Chuck 3x19 Review
May. 27th, 2010 11:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaChuck Versus the Ring, Part 2
Overall this was an excellent episode and I can’t wait till next season.
It didn’t go in the direction I expected – everyone on the run – but I love the direction it did go in perhaps more. Well, as long as Chuck immediately turns around and has a spy meeting with all the others and tells them the truth. Chuck has been lying a lot this season but especially in these last few episodes and it got to the point that I found myself thinking it had to be on purpose and that TPTB were going somewhere with it all. What Chuck does in the season four premiere is really going to show if there was any meaning to it all or not. And I really, really hope he tells the truth. The entire gang working together to figure out what is going on would be so much more awesome than Chuck trying to do it alone for awhile, lying to everyone about it, before he is inevitably found out.
• “Chuck, you’re story – it’s just beginning.” – Stephen. I think the idea that Stephen was playing spy by himself and for himself for the last twenty years, and doing a pretty good job at it at that, is really cool. Does this mean then that we’re going to have Chuck and gang becoming spies again but working for themselves? Does it mean that Chuck (and Sarah) are going to move into his childhood home (since Stephen apparently still owns it)?
• I love that next season is going to be about Mary Bartowski and that we’re finally going to met their mom. Hopefully she is neither evil nor going to die in one of her kids’ arms.
• One thing I was hoping would happen – the end of the Buy More storylines – did happen and in a very final way by having it blown up. I guess that means goodbye to Jeff and Lester and Big Mike and I’m okay with that. I’ve liked them but I think their time is done.
- I did have a problem with Jeff and Lester apparently being the suspects of the bombing and being on the run from the police over it. I know it was played for humour but in-show it does not work for me at all because it means the Chuck and gang and the government have let Jeff and Lester take the fall for the fire and more importantly have let them be classified armed and dangerous which seems a recipe to get them shot from some cop doing their job. Chuck would never let something like this happen. I think it would have been far funny for Jeff and Lester to have taken off on the run thinking they did it or would be blamed for it but in actuality not. As it is it makes Chuck and our gang look like assholes for letting it happen.
• So as a child Chuck got downloaded with the very first Intersect... and I am not sure at how I’m supposed to take that. He appeared to be even less affected by it then he was in the pilot and there was no implication that Stephen removed it from him so now I’m a little confused about what this all means. He’s been Intersected three times now – the second was removed but did the first one go with it or is it always a part of him? How is it that Chuck has gone through his entire life with the Intersect in his head and never flashed on anything or apparently been affected by it in anyway? Why has he only recently found himself negatively affected by the flashes? I can buy it having been built up over the seasons of flashes and yet upon remember that first time it happened it appears as if all the symptoms disappeared and that confuses me even more. Why did he get better? And if he was better then why did he still need the Governor as he appeared to at the end? He showed obvious relief when he put it on. It just doesn’t make sense to me and I think it would a bit more if he didn’t need it. If by remember the first time he was downloaded by the Intersect really ‘rebooted’ him it would make more sense to me for him to not need the Governor anymore because he is special. It’s like they say/do one thing and then turn around and go but ‘also this is true too’. *waves hands* Maybe I’m missing something.
- Stephen tells Chuck “You’re special, son.” both when he learns that Chuck downloaded the Intersect as a child and then as he died in Chuck’s arms. What would have been nice was if Stephen had told him about the first time at some point.
• Morgan being a part of their spy team is still really not working for me. When Chuck explained to Ellie that Morgan was helping Casey’s daughter to go into hiding I was good with it. Except apparently he wasn’t, beyond maybe seeing her off, because he was right there with them as they were planning and then they took him with them on their take down of the Ring. Seriously? I also have serious issues with Morgan being given a gun, even with it having no bullets, or actually especially because it has no bullets. A gun makes Morgan far more of a target then if he didn’t have it. A bad guy sees him with the gun they will shoot him while if he doesn’t they might not. In the end he really should have been left behind, or in that utility room. I mean it took Chuck almost two seasons before they would stop telling him to stay in the car. It’s ridiculous.
