Season 5

Complete listed story — includes the ending

1. At What Price

Peter is about to be prosecuted for murder, which could end his FBI career even if he were acquitted. Elizabeth urges Neal to save him at any cost. Neal is contacted by the Dutchman, Curtis Hagan ( Mark Sheppard ), the man he helped Peter convict of forgery in their first case together. Hagan has influence over Peter's prosecutor, and can get the charges dismissed if Neal can make a convincing fake audio confession from James. Neal and Mozzie do this and learn Hagan's price: Neal must steal a collection of gold coins from a secure building. Neal does this with the aid of a device Mozzie has built to spoof the anklet's signal to make him appear to be at home. Neal then learns that the Dutchman has filmed the heist and plans to blackmail him into committing further crimes for him. Peter is promoted to be head of the NYC White Collar Crime office. He gives Neal a new anklet and promises him a new handler from outside the office. Their last case together is to investigate the coin robbery.

2. Out of the Frying Pan

Neal meets his new handler David Siegel ( Warren Kole ), a young star agent. The FBI have arrested the proprietor of a website for stolen goods, and they plan to arrest his contacts while a very pregnant Diana works hard to make the website appear to continue operating. Neal and Siegel are sent to the warehouse of an art dealer involved with the website, who turns out to be Mozzie. He escapes, but Siegel sees him; though Neal is able to keep Peter from learning that the dealer is Mozzie, Siegel uncovers the "Teddy" identity behind Mozzie's vast holdings. This is actually what Mozzie believes to be his true identity, that of a baby who disappeared shortly before Mozzie was found. Mozzie returns to the warehouse, sets fire to it, and vanishes into a hideout beneath it. The FBI believe Teddy is dead, but Diana is not fooled, goes to the warehouse, and finds the hideout. She tries to arrest Mozzie but suddenly goes into labor. Mozzie delivers the baby, whom she names "Theo", and she so far keeps his secret. Neal breaks into the FBI evidence room and destroys evidence against Hagan, which will give him a chance in his retrial.

3. One Last Stakeout

Hagan is free, and he gives Neal 48 hours to steal one chapter of a mysterious book on display at a museum. Neal and Mozzie plan to fool another criminal, Zev, into breaking into the museum to steal a painting, with Neal taking the book chapter at the same time and then catching Zev. To get access, he befriends a museum worker named Rebecca ( Bridget Regan ) and steals her key. Neal tells Siegel he has heard chatter indicating that the museum is about to be robbed, and Peter authorizes a stakeout. Mozzie disables the security cameras of the museum and Zev enters. Neal is delayed when Peter, nostalgic about his former partnership, joins the stakeout. However, he is able to enter the building and replace the chapter with a forgery Mozzie has created. Zev trips the alarms but still escapes; Neal leaves prints behind when he escapes himself. Neal and Peter find Zev's prints at the crime scene, allowing the FBI to arrest Zev and recover the painting. Neal gives the book chapter to Hagan after making a copy; he and Mozzie will try to figure out why Hagan wanted it. Siegel secretly witnesses the meeting between Neal and Hagan. Rebecca is fired for the security breach, after learning that Neal works with the FBI. Siegel is found murdered on the street.

4. Controlling Interest

The now-destitute Mozzie has moved into Neal's apartment. With the investigation of Siegel's death stalled, Peter joins Neal for a new field assignment. A disoriented man named Nate Griffith ( David Call ) walks into the Bureau, carrying a packet of cash, confessing that he broke into a vault and stole $2 million. Peter and Neal trace Griffith to Dr. Mara Summers, his psychiatrist. Peter decides to examine the vault with Neal. The bank claims ignorance of any break-in. Neal checks their records for details on the vault, and traces it back to "Niteowl Holdings". Peter and Neal suspect Dr. Summers has something to do with the robbery. Peter traces Niteowl Holdings to Shane Jacobi, an ex-con, and confronts him. He denies any connection to Niteowl Holdings, but appears surprised to learn that the vault was robbed. Meanwhile, Neal approaches Dr. Summers as a patient, hoping to glean some information from her. But she drugs him, and gets information on the ongoing investigation from him. Moz identifies the drug as "Good Night Cinderella", used by Asian prostitutes to rob their johns. He suggests that the best way to recall what he told Dr. Summers would be to go back under the drug again. Moz makes the drug, Neal drinks it, and Peter and Moz help Neal recall the entire conversation. The next day, Peter and Jones visit Griffith's house, and on discovering Jacobi there, they arrest him. They realize that Summers manipulated Griffith into robbing Jacobi's vault. Neal gets a confession from Dr. Summers by putting her under the drug. The FBI arrest Dr. Summers but do not recover the money, because Neal has diverted it and given it to Mozzie to start afresh. He tells Mozzie that he plans to free himself from all constraints, including both Hagan's and Peter's.

