White Collar: The Challenge

Last week, White Collar wasn’t on and I missed it immensely! But this week, White Collar returned with one hell of an episode!

Neal receives another postcard from his “anonymous chess opponent.” This postcard is a little different—the Museum of Natural History on it and no postmark, meaning it was hand delivered. The chess move, knight to D7, clues Neal in to his opponent—Matthew Keller and was from a game that Caffrey and Keller never finished.

Before we learn who Keller is, we see Neal at the FBI office, surprisingly early, researching a recent robbery at the Museum of Natural History. Neal makes light of this but Peter’s BS radar goes off and suggests they go talk to the suspect who was just released on bail. As they arrive, the suspect is hit by a car and later dies in ICU.

Neal tells Peter about Keller, the “blue collar version of me” and his rival who has never been caught. Neal’s guess is that Keller posted the suspect’s bail to get rid of him. He explains to Peter about a bet they made years ago to see who could counterfeit a bottle of wine owned by Ben Franklin, which is said to be impossible. The materials stolen from the museum would be needed to do so.

Peter discovers that an anonymous seller has put the Franklin bottle up for auction at Weatherby’s auction house.

Next, Neal pays a visit to the broker, Grace Quinn. He pretends to be representing a client and convinces her to give him a tour of the security vault, where the expensive wine is kept. While there, Neal notices a postcard with a message from Keller for a face to face.

Meanwhile, Burke informs Neal that Interpol says Keller owes some Russians a lot of money. They assume he is planning to repay them with the money from a sale of the Franklin bottle. During the meeting, Keller takes shots at Neal, baits him about Kate and implies he had a relationship with her. Keller issues Neal a challenge—10 days to make another replica of the Ben Franklin bottle.

Neal immediately enlists Mozzie’s help, who proposes that the rivalry between Keller has always been about Kate.

At first, Peter is not thrilled to hear that Neal agreed to Keller’s challenge. But Neal convinces him, after explaining about the testing of wine/bottles. Their theory…if they submit their own bottle, Weatherby’s will have to test both. Both will fail and they can arrest Keller on fraud.

The next scene was one of the funniest of the episode. Neal startles Mozzie, who is working on the bottle, and he reacts by screaming and holding tweezers as a weapon.

Neal- Geez, Moz. Overreact much? What are you going to do with tweezers?

Mozzie- The Shinobi Ninja can fashion a weapon out of anything.

Neal- You’re not a ninja.

Mozzie- That’s what I want you to believe.

Neal learns they need 18^th century wax to complete the bottle and knows he can get it from the wine vault. After some persuasion, Peter goes undercover as Neal’s client, so Neal can steal the wax.

Neal is successful but is almost caught. Immediately after, Peter and Neal have an encounter with Keller, who really is obnoxious. Peter’s reaction: “five minutes with the guy and I want to punch him in the face.”

Unfortunately, they learn they cannot submit their bottle because Weatherby’s is closed to new entries. Peter is determined to take down Keller, “the anti-Caffrey” and finds information on a former auction that gives them the leverage to get their bottle in. Weatherby’s agrees to run tests on both bottles. Peter demands the IP addresses for those tuning into the event, assuming that Keller is watching from somewhere.

The results are in—Keller’s bottle is authentic, meaning he had the real one all along! So why challenge Neal? Caffrey’s guess is that the second bottle would drive up the auction price for the real one (Keller’s). Then Neal tells Peter they could charge him with trespassing, which Keller did during their meeting. Peter and agents search for Keller while Neal calls Mozzie for help.

Mozzie shows up at auction and explains that the Russians are in town and really want their money. Neal encourages Mozzie to win the Franklin bottle which he does for $1 million. Peter traces an IP address to a parking garage but Keller is gone.

Neal has a hunch on where Keller is heading, a helicopter pad, and is correct. Neal tries to get Keller to confess to his crimes but Keller laughs him off. Neal then reveals that he won the bottle so Keller will not get the money for the Russians. Peter shows up and our duo gives Keller an option: choose the Russians, who will most likely kill him because he doesn’t have the money, or go with the FBI. Keller chooses to be arrested and tells Neal, “the game ain’t over. See you soon.”

It ends with Mozzie advising Neal to talk to Alex because there is a lot of “chatter about the music box.”

This episode may be one of my favorites from the season! It had a little of everything—witty lines, an interesting case about wine, Neal’s archrival & Mozzie…what else could you ask for?

Ross McCall, who played Matthew Keller, had a very strong guest appearance! He did a great job making me not like his character. My guess is Keller will be back to torment Neal.

Can’t believe there are only two episodes left. Time flies when you’re having fun or watching White Collar… Curious to see if our questions about Kate, the music box, and Fowler are answered in season one or if we’ll be left with a big cliffhanger.

Season 1, Episode 12: Bottlenecked (originally aired February 23, 2010)

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Tuesdays at 10/9c on USA Network

Photographs courtesy of USA.