A crushing bear hug. Review: White Collar Summer Season Finale - "Vested Interest"

White Collar, S4, E10: “Vested Interest”

Airdate: Tuesday, September 18, 2012, 9/8c on USA

Rating: ★★★★★

“I investigate anyone that comes into Neal’s life.” – Peter

What a way to make an exit! “Vested Interest” has tension, banter, friendship repaired, bullets flying, truth revealed, and a rat! I’m always impressed by the writing on this show – the interactions and dialog flow so naturally viewers may feel as if they’re peering into the lives of these characters – but this season the writers have outdone themselves. Some of the plot points were telegraphed a bit, but the impact to the players involved minimized any predictability of the events unfolding around them.

The tension brewing as a result of the parting of Neal (Matt Bomer) and Peter (Tim DeKay) at the end of “Gloves Off” has not magically dissipated, and Neal is making good on his promise to do his job for the FBI – participating with Peter in a panel at an annual, prestigious (they only invite the best) FBI conference. Peter and Neal have the highest close rate of any CI team and are being recognized for their efforts. Which is great on one hand: Peter works so hard to follow the rules and is relentless about closing cases and catching the bad guys, it’s good to see him getting recognition (especially after The Cage).

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They’ve worked well together from first chase, to first case.

But Neal isn’t really ready to play nice and his terse, almost snarky responses to Peter’s overt efforts to make up with him are almost painful to watch. I understand his feelings are hurt and that he’s angry – and taking the situation as a whole, my sympathies really lie with Neal – but there are times Neal can act rather petulant. I was worried he would allow his anger to sabotage the whole panel.

Peter: “They’re expecting a team out there on stage and because you’re such a damn good con man, that’s exactly what we’re going to give them.”

One of the things that have evolved over the course of this season is the way Bomer has relaxed into his portrayal of the character of Neal Caffrey. He no longer plays him as just a con man searching for an ill-defined sense of freedom. Bomer acknowledges the changes in Neal that have been forged by some tightrope walking and surviving some significant losses. Neal’s protective layers are peeling away, showing us the damage beneath and Bomer manages to pull all of that up through his eyes, exposing significant emotion with a glance. When he plasters the false, con man smile across his face to satisfy Peter, his eyes appear to be like glass—reflecting nothing but the show that must go on.

It’s not a comfortable panel, with Neal subtly suggesting that Peter blurred the lines to get the desired end result. A security breach cuts the panel short and sends Neal home…where he finds Mozzie (Willie Garson) confronting an armed Sam (Treat Williams) – who was supposed to have skipped town (cue my Spidey-sense)….

Mozzie: “Great. I brought a corkscrew to a gunfight.”

My suspicion of Sam from last episode hadn’t faded any more than the tension between Neal and Peter. I’m in agreement with Peter’s voiced suspicions that the reason Sam is looking for the evidence box isn’t to expose dirty cops, but to keep his own guilt a secret – even after the events at the end of the episode.

A crushing bear hug. Review: White Collar Summer Season Finale - "Vested Interest" 2

Searching for a thief in a haystack of FBI agents.

Peter is, as ever, focused on the job – continuing to check up on Sam via FBI channels even after Neal’s accusations that those actions are what led to Sam leaving (and, more damaging, Ellen getting killed). Peter is sympathetic to Neal, but he knows what has to be done. He is logic and reason to Neal’s emotion and instinct. It’s what makes their partnership so fun to watch.

Backed into a virtual corner, Neal’s con to create a trap and draw out whoever is after Sam (using the FBI, but not connecting with Peter) is one of his cleverer bait-and-switch maneuvers, hilariously employing Mozzie’s pet, Percy – a rat with a penchant for unique cheeses. I love the fact that Jones (Sherif Atkins) was this close to uttering a girly scream when the rat was set loose in the office as a distraction.

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Diana and Jones make a good team.

