Prepare For The Jump To Light Speed – Episode 3.16 – Chuck Vs The Tooth

Written by Zev Borow & Max Denby

Directed by Daisy von Scherler Mayer

‘Doc! I’m not insane!’

Fasten your seat belts everyone! Chuck is about to engage hyperdrive once again. Much like the last handful of episodes from Season Two the narrative from Chuck is amping up. In the ChuckVerse amping up the story narrative means going way past eleven and off the scale into faster than light mode. It has been ‘Engaged’ with Chuck Vs The Tooth.

One of the things to be savored about Chuck is its willingness to push the storyline in new directions and the characters along with it. The downside to that is the show often forges ahead through fertile dramatic ground planting seeds without ever coming back to partake of the bounty from those plantings. It is a tip of the iceberg approach to storyline that skims between dramatic issues with no time allotted to diving deeper to explore the treasures that lie beneath the surface.

Grimes. Morgan Guillermo Grimes.

In Chuck Vs The Tooth a cornucopia of new ideas are thrown out: Chuck’s apparent merging of his subconsciousness with the Intersect, the potential for the Intersect to overpower Chuck’s brain, Chuck possibly going insane, Sarah unable to say ILY to Chuck, Ellie being pulled into the spy world by the Ring, Chuck and Morgan running missions without the rest of TeamB, and the possible return of Shaw. So many avenues to explore. So little time to do it in. Throw in the return of Anna and the end result is a bursting at the seams with concepts. Many of which could have entire episodes devoted to them.

It is a marvel that Chuck can take so many disparate elements, cram them into one episode, and come out with one of the best installments of the season. Plus it is done in the most balanced manner of the season to date. There are equal measures of spy intrigue, action, romance, relationships, drama, comedy, and nerd references that mimics those plate spinner acts. Is there any show that can switch as seamlessly from comedy to drama as Chuck can? Simply amazing!

The highlight of the episode was the curve ball thrown by the restrained and carefully modulated performance given by Christopher Lloyd as Chuck’s CIA psychiatrist. Expectations of an eccentric Doc Brown or Reverend Jim knock off are not met. Yet Lloyd plays the role exactly the way it is needed for the episode. His ‘Doc’ role is tailored to elicit the needed responses for Chuck and later for Sarah.

Morgan is given closure with the welcome return of Anna Wu as that relationship is put to bed. Is this the last we will see of Anna? I hope not. The timing of this raises my speculation antennae. Having this closure now has to lead to something for Morgan because as happy as I was to see Anna return, this was not the episode to do it. This episode is putting the show into position to commence the run to the finale. As such the screen time allotted to the Anna storyline would have been better served to be used to addressing some of the main storyline or Ellie’s. Anna should have popped up in the Role Models episode.

There is much to enjoy in this episode. Chuck and Sarah spending quiet time watching TV. Morgan working with Chuck on a mission. Ellie! Finally Ellie getting a worthy storyline. One that will play directly into the main storyline for the finale. It is so great to finally see Sarah Lancaster be able to flex her acting muscles outside of playing mother hen to the men in her life. There is also the ever strengthening bonds of friendship between the members of TeamB, including General Beckman. Who did not love that shot of Beckman’s kitchen with an unidentified male companion in the background? Plus the scene on the Doc’s doorstep where Sarah admits her love to Chuck publicly and finds Casey there too.

Episode Flashes:

