White Collar/Headscratchers

• How could nobody have checked the bank notes Neal had under Ultraviolet? Ultraviolet's one of the first things used on potential forgeries that you don't have to worry about fading, like artwork.
  • From my understanding, the FBI already knew the notes were forgeries and were holding them as evidence. They just needed the compare Neal's "signature" on the notes to the one on the diamond so they could find out if Neal was the culprit.
    • Not talking about how it relates to the diamond (it's a plot point that they then knew the signiature and had the notes as evidence), it's in the first (or was it the second?) episode, where Neal tells the FBI agent to look at the note under UV and he's surprised to see the signature show up in the forged seal.
      • Wasn't it "polarized" light, not "ultraviolet" light?
        • It was.

• The horrible green screen they're using to hide Tiffani's pregnancy. Couldn't they have found a better way to hide it? Or just write the pregnancy in?
  • They couldn't have written it in, they weren't prepared for the implications of Peter having a kid. They could, however, have had Elizabeth working in another city to expand her business, or something that would keep her out of most shots except for the head up and/or her voice. You know, the things we expect for pregnant actresses. It is really annoying, though.
  • Perhaps the JB Ms from the need for the green screen in the first place. Given the amount of California Doubling on TV, wouldn't it have been simpler to simply take her scenes in front of different buildings than normal and say it was some place else while using normal Hide Your Pregnancy tricks?
  • One possibility might have been that Tiffani was unable to travel as much due to the pregnancy and so they were unable to do much other than a green screen.

• I would pay money to be a fly on the wall in the judge's chambers when the federal prosecutor tries to get the evidence collected against Dr. Powell in "Vital Signs" admitted. I would love to hear the explanation for how collecting evidence by drugging a man, abducting him, and convincing him he has to hand over evidence against himself or he will die is not unconstitutional in the extreme.

• Just how does a pretty-boy like Neal survive a (nearly) 4-years stint in prison without somebody making him their bum-toy?
  • By doing what he does best: being Neal. Within a week he would do the guards tax reports, got the strongest guy in prison the Harmonica he always wanted and so on. Because he is a con artist he wouldn't be in the same block as the extremely dangerous criminals. At least I hope so.
  • Or perhaps it did happen. Maybe that was part of why he was so desperate to be released on the anklet. Then again, he does to seem to have gotten along with at least one of the guards on his block, as demonstrated in the Pilot. This supports the aforementioned "being Neal" theory.
  • Also, remember that he's white-collar and has no history of violence. Meaning he's with other white-collar criminals who are also not violent prone. With no need to worry about the people around him being the violent type, there's no need to worry about dominance and the protection that brings. Maintaining a relatively safe environment helps make a lot of things work much better. And in maximum security prisons, the prisoners have highly regimented schedules with limited interaction and constant surveillance. They're also designed to facilitate this; open areas with bright lighting and simple floor plans with minimal prisoners per area. Finding a place to cause trouble would be particularly difficult to say the least. Max and super-max prisons are exceptionally different than the typical prison depicted in TV.
  • And a guard, during the pilot, had a line similar to "Everybody loved Neal" (as in, there's no trouble with him in Super Max), but it got cut.

• Diana's sexuality seems solely designed to cancel her out as a possible romantic interest for Neal. Supports the annoying implication that Neal can charm any woman, unless a lesbian of course.
  • I for one was just happy that a relatively main-stream US television show cast a character as a lesbian and didn't make it into a big effin' deal with lots of steamy sex scenes, and turn her whole character into just Being Gay. I like that it's "Oh, by the way, she's gay," as an off-handed side note. Makes her more real.
  • Really? What about the female rep for Hearts Wide Open in "Vital Signs"? Completely ignored Neal and went straight after Peter. Clearly it's not just any woman.
    • And the black widow in "Veiled Threat"? Peter was the only one out of himself, Neal, and Jones who could successfully charm her.
      • I got the feeling that she chose Peter because he seemed like an easy mark who would do anything for an interested woman.

• I can't be the only one who sees Alex as the cliche "bad girl" character. Granted, I'm only just starting the season finale, but I absolutely cannot stand her. Everytime she's on screen I roll my eyes and wait for the next scene.
  • Don't worry. She starts showing up much less in later seasons.

• Why are Neal and Mozzy so set to leave the country with the treasure they took from Adler? Adler is dead so no one is coming after them. If Neal flees now there will be warrants for his arrest and he will have to stay in a country with no extradition or chance capture and a lengthy jail sentence. Neal only has 2-3 years left in his deal with the FBI and after that he is a free men and can do as he pleases. They could sit on the treasure for a few years and then slowly sell it off at their leisure anywhere in the world. They have run long cons before so why cannot they wait for a bit more and avoid all the complications of being fugitives?
  • Neal knows that Peter will find out.

• Holdup, Neal and Mozzie are guarding a multi-billion dollar treasure and their password system shows the characters they type in instead of replacing them with dots or asterisks? TV Tropes has more security than that.
  • Just a standard case of Highly Visible Password. Happens all the time.

• Where was Satchmo when Keller kidnapped Elizabeth in "Countdown"? I know he's not much of a guard dog (And he's old) but I doubt he would let a stranger take Elizabeth without at least making a fuss. Either he was locked outside or he did start barking and Keller shot him to shut him up.
  • Blink and you miss it- You can see in the panning around Peters house an FBI Agent leading Satchmo out of a room on his leash, guess he was outside when heck broke loose
  • Alternatively, they locked him in the room quickly while grabbing Elizabeth and figured the barking could be a normal thing that the neighbors dismiss at first. Remember, though, that the neighbors -saw- the abduction (Jones' mentions the neighebors saw that Elizabeth was still alive when they took her) so it's not like they got away quietly. It's possible that Keller intended on making a scene to drive the point home.
  • Turns out Satchmo bit Keller's henchman, which ended up helping in several ways. Good dog.
• Peter's house is the exception to Neal's anklet, which I think means the alarms don't go off if he's there instead of somewhere within his approved radius. But how does that keep the alarm from going off when he first leaves the radius? In the episode he broke into Peter's house, he didn't have Peter authorise him to leave the approved area, so shouldn't it have gone off? I suppose, when he got to Peter's, it could have shut off, but wouldn't that result in someone calling Peter to bitch about how, next time, he should tell them when Neal's going to his house? Or did I just miss something?