Chuck vs. The Fat Lady
November 18, 2008 by Kath Skerry
Raise your hand if you’re pissed at Chuck Bartowski right now! Yeah, that’s what I thought. He is being such a turd! Alright, though, deep breaths … because at least we can comfort ourselves that this was an awesome episode, as we have come to expect from Chuck!
There are so many angles to attack this one from, but I think we should start with Jill. Billy annoyed me the entire episode by insisting that she was about to be revealed as a Fulcrum agent, which of course she was. I mean, I know that Chuck isn’t necessarily known for its shocking twists and whatnot, but it still makes me so mad at Billy that he always knows what’s going to happen. He’s been doing this the entire time I’ve known him and I’ve mostly gotten him to keep it to himself, but apparently he just couldn’t hold it in last night, so the reveal was a little anti-climactic for me, although I thought Sarah and Casey’s shocked faces were great.
I still managed to live in denial for a little while, thinking that maybe Jill being a Fulcrum agent would be a red herring, and I tried to think it was sweet that he was making sure she was okay and risking getting shot for her, but I just couldn’t do it. He needs to be loving SARAH. Why are boys so stupid? But I started REALLY hating Jill when Sarah asked what if she was wrong and Jill said, “That doesn’t happen.” It made me feel all stabby.
I liked the little puzzle boxes and how great at them Chuck was, and Sarah and Casey’s subsequent admiration. I thought the “team” element of their relationship was really on tonight, and it was random but I thought you could see it most in that hotel scene, with Chuck doing the puzzles and Casey boosting Sarah up without saying anything. I love me some non-verbal communication (and you’d never know it, right, by how wordy I am).
And speaking of that hotel scene … OMG, the shower! I mean, yes, we had hot Sarah all wet and showering in the undies, and obviously that was hot, but I really thought the hotness there was how frantic everything was. And maybe that wasn’t supposed to bring the hotness, but it really did it for me.
And speaking of things that did it for me … I was a ZILLION kinds of turned on when Casey called Chuck a dumbass. I don’t know, something about him saying “dumbass” really did it for me. I think this probably says a lot of things about me, none of which I feel properly equipped to delve too far into. All I know is that he is of godlike hotness to me, and never moreso than when he is being badass or verbally abusive. Mmmm. (Oh, and this entire paragraph reminds me, Kath, I am DYING to hear how the set visit went!) [GMMR: I haven’t yet to write up anything formal, but I will tell you it was all kinds of awesome!! Oh and the high “C” we heard from Casey last night (which I am shocked…SHOCKED you didn’t mention, SB) reminded me a little bit of one of the best parts of my set visit. What? You think I’m going to spill that here? Nah. Soon though…soon.]
Unfortunately for me, I can’t seem to get any Casey romantic tension unless it’s in the form of HoYay! with Chuck. Which, I mean, take it where you can get it, right? But it’s like someone enjoyed the kiss last week so much that they couldn’t let it end there, and when Casey was lifting Chuck up into the vent, did everyone notice that Chuck had his Wienerlicious right in Casey’s face? (I’m clutching my pearls as we speak!)
And finally, on the subject of the A plot, at least, Sarah just broke my heart over and over, with how sweet she was about wanting Chuck to be really happy and how selflessly she wanted him to be able to have what he wanted. That, people, is love. And I don’t understand what Chuck is DOING right now, because he knows that Sarah has real feelings for him. But I actually think that this is a lot like life, where sometimes you know one thing but convince yourself of something else to justify your actions. Chuck really wants a normal life and someone to love, and he’s telling himself that Sarah isn’t a real thing because Jill is the easier thing. And that kills me for Sarah, but it’s also sad for Chuck, that he wants it so badly that he’ll settle.
But at least now, we get some Fulcrum action and our damsel in distress, Chuck, will be rescued once again. Hooray!
Alright, onto the other, less agonizing stuff. You know how last week I had commented that Buster/Emmett was getting on my nerves a little because the balance of power was out of whack at the Buy More? I was happy to see that situation rectified this week, and I feel a tiny bit guilty for my lack of faith in the writers. I am learning to trust that when they introduce imbalances, they’ll correct them later and they know what they’re doing. Morgan blackmailing Buster/Emmett was perfect, and I love the callback to the Harry Tang days. I can absolutely believe that Morgan is industrious enough to set something like that up, because he is strongly motivated by being able to screw around and not work, to the point that he will do extra work to make it possible. These things that he does makes his friendship with Chuck so believable—they’re each motivated in their own way.
