Chuck vs. Tom Sawyer

This week’s Chuck is a slight improvement from last week’s disaster, though it repeats the motif of opening with a flashback.  This time it’s of Jeff, the resident pasty, balding, overweight creep at the Buy More.  We learn that in 1983, before he embarked on a life of epic underachievement, Jeff was the All-Valley Video Game “Missile Command” Champion.  But in the present, at the Buy More, Chuck flashes on a thick-accented baldie and is shocked to learn that he’s after Jeff.  Who could possibly want something from a guy like Jeff?

Casey and Sarah identify the stranger as an international terrorist and charge Chuck with approaching Jeff socially (it’s a dirty job but…) and finding out about his past so they can pinpoint why the terrorist is after him.  Chuck reluctantly arranges to chill out with Jeff after hours at the Buy More, and after several beers, Jeff shows Chuck the videotape of him receiving the “Missile Command” Champion trophy.  Chuck flashes on the Japanese man handing Jeff his trophy and discovers that he is a bomb maker.  Their little party is crashed by the terrorists, and with Casey’s help, Chuck manages to just barely save himself and the inebriated Jeff from their clutches.

Turns out the game designer has a history with the Japanese military-the “Missile Command” designer commands actual missiles and is being forced to work with the terrorists.  Before he is blown up by one of his own bombs, the remorseful designer tells Chuck that the codes for controlling the real missiles (you know, that the nefarious, dastardly, evil terrorists are going to use in some nefarious, dastardly, evil way) are hidden in the game and can only be accessed by beating the secret bonus level at the end.  Or something like that.

Chuck realizes that the only way to get the magic code and save the world from unspeakable doom is to beat “Missile Command.”  Chuck convinces Jeff to come out of retirement and take one last chance at redemption (and consequently save the world).  But Jeff is no Rocky Balboa and buckles under the pressure, leaving the fate of the free world in Chuck’s hands once again.  It’s a somewhat amusing setup that offers the opportunity to do an 80s music montage, but certainly not a home run.

The B storyline involves Chuck’s sister Ellie riding Chuck to get his life together and the arrival at the Buy More of corporate efficiency expert Emmett Milbarge.  Arrested Development (which was without dispute a much funnier and cleverer comedy show) fans will be excited to know that Tony Hale (a.k.a. Buster) plays Milbarge with the prissy and somewhat effeminate demeanor that one would expect.  Milbarge is out to crack the whip on the Buy More team, just as Tang did last season.  Hale is set to reprise his role (for how long I don’t know), but so far the proceedings all seem rather flat.

Adam Baldwin as Casey is typically underused and the aftermath of Bryce Larkin’s reappearance two weeks ago is not dealt with at all, but Sarah gets a couple of pretty satisfying fight scenes and she and Chuck share a nice scene at the episode’s coda.  The novelty of Chuck has certainly worn off, but it remains fairly diverting entertainment and may still have a smidgen of potential.

Season 2, Episode 5: Chuck vs. Tom Sawyer (originally aired October 27, 2008)

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Photographs courtesy of NBC