(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

When my mother called me specifically to talk about the White Collar season finale, I figured it was time to watch.

Which means it's time for Sam's Six Things About White Collar!

Spoilers for Episode 2.15: Where's The Apple Pie?

1. Aw, loyal Diana and honest Peter. Play it smart and stick together kids! Though this episode could have used a little less...schmaltz, I think is the word I'm looking for? Perhaps a trifle less Baseball Nationalism. The writing was -- WAIT FOR IT -- NOT EXACTLY A HOME RUN. (See what I did there.)

On the other hand: "I woulda destroyed my arm and I never woulda passed the FBI physical. And I never woulda -- " Sam waits for him to say "Met Elizabeth" "caught you." NICELY DONE.

2. Good on Neal for both making the pool shot (that was wonderfully set up) and for taking care of Lord Byron afterwards. Lord Byron. LOL.

3. OH GOD SARA TEAL DRESS NOOOOOOOOOO

3a. The way Neal lights up every time he sees June makes me happy. He's like GRANDMA, YOU BROUGHT COOKIES! Even if she's just standing there looking awesome.

And spoilers for Episode 2.16: So Much Fucking Cake

4. "I want Neal working for me, in DC." OH SHIT YO NOW IT'S ON

5. Really? You still have the LOOTED NAZI TREASURE, NEAL? Can we please let the NAZI WAR LOOT plotline die so I can stop feeling guilty about liking this god damned show. ARGH.

6. Oh God, my mother is totally going to demand that I explain the whole "Neal's dad's not dead and his partner's in Witsec" thing and I have no explanations and it kind of pushes some unpleasant buttons and I'm going to have to be like SO HOW ABOUT ADORABLE BB NEAL HUH? to throw her off.

3a. HOLY SHIT JUNE ELLINGTON. SHE FINALLY FUCKING GETS A LAST NAME. THREE YEARS IN THE MAKING!

For a while 3a was all about Mozzie. Sorry Mozzie! Only not really because you're being an evil little troll, so June gets your spot.

Comments

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

No! Liking the plot despite the nazi loot is this show's post modern commentary!

I saw this show once. I think I was at Dragon Con. I was tird. Too tired to join Foxy at the bar. IT was a good show. Diamonds.

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Wait, I was at a bar and not watching this?

I probably watched it later! :D

I was all, "I knew Diana would be awesome!"

SAM FORGOT TO MENTION THE CAKES.

HANG IN THERE, it said!

[amand-r.livejournal.com]

hahahahah i was sooo tired

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

WITH A CAT. IN AN ANKLET. :D

Reminds me of the cake they had for the criminal uncle's release in Back To The Future!

[queenofspades89.livejournal.com]

Mozzie's not a troll; he's more of an imp, remember?

[bakaknight.livejournal.com]

As I can't possibly think of a different entry to post this note on at this time (read: lazy):

Dear Sam.
I find myself in a quandary.

I want to write fanfic for Trace.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

LOL, let me solve that quandary for you -- you want to write fanfic for anything I've written, you go on ahead and get down with your bad self. Have fun :D

[bakaknight.livejournal.com]

I want you to be aware that you have brought this upon yourself. It could be 100 words, it could be 20,000, or it could have all sorts of pictures drawn all over it in the margins.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

It's the risk authors take :D Honestly, I'd be such a hypocrite if I forbade it. I may have to eventually institute a "Write it but plz don't tell me about it" policy just so that I don't have to read every single one ever written, but I don't see the need for that at this point. :D

[mythologian.livejournal.com]

on a Trace related side note... have you shipped all the signed copies yet? If so I think I got lost in the list again, if not that's cool too ^_^

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I haven't -- I had to take a break, it got a little overwhelming. Back in the swing next week!

[darthrami.livejournal.com]

I was SO FREAKING PSYCHED not just about June's getting a last name, but about the name itself. It fills me with happiness.


Also, c'mon, how freaking adorable with El's baking Neil cakes, and then their a-bit-too-close-and-familiar hugs.

[azure-chaos.livejournal.com]

The show was a rollercoaster of revelations and awesome thwarting of Kramer (let me count the ways I hate that man)...and then it was a big punch to the gut (which I hate, just so y'know ;)). So for the most part I loved it, but I hated the way it ended (I'm sure they could've found a cleverer way to thwart Kramer once and for all). I can't for the life of me see how they can pull it back from this to the old partnership/set up because technically Neal just hit his 3rd strike, if I understand these things right. Also, wasn't the statute of limitations up on the Raphael, anyway?

