White Collar presents us with an interesting plot and some pretty cool cons. The main characters, however, offer us plenty of occasions to reflect on the degradation of people. In this article, I’ll discuss the protagonists and try to solve a dilemma that was a big one for me: who was more pathetic, Neil or Peter?

Neil. The whole time Neil Caffrey is living on the edge of the System, but instead of getting out of it, he chooses to crawl in its feet. We’re introduced to the idea that he’s using the System because he enjoys playing the role of its prince – pulling cons, enjoying his wine and his home, and having women flirting with him. Only there is no difference between you using the System and it using you. If you are in it, you are its slave. And it’s even worse for Neil than it is for other people who live like that. There is a price for it. He’s on a leash.

 

Neil wears a tracking device on his leg. I don’t know how to emphasize exactly how awful that is. At every point in his life, the authorities know where he is. He can’t cross some invisible line that shrinks his world to a 2-mile diameter. For everything else, he needs someone else’s permission. And he doesn’t escape. Neil is a criminal who has no instinct for freedom. Is there a lesser being than that?

A specific instance where Neil proved himself to be a disgusting rat was

when he lied to Mozzie about not finding the list of paintings in Peter’s safe. Throughout the entire third season, he tried not to betray either Mozzie or Peter. Except Peter is the System and Mozzie is the Anti-System. Well, didn’t Neil realize that this is impossible? All the while he was trying to stay true to both of them, he was actually betraying both of them. And the show maintained that one of Neil’s great virtues was that he never lied to Peter directly to his face. But what kind of person would lie to Mozzie if they had the kind of relationship with him that Neil had?

But none of those things are the worst about Neil. He’s on the level of the lowliest person that can exist by this point. But he’s discovered a whole new level. He’s a criminal who puts other criminals in jail. He single-handedly betrays his own to the ruthless soul-slaying machine of the System.

The explanation of why Neil doesn’t paint his own pictures in the presence of all this talent was utterly unsatisfying. Leaving aside the fact that the writers did not find room in the plot, it should be noted that Neil does not have the depth of a genius artist.

 

Peter. Peter floated on the surface for quite some time. He was generally the best you could ask for from a keeper of order, and he had to overcome himself. But at one point he started saying one thing out loud and I could no longer turn a blind eye. He said, I believe in the System. And more than once. To believe in something that controls you and limits your freedom is the greatest proof of a person’s soullessness.

But he also didn’t settle for having the most horrible beliefs in the world. He also had to convey those beliefs. In season five, Peter had to make a choice – go to prison despite being innocent, or use a dishonest method to stay free. That is, to sacrifice himself or his beliefs. If he had chosen to sacrifice himself, it would have been stupid, but at least it would have been respectable that he defended his beliefs (as pathetic as they were) to the end. If he had chosen to sacrifice his faith in the System, he would have been a nobody. But he didn’t even do thaaaat! He chose the third option – to be an absolute worm and avoid jail, while getting the corrupt prosecutor to quit so he could pretend he hadn’t completely betrayed his ideology. I know he seems to have found a way to save both himself and his beliefs. But, no, he just didn’t have the strength to choose one. A being with a backbone wouldn’t have been able to wriggle through this situation like that.

Matthew Keller. There could hardly be a more disgusting name. I don’t even know which part is worse. His name is definitely one of Keller’s most awful traits. He has an interesting ability – to be super-mega-smart, except when the FBI needs to catch him. Apparently the writers realized there was no way the FBI could outsmart him, so they just gave him sudden bursts of dumbness. And by the way, that whole argument about who was smarter, Neil or Peter, was ridiculous since both Keller and Mozzie were smarter than the two of them combined.

I should also mention his other interesting ability – disappearing behind passing trucks or appearing out of nowhere. How fitting for a supervillain.

Here again, a twisted value system manifested itself. That Keller was an absolute monster was more important than the fact that he was a genius. But, come on, you have to admit that a guy who uses being shot to escape the police deserves a point. Actually, if he had acted differently in just one situation, I would have liked him. But no, he had to be completely devoid of emotion and ready to sacrifice even the painting of Raphael for himself. Well, the writers just didn’t have room to fit more badass characters into the show.

 

Elizabeth. Elizabeth was much more than I expected at the beginning. She for example knew her husband was an FBI agent and it showed in her actions. (After all, in the movies, all the wives of men with dangerous jobs seem to imagine they’re married to accountants all the time.) She had a very accurate sense of people, and was also smart and resourceful.

