Big week for Chuck, as it still isn’t renewed and is coming off a pretty bad week in terms of ratings. Thankfully, the show continues to be a creative delight, giving us an episode in which Chuck may be crazy, Morgan may be a pimp, and things may be getting out of control in an episode titled “Chuck Versus the Tooth”.
Plus, Christopher Lloyd!
Check out my look at this week’s episode after the jump.
Synopsis: When Chuck experiences alarming nightmares, General Beckman forces him to see CIA psychologist Leo Dreyfus (Christopher Lloyd!). Meanwhile, Ellie receives big news; and Anna returns to the Buy More and reaches out to Morgan.
What Was Good: “It’s official. There is absolutely nothing on TV.” “Yeah, Monday nights can be a bit of a wasteland.”
Meta-commentary in other show’s hands can be pretty rough, but Chuck analyzing its very own tenuous ratings situation in the opening lines of the episode is pretty damn awesome. It just comes across as charming and sadly truthful (how do more people not watch this show?!).
The episode went after a very fruitful and believable target, using the Intersect as a potential cause of the degradation of Chuck’s mental state to the point where he is thrown into the CIA’s resident psych ward. This works in a lot of ways. First off, Zachary Levi keeps proving his chops, as he plays crazy with the best of them and even started making a believer out of me. Second off, it works incredibly well in proving everyone else in the cast’s opinion of Chuck. Whether it’s Beckman sharing that “(she) cares for him too” or Sarah showing up late at night at Dr. Dreyfus’ place to share how she “needs him to be okay” with Casey already waiting inside…it’s just beautifully handled and touches on some really emotional spots.
I’m really going to have to throw some love towards Yvonne Strahvoski…she has been better and better throughout this series and in this episode she may have had some of her finest moments. She’s given the chance to take the lead emotionally in a lot of spots here, and in some ways it feels like her coming out party. She does a heck of a job in this episode, like when she finally bursts out with how much she loves Chuck at the end of the episode. It all dovetails very nicely together.
The final point about Chuck’s potentially degrading mental state is that I really liked it if only because it just makes sense. To have this huge database in his head and to not have some slow down or problems just feels wrong to me. This is a very good fit for the story as a whole, and I’m glad Fedak and Schwartz took us that way.
Our boy Morgan had a hell of an episode as well. He managed to get his first tranq gun exposure (but from a possession and from an actual “I got tranq’d” standpoint), he accidentally played the returning Anna perfectly well, and then when it got down to it, he shut her down entirely. When he said “If it takes me running from you to know I’m someone you want, I don’t want to be with you,” I almost cheered. It was a big moment for Morgan, a character who has always been mostly fluff. He’s had a bit of a growth spurt this year, and strangely it took Anna pointing it out for me to really notice it.
For a guy with only a series of small moments, I’ve got to say Awesome pretty much stuck the landing on all of them. Whether it was commenting on his newfound outlook (“if I can die by mosquito in Africa, why shouldn’t I live in Burbank”…horribly paraphrased) or his desire for Ellie to get all 15 seasons of ER for him while he’s out sick, he just gave us nice little character moments. Awesome has somehow become one of my favorites on the entire show.
The dream sequences in which the Intersect began to influence his unconscious were handled very well. Part creepy, part informative, I really dug them…especially the last one where Shaw (his guide in the dreams) reveals that he’s not dead. While this one seemed like a bit more of a reach than the other ones, it was still wonderfully handled by all involved.
Continued belowWhat Was Bad: My main problem with this episode stems from the frustratingly traditional relationship pitfalls the episode falls into. While in the majority of the episode the Chuck/Sarah dynamic is played well, it’s very frustrating for Chuck to continuously not share with Sarah. Whether it’s in the beginning when he’s removed from field duty or at the end when he has the Shaw dream or he doesn’t reveal that there is a good chance that he will mentally deteriorate, it’s frustrating for a show that is so good at not succumbing to rote story beats so quickly allows its emotive and savvy lead to not share important details with his girlfriend/partner.
Also, the idea that Chuck would actually think his one punch would knock the precise tooth out that had the Ring intel in it seemed like a bit of a reach. Not just A reach, but a multi-layered uber reach that just seems like a bush league move from the show.
Ellie falling into Justin’s trap seems a bit fishy too, but I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. It does seem weird that the normally wide open Ellie doesn’t even tell Awesome about Justin appearing as a CIA agent, but this one gets a temporary pass from me (even though I do think it’s a bit of an off moment for the character).
The last complaint are the psych wards residents…they were so ridiculous it was hard to accept. All of the former spies making toy guns and peering around corners sneakily? Seemed a bit obvious from the always clever Chuck writing staff.
Overall: This episode featured a lot of really high highs and some random lows. Overall, it was another really fine episode with some really random hiccups that bothered me. Still, the core of the show has become the continuously superb handling of the Chuck and Sarah relationship. To have Sarah have a ton of moments to shine while her man was in trouble…well, it was a nice change up and provided a lot of really good moments. This episode as a whole gave us a lot of great bits where the supporting cast reflected on what Chuck means to them, and it led to some really beautiful stuff. Plus, the extra wrinkle of the Intersect influencing Chuck’s dreams was well handled and could have a very lasting effect on the show.
While I may have more complaints than usual, I’d be lying if I didn’t say this was just another damn solid entry into the continuously great history of Chuck.
