Post Ep Dish - S5.12 - Taking Stock
Jan. 23rd, 2014 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elrhiarhodanHard 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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2014-01-24 05:47 pm (UTC)Moz & Theo was adorable and made of win.
Rebecca/Rachel & Neal was creepy and scary and the two of them sparring, such as it was, was terrifically done.
Loved Diana. Loved Neal as the wife's boy toy (and the quick thinking of it). Think your points re: gloves and also the diamond make sense.
And we are so on the same page re: Peter (both in this ep, and I think, based on a previous conversation in Ang's journal, overall). I still do understand a lot of where he's been coming from this season (trying to make distance after having gone to prison, being angry and conflicted when he finds out how he was freed), but I have also been critical of how he's handled some of that (e.g. the fact that it is literally true that Neal is a criminal doesn't make saying it as you're cutting ties with him in a major way a good idea).
And I agree with you about the conversation in this episode. It felt half-hearted to me, as well. Although TBH, I didn't really 'get' all of it. I mean, Peter admits that he's been allowing, even in many cases encouraging, Neal's illegal behavior, which is true (and which I think he needed to see/come to terms with). But the part about letting Neal "scratch an itch"? I mean, a lot of things Neal did with the FBI boil down to conning people to get evidence and/or solve the crime, and that's not illegal (you say 'con,' I say 'sting'). And I don't know that letting Neal "scratch his itch" in that regard is a bad thing. Finding legal outlets for the part of Neal that loves the thrill of the con? That seems like a positive.
I do also agree with you that simply saying that Peter's permissive behavior led to what Neal did to get Peter out of jail is not really getting at the heart of the matter. Neal (and the team) were presumably trying for those 6 weeks Peter was in prison to get him out legitimately, and they were running out of time. At that point I think Neal would, as you have said, done anything. And I think you're right - it wasn't about stealing or conning, it was "pis aller," a move of last resort, and freeing Peter from the mess his father created was more important to Neal than the threat of being beholden to Hagen. IMHO. :-)
And now I need to go get a make-up biology lab started....
no subject
Date: 2014-01-24 06:31 pm (UTC)I had totally forgotten about the 'scratch an itch' line. And, that definitely boils down the con/sting distinction that was first made in Burke's Seven for so much of what Neal has done over the years on the FBI's behalf. In this particular case, Peter might have a bit more ground to walk on though, since Neal stole the thumb drive. He was told to by Diana, he didn't come up with his own plan and execute it, like he has been known to do from time to time in the past, but it was breaking and entering. There was no warrant. It was still a weird way for Peter for phrase it and in the broader context, it doesn't really ring true.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-24 07:18 pm (UTC)FYI, I was totally taking the "scratch an itch" line as meaning in the broader context, since Peter referred to his own sanctioning of Neal's activities over the course of their partnership (and the line in question was part of that). And Peter didn't tell him to steal the drive, Diana did. So I don't think that line was in reference to this case at all, but to the whole "I've allowed and even encouraged" thing.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-24 08:14 pm (UTC)I'm not unsypathetic to his situation, but I do believe that he could have handled things with Neal much better. Also agree about the whole Hagen/stealing /conning thing. The FBI had beeen trying to free Peter for six weeks, and it seems that they had nothing; honestly, at that point, I doubt even finding James would have done them any good (unless he still had Pratt's gun on himself - but that would have been extremely stupid). Peter would have lost his job - worse, he faced a life sentence and I can easily see him being convicted (physical evidence combined with motive make a strong case). Neal's deal with Hagen wasn't a smart move, it wasn't a well-planed move, but it was done out of sheer desperation. I wish that Peter would acknowledge that, especially knowing that he had been willing to cross some serious lines for El and Neal too. (Then again, Peter still doesn't really know the full picture - but honestly, at this point I'd think that he would have figured it out.)
I do hope that we get a real talk between Neal and Peter and that next episode will bring more of the reconciliation that I've been hoping for pretty much the whole season.