‘White Collar’ season 5 finale review: Did Neal Caffrey defeat ‘Rebecca Lowe’?
For most of the season on “White Collar,” the story has been about Neal Caffrey actually being the victim of a con for a change. Rebecca Lowe for the longest time had found a way to play him, get under his skin, and eventually betray him in one of the more devastating moments for the character.
But in the end, didn’t you know that he was going to get the last laugh on her? It may have took a while, but in the end he managed to do more than just have Rebecca arrested right when she thought she would get away yet again: He also allowed the diamond to be taken, which cost him a heck of a lot of money.
The biggest shocker of all? That Neal was … free! For the longest time, Peter managed to make the calls necessary to get the famed criminal free thanks to his work in helping to capture Rebecca. In that moment, it felt like for the first time ever, we were going to see something that allowed Neal to really be free of some sort of constant suspicion. We’re not sure that he is a zebra that will ever completely change his stripes, but this was clearly a risk that Peter was happy enough to take … under the condition that he visits often in Washington. Neal does at least claim that he is interested enough in becoming a different man, saying that he really doesn’t want to be a part of this world anymore.
Well … there’s a reason that we said “in that moment” in the last paragraph. Neal would have been free, at least if the rules were fair. The FBI director decided to not allow him to be a free man, but for a terribly ironic reason: He was actually too good at his job, and too much of an asset. Peter suddenly felt motivated to stay in New York rather than moving, and now, it feels like another fight of Neal vs. the FBI is going to begin. We thought at about 9:50 p.m. Eastern that this show was building towards a possible series finale. Now? Not so much. It was a great ending in terms of a cliffhanger with Neal’s sudden kidnapping, and we’ll just have to see what happens next. Grade: A-.
What did you think about the finale, and also the season as a whole? Share some of your thoughts below! Also, click here if you want to see our take on what should happen on “White Collar” next season.
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Photo: USA
Lisa
January 31, 2014 @ 5:03 pm
Lack of friendship between Peter and Neal, with Peter going out of his way to rub the “criminal” label in his face, was the big downside. If there’s a S6, I hope that’s fixed. The core of the show is the friendship between these two. El choosing career over Peter at the end was distinctly out of character for her, but I’m not that big of an El fan anyway so, meh. Good season for Mozzie – lots of good scenes with Willie and whomever. In future? Would like to see Neal on path of freedom with legit way of making good living. He’s a phenomenal artist…make use of that.