10.25.2010

Instant Reaction: Chuck vs the Aisle of Terror

Tweet 1: #SarahConnorBitches #Chuck406

Addendum: With Linda Hamilton being all up ins the Chuck universe now, I will probably be starting quite a few episodes from hear on out with this hashtag. I got two RTs of it this week. Let's see if we can get it to five next week. We're building a Chuck meme, people! Get on board!


Tweet 2: Freddie Krueger is Scarecrow? #Chuck406

Addendum: Now I can't get the idea of Cillian Murphy as the new Freddy Krueger out of my head. He would be decidedly less gross looking but infinitely more terrifying because of it. Seriously the doctor character was basically not-good-looking Batman Begins Scarecrow. They even did similar special effects.


Reply Tweet 1, from ladycat713: and still pretty freaking scary.

Addendum: They failed at giving him a creepy mask though. Missed opportunities.


Tweet 3: @ladycat713 Batman Begins/Freddy Krueger/Chuck crossover now plz.

Addendum: Seriously I spit out great fic ideas every week and nobody steps up to the plate. THIS STUFF IS GOLD> Where are my authors at?

Authors, please get back to me after the break.





Tweet 4: Honest Chuck is the best Chuck. #Chuck406

Addendum: Can we all agree on this? I think we can all agree on this.

Reply Tweet 2, from HonestyHourBot: RT @racecarbrown Honest Chuck is the best Chuck #Chuck406

Addendum: See! Even Honesty bot agrees.


Tweet 5: Showdown happening pretty early. I like that. #Chuck406

Addendum: When you have something in your preview that is tense and you drag it out until the very end of the episode you are basically spoiling the entire episode because of that (See: Cubic Z, Chuck vs. the). When you do it early to make people think WTF is going to happen now, yur doin' it right.


Tweet 6: Well, that's pretty cold, Sarah Connor. #Chuck406

Addendum: I only came out of hiding to use you, the son that I guess I love more than anything! Except taking down terrorist operations and being mysterious.


Tweet 7: Bears are terrifying. #JustAskStephenColbert #Chuck406

Addendum: OH GOD JIMMY GET IT OFF THE SCREEN>


Tweet 8: Love Chuck and Morgan nerding out on the mom thing. #Chuck406

Addendum: Emotional progress is their new Legend of Zelda. That is a really weird sentence.


Tweet 9: Oh God Mama Awesome mama advice. #WayTooIntense #Chuck406

Addendum: What that baby needs to do is learn white water rafting within seven days or its neural pathways for those activities will be shut down forever. Make sure that it gets some Baby Einstein, some Mozart, and at least a fifty-foot cliff jump. You don't want to limit its future opportunities before it can crawl, gosh darnit!



Reply Tweet 3, from ladycat713: Ellie's nightmare is already happening and she hasn't been exposed to any gas.

Addendum: How would that affect the baby I wonder? Not that I'm a fan of gassing babies, I am just curious. ITS FOR SCIENCE OKAY.


Tweet 10: @ladycat713 When she does get exposed Mama Awesome becomes 50 feet tall with dusters for fingers! #AHHHHH


Addendum: AHHHHHHHHHHH>


Tweet 11: You are not a rhyming monkey. #ImportantInformation #Chuck406

Addendum: In case you didn't know.


Tweet 12: Oh my God that white dress. #Chuck406

Addendum: We now interrupt your regularly scheduled attempts at being funny for this unscheduled drool session.

......*drool*.....

Thank you. We now return you to your attempts at being funny, already in progress.


Tweet 13: Hahahha. #CaseyIsRachel #Chuck406

Addendum: I say


Tweet 14: Terminator glasses. Terminator badassery. #Chuck406

Addendum: Terminator SHOOTING STUFF WITH GUNS>


Tweet 15: Kevlar. #ThatIsAll #LearnedThatTrickInSeason1 #Chuck406

Addendum: Chuck vs. the Bryce.


Reply Tweet 4, from ladycat713: Still! Trauma time.

