Chuck Versus Sarah/Chuck Versus the Goodbye

Thanks for the memories. We wish a fond goodbye.

Photo Credit: NBC/TVFanatic.com

Well folks, that’s it. Last night saw the two-hour series finale of Chuck and it was everything we’d been promised. It was full of callbacks and emotion. Even a cold-hearted b*****d like me got a bit teary at times.

Even although it was the final two episodes, they functioned as one, to the point where they, again, dropped the opening credits for the second hour.

It was a trip down memory lane for both Sarah and us fans. From the assault on the D.A.R.P.A. lab, an homage to the very first scene of the pilot where Bryce Larkin steals the Intersect, right through to Chuck and Sarah’s dream house, it encapsulated the five amazing years we’ve had, without the need for flashbacks every few minutes.

The great thing about the finale is that it wasn’t just trying to remind Sarah why she fell in love with Chuck, it also served to remind us why we fell in love with the show.

It was funny, dramatic and touching in all the right quantities. What other spy drama wears its heart on its sleeve so openly?

The first hour, Chuck Versus Sarah, was certainly the darker of the two episodes, with Sarah manipulating those closest to her on Quinn’s orders and a lot of emotional pain for Chuck. At first we’re lead to believe that Sarah has killed Quinn, escaped, and still has enough of her memory to get home to those she loves.

Of course, she didn’t kill Quinn, but came pretty close to it, now he’s calling the shots pretending to be her handler. It’s quite amusing that Bizarro Sarah mistakes Chuck’s goofy good nature for a trap – one of the lighter moments of the episode.

Maybe it was just me, but Sarah seemed to soften slightly in deciding not to blow up the D.A.R.P.A. Intersect room. Could it have been that she didn’t see a need to kill Chuck, or perhaps it was just a disinclination to blow up a government facility.

Some of Sarah’s memory starts to come back once Chuck takes her to their dream home, although it’s not the house, or Chuck’s recounting of the dreams they had for the house, but the names she and he carved into a door frame.

Of course, once Quinn gets the Intersect glasses, Sarah is of no use to him, so he verifies Chuck’s story, that he’s been deceiving her and shoots at her. I think it was another step along the road that she was concerned about Chuck after he took the bullet for her.

Casey showed his gentler side by turning up at Sarah’s old room, telling her a bit about how they’d changed over the years and leaving the DVD of her mission logs. It was nice to see Sarah falling in love with Chuck via a series of small video diary entries.

Even although this all verified Chuck’s version of events, Sarah still didn’t feel that connection as she couldn’t remember going through all the things that made her fall in love with him.

The second episode saw Sarah back on the side of the good guys and gunning for Quinn. This allowed for more nostalgia and allowed this to be lighter as Chuck, and fate apparently, tried to take Sarah on a trip down memory lane.

The episode gave some of the usually mute Buy Morons a line or two of dialogue as Jeff and Lester were employed to help track down Sarah, using their network of contacts, or as Lester put it; “Unleash the perverts!”

We had references to Fulcrum, The Ring and Ted Roarke within the first few minutes of the episode, and the hits just kept on coming as Sarah, Chuck and Morgan went on a mission to find Renny Deutch in Berlin. First port of call was a restaurant that looked exactly like “El Compadre” in LA where Chuck and Sarah had their first cover date.

Next was a Russian consulate where we got a chance to see the pair dancing in eveningwear. This was followed by a trip to a Wienerlicious where it seemed that Sarah remembered a little more of her missing 5 years.

In an act that mirrored parts of “Chuck Versus the Ring” and his first mission in the pilot, Chuck once again put his personal desires aside in order to do what was right and took on the responsibility of the Intersect.

Thanks to Sarah, Chuck used the ‘Irene Demova’ virus from the pilot to defuse the bomb and save General Beckman, and likely a large part of the audience from being blown up.

However, the day could not have been saved by Chuck were it not for the intervention of a certain duo. One word: Jeffster!

Whereas in the season 2 finale, Jeffster played an unwitting part in helping, in this episode they were very much in on the plan. Despite turning up on their own initiative, they managed to save the day with a performance of A-ha’s ‘Take On Me’, earning them a standing ovation and the interest of a record producer from Germany.

In uploading the Intersect one last time, he was denied the opportunity to use the glasses to restore Sarah’s memory. As the team disbanded, with Casey leaving to go after Gertrude Verbanski, Sarah needed to take some time to find herself.

More pieces of her memory must have been resurfacing as she went to the beach where she had first told Chuck that he could trust her.

Taking advice from Morgan and following his heart, Chuck found her there and they started to reconnect. We got a montage of the couples important moments as Sarah asked Chuck to tell her their story and we fade to black as they share another first kiss.

 

Whilst Chuck and Sarah may have had a slightly ambiguous ending, others got their own happy endings. Alex and Morgan moved in together, Casey off to find Verbanski, Ellie and Awesome moving out to Chicago, Jeff and Lester getting a record contract. Even Big Mike got a happy ending, with Subway moving in to the Buy More!

Photo Credit: ZacharyLeviFan.com

“If you ever want to save the world again…. You know where I am.” – Gen. Beckman.

It’s been a fun ride.

Josh Schwartz, Chris Fedak, Zachary Levi, Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, Joshua Gomez, Sarah Lancaster, Ryan McPartlin, Scott Krinsky, Vik Sahay, Mark Christopher Lawrence, Bonita Friedericy, Julia Ling, a whole host of guest stars, all the writers, directors, producers and the rest of the crew. All of you are responsible for a show that captured the hearts and minds of people the world over, and for that we thank you from the bottom of our nerdy little hearts.

 

*fade to black*

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:

Chuck Vs The Cliffhanger

Girlfriend in a coma, I know, I know - it's serious.

Photo Credit: Mike Ansell/NBC

Last night saw the season finale of Chuck and just like the seasons before, it shook things up, or to use the traditional Chuck finale phrase, it was a game changer. Although the season has had patchy moments, it’s fair to say that these last couple of episodes have been strong.

