Chuck vs. The Seduction

After the Cipher turned out to be a fake at the end of last week’s season two premiere, Chuck realized that his hopes of returning to his normal life (and potentially being with Sarah) were dashed.  So naturally, at the beginning of this latest episode, Chuck finds himself considerably depressed as he is forced to return to degrading work at the Buy More.  As if that weren’t enough, Chuck and his friends at the Buy More find themselves under the tyranny of Lester, who became the new assistant manager after Chuck turned the job down.

But Chuck isn’t at the Buy More for very long, as Sarah comes in and kisses him.  Alas, this is not a real moment of romance but, as Sarah says, it is a “we-have-a-national-security-emergency-and-I-need-to-speak-to-you-privately kiss.”  So the couple of sorts trots across the street to the yogurt stand/secret base of operations.  Here, General Beckman via video screen presents them with the news that the real Cipher still exists and is probably in the hands of Sasha, a deadly ex-KGB femme fatale.

The mission (which Chuck initially does not choose to accept out of spite for Sarah giving him the cold shoulder) is to seduce Ms. Ex-KGB Killer in hopes of confirming that she has the Cipher and then recovering it.  Chuck is the only one who has a shot of not coming off as an agent because well…he isn’t an agent.  To train Chuck, the only man who was ever able to get close to Sasha is brought in: Roan Montgomery (amusingly played by John Larroquette), also a former agent and a legendary lothario.

The not-quite-training-montage sequence where Roan trains Chuck in the art of seduction-using Sarah as guinea pig-is a lot of fun.  Of course, Chuck’s seduction of Sasha doesn’t go smooth as silk, and from there, the show does what it usually does, positioning Chuck as the quintessential fish-out-of-water.  Zachary Levi as Chuck continues to have great comic timing and skills and brings a genuine warmth to the character that makes him enjoyable to watch.  Larroquette is the highlight of the episode by far, hitting all the right notes, and his character serves as a good catalyst for making Chuck and Sarah really explore the depth (or perhaps lack of depth in Sarah’s case) of their feelings for each other.

Casey (Adam Baldwin) doesn’t have much to do in this episode, but there are some really fun action sequences.  One calls to mind a scene from Tony Scott’s Enemy of the State where Will Smith tries to escape from bad guys by jumping from one hotel balcony to another.  And the coolest action piece in this episode is a bit of a homage to the key stunt from Die Hard where Bruce Willis (and his stunt double I would imagine) wraps a fire hose around his torso and jumps off a building (Kevin Costner did a really nifty version of this, too, in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves).  Obviously Zachary Levi does not have the action hero athleticism of Bruce Willis or Kevin Costner, and that’s what makes these stunts fun to watch.

Although the twist at the very end of the episode is easy to anticipate, I still only have one criticism of the show, and it’s the same one I had last week: enough with Ellie and her impossibly stupid boyfriend!  Every time the two of them are onscreen I want to smash myself in the skull with a frying pan.  The show is called Chuck, not The Cutesy Sister of a Guy Named Chuck and Her Nimrod Boyfriend.  Occasionally Ellie serves as a surrogate mother figure for Chuck and that works, but mostly you just have scenes with her and the boyfriend.  These scenes are ridiculously stupid and unfunny and take time away from Chuck and Sarah and Casey.

Season 2, Episode 2: Chuck vs. The Seduction (originally aired October 6, 2008)

Mondays at 8/7C on NBC

Photographs courtesy of NBC