Chuck Rundown: Episode Three, "Chuck Vs. The Break-Up"

BuzzSugar — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 09:31:24 -0700

In this week's episode of Chuck, both Chuck and Morgan confront bullies who challenge their (already limited) authority and make them feel "so damn small." Of course, in Chuck's case, it's not just pride that's at stake as he once again goes up against his nemesis - it's the safety of the free world. No pressure. This was my favorite episode of the season so far, so to chat, just read more.

As we saw last week, Bryce Larkin is back, which is never good news for Chuck. He's always been everything Chuck's not (including a real spy and Sarah's real boyfriend), and things get even more dire this time when Bryce and Sarah are assigned to pose as a married couple quite fond of PDA. Their distracting kissiness is meant to help relieve a software magnate named Bonn of a microchip that contains information that could compromise the agents' identities. Chuck, meanwhile, gets to play a lowly waiter - oh, the injustice! While Bryce and Sarah are expertly casing the joint while dancing a fiery lambada, Chuck's breaking pricey bottles of wine and describing a rogue agent as a "psycho elfin queen" - which doesn't help him much when said psycho elfin queen discovers him hiding under the table.

The good news for Chuck is that Sarah gives up the microchip mission in favor of saving his life. The bad news, as Bryce notes, is that Sarah's feelings for Chuck are too distracting to make her an effective spy. And so, one hospital visit and several crises later, Chuck tells Sarah that they'll never have a real relationship. He wants to know her actual name; she'll be "off somewhere in Paraguay quelling a revolution with a fork." They're still pretending to be together; Sarah's in Ellie's wedding party. But our foray into secret/agent romance appears to be over for now.

Meanwhile, this week's Buy More plot is capital-A Awesome. NFL player Michael Strahan guest-stars as Mitt, the leader of the Mighty Jocks sporting goods sales team that's been taking over the Buy More for Madden football and snacks. Morgan's inferiority to Mitt nicely parallels Chuck's inferiority to Bryce; he even spends the night in the Buy More to avoid a throwdown with the Mighty Jocks. He ultimately stands up for himself by giving Mitt a soda bath - though in the final cage match, it's Anna Woo who fights Mitt off with camera tripods (to a "Barracuda" soundtrack!), even prompting Casey to run a background check just in case she could come in handy for field work.

Some other thoughts:

Now we know that the intersect in Chuck's brain can be updated with Bryce's special sunglasses. Loved the throwback to the fainting scene from the pilot, this time with Chuck weakly yelling "I hate Bryce Larkin."
Speaking of Bryce and those sunglasses, the episode's riff on Bryce's stealthy entrances is hysterical.
Once again, Chuck proves to be a marginally competent spy, paying off some thugs with $4.5 million in government cash.
Also, Chuck can apparently "flash" on voices, even if he doesn't see a face.
Loved the scene where Captain Awesome informs Bryce that as a future cardiologist, he's well-schooled in matters of the heart.
Bonn gets some wonderful lines: "I'm living in a Lamborghini. You can't imagine how little legroom there is."

So, what did you all think? Sad to see Chuck call things off with Sarah, or satisfied that it's the right decision? Hoping the Mighty Jocks book a return engagement?

Photos courtesy of NBC