Jones and Diana (Marsha Thomason) work to narrow down what the thief is after – and I have to say that I like watching Jones working with anyone. He has a way of holding his own, yet modifying his techniques to match his partner. Narrowing down the suspects isn’t incredibly hard – thanks to a pick-pocket demonstration by Neal – but it’s the time they take to detail out what the thief is after that had me on high-alert: a hi-tech, bullet-proof vest that is supposed to disperse the bullet’s power and feel like a “a firm hug.” Anyone else find themselves wondering who was going to get shot?

Neal is still playing his own angle, but when Peter shares that ‘Sam Phelps’ actually died two years ago, he is forced to rethink his full-steam-ahead approach. It’s clear that Neal doesn’t want to believe Sam could be lying to him. That would hurt too much, not after all the betrayal and abandonment he’s had to survive thus far in his life. Neal’s argument that deaths can be faked – after all, he’s done so himself once or twice – is an obvious tell that he’s grasping at straws.

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Neal owes his life to this hi-tech, bullet-proof vest.

When Neal is put in a situation where he has to make a choice between following through with his plan, or backing Peter’s effort to stop the theft of the hi-tech vest, I wondered what was going on in Neal’s head. His actions during the intense shoot-out in the parking garage aren’t those of a man who has written off a friend. He is nothing short of heroic – if a bit reckless. Especially with the whole running-across-the-cars-to-draw-fire-away-from-Peter thing. The moment he gets up on those cars, it’s clear to me who would be the one to test out that hi-tech vest.

When Neal’s body jerks and he falls from the impact of the bullet, the pure panic in Peter’s voice is all anyone needs to hear to know how important Neal is to Peter as a friend and person, not just a CI. One of my favorite moments in “Vested Interest” is when Peter says he wanted Neal to work with him due to Neal’s expertise, but after so many years of chasing him, realized he genuinely liked the con man.

Seeing the relief on Peter’s face when he realizes the vest protected Neal had me rubbing my heart. This is the team we want to see! Not sure how Neal managed to get the vest on under his suit so quickly, but *hand wave* those are just details. I thought it was funny that Neal contested the “firm hug” description of the vest, though.

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With his world rocked, Neal knows only two people he can really trust.

With the FBI conference safe from intrepid thievery, Neal is free to focus once more on the mystery that is Sam – but Sam isn’t going to make it easy for him, deciding to go it alone. Neal (out of concern for Sam) and Mozzie (out of concern for Neal) manage to intercept Sam, rescuing him from a tattooed man intent on pounding the older man into the ground. I was glad to see Neal surreptitiously get a DNA sample to Peter – ala a cloth covered in Sam’s blood – but what struck me most in the rescue scene was Sam’s quick, almost throw-away line that the man who attacked him doesn’t know about Neal…and Sam wants to keep it that way.

That kind of instinctive protection colors my perception of Sam a bit; doesn’t make me less suspicious of his motives, but my sympathies toward his actions might be swayed as the story continues to unfold.

While waiting for the results of the DNA test – nothing happens as quickly as it appears to on CSI: – Neal and Peter are able to finish their panel at the conference, sharing the story of Avery and the comic books (from Season 1’s “Hard Sell”). When asked about the immense trust between them, Peter’s answer draws perfectly to the crux of not only the whole season thus far, but the axis of their friendship.

Peter: “Even when there isn’t trust, there’s always faith. That whatever the other is doing, it’s for a good reason.”

The look on Neal’s face when he agrees with that statement is the exact opposite of the expression of confusion, pain, and betrayal that settles in his eyes later when he hears the results of the blood test. In a very George Lucas-esque moment, Neal finds out who Sam really is. It’s a game changer, and one I’m not sure Neal will handle very well after all he’s been through, all the ways he’s had to adapt, evade, re-invent over the years.

I suspected it last week; I’m still not sure how I feel about it, to be honest. But I’m eager to see how these clever writers play it out. Right now, Neal has one truth in his life: the friends he trusted when at his most vulnerable never left his side. I hope when White Collar returns in January, Neal’s able to hold onto that truth and not let the other one shatter him.

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/.