  • Chuck and Sarah chilling at home on a quiet Monday night
  • Spies Like Us and the value of humor lesson for Sarah
  • Chuck’s dreams
  • Beckman with bed hair in the kitchen with male guest? in the background
  • ‘General. Permission to slap Bartowski. He had a bad dream.’
  • Chuck babbling on the couch.
  • Intersect possibly responsible for dry scalp?
  • ‘You can die from a spider bite in Africa as easily as from a spy in Burbank.
  • Dune reference! ‘Fear is the mind killer.’
  • Morgan saying the wrist gripper is stuck.
  • President of Zambibia is Washington from Welcome Back Kotter!
  • Jeff and Lester lamenting their single status – ‘Its full of lumpy housewives. My favorite.’
  • ‘Hi guys. Long time no smell.’ ‘She remembered our smell!’
  • Anna gets a ‘slo-mo’ entrance only to be trumped by Morgan’s ‘slo-mo!’
  • Chuck and Morgan on a mission
  • ‘My codename is Cobra.’
  • 15 season boxset of ER
  • Ellie gets a mission! Too bad it is for the wrong guys.
  • ‘Chuck’s in a tux?’
  • ‘I got the elf.’
  • Sarah demonstrating beyond a doubt where her loyalties lie.
  • Casey tranquing Morgan at the concert.
  • World Class spy -Morgan Grimes!
  • Spy Asylum – complete with Will Sampson broom pushing look alike. If only Hurley had strolled by in the background too.
  • ‘Give your boyfriend your hand.’
  • Sarah’s – ‘I need him to be OK.’ and the discovery that Casey does too.
  • Chuck air ‘fighting’ under psychotropic influence
  • ‘Spies! Attack!’
  • Chuck’s burden of knowing that continued use of the Intersect could be at his mental peril
  • Morgan moving on from Anna
  • Sarah saying ILY to Chuck
  • Ellie being manipulated into contacting PapaB
  • Chuck’s final dream and the potential return of Shaw

‘This is a new science. Only time will tell.’

For the first time the seams of one of the additional episodes does not line up with the original thirteen episode order. Chuck’s issues with the Intersect should have had some foreshadowing sprinkled throughout the earlier episodes. The softening of Casey and Beckman seems rather abrupt as well. Last week Beckman’s, ‘Its about damned time,’ seemed like using the character as a voice for the fans. Now, with some egg on my face, I must retract my stance that it was out of character to attribute such sentiments to Beckman. For this episode proves that she does indeed have affection for Chuck. (Though in my defense I maintain the show gave us nothing previously to show this character growth for Beckman.)

Daddy! Foreshadowing?

As much as it is great to see Casey and Beckman softening up, there is a worry about this. There is a need for a hard liner character in the show and that is being lost. In tandem with this, is the unpredictability of how Beckman and Casey will be portrayed going forward. Once you open up a character you cannot put the cork back in without undermining the character in the process. Lastly, seeing characters reach some form of equilibrium tweaks my spec antennae once again. When characters come to such a place they are usually at the end of their dramatic usefulness.

Just saying.

Watch the full episode of “Chuck vs. the Tooth” on NBC.com or Hulu.

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55 comments

  1. Okay, so now that Casey has softened he may have come full circle as a character and outlived his dramatic usefulness? So if they kill him, what the heck will the show do? As much as I like Chuck and Sarah, I think the show will be weak with just them as a spy team.

    • I’m not so sure that Casey is softening; since we’re discussing fictitious cinematic characters, I think of Clint Eastwood’s Gunnery Sergeant Highway in Heartbreak Ridge or Louis Gossett Jr.’s Gunnery Sergeant Foley in An Officer And A Gentleman. This kind of military mind is intentionally critical, overbearing, even outright mean to the “recruits” as it were but with the clear intent of producing a superior operative from the raw material as given. Casey is transitioning from sensei to co-worker as far as his relation to Chuck is concerned, and as anyone who has had to move up through any kind of ranks (whether military, business or academic) will attest the way one is treated by one’s peers shifts dramatically as one’s capacities increase.

  2. Hehe, Beckman and Casey were softening up for Sarah. It was cute the way they tried to make her feel better 🙂

  3. This episode felt like the approaching storm after the calm of Honeymooners and Role Models. There was so much stuff going on, as you clearly detailed above Lou, that it’s hard to know where things are ultimately going to head next.

    I did find Chuck’s sudden problems with the Intersect a little hard to believe. I mean he had Intersect 1.0 in his head for 2 years without any adverse side effects. Papa B’s delusional outbursts seemed to be more a part of his act in hiding the truth from his family than a side effect of his own Intersect inside his brain, although he did nearly blackout when he did flash on the Ring agent. Yet as Bryce said Intersect 2.0 has design elements that even Papa B. didn’t want to know about.

