WhiCo's "Mentor"

[katikat]

Wouldn't it be cool if...

... the title of the OPR program - Mentor - was actually literal? As in, what if the program was created by Neal's "mentor", the man/woman who taught him everything, his teacher. Because he had to have learned his skills somewhere, right? So, what if Neal's mentor was someone powerful, someone high up there, and for some reason he or she needed to get Neal under his or her control?

I love, LOVE to speculate. That's what fics are born from...

Comments

[thefannishwaldo.livejournal.com]

My possible-Big Bang story theorizes that this is Kate.

Do we have any canon that proves that Neal is *her* mentor? I mean, this whole season she seems to have been playing him through one long con.

[whitecollarfan.livejournal.com]

Mozzie does say something about Neal having taught her too well - when they're trying to figure out what the message is on the wine bottle.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Ah, you're right!

[whitecollarfan.livejournal.com]

On the other hand that could just have been from when they were figuring out how to hide their communications as they were being hunted from the FBI. Not that Neal taught her everything.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

That Mentor is Kate? That she was Neal's teacher? I don't think that there's any proof that Neal taught her. On the other hand I think that she's too young for that. And in the finale, Neal and Alex were talking about the music box in... Copenhagen? And it didn't sound like Kate was with them...

But it might be an interesting take on the whole thing - fans seem to assume that Neal "brought Kate over". But what if he was a simple artist and it was her who made him a conman? Interesting.

I'm thinking of writing a fic about how Neal become a conman too. But very different from yours. And of course, it would be just Neal and Peter talking about it - I'm very bad at long fics ;P

[whitecollarfan.livejournal.com]

Hmm... That could be interesting but I'm not sure how it works... If the person in charge is higher up in the FBI/DOJ than he or she would have been working there while mentoring Neal.

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Yup, exactly. That could be actually really cool - the Big Bad being someone high up among the Feds, someone who wanted to make him/herself a pet thief of their own to help him/her deal with "problems" but Neal got out of hand... I know, I know, too complicated but a very cool idea for a fic...

[whitecollarfan.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I think I'd need to read the finished fic to fully understand what you have in mind. Which you know, means you gotta write it now ;)

[katikat.livejournal.com]

Hehe, I was thinking along the lines of David Morrell's "The Brotherhood of the Rose" - in the book an old guy, a really important figure in the secret service, was taking in orphaned boys. He trained them and made them secret agents. That's what they thought. In reality, he was using them to do his bidding and further his own causes, they weren't working for the secret service at all, but they didn't know it.

So, what if there was this older guy who took in Neal from an orphanage. He taught him everything he knew, he took him all over the world - without Neal knowing that the guy was working for the government. And then the guy wanted Neal to do something that went against everything he believed in - like, something that could hurt someone - so Neal ran. The guy was keeping an eye on him the whole time, trying to find some leverage and bring Neal back under his control. Something like that.

[whitecollarfan.livejournal.com]

OH! Now I get it and I love it! :)

ETA: And you know.... I wonder if that fits in with why Neal doesn't like guns/the writers saying it's going to be awesome...