laleia

So backstory, yada yada, whatever.

I wanted to say, about this episode, regarding Kate: Why did they cast someone who looks so much like Elizabeth?

I swear, when he first met her, I was like, "Oh hey, apparently Elizabeth is working as this dude's event-planner or something?" And then realized that he'd said "Kate Moreau" and I blinked.

I seriously think if you put the two of them side by side, I wouldn't be able to tell them apart.

Although, I am super-sad about Kate. Because I feel like fanon!Kate (even though fandom doesn't like Kate and tends to write her out or make her mean more often than not) is like a street-tough hardened criminal (generally manifested by her betraying Neal), and canon!Kate is ... a civilian that Neal lured into the dark work of grifting. I wanted Kate to be like Sophie! I thought she would be conning Neal all along! I was super sad when this was not the case.

I mean, I seriously wanted her to have negotiated with the Feds to lure Neal into a trap, and I feel like this would have made her more badass, but I am also sure the rest of White Collar's target audience would have interpreted that as a betrayal and thus all collectively dislike her even more, so whatever.

Also, because this is all from Neal's POV, and Neal is super-romantic, I'd love to see the story from Kate's POV where she's like, "So I slept with this guy because my BF at the time just wasn't cutting it, also I hated Chicago; then next thing I know he's leading me into a life of crime where I get to dress up like policeman. But then he starts treating me more like a student, less like a partner, not respecting me, and then trying to con me into pulling off a big thing in Europe and presumably marrying him and that was just too serious and/or too much of a power differential for me, and so I dumped his ass. Just when he showed up with flowers and chocolate to apologize, the Feds arrested him. I didn't even get makeup sex!"

I have to say, though, this backstory that White Collar has given Kate doesn't really match up with the huge mistrust Peter and Mozzie both have of her, when they act like she's a grifter to her core and she's always lying to Neal -- I mean, unless she really did cut that deal with the Feds and nobody's had the heart to tell Neal, or she pulled off some pretty big cons after Neal went to jail, she's ... not as dangerous as she's hyped up to be.