(Untitled)

[soteriophobe]

You can tell I am not myself when it takes me THREE WHOLE DAYS to watch the new White Collar episode, jeepers.

Below the cut: Wild, unspoiled, unsubstantiated guesses about the direction the aftermath of this episode/the rest of the season is going to take. Mostly recorded here because I want to come back and see if I was right, later. Feel free

Comments

[frith_in_thorns]

I'm still leaning towards Neal's dad also being Bad, although possibly Bad in a different way to has been thought by the characters. Like, the show is pretty obviously suggesting right now that he was innocent / confessed to protect his family, and so I kind of want them to do *another* switch.

Agreed about Sam. And that will be really interesting to see, especially with Neal torn between Peter and Ellen's trust. Which he already has Issues with. I think this is going to be a good season, and I hereby retract my sulky "I don't like plots about family" :D

[florastuart]

My personal theory is that Neal's dad was really corrupt, but that there were lines he wouldn't cross - maybe he and Sam were in on something bad together, but then Sam wanted to kill someone and Neal's dad wanted out so Sam framed him for murder? (I'm thinking of Fowler, here - I suspect Neal's dad is going to turn out to be innocent of the particular crime he's been accused of, but that doesn't mean he's going to turn out to be a nice guy. Or even that he's never killed anyone.)

Or maybe he confessed to a crime he didn't commit to save his family as a way to try to redeem himself for other really bad things he'd done? That could be interesting.

[frith_in_thorns]

I like both of those ideas! And they could both potentially be really interesting. I can see things not turning out well for Neal and his view of the world however the season plays out...

[soteriophobe]

Yes, I like all of these ideas. I don't think Neal's Dad is going to be a good guy - but maybe not a bad guy either? Maybe he really will be Just Like Neal - a criminal, but not a killer, and someone who eventually wanted out/wanted to make amends.

[sholio]

Oooh, I want to see ALL THREE of your wishlist scenes too! ♥

I definitely think that they are setting up for Neal's dad to be a victim of a frame job rather than the Big Bad. One thing I'm really curious about is how this is going to affect his relationship with Peter, if Neal's dad does turn out to be the person that Neal always believed he was growing up. Neal has generally seemed to be a person in search of a role model/father-figure, and went through a series of them before settling, more or less, on Peter. If he actually ends up getting his original father-figure/role-model back, I wonder if this will push him away from Peter, and cause their relationship to settle into something that's a little more horizontal and less vertical. (Er, not like that ... XD)

The last three seasons have led Neal to the point where he is willing to stay in New York at least partly for the sake of Peter and his other friends. I think this season might be (in part) about Neal deciding to stay because he wants to stay and not because other people want

[florastuart]

This is where I see the conflict between Peter and Neal coming from. Neal is going to be totally traumatized (I mean, he essentially just lost his Mum - and I do think that Ellen is dead) and will cling to Ellen's dying words - "trust Sam" - like they are The Absolute Truth And Word Of God Forever And Ever. Peter, on the other hand, is going to be more objective and more wise and see that Sam is a shady character (I'm assuming he'll be a shady character) and will be trying to convince Neal that Ellen may have been wrong about him, to which traumatized!Neal will respond with "HOW DAAAAAARE YOU....?!??!" and...so forth.

OMG YES to all of this.

So...then, Peter is going to have to try and convince Neal to not walk up to Sam with a shotgun and blow his brains out, but instead prosecute him properly.Or maybe Sam convinces Neal that someone innocent (or someone else with information that Sam wants to keep hidden) killed Ellen, and then Peter has to convince Neal he shouldn't shoot this guy based on Sam's word that he's guilty

[sholio]

... oh man, your whited-out speculation is BRILLIANT. I hadn't noticed the repeating theme of the midseason finales, but that's a really insightful point!

[florastuart]

It's kind of like Neal running at the end of S3 ... they can only threaten/hint at it so many times before they actually go there. Also: OMGANGST!!!!

Whited out again: Especially now, when Neal is starting to reexamine a lot of his choices, and feel guilty about some of the things he's done in the past. And if his dad turns out to have been not such a bad guy, he no longer has the excuse of telling himself being a criminal is in his blood and inevitable.

With all the moral questioning he's doing right now, this is the one thing he can still cling to, as far as feeling like he's not such a horrible person - with all the bad things he's done, this is the one line he has never crossed. Take that away from him, and ... *wibbles and hugs him protectively*