White Collar – It’s all about the Burkes (and the Mitchells)

Who is one of the worst characters in the history of White Collar, and is subsequently one of the last people you’d want to see showing up again? You guessed it: Sara Ellis (Hilarie Burton). So no surprised that she popped up tonight. But why? She and Neal have no chemistry together, it’s unfathomable to imagine either one of them being interested in the other given their differences, and she’s plain unenjoyable. So why keep bringing her back?

On the other hand, Peter’s weekend at home was great, so much so that I could have gone for an entire hour of just his plot. Given that, and the fact that I’m tired of being disappointed in what was once one of my favorite shows, I decided to note my top moments of the night (most of which took place inside the Burke family home). So here we go:

• Mozzie lamenting his and Neal’s skills getting rusty was great. Not only do they sharpen them on all of Neal’s FBI cases, but Mozzie just stole a major treasure. How soon they forget!
• Neal talking about getting a job as corporate security or a paid consultant to the FBI after his sentence is commuted. Mozzie’s line about keeping Neal in fancy ties was rather amusing given the fact that Neal currently manages to maintain his lifestyle on zero salary, and I loved Neal’s readiness to “supplement” his income.
• Neal’s concern that he wasn’t invited to the wedding upon learning that Diana got engaged.
• Apparently Peter greets his in-laws by pointing a finger gun at them and screaming “Freeze, FBI!”
• Loved Peter’s handmade Mrs. Mitchell (Debra Monk, perfectly cast as Elizabeth’s mother) original sweater. Satchmo’s, too.
• Diana calling Peter Dr. Huxtable.
• Peter’s failed attempt at landing a hug on Elizabeth’s father, Alan (Tom Skerritt).
• At first I thought she liked it, but thankfully Elizabeth agreed with me about the creepy demon doll. Yikes. Hopefully chewing on it doesn’t make the dog sick.
• Jones telling Diana to let Caffrey throw her a bachelor party, and Neal promising Jonesy that he was on the shortlist for the party. So generous.
• Peter going to Mozzie for help with his present to Elizabeth.
• Mozzie explaining his presence at the house like so: “Birthdays only come but once a year … for those of you using the Julian calendar.”
• Peter thanking Mozzie “for making me look good” after Mozzie gave Elizabeth a weird present (which she loved and turned out to be rare and expensive).
• Elizabeth’s parents loving Mozzie.
• Peter pointing to Mozzie as proof that “mental instability is everywhere.”
• Mozzie loving the Bakrims wedding video.

The biggest minus of the episode, of course, was the continuing nonsense swirling around Neal and his freedom. Uh oh, Agent Kramer (Beau Bridges) is digging deep and trying to put together a case for not commuting Neal’s sentence. Sound the alarm!

Do we even need that? I mean, take away the arc (and the case) and tonight’s episode did just fine, thank you very much. Should we really be messing with success?

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Feb 08, 2012 @ 00:40 EST5EDT