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chuck-500.jpg

Oh Boy vs. Great Scott

By Dustin Rowles | TV | May 11, 2010 |

By Dustin Rowles | TV | May 11, 2010 |


The first few episodes following what was supposed to be the season finale of “Chuck” were decent, but last night was kind of a screeching departure. Instead of continuing along with self-contained episodes, “Chuck” dipped back into the mythology, it took a weird turn, and I don’t think I like where it’s going. Kballs accurately predicted the next phase of “Chuck,” in a comment last week:

So Chuck possibly going crazy feeds into my big story arc possibility that can be explored for quite awhile:

Why not have Chuck be tortured by the memory of having to kill someone? Especially someone he knew and trusted. Maybe that’s part of the reason the Intersect will be fritzing his brain next week (allegedly). At any rate, if they simply ignore the ramifications of Chuck’s first kill after making him blindly and dangerously opposed to doing it under any circumstances before, it will be a great disservice to the show.

The problem with what the showrunnners are doing, it seems, is that this big story arc won’t “be explored for quite a while.” It’s being rushed for the season finale. Chuck went from awesome to crazy in one episode: The intersect is fucking with his brain, infecting his dreams, and possibly killing him. And yes: He is being haunted by a memory of having to kill someone, that someone being Daniel Shaw. Is Shaw still alive? Somehow, probably, yes. More fodder for the finale.

The meat of last night’s ep focused on Chuck’s quick descent into crazy — the intersect is trying to tell his subconscious something, but for some reason, no one believes him. His dreams have apparently been disruptive to the rest of the team for quite some time (although, it was the first that we saw of it last night). After he had a dream that the president of Zambia (or is it a fictional Zamibia? Or is Zambia pronounced Zamibia?) was going to be assassinated, General Beckman ordered therapy, which was cool in that it brought in Christopher Lloyd as the therapist, but not so cool because Christopher Lloyd was subdued and never once said, “Great Scott!”

Later, when Chuck — after having enrolled Morgan to assist — had a dream during a symphony about the scientist that was going to kill the president, Chuck assaulted that scientist and was admitted into the nut house (despite the fact that he actually did flash on the tooth). The nut house was good for one thing, though: It allowed the crazies to hilariously break into West Side story fight mode before the staff tranqued them and Sarah and Casey swooped in to save Chuck from the assassin with the computer chip in his tooth.

Meanwhile, the Chuck and Sarah relationship is progressing incrementally and predictably — after Sarah moved in, the next step, apparently, was for Sarah to tell Chuck that she loves him. Awwwww. Their relationship has already gotten a little trite. Also, there’s only one step left, I guess, before marriage. Will the season finale have a proposal?

My guess is yes.

Elsewhere, Anna returned looking less geeky hot than regular old hot (I liked geeky hot better). She wants Morgan back, but Morgan had a nice line: “If it took me running from you to make you realize that I’m somebody you want then I don’t really think you’re the person I want.” Way to go, Morgan.

Finally, in magical Awesome and Ellie land, where malaria apparently only lays you up on the couch for a few days while still looking Awesome, the dude from Africa who infected Awesome with malaria-like symptoms is trying to use Ellie to get to her father. This turn will likely make Ellie finally aware of Chuck’s career (while also pitting her against Casey, briefly, as she currently thinks he’s the enemy). But more importantly, it means Scott Bakula will be back for the final two episodes. And if there’s anyone that can right this temporarily wrong ship, it’s Scott Bakula. If he and Christopher Lloyd have an “Oh Boy!” vs. “Great Scott!” face off in the finale all will be forgiven.