OK, folks, this is more like it. The big-box half of this episode of Chuck rocked, as usual -- how I love Harry Tang and his cadre of Buy More Sales Stooges -- but this time, the spy stuff also held up its end of the episode. Chuck tangoing, then crumbling like stale bread at the first sign of danger, made my night. It's good stuff.

The name's Spoiler. Sarah Spoiler.

This week, Chuck's naïveté sat better with me. "Why are those people sleeping?" Aww, Chuck. See, the pools of blood and the awkward positions on the floor indicated death, not napping. Various folks were killed for dissing a rather muddy rip-off of Monet's water lilies  -- which Chuck's mega-brain identifies as a vehicle used to move weapons-grade MacGuffin, something mysterious international arms dealer La Ciudad is angling for. The painting will be at an art auction in LA, and La Ciudad will follow. Since no one has ever seen La Ciudad and lived to tell, Chuck's going on a mission.

At Buy More, Big Mike issues Chuck a challenge -- fix all the backlogged computers in two days, and you'll have a leg up in the are for assistant manager. Chuck's team debates on an appropriate name -- and I do hope "Chuck's Stable of Hos" ends up on a t-shirt -- and goes to work. They are, of course, awesome in a slacker-outsider posse of weirdos sense.

Chuck asks Casey is he's really ready to go into the field. You'll be fine, Casey replies -- as long as you know how to tango. And Chuck, poor lamb, takes him seriously, which leads to the gloriously, sublimely absurd tango lesson from Captain Awesome. The only word for it? Awesome.

Chuck, Sarah and Casey go to the auction, and Chuck immediately gets a hit off a face in the crowd -- actually, it's a face in the restroom, and it's only after Chuck mentions spies about 16 times. While Sarah and Casey take on the presumed arms dealer, Chuck gets chatted up by a gorgeous woman. They tango -- she leads -- and Chuck spots a scar on her neck and realizes no wait, she's La Ciudad! (The guy Sarah and Casey was fighting was with MI-6.) She realizes that Chuck knows something, so she and his thugs drag him upstairs. Commence the threatening, and Chuck folding (not that I blame him), and the near death. Casey and Sarah come to the rescue, just in time. They're thrilled, because they finally got a picture of the perp, and info on where to find her next. But she's got info too -- Chuck's Buy More ID. Why that was in his tuxedo, I will never know.

After the caper, Chuck takes his tuxedo-clad self (and: yowza!) back to Buy More, where he releases Morgan from the computer cage (there were hijinks; the less said about them, the better), and completes Big Mike's challenge. Big Mike is thrilled, Harry Tang (which sounds dirtier every time I say it) is pissed.

La Ciudad sends her thugs into Buy More after Chuck. My love for Casey grows -- he takes out one thug by shoving him into a chest freezer, and another one goes down to a flying microwave. Sarah realizes that the improbably hot delivery girl climbing up to the rood of Wienerlicious is actually La Ciudad. Cue the ass-kicking hot girl-on-girl fight scene. Sarah eventually wins, and La Ciudad is caught for good. All agree that Chuck done good in the field -- and Chuck may be starting to believe it, too.

Other fun and/or relevant bits:

• Morgan calling Chuck a shaky-legged gelding, rather than gelfling. Hee!
• Morgan making an argument for why Chuck's Stable of Hos should work through the night while Chuck is out: "He's going to do something none of us has accomplished before -- have intercourse with a beautiful woman." "Speak for yourself." says the sole woman in Chuck's Stable of Hos. "Interesting,"says every man in the building.
  
• We find out why Chuck got kicked out of Stanford: Bryce found some stolen tests under Chuck's bed, and turned Chuck in. Chuck denies stealing anything. Was Bryce really to blame?
• Chuck runs into an old classmate from Stanford at the auction, and the guy is living the life Chuck wanted -- software tycoon, semi-retired, loving life. Chuck's mega-brain unearths the fact that said classmate is indulging in insider trading and squirreling away money in the Cayman Islands. This trick could come in handy at his college reunion.
• When Chuck contemplates the painting with La Ciudad, he describes it as "very Bob Rossian" -- you know, like the bushy-haired painter guy on PBS. And he's right.
• When Chuck tries to give his team props for fixing the computers, Big Mike shares the first rule of management: "Always take credit." Sounds about right. He also gives Chuck style points for the tux. Again, yowza!
• When Casey takes out the second thug with the flying microwave, he can't resist a deadpan quip: "Now that's what I call moving some merchandise." Aw, Casey -- you practiced that in the mirror, didn't you?
• Chuck and Sarah at the end of the day, standing outside his apartment, joking about kissing. God help me, I really think they'd make a cute couple. Kiss her already, Chuck!

