CHUCK Recap: “Chuck vs. The Imported Hard Salami”

Based on the emails I’ve received today, it seemed many of you thought last night’s CHUCK was just as awesome as I found it to be.  This show has really hit its stride and I’m really digging where the writers are taking us with all the character relationships.  And OH.MY.GOD….the kiss (super hot) and then the surprise ending!!  I loved it!!

And don’t expect the CHUCK awesomeness to stop.  According to show creator, Josh Schwartz, “Next week’s ending is pretty damn good”. Better than this week’s?  I can’t wait.

Episode: “Chuck vs. The Imported Hard Salami”
Original Airdate: 11.19.07
GMMR Recapper: SB

First things first. I read a little blurb on ew.com about how many episodes were left of various shows, and if my calculations are correct, we have four more new episodes of Chuck to go. What I’m hoping is that the new strike negotiations will make this a non-issue for me, but if this goes on for a long time, I am going to break out the Firefly DVDs and watch them again. That’s right.

Secondly, I laughed out loud through this entire episode, which I think is a first for me. It’s not that I don’t usually find it funny, it’s just that I found this one SO funny. And I’ve gotta tell you, I’m not sure that I’ve had a heartier laugh this entire TV season on anything than with Lester and Jeff’s little “Heartbreaker, love taker” sequence. I could not get over it.

Would you guys hate me if I’m not feeling very synopsis-y today? My synapses are slow. See what I did there? Anyway, long story short, Morgan puts the moves on Anna, gets rejected, tries again, gets accepted, and we see up Anna’s skirt to where her horizontal stripes distort into uncuteness. Although seeing up someone’s skirt is never my idea of a good time, particularly when you’re surprised by turning around to see your roommate’s boyfriend passed out in your chair, spread eagle, wearing her skirt and no underwear. Just don’t even ask. Morgan then dumps her and tries to win her back on the microphone.

Chuck fake dumps Sarah, again, for reasons I don’t understand, and then goes out with Lou. He flashes on a poster, asks her about it, finds out it’s her ex-boyfriend (shipping heir Stavros Demetrios) and ends up at a club that Stavros runs with a mic from the government that is masquerading as a very ugly 80’s guitar lapel pin. Question: some random former gymnast can come up with bugs that magically transform into your skin and are totally undetectable, and this is the best the United States government could come up with? Chuck tosses the pin on a drink tray where it is immediately traced back to him, and all Team Chuck manages to come up with is a fake lead. Good one, aces. And Casey, you’re better than this.

Sarah is acting like a jealous ex the whole time and eventually shows Chuck a picture of Lou on the loading docks with Stavros. Chuck goes in to spy on/confront her, and Sarah rushes in after him, and they both get kidnapped and stuffed in a trunk where sexually frustrated arguing ensues. And it’s pretty hot. They end up on a pier, tied to chairs, with threat of torture, when Casey finally tracks them down thanks to his FDA administrator ruse with Lou. He sneaks in, all dressed in black like Johnny Cash holding a gun, my heart rate increases dramatically (due to the hotness, not the suspense), he and Sarah nonverbally communicate and she kicks a guy in the face while Casey backs her up. There is massive shooting and carnage and the introduction of people I don’t recognize, and Sarah and Chuck find themselves in front of a bomb that neither one of them knows how to turn off. They instead decide to not try to diffuse it and also not to run away, but to stand there are fight with each other and then make out like it’s the end of the world. And it is also SUPER hot. Of course the timer goes off and the thing doesn’t explode, so that’s … heh.

At some point later, although I have no idea how much later because Chuck is at the Buy More leaving Sarah a sappy message about going on a date although it doesn’t make sense for it to be a lot later, Sarah and Casey are standing in front of the “bomb” with a SWAT team, discussing how it didn’t go off because it wasn’t a bomb, it was a timer for oxygen supply. They open it up and what do you know? There’s old Bryce Larkin, Not an Accountant, who pops up from the vapors like Darth Vader, only with a bullet hole in his chest. Sarah is in shock and Casey says, “Didn’t I kill him?” Well, we were all fooled too, so don’t be too hard on yourself. (Insert filthy joke that you know I’m dying to make here.)

I do not really even know where to start on how much I loved this episode. I guess I would start by saying this—I am now pretty sure that I want to buy this show on DVD. I wasn’t really there yet, but in the last couple episodes, I am just more and more into it. And this is a big deal, because I am constantly in various states of poverty, and buying a TV show on DVD is a big commitment, possibly bigger even than adding someone to your cell phone speed dial. And I think what really did it for me is that after such a funny episode, the previews for the next one look totally suspenseful and plot-packed, and I realized that I was equally excited for both. That’s SUCH a good sign. And I think that watching on DVD, like a bunch of episodes in a row, would help to even out the tone and pacing a little bit, since it seems to go funny to serious and back not so much within an episode, but within the season for sure.

Also, this was a great Casey episode for me, and since you all know he’s my favorite, I don’t mind taking a moment to give him the love. I was so entertained by him telling Sarah that she falls in love with her coworkers and that he’s not interested, and it really made me laugh when he chuckled along with the bad guy that Chuck does have a chicken neck. It just seemed so appropriate for him, you know? And when Chuck was congratulating himself in the mirror and Casey asked if that mirror hadn’t already suffered enough … it’s like whoever was writing this one just got him so perfect. My one question is this: when will I be granted MY sacred right to see Casey’s bare arms? Huh?

I have to secretly admit that I’m kind of glad to see Rachel Bilson go already. She’s so cute and I did love it when she made Chuck wait till number 96 and she got that little smile on her face that let you know that she wasn’t REALLY mad, but something about her voice was distracting me. It’s like she’s kind of mumbly or something. It was hard for me to tell though, because I watch Chuck with the closed-captioning on so I don’t miss anything.

And you know, I seriously cannot get enough Nerd Herd. Except I think they’re doing the right thing by giving it to me in small doses, because it always leaves me wanting more. Kind of like Ellie and Awesome, who I missed this week, but who wouldn’t have necessarily fit into the story so I’m glad they didn’t try to force them in. And of course I could say what a great job Sarah is doing with her role, but that’s already been said on every message board on the internet, so I’ll just ditto.

Mostly, though, I just like the speed of this show. The villain/spy movie of the week thing is pretty fun, but it really works because there’s also a larger, overall plot advancement. I mean, it wasn’t shocking to me that Bryce returned, but I am really excited about it because of all of the plot possibilities. And I really like how we had the flashback episode first to introduce us to Bryce, because I am still leery of this current incarnation, but I am at least willing to give him a shot and see what he’s about. And there are just so many possibilities for how this will change almost every main pairing’s dynamic—Chuck and Sarah, Sarah and Casey, Casey and Chuck as a result of those … heck, even Chuck and Morgan! So genius. I love it. This writer’s strike better end soon or someone is going to have to stuff me in a salami-shaped bomb with a timed oxygen supply, no joke and wake me up when it’s over.

SB has many interests, including photography, her pets, entertainment, traveling and writing. She does have a day job, but that mostly amounts to her being a sarcastic young woman with a lot of time on her hands, which is why she appreciates the opportunity to recap.