Monsters of Television

” — if you have the mana to battle the other plainswalkers.”

Special buddies.

This episode would have been way better if it incorporated a Sharktopus. SyFy bastards of science aside, though, I didn’t hate this episode as much as I’ve hated most of this season.

The same problems are still there. The false cliffhangers and the lack of stakes hang like a dark cloud over (however minor) character development and a couple callbacks for the true believers. And, let’s face it, it was a Casey episode so we had a lot of him to look forward to.

But of everything that happened in this episode (and there are a few key plot points), I think the most important revelation of all was the many times that Chuck finally admitted: “This is all my fault.” Yes, Chuck. And it always has been.

Now, I’m not blaming him for getting the Intersect stuck in his head (although putting v2.0 in back in is all on him) so the entire problematic of the series is not his fault but many of the screw-ups, the pain, the suffering, is on the back of one Charles Bartowski. I’ve made the case several times before, and I’ll say it here: Chuck is a jackass.

I’d go through the many, many times Chuck has risked the operation, national security, the lives of his friends, and sacrificed the very people in charge of saving his life for his own personal whims but I wrote a big piece on Mad Men yesterday and I’m not planning on breaking the that post’s word count telling you things you already know. Whether it’s for his brunette of the season or the holding on dearly to the ghost of a scrap he has left of a normal life, the only stakes Chuck has ever had is dragging his loved ones through fields of broken glass to entertain his selfish needs. He’s got to save his dad, or he has to save Morgan (who he put in a compromising position in the first place, or he believes his FULCRUM ex-girlfriend has suddenly turned white hat. So when he came up with the plan to sacrifice Casey in order to draw out some criminals and, better yet, to snake a way to use government resources in order to fund his personal pursuit for his mother, I wasn’t surprised by it at all. In fact, it wasn’t until Beckman commended Chuck on his dead-inside ways that I realized (for this episode anyway — because this isn’t a new revelation for him) that maybe Chuck doesn’t understand what he does.

No, it’s not a new revelation. Chuck often has contended with the fact that he forces people to jump through hoops in order to placate his stubbornness/thick-headedness/jackassery, made all that more annoying that it comes out in whine, and that people that shouldn’t pay the price often do. Morgan gets stuffed into a trunk. Awesome is hunted down by The Ring. Casey and Sarah have had to scramble on several occasions because Chuck is too busy whimpering or being emotionally-entangled to complete the mission as planned. But it’s fun to see Chuck come across all the things that we just assume people are willing to do for him, because he’s a “good person,” and realize that people stick their necks out on his suggestion (or just because he needs the help). It’s all his fault.

Meanwhile, as Chuck realized this and said, “I love you” to Sarah a few dozen times, things came to a head in the Morgan/Casey relationship. I’ve been very fond of their friendship and was disheartened that the Alex thing might stand in the way of that continuing. It certainly did at the beginning of the episode when a yellow-bellied Morgan returned to cower from Casey and blubber through a fake eulogy in order to keep in his good graces (and continue dating his daughter on the low-low). But he bounced back, saving his brother-at-arms and accompanying him on the mission. Another good moment in this episode is when Chuck, Morgan’s best friend, just wants Morgan out of the way when he’s searching for Casey, even though all the bearded man wants to do is find his friend. When it comes time for Casey to go to action and save Chucknsarah, Morgan is, without hesitation and despite a rift between them, by his side. You could argue that Morgan was the only one left. But, if Casey really believed Morgan was a liability and wanted nothing to do with him after the Alex thing, he would’ve gone alone. I’m just going to come out and say it: I love that Morgan is Peggy to Casey’s Don Draper and I hope that thread continues.

This was a Casey episode and I feel like I haven’t really discussed what this episode meant to him. Obviously, his seasonal (and series) development arc is lowering the gates and draining the moat to let people in. In previous seasons, they’ve hinted at Chuck wearing him down but really, especially from “vs The Other Guy” last season, it’s been Morgan. That Casey is allowing Morgan to even sniff the perfume Alex is wearing is a testament in how high esteem he holds the little guy. The episode also showcased his “do the right thing” moral authority he’s always had, and getting Alex and Morgan together again shows how perceptive he is to emotions now. Imagine season 1 Casey in that situation. He couldn’t have cared less about Morgan little girl feelings.

Other things:

• Loved the SnorriCam shots. I like when Chuck breaks format a little bit to introduce something a little more stylized. It’s obviously a technique well-suited for scenes where characters struggle to get out of their own heads — so Chuck probably should be shot exclusively from it.
• I mentioned the false cliffhanger and lack of stakes. In this episode, it was Ellie “changing her mind.” At the end of the last week, Ellie said there is no reason their mother should’ve left them for as long as she has and I chastised her character a bit for not putting things together that their mother could’ve been a spy, too. But her reservations about her mother’s disappearance makes an interesting point: why bother? Yeah, Orion wanted him to take up the mantle of finding her but Chuck hasn’t mentioned pops at all, just whined that she needs to be found, relying on our sentimentality to justify the search. But their mother is a stranger to him and they saw how well bringing back dad went for the Bartowskis. Chuck’s going to do what he’s going to do anyway so Ellie discouraging the search complicated his situation a little, just as his being a spy when Ellie didn’t want him to raised the stakes. Both times, they’ve dashed these almost immediately. In the very next episode, she tells Chuck that she wants him to find their mother. Thanks for nothin’.
• That being said, I was almost tired of hearing about “mom” this episode. If it weren’t for the phone call at the end, I might have chalked up the word “mom” to White Collar’s “Kate” overuse.
• Jeff and Lester were used beautifully in this episode. Essential to the A-plot while still being buffoons. And funny, too.
• I love that Frost might be bad. How long before they dispel that concept and make her a victim that needs to be saved?
• Interesting note: an episode with no obvious moments of Sarah exploitation nor any off-the-wall product placements. Not that I think those things can’t be worked into a good story, but this might have been a better episode for it.
• Along those same lines, there was definitely an opportunity for Sarah to engage in a little Entrapment/Get Smart (the movie) scene and they totally didn’t go that direction. Way to take the high road, Chuck. That being said, if a scene like that had been included, I would have feigned indignation and yet would have included a screenshot of it, too.