White Collar – Throwing The Good Wife’s cast a bone

by Aryeh S.

With the treasure story (hopefully) behind us, and Neal’s sentence potentially about to be commuted, I wonder where ‘White Collar’ is headed as a series. Are we guaranteed an improbable return of the Kate story line?

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White Collar
- Season 3, Episode 12 - "Upper West Side Story"

I’m wondering if Graham Phillips has a contract that ensures he be on television at least once a week. Obviously I’m kidding, but with his regular show The Good Wife not airing a new episode this week (he plays Zach Florrick), there was Phillips guest starring on White Collar as … well, in many ways as someone a lot like his Good Wife persona (at least now that the Florrick kids are back in private school).

Not only that, but Good Wife recurring guest star psycho killer Dylan Baker made an appearance as well … as an embezzling psycho killer. Not to suggest that he’s been typecast, but Baker wears crazy very well.

So here we were, first time post all the misery that the submarine treasure visited upon Neal and Peter (and us). Within that context, it made sense for Peter to be overly hesitant in trusting Neal, but that doesn’t mean I had to enjoy it. Anyone who’s been following my coverage of White Collar knows that I got over the Peter/Neal trust issue some time back in early season one. Either have faith in him or don’t, Peter. But if you’re going to continue working with him, get over it and take the plunge, all-in; enough with the stupid back-and-forth.

You can argue that Neal brought this on himself, and he did, but then Peter should have shipped him off and been done with it … or he should trust Neal when he says that Mozzie put him in an impossible position, that he wasn’t involved in stealing the treasure, and that he passed on the opportunity to run off with it. Peter starting off every new case by trying to keep Neal on a leash is stupid.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Mozzie around. I was pretty sure at the end of last episode, when Neal and Mozzie basically said goodbye, that we wouldn’t be seeing him again right away. It did make me wonder what was going on with that, but it’s always good to have Mozzie present. I love how into helping Evan (Phillips) woo Chloe (Elizabeth Gillies) he got; it was cute.

If Neal ever decides to hang up his conman identity (and/or his fake FBI credentials) he can always find a gig teaching. As improbable as it is for one person to be as expertly informed in so many fields as Neal supposedly is, it always makes for our great viewing pleasure to watch as he wows us and everyone else with the depths of his knowledge. It had to be romance literature, right? It was a tad creepy to watch teenage girls swooning over him (Bomer is twice their age), but not a lot of teachers succeed in engaging their students like Neal did. It was scripted, but it was still impressive.

As for the end of the episode … I’m conflicted. Obviously Peter wasn’t going to fully disclose Neal’s activities, and I think it’s a sign of his faith in Neal that he didn’t. But looking at it from the outside in, what does it say that an FBI agent didn’t report on the questionable activities of a convicted felon who clearly hasn’t been rehabilitated?

What do you think? Was Peter right or wrong to cover for Neal?

Photo Credit: USA Network

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Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Jan 26, 2012 @ 15:00 EST5EDT

2 Responses to “White Collar – Throwing The Good Wife’s cast a bone”

Dustin

January 27, 2012 at 11:33 PM

The one thing that has held back this show has been the distrust Peter has toward Neal. Any dishonesty Neal has ever shown has been either to help Peter or someone else who is in trouble.(Personally, I think it would have been a better show if Neal was a little more…um, criminal) This distrust issue should have been settled sometime in season one.

Because of the distrust and constant threatening to send him back to jail over little things by Peter, I was actually hoping Neal would have taken Mozzie up on his offer to leave. Sure Peter and Neal can get along fine, but there is also that “one wrong step” threat hanging around. Not very healthy. I mean Neal gives up the fortune and saves Peter’s wife and Peter has to “mull it over” whether to turn Neal in??? Give me a break! This bi-polar relationship has made it difficult to enjoy what is otherwise a good show.

And can you tell me why it was so “wrong” to have the treasure? I mean, Mozzie stole it…from a criminal…who got it from a sunken Nazi U-boat. It seems like the treasure was free game. The treasure no longer had an owner. To me, Peter should only have been concerned over whether Neal would flee while still having time to serve, thus making Neal a fugitive. Peter’s obsession with trying to catch Neal red-handed was kind of aggravating. Especially, when the writers would occasionally, unconvincingly, try to make it out that Peter just want to “help” Neal. Sure, if “help” means “to send back to prison”. He didn’t need to catch Neal, with the full force of the FBI, just to say “Please, don’t go.”

Aryeh S.
*POST AUTHOR*

February 2, 2012 at 12:40 AM

I think the difference between this treasure and some other “found” treasure is its history, and probably how easily it could be traced back to whomever it was stolen from during World War II. I think it was fair for Mozzie to have gone after it himself, but something like that should be returned; I don’t think it’s considered finders keepers.