elrhiarhodan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
elrhiarhodan) wrote2014-01-23 11:01 pm
elrhiarhodan) wrote2014-01-23 11:01 pm
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Post Ep Dish - S5.12 - Taking Stock
Hard to believe that this is the next to last episode. And I have to say that the promos and sneak peaks didn't give me a lot to love about this. Not that the story was going to be weak, but that the feels would, again, be off.
I have some thoughts, some of them less than fannish, about what has been happening over the last few episodes, but I'm going to save them for a post season wrap up. Such deep and potentially divisive meta is not the point of the Dish...I'm here to squee about Taking Stock and share my love for the best parts of it.
1 - Neal is making good on his promise that when the time comes, he's cutting all the strings. That's nothing new, and later on, when he's talking with Rebecca, she clearly scores one when she says to him that "who'd have thought, four years ago, you'd be a snitch for the very people who were hunting you down." He doesn't like that. I wonder if he ever really thought of himself as a true snitch.
Back to that initial conversation with Peter, he says he's talked to a lawyer. I hope that lawyer wasn't Mozzie.
2 - The boxing up scene was kind of sweet - a shadow of a shade of their former teamwork. But as a matter of procedure, that should have been done when the FBI removed all of the evidence from her apartment. Chain of custody and whatnot.
But they needed a set up for the case of the week - how to get a phone to ring where they'd hear it, and before the battery died (and as a side note, it's nice that the used a cheap "feature phone" that could hold a charge over a few days. If that was a smart phone, it would have been deader than Curtis Hagen).
3 - And Diana's back!!!!!!! I have missed her. Her snark, her mild contempt for Neal, her fantastic hair. It's unfair that she has such glorious hair. Love the analogy to Diana as Superwoman - and Peter's assessment of her as one of the best agents he knows.
Have to love the scene where Peter's holding baby Theo, freaking out at the idea that Diana's multitasking includes pumping her breast milk, and that she expects him to know his way around a diaper.
Can I say that with the exception of Jones' basement apartment (and the conversation Neal had with Siegel about apartment hunting), the showrunners have no concept about real estate in New York City. Diana's apartment - easily 6k a month (I am addicted to the NYT real estate section). No way she affords that on an 6th year agent's salary, even locality adjusted.
Have to love Diana taking charge of the phone call with Rebecca's new client. Shades of "Danielle" from Upper West Side Story. Only better.
I have always loved Diana as bad ass - but that scene takes all of her badassery and increases it by an order of magnitude.
4 - Neal seems especially emo in this episode (YAY!!!). I know he's mourning the relationship he thought he had with Rebecca, but maybe (hopefully) he's sad about Peter's imminent departure.
I know that Mozzie is Mozzie and he's got big plans for building a criminal empire, but damn him - does he always need to lead Neal astray. It's pissing me off. Does he really think that the FBI won't be watching Neal's every move?
A lot of people talk about Neal never having any character growth - he's not the only one. Moz is pretty much the exact same character he was in the Pilot.
5 - Bringing Rebecca to the FBI offices was a nice move. Her comments to Peter were interesting but there was definitely a subtext there - Peter was formerly a guest of the MCC and he probably has no desire to EVER go back there.
And she's really quite creepy. Her fixation on Neal is perfectly played. She's convinced herself that they are soul mates. For a moment, I can't help but wonder if he's going to be an idiot when it comes to women and he'll probably help her escape or something moronic like that. And she'll kill him the first moment he disappoints her. (Need fic for that, stat!)
I have to say that Neal calling their relationship like an airport novel, the kind you leave behind in the seat back pocket was all sorts of awesome. And recognizing that she's a murderer give me hope.
She's seriously psycho about him - she gives in for the chance to see and talk to Neal, and the moment he gets up to leave, she's willing to give him what he wants.
Interesting to see the disgust on Neal's face when she tells him about Caracas. As Ladyrose42 pointed out, it's like his reaction to Keller's cold blooded murder when he was first getting into the criminal life.
She's getting to him. As I noted above, he clearly doesn't like being called a snitch. But even more interesting is how Peter ends the interview when he sees Neal's distress.
