Chuck Versus the Baby

Anybody Seen My Baby?

Photo Credit: NBC

With last night’s Chuck being written by the wonder-twins Lauren LeFranc and Rafe Judkins, we knew that it was going to be a cracker of an episode. Although the chronology of Sarah’s past has always been a bit of a muddle, there were a couple of errors that I found a little glaring, but they weren’t striking enough to detract from my enjoyment of the episode as a whole.

The episode treaded both familiar and unfamiliar ground, showing Sarah’s journey from loner spy to someone with friends and family who are there for her. As with last season’s Phase Three, we got to see Sarah kicking some ass, some in flashback in a Matrix style, with some stylised gymnastics, but we also got to see her vulnerable side. When handling ‘the package’ she was clearly out of her comfort zone, allowing for a couple of tender scenes with her mother.

After Chuck reverted back to making bad decisions based on family in ‘Versus the Curse’, so it seemed that Sarah became very sloppy around this mission because it was to do with family.

First of all, she never even considered that Ryker would have heard the news about Shaw being recaptured and imprisoned. She also fell for the same trick that she’d pulled on her old handler back in Hungary, having a decoy prop and a recording of a baby, despite the fact that five years had passed and the child would no longer be a baby.

 

Guest star Tim DeKay made a great villain as Ryker and it was easily believable that he could be linked to Shaw, both of them having a sadistic streak.

The fight scene between Ryker and Sarah in the house was one of the most brutal that I think I’ve ever seen her involved in. It certainly was a rather, if you’ll excuse the pun, sharp end for Ryker, being run through with a kitchen knife.

Of course, had she been as single minded as she set out to be and taken the tactical advantage, we’d never have got to see that knockdown fight.

The sub-plot this time was Ellie and Awesome giving Alex and Morgan relationship advice, setting the scene for the eventual reconciliation. Morgan did seem a little surprised when Alex kissed him, considering he’d been edging for them to get back together and dropping all sorts of less than subtle hints earlier.

We had some great comedy moments in the episode including Chuck taking down the waiter and proclaiming that he doesn’t need the Intersect, then finding that it would be very useful when the waiter speaks to them in Hungarian. This was immediately followed by a Pythonesque moment (“My hovercraft is full of eels”) where Casey is trying to use the phrase book and ends up saying, “Were… we weeping… curd cheesecake.”

The scene towards the end with the reunion of Sarah and her mother and adopted sister were very heartwarming. I thinkit was very fitting that the safe-house that Sarah sent them to was Casa Bartowski, making sure that they were with people that she trusts, the friends and family that she’s gained since the last time she saw her mother. It wrapped up the two plots of the episode nicely and gave us a very happy note; they could almost have ended the series on that.

So, Chuck and Sarah are splashing out on a new home, hoping that they can make the down payment now that they’ve vandalised the place by carving their names into a doorframe.

But wait, what is this conveniently forgotten plot point from the beginning of the season? I’m sure that a lot of you are wondering, like I am, where the Volkoff fortune that Chuck and Sarah had before Decker froze their assets went to. Surely the CIA would have allowed them access to their own money?

Right, I mentioned earlier about glaring errors. For me the biggest one(s) came at the end with the flashback to Sarah in Director Graham’s office. Firstly, if this was her assignment to Burbank straight after Chuck had been sent the Intersect, why was there no mention of Bryce; he was supposed to be her partner after all.

Secondly, Graham says to her he thinks it’s time for her to become a handler. Initially, her mission involving Chuck was just to grab the intel from his computer, but she decided to stick around to see if he had a backup anywhere and find out how much he knew. She was never supposed to be his handler; it was only after it became clear that he had the Intersect in his head that she and Casey were assigned to be his handlers.

As a bit of a film reference nerd, I literally laughed out loud at the inclusion of a “Wilhelm scream” in the episode. You can catch it at the point when Ryker pushes the waiter down the stairs - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj1nuOl3WVc

Next time: Chuck Versus the Kept Man

GERTRUDE VERBANSKI RETURNS WITH A MISSION FOR CHUCK AND A PROPOSITION FOR CASEY — CARRIE-ANNE MOSS GUEST STARS — While Chuck (Zachary Levi) and Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) contemplate the next step for Carmichael Industries, Casey’s (Adam Baldwin) forbidden love, Gertrude Verbanski (guest star Carrie-Anne Moss, “The Matrix”), walks back into his life with a questionable mission in South Beach. Meanwhile, Jeff’s (Scott Krinsky) enhanced intelligence leads he and Lester (Vik Sahay) to suspect that something unusual may be happening at the Buy More. Joshua Gomez, Ryan McPartlin and Mark Christopher Lawrence also star.

Here’s the trailer, take a look:

Chuck Versus the Santa Suit

The Grinch who (almost) stole Christmas!

