Chuck Vs The Push Mix

I’m at my peak, mentally and physically. I’ve been doing yoga. Bring on the lasers!

Photo Credit: Jordin Althaus/NBC

When NBC originally commissioned the fourth season, this episode was meant to be the season finale, if not series finale. However, with the addition of a further 11 episodes, this just became number 13 of 24.

 It had all the feel of a finale; the plot points we’ve been building to were resolved and each of our protagonists got a happy ending. Volkoff was taken down, ending not only his evil empire, but also the separation of the Bartowski family as Mama B finally came home after two decades; Ellie and Awesome now have their own little Awesome, and Chuck finally managed to propose to Sarah.

 However, unlike other season finales, no other elements were brought in. At the end of Season 2 in ‘Chuck vs The Ring’ we had the introduction of The Ring and the cliffhanger of “guys, I know kung-fu!” In ‘Chuck vs The Ring Part II’ we had Orion’s secret base uncovered and the mission to find Mama B was introduced.

As a spy, Chuck has never been more competent or devious than in this episode. Fans will note that the Intersect was barely used the whole time, and when it was used, Chuck was flashing on intel rather than an ability; something we’ve not seen for a while.

In the execution of the plan to bring down Volkoff and rescue his mother, Chuck showed that he was an equal to Sarah. Not only did he do the mission without relying on the Intersect, but also, despite the danger, he was willing to risk everything for the people he loved.

 As Alexei Volkoff, Timothy Dalton has proved himself as the best ‘big bad’ of the series. Fulcrum were a little sporadic, The Ring were a little weak at times, Shaw was ….. well, best not to go there, but Volkoff was both menacing and fun, evil yet entertaining.

 The writers did a spectacular job in creating this character, and Dalton absolutely nailed the performance every single time. Sure, the show is genre spanning, but the scenes between Dalton and Linda Hamilton showed that, when they want it to be, ‘Chuck’ can be a brilliantly compelling a spy drama.

As mentioned at the start, Chuck managed to propose to Sarah. Taking Casey’s advice, he didn’t need a romantic setting, so he proposed to her in that hospital corridor. We didn’t need any dialogue to know how he asked, or what the answer was, as the body language in that scene said it all. Cleverly, the floor buffing machine served two purposes in the scene; firstly to show how unromantic the setting was, and secondly to understate the scene – there was no dialogue, no music, just the sound of the buffer and a slow fade to black as Sarah gives the answer we’ve all been waiting for.

Whoever decided to have the proposal in the background with the buffer drowing out the dialogue is a genius. After having the whole big romantic gesture going on in ‘Chuck vs The Balcony’, the subdued nature of the scene just made it that more powerful for me.

Finally, we got another performance from Jeffster! which recalled classic Jeff and Lester; entirely inappropriate and almost cringe worthy at times. I liked how it seemed to split the ‘audience’ in the hospital, we had those who were shocked and appalled, and those who were actually enjoying the performance and even dancing with the boys! Ellie’s face when she heard them over the intercom was priceless. As well as the choice of song and her general dislike of them, she was no doubt recalling their impromptu performance that ended up ruining her first attempt at a wedding.
Speaking of the creepy duo, I’m hoping that they were out of earshot when Chuck was discussing the CIA undercover protection team for Ellie and Awesome. He wasn’t really speaking in hushed tones and neither Jeff nor Lester seemed to be that far away from the Nerd Herd station!

Hopefully, now that we’ve zipped through 13 episodes, the final 11 will have a bit more breathing space. With a story that most shows would take 2 seasons to tell, everything was building to last night in a very short time. Now they have room to play about a bit, Josh Schwartz said that the next episode will be a “launching pad” for a new story-arc, although where it will go from there is anyone’s guess.

Next episode: Chuck Vs The Seduction Impossible – Team Bartowski travel to Morocco to rescue suave spy Roan Montgomery and Sarah dresses as a belly dancer. Miss it at your peril!
 
 

Chuck Vs The Gobbler

Back in black – is it Sarah Walker or Miranda Lawson?

 

Credit: NBC

 After setting up Sarah’s mission to infiltrate Volkoff Industries last week, no time was wasted in getting straight to it. Of course, since the initial run was supposed to be 13 episodes, the next one would have been the finale. This means that in order to move the story along quickly, certain elements felt a little rushed.