There's talk that Peter gave Neal permission to go, when he was shaking his head, where I thought he was telling him not to run. *shrugs*

Conflicted, possibly retconning most of the ep.

Nate

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Statute of limitations is a weird thing; the laws are quirky state-by-state and it's not Federal if Neal didn't take it across state lines, which it looks like he didn't. I don't think it was up for the Raphael; the statute of limitations on paintings tends to be twenty years.

I think Peter was telling Neal to run; that was a signal, which he wouldn't have otherwise needed to give, as Neal wasn't close enough to hear what they were saying, so would have no reason to think about running.

I imagine he'll help them catch someone and be given an extended sentence.

[attackfish.livejournal.com]

Sorry to butt in, but this is something that has been bugging me for a while. According to the first episode in which we saw Sara, at Neal's trial, he was found guilty of bond forgery, and not guilty of stealing the Raphael. Statute of limitations no longer applies because of double jepardy. Neal cannot go to jail for stealing the Raphael. That's why Kramer said he was going to arrest him for posession of stolen property. If you can't get him for stealing it, get him for still having it.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Ahaaaa, there you go then.

[minkrose]

Also, I'd have to go check, but doesn't the Raphael belong to Adler? I thought it first showed up in the Forging Bonds episode. I'm just askin', who does the painting even go back TO, since Adler is, well, gone? Sterling Bosch front lobby, maybe? I was confused about who gets it now.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Sterling Bosch paid out the insurance claim, so they get it; it's just as if they bought it.

I'm more intrigued as to who the claim money goes to, since Adler was out of the country and in hiding by then. Possibly by the time Neal stole it, Adler had sold it on.

[wanderingwidget.livejournal.com]

I loved mozzie in this! He was all supporting of Neal and....






SPOILER WARNING





then they ran off into the sunset together! Now I need fic about Mozzies patient criminal love for Neal and how he's finally got the pretty all to hisself.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Ehhhhh I would not call "making every attempt to lure him into something he fairly clearly does not want to do" supportive.

[metallumai.livejournal.com]

Nah-- I think Mozzie was ready to go along with whatever happened, but he had to be urging the run; it would have been so out of character to have him go "Be a good boy and do the right thing..." he was there with plane tickets when he had to be.

So I think predictions are in order: where are they going, how is Season Four going to be possible, how will Kramer get his comeuppance (because he has to get smacked for this somehow.) I am not sure just helping to solve a crime will get him (Neal) out of this.

6B, for me: I totally did not see the Sara and her boss thing with the painting; how cool of the writers!!

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I think Neal's going to help them catch someone in Europe or wherever, and get an extended sentence but no jail time. I'll be intrigued to see how he gets out of this....

[metallumai.livejournal.com]

Okay, I have it figured out: Kramer was an a**hole on purpose! he deliberately set them BOTH up to believe that he was going to get Neal more sentencing, PREDICTING that Neal would get a tipoff from Peter and bolt. NOW they are in a situation for Neal to go undercover somewhere exotic for the FBI (after he and Peter get over being pissed.)

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Ohh, you think Kramer has Plans for Neal in Europe? INTRIGUING.

[wanderingwidget.livejournal.com]

He does it out of deep seated love/lust, I'm convinced. Also, regardless of what Neal really wants he has 'strung Moz along' re: keeping up his criminal ways. What with the suggested income padding and all.

As for the nazi loot... They're criminals, fancy pants criminals true, but they did/do make their living stealing from actual living people. I find it hard to judge them stealing a previously stolen and presumed lost treasure as somehow worse than breaking into a person's home/workplace or forging, or any of the other things they've suggested that they might have done.

Personally I was more troubled by Mozzie putting a hit out on Keller, as far as moral quandaries go... But even that I attribute to his love/lust/obsession with Neal.

P.S. any thoughts regarding Neal's mysterious past and missing parents?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure he thinks he's doing what's best for Neal, he's just not actually consulting Neal about what that might be. The hit is just one example of that.

I absolutely judge them for stealing the loot. There is a vast difference between stealing a painting from a person or even a museum and not returning a massive cache of war loot stolen from entire cultures by the most brutal military machine the modern world has known. Even factoring in Eastin's weak after-the-fact justification that it was looted from Russian museums so it's "clean"...well, it's not clean. Just as an example, the Battle of Stalingrad in which the Nazis fought the Russian forces is one of the bloodiest battles of any war, ever. The Siege of Leningrad lasted over two years and resulted in the death of over a million people and the destruction of multiple historical landmarks in a major urban centre. At the same time this was happening, Nazi troops in Germany and Poland were given the addresses of houses belonging to Jews who had been sent to the ghetto or the camps, and they went door-to-door systematically stripping out not just valuables but furniture and housewares, stealing them for "redistribution" to non-Jewish citizens.

