Season 4, Episode 16
Air Date: Tuesday, March 5, 2013, 10/9c on USA
Rating:
“Family doesn’t show up on your doorstep after 30 years. They’re the ones who’ve been there when you need them.” – Neal
The last few episodes of White Collar have really been about Neal (Matt Bomer) stepping out of the shadows and finding out who he really is. Between witness protection and life as a con man, Neal has always lived his life pretending to be someone else. There’s a touching scene in the beginning of “In the Wind” with Neal sitting on a park bench with his father James (Treat Williams) discussing the evidence box Neal hopes will clear his father, when it suddenly dawns on James what the real reason is for Neal wanting to find the box.
James: “You think that what’s in there will tell you who I am.”
Neal: “And if it does?”
James: “Then, you will finally know who you are. You know, you’re not me, Neal.”
Like father like son
With reports swirling even before this season began, it was no secret that Williams was playing Neal’s father. The real mystery, however, was whether James would be a good or bad guy. He seemed too eager to get to the box first. Even with Neal, Mozzie (Willie Garson) and him searching, he had to be the one to get his hands on it first. Despite that, Neal and Peter continued to believe he was the good guy and Senator Pratt (Titus Welliver) the bad guy. In the end, we learn Pratt was simply the badder of the two.
“In the Wind” is essentially a race to find the evidence box that everyone knows is located somewhere in the Empire State Building, with each person having different motives to get to it first. Will Pratt find it before the FBI, or will it be Neal and Mozzie? In my last review, “The Original,” I said “the scenes with Mozzie in the Empire State Building felt like it was just any other building.” I take it back as the iconic building plays a major part in the finale, especially during a very touching rooftop scene between Neal and Sara (Hilarie Burton) when a proposal as part of a con becomes a little too real for Sara. I wonder if Neal is saying what Sara wants to hear or is this Neal in an honest and sincere moment?
I admit, I hate season finales. Some chucklehead, many years ago, decided that a season finale needed to shock us and leave us hanging for months. Why? If I like your show, it’s not like I’m not going to watch next season. Making matters worse for my high blood pressure is the fact that USA Network often breaks their seasons into two parts. Doing that leaves us with midseason finales like seasons two’s “Point Break,” where Mozzie is shot. It’s like reading three-fourths of a murder mystery book and then putting it down for three months. Thankfully, for me and my blood pressure, this isn’t one of those finales.
Meeting with Pratt
In “The Original,” while referring to Peter (Tim DeKay), Neal tells James, “He’s been more of a father to me than you ever were.” While most White Collar fans had that same feeling, it is shocking to hear Neal finally say it. Those words help to set up a powerful final two minutes in of “In the Wind” when Neal gets a call about Peter’s arrest and that James shot Pratt in self defense. Neal begs his dad, “All you have to do is tell the truth and Peter goes free.” You can see the hurt and disappointment all over Neal’s face as he pleads with James to just tell the truth. But, it’s not just adult Neal begging, it’s his inner child begging the father who left him 30 years ago, hoping to find one ounce of goodness in the man. “You show me you’re better than this. You show me you’re a decent man,” Neal pleads only to watch his father once again turn his back and walk out of his life.
I can see fans having a very mixed reaction to “In the Wind.” While I think this episode is an attempt to shock us, I really didn’t feel it; rather, I felt myself more at ease with things. In many ways, the slate is wiped clean. Peter and Neal’s relationship has never seemed stronger. Sure, Peter is arrested for supposedly killing Pratt but for some reason, I’m not worried about it. If I were to make a wild guess as to how Peter clears his name, it would be something like this: Mozzie clearly did not trust James; in the confrontation between Pratt and James, we learn Mozzie swapped the evidence not only just a single post card but a bundle of the same post cards as well when James wasn’t looking. I could see Mozzie hollowing them out and planting a recording device in the bundle; and last, Pratt never examined the bundle, he just held it briefly. So I imagine Mozzie has the key evidence to clear the “suit.”
Will next season be based on the hunt for James to free Peter? I don’t think so; James had been in hiding for 30 years and knows how to stay hidden. The book is closed as far as a relationship between James and Neal is concerned so the only way I see Neal searching for him is if it is the only way to clear Peter. Besides, most cliffhangers are resolved within one or two episodes. Either way, I’m looking forward to where next season takes us.
For more on the show, visit the official website at http://www.usanetwork.com/series/whitecollar/.
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All photos © 2013 USA Network, a division of NBC Universal, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Greg Staffa
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