Elizabeth tried to convince me that her marriage to Peter wasn’t boring and ordinary, but… she failed. Getting kidnapped every two seasons does not make your relationship extraordinary.

However, she remained a pleasant character until about the fourth season. Then the writers apparently got worried that the movie was too outrageous, since there is no spoiled woman who would make drama and bitch about silly things, and decided to make Elizabeth that way. Exactly how much did it not suit her image to ask Neil to lie to Peter to protect him? Well, the team must have been counting on the media’s rampant idiotization of viewers in recent years having worked, and they wouldn’t notice the sudden personality change.

 

Diana. I like her. A fighting, intelligent woman who knows what she’s doing. Interestingly, in modern TV, only lesbian women can be like that. I liked it when Neil tried unsuccessfully to trick her – she always turned out to be too smart. Plus, her relationship with Mozzie was great.

 

Jones. I’m not sure why he was in the movie. One episode about his personal life, and that’s it. They could have given him a side story too.

 

Sarah. Sarah was great in one, two, three episodes… and then she hooked up with Neil. And, of course, she became a pathetic woman. At least she was beautiful.

 

June. She was wonderful. Bravo to that woman.

 

Rebecca. We’ve seen this screenwriting move before, where the third or fourth in line of the main character’s girlfriends turns out to be one of the bad guys. I don’t think anyone cared enough about Rebecca to have had a hard time with the news. Her main function on the show was to raise Neil’s reputation even more – you see, he’s so irresistible that absolute sociopaths fall madly in love with him. And, of course, that love is so strong that she sacrifices herself for him. I wonder if it’s possible to roll your eyes while vomiting.

 

The Pink Panthers. That they’re cool, we had to take it on faith because the writers hadn’t bothered to show it to us. The show only featured one of them, and he wasn’t even interesting. The others, described as some of the “best criminals in the world,” had the role of a background in the scenes. Besides, did the gang really end up having as many infiltrators as real thieves?

 

 I found out the answer to my question. Neil is more pathetic than Peter. Peter is a guy who believes in the System and is an FBI agent who puts people in jail. That puts him at the absolute bottom. But Neil is a criminal who puts criminals in jail. That sends him into the abyss of the underworld.

 

So, I had to end with Neil and Peter because they are not worthy of appearing in the article after him:

MOZZIE. There was a person in this series. A hero worth enduring everyone else a second time for, just to bask in his magnificence. A character who was completely outside the System. At no point did Mozzie back down from perfection. He was the world’s most twisted and picturesque blend of genius mind, indescribable manners, firm convictions, myriad allergies and survival methods. But he unfailingly overcame himself for the right thing. And, of course, I couldn’t leave out the fact that he was named after a teddy bear, which he only almost always believes.

I could discuss every scene with him, but I’ll settle for the three main instances where Mozie was an absolute superhuman, and which undeniably show the height of his personality.

              1. Mozzie always had a problem when some needed to be put in jail. Yet he sacrificed those unworthy of the profession of thief. In the 15th episode of the third season, however, a thief appeared who should be a role model for all criminals. Gordon Taylor possessed intelligence, ingenuity, strength of character and finesse that made him a role model, and not just in the criminal world. Here, to the System, these things don’t matter – such a man is bad, and every spineless thing is good, just because they don’t commit robberies. Mozzie didn’t let this guy go to jail. And then some of the characters said he hadn’t done the right thing. I can only feel sorry for them.

              2. Mozzie was willing to let the guy who wanted to kill him go free. For Mozzie, as for any decent person, freedom is far above such trivialities. The only thing the leader of the Detroit Mafia had to do to get his freedom was to rise to Mozzie’s level. He failed, and that’s why he put himself in jail. Mozzie did everything in his power to prevent it.

3. The third instance is when Mozzie let his wife run away. Exactly how many times did this woman betray him? Countless. She betrayed him at every possible moment, in every possible way. It didn’t matter. It was her, and Mozzie would never let the authorities get her. Their dialogue at the end was great. She tried with false declarations of love to trick him into letting her go. He told her that he knew very well that she was lying, but the decision to save her had been made long ago and nothing could change it. The freedom of a pathertic traitor is above his own pride, his own safety, and his own pain. To that extent, Mosie lives for freedom. Everything that could break him was tried against him in the show. Mozzie triumphed. Mozzie IS a free man.