White Collar: 5×02 ‘Out of the Frying Pan’ Review

Last week’s White Collar left us with the information that Neal would be getting a new handler, one who would see him for what he is… a criminal. This week introduced us to rising star, Agent David Seigal (Warren Kole) who isn’t what Neal expects as a new handler, as he’s neither middle-aged nor a curmudgeon.  He woos both Neal and Peter, playing to Neal’s ego then telling Peter he knows where to blow smoke (kinky).

Together the team attempts to take down an online black-market operation, and it’s David who suggests the FBI follow Neal’s advice on keeping the site up and running in order to capture every person on the it. This site leads David to Little Star Imports, and Mozzie, whom Neal must now try to protect from the whole division and, more importantly, their friends.

At the same time Neal struggles to fulfill his part of the bargain with Curtis Haggen (Mark Sheppard) to destroy the evidence against him, held within the walls of the NYC FBI building.  Using Mozart for timing, Neal dances his way down a hallway filled with security cameras without being seen and uses an ultraviolet light source that Mozzie puts together to wilt the bonds that Curtis made, which is the evidence that Neal and Peter gained against him in their first case together.

Meanwhile, Diana looks ever more pregnant and runs herself ragged covering the online auctions as both auctioneer and as several aliases (to enable the FBI to win the stolen goods). This leads to a conversation between Peter and Clinton about Diana’s health and welfare, and also her position and future in the White Collar Division.  Clinton really gives Peter something to think about as the new Special Agent in Charge (ASAC).

Back at Little Star Imports, Neal convinces David to let him go in first and what follows is a pretty hilarious scene between Neal and Mozzie, as Moz starts to enact his ultimate disappearing act, the Roanoke Praxis. This apparently involves a lot of fire and Mozzie’s own teeth for the purposes of identification.  Neal puts out the fire and insists there are less drastic ways of saving Mozzie from arrest.

David gets a clear view of Mozzie’s face as they chase him before he gets away, and knows Neal did as well.  He insists Neal draw a police sketch to assist in identifying the criminal.  What follows is some classic Neal misdirection; he shows Peter one image and David another in order to protect his friend.  However, David discovers one of Mozzie’s aliases, Teddy Winters, which turns out to be his real identity.  Neal and Moz decide that Teddy has to die and do so by re-invoking the Roanoke Praxis at Little Star Imports using homemade Napalm (gasoline and styrofoam: who knew?).

The resulting explosion leads the FBI to believe Teddy Winters is dead, but Diana feels that something’s not right and she heads on over to Little Star to investigate.  Finding three manholes in a six foot area, she calls on NYC water and sewer to tell her which one is fake.  This leads her to Mozzie hiding out in a pretty nice bunker a hundred feet below the street, where she goes into labor due to the stress of the past few days and exertion of investigating the manhole.  There’s a moment here where Moz is going to leave Diana and escape, but he has a big heart when it comes to children and stays to help deliver Diana’s baby at the risk of his own freedom.

The episode ends with Diana safely in the hospital with her new baby, Theo. She decides to keep Mozzie’s secret, while Neal destroys the evidence and keeps Peter in the dark about it.  Diana declares that Curtis, Peter, Liz, Neal, and even Mozzie are her family, a theme that recurs from the previous episode, where Peter says that White Collar is a family.

Later, over cigars with Mozzie, Neal wonders if they will really be done with the other master forger, even having completed Haggen’s task.  He still has the incriminating video of Neal made in the first episode, after all.

My one complaint is that there was entirely too little Mark Sheppard in this episode.  As in: none.  So sad.  Next episode, however promised to be full of our favorite White Collar Englishman, as seen in these wonderful set pics:

Author: Princess Audrii

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