Chuck vs. The Beefcake

More fake relationship drama takes center stage this week on Chuck. Apparently Chuck is tired (once again) about having a fake relationship with Sarah and tells her he wants to fake break up (once again). I don’t know why this week it seems any harder for Chuck than any other week, but hey, randomness is a familiar concept to the show’s writers.

The action of the week begins when our spies discover that someone has robbed the CIA dump site where Brad White-one of the Fulcrum agents who ran the Intersect test on Chuck when Chuck and Sarah visited suburbia recently-was buried. Why would someone rob that grave? And how would they even know where it was? The general wants those questions answered.

The grave robber is quickly revealed to be a Fulcrum agent named Cole. And of all the things he stole from the grave robber, it was White’s belt buckle! And the belt buckle contains top-secret intel! I gotta hand it to the writers…never seen a belt buckle McGuffin before. So they have to take the bad guy’s belt off…sounds like a perfect job for Sarah. And perfect timing too, since Chuck just inexplicably dumped her.

So Sarah and Co. head to the posh hotel bar Cole is holed up in. Sarah pulls her seduction bit on Cole rather fast, and it’s not hard to see why she is so effective. Chuck watches in horror, but Casey finds the whole thing rather amusing, and Casey’s amusement is the most amusing thing about the show. Sarah and Cole start heading up to his room while Chuck starts slamming ‘em down the hatch. But when he flashes on two Fulcrum agents following Cole and Sarah upstairs, he springs into action.

Casey starts shooting it out with the baddies while Chuck tries to break down the door to save Sarah (and to stop the carnal antics he isn’t a part of). After bruising his shoulder, he is successful. He kicks down the door to find: Sarah. In black lingerie. Holding a gun to Cole’s head. Yowza.

With Chuck and Cole in tow, Sarah makes it to the rooftop, waiting for their helicopter to come for them. But instead, an evil steel beast arrives, hovering in the sky and spraying automatic weapons. Sarah is about to be taken out when Cole convinces Chuck to let him go so he can help her. Cole jumps into the fray and blows the chopper up by shooting a conveniently-located gas tank. It turns out Cole isn’t Fulcrum after all, but an undercover MI6 agent. Cole tells Sarah “Come with me if you want to live.” (Sure, because anytime you can rip off a classic Terminator line you should).

And wouldn’t you know it, the only way to read the unspecified vital data in the belt buckle is to obtain the “playback device.” Chuck, feeling threatened by Mr. MI6 with the chiseled abs tries to take charge of the mission but Sarah and Casey shut him down. Then again, Chuck doesn’t always listen to instructions. Complications ensue, Sarah and Cole and Chuck get captured, Casey has to save them, etc.

B storyline involves Morgan moving himself in with Ellie and her nimrod boyfriend because he can’t stand living with his mom and Big Mike, and Ellie being worried about the status of Chuck and Sarah’s relationship. It looks like Chuck and Morgan are going to move in together at the end of the episode-much to Ellie’s abject horror-but complications happen with Cole and Chuck’s safety is in danger (when isn’t it?) and Chuck and Sarah have to move in together. So the stage is set for more back-and-forth, drawn out romance between nerd and spy babe. Is that a reason to celebrate?

Season 2, Episode 15: Chuck vs. The Beefcake (originally aired March 2, 2009)

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