Well, that didn’t take long. At this rate, everyone in Chuck’s life will know everything there is to know about him. That said, the reveal this episode was handled masterfully, and I was so glad to see unexpected twists and turns in every direction, including the potential implications at the end.
This also marks the first time in a little while that every member of the Chuck cast had an important role to play in the developing plotlines. The Ring was front and center in the spy world, while the Buy More was facing a potential hostile takeover by another corporate entity, leaving the staff to fight for the jobs … and maybe more.
They absolutely had me fooled with the buyout attempt being The Ring’s latest tactic to uncover the identity of one Agent Charles Carmichael AKA Charles “Chuck” Bartowski. I couldn’t help but get memories of Office Space when Diedrich Bader showed up as on of the efficiency experts interviewing the staff at the Buy More. I know he was the burnout neighbor, man, but he was in it so it counts in my book!
But what really impressed me this week was Morgan. The same guy who was afraid to stand up to his own employees when he was promoted to Assistant Manager was ready and eager to take on the bad guys. It was more luck that he discovered the Ring’s involvement, but it was pure courage that had him follow them down into Castle.
It was a fantastic way to ingratiate Morgan into Chuck’s world. Actually, the entire process was handled perfectly, as having someone to talk out his emotions and feelings about his crazy new life with is exactly what Chuck needed to get himself back in gear with the Intersect.
But before we get to that, Morgan managed to sneak in to Castle filled with Ring agents, overhear their plans and get completely out undetected. He may not be much use in hand-to-hand combat, but he’s a sneaky little bastard. At this point, now that Chuck has spilled everything to his buddy and regained his Intersect abilities, it remains to be seen what will be done with Morgan on the show.
He’s proven a great and loyal friend, as Chuck indicated, but he’s also a bit of a loose cannon, and prone to acting on terrible ideas. Whereas Awesome has done everything in his power to stay as far away from Chuck’s double-life as humanly possible — more on that in a minute — Morgan has already expressed interest in being part of the team. I smell trouble with his eagerness.
That said, he could prove a valuable ally in helping Chuck manage his spy work with his work at the Buy More, though Chuck has surprisingly little difficulty with that now. Do you think the government is signing receipts for all his on-calls and paying the Buy More for Chuck’s “Nerd Herd” services every time he has to use that as a cover? Otherwise, there should be questions raised as to where his payments are for all this work he’s doing.
I do feel bad for Ellie now, though, as she’s the only one in Chuck’s network of close friends and family now who doesn’t know his secret. It almost seems inevitable she’ll find out, now that Morgan has. Awesome already knows and is in danger from the Ring, as they think he’s a spy as well, so it no longer makes sense to have one person oblivious to Chuck’s secret.
Granted, everyone else at the Buy More is oblivious, but they’re hardly close friends with Chuck. What a disaster if Jeff and Lester found out!
There are bigger problems with Ellie and Awesome now, though. Well, problem may not be the right word for it. However, I don’t think joining Doctors Without Borders and going to Africa will be enough to deter the Ring from tracking down Awesome and Ellie if they’re convinced Awesome is a spy that needs to be dealt with.
Supposedly, though, they now know that he is not Agent Carmichael, though at least this one division of the Ring deduced that it was Chuck, which means they can easily track down the identities of his family. Perhaps that was information that also didn’t get back to Ring headquarters, along with the location of Castle, though I thought I remembered them saying they’d uploaded all the intel that was at Castle to Ring servers already, which would be enough for a good tech guru to trace back.
Other highlights:
Clacked by Jason Hughes 
on Mar 09, 2010 @ 09:00 EST5EDT
Great recap, can I just add Sarah Lancaster (Ellie) looked absolutely smokin’ at the start of the episode?
no mention of Casey’s call at the end?
Like Alias and Smallville, the people close to Chuck in the Chuck universe are actually in more danger not knowing his secret than being in the loop. Since The Ring casually knew everyone’s faces, names, and addresses before they even came to the Buy More, there’s really nothing Morgan or Ellie could spill that would make things worse.
Morgan was teh awesome, and I don’t see how he can possibly be more bumbling a helper than Chuck was his first year. He was remarkably composed, level-headed, and pro-active when his life became deadly serious this week.
Cedric Yarbrough told Diedrich Bader that they had found Shaw’s discs, and he had already uploaded them to their headquarters during the communications blackout, so it seems the rest of Castle’s data was not compromised. It’s a good thing he was too lazy to spend five seconds attaching a note, “BTW, CIA base is under Buy More and Carmichael’s cover name is Chuck Bartowski.” Regardless, it’s weak even for this show for Shaw to say Castle is safe as The Ring will only have its suspicions confirmed when the six agents they sent to search the Buy More never return. Maybe most viewers won’t piece that together, though.
Although I can ignore most plot holes, it’s harder when the show actually calls attention to them. Ninety seconds after Chuck points out how dangerous it is for Shaw to go into the field with The Ring gunning for him, he’s out in a hotel lobby checking in while Casey complains about being stuck in the van again, out of sight. I know they always have to pair up Shaw with Sarah to remind us they’re a couple, but come on!
Favorite part: Morgan striding out of the swirling smoke and doing his best Connery impression (minus the accent) to languidly greet Sarah, Casey, and Shaw.
Are Chuck episode clacks done? Been missing them these past few weeks.