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Hey Chucksters,
Well, I have to admit that when I watched the episode last night with all the great people in the live chat, I really wasn’t loving it and felt that the episode seemed a bit thrown together (somewhat par for the course for the back half of a Chuck season, it seems). After a second viewing, however, although it’s still not one of my favorite Chuck episodes, I have a lot fewer gripes and found a lot more things that I really liked.
At first the whole plot about Casey’s new team seemed like a bit of a letdown after the big lead-up over the past few episodes. After all, we never did find out what the TR476 is and the whole “someone else has the Intersect†plot has been done before. What made the episode work for me on the second viewing was all the other plot points that got tied into the storyline. Finally we get an explanation of the seemingly random GRETAs, find out what happened to Papa B’s computer, and get the hint that there was more to it than just the brain scans Ellie found and the backup copy of the intersect. The final revelation, of course, sets up what could be some really awesome (pardon the pun) storytelling as Ellie gets pulled back into the spy world and presumably finally realizes that Chuck has never left. Ellie is such a great character who has many times been underutilized. Between the wedding plans and the laptop, I hope we get to see a lot of her in the next few episodes.
Chuck and Sarah sitting around playing board games was really fun – you get the idea that Sarah, unlike Chuck, probably never actually played any of those games as a girl. I also think that this might be the first and last time a grown woman ever played Operation in 6-inch high heeled boots! The contrasts between Chuck and Sarah and the GRETA-bots were well-done. It loved it when Chuck and Sarah went to meet the GRETAs and “Rick and Vicki†were telling “hilarious†stories about firearms while Sarah is holding a pile of kids’ games. Yet another reminder of how far Sarah has come since Chuck came into her life. The scene with Chuck and Sarah going to Georgia to extract Jana was also funny. I really appreciated that for the whole episode Chuck and Sarah acted as true partners, with none of the communication problems, trust issues, and relationship/wedding angst that have become near constant companions for them (and us) for the past season.
Speaking of team solidarity, Casey sure did a thorough job on Morgan in two weeks! We’ve never seen him stand up to Chuck like that. Although it was obviously hard for him, Morgan was determined not to let Casey down and to keep up his new image as a “badassâ€. While it made me kind of sad that Morgan would treat Chuck like that, we know that Casey has some impressive powers over Morgan and he likely felt that what he was doing was in Chuck’s best interest.
The end of the episode was satisfying that for once we got to see Chuck be the hero, albeit in his own goofy way, and use both his brain AND the Intersect to save the world (or at least LA). I was a little disappointed in Chuck’s choice of the apple juice to disarm the bomb (that was some crazy salty juice!) as I had predicted that he was going to pee on it or make Casey pee on it. (What can I say, I have a sick sense of humor!) But, otherwise, it was nice to watch Chuck finally get some credit and to see the now B-team GRETA-bots get berated and then de-Intersected by Beckman. Finally Chuck has been put in charge of the Intersect project and may have a little more control of his destiny. We’ll see in the next few episodes how his new responsibilities go for him. Looking forward (as always!) to next week’s episode!
Well, time to go drag out my SNES to get some Final Fantasy Part Duex action going. While I’m playing, why don’t you read my other thoughts and give me yours in the comments?
Some other notables and random thoughts:
“You must be referring to my domestic partner†– Morgan (referring to Casey) to Chuck
“You are ALL idiots†– Acar
“GRETA…and the other GRETA†– Chuck
JEFFSTER parody of Ghostbusters ESP opening scene
“Cia� What the hell kind of name is “Cia†– Lester to Jeff
Seeing lanky Zac all trussed up in the bomb squad suit – he looked like an overweight kid playing dress up
“These wings are plastic†– Caseyâ€
“I told the Southwest pilot that they were for my nephew†– Morgan (I have a pair of those wings, too. I told the SW flight attendant that they were for ME)
Need to blow up a nuclear bomb with your vital signs (or lack of them)? There’s an app for that!
BLATANT Subway-esque Toyota Sienna placement
Did they overcome the problem of the Intersect causing brain damage, or did the GRETA-bots have governors?
Nice review.Welcome back Phil Klemmer.Entertaining episode but not great enough to make me forget he wrote Mask.
whats with all the hatred of mask i knew the love triangle wouldnt last long
Even if you were okay with Chuck and Sarah temporarily seeing others(I was’nt)Mask was still a mess.Not only were the new relationships poorly setup and executed but the whole episode was sloppy.It had one good scene when Sarah was fighting the Ring while Chuck was dangling upsidedown trying to exchange Masks and the door kept opening and closing.It was by far the most poorly executed Chuck episode from start to finish.
