White Collar Review: Back in the Saddle Again

The wait is finally over. One of television’s best dramas is back, and the premiere wastes no time drawing us back into the suspense.

Season 2.5 premiere, “Burke’s Seven,” jumps right back into the action following poor Mozzie being shot by Julian Larson. Mozzie is rushed to the hospital and, following surgery, is placed in a medically induced coma.

Neal and Peter are determined to avenge Mozzie’s shooting—to try to trap Julian Larson, they decide to force him to stay in NYC with the help of the forging community, who all give out the same alias. Moz wakes up (HUGE sigh of relief!) but isn’t ready to ID his shooter. Neal leaves the hospital and is followed by Larson, who offers him a deal of delivering the man behind the curtain, who hired him to kill Kate and shoot Mozzie. Neal immediately goes to the Burkes’ house to discuss what happened and surprisingly tells Peter, “this time we do it your way.”

Peter and the FBI get a hit on Larson’s whereabouts through the use of the new FBI okayed alias when he buys a plane ticket. The FBI track Larson to his apartment, arrest him and find the gun he shot Mozzie with hidden in a flowerpot.

Meanwhile, Neal is visiting Moz in the hospital, and he explains a coded equation lies within the music box but he doesn’t know exactly what it is yet. Mozzie is also distraught because he believes he betrayed Neal and everything he stands for when he told “the suit” about Neal going after Fowler. Much to Mozzie’s surprise, Neal thanks him for telling Peter because he might have killed Fowler, who didn’t kill Kate.

Back at the FBI, Peter is interrogating the uncooperative Larson, but it all comes to a screeching halt when Peter’s fingerprint is found on Larson’s gun. Shocking, right? Larson has to be released and Agent Burke is placed on leave.

It turns out Larson, wearing a similar Neal Caffrey fedora, broke into the FBI office and stole Peter’s favorite coffee mug to lift his fingerprint and then planted it on the gun. Diana and Jones also realize Larson deleted something from his file on Peter’s computer—the name Prince Frederick Bilal. (As an aside, I’m sure Poptimal’s editor, Bilal Mian, a fellow White Collar fan, is thrilled that his name was used in this episode.) Moving on. Peter calls in a favor and enlists the help of Sara Ellis to gain access to the Rodgers Yacht Club that Prince Bilal, who races horses internationally, belongs to. An undercover Peter chats it up with Bilal about horse racing while Neal and Sara pose as a married couple to snoop around. They discover the connection between Bilal and Larson—Larson uses Bilal’s yacht for smuggling. Our duo tried it Peter’s way to take down Larson, now it’s Neal’s turn. But first, Peter needs to form his crew, “Burke’s crew.”

Peter and Diana fill Jones in on everything that has been going on. Jones says, “I’m on your team, Peter. Anything to get out of that van.” While at the same time, Neal is filling Sara in, who also agrees to be a part of Peter’s crew. Meanwhile, Elizabeth convinces a hesitant Mozzie, who at first insists he is retired, to also join the crew.

The plan is to spook Prince Bilal into contacting Larson using a pay phone to set up a meeting. However, it won’t be Larson on the phone but Neal using Sara’s high tech voice changer. The plan is going smoothly except when a random man uses the payphone first to call his significant other—in a perfect scene, Neal and Peter fail in “dumping him” from the payphone while Elizabeth steps in and eloquently succeeds. She then quips, “now it’s the Burke seven.” Bilal finally gets on the phone and sets up a rendezvous with the shipment with Neal posing as Larson. When Bilal arrives he is surprised to be greeted by Burke’s crew. Inside the shipment, they find dinnerware with swastikas on them.

With Bilal’s help, they set up a real meeting with Larson to take him down. Sara is able to lure the FBI to the meeting, where they catch Larson red-handed with the latex copies of Peter’s fingerprint. Outside, Peter, Neal and Sara watch as Larson, who has been arrested, is led out by the FBI. Unfortunately, Larson breaks out of the cuffs and away from the FBI agents. Peter springs to action, borrows an NYC police horse, chases down Larson and dramatically tackles him. Neal compliments Peter, “nice riding Butch.” Peter quickly responds, “Thanks Sundance.” After Larson is arrested, Peter officially declares, “the Burke seven is hereby disbanded.”

Back at the FBI office, a reinstated Peter is once again interrogating Larson. At the same time, Mozzie reveals to Neal that he figured out the code in the music box—a fractal design, which he made out of plastic straws. Neal has his light bulb moment as to who is behind everything and says to Mozzie, “we both know who he is…the man who made me who I am today.” Larson tells Peter his name: Vincent Adler.

“Burke’s Seven” is easily one of the best White Collar episodes thus far. Also, one of my new favorites. I’m so happy to have the show back. It is such a treat to watch the dynamics of this strong ensemble cast. Burke’s crew could pull off anything. Although Peter disbanded his crew, I’d love to see more capers run by his crew in the future. Wouldn’t you? Of course, I’m ecstatic about Mozzie’s recovery and looking forward to seeing what the rest of this season brings. I’m sure it will be more must watch TV. Collars, get ready for next week…it’s a flashback episode!

For another opinion on “Burke’s Seven,” read “Coloring Outside the Lines” by Josh Hatala.

Season 2, Episode 10: Burke’s Seven (originally aired January 18, 2011)

Tuesdays at 10/9c on USA Network

Images courtesy of Eric Liebowitz, Will Hart and USA Network.