Writer: Allison Adler
Director: Peter Lauer
Grade: A
If I continue to ignore the Chuck/Sarah romantic elements, this was another great episode. Even FlashbackChuck was great—we couldn’t see his face, but his voice and diction were so perfect that I wondered if they just altered Levi’s voice for the scene.
Sarah and Casey’s respective reactions to Chuck’s fear that Morgan was going to be tortured or killed were appalling. They both just stared at Chuck, like they were thinking, “What’s your point?” They’re that desensitized? I mean really, stop and think about how it would feel to listen to your best friend get tortured to death, and then tell me their reactions were appropriate. I might expect Casey to be a hardass, but even Sarah didn’t try to say anything to comfort Chuck or give him a more thoughtful, heartfelt explanation for why they were going to stand by and do nothing. Given their reactions, I think Chuck’s words to Sarah about understanding his friendship with Morgan (“You say that, but I don’t think you have a clue what it means.”) were completely justified.
I loved Chuck laying out the reason for his loyalty to Morgan—I’ve always suspected something like what we got, but it’s good to have confirmation. I also thought it was perfect for Sarah to choose to reveal something personal about herself in a noisy, crowded public place at the end of the episode. Sarah has always had intimacy issues, and in this scene, she didn’t even make eye contact with Chuck until he gave her a warm, positive response. She knew that she could say what she needed to say without having to get into a drawn-out, emotional conversation.
And Jeffster! Yaaaay! Lester’s voice wasn’t angelic, but I’ve heard worse, so I was glad they didn’t make his singing too terrible. Vik Sahay really hammed it up adorably, too.
Still, there were also some glaring flaws in this episode.
Chuck telling Morgan that he’s “not comfortable stalking another human being” was a little iffy. Was this a joke in which we were supposed to see that Chuck is hypocrite? Or do the writers honestly not remember that Chuck did exactly this to Sarah back in December?
Chuck saving Morgan by calling him a stalker was also problematic. Lau and her goons were afraid of a spy, yet they were perfectly okay with Chuck, Sarah, and Anna knowing that there was something to spy on in the first place, something that would inspire that level of violence? WTF?
The remote control Nerd Herder seemed idiotic to me when it was first revealed, but the fact that it actually had a purpose in the story (and the fact that this show is cheese-tastic at times anyway) redeemed it for me. I’m still bored with the Chuck/Sarah drama, though, so the horrified expression on Sarah’s face didn’t do much for me emotionally. The back-and-forth between these characters has become so frequent and tiring that I really can’t be bothered to care anymore.
And though I’m fine with it not being included in the episode, I was curious how they planned to explain Sarah’s trashed face to Ellie, Awesome, Morgan, and the rest of the Buy More crew. Car accident? Which would actually be sort of true, considering that the brutal fight with Lau took place in a car…
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