Yep, that plane really did blow up, and yes, Kate Moreau really is dead. Conspiracy theorists, you can relax now. The important question as we open season two of White Collar is where do we go from here?
Thankfully, the catastrophe isn’t without its proper fallout. The FBI is grilling Peter about the plane explosion and the conspiracy, while Neal is back behind bars, still trying to cope with the death of the woman he thought was his true love. As if that wasn’t enough, a bank robber known only as ‘The Architect’is keeping New York on its toes. Sounds like our guys need to get to work, STAT!
Things have gotten interesting: Peter finds out about a secret meeting Fowler is supposed to have and decides to crash it, while Neal is back in prison and not adjusting well. The two have a visit and Neal is determined to find out who killed Kate, but Peter tells him that he can’t go off the handle to do it. Two months later, he’s sneaking his way out of prison and into a bank, where he walks out with a large sum of money, only to turn it over to the FBI on the street. Seems they’re testing out security for a massive bank chain in the face of The Architect’s multi-state robbery spree. Our dynamic duo has been reunited and just in time.
The FBI has a briefing to inform the bank CEO’s and their head of security, a token attractive blond woman named Renee, of all the security flaws. Neal has a laundry list. Peter briefs them on The Architect, before he and Neal have a meeting of their own. He asks Neal how he’s holding up, and Neal being Neal, he pretends that he’s fine. Peter knows better, and goes to meet Mozzie in a park, asking him if he’s noticed anything wrong with Neal and to keep his eyes open. Mozzie reminds him that it’s only been two months and people don’t rebound that fast. Peter decides distracting Neal with the case is the best play.
Neal, meanwhile, gets to settle back in with June (the always amazing to see Diahann Carroll) and get back to life as he left it. He and Mozzie go over everything they have on the conspiracy and the music box — which is allegedly in an evidence locker, for better or for worse. Mozzie gently nudges Neal back to the mystery of The Architect, and Neal gets his first clue in the font: the A in the bank robber’s calling card is in the same typeface as the signature of an obscure Russian painter. Diana’s dug up a list of people bidding on the guy’s paintings, but when paired against the locations of the bank robberies, only one remains: a rich guy named Edward Walker who’d rather hit golf balls into the Hudson. Look, it’s the episode’s director, Tim Matheson! Neal’s convinced he’s the guy, but can’t yet prove it.
Diana and Peter meet to talk about the mystery meeting, which is in three days. They plan on being there. While they’re discussing that, Neal is schmoozing with Walker’s personal assistant as a way to steal the data off her cell phone. And we even get to see Elizabeth, having lunch with her husband and worrying about Neal herself. Not to mention her husband might get fired.
The SIM card gives Neal Walker’s itinerary, and he thinks he knows which bank Walker will hit, so it’s back to the good old scene in a surveillance van! Unfortunately, what set off the alarm is…an alarm clock. Someone’s messing with them — possibly a very smug Walker who turns up at just the right moment. Neal feels guilty, especially when he realizes he’s put Peter in some professional jeopardy. He turns up at Peter’s house, and comes clean: the day the plane blew up, he was going to tell Peter that he didn’t want to run anymore. Getting on the plane was an escape, when he had a life in New York. He actually calls Peter one of his friends. It’s a touching moment that is played off with the show’s usual levity. The two of them start theorizing and realize they inadvertently revealed the bank’s weaknesses by running the security test…which may have happened at all the other banks. Namely, 36 other banks, as all their alarms are going off simultaneously.
Cut to a bank branch where poor security manager Renee is confronted by two thugs in ugly plastic masks. What do our boys do? Well, they break into the bank to rescue her of course. They decide to create a distraction by killing the power and bogarting Peter’s phone, before Peter himself heads off to liberate her. The bad guys are spooked by oncoming sirens — Diana has called for backup — and decide to hightail it out. Later on, Walker turns up to be more smug again. I sense a theme here! It never goes well for bad guys when they rub things in the good guys’faces.
Peter and Neal review everything they know about the case and debate how to stick it to Walker. Neal does the math to see how much money was stolen and finds out there’s a share of money missing from the alleged take — there’s someone that got paid off. They go back to confront Renee, and get her to bring them into the vault where they finger her as the inside woman and find the money to prove it. She flips out and pulls a gun, at which point they stage the most hilarious fake argument in the history of fake arguments to annoy and confuse her (in which Peter talks about his novel). While they bicker, Neal is checking for dye packs in the money. He sets two of them off to blind her, and she’s taken into custody. Walker is arrested now that they have her squealing in custody.
We all know White Collar always has a twist somewhere, and this one’s a doozy: not only does Peter call Neal his friend in a meeting with Mozzie, but Neal finds out the music box is missing. What he doesn’t know is that Diana has it in a safe in her closet, waiting for that mystery meeting.
It’s a fine return to form for White Collar. The episode doesn’t skip the emotional fallout of a cracking first-season finale, and it also has an interesting case and a strong antagonist. It doesn’t gloss over what happened before, and our characters grow and feel and begin to move on naturally. The cast is, as usual, in fine form and it’s still great to see the return of Marsha Thomason to the main lineup. Most importantly, Tim DeKay and Matt Bomer are still at the top of their game and driving the show forward with crackling chemistry and impressive individual performances. Thank God this show is back.
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