Review - WHITE COLLAR 4.08: 'Ancient History'

Gloria Votsis.

That's enough to make this guy happy. Forget the fact that she's sexy and scintillating, the return of Alex Hunter in 'Ancient History' this week was a welcomed shot-in-the-arm for 'White Collar'.

Her character always makes things interesting for Neal and Peter. She has great chemistry with Matthew Bomer and whenever they are together in an episode you know whatever they're up to will be entertaining. As for Peter, he always tries to catch her, but either Neal prevents it or Alex proves she's smarter than both of them. Which is nice, because they can bring her back whenever they choose. Hopefully this won't be the last we see of her this season.

As great as it was to see Alex back, I thought the episode fell short of the other one's she's been in. The heist they pulled off was unrealistic (even for White Collar standards) and wasn't all that intriguing. The job they pulled together back in Season 1 ("Out of the Box", Episode 14) was vastly superior and bad-ass, this one was a bit lame. 

Speaking of lame, not seeing what was on that video at the end enrages me. So as much fun as Peter and Mozzie were together in this one, that ending really put a damper on the episode.

I don't know where the Sam/Peter's father arc is headed, but I hope that's not the only thing this show hands its hat on for the rest of Season 4. I need some heightened drama. I need some Neal breaking the law behind Peter's back. I think Neal's getting soft on us. Heck, you can tell from this episode, in which he gets pinched twice by the police, that his con-man and thievery skills are getting sloppy. I could also use some more fun in these episodes. It just seems like this season has been vanilla.

QUOTES OF NOTE:
 
--MOZZIE (to Suit): "Plain view!"

--PETER (to Mozzie): "Some day I'm gonna strangle you."

--PETER (to Neal): "It just used to mean something when you caught Neal Caffrey, but now that the police are doing it all the time..."
--NEAL (to Peter): "Once again this does not count."

--PETER (to Neal): "You're no fun."
--NEAL (to Peter): "Well, I'm having a three out of ten day."


RANDOM RAMBLINGS:

--I enjoyed how terrified of Alex that Mozzie is.

--Clean your damn sleeve, Neal! How do you blow that? As Head Geek Furious might say, "Neal cost himself some sexy time."

--This week's installment of 'Eli is a Creep' (as if my first two paragraphs weren't creepy enough): I think when Gloria spoke in Greek, my heart melted. That shit was sexy.

--THE SCORE: 73 out of 100