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Chuck Me!!!
“And this is what we call the twist”. Indeed. What a great episode! It’s got to be one of my favorites of the season so far. I was really pleased that everyone in the Bartowski family had a role to play and grateful that there weren’t any unnecessary Buy More scenes to disrupt the action.
To kick things off, the breakfast scene at Morgan and Casey’s apartment was perfectly done. Morgan has idolized Casey for years, but it has taken this long for Casey to learn to like and respect Morgan. To watch the two of them moving in synchrony and acting like an old married couple was tons of fun. (I wonder how many takes of that scene were ruined by laughing?) Also entertaining was that for once Morgan (and Casey) actually gave Chuck some decent relationship advice.
Although I’m still not sure I understand why Sarah felt she needed a prenup to protect money she had set aside for her father, I did enjoy the payout of Chuck’s “be cool” strategy. It was refreshing to have their typical personality traits flipped and to watch Sarah continuously try to discuss the prenup during their missions and get all worked up as to why Chuck wasn’t all worked up. The later discussion between Sarah and Casey, while it seemed a bit forced, gave us a bit more information about Sarah’s family and opened the door for her father to come back on next week’s episode as well as for Casey to consider finally telling Katherine the truth.
Timothy Dalton was fabulous as usual. His portrayal of Volkoff as constantly on the edge of sanity (or is it all an act?) was enthralling as usual. I spent most of the episode trying to see the double cross and figure out whether he was just stringing everyone along or not. Chuck seemed to suffer from the same confusion. Although initially he was the most outspoken about letting Volkoff out of prison and working with him, he ended up in the role of Volkoff’s impromptu therapist, albeit to save his own life as well. The genius of Dalton’s portrayal of Volkoff is that even after a rewatch, I’m still not sure how much of his character swings were calculated versus just plain mental illness, but it was highly entertaining nonetheless.
The double cross that I didn’t, but should have, expected was Vivian’s. I love her character and didn’t want her to end up evil. I guess I hoped for her to to end up being like Chuck’s adopted little sister. I know a lot of fans, myself included, felt that her turn to the dark side was unrealistically quick, but she is a Volkoff, and who knows how long she could have been playing everyone or how mentally stable she actually is. She definitely seems to share some of her father’s less appealing personality traits, but as a whole, her character doesn’t have the substance that Volkoff does. Hopefully her character will get filled out more in the next 4 episodes. I haven’t entirely given up hope that she could redeem herself, Severus Snape-like, in the end, but I admit that this is likely just wishful thinking.
On the subject of smart women with agendas, the new developments in the Ellie-Mama B-Chuck relationship are intriguing, indeed. Ellie catches Mama B trying to erase the Agent X files and we find out that Mama B is working under orders to obtain the information from someone above Beckman. (Anyone else think that Mama B should be a better liar after 20 years deep undercover?) To make it all that much more complicated, when Mama B and Sarah finally convince Chuck that it’s time to tell Ellie about the Intersect, she lies to him and brushes him off. Does Ellie know more than we think she does about the files, is she trying to protect Chuck in her big-sister way, or does she not want Chuck to know their mother is involved? More importantly, who is Agent X? My first thought is Chuck, but why would Volkoff have been afraid of him – because of Orion?
Great quotes and other thoughts:
Chuck playing a VERY high stakes game of UNO
“Trust No One” – Vivian (oh Mulder and Scully, how I miss thee!)
“To mine it I had to wage war against the peaceful natives and order the destruction of their home tree” – Volkoff
“Why do I always choose fear over love?” “Okay, Oprah. Park it” – Volkoff and Casey
Chuck as “Mr Cool”
Devon teaching Clara about “missing link” fossils
“Smaller bites” “Don’t henpeck” – Casey and Morgan’s old married couple eating cereal routine
“I’ve spent time with Vivian. She’s not a cold-blooded killer.” – Chuck to Beckman
How do Chuck and Sarah explain her owning a new Lotus?
Volkoff in therapy, getting in touch with his softer side
The government hasn’t given up on the Intersect project!
Time for me to go teach a 6 month old about the fossil record while you guys tell me your opinions of the episode.
Ha! Awesome review here, Cay! Wonderful wonderful read.
I really like this episode, it had all the things that we like on Chuck, romance,bromance,really good bad guy, comedy… But I’m very intrigued about the Agent X…I’m thinking about Chuck too, because in episode 3×19 when Chuck is fighting with Shaw then he remebers about his past, then we see little Chuck entering his father room and push enter on the computer, then Chuck as,k what that mean? and Stephen says: It means that you’re special..So Chuck downloaded an intersect when he was little and we don’t know anything more about that, so I really think that Agent X is Chuck.
