Monsters of Television

Morgan: “Don’t freak out.”

The Ring fights dirty. Any gentleman knows that the appropriate weapon here is one of those giant forks. A gun is so uncouth.

Yes.

What I just watched was an episode tailor-made for fans. It’s like the writers sat in a room for three days and read every tweet of the rational fans (sorry, shippers) and dumped it all into a well-crafted episode. Don’t believe me? Big reveals? Check. Jeffster? Check. A whole lot of not-as-whiny Morgan? Check check.

In season 2, it was at about the four episodes before the end of the season (around “Chuck vs The Dream Job”) when the series started to open up a little more (Chuck finds his father, FULCRUM attempts to make intersect agents, lots of Chuck and Sarah going off-book) and that’s about what we’re getting now since the original order for Chuck eps was at 13 going in. Happily, we have more Chuck to look forward to (NBC ordered more) but their plans haven’t changed and we get what I consider one of the best episodes of this show we’ve seen yet. Top 5 material. Let’s get into it.

We’ve been set up all season (all series really) that what separates Chuck from the “real spies” is his emotional investment in the world around him. You can’t whack a guy in cold blood if you haven’t realigned your principles accordingly. Chuck has been reluctant to do so but, when he has been able to compartmentalize, we see the power of the Intersect.

With so much going on in his life lately (Hannah, Awesome, The Ring, etc), Chuck’s feelings have him Intersectally-constipated; he hasn’t flashed in a week. He needs to spill and has no one in his life he can talk to since Sarah is at the core of his emotional being, Shaw is his secret enemy, and Awesome doesn’t want to deal with spy stuff anymore (we can assume Casey doesn’t want to hear any of Chuck’s pansy little girl whining). Morgan is tempting to dump on but he can’t. Principles and all.

Speaking of the Bearded Man (not a titular alert), he was noticeably absent last episode and makes his return without much mention of Chuck’s betrayal. Arguably, this could be part of the litany against Chuck that causes Morgan to fire him as his best friend on the grounds of jackassery (and the guy has a strong case). There are some great Morgan moments in here, an aspect of this show that has of late been seriously lacking. Morgan blowing Chuck off is a great turnaround. And then, mercifully, he finds out about Chuck’s secret when some Ring operatives find Castle. Morgan shows some character here, especially with transference of gamer heroics to real-life heroics (short-lived at it was before seeing a gun pointed at him). When Morgan tries tell Chuck about the secret CIA base under the Buy More, I cheered at him saying, “Don’t freak out.”

Another aspect of the show that’s been lacking lately is a good Buy More C-Story. The revolution they staged (all for nothing since what they were fighting against was a cover by Ring operatives to find Castle) was fitting for the characters, from the wall of junk food separating them from the outside world to the volly of NERF weaponry ready for intruders. Funnily enough, there were several images of WWII inserted into their fight (mounting the flag at Iwo-Jima, sailor kissing girl in Times Square) which was not really a revolution. But, to be fair, I can’t really think of many images of revolution. Maybe Big Mike standing on the bow of a boat rowed across the Deleware. Anyway, it was funny, assisted with the A-story, and and gave a chance for Shaw to show some erosion in his “professionalism.”

With Morgan in the know, Chuck is a lot happier (eliciting a very telling smile from Sarah) and the wheels are back on the wagon. Shaw’s call to the Buy More (posing as the president of the company) and allowing Morgan to stick around (instead of being in witness protection) shows Chuck’s effect on everyone and that Shaw’s heart can be melted by more than the booty. Chuck’s a good guy at heart (his acts of complete selfishness aside) and his being is infectious. From this point going forward, we’ll probably see some concillatory action by Shaw to accommodate for Chuck’s innate nature (which will probably get them in troub).

So we’ll end on the shipper moment. It’s arguable as to what helped Chuck eventually trigger the Intersect: being able to finally get everything off of his chest to Morgan or admitting out loud his undying devotion to Sarah. It’s funny that Morgan is the one that suggests that Sarah has been his “beard” (now titular alert), especially since the metaphor is not really appropriate for his situation (since he’s been in an outward relationship with the person he’s not supposed to love but does loves privately) and given Morgan and Chuck’s for-always guy-love. Is Morgan suggesting Sarah is Chuck’s beard to hide his love for Morgan? Anyway, the point is that Chuck is done denying his feelings for Blonde Spy and he has a witness to that devotion. We can see a future of active pursuit for Sarah in Chuck’s near future, trying to wrest her of the flimsy grip Shaw has on her. When Chuck said that he loves her, I think I heard the internet collectively sigh with giddiness and glee.

Things coming up for Chuck are bizarre but potentially great. Does the Ring flip Casey? Do Devon and Ellie go to Africa? Will they finally make Morgan the reflector he was always supposed to be?

A few things before we go:

• You’ll notice I didn’t call Sarah Sam at all. Because that’s not her name.
• What about the bad guy flash cards Chuck uses in an attempt to flash? Can you imagine Sarah in full 4th-grade school teacher mode showing those to Casey and rewarding him with a “very good” after every right answer? I can. Maybe I’m just picturing Sarah as a schoolteacher. Maybe Van Halen is playing in the background.
• Did anyone else catch the “Mine’s bigger than yours” line when Chuck was fighting in Castle? Cheeky, cheeky Chuck.
• I’m glad Casey made a mention about how often he’s cooped up in the van. For a field agent as strong and powerful as he is, they certainly don’t use him to his strengths. Stupid finesse missions.
• Jeffster singing “Fortunate Son” for the Buy More faithful? Brilliant.