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Quick post on this week's White Collar
Warning: not a happy reaction.
I actually wrote a long, venting post regarding my general unhappiness with the episode, but then I deleted it; I think I just needed to get it out of my system. My main issue with this episode was the same problem that I had with the first half of season four (Neal conning Peter and risking Peter's career) and I just have to get over it, I guess. Clearly it's never going to stop happening, any more than they're ever going to stop keeping secrets from each other.
And Peter seems to be basically okay with it (heck, he was helping!), which makes it very silly for me not to be. I was rolling my eyes earlier this season at the fandom getting torqued about Elizabeth lying to Neal when the characters themselves don't actually seem to mind, and here I am doing the exact same thing -- there is no point in me getting upset on one character's behalf when the character isn't even upset. (Also, Peter was just conning Neal last episode, so ... yeah. Settle down, self, it's okay!)
Even aside from that, though, I found this episode sort of generally blah. I feel that the past few episodes have made better use of the cast; this episode didn't do much with anyone other than Peter and Neal, and yet didn't really manage to deliver up much good interaction between the two of them, either.
Also, the fight between Neal and James at the end didn't feel, to me, as if it followed naturally from the rest of the episode at all. It's not the fight itself I have a problem with; it's that it felt so contrived, as if they wanted to get that "Peter is more of a father to me ..." line in there, but didn't set it up adequately with the rest of the scene. It's just kind of shoehorned in.
I hope the finale has more to offer than this episode, is all I gotta say.
Speaking of the finale, I have a (completely unspoiled) guess about the cliffhanger this season: I think it's going to be Peter being offered the division-director job (which would move him out of the field and away from being Neal's handler). Things seem to be pointing in that direction -- the discussion this week about Peter being passed over for the job, plus the fact that Calloway is almost certainly going to be taken down next week by Peter and Neal, which has the potential to undo the black mark against Peter from his recent insubordination and make him a likely candidate for the now-open position.
Also, James is clearly up to something. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that he's not actually James Bennett at all. Even if that's not the case, he's definitely running some nefarious side angle regarding the box.
I have no actual spoilers for next week's episode (I've seen no promos or pictures) and I would like to keep it that way - thank you so much!
I actually wrote a long, venting post regarding my general unhappiness with the episode, but then I deleted it; I think I just needed to get it out of my system. My main issue with this episode was the same problem that I had with the first half of season four (Neal conning Peter and risking Peter's career) and I just have to get over it, I guess. Clearly it's never going to stop happening, any more than they're ever going to stop keeping secrets from each other.
And Peter seems to be basically okay with it (heck, he was helping!), which makes it very silly for me not to be. I was rolling my eyes earlier this season at the fandom getting torqued about Elizabeth lying to Neal when the characters themselves don't actually seem to mind, and here I am doing the exact same thing -- there is no point in me getting upset on one character's behalf when the character isn't even upset. (Also, Peter was just conning Neal last episode, so ... yeah. Settle down, self, it's okay!)
Even aside from that, though, I found this episode sort of generally blah. I feel that the past few episodes have made better use of the cast; this episode didn't do much with anyone other than Peter and Neal, and yet didn't really manage to deliver up much good interaction between the two of them, either.
Also, the fight between Neal and James at the end didn't feel, to me, as if it followed naturally from the rest of the episode at all. It's not the fight itself I have a problem with; it's that it felt so contrived, as if they wanted to get that "Peter is more of a father to me ..." line in there, but didn't set it up adequately with the rest of the scene. It's just kind of shoehorned in.
I hope the finale has more to offer than this episode, is all I gotta say.
Speaking of the finale, I have a (completely unspoiled) guess about the cliffhanger this season: I think it's going to be Peter being offered the division-director job (which would move him out of the field and away from being Neal's handler). Things seem to be pointing in that direction -- the discussion this week about Peter being passed over for the job, plus the fact that Calloway is almost certainly going to be taken down next week by Peter and Neal, which has the potential to undo the black mark against Peter from his recent insubordination and make him a likely candidate for the now-open position.
Also, James is clearly up to something. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out that he's not actually James Bennett at all. Even if that's not the case, he's definitely running some nefarious side angle regarding the box.
I have no actual spoilers for next week's episode (I've seen no promos or pictures) and I would like to keep it that way - thank you so much!