White Collar Review: High Rollers

Imagine you had $125 million dollars at your disposal. How would you spend it? Sounds like fun right? For me, I’d start with shoes. Well, this week on White Collar Sara and Neal go on an excessive shopping extravaganza to try to draw out a hacker.

Before I get started with the recap, I wanted to say how great it is to have the original opening credits back. Thanks USA for letting the fans have a say! Also, Sharif Atkins and Hilarie Burton will be added to the credits starting next week.

Alright, here we go—the episode opens with Neal picking Sara up at the hotel she is staying at since her apartment is being renovated. They make a pit stop so Sara can use the ATM. After Neal proves that he can guess her pin number, Sara panics as she sees her bank account is empty.

It turns out Sara isn’t the only one having issues with her bank account. The Manhattan Mutual Bank was hacked and $125 million was stolen from its customers. The FBI has tracked a transfer of the same amount to a Swiss bank under the name Cameron DuPonte. Neal and Peter explain this to Sara. Since Sara’s apartment is still under construction, Neal offers that she stay with him until the case is closed. Although Peter does not believe it is temporary.

Mozzie is in Neal’s apartment watching their treasure cam when Neal arrives to help Sara move in. Mozzie is not happy with Neal’s new living arrangement so he agrees to help find the hacker. They plan to spend the $125 million to lure him out hiding.

To gain access to the money, Neal plans to pose as DuPonte at the bank. As he is getting ready, Sara questions him about the passport she found last week. He plays it off saying it is a work related passport. At the bank, the three musketeers, Sara, Neal and Mozzie work together to alter the personal info in the DuPonte file. This allows Neal to answer the bank’s security questions correctly and receive a debit card. Next, Sara and Neal go on a very expensive and extravagant shopping spree for helicopters, jewelry, clothes and much more.

Back at the FBI, Jones explains to Peter that he has found a clue in the virus—an image with the name, “vulture.” The vulture is one of the most wanted cyber hackers and they assume he is behind the virus. Also, Diana has spoken with the Swiss bank and has been alerted to the vulture’s (really Neal and Sara) spending. She shares this with Peter, who immediately thinks of Neal.

Just as Sara is questioning Neal about what they would do if the vulture comes after them, a furious Peter walks in and confronts them both. He explains that everything they bought must be returned. Then, Neal and Peter return to the Burke’s home to discuss the case. Neal acknowledges that theft has never been the vulture’s MO. Elizabeth believes Mozzie could help and calls to invite him over. Mozzie is difficult at first because he thinks the vulture is a “civic hero.” But he comes through using an online underground to get a message to the vulture and they set up a meeting.

The next day at the meeting place at the Grand Army Plaza, Mozzie spots the vulture (Lena Headey), who is a she not a he, much to their surprise. She texts that she will talk to the “handsome one” (Mozzie). Just as he begins to walk over, someone begins shooting at the vulture. When the shooting stops, Diana handcuffs the vulture, who announces that she knows that Kurt Brauer is behind the Manhattan Mutual hack.

At the FBI, Mozzie is posing as the vulture’s lawyer. It turns out the vulture aka Sally helped Brauer create the virus but there wasn’t supposed to be a robbery. She also believes that Brauer was trying to shoot her because he thinks she took his money. So Peter decides to leak a security photo of Neal posing as DuPonte in the bank and a delivery date at a PO box. He hopes that Brauer will show up to take Neal down.

Back at Neal’s apartment, Neal and Sara are discussing their shopping and relationship. Neal says they could keep living like this and surprisingly comes close to telling Sara about the treasure.

Brauer doesn’t take the bait to show up at the PO box but sent a delivery service with a flash drive. It contains another message but as Jones opens it, it releases a virus into the FBI network. This allows Brauer to hack into the system to regain access to the Duponte bank records. Peter realizes that he will head back to the bank but they can’t catch him because they don’t know what he looks like. But Neal acknowledges that the FBI has a new client, Sally, who could hack into the bank security cameras. They call Mozzie, who is at Sally’s place to “protect her.” It turns out Mozzie got lucky—he’s in bed with Sally! With Sally’s help, they are able to get a picture of Brauer and guess where he went next.

At the port, Peter realizes it is too crowded and he doesn’t have enough FBI agents to find Brauer. Again, he enlists Sally and Mozzie’s help—they post Brauer’s picture with “FBI wanted” above it on the televisions plus send the same message to all cell phones. The crowd begins to look around for him and someone finally points him out. Brauer tries to run away but Peter forcefully grabs him and handcuffs him. In a Peter and Neal walk and talk away from the port, Neal says “another W for Caffrey and Burke.”

Back at Neal’s apartment, June shows up to talk with Sara. She advises her to give Neal some time and he’ll confide in her. Afterwards, Sara calls Neal and asks what he meant earlier when he said they could keep living like this. Neal responds that he was daydreaming and doesn’t say anything about the treasure.

Then, Neal meets up with Mozzie. He tells him he has thought about staying in NYC. This ticks Mozzie off who says they cannot be “closet billionaires” and stay. They agree that the will move on with the treasure. Back at Neal’s apartment, Sara opens the treasure cam laptop and guesses the password. The episode comes to a close with a shocked Sara staring at the treasure saying, “Neal, what did you do?” Uhoh, looks like trouble is brewing for Neal.

Collars, get ready for next week—Jeff Eastin tweeted that “next week has the most intense ending of the season so far between Neal, Peter and Mozzie.”

Season 3, Episode 7 “Taking Account” (original airdate July 19, 2011.)

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

Images courtesy of Will Hart and USA Network.