Photo Credit: Mike Ansell/NBC

What a Christmas treat we got with last night’s Chuck! This is certainly my favourite episode of the season so far and one of my favourites of the series. It just goes to show how good an episode it was when the colossal spoiler in the promo that NBC aired two weeks ago had little impact on the enjoyment of it.

That being said, there is a bit of a large plot hole, so let’s get it out of the way quickly. Surely the CIA would have de-Intersected Shaw when they took him into custody, knowing how dangerous he and it can be. Since they apparently didn’t, the question arises; how did he survive for two years without a Governor?

Right, gripe out of the way, now I can get to the rest of the episode.

This episode was fantastically done, blending pretty much all of the elements that make for a really good hour of Chuck. It also featured the entire ensemble with Team B, Ellie and Awesome and the Buy Morons all getting to play their part.

For a change, Jeff and Lester proved instrumental in the payoff without it being dumb luck thanks to one of their schemes having wider repercussions. You could say that, for a while, they were an unofficial part of the Carmichael Industries team. Plus it was a great chance to have a Subway promotional plug (one of two – the second being a more subtle one at the CIA Christmas party) with Jeff doing a Big Mike and describing the ingredients of his delicious Subway sandwich.

Adam Baldwin got a little comedy, a little action and a lot of heart with this episode. His reaction to Chuck and Morgan finding out about his present for Alex was brilliant, and the scene where he begins to record his ‘final’ message for her on the bear was very moving. Of course he got to tell Alex in person and, caught up in his ‘lady feelings’, even gave her a nudge in Morgan’s direction – “You know, that.. that Grimes kid, he’s not that bad. You should maybe give him another chance.”

Shaw was unpopular during Season 3, even before he did his heel turn. Quite a bit of it was to do with him getting between Chuck and Sarah, and some of it was to do with the fact that he seemed so wooden. When he returned last night, there was a great desire form the fans to see him get his ass kicked up and down the Buy More. We weren’t disappointed, although I’m sure some of us would have liked to have seen him put down permanently.

After he regressed to the old Chuck last week, it was a relief to see Chuck back on form. He had a plan; he utilized everyone at his disposal, used his nerd skills and his physical training to win the day and save the world from Daniel Shaw.

I have to admit that from last week’s promo, I thought that maybe Chuck got the Intersect back, courtesy of Gen. Beckman. When we found out that Jeff and Lester had cracked the Omen code, I figured that Chuck would use it against Shaw. It was quite amusing and ironic that he used the bluff from Superman II, where Superman makes Zod think he has the upper hand when in fact he’s removed his powers.

I felt that the fight scene in the Buy More this time around was better than when both Shaw and Chuck had the Intersect. This fight was not between two guys with near superpowers, it was between two guys who hated each other. Plus we had Ellie get in on the action by clocking Shaw on the back of the head, bringing the fight to an end!

Now that Shaw is locked away you would have thought that his villainy could no longer affect our heroes, but then you get that final scene between Shaw and Sarah. Oh boy, that is a cliffhanger to ponder over Christmas! Whose baby do you think Shaw is referring to? Post your theories in the comments section.

Of course, now that the vendetta against Chuck has come to a close as far as the CIA are concerned, he should be getting back all of the assets that were frozen by Decker, meaning that Carmichael Industries should be rich once again. Having been offered open positions at the CIA means that there are a few options open to each of them.

Where will the story go after next episode? Few people know, but I am very interested to see how it all plays out.

 

Next time: Chuck Versus the Baby

SARAH’S PAST COMES BACK TO HAUNT HER AND THREATENS THOSE CLOSEST TO HER — CHERYL LADD AND TIM DEKAY GUEST STAR — Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) is forced to confront a secret from her past and feels she must do so alone, while Chuck (Zachary Levi) urges her to let him help. When Sarah encounters her original handler, Kieran Ryker (guest star Tim Dekay, “White Collar”), she fears that he will harm those closest to her, including her mom (guest star Cheryl Ladd, “Las Vegas”). Adam Baldwin, Joshua Gomez, Sarah Lancaster and Ryan McPartlin also star. 

Here’s the trailer, take a look:

Chuck Versus the Curse

Being a spy can be torture. Who wants a martini?

Photo Credit: Byron Cohen/NBC

The Buy Morons got the week off as Devon and Ellie got unwittingly involved in the spy game again in last night’s episode. We could all see that pretending to be spies whilst out on a date using Chuck’s OpenTable account would end up causing trouble.

Both thinking that each other set up ‘Operation Eagle’, they stumbled into what turned out to be a bluff for us fans. Being transported to a safe location on the orders of Beckman, they assumed, as we initially did, that it was the bad guys who had captured them. I have to say I quite liked the ‘tuck and roll’ exit from the car as it slowed down. Obviously the doors we saw locking when they got in weren’t childproof!

Team Awesome did pretty well for themselves. Despite not being real spies, they certainly worked well as a spy team. I mentioned on Twitter that Ellie is both a Bartowski and Mrs Awesome, and both aspects certainly showed in this episode.

