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: