Monday, January 31, 2011

Chuck vs the Push Mix - Season 4 - Episode 13- NBC

Most of this episode revolves around the hospital. Elle goes into labor, and Casey is there, hopefully, recovering from his recent injuries in his mission with Sarah. I'm sure this isn't the first time, in the course of his career, that he's been hurt this bad . . or this close to death's door. I'd imagine that it's just part of the reality of the job. Anyways, of course Awesome is freaking about about the baby's arrival. He's had everything so carefully planned, but . . now that the actual day has arrived . . he feels like he's not ready at all. One of the things he's asked Chuck with for help was the 'push-mix' . . the music that Elle would listen to as she's delivering the baby. He wants it to be perfect. However, Jeff and Lester overhear this conversation and intercept the CD before Chuck can fill it with 'hippy-crap'. Hence the name of this episode's title. Suffice it to say that Jeffster screws it up, and somehow they end up in the hospital performing 'Push It' over all the loud-speakers. It really is hilarious. Especially when they get arrested. Anyways, in this episode Chuck's goal is to get Sarah back home from Volkoff. He's tired of just sitting on his hands while Sarah does all the work. He feels like he should be helping her. Plus, while visiting Casey, he had become conscious enough to get the half of the eye Sarah gave him during their scuffle to Chuck. With it Chuck tries to find out who made it, linking it back to Volkoff, and hopefully finding out where Sarah and his mom were being held. Right now the only information they have is something about the Contessa. As it turns out . . the Contessa isn't a woman, but rather a boat . . Volkoff's base of operations. So . . long story short . . Chuck tricks Volkoff and his men into coming to his father's cabin. There he informs him that he'd planted a virus in Volkoff's computer transferring all of his data-base to the computer in the cabin. And by also tricking him into saying his password, he can also access it all. So in the end . . Volkoff and his men are arrested by Beckman, and everyone else is saved. Also, later, while sitting outside of the delivery room . . Chuck finally proposes to Sarah. As the episode ends we see them embrace and kiss. I'm glad we got some of these story-lines wrapped up. Now they can approach the second half of the season trying to wrap up the rest. Plus I'm sure we'll have some more of the usual screw-ball hi-jinks that we get with this series. But . . that's why I like it.

Chuck vs the Gobbler - Season 4 Episode 12 - NBC

This episode has a few storylines going, but . . for this episode, at least . . the put the proposal on hold. Well, mostly because Sarah is with Volkoff. The episode starts out with Morgan asking Casey for his help. With Sarah out of town, and undercover, he's worried about Chuck . . his 'frame-of-mind' . . his spirits. Morgan's afraid that Chuck will get depressed, worrying about Sarah. However, Chuck seems to be all smiles. He's trying to look on the bright side of things. Sarah is trying to finally bring down Volkoff, and . . in doing so, he'll also get his mom back. Anyways, with Sarah's mission . . she tries to explain to Volkoff that she and Chuck got caught up in the CIA life. A life that was never really their own. So now . . she wants to cash out and run away with Chuck. And she convinces Volkoff that he can help her do that. Of course Volkoff is suspicious, but . . he's intrigued as well. And of course Frost warns Volkoff that Sarah will betray them. So as a test, he gives Sarah a suicide. It's a prison break for one of his top men . . Yuri the Gobbler. Shortly afterwards, while Casey, Chuck, and Morgan are inside Castle waiting for word from Sarah, something happens that makes them think that they're under attack. But . . it's actually Sarah. She's snuck back so that she can ask for her team's help with this mission. Plus I think she wanted an excuse to see Chuck. They decide to have Chuck enter the prison posing as a criminal, and Casey and Morgan as guards. Immediately Chuck announces that he wants to be 'top-dog', and picks a fight with Yuri . . arguably one of the biggest, meanest looking guys here. Of course, using the intersect, he beats him pretty easily. With Sarah as the 'get-away' driver, they quickly return him to Volkoff. Volkoff seems happy for his return . . at first. But it isn't long before he draws a pistol and shoots him in the head. It appears that Yuri's left eye is false, and . . it contains Volkoff's secret database. After killing him, Volkoff plucks it out of his head and plugs it into his computer. Soon Sarah gets another mission from Volkoff . . she's to kill John Casey. Casey gets a text from Sarah to meet up. Of course Chuck wants to go along, but Casey won't let him. And of course . . Chuck follows him. Casey and Sarah meet up on the ninth floor of a building, while Chuck tries to follow him up to help. So while Casey and Sarah are fake fighting, and exchanging information up high . . Chuck is busy fighting Volkoff's men down low. Casey gives Sarah an idea for a plan. He wants her to throw him through a window, and he'll land on some scaffolding about 40 feet below. They do so but, when he lands on the scaffolding, it breaks, and he falls the rest of the way to the ground. As far as Sarah knows . . she's actually killed Casey. When Chuck sees this, Volkoff's men knock him out and they quickly take off with Sarah and Frost. But . . Casey is tougher than he looks. At the end of the episode we see him lying in a hospital bed, unconscious. As well as Alex, Chuck, and Morgan all standing around watching. Chuck tries to tell Sarah what's happened, but . . she can't answer her phone. Meanwhile, it appears that Morgan and Alex's relationship is progressing. At one point Chuck sees her coming out of Morgan's room wearing one of his vintage tee-shirts. Something that he won't even let people touch . . let alone wear. And there's a little brew-ha-ha about Elle and Awesome's baby. Elle's frustrated because Awesome doesn't seem to be participating in the planning process as much as she'd like. So she tells Chuck that without his help, she's decided to name the baby Grunka. Of course it's all a ploy to get Awesome to freak out and contribute some kind of idea. When he does, they decided on the name Clara. Anyways, Mike, Jeff and Lester are all involved in this part of the story, and it provides some of the comic relief. This was another interesting episode. I'm glad that they got off of the proposal thing for a little while. Who knew a soap-opera would look like this?

