Unraveling Kate

The character Kate Moreau heavily influences Neal’s actions in the first two seasons of White Collar, and yet we see very little of her. She appears mostly in brief, cryptic moments and in Neal’s memories. While Neal is certain she’s on his side, Peter is equally certain that she’s using Neal. Neal’s memories of her raised as many questions for me as they provided answers. How was I to untangle the strings from the series for Caffrey Conversation?

Warning: spoilers for Caffrey Conversation stories and the first two seasons of White Collar. 

Some of the questions that remained for me about Kate after the first two seasons were:

• Why did she discourage Neal (to the point that he pursued Alex) and then out of the blue abandon the man she’d been in a serious relationship with to show up at Neal’s door? 
• Why did she stick with a life of crime after splitting up with Neal? 
• Did she ever consider returning to the safer job of executive assistant?
• Did Mozzie trust her, or just work with her because Neal insisted?
• How did she go from being partners with non-violent Neal to taking a gun to her confrontation with Peter? 

When it comes to the first story in the Caffrey Conversation, I was never truly satisfied with my original ending. I had needed a villain who could get past Neal’s defenses, and I chose to go with evil!Kate. When I replaced that ending, I had the opportunity to re-introduce Kate into the series more thoughtfully, and I started in By the Book. In that story she breaks into a house to steal a book for Mozzie. As with canon, her appearance is brief, but I included several elements from canon. First, that she’s decided to remain a criminal. Second, that she’s carrying a gun. Third, that it’s unclear where she stands with Mozzie. And of course we have the standard disagreement between Neal and Peter about her, this time centered around whether she can follow Neal’s path to reform.

Kate’s next appearance is in Caffrey Flashback. That’s when I decided to delve into her background to discover what motivates her. Reflecting my own ambivalence, I decided that with each scene featuring her and with each revelation about her past, we’d see her in a different light. Sometimes she appears to be a victim, manipulated by Adler. Other times she appears to be manipulating Neal. Personally I landed somewhere in the middle, seeing Kate as someone with a tragic past who was obsessed with Adler, putting him on a pedestal and unable to see his flaws. That mirrored my view of Neal’s relationship with Kate; he idolized her and their relationship worked best when he played a chivalrous knight to her impossibly perfect lady. The truth of a flawed woman didn’t fit in his overly romanticized view of her, and to me that meant he loved the idea of her more than the reality, to paraphrase what El said in canon about her own relationship with Peter – that their marriage withstood the test of time because they truly knew and loved the real person.

Silbrith deserves credit for supplying part of the framework I used to portray Kate in Caffrey Flashback. When I needed a location for the club where Neal is drugged, I turned to Silbrith’s expertise regarding the New York area, and she suggested an area in Long Island which was also featured in The Great Gatsby. That inspired me to include references to F. Scott Fitzgerald characters Gatsby, Nick and Daisy. Thinking of Adler as Gatsby, Neal as Nick (handy since that was already an alias Neal uses in canon), and Kate as Daisy, I had a ready-made triangle to play with as I tried to unravel the mystery that is Kate.

When Kate boards the plane in Caffrey Flashback, I included references to the season 1 finale, where the plane detonates with her inside. However, I simply show that the plane contains both explosives and parachutes. When the plane explodes in the air over Argentina in my story, no one can say for certain whether or not she escaped first. At least in my version, Neal and Kate have the opportunity for a final conversation. Neal is brokenhearted, but has closure.

You may have noticed that Silbrith has woven storylines tying multiple characters to South America. Eventually those characters may uncover the truth of Kate’s fate. Stay tuned!

If you want to refresh your memory, here are most of Kate's scenes in By the Book and Caffrey Flashback:

Kate as a cat burglar in By the Book
Kate's first scene in Caffrey Flashback
Introducing the Great Gatsby comparison
Kate returns
Saying goodbye to Kate