Chuck Versus The American Hero

Chuck Vs The American Hero was another episode that contributes to the over-use of the word ‘Awesome’.

The American Hero of the title seems to be Shaw, Gen. Beckman refers to him as “..a true American Hero” as he was willing to sacrifice himself for the good of his country. We know that his agenda was more based on revenge and that the patriotism was pretty much a bonus.

Talking of hidden agendas, Casey, Morgan and Awesome all helped on Chuck’s ‘mission’ to win back Sarah for their own reasons. Casey wanted out of the Buy More and back into the spy life, Morgan wanted to be more included in the spy life, and Awesome wanted Chuck to go so that he no longer had to lie to Ellie.

Jeff and Lester proved that they are indeed world-class stalkers, managing to tail Shaw and The Ring agents without being spotted. Kudos. If they weren’t quite so creepy/stalker types they’d probably be impressive spies. An honourable mention must go to Jeff’s van ‘Loretta’, who managed to keep up with Shaw’s sports car – well, the van is honourable, the activities it’s used for are probably less so.

We had this season’s reference to ‘Spies Like Us’ with the soda machine elevator. If you haven’t seen the film, go and rent it during the two-week hiatus. It stars Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase and is a great film.

Season 1 had GLG-20, Season 2 gave us ‘Doctor, doctor, doctor … and doctor’, Chevy Chase, and, maybe by sheer coincidence, the character Emmett Milbarge – a combination of the title characters from Spies Like Us, Emmett Fitz-Hume and Austin Millbarge.

By the end of the episode Shaw knows that Sarah killed his wife as her Red Test, that would have been a bit of a roadblock in the relationship, were it not that she’d already chosen Chuck over Shaw. Considering she said that she was no longer in love with Chuck, she made a very quick turnaround when Casey revealed that he was the one who killed Hunter Perry on Chuck’s Red Test. This also reveals how much of a shipper Casey is; he’s willing to compromise himself in order to get Chuck and Sarah together. He sees that the two of them need each other to function properly.

Sarah has very much had the role of damaged goods for a lot of this season, having had her heart broken and seen changes in Chuck that she despised in herself. She’s had a crisis of confidence and of personality all because of Chuck. The most prominent occasions have been when she’s away from Chuck, she felt that she couldn’t talk to him because of the heartbreak and so confided in Shaw, who it has been stated is “as stiff as a board”.

Sure, we’ve had occasions where she’s gone back to being the kick-ass chick we love. Versus The Tic Tac is, for me, the best example of this, and of course, she crumbled and went crying back to Shaw when she saw Chuck about to kill a Ring agent in cold blood. Hopefully now that Chuck and Sarah are getting together, so long as manic Shaw doesn’t go completely mental, we should see a strengthening of the relationship that we left in First Class.

Next week, Chuck Versus The Other Guy, which looks set to be another cracking episode. Then of course the two-week break before we get to see the last six episodes of the season. I can hardly wait to see how good they are, but at the same time, I don’t really want the season to end, especially given it’s current status ‘on the bubble’

Chuck Versus The Final Exam

What an episode! Chuck Versus The Final Exam definitely makes the grade as far as I’m concerned.

A mission in two parts to determine Chuck’s future, this episode continues the theme that was brought to the forefront in Versus The Tic Tac; sacrifice. Unbeknownst to our hero, the intelligence gathering stakeout is just part of the test. The final exam of the title is to do what is necessary in the spy line of work. Can he kill to protect the country?

Chuck was presented with his own Kobayashi Maru scenario. Kill Perry, become a spy and lose Sarah, or let him live, fail to become a spy and lose Sarah. The problem that was never addressed was that he had a lot more to lose than Sarah if he failed his ‘Red’ test. They couldn’t let him wander around with the Intersect in his head, he would have to be killed, or they could spend ages trying to find Orion again to de-Intersect him, again.

Of course Sarah believes that Chuck passed the test by himself, even though we know he couldn’t intentionally kill someone. For Sarah to see him standing above the body, gun in hand, not only was it Chuck becoming the person she feared he would, there was also a metaphor; ruthless spy Charles Carmichael had killed loveable nerd Chuck Bartowski.

Throughout the episode we had callbacks to earlier in the series, most notably to Versus The Sizzling Shrimp, their very first stakeout. Not only do these remind us how far Chuck has come from his car-bound days, but they also remind Sarah of the Chuck she first met, and how, ever since Prague, he has been slipping away from her.

