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Chuck: Chuck versus the Angel of Death

“I think I scratched my espionage itch.”

Awesome is awesome. (Although whenever he speaks, I think of the dog with the talking collar from the movie Up.) Despite his massive screw-up, Awesome found a solution to the problem of his own creation and re-found his marital satisfaction while doing so.

This week was all about the great switcheroo. Costa Gravas was switching to capitalism and democracy, Casey switched from the Angel of Death to the Angel of Life, and Chuck played a doctor while Awesome played a spy. Thanks to the Intersect, Chuck is better at doctoring than Awesome is at the spy games.

Awesome’s realization that the spy life wasn’t for him seemed to hit Chuck pretty hard. It also shows some essential differences between their two characters: Awesome likes action, but he values Ellie over thrills. Chuck, on the other hand, definitely enjoys action—and says he wants to save people—and keeps choosing the life of espionage over the life of love.

I liked the girl talk between Ellie and Sarah. It’s easy to see how they would be friends once Sarah and Chuck get married. The connections between Ellie and Sarah, and Chuck and Awesome, made the last few minutes seem pretty serious. Even though the previews for next week answered the question of whether or not Awesome is dead, I’m still interested to see how it all plays out next week. (Let's try to keep that spoiler out of the comments.)

In the middle of it all, we got a fairly interesting spy story. The dancing scene was hilarious (the Generalissimo is an ass-man, I guess), the decoys were funny, and everyone looked super-pretty. Armand Assante was a great dictator. This was a stellar episode.

Bytes:

• Awesome: “We’re not strangers, remember? I’m Devon.”

• Awesome: “I have nine years of post-graduate education. I’m sure I can figure out a TV set…that’s a job for a professional.”

• Chuck: “You’re an adventure sports cardiologist.”
Awesome: “Whatever, man. I can do that in my sleep.”

• The Generalissimo: “Such delicate features. Much more suitable on a woman.”

• Awesome: “That must be hard. Not just the not-having-sex part—that must be excruciating.”

• Awesome: “You and what army?”
Chuck: “That would be Sarah and her fists.”

And Pieces:

• Wait, they live in Echo Park? That’s not the same thing as Los Feliz!

• I more-or-less speak Spanish, but the generalissimo’s right-hand man spoke way, way to fast for me. Something about “obviously he is alive... life... of the country.” I think the close-captioner had the same problem, as he managed to close-caption Awesome’s Spanish (and the reporter’s) but not the right-hand man’s.

• My DVR is calling this episode Chuck vs. the Angel of Death, but nbc.com is calling is Chuck vs. the Angel de la Muerte.

Four out of four cigars hand-rolled on virgin thighs.

Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)

6 comments:

  1. Hi, Josie

    Thanks a lot. I couldn't understand what Sarah tells Chuck at the end of the episode and I just assumed Awesome was already dead. I was really bummed. Awesome seems like a really nice guy. With all he has and is, he could easily be a jerk.

    Now, I have a complaint about you Americans: you always seem to think capitalism and democracy are the same thing, as evidenced in this episode. They're not. In my country we had a 2-decade capitalist dictatorship (following a coup d'état financed by the USA), and, needless to say, it was terrible and many people died trying to express themselves. And, although it's never happened, it's possible to have a democratic socialist state.

    Sorry to stray from the episode, but I just had to rant.

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  2. Hi Gustavo,

    The easy one first: I don't think we were supposed to understand what Sarah said to Chuck at the end of the episode, but my years of TV viewing experience have taught me to never think someone's dead until they're actually in the ground. (And if it's a vampire show, not even then!)

    The harder one: it's weird that this episode inspired your rant, as I had a similar issue with what was going on. My original review just read "Costa Gravas is switching to capitalism (um, hooray?)" but I worried it was a bit too on-the-nose.

    This show is so a-political that it obviously didn't intend to inspire any political feelings at all, but it's hard to ignore the fact that Casey killed lots of people in what seem to be CIA-funded attempted coups. Are we supposed to be okay with that?

    Hmm...that's all I'm going to say, because I don't want to turn Billie's lovely site into my own personal soapbox. But my email address is in my profile if you want to continue this conversation--although I expect we agree with each other!

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  3. I think we do, Josie. And I'm sorry I say "you Americans" as if you were all one. That was prejudicial.

    And I just assumed that we would deal with the aftermath of Awesome's death on the next episode. I'm really happy to know he may be OK. There are so many expendable people on this show, Awsome is not one of them. The Tony Hale character was one, and I loved that he went out for being a jerk. That was fitting.

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  4. No need for apologies, Gustavo! I always enjoy your comments. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Not having seen any of the trailers regarding Awesome's fate, I can honestly claim this comment is spoiler-free, albeit full of speculation.

    A while back the producers mentioned their plan to make Awesome a Russian spy, which they aborted when they realised just how much the sweet relationship between Ellie and him brings to the show (and Chuck's character-defining low self-esteem), so I'm beginning to think they're going to have Awesome get brainwashed into working for the enemy, perhaps as a sleeper agent. Just as a temporary basis, mind you, in time for February sweeps.

    For me, this was a return to form for "Chuck". I really didn't like the previous two episodes (I like Chuck as a man who was robbed of his opportunity, not as an actual loser), so it was great to get confirmation they just suffered from having to put all the pieces back in their places after last year's concluding cliffhanger.

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  6. I thought the episode was fun and I loved having Awesome and Ellie back. I was very amused by the scene when Awesome started speaking Spanish to the reporter and Sarah was so impressed. The dance sequence with Ellie and the dictator was also pretty hilarious. Plus, Casey as the Angel of Death just fits.

    But the end of the episode was completely distressing. Whether true or not, I'm so upset that they would even suggest that a potentially pregnant Ellie (seemed to me that's the news she has for him) just lost her beloved husband and mate of 9 nine years. Emmett dying is one thing (and I was kind of bummed by that because he was so delightfully evil in his own way), but they simply cannot kill off Awesome. That is not the 'Chuck' I signed up for. I'm not even sure how it could be the same fun, comedic/action romp after something like that. Here's hoping the creators didn't just do something drastic!

    (Dimitri, I your comment about the writers recognizing the importance of the Ellie and Awesome relationship is right!)

    ReplyDelete

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