A simple story, it amounts to Chuck and his protectors having to solve a series of riddles Lafleur left behind to protect his data, which they must crack to access his sensitive material. Chuck's intelligence comes in useful for this particular task, and he finds himself having real fun on the mission thanks to the presence of girlfriend Jill (Jordana Brewster) as a collaborator. They make a surprisingly good team -- much to Sarah's discomfort, as her feelings for Chuck grow stronger now the lovable geek's attention is focused on another woman.The Buy More stories have admittedly been better recently, and this episode's benefits from having some actual logic behind it, too. Emmett (Tony Hale) realizes that Chuck's always away on a suspicious number of "home call-outs" and, suspecting he's up been playing truant, pressures Chuck's friends into helping him expose Chuck's extra-curricular activities. In the case of Morgan (Joshua Gomez), this leads to Emmett comparing their workplace to the fictional country "Buymoria" and playing on his sense of patriotism!
Second of Strahotness: sweet n' showered; courtesy Strahotski.com
The jokes outweighed the plot this week, as Matthew Lau's script crafted genuinely funny moments -- like Jill getting a phone call from Chuck, apparently hearing him having sex with Sarah, while he was actually squeezing through an air-vent (groan-worthy, admittedly); or hard-ass Casey revealing his choirboy past by opening a puzzle-box with a High-C note. And, yes, bonus points for the titillating shower scene with Chuck and Sarah having to scrub a contaminant off each other's semi-naked bodies. I continue to admire how Chuck's writers manage to get Yvonne Strahovski in her underwear during almost every episode, in fairly plausible ways. Strahovski herself is a good sport, probably because these scenes are never seedy or exploitative, just cheeky.
Overall, "Chuck Versus The Fat Lady" wasn't a particularly brilliant installment of this much-improved second season, but it was amusing and fun when it counted. It was also buoyed by a strong climax with Chuck refusing to trade Jill for the vital flash-drive, before revealing he'd cleverly used an illegal data-copier (referenced earlier for reasons of video-game piracy) to make himself a duplicate. And then Chuck discovered Jill's on the Fulcrum list in the big twist-ending, so has probably been using him all along! While this wasn't revealed as snappily as it should have been, it was still a fun development that ensures you'll be tuning in next week...21 July 2009
Virgin1, 9pm
written by: Matthew Lau directed by: Jeffrey Hunt starring: Zachary Levi (Chuck), Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah), Adam Baldwin (Casey), Joshua Gomez (Morgan), Jordana Brewster (Jill) Scott Krinsky (Jeff), Vik Sahay (Lester Partel), Bonita Friedericy (General Beckman), Tony Hale (Emmett Milbarge), Mark Pellegrino (Fulcrum Killer), Phillipe Simon (Opera Director), Brandon Brendel (Bellboy #1) & Jim Pacitti (FBI Agent #1)
