The boxed crook (right) and his FBI handler (left).
Season 1, Episode 1:Pilot
- Peter: Let me see it.[Neal lifts his pant leg, showing the ankle monitor on his left ankle]Peter: You understand how this works?Neal: I'm being released into the custody of the FBI under your supervision and this thing chafing my leg. Anything I'm missing?Peter: Yeah, if you run and I catch you, which I will because I'm 2-0, you're not back here for 4 years, you're back here for good. You're gonna be tempted to look for Kate. Don't.
Neal Caffrey, convicted bond forger and alledged art theft strikes a deal with the FBI agent who caught him (twice): serve his prison sentence in the service of the law.
Of course, Neal has a different agenda: find his girlfriend Kate, whom he thinks is in danger.
The episode opens with Neal shaving off a scruffy prison beard, donning the uniform of a corrections officer, and casually walking out of prison. Special Agent Peter Burke, the FBI agent who caught him the first time, is tasked with recapturing him and does so almost immediately.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Neal is delighted that the Bureau made him a fake badge to keep him from making his own.
- All of Them: When Peter tracks down Neal to Kate’s apartment, and Neal asks how many people are surrounding the building:Peter: Including my agents, and the Marshalls? All of them, I think.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Both Neal and Peter get to show off their chops as an Establishing Character Moment. Peter figures out when, why, and where Neal ran and Neal figures out what case Peter is working on and talks his way onto the team as a Boxed Crook.
- Beard of Sorrow: Peter is surprised when a guard tells him that Neal shaved his beard prior to his escape because Peter never has known Neal to have one. He then looks at security footage and finds out that Neal stopped shaving after a conversation with Kate, during which she seemingly broke up with him.
- Big Applesauce: Establishing shots, traffic, and street vendors show that this is going to be a show set in NYC.
- Boxed Crook: the series.
- Captured on Purpose: Neal takes off his anklet, prompting Peter and the rest of the FBI to go looking for him. Then, he causes a scene in front of Hagan’s warehouse leading Hagan to take him inside. With a fugitive now within the premises, the FBI gains the authority to enter the warehouse without a warrant and seize any evidence of a crime, including the printing press, even if it is unrelated to Neal’s escape.
- Cardboard Prison: Neal demonstrates that he could have escaped prison any time he wanted by doing so as soon as he had reason to.
- Caught by Arrogance: Neal proves an art restorer is a forger by discovering that he surreptitiously signs all of his work, both legal and illegal, and notes that he (Neal) did the same with money he forged.
- Con Men Hate Guns: When Peter tracks down Neal to Kate’s apartment, he asks him if he is armed:Neal: You know I don’t like guns.
- Cowboy Cop: This episode establishes the habit of Neal to do whatever the hell he wants and Peter to take advantage of that to catch the bad guy. The law doesn't work that way.
- Courteous Canadian: Neal and Peter’s conversation about the security fiber for the new (yet classified) Canadian $100 bill:Neal: How upset were the Canadians?
Peter: Oh, very. Well, as upset as Canadians can get. - Dude, Not Funny!: Neal is genuinely connecting with Peter and offering him help, reminding him that he forgot his anniversary when Peter loses his temper and snaps that he's not going to take advice from someone whose girlfriend changed her identity and fled the country to get away from him. Peter apologizes right away for how harsh that was, but Neal bounces back and forth between pressing for information (did she really flee the country?) and being upset at Peter for snapping at him like that.
- Dude, She's A Lesbian: When Neal first meets Diana, he immediately attempts to flirt with her, but Peter subtly hints to Neal that she is a lesbian without explicitly stating it:Neal: Oh, harmless flirting. It's like a dance.
Peter: No, there is no dance. You're not even on her dance card. No dancing for you.
Neal: Um, she digs the hat.
Peter: Um, she'd rather be wearing that hat. - Embarrassing Cover Up: The church that Peter and Neal are visiting to look for the signature is closed due to restorations. Neal manages to persuade the priest to grant them access by fabricating a story about Peter’s alleged infidelity with a co-worker, claiming that Peter needs to visit the church where he and his wife were married to find redemption and steer himself back onto the right path.
- Establishing Character Moment: Everyone gets one.
- Elizabeth puts up with being a cop's wife with great grace.
- Neal escapes prison in about five seconds with no difficulty.
- Peter catches Neal in about five seconds with no difficulty (after correctly deducing that the safe his team was cracking was tracked based on the combination spelling out F-B-I).
- Mozzie introduces himself with the tired Lightswitch Surprise trope... and misquotes Allen Ginsberg.
- Forgotten Anniversary: Peter forgot that his and El‘s anniversary is approaching until Neal faux-casually brings it up in a conversation. Luckily, he still has just enough time to figure out what to do for her.
- Fun with Subtitles. "Neal Caffrey. Convicted: Bond Forgery." Then, "Suspected: Counterfeiting —> Securities Fraud —> Art Theft —> Racketeering".
- Gay Euphemism: Peter tries to explain to Neil that Diana is gay and not reciprocating his flirting.Neal: Harmless flirting. It's like a dance.
Peter: No, there is no dance. You're not even on her dance card. No dancing for you.
Neal: Um...she digs the hat.
Peter: Um...she'd rather be wearing the hat. - Heartbroken Badass: Neal gets dumped by Kate, breaks out of a supermax prison to find her, and when Peter shows up he's unmoving on the floor of Kate's apartment holding an empty wine bottle she left behind.
- It's Cuban: When Peter tracks down Neal to the warehouse, he finds Neal holding a Cuban cigar that he took from Hagan.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Played with. The Marshals (who have have jurisdiction over escaped prisoners) have no problem reaching out to Peter for help recapturing Neal. However, Peter also has no problem shitting on the prison guards who let Caffrey escape.
- Lightswitch Surprise: Neal walks into June's darkened house and knows something's wrong. Grabbing a cane from an umbrella stand as a weapon he advances... to be greeted by Mozzie, misquoting Allen Ginsberg.
- Master of Disguise: Neal first disguises himself as a prison guard to escape prison, and then disguised himself as valet in order to steal a car.
- Metaphorically True: Neal cons his way past a priest for him and Peter by telling the priest that Peter has a devastatingly attractive assistant... even though Peter isn't having the marital troubles Neal hinted at and absolutely didn't get married in that church the way Neal directly lied.
- Mr. Fanservice: This episode establishes Neal's habit of lounging around shirtless for the benefit of anyone who might want to lick Matt Bomer.
- Reading Lips: The tape showing Neal and Kate‘s last conversation has no audio, prompting Peter to rely on lip-reading to decipher her last words: “Adios, Neal. It’s been real.”
- Recruiting the Criminal: The whole premise of the series. Neal suggests a proposition wherein he would work as a consultant for Peter, offering his expertise, in return for being released from prison while wearing an electronic ankle monitor.
- Rhetorical Question Blunder: Peter is frustrated that no one present knows what the mysterious fiber is:Peter: Nobody knows what it is. Great. Look at you. How many of you went to Harvard? [most of the agents raise their hands] Don't… don't raise your hands. Don't.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Invoked by Neal to escape prison. After Kate dumped him he stopped shaving for weeks so the guards wouldn't recognize him when he cleaned it all off and donned a stolen uniform.
- Tally Marks on the Prison Wall: Neal has a wall in his prison cell covered in tally marks. After being arrested again, he scribbles over the old tally marks on the wall and starts a new list.
