Ellen Gray: 'White Collar' goes back to the beginning

WHITE COLLAR. 10 tonight, USA Network.

PASADENA, Calif. - "White Collar" fans who like answers will begin to get some tonight as the odd couple in USA's most secretive bromance take us back to where the fun began.

"This would be [Season] 2.5 in USA Network terms," Matt Bomer, who plays con-man Neal Caffrey, said earlier this month of the run of episodes that began last week.

"I think [series creator] Jeff Eastin really has outdone himself . . . because so many of the mythology questions we've been asking for the past couple of seasons get brought to a head and answered and concluded."

Bomer and his co-star, Tim DeKay - who plays Peter Burke, the FBI half of the team - were table-hopping at a USA press breakfast during the Television Critics Association's winter meetings, and when DeKay wasn't within earshot, Bomer seemed to be arguing that Neal is simply using Peter.

Neal's a "con artist, so everything is seen in terms of 'What can I get for this?' And I know that might sound dark or shadowy or superficial, but that's one of the aspects of the character," said Bomer, who's invested in the "mythology" of the show, which has Neal chasing a mysterious music box in hopes of learning who was behind the disappearance, and ultimately, the death, of his girlfriend.

"I think the mythology to me, is, honestly, one of the most important aspects of the character, if not the most important aspect. Because it's sort of what is ultimately driving him, on a case-by-case basis, to cooperate with Peter, to have that charming relationship with him," Bomer said.

"I think he really loves Peter. But I do think that by collaborating with him, his leash was extended to help search for Kate on the side. By collaborating with him, he has resources that he wouldn't have if he were on his own. So is there real love and a mentor and a big brother and a father at times? Absolutely. But there's also what is really driving Neal, is really putting to rest the death of the love of his life."

For DeKay, it's a bit more about the bromance.

"The cases or the capers are just the vehicles to watch the characters interact. It really doesn't matter what painting is stolen, what bond is stolen," insisted the actor, whose character tonight offers Neal an evening of immunity - and a bottle of cheap wine - in exchange for what turns out to be the story of how Neal met first Mozzie (Willie Garson in one of the worst toupees ever) and then Kate (Alexandra Daddario).

"We have a great time together. We really do," said DeKay, who flies home to California from the show's New York set every other weekend to see his family.

"The mythology is very important," he said.

"But . . . there are moments where [Neal] realizes at the end of [an] episode or something, 'No, there's another avenue I should maybe be taking.' The thing that I like best about Peter and Neal is when they are very close and they seem like they're friends - when they're closest emotionally - and yet there's something that they're both keeping from each other. That's what's most interesting.

"And I'll say that's what's most interesting about any relationship. You know, if you watch a show about a man and a woman, a married couple - they're very close, but yet both are keeping something from each other. Maybe for a good reason, maybe for a not-good reason. Who knows?"

Certainly that was the dynamic on DeKay's last series, HBO's "Tell Me You Love Me," in which he and Ally Walker ("Sons of Anarchy") played a couple in therapy to talk about their sexless marriage.

After that experience, "it's nice to have levity," DeKay said. Though "it's funny, because on 'Tell Me You Love Me,' we kind of went the opposite once the camera went off. Everybody was joking like crazy."

His "White Collar" character's marriage, to an event planner played by Tiffani Thiessen, so far seems limited to relatively small secrets. The sweetness of that relationship might, I suggested, be one reason viewers would be more likely to trust Peter.

"That's very true. We tend to understand Peter better because we see him through another relationship," DeKay said. "What's interesting is that it's the relationship that Neal wants. He wants that, or he may think he wants it. I don't know."

As for what Peter wants, it might at times include a life less ordinary.

"Peter gets very stealthy in some of these episodes. It's quite fun. He gets to wear all black," he said.

Still, there are things he'd just as soon leave to Bomer, including music.

In one upcoming episode, "he's singing with Diahann Carroll," DeKay said.

"You would understand why I'm not jealous [if we heard DeKay sing] . . . I can sing, but as my father once said, I sing better with other people." *

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