As you know season 4 has not premiere in India. The last season was premired and ended on on Friday 13th July. The season ended with Neal escaping. I saw the first episode of season 4 Oh, welcome back, Neal! White Collar
returned this week with its Season 4
premiere "Wanted," a big deviation from
formula that was as relaxed as it was
high-stakes. About six weeks had passed
since Peter silently signaled Neal to flee
the country and Neal had hopped a flight
with Mozzie to some unspecified locale.
Apparently Neal's absence had taken its
toll on Peter (understandable!), not only
because of Peter's mixed emotions
toward Neal's escape, but also because
Peter's bossman was still mad about it
and assigning Peter only the worst cases.
But Peter's sad and resigned attitude
changed upon the arrival of an
intimidating International Affairs Agent
(Mekhi Phifer) with a reputation for
bringing home criminals in body bags.
Uh-oh, it looked like Neal was suddenly in
more trouble than before!
As for Neal himself, he and Mozzie were
hiding out on an island that looked A LOT
like Puerto Rico but that we later came to
find out was Cape Verde, an extradition-
free paradise where the hats are fine and
the baristas finer. Neal (operating under
the alias of John Maine) was doing a
GREAT job of blending in so far:
gallivanting around the marketplace
handing out cash to street musicians and
fruit vendors while conspicuously
romancing women and, you know,
LOOKING LIKE Matt Bomer. Laying low,
basically. Neal and Mozzie were also
paying cash to a local ex-pat tycoon in
exchange for safe harbor in town. If that
sounds shady, that's because it WAAAASS.
Never trust a cigar-chomping tycoon who
accepts cash payments to pay off the
local police; it's just bad times. On the
upside, though, Neil was getting tons of
good sand-castle-building time in, and his
mini replica of Manhattan went a long
way toward getting him some action with
the hot local barista lady. If ladies love
anything, it's immaculately constructed
sandcastle skylines! Because LOOKING
LIKE Matt Bomer just isn't enough these
days?
Like all good federal agents, Peter
brought his wife on a stakeout, in this
case at the home of the gray-haired lady
with whom Neal met up in the Season 3
finale. You know, whatsherface. The one
who knew his parents. Anyway, after Peter
knocked on her door and failed to
convince her that he was one of the good
cops, Elizabeth ended up going behind
Peter's back and winning the lady over to
the cause of helping Neal evade capture.
Pretty soon this Ellen lady was spillin' the
digits to Neal's super secret pager and
Peter and Neal enjoyed their first phone
conversation in a long time! And boy did
they gab.
But Peter had more up his sleeve than
just callin' to gossip with an old friend:
He'd recorded the phone call and
intended to use the recording to track
down where Neal was. Diana and (newly
minted series regular?) Jones came over
for a highly preposterous sleuthing
session in which they traced the sound of
bells ringing on Neal's end to a specific
church in Cape Verde. Good sleuthing!
Except, whoops, technically what they did
was called 'obstruction of justice' and
pretty soon the Mekhi Phifer character
was searching Peter's joint, and Peter
ended up getting suspended from work.
Poor Peter! Except, don't feel too bad for
him because he immediately boarded a
plan to go track down his dreamy bestie.
Unfortunately the evil agent beat Peter
there and to add insult to injury, he
enlisted tons of greedy locals to track
down Neal and kill him if necessary. Well,
he didn't say to kill him, exactly, but it
was implied. At this point a child stole
Peter's wallet and ran through the streets
of Cape Verde only to lead Peter to Neal's
hiding spot on a grotto somewhere, I
don't know. But man if Peter didn't look
like the HAPPIEST guy in the world!
Seriously, it was just this long, lingering,
closed-eye, cheek-to-cheek hug. It's how
ANY of us would hug Neal, be honest. But
seriously, it was a touching moment for
sure.
At this point Peter, Neal, and Mozzie
scrambled for an escape route off the
island. After running through the streets
punching attackers in their faces, they
eventually split up: Neal hopped on the
back of the sexy barista's Vespa while
Peter and Mozzie headed to the marina to
bribe a captain or something. But when
Neal swung by the shady cigar-chomping
tycoon's place, it wasn't long before he
realized he'd been sold out! That's when
Mekhi Phifer arrived with a gun and we
cut to black. Cliffhanger!
For an average episode of White Collar,
"Wanted" was pretty different in a couple
of important ways: No big crime, no
elaborate heist, very little Peter-Neal
banter. But the main thing it had going
for it was the heartfelt longing between
these characters, and how much we as an
audience want to see everybody find their
places and return to the status quo. It
was a good status quo! So the temporary
diversion into tropical paradise is a
refreshing change of pace so far, but I'm
definitely eager for the main partnership
to get back to work. I love escapist
entertainment where characters do their
jobs competently.