Chuck Vs The Masquerade

There is another Sky….sorry, Volkoff.

Photo Credit: Byron Cohen/NBC

The Valentine's episode of Chuck did not fail to delight. It would have been broadcast on Valentine's Day, but there was that slightly early hiatus. 
This was an amazing and packed episode; we had action, romance, bromance and comedy. Unsurprisingly, Rafe Judkins and Lauren LeFranc, who seem to both know the characters so well and know what the audience wants, wrote it.

Despite all the different sub-plots going on, it never felt as though it was too crowded. Big Mike had some screen time that, while not very long, was perfectly pitched. Jeff and Lester even played a small but crucial role in Ellie and Awesome’s sub-plot.

It was nice to see the Buy Morons back after them being absent for the last couple of episodes, however brief their appearance.

The opening scenes were very funny, with a bemused Chuck and Sarah trying to leave Morgan and Alex to their ‘exchanging of energy’ and Casey walking in and being baffled and looking ready to explode. I loved the rapid cutting between all the players in the last bit of that scene, as Casey looks like he’s stumbled into the madhouse of his nightmares.

We were treated to a great scene between Morgan and Sarah, with the latter obviously outside her comfort zone. Using the word ‘hang’ like a parent trying to be trendy with the kids was brilliant in showing that she’s still growing socially. Just to see Yvonne playing about with the Han and Chewbacca collectibles/toys and making silly dinosaur noises was a delight.

With Morgan doing some serious thinking after that slightly awkward moment and taking Casey’s words to heart. Believing himself to be getting in the way with Chuck and Sarah getting married in a few months, he decided to move out.

There was a subtle comparison with the Han and Chewy action figures. Chuck being Han, the smooth guy who ends up with Leia (remember the faked CIA photo of him and Sarah at Comic Con dressed as Han & Leia?) and Morgan as Chewbacca (although being hairy, he’s not quite tall enough).

The theme I sensed from this episode was that of moving on. Morgan and Alex were moving forward with their relationship, Morgan himself is moving on by even thinking about moving out to give Chuck and Sarah a place of their own. Casey has been given the opportunity to move on with his career, since the talents that he honed during his first years as an agent are being used very little these days (as was brilliantly played by him being bartender on a mission yet again).
Even Ellie and Awesome had a little to do with the theme, taking the step of moving Clara into the nursery, if only so they could get some sleep.

Casey also gave us something unexpectedly meta, referring to Chuck and Sarah as “Charah” – the shippers term for the couple. It did lead to it trending on Twitter for a while – that’s the power of The Home Depot Casey.

We were left with a couple of cliffhanger options at the end. Not only was Casey offered the position behind that enigmatic door in Castle, but we had Vivian finding something important in her father's office. Having been inspired to seek out Volkoff's HQ by an unwitting Chuck, she now has the option of using the resources of her father's evil empire for good, or following in his footsteps. Which will she choose?

Next episode: Chuck Vs the First Bank of Evil - Chuck pushes Vivian McArthur (guest star Lauren Cohan) to get in touch with her inner villain for a mission. Elsewhere, Sarah tries to get in touch with her inner bride as wedding plans ramp up. Meanwhile, Morgan’s search for a new roommate takes an unexpected turn.

Take a look:

Chuck Vs The Cat Squad

He called, He texted, He emailed. Why didn’t he try Twitter?

Photo Credit: Adam Rose/NBC

 

Sarah Walker’s past comes back with a bang in the form of her old team The CAT Squad. Cue the opening sequence pastiche of Charlie’s Angels, similar to last season’s homage to ‘Hart To Hart’. Morgan really loves those old shows, doesn’t he?

Despite this being a fun action-y episode, there were a lot of good emotional character moments. I know I’m not alone in loving the interaction between Sarah and Ellie; the whole scene at the end was wonderfully done, with Sarah truly embracing an almost sisterly relationship with Ellie.

I’m hoping that this relationship between the two will add something to the show, especially with imminent Mr & Mrs Smith comparisons once Chuck and Sarah do get married, assuming that the wedding isn’t hijacked and we have to wait and pray for a 5^th season to get there.

Chuck and Sarah were arguing and making up again, both realizing each other’s needs and managing to come to a compromise. Chuck wanted Sarah to embrace her past and have the things that he took for granted, but it doesn’t always work out like that, especially for a spy.

The mission was simple enough, get into a party, capture Lou Diamond Phillips and learn the identity of the mole.

My initial thought was that it was going to be a bust right from the moment they planned it. You suspect one of the CAT Squad of being a mole, so you plan the entire mission with all of them in the room. Can you see a flaw here?

I think a number of us guessed pretty early on that ditzy party loving Amy would be the mole. We’d already seen Carina be untrustworthy but ultimately come good in the first season, and so much suspicion was heaped on Zondra that it couldn’t have been her. I’m surprised that Casey let any of them in on his interrogation of Gaez.

