Chuck Vs The Family Volkoff

Family ties and family lies? Cool, or not cool.

Photo Credit: Michael Yarish/NBC

Chuck Vs The Family Volkoff certainly had it’s moments, but a couple of the twists seemed rather obvious. This episode started to move all the pieces towards the endgame, but who will end up facing checkmate?

We had three children caught between their parents: Alex, Ellie and the mention of Sarah having been in that situation as a child.

Alex couldn’t invite Casey to her graduation because her mother believes he is dead, so she’s had to lie about him. After Sarah talked about her experience being in the middle, this didn’t sit well with Casey. Inevitably, Alex wants to tell her mother now, something that Casey is even more reluctant to have happen. Which is the lesser of two evils, or will there be a choice?

Ellie has been working on the Intersect problem at home, as her father wanted her to, but Mary isn’t happy about it. Add to the fact that Gen. Beckman seems to be continuing with Director Bentley’s plan to have Ellie crack the secrets for them, this puts Mama B in an uncomfortable position.
In both cases, it seems that the truth will come out, one, apparently next week, the other, most likely before the end of the season.

There was some nice screen time between Alexei and Vivian, the father trying to make amends with his daughter. Of course, she has fully embraced what it means to be a Volkoff, and has become evil and manipulative.
The only problem with this family reunion was that it showed how much better a villain Timothy Dalton is. He certainly didn’t disappoint in this episode, being both menacing and funny. His apparent act to turn over a new leaf seemed sincere at times, but you couldn’t help but wonder if he really meant it. I was in no doubt at the end of the chess game that he’d lured Team B, and specifically Chuck into a trap, but he really did seem to want to make amends with his daughter. Had Vivian been this seasons main villain, it might have worked, but when you consider that she’s the replacement for her father, it just feels a little flat.

The idea behind it is a good one, a Dark Side parallel of Chuck. He’s an accidental spy from a family of spies, and she’s an accidental second-gen villain. The fact that she seems to have embraced the family business so readily doesn’t really ring true for me. The woman we met in ‘Masquerade’ becoming the vengeful criminal mastermind just seems to have happened very quickly, although I’m not totally sure of the timeline on that.
I’m not sure if it’s the writing or the actress, but Lauren Cohen as Vivian Volkoff just doesn’t have the charisma to be a convincing threat. She certainly doesn’t come off as enjoyable as Dalton, with his moments of ice-cold villainy counter pointed with his fun loving nature. It’s like being fed steak and fine wine, then being switched to a burger and soda.

Unfortunately, it appears that the rest of the season will lean on Vivian being the big bad, assuming that we’ve seen the last of Alexei, with him being wheeled off back to prison.

*Apologies to any fans of Lauren Cohen, but she’s just not doing it for me as a villain.

More fun stuff, with Casey and Morgan turning into a married couple! Their co-habitation seems to have put them in sync with each other. Drinking their orange juice in unison and bickering over mouthfuls of cereal was a joy to see.

It was also nice to see the continuation of Ellie becoming more unwittingly involved in the spy world. She’s now turned the tables a little on her family, lying to her brother and spying on her mother, which is nothing if not returning the favour.

It also managed to tie Ellie to Vivian in a way, with both of them interested in the mysterious Agent X, a person that Mary Bartowski wasn’t even aware of until this episode.

What I took from the overall theme of this episode, is that families keep secrets, families lie, but ultimately, families are a blind spot or a weakness for people, no matter who they are.


Next episode: Chuck Vs the Wedding Planner – When Chuck and Sarah get conned out of their wedding money, there is only one man they can turn to for help — Sarah’s conman father, Jack Burton. Meanwhile, Morgan pressures Casey to face Alex’s mother.

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