, the investigation was less exciting than so many of the little pieces that floated in and around it. Some of my favorites included:

• The microdot behind the postcard stamp. First of all, with all the shows and movies we’ve seen, that’s so low-tech. Plus, not being a spy Jonesy would never have noticed the thing if not for Neal. Which reminds me: Jimmy said he’d left clues all over town … the microdot and the weird bullet? That was his big play?
• Learning that Jonesy has people who call him CJ. He’s so not a CJ!
• Meeting Isabelle (Rochelle Aytes), Jonesy’s once-upon-a-time fiance. It reminded me that it would be nice to see some of his personal life. The auction a few episodes back stirred that thought, but Isabelle really brought it home.
• How transparent Striker, AKA Henry van Horn (Brady Smith) was. He’d have been less obvious had he been wearing a sign that read, “Tough guy criminal” around his neck. I hope the writers were going for caricature with him.
• Neal making an imprint of the safe key with his gum … and the fact that a luggage lock key is the final step in opening a high-end safe. Was it the prize in a crackerjack box?
• The crossbow. Awesome.

And the fact that Neal and Jonesy sat down for a talk. They’ve spent plenty of time together, but this might have been the first time that they really talked. Weird, but good. The sort of thing that takes getting used to … so maybe we can see more of it?

“Promise me you’ll never speak at my funeral.” – Neal to Mozzie, after Mozzie offers his final opinion of Sara

“Can you do it?” – Peter, asking if Neal could impersonate a high ranking Naval officer
“Yeah … I was an admiral. Royal Navy.” – Neal
“I didn’t hear that. Nobody heard that. Pencils down. Don’t write that.” – Peter

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jul 27, 2011 @ 14:08 EST5EDT