White Collar – Recap & Review – Stealing Home

photo: usa

White Collar
Stealing Home

Original Air Date: Feb 21, 2012

Jules – News Editor
jules@thetwocentscorp.com

With just two more episode left, White Collar’s penultimate episode left a lot to think about for next week’s season finale and Neal’s commutation hearing. While the hearing is on the back of everyone’s mind, Neal takes a case into his own hands that leads us to Yankee Stadium.

Also, this episode marked Tim DeKay’s directorial debut for the show and he was chatting it up on USA’s Character Chatter. I’ll include some of the inside info he provided in this review.

Neal and Peter are on a stakeout for Gordon Taylor (Hal Ozsan). He’s a suspect in some of the biggest heists around, but has never been caught. His motto is “nobody gets caught, everyone gets paid.” He’s also very likable, making it difficult for others to implicate him.

Just as Neal’s going to tell Mozzie about Taylor being in town, Mozzie tells Neal, with the giddiness of a child, that he’s the first person hired on Gordon Taylor’s new crew! He also adds that Taylor asked for Neal to be his point man. Neal asks Mozzie to go ahead and set up the meeting and Neal spins all this to Peter as putting Mozzie and himself as part of Taylor’s team to catch him. We also learn that Taylor’s target is Yankee Stadium.

Peter and Neal go to the stadium (yes, it’s the real stadium) to look around and talk to the head of security. Peter is all excited because he loves baseball and acts like a kid in a candy store in the museum. So while Mozzie’s giddy about working with his idol Taylor, Peter’s giddy about being in Yankee Stadium.

Neal auditions for Taylor and plays one amazing game of pool to win a spot right then and there into Taylor’s crew. Fun fact: Tim DeKay said that Matt Bomer made nearly all the cool shots we see Neal do and came close to making that final shot, too!

Neal goes to the Burke’s before heading to Taylor’s group meeting. Here we learn two things. The first being a possible connection between a wealthy hotel heir and major baseball fan, Robert Withrow Jr. (Ward Horton), and Taylor. Second is that Elizabeth reveals how Peter was once drafted by the Minnesota Twins until he blew out his rotator cuff the second week of spring training. Peter was fixed up, but he chose to leave because the doctor’s said his arm would never be the same. If he never left, he never would have caught Neal!

With Jones and Peter outside in the truck, Neal and Mozzie meet the rest of their crew and its confirmed that Withrow was indeed the one to hire Taylor for this job. Unfortunately for the truck boys, before Withrow can say anything, Taylor turns on a jammer so the wire Neal is wearing becomes mute.

Taylor goes over everyone’s role. Mozzie’s going to forge the baseball, while Neal will forge Babe Ruth’s signature. Since Peter can’t hear what’s going on now, Neal wants to send a message to Peter. Mozzie says he’ll hide it under the stitching.

The heist goes down like clockwork. Mozzie and Taylor enjoy seeing everything go down in the stadium’s sky box. Peter and Diana then examine the ball left in the case. Peter notices the off stitching and pulls out a knife to open the ball and reveal the message, which is the location of where the exchange is to occur.

At the parking lot Peter and Diana catch the exchange mid act and it’s not Taylor to be caught! Mozzie says Taylor called an audible and sent him and another guy to make the exchange instead. I guess Taylor became wary when he noticed Mozzie’s non-excitement in the box. And Neal gets paid $160,000 for the take. I wonder if he gets to keep this pay check?

So in other news, with a week left until Neal’s commutation, Kramer’s pulling out all the stops. He thinks Neal shouldn’t be commutated and is now looking into Neal’s old letters to Kate to hopefully crack the code Peter couldn’t before. The FBi crew Kramer hires does end up cracking the code, but they don’t know what it means…yet. Diana, who’s been question a bunch by Kramer, asks Peter that if Kramer asks her to go behind his back should she do it or not. Peter says to do it and tell him about it. Diana is a Peter loyalist for sure. We also learn that Kramer’s been questioning Jones about Neal’s past crimes.

On another note, Peter tells Sara about Neal’s commutation hearing and is surprised Neal didn’t mention it to her earlier. Sara knows the reason her and Neal broke up will come up and well, that’s not good since it was about Neal having the treasure. Sara and Neal ending up having a long talk about everything and eventually, she decides to testify on behalf of Neal at the hearing.

The episode ends with Peter going to Neal’s to tell him about the letters, but instead he holds back while Neal is eager to show Peter something himself. Neal’s found Peter’s rookie card! Tim says that they super-imposed his face on to Derek Jeter’s card. But that’s not the end of it. Neal’s arranged for Peter to pitch at Yankee stadium! Peter then tells Neal to enjoy the moment and not worry about the past or future. And we close with Peter’s walk-out song to play us out, only now it’s “I Go To Burke!”

So what did you think? I think Tim did an amazing directing job and I can’t wait to see the finale. What do you think will happen at the commutation hear? Will Neal be released early or will the letter’s cracked code foil Neal’s future? I’ve shared my TwoCents, share yours below!

Next week: Judgment Day (Season Finale)