Chuck Vs The Muuurder

Duct and Cover? What's shakin' Bacon?

Photo Credit: NBC

This week saw the inevitable murder mystery episode with Chuck and his team trapped in Castle with Bentley and four new recruits, knowing that someone in their midst was a killer. It had a lot of potential, but to me it felt a bit flat at times, which could be due to the fact that this episode was written by writers who were new to Chuck this season.

The whole thing with Chuck being assigned to lead the Intersect project and given his first leadership role was pretty good. As I tweeted, and no doubt many others have commented, there was the little hat tip to the series ‘Charles in Charge’ which was just one of a couple of pop culture references this week.

With things going from bad to worse, it was up to Chuck to take control and figure out who the killer was. Taking advice from Sarah and Casey helped him to take charge, despite his lack of confidence and he did eventually figure it out. The murder mystery itself wasn’t much of a mystery to me by the time the second bomb went off, I probably watch too many whodunits, but the reason behind it eluded me until Beckman explained the Volkoff connection. I’m half wondering if Damian’s mission was just to blow up Castle, sending Chuck a message, because there had to be easier ways of taking Chuck out of the equation.

This episode, like last week, showed just how unique Chuck is, and why that is a good thing. In the Director Bentley’s world someone would have to die in order to secure the bomb and save the rest. Chuck’s view of the world is a little different and nobody else needs to die. He might do things differently from a ‘real’ spy, but his abilities and nature mean that he is no less impressive in the role.

The Buy More sub-plot had a number of laughs in it, largely due to several ‘Number 2’ jokes, including the Big BM being left on fire on the Buy More’s doorstep. We also had the allusion that retail is like the mafia, with a meeting of the Buy More and Large Mart ‘families’ to negotiate a hostage exchange.

Ellie is starting to get drawn into the spy life again, having received her father’s laptop from Bentley at the end of last episode. She seems to be making headway with the problem, but how long will it be before she figures out that it has something to do with Chuck? Somehow she’s managed not to guess that he’s still in the spy game, but I’ll blame the stress of becoming a parent for at least some of that.

I felt that there was some character growth here for a few players. Chuck became more of a confident leader, showing that he can ultimately deliver, which I think helped to secure his position as the only Intersect. Bentley went from being rather cold and manipulative, to having Chuck’s back and getting along with him. Casey showed that he’s becoming more, well, domesticated, by hanging out at the end of the episode with Chuck and Sarah for some milk and cookies.
But by far the most character growth was Devon. Who knew that Captain Awesome could become such a convincing liar? He was useless not that long ago, but he lied to Chuck about switching the hard drive on the Orion laptop. I’m actually a little surprised he knew how to do that, although he didn’t actually do it.

Any of you familiar with Scottish detective drama Taggart will be familiar with it’s most quoted phrase “There’s been a murder” and that’s what this episode title reminded me of when I first heard it. It’s a common enough phrase, but it was nice to hear it used by the guy with the British accent, although I doubt that was an intentional reference!

I loved the little callback in this episode, with Brody’s ringtone being Journey’s ‘Any Way You Want It’ as Chuck’s was in the pilot (and, I have to admit, mine still is!)
The Agent X Files thing was amusing, a neat reference, and since 4.22 is called Chuck vs. Agent X, I’m wondering if we’re going to see one of Orion’s old partners. I think I recall seeing one of the boxes in the Orion Cave marked Agent X, but we’ll have to wait for a few weeks to find out.

*As I was writing this, the ratings came in, and they don’t look good. Chuck slipped to a series low with a 1.5 in the 18-49 demographic.


Next episode: Chuck Vs the Family Volkoff – Timothy Dalton returns as Alexei Volkoff as it seems daughter Vivian has truly embraced her fathers business. This episode will air on the 11th of April.

Take a look:

Chuck Vs The A-Team

Bomb diffusing? How d’you like them apples?

Photo Credit: NBC

This episode saw Chuck sidelined by the two top Greta’s – the best of the new Intersect candidates. It was good to see them go back to the Greta thread that was introduced earlier this season, and then swept aside by the Volkoff arc. Also picked back up was the whole deal with the Orion laptop, which I’d hoped would be more than just a tool to get the Intersect working again. Seems I’m going to get my wish with Robin Givens shady character returning the laptop to Ellie in an underhanded move.

It also brought back something that we haven’t touched on for a while, that the CIA/NSA are still looking for people other than Chuck to become Intersect spies. I don’t think that’s been mentioned since the start of season 2.

We had an almost paternal moment between Chuck and Casey, with the latter making sure that Chuck could get to his juice box easily, even making sure it was his favourite! The fact that he no longer felt like a third wheel probably helped Casey focus more on his duty, but ultimately he realised that he missed Chuck and Sarah.

Since the introduction of Alex, he’s been becoming more of a family man, softening a little around the edges. Not much, but a little. This is Casey we’re talking about!

