Nearly fourteen months ago I participated in a conference call with Matthew Bomer and Tim DeKay, during which Tim hinted at the possibility of Peter and Neal one day reversing roles. What I believe he was referring to — and the impression I walked away with — involved Neal playing lawman and Peter playing con. I didn’t expect them to literally trade places.
Just about everything about the swap was awesome. The lone shortcoming for me was when Peter climbed out of the car trunk; his lumbering build felt very un-Neal. But I loved all the rest. Elizabeth’s look when Neal introduced himself to Brook was great, but the later scene when Peter introduced himself and belittled Neal as much as he could, plus Neal and Elizabeth’s near kiss, was even better.
In a 2006 episode of Entourage, Richard Schiff appeared as himself, telling his agent Ari Gold that he wanted to play the bad guy, the action hero. His terrible turn on Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior didn’t do it for him, but his Andrew Stanzler on last night’s episode of White Collar definitely gave him the chance. I was appreciative of the fact that Toby Ziegler’s character was a white collar criminal, an energy trader wielding his commodity holdings to make money by causing blackouts. It was more comfortable for Schiff than some of the recent stuff he’s done. Plus, it helped mute his story to allow the Neal/Peter story to shine.
Mozzie training Peter to break into a house was awesome. I loved the “Take the pebble from my palm” bit, and his getting another $20 bill from Peter was great. Nice lift by Peter to get his cash back. Seeing Peter rooting around that house was surreal, and watching Neal flashing his badge — man did he seem to enjoy that! — was great. “Peter knows … the broad strokes.”
I didn’t quite understand the Sara (Hilarie Burton) story. First of all her involvement, which seemed to make little sense to Neal as well. And I don’t think her explanation spoke to her motivations either. But like Alex (Gloria Votsis) turning out to be the key to the story, I guess on White Collar you never know the truth until hundreds of layers have been peeled back.
Alex’s involvement raises a number of interesting questions. First of all we can go back to Alex’s appearance on Neal’s radar, back when he was working for Vincent Adler (Andrew McCarthy). Neal “caught” Alex trying to steal from Adler, and I remember that at the time I wondered whether she was Neal’s plant or just a stranger. Now I wonder if Adler didn’t know her from before.
I really like this thread, even if it does bring us dangerously close to the whole Kate mystery. Neal reconciling where he came from has always been rather enjoyable, and I’m looking forward to seeing him come face-to-face with his teacher turned enemy. That Neal will ultimately prevail is kind of a given, but I think they’ll both make the battle rather interesting.
And if you’ve been following my reviews today: the third unappealing kiss of my TV night was between Neal and Sara. Given their history? Mozzie barging in with his miner’s hat made things a little better, but Neal’s a lot smarter than that.
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Mar 02, 2011 @ 15:15 EST5EDT
I quite liked the reversed roles. But I expected Neal to take advantage of the situation a little bit more. How would Peter have reacted to a real kiss between Neal and his wife? :-)
What didn’t make much sense for me was the behaviour of Sara. She has gone from tough opponent to giggly school-girl in a few appearances. WTF? I knew they would go in that direction with Sara and Neal, but imo it was too quick and out of character.
Hopefully the writers will fix it in the coming episodes.
*POST AUTHOR*
Interesting … I would have expected Neal to take advantage with the badge, making progress in his Kate investigation, or some other unknown interest of his, while he could do so as an FBI agent.
That’s what I was saying, although you explained yourself better than I did. That’s why their kiss made no sense — no way would the Sara we originally met have kissed Neal, and vice versa. It made zero sense.