Anyway, during the mission Chuck managed to maintain form and fumble at a crucial moment, falling through the skylight and dangling there like a covert piñata. Luckily his easily accessible intersect skills kicked in and he was able to tranq the dozen guards! Casey managed to provide backup and provide extraction by fist.

Meanwhile, Morgan had a mission of his own: to save his relationship with Alex. With Carina back in the picture, obviously still toying with ‘Martin’, it was always going to be awkward. Since she only became interested in him after he spurned her, it was inevitable that she would be interested in him now that he’s unavailable. However, she did spur Morgan into making a commitment and saying those three important words to Alex.

I’ve said before that Morgan seems to be a microcosmic version of Chuck these days; he’s grown from a bumbling nerd into a pretty competent spy, has a relationship with a beautiful woman, and has managed to tell her he loves her and had affirmation that she feels the same way about him (although it took less than 3 seasons for that to happen).

If, during the first season, you’d been told that Morgan would have two women fighting for his affection, I doubt you would have believed them. I certainly wouldn’t have, yet here we are.

A couple of random notes to finish; I wish that I were as perky as Sarah when I have a hangover. After a night of parties, she still manages to be as gorgeous as ever and completely coherent!

Also, despite the Buy More featuring in several scenes, this was the second episode in a row without Big Mike, Jeff and Lester. Hopefully they’ll be back soon to provide some Buy Moron shenanigans.

Finally, anyone who Googled CAT Squad will have found that there was an awful TV movie directed by William Friedkin called The C.A.T. Squad.

IMDB synopsis here - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090783/

Next episode: Chuck Vs The Masquerade – Valentine’s Day is interrupted when Chuck and the team are sent on a mission to England to protect a reclusive young heiress, Vivian McArthur (guest star Lauren Cohan). Meanwhile, Casey gets an offer from the mysterious Jane Bentley (guest star Robin Givens). Back at home, Ellie and Awesome find an unlikely solution to a parenting problem, as Morgan ponders a big move.
From certain lines in the promo for next week, it could also have been called Chuck Vs Eyes Wide Shut! Take a look:

Chuck Vs The Seduction Impossible

Just for the record, I will not be dressing as a belly dancer at any point either.

Photo Credit: Chris Haston/NBC

 John Larroquette made a welcome return to Chuck in the latest episode as suave spy Roan Montgomery. The spy to whom generations of the finest agents owe their seduction skills was in a bit of hot water in Marrakech, or at least he was after Team Bartowski showed up!

This being the first episode after the Volkoff arc, was a chance to slow the pace down a bit, but there were a number of things going on. We had all the relationships that were either featured or touched on; pretty much everyone from the main cast had a little bit of relationship story, be it large, like Chuck and Sarah, Beckman and Roan, or small, like touching upon the relationship between Alex and her mom, who is moving on with her life.

Sarah’s relationship with her family was brought up, signposting the way for the next set of stories.

We also had the relationship between Ellie and Mary. Both of them are making great strides in rebuilding their relationship to one another, in no small part due to the birth of baby Clara.

Interestingly, Ellie seems to have no problem with Mary going off and being a spy once again, rather than settling down with the family. Does this mean she’s accepting the fact that the spy business runs in her family?

There is an interesting parallel in the very first scene; we open with everyone crowded around Clara, freaking her out, quite frankly. Clara registers her displeasure at this by doing what babies do; she starts crying. The next minute, the Bartowski/Woodcomb alliance turns to Sarah and Chuck and starts doing the same thing, crowding them with plans for the wedding and who to get for this, what to do for that. Team B escape from that situation, not by crying, but by bugging out to Castle and begging Beckman for a mission.

This episode brilliantly brought to the fore a gag from the previous Larroquette episode, Season 2’s ‘Chuck Vs The Seduction’ in which General Beckman and Montgomery have a ‘thing’.

As Beckman is usually the character that shows how things should be done in the spy world, it was nice to see her swap sides of the table and be emotionally invested in the mission. I loved that the general got to be a part of the action this time, something I think we’ve been waiting to see for a while. Rather than being on a monitor, or even interacting with Team B, she actually got to be in the thick of it, making this the first episode with a proper Beckman story line.

I’m sure that many of you cheered or clapped or made some sort of celebratory gesture when she whipped out that rocket launcher. Go get ‘em G’Becks!

Also, what about that flashback to Berlin, 1989? For the first time in the series, Diane Beckman got her some sugar!

*Thanks to whoever chose classic cheesy ’89 anthem ‘Wind Of Change’ to represent that time, rather than the terrible cheese that was David Hasslehoff’s ‘Looking For Freedom’

After spending a great deal of time in a hospital bed last episode, Casey was back doing what he loves – hiding in walls! It’ll be a tough time for him when they come across a villain who has cavity wall insulation.