    As for Sarah’s plea on Doc’s doorstep, it was an even clearer reveal of how important Chuck is to her life. He has become her anchor, her lifeline to real life and if anything were to happen to Chuck I’m afraid Sarah would become as much of a basket case as Chuck did during this episode.

    • Remember in the Ring episode, Papa Bartowski asked Bryce what changes they made to his initial design if the intersect. So they could have made the changes that are causing the problem, and hopefully Papa Bartowski can fix them.
      It clear how important it is to Both Sarah and Casey, true love and friendship

  4. Nice review. Thank you.

    One minor quibble: Chuck did tell us that he has really vivid dreams in 3.11. I assumed then that he said it for a reason.

  5. I would actually say we got some forshadowing. Look at Chuck vs the Final Exam. ‘I have the most vivid dreams sometimes’ line from chuck. It shows us that maybe its been happening for a while but this is the first time its manifested so dramatically that Chuck couldn’t ignore it.

    On a side note, Casey and Beckman’s softening. We’ve seen Casey’s softening since the team saved his daughter, in final exam, American Hero and honeymooners Casey showed caring for chuck and sarah. Beckman meanwhile is hard to develop but her tolerance of Chuck in american hero would be a hint for her emotions.

    also this was absolutely amazing as an episode 🙂 roll on series 4!

  6. Great review Lou. I’ll take one issue: “Once you open up a character you cannot put the cork back in without undermining the character in the process”. They spent 3 seasons showing a wavering Sarah: hard, then soft, then back again. Cold and calculating, then affectionate and sympathetic, and back again. The writers and actors have been able to bring to the screen multi-layered, multi-dimensional characters, where these very complications and contradictions create fascination on the part of the viewer.

    • Thought the same thing (Sarah) when I read the review Doc. You certainly articulated it better than I would have.

  7. I personally loved this episode. It wasn´t perfect but to write a story-arc, originally written for 13+ episodes into 6, is not easy and I have to admire them how they handled it.
    The “vivid dreams” were mentioned few times and I guess that Intersect 2.0 was redesigned and probably has “faster” effects than just a simple flashing in the original Intersect. Papa Bartowski is not completely insane after 20 years but he certainly isn´t exactly the most normal person ever.
    I loved Zac´s and Sarah´s acting in this one. This season offered them finally something more to play and they both were amazing. So was Adam, but he is always good.
    My most favorite scene was in doc´s house, where Sarah came to “beg” only finding Casey doing the same. There were no words necessary, just a plain and complete trust between the two characters.
    I think Casey didn´t become “soft”. He just accepted Sarah and Chuck more as friends than just working partners – after three years, he can´t be just a co-worker, especially working so close for three years. I don´t think he lost his hard side, he just knows to who he can show his softer side. I don´t think Beckman was OOC, she was with the team more in contact this year and they are her people. She cares. It´s normal.

    • I completely agree with you! I have absolutely LOVED that Casey and even Beckman have been allowed to grow and be dynamic characters. I wouldn’t love Casey at all if he stayed the same from season 1. To be totally honest, it is HIS character growth that I’ve enjoyed most throughout this show. Maybe it’s because I expected growth from the two leads, Chuck and Sarah, but I never expected it from Casey’s character because SO many shows have characters like him that never change at all.

      Yet another reason to love this show!

      • So true seeing Casey change into a man instead remaining The Beast as been a treat to watch now he’s like my favorite on Chuck.

      • Did you notice how Casey touched Sarah´s shoulder briefly when they were visit Chuck? When he was leaving…and called Chuck “pal”? Not threating “pal” as he used to do it but a friendly “pal”. I would love to see a pure Casey/Chuck mission one day. It would be great.

  8. It’s very apparent that once the additional 6 eps were ordered, the writers were not going to have 2 season finales, but rather one, episode 13, and then springboard into season 4 ( typed with fingers crossed). I just keep going back to the season one DVD interview with the show creators Chris and Josh. They said they did NOT pitch an idea with a pilot, but rather had the first FIVE years essentially mapped out for the show. This cornucopia lets me know they are on course to tell their story, without alteration, with the hopes NBC doesn’t abruptly stop them. I LOVE this show!!!