And speaking of the Harry Tang reference, I totally nerded out for a minute because Harry Tang plays Masuka on Dexter, and Paul, Rita’s ex-husband on Dexter, was The Bad Guy of the Week. Billy suggested a Chuck/Dexter crossover, and I know I’m all for it. Are there behind-the-scenes connections between these two shows that I don’t know about?
Also, Jeff and Lester, as usual, were hilarious. I love when they get those two together, and the “Injun” thing was classic Jeff. Billy cracked up when he told Lester to grab his shiv and “let’s go”, and I about fell off the couch at Lester being all, “Oh great, now he’s in ‘prison mode’,” with finger quotes. Jeff WOULD have a prison mode. My love for Jeff knows no bounds, which is weird for me since those kinds of characters usually get on my nerves. But he’s perfect, and he always says the right thing and he’s always around just the right amount. They never miss with Jeff. I really think, and maybe I’m alone on this, but I do truly believe that he’s one of the best supporting comedic characters on TV right now. So underrated.
And finally, because it must be acknowledged, I LOVED (lovedlovedloved) the song they were playing at the end. Does anyone know what it is? I thought I’d ask before I dragged myself over to the NBC website to look it up myself. I’ll freely admit that I’m that lazy. One of the most awesome parts of being a grown-up is not having to do research and write essays and all that crap. So if anyone is willing to encourage my slackerness and just help a sister out, I’d appreciate it. But seriously, it was great and I want it on my Zune. HA! Just kidding, but I’ll totally put it on my iPod! The music on this show is seriously great.
So … what did everyone else think? Any other likes or dislikes that I forgot to mention?
— posted by SB
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.
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Filed under Chuck, Chuck Recaps
hey, the song is Keep Yourself Warm by Frightened Rabbit.
you were right on about the “team element” working so well in this episode. i laughed out loud when casey sang out the high C note. the expressions on sarah and chuck’s faces were priceless. and casey’s response “choir boy. what? i wasn’t hatched.” so hiliarous. i also loved morgan getting tough with emmett. his loyalty to chuck is unwavering, and his threat face is actually pretty intimidating!
I know it’s going to be quite some time until Morgan finds out about Chuck’s double life, but I’m kind of hoping that we see him in action soon. Morgan has been caught up in Chuck’s other world before, but I’d love to see him go all Ninja on a Fulcrum’s agent ass…even if he didn’t know who he was dealing with. Ha ha.
I thought this episode was great. The shower scene…dayum!
viva buymorea!
casey keeps bringing the funny. also, love how he’s turned and started needling sarah about her interest in chuck instead of how he used to make comments to chuck about her, and also the fact that sarah hasn’t disputed any of it to casey.
what about the air duct crawl through, where chuck’s phone dials jill and the conversation she overhears to think otherwise … leading up to the shower scene.
the shower scene – anyone else notice how at the end of the scene chuck actually realized he was getting all soapy in a shower with sarah? frantic strip down, scrub scrub scrub, then all of a sudden, slow-mo. i thought for a moment they might slip off the whole we’re not going there game they play with one another and go there.
sb – i know you probably wished it was casey in the shower. but zach is so yummy.
how come jill hasn’t noticed when chuck flashes? if she is so into him, wouldn’t she be worried when he zones out like that? it sure would freak me out, until i understood what was happening. that said, chuck and jill don’t have the chemistry that chuck and sarah have, they just don’t. he shouldn’t settle for jill, and hopefully he will begin thinking with his brain instead of another body part (which was apparently unused for quite some time, their relationship was what, 5 years ago?)
since jill is part of fulcrum, i hope it is sarah who takes jill down in the next episode, especially with sarah warning jill not to hurt chuck in any way.
morgan’s moved up a rung on the not so annoying ladder. he really did have chuck’s back and proved to be a loyal friend, even though he was left out of the loop on jill.
Man, you guys have made me remember so much stuff that I forgot about! It was such a packed episode, and I make an effort to NOT take notes, so these things don’t end up being five pages long. But Buymorea was HILARIOUS, and I forgot how much I liked Casey saying he wasn’t hatched. 🙂 And littlebit, you could not be righter, although I think Casey in the shower might actually make my head explode. Although what a way to go …
And good call on wanting Sarah to kick Jill’s ass. This show loves Sarah-fighting-hot-girl scenes, and this one would be totally satisfying. Do you think she’d finish it off with “Go Cougars”? Because honestly, I know it that line came straight from the cheese factory, but slap my ass and send me to Wisconsin because I LOVED IT.
Oh, and LimeHead? You are awesome. My slacker heart would slap you a high five, if only it weren’t so lazy. You win, and so does my iPod. Thank you.
