Copyright © 2010 by Sarah Stegall
Chuck
Sunday on NBC at 9
“Chuck vs. First Class”
Written by Chris Fedak
Directed by Fred Toye
Warning: this review contains some spoilers. If you’d rather not know what the episode is going to include, bookmark this page and read it after viewing.
“My people are never alone.” —Shaw
Okay, that quote right there is why I like this new character. Shaw (Brandon Routh, Superman Returns), introduced last week, is the new underboss of the Castle team. Despite Casey and Sarah’s opposition and resentment, he is proving to be a caring, efficient, and wise mentor to Chuck. As he states in the beginning of this episode, Chuck’s main impediment to date in learning to be a spy has been… Casey and Sarah. They consistently hold him back. Which makes sense, as their original assignment was not to train Chuck, but to protect him from Fulcrum and, later, the Ring. Shaw, on the other hand, is completely focused on bringing the Intersect 2.0 in Chuck’s head under control, which means training Chuck in how to use it, how to contain it, how to exploit it. In short, he’s treating Chuck like a professional. And he’s doing it with common sense and compassion.
Shaw starts things off in a forthright way by assigning Chuck to his first solo mission, a flight to Paris to retrieve an electronic key in the possession of a Ring operative. Chuck is eager to prove himself, so eager that he happily overrides Casey’s and Sarah’s objections that he’s not ready. In flight, he learns that the operative in question is a hulk played by wrestling star Stone Cold Steve Austin. Of course Shaw withholds this information until Chuck is actually in transit, forcing Chuck to fly on his own. And Chuck steps up admirably. Chuck manages to drug the hulk, steal the key, and finally fence with and subdue the bad guy. If I enjoyed nothing else about this episode, Chuck’s swashbuckling moment was purest gold.
The show needed this, a plot that focuses almost exclusively on Chuck’s education as a spy, on his maturation as an independent operative. Chuck has never really been “on his own”—from college onward, he has lived with his parents, his sister, and now his BFF, Morgan. Everywhere he turned, there was always someone there to pick him up and dust him off. Shaw is wise to throw him into a situation where he is thrown onto his own resources, and Chuck’s eagerness to embrace that independence is heartening. If he still needed training wheels (constant calls to the team, Sarah flying the plane for him), he was at least able to use their help effectively. The best line of the night was, “I’m alive. And I have the key.” Chuck has come of age.
Of course the real news in this episode is the introduction of yet another pretty girl who may or may not be a spy. Hannah (Kristin Kreuk, Smallville) appears to be a geek-girl, someone who will completely understand Chuck and his passion for all things electronic. She shows both heart and insight in her conversation, and her shy yet hopeful expression as she follows up on their meeting with a visit to the Buy More was a wonderful change from Sarah’s guarded eyes and closed-off body language. The only downside to her introduction would be if she is being positioned as yet another Love Obstacle ™ for Chuck and Sarah. We have so been there, done that—Cole Barker, Jill, Lou, even Bryce Larkin himself have come between our geek and our girl spy, and there can be no interesting variations left to play out in that scenario. I am hoping that Hannah turns out to be a love interest not for Chuck but for the lovelorn and lonely Shaw. Watching this romance develop, Sarah and Chuck can see what will happen when a spy gets involved with a civilian, which will give them and us more insight into their potential relationship. (Besides, hooking up the characters played by Kreuk, who played Lana Lang, and Routh, who played Superman, would be too delicious to resist.)
Chuck could easily be made into a buffoon on the order of Urkel, but instead he is consistently presented as an honest, loyal, good-hearted guy. Can he be made into a spy? If anyone can do it, it is likely to be Daniel Shaw. I love how Shaw is being used, both as a foil for Sarah and as a mentor for Chuck. One of the things I have always loved about this show is its heart. While it gently mocks geekdom, it never disrespects it.
In fact, I would say that the entire theme of this episode is “respect”. Even as Chuck is fighting to establish his bona fides with the CIA and Shaw, Morgan is trying to find his footing as new ass man (er, assistant manager) to the Nerd Herd. Echoing the main plot, Morgan fights the sabotaging efforts of his own team by calling on the very special skills of John Casey. If nothing else in this episode made me laugh, the sight of Lester in footie pajamas would have done the trick. Casey’s brainwashing technique, designed to undermine Lester’s hostility towards his former co-worker, was straight out of A Clockwork Orange by way of The Manchurian Candidate. The pranks of the BuyMorons were absolutely sublime, and the crossover of Chuck’s spy training and Morgan’s struggles reached an apotheosis with Chuck’s inadvertent doping of his best friend. I loved Casey finding Morgan in the toy bin, the oblique reference to “the volleyball incident”, and Shaw’s casual assurance that no amount of sedative in his coffee would hurt Jeff Barnes.
If I had any quibbles about this episode, they would come on two levels: Chuck’s lying, and the endlessly overcomplicated love lives of these spies. Chuck is looking schizophrenic when it comes to lying. On the one hand, his lies to Hannah when they first meet are awkward, obvious, and unbelievable. Later, he casually and quite believably lies to her about his reason for coming to Paris—a home theatre installation. So what is he, the fumbling non-spy or the smooth talking operative? And as for the romance angle, so far:
* Sarah’s major romances have been Bryce, another spy, and Cole, also a spy.
* Casey’s major romances (other than Ronald Reagan) have been Catrina and Irina, both of them spies.
* Beckman’s only romance (we know about) is Roan Montgomery, a spy.
* Shaw’s late wife was a fellow spy.
I’d say these operatives are the last folks in the world who know anything about how a spy/non-spy relationship would play out, so they should stop giving Chuck “advice” on this topic.
This episode drew 6.94 million viewers, for a 2.5 rating and a 6 share. These numbers are holding steady. Unfortunately. Because Chuck really needs more viewers if it is going to secure a place in NBC’s lineup next season. It is holding up well in the rankings of NBC’s scripted shows—it is currently third behind The Office and 30 Rock—but the complicated backstory may be a little daunting for new viewers. The rabid fanbase is still there, however, ranking the show second among major networks in all key adult-male demos. Maybe it would be a good idea to back off of convoluted stories involving the Ring or Fulcrum, and focus on what the show does best—a loving, lighthearted look at an honest, down-to-earth and lovable geek who is in over his head. So far, it’s a winning formula for the few viewers lucky enough to find Chuck.