White Collar 3x16
I have fresh-baked, warm-from-the-oven cookies, and I am about to start watching the White Collar season finale in ACTUAL REAL TIME on USA's livestream. Life is good! And I am prepared for whatever you're going to do to us tonight, Jeff Eastin. Bring it!
As usual, no squee-harshing, please! Contrary to my usual policy, I am actually quite OK with season four spoilers at this point (mostly because I suspect no one knows anything concrete yet anyway).
... watching in realtime enables me to make notes during the commercials. I'm not used to having commercials!
ELIZABETH AND HER CAKES. D'AWWWWWWWW. ♥ ♥ ♥ This episode is like filmed fanfic already!
AND! FANDOM! YOU ARE SO SMART! Who was it that said Kramer was headhunting Neal? Because I know at least one of you did! That is not where I thought that was going, but, um, wow.
JUNE HAS A LAST NAME! June Ellington. EEEEEEEEE.
aaaaaa KRAMER WHAT NO.
PETER IS SNEAKY. AND LOYAL. AND TRAPPED, OMG.
The problem, I am quickly realizing, with the livestream is that it glitches a lot. I keep missing fragments of dialogue! I'm getting most of it, but I might be missing important things. It glitched in the middle of the conversation between Peter and Kramer, for example - DAMMIT! I think I got everything, but aargh. Well, I guess this means I'll just have to watch the whole thing again later. What a hardship.
Aha, and here's the caper - retrieving the Raphael! There had to be a caper in this episode somewhere. It is White Collar, after all. (Also: Fandom was right about the coded letters leading to the Raphael, too! FANDOM, YOU ARE SMART AGAIN.)
LOL, MORE FILMED FANFIC - Peter giving Neal an extension on his radius (basically just on Neal's say-so, too).
... the Roosevelt Island scene. TOTAL FLAILING. *flails* And see, I wish they'd done the flashback episode back in season 2 a little more like this, where you get bits and pieces but they never quite fill in all the gaps. (Although Neal's "I've never told anyone this", followed by the interrupting phone call, was just cruel.)
But if "Ellen Parker" is in witness protection, that makes it VERY LIKELY that Neal was in witness protection along with her, doesn't it? Especially if he ran away on his 18th birthday -- she was obviously some sort of guardian or caretaker at the time. (Also, this gives us a rough age for Neal -- there was some speculation in the fandom that he was younger than the actor's age, but it looks like it's about the same - mid-thirties.)
AND HE WAS GOING TO TELL PETER. AAAAGH.
I sense a million Neal's-childhood fanfics being conceived.
AND NOW WE HAVE THE USUAL FINALE CRAZY STUNT, OMG. THAT WAS AWESOME. Peter aiding, abetting, and finally not-technically-lying to Kramer to protect Neal? ALSO AWESOME.
Not to mention Mozzie's fabulous hiding-in-plain-sight getaway. ALL COMPLETELY AWESOME. I AM LOVING THIS EPISODE SO MUCH. (Not to mention I have eaten about a million cookies and I am so full of sugar that I'm practically vibrating in place right now.)
\o/
(Actually, stopping to liveblog it on the commercials is kind of fun. Maybe I should do this more often.)
Oh, I keep forgetting to mention that yes indeed, I was wrong and you guys were right about the two-year thing. We definitely have canon confirmation now (all over the place, actually) that it's been two years of show time in the last three years of real time. SNEAKY WAY OF KEEPING NEAL ON THE ANKLET LONGER, WRITERS.
LIVESTREAM, STOP GLITCHING, OMG.
NOT THE TREASURE AGAIN. AAAAAAAAAARGH. But at least it was basically only brought up for Neal to finally, once and for all, make the decision to stay. And he doesn't have to even really think about it this time. AWWWWWW. (Though now I'm completely terrified of what the cliffhanger is going to be, since they've so thoroughly reaffirmed that Neal quote-unquote isn't going to run, which means by the laws of narrative causality, now he has to. Don't break my heart, show!)
And now we have Diana helping Neal avoid the FBI (!!!!) and Peter scamming Kramer to protect Neal! I just. I. NO WORDS. *flails* OH NEAL. You have some loyal friends. OH SHOW. ♥ ♥ ♥
I'm guessing the fandom is going to be all flaily over Neal's "A partner. A best friend." but, uh, I think he was talking about two different people there -- I'm fairly sure partner=Peter, best friend=Mozzie in that little speech. But still very sweet! Also ... A FAMILY. OH SHOW. THANK YOU FOR PUSHING ALL MY BUTTONS FOREVER.
aaaaaaaaaaand CLIFFHANGER.
