White Collar Review: Turning Up The Heat

White Collar has always had an oh so easy on the eyes cast, but with the return of the sexy Scotsman Ross McCall as Matthew Keller and the addition of smoking guest star Eliza Dushku, the hotness factor has been seriously upped. Even Neal begins to feel the heat when trouble brews surrounding the treasure

The episode opens with Neal (Matt Bomer) checking the u-boat manifest on the treasure camera. When Mozzie (Willie Garson) shows up Neal hides the copy of the manifest. Mozzie wants to take off as soon as possible with the treasure but Neal lies and says they can’t leave until they have the manifest.

After talking to Mozzie, Neal tracks down Sara (Hilarie Burton) to talk and try to find out how much she really knows. She exclaims, “Neal, I saw the treasure.” Sara asks if he was going to say goodbye before he left. When he says no, she looks devastated. He explains that he came close to asking her to come but their talk abruptly ends when Peter shows up, who immediately tells Neal that they’ve got a lead on Matthew Keller.

Peter (Tim DeKay) gives a brief recap on Keller—we last saw him when he broke out of prison during a transfer and kidnapped Peter –  and now he’s been captured on security footage in Egyptian museum stealing a priceless artifact, an amulet. They believe Keller has smuggled the amulet into New York.

The goal: to find it and return it to the Egyptian embassy. Following the meeting, Neal and Peter have a private conversation about Keller. Peter thinks Keller heard about the treasure and assumes Neal has it. Neal believes it’s worth using that to their advantage to lure Keller out. Little do they know that Keller is watching them talk.

Later on Peter discovers a NYC connection between the Egyptian amulet and Keller—an ancient civilizations expert, Raquel LaRoque (the gorgeous Eliza Dushku), who is also a fence. She needs a restoration tech because her partner was arrested and guess who is going to pose at this restoration tech? No surprise here, the multitalented Mr. Caffrey.

Afterward Neal and Mozzie meet with another fence, Hale, about selling the Degas painting and Raquel. Hale agrees to vouch for Neal as the restoration tech to Neal.

Peter and Neal follow Raquel to a mob hangout to meet with Hale, killing time by discussing Neal’s breakup with Sara, and Peter reveals he hasn’t told Elizabeth that Keller is back in NYC. Hale is late to the meeting and they decide to send Neal in “disguise” (wearing glasses) to talk to Raquel. They chat about antiquities and Neal tries to win her over. Peter is following his plan to “arrest” Neal and Raquel but Neal throws a wrench in it by getting Raquel away without being arrested. Raquel agrees Neal can be her restoration tech but she’ll let him know when and where.

Mozzie calls with bad news—Hale, the “last of the gentleman fences,” was murdered. At the crime scene, Mozzie reveals to Peter the security feed in Hale’s car, which shows Keller killing Hale.

Keller seems to be a few steps ahead of Peter and Neal, posing as an Interpol agent and confronting Sara about the treasure. We don’t see Sara tell Keller anything but she bursts into Neal’s apartment while Mozzie is there, explains about the Interpol agent, and swears she gave him the IP address for the treasure camera. Sara then sees a case file with Keller’s picture on the table—Mozzie realizes Keller posed as the agent and says, “that’s the one man who wants Neal dead.” Then, Mozzie calls Neal to let him know about Keller but says he’ll take care of him. Then Mozzie sells a painting from the treasure and takes a $6 million dollar bounty on Keller.

At the same time, Neal prepares to meet with Raquel after receiving a bug so the FBI can listen in and his anklet taken off. I have to say this: Raquel really knows how to rock a little white dress! Neal works on the amulet while Peter listens and waits for the code word. Just as Neal says it, the meeting comes to a screeching halt when Keller surprisingly appears. He has his gun drawn and ruins Neal’s cover. Raquel also pulls a gun and leaves the apartment.

When they are alone, Neal asks Keller what he wants. Keller responds, “c’mon Neal, I want the treasure.” Neal then realizes that Keller set the whole thing up so Neal would end up working with Raquel. Next, Keller says, “I won Neal” and shows him men moving the treasure out of the warehouse. As the confrontation between Keller and Neal takes place, cut to Raquel getting a phone call about the $6 million bounty on Keller. Meanwhile, Peter realizes the listening device with Neal is on an audio loop. He and the FBI immediately rush in the building as Neal punches Keller, who then shoots at him. When the FBI reaches the apartment, Keller takes off and as soon as the FBI is inside the apartment, Neal also disappears.

Away from the FBI, Neal immediately calls Mozzie, who realizes Keller doesn’t really have the treasure but hacked the IP feed and faked the theft. The real reason was that Keller wanted Neal sans anklet to lead him to the real warehouse with the treasure and they decide to lead him to the “palace,” an abandoned building. Neal turns the GPS on so Peter and the FBI can track him.

At the palace, an annoyed Keller says he could solve Neal’s problem by taking the treasure off of his hands. Neal emerges to confront Keller, who has his gun pointed right at Neal. Keller is about to shoot when Peter & Co. show up. As they are arresting Keller, he is shot by…Raquel! In the aftermath of the shooting, Keller sneaks away while Raquel is arrested.

Back at the FBI, a pissed off Peter questions Neal as to why he ran away from Raquel’s apartment. When he is done talking to Neal, Peter is ready to question Raquel, who stops to talk to Neal and then randomly kisses him. Sara also turns up at the FBI to meet with Peter and she tells Neal that his secret is safe.

Later that night, Peter returns home to find Elizabeth asleep in bed. He finally confesses that Keller is back in NYC. She is upset that he didn’t tell her before and he apologizes.

Meanwhile, Neal works again on checking the treasure with the manifest. He notices the Degas is missing when Mozzie shows up and when Neal questions him Mozzie admits to fencing it. They both are angry with one another about keeping secrets. A furious Neal slams the manifest on the table saying, “it’s on the list Moz.” Mozzie is shocked that Neal lied to him and this clearly is putting a wedge in their relationship, but they have bigger problems—they will be the prime suspects if the Degas is found. Neal says, they “have to get the Degas back or we’re done Moz.”

Next week is the summer finale! Can’t believe it is already here. Preparing myself, I suspect there’s a huge cliffhanger in store for us.

Season 3, Episode 9 “On the Fence” (original airdate August 2, 2011)

White Collar airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on USA.

Images courtesy of David Giesbrecht, Will Hart, and USA.