White Collar Review: Into the Time Slip

Mozzie in a toupee?! Moppy-haired Bomer?! Kate alive?! Peter experimenting with facial hair?! That’s right, it’s flashback night on White Collar. Last night’s episode, “Forging Bonds,” took us back in time eight years to the first meetings of the series’ major players. There were some surprises but, most importantly, we got our first look at the man masterminding the events of the series thus far, Neal’s former employer Vincent Adler (guest star Andrew McCarthy).

We pick up shortly after the end of the last episode, when Peter (Tim DeKay) and Neal (Matthew Bomer) both learned who was behind the grand scheme. After reviewing files of old cases on Adler, Peter sees Neal standing with him in a photo. He heads to Neal’s place, cracks open some beer, and asks Neal to walk him through how he met Adler in hopes that it’ll open some leads for Peter’s investigation. Neal’s hesitant to dig up the past, but once Peter offers immunity for everything said before sunrise, Neal reveals the fractal Mozzie (Willie Garson) decoded in the music box pattern. Then, he explains, to go into his history with Adler, he has to start with his first meeting with Mozzie.

Neal first encounters Mozzie, who’s running a three card Monty game on the street, when he cons him out of some winnings. Mozzie tracks Neal down and offers him a partnership to advance both their circumstances, a long con he calls the “Everest of swindles.” Peter tells Neal he remembers this is around the time he’d first heard of his case, and Neal was known as “James Bonds” at the time as a result of his highly accurate bond forgeries. Mozzie and Neal target Adler, a successful and wealthy manager of a hedge fund who keeps all of his money in an offshore account. The plan is for Neal to get an introduction at an expensive dinner engagement. To raise the funds necessary, he has to cash in several forged bonds. After doing so, he encounters Peter on the street outside the bank inquiring about a bond forger who’s been active in Manhattan. Neal thanks Peter for his hard work in trying to keep his money safe and gives him a green sucker.

Neal, using the alias Nick Halden, introduces himself to Adler with a fake bottle of expensive wine and some insight into his talent for art and finance. Adler introduces him to his assistant Kate (Alexandra Daddario). Neal tries to work Kate to get more face time with Adler over dinner, but ends up taking matters into his own hands and giving Adler some insider information Mozzie had uncovered, prompting Adler to hire him.

Now working for Adler, Neal and Kate’s relationship grows and he makes his feelings known. Kate tells Neal that not only does she have a boyfriend, he’s asked her to move to Chicago…and she’s said yes. Adler gives Neal an assignment to investigate someone looking into his mergers and acquisitions and while in his office, Neal sees a fractal for the first time. The person in question happens to be Alex (Gloria Votsis), whom Neal tricks into coming in for a meeting. In the meeting, Adler threatens Alex, then sends her away. Neal and Alex reconnect outside and head back to Neal’s apartment to “Bomer” (that’s right, it’s a verb now). It’s here Alex first tells Neal about what a sought after piece the music box is, and that she’ll send him an origami flower should she need his help to acquire it.

Mozzie pushes Neal to get the password for Adler’s account, but a knock at the door interrupts their conversation. It’s Kate, and she didn’t leave for Chicago because of her feelings for Nick/Neal. Neal tells Mozzie he’s conflicted about continuing with the con, when Mozzie blackmails him with the reminder that Peter is showing a sketch of him around town in connection with the bond forgeries – and Mozzie knows who he really is.

Back at work, Adler buys Neal a custom suit and discusses their future together, and that he’s happy for him and Kate. Neal glimpses his sketch in the newspaper on Adler’s desk and tells him that there’s an irregularity in his account he’d like to investigate. Adler gives him the password and tells him to burn it when he’s done. Neal manages to get the newspaper before Adler can see it.

Neal tells Mozzie he’s in love with Kate, leading Mozzie to want to shut the operation down. Neal doesn’t tell Mozzie he’s got Adler’s password. Neal and Kate see a news story on television reporting Adler’s disappearance and revealing the entire hedge fund to be a scam, which Neal himself had invested in. Meanwhile at the FBI, Peter assembles the white collar task force and a young agent named Jones (Sharif Atkins) asks to be included. Neal rushes to check Adler’s account and finds just one dollar remaining, not to mention the password is an anagram for “Nice try Neal.” Neal reveals his true identity to a disheartened Kate, and the two join with Mozzie to form a con team.

Neal hears Peter has been closing in on his forgeries and suggests to Kate that they leave the country for a while. Meanwhile, Alex has sent Neal the origami flower. Kate doesn’t want Neal to go chasing the music box, so he does it without her only to come up empty. When he returns she’s in hiding, so Neal starts to pull bigger cons in hopes of getting her attention. For his part, Peter is still closing in on Neal, and Diana (Marsha Thomason) suggests using his girlfriend, who Peter suspects of trying to hide from Neal.  Mozzie tells Neal he has news about Kate’s location, but doesn’t trust the source. Neal goes anyway and finds Kate at a storage facility. Kate tells Neal she loves him just before the FBI bursts in and arrests him. Neal shakes Peter’s hand and thanks him for helping him find Kate, showing he knew it was a trap all along.

Back in present day, Peter tells Neal he doesn’t think there’s any real trail to Adler. Neal tells him Alex has been by and that they think the fractal is the key to a radio frequency. If they build one and broadcast it, it could lead them to something that disappeared decades ago. Peter says because it’s important to Adler, they have to try it.

Why is it whenever someone is meant to look younger in a flashback, they’re just given a moppy hairstyle? Sorry, off topic. White Collar continues to be one of the most fun hours on television. If I had one complaint about early episodes of the show, it’s that not a lot of back story about the interconnected events of the series have been revealed…and we’re almost done with season two. For a while I kept forgetting why the music box was important, or that it even existed, which is easy to do with a format like this with standalone stories each week. Last night’s flashback delivered like Dominoes in that respect. I was glad to see Kate again (though I still don’t believe she’s dead) and learn more about why Neal seemed so self destructive in regards to their relationship. Alex is easily my second favorite foil for Neal, closely behind Hillary Burton’s Sara, and I hope the developments in the last few minutes of the hour mean there will be more of her in the coming weeks. Having a big bad like Adler is a change of pace for the show. Even with the hunt for Agent Fowler last season, I never felt like he was a major player. I can’t wait to see what present day Adler’s been up to these last few years.

For another opinion on this week’s episode, check out “Connecting the Dots” by Allison Toner.

White Collar airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on USA Network.

Images courtesy of Will Hart and USA Network.