White Collar Recap: “Bottlenecked”
By: Stephanie Sigafoos
If there’s one thing I continually love about White Collar, it’s the lengths the writers will go to not only in their research for the show, but in weaving historical tales into the scripts that make the fans ridiculously curious. Last night’s “Bottlenecked” focused on counterfeiting a wine bottle once owned by Benjamin Franklin – an impossible feat due to the lack of something called cesium 137 way back when.
It turns out the real story behind the 1787 Chateau Lafitte is that it was sold at Christie’s London in December of 1985. This wine was originally reported to be from the cellar of Thomas Jefferson and even had his initials carved into the bottle. But everything else portrayed on the show was real – from the cork and wax needed to replicate the bottle to the process of putting it up for auction. (Wouldn’t it be nice to spend so frivolously on wine you can’t even drink? 
Another really fun thing about the episode was that the bottle was used to introduce us to an old rival of Neal’s – Matthew Keller. This “blue collar version of Neal” has been the one sending him all those post cards, and Keller lays down a challenge that Neal can’t refuse in trying to replicate something that simply can’t be replicated. He also has a guy mowed down with a car and goads Neal with constant references to keeping Kate busy while our favorite con man was locked away, making Keller the guy you couldn’t wait to see outsmarted.
I think my favorite part of the show was watching Peter go undercover at Bin 903 to pose as an interested client and wine connoisseur while donning an Italian tie. It’s the second time we’ve seen the G Man really out of his element while undercover, but he pulled it off without a hitch, marveling at the “woodsy” flavors and how the wine really “opens up” in the glass. Then when Hughes basically told him their counterfeiting operation was shut down, Peter went back to Neal and Mozzie and encouraged them to keep working on their bottle – reasoning that it was the only way to bust Keller for both murder and the heist at the Museum of Natural History.
The way that Peter entrusted Neal with a rather difficult task this week was a bit of a 180 from last week’s “Home Invasion,” but easily the most fun these “partners” have had in taking down a bad guy. The episode felt like a really great tag team of doing the smart things and doing the right things, even if they had to traverse some grey areas along the way.
Keller got his in the end, of course, but I think it’s only a matter of time before we see Ross McCall back on the show again. And for those wondering “Where have I seen him before?” McCall has spent two seasons portraying Kenny Battaglia on the Starz series Crash. Meanwhile, Kate Levering (from Lifetime’s Drop Dead Diva) played the tour guide in the wine cellar.
What did you think of “Bottlenecked?”
Posted by Adam Wright
on February 24, 2010. Filed under Features, Reviews.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
