White Collar 603

[katikat]

I'm now more than ever convinced that Neal will fake his own death in the series finale. There are canonical hints for that: in 601, Rebecca told him they were alike, that their life always caught up with them and then she committed suicide. And Neal steadfastly refused to believe that. In 602, when it looked like they would have to drop the Pink Panthers op because it became too dangerous, Peter asked Neal, who insisted on continuing, if his freedom was worth his life. And Neal said maybe! You could see the tide turning here. And in 603, when Keller told him that the Pink Panthers did not forgive traitors and that even if Neal took them down, they would go after everybody he was closed to, even from inside the prison, you could see Neal's fear. And there are also hints in the general spoilers for the series finale: That the ending would be shocking. That there would be loose ends that would force people to use their imagination to guess what happens next - Matt Bomer insisted on that, he didn't want everything neatly wrapped up. And there was also the Mozzie related thing: It said that Neal would be leaving Mozzie out of things and that it wouldn't be until the last episode that we would find out why - see the scene where Mozzie told Peter that Neal wouldn't run without him. I think Neal will fake his death and NOT tell Mozzie until later on, to make his initial reaction believable.

I also think that Peter will quit the FBI and that Neal's death will be partially the reason for that, because he will be grieving for him - he admitted many times that Neal was like a son or a younger brother to him. I think the FBI will once again try to screw Neal over and Peter will finally grow disgusted with the bureau. As he said in the very first episode, that's not how things were supposed to go, you get caught, you do your time. This, the bureau keeping Neal on a leash indefinitely? Peter will not stand for that. Also, the talk Peter and El had in this ep, about how his job was dangerous and time-consuming, but he would always be there for El and the child? And then there's the Diana and Jones related thing that said that Diana and Jones would move up the ladder. I think Diana will take over Peter's job as the agent in charge and Jones Diana's as the senior agent, once Peter quits.

So yeah, I think Neal will "die" and only leave a small clue for Peter that he might be alive, a clue Peter will decide to keep to himself. And I think that will be the perfect ending.