Episode Report Card Jacob Clifton: A+ | 1 USERS: F YOU GRADE IT When X Is Not X
By Jacob Clifton | Season 4 | Episode 8 | Aired on 11.15.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.So Agent Frost, a.k.a. Chuck's confusing mom, has not taken away the Intersect but merely put an emotional "rock" on top of it. After a month of testing -- during which Casey's a full-time Buy More employee slowly going insane -- they bring in the big guns: Ex-Navy comedian/total hotness Rob Riggle.
Despite the distracting neckbeard -- something even Morgan Grimes has learned to take care of -- Riggle still manages to look awesome as hell in a variety of outfits while subjecting Chuck to emotional abuses in Switzerland during a diamond auction-slash-villain convention that quickly turns into a huge mess.
Believing the titular Fear will be the one that pops Chuck's Intersect brain cherry, Riggle has gotten permission to take him on a mission without the rest of the team to hold his hand. So (besides the unending Ellie abuse) the Mommy arc was leading here the whole time: Without the Intersect, isn't Chuck just kind of... A guy?
Very good question. But once Sarah's blurted out the obvious answer, you know nothing will keep Charles Carmichael from getting his ass murdered. The diamond on auction is actually a fake that contains a microdot of information which Casey figures out is information about Chuck. It's all very complicated, but essentially it means that Riggle and Chuck are stuck in a gondola over the Alps with Richard Chamberlain and about ten henchman -- and that everybody knows about the Intersect.
A short fight later, with some mini-flashes but nothing real, it's revealed that Chuck's dependence on Sarah, or his ambiguous ambivalence about his pretend-spy lifestyle as it relates to her -- something in this general area -- is to blame for the emotion rock. Of course, this info comes at the expense of Riggle's life and Chuck's safety: At the end of the episode, Chuck's been captured and Sarah's off the grid and hot on the trail, with Casey and Morgan for backup.
Meanwhile -- in the decade-long tradition of asexual nerds the world over -- the embarrassing employees of Buy More are so desperate to prove they're not gay that they convince themselves Summer Glau is attractive.
Watch the episode below, then discuss it in our forum. Then see some of our favorite Chuck guest-stars.
Want to immediately access TWoP content no matter where you are online? Download the free TWoP toolbar for your web browser. Already have a customized toolbar? Then just add our free toolbar app to get updated on our content as soon it's published.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Previously, Sarah told Chuck that she would believe in Linda Hamilton because she trusted his instincts and brains, and then immediately went back on that promise. (Agent Walker has this deal where she always says the right thing, but you don't notice the asterisk where it's like, *unless the situation changes at all, and then you're on your own.) Then Chuck's Mom flashed him with a flashing thing and he went Intersectless, which didn't really matter right away because she wasn't really trying to kill them.
But now it does matter, because the General is concerned about how Chuck's mommy issues caused him to screw up a major takedown and lose the only valuable thing about him. This is his explanation: "I know I screwed up, General, and if she weren't my mom, I would have shown much better judgment." This is the correct response: "So you are an admitted security risk. Colonel Casey, shoot Bartowski in the head." This is her actual response: "Which is why you haven't been ejected from the Agency. Here is a cookie for fucking everything up again."
One of my favorite things about this show to start with was how Casey and the General -- even Walker, sometimes -- were actually hardcore and scary. You honestly felt like Casey might just kill Chuck to get it over with, or Sarah would beat his ass if so ordered, and it was great, because it meant things weren't always safe and that authority actually exists and needs to be dealt with. But now it's just straight-up nerd fantasies, where Chuck is the greatest thing, and all the grownups love him, and Awesome is jealous of him, and everybody gets to be a superspy despite a complete lack of training or backbone or formal education, and everybody hugs each other all the time, and Casey cries all the time and is a growly pussycat, and the General says shit like, "I completely understand your national security-endangering mommy feelings" and...
I mean, I have no doubt that it's a more enjoyable show now for most people, and Lord knows the show will whore itself out no matter what it takes to stay on the air, but it was once a major part of the show that's spent two years leaking out like the p.s.i. of a punctured tire. Leaving more time for the goddamned Buy More. Which is now also a spy, note.
Anyway, the General assigns 1) Walker to Istanbul to find Frost and Volkoff, and hopefully nail down their impossibly complex deal; 2) Casey to work at the Buy More full-time for the time being; and 3) Chuck to go through intense testing at Castle to figure out where the Intersect went. Because yeah, it's not really gone, it's just "suppressed."