What sort of foot-long sandwich does Summer Glau like? Find out in quasi-pornographic detail, involving a thigh-knife, in this clip from last night's Chuck. Which also guest-starred Rob Riggle as that guy from The Daily Show. Spoilers ahead!
So this wasn't a bad episode of Chuck, all told. I have a few questions though:
1) Is this whole "Chuck has lost the Intersect" thing just a fun detour, or is it going someplace? At the end of the previous episode, Mama Bartowski randomly zapped Chuck with something that Papa Bartowski "didn't want [Chuck] to see," which killed his ability to flash. And last night, we learned that this was some sort of suppression device, which is basically a big rock sitting on top of the Intersect. Chuck spends the whole episode trying to lift that rock, with almost no results — although he seems to be getting closer by the end. Whereas in previous years, we were told that strong emotions prevent Chuck from flashing, it now seems some strong emotions, especially fear, can help him flash.
So is this just going to be a fun arc before Chuck gets the Intersect back, or is it actually an important piece of the larger story. I guess it depends why Mom hit Chuck with that suppression whatsit, and why the famously anti-being-a-spy Dad didn't want Chuck to see it.
2) Could we have turned a corner on the whole Sarah/Chuck relationship problems thing? Maybe I'm just indulging in wishful thinking, but the whole "Rob Riggle tries to cure Chuck of his Intersectpotence" storyline seemed to pull a really neat fake-out with regards to the Chuck-Sarah dynamic. After a team of scientists, showing Chuck fluffy kitten videos and waterboarding him, have spent a whole month trying to get the Intersect back online, Riggle steps in with more extreme tactics. First, he tries pain. Then, he tries fear — but Sarah's always there to protect Chuck. So Riggle insists on taking Chuck with him, solo, on a dangerous mission so the fear will be more intense. But still, Chuck keeps contacting Sarah when he's in danger — which couldn't possibly just be because she's a valued colleague as well as the woman he loves, could it?
So Riggle starts insisting that Sarah is the rock that's sitting on top of the Intersect, in an increasingly obnoxious "bros before hos" sort of way. And at first, it seems like the episode is seriously suggesting that might be true — that Chuck needs to get untied from Sarah's apron strings or some such nonsense, before he can be a spy. Especially after a slew of episodes where some guest star shows up and has an insight, or a troubling point of view, on Chuck and Sarah's relationship, this felt like another one of those. But then at the crucial moment, Chuck realizes that, of course, he does love Sarah and it makes sense for him to rely on her, and he cares about her more than he cares about being the Intersect, etc. He's had similar realizations before, of course, but I couldn't help feeling like maybe this time around, we're seeing a turning point — and maybe we'll stop seeing so many "random guest star sparks/heightens Chuck and Sarah's insecurities" stories? It could happen!
Especially since the preview for next week's episode shows Sarah kicking all kinds of ass to get her boyfriend back, I'm ready for some more appreciation of the Chuck/Sarah relationship. (Even Jeff sees how lucky Chuck is — if Jeff had her, it would be one long, incredibly creepy Cialis commercial.)
3. So what's the point of this "Greta" thing again? No, seriously. I mean, I know that the real point is to have hilarious/nerd-friendly stunt casting every week. But what's the in-universe point? If the CIA is so concerned about keeping the true nature of the Buy-More a secret, why put an incongruously glamorous field agent into the store and rotate them out on a weekly basis? (I know, this episode took place over a month, but some episodes cover much less time.)
The storyline where Jeff and Lester start asking questions about the latest and most glamorous of the Gretas was sort of great, especially some of Jeff's hallucinations about her tail. But the fact that they were so curious about Greta sort of threw me out of the story — because their awareness of her incongruity just made me realize how incongruous she was. At least when the Buy-More was entirely staffed by crack agents, it was all of a piece — but now there's one constantly changing super-agent surrounded by working shlubs. It's kind of odd.
Still, you can't really argue with a plot that involves Summer Glau being a top assassin whose favorite friend is a shiny knife and who has a bizarre fascination with sandwiches from a certain chain. Can you?