What I’m Watching: White Collar

White Collar: Season 2, Episode 4 “By the Book” (B+)

The premise of this episode was almost too good to be true. After highlighting supporting character Mozzie for the past three episodes, he gets the chance to rescue his own damsel-in-distress while offering his limited cooperation with the FBI. Starting off his day at the restaurant exchanging intellectual dialogue with his favorite waitress was a good kick-off for this personal episode that proved to be just as interesting for Peter and company as it was for Neal and Mozzie. The duo’s clandestine meeting in the elevator with their various excuses to keep anyone else from entering the vestibule was quite entertaining, and while Mozzie’s fear of entering the FBI building was a bit overdramatic, it was still enjoyable. I loved the casting of Diane Farr, the 2010 AFT Award Best Guest Actress in a Comedy Series winner for her turn on “Californication,” as the waitress in question, though I do wish we could have seen much, much more of her than just a sweet, flirtatious introduction at the beginning. Her code was quite clever, and it would have been nice to see her actually calculating some of it. Mozzie and Neal deciphering it was also pretty cool. Mozzie’s inability to listen to instructions in this episode could have seriously gotten him in trouble, but fortunately Peter isn’t a bad guy and will probably let him get away with just as much as he possibly can. Neal’s still a great character and a terrific con man, but Mozzie is most definitely stealing the show these days.