It was a really multi-leveled complex season of poking Neal's crazy. I mean, previously, we've had seasons that deal with Neal being sneaky/guilty, Neal grieving, and Neal being distrustful of Peter, the FBI and the justice system in general, but this season really dug deep into a very vulnerable part of Neal that only after four years of working with Peter has he just started to talk about. And of course, with that slow opening of trust comes James, to lay waste to everything Neal's built for himself since getting out of prison.
Elizabeth's a much more ethically grey character than Peter. Peter believes in justice, he believes in the law, and he believes people can change. Elizabeth is much more of the school of the ends justifying the means, and you see that in her not-quite legal moments dating right back to Free Fall in season one, when she sneaks Neal past the FBI surveillance. Critically, when Peter gets kidnapped in season two, she tells Neal to do whatever he has to to get Peter back; she doesn't care whether it's legal or not, and I think that sets the precedent for that moment in the hospital - it's coming from the same place. She doesn't care that Neal doesn't lie to Peter because, as far as she's concerned, that's nothing compared to Peter's life. It's manipulative and even kind of cruel, but it makes Neal do what she asked him to, and that's consistent with her character.
As for James, I think all kinds of props for Treat Williams's acting. In that moment when he whips around and basically threatens to kill his own son he made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I think the writing is important, too, the wording of that sentence, don't make me do something I'll regret, putting the blame for any future action on Neal, not on himself. It's classic abuser language and manipulation, and if you've seen or read something with an abuser in it, (or, heaven forbid, lived through it,) you're probably familiar with how abusers do that, put the blame on the victims. It keeps the victim under control by reinforcing guilt and the false assumption that their own behaviour triggers the abuse, when really, it's not their fault at all, and the language the abuser uses is a form of emotional abuse in itself, one that creates a kind of brain washing, thought patterns that are very insidious and hard to break, even years after the physical situation of abuse might have ended. If Neal was a toddler in a house like that, he'd still have emotional residue from it, even if he doesn't consciously remember.
Well, for Elizabeth I agree that it is consistent with her char. I just think it was a wasted moment in the given circumstances. The writers could have done better. And as for James, you're definitely right. I don't like thinking of Neal as a victim, but it could explain more about him.
Elizabeth's a much more ethically grey character than Peter. Peter believes in justice, he believes in the law, and he believes people can change. Elizabeth is much more of the school of the ends justifying the means, and you see that in her not-quite legal moments dating right back to Free Fall in season one, when she sneaks Neal past the FBI surveillance. Critically, when Peter gets kidnapped in season two, she tells Neal to do whatever he has to to get Peter back; she doesn't care whether it's legal or not, and I think that sets the precedent for that moment in the hospital - it's coming from the same place. She doesn't care that Neal doesn't lie to Peter because, as far as she's concerned, that's nothing compared to Peter's life. It's manipulative and even kind of cruel, but it makes Neal do what she asked him to, and that's consistent with her character.
As for James, I think all kinds of props for Treat Williams's acting. In that moment when he whips around and basically threatens to kill his own son he made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I think the writing is important, too, the wording of that sentence, don't make me do something I'll regret, putting the blame for any future action on Neal, not on himself. It's classic abuser language and manipulation, and if you've seen or read something with an abuser in it, (or, heaven forbid, lived through it,) you're probably familiar with how abusers do that, put the blame on the victims. It keeps the victim under control by reinforcing guilt and the false assumption that their own behaviour triggers the abuse, when really, it's not their fault at all, and the language the abuser uses is a form of emotional abuse in itself, one that creates a kind of brain washing, thought patterns that are very insidious and hard to break, even years after the physical situation of abuse might have ended. If Neal was a toddler in a house like that, he'd still have emotional residue from it, even if he doesn't consciously remember.
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