When Neal tells her goodbye - it really looks like he means it - thank goodness. Rebecca looks like she's ready to snap - that if her hands were free, she'd take someone's head off (and it's not like she couldn't).
6 - Did Peter know about the diamond? Because if he didn't know before, he does now. And later on, when they talk about Neal going straight, why doesn't Peter bring up the diamond?
7 - Awww, Elizabeth … the voice of reason, the voice FOR reason. She believes in Neal.
8 - Mozzie interfering with Diana's childcare arrangements is this fanfic writer's dream come true. He gets the nanny to quit and he's great with infants (this is something I've had as head canon for years, so go me!)
9 - Diana sends Neal to break into the house without a warrant. And yes, the US Supreme Court does allow for warrantless seizure of evidence if a warrant was in the process of being granted, but it's a very narrow exception. Narrower than exigent circumstances.
10 - Jesus, doesn't Neal EVER wear gloves?
11 - The gratuitous semi-naked woman scene - I guess given how many semi-naked Neal scenes we've had, it's only fair. And I love how this is stolen from the cut scene from Power Play when Peter masqueraded as the wife's lover.
Bunny and Fluffernutter? How … original? It would have been a hell of a lot more interesting if Neal was Bunny's boy on the side. Alas, USA won't go there.
12 - Down on the ground, Diana looked freaked - like all she could think about was Theo.
13 - I have to love Peter's speech to Neal, which was triggered by Diana's comments to Peter - about how he's allowed Neal to skirt the law, to break the law if it meant closing cases. He's admitting that Neal's actions re getting him out of jail were a direct result of Peter's own permissive behavior over the past three years. Well, I for one, had hoped to see this scene but never expected it to actually happen (cut to self-promoting fanfic link - Fruit of the Poisonous Tree).
14 - I have to say that all of the phones ringing with news of Rebecca's escape (which I'd thought so obvious I figured it was something else altogether) was extremely well done. Chilling in its intensity.
And Moz, oh Moz - will you ever learn NOT to enter and talk to the room? Don't you know that creepy stalker lady is right behind you?
Bravo and bravo and bravissimo to episode director Tim DeKay - this one was knocked right out of the park. The pacing was perfect, the cuts and the slow steady build - especially the interrogation room scene - were all hallmarks of a great directorial eye. Here's to hoping you have a chance to do this one more time.
Okay, Collars - let's have those thinky and not-so-thinky thoughts on this penultimate White Collar episode.
I have some thoughts, some of them less than fannish, about what has been happening over the last few episodes, but I'm going to save them for a post season wrap up. Such deep and potentially divisive meta is not the point of the Dish...I'm here to squee about Taking Stock and share my love for the best parts of it.
1 - Neal is making good on his promise that when the time comes, he's cutting all the strings. That's nothing new, and later on, when he's talking with Rebecca, she clearly scores one when she says to him that "who'd have thought, four years ago, you'd be a snitch for the very people who were hunting you down." He doesn't like that. I wonder if he ever really thought of himself as a true snitch.
Back to that initial conversation with Peter, he says he's talked to a lawyer. I hope that lawyer wasn't Mozzie.
2 - The boxing up scene was kind of sweet - a shadow of a shade of their former teamwork. But as a matter of procedure, that should have been done when the FBI removed all of the evidence from her apartment. Chain of custody and whatnot.
But they needed a set up for the case of the week - how to get a phone to ring where they'd hear it, and before the battery died (and as a side note, it's nice that the used a cheap "feature phone" that could hold a charge over a few days. If that was a smart phone, it would have been deader than Curtis Hagen).
3 - And Diana's back!!!!!!! I have missed her. Her snark, her mild contempt for Neal, her fantastic hair. It's unfair that she has such glorious hair. Love the analogy to Diana as Superwoman - and Peter's assessment of her as one of the best agents he knows.
Have to love the scene where Peter's holding baby Theo, freaking out at the idea that Diana's multitasking includes pumping her breast milk, and that she expects him to know his way around a diaper.
