Book of Hours

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 0:00
[Titles] This is White Collared: The Podcast. Season one, episode three, “Book of Hours.”

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 0:12
[Intro] I want to welcome you to this, the third episode of this podcast. As I mentioned in the previous episode, I am recording several episodes in advance trying to build up a stock of episodes so that we can get off to a good start on this and I allow myself some time to deal with any issues that can crop up. So just as a reminder, if you have been kind enough to listen to the first couple of episodes and have left comments somewhere, a review or sent me an email, I am hopefully already recording episode around five or six and will not be able to acknowledge your comments, and reviews, and emails until some future episode. But please be certain I am tracking comments, feedback, reviews that you might leave, although I have limited access—being that I'm based in the US most of my access is going to be to us reviews I apologize for that, but I will be tracking them and acknowledging them as quickly as I can. But in the meantime, I certainly do appreciate the support.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 1:13
Now this episode, “Book of Hours”, first aired on November 6 2009. It was written by Tom Garrigus—I am sorry, Tom, I mispronounced your name, I'm sure—and directed by John T. Kretchmer.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 1:28
[Episode Summary] A routine stakeout of an own mob hangout by agents Cruz and Jones go sideways when Leo Barelli, local mob boss, shows up on the scene. It seems someone stole a valuable medieval Bible from Barelli's church. He wants it back and he asks the FBI to find it and return it to the church. And as Neal's hunt for clues to Kate's disappearance continues, Mozzie examines the empty wine bottle attempting to find some sort of hidden message.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 1:54
[Act 1] Well, right off the bat, the surveillance of the restaurant being used for bookmaking is busted. And frankly, looking at how they are doing that you almost have to wonder if they aren't wanting to be seen. They're not being real subtle about it. They're in a van which I'm sure is highly suspicious and out of place, they’re parked right across the street from the restaurant, and it's clear that Barelli and his people—Paul Ignazio for one—know exactly what the van is. So were they deliberately being obvious or are they just incompetent? Either way, one of Barelli’s men—Paul Ignazio—ends up approaching their van and he relays the message from Barelli that he wants the FBI as help. As Barelli tells it, somebody walked into the church in his neighborhood, he says—he calls it his church, but it's the church in his neighborhood—and took the Bible. Peter and Hughes aren't certain that he really means what he says, you mean literally a real Bible? And they question him and ask him, Well, okay, so somebody stole your Bible.

Reese Hughes 3:01
Why do you want our help?

Leo Barelli 3:02
I’m a taxpaying citizen.

Peter Burke 3:04
So…file a police report. Come on Berkeley.

Leo Barelli 3:08
Heh, come on, Burke, you got you guys sitting on me. It's part of the game I know but it means that I'm not free to…find out who did this.

Peter Burke 3:16
Yeah, it means you're not free to bust heads until you do.

Leo Barelli 3:19
This Bible…it's not just some book that the Gideons leave on the nightstand. This is five centuries of history from Naples. The Saints prayed over this book.

Peter Burke 3:32
Alright, let's get straight here. You may go to Confession once a week but the bureau doesn't forgive sins. We don't work for you.

Leo Barelli 3:40
What do you want?

Peter Burke 3:41
Shut down your book making operations at Masso's club.