In fact, there were a couple of other pairings that worked well together; Casey and Beckman for one, and the other non-spy couple Morgan and Alex.

It was nice to see General Beckman out of the office and involved with Team Bartowski again. Like she said, “It was a bit like old times, wasn’t it?”

It was also nice to have Ellie not playing second fiddle to Sarah in the glamour stakes, even giving her the sexy ‘getting ready’ montage. Since they’ve had Sarah Lancaster in either scrubs or plain looking clothes for a lot of the series, it’s good when someone decides to put her in a slinky dress, such as in ‘Versus the Coup d’Etat’ and remind us how hot she actually is.

This whole episode was very much a showcase of the strong females, Ellie, Sarah, Alex and General Beckman. Each of them was responsible for the success of the respective missions.

Meanwhile, the guys were not being quite so clever. Chuck went back to his old self; having his feelings for his family get in the way of making the right decision, Morgan was ready to attempt something overly complicated and, whilst Awesome came up with some good ideas, he ultimately got into deeper trouble.

I liked the B-plot in this, with Morgan having to complete a mission for Casey and retrieve Chuck’s P.A.N.T.S. It was a good excuse to have him working with Alex and they certainly worked well together.

Do we think that Morgan and Alex will have a reconciliation before the end of the series? I think so; all of the signs are there, just look at her face when she opens his box of personal artifacts.

I note that Morgan said that he and Chuck went through an acronym phase when they were younger. When they were younger? Come on, Morgan is still in that phase, you just have to look at T.I.T.S. (yes, I know! :D)

My one problem with the close of the episode is that the whole storyline with the government hunting Team B was wrapped up in an incredibly easy way. Sure, from the look on Robin Cunnings’ face, she would rather give up everything than get a taste of her own medicine, but it was very much a quick fix.

I understand that there are time constraints, given the fast approaching end of the series, but it just felt a little too neat.

We had Casey being broken out of prison at the end of the last episode, and it seems we've got another happening at the end of this one. Because of the spoilers that we’ve seen, we know that Shaw must be prisoner 1647. So it seems that releasing the Omen virus was just part of the plan in order to facilitate his escape. Essentially, the whole episode was about getting to that part.

Next time: Chuck Versus the Santa Suit

Chuck and Sarah learn who is trying to destroy Carmichael Industries; Ellie's Christmas plans come undone; a computer virus threatens to ruin Christmas at Buy More. Stan Lee guest stars.

Here’s the trailer, take a look:

From his comment to Shaw, it seems like Chuck might be getting the Intersect back! Exciting stuff ahead :)

Chuck Versus the Hack Off

Chuck shows a little Community spirit (and a lot of skin)!

Photo Credit: Matt Kennedy/NBC

This episode marks the third time that Zachary Levi has sat in the director’s chair. It was a little different, thematically, from the previous two – ‘Leftovers’ and ‘Beard’ – which both had bad guys taking hostages at the Buy More and a secret about Chuck revealed.

Well, actually there was a secret revealed in this episode. After five seasons we suddenly found out that Chuck used to be a super-hacker, nicknamed ‘The Piranha’. So it seems that the men-folk of Carmichael Industries are amongst the top in their league; Casey being one of the world’s best snipers and Chuck being one of the world’s best hackers.

I’m sure that few people will complain about the amount of skin on show in the episode, but this being NBC and not HBO, we had the use of pixelization to protect the actors modesty (a little) and eventually the robes although we did get an amusing comeback of the pixelization when Colin’s robe bunched up when Verbanski tranq’d him!

There was an amusing little exchange between Verbanski and Chuck after he and Sarah had stripped off. I noticed that Sarah had a couple of glances down at Chuck’s, ahem, ‘self esteem’, as he and Gertrude were talking about how he had ‘nothing much to see/nothing to be ashamed of’. I wonder how awkward all of that was to film; they certainly wouldn’t have been able to film that outdoors in the UK!

Sans-Intersect, Chuck was a little cocky getting back into his hacker routine which he and Morgan cleverly used to call “The Routine”! A little bit of chardonnay and some fast fingers gave us an incredibly quick hack of the ‘Omen’ code to get the coder’s name, and later, Chuck was able to manipulate The Collective’s security systems allowing Sarah and Verbanski to grab the modified USB drive, put in a temporary kill switch and get free flat screens from Buy More.

Carrie-Anne Moss showed that she has great chemistry with the principal cast, not just with Adam. Her use in this episode was an amusing throwback to the first season when Casey hadn’t warmed to Chuck and was distrustful of Sarah.

Gertrude Verbanski is very much an equal and opposite to Casey. They work well off each other and have similar traits. As Chuck says following her comment about the ‘filthy hippies’, “It’s like Casey never left!”