 The reunion in Castle where Sarah reveals her new look felt a little off. We don’t know how much time has passed between the end of last episode and this one, but it seems that Sarah has had time to do a number of rogue missions to attract the attention of Volkoff. As it was, it seemed like Sarah had barely been gone a week, meaning that I wasn’t getting the relationship anxiety that our hero couple were feeling over their separation.

 Talking of missions, the whole part with Sarah breaking Yuri “The Gobbler” out of prison was amusing enough, but is so full of plot-holes that you’d have difficulty telling it apart from Swiss cheese.

 It shows what kind of man Casey still is when Team B are presented with pictures of Yuri’s victims. Both Morgan and Chuck are slightly disgusted by them; Casey’s remark is “impressive.”

 As a whole, the episode was very enjoyable, and certainly a far cry from the light, romantic fare that we had last week. Everything was mapped out in colours during the show; the shadier world of Volkoff was very much in dark colours, best illustrated by the fact Sarah was all in black, even her hair colour, whereas we had the light colours of the Buy More, the apartments, and even the hospital at the end.

 The inclusion of Ellie and Awesome and their indecision over what to name the baby felt a little weak, almost as if it had been shoehorned in to show that a) the writers hadn’t forgotten they were there and b) somehow we needed to be reminded that there was a baby on the way as we haven’t seen them for a while.

 It was nice to see them, and it did give an excuse to work the Buy Morons into the story, because I really don’t think they would have had any part in this episode otherwise.

 I’m also not sure how our favourite ‘employee of the month’ rejects will fit into next weeks not-a-finale finale

* A little side-note – if you want to be as stylish as the Woodcombs, then you can get the Grunka set from Ikea. It may have been one of the most unusual, but subtle product placements in the show, because it does exist. It’s a 4-piece utensil set with a spoon, a ladle, a spatula and a spaghetti server.

 I liked the visual metaphor at the end for how the characters were feeling. Whilst Alex was by Casey’s bedside with Morgan, showing the love that they felt for one another, both Chuck and Sarah were sitting alone, feeling isolated.

 Sarah’s isolation is a choice that she made, but she can’t help feeling lonely without Chuck. I suppose her consolation is that she’ll be with him again once this is all over.

 Chuck, on the other hand, isn’t sure where Sarah’s loyalties lie, now that she appears to have tried to kill Casey. Without Casey to reassure him, and explain that side of the plan, he feels lost and alone.

 It was nice that Morgan and Casey’s discussion about expressing love had a payoff, like a metaphysical “Chekhov’s Gun”.

Next episode: Chuck Vs The Push Mix – and from the promo, it looks like an epic end to the Volkoff storyline. Add to that the fact that the last 10 minutes are “the best 10 minutes of Chuck ever” according to Schwartz & Fedak, and you have NO reason to miss it.

 Oh and finally, Easter egg that everyone got – Chuck’s inmate number – 092980 – which is Zac’s birthday.

 

Chuck Vs The Balcony

I’ll have a bottle of the one with the stork on the cork and the stable on the label, please.

Credit: NBC

 Chuck returned triumphantly last night after what seemed like an age, well, it was several weeks anyway. For me it was a strong episode; just the right amount of funny, goofy, action-packed, heart-warming and heart breaking that is sure to make this one of the season favourites for most.

 Chuck was back to being far more like the Chuck we grew to love in the first couple of seasons. Of course, he was still able to kick ass with style, especially when fighting whilst holding the wine glass.

 Chuck aiming for the perfect proposal was the main plot of this episode and even Casey got to put in his two cents on proposing, words which cut right to the heart of it and put into perspective all of Chuck’s obsessing over the mythical ‘perfect proposal’.

Morgan played quite a big role in this episode, co-ordinating the sub-mission(s) with some amount of efficiency. He has morphed into quite the go-to guy, having had his skills as ‘The Magnet’ used in Phase Three, and now his planning and strategizing (undoubtedly gleaned from his hours of Call of Duty experience) put to use.

 If I were going on a mission, I’d want Morgan to be involved. When he plans for everything, he really does plan for Everything! – Tide to Go sticks?

 I loved the fact that Casey had as much investment in the proposal as Morgan did. Put those two together and fun always happens.

 Actually, it seems you can put Morgan with pretty much any character and it will be a great scene.

 The pace really picked up when Sarah took control of the proposal sub-mission. She knew how important it was to Chuck, and it being important to him, made it important to her. I doubt that she knew, when she said that she would do anything to bring down Volkoff, how quickly General Beckman would put the ‘double agent’ plan into motion.

