Monday 5 January 2015

White Collar Finale

Not too long ago, I decided to hop onto one of the biggest bandwagons of all time and started reading the 50 Shades books on my kindle on the way to work, barely even taking in any words because I was too busy looking like a shady drug dealer, looking behind my back every 2 seconds in case someone was on to me. You know how much I like to go off topic, but this does actually relate to White Collar, I promise.

I joined in the heated debates about which actor I would pick if there were to ever be a 50 Shades film (never did I think it would happen!) and I’m actually struggling to recall who my first choice actually was. Knowing my 2012 (2011?) self, I probably put together some elaborate plan as to just how Ryan Reynolds could do it. Anyway, I saw a friend of a friend post on Facebook the picture below with her argument as to why Matt Bomer was the perfect Christian Grey. I agreed with her instantly, even though I had no idea who he was.


That, folks, is the reason I started watching White Collar. I told you my rambles were heading somewhere, didn’t I?

If you’ve never watched it before, White Collar is what I assume is your typical FBI show, although I’ve never watched CSI or any other show like it, so I got to watch it with fresh eyes and no cliches in my mind. Neal Caffrey is a highly experienced art thief, counterfeiter and con man, who breaks out of prison in the very first episode. Peter Burke is the FBI agent who put him there in the first place, and secures Neal a deal whereby he uses his expertise to help the FBI on their white collar cases. I think when I started watching, the show had just returned from it’s Season 3 mid-series break, so I got to marathon it for a while, which was the best part of my commute to work.


Every episode is a little story of it’s own with a new case that Neil and Peter work on, usually with some sort of art or literature theme (I actually feel smarter after watching this show) but with an overarching bigger problem each season which keeps your interest up every time. It definitely got frustrating once I caught up and had to wait a whole week to find out what happened next!

Spoilers ahead now for the final episode which I watched last night…

I don’t like finales. Season finales are painful enough because there’s months to wait before the next one, but I get attached to my shows and don’t like them ending! It was White Collar’s time though, and I’m glad in a way they didn’t stretch it out, because it would have ruined it. Better to end on a high! Just like Dexter, I knew White Collar could only end one of two ways, Neal would either get his deserved freedom, or the Pink Panther case would go sour and he’d be stuck with the FBI. It became blindingly obvious within the first 10 minutes of the final episode though that Neal dying was a very possible outcome. Too many heart-warming conversations, Peter and Elizabeth’s baby confirmed as a boy?


It was a brilliant episode. I cried no less than 3 times at Neal’s death and everyones reactions, but came to peace with it fairly quickly. It was an unexpected ending, up until 30 minutes ago of course, but I could accent it and move on. Until everything turned odd…

So Neal isn’t dead after all! He’s in Paris, and the Louvre just stepped up it’s security. Is that because they’ve lost something precious? Or have they just appointed a new head of security? I don’t know yet, but I like that it’s open to suggestion. What did bother me though was the ‘Sherlock’ factor to it all. It was just a bit too much for me. Also, did Mozzie know, or not? I’ve read convincing arguments on both sides, but my favourite theory is that Mozzie was in on it too, but had to make it convincing or Peter and his family would be at risk of the Pink Panther’s wrath. He left the bottle of wine for Peter, and the playing card in the storage so that Peter would know, and then left for Paris to meet up with Neal. I can be happy with that. I think I’m just still in mourning.

White Collar has been with me for 3 years and I have loved every moment. I have a hole in my heart now, in the shape of a fedora.

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