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.

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