Her guilt is obvious; she looks uncomfortable in his company at times, especially after being reminded of the nerd she fell for and realizing who she has helped him become. She is ill at ease because she knows that she is the reason he’s doing all of this. “I wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for you,” he says at one point, hammering it home to her. She’s following orders despite it being against everything she wants. During the discussion with Shaw before meeting at the train station it looked like she was going to tell him to go to hell. I know a number of people would have liked that!

We shouldn’t forget the lighter side; we had some great comedy moments as well. Chuck on the side of the hotel sans towel; that seemed to be quite a hit with some fans!

Buy More got a look in, Casey adapting, or not, to civilian life. Now that his job is working at the Buy More, all that aggression normally channelled into beating up bad guys was, well, channelled into knocking heads, Jeff and Lester’s to be exact.

Big Mike had some good lines; “Are you strong enough to bend like the reed and not snap like the Kit-Kat?”

His philosophy that to get your head right, you gotta get your threads right seems to work for Casey, for now. A dapper new suit for the temporary Assistant Manager seems to calm his temper, but how long before he can get back to doing what he loves (and we love) and ‘Unleash The Casey’?

I could be wrong, but did it look like he could almost give Chuck a little hug when he got his ‘present’ – “It was a thoughtful felony.”

But the episode ended on a low note for shippers. Sarah tells Shaw she is no longer in love with Chuck, and Chuck is of to DC to fill out the paperwork and be officially welcomed into spyhood. Fear not, for all will be resolved. I know it, you know it, so lets sit back and enjoy the ride!

Next week, Chuck Versus The American Hero in which Chuck goes to save Shaw, not because he’s told to, but for Sarah. He just wants her to be happy, even if it’s not with him. Sweet, in a sickening kind of way, isn’t it?

As usual, check out ChuckYouTuesday’s podcast – remember, it contains strong language.

Final note: the ratings were posted this morning, and they aren’t looking good. They stayed steady from last week at a 1.9, a series low. Hopefully it’s just a bit of a blip, but only time will tell. Don't freak out - yet!

Chuck Vs The Tic Tac

This season just keeps delivering the goods. Chuck Versus The Tic Tac may seem an odd title, but the episode was full of minty fresh drama and action. For those of you who watched the episode, the title makes perfect sense, if you haven’t watched yet, why the Chuck not?

Robert Patrick, probably most memorable as the liquid metal T-1000 in Terminator 2, guest starred as Casey’s old commander, James Keller, the guy who turned him from Alex Coburn into John Casey. He plays military types very well, and brought a menacing air to the character, as was needed.

The action sequence at Casey’s former fiancée’s house had me thinking of The Matrix for pretty much the first time since Chuck Versus The Predator. Chuck takes the Laudanol pill to calm his emotions and quell his fear and suddenly he becomes Neo, dodging bullets. All that was missing was bullet-time and the slo-mo 3D rotation.

I liked the parallel drawn between Casey and Chuck, Casey choking Keller to death and, not much later, Chuck being in danger of doing the same thing to another Ring agent. Interestingly, it seems that the antidote to the pill is Sarah Walker; Chuck sees her and his emotions come back, just in time.

I mentioned in a previous post about things being set up for later – this episode was less of a step in that direction and more of a leap. Casey was given his ‘second second chance’ by General Beckman and demoted to civilian, and how that must have hurt him. I think it pained him deeply; bad enough that he was giving Chuck relationship advice. Worse still, he’s now in a similar position to where Chuck started; the Buy More is his life now, but you just know that Casey being the kind of person he is will be the best he can be at that. There, that wasn’t as spoilery as it could have been!

Considering that this episode was written by Chuck first-timers Rafe Judkins and Lauren LeFranc, they managed to produce one of the best episodes of the season. Kudos. They had the spy action kick-assery for Chuck and a return to form for Sarah. There were two heartfelt chats, one between Sarah and Chuck, essentially her getting the ‘please don’t change, I love you for you,’ stuff off her chest, and one between Casey and Chuck regarding sacrifices made for the job.

As usual, check out ChuckYouTuesday’s podcast – remember, it contains strong language.

Looking forward to next week - Chuck Vs The Final Exam. Chuck has to pass a final test to become a proper spy and has to try and win back Sarah from Shaw. Morgan would tell you it’s on at Oh Twenty Hundred pm EST on NBC.

Chuck Vs The Beard

Chuck Vs The Beard is set to be a fan favourite long after the show has finished, not only was it directed by Zachary Levi himself, but it also featured a scenario we’ve all been waiting to see; Morgan finds out about Chuck’s secret.