- That said – Morgan actually breaking his thumbs to get himself untied so he could help was pretty amazing of him. I can’t believe he actually did it.
• I loved Chuck knocking out Justin without flashing at all. Almost like a real spy.
• I’m assuming that Sarah quit the spy business but are we supposed to assume Casey has as well? Didn’t we spend a big portion of the season on how Casey needs to be a spy?
• Despite Chuck capturing the Ring leaders and saving the government would they really let him and the Intersect go? In fact, it’s all the more reason why they wouldn’t let him go. He’s proven himself now competent and worth the expense. There is no way they would just let him go back to a normal civilian life even if they had a non-human Intersect all ready to replace him.
• “I’m sorry are you asking me to make the classic villain mistake of explaining my dastardly plot to you? You know what? I’d love to!” – Chuck. Oh, that is so Chuck and I loved Shaw’s expression when Chuck explained things to him. I bet it was very satisfying for Chuck as well. It really reminded me of the last episode when Chuck tried to provoke Shaw into fighting him and how Shaw not only didn’t go for it but responded by killing Chuck’s father.
• “I would like to kill Chuck. And I wouldn’t mind killing you too.” – Shaw. Shaw really lost it what with him threatening to blow up the Buy More with all those people in it but what I’m confused about is why he’s turned his attention to Chuck all of a sudden. He mentions that he wouldn’t mind killing Sarah but it’s as a ‘you too’ second thought sort of deal – he wants Chuck primarily? Despite Chuck trying and almost succeeding in killing him I would think Shaw would still take Sarah killing his wife a lot more personally.
• “Two Bartowski’s. Double the fun.” – Casey. I loved all the Chuck/Ellie. I loved their reunion and their talk which made me a little teary-eyed.
• I shook my head at Shaw stating right out that he works for the Ring and killed Chuck’s father – I knew it was going to be caught on tape though I wasn’t expecting the whole thing to be broadcast to the auditorium in real time. I love Chuck using his pre-spy skills to take Shaw down. It does seem like such a stupid thing to do on Shaw’s part but then its Chuck’s emotions that keep making him weak and Shaw’s used them before to deal with Chuck so I guess I can’t blame him too much. Still Chuck was lucky that Shaw incriminated himself so much right there without really any leading needed from Chuck.
• Why did they all go back to the condos after escaping? That makes no sense! It’s almost as bad as going back to Castle. Both the Ring and the CIA know where they live and they had to have had agents waiting just in case they were stupid enough to come back. That they weren’t caught is kind of ridiculous. TPTB really should have had them go to some secret backup location of Casey’s or Sarah’s instead.
• Sarah looks great with dark hair and she should considering trying it out on a more permanent basis some time. Chuck’s makeup and voice was very impressive – I would not have pegged him as Chuck. But it really makes me wonder why he remove his disguise when he knows that both the CIA and the Ring are looking for him and were both right there. It makes no in-show sense to me. He could have at least waited until he was in Shaw’s office before he did it.
• I also had a couple issues with Sarah this episode, and I really want to blame TPTB for it.
- First, during the first confrontation with Justin, as soon as Chuck went down from his flash, Sarah should have revealed herself and taken the Ring guys down instead of waiting for them to move forward. I mean they could have just shot him from where they were standing.
- Second, when Shaw escaped she should have immediately gone after him, especially knowing that his watch might be the only thing to save Chuck, instead of staying by Chuck’s side. Yeah, she probably wouldn’t have gotten to him in time but she could have tried.
- Third, during her confrontation with Shaw at the Buy More I couldn’t believe that she let herself be distracted by the alarm and people running like that. WTH?! When it happened I figured that it would be a chance for her to get him off guard not the opposite!
• It was nice for Casey that Alex joined the little family get together at the end but where is Alex’s mother in all this? I would think that she want to see Casey again and confront him about him pretending to be dead.
• During the Chuck/Shaw fight I suddenly had a prediction on how it could turn out: Shaw and Chuck will fight in the store, Sarah and Morgan will get out (leaving him for some reason), the building will blow and they will think Chuck is dead. It will end with Chuck, with the Govener, following his father’s path and leaving to protect those he loves. It certainly would have tied into Chuck’s constant lying to ‘protect’ those he loves.
