Friday, August 12, 2011

What I’m Watching: White Collar (Summer Finale)


White Collar: Season 2, Episode 10 “Countdown” (B+)

This is a mid-season finale if I’ve ever seen one. For all their clandestine activities together, Mozzie and Neal haven’t actually spent much time discussing what will become of their lives once they decide to skip town. Neal’s right in saying that, though Mozzie can come back to New York, he can’t. Mozzie’s use of a giant hourglass on Neal’s table to snap him back to reality was rather blunt, but the message wasn’t lost. As Neal and Mozzie were conspiring together to execute their operations right under Peter’s nose, it was interesting to see Peter being poisoned against Neal by his mentor Agent Kramer, played by the reliable and seemingly omnipresent Beau Bridges. Requiring an outside presence to gauge Neal’s complicity makes sense, and Kramer makes a good point when he says that Peter has too much faith in his friend Neal. I liked how Neal was able to contain the situation of Melissa being in the same room with him by making up a cover story and then essentially blackmailing her once she figured out the ruse. Neal was also clever enough to purposely get locked in the room by Peter and plant the fake Degas, and it’s not often that we get to see Neal parachute down the side of a building in Mozzie’s operation “Fedabuster.” Planting such a good fake may have set off warning bells for Peter, though he’s going to have other things on his mind now. As Mozzie and Orson Welles put it, if you want a happy ending, it depends on where you stop the story. Keller’s abduction of Elizabeth came as a huge, unexpected shock, and things are definitely going to be a bit more serious when the show returns this winter.

Season grade so far: B+
Season MVP: Matthew Bomer

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