Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and Awesome (Ryan McPartlin) are about to be wed, and Chuck (Zachary Levi) is preparing for a new life away from the spy game now the Intersect has been erased from his mind, and the confidence he's been given as a result of his double life inspires him to quit his job at the Buy More and ask Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) to go on a romantic break with him. Having received a hefty pay-packet from the government for services rendered, can life get any better for our hero geek? No, but they can get a whole lot worse...Ted Roark (Chevy Chase) returns, having survived the air strike on his underground base last week, and puts the Bartowski/Woodcomb wedding in jeopardy by threatening to kill the bride unless Chuck hand over the CIA's Intersect. Faced with this impossible situation, Chuck's forced to have Morgan (Joshua Gomez) stall the nuptials by introducing "Jeffster!" as pre-ceremony entertainment, as bridesmaid Sarah tries to defeat Roark's men using a knife gift set, and Chuck leaves an emergency message for the now reassigned Casey (Adam Baldwin)...
While there was arguably less plot stitching "... The Ring" together than last week, it was a constant stream of enjoyable sequences and affecting scenes. The attack on Roark's henchmen by Casey's parachuting Special Forces squad, destroying the dining hall intended for the wedding reception and setting off the water sprinklers (to the accompaniment of Jeffster's "Mr Roboto"), was a series highlight in terms of pure, enjoyable action. The fact Roark was defeated so soon was a neat twist of expectation, as the majority of the episode consequently became less predictable than I feared going in, although I still feel that Chevy Chase was wasted by being given such a thin character to play.
The return of Bryce Larkin (Matthew Bomer) was slightly too abrupt for my liking, but his arrival again forced Sarah to make a tough decision: stick with her beloved career and resume her role as Bryce's globetrotting CIA partner, or see where a normal life as Chuck's girlfriend will lead. If there's one thing I'm continually frustrated about, it's how Sarah never seems quite as sure about her feelings for Chuck as Chuck does for her. I understand that she has a fulfilling career to think about (unlike Chuck), and the series can't afford to have things run too smoothly between them for dramatic reasons, but Sarah's constant doubts can get exasperating -- especially as she couldn't hide behind her professional capacity in this episode.Interestingly, after Chuck called in some CIA favours and used his salary to make Ellie's dream of a beach wedding a reality, the show started to make other welcome changes to its configuration. A double-agent was revealed to be part of Casey's squad, but working for a new enemy who are part of something called "The Ring", a group that later kidnap Bryce (believing he's the human Intersect), and take him to a secret Fulcrum building to download the secrets in his brain. Luckily, it's revealed that Chuck's dad (Scott Bakula) has a proto-Intersect in his head that flashes on the man who took Bryce and he manages to get word to Chuck, Sarah and Casey for a swift rescue mission.
The big talking point for Chuck fans will undoubtedly be the final five minutes, with Chuck using his dad's tech-gauntlet to locate a fatally wounded Bryce in the Fulcrum Intersect room, and deciding to download the government's secrets into his brain and destroy the hardware, essentially embracing his destiny as a hero. Then, as the room filled with a half-dozen enemy agents, a new facet of Intersect 3.0 was revealed when Chuck remotely downloaded the skills of a martial artist and effortlessly disabled a gang of professional killers, before paraphrasing The Matrix with his final line: "guys; I know kung fu." I defy you not to have a grin on your face at this point.
"Chuck Versus The Ring" was another fine example of how entertaining and compelling this show can be when it tries. It still has rough spots, I've been disappointed by a few aspects this year (like the wasted Big Mike/Bolonia courtship), and I still don't see the appeal of the Buy More, but this episode definitely has the potential to springboard season 3 into fresh territory. Will Chuck's array of skills turn him into a lethal weapon and master-of-all-trades? Probably not, as that would deny us the central conceit of an affable geek thrown into the world of espionage. My guess is that Chuck's new skills will come with caveats (a cap on how often he can "download" abilities, or a serious downside to overuse), or possible it just won't work very reliably. I don't think they'd make the mistake of turning Chuck into Jake 2.0, do you?
But what about the Buy More? Casey, Chuck and Morgan have quit, so is this the ideal opportunity to transplant those characters into a different working environment? Or is the Buy More too integral to the makeup of the show, despite my own simmering dislike for it? Plus we also have the fact Awesome (okay, I'll call him Devon from now on) knows Chuck's secret, so it'll be fun seeing how that dynamic plays out week to week. The death of Bryce wasn't unexpected (not least because Bomer's now starring in White Collar), and it actually felt overdue because his role didn't really have anywhere left to go.
Overall, "... The Ring" was tremendous entertainment, only marginally let down by Roark's general uselessness and the fact I personally find it hard to care about Ellie and Devon, whose marriage provided the episode's emotional heartbeat. A special mention must go to director Robert Duncan McNeill, who did a fantastic job marshalling what appeared to be a very tricky episode. Chuck's not known for its action sequences, but the dining room shootout and the "Chuck-fu" sequence rank as some of the best such moments in the show's history, and McNeill also ensured the quieter, emotional moments weren't crushed under the weight of everything else -- Chuck's heart breaking when Sarah turned him down, Ellie sobbing in the bath, Bryce's death scene, all were handled very well.As the announcer said as the credits rolled, Chuck will return to Virgin1 in the new year, so I'm hoping this means the UK will only be days/weeks behind NBC in the States. The delay for British fans has been too much to ask for many, so I'm hoping Virgin will find Chuck gets a ratings boost as a result of their alacrity.
3 November 2009
Virgin1, 9pm
written by: Chris Fedak & Allison Adler directed by: Robert Duncan McNeill starring: Zachary Levi (Chuck), Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah), Adam Baldwin (Casey), Joshua Gomez (Morgan), Scott Krinsky (Jeff), Vik Sahay (Lester), Bonita Friedericy (General Beckman), Tony Hale (Emmett), Ryan McPartlin (Captain Awesome), Sarah Lancaster (Ellie), Mark Christopher Lawrence (Big Mike), Scott Bakula (Steve Bartowski), Julia Ling (Anna), Chevy Chase (Ted Roark), Morgan Fairchild (Honey Woodcomb), Bruce Boxleitner (Dr. Woody Woodcomb), Tug Coker (Miles), Patricia Rae (Bolonia Grimes), Matthew Bomer (Bryce Larkin), Yolanda Snowball (Justice Of The Peace), April Betts (Bridesmaid), Jason Gray (Ominous Agent #1), Adam Rizzieri (Bartender) & Evan Shafran (Buy More Customer)
