WRITERS: Zev Borow & Max Denby[SPOILERS] There were a few good ideas in "Chuck Versus The Tooth", but none of them amounted to much. Fortunately, there was still a baseline of entertainment and welcome development of the latter-season's arc involving Ellie (Sarah Lancaster), but this episode was middle-of-the-road filler...
DIRECTOR: Daisy von Scherler Mayer
GUEST CAST: Christopher Lloyd, Julia Ling, Scott Holroyd, Allan Louis & Kevin West
This week, Chuck (Zachary Levi) began to experience frightening and surreal dreams involving the return of Agent Shaw (Brandon Routh), containing a bizarre prediction that the President of Zamibia is going to be assassinated on US soil. General Beckman (Bonita Friedericy) suggested Chuck see a shrink (Christopher Lloyd) about his night terrors, who came to the conclusion that the Intersect's beginning to interfere with Chuck's subconscious and may even lead to full-blown insanity. Chuck is benched to undergo further psychiatric treatment, but decides to go behind Sarah's (Yvonne Strahovski) in protecting the Zamibian leader with the help of Morgan (Joshua Gomez).Elsewhere, Ellie was approached by Ring agent Justin (Scott Holroyd), whom she knows as a kindly aid worker from Africa, and manipulated into believing that he's a CIA agent who wants to protects her father from enemy agent Casey (Adam Baldwin); a story she believes when she notices Casey has a cupboard full of weapons in his home. At the Buy More, Morgan's mission with Chuck kept being interrupted by ex-girlfriend Anna (Julia Ling), who has returned to Burbank from Hawaii and hopes to rekindle their relationship.
Second of Strahotness: insane in the membrane
"... Versus The Tooth" just didn't work that well, which was a pity considering the juicy idea of Chuck's mental health being at risk because of the Intersect. Although I'm glad this notion wasn't abandoned and the threat of brain damage will continue to exist, because it's an extra dilemma for Chuck to deal with, although I'm guessing his dad will come up with a solution. It was also a fun idea to have Chuck's "flashes" disbelieved because of his malfunctioning Intersect and eventually committed to an asylum for crazy spies. But the story didn't really take advantage of the comic possibilities that spring to mind from that scenario, which was a disappointment. The only sequence worth a giggle was when the fruitcake spies drew weapons to help Chuck defeat the bad guys, but were all shot dead with ease. I do hope those were tranq darts, as that was possibly the biggest bad-taste culling the show's ever seen, if not!
The guest-stars were also wasted this week. Christopher Lloyd was particularly dull as the shrink, simply because his character was bookish and bland, failing to take advantage of Lloyd's screen persona as someone garrulous, crazy and hilarious. Maybe it was intended for Lloyd to play against type with this quiet character, but I question the decision to give the man who played Doctor Emmett Brown a sit-down role that failed to raise a single smile. Beyond a few cute mentions of "doc" from Chuck, it was barely worth getting him involved.
The return of Anna (a casualty of season 3's budget cut) was perhaps even worse, as there was little point to her scenes. Her presence just gave the writers a chance to give Anna/Morgan on-screen closure, in that Anna was dumped by Morgan and looks unlikely to ever return again. I appreciate the fact it was a nice way to give Julia Ling some airtime because she's part of the show's "family", but a better story could have been written. Mind you, given how awful Ling's acting was, we probably got off lightly.Overall, "... Versus The Tooth" didn't impress me to any sizeable extent, but I like the idea that the Intersect is a health risk, that Ellie's being given a proper storyline of her own, and that Agent Shaw has probably survived the gunshots he sustained while falling off that Parisian bridge. Regarding Chuck's nightmares, could it be possible that someone's broadcasting information to him that's getting tangled up in his subconscious and played while he sleeps? That's surely the only way to explain his apparent clairvoyance here, right?
Asides
- It was great to see '80s comedy Spies Like Us actually being watched by Chuck and Sarah on TV, as that movie has possible inspired the most in-jokes. It also amused me that Chuck obviously knows who Chevy Chase is, but never commented that villain Ted Roark in season 2 (played by Chase) was the spitting image of him. Just one of those weird TV-universe situations. The same way he's a massive fan of Tron but doesn't realize Devon's dad is Bruce Boxleitner's doppelganger.
- Chuck's codename is "Charles Carmichael". Morgan's is "Cobra". Of course it is. He must love G.I Joe, or Sylvester Stallone. Or both.
- Great to see Sarah actually trust Chuck, despite all the evidence to the contrary. I was prepared for the annoying cliché of Chuck being disbelieved by his girlfriend, but the show avoided that to its credit.
- What is it with the Buy More and slo-mo entrances with wind machines? Anna and Morgan were treated to one here.