We got to see Casey attempt to seduce the most macho female guard and fail quite impressively. Maybe Roan lied to him about why he failed the seduction class twice, or perhaps he’s just lost it after years of embracing his angry centre.

He did manage to take out those three guards by shooting through the hole in the wall, although in that scene, they did use the clichéd “take one step to the left. The other left, idiot.” which I’m sure most of us saw coming a mile off.

Next episode: Chuck Vs The Cat Squad – Chuck surprises Sarah with her old spy team, The C.A.T. Squad, leading to a mission in Rio. As The C.A.T. Squad works to settle a score with Augusto Gaez (guest star Lou Diamond Phillips), old secrets and grudges come to light. Back at the Buy More, Morgan fends off the advances of Carina, a former flame and frisky member of The C.A.T Squad.

Chuck Vs The Push Mix

I’m at my peak, mentally and physically. I’ve been doing yoga. Bring on the lasers!

Photo Credit: Jordin Althaus/NBC

When NBC originally commissioned the fourth season, this episode was meant to be the season finale, if not series finale. However, with the addition of a further 11 episodes, this just became number 13 of 24.

 It had all the feel of a finale; the plot points we’ve been building to were resolved and each of our protagonists got a happy ending. Volkoff was taken down, ending not only his evil empire, but also the separation of the Bartowski family as Mama B finally came home after two decades; Ellie and Awesome now have their own little Awesome, and Chuck finally managed to propose to Sarah.

 However, unlike other season finales, no other elements were brought in. At the end of Season 2 in ‘Chuck vs The Ring’ we had the introduction of The Ring and the cliffhanger of “guys, I know kung-fu!” In ‘Chuck vs The Ring Part II’ we had Orion’s secret base uncovered and the mission to find Mama B was introduced.

As a spy, Chuck has never been more competent or devious than in this episode. Fans will note that the Intersect was barely used the whole time, and when it was used, Chuck was flashing on intel rather than an ability; something we’ve not seen for a while.

In the execution of the plan to bring down Volkoff and rescue his mother, Chuck showed that he was an equal to Sarah. Not only did he do the mission without relying on the Intersect, but also, despite the danger, he was willing to risk everything for the people he loved.

 As Alexei Volkoff, Timothy Dalton has proved himself as the best ‘big bad’ of the series. Fulcrum were a little sporadic, The Ring were a little weak at times, Shaw was ….. well, best not to go there, but Volkoff was both menacing and fun, evil yet entertaining.

 The writers did a spectacular job in creating this character, and Dalton absolutely nailed the performance every single time. Sure, the show is genre spanning, but the scenes between Dalton and Linda Hamilton showed that, when they want it to be, ‘Chuck’ can be a brilliantly compelling a spy drama.

As mentioned at the start, Chuck managed to propose to Sarah. Taking Casey’s advice, he didn’t need a romantic setting, so he proposed to her in that hospital corridor. We didn’t need any dialogue to know how he asked, or what the answer was, as the body language in that scene said it all. Cleverly, the floor buffing machine served two purposes in the scene; firstly to show how unromantic the setting was, and secondly to understate the scene – there was no dialogue, no music, just the sound of the buffer and a slow fade to black as Sarah gives the answer we’ve all been waiting for.

Whoever decided to have the proposal in the background with the buffer drowing out the dialogue is a genius. After having the whole big romantic gesture going on in ‘Chuck vs The Balcony’, the subdued nature of the scene just made it that more powerful for me.

Finally, we got another performance from Jeffster! which recalled classic Jeff and Lester; entirely inappropriate and almost cringe worthy at times. I liked how it seemed to split the ‘audience’ in the hospital, we had those who were shocked and appalled, and those who were actually enjoying the performance and even dancing with the boys! Ellie’s face when she heard them over the intercom was priceless. As well as the choice of song and her general dislike of them, she was no doubt recalling their impromptu performance that ended up ruining her first attempt at a wedding.
Speaking of the creepy duo, I’m hoping that they were out of earshot when Chuck was discussing the CIA undercover protection team for Ellie and Awesome. He wasn’t really speaking in hushed tones and neither Jeff nor Lester seemed to be that far away from the Nerd Herd station!

Hopefully, now that we’ve zipped through 13 episodes, the final 11 will have a bit more breathing space. With a story that most shows would take 2 seasons to tell, everything was building to last night in a very short time. Now they have room to play about a bit, Josh Schwartz said that the next episode will be a “launching pad” for a new story-arc, although where it will go from there is anyone’s guess.

Next episode: Chuck Vs The Seduction Impossible – Team Bartowski travel to Morocco to rescue suave spy Roan Montgomery and Sarah dresses as a belly dancer. Miss it at your peril!