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| Photo Credit: Mike Ansell/NBC |
Last night’s episode of Chuck saw the welcome return of Gary Cole as Sarah’s con-man father Jack Burton.
The main story started off okay, but got silly, even by ‘Chuck’ standards, rather quickly. From Chuck’s fake flash, things spiralled out of control, but alas, they didn’t really have the budget to pull it off. It was sold short by the fact that the entire resources of the CIA, NSA and FBI amounted to eight guys with guns, a van, a couple of cars and a net.
I’m also going to assume that Chuck had no intel on Artur Novakov because, as well as having been busy with wedding planning and the like, it was too recent to be in the Intersect database.
One of the best parts was seeing Sarah try to imitate Chuck’s ‘flash’ face. Then Chuck had to fake a flash based on that, which must have been tricky for Zac since the flash face probably comes naturally for him these days.
Delving into Sarah’s back-story not only helped to give us the schmaltzy payoff at the end, but also drove home a lot of why the character has become who she is. From growing up pulling cons, to working in the CIA, it’s all been about putting on a mask and pretending to be whoever the con/mission requires you to be. Moving from place to place and having adventures whilst never revealing who you are has been part of her life for so long that she has only started to let herself be vulnerable since meeting Chuck.
That accounts for why she was conned, because she’s let her guard down and learned to trust someone, not as a partner in the spy sense, but in the emotional sense. She thought with her heart, rather than her head, which is ultimately what a good con artist hopes for. Remember, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
There’s also an interesting point if you consider that Bryce Larkin, being a natural spy, was essentially a younger version of her father. They both lived the life, being other people when they needed to be, so it could have been the case that she felt a connection with him because he reminded her of her father, and that made her feel safe.
It’s also worth pointing out that Matt Bomer who played Bryce then went on to star in White Collar as, you guessed it, a con man. Strangely coincidental, or possibly not.
When the con involving the Zephyr took off, then the episode really hit its stride. Taking over one of Daphne’s cons to perform another con for the good of national security was an interesting idea. The setup also gave us references to previous episodes, whether intentional or not. Of course, we had Jack calling Chuck ‘schnook’ and Casey ‘cop face’ which was a call back to ‘vs The Delorean’, but there was also Chuck performing as the DJ, trying to identify the mark, which reminded me of a similar situation in ‘vs The Cougars’
I’m sure that Yvonne had fun getting to do another accent, something that is undoubtedly going to be popular with some of the fans.
The other story, again with the theme of an estranged loved one, was the Casey/Kathleen/Alex storyline. I thought that Casey was going to tell Kathleen that he was alive, and it would be a big shock moment for her because she thought he was dead. What actually happened was that it seems she recognized him at the Buy More, and she questioned Alex about him and was told all about him.
Given these facts, it was natural for her to assume that Casey’s cover was his real life, part-time security guard with a job at the Buy More. Since Alex seems to have told her that Casey was a government agent, she was obviously suspicious, but fate/the writers stepped in and she found out the truth during the stand off in the parking garage.
Next episode: Chuck Vs Agent X - Chuck and Sarah put aside spy work to have a weekend of debauchery, but Awesome’s plans for Chuck’s big night don’t go quite as expected. Meanwhile, Ellie’s investigation into her father’s computer leads to a life-changing discovery.
This episode won’t air until the 2nd of May; next week we have a repeat of Chuck vs The Honeymooners instead. Yep, another hiatus in the season, so no trailer for the new episode yet, but I’ll upload it here as soon as one appears.
*EDIT 26th April - promo for Chuck VS Agent X - take a look;
*I put off posting this until the ratings came in, but it seems we stayed steady with a series low of 1.3.
While being very not good, we have to take into account that the programmes following it on NBC; The Event and Law & Order: Los Angeles only managed to pull in a 1.1 each.
Staying positive, but ultimately I think that the chances of Chuck being picked up have decreased. Let's hope that the campaign targeting the advertisers has made enough of an impact.
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