A Long Con or a Change of Heart? Review: White Collar - "Honor Among Thieves"

White Collar, S4, E04: “Parting Shots”

Airdate: Tuesday, August 14, 2012, 9/8c on USA

Rating: ★★★★★

“Trust Sam.” – Ellen

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Assessing their next move….

In “Honor Among Thieves,” multiple stories appear to be playing throughout but when all is said and done, the episode really asks just one thing of its characters: what are you prepared to do? White Collar’s theme consistently questions who each character really is at the center of it all. The show’s central focus for this question is our favorite con man, Neal Caffrey (Matt Bomer), but this season – and in this episode in particular – the question touches each character one by one.

Neal has spent his life working angles in order to survive. In many ways, he’s like the mobile by Pascal that is the artistic centerpiece for this heist. The mobile is about perception – modern art that some might dismiss as trash while others declare it priceless. Its beauty is in its constant motion—always shifting, turning, catching angles of light so that each time you look at it, you see something slightly different. Neal has mastered the art of perception, making people see in him what he wants them to see, and it’s only recently that he’s questioning that visibility.

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Art is in the eye of the beholder.

When we open at the funeral for Ellen Parker (Judith Ivey) – the last link Neal had to his mercurial past – I knew the balance of trust and friendship between Peter (Tim DeKay) and Neal would once more be tested. The writers wisely never allow us to get too comfortable. Solid, steadfast Peter has crossed the line multiple times for Neal in the years since he struck the deal to get Neal out of prison. And what’s being confirmed this season is that Neal’s only solid ground is Peter. He wants to trust and be trusted by Peter, and I think had he not been shown that the door to his past was unlocked – if not all the way open – he might have found a way to reinvent himself once more in Peter’s image.

He’s as much as stated that Peter is the man he wishes he could be. But Peter’s realization, “if there’s anyone who can find a way to get everything he wants, it’s Neal,” is our clue that Neal is still walking a very fine line between his old life and this new one.

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Takes an art thief to know an art thief.

Now that he’s been reinstated with the White Collar unit, Peter is ready for his first case to go smoothly. He needs a quick win to regain confidence. Unfortunately for him, his first case involves Abigail (Lost’s Rebecca Mader), a beautiful art thief who manages to set nearly everyone on his team off balance. Agent Diana Berrigan (Marsha Thomason) – whose relationship with her fiancé has been rocky – is unable to deny her attraction when she goes undercover as a docent at the art museum that houses the artifact Abigail intends to steal.

I enjoyed how the writers penned the team’s reaction to Diana’s quiet unraveling. Peter and Jones (Sharif Atkins) choose to deftly sidestep the awkwardness of the situation while Neal gently offers an opening for Diana to talk. His observation that the “best cons come from a place of truth” gives her the permission she needs to admit she isn’t happy. She’s been simply moving forward, unsure if she can handle the fallout of being honest with herself.

Neal: “You avoid something long enough, it has a tendency to blindside you.”

Abigail also manages to play the great Neal Caffrey – using the persona of Neal the Art Thief against Neal the Person. On some level, though, I think he wanted to be played. While Abigail blackmails Neal into stealing the Pascal, he did tell her why he was lurking around outside the Federal Marshal’s building in the first place. He needs to get into the Marshals’ files on Ellen’s murder to gain information about Sam, an undercover cop who may know the truth about Neal’s past. Peter tried to get the files, but couldn’t and despite his promises to find Sam another way, Neal is understandably desperate and seems willing to make a deal.

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Was it all just a long con?

However, he knows how much Peter has sacrificed for him, how much he almost lost because of Neal. He knows their friendship is truly in his hands – and their friendship is critical to my enjoyment of White Collar. When Peter realizes Neal has stolen the Pascal, his anger made my stomach drop. I didn’t want them to be at odds. Then again, Neal isn’t going to change 30-odd years of survival instinct that easily.

Neal should have said something to Peter the minute he realized he was being blackmailed; unfortunately, his instinct is not to ask for help but to find a way to help himself. Peter is a smart guy and figures out how Neal – with the help of the irrepressible Mozzie (Willie Garson) – pulled off the heist, and tracks both Neal and Abigail to what should have been the exchange. I’m not clear on how Peter is able to overhear their conversation without Neal being bugged – did anyone else pick up on that? – but I found it interesting that it’s not Neal being blackmailed, or his not taking the evidence he so desperately wants that has Peter tentatively trusting his friend once more. It’s that Neal calls Peter immediately after he hands over the art. That act tells Peter Neal is slowly turning, shifting…trying.

But, Peter can’t get too comfortable trusting Neal – after all, Neal ultimately gets the evidence he was after. Had Neal truly accepted that there would be another way to find Sam? Or had the whole blackmail/phone call thing been an elaborate ruse playing Peter in order to get a copy of the evidence in his hands? Are we seeing a change of heart in Neal the Person or is being a con man so ingrained into who Neal is that he won’t be able to break the habit?

I’m excited to see what each character is prepared to do throughout the rest of this season. How about you?

Tune in to White Collar, Tuesdays at 9/8c, only on the USA Network. For more on the show, visit the official website at http://www.usanetwork.com/series/whitecollar/.