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| Matt Bomer as Neal Caffrey |
“I spent the last decade of my life hiding from the truth; I’m
finally ready to face it.”
~Neal to Sam
Wow. I didn’t think anything would beat Diminishing Returns
for me this season, but Compromising Positions is at least as good. This is one
of those episodes that gets everything right—yes, including the tension between
Peter and Neal. This tension was tempered with bromantic banter and affection,
and it didn’t feel false or tacked on. On the contrary, it grew out of legitimate
differences between Peter and Neal, and it was possible to see where both men
were coming from.
The episode begins with the elusive Sam making contact with
Neal (who, we learn, was initially named Neal Bennett). Without giving Neal much to go on, Sam leaves
him with the impression that the men who killed Ellen have somehow infiltrated
the FBI.
Mozzie advises Neal to tell the Suit everything. Yes, you
read that correctly. He is the voice of reason here; he doesn’t trust this Sam,
but he does trust Peter. He almost makes up for so often being the devil—excuse
me, imp—on Neal’s shoulder.
Neal approaches Peter about Sam, but he knows that anything
above board—i.e., anything involving the Bureau—will scare Sam off. Peter,
meanwhile, is not the black-and-white guy he was in the Pilot, but neither is
he willing to go completely unofficial where this Sam is concerned.
This puts Neal in a tight spot. He wants to meet Sam again. Moreover,
he doesn’t want to put Peter in a position that might endanger his career. And
that’s the source of the tension in this episode. It works.
But why does Neal put his faith in Sam when he knows next to
nothing about the guy? Presumably because Ellen told him, with her dying breath,
to trust him. All right. I guess Neal gets a pass on this one. But I wonder
what his naiveté will cost him.
And one thing confuses me. Have we learned that Neal’s
father is dead? I’m under the impression that he confessed to a murder and is
currently rotting in prison. If he is still alive, why isn’t Peter arranging
for Neal to see him? Or, if that’s not possible because of Neal’s radius, arranging
to see the man himself? Or, heck, they could send Sara or Mozzie to visit him. Can
anyone straighten me out on this point?
Unless Neal’s father is also somehow under witness
protection.
(I have heard fans speculate that Sam is Neal’s father. This
cannot be, for clearly only Pierce Brosnan can play that part. We’re all agreed on this, right?)
But back to the episode. The non-mythology part involves an “executive
consultant” named Shepard or—as Mozzie coins her—“Lady Fixer.” This woman is
sharp; she pegs Jones as “seeking daddy’s approval through over-achievement.”
Shepard has ties to Sara; ties that Sara is willing to
sever when she discovers that Shepherd is blackmailing a prosecutor and jeopardizing
one of Peter’s cases. This leads to some zany and delightful scenes, one of
which involves photographs of Peter and Sara in compromising positions together.
The pictures are staged, of course, with Elizabeth directing and Neal shooting.
Meanwhile, Neal gets to fulfill a dream of testifying for
the prosecution! And he’s good! Better yet, his testimony brings some
early-episode banter between Peter and Neal full circle, showing us more about
each character in the process.
And as for Sam—well, Peter’s no fool. He has a strong
inkling of what Neal is up to by the end of the episode; we’ll see how that
plays out next week.
So what did you think, Collars? Did the tension between
Peter and Neal work this time? Did you enjoy the episode as much as I did? Let
us know!
14 comments:
Even though they had their moments of trust and even anger, Peter and Neal handled it more like grown men than they have in the past -- more like two people who love and respect each other but have issues they need to work out. They've been there before but never like this -- never with such a sense of commitment about working on their relationship, of suspending the mistrust so they can calm down and find a way to figure this out. I loved that sense of growth and maturity in their relationship.
I hope it lasts.
The case of the week seemed rather shaky to me -- not something you'd want to examine too closely unless you want the whole house of cards collapsing around you.
I'm not a Sara fan so I skipped through her scenes. Seeing her with Neal is bad enough, but seeing her with my favorite FBI agent (even as part of a ruse) is very hard. I hear it was all very amusing but I couldn't watch. Nothing amusing about Sara, not for me anyway.
What a great episode! I happen to be a Sarah fan (I think Hilarie Burton does a great fast-thinking, sharp-tongued counterpart to Neal's conman), so her inclusion in this episode made me really happy. ESPECIALLY when they were filming the "sex scene" and Neal and El both gave their counterparts (or in Neal's case ex-counterpart) advice on how to make their tryst more convincing. Loved seeing her back in this capacity :).
Sam was really well done. I think the gruffness in the beginning was particularly well-suited for a guy looking at a former colleagues/friend's son who he thinks is sticking his nose in something dangerous. It was perfectly complemented by the minuscule amount of fondness he displayed towards the end when talking about darts.
And yea...where are Neal's parents? No one ever mentioned they were dead. And if he was in witness protection at 3 and Ellen wasn't in for a full 30 years, he's under 33 years old -- so it's probably safe to assume they didn't die of old age.
Shepard was a bit forced. Not a huge fan of her character, but she served a necessary purpose. Glad she's gone.
"You realize somewhere, pigs are flying right now." BEST. LINE. EVER.
Love the episode and your write up. It's amazing at what we've chosen to focus on for this episode.
You've zeroed in on the Neal and Sam + Peter issues and I chose to completely ignore them in favor of the eye candy, the porno and the fic and slash possibilities.
What a wonderful thing fandom is!
@ Anon 5:02--aw, you're missing a fabulous scene between Peter, El, Neal and Sara! It was a lot of fun :)
Meanwhile, I agree that Peter and Neal are dealing with their issues in a more mature manner--let's hope that continues!
@Anon 8:43 I am 100% with you on Sara. I love her, and I'm still hoping she and Neal end up together (although I'm ok with that taking a long time.)
