White Collar 2x09: Point Blank...

[fajrdrako]

This evening maaseru and I sat back and watched this week's episode of White Collar, "Point Blank". It's the last episode till January, and they pulled out all the stops.

1. Trust issues. You know I love trust issues. I love it when characters trust (and love) each other whether they should or not, even at risk to themselves, even when they may have no rational cause for trust.
   
   White Collar has been full of that.
   
   And only last episode - or was it the one before? - Peter and Neal promised "no more secrets", they were going to trust each other, work together on the secrets of the music box, and sort things out as a pair.
   
   So in "Pont Blank" Neal lies to Peter, breaks several laws, jettisons his tracking device. We know that telling Neal to behave doesn't work, but we knew he trusted Peter, and wanted Peter's trust, and... it looked as if, just this once, he might behave.
   
   Hah! No. This is Neal. And it's Neal sorely beset, by his greatest vulnerability - Kate and her murder, and ... well, it remains to be seen what will come of it, but I note that do far, Peter hasn't arrested Neal, or come down hard on him. Perhaps the only think I like better than seeing the one character break the other's trust, is seeing the other forgiving him and continuing to build trust as best he can.
   
   To some extent, I think Peter trusts Neal to do the outrageous, incorrigible, risky and often illegal thing. And to some extent, he admires Neal's independence - even though it drives him crazy.
   
   And Peter knows what Neal has at stake, emotionally.
   
   
2. For some reason, I spent the whole episode expecting to see Kate turn up alive. Nope. Maybe next January?
   
   
3. So - is Mozzie dead? I don't think so.
   
   
4. Nice to see June again, and her dog. She hasn't had much of a role this season. Does the dog have a name?
   
   
5. I loved it that Neal put the tracking device on the dog. I wonder if Peter has taken the key from him, or will he cut him some slack?
   
   
6. No Bancroft, no Hughes. Instead we get Fowler, no prize, but at least the plot took a giant step forward.
   
   
7. I liked the scene in which Alex was robbing Diana's apartment, and Diana came home. I continue to be very unenthusiastic over Alex.
   
   
8. Nice to see Diana's apartment, though I wish we'd seen Christy. So Christy works nights - I wonder what she does.
   
   
9. I missed Elizabeth, whose wisdom might have been of use here.
   
   
10. Loved the scene where Neal swept the bullets off the table - echoes of the Pilot, the classic scene of Neal being trapped and cornered without a scheme for escape, frustrated and alone.
    
    
11. The code was in haiku? How does that work? (Made me laugh!)
    
    
12. I liked Neal's armed confrontation with Fowler. So much for not liking guns. Even more, I loved hearing Peter talking him down. And it worked.
    
    
13. I'm hoping next year to get more Elizabeth, more Diana, more June (and family), and more Peter/Neal emotions. I hoping to get less Mozzie, and no Alex. I hope we get Hughes and/or Bancroft, too. And I want to see Christy, even if it's just sheer curiosity.
    
    
    

Comments

[oxoniensis]

I don't think Mozzie's dead. I think Peter and Diana will get there just in time to help him. I'm counting on it!

I wonder if Peter has taken the key from him, or will he cut him some slack?

I think Peter said the Marshalls reset the tracking device, so presumably that key won't work any more.

All season I've been working on the assumption that Kate's alive, but after that finale I'm much less certain.

I was fascinated by the way it played out with Fowler, to find out that he was a victim too, not the power-hungry, evil guy we'd been thinking.