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White Collar series finale
And so White Collar is officially over. Last episode. No more.
I figured that, since a couple people on my flist have mentioned they were on the fence about watching the last season and wanted to know what I thought of the finale, I'd give you a nonspoilery reaction under a cut, and then do the spoilery, more in-depth discussion under another cut. So, emotional reaction with no direct spoilers under the first cut, then all the spoilers under the second one.
I hated that ending with every fiber of my heart and soul. That is basically the opposite of everything I wanted. Fuck you FOREVER, show. >_>
NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE
That is CRUEL. Peter and Mozzie and everyone who cares about Neal spend a whole year grieving? And Diana is out of White Collar and New York? And Neal is legally dead, can never go home, and furthermore is now robbing the Louvre, i.e. has clearly gone back to a life of crime? And we never even got to see a reunion after Peter FINALLY (after a year of MISERY) figured out that Neal faked his death. NO NO NO NO DO NOT WANT.
(On top of that, for some reason Peter and El naming their son after Neal irritates the hell out of me, because while it's sweet in theory, I always hated it when fanfic did it and, come to find out, I don't like it any better in actual canon! Plus having two characters with the same name is going to be really annoying to write, assuming I write anything that takes this as actual canon -- but I'm really, really not good at selectively ignoring canon.)
AAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH.
What really burns me up about it is that he had a legal way out. They didn't have to do this. The entire thing with the Panthers as a threat to force him to fake his death is a fucking narrative cheat, and I feel like the show came thisclose to giving me the ending that I wanted most -- Neal gets the anklet off legally, and can come and go as he likes; the whole world is wide open for him -- AND FUCKING GAVE ME THIS INSTEAD.
I had thought the reset-to-status-quo ending I would hate the most was Neal being stuck on the anklet forever, but instead the reset-to-status-quo they picked was Peter and Neal going back to Neal-as-criminal, Peter-as-FBI-agent-chasing-him WITH A YEAR OF MISERY IN THE MIDDLE THERE and turns out I hate that one at least as much if not more! Just. fucking. no.
The one thing I will give the show, regarding that ending, is that it's wide open for sequels and post-canon fixits. Unfortunately, because of the time jump, it's impossible to remove a lot of the elements I hated most without going AU (did I mention THE YEAR OF MISERY THAT NEAL DELIBERATELY INFLICTED ON HIS LOVED ONES and also I HATE WHAT THEY NAMED THE BABY) but hey, the fanfic potential is great! There are absolutely TONS of ficcing potential. I mean, if you look at canon as a springboard for fanfic, they left it in a pretty good place for it.
Unfortunately for me, fanfic is usually secondary and canon comes first, and I am really, really displeased where actual canon left it.
So anyway. Yes. There we are. Tons of fanfic potential, as soon as I actually get to a point where I want to write fanfic because I'm no longer feeling like capslocking about my feelings of annoyance and betrayal all over the place. >_>
ETA: Or maybe I'll just end up writing a long AU version of the finale in which Peter figures out the "faked his own death" thing 5 minutes after the orderly gives him the key (because Peter is not stupid; hell, I knew it was the key to the storage unit as soon as the guy handed it over) and EVERYTHING WITH THE PANTHERS GETS FIXED SOMEHOW and then I'll pretend it's actual canon. /o\
I figured that, since a couple people on my flist have mentioned they were on the fence about watching the last season and wanted to know what I thought of the finale, I'd give you a nonspoilery reaction under a cut, and then do the spoilery, more in-depth discussion under another cut. So, emotional reaction with no direct spoilers under the first cut, then all the spoilers under the second one.
I hated that ending with every fiber of my heart and soul. That is basically the opposite of everything I wanted. Fuck you FOREVER, show. >_>
NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE
That is CRUEL. Peter and Mozzie and everyone who cares about Neal spend a whole year grieving? And Diana is out of White Collar and New York? And Neal is legally dead, can never go home, and furthermore is now robbing the Louvre, i.e. has clearly gone back to a life of crime? And we never even got to see a reunion after Peter FINALLY (after a year of MISERY) figured out that Neal faked his death. NO NO NO NO DO NOT WANT.
(On top of that, for some reason Peter and El naming their son after Neal irritates the hell out of me, because while it's sweet in theory, I always hated it when fanfic did it and, come to find out, I don't like it any better in actual canon! Plus having two characters with the same name is going to be really annoying to write, assuming I write anything that takes this as actual canon -- but I'm really, really not good at selectively ignoring canon.)
AAAAAAUUUUUUGGGGGHHHHHH.
What really burns me up about it is that he had a legal way out. They didn't have to do this. The entire thing with the Panthers as a threat to force him to fake his death is a fucking narrative cheat, and I feel like the show came thisclose to giving me the ending that I wanted most -- Neal gets the anklet off legally, and can come and go as he likes; the whole world is wide open for him -- AND FUCKING GAVE ME THIS INSTEAD.
I had thought the reset-to-status-quo ending I would hate the most was Neal being stuck on the anklet forever, but instead the reset-to-status-quo they picked was Peter and Neal going back to Neal-as-criminal, Peter-as-FBI-agent-chasing-him WITH A YEAR OF MISERY IN THE MIDDLE THERE and turns out I hate that one at least as much if not more! Just. fucking. no.
The one thing I will give the show, regarding that ending, is that it's wide open for sequels and post-canon fixits. Unfortunately, because of the time jump, it's impossible to remove a lot of the elements I hated most without going AU (did I mention THE YEAR OF MISERY THAT NEAL DELIBERATELY INFLICTED ON HIS LOVED ONES and also I HATE WHAT THEY NAMED THE BABY) but hey, the fanfic potential is great! There are absolutely TONS of ficcing potential. I mean, if you look at canon as a springboard for fanfic, they left it in a pretty good place for it.
Unfortunately for me, fanfic is usually secondary and canon comes first, and I am really, really displeased where actual canon left it.
So anyway. Yes. There we are. Tons of fanfic potential, as soon as I actually get to a point where I want to write fanfic because I'm no longer feeling like capslocking about my feelings of annoyance and betrayal all over the place. >_>
ETA: Or maybe I'll just end up writing a long AU version of the finale in which Peter figures out the "faked his own death" thing 5 minutes after the orderly gives him the key (because Peter is not stupid; hell, I knew it was the key to the storage unit as soon as the guy handed it over) and EVERYTHING WITH THE PANTHERS GETS FIXED SOMEHOW and then I'll pretend it's actual canon. /o\