OH! OH! OH! (And, by the way, sorry that I can’t form my thoughts close enough together to make one post rather than three in a row, but …) I forgot to mention how much I loved when everyone was on the stage, and Casey was thinking about shooting Chuck, and Chuck goes, “But I’m the intersect!” and Casey goes, “I’m not Sarah, Chuck.” Ooooohhhh …. HOT.
My favourite joke is still the fact that the dead scientist’s name is Guy Lafleur. That cracked me up every time someone mentioned it. “If Guy Lafleur did this, then it must be meaningful!” etc. (For non-hockey fans: Lafleur is a legendary hockey player.)
i’m starting to be on the casey bandwagon a bit now too (but not in the shower – that, sb, is for your mind to do with as it pleases. i’ll stick with my favorite nerd herder, thanks very much. btw, have i mentioned how much i love my dvr?) casey season one, not so much, but season two – his character is starting to pop.
once again – where’s anna wu? i’m beginning to think casey actually went through with his call to background check anna and get her into one of those agencies.
kath – i agree. seeing morgan go all ninja on a fulcrum agent = comedy gold. morgan was so not ninja material in the pilot.
Good call on Anna being MIA. And so were Ellie and Awesome. I guess I appreciate that rather than try to overcrowd episodes, they just leave people out, but I fall in love with the characters so much that I just miss them.
Also, since I’m posting, I thought I’d share another Casey fave from the night–“I don’t even care about my own feelings.”
Glad you’re starting to feel the Casey love, littlebit! It’s contagious!
Sarah has said that she won’t date him while she’s protecting him. And their “break-up” a couple episodes ago rang true to me: as much as he cares about Sarah, he needs a normal girl.
But the reveal of Jill as Fulcrum didn’t make sense to me. Wasn’t the list of CIA agents who were traitors? And she’s not CIA. And she helped them get the list. I suppose she could have tried to get it to give back to Fulcrum, but you’d think she would try to get the copy away from them at the end, or something.
Billiam, I started thinking about all the plotholes of Jill being Fulcrum today while I was on the toilet, but then I had to remind myself that I always suspend a lot of disbelief for Chuck, so I’m just going with that. But I totally agree–wouldn’t the CIA have run a background check on Jill and seen that she was CIA? Or is that going to be explained later? It was just a tiny bit out of left field.
Billiam, I started thinking about all the plotholes of Jill being Fulcrum today while I was on the toilet, but then I had to remind myself that I always suspend a lot of disbelief for Chuck, so I’m just going with that. But I totally agree–wouldn’t the CIA have run a background check on Jill and seen that she was CIA? Or is that going to be explained later? It was just a tiny bit out of left field.
This was an amazing episode, and yes, the shower scene alone would have sealed that status. Kath said it best: Dayum!!
SB – the show featured another song by Frightened Rabbit a few episodes back which I had to down because it was so great: The Twist. Check it out – I think your Zune (iPod) will love it as much as mine does! I think I’ve discovered a new band to devote my endless music obsession to for a bit, after my current affair with Kings of Leon dies down (I know, I’m late to the party but I’m making up for lost time with their entire discography).
writing to rant against my aforementioned love of my dvr. it just died. i lost all of my chuck episodes. that screaming you hear? it’s me. waaaaah!
SB you are my fave of GMMR’s guest writers, I love all your Chuck posts. And you have me on the Casey bandwagon, wasn’t seeing it for awhile but you brought me over to the fold.
Fulcrum has agents in every federal agency, not just the CIA. Heck, Casey isn’t CIA, he’s NSA. Even though the agencies don’t necessarily get along, sometimes they have to work together for the good of the mission. I would think that would be especially important when you’re a rogue organization.
Since Paul from Dexter was an FBI agent–the guards at the crime scene door seemed to be co-workers, as they said something to the effect of, “this isn’t your shift”–I’m assuming that Jill is FBI. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bryce was Jill’s way in to Fulcrum or vice versa.
Now I feel way too nerdy for my own good.
Oh littlebit, I feel your pain. My DVR did that right at Halloween. I lost three full seasons of The Office, a few sentimental favorite eps of SYTYCD, and countless other irreplaceable goodies. I had cable come out and they said all was fine and that it was probably just a software download from central that did it. Could we have a warning please?