Excellent review =)
favorite thing by far in this episode, albeit a small thing: Devon and Ellie’s spy nicknames for eachother, “Six Pack” and “Hot Mama.” So good!
oh and did anyone else notice the camera work was a bit wonky this episode? it seemed like in all of the action scenes, the camera guy kept adjusting the zoom, in and out and in and out! I got dizzy!
In the last scene involving Vivian Volkoff when she is talking about Agent X, the camera pans out to reveal a horse. I know that in an earlier episode, it is revealed that Vivian has an affinity for horses; however the camera’s emphasis on the horse and Vivian’s statement at this exact moment that Agent X is the only person her father ever feared made me think that the horse references or implies the identity of Agent X. Ellie was given the Ford Mustang (horse reference) by her father, hence revealing her as Agent X. Furthermore, Ellie’s father went out of his way to give Ellie his old computer with the Intersect data. I am probably reading way too much into this (an unfortunate habit picked-up during my time watching Lost and the X-Files).
my thought is that Volkoff was afraid of Orion and Agent X is S.B with the intersect. Now the intersect was passed on to Chuck, I believe that Chuck is the new Agent X. just a theroy!!
> How do Chuck and Sarah explain her owning a new Lotus?
I always figured it was a company car. In the pilot, Sarah didn’t drive a Porsche from DC to LA. Casey wouldn’t be allowed a personal vehicle with a missile launcher. Ellie thinks Chuck quit, but knows Sarah is still CIA.
> who is Agent X?
I’m sticking with Agent X being Patient X: Chuck.
maybe agent x is orion
I don’t think it was a company car – the whole goal was for Sarah to blend in in Burbank and she parked the Porshe in the parking lot by the Orange Orange and Weinerlicious. That’s what made me assume that it was her car, not the CIA’s as they would have given her something inconspicuous. I guess they could have explained it away as an inheritance or something…
Ellie and Devon know she’s CIA, but where do the Buy Morons and everyone else in Chuck’s life think she works? This little point has actually bugged me all season!
exactly! what happened to the Orange Orange!?
Honestly? Why should anyone, except Chuck´s family, care? They may care but Chuck or Sarah don´t owe anyone an explanation cos it´s nobody´s business. Sarah could have just changed a covered job for something else, that allows her to work in The Castle full-time, without necessity pretend that she works in Orange Orange (but they should explain what happened to it). The cover was mostly because of Chuck´s family and they know that Sarah works for the CIA so no cover is necessary.
I am beginning to think that while Sarah had complicated life as a child, Chuck´s family situation is equal, if not even worse. Family full of spies, lies and secrets…I swear, poor Clara will end up as an “Awesome CIA medical scientist” or so :-))
I loved the episode. Loved the line at the end of the breakfast scene when Chuck said he had to leave Casey’s & Morgan’s place before he was scarred for life.
I didn’t look closely… what was Sarah’s name on the prenup? We know her real middle name is Lisa, & her real first name is Sam. Walker is the name she was given when she joined the CIA. If it said Sarah Lisa Walker, it’s not a legal document anyway.
Sam may be her ‘real’ name but since she was recruited by the CIA they made her Sarah and so that is her legal name.
Then if that is so, is Chuck’s real name Charles Carmichael? I’ve been wondering why if Chuck has learned her real name is Sam, they haven’t had the ‘You’ll always be Sarah’ to me conversation. Maybe they had it in the 6 months of summer when they were in the apartment but didn’t have tv cameras following them around?
Chuck’s name is still Chuck, it is his codename Charles Carmichael he made up himself at the first season that he still holding on to now. When he is out in the field as a spy, he is called Charles Carmichael.
Maybe the Agent X is Ellie. It scanned her and pop-ed up on the screen when she was asleep. Or maybe it’s Chuck.
The prenup said Sarah Lisa Walker. Boy, everyone (not just in these comments) seems to be very preoccupied with what Sarah’s legal name is and whether her marriage, etc will be valid. I think it’s safe to assume that she is legally Sarah Walker for these purposes and stop worrying about it! 😉
I am not seeing the love for this episode at all. Even judging it by the alright-but-mildly-entertaining standards of the last few months, this was particularly weak.
First, we’re back to our Sarah-issue-of-the-week, only this time it’s one that really didn’t make much sense at all. The general concensus is that Sarah prepared a pre-nup so Chuck would freak out, thus assuring her that he didn’t ever envisage ever leaving her. Oh, and a little bit of Sarah’s ‘I have family stuff’ shoved in there too for good measure. Oooooookay.
The one high point of the episode was, of course, Dalton. But the twist with Vivian couldn’t have been obvious if she’d appeared in her first scene twirling a moustache like some silent movie baddie. The moment she got shot, it was clear she was playing everyone. An obvious ploy at the best of times, but all the moreso seeing as it was only in the last episode that we had pretty much exactly the same thing, albeit in a diffent context.