Nice B-story this week with both Casey and Lester locked up in the same prison. There was a funny role reversal with Casey trying to keep his nose clean and Lester using his Buy More skills to become the big dog in prison.

Casey was prepared to wait it out in prison until Chuck and Sarah could find out what Decker’s angle was. Although he admitted that he was using a lot of restraint to not crush Lester.

Amusingly, his connection to the ‘shorter, feminine version’ of Victoria Beckham paid off when Lester saved him from a gang of thugs by threatening to “pull their plugs”.

There was a nice bit of subversion early on when an inmate told Lester he had the 12 gauge he wanted. Of course, we all thought he was talking about a shotgun, but oh no, this is Lester. It turned out that it was 12 gauge wire that had come in for him and that he was using his tech skills to get free cable and internet for the inmates.

In an attempt to convince Lester to see the error of his ways, Morgan and Jeff showed him his ‘competition’, guest star Danny Pudi. However, he wasn’t the only ‘Community’ star to get in some time at the Buy More. Kudos to NBC for managing to keep Yvette Nicole Brown’s cameo a secret. Usually that kind of stunt casting gets leaked, but it made it even better the fact that it was a complete surprise.

A few weeks ago Ryan McPartlin had a cameo on Community, so there’s a lot of shared love between the casts. Hopefully the cameos will convince any Chuck fan who hasn’t cheeked out Community to do so, and who knows, we might see more Chuck stars guest on Community (as long as NBC doesn’t cancel it!)

The final scenes were rather interesting. Decker had used Chuck to grab the virus so that he could frame him for releasing it. Hopefully he had that footage on him as Verbanski pulled the old lift and switch routine, planting a bomb in Decker’s jacket that turned him, an possibly the goons behind him, into chunky kibble.

Alas with Decker blown to smithereens, there’s a lack of a middleman to hint at who’s behind all of this. If you watch the promo for the next couple of episodes, there might be a clue as an old face makes an unwelcome (for most) comeback.

Next time: Chuck Versus the Curse

A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY GIVES ELLIE AND AWESOME A DATE NIGHT THEY WILL NEVER FORGET — REBECCA ROMIJN GUEST STARS –Chuck (Zachary Levi) and Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) race against time to take down a dangerous computer virus, pitting them against Robyn Cunnings (guest star Rebecca Romijn), a ruthless spy who will stop at nothing to get what she needs. Meanwhile, Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and Awesome’s (Ryan McPartlin) date night takes a dangerous turn and Morgan (Joshua Gomez) is sent on a special mission to recover Chuck’s P.A.N.T.S. Adam Baldwin also stars.

Here’s the trailer, take a look:

Chuck Versus the Business Trip

Missile Command is a part of our process.

Photo Credit: NBC

What a fun episode it was this week with most of the elements that make Chuck great being used. It brought the Morgan-sect storyline to a close and re-affirmed just how much of a snake Decker is. To me it felt, in places, like an episode from late in the first season; a fun mission with a little bit of danger and no Intersect kung-fu to help them.

Even before the opening credits, Morgan has the Intersect removed, but not before having one last ‘zoom’ and what a fun way to go out. Chuck and Sarah were having a lot of fun throwing shuriken, or ‘ninja stars’, at Morgan, who himself was having fun catching them in various ways. Casey and Beckman, however, were less than impressed by the shenanigans; just the look on their faces was priceless!

The mission to draw out The Viper gave us some good relationship moments between Chuck and Sarah. A couple of points reminded me of ‘Versus the Suburbs’ where, despite it being a mission, they were trying to blend in as a normal couple and wondering what that would be like.

Sarah seemed so excited that she’d made a ‘normal’ friend. It was really sweet the way she said “I think that she just really likes me” in such a hopeful way. Made me go ‘awwww’ anyway. She really wants to have a normal life and hanging out with normal people reinforces that for her.

Not everyone there is normal though. Apart for the assassin and the decoy assassin there is the worrying furry-fetishist. It certainly explains why Yvonne was beating up a guy in a rabbit suit (an went for the nuts straight off!) on the Coco-Cam that we’ve all seen.*

*If you’ve somehow missed it – here ‘s a link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFzzqQDfnDc

Whilst the mission at the Buy More convention is going on, Casey is left babysitting Morgan. His re-nerd-ucation starts with watching Star Wars, but Casey tricks him into watching Episode 1 first by telling him “everyone loves Phantom Menace”. The cruel man, although he obviously has picked up some nerd knowledge along the way.

Morgan, of course, starts watching it and voices the opinion of a large number of nerds everywhere: “I would rather scratch out my eyeballs than to listen to that Jar-Jar Binks any more.” We’re with you buddy.

Casey then tells him he lied and to start with the original trilogy. Then he goes and gives away the twists about Darth Vader and Leia, robbing Morgan of the revelations. He’s still mad that Morgan broke up with Alex and hurt her.

