Chuck - "Chuck Vs. The Bullet Train"

Season 5, Episode 11


“So close I can smell it.” 

The fifth season of Chuck has been forced to make a lot of....let's say “interesting”...choices when it comes to its overall plotting, having to fit in several different arcs in a fairly mish-mash manner in order to set everything up for the finale, all in a very short order of time. This has meant that a lot of stories end up getting under-developed, and things resolve not so much because they evolve organically out of the story, but because they need to in order to move on to the next bit of plotting. “Chuck Vs. The Bullet Train” was perfunctory for most of its running time, but at least it's ending felt earned and hold the needed interest and tension for next week's final two hours.

Leaving off from when Sarah installed the interest into her brain at the end of the last episode, we pick up fairly quickly, with perhaps about a day or so passing, wherein Sarah and Casey do a whole lot of complicated, off-screen plotting in order to fake their deaths and arrive on the bullet train with Quinn and Chuck. From there, it was fairly predictable what was going to happen in the next episode, even if you didn't see the previews: that Sarah would somehow be rendered incapacitated by the Intersect, and that Chuck and Casey would have to rescue her. We could complain endlessly about how this episode robbed Sarah of her kickass nature by quickly sidelining her, and while that is a true and valid complaint, I was more bothered by all the other steps/plotting that the episode took in order to close out this leg of the story.

I don't want to make it seemed as if any of the steps taken were unbelievable or contrived, but there certainly was a perfunctory air to the proceedings. Take Casey's sudden turn against Chuck and Sarah in order to keep Alex alive. Yes, that's something I can buy him doing, and yes he worked with Chuck and Sarah to turn the tides against Quinn, but it all seemed to happen with out too much fuss, especially when you factor in the commercial break. I would have liked to see a little more tension over this decision, even if I recognize that the show didn't have to time to do so.

Sarah's state was handled a bit better, even if it too felt a bit perfunctory. While I understand why, due to time constraints, a lot of Sarah's initial flashing (and thus brain damage) had to happen off screen in order for things to move along, I think it stole away a lot of emotional build-up we could have gotten from seeing Sarah slowly devolve with each flash. We got some semblance of this, but perhaps not enough to make the impact needed.

Yet I do have to give credit to the ending, even if that too was was fairly predictable, or at least unsurprising. Given that Chuck is a spy show, I'm surprised that it hasn't reached into the “friend with an erased memory has to kill Chuck” plot already, so much of a staple is it in this genre. In fact, given the fact that there was a scene where Chuck and Sarah discussed their future plans, I probably should have predicted that something bad would happened to threaten that before the hour was out. However, I think given that Quinn is still relatively unknown adds a bit of unpredictability to the mix, and the episode had me so caught up in Chuck's quest to remove the intersect from Sarah that I became distracted by that and didn't see the obvious coming.

Strangely, the better part of the episode actually happened back at the Buy More, both in terms of storytelling, and more importantly the plot's ability to use all of the characters effectively. Ellie and Awesome running tests on Morgan was a great and believable use of their characters, even if it didn't give them a whole lot to do, and it allowed Morgan to be helpful without having to forcing him into the A-plot (Besides, he already got his real moments of closure last week.) Placing Alex in danger yet again is a bit more troublesome as it feels as if that's all she's really good for plot-wise at this point, but at least it was believable that she would be their at Castle giving emotional support to Morgan. I get that her capture was a linchpin to most of the episode, so it's not like she didn't serve a purpose, but I wish it was something different from what she's done before.

That leaves Jeff and Lester, who have been on a weird little arc these past three episodes, both in terms of it's narrative usefulness and its importance for their characters. Look, I've already accepted that Chuck is just going to dole out happy closure to everybody before all is said and done, but I'm just not sure why them finding out about the spy life going on at the Buy More has to be it. Frankly, I was just happy accepting a clear-headed Jeff and a less sociopathic Lester. Or at least that's how I felt until this episode, which seemed to earn a lot of the straining it took to get here, especially the duo deciding once again to investigate the strange going-ons around them, which seemed to have been cleared up last week. However, seeing the two of them accept the responsibility to save other lives and do it in a way that was uniquely their own was impressive, and it finally felt as if they had made something of themselves.

I'm still not entirely sure how all of this is going to wrap up. I mean, obviously Chuck is going to defeat Quinn, save Sarah, and get that little house for the two of them, and possibly pick up the Intersect by the time to the next two hours are up. But beyond that, I can't be sure. The promos seem to suggest that all of out questions will get answered, but Chuck isn't Lost, and I'm not sure that there's a whole lot of mythology that needs to be cleared up, and the show should leave that well enough alone. Instead, I just want a few moments for Chuck, Sarah, Casey, and Morgan on the level that this episode gave to Jeffster, and I think I'll be happy.

Next Week: We say goodbye.

Quotes and Other Thoughts:

Say, where's Big Mike's moment of closure, huh? HUH? 

I have no idea where those awesome new titles came from, but it was pretty interesting to see them on screen as a sort of last hurrah for the show. Frankly, I'm surprised we haven't seen altered titles before now, given how many other genre-aping shows like Chuck use them.

I don't know what's worse – how awful these new “The More You Know”  with the Chuck cast ads are, or the fact that I never see them anywhere but during Chuck.

“Is that a chicken button? Does a chick come out when you press that button?”

“The newly unimpaired you is a master of the obvious.”

“Just so you know, I've never sniped in my life – wet or dry.”

“I need you, my daughter needs you, and your country needs you.” “Canada?”

“Your out manned, out gunned, and out...side, and it's a lovely day, so lay down your gun and no one will get hurt.”