Neal Got Out-Conned On 'White Collar'

Having "former white collar criminal" in your online dating profile probably doesn't put women in a frenzy to break down your door, so we're always happy (and kind of jealous) when White Collar 's Neal Caffrey gets a girl. But his most recent love interest, Rebecca, who also happened to write the book on crazy, left us feeling really sorry for Neal as he watched her get carted away to prison. He just can't get it right when it comes to women — I mean, I guess you lower your expectations when you're an ex-con — and it's just pretty shitty.

Sure, you could make the argument that the USA show can only have one functional couple — and that's Burke and Elizabeth — and having Neal in a long-term, stable relationship would ruin the show. And that could definitely be true, but Neal's not a playboy and these women keep breaking his heart.

On Thursday night's episode, we found out for sure that Rebecca was Agent Siegel and Hagan's killer and that she was in possession of the blackmail video that could put Burke and Neal behind bars. Talk about a double whammy. But, in a plot twist that no one saw coming, she may have actually had genuine feelings for Neal. Seriously. She was forcing someone to blackmail him, using his talents to decode the Codex that would lead her to the Hope Diamond's twin, and she killed his handler. But she might have actually loved him, so there's that. Burke noticed on the live feed they had planted in her apartment that Rebecca was packing up all of her former disguises and things related to her previous aliases, because she was planning to stay Rebecca permanently. Why? Because she really had feelings for Neal. Obviously, she foolishly expected that to stop Neal from turning her in to Burke and the FBI. Joke's on you, sister.

Or rather, the joke's on Neal, who blurted out that he thought he was falling in love with her to stall her from going back to her apartment and catching the entire White Collar Division raiding it. Our favorite ex-con thought that he was only saying it to protect Burke and the team, but he might have actually meant it — which is really the sad part in all of this. Neal actually liked her and he got hurt, big time, whether her feelings were genuine or not.

There's only one episode left in the show's fifth season and Rebecca is safely locked away in a prison (at least, that's what everyone thinks), but the promo showed her contacting Neal via collect call. We're going to assume she escapes — because this is White Collar, after all — but what would that even mean for Neal? He's obviously in pain over this situation and feeling deceived and vulnerable, so will we see a shift in his personality? Will he be less likely to take on a love interest next season, or will he finally find one that won't walk away? What we do know for sure is that we feel bad for the smoothest criminal on television and we don't like it. Neal's great, so at least let him feel like he's deserving of stability and intimacy.

Images: USA, mattbomerworld/tumblr