In the world of White Collar, that pursuit will just continue forever. The real idea there was the relationship between Peter and Neal, that chase that we started. TVLINE | What do you want viewers to take away from those final moments? Ultimately, I think to end it that way was really the right thing to do.
WHITE COLLAR SEASON ONE YEAR SERIES
And it was nice because the series as a whole has been a collaborative effort between me, Tim and Matt. TVLINE | So it was really a collaborative effort. Once they pitched me this ending, I said, “You know what? This is so much better.” So that’s how this ending came about. But of course, it’s Neal, so he hasn’t quite done that.
But we’ve got a better idea.” And that was the idea, which is Neal, ultimately, decides to kill himself to save the people he loves. Then Tim DeKay and Matt Bomer came to me and said, “Hey, look, we love that ending. I pitched that ending along with the series to USA six years ago, and it’s one I had planned to stick to. That was the ending that I had settled on from the moment I sold the series. We never know which choice he finally made. He tosses the coin and just before it lands, we go to black. And then we come back to Neal, and he’s in that same spot. We realize it’s a few years later and Neal’s taken over Peter’s job as head of the White Collar Crime division and he’s now an FBI agent and very happy. And then we’re back with Neal, and he’s standing at that same intersection, tosses the coin and it comes up tails and he goes left and he goes to the FBI. In one version, the coin lands heads, and he goes to the right and he gets in a limo with Mozzie and they go off to be the greatest criminals ever. And so he walked up to the Flatiron building in New York, and he’s tossing a coin. This was going to be the moment when Neal has to decide what he’s going to do. I had a different ending Peter finally released Neal. TVLINE | When and how did you settle on this particular ending? We figured the moment when Mozzie believes it, maybe the audience will believe it. We spent a long time saying, “Nobody will ever believe we killed Neal.” So we spent quite a while trying to sell it. TVLINE | I can’t believe you fake-killed Neal!
WHITE COLLAR SEASON ONE YEAR MOVIE
Eastin also talks about the possibility of a TV movie and the finale’s homage to Catch Me If You Can.