... okay. That was actually not as bad as I was afraid it might be. *breathes* But, but, but ... I have ALL THE FEELINGS NOW!
He ran because Peter told him to, right? I'm not completely off base with that, correct? Peter told him to run. One thing that I missed (because of the livestream glitching again) was Peter's face when Diana told him that Neal had skipped on the anklet -- so I didn't get to see his reaction for certain. But ... I think that's what Peter was expecting him to do? Maybe? I HOPE? Because otherwise Peter was warning him not to run, and he just went and did the opposite ...
But that doesn't make sense, because Peter testifying that Neal deserves to be off the anklet is something he would ONLY DO if he knew that Neal wasn't going to immediately go back into Kramer's custody. "Neal should be free."
OH PETER. ALL THE HEARTS. ♥ ♥ ♥ ALL THE SPARKLY HEARTS FOR YOU, EVEN THOUGH YOU WOULD HATE THEM. ♥ ♥ ♥
THE MORE I THINK ABOUT THIS, THE MORE FLAILY I BECOME. The subtitle of this episode could basically have been "Everyone loves Neal, and they're not afraid to show it, and/or put their careers on the line for him." We had an "everyone loves Peter and risks it all!" episode back in season two (Burke's Seven) and now it's Neal's turn. ALL THE HEARTS FOREVER. ♥ ♥ ♥
And the cliffhanger wasn't the devastating pile of "do not want" that I was so afraid of -- not at all! Yeah, I have no idea how they're going to get out of this, but rather than heartbroken and horrified, it left me happy and glowy and wanting to wrap up all the characters in balls of sparkly hearts! And the premiere of season four is bound to be AWESOME. Will we get to see Paris? :D? (Probably not. But still! Now Peter has to catch Neal before everyone else does! CRAZY CAPER SHENANIGANS EEEEEEEE! Season four will ROCK! Also, SO MANY EPISODE TAGS BEGGING TO BE WRITTEN!)
But now I can't figure out how much sense it makes that Peter wanted him to run, because if Neal runs and they catch him, he'll be in prison forever! Which is basically what would happen to him if he stayed, too (except on the anklet, with Kramer, forever). So how is he actually better off now? Wouldn't he be better off if he stayed in the system so that Peter could fight to have him assigned back to New York?
I DON'T KNOOWWWWWWWWWWW. Talk to me, flist! What do you think?
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/805876.html with
comments.
As usual, no squee-harshing, please! Contrary to my usual policy, I am actually quite OK with season four spoilers at this point (mostly because I suspect no one knows anything concrete yet anyway).
... watching in realtime enables me to make notes during the commercials. I'm not used to having commercials!
ELIZABETH AND HER CAKES. D'AWWWWWWWW. ♥ ♥ ♥ This episode is like filmed fanfic already!
AND! FANDOM! YOU ARE SO SMART! Who was it that said Kramer was headhunting Neal? Because I know at least one of you did! That is not where I thought that was going, but, um, wow.
JUNE HAS A LAST NAME! June Ellington. EEEEEEEEE.
aaaaaa KRAMER WHAT NO.
PETER IS SNEAKY. AND LOYAL. AND TRAPPED, OMG.
The problem, I am quickly realizing, with the livestream is that it glitches a lot. I keep missing fragments of dialogue! I'm getting most of it, but I might be missing important things. It glitched in the middle of the conversation between Peter and Kramer, for example - DAMMIT! I think I got everything, but aargh. Well, I guess this means I'll just have to watch the whole thing again later. What a hardship.
Aha, and here's the caper - retrieving the Raphael! There had to be a caper in this episode somewhere. It is White Collar, after all. (Also: Fandom was right about the coded letters leading to the Raphael, too! FANDOM, YOU ARE SMART AGAIN.)
LOL, MORE FILMED FANFIC - Peter giving Neal an extension on his radius (basically just on Neal's say-so, too).
... the Roosevelt Island scene. TOTAL FLAILING. *flails* And see, I wish they'd done the flashback episode back in season 2 a little more like this, where you get bits and pieces but they never quite fill in all the gaps. (Although Neal's "I've never told anyone this", followed by the interrupting phone call, was just cruel.)
But if "Ellen Parker" is in witness protection, that makes it VERY LIKELY that Neal was in witness protection along with her, doesn't it? Especially if he ran away on his 18th birthday -- she was obviously some sort of guardian or caretaker at the time. (Also, this gives us a rough age for Neal -- there was some speculation in the fandom that he was younger than the actor's age, but it looks like it's about the same - mid-thirties.)