  9. I think that this episode was once again great, particularly the awesome “pschychedelic” dreams of Chuck, reminded me of some pretty dark psycho-thrillers. Very emotional too (Sarah,Casey; how Chuck couldn’t tell that he’s going insane, genious!) 🙂

  10. great review as always Lou,only one minor thing i think you missed in the episode flashes. when chuck has his first dream in the begining of the episode,shaw shows up and gets blasted by chuck as he’s falling in the fountain its a definate titanic homage

    • Also the apology by the president in zambiban clicky Language could reference the apology Archer made in Enterprise when his dog marked his territory. And the ILY/ILYT near the end could reference YS movie I Love You Too.

  11. Loved it 10/10 Can’t wait for Papa B next week. 🙂

  12. Eric Christensen

    I enjoyed Chuck’s comment about “Monday nights are such a wasteland” in response to Sara saying “Can you believe there’s nothing on TV tonight” while watching TV together on the couch. Cute, since Chuck is on Monday nights.

    • I almost expected them to see themselves on TV then dismiss it by saying something about all the cameras needing to be removed

    • malediktmanson

      I think this is a secret threat to NBC not to cancel Chuck!

  13. all i can really say is that this was a amazing episode and that lou has got all the best points right there especially sarahs ily confession to the doc the whole epsiode i really didnt even care about when i watched that scene its so moving!!

  14. I’ve been noting some things about Casey. A photo of Sarah on the wall in his apt. for several of the early episodes…It doesn’t look like a “business” photo. His perception and tenderness toward her several times. Remember in the second episode of season one – he told her he was not interested in being one of her spy partner lovers. I wonder if he’s thinking differently now. Crazy – but possible?

    And Beckman’s demeanor toward Chuck, tho’ stern has been showing signs of a maternal nature for quite awhile. At her office when she told Chuck about the assignment in Rome she was very motherly, even in her exasperation.

    Just sayin’

    • No Casey doesn’t love Sarah that way knowing how much she and Chuck feel about each other. But I bet he has grown to love her like a little sister. Given the time they’ve had to bond over the last three years.

    • Casey, Sarah, and Chuck are true friends to each other in the most powerful sense of the word. Sarah and Chuck also happen to be completely in love with one another. There’s nothing romantic between Casey and Sarah, but they are just as loyal to each other.

      Romantic love built on top of true friendship is the most powerful type of romantic love, but neither one requires the other. Relationships including both of those, on both sides, are not things that happen in the real world very often. But they can happen on TV. 🙂

      True friendship alone is a lot more rare than romantic love is, so the notion may be more foreign, but that’s what there is between Casey and Sarah. Complete loyalty, and an incredibly strong emotional connection, but in a purely platonic way.

    • Casey does not see Sarah as a potential lover. He sees her as a friend, a partner and IMHO somehwat like a “litle sister.”

      Military leaders often take a paternal attitude with their subordiantes. It does not surprise me that she would have a soft spot for Chuck….even when she’s reaming him out.

    • ewwwwwww! Casey and Sarah? Lol. Although possible I agree with Hope. Sarah is more like a little sis.

  15. Chuck Vs the Tooth is not one you can watch just once. The minor details in this show are incredible. Christopher Lloyd played a great psychiatrist but I wish there would have been a few more visits and interactions with Chuck and since he knows about Sarah, he would have counseled them together.
    I love that they have matured Morgan. He did look good in a tux and handled himself well except having to discuss Anna during the middle of the symphony. The Casey cuddling scene was cute. I am glad that Ellie got a worthy storyline but they still had her acting incompetent and not the confident protective sister. Bonita is very attractive with her hair down, I hope we get to see her all dressed up with her hair down at Chuck’s and Sarah’s wedding. Beckman had to soften her tone in the middle of the night there was a man running around and I am sure she did not want to come off gruff. Beckman also worked with Chuck on the spy training, put the team back together in the pink slip, she is also showing that she likes Chuck as a person but thinks he is an incompetent Spy separating personal and professional feelings. She also had to soften her tone at the end with Chuck, Sarah and Casey. She was wrong about Shaw and almost cost Sarah her life, wrong about canning Casey, and wrong about Chucks Dreams, She may have also been distracted by the Chuck and Sarah’s hand holding.
    Casey has been on a slow caring path ever since Chuck blew up Casey’s Crown Victoria. In VS the Crown Victoria. Casey was nice to Chuck in the Undercover Lover, Casey worked with Sarah to keep Chuck from having to go underground in the Marlin and In the First Date he missed Chuck’s picture on the Fireplace, and he was there to catch him when he fell. The only thing Casey is doing that is different is actually highlighting how Casey Cares instead of just putting it out there.

