Chuck has his university dreamgirl all to himself at a country motel, as Casey (Adam Baldwin) and Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) alert General Beckman (Bonita Friedericy) of the "Jill situation" and try to warn Chuck of the danger he's in with frantic phone-calls that go ignored. When you have Jordana Brewster in bed to yourself, it's no small wonder. Fortunately, Jill and her Fulcrum superiors are unaware that Chuck himself is the "Intersect" their splinter group covet, so when Chuck finally gets Casey's missed calls, he's in no immediate danger but has to pretend to Jill that everything is okay.After Chuck is given proof that Jill's a spook, they go on a date to a fun fair together, where she shows her true colours by pointing a gun at him while aboard a Ferris Wheel. Luckily for Chuck, Jill isn't quite the callous bitch he's been led to expect, so fails to go through with the hit ordered by her boss "Leader" (Patrick Kilpatrick). A fun chase through the carnival is one of this episode's highlights, with Chuck evading Leader inside a spinning "Gravitron" ride that sticks them to the walls with its centrifugal force. Creative, silly and funny.
As is often the case, there's about fifteen-minutes of meaningful plot with the spy stuff, and a whole heap of nonsense at the Buy More to fill out the time. It's Thanksgiving, so boss Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence) puts Lester (Vik Sahay), Jeff (Scott Krinsky) and Morgan (Joshua Gomez) on a security detail of the store while he goes fishing. Stores don't close for US holidays? Big Mike can't afford a burglar alarm? And why is he going fishing? Doesn't he have a family to spend Thanksgiving with? Whatever, the Buy More subplots don't generally make much sense. Elsewhere, Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) is preparing one of her famously delicious Thanksgiving meals for the arrival of her prospective in-laws ("the Awesomes"), displeasing Morgan when she tells him he's essentially banned from dining with them this year.
But back to the nub of the matter with Chuck and Jill. It's basically an episode of back-and-forth: Chuck captures Jill, she's interrogated at their underground secret base ("the Castle"), Chuck uses a lie-detector machine to privately quiz Jill on their relationship (a nice scene), then duly releases her on naïve trust while they're alone, enabling her to hold him hostage and capture Casey and Sarah when they return with the handcuffed Leader. Chuck, Casey and Sarah find themselves detained in cells as Leader forces Chuck into giving them access to the government mainframe...
It's all quite rote, truth be told. The bright sparks are seeing Chuck once again take a proactive role in saving the day (in-between doing the exact opposite!), particularly in a scene where he remotely accessed the Castle's computer system from within his cell (having read the manual), to make life difficult for the Fulcrum intruders. It's always a delight when Chuck's geekiness proves instrumental in thwarting the villains.
But, generally speaking, "Chuck Versus The Gravitron" was a disappointment given the fact it's the climax to a three-episode arc that deserved better. Jill wasn't unmasked as the merciless bitch it would have been more fun seeing Chuck grapple with (instead she flip-flopped in her loyalty too much), Fulcrum's plan wasn't threatening or logical (why did they target Chuck using his ex? How did they know about the Castle and its computer link?), and it's becoming increasingly silly how events inexorably lead to a climax at the Buy More. They have a special hatch that leads from the Castle into the A/V demo room now? While I understand the Buy More's an expensive set, so it makes financial sense to use it as often as possible, the way it becomes the backdrop for nearly every episode's climax is tiresome.Mind you, I did enjoy how the Buy More story collided (quite literally) with the main plot, when Big Mike returned from his fishing trip, mistook Leader for a thief, and saved Casey's life by barging the villain into a pile of stock. But this was an episode of snappily fun moments (the Gravitron, the lie-detector, the manual), and not something that provided a truly satisfying close to an episodic trilogy.
28 July 2009
Virgin1, 9pm
written by: Chris Fedak directed by: Allison Liddi Brown starring: Zachary Levi (Chuck), Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah), Adam Baldwin (Casey), Joshua Gomez (Morgan), Jordana Brewster (Jill), Scott Krinsky (Jeff), Vik Sahay (Lester), Bonita Friedericy (General Beckman), Ryan McPartlin (Captain Awesome), Mark Christopher Lawrence (Big Mike), Sarah Lancaster (Ellie) & Patrick Kilpatrick (Leader)