AND HE WAS GOING TO TELL PETER. AAAAGH.
I sense a million Neal's-childhood fanfics being conceived.
AND NOW WE HAVE THE USUAL FINALE CRAZY STUNT, OMG. THAT WAS AWESOME. Peter aiding, abetting, and finally not-technically-lying to Kramer to protect Neal? ALSO AWESOME.
Not to mention Mozzie's fabulous hiding-in-plain-sight getaway. ALL COMPLETELY AWESOME. I AM LOVING THIS EPISODE SO MUCH. (Not to mention I have eaten about a million cookies and I am so full of sugar that I'm practically vibrating in place right now.)
\o/
(Actually, stopping to liveblog it on the commercials is kind of fun. Maybe I should do this more often.)
Oh, I keep forgetting to mention that yes indeed, I was wrong and you guys were right about the two-year thing. We definitely have canon confirmation now (all over the place, actually) that it's been two years of show time in the last three years of real time. SNEAKY WAY OF KEEPING NEAL ON THE ANKLET LONGER, WRITERS.
LIVESTREAM, STOP GLITCHING, OMG.
NOT THE TREASURE AGAIN. AAAAAAAAAARGH. But at least it was basically only brought up for Neal to finally, once and for all, make the decision to stay. And he doesn't have to even really think about it this time. AWWWWWW. (Though now I'm completely terrified of what the cliffhanger is going to be, since they've so thoroughly reaffirmed that Neal quote-unquote isn't going to run, which means by the laws of narrative causality, now he has to. Don't break my heart, show!)
And now we have Diana helping Neal avoid the FBI (!!!!) and Peter scamming Kramer to protect Neal! I just. I. NO WORDS. *flails* OH NEAL. You have some loyal friends. OH SHOW. ♥ ♥ ♥
I'm guessing the fandom is going to be all flaily over Neal's "A partner. A best friend." but, uh, I think he was talking about two different people there -- I'm fairly sure partner=Peter, best friend=Mozzie in that little speech. But still very sweet! Also ... A FAMILY. OH SHOW. THANK YOU FOR PUSHING ALL MY BUTTONS FOREVER.
aaaaaaaaaaand CLIFFHANGER.
... okay. That was actually not as bad as I was afraid it might be. *breathes* But, but, but ... I have ALL THE FEELINGS NOW!
He ran because Peter told him to, right? I'm not completely off base with that, correct? Peter told him to run. One thing that I missed (because of the livestream glitching again) was Peter's face when Diana told him that Neal had skipped on the anklet -- so I didn't get to see his reaction for certain. But ... I think that's what Peter was expecting him to do? Maybe? I HOPE? Because otherwise Peter was warning him not to run, and he just went and did the opposite ...
But that doesn't make sense, because Peter testifying that Neal deserves to be off the anklet is something he would ONLY DO if he knew that Neal wasn't going to immediately go back into Kramer's custody. "Neal should be free."
OH PETER. ALL THE HEARTS. ♥ ♥ ♥ ALL THE SPARKLY HEARTS FOR YOU, EVEN THOUGH YOU WOULD HATE THEM. ♥ ♥ ♥
THE MORE I THINK ABOUT THIS, THE MORE FLAILY I BECOME. The subtitle of this episode could basically have been "Everyone loves Neal, and they're not afraid to show it, and/or put their careers on the line for him." We had an "everyone loves Peter and risks it all!" episode back in season two (Burke's Seven) and now it's Neal's turn. ALL THE HEARTS FOREVER. ♥ ♥ ♥
And the cliffhanger wasn't the devastating pile of "do not want" that I was so afraid of -- not at all! Yeah, I have no idea how they're going to get out of this, but rather than heartbroken and horrified, it left me happy and glowy and wanting to wrap up all the characters in balls of sparkly hearts! And the premiere of season four is bound to be AWESOME. Will we get to see Paris? :D? (Probably not. But still! Now Peter has to catch Neal before everyone else does! CRAZY CAPER SHENANIGANS EEEEEEEE! Season four will ROCK! Also, SO MANY EPISODE TAGS BEGGING TO BE WRITTEN!)
But now I can't figure out how much sense it makes that Peter wanted him to run, because if Neal runs and they catch him, he'll be in prison forever! Which is basically what would happen to him if he stayed, too (except on the anklet, with Kramer, forever). So how is he actually better off now? Wouldn't he be better off if he stayed in the system so that Peter could fight to have him assigned back to New York?
I DON'T KNOOWWWWWWWWWWW. Talk to me, flist! What do you think?
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/805876.html with
comments.