Leo Barelli 3:46
It’s a restaurant. See for yourself anytime. After Thursday. Please, please help me find my God-damn Bible.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 4:01
Now, Barelli is an interesting contradiction. Based on what we know about him so far, both from direct and indirect information, we can conclude that he's a mobster who very likely routinely breaks most of the 10 commandments. He's not the sort of person one would typically expect to have any reverence or respect for God, or the church, or even a Bible. And yet he seems to have both, and in particular seems to have a lot of respect for this specific Bible. And we know he doesn't have a whole lot of respect at least for the church and its teachings because being a mobster, not only does he routinely break the 10 commandments, so we surmise, but even in his conversation with Peter and Hughes he breaks the third commandment of not taking God's name in vain while asking Peter to help him recover the Bible. So he's a very…he’s very much a contradiction because he has a great deal of respect for that Bible, because—as he says the saints prayed over it. And in fact, getting the Bible back is so important to him that he's willing to shut down his bookmaking operations at one of his clubs in order to get the FBI to help recover it. That's how much that Bible means to him personally, even though the church and its teachings don't seem to.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 5:24
Now, at the same time that Hughes, Peter, and Barelli are in conference over the Bible, Neal and Mozzie are contemplating the bottle. It just seems to be an ordinary wine bottle—nothing spectacular about it—but Neal is convinced there something, some clues, some hint, some secret message on the bottle; or in the bottle; or something to do with the bottle. But he doesn't know what. Mozzie’s getting on his nerves by tapping his fingers. But Neal is saved by a phone call from Peter—well, saved…interrupted, but it does at least stop Mozzie from annoying him. Neal asks Mozzie to take the bottle and study it, do some research on it, run some tests, and Mozzie says he'll take the bottle, run back to his lab and run some tests on it. And of course, Neal says well, you don't have a lab, you have a storage unit. And Mozzie responds, well, it's just a matter of semantics. You know, you call it a storage unit, I call into the lab. Looking back at the last episode, Threads, we remember that Neal had a friend who provided the venue for the big party where they were trying to catch The Ghost—Ghovat. And we don't know who that friend was—it was never stated—but I think I said at that time that I didn't think it was Mozzie because it was not the kind of place you would expect Mozzie to have for somebody who's trying to keep a low profile, a guy who's paranoid about the government surveilling him, and whoever else he's paranoid of, and this comment here about well, you don't have a lab, you have a storage unit, would seem to also suggest that Mozzie was not that friend that provided that party venue, because if he was well enough off that he did own that…that space, or at least have control and access to that space, he would probably have something a little more sophisticated than a storage unit for a lab. I suppose you could argue that that's keeping a low profile, but that would be inconsistent with having that swanky venue from the Threads episode. So again, looking back at Threads, I don't think Mozzie was the one who provided that venue.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 7:42
Peter and Neal go to the church, and are looking around trying to figure out the layout of the church, what kind of situation they're dealing with, they talked to the priest, they notice that there are no surveillance cameras, and Barelli says, quite sincerely, the Lord sees all. So he seems to truly believe that. So again, we're back to this contradiction of character because he seems to have a lot of respect and faith in God, a lot of respect and faith in the church, a lot of respect for that Bible, and yet he's a gangster that routinely violates the 10 commandments. It makes you wonder if Barelli truly believes that the Lord sees all and knows who stole the Bible, and provides security, so to speak, for the Bible as it's in the church, that how does it…how is it that he thinks that the Lord doesn't see his criminal activity and breaking of most, if not all the commandments? Or if he thinks that it's okay, as long as he goes to confession? He's a very contradictory person. Now, of course, Peter suspects that somebody in the parish did it, Barelli says, no, nobody in the parish did it. And of course, as he's speaking to the priest, he…he recalls, hey, didn't you used to have a soup kitchen here? And the priest says, well, not anymore. And Barelli hides his face. So there's, there's something going on there but we don't know at this point what is going on between the two of them. After Neal and Peter leaves the church, Neal goes back to his department, and he's discussing the theft with Mozzie

Neal Caffrey 9:21
Who steals a Bible?

Mozzie 9:22
People steal everything.

Neal Caffrey 9:23
Why would we steal one? In theory?

Mozzie 9:27
They're rare.

Neal Caffrey 9:29
Yeah, it makes them valuable, but not like a Picasso.

9:32
It depends what's important to people.

Neal Caffrey 9:34
Why this one?

Mozzie 9:35
Well, you're missing book is famous. It's known as the healing Bible.

Neal Caffrey 9:39
Really? Attribution.

Mozzie 9:41
In 1588, the plague passed through Naples. Father Camillus carried the book into disease-stricken ships in the harbor. Not a single person who touched the Bible died.

Neal Caffrey 9:52
Good story.

Mozzie 9:53
20 years later, a blind girl regained her sight when she rescued the book from a fire. I could give you many more examples.

Neal Caffrey 10:01
I'm sure you could. Look, maybe you don't steal it for the money. Maybe you steal because you're a true believer.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 10:10
Now as Mozzie and Neal are discussing the Bible—first of all, why somebody would steal a Bible and they don't have a good reason other than it might be valuable—they begin discussing this specific Bible. And like Barelli, Mozzie seems to be enamored with the history of this Bible and its purported supernatural powers. And again, like Barelli, he's not the kind of person that you would expect to be religious, or have a lot of faith in things that are religious, or have a lot of belief in miracles. But yet, as he's discussing the things that happened, purportedly as a result of this particular Bible—the Bible being carried into this disease stricken ships in Harbor, not a single person who touches the Bible dies, or a blind girl regaining her sight—he seems to be genuinely excited by these incidences, or these reported incidences. So again, like Barelli, he's a contradiction, because this is not what you would expect from somebody like Mozzie. But the conversation does at least lead Neal to conclude that maybe they aren't looking at a theft for financial gain, but a theft of belief—because of belief, because somebody believes in the healing power of the Bible. Now, of course, Neal takes this suggestion to Peter and Peter is skeptical. Very skeptical.

