The pilot episode of White Collar was most definitely slick and smart, as well as charming, as Matt Bormer will charm the pants off anyone he meets as his suave alter ego Neal Caffrey.
This show most definitely fits in the USA Network’s slew of shows, which include Burn Notice and Royal Pains. It has good pacing and interesting chemistry between Matt Bormer and Tim DeKay, something that isn’t easy to fake. They work well on the screen, there is no denying this.
Basically, Dekay’s Burke is a white collar specialist who put Bormer’s Caffrey away a few years ago. In order to reduce his sentence a bit further, after having escaped a super max jail, Caffrey offers to help Burke to catch the illusive Dutchman, a criminal that Burke has also been chasing for a few years. This setup kind of reminds me of Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can as well as The Sting with Redford and Newman.
What’s also interesting, is that the guys don’t just keep this professional. They also involve their personal lives. Burke needs help to make his hot wife Elizabeth, played by Tiffani Thiessen, happy while Caffrey is searching for his wife that just vanished. All in all, a great show with good actors. I recommend it.
Warning: spoilers ahead
The team gets contacted by some mob guys. He says that the bible was stolen from his church. He wants Burke to investigate. It’s 500 years old. Burke gets him to shut down his bookmaking operation in a restaurant.
Moz and Neal are trying to figure out the clue hidden in the bottle that Kate left for him. He gets called by Burke. The bible is known as the Healing Bible from Naples. Moz and Neal think that the bible was stolen because of its miraculous properties.
The father says that he let a homeless man sleep in the sanctuary. That night, the bible was stolen. The father says that someone close to the homeless man is sick. Steve says that someone asked him to take the bible from the church. He says that he can ID the man, but he sounds a bit loopy.
Steve is a vet from Iraq. He found his dog Lucy there. She’s sick. That’s why he took the bible.
Berelli’s nephew just got shot. He’s the one who asked Steve to get the bible. He’s Berelli’s #2. Burke finds out that Ruiz is running organized crime. He gets kicked off the scene by Ruiz. Ruiz doesn’t want to share any intel because of Caffrey. Burke tells Caffrey to do his magic to get some intel. Caffrey gets Moz to impersonate an FBI agent to get into the nephew’s place. He lets Caffrey in through the back. Paul was researching medieval history. He had an appointment with a medieval art scholar named Maria Fiametta. She wrote about the black art markets. They meet her and she says that the bible is not a bible, but a Book of Hours. She denies knowing Paul and hits on Neal.
Burke tells Caffrey that Maria was lying about Paul. They think that she’s got the bible. She also knew who Neal was, a master forger. Burke wants to float it around that Caffrey is back in the game. Elizabeth suggests that Neal asks her out. They get a warrant and plant a bug in her place. She brings Neal back to her place and notices something amiss immediately. A vase was moved. The bug was planted in the vase. She’s on edge. She checks her security footage and sees what went on in her place. Neal also notices something amiss and drops the bug in her wine. He offers to fence it for her for $250K.
Ruiz finds out that the prof paid off Paul with $10K.
Neal has to pretend to go with her and cut his ankle bracelet. They leave in a red SL55 AMG. When they go to do the exchange, she pulls a gun on him. She killed Paul. She shoots him. He uses the bible as a vest.
Neal hands off the bible to some FBI guy. That FBI guy is Moz. He was only giving it to Steve. Berelli offers to help Steve with Lucy.
Kate drew a map of the NYC subway on the bottle with lemon juice. It is revealed when Neal has the bottle next to a candle.
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