ChuckChuck vs. the First Date
Original Air Date: Sept 29, 2008
Jeff L - TwoCents Staff Writer
JeffL@thetwocents.com
It’s been awhile since we last checked in with our favorite super geek Chuck Bartowski. So while Chuck is dangled upside down off the side of a building by Michael Clarke Duncan, (whom I’ve decided to call Kingpin but goes by the name Colt) we’ll get a little flash of our own. Chuck is a Buy More (read Best Buy) employee who works for the Nerd Herd (Geek Squad) but he’s also the government’s top-secret Intersect computer (it was downloaded into his brain by accident – see entire last season.) He’s got two government handlers: Sarah/CIA – the beautiful blonde and Casey/NSA the rugged, no-nonsense type.
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[photo: Trae Patton/NBC]
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Chuck
ReplyDeleteChuck vs. the First Date
Original Air Date: Sept 29, 2008
Jeff L - TwoCents Staff Writer
JeffL@thetwocents.com
It’s been awhile since we last checked in with our favorite super geek Chuck Bartowski. So while Chuck is dangled upside down off the side of a building by Michael Clarke Duncan, (whom I’ve decided to call Kingpin but goes by the name Colt) we’ll get a little flash of our own. Chuck is a Buy More (read Best Buy) employee who works for the Nerd Herd (Geek Squad) but he’s also the government’s top-secret Intersect computer (it was downloaded into his brain by accident – see entire last season.) He’s got two government handlers: Sarah/CIA – the beautiful blonde and Casey/NSA the rugged, no-nonsense type.
Kingpin is after the cipher (some kind of fancy computer doodad) and Chuck’s got it, but before Kingpin can shake it loose, Casey and Sarah show up guns blazing and Kingpin throws Chuck at them and takes off. Sarah asks why Chuck didn’t stay in the car (an old joke, again see all of last season) and Chuck finally tells her “You know what? It’s NEVER safe in the car.”
Back at headquarters, General Grandma (a little botox in the off-season Gramma?) and the Candyman explain that the cipher – which Chuck rescued from mercenaries who stole it from the NSA lab -- is the artificial brain for the government’s new Intersect computer. The one that will make Chuck irrelevant and allow him to go back to his normal life – but will that be a life at the Buy More? Only time will tell. Chuck has dreams and aspirations now. After Chuck and Sarah leave, General Grandma tells Casey that the plan to kill Chuck is still on once the new Intersect II goes online.
The next morning it’s Huey Lewis music montage time and Chuck is all happy because it’s his last official day as a super spy. Soon life will be back to normal. Nothing can cure his case of the happys until he accidently walks in on his sister and Captain Awesome in the shower.
At the Buy More, Morgan (remember him? Chuck’s oh-so-annoying man-child buddy) lays out his Call of Duty battle plans for Chuck. Big Mike wants Chuck to be the Buy More assistant manager but Chuck doesn’t think he’ll be around that long so Mike makes Chuck decide who gets the new manager job. Chuck says his goodbyes to Casey and thanks him for always catching him when he fell and teaching him how to do things that he thought were impossible before all this happened to him.
Next door, the hot dog joint where Sarah “works” while she keeps an eye on Chuck has turned into an Orange Orange and she’s doling out the fo-yo in slow-mo on which we may feast our eyes while the sweet sounds of Flight of the Conchords serenade us. Chuck shows up and decides to put all his cards on the table since Operation Chuck Bartowski is coming to a close. He asks Sarah out on a date and she agrees, since she knows she’ll be half way around the world on a new mission in a matter of days. Queue the getting ready for the date montage (were there this many musical montages last season?) Sarah is loading up her sexy lingerie for the Chuck date while Casey loads his gun for the Chuck date with destiny. Chuck just can’t decide which shirt makes him look like the type of guy who Sarah would actually go out with. Casey does a little target practice on pictures of Osama Bin Laden and Hitler the photo of Ronald Regan slides by unharmed and a picture of Chuck causes Casey to miss the target completely. Will he be able to kill his buddy Chuck?
Chuck and Sarah are enjoying their date, but Casey can’t get in on all the Chuck killing fun until he hands over the cipher. The agent shows up for the pickup but it goes bad and one of Kingpin’s men ends up with the device while Casey ends up with a face full of some poison gas. He manages to inject himself (think Uma Thurman, Pulp Fiction) and survive (so who is this “main character” that’s supposed to be killed in this episode anyway?) Chuck takes a look around the restaurant and has one of his Intersect flashes realizing that everyone in the joint besides him and Sarah is a mercenary and is intend on killing them both. He asks if Sarah has her gun, but in that tight dress where would she put it?