Addendum: That melodramatic sissy. He takes one little bullet from his long-absentee mother and he gets all whiny and existential about it. "She shot me in the heart, wahhhh." Psh. (P.S. that was sarcasm, getting shot by your mom would suuuuuuuck.)


Tweet 16: @ladycat713 Chuck always gets shot by people he trusts. #HowWeirdIsThat #Chuck406

Addendum: Which, I mean, I guess is better than getting shot by the people you don't trust. They are probably all GO FOR THE HEAD and that's just inconvenient.


Tweet 17: D'awwww. #Chuck406

Addendum: I don't know why they decided to have one of those melt-in-your-mouth-not-in-your-hand moments right there but it was so cute.


Tweet 18: Seriously d'awww is the only reaction #Chuck406

Addendum: If you say different I will cut you.


Tweet 19: Grunt dialog. #TheBest #Chuck406

Addendum: How do you communicate? With words? Pshaw. So passe. Non verbal communication demonstrates a true bond, an unbreakable pact, with your partner that is almost impossible to replicate. Basically I think Casey and Morgan should just kiss and get it over with.


Tweet 20: Sarah Connor pwning everything. #SarahConnorBitches #Chuck406

Addendum: Thank God Chuck isn't a Terminator. Sarah might be in trouble, though, as the jury is still out on her. OH GOD MAYBE SHES A CYLON.


Tweet 21: Okay maybe not ONLY. #GottaBeHonest #Chuck406

Addendum: Seriously there seemed to have been a lot of other priorities, Mary.


Tweet 22: This is probably bad. #Chuck406

Addendum: I was proven wrong on this one. It wasn't bad. It was just kind of heart-wrenching.


Tweet 23: This episode is really kind of sad. #ProllyWhyILikeIt #Chuck406

Addendum: Seriously that last scene would not have been out of place in Twist. It was right up my alley.


Reply Tweet 5, from ladycat713: Yes it is. I wonder now if she knows Papa B is dead.

Addendum: For whatever reason, I thought that the whole phone call to her at the end of Season 3 was her being notified Papa B was dead? Maybe I am wrong. It seems like she already knew. On a related note, why aren't they talking about their dad more now that their mom is kind of in the picture? The two events are only slightly related, you guys. I don't understand.


Tweet 24: Lemon bars are the litmus test for evil. #Chuck406

Addendum: Also acceptable evil litmus tests: Chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and pumpkin pie.


Tweet 25: Or half a sandwich even. #OhJeff #Chuck406

Addendum: Or probably just a goldfish. DONT EAT THE GOLDFISH JEFF. BAD JEFF.


Tweet 26: Dude that baby is terrifying. #Chuck406

Addendum: Is it baby? Or is it a snail?


Tweet 27: #OHGODTHEPASTELS #Chuck406

Addendum: Honey's new official hashtag.


Tweet 28: Anyone else hope Sarah Connor punches someone or something? #Chuck406

Addendum: Seriously when she is not performing violence I get uncomfortable. It's like watching a caged tiger prowl. You know that it's either going to maul a clown or piss on everything.


Reply Tweet 6, from CSoloy: Everyone behave or the teddy bear gets it? #Chuck406

Addendum: And then she hugged it afterwards and then bought it for Ellie's baby and it was SO CUTE OH MY GOD>


Reply Tweet 7, from ladycat713: I hope she gets in a knock down drag out fight with Honey.

Addendum: Somewhere, a forty-year old guy just got a little turned on and doesn't know why.


Tweet 29: @CSoloy I was kind of hoping for a classic TV females fight, but hey. #FairchildVersusHamiltonSteelCageMatch #Chuck406

Addendum: It totally would have been better than Levi vs. Austin 2.0.


Tweet 30: @ladycat713 Ditto. See my last tweet. #Chuck406

Addendum: Ditto. See my last addendum.




Tweet 31: Not as good as a Bradon Routh deadpan Mwahaha but not bad. #Oops #Chuck406

Addendum: Chuck villains are at their best when they are all downplayin' their evilness.