Comments

This was a good episode. I agree with Sarah that it was a big improvement over last week.
Less Morgan please. What was the point of having him in the final scene? Twice, no less.

Brett | Oct 9, 2007 6:00:09 AM | #

---

And who could forget Morgan's strange fear of old computers? Or the retelling of his life and death ordeal in the cage? Or how he's going to sue the store for his suffering.

It only goes to show that a caged, out of the way Morgan, is a good Morgan. Nearly every other time he's just annoying.

Yossarian | Oct 9, 2007 6:19:41 AM | #

---

"One day Chuck, you will wake up with Tang all in your face!"
Morgan is nice in controlled dosages. He adds that extra oomph for Chuck at home, though not so much with Chuck at work (though the call and the pointing tall, menacing thug toward Chuck were pretty sweet).

Sarah (Yvonne Strzechowski/Strahovski) has a better range of emotions than actions, but for how the fight-scenes were shot (part "Kung-Fu" part "Xena"), it fits really well.

pakopako | Oct 9, 2007 7:22:37 AM | #

---

Anyone notice...
...that on IMDB (where I got the Strzechowski spelling) it lists Ellie's (Sarah Lancaster) boyfriend as "Captain Awesome" (Ryan McPartlin) instead of... whatever his name is supposed to be.

pakopako | Oct 9, 2007 7:25:42 AM | #

---

I like Morgan. His line about the wine being from both of us at dinner was great. I hope this show can stick around.

Darius | Oct 9, 2007 8:22:33 AM | #

---

I enjoyed this week's episode more than the last one because we saw more action with Casey and Sarah against La Ciudad and her henchmen. The fight between Sarah and La Ciudad reminded me of the good old days of "Alias" with Sydney Bristow vs. Anna Espinoza.

C.S. Lee plays the perfect antagonist to Chuck at Buy More. The "Tang in your face" line is priceless! Also, I love how Harry has his own green shirted followers, while Chuck has his loyal Nerd Herders (plus Morgan).

The best part of Captain Awesome dancing the tango with Chuck was that Chuck learned the girl's part! Zachary Levi had the funniest facial expressions as Captain Awesome was running his hands over his body.

Of course my favorite part was Casey coming through in the clutch again and again. I loved the move where he shot the hitmen on the roof and then threw a gun over to Sarah. I rewinded my Tivo 20 times, so I could rewatch Casey throwing the microwave oven at the bad guy's head. Adam Baldwin is the master at delivering those deadpan lines (see "Firefly" and "Angel").

Paige | Oct 9, 2007 8:39:31 AM | #

---

I really enjoy this show, its just lots of fun. You can sit back relax, and laugh and be entertained for an hour.

I think Morgan is funny but in only small doses, then you wonder why they put up with him. The Tango scenes were priceless last night. I'm thinking Chuck and Sarah's anticipation of a first kiss is going to quickly building toward Ross and Rachel levels.

jbw | Oct 9, 2007 9:08:58 AM | #

---

It's La Ciudad - not La Cuidad - just a nerdy FYI...

jld | Oct 9, 2007 10:30:52 AM | #

---

The show keeps getting better! The tango(s) were priceless and the chemistry between the 3 main characters is just great.
Now, all they have to do is stifle Morgan and let Casey stuff Tang into a freezer and everything would be perfect!