Can I say that with the exception of Jones' basement apartment (and the conversation Neal had with Siegel about apartment hunting), the showrunners have no concept about real estate in New York City. Diana's apartment - easily 6k a month (I am addicted to the NYT real estate section). No way she affords that on an 6th year agent's salary, even locality adjusted.
Have to love Diana taking charge of the phone call with Rebecca's new client. Shades of "Danielle" from Upper West Side Story. Only better.
I have always loved Diana as bad ass - but that scene takes all of her badassery and increases it by an order of magnitude.
4 - Neal seems especially emo in this episode (YAY!!!). I know he's mourning the relationship he thought he had with Rebecca, but maybe (hopefully) he's sad about Peter's imminent departure.
I know that Mozzie is Mozzie and he's got big plans for building a criminal empire, but damn him - does he always need to lead Neal astray. It's pissing me off. Does he really think that the FBI won't be watching Neal's every move?
A lot of people talk about Neal never having any character growth - he's not the only one. Moz is pretty much the exact same character he was in the Pilot.
5 - Bringing Rebecca to the FBI offices was a nice move. Her comments to Peter were interesting but there was definitely a subtext there - Peter was formerly a guest of the MCC and he probably has no desire to EVER go back there.
And she's really quite creepy. Her fixation on Neal is perfectly played. She's convinced herself that they are soul mates. For a moment, I can't help but wonder if he's going to be an idiot when it comes to women and he'll probably help her escape or something moronic like that. And she'll kill him the first moment he disappoints her. (Need fic for that, stat!)
I have to say that Neal calling their relationship like an airport novel, the kind you leave behind in the seat back pocket was all sorts of awesome. And recognizing that she's a murderer give me hope.
She's seriously psycho about him - she gives in for the chance to see and talk to Neal, and the moment he gets up to leave, she's willing to give him what he wants.
Interesting to see the disgust on Neal's face when she tells him about Caracas. As Ladyrose42 pointed out, it's like his reaction to Keller's cold blooded murder when he was first getting into the criminal life.
She's getting to him. As I noted above, he clearly doesn't like being called a snitch. But even more interesting is how Peter ends the interview when he sees Neal's distress.
When Neal tells her goodbye - it really looks like he means it - thank goodness. Rebecca looks like she's ready to snap - that if her hands were free, she'd take someone's head off (and it's not like she couldn't).
6 - Did Peter know about the diamond? Because if he didn't know before, he does now. And later on, when they talk about Neal going straight, why doesn't Peter bring up the diamond?
7 - Awww, Elizabeth … the voice of reason, the voice FOR reason. She believes in Neal.
8 - Mozzie interfering with Diana's childcare arrangements is this fanfic writer's dream come true. He gets the nanny to quit and he's great with infants (this is something I've had as head canon for years, so go me!)
9 - Diana sends Neal to break into the house without a warrant. And yes, the US Supreme Court does allow for warrantless seizure of evidence if a warrant was in the process of being granted, but it's a very narrow exception. Narrower than exigent circumstances.
10 - Jesus, doesn't Neal EVER wear gloves?
11 - The gratuitous semi-naked woman scene - I guess given how many semi-naked Neal scenes we've had, it's only fair. And I love how this is stolen from the cut scene from Power Play when Peter masqueraded as the wife's lover.
Bunny and Fluffernutter? How … original? It would have been a hell of a lot more interesting if Neal was Bunny's boy on the side. Alas, USA won't go there.
12 - Down on the ground, Diana looked freaked - like all she could think about was Theo.
13 - I have to love Peter's speech to Neal, which was triggered by Diana's comments to Peter - about how he's allowed Neal to skirt the law, to break the law if it meant closing cases. He's admitting that Neal's actions re getting him out of jail were a direct result of Peter's own permissive behavior over the past three years. Well, I for one, had hoped to see this scene but never expected it to actually happen (cut to self-promoting fanfic link - Fruit of the Poisonous Tree).
14 - I have to say that all of the phones ringing with news of Rebecca's escape (which I'd thought so obvious I figured it was something else altogether) was extremely well done. Chilling in its intensity.