The Greta’s did’nt need a Governers because Ellie fixed the Problem the Intersect was having with the Brain before Devon gave Chuck the laptop in Leftovers.
I’m not sure Ellie fixed the problem about the Intersect screwing up your brain, although, that wasn’t too clear. But Chuck still needs the Governor (puts it on during Chuck vs. The C.A.T. Squad, and they always show him with the watch on after Chuck vs. The Leftovers). At least, that’s what I understand.
Anyway, if you sort of go along with the how the Intersect has been working, even if it still screws your head up, it wouldn’t be an initial side effect, but rather happens overtime (they had Chuck’s head get screwy only until the end of Season 3). Unless of course you couldn’t handle the Intersect install at all, then you go insane immediately.
So I guess you can argue the GRETA’s may not have had the Intersect long enough to experience any of the brain side effects quite yet. They did elude to the fact that maybe not “everyone” could handle the information from the Intersect perfectly. For example, they couldn’t control themselves with the information loaded (Captain Vicki shooting the baddie immediately after the marksmanship program loads) or the information is too complicated (Captain Rick unable to fathom how to diffuse the bomb).
I agree with smartas86. Also, “Rick” said that he was glad to have the Intersect out of his head and didn’t know how Chuck does it. I’m not exactly sure what that was supposed to mean, but I took it as the Intersect caused him pain. Chuck never seems to be in any phsyical pain because of the Intersect (except for the season 3 finale, but that was after almost 3 years instead of at most a few months).
Nice review some good points especially points you made about Chuck and Sarah as partners She is making an effort to examine the things in his world and most importantly accepted him as an equal spy partner
Chuck is special if anything he helped a person find the courage to try and experience a life she only dreamed about and felt she didn’t deserve Thanks for sharing
HAHAHAHAHAHA I’ll admit, the first thought that also came to my mind was “he’s gonna pee on it?!”
and then I remembered the apple juice.
I was thinking it was going to be pee, too. For the apple juice to have a similar sodium level as saltwater, though, it would have to be some really salty juice. Gatorade (or something similar) would have been more accurate.
Loved the episode!! Thought it was funny when Chuck & Sarah broke into Casey’s apt to get his handprint. Plus the backup plan made me giggle….. “or cut off Casey’s hand.”
I felt that this episode had more of a lightheartedness to it. What really gave that impression to me was how comfortable and relaxed Chuck and Sarah are with each other now. They ARE really working good together as a team, but at the same time, still felt incomplete without Casey.
Can’t wait to see what develops with Ellie and having papa B’s computer in her hands.
Oh, peeing on the bomb would have been good. 😉
When Morgan said the wings were for his nephew, the first thing that popped into my head was that Morgan has at least one sibling! I wonder if we’ll ever get to meet him/her?
So devon walks in on Ellie at the end and says ellie whats going on its dinner time…
Ellie a few moments and a prompt later looks from the laptop and says oh hey i found my dads laptop…
Intersected by any chance??? Seemed to be a delay and they wanna test it on a bartowski, shes the perfect candidate for them as they cant control Chuck now.
Sorry just to clarify not only did it take her a moment to come too and respond to Devon, there had clearly been some laps in time as nothing appeared done around the house and dinner wasnt ready something Devon found out of place from his reaction!
Intersect Ellie, no. Intersect baby, yes. Could see the writers having a field day with it speaking a dozen languages before it’s two or back flipping before it can crawl. Chuck the next generation?
My impression was that Ellie had simply gotten so wrapped up in her research that she had lost track of time.
Yes indeed intersect baby very cool (totally not happening thought)! but there was something about the whole scene and the time lapse that made me and my missus think about it. Also Ellie had fixed the inital issue which was making Chuck fire like normal rather than the intersect being suppresed in his head.
That new women in charge of Casey made it pretty clear they could make all the modifications they wanted to the intesect laptop and had done so, my thought is they want Ellie a stay at home mum intesected as shes unlikely to flash with the baby and they can moniter how it works with her.
My only critical floor to this if I am correct (And it is a long shot) is that if Ellie does get intersected I would feel like it dismisses the credibility of how special Chuck is since its never been mentioned that Ellie could house the intersect.
Also my other bit Argument with the whole laptop thing is that it never carried an intersect??? When it was first brought in it was a tool to unsupress the Damage done by the PSP of death that stopped the intersect functioning even thought it was still in Chucks head.
He didnt just suddenly get a new intersect fro the way i saw it, he merely had the block that was in place removed and maybe a little update with Ellies fix that made it easier for his Brain to access Intersect Information.
