CHUCK 1.7 – "Chuck Versus The Alma Mater"

Writer: Anne Cofell Saunders
Director: Patrick Norris

Cast: Joshua Gomez (Morgan), Adam Baldwin (Casey), Zachary Levi (Chuck), Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah), Sarah Lancaster (Ellie), C.S. Lee (Harry Tang), Tony Todd (CIA Director Graham), Scott Krinsky (Jeff), Julia Ling (Anna Wu), Ryan McPartlin (Captain Awesome), Bonita Friedericy (General Beckman), Vik Sahay (Lester), Scott Alan Smith (Professor Fleming), Matthew Bomer (Bryce Larkin), Shawn Huang (Kid), Jill Czarnowski (Glenda Mitchell), Coronado Romero (Fraternity Brother), Vinny Chhibber (Meathead #2), Jame Lowe (Meathead), Greg Baine (Special Agent Ben Katz), Phil Abrams (Stanford Librarian), Jesse Heiman (Fernando), Lauren Kim (Naomi Walker) & Brandon Lim (Fraternity Brother #2)

Returning to Stanford, the University that expelled him, Chuck has to help a former professor who is also a CIA agent being hunted for a secret file...

Chuck: People were getting freaky in the break room?
Morgan: No! But I like to know I had the option!

Hey, who flicked the quality switch on? While still nowhere near as hilarious as it should be, Chuck Versus The Alma Mater is by far the best plotted and genuinely involving episode so far. Much of its success is down to the simple fact it explores the character of Chuck (Zachary Levi) and offers us a glimpse at his recent past, while putting a fresh spin on his university "nemesis" Bryce Larkin (Matthew Bomer)...

Here, Stanford University's Professor Fleming (Scott Alan Smith) is giving a lecture on subliminal imagery (a loose but decent explanation for Chuck's newfound ability to have all those government secrets stored in his brain), and is later chased by a mysterious assassin, before narrowly escaping.

Meanwhile, Chuck is surprised when he realizes his latest mission is to find Fleming, as he was the man who expelled him from Stanford University in 2003. It turns out Fleming led a double life as a CIA contact and has now gone missing. Later, Chuck is going through old university paraphernalia and "flashes" on his student ID card – realizing that means he's in the intersect! He demands answers from his handlers Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) and Casey (Adam Baldwin) -- who have no idea why – but maybe Fleming can provide some answers...

So it's off to Stanford to find Fleming, who it's revealed is being hunted by an Icelandic assassin. The trip also unearths bad memories for Chuck, as flashbacks (sepia-tinted, for 2003!) show how his roommate and best friend Bryce Larkin was instrumental in getting him kicked off campus.

The B-plot once again revolves around the Buy More store and Morgan (Joshua Gomez), but it's actually a pretty entertaining and amusing storyline for once. Harry Tang (C.S Lewis) is now Assistant Manager and on a power trip, laying down strict rules and generally making the staff's lives a misery. The final straw comes when Tang takes ownership of every television in the store with a master remote control, forcing Morgan to devise a way to thwart Tang's "reign of terror"...

Both storylines work well together, with the Buy More plot providing a bit of light relief from the more hectic craziness in the Stanford-based plot. But it's the latter story that sticks in your mind, mostly because of the flashbacks to 2003 that explain why Chuck lost his university education. Since the beginning of the show we've known Bryce (the man responsible for transmitting the intersect into his head) was an old friend of Chuck's that he fell out with, and the circumstances prove to be very interesting. It turns out that the CIA were recruiting students at Stanford and that Bryce became a CIA operative shortly after meeting Chuck. The disc Fleming has contains details and video interviews of every CIA agent he recruited through Stanford over the last 10 years, which would obviously be invaluable for foreign enemies. Like... um, Iceland?

Anyway, having spent most of the episode trying to work out the reason for the bad blood between Bryce and Chuck, there's a really nice twist at the end. After Chuck watches his own video-tape entry on Fleming's secret disc, it instead shows Bryce pleading with Fleming to forget about plans to recruit Chuck into the CIA. Fleming isn't very sold on the idea, so Bryce realizes the only way to save his friend from a life of covert misery is to have him expelled for cheating. Therefore, if Bryce wasn't the cold-hearted snake Chuck thought he was, maybe he had an honourable reason for trying to steal the US government's secrets?

I really like this episode, which was the first to properly hold my attention and justify its duration. The jokes are still a bit flat -- although the moment when Chuck thought Fleming wanted a hug, not realizing he's been stabbed in the back, was the first gag to make me laugh out loud on the show. I've never had a problem with any of the actors, and they all do great work here – particularly Levi, who's more proactive than usual in the secret agent stakes.

A special mention must also go to Matthew Bomer as Bryce, whose dead character makes a welcome return in the flashbacks. There's a tough emotional edge to the climax – because poor Bryce has only been vindicated after his untimely death – and a part of me hopes he somehow survived his fiery end in the Pilot. He made a good pairing with Chuck here. And I suspect a Chuck/Bryce/Sarah love-triangle would be too good to pass up.

There are a few odd bits -- like how "Don’t Look Back In Anger" by Oasis, released in 1995, provides an emotion cue for Chuck to 2003, but obviously its title takes on new meaning by the end. The Icelandic villains were very blank creations, but the mechanics of the plot flowed nicely, and even a potentially silly moment (secret-CIA students coming to the rescue) managed to work well. Above all, it was great to see some fleshing out of Chuck's character and to see the show build itself a bit of back-story and texture. I'm hoping this episode marks the beginning of a consistent rise in quality.


19 May 2008
Virgin1, 10.00 pm