I’m hoping that they won’t drop this. I’m going to reiterate that I think Chuck should be getting more training. Even though Casey and Sarah can keep tabs on Chuck 24/7, have 3 trained agents is better than just two.
This incident also gives them a great opportunity to get Chuck trained via his cover relationship with Sarah. They say that Sarah was feeling helpless as a hostage and decide to get self defense training as a couple.
I also had to wonder why the agent would have made the statements to begin with. If he knew FULCRUM would allow him to escape, he should have allowed himself to BE arrested. It just sounded like a challenge worded so that her only option would be to shoot him.
Good point. Maybe he expected her to be a White Hat?
I finally caught up, thanks to Hulu, but no thanks to my DVR (stupid machine). I must say it was really hard to stay away from this thread before I could watch it.
Great episode! It did good job of moving everyone’s story arcs forward (except maybe John Casey). I don’t know whether I quite like the Chuck/Sarah development, although I know that they couldn’t sustain Chuck’s pining over Sarah forever. I think the issue is that, while Chuck has seen Sarah shoot people before, he’s never seen her shoot in what appeared to be cold blood. He was possibly far enough away that he didn’t hear what the FULCRUM agent had to say and so couldn’t know that Sarah was acting more out of passion. Her lying about it to his face simply compounded Chuck’s conflict.
Yeah, you know, all things considered? This episode was SO GOOD and I am so very sad that we have to wait until Feb 2 to get more of this.
This better make it through into another season, or there will be much wrath. It’s quickly becoming my number one show. (Well, at least until Burn Notice and Eureka come back and win my love anew . . . )
I thought it was a fun episode. Ended a little too serious, but mostly fun. I record a different channel on Chuck night, so I haven’t seen all of them. Now that I know that hulu has it, I’m gonna catch up.
I agree, it’s time to give Chuck some real training. It could be very interesting to see him slowly develop into a real agent- self-confident, capable, unafraid. I wouldn’t expect him to turn into another Casey, but he could at least learn to defend himself. And then they could re-kindle the Chuck-Sarah romance!
Admittedly, they do get a lot of comedy mileage out of his nervous, bumbling, semi-incompetent demeanor, and it’s fun to watch him pretend to be in control, or assume a different identity, but how long can they keep it going?
Agreed, it was a good episode, and I was very disappointed to hear there will be no new episodes until Feb. 2!
It was a painfully bad scene in a good episode. It was a challenge that he had incentive to make but the writers needed an excuse for Sarah to shoot.
Which, incidentally, undermines the quality in Sarah that allowed her to be able to do it in the first place. Her cold-bloodedness. Having to have a good excuse this time and slugging it out with Chuck later will only come back to undercut her when she does it again.
The execution should have been changed. The Malcom Reynolds Solution [Firefly, pilot, loading ramp] would have worked better on all angles. Hell, it might even have worked as a shock factor. It would on me!
I hope they do.
I disagree.
One of us will be disappointed in how the show progresses.
I was thinking more like Wesley from Angel, when Fred was threatened.
The bad guy might as well have said “shoot me, shoot me now, no, don’t wait, it’s a better idea not to shoot me, just go ahead and do it”
He should’ve been immediately kicked into an engine.
I got the impression that Ned was more of a hired lackey with some physical training, than a Fulcrum agent in the know. Chuck never flashed on Ned. So if that is the case then Ned wouldn’t really be likely to report back to Fulcrum. So the only problem is if other Fulcrum agents were watching the news and saw the negotiator walk out with Chuck and got suspicious. I’m sure the good guys could concoct some sort of story or spin to explain this. Okay, maybe it won’t be that good but the option would be taking Chuck away and getting him a new cover and life somewhere else and I think the BuyMore and the secondary characters are just too popular for that. We will just have to accept that Fulcrum doesn’t watch the news.
Fulcrum is allways looking for Leverage…
I agree that Chuck should have had training by now (hand-to-hand combat, weapons, etc). But can they also please get him a haircut? I know they’re deliberately trying to make him look dorky but there’s this weird curl going on at the nape of his neck that looks incredibly stupid. I particularly noticed on Monday’s episode, but maybe I was watching more closely than I normally do.
Chuck is temporary. He will be killed when the intersect goes up. I’m assuming that’s why they haven’t trained him as an agent. It is a waste of time and make it harder for them to kill him once he’s trained.
Plus, will Chuck be as cool when he’s a bad ass CIA/NSA agent?
I think I prefer the contrast of Chuck with Casey & Sarah. Chuck does save the day as an “agent” but he does it with brains & geek smarts, while managing to stay somewhat innocent. I don’t want to see Chuck getting weapons training or anything.
I fully expected Casey to shoot the Fulcrum agent. Where was ol’ nine & 1/2 toes? Chuck really shouldn’t be that upset about Sarah killing someone to protect him. It’s not like she hasn’t told him twenty times she’ll do whatever it takes to protect him, and lying to him is just another way of protecting him. It might hurt, but it’s not horrific. The reason she hesitated shooting the guy immediately is because she isn’t a cold-blooded killer, but will do what she needs to do.
Chuck flashed on the negotiator only after he saw his watch, not his face. So Ned could have been Fulcrum but Chuck didn’t get the right trigger to flash on him.
Which means Ned probably needs to have an unfortunate accident before he gets a chance to report to the wrong person.
Speaking of Chuck’s hair, if I grow mine out that far, it’s just about as curly, with that same stupid curl at the back. 
I came into this thread wondering how soon the “Groundhog’s Day” reference would be picked up. Post 3 as it turns out. Not bad!
I loved Anna’s Santa bikini, but they should have focused more on it! After all, the plot was mostly exposition. We could hear what Chuck, et al, were saying without needing them on camera the whole time! Another wasted opportunity.
levdrakon get a haircut!
I think Yvonne Strahovski is really hot, but I’m glad to see their spreading the fan service around. In the earlier shows, Yvonne was in her underwear almost every episode. In this one, we saw Julia Ling in her Santa bikini and both her and Sarah Lawerence cleavage shots, IIRC.
I just read about another geek reference that I hadn’t picked up on.
Ned and Chuck = Pushing Daisies.