Also The comment above on Devon telling Chuck is 100% right i’d expect it within the first 10 mins of the show or i would be very dissapointed with the writers. (Even if the logic was that Ell had told him to keep it quiet!) The danger would far outway this.
When Morgan started stonewalling Chuck and wouldn’t let him into the apartment, I was reminded that Chuck lied to Morgan for the first two and a half years of his spy life. I’m sure Chuck understood what was happening and didn’t take it too personally.
I liked this ep and I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought Chuck was going to pee on the bomb. lol
I thought Chuck was going to make himself cry, intentionally for salt from tears, while Casey and Sarah were telling him to focus and not get emotional. After so much of Season 3 focused on the “problem” of Chuck’s emotions, I would have loved to flip that and see Chuck’s emotions save the day.
Also, while I have long suspected that being Casey’s roommate might be torture (sorry, “enhanced living arrangements”), I was hoping for more of a punch-line from the comic set-up of Morgan and Casey as roomies. While I don’t think that there is much truth in the characters of a father and a man intimately involved with his daughter wanting to be roommates so I don’t like the set-up, if the writers are going to make that decision, they need to get a much bigger laugh out of it.
Totally would have made more sence to go down that route as if you think about it the problem with Greta’s was that they had no emotion so shededing tears wouldnt have happen’d in a million years enforcing why Chuck is perfect.
Secondly althought I’m a fan of the sentimental side of chuck certain things happen in an episode like the Apple Juice or Casey plaming the pic of that bloke on his well that as soon as it happens it kinda registers it will play into the episode in a major way later on. (or maybe thats just me.)
I’d have much prefered Casey sorta open up for a moment and have a tender moment of understanding with Chuck rathe than it looking to me like a prop set up to save the day which is how i saw it at the time.(Also is Apple Juice really Chucks favourite drink, didnt remeber that and i know my Chuck????)
Funnily enough, one thing I’ve noticed is that while Chuck is supposed to be incredibly emotionalm he has never actually cried on the show.
I enjoyed this episode–will be disapppointed if Devon does not immediately tell Chuck of the return of the laptop–just seems too logical not to happen.
Chuck and Sarah had good chemistry throughout the episode.
Totally agree with you on the good chemistry between Chuck and Sarah (Zac and Yvonne) throughout this episode. They were a delight to watch.
Note: Forgot to mention–I was one of those that hated the mask.
so was I, but then again I hated most of season 3 until i t go to Chuck vs The Other Guy
I liked when Sarah ambushed Morgan from behind in the apartment and tranqed him… and then when she said “This looks like a child’s handprint… (then after looking at a sleeping Morgan) oh.â€
I’m loving the stand alone episodes. As much as I liked Timothy Dalton, the whole Volkoff arc got stretched way too long. Contrast the last three episodes which IMHO have given us much more of the all the things that make Chuck great. And the writers have done it with mini-arcs (e.g. Casey’s secret, Volkoff’s daughter) that haven’t weighed down the rest of the episode.
Keep it up! S4 looked like it was coming off the rails mid-season, but its feeling like we’ve got Chuck back!
I had commented on the he said review that this episode closed a circle. I enjoyed that aspect of the episode. When I saw that Morgan was getting tortured I applauded but then again everyone knows that I can’t stand the little bearded man. But for closing the circle, I believe that the episode could have been better. But now we can see what the future will bring. The problem is, will there be a future for our favorite show?
My thoughts on the Governor: As Chuck heads up the Intersect project and the issue of the Intersect being overwhelming to the mind comes into the limelight, Chuck (and eventually GB) will realize that only Stephen Bartowski, who is deceased, could make a Governor for the Intersect. In the best interest of the mental health of all prospective Intersect agents, no one will be equipped with it, leaving Chuck as the only Intersect agent. Otherwise, if he’s no longer the only Intersect, that just gives more reason for him to retire at Ellie’s demand (her finding out that he’s still in the biz is inevitable) and to marry Sarah and live happily ever after, series adjourned. Then again, Chuck could take his Governor and examine it and figure out how to duplicate it. I just fear that imparting superior spies with the Intersect will dilute the importance of Chuck (the man and the show). It would be hard to find a way to make Chuck significantly superior as an Intersect agent considering that the Intersect works by flashing which is like a thing of instinct, not talent.
Overall my biggest gripe is that this season has a sort of cold grey/blue feeling about it (probably new editing). I miss the old warm summery vibe of the earlier seasons. The whole season just feels like winter so far.
How are you coming with the 4,18 screencaps?