Meanwhile, unlike me, you spelled Shepard right! (I went back and corrected mine, lol.)
I like Treat Williams as Sam, but I'm wary of the character and his intentions. As for Neal's family--I hope the show reveals soon who's living and who's dead!
Great episode! By far one of the season's best!
Neal learned from Ellen in Judgment Day (when he goes to her Roosevelt Island apartment) that Neal's father was a dirty cop (something we knew from S2's What Happens In Burma episode) AND that he is not dead (something we did not know, and that I believe only Neal knows, he has not told Peter that for sure and I do not think he has told Moz that either because on the tram with Peter when Peter asks who is E Parker Neal says to Peter that he will tell Peter something he has not told anyone, not even Moz).
So Neal's dad is still alive. He is possibly in witness protection too, we don't know. Hopefully we will find out by the end of S4.
I suspect that Neal's dad did not kill the cop, but was forced by the corrupt cops he fell in with to confess that he did do the killing in order to protect Neal and Neal's mom. That could explain why at first he denied he did the killing and later confessed to doing it (we learned that from Ellen at the end of Diminishing Returns).
This season is really holding my interest!
If I thought that seeing Peter and Sara together was giving Neal an entirely new way of looking at Peter, opening his eyes to new possibilities for their relationship, then I might be persuaded to watch that scene, Rosemary. (Just kidding -- well, sort of, anyway.)
Sara's hard to take -- like nails on a chalkboard. I can't imagine what Neal sees in her -- he so deserves someone who exudes some tenderness and warmth. I've never seen that in Sara -- she's all angles and hard edges. I've never seen any evidence at all that she cares about him, about who he is. She wants to remake him to meet her expectations -- and he's never going to measure up and she'll always find a way to let him know it, to make him feel inadequate. The thought that the two of them will wind up together in the end makes me want to stop watching now, except I'd miss Peter and Neal too much. (Anon. 502)
I liked this epidose! Very much! I'm loving the bad girls of this season, and I'm enjoying single Diana.
Also, I'm a scientist. Did you know that there is a study that about half the publications on pubmed (biomedical literature) is, well, a lie? So when Neal says that science doesn't lie, I had to laugh. Yes, science does lie.
Oh this was a great ep, I had so much fun watching it that it seemed shorter to me than other episodes :))
And yes, I've had the same question about Neal's parents. From what I remember Neal saying his mother left him shortly after they were on Witness protection, so I guess we can assume she's still alive out there and Neal isn't really interested in reenacting that relationship. As for his father I am confused... I remember Neal saying that his mother told him that he had died (as a hero) so we guess we can rule that one as a lie to protect a young Neal. But then with his talks with Elen it seemed to me that he confessed to the crime and then ran off. Or maybe he was killed too so that he wouldn't talk? I thought I had missed something in previous episodes... I think the writers left it open .
I did think the whole Neal/Peter trust/mistrust was better handled like it was said in comments above. Mozzie saying Neal should trust Peter, was a gush of fresh air, loved that scene :D Pigs are flying indeed! And Sam... for the time being I don't trust him.
Loved reading your thoughts :)))
@Anon 1:50 I didn't think Neal's Dad was dead--now I need to go back to that ep and listen to that conversation again. But it still begs the question: if Dad is alive, why isn't Neal trying to contact him? Even if he (foolishly) doesn't want to tell Peter too much about him?
@Anon 1:50 Oh, and thank you for the comment and your memory!
Thanks for the great write-up! You hit so many of the key points.
I too have wondered exactly what we are supposed to think about where Neal's father is right now. I hope this story makes sense when it's all over, but I do have some trepidation on that point. I remember Ellen saying to Neal, I had to tell you the truth about your father before you followed through on your plan to become a cop, because everyone at the police academy would have known. But how? If they were all in witness protection, presumably b/c of Neal's father, then no one should have known who they were or what his father had done. They were in another city, with new identities. Maybe I have that wrong and someone can explain it to me.
I've been wanting to see Neal testify in court for a long time, so it was enjoyable, but I was also a little disappointed. I always envisioned that the fun part of such a scene would be Neal matching wits with a clever defense attorney who'd be trying to impeach him and his testimony (given Neal's rep, there is SO MUCH material you could use to discredit him in front of a jury!). We got none of that, which was too bad.
Nonetheless, it's one of my favorite eps ever and whoever up-thread didn't watch the Sara/Peter scene because they can't overcome their antipathy for Sara, let me just express my deepest sympathies because, gosh, do I feel sorry for you! Depriving yourself of the funniest scene in the history of the show is just so unfortunate. I really don't think anything has ever come close in terms of being LOL funny. And probably nothing else ever will. A classic scene in WC history.
I was very impressed with this episode of White Collar. It showed that they could go back to the usual format and still move the season arc along. I didn’t get to watch it live because I was working late at Dish, but I did get to record the episode on my Hopper. I decided to record the whole season so that I can re-watch every episode after the season is done airing. That way, I don’t have to be without any White Collar before next season, and I still get to record the rest of my shows too. I am incredibly impressed with this episode and I really can’t wait for the rest of the season!
My guess is if Neal's Dad is out of prison then he is in Witness Protection. Could it be Sam? Possibly.
They've done a better job of the tension this year as Neal's motivation makes sense, he's going to piss Peter off because he wants to protect him. They did a good job of setting up a bit of a parallel with Peter and Ellen ("protect our boy") and they do fill similar caretaker roles for Neal. Not blood family, but perhaps something more important. With Ellen dead because of this search for the past of course Neal will not want Peter involved.
Neutral on Sara and I don't see her as end game, but I agree that scene was one of the funniest ever!
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