Casey makes up for it eventually by getting Morgan the Indiana Jones trilogy. Morgan is wary, asking if there are only 3, and that Casey isn’t keeping the best one from him. In his own way, he’s helping Morgan because I think a number of us wish we could unsee the mess that was ‘Crystal Skull’.

This week had, in my opinion, the best use of the Buy More for a while. As well as it being the reason for the convention, it gave us more on the Jeff/Lester relationship. Now that Jeff has become a functioning human being, Lester has become rather bitter about it. The fact that Jeff has turned into a company man, inspiring the rest of the staff to vow to work harder for the next year, has brought out that dark side of Lester. He was willing to pump carbon monoxide into the break room to get Jeff back to his brain damaged self, and in the process could have killed Big Mike.

This gave us the return of the word that will forever be code in the Chuck fandom. Whilst being wheeled out of the Buy More in a wheelbarrow by Jeff, Big Mike shouts the word that must not be spoken; “Pineapple!”

Not since the first season have we heard the word, so that was a nice little call back to the roots of the show.
Again, going back to how it felt very season 1, there was a parallel with the very same episode in which we discovered 'pineapple'. In 'Chuck Versus the Nemesis' the store was evacuated, leaving the Fulcrum assassins alone in the store with Chuck and Casey. Sarah and Bryce come in to help rescue them. In this episode, the store is evacuated leaving Morgan and Alex alone with The Viper after them. Chuck and Sarah come in to help rescue them.

The new and improved Jeff was even able to help out Captain Awesome. With the fresh air helping his intuition, he could see that Ellie wasn’t happy being at work and that she wanted to be at home with baby Clara. Devon decided to go back to work to give Ellie time at home, lying that all the house-husbandry and mother and baby classes were driving him nuts so that Ellie could be happy and spend time with her daughter.

Casey proved that he’s still a badass. Following The Viper, he found out that although Decker officially rescinded the kill order on Morgan, he was unofficially approving The Viper kill everyone in Chuck’s life who knew about her, with the exception of Chuck and Sarah. With Alex, Morgan and Casey all in danger, he took out The Viper and her team of six men because it was necessary. I have to say that he manage to shoot five guys and The Viper in an impressive three seconds; that’s why you don’t mess with the Casey.

During the week, we were all submitting how our lives have changed due to the show using the hashtag #BecauseOfChuck. It was another fun coincidence (remember the baseball dig in the first episode) that we got to hear Sarah’s #BecauseOfChuck;

"I've been having a hard time with the fact that I have no real friends, but I look around here at all of you today and I realize that because of Chuck, I do."

We ended up with two characters being arrested, with Lester having pumped exhaust fumes into the Buy More break room, he was taken away for attempted homicide. Decker came to arrest Casey for the murder of the Viper and her team and since he’s no longer working for the government; he has no license to kill. Actions have consequences, so it will be interesting to see how everything is resolved.

 

Next episode airs December 9th: Chuck Versus the Hack Off

A mission to track down a computer super virus leads Chuck (Zachary Levi) to return to his roots as a hacker — and to call on his biggest competition, Gertrude Verbanksi (guest star Carrie-Anne Moss), for help. Elsewhere, a new Buy More employee (guest star Danny Pudi) complicates Jeff (Scott Krinsky) and Lester’s (Vik Sahay) friendship. Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, and Joshua Gomez also star.

Here's the trailer, take a look:


Thanks to Chuck & Sarah Media at chucksarahmedia.com for the trailer.

Chuck Versus the Frosted Tips

Thank you for pantsing me.

Photo credit: Jordin Althaus/NBC

So, this week had a few twists and turns. We knew from last week that the Intersect was changing Morgan, not for the better either, and him betraying the team to offer his services to Verbanski Corp. was a clear sign that all was not well.

I’d assumed that the Intersect was going haywire in Morgan because his neurological structure couldn’t handle the amount of information and was overwriting parts of his brain.

Of course this week we found out that Beckman did not send Chuck the Intersect glasses. We have to assume, as Team B did, that Decker planted them with the intent that Chuck be uploaded with the Trojan Horse laden programme. Although, what the plan was for Chuck having it isn’t clear to me.

The main theme of the episode seemed to be relationships; namely the ones between Chuck & Morgan and Casey & Verbanski with bits of Morgan & Alex and even Jeff & Lester thrown in.

Chuck’s friendship with Morgan seemed to blind him to why he was becoming such an egotistical ass, having seen that sort of behaviour in him before. It took Sarah talking with both Ellie and Beckman for him to realise that it wasn’t all Morgan, but the Intersect amplifying his egomania.

I did like the little scene between them at Verbanski Corp. Having taken out all the other trainees, Chuck takes on Morgan and, despite not having the Intersect, hold his own (although it was short and tailored not to be a stunt heavy fight to accommodate the actors) before revealing his identity.