Tweet 32: Umm, Chuck? You realize Sarah could probably fix everything in two seconds, right? #SillyRabbit #Chuck406

Addendum: Seriously guys locking your very capable girlfriend away from stuff is never the right move. I know, Chuck, your reaction is all "Save the lady!" but come on, this is Sarah Walker. She has killed men with hair pins. She has picked locks with drink umbrellas. She has probably jumped over Mount Everest. She also has a gas mask. This was not okay.


Tweet 33: Okay that was cheesy. #SorryButItsTrue #Chuck406

Addendum: That whole AHH IM SO SCARED section was a conceptual/sfx/visual fail. I was super disappointed.


Tweet 34: Hahahaha. #SawItComingAMileAway #StillFunny #Chuck406

Addendum: OLD PEOPLE>


Reply Tweet 8, from ladycat713: It makes sense. Jeff's demented mind saw it as scary so it would be scary to a man who admitted he was insane.

Addendum: Anyone who is afraid of that tiger/monkey combo deserves a Sarah Walker clothesline. That was adorable.


Tweet 35: That puts Sarah at 5 for 6 as far as kicking man ass this season. #NotABadPercentage #Chuck406

Addendum: She is only missing out on last episode, and that is only because she barely had any screen time. She is at a record breaking pace, you guys.


Tweet 36: Anyone else feeling like #Chuck406 is like two episodes? One sad, one funny?

Addendum: I wonder if this one was written by the guy who had previously mainly done half hour bizarro comedies like Drawn Together. It would make total sense. The first half of that episode felt really packed tightly together, then it got to the "birthday present" climax at the docks and it was like the episode restarted. Weird.


Tweet 37: Starts with a phone call, ends with a phone call. #Appropriate #Chuck406

Addendum: Okay it didn't really end end with a phone call, but you get what I mean. I liked the full circle thing.


Tweet 38: Oh man that got really depressing again. #Chuck406

Addendum: It was like when Stephen got taken away by Evil Chevy Chase in Season 2. OH GOD SARAH LANCASTER DONT CRY MY HEART CANT TAKE IT>


Reply Tweet 9, from ladycat713: This certainly helps explain the next eps title doesn't it? I'm glad he told Ellie about her being a spy.

Addendum: I am glad about that, too. As Honesty bot always says, "RT @racecarbrown Honest Chuck is the best Chuck. #Chuck406." That is some bona fide wisdom right there.


Tweet 39: @ladycat713 OTTERS> #ThatIsAll #Chuck406

Addendum: Otters, bitches.


Final Thoughts: Going back to what I said before, it definitely felt as though this episode got kind of meander-y and lost after that docks scene. My suspicion (and I have no facts to back this up) is that the person who wrote it was one of the writers more used to half hour comedies than hour long dramadies. Even if it was one of the returning writers, it still felt discombobulated and unbalanced. All the humor was packed at the end, weirdly in the part where Chuck was in the most danger. I don't know. Felt a bit lopsided. Strong episode for the most part, though, and that ending was killer.

As always, discuss in the comments section!

22 comments:

  1. just discovered this and i was greatly amused. also, i can't believe someone else knows about Drawn Together. My friend forced me to watch some and i couldn't believe it was actually a cartoon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ayefah26.10.10

    BLACK LICORICE. MAN FEET. IS IT A BABY...OR IS IT A SNAIL?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have mixed feelings about this episode. I enjoyed it, for the most part. Even though I had a lot of issues with individual pieces, the whole was done well enough and entertaining enough to overcome those issues. But the end left with me a really sour note. I'm very disappointed with Sarah at the moment and I really don't like that feeling.

    Anyway, Frea is out of town right now so it's going to be a few days before we get our review up. Fortunately, Chris here did a good job with his usual panache covering things.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ayefah26.10.10

    Why are you disappointed with Sarah?

    ReplyDelete
  5. @Ayefah - I was not fond of the end. I thought it showed a lack of trust in Chuck, but then I guess she might have been working under the assumption that it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission (just not so sure it's going to work out for her quite so well this time).