And Moz, oh Moz - will you ever learn NOT to enter and talk to the room? Don't you know that creepy stalker lady is right behind you?
Bravo and bravo and bravissimo to episode director Tim DeKay - this one was knocked right out of the park. The pacing was perfect, the cuts and the slow steady build - especially the interrogation room scene - were all hallmarks of a great directorial eye. Here's to hoping you have a chance to do this one more time.
Okay, Collars - let's have those thinky and not-so-thinky thoughts on this penultimate White Collar episode.
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Diana's back, and in every scene, she reminds me why I missed her so much. I loved how she stood by her decision about the thumbdrive and called Peter on his past choices, leading us to Peter and Neal's "I allowed you to scratch that itch" discussion. And the way her motherhood was handled was perfect - her whole world didn't stop just because she became a mom, she was still super-capable and awesome as an agent, but there were some soft glimpses there too and it was obvious how much Theo was important to her. And she finally got a nice undercover role :)
Also, I loved all Diana's moments with Peter, Neal, Moz and Theo.
Mozzie and "Teddy" - SQUEEEE!!!! :D This is what I've been waiting for since Theo was born. Please please pretty please, more Moz-Theo moments? Or more Moz-kids moments in general? Now I need a story where a few years after "Taking Account", Moz meets a child prodigy hacker with paranoia that rivals his own - and then finds out that the kid's mom is the Vulture and does his math... (Or Mozzie going legitimate and taking over the orphanage from Mr. Jeffries, or him corrupting Neal and Sara's kids. Just give me Mozzie and kids and I'm one happy fan!)
Rachel is showing up to be such an amazing psychopatic creep! And apparently Neal wants nothing to do with her - smart choice, though not surprising. If Rachel had been just another con artist, then I might have been worried - but violence/murder is one thing that Neal will never stand for. Good for him!
(Oh, if Rebecca/Rachel really hurts Mozzie in the next episode, I'll make a voodoo doll and stick needles into her. NOT MOZZIE!!!)
I think just searching for the diamond isn't illegal - although if they find it, there are probably laws about turning it in for some sort of finder's fee. Not that it's really relevant with Rebecca back in the picture.
I still have mixed feelings about Peter-Neal. I liked Peter admitting that he allowed Neal to toy with the law during their cases, but that was only a first and very tiny step in the right direction - the bromance is in no way repaired; they've just (finally) stopped breaking it even more. Frankly, if the show ends without the boys talking properly, I'll be really disappointed - they both have things to say and BOTH need to hear them if there should be any chance for the relationship to became what it once was. I don't think Peter and Neal will ever stop being friends on some level, but there's friends and "friends", and the idea of a future when the boys exchange a Christmas card once a year and maybe a birthday call makes me really sad.
And as for Neal and the anklet - I say, let him have his commutation. I could understand Jones's argument in S3 ("Neal should do his four years and be grateful that he had such a good deal"), but what Peter basically said here is that right now Neal's emotionally compromised, that he's not sure that this is the "right moment" to set Neal free. Well, when will be the right moment? I know that what happened with Rachel was dificult, but the truth is that shit always happens around Neal and I don't think that will ever completely stop, not with his past and not while he is with the FBI. If Neal hasn't learned anything from his time with the FBI by now, then I doubt that an additional year or two will fix that. Jones, Diana, June (and Peter and El) will still be there as Neal's support system. Peter can't keep holding Neal's hand for the rest of his life - he can guide, but the ultimate responsibility for his choices has to be Neal's. Neal has come to him with this request, he has obviously thought it through and he has even talked to a lawyer - this is not some sudden hasty decision, this is Neal trying to take control of his life in a legal, honest way.
I don't know if Neal deserves to be free with all the crimes he has commited (pre-prison and while with the FBI). However, if Peter's hesitation comes only from his need to control Neal's life (even if that's for Neal's own good), then I think he should let him go, even if he's right and Neal ultimately screws up and goes to prison again. But I do believe that Neal is ready, or as ready as he's likely to be.
(Are there STILL no news about season 6? I guess we'll see next week.)