Spoilers for the season's penultimate "Chuck" coming up just as soon as I get right..."Is everything okay?" -ChuckI feel like I've been invoking the Dayenu Rule(*) a lot lately, and not just because Passover recently ended. But if I can't invoke it for an episode like "Chuck vs. the Colonel," when can I?
"Yeah. No, dude: for the first time, everything is fine. It's all over." -Morgan
(*) For those of you new to the blog -- and/or to Judaism -- "Dayneu" (pronounced "Die-ay-noo") is a traditional folk song sung during the Passover meal, where you list all the amazing things God did for the Jews during the story of the Exodus from Egypt. After you list each one, you say if only God had done just that, "Dayenu," which means "it would have been enough." So when I see an episode like this one, overflowing with awesomeness, I feel the need to sing its praises as if I was just sitting around the seder table with my family. To wit...
• If "Chuck vs. the Colonel" had only featured Chuck and Sarah's passionate makeout session, scored to Bon Iver's beautiful "Creature Fear" (when Bon Iver's "Skinny Love" played over the great final scene of "Chuck vs. the Break-Up"), followed by one of the funniest excuses for TV coitus interruptus I can remember... Dayenu.
• If it had only featured Casey going all vengeful on Chuck and Sarah, and even successfully shooting the Chuck target he subconsciously missed back in the season premiere... Dayenu.
• If it had only revived (and expanded) the hilarious "New Ass Man" gag from "Chuck vs. the Seduction"... Dayenu
• If it had only featured Casey kicking major Fulcrum butt with nothing but the radiator from Chuck and Sarah's motel room... Dayenu.
• If it had only featured Casey discovering Devon in his apartment and growling, "I hate this whole family!"... Dayenu.
• If it had only featured Devon's struggle to assimilate the news of Chuck's true identity, and Chuck's absolute belief that Devon could live up to his nickname and keep the secret... Dayenu.
• If it had only featured Casey admitting that all he wanted was for Chuck and Sarah to ask him along, followed by him refusing Chuck's offer of a group hug... Dayenu.
• If it had only featured Chuck's dad pulling a modified version of the "Superman II" trick of taking away Chuck's powers instead of giving new powers to Fulcrum, followed by the airstrike taking out the drive-in and most of the bad guys... Dayenu.
• If it had only featured everyone's reaction -- particularly General Beckman's completely dismissive attitude -- to Chuck being cured of the Intersect... Dayenu.
• If it had only featured Morgan's shirtless exit from the Buy More, while getting a slow clap from the staff (and you know what a sucker I am for a slow clap, ironic or otherwise)... Dayenu.
• If it had only featured the one-two punch of Chuck bringing his dad home to Ellie, followed by Casey and Sarah accompanying Chuck to the rehearsal dinner as friends (and in Sarah's case, hopefully more) and not handlers... Dayenu.
And that's not even mentioning Jeff partaking of Casey's chloroform supply, or Millbarge belly-crawling through the Buy More under the assumption they're under siege, or Morgan's speech to Anna about his futile dream of being a Benihana chef ("and I don't even know where to get the knives!"), or Big Mike's turn as Vito Corleone, or Ted Roark going even more Evil Steve Jobs with his motivational speech to the Fulcrum agents, or...
I wrote today's "Save Chuck" column before I got to see "Chuck vs. the Colonel," but this episode sums up so many of the reasons why I love "Chuck," and why I'm going to be burning down my living room (or just taking another hit of chloroform) if it's not renewed. This was like Chuck's Greatest Hits, not only featuring so many callbacks to previous episodes on top of the usual pop culture references, but featuring tons of moments that were much funnier, or more poignant, or exciting, for all the build-up to it.
When I interviewed Chris Fedak a few weeks ago, he said this about "Chuck vs. the Colonel":
For episode 221, we thought the episode is so big, has so many huge things in it, from an emotional as well as espionage in it, that we were worried people would think it was the season finale. It's a huge episode.And that's certainly true. Chuck and Sarah (almost) get it on (and, again, the excuse for why they don't is funny enough that I didn't have the usual aggrieved reaction I sometimes get when shows drag out the sexual tension for too long). Someone from Chuck's nerd life finds out his spy life (and it's Captain Awesome, which is a funnier choice than virtually any other non-spy character, with the possible exception of Jeff). Morgan quits the Buy More, Chuck saves his dad, and his dad in turn saves Chuck from life as the Intersect. I can absolutely see where Fedak might worry people would think this was the finale -- not just of the season, but of the series.
