“When these two spies first met, it was love at first fight.”Okay, so this was a fun episode. But it was hard to get over my initial disappointment: after the wacky credit sequence, I’d hoped that the entire show would be from Morgan’s point of view, with a hackneyed voice-over and lots of shenanigans. We did get some shenanigans, anyway—it just wouldn’t be Chuck without them. And now that we’re in the point-two part of the season, we got hi-jinks in spy-land, BuyMore-land, and Africa-land. (Also known as just Africa.)
All of our heroes struggled with adjusting to their new lives. Morgan tried to ace—or at least pass—a crash-course in spy games. Morgan is sort of the new Chuck, but just different enough to make it fresh. And Casey’s willingness to help out his little buddy was more than touching—not to mention a huge contrast with Casey’s treatment of Chuck in the early years.
Chuck and Sarah, meanwhile, faced their insect reflection (Buffy joke): Fred Willard and Swoozie Kurtz, spy couple extraordinaire. Not only was their treason kinda rough to take for Chuck and Sarah, but their constant bickering painted an ugly picture of married spydom for our favorite couple. The two main storylines came together in the cat-fight: Morgan offered himself up as catnip and wound up saving his friends. Sure, it was mostly his idiocy that saved them. But it was brave, patriotic idiocy.
Ellie worried she couldn’t hack it in the jungle, but found her purpose when she realized what good work she was doing. This story stuck out like a sore thumb: I’m glad we’ve got Ellie and Awesome back, and I assume we’re just biding out time until they return to Burbank. That may happen soon, depending on whether or not Awesome has fake malaria or real malaria. (Is one better than the other?) And depending on whether or not the Evil Guy (we know because of the Terminator music) pursues them to wherever they’re going.
So far, I’m enjoying this newly-revamped Chuck just as much as the old Chuck. Are you?
Bytes:
• Morgan: “Jug so big. Jug.” Men + hotness = funny dialogue.
• Chuck: “I’m just really happy.”
Morgan: “Well, duh. You’re dating a leggy Valkyrie with an aversion to clothes.”
• Beckman: “[Morgan] is a diamond in the rough. Very, very rough. I’m sure you’ll make him sparkle.”
• Mr. Turner: “Remarried. Three times. Some women are just too special to only marry once.”
• Mrs. Turner: “The man is just a CIA-sanctioned gigolo.”
• Chuck: “I’m not letting you shoot a tiger. They are endangered, and majestic.”
• Ellie: “They have this nickname for him. I can’t really pronounce the Bantu, but it roughly translates to Dr. Super-Fantastic White Person.”
• Morgan: “I could always join the competitive eating circuit.”
Casey: “Dare to dream.”
• Mr. Turner: “I wish you many happy marriages.”
And Pieces:
• Awesome and Ellie are still a beautiful couple when they’re soaking wet. That’s just not fair.
• Sometimes my cat gets stuck in the closet, too. He also snores... do I own a tiger?
• Adam Baldwin was in Full Metal Jacket.
• Doctors without Borders is a truly wonderful organization. But why do the two nice white doctors have leave Africa to fix Devon’s malaria?
Three out of four Barry Whites.
Josie Kafka is a full-time cat servant and part-time rogue demon hunter. (What's a rogue demon?)
Me! I'm enjoying the newly revamped Chuck. It's great seeing them finally together. And I'm really enjoying the Casey/Morgan dynamic. Seeing the tiger through the peephole in the door may have been my favorite moment in this one, though. I didn't care much for the super spy couple being jerks plot.
ReplyDeleteEvil guy said surrepticiously that it was fake malaria. I was hoping it was. Real malaria goes on forever.
Another fun episode. For the most part. I didn't really care for the Ellie and Awesome storyline (except for Awesome's Bantu nickname). It weirdly felt like some kind of promotional piece for Doctors Without Borders.
ReplyDeleteBut I did like Chuck and Sarah, and Morgan and Casey. Although I'm really starting to wonder why we spent the whole last year doing the "we can't be together because we're spies" dance, when clearly the CIA doesn't have a "no tolerance" policy with spy couples. Shaw and his wife were both CIA. And now we meet the Turners, who've been married and co-spies for 30 years. It made sense when Chuck was the asset and Sarah was the handler, but why after he was becoming a real spy was it an issue? Why even think they needed to run away during the whole Prague business (and last week's train business). I'm a bit confused.
But I'm still really happy that we are back to fun for the most part.