Morgan's ex Anna (Julia Ling) has a new man in her life; handsome, affluent car salesman Jason Wang (Jack Yang). A jealous Morgan talks his friends -- Chuck, Jeff (Scott Krinsky) and Lester (Vik Sahay) -- into helping him put Wang and Anna under surveillance, whereby Chuck "flashes" on Morgan's love-rival and realizes he has business dealings with Triads who are planning to assassinate visiting Chinese Ambassador Mei Sheng (James Kiriyama-Lem).
The Buy More subplot is more closely allied with the main story (for the first time in ages this season), as Morgan's "stalking" of Anna runs parallel to Chuck, Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) and Casey's (Adam Baldwin) own investigation into his ex's new beau. However, there is a fun splinter subplot for the ever-deluded Jeff and Lester, who reveal they have a startup band called "Jeffster!" and convince Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin) to let them audition to be the house band at his wedding to Ellie (Sarah Lancaster).What made "Chuck Versus The Best Friend" work was, simply, the fact Chuck's personal life clashed with his extra-curricular role as a spy -- an obvious ploy for a series about an electrical store geek who moonlights as a spook, but one used quite sparingly by the writers. Here, Chuck was forced to betray his best-friend by going on a double-date with Anna and Wang (to gather more intel with Sarah), before having to publicly embarrass Morgan when his amateur snooping unwittingly put his life at risk with the paranoid Triads, forcing Chuck to remove his childhood friend from the situation by stomping his dignity into the ground.
I have my issues with the Buy More characters, but the way the two plots intermingled worked well in this episode, and it was interesting to see the underused Anna given a few nice scenes (particular when she admits to feeling ignored by the more glamourous Sarah). Speaking of whom, Strahovski delivered a handful of great scenes and reaction shots: her surreptitious grin at Chuck backchatting General Beckman (Bonita Friedericy); a creative catfight inside a car with villain Smooth Lau (memorable Jennifer Jalene), using its seatbelts, a snapped CD, and an airbag as makeshift weapons; and her expression of agony when she saw Chuck sacrifice himself during a car-bombing he'd actually avoided by controlling the vehicle remotely.
All brief moments, sold really well, demonstating how Chuck really lands its emotional punches when anything upsets Chuck and Sarah's faux-relationship. The final scene on the Buy More floor, with Chuck assuring Sarah she has a best-friend in him as they hold hands while listening to "Jeffster!" perform Toto's "Africa"*, was another small moment with a surprising amount of clout because the characters are so well-established and likeable. Even Morgan and Anna's backroom reconcilliation carried a fair amount of emotional punch, too, considering both are often written as sketchy caricatures compared to the headlining trio.
Overall, "Chuck Versus The Best Friend" was let down by its unremarkable Triad storyline, but the focus on the relationships of the characters was very welcome, the comic relief with "Jeffster!" worked very nicely, and there was better cohesion between each plot-strand. It was just a shame that this episode aired out of order, as it should have been shown before last week's "Chuck Versus The Suburbs" -- hence why that episode's reveal that Big Mike is dating Morgan's mother wasn't referred to.
Allison Adler's script also amused me more than most Chuck's do (even if some gags were signposted and its surprises a tad obvious), and it managed to grow increasingly more entertaining as events unfolded. By the time a bloodied Sarah was grappling across car seats, Morgan had been rendered unconscious by knock-out breath spray, and Casey was dangling out of a speeding Nerd Herd car, this episode had won me over.
8 September 2009
Virgin1, 9pm
written by: Allison Adler directed by: Peter Lauer starring: Zachary Levi (Chuck), Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah), Adam Baldwin (Casey), Joshua Gomez (Morgan), Scott Krinsky (Jeff), Vik Sahay (Lester), Bonita Friedericy (General Beckman), Ryan McPartlin (Captain Awesome), Sarah Lancaster (Ellie), Julia Ling (Anna Wu), Jennifer Jalene (Smooth Lau), Mel Fair (TV Reporter), Wesley John (Needles), James Kiriyama-Lem (Ambassador Mei Sheng), Andrew C. Lim (Joe Lucky), Alexis Raich (Suzy O'Keefe), Jack Yang (Jason Wang) & Americus Abesamis (Security Guard)
* That 1982 hit was unexpectedly stirring and enjoyable, raising the denouement's scenes a notch or two as its backing track.