Talking of fights and Verbanski, I see what they meant about ‘erotically charged’ when it came to the fight between Casey and Verbanski! I’d say it was probably more overtly sexual than the ‘gun cleaning’ scene between Casey and Alex Forrest in “Versus the Broken Heart”. I had to laugh at Casey’s face when Gertrude reversed the hold and had him bent over the desk; surprise, annoyance and confusion all manifested there. Priceless!

It was nice to see that Casey can be just as hopelessly awkward with a love interest in a non-violent situation as the rest of us. That being said, he used Sarah as his wingman in a non-traditional form, and then planted a bug on Verbanski so that he could monitor her covertly. Jeff would be proud of you Casey!

Of course, Casey’s lack of social smarts when it comes to the opposite sex stem largely from not being used to opening himself up to emotional vulnerability, which is a good thing for a spy; one less thing that can be used against you, one less thing to get in the way of the job. The thing is, Casey is not just a ruthless assassin/spy any more, he’s also a friend and, more importantly, a father.

The scene between Alex and Casey showed that he’s both protective of his daughter and still unused to the role. I don’t think many fathers would suggest ‘working over’ the guy who dumped their daughter!

The B-story this week gave us Awesome left looking after baby Clara and realising that being a stay-at-home dad was not as easy as he thought. He quickly lost himself, taking advice from himself via the Buy More advert, which lead us to the Buy More part of the story.

It seems that whilst Chuck and Morgan are away, the Buy Morons are nowhere to be found. Well, all except Lester, who was taking a nap whilst Jeff was almost killing himself with carbon monoxide poisoning trying to customise his van.

We got a little humour from Lester looking after Clara for the few minutes it took for Awesome to drag Jeff out of the auto shop. That man can barely look after his friend, but since there seemed to be no other staff available, it was a decision made out of necessity.

By the end of the day, despite being on paternity leave, Dr Woodcomb had given check-ups to both Jeff and Morgan (making both of them wear gowns – does he just carry them around?) and dispensed a little advice to both.

It was quite amusing hearing him say to Morgan that he had ‘lost his identity’ becoming a stay-at-home dad. Come on dude, you’d been at it all of one day!

Since their mission for Gen. Beckman has been stolen from under them by Morgan and taken to Verbanski, the team decide to try and reclaim it. At the same time, Chuck decides to try and appeal to Morgan, saving him from himself in essence.

I initially heard the targets name incorrectly. During my first watch of the episode, I was convinced the guy with the whistle-blowing website was called Max Zorin, which is of course the name of the baddie played by Christopher Walken in the James Bond film ‘A View to a Kill’. Turns out that his name is actually Matt Zorn, note the difference and yet how easy it would be to mishear it.

As Morgan goes all mission fixated, Chuck reminds him of his 7^th grade pantsing and the ham & moustache sandwich revenge and gets through to the old Morgan, but not before he shoots a hole in the helicopter fuel tank. It does give us some hero time as Chuck and Casey rescue Morgan and Verbanski from the flames, allowing Casey to get some, ahem, face time, with Gertrude.

It seemed like a pretty easy fix, reminding Morgan of his pantsing incident to cut through ‘the fog’ of the Trojan Intersect. Jeff being cured by Awesome paralleled this; the easy fix of not spending the night sleeping in his van.

Given the 13 episode run, I suppose certain things will have to be quick fixes in order to push the narrative along.

Regarding Morgan’s pantsing; I have to say, kudos to the hairy one for being able to grow a full moustache in the 7^th Grade – I wasn’t even shaving until the equivalent of the early 9^th grade!

Also, is anyone else finding Jeff as a normal functioning human being freakier than him being a burnt out weirdo? How long will this version of the character last and what does this mean for the future of ‘Jeffster!’?

So the tampered with Intersect is being dealt with, but there’s a kill order out on the little bearded one and it goes way above Beckman. Who is behind it and how far does the conspiracy against Chuck stretch?

Next week: Chuck Versus the Business Trip

Chuck and Sarah must stop an assassin after the Intersect at a Buy More convention. Jeff shows a new side to himself.

Here’s the trailer, take a look:

Chuck Versus the Bearded Bandit

Who's Luke Skywalker?

Photo Credit: Danny Feld/NBC

This week was the 80th episode of Chuck! In it, we saw the introduction of Gertrude Verbanski (guest star Carrie-Anne Moss), with whom Casey has a ‘past’ (and he seems to have a 'past' with a number of spies!). We also had Chuck stepping, not entirely successfully, into the role of Morgan’s handler. To be fair he isn’t entirely to blame.

Morgan has been feeling sidelined as an asset, so it makes sense that he wants to prove himself to Chuck as well as to Casey and Sarah that he can be a competent spy. He feels that he should be the essential component in each mission because he is the Intersect now. It’s a clever mirroring of Chuck during the earlier episodes of the series, dealing with having the Intersect for the first time, yet being made to stay in the van/car most of the time. The problem with Morgan, however, is that he’s far more impulsive and enthusiastic, something which Chuck can’t get under control.

