Chuck Vs The Beard

Chuck Vs The Beard is set to be a fan favourite long after the show has finished, not only was it directed by Zachary Levi himself, but it also featured a scenario we’ve all been waiting to see; Morgan finds out about Chuck’s secret.

I’ve said in the past that Yvonne Strahovski can act better with just her eyes than some in Hollywood can with their entire bodies, and despite being in last nights episode for a very short time, she did it again.
At the start, the scene in Castle where Chuck is told he’s benched, she says “You can talk to us,” but her eyes say, “You can talk to me.” You can see the disappointment in her eyes when he chooses not to, that she wants to be his confidante again. She’s still in love with him, but I don’t think she’s emotionally ready to commit to him without hearing him say that he still loves her. Another scene that needs a mention is when Shaw is preparing to call Langley to activate the base’s self-destruct, the tiniest hint in her voice that she was about cry if he dared do it with it without giving Chuck “five more minutes, for me.” That should have given a hint to Shaw that she is still willing to fight for Chuck, no matter who it’s against.
Shaw sees a bigger picture, but Sarah, like us, would very much like that picture to contain a certain Charles Irving Bartowski.

Last week was another Buy More-lite episode, this week it was very much a Buy More-centric one. The Ring had lured Shaw for Castle in order to gain access, steal their intel, and blow the place up, but to do that, they had to go in via the store. Obviously they either weren’t aware of the Orange Orange entrance, or they wanted to flush out Agent Carmichael and knew he worked at the Buy More. This seems to indicate that The Ring, or at least the local cell, knows an awful lot about Team Bartowski – using Devon as a decoy and knowing where Castle was located; obviously Sydney’s death didn’t stop the info on Devon being passed around a bit.

Now, the most anticipated element of the episode, where Morgan discovers Chuck’s secret, was well handled. Believing that they were going to die, since Chuck was having some sort of Intersect performance anxiety, was a great way of doing it. That scene was the re-kindling of the Chuck/Morgan bromance that we’ve been waiting to see for some time, so I think many fans will be happy with that. This means that Morgan is more aware of what Chuck is than Devon does. To Devon, Chuck is just a spy, but Morgan now knows the full extent of his Intersect-ed powers. We’ll have to wait until next week before either finds out that the other knows – should be fun!

I’ve watched the episode a few times now, and still you wouldn’t know that this was Zac’s first time directing. Some of the shots are rather cinematic, but some give him away as an actor’s director. Rather than doing something like sweeping shots and pull-backs of the Buy More revolution, he gave us shots in amongst the action which gave the supporting cast face-time on screen. That’s thinking like an actor and a director. Another scene I love is that little moment when Morgan knocks out the agent played by Diedrich Bader with a kung-fu-esque cry of “Wassah!”

Definitely looking forward to next week’s episode, guest starring Robert Patrick as a man from Casey’s past who has something to do with The Ring. So far this season has been getting better every week, who knows how awesome it’s going to be by the finale?
Well, okay, the writers… and probably the cast….. it was rhetorical!