Neal Caffrey 11:40
In 1918, 30,000 people in New York died from the Spanish flu. No one in this parish even caught a cold.

Peter Burke 11:49
Nobody in this church caught the flu?

Neal Caffrey 11:51
It's true.

Peter Burke 11:52
Why these guys and not the church down the block? Because of a book? Tough to swallow.

Neal Caffrey 11:57
I thought you were catholic.

Peter Burke 11:58
Lapsed.

Neal Caffrey 12:00
Oh. So you don't think some higher power could have saved the congregation?

Peter Burke 12:02
Well, I'm more inclined to think they kept the door shut and loaded up on vitamin C.

Neal Caffrey 12:06
Maybe God works with what he's got.

Peter Burke 12:08
And God said: "Shut thine doors and eat thine oranges"?

Neal Caffrey 12:11
Why not?

Peter Burke 12:13
All right, look, when they dug up King Tut, everybody made such a big deal out of the curse of the pharaoh.

Neal Caffrey 12:19
Yeah, two dozen people who entered the tomb ended up dead.

Peter Burke 12:21
Yeah, they probably caught some old bacterial infection. Germs...There's your divine intervention.

Neal Caffrey 12:27
God can't use bacteria?

Peter Burke 12:29
I prefer my miracles with a little more smiting and lightning.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 12:32
So here we have another interesting contradiction, because Peter, as a lapsed Catholic—granted, he's lapsed—but he was apparently raised Catholic. So he was he was taught the Bible stories, the stories of the miracles of the Old Testament, the stories of the miracles of the New Testament, he was taught the very things that you would expect lead him to at least have some willingness to believe in the possibility of the miracles, and at least believe in the possibility that somebody else would believe in the miracles, but he seems to discount all of this. And that's an interesting flip, because here we've got three of the primary characters in this investigation, and they are totally contradictory from what you would expect: The guy who should believe, doesn’t; the guys who you would think wouldn't believe, do.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 13:25
So Peter and Neal go back to the church, they meet up with the priest and they're talking to him, they discover that Barelli basically was the reason that the soup kitchen was shut down because he didn't want the homeless hanging out around the church. Now, there could be two different reasons why that would be the case: One would be because it interfered with his criminal activity; and the other could be that he saw that as being a desecration to the church, which he seems to regard as holy—and not just the church being the people, but the the building itself. I suspect it's probably a combination of both. Certainly you cannot dismiss the notion that it interfered with his criminal operations. But given what we've seen of him so far, you also can't dismiss the notion that he he viewed the homeless being in that church as a form of sacrilege, which again is an interesting notion, given his profession and his presumed lifestyle. Well, in talking to the priests, they discover that Steve, a homeless man, had been allowed to sleep in sanctuary that evening, and so they…they don't necessarily suspect him but they at least think he might be a lead. They go to find him in the park and talk to him, and he admits that he stole the Bible, not for himself but for his dog, but that somebody took it from him and he is very anxious to get it back because his dog Lucy is sick. And he truly believes that if he can get the Bible to Lucy, that some miracle will happen that will heal her. But the upshot of all of it is that somebody else has the Bible because they took it from Steve after promising to use it to help Lucy. So they asked Steve to come back to the Bureau and look at some photos to try and identify the person who talked him into stealing the Bible. And it's not going well. He’s..he’s an ex-military, and he has mental issues as a result of some of his experiences in the Gulf. Lauren's working with him gently trying to get him to look through just one more book of pictures, and he seems to agree to it, but they're interrupted by Hughes. One of Barelli’s people got shot: Paul Ignazio, Barelli’s number two, and his nephew, and it just so happens that he is has a photo of him and Steve recognizes the photo as being of the man who's persuaded him to take the Bible.

[Act 2] Peter, of course, suspects that the shooting has something to do, or could have something to do, with the case of the missing Bible. So they go to the scene of the crime and things get a little bit interesting here.

Peter Burke 16:14
.25 caliber casing. European gauge

Joseph Ruiz 16:18
.22 caliber. This is Brooklyn buddy.

Peter Burke 16:23
Ruiz, I see they let you out of your cubicle.

Joseph Ruiz 16:26
Yeah, this is my show now. Where's your pet convict?

Peter Burke 16:31
I left them in the car with a Windows cracked.

