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| Neal and Sophie |
Not only is he back, but we see most of the group
celebrating in Neal’s apartment: Peter, Neal, Elizabeth, Diana, Jones and Sara.
Hughes is absent, however. Either he was powdering his nose or—well, after
warning Peter about getting too comfortable with Neal’s methods, perhaps he wasn’t
quite up to partying with the ex-con.
Mozzie, alas, was also missing. I doubt he was powdering his
nose with Hughes, so we can assume that he was off basking in the glory of his
private investigating prowess.
But that’s enough celebrating. Considering the ending of the
episode, I know that explosion of joy was inappropriate. Thank you for bearing
with me—it’s out of my system now.
Onto the rest of the episode, which featured spot on
character interactions, both funny and poignant. These interactions were wed to
an overly complicated plot, but given the quality of this episode, I’m willing
to forgive that. (Plus it looks like they shot the memorial service at Grant’s Tomb, one of
my favorite spots. Definitely a plus.)
Peter and Neal bantered at their best tonight and each had the
other’s back. The bromance is thriving! But Neal’s relationship with Sara grew
more complicated. She was able to smile with him about his “island adventure,”
but later Neal tried to explain. “The thing about fleeing suspects,” he tells
her, “is they can’t say goodbye. To anyone.”
In a way, Sara understands. But, in an effort to protect
herself, she makes it clear that her world kept spinning when he left.
Nonetheless, she came through for Neal toward the end of this episode, risking
quite a bit for him, and even opened up to him afterward. His leaving that way
reminded her too much of the way her sister disappeared.
Neal had another love interest this episode: Sophie
Covington. He reluctantly cons her; apparently he's choosy about his marks, and a widow is not usually among them. But this con, as Peter reminds him, is for the best of reasons: Neal is protecting her. I enjoyed her interactions with him, but I’m still rooting for Neal
to settle down with Sara in the long run. (According to a TV Guide article, we
may see more of Sophie eventually.)
Peter and Hughes, meanwhile, shared quiet moments of raw honesty. Hughes took
risks for Peter, and, for Peter’s sake, even trusted Neal with an insane amount
of money. But he’s worried about Peter. He knows how good Peter and Neal are
together, but he doesn’t want Peter bending the rules too far or becoming too
much like his partner.
And then there was Neal’s final interaction with Ellen. When
he told the EMTs that he was family, he wasn’t lying. And she did her best by
him: She gave him a name, a person to contact who knew his father and was involved
in investigating the murder his father was accused of.
So the episode ended on a bleak note. Two weeks from now (White Collar is apparently off next week) we’ll
see the fall out.
Now it’s your turn, Collars: what did you think of Parting Shots?
11 comments:
I have mostly one question: Why exactly was Sara in this ep? She was totally useless. Neal could have dragged Peter out of evidence just as well, and later on, she was just standing around looking pretty. Which might be a good thing, because this ways the focus of the episode was mostly were it belongs (though I really would have prefered more Neal/Sophie and Peter/Neal scenes over every second they wasted on Sara). And the episode was fairly good - I love it when Neal is just acting on instinct. The ending...well, I'm suprised that Ellen survived (for now), happy that Peter is back, and I really have no interest in Sara's sister - I would have prefered a Peter/El scene at this place.
That was a really good episode. I'm thrilled that Peter is back where he belongs. Not sure what to think about the ending. Killing Ellen off was not much of a surprise...
Anyway, I would have loved to see more of Neal & Sophie. Hopefully she'll be back in future episode(s)!
I'm still an unabashed Sara fan and I'm so pleased that this episode dealt with Neal's abrupt departure from her life. They were no longer quite a couple when he left, but there's something between them.
In fact, I'm just going to reiterate what an overall great job this episode did with character relationships. Peter and Neal--the trust between them and that poignant toast at the end--Neal and Sara, and Peter and Hughes. Great moments for all of them.
I'm not more interested in Sara's feelings concerning his departure than I'm interested in knowing what Jones or Diana or even June thought or felt. Peter's feelings and Neal's feelings are what counts for me, nothing else. That's exactly my ongoing problem with Sara, that scenes with her are always about her and don't tell us anything about Neal at all - i.e. his talks with Sophie were beautiful done, because it revealed not only something about Sophie, but mostly about Neal. Scenes with Elizabeth for example are not necessarily directly connected to the case, but they alway serve the purpose of giving the audience an insight about Peter.
