Review - White Collar Season 1 Episode 8 Hard Sell

I'm wondering what Jeff Eastin originally had in mind when he positioned Peter as the bad guy at the end of the midseason finale. The explanation provided seemed woefully inadequate, and was much less interesting than the twist itself. Basically we thought Peter was a bad guy for a few months, and in one episode we know he's completely on Neal's side and considers him a friend. So what was the point of the twist? So we'd fret over the future of our crime fighting duo for a while? In the end, the twist had a very simple conclusion. Kate is bad or Fowler is controlling her, and she wants a music box with something inside it. The light USA dramadies rarely have any intricacies in their plots and this is a perfect example. Instead of revealing the truth, Peter could have told Neal nothing so at least Neal and the audience would be guessing for a few more episodes.

Again the the case of the week was ho-hum until the climax when Peter and Neal get trapped in a vault with the air being sucked out. It was the only exciting scene of the episode, so it was nice seeing them scramble around looking for the switch. The boiler room scam plot went about as you'd expect with Neal pretending to be someone, playing different sides, while the FBI backed him up.

Score: 8.7/10