Joseph Ruiz 16:33
What are you doing on my crime scene?

Peter Burke 16:35
This tales into my case.

Joseph Ruiz 16:37
This is mob retaliation. It's my investigation now. You don't believe me, ask Hughes.

Reese Hughes 16:44
Don't...don't start with me.

Peter Burke 16:46
You've got Ruiz running organized crime? That's unbelievable.

Reese Hughes 16:49
We offer you that bump every year. Every year, you turn it down.

Peter Burke 16:51
This isn't mob-on-mob. The Bible's the key to this thing.

Reese Hughes 16:55
What we got here is a dead member of the Barelli family probably killed by the Morettis.

Peter Burke 17:00
All right, fine. Just let me take a look at whatever's on that body.

Reese Hughes 17:04
It's Ruiz's case, and he's not comfortable sharing intel while Caffrey's with you.

Peter Burke 17:09
Oh, come on.

Reese Hughes 17:10
He's a convicted felon, Peter. And Ruiz isn't the only one with reservations.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 17:15
Now, Ruiz is a problem. Not just because he's trying to shut down Peters involvement in the investigation, not just because he has an issue with Neal Caffrey, which he clearly does. But because he's incompetent. We see that Peter was the first one at the scene along with Hughes, Ruiz is nowhere to be seen, and as Peter is sitting there, or kneeling there, looking at the evidence, and he picks up the empty ammo casing, and notes that it's a 25 caliber casing, Ruiz walks up. So he has been away from the scene. He has not, as far as we can tell, not looked at anything there, and he promptly says, No, it's not .25 caliber. it’s .22. I'm sorry, but any kind of competent investigator is not going to jump to a predetermined conclusion simply because of their preconceived notions, they're going to look at the evidence. And the evidence is that that is not a .22 caliber casing. It's .25. I'm not a weapons expert. I'm not an ammo expert, but I did do some research on it. And there's not a single .22 caliber casing that I've found any evidence of that matches the design, and the size, and the dimensions, and the configuration of this casing. But I do find a .25 caliber casing that matches it exactly. So Ruiz right off the get go shows that he has no business being in the FBI. How he got into the FBI, much less being ahead of organized crime, is beyond belief. It’s…it…it’s the kind of thing that makes you wonder who's making the decisions on this sort of thing? Well, apparently, Hughes is at least partially responsible for Ruiz being head of the organized crime because he does say to Peter, we've offered you…we’ve offered you that. He doesn't say that the the Bureau has, or the agency has, he says we, which indicates that he was at least to some degree involved in the decision to give it to Ruiz. And when Hughes tells Peter that Ruiz is not comfortable sharing intel while Caffrey is there, he also tells him Ruiz isn't the only one with reservations, basically telling Peter that the other agents and Hughes himself don't trust Caffrey. And we did see in the Threads episode, the previous episode, that Hughes was very condescending toward Neal. In the briefing, when they were discussing how to handle the hostage situation involving Tara and Ghovat, Hughes said, You're not even supposed to be here, Caffrey. You’re just gonna go get coffee. So Hughes clearly has an issue with Caffrey even though presumably he had to have signed off on the agreement to bring Caffrey out of prison. It’s probably one of those situations where he agreed to it, he saw the value in it, he saw the need for it, but he doesn't like it. And we're seeing evidence of that.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 20:12
Now, after Peter’s shut down by Hughes, we start to see some more hints that Peter isn't always the straight laced, strictly by the book investigator that he comes off as being or, as he portrays himself as being. And as I'd mentioned earlier, in the pilot episode, he seems to be willing to let other people bend the rules and take advantage of himself, or at least willing to use loopholes when necessary to get around official orders or official restrictions without having technically violated those orders and restrictions.

Neal Caffrey 20:46
We’re off the case?

Peter Burke 20:47
We've been asked to step down.

Neal Caffrey 20:50
So what do we do?

Peter Burke 20:51
I can't do much of anything. Ruiz is not willing to share the case file.

Neal Caffrey 20:56
Where's that leave us?

Peter Burke 20:57
Like I said, I can't do anything.

Neal Caffrey 21:05
I'm getting a little chilly by this water, aren't you? Think I could borrow your jacket? I swear to you, Peter, under no circumstances will I impersonate the FBI.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 21:16
Now, this is one of those, “I'm not saying this” type things; "I'm not implying this” type things, “I'm just saying something and if you decide to take it a certain way and do something about it, I've got no control over” type of things. He tells Neal, I can't do much of anything. I can't do much of anything. Take the hint, Neal. I can't do much of anything. But you you could do something as long as I don't know about it, as long as I can, you know, have plausible deniability. I can't do anything but you can. And Peter has to also realize that Neal was very careful with his words, when he said, you know, can I borrow your jacket? I swear to you, under no circumstances will I impersonate the FBI. He's doing the same thing to Peter that Peter just got done doing to him. I can't do this. I won't do this. Not saying that I won't have somebody else do it. But I won't do this. I won't impersonate the FBI. And that's, that's really…that’s the other part of Peter, the, like I say the part of Peter that is willing to take advantage of other people bending the rules.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 22:28
And then of course, we find out very, very quickly what Neal had in mind for the FBI jacket—it was to give it to Mozzie,have him wear it and pretend to be an FBI agent, and get into the apartment of Paul Ignazio so that he can let Neal in and they can take a look around and see what they can find out. You know, for a guy who has problems with the man, Mozzie certainly doesn't seem to have any issues with impersonating the man. And in fact, he seems to take a great deal of pleasure in putting it over on the man, even if he's the only one who knows that he's scamming them. And I do have to say that that Mozzie does a better job of acting casual and not suspicious in this instance than he did in the pilot where he was..he met Neal outside, you know, and pulled out the cigarette and said…you know, about the the filters, I don't use them, I tear them off, but that's just that whole scene. Terrible acting here. He's doing a much, much better job. So maybe he's taken some acting classes somewhere along the way. But as a result of Mozzie and Neal breaking into Paul Ignazio’s house, excuse me, getting unauthorized entry into Paul Ignazio house, the name of Professor Maria Fiametta comes up as someone Ignacio had an appointment with. She's an art historian who writes about the black market, Sicilian grave robbers, Egyptian smugglers and Serbian mobsters. Peter Neal go to talk to the professor to feel her out and she course lies about knowing Paul Ignazio.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 23:58
[Act 3] As a result of that conversation, Peter and Neal decide that Maria is somehow involved in the theft of the Bible and possibly the murder of Paul Ignazio.

Peter Burke 24:08
She's lying about Paul, and she's two degrees away from our homeless guy, but I also have trouble buying the fact that an attractive history professor offed a Mobster.

Elizabeth Burke 24:14
No, you don't want me to see the missing inventory because if I come down there, there's gonna be a lot more missing than center pieces. You got that?

Peter Burke 24:22
Okay, maybe it's not a complete stretch.

Elizabeth Burke 24:24
Sorry. Um, it was just my vendor.

Peter Burke 24:28
No, it’s fine. We're just trying to decide if a woman is capable of murder.

Elizabeth Burke 24:32
Oh, I think so. What's the issue?

Neal Caffrey 24:39
Alright....I think we're dealing with a shell game.

Unknown Speaker 24:41
We'll start with Paul, who, for some reason, reads Maria's book and realizes that the healing Bible is worth a hell of a lot of cash. But it's also Barelli's pride and joy. He doesn't want to risk Barelli's wrath, so he gets…

Neal Caffrey, Peter Burke 24:53
Steve to steal the Bible.

Peter Burke 24:55
Plausible deniability.

Elizabeth Burke 24:57
But if it doesn't work, then he let's the homeless guy take the fall. Well, that's evil.

Neal Caffrey 25:02
Takes the Bible from Steve, calls Maria to make the deal. Something happens.

Peter Burke 25:06
Yeah, the deal goes down wrong, or Paul decides he wants both the cash and the book.

Neal Caffrey 25:11
Well, whatever it is, Paul ends up dead, the Bible goes missing, Steve never even met Maria.

Peter Burke 25:18
And our girl walks away clean with a very expensive book.

Elizabeth Burke 25:23
You know, she's smart. She's not gonna have that Bible anywhere close to her.

Peter Burke 25:28
El, I've never seen this devious side.

Elizabeth Burke 25:30
Don't cross me.

Neal Caffrey 25:31
Elizabeth's right about the Bible. She won't keep it close.

Peter Burke 25:34
I've got it. She knew who you were...Neal Caffrey, master forger.

Neal Caffrey 25:38
Alleged

Peter Burke 25:39
Alleged. Whatever. If she's got the book, it links her to the murder. She's gonna want to get rid of it. We've got all the usual channels locked down, but if she thinks you might be interested...

Neal Caffrey 25:50
Convince her I'm pliable.

Peter Burke 25:51
We find some street contacts, float it out that old Neal Caffrey is back in business.

Neal Caffrey 25:55
No, that could take time to reach her, and there's no guarantee.

