Chuck Vs The Honeymooners

Chuck Vs The Honeymooners was the second outing for the new Chuck writers Lauren LeFranc and Rafe Judkins who proved that Vs The Tic Tac was not just beginners luck. Add to that mix Ali Adler, who always delivers great episodes, and you have what I think could be the Chuck Writers dream team. Not only that, but we had Robert Duncan McNeill directing, and that man has vision. I’m sure many will agree that he has directed a number of outstanding episodes.

But that’s enough about behind the episode; let’s get to the meat of it.

Morgan and Casey have to team up, to the annoyance of Casey, but the delight of the fans. I made a quick comment on Twitter, the sentiment of which is that Morgan has taken his place as the new ‘old Chuck’, albeit with a bit more enthusiasm for the spy game. His bumbling makes for great comic relief, but when it comes to the crunch he pulls out something really useful. Even part of one of the scenes, where Casey and Morgan were tied back-to-back, had echoes of Vs The Undercover Lover (“How do you like me now, sucka!”) As Casey himself admits; “Grimes here was resourceful and quick to action when necessary.”

Seeing as Casey got Morgan onto Team Bartowski, he was initially loathe to ask for his help, but seems to be commending him a lot quicker than he did with Chuck at the same stage. Seems to me that Casey has grown as a person more since the beginning of the season than in the rest of the series.

Chuck and Sarah started the episode wanting to quit the spy life, or at least believing that was what the other wanted. Eventually they realized that they don’t need to choose one over the other; they make too good a team both personally and professionally. During the fight scene in the café – which happens to be one of the best I have ever seen, and it would be criminal if the stunt team didn’t win an award for it – they have the dynamic which we previously saw with Sarah and Bryce, that synchronisation which allows them to be seriously kick ass.

Chuck now seems to be fully in control of the Intersect, being able to flash at will, which is nice to see. It was also really nice to see an episode, after all the darkness of the Shaw arc, where Sarah was enjoying herself most of the time, and with Chuck enjoying himself, and of course both of them enjoying each other ;) . Also, from a guys perspective, Sarah looked very seductive when discussing with Chuck about doing one last mission before they quit. :)

Devon and Ellie got a look in this episode. They are travelling off to Africa as part of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, but it’s not the last we’ll see of them this season. Plus we got an ‘unplugged’ performance from Jeffster; although why they were performing ‘Leaving On A Jet Plane’ dressed as ‘Bookends’ era Simon & Garfunkel is anyone’s guess. One thing is sure; it was much better than Ben Affleck’s version in Armageddon. I reckon that demand will be high for a Jeffster album, certainly after the season finale where we get to see the first Jeffster music video!

The most quoted line from this episode will undoubtedly be the one from General Beckman – “Off the record, it’s about damn time.” Ever so slightly meta, cos it’s what the shippers have been waiting for since season 1.

Laughs, romance, thrills and ass kicking skills; Chuck Vs The Honeymooners was an unabashedly feel-good episode. I know many of us were grinning from ear to ear after watching it.

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

Next week, Chuck Vs The Role Models. It has guest stars Swoosie Kurtz and Fred Willard, so it’s bound to be a cracker.

Chuck Versus The Other Guy

Chuck Vs The Other Guy was billed as the Chuck we’ve been waiting for, and damn was it ever!

The other guy is of course Shaw, who has been looking a bit creepy in a number of episodes. Now we know why, or so it seems.

This episode is full of great moments for the fans no matter what your favourite element of the show is. We get to see Chuck gear up with a tactical assault team in the pre-credits, perhaps slight overkill, but then again, Sarah did appreciate the tank. Casey gets to kill some bad guys and capture the director of The Ring – a kind of reunion for Jayne and Badger if you watch Firefly – and gets his old job back. Morgan becomes an official member of team Bartowski, much to Gen. Beckman’s chagrin. I’m sure the biggest moments for a lot of fans are the Chuck and Sarah moments; Sarah finally admits that she loves Chuck and they get together, properly. I’m sure that in that hotel room in France, Chuck is hoping not to find another IOU from Morgan!

Despite the amount of planning that has gone into the operation to steal the Intesect plans and kill Sarah, Shaw seems to be somewhat a reluctant bad guy, he gives Chuck the chance to stay out of it, he didn’t want to hurt Chuck because he wasn’t involved in his wife’s death. He made sure that Sarah was drugged so that she didn’t suffer as much when he killed her, it was the CIA he wanted to suffer. In giving the Intersect plans to The Ring, he would harm the security of the entire country, but his mind was bent on revenge, so he wasn’t thinking straight.

On the NBC forums, not long after the season started, somewhere, although I can’t actually find the post, I said that Chuck would kill someone by the end of the season, but it would be in order to protect Sarah. I think we all hoped it would be Shaw that he killed and I guess our wish was granted J

One thing that doesn’t sit right with me is the question of when Shaw was turned by The Ring.

The most logical time would have been before he infiltrated Team Bartowski, but that is fraught with problems. If this was the case, why did The Ring try to get Shaw’s intel and destroy Castle, and why did he put on a performance of finding out about his wife’s death if that was a) what helped The Ring turn him and more importantly b) nobody was there to see it.

Sure, from a storytelling perspective, we needed to find out that Sarah killed Evelyn Shaw so we would understand Daniel Shaw’s motive. It was very much a reveal and deceive tactic if he was a double agent, but from a plot perspective, it didn’t make sense.

If The Ring turned Shaw after he found out that Sarah killed Eve, then more of the previous plot elements make sense. It also explains why the Director said that Shaw was his newest agent. However, what fails to make sense is the whole set-up of the ‘creepy Shaw’ that gave the audience the feeling that he had a hidden agenda. Given the fact that he must have been recruited in a really fast time, and a lot of other things would be put down to coincidence, and I don’t believe in coincidence, that whole idea falls apart.

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

The next two weeks are repeats, Chuck Vs First Class followed by Chuck Vs The Beard, so no new blog posts, but remember to watch live as they still count on the ratings.

Also, as I said in the last post, why not rent Spies Like Us during the hiatus as well. It’s a film that is well worth watching, plus you get the fun of spotting the references from Chuck.

I’ll be back in three weeks with a rambling about 3.14 - Chuck Versus The Honeymooners.