Despite the fact that I knew they would never kill off Sarah, it had me gripped. What made it such an involving episode were the reactions of everyone else to the threat of her death and the drama that resulted from that.

It was such a compelling episode that I forgot to check in my viewership via the GetGlue app for the first half hour!

With Sarah at death’s door, Chuck was willing to risk everything to save her, with or without the Intersect. This was Chuck’s ‘Phase Three’, going all out, no matter what the cost, to save the woman he loves.

Although he’s been without the Intersect before, he was driven to embrace being a normal spy. Charles Carmichael might be a super-spy with all the powers of the Intersect, but we all know that Chuck Bartowski is more than that. It was a real moment for him when he realised that he could save the day using the skill set that he developed before he opened that email and all he has learned during his time as a spy.

The whole deal with Vivian Volkoff never really struck a chord with me. I’ve said in previous posts that she never seemed like a competent villain, especially following on from Timothy Dalton’s turn as Alexei. In truth, she never seemed like a fully enough realised character for anyone to love or hate. Even in this episode I felt rather indifferent about her, but I was happy that Hartley was reunited with her and that they were both given a second chance.

During the standoff in front of the hospital where all of the Russians parachute in, I was half expecting a Red Dawn reference. Wolverines!

I had discussed on Twitter, knowing the shows love of twists at the end, and the fact that they’d want to keep something back for a possible fifth season, that the wedding may not actually take place and that it was all in Sarah’s fevered mind. Guess I was wrong about that!

For the past couple of seasons, as Chuck has immersed himself further into the spy world, the torch was passed to Morgan. He became the kind of character that Chuck was when the show started, an extension of the viewer, thrown into this crazy world of espionage.

Now, with Morgan being Intersected, the metaphor is complete. Morgan IS the new Chuck.

*Although I thought you had to have a certain kind of ‘special’ brain to handle the Intersect. Obviously they’re more common than we were led to believe!

Of course, there is the possibility that Chuck could regain the Intersect at some point during the next season. Decker stated that the retrofitted sunglasses were a “suppression device”, so it’s not been removed, more locked away. It would certainly make for a great scene having both Chuck and Morgan using Intersect skills to take out an army of bad guys.

This episode could have made a splendid series finale with a lot of things coming pretty much full circle. It was a fairy tale ending; the bad guy was defeated, Flynn Rider Chuck marries his princess and the kingdom Buy More was saved.

But of course, there’s the classic Chuck twist, which leaves the whole thing open to more adventures.

Everything that has happened to Chuck and his family and friends since that fateful day Bryce Larkin sent him the email has been part of a big plan. Someone has been controlling the fates of Team Bartowski and those around them.

*Could the big bad for season 5 be a shady duo collectively known as Schwedak? Well, they have been controlling the lives of Team B from the start!

Now the stage is set for the fifth and final season of Chuck. Knowing it’s the last will allow some form of closure for a TV show that’s been a significant part of our lives for the past few years.

The campaigning will not let up; we have been issued a challenge to get 10 million viewers for Chuck to secure more than the 13 ordered episodes. If there’s anything Chuck fans know how to do, it’s to put everything behind our favourite show and push to get it noticed.

Hopefully the move to Fridays will help and not hinder that movement, despite it being the traditional day to put shows out to pasture.

What would you like to see happen in Season 5? How would you wrap up the characters stories?

Leave your thoughts in the comments section.

Chuck Vs The Wedding Planner

The Intersect who cried 'flash'!

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 2^nd 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.

Chuck Vs The A-Team

Bomb diffusing? How d’you like them apples?

Photo Credit: NBC

This episode saw Chuck sidelined by the two top Greta’s – the best of the new Intersect candidates. It was good to see them go back to the Greta thread that was introduced earlier this season, and then swept aside by the Volkoff arc. Also picked back up was the whole deal with the Orion laptop, which I’d hoped would be more than just a tool to get the Intersect working again. Seems I’m going to get my wish with Robin Givens shady character returning the laptop to Ellie in an underhanded move.

It also brought back something that we haven’t touched on for a while, that the CIA/NSA are still looking for people other than Chuck to become Intersect spies. I don’t think that’s been mentioned since the start of season 2.

We had an almost paternal moment between Chuck and Casey, with the latter making sure that Chuck could get to his juice box easily, even making sure it was his favourite! The fact that he no longer felt like a third wheel probably helped Casey focus more on his duty, but ultimately he realised that he missed Chuck and Sarah.

Since the introduction of Alex, he’s been becoming more of a family man, softening a little around the edges. Not much, but a little. This is Casey we’re talking about!

The storyline also served to show us how special Chuck is. He may be just one of many people who are capable of housing the Intersect, but he’s one of a kind.

The two agents, Greta and other Greta, or Vicky and Rick, were glad to be de-Intersected, with Rick even referring to Chuck as ‘that poor bastard’ for having to live with the Intersect constantly.

Vicky seemed to let the Intersect take charge, and in doing so killed the man and armed the bomb. Rick wasn’t thinking outside the box, relying too much on all the information he needed being in the Intersect.

Personally, I think the Terminator quip would have been far funnier and more meta if they’d managed to bring back Summer Glau, but Stacy Keibler worked well.

A small issue with the logic of this episode: if the whole idea was to keep the two teams separate, why did they build the second Castle base inside the first?

The non-spy story was pretty good, it didn’t feel as if the Awesome’s had been shoehorned in to give them screen time. As I mentioned previously, it brought the Orion laptop back to Ellie, as I think Papa B had intended.

Jeff and Lester managed an homage to Ghostbusters with the whole ESP test. The amusing thing, of course, is that Jeff does have some degree of psychic power when he really tries, but Lester dismissed it, reading CIA as a name, not as the initials. Idiot.

One final point, regarding the product placement: I thought that Awesome’s extolling the virtues of the Toyota Sienna was less than subtle. With this episode we got not just a product placement, but pretty much a complete commercial for it.

