Contributor: Henry T.
Written by Kristin Newman
Directed by Jeremiah Chechik
The past comes back to haunt the characters in various ways for the characters of “Chuck”. Whether it’s a really goofy homage to Memento (Jeff and Lester), or a re-visit of Morgan’s time as the Intersect, or another consideration of Chuck and Sarah’s future together, the past seems to stick around when they think it’s time to move on. Be careful what you wish for. You may not like what you find, even if it involves an egregious use of guest star Bo Derek. I think that thought process is what leads to the puzzling decision by Sarah at the end of the episode.
I thought it was a fascinating choice to open on Jeff and Lester being staged to have a bender to cover for their discovery of Castle. Jeff and Lester is finally well-integrated into the main plot, they both go on a Memento-style journey, finding out more and more about Team Bartowski as they go on their various missions. They are always returning to that crashed car, each time with more information than they had before. It’s an amusing conceit, simply because Jeff and Lester are involved, yet proves that all those spy gadgets the team uses don’t always work to their full effectiveness. Casey keeps using that X-13 amnesia gas, yet time and time again, Jeff and Lester see things they shouldn’t see. Even the last bad guy Chuck ever faces, Quinn, uses the gas and it proves to be ineffective. Jeff and Lester’s adventures in memory recovery set the stage for what occurs throughout the episode. Characters are constantly being reminded that no matter how hard they try, the past will always come back with a vengeance.
This was the best use of Morgan-as-the-Intersect that the show has used in this final season. Ironically, it comes when Morgan doesn’t actually have the Intersect in his head, melting his brain. The story of how Morgan got involved with Bo Derek (yet another celebrity revealed to be a spy) and another pair of Intersect glasses didn’t have any holes from what I saw. On top of that, it was just very delightful to see both Chuck and Morgan stumbling around as they interact with the 70′s icon.
The mission brings about some very interesting twists on “Chuck” staples, like Bo Derek getting the slow-motion, wind machine treatment (though I had problems with the guest star credits giving away the surprise with “BD”), and the Buy More in Vail being like a bizzaro version of the Burbank Buy More. At this point in the series though, I have to wonder why there is yet another Intersect out there for people to go after. It’s become a MacGuffin to drive the plot going into the series finale, and it made a major character take a questionable action out of desperation in the end.
Sarah started out the episode totally committed to leaving the spy game completely behind. Even as she acknowledged the fact that being a spy is all she knows. She has said this many times before in the course of the series. But she is fitting her needs around the ultimate goal of her husband: to combat cyber-terrorism. It goes with Chuck’s mentality of getting away from all of the death that comes with being a spy. The members of Team Bartowski have softened, acknowledging that this may finally be the end this time, and Quinn takes advantage of that. Their collective guard is down, Quinn strikes by kidnapping Chuck for some as-yet unknown reason, and forcing Sarah to don the Intersect glasses out of desperation. So it seems that Sarah may not completely escape the spy game after all. We all know the Intersect is corrupting so I don’t imagine good things are on the way for Sarah and company in the near future.
After a clunker of the previous episode, this one came together quite nicely. It was funny without being annoying, and made great use of its major guest stars. Bo Derek could have easily taken over the episode, but her appearance was largely a lark, used to set up the larger spy plot to head into the final stretch of the season. “Chuck” has re-acquired the momentum necessary to go out with the fireworks that the show’s fans have always hoped for. Let’s see if they can deliver on that promise.
Grade: 9/10