While a lot of this season has been middling the last couple of episodes were pretty wonderful which made me happy. That said there were a couple of overarching issues I had:
a) Sarah’s whole arc is a confusing muddle. I thought the whole point of her this season was that she was tired of being a spy. We got the whole thing about her being worried that if Chuck became a real spy he would no longer be her Chuck and then that was kind of dropped after he saved her. Then we had her apparently wanting out of the spy business all season but when given that chance with Chuck suddenly she doesn’t want that anymore but was only going along with it for Chuck’s sake? Um, what? Are TPTB even paying attention to how they are writing her? Increasingly it appears that Sarah doesn’t actually have a character arc about her but rather everything is about Chuck. I’m fairly irate about this. The fact that the season ends with her happily changing her mind once again and apparently just fine going along with Chuck in quitting the spy business was very annoying. Does she have any desires and wishes of her own that do not revolve around Chuck anymore?
b) I love Morgan but when they brought him into the Castle team it was already pushing it. I figured though that TPTB had to do something with him now that he knew and so having him working at Castle as an assistant and a geeky font of information would work well enough. Only then in 3x15 suddenly we have General Beckman tasking Casey with training Morgan, with making him ‘field ready’, and that just exceeded my threshold for belief. It makes no sense to me. Morgan at the target range with a gun made me blink a lot. Even Chuck wasn’t given a gun for at least a year or two. (Though the gun jumping out of Morgan’s hand did make me laugh.) And then it just kept going and them taking him on their final mission to capture the Ring, and giving him a gun, without bullets, was really too much for me. I dislike it a lot.
c) Chuck’s lying. We don’t really get any satisfying conclusion to it and it makes me wonder if there wasn’t actually an overarching thread about Chuck’s continued lying this season after all.
d) I’ve really been missing the Chuck/Sarah/Casey partnership this season. I have been enjoying Casey and Morgan's growing friendship but I want the original spy gang back together already. 3x16 with Casey once again working with Sarah and being so obviously concerned about Chuck was wonderful and I really hope we get a lot more of that next season.
Overall this was an excellent episode and I can’t wait till next season.
It didn’t go in the direction I expected – everyone on the run – but I love the direction it did go in perhaps more. Well, as long as Chuck immediately turns around and has a spy meeting with all the others and tells them the truth. Chuck has been lying a lot this season but especially in these last few episodes and it got to the point that I found myself thinking it had to be on purpose and that TPTB were going somewhere with it all. What Chuck does in the season four premiere is really going to show if there was any meaning to it all or not. And I really, really hope he tells the truth. The entire gang working together to figure out what is going on would be so much more awesome than Chuck trying to do it alone for awhile, lying to everyone about it, before he is inevitably found out.
• “Chuck, you’re story – it’s just beginning.” – Stephen. I think the idea that Stephen was playing spy by himself and for himself for the last twenty years, and doing a pretty good job at it at that, is really cool. Does this mean then that we’re going to have Chuck and gang becoming spies again but working for themselves? Does it mean that Chuck (and Sarah) are going to move into his childhood home (since Stephen apparently still owns it)?
• I love that next season is going to be about Mary Bartowski and that we’re finally going to met their mom. Hopefully she is neither evil nor going to die in one of her kids’ arms.
• One thing I was hoping would happen – the end of the Buy More storylines – did happen and in a very final way by having it blown up. I guess that means goodbye to Jeff and Lester and Big Mike and I’m okay with that. I’ve liked them but I think their time is done.
- I did have a problem with Jeff and Lester apparently being the suspects of the bombing and being on the run from the police over it. I know it was played for humour but in-show it does not work for me at all because it means the Chuck and gang and the government have let Jeff and Lester take the fall for the fire and more importantly have let them be classified armed and dangerous which seems a recipe to get them shot from some cop doing their job. Chuck would never let something like this happen. I think it would have been far funny for Jeff and Lester to have taken off on the run thinking they did it or would be blamed for it but in actuality not. As it is it makes Chuck and our gang look like assholes for letting it happen.