*The ratings came in whist I was writing this – not brilliant news. Chuck hit a low of 1.6, which isn’t great, but it could have been worse, considering that it wasn’t promoted terribly well, and the fact that Daylight Savings always screws with the ratings.

Next episode: Chuck Vs The Muuurder - Chuck is put in charge of a top-priority mission, but his leadership skills are pushed to the limit when there is a murder in Castle. Meanwhile, Awesome takes on a mission of his own when Ellie finds an alarming new hobby. Elsewhere, Morgan’s leadership is also tested when his Buy More troops wage war against Large Mart.

Take a look:

 

Chuck Vs The Leftovers

Welcome to the party, pal! More turkey?

Photo Credit: NBC

 Proving he doesn’t need an Intersect to have a multitude of skills, Zachary Levi stepped behind the camera again to direct his second episode. There were some slightly avant garde shots, but overall another fine work.
 This episode contains plot elements that bear some resemblance to those in the episode he directed previously, 'Chuck Vs The Beard'. In both, there is an enemy takeover at the Buy More, both looking to break in to Castle. Both have a big reveal; in 'Beard' it was Chuck revealing his spy credentials to Morgan, in this episode, it was Frost revealing to Volkoff that Chuck is her son, and that she has a family. Most importantly for me, both of them feature a Chuck who is unable to flash at the beginning of the episode, and has his kung fu restored by the end.

 Timothy Dalton was brilliant as the menacing, threatening villain, and the lovestruck villain who is apparently great with kids and wanted to meet the family. The menace carried through so that even in the supposedly comfortable setting of the family dinner, there was still that underlying feeling that anything could happen.
 Dalton has, for me, been outshining Linda Hamilton with his passionate performances, first as Tuttle and now as Volkoff. He manages to tap into that balance between serious and silly which is something this show does when it is at it's best. He may be best known for his role as James Bond, but he completely owns the Volkoff character.

  Was it just me, or did you expect someone to shout out ‘License to Kill’ or 'The Living Daylights' during the game of Charades? Well, it was a film, three words - although I have no idea what he was actually trying to mime!

 We had another great homage to Die Hard with Morgan filling the role of John McClane in clothing as well as action, although trust him to tape the gun to his back in such a way that it was unreachable! Yippee ki….oh.

 There was also the African-American computer hacker (with Nerd Machine sticker on his laptop!) and the very subtle inclusion of Dean Martin’s ‘Let It Snow’ when Chuck and Sarah are about to be attacked by Volkoff’s assassins.

 Speaking of which, considering that Chuck was willing to take on three ninjas in Castle just a couple of weeks ago, why was he so insistent that he couldn’t take on even one of those guys without having the Intersect? Is he really that uncertain of his own abilities?

 It turns out that the laptop is a portable Intersect, another curveball for us just as we started to think it wasn’t.

 I’m sure most of the business with the laptop will be quietly forgotten about, given the number of questions it raises. Awesome would need to explain to Ellie where it was, and he couldn’t convincingly lie if his life depended on it. What would have happened if Ellie had put in the correct password meant for Chuck? She knew the phrase ‘Aces, Charles’, having used it in the pilot. Then the business about WHY it was left for both Chuck and Ellie is a little vague at best.

 Ellie had to solve the first problem to unlock it for Chuck so that the Intersect could be restored. Does this mean that Papa B thought that Ellie would be helping Chuck in a professional capacity as well as in a familial one?

 Originally Steven didn’t want Chuck to be involved in the spy world, so I’m guessing that the laptop was programmed after he came to accept that Chuck was going to be a spy.

 I have my own theory as to why it was given to Ellie and then had to be passed on to Chuck. It is possible that, given Ellie’s background in neuroscience, she had to figure out the data storage problem for the Intersect so that she could help Chuck either to restore it, or possibly to come up with a more efficient storage method in the brain, thus enhancing it. She did say that Papa B had been looking at it from an engineering perspective, rather than a neurological one. She made a few adjustments to it, so perhaps this is Intersect 2.1?

 I liked the subtle references to, firstly the pilot, with Chuck falling straight backwards after absorbing the Intersect, and to the end of Season 2 with the line: “Guys, I know Kung Fu. Again.”

 One more thing, there was (I’m assuming) a little fan reference with Casey referring to Frost/Mary Bartowski as ‘Mama B’.

 Next episode: “But, soft! What light from yonder window breaks?” It’s Chuck Vs The Balcony – unfortunately we have to wait until January 17^th for our next fix. :(

In the meantime, here are some things you can do to fill the Chuck-less void.

- Watch Chuck again from the beginning; remind yourself how far they’ve come.

- Rent films like Terminator, Repo Man, Spies Like Us, Cobra, Die Hard and Tron; Chuck has referenced them all.

- Listen to the Chuck podcasts; you may have missed some.

- Go and see Tangled (if you’re in the US, it’s not out until late January in the UK)
- Join a Strip Kick class :) (I'm pretty sure these don't exist!)

- Fight your way across Thailand and earn an unflattering moniker!

 

Chuck Vs The Fear of Death

Intersect 2.0 encountered a serious error. If this is the first time you have seen this screen, restart your system.

Photo Credit: Joel Warren/NBC

  At the end of the last episode, which feels like an age ago, Mama B seemed to de-Intersect Chuck. However, all is not lost, as it appears that it was merely suppressed.

 Cue a team of scientists working for a month to try and restore our hero to his full spy potential and lift the ‘psychological rock’ off the Intersect.

 Follow this with the most bizarre Psychological Operations agent I have ever seen, Agent Rye, whose methods are less than conventional.

  This episode, like many others has a dual meaning in its title. The fear of death is supposed to be the thing that coaxes the Intersect into working again, but it is also Chuck’s fear that his spy career will be ‘dead’ without it.

 Sarah also has a fear that Chuck cannot function as a spy unless he regains the Intersect, something she makes clear to him when he decides to do whatever is necessary.