The introduction of the rival Verbanski Corp. and of Gertrude Verbanski herself was well done. It felt like a legitimate one-upmanship that paid off later in the episode.

She has been described as being very much the like Casey, although since she was meant to be ex-KGB, so why does she have the photo of Reagan in her office?

Not only does Verbanski and her company pose a threat to the success of Carmichael Industries, the threat is also a more personal one with her trying to recruit Sarah, as a possible ploy to get to Casey. Of course, by the end, the team is facing an even worse problem with Morgan defecting to the dark side (not that he’d get that reference at the moment) and joining the rival team.

Guest star Justin Hartley, known to Smallville fans as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, was hardly on screen at all. It was a role that could have been filled by anyone, but I was hoping that, since he has a bit of experience in action, that we’d get to see some of that. In Smallville, he was often the equivalent of Captain Awesome, with the writers or directors using any excuse to have him shirtless as often as possible. There were no nods thrown in, or any real use of his skills. In my opinion, he was woefully underused.

Seeing Chuck kicking some butt without the Intersect was great. The fight against the guards in Karl Sneijder’s HQ was pretty good, although it bugs me slightly that the stunt double for Josh Gomez, even for the brief glimpses on screen, comes across as being clearly not Gomez, and that spoils it a bit for me. You can include Morgan’s little kung fu ‘wah’ and ‘hi-yah’ noises, but it still feels a little off compared to Chuck’s earlier fight scenes.

The scene where Morgan takes out Wesley Sneijder’s guards at the compound was pretty good. With it being done either in silhouette or off-screen, it made it that little bit more amusing.

I noticed that Morgan’s ‘zoom’ face has become more pronounced this week. To me, it’s a look of concentration/trapped wind. However, he still needs to get a handle on not telling everybody that he just ‘zoomed’. As Chuck said, it’s top secret for a reason!

So, the Intersect is causing a problem with Morgan’s memory and it seems to be affecting his behaviour as well. For any Stargate fans, like myself, we’ve seen something similar to this in the Ancient database.

When Jack O’Neill downloaded it into his brain, it started to overwrite his language centres and reprogrammed his behaviour. It had to be removed or it would have eventually killed him.

I think the Intersect is reprogramming Morgan’s brain, overwriting bits of his memory and altering his behaviour, yet while it may not go as far as killing him, his behaviour could end up getting him killed. He has always been more of the gung-ho type and it seems that his newfound feeling of invulnerability is amplifying that.
I was concerned when Morgan got the Intersect at the end of last season as I thought that only a select few could download it. It seems that it takes a certain kind of brain to handle it without it controlling them. Both Chuck and his father had incredibly special brains to be able to handle having the Intersect without major side-effects

Let’s hope that when all is said and done, the Morgan that we all know and love is restored to his bumbling self!

I enjoyed the goofy Buy More sub-plot, although it seems to be portentious for things to come on that front. Big Mike ends Lester’s audition saying he’s over the Jeffster! thing, to which Lester replies “Me too.” Is this the beginning of the end for our favourite fake band?

As well as the meta reference to Ryan McPartlin’s earlier career as an Abercrombie & Fitch model, it was amusing to see Devon’s Buy More badge in the advert read ‘Captain Awesome’!

The one thing that did bother me slightly was the way a particular line was put.

Big Mike to Devon: “Look around. This is your brother-in-law’s place of business and it’s empty…. but your creamy skin and unusually high cheekbones can change that. And you were taking time off to help your family. Isn’t Chuck your family?”

To me, that came off as if Big Mike knew that Chuck owned the Buy More. I think it’s probably just the way it was phrased, because it’s not common knowledge that he bought the place.

Other points I liked:

* Morgan takes out Sneijder in the Buy More by flying across the main aisle with a yell and knocking him out in one punch… and nobody notices!

* During the attempt to be super-nice to their new client, Casey offers him a muffin, baked freshly that morning. “Please, take a muffin.” It just seems so unlike Casey. Mind you, we also know that he makes quiches.

* When Morgan apologizes for taking out all of the guards, Wesley doesn’t seem that fazed by it. Obviously it’s completely believable to him that a short bearded guy could take out a team of armed guards when 3 trained spies couldn’t.

* Casey ‘sharing’ a little too much in the car with Sarah. “You ever have sex with someone who just tried to kill ya?”

Update: Ratings are in and not looking good. Chuck scored a preliminary 0.8 in the all important 18-49 category. I hope people aren't deserting because they don't like the Morgan as Intersect storyline. Just because it's the last season, doesn't mean ratings don't matter. Let's give it a proper send-off - remember to tell your family and friends to watch LIVE.

Next week: Chuck vs. the Frosted Tips

Chuck worries Morgan is letting the Intersect change his attitude for the worse. Sarah gives Casey relationship advice on Gertrude Verbanski. Captain Awesome discovers shocking news about Jeff and Lester.