I’ve said in the past that Yvonne Strahovski can act better with just her eyes than some in Hollywood can with their entire bodies, and despite being in last nights episode for a very short time, she did it again.
At the start, the scene in Castle where Chuck is told he’s benched, she says “You can talk to us,” but her eyes say, “You can talk to me.” You can see the disappointment in her eyes when he chooses not to, that she wants to be his confidante again. She’s still in love with him, but I don’t think she’s emotionally ready to commit to him without hearing him say that he still loves her. Another scene that needs a mention is when Shaw is preparing to call Langley to activate the base’s self-destruct, the tiniest hint in her voice that she was about cry if he dared do it with it without giving Chuck “five more minutes, for me.” That should have given a hint to Shaw that she is still willing to fight for Chuck, no matter who it’s against.
Shaw sees a bigger picture, but Sarah, like us, would very much like that picture to contain a certain Charles Irving Bartowski.

Last week was another Buy More-lite episode, this week it was very much a Buy More-centric one. The Ring had lured Shaw for Castle in order to gain access, steal their intel, and blow the place up, but to do that, they had to go in via the store. Obviously they either weren’t aware of the Orange Orange entrance, or they wanted to flush out Agent Carmichael and knew he worked at the Buy More. This seems to indicate that The Ring, or at least the local cell, knows an awful lot about Team Bartowski – using Devon as a decoy and knowing where Castle was located; obviously Sydney’s death didn’t stop the info on Devon being passed around a bit.

Now, the most anticipated element of the episode, where Morgan discovers Chuck’s secret, was well handled. Believing that they were going to die, since Chuck was having some sort of Intersect performance anxiety, was a great way of doing it. That scene was the re-kindling of the Chuck/Morgan bromance that we’ve been waiting to see for some time, so I think many fans will be happy with that. This means that Morgan is more aware of what Chuck is than Devon does. To Devon, Chuck is just a spy, but Morgan now knows the full extent of his Intersect-ed powers. We’ll have to wait until next week before either finds out that the other knows – should be fun!

I’ve watched the episode a few times now, and still you wouldn’t know that this was Zac’s first time directing. Some of the shots are rather cinematic, but some give him away as an actor’s director. Rather than doing something like sweeping shots and pull-backs of the Buy More revolution, he gave us shots in amongst the action which gave the supporting cast face-time on screen. That’s thinking like an actor and a director. Another scene I love is that little moment when Morgan knocks out the agent played by Diedrich Bader with a kung-fu-esque cry of “Wassah!”

Definitely looking forward to next week’s episode, guest starring Robert Patrick as a man from Casey’s past who has something to do with The Ring. So far this season has been getting better every week, who knows how awesome it’s going to be by the finale?
Well, okay, the writers… and probably the cast….. it was rhetorical!

Chuck Vs The Fake Name

Monday is dead, long live Chuckday!
March 1st saw the end of the 3 week Olympic Hiatus and a brand new episode of Chuck, not only that, but we had the tantalising fact that we would learn Sarah’s real name in this episode – Chuck Vs The Fake Name!


This episode, more than any other we’ve seen, was a showcase for how brilliant an actress Yvonne Strahovski is. What she doesn’t say is as, if not more important as what she does. I’m quite sure that she could play someone paralysed from the neck down and still out act everyone in the room. Of course, it also doesn’t hurt that she’s not too bad on the eyes either.

The fact that Sarah/Sam talks to Shaw about Chuck, her fears about Chuck, Chuck this and Chuck that, must irritate him something stupid. It’s too difficult for her to see Chuck with someone else because you can see in her eyes that she is still deeply in love with him. Shaw seems to be happy to be used as her distraction for the moment, but with personality crises for both Walker and Bartowski, how long will that last?

Sarah has been surprised and dismayed by how quickly Chuck has taken to the spy life, as is said - he lies efficiently, he burned an asset relatively easily, and he was very convincing when pulling out Casey’s tooth. She doesn’t know that Chuck promised Jill that the spy life wouldn’t change him, and I think it took Hannah – telling him that he’s the best liar she’s ever known – to realise that it has changed him, and he’s not too keen on who he’s becoming.

On the ChuckYouTuesday podcast they talked about this episode having broken the ‘fourth wall’ – the barrier between the show and the audience. For me, the wall wasn’t just broken; I’m still picking bits of it out of my hair. However, it undeniably shows the writers, particularly in this case Ali Adler, have been listening to what the fans have been saying.
In some ways it was gratifying to see that the fans have had a largely unobtrusive impact on the show, but I felt that the ‘shipper’ scene in the Buy More detracted from the immersiveness of that first viewing. I like to lose myself in the show, suspend disbelief and to wrap myself in the world of Chuck; that scene brought me out of the Chuck world and back into the world of fandom and crazy shippers.