 Both of them seem to have forgotten the number of times he’s managed to save the day without using the Intersect. Even before the upgrade to 2.0 he was capable of great things, and I’m sure he must have learned something from having used Chuck-Fu a number of times now. He even took that online Gemology class on the flight over to Gstaad and thought to bring the loop for studying the diamonds.

 It seems that General Beckman has become a lot more emotionally attached to the team. Not only does she allow Chuck to use the ‘But my mom said..’ excuse, but when Sarah is anxious about finding where DeSmet has taken Chuck, she tries to calm her down by using her first name rather than Agent Walker.

 “Sarah, he’s out there, we’ll find him.” – Gen. Beckman.

The idea of the slightly crazy PsyOps agent helping Chuck was a good one, but I felt that the spy story swung between serious and funny without really finding enough of a balance. I also found the fact that 'Chuck Bartowski is the Intersect' seems to be an open secret now a little odd, unless they have a team dedicated to it, possibly trying to recreate it for use in more agents.

 The story in the Buy More worked a lot better, with Jeff and Lester on the verge of uncovering the secret of ‘Greta’ and the fact that the Buy More is actually a CIA/NSA substation. Quite frankly, if they worked anywhere else, they’d have been fired by now.

 We learned a couple of new things about Jeff this week. Firstly, his damaged brain makes him see things like people having tails and turning into woodland creatures, something I’m sure a psychiatric team would have a field day with. The second thing we found out is Jeff’s second skill (after Missile Command) – he can identify the ingredients in a Subway sandwich from a distance, and possibly by smell if you watch that scene again – how can he see it?

 Since Summer Glau was appearing in this episode, I’m sure many of us were expecting a Firefly reference. It was fleeting, likely to have been missed by anyone not familiar with the show, but if you listen carefully it’s there.

 Who else liked the fact that Greta growled like Casey at Casey? Worthy of a little smile at least.

 I should point out that I liked the opening sequence with the scientists, although how watching YouTube clips of kittens and people having skateboard mishaps would work is anyone’s guess. That skateboard fail was quite funny though!

 I'm looking forward to next week's episode and the resolution of the cliffhanger we were left with. I'm hoping that Chuck will learn during this Intersect-less story, however long it lasts, that he has abilities outwith the computer in his brain and doesn't need to rely on it to be a real spy.

 Next episode: Chuck Vs Phase Three, which, from the promo photos, looks to have some serious Sarah Walker in butt-kicking mode in it!

Chuck Vs The First Fight

For Sale: One family house with secret underground base (both slightly fire damaged). May require some work. Unique opportunity.

Photo: Warner Bros. Television Entertainment/Michael Ansell

  Holy crap!!

 That’s the cleaned up reaction of a lot of people to last night’s episode of Chuck. It seems that our hero wasn’t the only one who was duped by Timothy Dalton’s character of Gregory Tuttle, or should I say Alexei Volkoff.

 We all seemed to think when we heard that Dalton had been cast that he would be playing Volkoff, then it was announced that his character was called Tuttle and it seemed that idea went out the window. Bluff!

 This episode had some great comedy, good action, and enough intrigue and twists to be worthy of a Bond film. Having been written by the wonder-duo Rafe Judkins and Lauren LeFranc, I had high hopes for it, and it certainly did not disappoint.

 I know that a lot of people will have loved the scene between Ellie and Mary, with Sarah sitting in the background. Once again, Yvonne manages to say so much without saying a word.

 In an interesting link to last season, I noticed that they played the same song when the house was blown up as they played when Papa B was shot. One death and then another for Orion; firstly he is killed by Shaw and then his life’s work is destroyed by Volkoff with a little help from his estranged widow. Not only that, but it appears that Mama B de-Intersected Chuck, most likely not for the same reasons as Orion did though. Hopefully the computer left in the car will provide something for Chuck, or who knows, maybe Ellie will accidentally be Intersected!

 Mary Bartowski/Frost seems to be an interesting dilemma, she’s torn between her feelings as a mother, and her duty as a spy, albeit for the wrong side. She’ll do something to sabotage the mission he’s undertaken as he is an enemy spy to her; then she will do something in order to protect him as, despite their conflicting loyalties, Chuck is still her son.

 It leaves me wondering whether something will happen later on this season that forces her to choose between saving her son’s life, or completing her mission. I have a feeling that would not be an easy resolution for her at the moment.

 Morgan is enjoying himself as he becomes more involved in the missions. He might not be terribly adept at it, but he certainly brings an undeniable enthusiasm.

 The scene at the bar was hugely entertaining, from Morgan’s entrance, in which reminded me a little of David Caruso, to the classic flubbing when he drops the earpiece into the glass of water and tries to retrieve it.

 I loved that he referred to Casey and himself as a couple, and Chuck’s reaction to that was brief but brilliant. The scenes between Morgan and Sarah are brilliant, but those between Morgan and Casey show a little more; there is both an element of annoyance and of growing respect, or possibly just tolerance, from Casey towards the little bearded one.

 Timothy Dalton seemed to be having fun playing the character of Tuttle, a bumbling wannabe spy, somewhat of a departure from his role as Bond (a role I think he is highly underrated in) and the roles he played most recently in Hot Fuzz and Doctor Who.

 Of course, we’d guessed that he would be playing Volkoff, despite the bluff, but it was no less exciting when he eventually showed up, sharp-suited and ready to kill (licence or no) and destroy Orion’s secret base.

 There are two things I’d like to point out, the first being Chuck and Sarah resolving their fight whilst fighting off Volkoff’s agents was a brilliantly ironic idea.

 Secondly, I thought that the “Burgundy ’68 Mustang” was a little pushed as an idea. It could have been done with a little more subtlety rather than spelled out so that even the village idiot could see that it would be of major import.

 As always, I recommend checking out the latest ChuckYouTuesday podcast – just click the link to the Chuckgasmic blog in the side bar, but please remember it contains strong language.

