White Collar – At What Price

• Title: White Collar – At What Price
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“The irony of this is not lost on me.”

White Collar begins its Fifth Season with the tables turned and Peter (Tim DeKay) languishing behind bars for six weeks. Needing to prove Peter’s innocence before the indictment which, even if later acquitted, would cost him his job in the FBI and Neal (Matt Bomer) his provisional freedom, the con man accepts a deal with the first criminal he helped Peter take down. The Dutchman (Mark Sheppard) guarantees Peter’s freedom if Neal forges a confession from his father and agrees to perform a job for the still incarcerated forger.

Despite coming up with an ingenuous plan that nets them the coins rather easily, things begin going wrong nearly immediately after the robbery’s end. First, Neal is forced to let the fire department take the oxygen tanks holding the $2 million worth of gold coins which he and Mozzie have to then find a way to recover. And second, Peter informs him that the theft of the coins is their latest case and maybe their last as Peter is looking at a promotion to be the new head of White Collar Division.

Before Peter’s mentor forced Neal to run the show was gearing up to Neal moving forward on the straight and narrow with or without the anklet. Circumstances here find him blackmailed by the Dutchmen and earning a bit of distrust from Peter whose suspicions and new lease of life force him to take a serious look at his relationship with Neal.

Upgrading Neal’s anklet from the one Peter suspects correctly Mozzie (Willie Garson) has leaned to hack, once again the fragile partnership of Neal and Peter seems about to take a turn for the worse for everyone involved. The question is, will the Dutchman’s demands and Peter’s new attitude be enough to return the old Neal back for good? The show also needs to revisit how much time Neal has left on his sentence (which, given the show is now in its Fifth Season, should have long expired by now).