5. Master Plan

A wealthy man ( Richard Thomas ) hires Elizabeth to choose art presents for his son, who has recently resurfaced long after disappearing as a teenager. She was a tutor for the real son before he vanished, and in talking to the alleged son about art she begins to suspect that he is an impostor. Neal takes a job as butler to the household to investigate. Elizabeth is fired after she voices her suspicions and the alleged son passes a DNA test. However, Neal and Peter are able to prove that he faked the test and to find the location where he is holding the real son prisoner, in order to get the information he needs for his deception. Meanwhile, Peter battles a flu-like illness which is relieved by a concoction that Mozzie prepares from the honey of the beehives he has introduced to Neal's apartment.

6. Ice Breaker

Peter and Neal search for a Russian forger of U.S. passports and find Sergei, the cousin of a notorious Russian gangster and sponsor of a figure skater named Katya ( Annet Mahendru ). They go undercover as a skating coach and sports agent respectively, and are able to arrest Sergei and several Russian criminals to whom he had provided passports. Meanwhile, Neal and Mozzie enlist the still unemployed Rebecca's help in decoding the book chapter by posing as FBI agents. Peter and Jones know they are up to something, and Peter finds evidence of the fake FBI office they created to deceive her. Rebecca tells them that Mosconi, the 19th-century author of the book, never included a chapter 13 in his books, the same chapter that Neal believed he removed from the book and gave to Hagan.

7. Quantico Closure

Peter's anniversary dinner with Elizabeth is interrupted by an attractive woman named Jill ( Kim Dickens ), his ex-girlfriend and former classmate at the FBI academy. Jill now works for a secretive division of the FBI and wants Peter's help in buying a computer chip, potentially of great use to enemy nations, from a hacker now living in Manhattan. Jill insists that no one else know anything about the mission, which makes Elizabeth suspicious and later interferes with Peter's efforts to conduct the buy safely. Peter and Jill notice and identify two mercenaries that are also following the hacker, but when they go to the hotel room for the buy, they are unaware that the mercenaries have evaded Jones' surveillance. Elizabeth and Neal come to the same hotel at the same time, suspecting Jill's intentions toward Peter. When the mercenaries capture everyone, only Elizabeth and Neal's initiative saves the day. Meanwhile, Neal and Jones recover Siegel's gun and FBI badge; though the petty criminal who was using them in carjackings appears to be a dead end, but Peter finds a possible clue in the badge. Also, Neal and Rebecca are able to decipher a picture of a stained glass window from the book chapter, and Rebecca believes the window might be in New York, where Mosconi briefly lived in 1886. Later, he is able to show her the window, and they kiss.

8. Digging Deeper

Peter learns of the recovery of a stolen dinosaur egg, but the companion skeleton of an adult female Tyrannosaurus rex is still missing. He and Neal foil a thief's attempt to steal the egg back; he identifies a financier ( Željko Ivanek ) as his employer but does not know where the skeleton is. Neal and Mozzie build a forgery of the egg containing a tracker, leading them to the skeleton. Meanwhile, a suspicious Peter discovers that Neal is seeing Rebecca, and when he and Elizabeth crash their romantic dinner he learns that Rebecca thinks Neal is an FBI agent. Neal tells him he lied to her so she would not know of his criminal past, and Peter urges him to come clean to her. He does so and Rebecca accepts him; they have sex. Hagan correctly deduces that Neal plans to steal the stained-glass window, and with an implicit threat to June he tells Neal to steal it for him.

9. No Good Deed

In bed, Neal tells Rebecca a limited version of the truth but says he can't involve her in the theft of the window for her own safety. She convinces him to let her help, and the next day she distracts the men repairing the window while Neal and Mozzie steal it. They discover that one of the panels allows secret messages in Chapter 13 to be read, but only in the real Chapter 13, not their copy. They plan to trade this panel to Hagan for the evidence that Hagan has of Neal's earlier coin theft. At the same time, an FBI watch of pawnshops turns up one of the gold coins that Neal stole for Hagan, and that Hagan used to bribe Peter's prosecutor Dawson. Peter's investigation leads him to Decker, the man who fenced them for Dawson, but Mozzie tips off Decker and allows him to escape. Peter goes to Neal's apartment and claims that he has captured Decker, and Neal confesses to the coin theft, implying that he rather than Hagan was the one who bribed Dawson to save Peter. Peter feels obligated to arrest Neal and thus reopen his own case, probably ending his career, but Elizabeth counsels him against this. The next morning, Jones actually arrests Decker, and Peter does not question him about the coins; there are enough weapons and other contraband coins in Decker's store to ensure his conviction on other charges. Peter then goes to Dawson and offers not to reveal the bribe if Dawson resigns his position and returns the coins, which he does. Peter tells Neal that there will be "changes" in their working relationship, as he now realizes that Neal cannot fully change his criminal ways. Neal agrees.

