WHITE COLLAR Season 3 "Upper West Side Story" Review

WHITE COLLAR  
Advance Review Season 3 Episode 12 “Upper West Side Story”
Air date: Tuesday 24th January 2012 10/9c USA Network
Guest star: Dylan Baker
January 18, 2012
By Valerie Leung
Warning: minor spoilers

Let’s start with where we left off at the end of “Checkmate.”  Just when we thought Neal (Matt Bomer) and Peter (Tim DeKay) can resume their couples therapy and start healing their very-damaged relationship, WHITE COLLAR creator, Jeff Eastin, has thrown us another spanner in the works.  Up till now, we have been waiting for Neal to make the choice to stay or go. 

Now Peter also has some serious choices to make.  The US Probation Office has deemed that Neal’s good clearance record with the FBI is enough to schedule a hearing to consider commuting the remainder of his sentence.  Of course, this decision was made without knowledge of Neal’s involvement in the disappearance of the U-boat treasure which Keller has now claimed sole responsibility for.  Only Peter and Elizabeth know the entire truth of Neal’s role and therefore it is ultimately up to Peter whether to speak in favor of, or against, Neal’s early release.

There are echoes of the season premiere in the opening scene once again, when Neal tries to get back into Peter’s good books, offering him Yankees tickets to atone for his list of many sins, while Peter suggests they focus on the work ahead of them.  Back at the office, they find a very well-prepared prep school student, Evan Leary, waiting to see the case agent.
Neal: “Did Hogwarts book a field trip?
Peter: “Ten points for Gryffindor.”

Young Evan is a scholarship student at Manhattan Prep (where even kindergarteners wear ties) who suspects that one of the members on the school’s Board of Trustees, Andy Woods (guest star Dylan Baker), has been embezzling from the school’s endowment fund.  Evan has enough evidence to get Peter’s interest in looking into the case.  It turns out Woods is a financial manager who has been long suspected of money laundering for the cartels.

It is Peter’s turn to go undercover as an ex-pat banker who is relocating to Manhattan and expresses interest in donating to the school’s endowment fund in order to get his son into the school.  While waiting for Peter, Neal is mistaken for the substitute teacher.  I, for one, would have paid more attention in poetry class if my teacher looked like Neal Caffrey.  Sure enough, ‘Mr. Cooper’, quickly has the girls swooning as he recites poetry in a scene reminiscent of Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark. 

Romantic poetry is not complete without a story of unrequited love – young Evan has a crush on Woods’ daughter, Chloe, who also attends the school.  Unfortunately, not only is she oblivious to Evan’s existence, she is now, like the rest of the girls in her class, enamored with the substitute teacher:
Mozzie: “You rode into the classroom on your white stallion?”
So, while Neal and Peter try to take down a money launderer and embezzler, Mozzie is trying to bring two young lovers together (is that enough to buy back the fans’ love after he deserted Neal?)

“Upper West Side Story” is a return to the capers of old when Peter and Neal go undercover while Mozzie skirts the periphery and comes to the rescue just when he is needed.  There is a lot of fun in this episode which offers the fans some slight relief after the season returned last week with the incredible tension and the beating that Peter and Neal both got. 

However, the seriousness of the choice that Peter is now faced with is ever-present.  There is a poignant discussion between Peter and Elizabeth about actions and consequences while Mozzie continues to worry that the Department of Justice could still decide to send Neal back to prison if his commutation hearing does not go well.

At the end of the day, this is still all about the relationship between Neal and Peter.  Can Peter forgive the sins of Neal’s past?  Neal has proven that he is prepared to give up everything, even the possibility of losing his freedom, to save Elizabeth.  In the early part of their partnership, Peter loved to taunt Neal with the threat of sending him back to prison.  Now, that is less of a joke and more of a reality.  So how far is Peter willing to go for Neal?

If the title of this episode reminds you of GOSSIP GIRL, there’s probably a good reason for this: the co-writer of this episode, Alexandra McNally, used to scribe for GG.

As always, here are some of my favorite moments from this episode (keep in mind this was co-written by Jim Campolongo, who was responsible for bringing us Peter’s tango in episode 5 “Veiled Threat”):

Neal (aka Mr. Cooper): So bookish?
Woods:  So symmetrical.