CHUCK
Season 1 Episode 9
“Chuck Versus the Imported Hard Salami”
Written by Scott Rosenbaum and Matt Miller
Directed by Jason Ensler
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

“It’s the old story. You know, guy gets super computer in his brain. Beautiful CIA agent is sent to protect him, and then she tells him while under the spell of truth serum that she’s not interested. I get it. But for me, the emotional roller coaster is a little much, so I think I’d rather find something a little less common, like, say, I don’t know, a real relationship?”

Chuck’s fake break-up with Sarah is proving a little tricky as a) Sarah really does have feelings for Chuck that she adamantly refuses to admit, and b) Chuck’s currently dating Lou.
But it turns out that Lou’s ex, club owner Stavros Demitrios (Theodore Zouboulidis) is the son of shipping magnate/smuggler, Yari (Forever Knight’s John Kapelos), who’s involved in not just smuggling in assorted meats and sausages for Lou, but also a “volatile package” which is “time sensitive,” all indications that the item in question could be a biological or chemical weapon of some sort.
So Chuck and Lou’s second date is orchestrated/instigated so Chuck can get close to Stavros to find out more about the package.
Needless to say, the whole dating Lou thing quickly gets wonky.

And when Chuck confronts Lou, thinking she’s in on the weapons smuggling (but actually just sneaking in meat for her sandwiches), he not only pisses her off again, but ends up—along with Sarah—kidnapped by Stavros.
In order to rescue them both, Casey turns to Lou, and tells her that he’s an FDA agent, and that she can go to jail since Stavros is also smuggling weapons, but he can look the other way if she helps him by telling him which dock Stavros receives his shipments at. In so doing, Casey also pretty much indicates that Chuck’s an undercover FDA agent too.

Casey rescues Chuck and Sarah, and they both arrive at what they believe is a bomb, with a timer with less than a minute to go. There really isn’t any time and as the timer runs out, Sarah suddenly kisses Chuck.
It isn’t a bomb though. At this point, they still don’t know what it is, though Sarah does know it’s an awkward moment. Not so for Chuck.

Chuck goes to Lou’s shop, and she tells him she knows he’s an undercover FDA agent, and wonders if there was anything real between them. Chuck says she’s everything he’s looking for, but right now, he can’t be looking.
So they break up.
For real.

Chuck then calls Sarah, asking her to go out on a real date with him.
But at that moment, Sarah and Casey are opening up the package. Apparently, the timer indicated oxygen amount for whatever was contained within.
And when the package opens up, it turns out to be some kind of capsule containing… Bryce!

Okay, now that’s a cliffhanger.
From the Pilot on, I’ve been hoping that somehow, Bryce was still alive, and that he’d come back into the picture, so we could see into his relationship with Chuck, into what now lay between these once-best friends, following the apparent betrayal at Stanford, the ensuing years of silence and resentment, and exactly why Bryce emailed Chuck the Intersect.
And now we’re here! Yahoo!
(That better not be some clone or spy double…)

Parting shot: The Buy More subplot involves Morgan getting it on with Anna, though these peripheral threads are becoming increasingly distracting.
Oh, and I hope there’s more Rachel Bilson on the way, as two special guest spots is a piddling amount of face time.

Parting shot 2: Congratulations to Josh Schwartz and everybody involved with Chuck, for the Satellite nomination for Television Series, Comedy or Musical, and to Zachary Levi, for the Actor in a Series, Comedy or Musical nom. (Check out Afterthoughts (35) in the Archive for the 2007 Satellite nominees and winners.)

(Images courtesy of nbc.com.)

CHUCK
Season 1 Episode 7
“Chuck Versus the Alma Mater”
Written by Anne Cofell Saunders
Directed by Patrick Norris
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

“So Sally can wait,
She knows it’s too late as she's walking on by
My soul slides away,
`But don't look back in anger,’ I heard you say.”
-- Oasis
“Don’t Look Back In Anger”

Okay, so despite the slightly awkward fit of the Buy More subplot in this episode (which involves Harry Tang’s rise to power as Assistant Manager), this is arguably the best episode since the Pilot, as it finally dives into Chuck’s Stanford years with a bunch of flashbacks—as I mentioned in my review of the pilot episode, something I’ve wanted to see since the whole premise of Chuck was established.

