Tuesday, November 10, 2009

White Collar - Book of Hours, S01E03

White Collar easily recaptured the sparks that made the pilot so amazing in this third episode. Not that the second episode was particularly bad or anything, it just left something to be desired. Here, that thing was back in full force.

The case was the search for a medieval bible, stolen from a church patronized by a well-known mobster. The first question was - Who would steal a bible? Caffrey (Mathew Bomer) and Mozzie (Willie Garson) debated what cause they might have to steal one, and determined that it would be a very difficult item to fence. Then Mozzie pointed out that this particular bible (or book of hours as it turned out to be) had supposed healing properties, and that a true believer might have wanted it to heal someone.

This led to a delightful conversation between Burke (Tim DeKay) and Caffrey about the merit of such a thing. Burke is apparently a lapsed Catholic, and Caffrey maintains that God works in mysterious ways. The best line was when they tried to determine why no one in that perish had caught the spanish influenza back in the day, and Burke wondered if God told them to "shut thine doors and eat thine oranges."

They discovered that a true believer had taken the bible from the sanctuary, and had given it to a man. Which man? Not sure, but he did not bring the book back so that Lucy, the believing war vet's dog, could be cured. It turns out the man was the mobster's right hand, and he's been shot and killed. Unfortunately, since no one was certain the shooting was over the bible, an agent responsible for mob shootings takes over the case. Ruize (played by Kirk Acevedo* from Fringe) doesn't trust Caffrey, so he and Burke are off the case.

Now Burke and Caffrey are not the types of guys to just take that, and, in a clear demonstration of the faith Burke has in Caffrey, as well as his appreciation for a man who does not have his hands tied all the time, Burke agrees to lend Caffrey his FBI jacket. And this is why I love this show. It is SO great to be able to watch a procedural where someone can get around the mumbojumbo that protects criminals.

Using the jacket, Caffrey and Mozzie find a woman, a professor of medieval history, who is tied with the murdered mobster. On the strength of that information, they are back on the case, using Caffrey as bait to get the book back from the woman. The problem? In this plan, Caffrey could actually try and succeed of making a run for it. Burke has faith...even though he's wearing his lucky tie, just in case.

In the end, they recover the book of hours, albeit with a bullet hole in it. The prof held Caffrey at gun point, determined to take the money and the book, and though Caffrey had removed the clip, he forgot the bullet in the chamber. He is not, as he professed, a gun guy.
I was horrified that this woman who claimed to love history would dare shoot Caffrey when she so obviously was going to damage the book, so I was very happy she got arrested.

Again, playing with the fun of Caffrey's personality, after the shooting, he handed the bible off to some FBI guy, and it promptly disappeared. Ruize was pissed, but Burke figured it out. They went back to the church and found the war vet with Lucy and the bible. At first, the mobster was pissed, but it turns out he's a dog person. He took the war vet to an animal vet who had saved his pugs from diabetes.
Now there's an image - a mobster with diabetic pugs. Hilarious.
And so, we see how God's hand works, saving the sick by finding wealthy men with soft spots.

Were you pleased with last week's episode?

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