Who Killed Kate?

So Kate is dead, but the series moves on. When White Collar started, it was a show about a con man trying to chase down the woman that went away, all while working with the FBI to stay out of prison. It’s a simple enough premise that worked as well as it did because Matt Bomer, in the lead role of conman Neal Caffrey, was a charismatic presence that could sell every charming scene he was in. But what never really gelled was the storyline about Kate, the woman on the run who acted, in a way, as the prize that Neal was eternally chasing.

At its core, White Collar wanted to be two things. It wanted to be a highly serialized story, with big cliffhangers, lots of twists and turns, and a storyline that you could never see coming. However it had to balance that against a case-of-the-week procedural format that was far more in line with the kinds of shows USA network (its home network) was producing at the time. So there were big episodes that took huge swings at the large, overarching storyline, and there were tons of episodes that gave us a bad guy to take down, a crime to solve, and a bit of conman chicanery for Neal to engage in. And the issue for the show was that the case-of-the-week material was far more interesting that its big storylines.

Case in point (and no pun intended), now that Kate is gone, the show doesn’t really feel like it has changed at all. She was a pivotal character for the pilot, and a main reason why Neal was in the specific mess he was in. Her death should have been a major turning point for the series but, instead, it comes across as a bit of a shrug. Without her the series still has to follow its formula, so now that Kate is gone Neal moves on to finding her killer and solving the mystery surrounding her death. Kate is gone, but it's just another day at the office for White Collar.

This season is all about the music box of Catherine the Great. First brought up mid way into season one, the music box is the treasure the mysterious bad guy is after, and whatever secrets its hiding are the focus of Neal’s attention. It’s more than just a music box. It could be the solution to a long riddle, one that various agents have been chasing for years. But to get to that solution, Neal first has to track down the elusive Agent Fowler and then figure out who that man is working for… and it just might have ties to Neal’s own past as well.

I’ll be honest, this first half of season two really struggles with its overarching storyline. Kate wasn’t much of a character, in fairness, but the music box is just as much of an object for the characters to puzzle over and chase as Kate ever was. It shows how the series really didn’t do much with Kate as a character because she could so easily be replaced with an inanimate object and the pattern of the show doesn’t change at all. But that also means that the show really struggles to invest in the music box itself. It’s a thing, a mysterious object, a prize to be collected, but its true meaning is hidden because the show has to dole out its threadbare storyline in five minute segments across 16 episodes in two half-seasons. It just doesn’t work. At least, not yet.

Thankfully, while the main storyline doesn’t really come together, not in this half season (which aired from July 13 to September 7, 2010), the cases around the main story are great. Season two is far more confident in its storytelling, finding the easy rapport between the characters and letting the case-of-the-week stories suit the leads. A copycat ring being run out of a college, a theft that is actually the set for a murder-for-hire scheme, and financial fraud in the tech sector are all cases covered in this part of the season, and they’re great bits of procedural writing.

Naturally it helps that the two leads, Matt Bomer and Tim DeKay, are both far more comfortable and relaxed in their roles. The easy friendship between FBI agent and conman is sold even better, with Peter more often treating Neal as an equal. The actors provide the needed chemistry, that bromance that sells them as best friends (even if they don’t realize it), all while continuing to carry the heavy work of the show. The fact that it’s a procedural that still feels light and frothy despite the crimes on the table shows the light balancing act the actors (and the writers) are able to pull off with this series.

I also really enjoy the co-starring characters on the show more and more. Wille’s Garson’s Mozzie (Willie Garson) comes into his own during this part of the season, with an episode all about his character. He’s less the weird misanthrope and more the supporting friend that still enjoys poking fun at the FBI agents that have become a part of his life. Plus Garson has great chemistry with another co-star of the show, Tiffani Thiessen as Elizabeth Burke. When the two are on screen together, it’s great fun. Oddly, though, Thiessen was not as big a part of the second season and, despite her really working well with the cast, a real life pregnancy kept her from joining in for parts this time around. The scenes she could share were fun, but they were limited.

That, I think led to the introduction of another major character, Sarah Ellis, as played by Hilarie Burton. Ellis is an insurance investigator who, in the past, chased Neal after he “allegedly” stole a Raphael. With the two in close proximity, though, the sparks really flew. Sarah gets a good half season to develop her character and become a solid foil for Neal before slowly moving into romance territory. The plotline moves fast, but the chemistry between the leads worked and the show didn’t have to do much to sell the fire.

Still, when going back and watching the show again, I get stuck on the plotline of the music box. The show clearly wanted it to develop into something interesting, to be a major element of the show for audiences to latch onto. It pushes that plotline hard enough, but unlike with the sparks between the characters, and the natural, easy going fun of the show’s main capers, the music box part of the show is lackluster. Like with Kate, the series expects it to be a more interesting element than it actually is.

Hell, you can even tell that the writers were making up the story as they went along. “You need to find Kate! No, wait, find the person pulling Kate’s strings. No, wait, there’s a person behind the person. No, but they want a music box. No, but the music box isn’t a music box. Wait, there’s something more afoot.” It’s way too drawn out, full of happenstances and silly double-crosses, often with conflicting plot elements that don’t actually work well together. It’s the kind of puzzle box storytelling that J.J. Abrahms and his ilk latched onto, and the series has the same flaw all those other projects had: it doesn’t actually know what comes at the end of the mystery.

Still, this show has enough fun stuff going on around the mystery box, with all the great characters and fun capers, that it’s easy to dismiss the issues with the main meat of the overarching storyline. This is a show that does better with its case-of-the-week material than the big stories and, as long as it was focused on the work, it did just fine.