 Next episode: Chuck Vs The Fear of Death, which guest stars Richard Chamberlain, Rob Riggle and Summer Glau. It airs on Mon 15^th Nov.

Chuck Vs The Living Dead

Oh, boy – Chuck is Shaw-ly in danger now!

Chuck Vs The Living Dead marked the return of Papa Bartowski, played by guest star Scott Bakula. By that very fact you knew it was going to be an intense episode, and boy, was it ever!

Things are moving quickly towards their thrilling and terrifying conclusion. Nefarious Ring agent Justin, using her to track down her father, has drawn Ellie further into the spy world than she’s comfortable with. Orion has a fix for the Intersect 2.0 that will help regulate it so that Chuck won’t go crazy. Oh, and Shaw isn’t dead, apparently.

We had a good mix of the slow paced plot and the action scenes that were being built up to. There were touching moments between Chuck and both Sarah and his father.

The way that it initially pained Stephen to find out that Chuck had downloaded 2.0, was brilliantly played. It was lovely how quickly, either before or during his short conversation with Ellie, Stephen decided that he was going to help Chuck by building a fix for Intersect 2.0 rather than force chuck to get de-Intersected again. The resolution nearer the end of the episode was a lovely family moment, a little father and son bonding and support of Chuck’s career choice.

It seems that Stephen Bartowski’s oddball act might not be so much of an act after all. If Chuck is going a little crazy because of Intersect2.0, then it’s more than likely that until starting work on ‘The Governor’, Papa B was having similar issues with the prototype Intersect in his head.

With all the drama coming up, will he get to finish his work before it’s too late?

We saw Morgan having several beers and pretty much swooning over Awesome and his awesome romanticism.  Morgan also had that neat little scene in Castle looking for the bulletproof pants, the hiding behind the riot shield when Sarah started to interrogate him!

Then we also had nail-biting moments of tension; I was on the edge of my seat at times, there were the set-ups and feints, and then there were the set-ups and the OMG moments.

Jeffster split, but got back together again – as if it was ever in doubt. Our favourite ‘Indian lesbian’ frontman quit the band in a scene reminiscent of one from Hook – saying, “Don’t try and stop me” a few times to intimate that he wanted to be stopped.

The now solo Jeff, or rather Jeff?, was cringingly bad, cementing his ‘creepy’ reputation by hitting on women using a keyboard, a vocoder and disturbing pickup lines.

Justin has gained Ellie’s trust even further by fuelling her paranoia with regards to Casey. Of course, how could she know that she’s chosen the wrong side to ally with; Justin is convincing, after all, he does work for the CIA, so he’s a good guy, right? Ellie is unaware of the spy world that has been going on around her for the past few years, although she appears to be one of about four major characters left who isn’t aware of Operation Bartowski.

As I usually recommend, check out the latest ChuckYouTuesday podcast – just click the link to the Chuckgasmic blog in the side bar, but remember, it contains strong language.

Next week, the 2-hour season finale – Chuck Vs The Subway followed by Vs The Ring, Part 2.

If you’ve managed not to watch the promo for this, then well done. I won’t spoil it for you, but as Josh Schwartz himself said – it’s like nothing they’ve ever done before.

Chuck Vs. The Tooth

Chuck Vs The Tooth was everything I thought it would be and more. I am really excited to see the finale now. The storm is gathering and it’s both exciting and frightening to see these portents.

To quote Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future; “If my calculations are correct …you’re going to see some serious shit.”

Let’s start, appropriately, right at the beginning. “Monday nights can be a bit of a wasteland.” In a few weeks that is set to be pretty accurate with three episodes left, the last two being shown as a two hour finale. It’ll be even more accurate if Chuck doesn’t get picked up for a fourth season (which isn’t going to happen – they’ll renew it, dammit!)

Spies Like Us was not only referenced, but also got some screen time. I detailed some of the references to that film from previous episodes in an earlier post. We had the phrases ‘spies like these’ (during watching Spies Like Us) and ‘spies like me’ (at the CIA psychiatric facility) so it got a good run this time out!

Other fun-to-spot items included: Morgan referencing Dune when talking to Devon: “Fear is the mind killer”, the Rorschach test images on the TV’s at the Buy More and, of course, Chuck calling Christopher Lloyd’s character ‘Doc’ on more than one occasion.

Somehow during the scenes at the mental institution, I kept expecting to see Hurley’s ‘friend’ Dave – note that this will only make sense if you’ve seen the Lost Season 2 episode ‘Dave’.

There were a couple of sweet ‘Awwww’ moments during the episode, most notably when Sarah is pleading with Dr. Dreyfus and it turns out that Casey is already there; he really does care a lot about Chuck, the big softy.

In terms of sinister plot developments; trouble is brewing for the Bartowski family. Ellie has been unwittingly recruited by The Ring in order to gain access to her father. What dastardly plans they have for him other than forcing him to build yet another Intersect is anybody’s guess – apart from the people who work on the show and those ‘In The Know’.

The only real problem I had with this episode was the bouncing between the quite dark moments and the light, and sometimes goofy, humour. While it was nice to see most of the cast on screen, and the return, albeit briefly, of Anna Wu, it felt as though some of the lighter scenes were there just to have those characters on screen. I really do hope that in the coming season (fingers crossed) that they do address the Intersect insanity problem, as I’m sure this story would have made a great two-parter.

Next Sunday (16^th May) NBC will announce the decision to renew Chuck – at least that’s what we believe and certainly what we hope. That might affect how we feel when watching the episode that airs the next night, the penultimate week of this season.

As usual, check out ChuckYouTuesday’s podcast – remember, it contains strong language.

Next week - Chuck Vs The Living Dead, which from the promos, looks set to be a scream!

Chuck Vs. The Role Models

Hello Kitty! or Lying and Tigers and Sarah – oh my!

Chuck Vs The Role Models was brilliant from the outset. Although not too familiar with Swoozie Kurtz, I knew that the inclusion of Fred Willard should be really good – everything I’ve seen him in has been great.