To be honest, the only doubt I had that Vivian had gone over to the dark side was that I didn’t think the writers were going to try and make us believe that in the space of a few weeks, and because of the events of vs The Bank of Evil, Vivian was now officially eeeeeevil. Essentially, she’s now prepared to commit mass murder and patricide, on what really boils down to having a bit of a sulk.
Now I might have been able to forgive this poor writing, if the episode was at least exciting, or had a cool action scene or two. Show me the pretty and I’m generally happy, you know. But even that didn’t happen. The Chess scene had no sense of threat at all, largely cos we all knew if Volkoff hadn’t found his inner villain, Chuck would have just intersected a litle Kasparov and job done. And as for the fight scene towards the episode’s conclusion, that made Power Rangers look like the Matrix.
There’s a lot of discussion about the low ratings right now, understandably so, but it’s not really a surprise. Chuck used to be my absolute favourite show, but over the last two years my interest has waned considerably. Time was, I watched it cos it was a fantastic, exciting, funny, witty, action/adventure show, with the added bonus of having one of the most stunning women I’ve ever seen in the cast. Now, I’m only really watching it because of that woman.
And it’s probably a safe bet that most television audiences just ain’t as shallow as me!
In terms of your last paragraph I agree and I wanted to post my point of view. I used to speed home to catch Chuck because it was my absolute favorite show and I work till 8 pm so I would miss the first 20 mins. No problem I would catch it the next day on Hulu, but I have to admit that lately I just haven’t been feeling the same.
I finally thought about what changed that caused me to lose interest in a show I was willing to get a speeding ticket for before and I think I finally came up with an answer.
1) While I can appreciate the writers wanting to do an arch, I just think it’s been too long. What I loved about Chuck in Seasons 1, 2 and much of 3 was that they would go on different missions so there would be different characters involved and new situations every week. Now they are just after the same people every week in the overall scheme of things, even if the actors are different on the screen, we all know it’s all about one major player and that has been the story from the get go.
2) I feel that writing has somehow changed. I can’t put my finger on what exactly has changed, but I know that it’s just not the same.
3)Too many breaks between episodes. NBC really did a disservice to the show with having such long breaks in between. Just when you start getting into the story, they cut it off for a few weeks and by the time it comes back you forget that it was even coming back that week.
Now these are just my points of view, so I don’t expect people to agree with what I’m saying, but I just wanted to give my personal opinion. Maybe these are some of the reasons that viewership has dropped so much lately. Who knows, maybe I’m completely wrong.
Nat,
I agree with a lot of what you say. I still rush home to watch it, but it’s a different show than it was in season 1, for sure. It might partly just be the set-up. Alias’ best episodes were definitely in season 1 and 2, then it started to get ridiculous by the end. Chuck’s been behind the 8 ball too long – horrible time slot, writer’s strike, lack of support from NBC, late season pickups leading to loss of writers and split seasons leading to somewhat rushed and uneven storytelling.
With all that said, it’s still the only show on TV that I won’t miss and I never fail to get enjoyment and escapism out of every episode, even the ones that aren’t up to par with the series in general. I thought this episode got back to the kind of elements that have been present in some of my favorite episodes (such as Chuck vs the Other Guy, Chuck vs the Subway, Chuck vs the Colonel).
As for the ratings, it seems like episode 4.13 was the defacto end of the series for many people. We’ll just have to wait and see and encourage our friends who might have gotten lax on viewing to tune in. Bribing some Nielsen viewers wouldn’t hurt, either.
After S2, I really started enjoying Chuck again since American Hero.
It is true that the quality of the production is down from S1 and S2, but for me the important thing is the quality of the stories and the acting.
I have not been a big fan of the Buy More for the most part, but I am loving how the relationships have evolved in this series, and I thought the Mama B/Volkoff arc was fantastic.
Now we have Volkoff and Vivian Volkoff arc, Ellie discovering the intersect arc, Kathleen/Casey/Alex/Morgan stuff and of course the upcoming nuptuals. For me this has been a terrific season of Chuck.
Gord I agree with you completely!!!(;
Did anyone else catch on that Alex is graduating…again. Didn’t she just graduate last year? All in all, it was a good episode, but just seems like they’re pushing the time frame a little too much.
Haha yeah!, ive just remember that now. 😛 silly writers.. Maybe shes just done another…rather short course lol
Great episode, lovely twists. Was surprised Vivian was the bady, a little abrupt however back a few eps she did have a look about her after killing the guy that wanted her dead after giving him the “key”.