    Not only did it seem like a lack of trust, but it was kind of a throwback to their handler/asset days and her not respecting him as an equal/partner (in a professional sense, although really, that could apply personally here as well, I think). She really should have told him what she was going to do. There was a nice bit of foreshadowing after Sarah saves Chuck from Wheelwright where, I believe, he tells her she's a good partner and then we get the end with her going behind his back.

    My issue isn't with what she did so much as how she did it.

    Which is what I think they're going to be fighting about in the next episode.

    ReplyDelete
  6. "Not only did it seem like a lack of trust, but it was kind of a throwback to their handler/asset days and her not respecting him as an equal/partner (in a professional sense, although really, that could apply personally here as well, I think). She really should have told him what she was going to do. There was a nice bit of foreshadowing after Sarah saves Chuck from Wheelwright where, I believe, he tells her she's a good partner and then we get the end with her going behind his back."

    One thing many fans never comment on is Sarah's sense of duty. She was willing to turn her father in at the beginning of 2.10?? Delorian. She doesn't trust Mamma B and Chuck asked her to cover his blind spot. I honestly feel she's doing the right thing from her perspective.

    -BCF

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sparky26.10.10

    Doing something for your s.o. without consulting said s.o.? Check.
    Having your relationship suffer because of it? Check check.

    We seem to have the same old formula here. Though,i appreciated that Sarah seemed to follow Chuck's lead most of the episode.

    When you are easily sweet-talked by your mom,you need to be saved by your girlfriend.

    Good luck Sarah&Ellie!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Alaster26.10.10

    I was a little disappointed by the Sarah/Mary (#SarahConnorBitches) confrontation. Though the upcoming episode might take care of that. Maybe a spy to spy advice session. A don't hurt my son or I'll kill you sort of thing (#Don'tF***WithJohnConnorWhenSarahConor'sAround). I do wonder if Chuck might tell Ellie that he's a spy as well. I personally don't think he will, just explain their mom's story.

    @RT, awesome tweets dude. Very funny (#RTHasAwesomeHashTags). Your absolutely right, I found the part when Chuck was drugged not done as good as they could have as well. As for the restart, I didn't feel it, but did feel as though they had simultaneous stories happening. Saw the Batman Nightmare Hallucinogenic Gas coming from last weeks preview. Kinda weird that Papa B isn't spoken of anymore. Kudos to your reply tweeters as well. They had good insight and funny comments as well.

    I don't quite remember, but did Chuck flash this episode?

    P.P. Good amounts of Jeffster and Morgan/Casey made this Halloween episode a super one.

    ReplyDelete
  9. @BCF - She might have been willing to turn Jack in at the beginning of DeLorean, but what did she do at the end? She followed her emotions and ended up letting Jack go. Because he was her father.

    And I never said Sarah wasn't acting in character or that she didn't do what needed to be done. I only criticize the way she went about doing it. Which is, again, what I hope will be the source of the fight between Chuck and Sarah and not the fact that she arrested his mother. Though with this show it's just as likely to be the latter because they like going for the cheap angst and making Chuck look bad.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Being a con-artist is one thing, but so far, from what Sarah and Chuck know, she's made some real bad choices in her life. She's a detriment to society. Last episode the three thugs said she's their boss. She's obviously made some very touchy choices in the last 20 years, signing peoples death warrants etc. We'll find out more in the next couple weeks.

    -BCF

    ReplyDelete
  11. @BCF - Yeah, I know that Mama B is a real bad apple. I'm not sure what that has to do with anything I've said, though. You mentioned the situation with Jack as an example of Sarah willing to do her duty, and I merely pointed out that in the end, she chose to follow her emotions rather than do her duty. The point being, that Sarah often does things that conflict with whatever she feels her duty is at the time.

    Like I said before, I don't have a problem with Sarah arresting Mama B. That was the right call. I just was disappointed in how she went about doing it. Just like I was really disappointed in Chuck in "Anniversary" for lying to Sarah about his search for his mom. That was completely unnecessary lying there, just like I feel that Sarah acted unnecessary here (ironically, kind of violating her own rule of "No secrets, no lies").

