- Adorkable:
- Mozzie. It really helps that he's played by Willie Garson. But then they give him lines like "Mi casa es suit casa", followed by a dorky little grin.
- Peter plays video games (well, Angry Birds at least) and fist bumps (with explosion) with Elizabeth. And you should see him flirt. Well, try to flirt.
- Alternate Character Interpretation: Did Rachel Turner really love Neal, or was that all part of the con? Was she really preparing to cut him in, or was she just playing to the cameras? How much of her later darkness is who she really is, and how much is it the venom of a woman scorned?
- Kate also has a good dose of this. The majority of her is seen through Neal's point of view—where he has her upheld as a Damsel in Distress under threat from the Big Bad that he needs to rescue. However, Peter clearly suspects otherwise, and there are inconsistencies in Kate's behaviour that imply he could be right. For example, she never seems particularly frightened or distressed, especially when Neal's not there to witness; she seems to have an awful lot of freedom and information for someone supposedly being threatened, moving about apparently on her own; Peter is able to get to her and then send her a message without an indication he has to get around her alleged captor, or that she's locked up in any way; she's carrying a gun; Fowler, her supposed jailor, helps her buy explosives; she casually calls Adler about Peter arriving at the airstrip, and he proves to have been in on the entire plan to blow up the plane (and able to control it). So was she actually in any danger (at least, until she became a liability), or was she playing it up to manipulate Neal? While her intentions might not have been as bad as some other characters', it's possible to interpret them as being more selfish than Neal is willing to admit. Ultimately, her death renders the question moot, and she's never seen through any other lens besides Neal's idealised image of her—however, there's a definite possibility Neal was getting played even before Rachel showed up.
- You could also say this for Neal in regards to how much he actually changed over the course of the show. Did he completely go back to his old ways at the end? Or is he now approaching life with a new, better set of morals and empathy? While much of Season Six pushes the former, looking back on the rest of the series suggests the latter has a decent chance.
- Awesome Music: "How You Like Me Now?"
during the climax season 2's mid season finale. - Ensemble Dark Horse: Diana, who was only in the pilot of season 1, but was brought back as a full time regular in season two because of her popularity.
- Fan-Preferred Couple: Neal and Alex part ways a bit tensely for the last time well before the end of the series, but they are the most popular pairing of Neal's love interests and since Neal ends the show back on the wrong side of the law, some fans like to think they got together after that.
- Heartwarming in Hindsight: Hilarie Burton gushing about her experience working on the show in interviews after it was revealed how toxic an environment the One Tree Hill set was following the #MeToo movement in 2017, with White Collar being Burton’s first job following her departure from the show.
- Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Curtis Hagen, played by Mark Shepperd, is a Starter Villain that gets caught easily, after being on Leverage where he played Jim Sterling who was noted to "never lose".
- In "Need to Know", the FBI gives Neal a false identity as a Harvard graduate, to which Neal says, "Harvard is so pedestrian." A year after the episode aired, USA Network started airing Suits, whose main character also pretends to be a Harvard graduate at a law firm that only hires Harvard graduates.
- In the seventh episode of the first season, they catch a lackey because, upon exiting a secret tunnel, he turns to look at a girl and gets caught on camera. We find out the meaning of the following exchange a few seasons later when we learn exactly how Peter caught Neal the first time. The affected casualness of the last two lines really sells it. And it even works at the time because Neal always, always hits on every woman in sight. Successfully.Peter: Guy steals three point two million in diamonds and we get him because he can't resist a pretty face.
Neal: Happens to the best of us.
Peter: [pointed glance]
Neal: What?
Peter: ... You know what.
Neal: No I don't.
Peter: Yes you do. - The finale has Neal pose as a pilot as part of the final heist. Matt Bomer's second-longest running role after Neal Caffrey was as an Air Force Test Pilot (turned superhero) in Doom Patrol (2019).
- Ho Yay: Oh yes. There's a reason the fandom's main ship is Neal/Peter/Elizabeth.
- Narm Charm: Those hilariously ham-fisted promotions for Ford.
- Never Live It Down: In "Forging Bonds", Burke becomes the butt of a number of jokes after inadvertently meeting Neal and letting him get away, and he keeps the lollipop Neal gave him as an eternal reminder of that fact. A more humorous one would be when Neal distributes pictures of Burke's mustache to his entire department.
- Nightmare Fuel: The season 5 episode "Controlling Interest" has a psychologist who manipulates her patients into committing crimes. That's bad enough on it's own, but it gets really bad when Neal, while undercover as a patient, finds out he's been Drugged. You know things are bad when even Neal Caffrey is caught off guard.
- One-Scene Wonder: In "Judgement Day", Bosch of Sterling-Bosch, who helps save Neal's bacon.
- OT3: The fandom is fairly satisfied. Also averts Die for Our Ship, mostly due to Elizabeth's sheer awesomeness. The show itself also heaps piping-hot servings of OT3 subtext onto our plates.
- Retroactive Recognition:
- The music in the background of the bar
in "The Portrait" was sung by Dan Avidan, who would later become known for his band Ninja Sex Party and being one-half of the Game Grumps. - Rebecca Lowe wouldn't be the last time Bridget Regan played a criminal under a fake identity, playing Dottie Underwood in Agent Carter and Rose Solano in Jane the Virgin.
- Christopher Jackson appears in Season 2's "Unfinished Business" as the limo driver. While Broadway fans would have already known him for In the Heights, it would be another 5 years before his career took off with Hamilton.
- Renée Elise Goldsberry, likewise, shows up as the Novice assistant in "Company Man", 5 years before Hamilton.
- Christine Evangelista as Veronica Naylon. She later became famous for her roles in The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead and The Arrangement.
- Rochelle Aytes played Isabelle Wilson, Clinton's ex-fiancee, in a 2011 episode. She later became known for shows like Mistresses, Criminal Minds, and Watson.
- The music in the background of the bar
- Special Effects Failure:
- The end of the first season finale, when Kate's plane explodes.
- The show’s attempt at hiding Tiffani Thiessen's pregnancy early in the second season was by shooting all of her scenes in front of an obvious green screen.
- It's painfully obvious that the shot of the Eiffel Tower in the final episode is fake.
- Spiritual Successor: This is basically what happened during those bits in Catch Me If You Can when Frank was working for the FBI. Also has pretty much the exact premise of It Takes a Thief. In the finale, Neal even dresses up as a pilot, much like Abagnale famously once did.
- Stoic Woobie: From the slight indications you get, her missing sister seems to have really screwed her up, but Sara is one of the most composed characters and sounds matter-of-fact even when she's being vulnerable.
- Unintentionally Sympathetic: The Ryans from "Neighborhood Watch" can feel a bit more sympathetic than the average Villain of the Week due to the husband's friendliness to an undercover Neal and the wife's to an Amateur Sleuth Elizabeth before the final act, they're planning a standalone robbery to get out of dreary circumstances rather than being the average crook going on a prolonged crime spree and/or ripping off countless innocents despite already being rich.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Ymmv/WhiteCollar
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