    Beckman is and will be the hard line character separating personal and professional. Casey will still be the no nonsense spy who loves guns but will also nurture and protect Chuck, Sarah, Morgan and Ellie. Casey is no longer the heartless assassin he is becoming a world class spy. Sarah summed it up the best when she said “It means more when you have something to loose”.
    But the tooth foreshadowed that Ellie will become the pivotal point in the coming episodes. The strangeness of the Woodcomb’s tells me that Awesome is the one dying opening the door for a future Casey – Ellie romance.
    I like the screensavers on the Buy-More TV’s I think that is the way Shaw is subliminally communicating with Chuck, using the intersect against Chuck and causing Chuck to go insane. Papa Bartowski will treat it like a computer virus and close the back door.

    • Personally I loved the idea of Chuck saying to Morgan “Focus on the mission” when Morgan wanted to talk about his feelings for Anna. It shows how much Chuck has changed since Versus the Three Little Words when Sarah/Karina was telling him that very thing. And Morgan was totally right to call him on it. Whenever Chuck wanted to talk about Sarah; Morgan listened… and listened… and listened…

    • WTG Bree that was an awesome post and I totally agree with you. 🙂

  16. I agree about the changing dynamics of the “harder” sides of all the characters, especially Casey and Beckman. Up till this point, they have served as a helpful dramatic foil for Chuck and Morgan and others. It is risky to change that. However, if the show develops a stronger villan character (or characters), villians that are truly threatening and consistently protrayed, the stakes will be raised enough to offset the lack of dramatic resistance within the team itself. This show has never really had that, until the Shaw possiblity happened in this episode. (I suppose the Chevy Chase character near the end of season 2 offered something like this, but not for very long, and he was never truly scary) A demented villan, or two would help the Ring or whatever other shadow ops organizations Team B faces, would make things more interesting, I think. We’ve never seen what the other side is doing to try and take our heroes down. No real plotting or planning. It might be a good area to explore in the future.

  17. LOVED the final scene with Shaw. I was really bummed when the character was killed but if the could bring Bryce back…

    • Same here. Hope Shaw’s really alive!

      • …and that Sarah gets to shoot him, too!

      • I think it would be great for Sarah to be the one who ends him.

      • Sweet.. she kills both husband and wife… more like morbid.

        My idea is that Shaw doesn’t die this season. 😉 He’s Chuck and Sarah’s true nemesis. He should be a recurring villain! 😀

      • Oh, I don’t know….I’d like her to finish him off. For trying to kill her. She’s killed before so we can take it. Keeps Chuck’s kill record spotless. Casey shot the mole, Sarah gets to ice Shaw. Chuck gets to shoot Nintendo ducks.

      • So the others will continue doing Chuck’s dirty work?? Seriously? That sounds so unralistic even for this show, IMO. Chuck’s a spy now, and spies have to kill as part of their job sometimes, there is no way around it. This show needs some realism otherwise it becomes a silly parody.