Here’s the trailer, take a look:

Chuck Versus the Zoom

Zoom zoom zoom!

Last night saw the return of Chuck for the 5^th and final season. Although we ended the last season on quite a game changer, it appears that the writers had a little re-think on hiatus.

We still have the same team, but ‘Cliffhanger’ left the dynamic changed enormously. Chuck had the Intersect suppressed by Decker, became super rich thanks to Volkoff, now he owns his own company and Morgan has the Intersect.

The season opens with Chuck having ploughed through most of his fortune on start-up costs for ‘Carmichael Industries’; equipment, a private jet, servicing the private jet, and Morgan’s penchant for eating fresh shrimp on said private jet. By the end of the episode, Decker has frozen the teams’ assets, leaving them with only the Buy More as a source of income until they find another spy contract.

This works quite well for me; given millions of dollars, Chuck would effectively have been Bruce Wayne, with a gadget for every occasion, which is not where the show lives. With the money inaccessible, they are being forced to survive on their skills and wit, which can make the show much more dramatic than it may otherwise have been.

Morgan’s entrance as the Intersect was typically Morgan. A ridiculous entrance in the opening gambit showed that despite having gained a supercomputer in his head, he is still the slightly bumbling guy he has always been. The fight scene was pretty good, with Morgan becoming like a bearded Jackie Chan, complete with comedy kung-fu cries. However, in my opinion, that scene also showed that Morgan may be more like the Gretas, in that the Intersect largely dictated his response, not as with Chuck, where he impacts on the Intersect. It didn’t seem to allow Morgan to be Morgan, whereas Chuck still managed to be funny whilst kicking butt.

Of course, as soon as the fight was over, Morgan went back to hilarious ineptitude and broke the vase they were trying to steal. Doh!

The dance scene between Morgan and Sarah also confused me slightly. After ‘zooming’ on dance skills, Morgan seemed to mainly be standing about whilst Sarah did all the work. It could be that Gomez is not that good a dancer and it was choreographed to compensate for that, because, out of all the dance scenes over the course of the series, I think this one involved the least actual dancing.

(Sorry Josh, if you are a good dancer, the scene didn’t allow that to show through!)

I noticed that Morgan doesn’t seem to have a ‘zoom’ face. Whereas Chuck had the whole flickery eyes thing going on when he flashed, brilliantly lampooned by Sarah last season, Morgan has nothing. Minor point, moving on….

With Sarah and Casey still being brilliant spies and Morgan now having the Intersect, this leaves Chuck at a bit of a loss. You can see each time it’s mentioned, how much Chuck misses being the centre of the team. He may be the leader of the group, but he feels he’s lost his usefulness, gone from being Batman to being Alfred.

Morgan having the Intersect worked best whilst showing how out of place Chuck feels without it. We know that Chuck is still brilliant without it, but I think having it for a few years, he’s learned to think of it as part of him, rather than a burden he has to carry.

Chuck’s plan to save his team and get out alive showed the kind of outside-the-box quick thinking that has served them so well, with or without any superpowers. I’m hoping that he gets it back since, as I mentioned in both my ‘Cliffhanger’ post and a little earlier, Chuck’s Intersect was suppressed, not removed.

It seems the Buy More will be playing an integral role this season, being the primary source of income for Carmichael Industries until they get their feet on more solid ground. The thin-as-tissue scene with Jeff and Lester trying to scam money only really served to remind us that, as they are spending so much time being spies, Chuck and Morgan are hardly spending any time in their cover at the Buy More, which is tricky as Morgan is supposed to be the manager.

It was nice to see that Ellie is behind Chuck when it comes to his chosen path. It was quite nice to see a scene between the siblings which would normally have taken place in the house, taking place in the Castle 2.0 room, showing that, whilst not involved in the danger, Ellie is part of the team.

‘Operation Toes In The Sand’, despite it’s awkward acronym, gives us a sensible goal to aim towards for the end of the series. Rather than finding Sarah’s mother, or having another baby Bartowski on the way, it should be setting up a lovely happily ever after payoff for the final episode (although this being Chuck, there may be a twist at the end anyway!)

* I also enjoyed Casey being dismissive of their client as being ‘an ambulance chaser’ and ‘scum of the earth’ until he mentions that Bale stole $2m from Rush Limbaugh, at which point Casey wants to know “everything you know about this animal”. Nice little bit reminding us of the parallels between Casey and Adam Baldwin when it comes to political affiliation!

As you will all know by now, Chuck ended up scoring a series low of 1.0 last night, although it was up against the behemoth that was Game 7 of the World Series. Other channels balked and decided to air repeats rather than get low ratings; NBC stood firm, possibly because they weren’t expecting massive ratings anyway.

 

Next week: Chuck vs. the Bearded Bandit

Take a look at the trailer for the upcoming season: