White Collar: Keeps Getting Better

White Collar is like a fine wine, better with age. Each week, this series gets better and better! USA Network prides itself on its characters and White Collar’s characters are exceptional! I wonder how I lived without them. This week Neal and Peter take on Agent Fowler, a dirty judge, a mortgage fraud case and Elizabeth meets Mozzie…

Neal and Peter return to work after fun weekends to find David Sullivan and his daughter, Alison, waiting to discuss their mortgage fraud case. The bank is foreclosing on the house that Sullivan’s father left him because his father took out a second mortgage before he died. But Sullivan believes the mortgage was a fraud. After being given a picture drawn by Alison, Peter, although still awkward around kids, promises to look into it again.

Both Neal and Peter agree that the case is pretty “cut and dry” because the bank has paperwork signed by Sullivan’s father. However, when they notice the NYPD detective, Lester Herrera, who worked the case has retired early, at age 35, they wonder if something is amiss and decide to meet with him. Herrera refuses to say anything about the case but leaves a “tip”, $4.76, for coffee. With that number, they pore over the case files again and find that it is the ID number for Judge Michelle Clark. They discover Judge Clark has been involved with nine foreclosure cases during the past two years.

With Mozzie’s help, Neal realizes that Judge Clark is Agent Fowler’s go to judge—he used her to frame Neal for the case with the stolen diamond. Also, Mozzie and Neal discuss Kate and Fowler. Surprisingly, Mozzie agrees with Peter that she doesn’t love Neal and is working with Fowler. Neal says the only way he will know the truth about Kate is if he talks to her so Mozzie suggests he ask Peter to pass her a message.

On the way to the Burkes’ house for lunch (Elizabeth is trying out a new caterer and wants Neal’s opinion), Peter agrees to pass a message to Kate—“I’m starting to wonder if the bottle really did mean goodbye.” At the house, Elizabeth mentions how the cable guy randomly showed up; Peter and Neal grow suspicious and Peter finds another bug. Neal informs Peter about the connection between Judge Clark and Fowler. Also, Mozzie, as suggested by Neal, comes over to clean the Burkes’ house. Jones and Elizabeth are present to keep an eye on him. This is funny and one of my favorite scenes of the episode!

Unfortunately, Fowler is in from D.C. When comparing the mortgage papers, Neal discovers that the second signature is a forgery. Peter goes to meet with the Judge and confronts her about the Sullivan case and the other foreclosures she was involved in. In an attempt to keep Peter quiet, Judge Clark offers him a bribe and Peter plays along. However, Clark taped their conversation and suggests a trade with Fowler—the tape for sealing the mortgage fraud cases.

Peter’s boss, Hughes, warns him that Fowler has evidence that could land him in prison. Peter returns to the office in an effort to get to the bottom of this. Meanwhile, Jones and the rest of the team arrive to show their support for Peter.

Neal receives a postcard of unknown origins with a chess move, D5, on it, and Elizabeth shows up imploring Neal and Mozzie to steal the incriminating tape of Peter from the Judge’s office. They agree to help and they successfully erase the tape using a magnet with Neal posing as a courier.

Peter decides to follow the money from the Sullivan case to gain evidence on Judge Clark. To do so, Neal breaks into the Judge’s office, leaves things disheveled and plants a listening device. After seeing her office, the Judge decides to move the money, which Neal and Mozzie hear from the bug. They also set up Fowler to arrest her on mortgage fraud, which he does, with a little help from Neal forging Fowler’s signature. Way to go Neal and Peter who won a battle, not the war, against Fowler by ridding him of his go to judge and getting him to return to D.C.

We see some happy endings—the Sullivans keeping their house, Mozzie and Elizabeth bonding and Neal and Peter finally taking Fowler down a notch.

Also, Neal admits to Peter that he doesn’t have the musicbox. Neal receives a response from Kate: “see Robert.” Robert was Kate’s father who passed away. At his gravestone, accompanied by Peter and Mozzie, Neal finds a bouquet with a yellow paper flower.

I love the quirky and somewhat dysfunctional family-like group Neal, Peter, Elizabeth and Mozzie are becoming. Neal walks Satch, the Burkes’ dog. Mozzie and Elizabeth bonded and now call each other “Moz” and “El.” Can’t you just picture Thanksgiving dinner with the four of them?

Just speculating here but since yellow flowers mean friendship, is that Kate’s message to Neal? I still don’t trust Kate and question Neal’s intense loyalty to her. Is he just that much of a romantic?

I’ll leave you with some of my favorite quotes from the episode:

“Mrs. Suit.”-Mozzie when meeting Elizabeth.

“Ok, I don’t have it (musicbox).”-Neal “Oh, look at that. Telling the truth. Did it hurt?”-Peter “Little bit.”-Neal

“She’s taking advantage of the system.”-Peter referring to the Judge “I hate when people do that. Now that I work for the system of course.”-Neal

Season 1, Episode 9: Bad Judgment (originally aired January 26, 2010)

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Tuesdays at 10/9c on USA Network

Photographs courtesy of USA and Myles Aronowitz.