wcm | Oct 9, 2007 11:04:51 AM | #

---

the assassin's name "Ciudad" sounds like "see you dead" - somewhat clever but does not make much sense when translated into english... means town or city

bkgrrl | Oct 9, 2007 11:12:50 AM | #

---

I thought naming the bad guy (er, gal) La Ciudad was brilliant, namely because it sends up all the more-sinister names of real-life or more well-known fictional villains (Goldfinger, The Jackal, etc). Forget being named after a badass canine predator...she's a whole city. I loved all the homages to the movie True Lies, even if the title of the movie is never overtly mentioned during the episode at all (this is where DiNozzo from NCIS would've pointed out the obvious parallels, but alas, he's not on this show). Oh, and the tango scenes forcing Chuck to learn and dance the female part of the couple's movements were hilarious. How many guys who know how to tango could switch sides like that? As for Morgan, I consider him to be a necessary part of the show, because in many ways, he's the Jiminy Cricket in Chuck's life. Sure, he's a flaming geek (if such a thing can be said about geeks), but he's also what will keep Chuck grounded in his real life. Also, Morgan's presence shows what an incredibly-cool and kind guy Chuck really is, for how many of us would have a guy like Morgan for a friend, and after all this started, how many of us would keep him? I think the audience's reactions to Morgan says more about them than it does about Chuck. Finally, the woman who played La Ciudad should've tried out for the part of Jaime Sommers on Bionic Woman...she I could see in that part. Plus, she'd look a helluva lot better in spandex. Oh, and that "moving some merchandise" remark was also used in another movie, but I can't remember which one, and it was funny watching the bad guy getting clocked by a flying microwave. I'd love to know how they filmed that without hurting the dude.

Dark Disciple | Oct 9, 2007 11:36:32 AM | #

---

Sigh. It was not my night when it came to typos. My editor caught my "Cayman Islands" slip-up (note to self: caiman is a lizard, Cayman is an island), but we both missed Ciudad. My Spanish-speaking brother-in-law will be very cross with me.

Thanks for the correction, everyone. I'm fixing it.

As for Morgan: I gotta admit, he still bugs me, and maybe that says more about me than Chuck or Morgan. Doesn't mean I'm wrong, though... But I agree, the "the wine's from both of us!" line worked. They've just got to calibrate him, I guess -- effective in controlled doses, toxic in larger amounts, as far as I'm concerned.

Sarah | Oct 9, 2007 11:53:40 AM | #

---

I only caught the second half of the ep due to a glitch with my DVR, but I found the Morgan scenes to be funnier than they were at the start. He seems to be dropping the Seth Green impersonation in favor of Justin Long mimicry. And somehow, that's actually an improvement.

Goph | Oct 9, 2007 2:29:47 PM | #

---

Loved all of the spy/thriller homages in this episode, especially all of the True Lies parallels. The best one though was the Silence of the Lambs scene with Morgan in the storage cage (complete with Hannibal Lecter opera mood music and bringing his food to him while he's on the floor against the cage wall)...absolutely classic!!!

CC | Oct 9, 2007 3:16:34 PM | #

---

The second episode was solid, silly entertainment. I'll keep watching. Have No.3 on my DVR; will watch it soon. It's light-hearted fun, but not as good as "Journeyman" in my mind. I saw the numbers for both this week, and it doesn't bode well for the future.

A | Oct 9, 2007 3:46:13 PM | #

---

I liked this show better the first time I saw it.

Jake 2.0

yawn | Oct 9, 2007 7:21:08 PM | #

---

I agree with Dark Disciple that Morgan is a necessary character. Morgan is supposed to be awkward and vaguely annoying. Morgan's presence shows the audience that Chuck picks his friends based on different criteria, and I think that just illustrates how kindhearted Chuck is. Keep Morgan, keep Casey, Keep Sarah, keep, well, everybody. It ain't broke. Chuck and Reaper are my two favorite new shows this season so far.

Siansonea | Oct 10, 2007 7:28:26 AM | #

---

I love this show because stuff like "The Silence of the Lambs" moment (which by the way, was phenomenal) goes right over my kids' heads but we all laugh when Chuck asks if this the kind of helicopter that turns into a boat.

Wendy | Oct 10, 2007 1:08:35 PM | #

---

Bob Ross. I think I still own some of his paintbrushes.

I didn't laugh harder the entire night, and it still makes me smile.

Alyx | Oct 11, 2007 9:19:03 AM | #

---

Post a comment

Name:
Email Address:	optional
URL:	optional
Comments: