Chuck (3/14/2011): "Chuck vs the A-Team"

Chuck’s back and firing on all cylinders once again. Looks like the break gave the writers an opportunity to regroup and get the show back on track. It was good to see Old Spice Guy again, although this episode didn’t show much of his funny. And unfortunately it looks like neither nor Stacy Keibler will be returning. I think they’ve taken care of all the various loose ends: the Gretas, Casey’s secret base, and Papa Bartowski’s laptop. Of course, it looks like Ellie may be in danger again. I can’t wait to see what happens.

Ellie still doesn’t know Chuck is back into spying. She needs to be back in the loop, and I hope that’s where it’s headed.

This was a good episode, with some strong plotting to involve all the characters well.

Anyone else think that Ellie has already been flashed by Papa Bartowski’s laptop? She said she’d lost time while playing around with it, and I kind of think that’s the direction they’re going.

That is what I thought, as well.

Me three. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an Intersect around here.

Me four. When Robin Givens’ character said she needs to test it on “someone who thinks like a Bartowski” that pretty well gave it away.

Also, they missed an opportunity and a nice laugh at the disarming of the bomb. They should’ve had someone urinate on it instead of squirting apple juice on it.

I was actually wondering if Chuck was about to defuse the bomb via urination!

I knew the box of fruit juice would somehow wind up being important, but I guessed wrong as to how. I was thinking they were going to recycle how Oliver Platt’s character stopped the bomb from going off in Executive Decision.

The urination solution occurred to me as well. But then we wouldn’t have gotten this great line from Sarah:
“Chuck, are you about to defuse a nuclear bomb with a juice box?”

I also thought about the urination solution. I actually thought that, since Chuck was still in the bomb suit and couldn’t get it off fast enough, he would get Casey to do it.

I wouldn’t be surprised if urination was in the original script, but some executive from upon high demanded they change it to something less distasteful.

Very good episode. I thought they were going to have Ms. Volkhov be the big bad for the rest of the season, but now Robin Givens could be.

I think Volkoff’s daughter is going to be the Big Bad for next season (if we have one). Although she’s not so much a Big Bad as a bad-in-training, a larval bad as it were. The real threat is probably going to be from Volkoff’s lawyer, the Devil himself.

I don’t think she was flashed.

I think she just got lost in the research. She’s an MD/PhD who “thinks like a Bartowski.” I can easily see her worrying away at the problem for hours on end without realizing how much time had gone by, the same way her dad and brother did in earlier seasons.

If they are going to get Ellie involved in the spy stuff, I’d like to see her as sort of a behind-the-scenes “tech support” for the intersect. Maybe building on her father’s work and making modifications and improvements to it.

When he was fighting Chuck, I was SO waiting for Isaiah Mustafa to shout out, “Silver fish hand catch!”

Even if Ellie was flashed, does the laptop contain the whole intersect or just the general architecture?

Still, I had to roll my eyes when Givens said that the new intersects and the old one were never supposed to meet. Oh, really? Then why, out of all the options in the country, did you decide to train the new ones in the one place the old one spent all his spare time? Complete with them using the same underground base. Also, the incredibly awkward product placement, yet again. I really hate that.

I kinda like the product placement. It’s so blatant and is such a funny part of the show–I think they’re making fun of themselves and the industry’s practice of product placement. It makes me want to take my Toyota Sienna minivan to Subway.

… and then go shopping at Underpants, Etc.