Neal: What does that mean?
Peter: It means no anklet, no nothing. In three months, you could be a free man.
~Dialogue from the end of Checkmate
What do you think, Collars? Do you want to see Neal set loose without the anklet? Will you enjoy the twist his freedom may bring to his relationship with Peter?
Or do you think it's too soon? Do you want to see Neal serve out his sentence first? Do you think Neal should stay in the anklet for his sentence and then some? That he needs the anklet for the duration of the show? Head over to the sidebar and cast your vote--and feel free to explain your reasoning in the comments.
Here are our choices:
1. I want to see Neal anklet-free now.
2. Neal should keep the anklet for a couple more seasons.
3. The anklet should stay on for the length of the show.
4. Other (Please explain in the comments.)
Thank you in advance for voting!
11 comments:
hmmm... I'm not so sure about what to vote. I do want to see some of anklet-free Neal, and not just the last minutes of the last episode. I want to see how it changes the dynamic while it won't change the men. But I think it's too early in the series. Something is gonna happen. I don't know why they would do that now. They could at least wait for the end of season four.
You know, the way that the Powers That Be keep hinting that Neal might go MIA at the end of the season, and all the cast talking about how the finale will be the "biggest cliffhanger yet", I have a theory about what might happen: Neal might have to fake his own death. I can see things coming down to the crunch with the commutation hearing, and...it'll be looking like Neal might be a free man. But then some complication will arise where it turns out that if Neal goes off the anklet, it will put Peter and Elizabeth (or even himself) in terrible danger - some bad guy wanting vengeance, or something. So Neal might end up putting his anklet on some otherwise-unidentifiable dead body (someone killed in front of him by a shot to the face or a fire or something, not someone he killed) and fleeing, not telling Peter or anyone the truth in order to protect them. And because the anklet is on the body, everyone thinks it's Neal, etc etc. And then next season he could be forced to come out of hiding for some reason (maybe his plan doesn't work and the Burkes are in danger anyway) - and in the end, he doesn't end up being sent back to prison for fleeing (because he had a good reason), but he is sentenced to more time in his anklet.
The other scenario I can see happening is that Neal does a lot of deep soul searching before the commutation hearing, and decides that he is not "safe" to be off the anklet yet, and wants to serve out his time. Or another option could be that the commutation hearing tells him that he can no longer serve as an FBI consultant if he goes off-anklet (because it would end the work-release program, essentially), and he chooses to stay on the anklet in order to stay working for Peter.
I think that I would be happy with any of the above scenarios, or even something much better/more surprising. But I definitely don't want to see Neal go off-anklet yet, if at all for the life of the series. I think that the final chopping of the anklet would be the end of "White Collar" as we know it, one way or another. There needs to be the prisoner/agent tension between Peter and Neal to keep the series alive. IMHO, without the anklet, it will just devolve into a regular cop drama, and a lot of the appeal will be lost for me.
I think there are two elements:
1. The dynamic of Peter 'raising' Neal
2. The anklet itself
I don't think (2) matters - if Neal needs to be off the anklet the writers will find an excuse to take it off (undercover, malfunction etc) and if they need to track him they'll find another way (mobile phone, credit cards, cctv etc)
The anklet is more than just a tracker. For example, it's the reason Peter overlooks Neal's cons. After all he's a felon, what can you expect? Peter can lecture Neal because he owns him. The minute Neal's a free man, everything changes.
@Danielle - where did you see such hints?
Oh, those scenarios above are just my own speculation, not real spoilers. But as for hints about leaving, I remember reading in an interview with either Tim/Matt or Jeff Eastin...something about Neal maybe having to review his choice to leave Peter in the second half of the season? I remember seeing something about it posted somewhere else, too. (EDIT: I think it was this interview, something about Neal potentially leaving, idk. I have heard stuff about it in other interviews too, I swear. Click here)
Of course, I take everything I hear like that with a grain of salt - but, dramatically, I think it could make sense as a twist at the end of the season (Neal spends entire season coming to the conclusion that he is happy and wants to stay in NYC, only to be forced to leave by a grim twist of fate). That's just IMHO, though - I'm probably way off mark, and would personally be happy with any conclusion to the season as long as it stays true to character/to the show.
I really do wonder what the "biggest cliffhanger yet" could be, though. We have already had the massive plane explosion and Neal with the treasure - it feels like if they want to top themselves, they have to do something to one of the main characters that is pretty drastic.
The "biggest cliffhanger yet" frankly scares me - a lot, because after Kate, Moz being shot, Under the Radar and Countdown, I don't know if I really want to see something that goes even further.
At least I hope the writers won't damage the recovering bromance again!
And I like Danielle's theories.
I want to keep Neal on the anklet for the rest of the show. Now logically he can't serve too many years, but I rather have a shorter TV series with fewer but high quality seasons rather than a series that goes on and on and on. I guess it also helps to be used to British series, which are usually shorter than American ones.
@Danielle
thanks for the article. interesting stuff.. they say Kramer and Agent Matthews will be instrumental in *2* decisions that have to be made. I wonder what that's all about.
Jeff Eastin wrote in the past that the finale ends with a close-up of Neal's face. guess we'll see.
In any case, I'd wish the finale won't come too soon.
Everybody assumes that Neal will continue working with Peter once he's free. But as he says himself in "Upper West Side Story" - he has other plans.
@Anon 11:29 I don't think going back to school and possibly going for his Masters precludes Neal from continuing to work with Peter. After all, he's already said how important working with people he respects is, and that "stepping off that elevator Monday mornings" is one of the reasons he wanted to stay in New York.
I'm also not sure why he can't go back to school with or without the anklet, though. I'd like to think that Peter would support Neal should Neal decide to get his GED and go onto college.
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