Nicole, I think I might just start calling my iPod “my Zune”. It’s way too funny to pass up on, and then when people compliment how hilarious I am, I can spread the gospel of Chuck! Awesome! I checked out some of the Frightened Rabbit stuff last night on iTunes, didn’t download yet (just previewed, Michael Scott-style), but I think I love it so thank you for the suggestion. 🙂
littlebit, I feel your pain. DVR is a new thing in my life and I didn’t know they could lose stuff. My outlet quit working the other day and I didn’t lose one single damn thing except the episode of Supernatural I’d been waiting and DYING to watch (company all weekend). Thankfully it was online, but I was still pissed.
Lisa, thank you so much for the compliment and I am so glad that Casey is starting to catch on. He’s the hotness! I’m glad that I insisted on how great he is for long enough that I’m getting a little traction. 🙂
Lauren, you’re definitely NOT too nerdy for your own good–did I not just admit earlier that I was thinking about Chuck on the toilet??? I’m just glad you pay such good attention–you’re an awesome addition to the conversation. My question is, why didn’t any of these people do a background check on Jill and realize she was with another agency? There’s some loose end there. But I do like the Bryce/Jill speculation. Poor Chuck, he just cannot seem to break free of everyone who screwed him at Stanford.
Hey SB! Thanks for the awesome recap. It brought back fond, fond memories of this episode. Chuck continues to amaze me this season, and seriously … JEFF is the best thing! Ok, I mean the Chuck/Sarah drama, Chuck/Jill, Casey/Chuck, bromance of Chuck/Morgan is awesome too. But the scenes I find myself lovin’ on, and playing over and over again (sometimes only in my head) are those with Jeff. He is a million times awesome. And this week’s scene with Jeff in (air quotes) “prison mode” was hilarious. I love Lester and Jeff, and their scenes together. I found myself wondering what those actors are like in real life … especially the dude who plays Jeff!
I actually hadn’t thought about the whole Jill/Fulcrum thing until this episode. I guess my brain wasn’t processing it, but this episode I thought to myself, “hmm. Jill dated Bryce, who was a spy, and we *know* they were recruiting at that uni, so…..”. The last few moments of this ep were suspenseful, but I totally knew what was coming, and that’s what killed me. Damn you Jill!!!
Also – Casey = hilarious. His use of the word “dumbass”, and the “high c” and resulting explanation? Win.
ok, clearly i have a problem. i’ve been thinking about this show a bit too much this week. i’m trying not to do a lost-style analysis, because i prefer to just enjoy the shows as they are, but here’s my last thought for the week’s posts.
i had an epiphany a minute ago. when chuck had the intersect update installed (gee thanks, bryce) jill wasn’t yet fulcrum, so she didn’t show up. maybe jill was a new recruit that went straight to fulcrum, specifically because fulcrum thinks that chuck is the intersect and they know his weakness for jill. maybe bryce is really a good guy, pretending to be all bad fulcrum, to bring down fulcrum from the inside, while chuck, casey, sarah work on it from the outside, which in the end would force sarah to choose between chuck and bryce. argh! and i agree, they didn’t background jill like they did lou (she’ll always be summer roberts to me).
and now i’ll stop geeking out over the show. till next week 🙂
As far as we know, the intersect is only a repository for NSA and CIA data, correct? So FBI personnel data wouldn’t be on the intersect and that’s why Chuck didn’t flash on Jill or Paul from Dexter. And they really don’t know who all of the Fulcrum agents are–hence the need for the list–until they are uncovered through missions of some sort. And therein lies the issue, because they don’t know about the inner workings of Fulcrum, we don’t know about the organizational structure. Like was, Jill always a FBI agent, and being a biochemist was merely a cover, or did they recruit her because she was a biochemist? Does one even have to be a federal agent of some sort to be an agent of Fulcrum?
I’m not sure why they wouldn’t have investigated Jill, even though all of this happened within a couple of days, especially since she was working on the investigation and was tied to the manufacturer of biological weapons.
I knew not to trust Jill, though, because she has “squinty eyes.” In comic books, the bad guys always have “squinty eyes.” At least, that’s what I learned from my favorite Ronnie Howard film–Courtship of Eddie’s Father.
I’m just tired of poor Chuck getting screwed over again and again. Seriously, this boy is going to start thinking that there are no normal geek girls out there.
EXCELLENT points Lauren and littlebit, especially the part about the intersect being just for the CIA and NSA.
And if fictional Chuck read GMMR and our conversations, he’d know EXACTLY how many good geek girls there are out there. (And boys! We love you Billiam and others!)
Wow, Chuck was screwed over? When ?
Casey’s right,he’s just a dumbass…
poor Sarah!
Not a very surpising plot twist ,goofy dialog, next episode not likely to promise more..
Casey in ther shower probably would have been a better option