‘White Collar’ season 4 winter premiere review: Family reunion

So Neal Caffrey has finally met his father and spent a little bit of time with him … and then it’s over. Okay, so it is not necessarily like Matt Bomer’s character kicked dear ol’ dad to the curb on Tuesday night’s “White Collar” winter premiere, and instead, the move that he made was actually one of love rather than one of disdain. He wanted to ensure that James was safe so that the mission he was about to dive into pertaining the Flynn family was not something that would cause his head to be served up on a platter.

This sad moment at the end aside, this was a great “White Collar” episode in that it provided solid character moments for both Peter and Neal, and also served up a great Case of the Week to boot. How often is it that you see an hour of television about someone trying to counterfeit extremely expensive liquor? Neal is MacGyver when it comes to fabrications, and thus he came up with a way to involve himself in a crime syndicate by mixing a fake version of an incredibly-expensive drink while having Mozzie make the bottles. Given that we always love it when Willie Garson is involved, this was icing on the cake.

Even though James is not in every episode of the rest of the season (but Tuesday was also far from the last time you are going to see the character), at least Neal has the peace of mind now to know that his father is not entirely the man that he thought that he was all of these years. This is something that could drastically impact his life in a big way if he allows it to, but allowing that sort of change is going to be a slow burn rather than something immediate.

While we await the aftereffects, Neal has plenty else on his plate coming up, including the return of Hilarie Burton for a few episodes that are sure to make longtime fans of Sara very excited.

Photo: USA