CHUCK
Season 1 Episode 10
“Chuck Versus the Nemesis”
Written by Chris Fedak
Directed by Allison Liddi Brown
(WARNING: SPOILERS)

“It’s looking like a limb torn off,
Or altogether just taken apart.
We’re reeling through an endless fall.
We are the ever-living ghost of what once was.”
-- Band of Horses
“No One’s Gonna Love You”

Just to establish this up front, that wasn’t a clone or a look-alike we saw in the previous episode’s cliffhanger: that apparently was the real Bryce Larkin.
Which leads us into this great installment, which not only allows the Buy More subplot (involving the post-Thanksgiving consumer rush of Black Friday) to merge nearly seamlessly with the main Bryce plot, but also incorporates Thanksgiving season madness—and the Morgan-Anna thing—into the mix.

So apparently, Bryce wasn’t rogue CIA at all, but had actually been roped in by Fulcrum, an agency inside the CIA, that is working against it from within. Bryce was resuscitated by Fulcrum only so that they could get access to the Intersect, which Bryce made them believe was inside his head, so they kept him alive in that capsule. But the capsule was intercepted and now, Bryce wants to come in from the cold, but he doesn’t know who he can trust.
So he reaches out, first to Chuck, then to Sarah, and when Chuck flashes, thanx to the Intersect, it seems Bryce’s story checks out. But this, only after, a) Chuck sees Bryce and Sarah kiss, in his bedroom, and b) Casey shoots Bryce again.
Thankfully, Bryce is wearing a bullet-proof vest. (This scene, plus Bryce and Chuck’s geeky knowledge of Klingon, plus shop protocol pertaining to unforeseen disasters like earthquakes and the like, will set up events at the climactic face off at the Buy More.)

So, to help Bryce turn himself in, and to ensure that the CIA agents Bryce does turn himself in to aren’t Fulcrum, the exchange goes down in a very public place, with hordes of civilians around: at the Buy More, during Black Friday. Of course, things don’t quite go as planned, and a Pineapple Situation goes into effect, forcing a mass evacuation—and an apoplectic fit from Big Mike.
This does however, clear the store for the great showdown between Fulcrum operatives and the goodies, and in a great scene, Chuck sees the Dynamic Duo of Bryce and Sarah in high-flying, a$$-kicking action. (As an aside, this episode has some of the best action sequences since the Pilot.)
And when the NSA cleaners arrive, there’s even a cover story of a gas leak, to give them enough time to clear up the damage—and bullet holes—within.

After an off-screen debriefing, Bryce gets his new assignment: deep cover, off-the-radar stuff, as he sets off to infiltrate and take down Fulcrum. There’s some loaded goodbyes, and a cryptic “We’ll always have Omaha,” from Bryce to Sarah.
As it turns out—when Chuck asks Casey what that was all about—the Omaha thing was Bryce reaching out to Sarah, giving her a chance to join him, if she wanted. (At least according to Casey, because, tellingly, the military operation Chuck was deemed a prime candidate for, was codenamed “The Omaha Project.”)
The final scene, played out to Band of Horses’ “No One’s Gonna Love You,“ sees Sarah at her place, passport and gun on the bed, while the landline rings (it’s Bryce) even as her cell does (it’s Chuck), and she stands, staring at Chuck’s pic on her cell, indecisive, a great cliffhanger to a great episode.

There’s a bunch of fantastic stuff in this one, from Big Mike spazzing out over Black Friday to geek knowledge saving the day to how the subplot converges with the main plot—unlike some previous installments where the subplot seemed extraneous and peripheral—to how the character relationships are once more the sturdy backbone of this show.
And that aspect is ably supported by some solid performances from principals Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski, and guest star Matthew Bomer. These three convey the complicated relationships between Chuck, Bryce, and Sarah, in the limited running time of a 40+ minute TV show—one hour with commercials—all the while shooting at or getting shot at, by the baddies; none too easy, that.

And though there isn’t—as I’d hoped—an intense sit-down as Bryce and Chuck hash out what the hell happened to them, there’s a lot of emotion flying about here, from Bryce hearing how he ruined Chuck’s life (from Morgan) to Bryce telling Chuck “I’ve got one friend; you’ve got a house and a store full of them.” And of course, there’s the Bryce and Sarah thing, which clearly tears Chuck apart to glimpse.
So, even if Bryce does end up off-the-radar for the time being (which seems to be the case), there’s still a lot of unresolved issues there, and I’m hoping we get back to that, as well as more of the Stanford years, in upcoming episodes.
As soon as the strike is resolved, that is.