Elizabeth Burke 25:58
Why don't you just ask her out?

Unknown Speaker 26:01
That could work.

Peter Burke 26:02
Think she'll say yes?

Elizabeth Burke 26:03
Yes

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 26:06
There are a couple of things in this scene to make note of. First of all, is the fact that Elizabeth knew that Steve was a homeless guy. Now, nowhere in this scene is that specifically mentioned. So back to my comments from the pilot episode about how Peter uses Elizabeth as a sounding boar, he discusses his cases with her, she's intimately familiar with his work on a day to day basis. This is another example of that coming through. It's very subtle, but it's there. She already knew about the case, because she already knew that Steve was a homeless guy. And then the other part is that when they're discussing the different ways that they might get Professor Fiametta to reveal that she's involved, Elizabeth suggests that Neal just asked her out. And when Peter says, Well, do you think she'll go for it, even before Neal has a chance to answer Elizabeth says, yep, she'll do it. And it's interesting, because I'm wondering if this isn't a bit of some maternal instincts coming out in Elizabeth toward Neal, the counterpart to Peter's paternal feelings toward Neal.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 27:22
They go ahead and go on with the plan. Neal asks the professor out to dinner, she goes, and while Neal and the professor are at dinner, Peter, Lauren and Jones mount an operation to bugger home.

Clinton Jones 27:36
It's not bad for a college professor, huh?

Lauren Cruz 27:39
Yeah, well, she's either a crook or a trust-fund baby.

Clinton Jones 27:43
Yeah, maybe it's both.

Lauren Cruz 27:44
They usually are.

Clinton Jones  27:45
Nice catch.

Lauren Cruz 27:48
Yeah, not a bad place to drop a bug, either.

Clinton Jones 27:50
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's good coverage. Let's do it. She's bringing him back here for dessert.

Lauren Cruz 28:01
Of course she is.

Clinton Jones 28:03
Why, you jealous you ain't getting any of it?

Lauren Cruz 28:06
Neal? No. I'm perfectly fine with the stale-ass coffee I have in the van, thank you.

Peter Burke 28:12
We good?

Clinton Jones
Yeah, we're good.

Peter Burke 28:15
Careful, Lauren. Don't spill that stale-ass coffee. It's a bug. I can hear.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 28:20
Now, Lauren Cruz…let’s talk about Lauren Cruz for a second. First of all, Peter brought her into the team in the threads episode. And she seemed to be a competent investigator under those circumstances. But here she seems to be a…careless, I guess is the best word for it. As she's working through the house with Jones, she knocks over a vase simply because she bumped it with her arm because she wasn't paying attention. And then in her conversations with Jones, she makes the comment about the coffee and is kind of surprised when Peter comments about her comment as she's returning to the van because she forgot that it's a bug. I can hear you. So she seems to be a little bit careless here and a contradiction to what we saw in the previous episode. So maybe she has certain skills in certain areas, but not necessarily others and needs to be more well rounded as an agent. She also seems to have some attraction to Neal, we know that she was flirting with Neal, somewhat reluctantly, but still flirting nonetheless with Neal, in the Threads episode. She did feel a little bit of sympathy—or seem to—in the briefing, where Hughes was so dismissive of Neal—again, that's the briefing where they were discussing the terror kidnapping and Ghovat’s exchange program—and so she seems to have some attraction to Neal and it's apparently been noticed. And…and we know that by Jone's comment about Oh, are you jealous, you're not getting any of it. So she's had some attraction to Neal apparently at some point, but she seems to be somewhat over it, I guess. And that may be due to what happened at the end of the Threads episode where Neal tried to take credit for her work, where Neal tried to convince Peter that he was the one who took down Ghovat when in fact, it was actually Lauren.


Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 30:22
Back at the professor's house, Neal and the professor are discussing, I guess, what what their plans are for the rest of the evening. The professor notices the vase that Lauren had knocked over because she didn't get it back in the correct position and there was a dust ring evident. So the professor knew somebody had been in there. And of course, she's suspicious of Neal, she was always suspicious to Neal, but this has kind of made her more so and put her more on guard. So she tries to trip up Neal, tries to get him to reveal himself, or at least reveal which side of the fence he's playing, whether he's actually working for the FBI, or whether he's using the FBI for his own personal purposes, and whether she can trust him or not. And he, of course, apparently senses this, and so he finds the bug, which he knew was probably there or probably knew was there, dumps it in the glass of wine and and ruins it. And, of course, Peters not entirely thrilled about that, but it happened.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 31:25
[Act 4] And then of course, he has to excuse it with us by saying, Well, you know, equipment failure. But the good news is that despite the equipment failure, or the alleged equipment failure, Peter can assure Hughes that she does have the book, Caffrey says so, and that she will sell it to him for $250,000 wired to a Swiss account. Ruiz is not happy about that plan. And neither is Hughes. But they really don't have a choice at this point. So they decided to set up a dummy account and give Neal the information to make the deal, which means that they can get the book, and it won't really cost them anything, because it's all fake money. It doesn't actually exist, it's only on a computer somewhere. Peter tells Neal about the plan, or at least tells him that Hughes agreed to the deal. What he doesn't tell him is that the money isn't real. He lets Neal believe that it actually is real money that he is going to be paying her, somehow set up in a way that they're not going to lose it, but that it's a real account with real money. He comments about how, first they were going to be sending him back to prison, but the next day they're going to be given him a quarter million taxpayer dollars in an offshore account. So he really doesn't seem to know that it's it's fake. And then he goes even further by saying to Peter, well, I guess that shows how much confidence that they have in you. And Peter responds well and how much I have in you, Peters line, Neal, and he doesn't really seem to have a whole lot of faith in Neal at this point. Certainly not enough to tell him that the money isn't real.

Elizabeth Burke 33:04
Hey.

Peter Burke 33:05
Hey.

Elizabeth Burke.33:06
Morning. You’re up early.

Peter Burke 33:08
Couldn't sleep. Big day.

Elizabeth Burke 33:10
I can tell. You're wearing your lucky tie. Hey, did you find the Bible?

Peter Burke 33:16
Yeah. The professor had it. Neal's gonna buy it back.

Elizabeth Burke 33:21
You're giving him money? Wow. No wonder...Lucky tie.

Peter Burke 33:26
No way. We set up a fake wire transfer.

Elizabeth Burke 33:30
Then what are you worried about?

Peter Burke 33:32
He has to convince her that he's working us, which means he has to cut his anklet for real. The book's worth a fortune. He could run with it.

Elizabeth Burke 33:41
Well, you have a lot more faith in a ratty, old tie than you do Neal.

Peter Burke 33:47
Yeah, well, this ratty, old tie's never forged a priceless map of Vinland.

Elizabeth Burke 33:52
Why is it so hard for you to believe that he'll do the right thing?

Peter Burke 33:55
Let's just say that's not his first instinct.

Elizabeth Burke 33:58
And trust isn't yours.

Peter Burke 33:59
Occupational hazard. I like to know I can count on something.

