White Collar Review: Connecting the Dots

It’s finally here—the flashback episode we’ve waited for! We get to see Mozzie with hair, Peter’s mustache, baby Satchmo, and a shirtless Neal Caffrey. More importantly, we get the chance to connect the dots of Neal’s past, including his relationships with Mozzie, Kate, Alex, Peter, and the man behind the curtain, Vincent Adler.

The episode begins with Peter sorting through old newspaper articles as part of his Vincent Adler (Andrew McCarthy) investigation. Through the headlines, we discover Adler ran a Ponzi scheme and disappeared. Then Peter notices Neal in a picture with Adler.

Neal is painting at his apartment when Peter interrupts to confront him about Adler. Neal confesses he figured out Adler is behind everything. A determined Peter came armed with beer and, much to Neal’s dismay, cheap wine. They drink until the sun rises, Peter offering Neal full immunity in exchange for information regarding his history with Adler.

Neal explains he first saw the fractal design, which Mozzie decoded from the music box, in Adler’s office. The flashback begins with how Neal met Moz eight years ago. Neal was new to the city and observed a “find the lady” card scam Mozzie was running. In a slick Neal Caffrey move, Neal swaps cards and “wins” the pot of money. Mozzie tracks down Neal at his apartment and the pair talk and hit it off while discussing Neal’s excellent forgeries of Atlantic Corporation bonds. Mozzie explains he wants to upgrade partners and convinces Neal to run an eventually prosperous “long con” with him. The mark? Vincent Adler.

We learn the young, eager Agent Burke (with a “Magnum P.I.” mustache) first became aware of Neal because of his bond forging skills. Peter reveals the FBI nickname for Neal was “James Bonds.” The flashback also includes an appearance by puppy Satchmo and Elizabeth telling Peter to “lose the ‘stache.”

Next we see Mozzie explaining the goal of the five month con is to get the code for Adler’s offshore bank account. In order to succeed, Neal must get close with Adler and his first chance is at an elite charity dinner. To pay for a plate, he cashes in more of his forged bonds. We see the first time Neal and Peter come face to face—at the bank when Neal, pretending to be a concerned bank customer, asks about the forger Peter is investigating and hands him a lollipop/sucker. Posing as Nicholas Halden for the first time, Neal attends the charity dinner and tries to charm Adler. Neal falls in love at first sight with Vincent Adler’s assistant, Kate, a moment not part of Mozzie’s plan. Neal is successful in being hired by Adler after providing him with some sound business intelligence.

Neal is clearly smitten with Kate and she seems interested in him, but we discover she has plans to move to Chicago with her boyfriend. Later on, at a meeting with Adler, Neal stumbles across someone new – someone who has been snooping around in Adler’s business – and we meet the one and only Alex Hunter. After watching Kate talk with her boyfriend, Neal agrees to drinks with Alex, which turns into a romp in the sack. She reveals she knows Nick isn’t his real name, and how she’s searching for the music box.

Kate surprises Neal by not moving to Chicago, and their romance begins. We see Mozzie grow impatient with Neal…he wants Neal to hurry up and get the password from Adler. While Neal is getting a custom suit fitted, a gift from Adler, he fibs by saying that there was an irregularity in his account in the Caymans. Adler gives him a code for the account but, distracted by Kate, Neal doesn’t pull off the con.

What appears to be the morning after Neal’s discussion with Adler, Kate and Neal learn from a morning news report that Adler has disappeared, plus committed huge financial fraud. In the present, Neal tells Peter there was only one dollar in Adler’s account and the code was an anagram for “Nice try Neal.”

At the FBI office, while the Adler disappearance news is breaking, Agent Clinton Jones introduces himself to Peter and expresses his interest in the white collar task force Peter is forming. It turns out Peter has saved the lollipop that Neal gave him, considering it a reminder of unfinished business.

Neal and Kate lost all their money because they had invested everything into Adler’s company. Neal finally admits the truth about who he is to Kate. Together with Mozzie, they begin running cons to survive. Their relationship hits a bump in the road when Neal lies to Kate, trying to ship her off to Europe while he follows up on a message from Alex about the music box job. A betrayed Kate says he tried to “con” her but Neal insists he is doing everything for them.

Alex’s European music box job falls apart, and when Neal returns to New York Kate has disappeared. He starts to pull bigger cons to try to gain her attention. In an FBI meeting, Peter puts Diana on the spot and she suggests the FBI stake out Kate to find Neal. Mozzie tells Neal he heard from an unreliable source about Kate’s whereabouts, but Neal ignores Mozzie’s concerns and rushes to find Kate. He apologizes and they exchange I love yous, only to have Peter and the FBI break up their happy reunion. Prior to Neal being arrested, he thanks Peter since he couldn’t have found Kate without him. Peter finally eats the lollipop.

Back in the present, Peter and Neal discuss how to track down Adler. Peter believes the fractal design must be key, since Adler was obsessed with fractal designs. However, Peter also notices an origami on the table, meaning that Alex had recently paid Neal a visit. Neal explains that Alex says the fractal design corresponds with the frequency of an emergency beacon. Our duo decides that in order to catch Adler, they must find whatever he’s searching for first.

What a fun episode! It’s nice to finally have the back-story on most of the relationships we’ve watched for two seasons now. Hats off to Matt Bomer. He’s obviously so nice to look at and although the shirtless scenes were an added bonus, his portrayal of Neal’s transformation from the more unsure, non suit or fedora wearing man to the suave conman we all know and love today impressed me the most.

I, for one, can’t wait for a Peter and Neal (maybe a reappearance of Burke 7?) versus Adler showdown. Bring it on Adler, this duo is up for the challenge. However, I can’t help but wonder what item is so important that Adler killed Kate and attempted to kill Mozzie, and would lead him to hold a grudge against Neal and plot against him for eight years. Any guesses on where the fractal leads?

Until next week, Collars…

For another take on the episode, check out “Into the Time Slip” by Josh Hatala.

Season 2, Episode 11: Forging Bonds (original air date Jan. 25, 2011)

White Collar airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on USA Network

Images courtesy of Will Hart and USA Network