“But someone,
They could have warned you.
When things start splitting at the seams, and now
The whole thing’s tumbling down.
Things start splitting at the seams, and now
If things start splitting at the seams, and now,
It’s tumbling down,
Hard.”
-- Band of Horses
“No One’s Gonna Love You”

(Images courtesy of nbc.com; Cease To Begin album sleeve art courtesy of austinchronicle.com.)

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].)

TV WATCH 2007
CHUCK Pilot

“Why me? I’m nobody. I’m the supervisor of a Nerd Herd at a Buy More. Maybe one day, I’ll be Assistant Store Manager, and I don’t even know if I want that job.”
-- Chuck Bartowski

Chuck (Zachary Levi, from Less Than Perfect) is working an 11$ an hour job at the local Buy More. He’s got a sister, Ellie (Sarah Lancaster, from What About Brian and Everwood) who’s forever pushing him in the way of the nearest live, breathing girl, and a best friend in the person of fellow nerd Morgan (Joshua Gomez, from the sadly cancelled Invasion and Without A Trace).
On his birthday, he gets a surprise email from Bryce Larkin (Matthew Bomer, from Traveler and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning), his roommate back in Stanford, who apparently stole Chuck’s girl and got him kicked out of university; an email that contains all of the information the NSA and the CIA have, encoded in a program equipped with pattern recognition.
All that gets stuck in Chuck’s head in one massive infodump, and makes him the target of both intelligence agencies, kicking off the engaging and entertaining hi-jinx of Chuck.

Brought to us by Josh Schwartz and McG (who also teamed-up for The O.C.), Chuck is fun and loads of funny, as Schwartz once again places geekdom front and center and introduces us to Chuck Bartowski, a nerd whose love life is well and truly dead following the trauma of losing the mythical Jill to Bryce back at Stanford. Then, just when he thinks he’s scored after Sarah (spellcheck nemesis Yvonne Strzechowski) comes up to the Nerd Herd counter, this whole agent/spy thing comes crashing through his door.
Schwartz takes one of any average kid’s dreams (for some, it was to be a secret agent, for others—like myself—it was to be a superhero) and gives it to a geek (which, on some levels, is really just a kid who never completely grew up), mining the conceit for all its comedic and action potential: Chuck is Alias if Alias were a comedy and Sidney Bristow were a nerd.

The action set pieces are cool, the first—as with Casino Royale’s opening—proudly displaying the fact that mainstream productions have learned a little something from Yamikazi. There’s a car chase, and a Mexican stand-off atop a skyscraper.
While on the comedy front, though much of Chuck’s humour is found in the smart dialogue courtesy of Schwartz, there is one particular moment of broad, slapstick humour that I wish had been downplayed. (I’m not very big on slapstick.)
There is also some alarming sitcomesque humour (as with Ellie’s boyfriend, “Captain Awesome,” played by Living With Fran’s Ryan McPartlin) that I hope gets refined as the season unfolds.

But, above and beyond the action and the humour, what seals the deal with Chuck are the long-term plot threads that are planted in the Pilot that hopefully, the series will fully explore in future episodes. The one I’m most interested in is why did Bryce send the email to Chuck? They hadn’t spoken in five years, and they apparently parted under less than happy circumstances. Why Chuck?
I realize this isn’t Lost, but I do hope we see more of what went down at Stanford, which will perhaps give us an inkling as to what was going on in Bryce’s head when he decided to send the email to Chuck.

Minor flaws notwithstanding, Chuck opens solidly, and as the lead-in to NBC’s phenomenal Heroes, stands to attract a huge audience. And I can guarantee Chuck is a fantastic way to spend an hour as you’re waiting for your weekly Heroes fix.

Parting shot: As an aside, it’s interesting to note that three individuals once involved with Superman are on Chuck: McG, who came this close to directing the fifth Superman film; Matthew Bomer, who was Brett Ratner’s choice to play the Man of Steel; and Ryan McPartlin, who auditioned but was reportedly rejected by the studio.

Parting shot 2: Also in the cast is Dexter’s C.S. Lee as Buy More co-worker Harry Tang.

(Images courtesy of Chuck Bartowski’s photos at flickr.com.)