 I can imagine there were a few moist eyes at the end of the episode when Sarah revealed that she was following in Mama B’s footsteps and had to leave to take down Volkoff from inside his organization. That makes, by my count, 4 attempts that Chuck made to propose, and a grand total of zero actual proposals made.

 Rewinding a bit from that, Sarah used her ingenuity to play the role of ‘silly drunk blonde’ in order to help Casey out of a fix in the wine cellar. It’s nice to see that the writers are more open to giving Yvonne more humourous scenes now that Sarah has grown as a character and let her hair down, so to speak.

 Another highlight of the episode was the first Jeffster performance of the season. After initially not wanting to meet his arranged bride, he quickly changed his tune and tried to impress her with his ‘Saskatchewan Hinjew’ parlour, hastily rigged up in the HTR. When that backfired he had a moment with Ginsana (sp?) that came across as quite sweet and told her he would reveal his true self. Alas, his at times manic and wild eyed, rendition of ‘Is This Love’ by Whitesnake inevitably scared her off. Can we blame her?

Next episode: Chuck Vs The Gobbler – Sarah gets a new look as she infiltrates Volkoff Industries and Ellie and Awesome talk baby names!

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 Phase Three

Forget taking names. Sarah Walker is just here to kick ass.

Photo Credit: Greg Gayne/NBC

 If you were still sitting on the fence regarding the awesomeness of Yvonne Strahovski/Sarah Walker, then this episode should have turned you into a fan.

 It has been suggested by a number of people on Twitter that Yvonne deserves an Emmy for her performance in this. I think it would be hard to find many fans that would disagree, and I’m sure those outside the fandom would admit that she should at least be in contention.

 This episode was, of course, Sarah-centric, and it showed us that she needs Chuck as much, if not more, than he needs her. Fighting her way across Thailand and taking on anyone who got in her way, Sarah proved that she was willing to do whatever it took to rescue Chuck.

 For me there was a great comparison to Chuck in last week’s episode. Chuck thought that he needed the Intersect to be a spy, and needed to be a spy to have Sarah; for that he was willing to risk anything. This week, Sarah was willing to risk everything to rescue Chuck because she realised she needed him to have as normal a life as possible.

 As well as the kicking of ass that went on, there was a great deal of heart and emotion to Sarah in this episode. Despite the loss of Chuck taking her dangerously close to crossing the line, there were also some very tender moments. The scene where she finds his proposal plan, when she smells his shirt, and when Sarah tells Chuck, as he lies unconscious, that she loves him, that she wants to marry him were very moving.

 I loved that Sarah referred to Morgan as ‘The Magnet’. This could be his permanent new nickname; it’s certainly better than ‘Organ’!

 Casey was a lot more reluctant in this episode to include Morgan in the mission than he has been recently. From taking him to rescue Chuck and Sarah from his old squad, to telling him he wouldn’t learn anything if he stayed in the van, it seemed that casey had been embracing the bearded one as his protégé. Okay, so Morgan has never been trusted with a loaded gun, but there’s plenty of time – baby steps, little ammo-less baby steps.

“You’re not getting bullets for a long, long time” – Casey to Morgan.

 Events in this episode did get me thinking how Casey would react if ever something were to happen to Alex involving the spy world. No doubt that scenario would largely involve bodies flying about, as The Casey would truly be unleashed.

 Ellie finally found the computer in the car that Papa B left for her, and it was indeed specifically left for her.

 It was nice to see the Buy More gang outside of the store, although why Awesome would agree to give them all a physical regardless of their contribution to fixing the Orion computer is beyond me. Nice callback to Season 2 with Lester referring to it as a Roark 7.

 It made for a wonderful cliffhanger having Ellie log into it and then that reaction. I wonder what could be on it? Luckily it seems not to be a version of the Intersect – I dread to think what would have happened in it were and Lester had activated it, or even worse, Jeff!

 It seems that the Intersect-less arc will continue, hopefully for a few more episodes. Will we see Chuck being a spy during a mission without having the Intersect to rely on? Perhaps he needs to have the confidence not to use it for it to start working again.

What are your thoughts?

 Next episode: Guess who’s coming to dinner? Chuck Vs The Leftovers, which has, for me, one of the most anticipated Terminator references. I know that because it was spoiled by the preview at the end of this week’s episode. Thanks NBC!

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.