Kingpin joins the party and no that he’s got the cipher he just needs to knock off Chuck, Casey and Sarah and he can call it a day. Casey’s got other plans, however, and he drives his car through the restaurant and rescues Chuck and Sarah but not before Kingpin gets a good blow to Casey’s face – leaving a convenient imprint of the fancy ring he’s been wearing.
Next morning, Chuck wakes up to the all Huey Lewis all the time radio station again, but this time he’s not happy at all. We’re witness to the stunning contrast and the realization that without the cipher there can be no Intersect 2.0 and Chuck can’t have the other life he’s been dreaming of for at least 38 minutes. At the Buy More Chuck attempts to interview some of his nutty co-workers for the assistant manager job, but ends up leaving Morgan in charge of the decision after he flashes on that oh-so-convenient welt on Casey’s face left by Kingpin’s ring. Chuck knows the whereabouts of Kingpin’s secret lair and Casey and Sarah are going to go take him down and get the cipher back so Chuck can finally take off and find himself while backpacking though Europe.
Morgan creates a cage-match Thunderdome to decide the outcome of the assistant manager race. Everyone is in the back, so Big Mike sends Chuck out on a Nerd Herd call. Of course, it was Chuck they wanted all along, because it’s Kingpin and he’s able to solve all his own tech support issues by pressing control-alt-kill Chuck. Across town, Casey and Sarah come up empty on the Kingpin secret lair. They try to track Chuck down at the Buy More but find out he’s been sent out on Nerd run.
The mercenaries are about to kill Chuck but make the classic bad guy mistake of allowing him to talk. Chuck bluffs that he’s really a secret agent for the CIA and he’s the one springing the trap. He tells them the building is surrounded and calls Morgan who rattles off the Call of Duty mission details -- which sound convincingly like a CIA operation. The bluff works, at least long enough for Chuck to make a break for it with the cipher. Kingpin grabs him and we’ve come full circle, Chuck is again being dangled over the edge of a building. Sarah shows up and Kingpin drops Chuck off the side of the building. Seriously? They are going to kill of Chuck? We think so until Casey grabs him and keeps him from hitting the ground at the last possible second. Remember when Chuck thanked him for always catching him when he falls? That’s called foreshadowing. Aww. Anyway, Sarah and Kingpin go at it for awhile and eventually Kingpin gets her in a bear hug and we hear enough spine cracks to believe that Sarah is possibly the main character who’s not going to make it though tonight’s episode. She crumbles to the ground and Kingpin lets his guard down long enough for Sarah to pull some karate moves on him and Casey to reach the roof via the fire escape he’s been climbing. Kingpin’s mercenaries move in to surround them, but Chuck bursts in with the cavalry and saves the day.
Now that General Grandma and the Candyman have the cipher back, they reiterate the order to kill Chuck. Casey tries to talk them out of it, but they aren’t having it. They tell him Chuck is to be eliminated.
More musical montage as Chuck prepares for another date with Sarah, this time he’s cooking dinner. Candyman plugs in the cipher and holy crap, the government is using a 1984 Mac Classic as the new Intersect? You’d think with all the money they’ve spent they could at least hook an iPhone up to the thing. The cipher wasn’t a cipher at all, in fact it was a Trojan horse and the Intersect 2.0 explodes killing the Candyman in the process. So long Tony Todd. I don’t know if I’d call Candyman a “main character” but he’s dead now so it doesn’t matter.
Chuck is preparing dinner, Casey is preparing to kill Chuck. Sarah shows up and tells Chuck that the Intersect 2.0 has been destroyed and that he’s got job security – at least until the government can afford an Apple IIg to try again. Casey overhears the news and holsters his weapon.
Back to business as usual at the Buy More, only now Lester is the new assistant manager and Jeff is going to eat 90 Twinkies in 3 minutes in the break room.
I’m so glad to have Chuck back. This episode reminded me of all the reasons why I love Chuck.
ReplyDeleteStarting with Adam Baldwin. His dry humor cracks me up. And I knew he wouldn’t be able to kill Chuck.
And the Buy Mores scenes were top notch. Hmm . . . Performance reviews are due soon. Maybe I can set up my own cage match here at the office.
Like this show a lot. Nice review! I was hoping Chuck would still quit that job and now go for something new like Sarah. Would have changed the scenery a bit.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the next 2 episodes and this season doesn't let down. It's a very fun show!
ReplyDelete