Episode Report Card DeAnn Welker: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Sarah Versus Nicole Richie
By DeAnn Welker | Season 2 | Episode 4 | Aired on 10.20.2008
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.This show just keeps getting better and better. Just a week after Chuck told Sarah he'll never really know her name, or her, and sort of dumped her, he learns her name! Jenny Burton! (Or is it?) He learns this thanks to Nicole Richie and Ben Savage (I know!), who it turns out went to high school with Jenny Burton in San Diego, where she's from. (Or is she?) And Jenny/Sarah was nerdy and pathetic, letting people pick on her all over the place. (Or did she?). Nerdy Ben Savage character Matt married bitchy Nicole Richie cheerleader character Heather, and they're heading down to their 10-year reunion. Chuck's curiosity is piqued and he worms his way into a double date and then the reunion, where he finds out all sort of stuff about Sarah/Jenny. They also save Matt (multiple times) from the Russian mob, including his own wife, who married him for the money he could make with his big-ol' brain, but when it wasn't enough, turned to crime. Sarah/Jenny and Heather have a kick-ass girl fight all over their high school, but the best stuff is when they're throwing each other around in their short dresses in the shower. Bad-ass Sarah wins, shutting up Nicole Richie, much to the delight of millions. Then, most importantly of all, Chuck realizes that everything that matters about Sarah/Jenny is the stuff he already knows. (But, still, as we learn in another flashback, but Chuck does not: Even Jenny Burton and the high school thing are possibly a cover for who she really is.) And then Chuck and Sarah share a hamburger.
Our A and B plots barely meet this week, as Morgan, Lester, Jeff, and company (but no Anna this week, for some reason) increase sales at the Buy More by dropping the prices to suit the customers' needs (Lester's new sales plan while Big Mike's out of town). When this leaves them $3,700 short, they decide to throw a big party at the Buy More to earn the money back. It works, but basically destroys the place. They pull a Weird Science, but by working all night instead of through the magic of Kelly LeBrock, just in time for the place to be all shiny when Big Mike returns. He praises Lester's sales; how clean the store is; that everyone's on time. And now that Lester finally gets what he wanted -- respect from Big Mike and the support of the Buy More staff -- he quits the management gig.
In the coming weeks: Everything changes, because ... Jill's back! And now it's Sarah's turn to be jealous.
Check back on Wednesday for our full weecap. Until then, see if Chuck is really a nerd or not.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We start out on a yellow Cabriolet with the strains of Chumbawamba as title cards tells us it's San Diego in 1998. The driver of said Cabriolet is a frizzy-haired, brace-faced, teenage Sarah (awww), who arrives home to discover ATF agents at her house. She gets teary, but only for a minute (this is Sarah, after all), before she runs to a tree across the street, digs up a box full of money with a note that says, "In case of emergency. Love you, Daddy." We pass to the present by way of Sarah's much more beautiful face. She and Chuck are in the Buy More making plans for their fake date. She spots Nicole Richie, who gives her a bitchy look (does Nicole Richie give any other kind?) and stalks her, as Sarah tries to flee. It's very suspicious. Chuck's being cute about their date the whole time Sarah's trying to get away, telling her she doesn't need to be so dodgy about pad Thai noodles. Sarah heads straight to Casey and gives him some secret message. He does something with the inventory gun that is clearly much more than that, and tells Sarah to take Chuck to the Orange Orange's Super Secret Lair (OOSSL).
Sarah leaves Chuck in a cool room filled with a gigantic computer that he is possibly more in love with than he is with Sarah. He knows everything about the computer, and speaks geek to himself about it, which is probably just gibberish, but I am not geeky enough to know that. (I swear! I'm not!) Then he does exactly what Sarah asked him not to: touches the computer. He pulls up a bunch of surveillance cameras (Buy More; courtyard; "awkward," which is Ellie and Awesome sitting up in bed in the middle of the day -- WHO does that?!), finally landing on Sarah talking to Nicole Richie at the Orange Orange. Nicole swears she knows Sarah, but Sarah's trying to pretend she has a familiar face, or has done some commercial acting. Nicole finally realizes they went to high school together, and Sarah's name is Jenny Burton! Chuck is like, "Jenny Burton?" as if that's just as boring a name as Sarah Walker, and he wanted it to be something exotic, like, oh, I don't know Yvonne Strahovski. Nicole introduces herself as Heather Chandler, but then corrects herself, saying she's Heather Ratner now because she married Mark Ratner. Flashbacks show us that Heather was a bitchy cheerleader and Mark Ratner (Ben Savage) was a huge nerd who got shoved into his locker by jocks, while Heather stood there laughing. Not cool, Heather. Then again, she's a Heather. Heather explains our episode title by saying "James Buchanan High. Go Cougars!" And here I thought it would be an episode about Chuck versus a group of older, hot women. But I guess we had Chuck with that type of cougar a couple weeks ago.