Episode Report Card Chuck: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Life is but a ream
By Chuck | Season 5 | Episode 3 | Aired on 01.19.2002
Cyril's getting singing lessons from Betty Buckley. His scales suck. Ryan, laughing, says so, and Betty Buckley gets mock annoyed, since it's not about being a star but about expressing feelings through music, and also since she's so impressed with her psycho son that everything he does charms the pants right off of her. She says Cyril is doing a wonderful job, in that annoying tone that people use for kindergarteners and, well, retards. She then tells Ryan to try it, but he refuses, saying that he signed up for this to spend more time with his mother, not to sing. He's saved by the bell, but Betty Buckley says she wants to hear him sing next Friday. In a completely unsurprising development, Li and Kenmin will be BB's next two students, which pleases Ryan not at all.
Back in his pod, Ryan paces and Cyril wonders what's wrong. Ryan knows that Kenmin and Li are plotting against them, and he's afraid they want to hurt his mother. Cyril says he likes her, and wonders if he and Ryan can trade. "Trade what?" wonders Ryan. Cyril offers to give Ryan his "most prized possession" -- a pair of boxing gloves -- in exchange for Ryan's mother. Ryan explains that they don't have to trade, because they can share her. Great -- another ridiculous attempt to demonstrate Cyril's charming simplicity. As Kenmin and Li return from their singing lesson, Ryan stops Kenmin and tells him that if anything happens to his mother, he's looking at another coma -- permanent this time. Kenmin says Ryan has nothing to fear from him, but Li is another story. "He's one sick fuck," says Kenmin. Cut to Li Chen, who looks like a sick fuck with very prominent eyebrows.
Hill again, ruminating about being visited at dreamtime by dead loved ones -- Vern Schillinger and Hank's dead wife provide a dramatic reenactment in the background. These dreams, says Hill, offer us the chance to say all the things we didn't get to say, although Vern's pretty much just sitting there while Carrie yammers on about something. Happy Vern. Problem is, says Hill, you wake up, realize that the person's dead, and get to mourn all over again. Sad Vern.
Unrepentant Vern -- it's time for him to leave the hole. The guards open his cell door and drop his clothes at his feet as Vern, tattoos blazing, says, "It's about fucking time." He finds Robson playing cards in the pool table room, but there's no pool table. So much has changed! Robson reveals that the pool table's getting a tune-up. Schillinger tells Robson to spread the word about a meeting of the entire brotherhood to discuss unfinished business with Chucky Pancamo.