Post Ep Dish - S4.05 - Honor Among Thieves

[elrhiarhodan]

And we’re back for Week Five. Has anyone figured out why it was preempted (and why most first run shows were preempted) last week? There was nothing particularly special on the Olympics (I had thought that maybe it was the round-ball finals, but I was wrong).

So - counting down ... 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 … Houston, we have lift off!

(And lift-off’s completely staged, I’m not doing the Dish as a live squee anymore.)



This episode was called Honor Among Thieves, but it might better be named “Mixed Blessings.”

It’s not as bad as, say, Scott Free but definitely not going into my season favorites. Give it a solid 6 on the good ol' 1-10 scale.

First thoughts…

Felt very early Season Two-ish. Haven’t we seen Neal do the whole Lone Ranger thing in S2.1 - 2.10? But on the other hand, Neal’s decision to play it straight until his hand was forced was definitely a new side of him.

Things that make me sad (in no particular order) …

Diana and Christie breaking up. Yeah - that hurts. I hope it’s only temporary - that Diana’s gotten cold feet with the wedding thing.

Peter seeing Neal as uber-manipulative. I can understand it - given Neal’s history, but I don’t like it. And of course, if Peter and Neal absolutely trusted each other, they might as well be married.

Speaking of marriage and Mrs. Burke - what’s up with Elizabeth’s lack of screen time. She didn’t even go to Ellen’s funeral? She’s had like what - 10 lines in the last three eps? I am not happy with how they’ve reduced her to little more than a prop.

Mozzie’s back as the devil on Neal’s shoulder. Not surprising, of course.

Things that make me happy …

Peter telling Neal that he should have given him the chance to believe him.

Diana going to Neal for solace and advice.

Neal telling Peter he wanted to protect him.

Neal telling Peter his trust is too important to him. And I’m not with Peter on this - I don’t think Neal was manipulating him. Besides, when Neal was telling Peter this, I was so sure that they were going to kiss. It would have completely in character.

Abigail was a lesbian - and the conversation she and Diana had on their “date.” As I said, not happy that Diana and Christie have broken up, but it warmed the feminist in me that the show went there.

The reappearance of Neal’s Haustenberg, and that Peter knows what it is. Except that it’s at the wrong museum. It’s supposed to be at the Channing. Unless, as my friend, jrosemary says, the Channing offloaded it as soon as they could to the Kessman.

And beautiful Neal is especially beautiful in this episode. I don't know what it is - the light, the suit, the Apple products (he's finally got an iPhone, I'm sure - and his Mac Book Pro looks very much like the one I bought last week.

What annoyed me...

I’ve been to many museums in New York and around the world. In none of them have I ever found wheeled trash containers in the galleries. You know why? So people can’t put art in them and roll them away! And you can’t bring food or drink into a museum gallery, either.

I am sure that there are other things about this ep that annoyed me...but that’s par for the course. I'm tired and not in the mood to watch it from start to finish right now.

In fact, it’s not going to be on my rematch list, at least not for a few weeks. For the record, I still haven’t watched Scott Free from start to finish.

And a thought just occurred - is this the first nipple-less episode of the season? Or were there no nipples in the last one? And there was a considerable dearth of eye-fucking.

And never thought I’d be saying this - I miss Patterson, I miss The Cave, I miss The Yard.

Okay, folks - you know the drill. Thinky thoughts, not so thinky thoughts. Did you like this ep? Hate it? Or were you as meh about it as I am? Can you change my mind? Make me see things in a whole new light?

What say you, oh fellow fans?

Comments

[doctor-fangeek.livejournal.com]

Hmm. My jury is still out on the manipulation issue. It's within the realm of possibility, and it's not out of character for Peter to think it, but I don't think we have enough to go on yet And I take Jeff Eastin with a grain of salt. :-) He's been known to mislead us with his tweets in the past, so while that tweet - which I saw - may be verification, it may not. On a related note, as I mentioned in my post below, I especially don't think the plot makes sense as a "long con." Neal turns down Abigail's offer (saying the price is too high), when there's no one around to be conning. Neal is clearly unhappy after the heist, and expresses his remorse about "stabbing Peter in the back" to Mozzie.

In any case, I don't know that I buy that Neal could have called Peter in "at any time." You say that it made no difference to the evidence planted against him (so I assume we're talking about *after* Abigail stole the info), but once Neal was blackmailed into committing the theft, I think providing Peter/the FBI with evidence of the blackmail was important. Neal says to Mozzie that he isn't sure that *he* (Neal) would believe himself given what Abigail has done. This is in a conversation which Peter isn't present for, so I tend to think that Neal really believes what he's saying (that he won't be believed if he goes to Peter now) (that he should have done so earlier is a separate point). If he had called Peter in before the exchange, he would have had no evidence that it had actually been Abigail who had stolen the drive. I doubt she was carrying it around with her at all times, and an investigation at the Marshal's office would have pointed to Neal as the culprit. Neal's claim that he was blackmailed becomes way more credible if he gets the FBI to pick Abigail up in possession of the drive and the sculpture.

As an added bonus, by going through with the exchange and bringing Abigail out into the open, Neal is able to have the conversation that Peter and Jones hear, the one that makes it clear that Abigail planted evidence to get Neal to do what she wanted, though the way the scene is played it doesn't seem that Neal knew they were there (he looks genuinely surprised when the FBI shows up while he's still on the phone with Peter).