We got the opening scene based on the opening credits of Hart to Hart, of course, most of us had seen it a dozen times, but that didn’t make it any less awesome. In fact the whole pre-credits bit was a hoot and a half!

The episode was pretty much a stand-alone, apart form the last few minutes in which we find out that a Ring agent has poisoned Awesome and that something larger is afoot. Over all it was light with elements of drama with some brilliantly comedic moments from the unlikely teaming of Casey and Morgan. I loved the choice of music for his subversion test: more indicative of his perception of his abilities than of his actual ability.

Once again, Chuck’s ability to see the best in people and bring that out helped resolve a situation. In the beginning they may have had their jaded versus fresh views of each other – “Dear God, it's us 30 years ago," "Sarah, that's us in 30 years!" but in the end the Turner’s saw in Chuck and Sarah something that they had lost sight of over the years, that despite their differences they still loved each other and that was the important thing.

Morgan may not have had much success on his aptitude tests. He did almost pass one, but I wouldn’t really brag about that. Sure, he can name the guns, but Chuck was right to want to keep them away from him in the apartment as he’d be likely to kill someone other than his target. He may be the worst candidate the Casey has ever trained, but he put his life on the line to ensure Casey’s safety. As the big man himself says, “How many Marines you know go up against a Bengal tiger unarmed? You have to be a complete idiot.” Then again, as General Staal said in an episode of Doctor Who, “the bravery of idiots is bravery none the less”.

I did like the intercutting of Morgan and Chuck in their missions to steal something from around the neck of a sleeping giant, and the fact that Big Mike and a tiger sound very similar when taking a nap! Who would have guessed that Big Mike could help out in some way on a spy mission?

It intrigues me that Awesome has yet again been targeted by The Ring, this time in Africa. Initially we were meant to believe that they operated in decentralised cells, and that Sydney’s death would have prevented the misinformation of Devon’s status as a spy from getting to any other cells. Then he was targeted again in Vs The Beard, this time as a diversion, but surely this means that The Ring either believe him to be an agent, or know he is connected to Chuck. Either way, I feel a storm is coming.

Both this week and last week have been really fun episodes. I think that now the ‘will they, won’t they’ angst is no longer an issue, there can be a lot more focus on the balance between the comedic side and the dramatic side which the show combines, for the most part, brilliantly. Also the fact that Sarah is now comfortably with Chuck, it gives Yvonne the chance to do more of the light stuff which she had little of for the first two and a half seasons.

Next week is Chuck Vs The Tooth, an altogether more dramatic offering that guest stars the legendary Christopher Lloyd. Great Scott!

As usual, check out ChuckYouTuesday’s podcast – remember, it contains strong language.

Until next week, ‘Semper Fidizzle’ Chucksters!

Chuck Vs The Honeymooners

Chuck Vs The Honeymooners was the second outing for the new Chuck writers Lauren LeFranc and Rafe Judkins who proved that Vs The Tic Tac was not just beginners luck. Add to that mix Ali Adler, who always delivers great episodes, and you have what I think could be the Chuck Writers dream team. Not only that, but we had Robert Duncan McNeill directing, and that man has vision. I’m sure many will agree that he has directed a number of outstanding episodes.

But that’s enough about behind the episode; let’s get to the meat of it.

Morgan and Casey have to team up, to the annoyance of Casey, but the delight of the fans. I made a quick comment on Twitter, the sentiment of which is that Morgan has taken his place as the new ‘old Chuck’, albeit with a bit more enthusiasm for the spy game. His bumbling makes for great comic relief, but when it comes to the crunch he pulls out something really useful. Even part of one of the scenes, where Casey and Morgan were tied back-to-back, had echoes of Vs The Undercover Lover (“How do you like me now, sucka!”) As Casey himself admits; “Grimes here was resourceful and quick to action when necessary.”

Seeing as Casey got Morgan onto Team Bartowski, he was initially loathe to ask for his help, but seems to be commending him a lot quicker than he did with Chuck at the same stage. Seems to me that Casey has grown as a person more since the beginning of the season than in the rest of the series.

Chuck and Sarah started the episode wanting to quit the spy life, or at least believing that was what the other wanted. Eventually they realized that they don’t need to choose one over the other; they make too good a team both personally and professionally. During the fight scene in the café – which happens to be one of the best I have ever seen, and it would be criminal if the stunt team didn’t win an award for it – they have the dynamic which we previously saw with Sarah and Bryce, that synchronisation which allows them to be seriously kick ass.

Chuck now seems to be fully in control of the Intersect, being able to flash at will, which is nice to see. It was also really nice to see an episode, after all the darkness of the Shaw arc, where Sarah was enjoying herself most of the time, and with Chuck enjoying himself, and of course both of them enjoying each other ;) . Also, from a guys perspective, Sarah looked very seductive when discussing with Chuck about doing one last mission before they quit. :)

Devon and Ellie got a look in this episode. They are travelling off to Africa as part of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, but it’s not the last we’ll see of them this season. Plus we got an ‘unplugged’ performance from Jeffster; although why they were performing ‘Leaving On A Jet Plane’ dressed as ‘Bookends’ era Simon & Garfunkel is anyone’s guess. One thing is sure; it was much better than Ben Affleck’s version in Armageddon. I reckon that demand will be high for a Jeffster album, certainly after the season finale where we get to see the first Jeffster music video!

The most quoted line from this episode will undoubtedly be the one from General Beckman – “Off the record, it’s about damn time.” Ever so slightly meta, cos it’s what the shippers have been waiting for since season 1.

Laughs, romance, thrills and ass kicking skills; Chuck Vs The Honeymooners was an unabashedly feel-good episode. I know many of us were grinning from ear to ear after watching it.

As usual, check out ChuckYouTuesday’s podcast – remember, it contains strong language.

Next week, Chuck Vs The Role Models. It has guest stars Swoosie Kurtz and Fred Willard, so it’s bound to be a cracker.