As it turns out, Chuck’s teacher, Prof. George Fleming (Philly’s Scott Alan Smith), the man responsible for kicking Chuck out of university, is a CIA asset, has been for a very long time. But Fleming is on the run now, hunted by crossbow-wielding Icelandic spy, Magnus, who wants a disc with top secret intel that the Professor has.
So despite Chuck’s trauma surrounding Stanford, he ends up helping Sarah and Casey, particularly since he also flashes on his old Stanford ID, which indicates that he’s in the Intersect, and he’d like to know why.
After Fleming is crossbowed and sent to hospital, Chuck finds the disc at Bryce’s old dead letter box in the library. On the disc are all the interviews Fleming conducted with Stanford students whom he recruited into the CIA, among them, Bryce.
Chuck’s name is in there, too, but he never interviewed to join the CIA, of course.

When Chuck finally gets to view the file, he sees Bryce talk to Fleming. Evidently, Chuck’s perfect score on a test indicates he’s a prime candidate for a military operation codenamed “The Omaha Project.” Bryce doesn’t want his friend to be recruited, thinks he’s “got too much heart” to be an operative, that being on the field would get Chuck killed.
So Bryce hatches a plan: if Chuck cheated on the test, that would invalidate his score, and thus invalidate his being a potential recruit for the spy life. So Bryce frames Chuck to save him. It’s a great little moment—in an episode filled with them—as Chuck realizes all that pain (he describes leaving Stanford as “the worst day of my life”) was because Bryce cared enough to keep him away from the espionage world.
It then dawns on both Chuck and Sarah, if Bryce had a good reason to get Chuck kicked out of Stanford, then maybe he had a good reason for breaking into the Intersect, and then emailing it to Chuck.

Though we don’t yet get to meet the mythical Jill (the girl Bryce supposedly stole away from Chuck), the flashbacks are effective and poignant, with the potent “Don’t Look Back In Anger” a crucial weapon in this episode’s arsenal, used in two key scenes: Chuck’s last day at Stanford in 2003, and his first meeting with Bryce in 1999.

Even with its ultimately extraneous subplot, this one’s still a great episode that manages to convey the hurt of a four-year friendship ending in apparent betrayal, and Chuck’s very real need to move on from that hurt. Finally discovering the whys and wherefores of it can at least help Chuck on that road.
Having said that, I’d really still love to see more of the Stanford years.
After all, we still have to meet Jill…

Parting shot: Seeing the new generation of Stanford super-spies was cool too.

“Don't look back in anger
Don't look back in anger
Don't look back in anger…
At least not today.”
-- Oasis
“Don’t Look Back In Anger”

(Images courtesy of nbc.com; “Don’t Look Back In Anger” single sleeve cover art courtesy of oasisinet.com [photography by Michael Spencer Jones; sleeve design and art direction by Brian Cannon for Microdot].)

CHUCK
Season 1 Episode 2
“Chuck Versus the Helicopter”
Written by: Josh Schwartz & Chris Fedak
Directed by: Robert Duncan McNeill
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

So Sarah takes a job at the Wienerlicious just down from the Buy More to keep a close eye on Chuck, while Casey of course, is now a Buy More employee.
Dr. Zarnow (John Fleck, from HBO’s Carnivale) is brought in to take a look at the Intersect data that’s stuck in Chuck’s brain, with the intention of the good doctor getting all of those “really scary, nasty, get-killed-for-having-‘em secrets” out.
But just after seeing “Patient X”—Zarnow is not allowed to actually see Chuck during the test—the doctor is apparently killed by an NSA incinerator (which obliterates every single molecule of the target, so no body is found). And who works for the NSA, but Casey.

Thus begins the amusing, but nonetheless tense tug of war as Sarah thinks Casey’s out to ice Chuck, while Casey thinks Sarah’s the double agent. Poor Chuck’s stuck in the middle, while still hoping that his relationship with Sarah (“which isn’t even remotely real”) can actually go somewhere.
Things come to a head at the dinner that Ellie insists on having so she can finally meet Sarah. Hilarious hi-jinx ensue.

We also discover that another Intersect will be up and running in about six months’ time, and when that happens, Casey is instructed to do what he does best.
Uh-oh…

Sure, the helicopter sequence could have been better executed, but the laughs and action are still coming on strong, and while “Gone, Daddy, Gone,” the Trainspotting nod, and Them are all fantastic, the Lost reference slays them all!

Parting shot: A review of Chuck’s Pilot episode (TV Watch 2007) can be found in the Archive.

(Image courtesy of aintitcool.com.)