10. Live Feed

Peter is offered a promotion and reassignment to DC, but he is reluctant to take it until he resolves the mystery of Siegel's murder. Neal brings the panel to a meeting with Hagan intending to bargain, but Hagan shows him that he is holding Rebecca hostage and forces him and Mozzie to solve the puzzle hidden in the Codex. Peter is called to investigate an apparent forgery of a painting by William Blake. He calls in Neal despite the tension between them, and Neal finds Hagan's hidden signature in the painting. By offering to buy the painting and then tracking the resulting computer activity, Peter finds the seller's location, which is the very building where Neal and Mozzie are working with Hagan. Neal forces Hagan to release Rebecca by threatening to destroy the Codex chapter, then does it anyway after Mozzie has memorized their results. He finds Rebecca on a Brooklyn street and they embrace; Rebecca tells Neal that the hidden treasure is a twin to the Hope Diamond. The FBI arrive at that building and arrest Hagan, who says he has information that Peter should consider if he values his freedom. They go to Hagan's house to look at it, but Hagan is killed by a sniper before he can reveal anything. On Hagan's body is information that leads Neal and Peter to a Brooklyn apartment, which both Hagan and Siegel were watching on the day Siegel died. They enter the apartment and find three things: extensive files on Neal, Peter, and their associates, preparations to make both the Blake forgery and Hagan's signature, and evidence that the apartment's occupant is actually Rebecca.

11. Shot Through the Heart

While Neal distracts Rebecca, the FBI search her apartment. Peter concludes that she is actually in love with Neal, and as a ruse calls her in and tells her that Neal is the prime suspect in Hagan's murder. She asks Neal to meet in a park; Neal tells her he will have to run and she offers to go with him. Just as she is about to say that she is not really a mild-mannered book expert, she detects the FBI stakeout and flees. From evidence in the apartment, Peter determines that she is really Rachel Turner, a disgraced former MI5 agent. He also figures out where she hid the gun with which she killed Siegel. Against Peter's instructions, Neal arranges another meeting with her, offering to trade the location of the diamond for Hagan's blackmail information. Once he has the information he handcuffs her and tells her the FBI are on the way. She shoots the handcuff instead of him but she has been delayed long enough for the FBI to catch her. With Siegel's murder solved, Peter and Elizabeth prepare to move to Washington, where he has accepted the FBI promotion and she has accepted a job with the National Gallery. Neal and Mozzie are preparing to use Mozzie's memorized information to find the diamond when "Rebecca" phones from prison to say she will see Neal soon.

12. Taking Stock

Neal asks Peter to support his request to have his sentence set aside, assuring him that he can truly go straight. As they are packing up evidence from Rebecca's case, a phone rings with a request to hire Rebecca for a job. Peter asks Diana to impersonate Rebecca and meet with the client. Rebecca is brought to the FBI office, where she helps Diana authenticate herself in return for being allowed to talk to Neal. The client wants Rebecca to steal a thumb drive from a financier's office, and Jones deduces that the drive contains an algorithm that could cause a financial crash. The financier takes the drive to his house, and while Peter is still applying for a warrant, Diana and Neal plan to break in and steal it. When Diana is called away for a child-care emergency, Neal does so; the emergency is revealed to have been the work of Mozzie, who has driven away her son Theo's nanny, forcing Diana to have Mozzie care for his namesake during the case. Diana gives a fake drive to the client, who incriminates himself and is arrested, with a slight hitch when the real Rebecca texts him that she is in custody. Theo inspires Mozzie to a breakthrough on the Mosconi puzzle, but as he calls Neal to tell him about it, he is shown being watched by Rebecca, who has escaped from prison.

13. Diamond Exchange

Peter and Neal find Mozzie, who has been injected with something. Rebecca then tells them she has poisoned him and will trade the antidote for the diamond. Interpreting Mozzie's symbols as geographical coordinates leads them to Fort Totten in Queens, where Mozzie is able to guide them near the diamond's location before collapsing. Mozzie is hospitalized and successfully treated for belladonna poisoning after Jones and Diana determine where Rebecca got her poison. Peter and Neal find the diamond and call Rebecca, who has been following them and immediately takes them prisoner at gunpoint. She locks them in a cell and prepares to leave by helicopter, but they escape and Neal reveals that he switched the diamond with a similar-sized piece of brick before giving it to her. He convinces her to surrender rather than shoot him. Peter asks the FBI for Neal's release and believes they will agree; Neal tells Mozzie he plans to go straight. But the FBI director refuses to sign off – perhaps, Peter speculates, because Neal is so useful to them. Disillusioned, Peter tells Elizabeth he wants to stay in his current position closer to field work; she agrees but wants to keep the job in DC. A bitter Neal asks Mozzie to circumvent the new anklet. After Mozzie leaves, Neal recognizes and confronts a man who has been following him. He is then grabbed from behind and thrown in a van, without his anklet.