And I really really hope that this will be the "goodbye Sara" phase, because considering that Neal doesn't really seem to care about leaving her (especially not compared to his pining after Kate, or his mixed feelings about Alex), I really don't see how it's possible to rekindle anything between those two.
Nevertheless, if you Sara fans enjoy those last episodes, good for you. I have given up.
While it's the interaction between Neal and Peter that forms the heart and soul of White Collar, they don't walk around in a vacuum. And I've always liked the supporting characters in this show - rather more well-rounded than a lot of other shows.
I have to disagree with the statement above that we don't learn anything about Neal in his scenes with Sara. In "Pulling Strings" Neal was obviously jealous of Bryan McKenzie - there was a simmering competition with Bryan even when it was just Sara talking about him. Or in "Stealing Home" when Sara asks Neal about the hearing, and he says he didn't want her to think he'd helped on the case just to get her to testify - how can you say we don't learn something about Neal there? Even here in "Parting Shots" Neal's the one who starts the conversation at the end by saying he knows she's mad at him, and he obviously wants to fix things. Maybe not to a full-blown romance, but he wants to clear things up between them. That certainly tells me Neal is accepting more responsibility.
Overall, I liked "Parting Shots" almost as much as last week's episode. Obviously, getting Peter back to White Collar was great - though his interactions with Patterson were classic. (Maybe there will be a need to re-visit The Cave in a future episode.) Of course, there's nothing like the connection between Neal and Peter - Neal trusting that his rather vague clues will be understood, and Peter, of course, understanding them. There was definitely some sizzle between Neal and Sophie. Hughes in the van - hope he sticks around for more episodes this season! Mozzie and Ellen were wonderful together, and loved the little insights into Neal's childhood. And the ending... very sad, traumatic for Neal, and certainly setting up even more drama over the remaining episodes of Season 4.
Two weeks?!?! Noooooooooooooooo!!!
Neal in black...got to love it. Great episode. It's nice to see how well Peter and Neal can mirror each other and think the same thing.
Two weeks...kill me now!!!!!
@Anno "Stealing Home" is one of the few episodes in which Sara worked for me (the other is judgement day...so considering this I was somewhat hopeful that the writers finally got a grasp how to handle her). But don't get me started on "Pulling Strings". It's the only episode in the whole series I really, really hate, and on of two I prefer to skip completly. It's like two episodes in one, with Peter coped up at home in some sort of sitcom (I hate sitcoms), just to make sure that Neal has time to go off with Sara, and the jealously makes no sense to me. Especially not since he doesn't seem to be particular hung up about Sara otherwise, it's mostly Peter who acts like a shipper on deck, not Neal who shows a real interest. By now I had the opportunitiy to watch the last episode on the big screen, and the "side looks" Peter and El are giving Neal and Sara are frankly annoying. They should butt out of his dating live and leave it well alone. Likewise Neal apoligizing this last ep to Sara made no sense to me. They were not an item when he fled and it wasn't exactly his choice and she knew it. He was the one who had to go on the run, got shot, and is lucky to be back in New York. She has no business to make him leaving all about her and sending him on a guilt trip. I mean the episode ended up okayish...but it could have been so much better (though my main problem was the timeline towards the end, it really pulled me out of the episode, because by the time Peter finally made the moneytransfer, Neal should have been long dead).
OT: the promo for 4x05 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAdLRd6zpJw
I have always liked Sara and I was glad to see her return in this episode. However, I was not very pleased by the events that concluded the episode. Although it makes for a great story and motivator for Neal, it was incredibly sad to see Ellen wheeled into the ambulance. I have been a huge fan of White Collar for years and I always recommend it to my coworkers at Dish, and they always seem to enjoy it. I wasn’t able to watch Tuesday’s episode live but I was able to watch it last night on Dish Online for free and catch up. I really hope to see a lot come out of Ellen’s demise, especially once we meet this Sam guy.
I don't want to see Neal get back together with Sara (I don't think they're good for each other in a romantic sense), but if he's still friends, and able to work with her the way he does with Alex, I don't think Sara-scenes become "all about HER" as one person said.
I'm MAD at the "next time on WC" promo for SPOILING a BIG thing (I'm sure you can all guess what), though I was also wondering if perhaps the bloody ending had been faked by the marshals to facilitate Ellen's disappearance instead of what we're being told. Either way, Neal needs big hugs... :-(
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