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Chuck vs the Balcony - Season 4 Episode 11 - NBC

Of course there's the usual spy and intrigue to this story, but . . the real crux of the episode is Chuck's attempt to propose to Sarah. It seems like whenever his plans seem to be coming together . . something happens to derail everything. When it comes down to it . . he just wants it to be perfect. His latest attempt involves a romantic dinner. But after Sarah tells him about one of her own parents botched attempts . . he decides that it's to cliche . . and has to stop all the wheels from turning. While this is going on . . in the French wine country . . Loire Valley, to be specific, there's recently been an agent killed. He hid a secret nanochip in a wine cork there, which he stole from a French terrorist, Pierre Melville. Shortly before his dying breath he had injected it into a cork and now the CIA wants Chuck and Casey to recover it before Pierre gets his hands back on it. Casey has to pose as Mr Carmichael's manservant. Meanwhile, Sarah is volunteering to do whatever is necessary to bring down Volkoff and bring in Chuck's mother. When Chuck tells Morgan about the mission, they decided that this Chateau will be the perfect place for Chuck to 'redo' his proposal. Once there, it's Casey who really figures out what's going on. While hiding in the wine-cellar, he overhears the terrorists talking. They've found the injection gun, and through it have determined exactly which type of wine that the cork is maintaining. From there it's pretty cut and dry. Chuck recovers the chip, and Sarah saves Casey and takes out the French terrorists. But after returning, General Beckman wants Sarah to return and to sell the chip back to Pierre. What Chuck doesn't know that is that Morgan has gotten everybody in on the proposal plan. Sarah and Casey are both trying to help Chuck finally make this thing happen. Of course Chuck doesn't know that. The problem is, according to the Generals plan, after the buy goes down . . Sarah going to be arrested as a traitor so that she can later escape and join Volkoff's crew. Of course this completely wrecks the proposal. And at the end of the episode Chuck is once again left teary eyed holding the ring-box in his pocket. At Buy More, there's another misunderstanding brewing around Lester. His "Hinjew" parents have decided that he should partake in an arranged marriage. The bride will be visiting soon from Lester's ancestral homeland . . . Saskatchewan, Canada. Of course he doesn't want any part of this. And of course the woman ends up being a knock-out. It's hilarious when he tries to 'woo' her with his Indian heritage by transforming the Theatre Room into his own Indian 'man-cave' . . with Lester playing the Sitar. This freaks her out, but after explaining his attempt to impress her she decides to give him another chance. His back-up plan? Well . . Jeffster, of course. And, of course . . this freaks her out even more. Lester has messed it up again. This was another funny, and moving episode. I like the way that they're trying to balance the stories of all these characters here. My only concern is that they're going to decide they have to many storylines going and get rid of some of them. There is an awful lot going on. But . . I still love it.