Episode Report Card LuluBates: A+ | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Whack-A-Mole
By LuluBates | Season 3 | Episode 11 | Aired on 03.22.2010
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.Casey is trying to get accustomed to his life as a civilian and, obviously, every single last one of his coworkers at the Buy More is making it really hard for him to tolerate not killing them all. Big Mike and a shit ton of Subway product placement decide that the best way to help Casey not murder his coworkers (with one thumb and his eyes closed) and avoid a Buy More lawsuit is to …get a new outfit! Because apparently Big Mike has been reading Barbie's Guide to Management. Again. Once Casey has the new suit, Big Mike starts working on a new attitude, too, and arranges a sit-down with Jeff and Lester at (of course) Subway. If Casey can stomach lunch (and more integrated advertising) with those two, then he can most likely make it as a civilian.
Sarah and Shaw are back from their (air quotes) work trip with a final exam for Chuck. If he passes the test he gets to be a real spy. You know, one whose cover doesn't involve working at a watered-down Best Buy. He JUST has to bust a mole who is selling off the CIA's secrets. Of course there is never just a "just". Of course Sarah has to proctor Chuck's final exam and keep score for his permanent record, so they get some quality alone time. Obviously it is all a bit bittersweet, what with Chuck about to make it big in the spy world and her about to head to connubial bliss in Washington DC. So, Chuck decides to take it from bittersweet to fully awkward and decides to make a final bid for Sarah's affections. And if Shaw would stop interrupting their moments she might actually go for it.
It's time for the final exam and Chuck spends a lot of time talking to his watch before realizing that the meeting is taking place inside the steam room, which is hell on the recording glasses but good for seeing Chuck without a shirt, if you are into that sort of thing. With some help from the Intersect, he manages to out-muscle the muscle AND keep his towel covering his boy bits. This gives him the courage to complete his mission without putting on pants (or underwear) because apparently spies and commandoes have that in common. Chuck passes the test, identifies the mole, and prepares for life as a real-life grown-up spy.
To Chuck's glee, Sarah arranges a dinner date with him for that evening. Of course everyone but Chuck seems to realize that it's not a date. But even Sarah doesn't know that Chuck's REAL spy test is tonight: To really become a spy, he has to kill the mole. Chuck goes to meet Sarah and after some nervous jibbering, Sarah breaks it to him that they are not on a date, and that to complete his mission he has to kill the traitor. To add insult to injury, she won't be getting back together with him either. So Chuck goes after the mole and after a slap fight in the bathroom, the spy formerly known as Chuck decides not to kill the mole, but to make a citizen's arrest, which obviously doesn't go particularly well. When the traitor escapes, Chuck gets a little help from his friends to make the kill. And then he becomes a man. Complete with gun, badge, and plane ticket to his new life. Mazel Tov! But, but, but… what will Ellie say? How will Morgan possibly survive without his bestest friend? And will Sarah ever be able to live with the guilt of turning Chuck into a monster?
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Want more? The full recap starts right below!A middle aged man in a suit is being chased through a train yard. Sadly, not by a pack of angry shovel- and pitchfork-wielding hobos, but by someone who bears an eerie resemblance to Chuck, except this guy has a gun... and pulled a trigger. Did Chuck buy a pair? More on that later, no doubt, but first we have to watch Lester and Jeff play some sort of Nerf man-hunting game in the middle of the Buy More. As Lester pleads for his life, Casey grabs them both by the scruff of the neck and sets them straight with a few quick... words. So boring. And poor Casey! He doesn't get to be a spy anymore, but he still has to work at the Buy More? In the words of Speedy Gonzalez: Ay yi yi. As Casey lectures them in his new role of assistant manager, Lester tosses a few zingers about Casey's make-believe life as a military badass, and sadly they now ring true for Casey. So he borrows a move from the Three Stooges and clocks Jeff's and Lester's heads together, despite the company-wide "No Touching" rule. But we all know that rule applied mostly to Jeff anyway. Chuck assesses the carnage and quickly deduces that without a License to Kill, Casey is a menace to society. He promises Casey that he will do everything he can to get him his job back, but it is just so sad that it has come to this. Casey, however, is much more realistic about his career prospects. He betrayed his team and his country and will now spend life in the Buy More purgatory with Jeff and Lester, who are feeling a touch litigious and want Big Mike to craft Casey into a more user-friendly model. Obviously, Casey threatens to kill Lester and Jeff in the middle of the team-building exercise. Besides, Big Mike has his back. Big Mike knows Casey is a hard worker, now he just has to make him into management material. At least while Morgan is in El Segundo. Poor Casey, fired as a spy and now playing an ersatz Morgan. Does it get any lower than that? As Big Mike spews successor-y slogans, you can see Casey assessing all the different ways he could kill Big Mike with just one finger. Poor, sociopathic Casey.
Sarah has returned from her "business" trip to Washington D.C. with Shaw. For some reason, Chuck really seems to think it was truly just business. I mean, I know he's supposed to be sort of emotionally stunted, but does he really not notice that Sarah hasn't made eye contact with him in, like, three weeks and has been spending an awful lot of time with Shaw? The general appears on the old iChat screen to explain to Chuck that he has one final test. If he succeeds in his mission, he will graduate to being a real, live, grown-up spy. One without a job at the Buy More. A spy living in Rome with a cover of a billionaire industrialist. Because, yeah, that is definitely a role Chuck could play easily. His gawky mannerisms and nonstop nervous jabbering would totally work as a billionaire industrialist in Italy. No problemo. Or however you say that in Italian. Chuck obviously gets so atwitter at the thought of becoming a real spy that he pretty much does the Hamster Dance, but more awkwardly. The general throws a wet blanket on that party when she explains that Sarah and Shaw would be based in DC, and Chuck would be the saddest, loneliest spy ever. Maybe he could take Morgan with him. The Italians would love Morgan. Before they got to know him, obviously.