• So as a child Chuck got downloaded with the very first Intersect... and I am not sure at how I’m supposed to take that. He appeared to be even less affected by it then he was in the pilot and there was no implication that Stephen removed it from him so now I’m a little confused about what this all means. He’s been Intersected three times now – the second was removed but did the first one go with it or is it always a part of him? How is it that Chuck has gone through his entire life with the Intersect in his head and never flashed on anything or apparently been affected by it in anyway? Why has he only recently found himself negatively affected by the flashes? I can buy it having been built up over the seasons of flashes and yet upon remember that first time it happened it appears as if all the symptoms disappeared and that confuses me even more. Why did he get better? And if he was better then why did he still need the Governor as he appeared to at the end? He showed obvious relief when he put it on. It just doesn’t make sense to me and I think it would a bit more if he didn’t need it. If by remember the first time he was downloaded by the Intersect really ‘rebooted’ him it would make more sense to me for him to not need the Governor anymore because he is special. It’s like they say/do one thing and then turn around and go but ‘also this is true too’. *waves hands* Maybe I’m missing something.
- Stephen tells Chuck “You’re special, son.” both when he learns that Chuck downloaded the Intersect as a child and then as he died in Chuck’s arms. What would have been nice was if Stephen had told him about the first time at some point.
• Morgan being a part of their spy team is still really not working for me. When Chuck explained to Ellie that Morgan was helping Casey’s daughter to go into hiding I was good with it. Except apparently he wasn’t, beyond maybe seeing her off, because he was right there with them as they were planning and then they took him with them on their take down of the Ring. Seriously? I also have serious issues with Morgan being given a gun, even with it having no bullets, or actually especially because it has no bullets. A gun makes Morgan far more of a target then if he didn’t have it. A bad guy sees him with the gun they will shoot him while if he doesn’t they might not. In the end he really should have been left behind, or in that utility room. I mean it took Chuck almost two seasons before they would stop telling him to stay in the car. It’s ridiculous.
- That said – Morgan actually breaking his thumbs to get himself untied so he could help was pretty amazing of him. I can’t believe he actually did it.
• I loved Chuck knocking out Justin without flashing at all. Almost like a real spy.
• I’m assuming that Sarah quit the spy business but are we supposed to assume Casey has as well? Didn’t we spend a big portion of the season on how Casey needs to be a spy?
• Despite Chuck capturing the Ring leaders and saving the government would they really let him and the Intersect go? In fact, it’s all the more reason why they wouldn’t let him go. He’s proven himself now competent and worth the expense. There is no way they would just let him go back to a normal civilian life even if they had a non-human Intersect all ready to replace him.
• “I’m sorry are you asking me to make the classic villain mistake of explaining my dastardly plot to you? You know what? I’d love to!” – Chuck. Oh, that is so Chuck and I loved Shaw’s expression when Chuck explained things to him. I bet it was very satisfying for Chuck as well. It really reminded me of the last episode when Chuck tried to provoke Shaw into fighting him and how Shaw not only didn’t go for it but responded by killing Chuck’s father.
• “I would like to kill Chuck. And I wouldn’t mind killing you too.” – Shaw. Shaw really lost it what with him threatening to blow up the Buy More with all those people in it but what I’m confused about is why he’s turned his attention to Chuck all of a sudden. He mentions that he wouldn’t mind killing Sarah but it’s as a ‘you too’ second thought sort of deal – he wants Chuck primarily? Despite Chuck trying and almost succeeding in killing him I would think Shaw would still take Sarah killing his wife a lot more personally.
• “Two Bartowski’s. Double the fun.” – Casey. I loved all the Chuck/Ellie. I loved their reunion and their talk which made me a little teary-eyed.
• I shook my head at Shaw stating right out that he works for the Ring and killed Chuck’s father – I knew it was going to be caught on tape though I wasn’t expecting the whole thing to be broadcast to the auditorium in real time. I love Chuck using his pre-spy skills to take Shaw down. It does seem like such a stupid thing to do on Shaw’s part but then its Chuck’s emotions that keep making him weak and Shaw’s used them before to deal with Chuck so I guess I can’t blame him too much. Still Chuck was lucky that Shaw incriminated himself so much right there without really any leading needed from Chuck.
