‘White Collar’ season 4, episode 12 review: Politics for Neal and Peter

How do you stop a corrupt politician when you are certainly corrupt yourself? This was a question that we asked ourselves not long after checking into Tuesday night’s new “White Collar” episode, as Neal and Peter were desperate to take down a Senator who was responsible for taking down his family some decades before.

While Neal has taken on some pretty terrible villains in the past, Senator Pratt (played brilliantly by “Lost” alum Titus Welliver) is someone who wields a completely different sort of power: technically, he can send the walls crashing down on the bureau that is trying to take him down at the same time. That is precisely what he did at the end of the episode; as soon as he realized just how hot on his trail Neal and Peter (who was nearly killed off earlier in the episode) really were, he made the decision to get some “restructuring” done at the FBI.

Now, both Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay’s characters are without a leader. Reese was forced out at the end of the episode, which means that we are now going to see an organization in a complete state of flux. Who will lead the division? We’re guessing that it will be someone who makes it far more difficult for anyone to go after people in high government positions.

Luckily, Pratt was really not able to harm Neal or Peter anywhere near as badly as he thought. At the very end of the episode (even after Reese made his farewell speech), Neal figured out that the mysterious key was actually a map using the famous Manhattan skyline, and that he could use this to finally get a step ahead for the first time … that is, unless someone manages to get in the way first.

What did you think about this episode, and do you find Pratt to be a worthy villain? If you want to watch a video from Tuesday night’s new “White Collar” episode, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: USA