White Collar: A Golden Opportunity

What’s the best way to solve a case? If you’re Peter Burke, hitting the bottle and seeing where it takes you is a good place to start – or at least it worked in his favor (twice!) this week. It also helps to have a hot wife with good instincts, a debonair criminal sidekick and an undercover assistant who looks good in a dress and heels. And, meeting Mozzie, the man who makes things happen behind the scenes, also doesn’t hurt – unless Mozzie runs you down with his car.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Neal Caffrey’s good looks open doors – bottom line. Whatever doors they don’t open, you can pretty much bet that he’ll find a way to pick the lock anyway. This episode relied on Neal’s unconventional methods to help solve a case involving stolen gold and artifacts, and even tied in the war in Iraq (points scored for including current events). When Elizabeth shows up at Peter’s office with her friend Dana in tow, Burke learns that Dana’s husband Captain John Mitchell, recently home from war, has just been arrested by the FBI for smuggling stolen Iraqi artifacts back into the United States. Mitchell agrees to turn himself in to the FBI (or really, turn himself over to Peter Burke), but swears that he is being framed by a man named Patrick Aimes. Since Mitchell’s fingerprints and DNA are all over the evidence, Burke is pretty sure Mitchell’s odds look bleak, but he agrees to pay a visit to Aimes. Before he goes, Neal tips him off to look for splatter burns and blisters that would surely be on the hands of the actual culprit who melted down the stolen gold.

After finding said burns on Aimes’ security guard’s hands, Burke decides to reexamine the evidence. Sure enough (hey, this is TV after all) the Mitchell fingerprints on the artifacts all come from his left hand, so Caffrey and Burke are convinced the prints were lifted and planted to frame him. But why just the left hand? Caffrey has a “Eureka!” moment over a couple of beers at lunch with Burke, realizing that Mitchell would’ve only touched a bottle with his left hand, thus the person who helped frame him must’ve gotten drinks with Mitchell recently. Mitchell’s wife, who has been staying with Elizabeth and Peter, tells Burke her husband had drinks with a broadcast journalist embedded with his unit named Alicia Teagen. FBI field trip #2 takes the guys to Teagen’s network office, where Caffrey spots her stashing a pawn shop ticket in her desk. In an entertaining scene, Burke obeys procedure and questions Teagen in a conference room, while Neal is off breaking into her desk and photocopying the ticket. Sticky Fingers even flashes his million dollar smile to get the code for the copy machine from a female coworker, nicely played Caffrey.

Since Neal and Burke technically weren’t even supposed to know the ticket existed, let alone illegally filch the evidence from her desk, Neal quickly passes it off to Mozzie to track down the item that Teagen pawned. Peter, being run out of his house by an overdose of estrogen, shows up at Neal’s house, booze in hand, saying that drinking gave them their first big break, so why not try for round two? At the same time, Mozzie was on his way over to Neal to show him the gold coin he tracked down from the pawn shop, and in a hysterical meeting in Neal’s doorway Burke finally meets the man in the shadows (who has helped them crack their cases) face to face. My favorite line was when Mozzie tried to convince Burke he was really a neighbor trying to court June, because she “likes a little cream in her coffee.” Fast forward to Mozzie and Burke getting drunk and making fun of Neal for being ditched by Kate, and this scene quickly became my favorite of the whole show.

The guys devised a plan where Neal put the pressure on Teagen and got her to turn herself in to the FBI. This legitimized their case, since her confession allowed them to move in on Aimes – and ignore the fact that all of the evidence they’d gotten up until that point was illegal and inadmissible in court – a minor detail! Neal agrees to pose as a private buyer and accompany Teagen to meet Aimes (with agent Lauren Cruz in tow posing as his business manager) and arrange the sale of the artifacts. But, not before Neal scoffs at the meager Mercedes (“It’s not even an S-Class”) the FBI provided him for the meeting, so he and Mozzie “borrow” a stretch limo to make it more believable. I have to say, Willie Garson’s comic timing is amazing – I laughed out loud several times. The deal goes bad when Teagen shows her nerves, and Cruz and Aimes’ body guard have a guns-drawn standoff while Mozzie runs over Aimes with the limo outside. The Feds move in, Aimes and Teagen are left to face the music, and Captain Mitchell returns home to his wife a free man.

Oh, and Neal cracks another piece of the Kate puzzle – the map on the Bordeaux bottle shows an “X marks the spot.” We’ll see where the X takes us next week, and I hope it involves more Mozzie antics.

Quickie endings aside, this show is seriously growing on me. First of all, who wouldn’t covet Neal’s sweet set up – killer apartment, killer wardrobe and lots of beautiful women around? Secondly, the Butch-and-Sundance thing he has with Burke is funny, especially since most of the time they’re both being dominated by Elizabeth, or Cruz, or both. You have to love the fact that Burke catches felons and criminals for his job, but he’s afraid of crying women. Caffrey for his part thinks of new and ingenious ways to slip past any roadblocks in their cases, like having his hands full with coffee and asking a security guard to fish his (make believe) ID card out of his butt pocket so he can go where he’s not allowed. PS, Neal – if you need help with finding something in your butt pocket, I know a few women who would be willing to help you out. The writers at USA are really bringing their A-game to White Collar, and this episode was a perfect example.

For another take on this episode, check out Nice to Meet You by Allison Toner.

Season 1, Episode 4: Flip of the Coin (originally aired November 13, 2009)

For more on White Collar, click here.

Fridays at 10/9c on USA Network

Photographs courtesy of USA, Electric Artists, and David Giesbrecht