    I'm not going to make a federal case out of it, but I understand why there's going to be a fight now. I think this may be one of the few times in the history of the show where problems/angst between Chuck and Sarah has grown organically and naturally. Sarah made a mistake, Chuck is going to be understandably upset, they'll talk about it, and hopefully be all the stronger for it. I just hope they handle this fight and the aftermath competently.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous26.10.10

    Can I just say that I loved the Colbert reference? Colbert nation rules!

    Now that that's out of the way, Mxpw, I get where you're coming from, but at the same time I really don't think that Sarah could have done anything else. She knew that Mama B could potentially be very dangerous so she could not let her anywhere near Chuck, Ellie and little Awesomette (what that baby needs a name!)She could not have told Chuck either because a) the Chuck that we know helped Jill escape and never understood how Sarah could even think about arresting her father, b) even if Sarah had the time and was able to convince him that his mother was evil than Sarah would have put Chuck in a position where he would be forced to be an active participant in his mother's arrest. She never could have put in him in that position. She knows firsthand how that feels. That might be a lack of trust on his ability to compartmentalise, but to be fair he has shown that compartmentalising is not his forte and it is consistent with Sarah's past history. How could she ask him to arrest his mother when she never could arrest her father even when she saw him commit criminal acts herself?

    In the end, other than her magical changing hair and awesome fighting skills, Sarah has one great quality: she is very protective of Chuck. She would take a bullet for him any given day. But the bad thing about Sarah is that she is very protective of Chuck. She would wrap him cotton, put him a helmet and follow him around all day long if she could get away with it. Her first gift to him was a tracking device! I'm just saying the girl has issues, but considering her lifestyle and her past history it is understandable and even forgivable.

    Lily

    ReplyDelete
  13. @Lily - I actually totally get where you're coming from and I don't disagree. This was perfectly in character, though I think that's why I maybe didn't care for it. Because I thought Sarah and Chuck were reaching a point where there was more...professional respect between them, but it's obvious that you are right, her concern for Chuck overrides just about every other impulse she has. Like I said, this was a natural conflict, derived from previously established characterization. It certainly makes more sense than Chuck's lying in "Anniversary" (a more pointless issue to create conflict I'm not sure I've yet seen). But that doesn't mean I have to like it. Heh. Chuck's desire to talk about his lady feelings during missions is established characterization too, but it still annoys the crap out of me. :P

    And actually, I think you could argue that Sarah's refusal to tell Chuck about her plan put him in danger just as much as if she had let the meeting with Mama B go down. After all, if she really thought that Chuck's mother was so dangerous she had to be captured right away (and before she could say hello to Ellie, awww, poor Ellie!), then she probably should have told Chuck instead of letting him and his pregnant sister go to a meeting with the woman. After all, Mama B was supposedly running late. If she had been on time, Chuck could have been with a dangerous killer completely unawares and not knowing he needed to protect himself. Not only that, but what if Chuck had been armed or had flashed? He didn't know the people nabbing his mom were agents, he could have actually hurt somebody (even Sarah). Could you imagine the guilt he'd probably have then? It was not a very well thought out plan all around.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous26.10.10

    Oh, I see, you wish that Casey and Sarah's plan made sense. True, that would have been nice. You know, sometimes I wonder if Jeff's weird mind and twisted logic does not come directly from the writers' experiences because they do not seem to care much about making sense when it comes to the spy story. They obviously care about the drama, the comedy and the romance, but sense...not so much.

    So has Crystal been convinced yet or are we waiting for Frea to come back for the review? No pressure, I am just curious and totaly jealous of Frea because she gets to go on a road trip. Who? Me? Bitter?

    Lily

    ReplyDelete
  15. @Lily - Unfortunately, Crystal is off being a sociable young college student, so you'll have to wait until Frea has seen the episode. She tells me she's going to watch it tomorrow on her return trip to her mountain retreat (she likes the feeling of having the whole world at her feet). Once she does, we'll finally do our write-up. It promises to be a lively one, as Frea often doesn't see eye-to-eye on the same issues I do.

    Oh and yes, I want things to make sense. Crazy, I know. :P But I would be so much happier with the writing on this show if they spent half the time they spend thinking of Jeffster plots on the spy stuff.

