ChuckTV.net The CHUCK archive
This post is part of a series of mini insights into Chuck – Chucktoids, if you will – courtesy of G. Walter Bush, author of Unpacking Chuck and Unpacking Chuck 2.0.
A phantom reflection motif permeates the series, most often implying the double lives characters hide from others. In “Helicopter”, the lens focuses on Chuck’s image in the mirror as he dresses for a ‘date’ with Sarah while Morgan and Ellie, unaware that Sarah is really the new Intersect’s CIA handler, look on.
Several episodes later (“Hard Salami”), the technique reappears: Chuck stares into a mirror while dressing for his date-turned-mission with Lou even as he laments, “We’re only on our second official date, and already I’m lying to her.”
Similarly, Devon addresses his reflection in the kitchen window just after taking on his first “mission”: to “be cool” by keeping Chuck’s CIA asset identity secret and “handl[ing] Ellie” (“Colonel”).