  18. Thank you for the nice and concise review, like usual. You speak my mind out. I see that many reviewers don’t like this episode as much as the last three episodes but I personally love “Chuck vs the tooth”. Maybe because I work in a medical field and I find the idea of Chuck’s mind might be damaged by the Intersect very interesting. I don’t find the dreams abrupt because Chuck mentioned it few times in some previous episodes and because it is realisic that one can develop an acute psychosis over a periode of one week. Chuck’s dreams and behaviors look like hallucinations, paranoid thoughts, interpretation of facts… which are the symptoms of psychosis. I understand why his team find him bizarre and Beckman assign him to meet the psychiatrist. Dr Dreyfus himself is true to his character and very believable as a psychiatrist.Another thing that we have to understand is that Chuck is not supposed to stay in an asylum or be institutionalized forever (many people think that and find his “liberation”fast). He is in the locked psyciatric unit temporarily because his behavior was dangerous for other people (knock out the African doctor). It’s like that in real life.

    About Chuck lying to Sarah, it is understandable because Chuck are afraid to become insane and he doesn’t want Sarah to worry or to suffer for him for the moment. Although there’s not as much joy as the Honeymooners, I find this episode crystallize Chuck and Sarah’s love for each other. Sarah telling Chuck she loves him is not “cliché”. She is realizing how much she loves Chuck and now much is her fear of losing him.

    I think that the Chuck team did a great work for this episode. To really appreciate a Chuck episode, one has to rewatch it a few times. Hope that my comment is not too long.

  19. Regarding the “Spies Like Us and the value of humor lesson for Sarah”, if you look at Sarah’s face carefully when Chuck explains he’s not being serious I think you’ll see that she’s actually pulling his leg. Chuck realizes this eventually and smiles up at her.

    • Yeah, Sarah is the one who’s teasing Chuck there. 🙂

    • That was a cute scene. I loved how they played with their fingers and how Chuck laughed. It was so relaxed and touching. They are so reliable as a couple that I have to admit, for me, they are the best couple on TV right now. They are perfect.

    • Loved that he called her sweetheart. First time we hear a natural pet name instead of the fake cover name of ‘Sweetie’ Hope we get more of the sweet names soon. 🙂

      • And that he let her run the remote. Very hard for a guy to do!

      • That’s right Hope,also notice the last scene after Chucks nightmare of Shaw possibly alive, Sarah called him Babe. =)

      • She did? Ack!!! I missed it. The sound sounded a little screwed on my screen so I might have to watch again.

  20. In the final dream, when chuck dreams about shaw, Chuck is in a hospital. Could this perhaps be a forshadowing of the future maybe, that Chuck is injured by Shaw (hopefully not seriously) in the season finale? Maybe by trying to save someones life?

  21. I?s anyone not really worried. Everything chuck dreams comes true. Sarah saying ilu and the doctor being a bad guy. Chuck was on a life support machine on a hospital bed!!!!!!!! Thats not good there is no way they can do this to him =(.

    • Well with his dreams being confusing and not particularly clear, maybe it could be that Shaw is the one who is currently on life support in a hospital bed, and in Chuck’s dream he’s just in Shaw’s place? Its a possibility..

  22. Interestingly for the 1st time we get something on the technology behind the intersect Justin calls it Molecular computing. In the real world DNA computing has made the most progress in this field. just wondering where the writers got their inspiration from ?

  23. On the intersect Chuck and Papa B are the only ones who have survived a full download and retained it. In vs the Suburbs they either died or were as good as dead except chuck even with fulcrum experimental version. and Manoosh only had a small dose that was temporary.

    Does this mean 1) Chuck and Papa B have some some special DNA as could Ellie 2)maybe Mama B worked with Papa B and tried it on herself 1st.

    • I thought it was a little funny that Both Ellie and Chuck seemed a bit crazy to other people
      made me think of Papa B being eccentric and thinking it must run in the family’s DNA. lol I wouldn’t be surprised if next monday Ellie would make a great spy. She’s smart, gorgeous, ect. I bet she’d know how to handle a gun just like a pro. Since she comes from a family of spies it seems. I think she’d rock at it.

  24. Can anyone help me with the instumental music when Ellie and Devon are talking on the couch and after Chuck gives Sarah the tooth.

  25. Did anyone catch the face that flashes over Sarah’s in Chuck’s first dream, right as she’s saying “Zamimbian food”? It’s not Sarah… I think it might be Eve Shaw? Or it almost looks like Gina Torres from Firefly.