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And now we come to the part of the story where we get more background on Chuck and Bryce. That’s right, it’s time to return to Stanford, the scene of Chuck’s alleged crime. Relive the…early ’00s when Chuck, Casey and Sarah take a road trip to Chuck’s alma mater:
BACK TO SCHOOL – Chuck (Zachary Levi) has to return to Stanford University, the institute that expelled him, on homecoming weekend to help a former professor. Chuck finds out that his former professor is also a government operative who is being hunted out for a sensitive top-secret file. Chuck must use his past experiences to find his Professor’s hidden secret, while at the same time discovering shocking secrets about his own life. More importantly, Chuck discovers the truth about his former friend, Bryce Larkin, the one who got him kicked out of Stanford. Meanwhile, Morgan (Joshua Gomez) has problems with the new assistant manager at Buy More. Yvonne Strahovski, Adam Baldwin, Sarah Lancaster, and Ryan McPartlin also star.
Lots of promotional photos were released for this episode, plus we have 1600+ screencaps in our Gallery. You can also download the songs using this episode on our Music page.
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This was the only time I liked Bryce. He got Chuck kicked out of Stanford in order to save Chuck’s life. Though in process he messed up Chuck pretty bad and left in a hole (a VERY deep hole) in which he has now finally managed to crawl out of.
That still doesn’t mean I like Bryce.
OK since I’m first in here today (a result of having to be at work by 7AM) I’ll just flatly state what bothers me about this particular episode and the seeming inconsistency in the writer’s handling of Chuck’s character. I graduated from a PAC-10 school, and frat boys are generally all cut from the same cloth. They’re narcissistic conformists who thrive on persecuting those who differ from themselves. The whole fraternity thing has always seemed like an excuse for indulging in latent homo-erotic desires to me anyway; after all, you’re a young adult male, full of hormones and finally freed of the shackles of parental bondage and you choose to surround yourself with other young males? That sure as hell wasn’t what I was looking for in college.
Chuck just doesn’t fit as a frat boy. I think the writers took an easy out on this one, not really putting much thought into the believability of such an important facet of the main character’s personality.
I still don’t get why Bryce, after doing all that to poor Chuck in order to save his life, then goes and sends Chuck the intersect. wtf? You just saved the guy, messed up his life in order to so, and then you send him the intersect which is basically like sending Chuck right back into the world in which you saved him from in the first place, except he is even in MORE danger. If Bryce was protecting Chuck all along then why the h*ll would he send Chuck the intersect. Then again if he didn’t there wouldn’t be a show called Chuck. 🙂
Though, still it beats me why Bryce would do this to our boy Chuck. It doesn’t make sense to me.
All the more reason for Bryce to stay dead and not come back in season 3 (though I doubt this will happen since we all know how the writer like to tease, espically when it comes to Chara).
The only reason I could see why Bryce sent Chuck the Intersect is because he knew his brain could handle it (after he scored so highly on the professor’s test) and that the NSA wouldn’t suspect him. Remember in Chuck vs. the Suburbs, the other under-cover agent had his brain fried by the FULCRUM version.
Secondly, he was counting on Sarah arriving in Burbank to protect him. At Stanford, there would have been no one to protect Chuck.
Speaking of our dead CIA agent, did anyone see the cover story in Sports Illustrated a couple of months ago about this high school baseball phenom? He’s supposed to be the greatest player ever and will be a bona-fide number one pick next year and will become the next All-American superstar. He’s the ultimate Can’t Miss Prospect and will rule Major League Baseball for years to come. The kid’s name–Bryce Larkin.
This was a fun episode for a number of reasons;
Awesome’s frat bro’s getting ready for the game; The firefight in the lecture hall, and the rescue by the CIA version of ROTC. I don’t care how much we’re supposed to like Bryce by Chuck vs. The Ring, but I’m glad we’re done with him. No more Bryce ‘baggage’ for either Chuck or Sarah. I’m also glad that Chuck eventually got his Stanford diploma. There have to be some perks for having the Intersect in your head (not to mention the MAJOR perk of getting to hang with Sarah!)
I believe this is the episode where Casey and Sarah truly bond as partners.
Maybe it was just me but the end of the firefight with the two of them agreeing to go out heroicly (Casey: “I hate long goodbyes”) reminded me of the end of that old film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
I also liked Sarah saying after the Cavalry arrives “I only had one round left”.
Well I’m off to get my footlong, then I will pop in the DVD and watch Sizzling Shrimp and Sandworm again just to get warmed up. After all who can watch just one episode of Chuck?
Seems that Sara felt upset at a loss of Byrce when Chuck says he got me kicked out of Stamford to protect me. I don’t think Byrce thought to highly of Chuck. Note that they want Chuck for Omaha where Sara met Byrce? If Byrce felt that way about Chuck, why did it take him till the Ellie/Awesome wedding to realize that Sara loves Chuck. Does some one else have a spin on this one?
This is one of my favorites from season 1, great backstory, great music, Sarah and Casey are acting more like a team, solid episode.
As noted, this is one of the few times when we can sympathize and at times like Bryce. His character really gets humanized and you can see him as someone who cares for Chuck and wants to look out for him. It’s mentioned that Chuck was going to the Omaha project, Bryce mentions Omaha to Sarah in Nemesis, could Chuck and Sarah have known each other before the series had he went into the CIA, I think likely.
Small sidenote: In Chuck’s pile of stuff from Stanford is the book Big Russ and Me by Tim Russert, a very good read.
By the way, Yvonne is up against Kristen Bell in the next round of Battle of the Blondes on tv.com.
