WHITE COLLAR: Need to Know

Note: Poor Mary! Not even a storm that knocked out her electricity to hold her back from sharing her thoughts on this week’s WHITE COLLAR. Thanks, M!

Well, well. This episode was full of plot and character development, wasn’t it? I think I’m going to split these recaps into two parts: Case of the Week and Music Box Mystery. Let’s get to it, shall we?

Case of the Week

Neal goes undercover as a political consultant to help Peter figure out if a senator on the campaign trail is dirty. Of course, he is. As Neal put it: “Politicians were the original con men.”

The whole team was involved in this case, with Peter making the senator nervous with his “bad cop” routine, Mozzie going on a scavenger hunt to find $10,000, and Diana pretending to like men as a prostitute.

We got plenty of time with my new favorite White Collar couple, Peter and Mozzie, as well as an interesting new friendship between Neal and Diana. I like how we’re seeing the characters play off each other in these new couplings. Even the conversations between Peter and Diana were nice.

Pretty soon, they’ll all be one big, happy family. Or not…

Neal: Is this doing anything for you?

Diana: Not a damn thing.

Neal: SIGH.

I did like how Peter recognized Mozzie’s quotes, both the one by Emerson and the one from Jimmy Buffet. Peter wasn’t as amused: “All of your quotes are getting on my nerves.” Peter Burke.”

Music Box Mystery

The episode’s cold open showed Peter and Diana staking out the meeting they learned about in Fowler’s files. They saw a guy but didn’t catch him, and even the pieced-together face they got from various cameras didn’t shed any light on who blew up Kate and the plane.

However, the conversation between Peter and Diana shed a LOT of light on the music box situation. Way to go, White Collar, for not keeping us guessing all season long.

Peter knows that Diana is hiding the music box. Supposedly, even he doesn’t know where it is, to protect both of them. And they’re not telling Neal, to protect him. That’s a lot of secrets doing a lot of protecting, if you ask me. And it is NOT going to go well when Neal finds out.

Peter: Not everything is a conspiracy.

Neal: I hope that’s true…I’ve never lied to you. I may have let you draw certain conclusions that weren’t correct, but never an actual lie.

That was an emotional exchange, wasn’t it? But it wasn’t as touching as the conversation between Diana and Neal. I loved seeing the beginning of their friendship, from the secret paintings to Diana’s back story and Neal’s guilt. Loved. It.

White Collar is so full of banter and clever quips that it’s impossible to remember all the good lines, but here are a few of my favorite quotes from this episode:

Peter: Mozzie votes?

Neal: More often than you’d think…or approve of.

Peter: I can do bad cop.

Neal: I’ve seen you do mildly irritated cop.

Peter: What do you guys need to know about creating a background?

Diana: Nothing. We’re the FBI. You’re good, but we’re better.

Peter: I hate sneaking around like this. We’re supposed to be the good guys.

Neal: The more we deny there’s smoke, the more the media will see fire.

Neal: Listen, Moz, you should know that you got a real shot at stopping this.

What did you think about this episode? Were you shocked by Peter’s mustache? Or his odd “bad cop” voice? Do you, like Mozzie, think it’s fair that the feds have their own secrets? And how long do you think it will be before Neal figures out what those secrets are?

Mary is a soon-to-be PR freelancer, a wife and a mom to a toddler who she describes as “VERY two.” And while you might think her busy life would get in the way of an ambitious TV schedule, she’s way more organized [AHEM, addicted, AHEM] than that. Also, a clean house is overrated. Mary blogs about an imperfect life at Giving Up on Perfect, writing about family, faith, books, food, celebrity look-alikes and chick flicks. You know, the important stuff.