Chuck: Chuck versus the Suitcase<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chuck, beautiful women have a lot of baggage. You should be happy Walker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a suitcase.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s episode wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the best episode ever. Not bad, just not stellar. But Chuck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s second entry had everything I hope for in a great Chuck episode: a glitzy, funny mission; a wacky McGuffin; and not one, not two, but three emotional arcs. I even loved the BuyMore antics. And they all tied together in a beautiful funny package.<\/p>\n

Chuck and Sarah were hilarious working together, without Casey, and with only one flash. Even though Chuck sometimes brings way too much of his own baggage to their missions, they did a fabulous job, as even General Beckman was willing to admit. I particularly enjoyed that the writers didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just fall back on the jealous girlfriend trope: Sarah was genuinely worried that Chuck was starting to have concerns about her lack of rootedness. This neatly resolved in 42 minutes, but there was a bit of tension here (even though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nice to see that Chuck<\/em> has moved beyond the will-they-or-won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t-they plot). Chuck may be more willing to settle down than Sarah is, and that could provide some wacky hi-jinks later down the road.<\/p>\n

Casey is struggling with settling down as well. Even though he feels at home\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwell, as at home as that cave in Afghanistan\u00e2\u20ac\u201dhe hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really set down roots in Burbank. (Insert bonsai tree joke here.) But he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s starting to connect with Alex, which means that hilarity will ensue when Morgan and Alex start to have some off-hours fun. (That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a guess, not a spoiler. I avoid spoilers.) At least Morgan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an even better catch than before, what with his new managerial responsibilities and flashy nametag.<\/p>\n

The arc that really got me is Ellie and her mother. Ellie talks a tough game to Awesome, but Chuck knows the truth: Ellie misses her mom, no matter how many problems there may be in their relationship, and no matter that Mama B wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t there to help raise Chuck. Did you notice that most of the pictures Ellie looked at were of Chuck with his parents, not her? Ellie\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relationship with her mom is about her own nascent motherhood, her relationship with Chuck, her relationship with Scott Bakula. Mothers and daughters, dude. Mothers and daughters and Scott Bakula, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m tellin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 ya.<\/p>\n

But enough with the deep emotional stuff: Jeff and Lester are back and better than ever. (Except that I might boycott if I have to see Jeff\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chest ever again.) And, just like last season\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s “Chuck versus the Three Words,” this episode tied in with this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Gossip Girl<\/em>, which also featured a fashion theme (Fashion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Night Out) and an awesome catfight (between Serena and Blair).<\/p>\n

Speaking of that catfight: no, I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Just watch it and watch it again. Fabulous!<\/p>\n

Bytes:<\/strong> (This list was originally two kilometers long, but in the name of all that is holy and American, I cut it down to mere inches.)<\/p>\n

\n
• General Beckman: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Colonel Casey, after the Yves Saint Laurent incident, you will obviously have to sit this one out.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
  \n
  • Casey: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Stab one guy with a stiletto\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    \n
    • Morgan: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lots of things you can do with a Roomba.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This reminded me of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Lots of things you can do with a stopwatch.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Torchwood<\/em>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      \n
      • Sarah: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chuck, if we hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stopped that bomb, your last words to me would have been about my weird unpacking thing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
        \n
        • Chuck: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Hey, Spiderman kiss?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d There was a Spiderman kiss in The O.C<\/em>., too.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
          \n
          • Lester: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been taking gigs at the Whisper Lounge in exchange for scraps of tapas.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
            \n
            • Jeff: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We live here now, in the wild, with my van.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
              \n
              • Lester: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not all bad. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been expanding my understanding of the universal mind. Jeff has a new pet rock named Bruce. I asked him why \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcBruce,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and he said it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because when he hits it, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbruce.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                \n
                • Jeff: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153My water just broke.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                  \n
                  • Jeff: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Is there room in that womb for two?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ugh. And again: ugh.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                    And Pieces:<\/strong><\/p>\n

                    \n
                    • Zachary Levi has an odd was of pronouncing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Achilles.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                      \n
                      • This week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Greta was hilarious. As were the acrobatic CIA\/BuyMore employees.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                        \n
                        • Hey\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6smart bullets, Achilles\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 heels, tiny targeted areas that require an ace shot\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6symbolism?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                          \n
                          • And Lou Ferrigno? Perfect. Just perfect.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                            \n
                            • I hope Chuck and Morgan removed the tranq darts from Jeff and Lester before dragging them on the ground. Ouch!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
                              \n
                              • Ellie looked pretty in the flowered dress, but it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fit her character.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

                                Four out of four sequins.<\/p>\n

                                (By\u00c2\u00a0the way, you might be wondering who I am. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m Josie Kafka<\/a>, and I review Chuck, Fringe,<\/em> and The Vampire Diaries<\/em> for billiedoux.com<\/a>. And now, thanks to the goodwill of the chucktv masterminds, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m recapping Chuck here, too!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                                Chuck: Chuck versus the Suitcase \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Chuck, beautiful women have a lot of baggage. You should be happy Walker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a suitcase.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s episode wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the best episode ever. Not bad, just not stellar. But Chuck\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s second entry had everything I hope for in a great Chuck episode: a glitzy, funny mission; a wacky McGuffin; …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2936,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2936"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6818"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6832,"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6818\/revisions\/6832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chucktv.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}