White Collar series finale

[sholio]

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\

Comments

[veleda_k]

I think another part of it is I don't see thinks quite as bleakly as you do? As I mentioned, my interpretation is that Neal only stayed "dead" as long as he felt necessary, and he's now reaching out to Peter and Mozzie. And Peter didn't look mad. I mean, undoubtedly there will be some anger, but that doesn't appear to be Peter's major reaction. I guess I see it more as an ending that has some people split up, but implies they'll be coming together soon. (Although I so wanted the person who approached Mozzie in the park to be Neal.)

And, really, when I think about, this is the most optimistic season finale ever. As it should be, since there's no next season to fix everything. But season one had Kate die in front of Neal, season two had Peter suspecting Neal of stealing the u-boat treasure (and then Neal finding the u-boat treasure), season three had Neal fleeing the country to get away from Kramer, season four had Peter arrested, and season five had Neal kidnapped. Now the vital difference is that all those things got fixed, whereas here we're more left hanging. But I personally don't have a hard time imagining things going well. I want things to go well. I need this to happen.

Ahaha, Sara would be so pissed to think Neal was dead then find out he was actually alive. She'd forgive him, because she always does, but there would be groveling!

[sheron]

The one thing I find deeply reassuring is that there may be more Sara/Neal fic :D

[veleda_k]

Oh, I already have ideas. But, man, forget being pissed. After her sister's disappearance, the death of her parents, and losing Neal once at the end of S3, pissed isn't even going to begin to describe Sara's feelings.

[sheenianni]

Agreed.

She might forigve him in the end, but it would be a long road - and honestly, I don't know if Sara would want tobe with Neal after this, knowing he is still causing people all this pain (even though supposedly for good reasons). Hmmm, I need someone to write me a Neal/Sara fic where they do just that and eventually get their happy ending.

[sholio]

*nods* Yeah, I think I need some time to let my feelings about the finale settle in before I'll know how I really feel about it. I guess right now I'm emotionally overinvested in the characters *g* -- I'm just feeling terribly upset on Peter and Mozzie's behalf because of the emotional hell they've had to through, and awful for Neal because he's all alone in Paris, and just sort of generally pissed because this is not the ending I wanted. >:(

But give me some time to get used to it, and I may feel a lot more optimistic about it. Nobody's dead, and I agree that Peter's not mad at all; I think both Peter and Mozzie's main reaction to seeing Neal again will be relief and joy. And now that Peter knows (and Mozzie, based on the card in the storage unit, presumably knows) they'll surely get back in touch with each other.

I guess half the problem here is just that I want to see all this stuff onscreen. For me, fanfic isn't a substitute, and looking forward to the anticipation of everyone meeting again in Paris isn't the same as actually seeing a reunion onscreen. Right now I guess I kinda feel like we got all the grief and none of the catharsis, which is why I'm in such an emotional tangle about it!

On the other hand, there have been a lot of shows that have left my favorite characters in a far worse place (dead, say). So it could definitely be worse!

[veleda_k]

Well, it's not like you're wrong to be upset. It's a subjective emotional response. And Peter and Mozzie's grief did shred me. Especially Mozzie's breakdown in the morgue.

I totally get wanting the catharsis. I guess for me, Mozzie and Peter discovering that Neal's alive is the beginning of that catharsis, but I understand why you'd want more.

But, well, nobody's dead (except Keller) and nobody's on the run from the law, and the latter was what I was especially afraid of.