Screenplays

Thursday, November 17, 2011

CHUCK "Chuck Versus the Business Trip"

Chuck and Sarah track an assassin trying to eliminate the new intersect; Morgan tries to adjust to having the intersect; Jeff exposes a new side of himself.




Outside of the dynamic duo of Rafe Judkins and Lauren LeFranc, Kristen Newman is the best of the new writers that CHUCK has had after their writer exodus between Seasons 3 and 4. Newman knows how the characters should act (better than the show's co-creator Chris Fedak), and writes Sarah better than anyone in the series. So it should come as no surprise that this week's episode was the strongest of this young season.

So after Chuck saves Morgan's life, the team decides to bring in the "big guns" to get rid of it. General Beckman makes a second in-person visit in as many weeks and not without her hilarious biting sarcasm. ("I'm so surprised you people are running out of money") After they remove the Intersect from his brain (not before Morgan gets one last hurrah with it, and honestly, what could be better than catching throwing stars from you best bud and his wife), the team tries to get the hit rescinded. This leads to a great split screen with GB and Decker (who really is a great bad guy). And of course, one assassin, the Viper, goes dark after getting their orders. (I'm beginning to wonder if this is just annoying TV canon after seeing it on Sons of Anarchy two weeks ago.) This leads to the titular business trip and the current problem for our Super Couple this week.

The discussions between Chuck and Sarah this week centered around being normal after seeing Ellie and Awesome with Clara. (Two words: BABY YOGA! Is there anything Awesome doesn't do?) This conversation reminded be a lot of the Season to episode "Versus the Suburbs" except for the fact that Chuck already has the girl. Sarah of course realizes that they can't really be normal while being spies, which I think may be setting us up for this storyline later in the season. Newman and Strahovski teamed up to do an outstanding job on Sarah really wanting to have a normal friend outside of their circle. And while this week her prospective friend turned out to be the hitman, or hitwoman in this case, in question, she came to realize how much the people in her little circle had made her life pretty normal. (Even if she and Casey still have their non verbal spy communication)

And Casey was all kinds of awesome this week. From telling Morgan (after Morgan loses parts of memory from taking out the Intersect) that Star Wars Episode 1 was his favorite (and then spoiling every bit of the original trilogy, even if Morgan didn't remember) and how he held his grudge for Morgan both going behind his back and dumping Alex (who won't forgive him now that she knows he's been lying about the spy life, which is fitting) to how he proved that he is still the most badass man on the planet by taking out the Viper and the other Decker henchmen while they were having a nefarious meeting with Decker. (Once again, great bad guy. Nonchalant, total ass, and no one knows what the hell he it is he wants.) Of course, this brings up the final scene and proves how not having that license to kill can cause major reprucussions. (Doesn't take away from how great the final scene was with Sarah's speach, Casey asking Morgan to move back in and giving him the Indiana Jones movies sans Crystal Skulls to just the overall feel of a normal family having a dinner. Was great stuff.)

The Buy More storyline was great with Smart Jeff. Seeing Lester so frustrated (and Mike scurrying to get the camera) could lead to some great new hijinks there. And it was fitting that Smart Jeff was the one that figured out Ellie wasn't quite ready to be going back to work.

Save for the premiere, I've really been happy about how things are going during this final season. Gives me hope that it could be the best one yet.

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