Strahovski and Bearded Bandits

Nov 4, 2011 by Lykaon    4 Comments    Posted under: Chuck, News, Review

With every week that passes we must sadly realize that Chuck is hurtling far too quickly towards its end. It’s sad to dwell on that, though, so I prefer to focus in on what we’ve got left ahead of us. A lot of good stuff lies ahead of us, full of Yvonne Strahovski goodness.

This week we get to look forward to Trinity being stunt casted right into the fray. And hopefully we’ll see some more of Captain Awesome, and I’m seriously hoping that Big Mike isn’t gone for good.  And where’s Beckman?! Let’s get to the review of Episode 5.02 – Chuck Versus the Bearded Bandit.

“One of the KGB’s most ruthless spies…”

No time was wasted in establishing Carrie-Ann Moss and her role on the show. Though the villain of the week was some random guy, we all know that Moss is really the important addition to the show. I like this concept of making the big baddie a rival spies-for-hire. It also throws some fun wrenches in with Gertrude trying to recruit away Sarah and Casey.

I haven’t been keeping up, but hopefully Carrie-Ann Moss is going to be sticking around for a significant number of episodes. It was an interesting twist to have Sarah have to call her character to save Chuck and Morgan. Hopefully that pays off down the road.

“I’m so over this whole Jeffster thing.”

That line might have made me laugh the loudest during the whole episode. The Jeffster thing is a bit overlayed, and it’s funny to see the writers acknowledge it. It actually serves to give Jeffster a little more life when even the characters themselves recognize that it’s getting old.

I loved that Big Mike came back! I was worried that we wouldn’t see him this season, but he’s back in a big way. I loved his 70s commercial and the way in which he integrated back into the Buy More so quickly. It didn’t hurt that he got some Morgan’s Mom jabs in there.

“That’s a pretty man.”

Yay! Awesome’s back! I love his character, I love the actor, and I can’t imagine Chuck without him. This was a great episode for him. I think he may be the first guy to get the Buy More sexy wind blowing machine. Watching him walk in the way that is usually reserved for Sarah was a hoot.

It’s sort of weird that so far this season they’ve not playing Ellie and Awesome together. I wonder if they can only afford so many secondary characters per episode or if it’s just the way the story worked out. If I had to pick my favorite secondary character, it would probably be good ol’ Captain Awesome.

“Batman and Batman.”

The fight scene with Chuck and Morgan deserves a special mention. It was really tons of fun to see them fighting together as a duo. I’d love to see a story-line where they started moonlighting as a superhero team without telling Casey or Sarah. They could get costumes and the whole bit. It would be awesome. The convenience store robbery was a fun moment between them as well.

With so many characters, sometimes the core relationships can get lost in the shuffle. The friendships between Chuck and Morgan is one of those relationships. It’s as core to the show as the Sarah/Chuck dynamic and Morgan is best when he has Chuck to play off of.

“No harm, no fowl.”

Casey was awesome this episode. He had a lot of comedy that he got to play off in his normal straight way. I especially loved when he played the hunter; I felt a little bit of Jayne coming out there. I’m pretty sure he channeled the same accent.

The car scene with Sarah was also neat. It was funny to see Casey gross Sarah out with his sordid past.

“First of all, it’s Mrs…”

Yvonne Strahovski has sadly taken a bit of a backseat so far this season, but with an episode like this I’m willing to overlook it. She was there to support the cast as well as ever, and her rock-climbing scene was pretty hot. I hope the writers realize that seeing Sarah in action is every bit as sexy as seeing her in lingerie.

It’s good to see Sarah really embrace that she’s married. It feels weird for the show to completely abandon romantic angst, but it’s making it work far better than I thought it would. It’s fun to see the little flirty scenes, and they can now be used to break up the tension.

“A CEO with skinny arms.”

Last week’s premiere fell a bit flat for me, but this episode really got things rolling. I liked it a lot, and it has set up some really good hooks for this final arc. We got the briefest hints this week that the Intersect isn’t meshing well with Morgan’s brain, and using that turn Morgan into a temporary bad guy is actually a really fun idea.

I didn’t get to all I wanted to talk about — Morgan’s Bale voice, the awesome rock-climbing gun, Chuck’s hacking, Indiana Jones references. This episode had a little bit of everything, and Chuck always works best when the action is balanced by a healthy dose of humor and homage.

What did you guys think? Did this episode do more to get the season started right?