Do Neal and Peter Become Friends Again

Warning: The following contains spoilers from Thursday's serial finale of White Collar .

White Neckband said au revoir on Thursday night with a series finale that simply as hands could accept been titled "Continue On Chasing."

After pulling the ultimate con and faking his expiry, Neal jetted off to Paris. Meanwhile, Peter mourned the loss of his pal for a year until he discovered Neal's underground storage locker, full of medical research and an article almost the Louvre's upgraded security organisation. With a small grinning, the 1000-human realized his partner was still alive.

Merely that wasn't the ending that creator Jeff Eastin originally had in heed, he reveals below. Instead, he went with a variation pitched by the show's own stars.

Eastin also talks most the possibility of a TV picture and the finale's homage to Catch Me If You Can.

TVLINE | I can't believe you fake-killed Neal!
We spent a long time saying, "Nobody will ever believe we killed Neal." So we spent quite a while trying to sell information technology. We figured the moment when Mozzie believes it, maybe the audience will believe it.

TVLINE | When and how did y'all settle on this particular ending?
I had a dissimilar ending [in which] Peter finally released Neal. This was going to be the moment when Neal has to decide what he's going to do. And so he walked upward to the Flatiron building in New York, and he'due south tossing a coin. In one version, the coin lands heads, and he goes to the right and he gets in a limo with Mozzie and they go off to be the greatest criminals always. And then we're back with Neal, and he'south standing at that same intersection, tosses the coin and it comes up tails and he goes left and he goes to the FBI. We realize it'due south a few years after and Neal's taken over Peter'due south task as head of the White Neckband Law-breaking division and he's now an FBI amanuensis and very happy. And then we come dorsum to Neal, and he'south in that same spot. He tosses the coin and just earlier it lands, we go to black. We never know which choice he finally made. That was the catastrophe that I had settled on from the moment I sold the serial. I pitched that ending along with the series to U.s. six years ago, and it's one I had planned to stick to.

Then Tim DeKay and Matt Bomer came to me and said, "Hey, look,  we dearest that ending. It'due south awesome. Simply nosotros've got a better idea." And that was the idea, which is Neal, ultimately, decides to impale himself to save the people he loves. But of course, it's Neal, so he hasn't quite done that. One time they pitched me this ending, I said, "You know what? This is and then much better." So that's how this ending came nearly.

TVLINE | So it was really a collaborative effort.
Yeah, it actually was. And information technology was nice considering the serial as a whole has been a collaborative try between me, Tim and Matt. Ultimately, I recall to end it that way was actually the correct matter to do.

TVLINE | What exercise you want viewers to take away from those last moments?
The real idea there was the relationship between Peter and Neal, that chase that we started. In the globe of White Collar, that pursuit will just continue forever. The moment Peter discovers that [Neal] set the unabridged thing up, I'm hoping people will get, "OK. Neal tricked us i more time." Obviously, there's a playing card inside at that place to indicate that Mozzie had been at that place before. So Mozzie will also continue on with Neal. And that, really, Neal'due south finally free. The entire serial, nosotros've tried desperately to get Neal to Paris. We figured that if there'due south one identify that an art thief needs to exist, it's in Paris. So we're finally able to exercise that in the very final moment, which I've very, very happy about.

TVLINE | Does the Queen of Hearts carte du jour hateful Mozzie'due south on his way to join Neal?
Yeah, exactly.

TVLINE | Tim DeKay'south grinning in that scene is so great. What'south behind Peter'southward smile? Is he just glad Neal is alive? Is he excited by the fact that the hunt is on once again?
Tim DeKay and I had talked about that. When he came to pitch me that terminal moment, he didn't accept the details or annihilation. When Peter realizes that Neal is non dead, he'due south faked this entire thing, that smile he has at the last moment really is almost the chase is on. Considering what nosotros've established there is Peter has, to a certain extent, settled downward. He's got Elizabeth, and he's got his son, Neal. He turned into the guy that's going to go out at half-dozen o'clock and not work late. Equally much as Peter loves that, the matter he loves more, the thing he'due south always loved, is the chase. And so for Tim, it was that moment when he realizes that the chase is on. Every bit Tim said when he pitched it to me, "The game's itinerant," and you see him plow and run out of there. That's what it is. It'due south similar, "Not bad, the game'southward on. This is going to go along going."

TVLINE | So Neal'south next target is the Louvre?
The next target is the Louvre, yeah.

TVLINE | You've said in the past that a lot of the series has been about Neal struggling with these 2 different sides of himself and secretly wanting Peter'south life. Are we to presume from this catastrophe that he realized, "I am who I am"?
Yep. Exactly. That after six years, afterward this long struggle, Neal can determine, "Who am I? Am I the con man? Am I the thief that my father was, my real father? Or am I Peter Burke?" who in his heart became his de facto father. He'southward always struggled with that, with that desire. I said earlier in a couple of interviews that, for me, Neal wants to be skilful, but he was built-in bad. This was finally the decision that Neal Caffrey is what he is at his heart and that's an art thief. That's but a much more fun ending than deciding that he is adept and that he gets the white picket fence.

TVLINE | I couldn't assist simply observe that there's a scrap of an open door with this ending. Is there room for continuation? Mayhap a TV moving-picture show?
You never know. That would be nice. I know the studio is pushing me to effort to have viewers post ties into USA to try to proceed the serial going. [Laughs]

TVLINE | Not pocket squares?
Pocket squares would be good, too. Somebody had pitched me the "Tie up White Collar" Season 7 pitch. [Laughs] I said, "Y'all know, that's not a bad idea." … I retrieve everybody involved would probably be excited nigh that idea. So I don't desire to rule anything out, but the ending actually was for me not necessarily to say, "Hey, let's go back and exercise another 1," merely really simply to say that Peter will always keep chasing Neal and Neal will keep stealing things for as long as people care to wonder.

TVLINE | The scene where Neal is dressed as an airline captain, was that a nod to your original pitch and this being sort of a continuation of Catch Me If You Tin?
Yeah. Beyond that, Frank Abagnale, Jr., the existent guy [on which the motion picture is based], was a fan of the show. He had been really overnice and sent me like a signed poster and things like that and told me how much he liked the show. Nosotros were trying very difficult to get him to do a cameo in the finale, but the timing didn't work out with his schedule. So the airline captain was really a nod to Frank Abagnale, Jr., the original Neal.

TVLINE | What are you going to miss nigh most this show?
The affair I'll miss most is merely that friendship with Matt and Tim and Willie [Garson] and Tiffani [Thiessen]. Everybody was incredibly nice… Matt and Tim, especially, were such incredible leaders on the set. They would come in every 24-hour interval — long standard 12-hour days, sometimes 14, sometimes 16 hours — and to keep upwardly with the level of humor and the fact that I don't think I ever saw Tim and Matt not grinning between takes. That does so much just for the morale on set. That'southward probably the matter that I'll miss the most. Whenever I would go off to New York, I'd exist able to become out in that location and hang out with these guys. I've never laughed so much or had such a good time. I'll miss that.

So the other thing is I will miss New York. For six years, information technology was sort of my dwelling house away from dwelling. At present I realize that unless I decide to gear up another bear witness there, I will actually never exist dorsum to New York other than as a tourist and that'south going to exist different. I know Tim and Willie have said something very like.

White Neckband fans, what did you think of the prove's swang vocal? Would y'all accept preferred the original ending? How did you lot react when Neal "died"? Grade the series finale via the poll below, then striking the comments with your thoughts!

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Source: https://tvline.com/2014/12/18/white-collar-neal-fakes-death-series-finale-recap-alternate-ending/

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