Chuck Versus The Other Guy

Chuck Vs The Other Guy was billed as the Chuck we’ve been waiting for, and damn was it ever!

The other guy is of course Shaw, who has been looking a bit creepy in a number of episodes. Now we know why, or so it seems.

This episode is full of great moments for the fans no matter what your favourite element of the show is. We get to see Chuck gear up with a tactical assault team in the pre-credits, perhaps slight overkill, but then again, Sarah did appreciate the tank. Casey gets to kill some bad guys and capture the director of The Ring – a kind of reunion for Jayne and Badger if you watch Firefly – and gets his old job back. Morgan becomes an official member of team Bartowski, much to Gen. Beckman’s chagrin. I’m sure the biggest moments for a lot of fans are the Chuck and Sarah moments; Sarah finally admits that she loves Chuck and they get together, properly. I’m sure that in that hotel room in France, Chuck is hoping not to find another IOU from Morgan!

Despite the amount of planning that has gone into the operation to steal the Intesect plans and kill Sarah, Shaw seems to be somewhat a reluctant bad guy, he gives Chuck the chance to stay out of it, he didn’t want to hurt Chuck because he wasn’t involved in his wife’s death. He made sure that Sarah was drugged so that she didn’t suffer as much when he killed her, it was the CIA he wanted to suffer. In giving the Intersect plans to The Ring, he would harm the security of the entire country, but his mind was bent on revenge, so he wasn’t thinking straight.

On the NBC forums, not long after the season started, somewhere, although I can’t actually find the post, I said that Chuck would kill someone by the end of the season, but it would be in order to protect Sarah. I think we all hoped it would be Shaw that he killed and I guess our wish was granted J

One thing that doesn’t sit right with me is the question of when Shaw was turned by The Ring.

The most logical time would have been before he infiltrated Team Bartowski, but that is fraught with problems. If this was the case, why did The Ring try to get Shaw’s intel and destroy Castle, and why did he put on a performance of finding out about his wife’s death if that was a) what helped The Ring turn him and more importantly b) nobody was there to see it.

Sure, from a storytelling perspective, we needed to find out that Sarah killed Evelyn Shaw so we would understand Daniel Shaw’s motive. It was very much a reveal and deceive tactic if he was a double agent, but from a plot perspective, it didn’t make sense.

If The Ring turned Shaw after he found out that Sarah killed Eve, then more of the previous plot elements make sense. It also explains why the Director said that Shaw was his newest agent. However, what fails to make sense is the whole set-up of the ‘creepy Shaw’ that gave the audience the feeling that he had a hidden agenda. Given the fact that he must have been recruited in a really fast time, and a lot of other things would be put down to coincidence, and I don’t believe in coincidence, that whole idea falls apart.

As usual, check out ChuckYouTuesday’s podcast – remember, it contains strong language.

The next two weeks are repeats, Chuck Vs First Class followed by Chuck Vs The Beard, so no new blog posts, but remember to watch live as they still count on the ratings.

Also, as I said in the last post, why not rent Spies Like Us during the hiatus as well. It’s a film that is well worth watching, plus you get the fun of spotting the references from Chuck.

I’ll be back in three weeks with a rambling about 3.14 - Chuck Versus The Honeymooners.

Chuck Versus The American Hero

Chuck Vs The American Hero was another episode that contributes to the over-use of the word ‘Awesome’.

The American Hero of the title seems to be Shaw, Gen. Beckman refers to him as “..a true American Hero” as he was willing to sacrifice himself for the good of his country. We know that his agenda was more based on revenge and that the patriotism was pretty much a bonus.

Talking of hidden agendas, Casey, Morgan and Awesome all helped on Chuck’s ‘mission’ to win back Sarah for their own reasons. Casey wanted out of the Buy More and back into the spy life, Morgan wanted to be more included in the spy life, and Awesome wanted Chuck to go so that he no longer had to lie to Ellie.

Jeff and Lester proved that they are indeed world-class stalkers, managing to tail Shaw and The Ring agents without being spotted. Kudos. If they weren’t quite so creepy/stalker types they’d probably be impressive spies. An honourable mention must go to Jeff’s van ‘Loretta’, who managed to keep up with Shaw’s sports car – well, the van is honourable, the activities it’s used for are probably less so.

We had this season’s reference to ‘Spies Like Us’ with the soda machine elevator. If you haven’t seen the film, go and rent it during the two-week hiatus. It stars Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase and is a great film.

Season 1 had GLG-20, Season 2 gave us ‘Doctor, doctor, doctor … and doctor’, Chevy Chase, and, maybe by sheer coincidence, the character Emmett Milbarge – a combination of the title characters from Spies Like Us, Emmett Fitz-Hume and Austin Millbarge.

By the end of the episode Shaw knows that Sarah killed his wife as her Red Test, that would have been a bit of a roadblock in the relationship, were it not that she’d already chosen Chuck over Shaw. Considering she said that she was no longer in love with Chuck, she made a very quick turnaround when Casey revealed that he was the one who killed Hunter Perry on Chuck’s Red Test. This also reveals how much of a shipper Casey is; he’s willing to compromise himself in order to get Chuck and Sarah together. He sees that the two of them need each other to function properly.

Sarah has very much had the role of damaged goods for a lot of this season, having had her heart broken and seen changes in Chuck that she despised in herself. She’s had a crisis of confidence and of personality all because of Chuck. The most prominent occasions have been when she’s away from Chuck, she felt that she couldn’t talk to him because of the heartbreak and so confided in Shaw, who it has been stated is “as stiff as a board”.

Sure, we’ve had occasions where she’s gone back to being the kick-ass chick we love. Versus The Tic Tac is, for me, the best example of this, and of course, she crumbled and went crying back to Shaw when she saw Chuck about to kill a Ring agent in cold blood. Hopefully now that Chuck and Sarah are getting together, so long as manic Shaw doesn’t go completely mental, we should see a strengthening of the relationship that we left in First Class.