Military loot is not the same as personal theft, particularly when Nazis are involved.

As for Neal's mysterious past and missing parents -- I still think he was in WitSec with his mother, and the woman who he went to meet was their handler after she broke with Neal's father on the police force.

[wanderingwidget.livejournal.com]

I blame Indiana Jones for desensitizing me regarding nazis, and am also somewhat stunned by your knowledge (not judging or Internet sarcasming, just honestly impressed, most of what I've retained about the world wars was absorbed from pop culture and is thus questionable at best).

And now I back away slowly and without making eye contact.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

LESBIANS KICKED ASS.

That is all.

Also I loved the Peter go go go go git subtle headshake.

[mythologian.livejournal.com]

weirdly enough it wasn't until the episode ended that I suddenly stopped and thought - wait, where the fuck has Hughes been this whole season?

This show is killing me, they constantly write themselves into these corners where I look at it and go "there's no way they can fix this, and I'm gonna hate it if they ruin it". It's like Torchwood 3, except they keep stopping right before they actually break it, and the suspense of it is killing me. There's just no way they can keep this up.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Maybe he finally retired for good :D

I know the feeling. I am constantly on the edge of SHOW YOU ARE BREAKING MY HEART.

[sparkysparky.livejournal.com]

haven't watched the finale yet, but Taylor and Neal are fucking, right?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure Taylor is desperately hoping for that, at any rate.

[sparkysparky.livejournal.com]

They still have Paris, and with Neal in the frame of mind he's in after the finale, it could definitely happen.

[stele3.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

Bomer really sold it in this episode. You could feel how much Neal wanted to stay, how hard he was fighting for it--and he lost. The way he was fighting back tears on the plane!

I have theories about next season, mostly about how Neal shows back up in NY (temporarily or permanently) working as a CI for an agency whose jurisdiction supersedes that of the FBI. I have no idea what agency that could be, though--Homeland Security? CIA? Interpol?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Interpol is more like an informational clearinghouse -- they have no real power, much as White Collar might try to convince us otherwise :D Homeland Security actually is, funnily enough, made up of agents from other agencies -- you get into it by being a CIA/FBI/NSA/Whatevercakes agent, and you remain an agent of your chosen branch while serving in Homeland Security.

The shit I learn from White Collar, seriously.

Anyway, at the end of the day Eastin has never confined himself to rules and regs that way, so it's 100% possible Neal could return as an Interpol Agent despite Interpol not...having agents in that sense. :D

[stele3.insanejournal.com (from livejournal.com)]

So Neal comes back as the CI of an Interpol or Homeland Security agent, somebody who's chasing a Very Bad, Very Dangerous Person and can wave around a badge and say, "I really do not give a shit what your little inter-department squabbles are," because Neal has gotten into this guy's pocket. So long as Neal helps their investigation, Kramer can't touch him.

[antonomasia09.livejournal.com]

I thought Peter was shaking his head to tell Neal to stay away, but I didn't think he was giving permission to run. We'll see, though. I had also thought that Neal was lying about wanting to join the police force and his father being a dirty cop- being a con man isn't something that you can just choose late in life, so that part of Neal's personality must have developed during childhood. I guess he could have done undercover work or something... kind of like Tony DiNozzo from NCIS.

I very much loved how close Neal and Peter were in this episode. It was something that was missing from the first half of the season, but they definitely made up for it with this episode alone. I also loved that so many people agreed to testify on Neal's behalf. June, Peter, Elizabeth, Jones (kind of), and Sara all made me really happy. Did Diana not testify, though, or did I somehow miss that? And yes, Neal's heartfelt "June, I love you" when she gave him her pool cue in 2.15 was kind of the best thing ever. I'm not so sure about my feelings on Mozzie, though. I really hate that he was trying to take Neal away from Peter, but I forgave him when he agreed to stay, but then he tried to steal Neal again, and that just made me angry.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Well, we know Neal hustled pool as a teenager -- I imagine he studied a lot about crime because he was interested in becoming a cop, and then when he found out what his father had done, he put that knowledge to...different use :D

[antonomasia09.livejournal.com]

I agree that's probably part of it. But I found out that my father was a criminal, that wouldn't inspire me to become one myself, even if I'd done a lot of research. He must have always been in danger of being a con man, and realizing that he couldn't be a cop because of what his father did pushed him over the edge.