Paranoia is high in this episode of White Collar. Peter gets his hands on some surveillance gear and a sensor that can pick up conversations nearby. Elizabeth accidentally overhears a conversation that might lead to a potential robbery and decides to take action when she sees a couple of suspicious looking new neighbors across the street. She first drops by the neighbor’s house by bringing a housewarming gift and then coerces Peter into going over to the neighbor’s house for dinner later that night so she can do some snooping around. I had a gut feeling that her plan would backfire when Ben Ryan (guest star Joe Manganiello) came upstairs when he heard a noise downstairs and locked the door to what I believe is his study. Peter then later finds her in the room, along with Neal, who came to Elizabeth’s rescue when she found herself locked in.
After some explaining, Peter decides to look into Ben Ryan to see if he’s up to no good. Turns out that he, his wife Rebecca (who I don’t think is his wife and is only using that as a cover), and a man named Connor Bailey are planning their own Italian Job by robbing a hotel of $7.5 million dollars. They almost succeed in their master plan when Peter and the rest of Team Burke catch them in the end.
In the scene where Neal and Mozzie sit in a car outside, presumably staking out the Ryan’s house, Neal started to reminisce about the times when he would go on stakeouts with Peter. It shows that he values the friendship between Peter and himself and that he’s uncertain if he wants to give up the thrill of the chase so to speak when he becomes a free man. Mozzie tells him that he’s bordering on nostalgia, but hey, there’s nothing wrong with taking a stroll down Memory Lane, especially if one wishes to re-live the good times.
When Ben asked Neal if he liked strip joints, I rolled my eyes at the irony of his statement given that Joe Manganiello and Matt Bomer are starring in the film Magic Mike, which is, coincidentally, about male strippers. I wonder if the rest of the White Collar cast have seen the movie. I’m willing to bet that Tim DeKay and Sharif Atkins would tease Bomer to no end about his dance moves in the movie. I literally head-desked when Elizabeth tried to pretend to be an FBI agent, with no help from Mozzie, who tried coaching her in how to act like a federal agent. You may be married to an FBI agent, but you certainly can’t pull off being one. At least Connor was idiotic enough to buy her act before Ben and Rebecca ID’d Mozzie and Elizabeth when they saw them on the strip club’s security feed. If I were in Connor’s shoes, I would have at least looked Elizabeth up and down to see if there was any identification that could verify her as an FBI agent. Just saying.
I enjoyed watching this episode; it contained the humor and suspense that every drama series should have in order to keep their viewers entertained and hooked on each and every episode. I also enjoyed seeing the look on Neal’s face when Peter saw him crouched by the window. It was like a kid getting caught by his mother with his hand in the cookie jar: a mixture of shock and fear of getting punished. Looking forward to the next episode of White Collar!
[Photo via USA Network]
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