Elizabeth Burke 34:03
I know you do. But sometimes you just have to take a leap of faith.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 34:09
Now, Elizabeth seems to have a lot of faith in Neal. But again, we see here that Peter doesn't seem to have a whole lot of faith in him. And part of that reason may be because he knows more about Neal's background and history than Elizabeth does. Or, given that that Elizabeth does know so much about Peters cases as we've seen, it just could be that he's a more pessimistic…he has a more pessimistic view of Neal's background and Neal's tendencies than Elizabeth does. She's definitely a lot more trusting. Peter does make a reference to Neal apparently having forged a priceless map of Vinland.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 34:52
[Map of Vinland] That’s Vinland with a V, not Finland with an F. Vinland was an area of Coastal North America explored by the Vikings. Leif Ericson reportedly landed their first around the year 1000, nearly five centuries before Christopher Columbus and john Cabot. The name appears in the vinland Saga, and presumably describes both Newfoundland and the Gulf of St. Lawrence as far as Northeastern New Brunswick, where the eponymous grapevines are found. Much of the geographical content of the sagas correspond to the present day knowledge of transatlantic travel and North America. Now, there was, or is, something called the Vinland map, and according to ancient-origins.net, it's either a colossal fraud, or an artifact of unparalleled value. It's in the vaults at the Yale University and insured for $25 million. The map first appeared in 1957 when a couple of apparently shady characters tried to sell it to the British Museum. Experts determined that the ink that was used on the map was not typical iron gall ink, the map was declared fake and museum declined the offer. But if authentic, the map is considered priceless. Apparently the major problem with the map is that there is no acknowledgement or knowledge that the Vinland associated with the map was a real place with a functioning society on Newfoundland Island.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 36:27
Well, the rendezvous between Neal and the professor goes off, apparently, without a hitch. They each pat each other down to make sure nobody is wearing any hidden wires or anything of that sort. Neal cuts the anklet which, of course, Peter knew was going to happen, but Ruiz did not know what's going to happen. And of course, Ruiz panics. When Neal cuts the anklet, the alarms all go off, and he and the professor hop in her car and take off with Peter, Lauren and Ruiz in—we won't say hot pursuit, but at least they are following in a supposedly unmarked van that seems suspiciously out of place under the circumstances. The exchange goes off after Neal verifies that, yes, this is the book that they are looking for. She gets her money, and then promptly pulls a gun on deal and says, Hey, I want it all. I want the book, I want the money, so give it to me and and she basically makes it clear that she's going to shoot him. And kill him. Of course, Neal thinks he's got the upper hand because he took the magazine out of the gun. But being that he is a person who, as he said in the first episode, the pilot, doesn't like guns, he doesn't realize that you can carry one in the chamber. And he didn't take that into account. And she shoots him. Well shoots at him. He holds the Bible up and the Bible stops the bullet. Another miracle? Could be or it could just be basic science.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 38:03
Peter, Lauren and Ruiz show up and arrest the professor. And of course, right behind them is Barelli, who just happened to be listening on a police scanner, kind of keeping track of the investigation. And so he's there to collect the Bible. But nobody knows where the Bible is. Neal says, I gave it to some FBI guy. And next we see Mozzie walking off wearing that FBI jacket that Neal borrowed earlier from Peter, with Bible in hand. Peter knows where the Bible is going to end up. And so they head back to the church, Steve is there with Lucy, and Barelli, of course, sees the Bible and he's not happy. He's not happy with Steve, he’s not happy that Steve has his Bible, but he's a softy, and he feels sorry for the dog. He notices there something wrong with the dog that gets to him, and he asks Steve, hey, what's wrong with your dog? Steve tells him and Steve thinks that since he's had the Bible, and he's had the Bible there with Lucy, that Lucy is healed or being healed, but Barelli says, look, you know, I've got a vet. Let’s…let’s take your dog over to have the vet take a look at her, and we'll see what what's going on. We'll get your dog taken care of. Neal's impressed, Peter, isn’t.

Neal Caffrey 39:26
How'd you know?

Peter Burke 39:27
Okay, I didn't know, but I took a leap of faith that you did the right thing.

Neal Caffrey 39:32
Elizabeth.

Peter Burke 39:33
Yeah.

Neal Caffrey 39:35
I told you it's a healing Bible.

Peter Burke 39:37
Oh, here we go. No way. Barelli's a softie for dogs.

Neal Caffrey 39:41
Oh, not enough smiting and lightning for you?

Peter Burke 39:43
That's not a miracle. It's not a parting of the Red Sea.

Neal Caffrey 39:49
Well, I'll take my miracles where I can get them.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 39:50
And again, we see that Peter is a skeptic. He doesn't really believe in miracles. Neal has a lot more faith in miracles, and the power of God then Peter clearly does because he says, Hey, I'll take my miracles work and get them, and seems to acknowledge that sometimes what could be considered a miracle is a miracle of timing, a miracle of change of heart, a miracle of simply things coming together at a time, in a way that one might not expect them to under normal circumstances. So again, we have another seeming contradiction—like Mozzie like Barelli—Neal, a man who you would not consider likely to be a person of faith seems to have more faith than Peter, raised Catholic, and the person that you would think would have the faith. Well, of course, the cases over the anklet goes back on, or probably a new one because Neal did cut the the band on it in order to…o make the deal with the professor work.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 41:04
So they put a new ankle monitor on Neal, and then we see him and Mozzie back at the apartment. Mozzie’s taking a nap, Neal is looking at the bottle trying to figure out what the message is, where the message is, how to figure out what the message is. And as he's sitting there with the bottle next to a candle, the heat from the candle, causes a map to appear. Mozzie had missed it. With all his study of the bottle in the lab—in his lab, in the storage unit—he had missed something: lemon juice. It disappears, it’s invisible to the naked eye and only reappears when it's heated. Because remember, Kate loves the classics.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 41:49
[Closing] Well, that's the end of this episode. I hope you enjoyed it, or enjoyed some of it at least. If you would like to follow the podcast, please subscribe in your podcast player. And you can also visit the website, whitecollaredpc.com. and from there, you can get links to Twitter, email, where you can contact me through those various forms. I will be providing links to various resources that I utilized in…in researching this episode. And I will also include those in the show notes.

Eric Alton-Glenn Hilliard 42:27
Well thank you for being here and please be sure to join me for the next episode as I share my thoughts on episode four, Flip of the Coin. Until then, take care and God bless.