Chuck - "Chuck Vs. The Kept Man"

Season 5, Episode 9 

What do you want from a series finale? What beats or plot points need to be covered so that a show can close out “successfully”? Now, obviously any answer to this question is going to be subjective, but in general finales tend to fall into one of two categories: either the wrap everything up nicely and they provide “closure”, or they purposely avoid such things in order to provide the sense that life will go on for these characters. Unsurprisingly, Chuck has taken the former route, and while that's certainly a move that fits into the established tone, here in the home stretch it's made for some fairly boring (and quite possibly unnecessary) wrap-up work.

With Chuck having gained his closure (or at least part of it) two weeks ago, and Sarah hers last week, it seems only logical, at least in a methodical sort of way, that the show would give this week's focus over to Casey and his own search for happiness. In truth, Casey's search for love and/or fulfillment in his life has been one of the stronger beats that the show has regularly deployed over the years, specifically because the show has tempered the number of times that it has gone to that well. It also helps that Adam Baldwin and Carrie-Anne Moss are good actors, which tended to add a lot of pop to their scenes together, and their give-and-take kept things moving nicely. It also provided what I felt was the best exploration of Casey's emotional side, as he both opened up to Gertrude and took a much larger leap by deciding that he would like her and Alex to meet. It was a sweet moment to close the episode on, and a great use of Adam Baldwin's range. 

However, if the chemistry was good, I'm wasn't entirely sure that I buy Gertrude's actions here, at least not based on the few episodes we've seen her in. She's a strong and aggressive woman, which both makes her a great match for Casey, and an interesting character in her own right – at least for the episodes that she appeared in before this one. But here, her generally aggressive nature met up with some much more passive-aggressive as she went about tricking Casey into spending time with her. 

Now, the show acknowledged that she was wrong for doing this, but not for the reasons that bothered me. The show suddenly casting her as a the scheming and selfish girlfriend felt unmotivated outside of same vague misogynistic notion that being in a relationship or love or whatever turns all women crazy. Nor did it help matters that Gertrude ended up having to be saved by Casey. (Okay I guess technically she was saved by Chuck and his quick thinking, but she was still saved by a man, so the principle still holds.) 

Unfortunately, I also have to say the same thing about Sarah's characterization this week. In my review for last week's episode, and I acknowledged that Sarah's sudden turn towards motherhood-ness, or at least the compassion that she showed towards the baby that she was saving, felt too much like it was coming from her gender as opposed to any specific, organic character trait, and tonight's episode felt similar to that. Last week, I brought forth a fairly universal and agreed upon conclusion about television narratives: That when babies get introduced, it usually means that it times for a show to pack it in and cal it a day. And since “Chuck Vs. The Baby” had, whether intentionally or not, played on our fears that the show might introduce a baby into the formula, it wasn't that hard to see the twist coming that Sarah thought she was pregnant. 

Now, I must admit that Sarah wasn't actually pregnant, and that the show saved us from any sort of plot contrivances for the last four episodes, so I have to give the show credit for that. I also have to give the show credit for making not just Sarah, but also Chuck himself excited at the prospect of having a baby, which sort of even out the playing field gender-wise. However, that still doesn't cover how unmotivated this development feels. While I can buy that Chuck would be more willing to be a parent than Sarah would, the whole idea that they suddenly want kids because Sarah pregnancy scare made them realize this fact felt incredibly contrived. It's not as bad as the show actually bringing in a baby, but it still feels like it's motivated from that “we're doing this because we've run out of other ideas” sort of place.

If there was one plot that I did enjoy – and I really did enjoy it – was Jeff and Lester's sudden investigation into the secret goings-on of the Buy More. Now, I suppose that given that everybody else on the show has found out about Chuck's spy life, adding Jeff and Lester to the mix probably feels like overkill. And it's also a bit ridiculous that we should care about them finding out about Castle now, when Chuck no longer has the Intersect in his head, and the team is no longer affiliated with the CIA. 

But those are future Chuck problems. For now, watching the duo investigate Team Bartowski was a lot of fun, especially when Morgan and Awesome has to run counterintelligence to throw them off the trial. This was a plot where it finally felt like a good number of characters were being put to a suitable use, especially the now-no-longer-stupid Jeff. It's was a silly bit of plotting, but it worked for what it was. Even better, if this means that next week sees a closure plot for Morgan (as he gets to handle Jeff and Lester and becomes a “real spy” or whatever), then all the better.

Next Week: Morgan DOES get to do some spy stuff, but it probably has nothing to do with Jeff and Lester. Or does it??? 

Quotes and Other Thoughts:

For movie night with her dad, Alex chose to watch Downton Abbey. Sure it's not a movie, but that girl's got some good taste.

Given how we saw Sarah complain (justly, I think) about how often she's had to put on skimpy clothing for missions (and meta-textually, the show's fanboys), it only would have been fair I think if we had seen Casey in that Speedo.

That being said, I did enjoy seeing what's probably the last shot we'll get of Sarah in a bikini. Because, you know, I have pulse.

“Sun, sand, sex. The nerve of that woman.”