“Chuck Versus the Sandworm”
October 29th, 2007
I should have known that Chuck would eventually find its indie rock sensibility considering Josh Schwartz is in charge, but the early mention of Arcade Fire still came as a bit of a surprise. The show has fallen into a nice groove of slickly-produced spy romps tempered by emotional interludes on the home front; while it is certainly geeky, its indie cred remains in question.
In the case of this episode, it’s actually a bit of a step-backward for Chuck, to be perfectly honest with you. The show’s sense of humour may still be intact, but it stretched its premise a bit thin with Lazlo, an electronic geek who can use a home theatre system to guide nuclear missiles and magically produces a steering apparatus from the glove box of Chuck’s car. The question of trust is a fine recurrent theme, but I wish I could trust the producers to maybe ground the series a little more; the result is an episode that felt a bit off even as its interpersonal story stayed on track.
The episode itself worked out to a strong character moment for Chuck – the question of trust is still unresolved in the series, and Chuck’s relationship with Sarah and Morgan are important to the future of the series. Chuck’s new job brings with it a fundamental change in his friendship with Morgan, but it also brings a simulated relationship with Sarah – as a result, his impression of what is real is easily called into question.
As a result, his inability to see Lazlo (Who invented just about everything conceivable for the CIA) as the snake he was shows that Chuck remains unsure of the world around him. He began to question Morgan’s maturity, and Sarah’s trustworthiness, but by the end of the episode he had resolved the role each will play in his life. That’s good.
Unfortunately, as noted above, the spy stuff was a bit far-fetched, and I never really felt like it clicked this time around. However, unlike spiritual doppleganger Reaper, Chuck’s emotional core (Even in occasionally annoying Morgan) remains strong enough to pull it through. It was also good to see some Captain Awesome, as well as a bit more of the Buy More crew. The episode was only really light on Casey, which is unfortunate considering how great Adam Baldwin is.
On the whole, it didn’t quite live up to the last few episodes…but it certainly built on the momentum it has gathered and continued to prove the series’ value to NBC’s Monday night lineup.
Cultural Observations
- The end of episode reveal of Casey having to deal with more deserted-island sandwich talk was pretty fantastic.
- Proving its geekiness, one of Chuck’s Assistant Manager-worthy qualities? His ability to recite any line from Wrath of Khan.
- Things like the Mystery Crisper and Big Mike’s Pimp Costume (Along with Harry Tang) make Buy More feel like a living and breathing store, which helps those parts move along.
- I don’t know if I entirely buy Morgan’s new found maturity (As in, I think it will disappear next week when they want to turn him back into comic relief), but the writers are free to surprise me.
Cultural Learnings 