White Collar: “Parting Shots” Recap & Review

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In this episode of White Collar, Neal saves a young widow and then goes undercover to investigate who killed her husband and is after her money. Meanwhile, Mozzie bonds with Ellen, who ends up in a dangerous situation. Here is a recap and review of “Parting Shots”.

Recap:

While Peter is working in the FBI evidence warehouse, Sara drops by to speak with him about a case of a widow receiving a fifty million dollar life insurance payment after her husband’s untimely death. Sara’s job requires her to assume that the widow, Sophie Covington (guest star Laura Vandervoort), does not deserve the money. Peter and Sara partner on a stakeout at Mr. Covington’s funeral, where a man attempts to kidnap Sophie; luckily, Neal happens to witness this and rescues her. Since Sophie swiped Neal’s infamous fedora to hide her face from the paparazzi, Peter devises a scheme for Neal to get close to her for information.

Peter, acting as a consultant on this case, physically positioning himself and Neal in Sophie’s path when she leaves the FBI building after giving her statement. She tells Neal she would like to repay him; he asks for his fedora back, to which she responds with an invitation for a meal at her place. Soon after, Neal cooks her paella and she divulges that she would rather give away her money than feel uncomfortable having it. Meanwhile, Peter and Jones realize that Sophie is being followed by someone other than the FBI and Sterling Bosch. They follow and capture the man to learn that he was a private investigator hired by Mrs. Mailer, the wife of Mr. Covington’s business partner, who thought Sophie and her husband were having an affair, but the P.I. could find no proof.

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Sophie invites Neal to attend a gala with her. On the car ride there, Neal realizes that the driver has been ordered by Mailer, the original abductor, to kidnap her. With a con, Neal gets Sophie safely out of the car, making her and the driver believe that he took her fifty million dollars. Sophie’s phone call to Peter alerts him that Neal needs the money wired into his “rainy day account”; Sophie is more than willing to donate half, while Sara is hesitant at first but eventually comes around. Neal, while he is off the FBI’s radar in a meeting with Mailer, gets him to confess to killing Covington. Mailer goes off to destroy evidence at the private investigator’s place, where Peter arrests him. Peter is then reinstated into the FBI’s White Collar division.

Neal asks Ellen more about his father and she mentions a cop and trusted friend named Sam. Later, Mozzie invites Ellen over to Neal’s place for a game of cards and asks about Neal’s early life. At the end, Neal passes by Ellen’s house to see her two undercover Marshalls murdered and Ellen being taken away alive by paramedics. Her parting words to Neal were, “They got to me. Trust Sam.”

Review:           

I am guessing since you are on the SoGoPro blog, you are as excited as I am that Sara was back this week. Though her role was not as strong as it has been in the past, there was some important material interspersed throughout the episode. One of her lines that struck me the most was, “Something I’ve learned: things get stolen and people go away. Most of the time, you don’t get them back.” It sounds as if she is setting herself up not to be hurt again, but at the same time, hopeful that this will not be an example of “most of the time”.

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Towards the end of the episode, Sara’s revelation that she was hurt by Neal running away because it brought up memories of her sister running away when they were young, sounds like an exciting way to keep her character around for a little longer. Neal could definitely gain some brownie points with her if he found the information she needed, and I have mentioned before how much I support them as a couple. Since this story was one of the personal tidbits learned about Sara in her first run of episodes, I love that they are tying up loose ends and further developing her character; however, I wonder if they are doing this only to send her peacefully off, which would be a sad loss for me.

Being a huge fan of Smallville, I have been looking forward to Laura Vandervoort’s episode since that casting announcement was made. Seeing her transition from Supergirl to widow in danger was quite interesting and I would love to see more of her, especially in relation to Neal’s roundabout expression of interest in her… if Sara has departed. Their relationship would be immensely different than Neal and Sara’s, and that would bring out an unseen and more mellow side of Neal. While Neal and Sophie do have beautiful chemistry, it is not that intelligent kind that Neal and Sara have established, nor the adventure-driven bond that Neal had with Kate and Alex. It is more personal, based off who they are as individuals instead of it being connected to their jobs or roles in society.

The fact that Ellen’s last words were, “Trust Sam”, makes me a little suspicious of Sam. As we have seen numerous times on this show, people do not always turn out to be who we thought they would be. But maybe I am expecting more drama than I should. As much as I am looking forward to seeing Neal learn about his father, I am slightly concerned that Neal will project his father’s personality onto himself and think that he is destined to be the same kind of man his father was just because they are related by blood. If it happens, it will be interesting to see Neal broken down instead of the cool, composed con-man he usually is. Whatever the case, I am looking forward to the rest of this season.

Rating: 4 of 5 stars