'White Collar' Shocker: Neal's New Handler Murdered (VIDEO)

So why did "White Collar" bother to make Neal's new handler so likable? Was it so viewers would get emotionally attached to Agent David Siegel just in time for him to die?

"Initial report is a mugging gone wrong," Peter said. "Not sure why he was here. Maybe he was looking for an apartment?

The AV Club's Kenny Herzog thinks this could be what finally pushes Neal to stand up to the con man blackmailing him. "The sudden, sympathetic insight into Siegel’s life story ... screamed impending martyrdom," he wrote. His sudden shocking death certainly threw TV Fanatic's Chandel Charles for a loop. "I was just starting to get attached and used to the idea that [Siegel] might be around for a while," she wrote. "In a way he will be … in the form of a murder investigation.”

The investigation continues on "White Collar," Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET on USA.

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