Meanwhile, Josh Schwartz said today that the actual season ender, next week's "Chuck vs. the Ring," "will be one of the least satisfying finales of all time" if the show isn't renewed.
Now, I have not seen "Chuck vs. the Ring" yet, so I can only offer a guess on what might go down, based on my own years as a comic book-reading, pop culture-consuming nerd: Roark, having survived the airstrike by going back into the bunker, shows up at the wedding. He endangers some combination of Ellie, Sarah, Morgan and Chuck's dad, and somehow the only way to save the day is for Chuck to pull a Ben Grimm and reluctantly turn himself back into the Intersect.
Beyond that, I have no idea, and I'm dreading it in a way. I'm sure it'll be a great episode, but I don't want it to be the last "Chuck" I ever see, and I certainly don't want it to make me pull out my hair the way some other infamous cliffhanging series-enders (say, "Crime Story," or "Now And Again") -- did.
Sigh... focus on the good. Focus on the good, which "Chuck vs. the Colonel" most certainly was -- and then some.
Some other thoughts:
• I talked a bit about Yvonne Strahovski in the column today, so here I want to highlight the equally-indispensable Zachary Levi, for the way he played that moment where Chuck briefly pulled back from kissing Sarah just so he could take a moment to smile and be sure this was really happening after all this time. That smile so perfectly captured what I imagine a lot of fans were feeling. (And I imagine a lot of them were angrier than I was when Chuck found the condom IOU note from Morgan.)
• Where exactly was Vincent when the airstrike began? Is he going to pop up yet again to cause trouble in the finale? If, NBC willing, the show continues next year, will Arnold Vosloo become a regular character who appears to die every single week, like "South Park" with Kenny?
• When Chuck and Sarah went on the run last week, some people here said they hoped they'd stay fugitives for a long time, and that it would feel like a cheat if the status quo were restored. I'm fine with Casey lying to Beckman to save Sarah's career, since Chuck losing the Intersect is obviously a much bigger shake up than a "Chuck: Fugitives" storyline.
• Great moments in nerdhood: Chuck telling Casey, "You can't kill me with that radiator! It is far too confined in the car for you to get any torque!"
• Loved Lester calling Casey a classic perv, then looking to Jeff and saying, "No offense."
• Your Chuck Plot Hole of the Week: The Castle is the worst secret government base of all time. Not only are the cells equipped with keypads that would let any half-clever hacker take over the whole facility (see "Chuck vs. the Gravitron"), but now the cells apparently just open right up if there happens to be a power surge at the Buy More. Even if Jeff and Lester were using one of Casey's explosives, shouldn't the NSA have installed a self-contained backup generator?
• Not quite a plot hole, but worthy of discussion: as far as Ellie knows, her dad just ran out on her again, so would she really be that happy to see him return? She has no idea that he was abducted and that Chuck had to save him. On the other hand, I can see her being relieved to have one less thing to worry about, on a day when Devon seemed to get so flaky that she had to slap him back to reality.
• Say this for Captain Awesome; he threw a decent punch at trained killer Casey, and he also hit him with his beloved Ronald Reagan bust.
• Can I get back to the radiator fight for a second? I complained a few times last season that the fight choreography wasn't as inspired as a show like "Alias," but the stunt people have consistently raised their game this season, and the motel parking lot showdown was one of the best.
• I neglected to point out in "Chuck vs. the Dream Job" that Stephen Bartowski said "Aces, Charles," which is a line Ellie quoted from their father when helping Chuck get dressed for his date with Sarah way back in the pilot. Nice to hear Scott Bakula say it again tonight.
• As for our other guest star, there were times in "Dream Job" where I felt like the idea of having Chevy Chase appear was funnier than what they were asking Chevy to do. Not here, where he was on fire playing the relentlessly smug version of Roark without the nice guy businessman facade, particularly his delivery of "Nobody likes a cynic" after Chuck pointed out that Roark would kill them either way. (Speaking of which, if/when Roark is taken down for good, how does the government explain his disappearance? And what's to stop him from just going back to his corporate HQ and acting like nothing happened?)
• Did I mention that there was a slow clap? And that I'm an enormous sucker for the damn slow clap? I did? Well, I'm going to mention it again: slow clap!
So, one episode to go. I'm going to talk to Fedak again for a finale post-mortem interview to run at the same time as my finale review goes up (which should, I hope, be the usual time, right after the East Coast airing finishes), and then we can start rending garments over the possibility that "Ring" might be the last episode ever. Because if it is... it would not have been enough.
What did everybody else think?
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