Click here to vote for her.
http://www.tv.com/?type=VersusBattle&action=display_bracket&battle_id=23&round=11
Regarding the Battle of the Blondes poll, it is out of control. The first day it appeared that a Kristen Bell fan set up automated voting cheat (its still there) and I think a Chuck fan retaliated with their own cheat that is better than the cheat for Kristen. When I went to bed the first night, Kristen was ahead by about 400000 votes, and when I checked it in the morning, Yvonne was ahead. I have been voting but don’t think it matters. Too bad, I know Yvonne could take Kristen in a fair fight.
In the first round Kristen had around 270000 votes, and Yvonne finished the poll with close to half a million votes.
I love the expression on Chuck’s face when Morgan says there are spies at the Buy More and the relief on his face when Morgan finishes off with Tang’s minions.
Have you noticed that the new Hi Def screen shows every rinkle, I mean twinkle in her eye — her eyes.
Great stuff.
The scene at the Buy More after the credits was great – Anna knows this guy with very reasonable rates. Chuck asks Casey if he offered to kill Tang. Casey’s response, “no why do you want me to kill him?” I imagine Casey was disappointed when Chuck said no.
While cruising around after I watched vs. The Alma Mater I came across the trailer for Yvonne’s new film “Persons of Interest.” Check it out…http://www.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK//video/wab/vi380109337/
This was probably one of the more serious episodes of S1. I found the humour a little more subdued than in episodes like Tango and Wookie.It still had its funny moments though.
I would really like to get more backstory on the Omaha project.
This is my favorite episode of season 1, it demonstrates that Bryce is just very understood, it gives us background on how Chuck got to be where he is, and Sarah shows us once again how soft she is for Chuck when she let him go ahead and check out the data on the disk. He makes all these sacrifices to protect the world and his only friend Chuck. If everyone was as self-sacrificing as Bryce, I think the world would be a better place. After all, if weren’t for Bryce, where would Chuck be now?
Agent 86, from the trailer it looks like a really super serious film and quite a departure from her Sarah Walker role. I noticed that the credits have the original spelling of Yvonne’s last name.
Although just released she probably filmed this movie before coming to the States.
I think I prefer lighter fare and am more curious about the romantic comedy she filmed this summer.
Trending is getting more and more challenging for ChuckMeMondays. 🙁
I like how Lester comments on the OC season 2 being under rated. A little bias by the writers perhaps. LOL
Any plans to promote ChuckMeMondays and the other fan campaigns at Comic Con? I hate asking (because I can’t go and help) but it is a golden opportunity.
Don’t forget to vote for Yvonne Strahovski in Blondes vs Blondes bracket battle. It’s Yvonne Strahovski and Kristen Bell. Vote as many times, before round 6 ends on July 23,2009. Thank you Chuck fans. http://www.tv.com/?type=VersusBattle&action=display_bracket&battle_id=23&round=11
One of my favorite scenes from this episode is where Chuck is remembering back to when he and Bryce were playing that rubber dart game in the library. That looked like it was a lot of fun in the episode and even in real life while shooting that scene.
I also like the scene with Ellie and Chuck in Ellie’s room, when Chuck comes in and just flops down on the bed and tells Ellie that he just can’t go back to Stanford. I love the relationship that Chuck and Ellie have, so comfortable and real. Those two actors are very good at conveying that relationship to the audience and making it seem effortless.
Have to admit, I am going to miss Bryce, even if he did upset things with Chuck and Sarah. Afterall he was there first with both Chuck and Sarah.
@chuck fan
great question, and until the ep 22, i was still confused about that.
from the finale, i suppose the answer is that bryce wanted father and son to meet, and that he was confident that sarah could protect him. in vs the breakup, bryce told chuck that the feelings sarah was developing for chuck was dangerous for him and her (also, he had a more selfish, ulterior motive)
“I’d rather use a cheese grater on my groin” – Harry Tang
I have to say that his character has some of the best one liners.
@GabbyD-Thanks!
How did we do on twitter this week? I hope we trended. 🙂
Unfortunately, we did not trend. I gave fairly long explanation about Twitter and influences on TV viewership on my blog.
http://thetvobesssed.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-chuckmemondays-and-twitter-are-so.html
Gord;
I’m with you.
Regarding twitter and the number of posts on this sight. I imagine the numbers are down because many people are away on summer holidays this time of year.
I’m hoping things will pick up in the fall.
I know on the NBC message boards, Chuckme Mondays is getting some posts from me and others.
If your not out of the house, its a great way to spend a Monday evening.
I usually watch a few episodes ahead of time just to get warmed up.
It’s going to be tough next week with Truth – to me you pretty much have to watch Truth, Salami and Nemisis in one session.
@Gord I was actually on a “holiday” during this one. I watch them whenever I have the chance. This is one of those “key” episodes. Favorite part- Chuck–“That new Hi Def screen sure shows every wrinkle” Casey–“They can hear you” Chuck–“Every TWINKLE in her eye…EYES.” I also LOVE Sarah’s face while Chuck is saying that. =)
Ugh! I can’t believe I forgot about ChuckMeMonday this week. Man, getting old sucks because the mind is the first to go.
@SarahFan-LOLZ If it makes u feel better I forgot last weeks ChuckMeMonday. I was pissed that I got out of bed at 1 in the morning so that I could watch that episode of Chuck. LOLZ I am addicted
WHY WAS SARAH CRYING AT THE END
@ Glenn- Watch the part where Shara and Chuck watch how Bryce got Chuck kicked out of school to save him. Then you’ll know the answer to your question.
what did the ending mean
she wanted to tell him things but she cant right