Russia in Caffrey Conversation

White Collar bad guy Matthew Keller has a long history with the Russian mob. In the Season 1 episode "Bottlenecked," the mob was after Keller for failure to pay a debt. Later on, in the Season 2 episode "Payback," Keller attempted to escape from prison to avoid being transferred to Barksdale Supermax Prison where he feared the mob would exact its revenge. In the Season 3 episode "Checkmate," Keller regained the Russians' favor when he claimed to have stolen the U-boat treasure in order to return the priceless works to Russia.

My links go back even further than Keller's. I majored in Russian in college, although my focus was more on Tolstoy than the mob. In the canon series, Neal is also connected to Russia through his interest in a certain amber music box reportedly once owned by Catherine the Great.

With so many Russian associations already in place, I've enjoyed injecting a little additional Russian flavor into our series. Neal is multilingual so it was easy to include a knowledge of Russian. Penna helped the backstory along when she gave him an ambassador for a grandfather and a mother who had learned Russian as a child while living overseas.

Neal's advisor Ivan Sherkov has many of the characteristics of the head of the Russian department where I went to college, notably her sense of humor and fondness for samovars and flavored vodka. Several of Neal's cases have included Russian elements, particularly my second story, The Golden Hen. The antique store featured in that story was inspired by A La Vieille Russie, a marvelous Russian antique shop on Fifth Avenue. Sonya Pashkina, a Russian violist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, was a character in The Golden Hen who may reappear in a future story. Members of the Russian mafia play key roles in The Queen's Jewels and The Mirror.

Neal often uses the pretext of a long con to explain his presence at White Collar and Columbia. In Caffrey Aloha, Penna added a Russian spin to it when she had him use an Anastasia con to explain his relationship to the Caffreys. Such an intriguing idea may well prove irresistible for future use.