Chuck: Chuck Versus The Sensei
By fred | December 2, 2008
(S02E09) After all the trouble he went through when his ex-girlfriend Jill showed up, I think it was expected that Chuck would get – or ask for – some time to cool off and deal with his feelings. Of course he’s still the Intersect and all, but he doesn’t have to be at the center of absolutely everything that happens every week, does he? What wasn’t expected was all the treats we had during the course of this episode.
Because it had a lot to offer, when you look at it, which is why it was so surprising that it wasn’t better. I wouldn’t say this episode was any bad, it wasn’t, but I’m still trying to decide if it was as good as the previous ones we got, which does mean it wasn’t, really, it wasn’t as great as it could or should have been, and that maybe why it was a little disappointing.
Sure, this episode had plenty to offer, but also most of it didn’t really deliver. For example, we finally got to meet the rest of the Awesome family, but that only means they were there. We barely saw them, and except for a line or two à la “let’s go work our biceps” it wasn’t any kind of, well, awesome. Back at the Buy More we had a very imaginative contest : could the employee do any less work than what they usually do ??
Seemed impossible, and yet they could. And it should have been a great source of fun, and in the end if it wasn’t for Morgan not helping the only customer he should have, or of course Jeff yelling at a customer only giving him four stars, I would have probably call entire plot quite disappointing.
But as often is the case, the most important stuff where the spy games. And that’s also where the most of my disappointment came. Because Casey is some kind of a mystery, after all this time he remains that guy we don’t know much about, but that he hates Chuck and kicks ass. So having a Casey-centric episode probably raised my expectations quite a bit, but I don’t see how you could not have been disappointed.
Because from the moment this episode began, from the moment you saw the little flashback of a younger Casey training with his sensei, you knew a few things about what would take place during the rest of the hour. You knew the sensei would show up unannounced, as people love to do on that show, and he would probably be a bad guy (that “probably” doesn’t apply at all if you knew the episode’s title), you knew Casey would be shocked and troubled to see him after all those years, you knew the two would fight and Casey would lose. But of course you also knew that eventually they’d fight again, and Casey would then beat his sensei and win in the end in a classic “the student beats the teacher” move.
So when that’s about exactly what happened, it made things a lot less fun, for sure. Actually for a moment I hoped that they would play with that idea, and do something else completely, make Casey fall for it and join his sensei to the dark side (even if to take him down), or reveal that he was a complete wreck nowadays, weak and unable to fight, anything to break away from the expected clichés we all saw coming, but alas that wasn’t the case.
Now add all of this together, and that makes for a rather disappointing episode, not so much because it was bad as because it was just a “meh”, even if a good one, while it should have been just about awesome.
Doesn’t mean it was all bad though, because it doesn’t matter if you saw it coming or not, it was pretty funny to see Casey manipulating Chuck by pretending to want to “talk” about his “feelings” and, of course, Chuck falling for that, just like it was great to see Chuck unveiling the Casey by telling him about how much, while might be denying it, Casey actually cares, because he has feelings and secretly he loves Chuck! One thing for sure is that it looked like Casey really wants to kill Chuck, if I were him I’d pray they never get another Intersect…
Another thing : was it me, or was there a strong Karate Kid feeling at the end in that dojo ?? I’m not saying I heard someone yell “Sweep the leg” or anything, but that wouldn’t have surprised me at all.
One thing I did not like, though, was the last scene with Chuck and his sister. For starter because I thought she meant for Chuck to be the one giving her away, not the father who abandoned them years ago, and then because since about everyone from Chuck’s past who comes back also happens to be a spy, one just has to wonder what are the chances that he’ll use CIA resource to locate another “Agent Carmichael” ?
Best line: “Those seven years of MacGyver finally paid off!” Although I have to say, I laughed even more when Chuck hung up on Casey, on to realize what he just done and called right back.
How did you feel about this episode ? Were you happy with Casey’s reunion with his sensei ? What about meeting the Awesomes ? Anyone else think Chuck’s dad might be a spy, probably even an agent who went bad ?
