Chuck episode 220
Gosh darn it all if “Chuck” isn’t the show I look forward to most during the week, sometimes even more than Gossip Girl. Episodes like this one are part of the reason why.
First let’s look at the title, “Chuck vs. the First Kill”. You’d think that gives the whole thing away, but this show always has a trick up its sleeve. That Chuck’s go-to move is basically a standing fetal position named after Morgan’s defense maneuver against getting beat up by girls is so incredibly appropriate that it’s a wonder I ever suspected anything else. I was just worried that they would have Chuck shooting someone and either becoming a blubbering wreck, thus rendering the show uncomfortable to watch, or becoming a cold-hearted bastard, thus destroying the innocence and sheer good-personness that makes Chuck such a likable character. If there’s anything I’ve learned while watching the second season of Chuck, it’s to never underestimate the cleverness of the writers.
The Chuck plot and the Buy More subplot didn’t merge in this one, unfortunately, but the oddly parallel situations are the next best thing. I’m sure they’ll get a lot of comedy mileage out of Big Mike as a greenshirt (I assume that’s the situation; I can’t see them getting rid of a character who’s now in the main title sequence) and Emmett as store manager. Methinks for the rest of the season, with such big stuff happening in Chuck-world, the Buy More will be sidelined. I do hope that in the finale they bring the two worlds together in a massive spectacular earth-shaking catastro-fuck, and I think there’s a good chance that will happen. That’ll be a good night of television. (Also, there will be a Gossip Girl that same night. I don’t know if my brain will be able to handle it.)
What can one say about Adam Baldwin, and the delightfully Adam Baldwin-like character he plays? He was great in this episode, including the brilliant moment where he came busting in through an eighth-floor window with a shotgun. His perfectly timed grunts of amusement and grunts of just grunting are great. His extreme impatience for social situations is great. Basically all of it is great, but there’s one thing in this episode that worries me. Numerous times in the past (like the season 1 finale) he’s been okay with bending rules or disobeying orders to protect Chuck. This time he’s apparently not.
The reason the second season of the show has been so good is that it’s dense with big moments for all the characters. This one had big moments for Chuck and Sarah. Chuck’s was when he demonstrated his continuing belief in the essential goodness of Jill. Who knows if he’s right, but reasons to empathize with a character don’t come much better than that. He’s trusting in a world full of betrayal, courageous in a world full of danger, and no matter how bad things get, he is not letting the world drag him down. Who could ask for a better main character?
Sarah’s was at the end, obviously, and the most interesting thing is that this is a huge moment regardless of the true nature of the situation. There’s no reason why she couldn’t be feinting: pretending to let Chuck in on the big nasty plan when in fact she’s transporting him to a holding facility or something. Whether she is or not, whatever she’s really doing is a clear indication of where her loyalties lie. I’m almost certain she’s really helping Chuck escape, just because based on what we’ve seen of her so far, she wouldn’t pull a move that shitty. This is her most direct disobedience of orders so far, and combined with the fact that we’re closing in on the end of a season makes me think this is a turning point in the show.
There’s a bit of a plot hole through which Jill escapes having to tell her family that she’s in jail for being an agent of a clandestine malefic CIA splinter group, and how she’s going to explain showing up with Chuck to celebrate their “engagement” and then abruptly disappear again. Also, what kind of government-issue tracking anklet can be cut through with a miniature Leatherman? Whatever, the rest of the show was good enough that I don’t care.
The part of the episode I liked second best (first being the game-changing moments at the end) was seeing Chuck and Jill pretend to be engaged. They were both obviously intensely uncomfortable with it but you could also see how much they almost wished it were true. The fact that Chuck and Sarah also have this problem just underscores how much Chuck’s life is being ruined by this thing. It also shows what a tragic character Jill is. She’s unfailingly sympathetic to Chuck, even when she’s holding a gun to his head. She has put herself in danger and overcome the fact that he tricked her into captivity to protect him. But she’s another person for whom all hope of a normal life has gone out the window at the hands of spy world. The fact that she and Chuck share this deadly predicament makes them seem all the more suited for each other, and makes it all the more tragic that it can’t happen.
God this show is great. Two weeks and the season’s over. What will I ever do?
