I wasn’t sure what to expect about Monday’s Chuck. I didn’t get to watch it Monday, since I was at a friend’s house. But I had managed to read a few reviews of the episode online that were less than glowing. So I went into the episode with pretty low expectations. And that is probably why I was so pleasantly surprised with the episode overall. Sure it had its problems, but it was a good fast-paced hour with some cool call-backs to past episodes and, with the return of Big Mike, the full return of the entire cast to the show.
Without going into spoiler territory, two prisoners from Chuck and Sarah’s past get re-routed to the new Buy More when their vehicle breaks down. After they get there, however, it is obvious that Volkov arranged for the transfer there specifically. And when one of the prisoners escapes, all hell breaks loose…all while a ‘riot’ starts in the Buy More when a new game comes out but the store gets only 9 copies.
There seems to be a new theme is emerging in the season. Now that Chuck and Sarah are ‘together’, each episode seems to try to highlight some ‘problem’ of the couple that they must overcome. The first episode had Chuck pining over the fact that Sarah was away so much due to CIA missions. Last episode was Sarah’s fear of placing roots (manifested in her fear of unpacking), while this episode has Sarah freaking out about Chuck’s mention of marriage and a baby as something that might possibly be in their future someday. And for those most parts this sort of ‘romantic’ tension isn’t really adding anything to the show. Last season had some very cool episodes where the two characters were together, and in sync. And that worked VERY well. So I’m not entirely sure I understand why they are messing with the formula here.
Then there is the Buy More plot. It used to be that the Buy More plots had more connection to Chuck’s spy missions. And this week’s episode was something of a return to that. All of the Buy more crowed got more screen time than normal; with the ending neatly allowing Big Mike to take out the main bad guy without anyone realizing who/what he was. Big Mike’s return was welcome. He’s a great character, and while certainly fun has a more serious ‘real’ side to him more than anyone else in the Buy More (save Chuck himself). It’s cool that his off-screen relationship with Morgan’s mother is continuing. And it was fun to see Morgan and Big Mike interact, with Mike taking charge at the end showing that he could manage the store even in a crisis when necessary.
Unfortunately, there was no sign of Awesome or Ellie this week (which is a total shame). But at least they look to be returning in full force next week, though, so I’m happy about that. Also, there was a little movement on the Frost/Mother story front, though ‘little’ is the operative word there. With only 13 episodes this season (I’m not betting on a back 9 at all), and three already aired, I’m hoping that they’ll be introducing her as a full character fairly soon. But, so far, the ‘search’ for Chuck’s mom has been something of a dud.
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