#Mozzie's seeing Neal think he's learned that his quasi-subconscious father figure is actually his enemy

[firebirdsdaughter]

Something else that gets me…

… About s1 is during the Poor Communication Kills ep, when Neal (somehow?) only just notices the ring photo and gets convinced the person who ‘‘‘‘‘kidnapped’’’’’ Kate (I’ll eat my photoboard if she was actually as kidnapped as he thought she was—like I’m sure Adler was pressuring her a bit in some way, I don’t think she was a monster, but I highly doubt she was the poor helpless victim acting under threat, she was another agent of Adler’s, she proves that by calling him later, she just used Neal’s blind devotion to her to play him)… You can tell he’s particularly shaken up (him losing control of his emotions and physically lashing out is usually reserved for Kate in s1, but this is only indirectly related) and then Mozzie genuinely tells him he’s sorry. No immediate ‘ha ha said you couldn’t trust suits.’ Genuinely tells him he’s sorry. And even when Mozzie does go back to the anti government rhetoric, it’s much more gentle and not proud or ‘I told you so.’ Mozzie knows just how painful this apparent discovery is for Neal, and he’s taking it absolutely seriously. I don’t feel like he’d do that if it were anyone else. Notably, he also never collected a file on Peter, even though Neal said ‘everyone’ so he went and got Lauren and Jones (that pic was clearly not Jones).

I feel like you see/get a lot more evidence of Peter’s fondness stretching back before he caught Neal, but this like a small moment of seeing that the same is true for Neal, in a way. He’s been a lost kid, a run away, all his life, running w/ other run aways. Somehow, and some point, something in Peter’s investigation of him turned into something else? I think Neal was projecting a father figure onto Peter for far longer than he strictly realised—their dynamic shifted from just Peter trying to arrest him to something more friendly. And what’s an all but orphan to feel about someone who cares where he is all the time, who gives him respect and thinks he’s smart/praises his abilities but also scolds and tries to get him to stop running wild? He sent him birthday cards and cookies (apparently??? I dunno when, but apparently). Postcards. That’s the kinda thing a kid overseas sends to their parents. I think you also see it a little in the flashback ep in s2, where Neal is all excited about being ‘at the top of the pile’ of files. He’s all like ‘but I was your favourite, right, right???’ Seriously, how did Matt Bomer nail the human embodiment of a puppy??? I do think pre actually working/spending time together it was completely subconscious, like that Marco Polo thing from Bones where she talks about how much it meant to have someone care where you were at any given time. For all he’s gotten good at living on his own, Neal missed family and I think a part of him latched onto Peter to fill that void w/out his even realising (completely understandable, when written in character, Peter is an extremely fatherly dude). He may not have totally realised it, but he felt a bond w/ Peter. And Mozzie presumably witnessed that.

It just feels like it’s too soon for Mozzie to be accepting Neal’s feelings about Peter w/ such sincerity if it’s just based on since his release from prison, bc he sees Peter/the FBI as still controlling Neal. The first ep makes it already so clear how familiar Peter and Neal are w/ each other, and since Neal and Mozzie clearly at least stayed in touch, Mozzie presumably at least knew Neal’s side of it. He’s not rubbing it in his face bc this is an apparent betrayal that he knows Neal would never have thought possible, and that must go further back than a couple of months. And tbh, going by Mozzie’s earnestness, I don’t think he thought it’d happen, either.

I dunno if any of that made sense, but it’s just. Interesting to me how they don’t really focus on it, it’s a tiny moment, but they make it very clear just how upsetting this apparent discovery is to Neal, w/ Mozzie’s reaction making it even deeper.