Also grate full no Buy Morons 🙂
Nice review I think the prenup was introduced for essentially laughs and to set the stage for the people you mention. Also I think it was Sarah way of trying to discuss with Chuck some of her family issues. By introducing the prenup she was hoping Chuck would object and do what Chuck does and reassure her his intent to never leave her and support her. She keep mentioning it not about them to try get him to bite Chuck keep implying it to keep spy secrets Again communication issues in a sense. She was just beaming with delight when he introduced his own prenup assuring her what she wanted plus the fact he hated her prenup
I hoping Chuck starts t go to Morgan/Casey less and just go directly to Sarah with issues
A great review for a great episode. There is nothing I didn’t like about this episode.
By the way, on one of the other sites someone mentioned that they thought the bottle of wine Chuck and Sarah were drinking was a Chateau Lefranc. You know the one with the stable on the label and the stork on the cork.
I am going to have to rewatch tonight just to find out if it is.
I thought it was when I watched it live and again on the rewatch, but I couldn’t tell for sure. I bet it was – that’s the kind of inside joke they’d use.
Yes I rewatched tonight, and the wine bottle is never in focus, but the label looks very similar. I could make out the word Chateau, and there is some kind of building on the label – so if it has the stable on the label, I assume it has the stork on the cork and we have ourselves a bottle of Chateau Lefrance.
Hi all, I enjoyed the episode. It was quite funny (Morgan/Casey especially). Volkoff was his chaming self. It was interesting to see the Chuck/Sarah revesal. Heres my main point tho I hope there is a Season 5 because Sarah’s Family history needs to be explored! Literally whats her family story? Granted we know abit about her dad but why is she always on edge when they are brought up? Has she a Darker Past than she has been letting on? What Do people think?
Wow… 27 comments and no one’s mentioned that her name’s Kathleen?
I still think that Chuck is Agent X, even after this last episode. I noticed that Ellie specifically mentioned that both of her parents had files, but she never said anything about Chuck. I would think that he’d have a file on the computer too.
Lindsay,
Good thing I have you to keep me on the straight and narrow!
I don´t share the excitement about this episode. It was certainly better than some other from S4 but it doesn´t say much.
I appreciate the absence of Morgan (he gives relationship advice? Seriously? He was always the one who created problems for Chuck´s relationship), Buy More and Buy Morons generally.
But what I lused to love about this show – the over-the-top scenes, funny references – seem forced this year. In some episodes it worked, in some didn´t but I thought the whole “let´s choose a game and if you win, you live” ridiculous.
I felt like Timothy Dalton said good bye in his last scene and I am sorry. But I disagree with the review that Vivian is not good as a bad guy. I thought that it would be big irony that Chuck´s own asset would turn against him and Chuck will either have to arrest her or worse. I think it´s the whole point of this arc and it mirrors last year when Chuck had to fight with his fellow agent and teacher (Chuck was the asset at that stage). So here it works for me.
But I don´t feel the need to watch the episode again. I especially don´t like the whole lying between him and Ellie and mama B because I feel like they will never be able to tell the truth to each other again. I understand it with Chuck and mama B – they are both CIA agents and it belongs to their nature but Ellie used to be honest and even her overprotective nature would not allow her to lie to Chuck.
Well, these comments are getting way too cerebral for me. Good review, good episode, especially since Morgan only got a few scenes though he still sounds gay to me (Sorry Kobe), c’mon ‘is there something I don’t know about?’ Just have him come out of the closet and proclaim his romantic interest in Chuck and then that will drive up the ratings and then we can be done with it. With the wedding approaching, everybody is getting a little too touchy-feely for me. Now even Casey has feelings, what next Jeffster sign with a label. This used to be a great show.
well, ellie knows sarah’s still in the CIA so that should explain the lotus
wish with all my heart that Agent x = Stephen Bartowski.
However I have some other suggestions:-
1. Casey [not like he hasn’t kept secrets before!]
2. Kathleen McHugh [she had to have the means to raise Alex after all]
3. Jack Burton [the con man act is a smokescreen]
4. Devon [he really IS involved in the spy game]
5. Knowle Rohrer from the X Files. After all Robert Patrick [Doggett in X Files] was Casey’s commanding officer. Maybe Casey *is* Knowle Rohrer?!!?
I am in complete agreement with Symon above. The show has lost its luster, and the reason is that Chuck and Sarah seem bored with each other. They have Sarah playing a completely different type of character then the first three seasons….her comedic role was being the straight laced one following orders but finding herself own ove rby Chuck. Now, there is no chemistry between the two. Chuck is supposed to be cooler and mor ein command, but he actually come off more bumbling then when he was in charge of the herd. Ever since phase 3, this season has really dropped, and if you read the updates from cast members, they are not “feeling confident” anymore. The ratings ar edown, and let’s be honest they aren’t going to win any new viewers with the storylines as they are. Just feel like the show has lust what was so great about it.