White Collar, S4, E03: “Diminishing Returns”

Airdate: Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 10/9c on USA

Rating: ★★★★★

“We’re going home.” – Neal

White Collar cleverly titled this third episode of the season. Technically, ‘diminishing returns’ indicates lower and more costly productivity despite an increase in investment. Taken apart, the title can also apply to many layers of this episode and has us taking a look at how some returns – a return home, return to a team, return to the truth – aren’t as rewarding as they might first seem.

There are multiple benefits to joining the health club…

Watching Neal (Matt Bomer) find a way to get Peter (Tim DeKay) back in the game is rewarding after all Peter sacrificed to bring Neal home safely. And Peter’s stalwart toeing-the-line to stay in the good graces of the Bureau after being remanded to the ‘Cave’ (or evidence warehouse) as punishment for going rogue is a refreshing return to the Agent Burke we know and love – though he does remind us he has a few tricks up his sleeve completely unrelated to the lessons he’s learned from our favorite conman.

“Diminishing Returns” brings back the uncredited character in this show – New York City herself – and has an entertaining case that keeps us engaged while the characters work to re-establish their balance. But that isn’t the story that has me invested. They’ve been teasing us since the end of last season with breadcrumbs of Neal’s mysterious past. Thanks to some well-placed questions, we might be pulling back the curtain that’s shrouded the real Neal from everyone who cares about him.

Neal is determined to find out what Cook is up to.

Being relegated to the evidence warehouse to work under the no-nonsense, drill-instructor-like Agent Patterson (a delightfully grumpy Brett Cullen) is like Chinese water torture for Peter. Remember the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark where the Ark of the Covenant was stored within miles and miles of boxed up artifacts and antiquities? The FBI’s ‘Cave’ is like that – only with cell phones and SIM cards.

Even Neal compares the ‘picnic area’ with a prison yard, though Peter insists he’s not in prison. To Peter, the temporary reassignment is worth getting Neal back to prevent him from having to run forever. I wasn’t sure at first if Neal agreed with Peter’s assessment; there’s a moment at the beginning of the episode where a scruffy Neal is giving himself a good stare-down in the mirror – as if forcing himself to make a choice and stick with it. His relentless efforts to close a ten-year-old unsolved case and use that as a catalyst to get Peter back to the White Collar Division is evidence that he’s truly home.

Cook is a player who doesn’t like getting played.

The case is a rather simple one when it comes down to it: catch a thief. The challenge has been that this particular thief goes to ground after each job and doesn’t resurface until the statute of limitations has passed, five years later. It’s fun to watch Neal coach Peter through discovering who the thief is, then what he’s after, and finally how they’ll catch him. It’s a clever, subtle role reversal that illustrates not only Neal’s gratitude and devotion to Peter, but also his (perhaps subconscious) shift in allegiance.

Neal started out grudgingly accepting the anklet as the preferred punishment over prison; he survived the loss of the love of this life, struggled through resisting his natural and practiced inclination toward pulling cons, and realized he hadn’t really ever hit bottom hard enough to release his hold on that life. Now he’s surfaced on the other side, willingly searching for ways to help Peter and stay out of trouble. It’s been a long journey for him to get to where he is and it’s intriguing to think about where he might go from here.

Peter ‘squashes’ the competition.

While Peter is busy living through “a thrilling tale of a man’s battle with carpel tunnel syndrome,” under Agent Patterson’s eagle eye, Neal, Agent Jones (Sharif Atkins) and Agent Barrigan (Marsha Thomason) place the suspected thief, David Cook (Michael Weston), under surveillance – bringing back the van. With the encouragement of his extremely intuitive and understanding wife, El (Tiffani Thiessen), Peter – who is going stir crazy – finds a way to casually wander by the van and poke his head in to see what they’re up to.

Neal (with little-boy delight): “Just a convict and an FBI Agent watching TV. Get in here!”

Profiling the suspect is incredibly easy for these two; they practically finish each other’s sentences as they riddle out what Cook is planning and how they can play him at his own highly-competitive game. It never goes as smoothly as it should, though, and the first effort to trap this elusive thief is a bust, leaving Peter discouraged and Neal worried.

Enter the irrepressible Mozzie (Willie Garson). Hooray! We knew he couldn’t stay island bound!

Neal: “You’ve retired from retirement!”

Mozzie: “Good partnerships are hard to find.”

I like how Mozzie basically confesses that he needs Neal; Mozzie’s the “man behind the curtain” and that doesn’t really work if there’s no front to situate behind. So, with the use of certain reliable street contacts who supply some critical information, Neal is able to convince Peter to set up a sting. It’s not quite enough to get Peter back to the White Collar unit – you didn’t think it’d be that easy, did you? – but it does offer Peter closure.

The most intriguing part of “Diminishing Returns” for me, though, is Neal making good on his promise to tell Peter everything he knows about his past. The information revealed in those few minutes – not the least staggering of which is that Neal grew up in Witness Protection – plays across Neal’s face like a tragedy. And Peter, to his credit, doesn’t press for more; he simply suggests that Neal go to Ellen Parker (Judith Ivey) to find out the truth he’s been both desperately seeking and fearfully running from since he was 18.

The question this episode leaves us with is the fundamental theme of the show itself: who is Neal Caffrey? And how will the answer to that question affect the people important to him?

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