Next week, Chuck Versus The Other Guy, which looks set to be another cracking episode. Then of course the two-week break before we get to see the last six episodes of the season. I can hardly wait to see how good they are, but at the same time, I don’t really want the season to end, especially given it’s current status ‘on the bubble’

Chuck Versus The Final Exam

What an episode! Chuck Versus The Final Exam definitely makes the grade as far as I’m concerned.

A mission in two parts to determine Chuck’s future, this episode continues the theme that was brought to the forefront in Versus The Tic Tac; sacrifice. Unbeknownst to our hero, the intelligence gathering stakeout is just part of the test. The final exam of the title is to do what is necessary in the spy line of work. Can he kill to protect the country?

Chuck was presented with his own Kobayashi Maru scenario. Kill Perry, become a spy and lose Sarah, or let him live, fail to become a spy and lose Sarah. The problem that was never addressed was that he had a lot more to lose than Sarah if he failed his ‘Red’ test. They couldn’t let him wander around with the Intersect in his head, he would have to be killed, or they could spend ages trying to find Orion again to de-Intersect him, again.

Of course Sarah believes that Chuck passed the test by himself, even though we know he couldn’t intentionally kill someone. For Sarah to see him standing above the body, gun in hand, not only was it Chuck becoming the person she feared he would, there was also a metaphor; ruthless spy Charles Carmichael had killed loveable nerd Chuck Bartowski.

Throughout the episode we had callbacks to earlier in the series, most notably to Versus The Sizzling Shrimp, their very first stakeout. Not only do these remind us how far Chuck has come from his car-bound days, but they also remind Sarah of the Chuck she first met, and how, ever since Prague, he has been slipping away from her.

Her guilt is obvious; she looks uncomfortable in his company at times, especially after being reminded of the nerd she fell for and realizing who she has helped him become. She is ill at ease because she knows that she is the reason he’s doing all of this. “I wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for you,” he says at one point, hammering it home to her. She’s following orders despite it being against everything she wants. During the discussion with Shaw before meeting at the train station it looked like she was going to tell him to go to hell. I know a number of people would have liked that!

We shouldn’t forget the lighter side; we had some great comedy moments as well. Chuck on the side of the hotel sans towel; that seemed to be quite a hit with some fans!

Buy More got a look in, Casey adapting, or not, to civilian life. Now that his job is working at the Buy More, all that aggression normally channelled into beating up bad guys was, well, channelled into knocking heads, Jeff and Lester’s to be exact.

Big Mike had some good lines; “Are you strong enough to bend like the reed and not snap like the Kit-Kat?”

His philosophy that to get your head right, you gotta get your threads right seems to work for Casey, for now. A dapper new suit for the temporary Assistant Manager seems to calm his temper, but how long before he can get back to doing what he loves (and we love) and ‘Unleash The Casey’?

I could be wrong, but did it look like he could almost give Chuck a little hug when he got his ‘present’ – “It was a thoughtful felony.”

But the episode ended on a low note for shippers. Sarah tells Shaw she is no longer in love with Chuck, and Chuck is of to DC to fill out the paperwork and be officially welcomed into spyhood. Fear not, for all will be resolved. I know it, you know it, so lets sit back and enjoy the ride!

Next week, Chuck Versus The American Hero in which Chuck goes to save Shaw, not because he’s told to, but for Sarah. He just wants her to be happy, even if it’s not with him. Sweet, in a sickening kind of way, isn’t it?

As usual, check out ChuckYouTuesday’s podcast – remember, it contains strong language.

Final note: the ratings were posted this morning, and they aren’t looking good. They stayed steady from last week at a 1.9, a series low. Hopefully it’s just a bit of a blip, but only time will tell. Don't freak out - yet!

Chuck Vs The Tic Tac

This season just keeps delivering the goods. Chuck Versus The Tic Tac may seem an odd title, but the episode was full of minty fresh drama and action. For those of you who watched the episode, the title makes perfect sense, if you haven’t watched yet, why the Chuck not?

Robert Patrick, probably most memorable as the liquid metal T-1000 in Terminator 2, guest starred as Casey’s old commander, James Keller, the guy who turned him from Alex Coburn into John Casey. He plays military types very well, and brought a menacing air to the character, as was needed.

The action sequence at Casey’s former fiancée’s house had me thinking of The Matrix for pretty much the first time since Chuck Versus The Predator. Chuck takes the Laudanol pill to calm his emotions and quell his fear and suddenly he becomes Neo, dodging bullets. All that was missing was bullet-time and the slo-mo 3D rotation.

I liked the parallel drawn between Casey and Chuck, Casey choking Keller to death and, not much later, Chuck being in danger of doing the same thing to another Ring agent. Interestingly, it seems that the antidote to the pill is Sarah Walker; Chuck sees her and his emotions come back, just in time.

I mentioned in a previous post about things being set up for later – this episode was less of a step in that direction and more of a leap. Casey was given his ‘second second chance’ by General Beckman and demoted to civilian, and how that must have hurt him. I think it pained him deeply; bad enough that he was giving Chuck relationship advice. Worse still, he’s now in a similar position to where Chuck started; the Buy More is his life now, but you just know that Casey being the kind of person he is will be the best he can be at that. There, that wasn’t as spoilery as it could have been!

Considering that this episode was written by Chuck first-timers Rafe Judkins and Lauren LeFranc, they managed to produce one of the best episodes of the season. Kudos. They had the spy action kick-assery for Chuck and a return to form for Sarah. There were two heartfelt chats, one between Sarah and Chuck, essentially her getting the ‘please don’t change, I love you for you,’ stuff off her chest, and one between Casey and Chuck regarding sacrifices made for the job.

As usual, check out ChuckYouTuesday’s podcast – remember, it contains strong language.

Looking forward to next week - Chuck Vs The Final Exam. Chuck has to pass a final test to become a proper spy and has to try and win back Sarah from Shaw. Morgan would tell you it’s on at Oh Twenty Hundred pm EST on NBC.

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!