Having a 3 out of 10 day. Review: White Collar - "Ancient History"

White Collar, S4, E08: “Ancient History”

Airdate: Tuesday, September 4, 2012, 9/8c on USA

Rating: ★★★★★

“I spent the last decade hiding from the truth. I’m finally ready to face it and I’ll be damned if I’m turning back now because you think I can’t help you.” – Neal

As we grow nearer to the summer season finale, the stakes of the truth Neal (Matt Bomer) is so desperately seeking are beginning to rise. On the surface, things are proceeding as normal. Neal is working as a confidential informant to Peter (Tim DeKay) for the FBI, keeping up the ever-smiling façade, willingly heading into potentially dangerous situations to help Peter get the bad guy. But underneath that good show, a sea of doubt is slowly building into an internal hurricane.

I found it interesting that the question being asked in “Ancient History” is who can Neal trust? Neal is a (former) criminal. As Vincini stated so eloquently in The Princess Bride, “Criminals are used to having people not trust them….” Everyone on Peter’s team – including Peter – have continual doubts about Neal’s trustworthiness. The times he’s gone rogue – escaping and evading – have apparently outweighed the numerous times he’s proven himself to be part of the team. And in the black and white world of the FBI, it seems logical that Neal would be the one not to be trusted.

But as it turns out, trusting Neal isn’t the focal point of this episode.

As the walls around Neal’s past are slowly crumbling, we’re looking inside a man who turned the persona of ‘Neal Caffrey’ into a portico of protection. Neal was three years old when his life was irrevocably changed. His mother, we learn from clipped missives and quiet reveals, wasn’t incredibly engaged in his upbringing. He learned the art of manipulation and perception as a way to survive growing up in Witness Protection.

As an adult, Neal has been extremely selective about who he allows close to him. Mozzie (Willie Garson) was his only true friend until Peter. But Mozzie is, by nature, an enabler of Neal’s more nefarious side. This is, at once, endearing and infuriating because Neal is constantly being tested. I almost think Neal’s ability to reinvent himself is so powerful that were he surrounded by just one influence – Mozzie on the island, for example – he would be able to immerse into that persona and allow the conflict of the other part of himself to disappear.

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Is Alex truly ‘ancient history’?

But no one is allowed the luxury to live conflict-free. And in “Ancient History,” Neal is faced with multiple levels of influence he has to find a way to navigate. In true White Collar fashion, the episode title can’t simply be taken at face value. After disappearing before being swept up in the U-boat take-down last season, Alex Hunter (Gloria Votsis) returns to New York. Peter likes her in connection to a case involving the theft of ancient Greek sculptures his team has been working – with Neal as an inside man – and asks Neal to make contact with her to find out what she’s up to.

I think Neal’s hesitation to do this is two-fold. One, he instinctively doesn’t want to turn a friend over to the Feds; two, reconnecting with Alex is planting more than just a foot back into that old life. Neal’s a bit like an addict when it comes to the life of running a con – especially when it involves “priceless antiquities.” Ultimately, his choice to do as Peter asks is more for his own curiosity and a need to protect Alex from the FBI. Plus, I think he missed her.

Neal’s reluctance to encounter Alex again is nothing compared to Mozzie’s (amusing) blatant fear of her wrath for stealing the U-boat treasure out from under her.

Mozzie: “Now I have to hide for the remainder of my natural life.”

Neal: “Your natural life is made up primarily of hiding.”

Adding to the ramifications of stirring up ancient history with Alex, Neal also receives a “missive from the grave” in the form of a Beta-max tape with instructions that it is to be sent to him should he and Ellen (Judith Ivey) ever be separated. Before Neal can handle what the tape will reveal, though, he has to decide who he can trust with that truth. At first he wants it to be Sam (Treat Williams), a fact which rubs Mozzie the wrong way to no end.

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Partners in crime.

Neal’s initial inclination to cut him out turns Mozzie’s world sideways and “the little guy” goes to great lengths to prove Sam isn’t trustworthy (putting Peter in a hilariously compromising position). If finding out the truth of his past hurts Neal, I think it will surely crush Mozzie. I was honestly relieved when Neal decided to watch the tape with Peter and Mozzie rather than Sam. He needs the truth of his past, but he also needs the balance of his present in order to preserve the possibility of his future.

Meanwhile, there’s always a bad guy to catch and this time, it’s not who they think it is. Neal wants to trust Alex – trust that he knows her, even if he can’t trust that she’s not lying to him. Unfortunately, neither one is true but before we get to that realization, we’re treated to Alex and Neal teaming up for one last art theft. Neal posing as a spray paint artist, complete with dark sunglasses and gray hoodie, was definitely a sight to see – as was his spray paint depiction of Aphrodite stealing one of the ancient Greek sculptures. He’s an artist; he can’t resist the opportunity to leave his mark on the world. Or a museum wall.

Alex: “He doesn’t leave through the gift shop.”

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It takes a steady hand.

As an aside, Neal spent a good amount of time dressed in clothes other than his trademark fedora and suit in “Ancient History”; maybe I’m seeing meaning where there’s simply a wardrobe change, but I can’t help but think this is a subtle shift to the person Neal is trying to discover inside himself. But that discovery isn’t going to come easy – for any of them. Neal is working with Peter to help catch Alex; Peter is working with Mozzie to bend the rules and discover evidence “in plain sight.” Black is white, up is down. There’s no telling what will happen next.

But as Alex gets away with the loot – informing Neal as only Alex can that they’re now even for the U-boat treasure – and Neal prepares to see what Ellen wanted to show him when he was three years old, I’m left wondering how the question of trust is going to play out in the last two episodes of the season. Neal chooses to trust Mozzie and Peter; right now they are the only family he’s got (dysfunctional as it is). Mozzie has made it clear he thinks they’re “in this together” and Peter…well, Peter checks Neal’s horoscope (Neal’s an Aries, by the way) to see if it might reveal why the conman is off his game when it comes to staying a step ahead of Alex. Nothing says friendship like hanging with a guy who’s having a “3 out of 10” day.

Still, I can’t help but feel there are a few cards left to be played in this game of identity and I think the tape is going to reveal more than any of them are prepared to deal with. Are you guys as anxious to see that Beta-max as I am?

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/.