The storyline also served to show us how special Chuck is. He may be just one of many people who are capable of housing the Intersect, but he’s one of a kind.

The two agents, Greta and other Greta, or Vicky and Rick, were glad to be de-Intersected, with Rick even referring to Chuck as ‘that poor bastard’ for having to live with the Intersect constantly.

Vicky seemed to let the Intersect take charge, and in doing so killed the man and armed the bomb. Rick wasn’t thinking outside the box, relying too much on all the information he needed being in the Intersect.

Personally, I think the Terminator quip would have been far funnier and more meta if they’d managed to bring back Summer Glau, but Stacy Keibler worked well.

A small issue with the logic of this episode: if the whole idea was to keep the two teams separate, why did they build the second Castle base inside the first?

The non-spy story was pretty good, it didn’t feel as if the Awesome’s had been shoehorned in to give them screen time. As I mentioned previously, it brought the Orion laptop back to Ellie, as I think Papa B had intended.

Jeff and Lester managed an homage to Ghostbusters with the whole ESP test. The amusing thing, of course, is that Jeff does have some degree of psychic power when he really tries, but Lester dismissed it, reading CIA as a name, not as the initials. Idiot.

One final point, regarding the product placement: I thought that Awesome’s extolling the virtues of the Toyota Sienna was less than subtle. With this episode we got not just a product placement, but pretty much a complete commercial for it.

*The ratings came in whist I was writing this – not brilliant news. Chuck hit a low of 1.6, which isn’t great, but it could have been worse, considering that it wasn’t promoted terribly well, and the fact that Daylight Savings always screws with the ratings.

Next episode: Chuck Vs The Muuurder - Chuck is put in charge of a top-priority mission, but his leadership skills are pushed to the limit when there is a murder in Castle. Meanwhile, Awesome takes on a mission of his own when Ellie finds an alarming new hobby. Elsewhere, Morgan’s leadership is also tested when his Buy More troops wage war against Large Mart.

Take a look:

 

Chuck Vs the First Bank of Evil

Chuck and Sarah get Lost in The Matrix!

Photo Credit: Greg Gayne/NBC

See what I did there? Never mind.

This week we had two transformations: that of Vivian McArthur into Vivian Volkoff and Sarah from indecisive wedding newbie into OTT Bridezilla.

It was the subtle parallel between Chuck and Ellie’s storylines. Both trying to coax someone into being what’s needed, and both ending up creating a monster!

The idea of Chuck inadvertently creating ‘Darth Vivian’ is an interesting one, although I’m not sure how well she’ll be received as a villain when following in the footsteps of Timothy Dalton. We shall have to wait and see if they have an evil father/daughter dénouement in store for us.

I have to admit that I’m more interested in Volkoff’s lawyer, played by Ray Wise. It would be lovely to see some of the smirking, playful villainy that he brought to ‘Reaper’, it would fit more alongside Dalton’s brand of bad guy. As it is, Vivian is still a little bland. I hope they do go down the dark-side route, Darth Vader was always more interesting than Anakin Skywalker.

Sarah’s wedding dress montage was a well-executed parody of others we’ve seen in so many romantic comedies before. The comedy gave way to a lovely emotional scene where she finally realises that she’s getting married.

Minor plot hole this week in the fact that nobody noticed the two bank robbers looked suspiciously like Vivian’s security team from the previous visit.

I loved the whole scene though, as Chuck and Sarah discuss wedding things while holding up the bank. It was reminiscent of the fight scene in the bank during the very first episode in which Alexei Volkoff was introduced.

The start of the bank heist scene was an obvious reference to the lobby fight scene in ‘The Matrix’. In fact, I’ve uploaded a badly done vid of that whole scene with the music from The Matrix over it. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6jKjSmDVNg

There were two ‘Lost’ references that I noticed during the episode. Not only was Volkoff’s bankcard number 4815162342, but also François Chau (Lost’s Dr. Pierre Chang) guest starred as the bank manager.

Morgan’s roommate plotline gave us a few moments of amusement, but over all, it felt slightly like filler. Getting to the point where he knows about Casey’s secret room and using that as leverage (even though he didn’t realise it at first) seemed like an excuse to have Jeff, Lester and to a lesser degree, Big Mike, in the episode.

Next episode: Chuck Vs The A-Team - Chuck and Sarah investigate when they suspect that Casey is carrying out private missions. Meanwhile, Chuck fears that the CIA’s seemingly-perfect new operatives (guest stars Isaiah Mustafa and Stacy Keibler) will render him obsolete. Elsewhere, Morgan settles in with a new roommate, and Awesome panics when Ellie embarks on a potentially dangerous line of research.

Since NBC are re-launching The Event with a 2-hour premiere next week, this episode of Chuck will not air until March 17^th