Yeah, I think with Neal the way he is, Peter wouldn't be able to do the "right" thing by him either way. If Peter tells Neal the little bits he learns as he learns them, then Neal would take off running with those tidbits (and not in a good way). If Peter doesn't share, then Neal still goes off investigating on his own (and not in a good way).
Neal's developing trust in Peter, but Neal has such long-standing issues with trust period that I don't think he can trust anyone, not with something like this.
Plus, Neal has to do something with his grief, and right now, he just wants to focus it on finding out what happened and who's responsible. There's other coping methods for grief, but I don't think Neal could be convinced to use any other. He doesn't want to deal with his feelings and work through them; he wants to focus on external actions and distract himself. And of course the con and the heist are his fav actions - they consume all his attention, especially with his current limitations (the tracker, and the balancing act with the FBI).
Just as the show makes Kate into a shadowy character with unclear motives, the show's focus on Neal means the viewers get a lot more sympathy and understanding of his position. We don't get Peter's POV nearly as much (how did he contact Kate? Why couldn't (or wouldn't) he get a meeting with them both together?) I guess that's partly because we mostly law-abiding viewers are expected to understand Peter motivations much more easily, but we'd need to really get into Neal's heart and mind to understand why he's still constantly pulling these capers.
But also Peter is (on occasion) presented as a bit shadowy and unclear in his motivations, like at the end of 1.07, and then the beginning of the second season, where he and Diana have hung onto the music box (against FBI evidence regulations). Obviously we learn pretty quickly that all this is done with the best intentions, but there's still a bit of "is Peter trustworthy? Does he have a hidden motive?" going on.
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Neal's developing trust in Peter, but Neal has such long-standing issues with trust period that I don't think he can trust anyone, not with something like this.
Plus, Neal has to do something with his grief, and right now, he just wants to focus it on finding out what happened and who's responsible. There's other coping methods for grief, but I don't think Neal could be convinced to use any other. He doesn't want to deal with his feelings and work through them; he wants to focus on external actions and distract himself. And of course the con and the heist are his fav actions - they consume all his attention, especially with his current limitations (the tracker, and the balancing act with the FBI).
Just as the show makes Kate into a shadowy character with unclear motives, the show's focus on Neal means the viewers get a lot more sympathy and understanding of his position. We don't get Peter's POV nearly as much (how did he contact Kate? Why couldn't (or wouldn't) he get a meeting with them both together?) I guess that's partly because we mostly law-abiding viewers are expected to understand Peter motivations much more easily, but we'd need to really get into Neal's heart and mind to understand why he's still constantly pulling these capers.
But also Peter is (on occasion) presented as a bit shadowy and unclear in his motivations, like at the end of 1.07, and then the beginning of the second season, where he and Diana have hung onto the music box (against FBI evidence regulations). Obviously we learn pretty quickly that all this is done with the best intentions, but there's still a bit of "is Peter trustworthy? Does he have a hidden motive?" going on.