    Oh, and if they included more SWP, but I figured that went without saying.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ayefah27.10.10

    Here's another doozy for the Chuck Plot Hole Sweepstakes: Somebody please explain to me how Chuck, Sarah, and Casey could even think about buying Mama Bartowski's story about being undercover at Volkoff this whole time - twenty years - when they brought down Fulcrum and the Ring inside of three years. Mary's being portrayed as a very, very competent woman. Why exactly does Volkoff seem to be thriving in its Cold War relic way?

    I want to believe that this is all a big Xanatos Gambit on Mary's part, but this is the show that tried to make us believe that intelligence that had been sitting around since Sarah's red test was somehow still worth fighting over. The show that can't make up its mind what year Mary left the family. The show that makes the Continuity Fairy cry and take to drink, in other words. So who the hell knows. :P

    ReplyDelete
  17. Ayefah, unless "the budget cuts" directly influence the amount of screen time BuyMore gets (good luck) plot holes will be rampant. I've never actually met a hard core BuyMore fan, but I guess they exist somewhere and Schwedak caters to them. There was an interview somewhere with Fedak and when he envisioned Chuck supposedly he had the idea of "The Office" meets "Alias".

    http://www.chuckpodcast.com/shades-of-gray/?tag=chris-fedak

    So there you go, we'll never be rid of it!

    -BCF

    ReplyDelete
  18. Ayefah27.10.10

    A real Alias meets The Office would be a workplace comedy about socially inept losers working unglamorous administrative jobs at the CIA. I...might actually watch that, theoretically speaking.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous27.10.10

    The only problem I had with the ending is that Sarah was going to take Frost in secret. She could have easily come out of the van and explained the situation and what she was doing. It's not like there were other people around. So, if you look at it from Chuck's POV, I guess he would be wondering if she ever planned on telling him that she took his mother or would he just be led to believe that she just up and abandoned her family again? The whole thing really doesn't make sense. If Chuck was meeting her when she found out from Casey a phone call warning him would be in order. It usually has been in past episodes. However, this time she has enough time to construct a snatch and grab in less than ten minutes? Weird. The whole scene was badly written and poorly timed.

    It will be interesting to see if the writers just have Chuck act childish and get mad at Sarah for taking him mother or if they let him take the higher road. Which would be to get upset about them not being straight with him on a professional level and attempting a snatch and grab without his knowledge. If the later is the case, then he should be upset with both Casey and Sarah. Maybe this fight is more of a professional rift in the team than a personal one between C&S?

    Skibum

    ReplyDelete
  20. Pretty much what Skibum said. I'm seriously, perhaps foolishly, hoping that the fight is based more on a professional level than a personal one. Yes, there was a lot of dicey personal stuff going on with Sarah doing this behind Chuck's back, but I really hope that Chuck objects to everything mostly on a professional level. They didn't treat him like a partner and he should be pissed about that.

    And good point about how easy it would have been for Sarah to just step out of the van and explain to Chuck what was going on, instead of wearing masks and doing everything in secret and leaving as soon as she got caught. That just made everything look worse than it was.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Ayefah27.10.10

    The next episode is called "Chuck vs. the First Fight", so I suspect this is going to be couched in ChuckandSarah terms, unfortunately. Still, as first fights go, this one has better cause than most, no?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous28.10.10

    @armysfc said...

    mxpw i agree with everything you have said so far. what i don't get is why they feel the need to force the angst that's about to ensue. we saw how well that went over last season. my biggest problem is why was Sarah there anyway? They had a whole group of agents already there, why did it have to be Sarah making the arrest? Beckman knew Mama B was in the area so its a sure bet she would have had her watched. Sarah has a need to protect Chuck, I get that. but couldn't she have done the same thing from behind the scenes? here is a bit i once read before but i paraphrased it.. the most dangerous thing a person in spies line of work can ever face? A partner they can't trust And the second most dangerous thing is a partner who doesn't trust them. it looks like that's where they are now.

    armysfc

    ReplyDelete

Please remember to be courteous to all other Castle Inanity commenters.