- Title: White Collar – One Last Stakeout
- wiki: link
Even after completing his deal with The Dutchman (Mark Sheppard), Neal (Matt Bomer) still finds himself under the former forger’s thumb when he blackmails Neal into stealing a single chapter of a rare manuscript from a local museum under the nose of both Peter (Tim DeKay) and Neal’s new handler Special Agent David Seigel (Warren Kole). With no choice but to go through with the crime, Neal lifts the key card of a museum worker (Bridget Regan) and enlists the help of Mozzie (Willie Garson) to use another thief’s robbery of a more valuable piece to cover their crime (and create an excuse for Neal to be at the museum).
Despite a couple of small issues, both heists are successful and the White Collar Division is blissfully unaware of the second one. Despite things going (mostly) to plan, there is some severe fallout in the episode as the young woman Neal used is fired from her post at the museum and Seigel’s investigation into Neal’s whereabouts gets him killed. The question is, will the guilt of both force Neal to come clean to Peter about the entire sordid relationship with The Dutchman, or will the con man continue to shield his friend from the truth and try and fix things on his own?
Aside from Neal’s story, “One Last Stakeout” shows us Peter and Elizabeth (Tiffani Thiessen) enjoying the fruits of is new office and Jones (Sharif Atkins) earning a promotion into Peter’s old job. However, Peter’s longing for “One Last Stakeout” nearly ruins Neal’s museum heist which forces Neal to forcibly remind his friend that stakeouts are no longer part of his job. The secrets kept in the 13th chapter of the manuscript, and what The Dutchman is really after, appear to be the season’s ongoing mystery for Neal to solve. Sooner or later I’d expect Neal and Mozzie to take a run at The Dutchman, at least to destroy his blackmail material on Neal, but uncovering the truth of what the forger is after gives the pair something else to mull over as well.