• Why did they all go back to the condos after escaping? That makes no sense! It’s almost as bad as going back to Castle. Both the Ring and the CIA know where they live and they had to have had agents waiting just in case they were stupid enough to come back. That they weren’t caught is kind of ridiculous. TPTB really should have had them go to some secret backup location of Casey’s or Sarah’s instead.
• Sarah looks great with dark hair and she should considering trying it out on a more permanent basis some time. Chuck’s makeup and voice was very impressive – I would not have pegged him as Chuck. But it really makes me wonder why he remove his disguise when he knows that both the CIA and the Ring are looking for him and were both right there. It makes no in-show sense to me. He could have at least waited until he was in Shaw’s office before he did it.
• I also had a couple issues with Sarah this episode, and I really want to blame TPTB for it.
- First, during the first confrontation with Justin, as soon as Chuck went down from his flash, Sarah should have revealed herself and taken the Ring guys down instead of waiting for them to move forward. I mean they could have just shot him from where they were standing.
- Second, when Shaw escaped she should have immediately gone after him, especially knowing that his watch might be the only thing to save Chuck, instead of staying by Chuck’s side. Yeah, she probably wouldn’t have gotten to him in time but she could have tried.
- Third, during her confrontation with Shaw at the Buy More I couldn’t believe that she let herself be distracted by the alarm and people running like that. WTH?! When it happened I figured that it would be a chance for her to get him off guard not the opposite!
• It was nice for Casey that Alex joined the little family get together at the end but where is Alex’s mother in all this? I would think that she want to see Casey again and confront him about him pretending to be dead.
• During the Chuck/Shaw fight I suddenly had a prediction on how it could turn out: Shaw and Chuck will fight in the store, Sarah and Morgan will get out (leaving him for some reason), the building will blow and they will think Chuck is dead. It will end with Chuck, with the Govener, following his father’s path and leaving to protect those he loves. It certainly would have tied into Chuck’s constant lying to ‘protect’ those he loves.
While a lot of this season has been middling the last couple of episodes were pretty wonderful which made me happy. That said there were a couple of overarching issues I had:
a) Sarah’s whole arc is a confusing muddle. I thought the whole point of her this season was that she was tired of being a spy. We got the whole thing about her being worried that if Chuck became a real spy he would no longer be her Chuck and then that was kind of dropped after he saved her. Then we had her apparently wanting out of the spy business all season but when given that chance with Chuck suddenly she doesn’t want that anymore but was only going along with it for Chuck’s sake? Um, what? Are TPTB even paying attention to how they are writing her? Increasingly it appears that Sarah doesn’t actually have a character arc about her but rather everything is about Chuck. I’m fairly irate about this. The fact that the season ends with her happily changing her mind once again and apparently just fine going along with Chuck in quitting the spy business was very annoying. Does she have any desires and wishes of her own that do not revolve around Chuck anymore?
b) I love Morgan but when they brought him into the Castle team it was already pushing it. I figured though that TPTB had to do something with him now that he knew and so having him working at Castle as an assistant and a geeky font of information would work well enough. Only then in 3x15 suddenly we have General Beckman tasking Casey with training Morgan, with making him ‘field ready’, and that just exceeded my threshold for belief. It makes no sense to me. Morgan at the target range with a gun made me blink a lot. Even Chuck wasn’t given a gun for at least a year or two. (Though the gun jumping out of Morgan’s hand did make me laugh.) And then it just kept going and them taking him on their final mission to capture the Ring, and giving him a gun, without bullets, was really too much for me. I dislike it a lot.
c) Chuck’s lying. We don’t really get any satisfying conclusion to it and it makes me wonder if there wasn’t actually an overarching thread about Chuck’s continued lying this season after all.
d) I’ve really been missing the Chuck/Sarah/Casey partnership this season. I have been enjoying Casey and Morgan's growing friendship but I want the original spy gang back together already. 3x16 with Casey once again working with Sarah and being so obviously concerned about Chuck was wonderful and I really hope we get a lot more of that next season.
