Question F

[Jonetta]

Lucy and Bobby narrowly escape but two of the crew, Jacob and Monica, are captured. Bobby gives then information that when combined with what Lucy learned from their signing in the truck, it’s clear that they’re planning a major heist. Mike Crutcher, the lead FBI agent disagrees with Lucy’s assessment. He’s from White Collar, she’s from Violent Crimes. Should the FBI have adjusted their focus given the shift of the gang’s threat level?

[Anita]

Crutcher was an ass. He thought that he was dealing with a gang on the run. He discounted Bobby's information, but Lucy took what he had to say seriously and knew they were going to hit a big target. I can't wait until Lucy has enough juice to be taken seriously before a situation gets out of hand. At least her boss is coming around.

[Robin]

I didn't understand Crutcher's antagonism with Nate and Lucy. He thought he knew exactly what was going on. He didn't read their reports and blamed them for the breakout. He discounted Bobby's information because he was eight years old. I was beginning to wonder if Mike Crutcher had ties to the gang and was helping them.

[Charlene]

I was with you, Robin. Crutcher was the worst excuse for a person in his position.

[Sharon]

I agree with all of you. Something was off with Crutcher. He was completely closed to any suggestion or information from Lucy and Nate. Like Robin, his actions made me think he was a bad cop.

[Jonetta]

First of all, this shouldn’t have been left up to Crutcher, even if he’d been nicer about it. As soon as that gang shot a cop, abducted a child and a federal agent and almost killed them, this moved out of White Collar to Violent Crimes. Crutcher had no skills for managing this kind of mindset and I hold his superiors responsible.

With that said, Crutcher was a complete ass. Yes, something else is going on and it’s called ego. I trust Nate completely and he came into this with a bad assessment of Crutcher. Though he handled himself professionally, it was clear to Lucy that something was off.

It continues to amaze me how people are given a label of being a “good agent” but seem to overlook the stuff that contradicts that assessment. I cannot believe this was the first time his ego got in the way.