Chuck Versus the Kept Man

Assignment: Miami Beach. Sun, sea, subterfuge and spiralling!

Photo Credit: NBC

The first Chuck episode of the New Year was one that followed the pattern of the last couple of episodes by giving a certain amount of closure to one of Team Bartowski. This time it was the turn of John Casey, the stoic military man who seems averse to warm fuzzy feelings.

Gertrude Verbanski made a return; not because she was no longer wanted for murder, but to come back to Casey. She’s a strong woman and once she sets her mind to getting something she wants, she is very persistent.

The expensive gift of the cashmere sweater was certainly not Casey’s style, something I thought she’d have known. Give him harsh conditions and gunplay and he’s happy as a pig in mud.

She had to resort to hiring Carmichael Industries for what was essentially a ruse to get Casey to Miami for a booty call. There was a mission, but it was largely time for a bit of private R&R and then time for some nefarious dealings.

He did succumb to her at one point during the ‘mission’ at the hotel in Miami, allowing her to exercise her dominant nature and play rough with him. It was probably one of the most unusual uses of a Casey grunt we’ve had in the series, although thankfully (for most of us) it was off screen.

Chuck, after Sarah walks in on Casey and Verbanski: “Sarah, what’s wrong?” 
Sarah: “Everything. It’s all wrong.”

It was quite a comedic episode for Yvonne Strahovski with her quizzical and disgusted looks and her meta reference complaining about how many skimpy outfits she’s had to wear for the missions.

We had Sarah’s pregnancy scare, leading Chuck to start ‘spiralling’ towards freaking out. Then of course Sarah started spiralling in their discussion before she went to aid Casey in rescuing Verbanski.

One of the neat little tricks I liked during the episode was Chuck and then Sarah tuning in to the dangers around them. It was in tune with the audience understanding that no matter what situation the find themselves in, they always manage to survive it.

I’m actually wondering if a major character will be killed off in these last few hours of the series, just to throw us a curveball.

In the Buy More sub-plot this time around, we had Jeff piecing together the puzzle of what goes on behind the scenes. Using a noteboard in the way that Chuck used the back of his Tron poster, he deduced that Sarah and Casey were spies and that Chuck was an asset. Okay, so he was a bit late with the info, but he was brain damaged up until recently.

It was fun to see Jeff and Lester tracking Awesome on the ‘drop’. They have done some “pretty decent spy work” before in ‘Versus the Best Friend’, but of course we knew that Awesome was acting as a decoy and knew he was being followed.

It certainly was, how should I put this, ‘interesting’ to see Lester embrace the feminine side everyone has talked about. He even got the wind machine!

I loved the fact that Morgan used Awesome to fake them out, but that Jeff, thanks to Lester, found out the truth and busted through the fake wall to see Chuck, Sarah and Morgan in Castle.

I’ll be interested to see if they try to use this newfound knowledge to wangle themselves positions in Carmichael Industries.

It seems that pretty much everything is wrapped up, although we didn’t get Casey’s reaction to Chuck and Sarah deciding not to rejoin the CIA, although the option is still open to him. Would he choose to go back, or do the roots he’s been putting down in Burbank have a stronger hold on him? Will we ever find out?

Next time: Chuck Versus Bo

MORGAN FACES THE CONSEQUENCES OF HIS TIME AS THE INTERSECT WHEN HE MUST PIECE TOGETHER A LOST WEEKEND IN VAIL — BO DEREK (“10″) AND ANGUS MACFADYEN (“BRAVEHEART”) GUEST STAR — As Chuck (Zachary Levi) and Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) try to realize a new, safer future, Morgan’s (Joshua Gomez) past as the Intersect sends them to Vail on one last mission, where they enlist the help of an unlikely source — the legendary Bo Derek (as herself). Elsewhere, Jeff (Scott Krinsky) and Lester (Vik Sahay) continue their own spy mission. Adam Baldwin, Sarah Lancaster and Mark Christopher Lawrence also star.

Here’s the trailer, take a look: