Saturday, October 29, 2011

Chuck 5x01 "...vs. the Zoom"

It's been a long wait, but Chuck is finally back with it's new, and final, season. Was it everything you hoped and dreamed it would be? I may get slammed for this, but honestly, I'm kind of glad this is its final season. There's only so much you can do with the premise that hasn't already been done, and at least they get to go out with a clear end-date in mind, thereby wrapping things up properly.

But let's get to the episode at hand. After the events of last season, the team has opened up their own independent spy company called Carmichael Industries with the money from the Volkhoffs. They also bought the Buy More to keep control of Castle beneath it. Morgan got himself the Intersect, while Chuck had his taken out by some dude named Decker, who looks to be this season's adversary.

Recap/review of Chuck 5x01 'Chuck versus the Zoom' by freshfromthe.com'Now that they've got the company up and running, however, there are some kinks to work out. Though Morgan has the Intersect, he's only just learning how to use it, and since he's still Morgan, tends to mess up and break $6 million vases that were intended to bankroll the company. Chuck is also feeling some Intersect-envy, worrying that he's not going to be able to do the job well without it, and at first, it seems like he's going to be right about that.

When their next case comes in, they've got a mini-mission to get an invitation to a party this dude Bale is having. Chuck is supposed to distract a huge dude with massage skills while Casey breaks into the guy's phone, and Morgan plays squash with him. Only Casey gets caught trying to get into the phone, and Chuck is forced to try to fight the monstrous dude while his hands are covered in massage oils. This time, it's Morgan to the rescue, who manages to secure an invite to the party based on his winning charms alone.

This leaves Chuck to be relegated to the van during their next mission, rather than being the guy on the inside like he's used to. Instead, Morgan and Sarah are the hot couple dancing on the floor while Casey works to infiltrate Bale's computer system to do something about money and whatnot that I didn't particularly care about. Point is, they all get caught when the aforementioned Decker hacks into the van and takes over Bale's computers remotely. Sarah, Casey and Morgan are detained.

Luckily, Bale needs a computer whiz to come help with the computer problems they just caused. Enter Chuck. He works some magic, but when he's done, Bale is ready to kill him. Thinking on his feet, he grabs some fiber-optic cords that, if he were to pull them, would give the CIA access to Bale's system. He brokers a deal to get the others out. And this is where it got pretty cool.

He pretends to tell Sarah to leave him behind, but when they get to the van, they find a video from him giving them instructions about what to do. See, it was all a plan! They kill the lights and Chuck pulls the wires and runs for it. He jumps out of a window and lands on top of the van - straight up spy style. He didn't need the Intersect after all! I think we all knew that's where this was going.

But, when they get back to Castle, they find out that all of their monetary assets have been frozen thanks to Decker. See, they had to make an investment in order to look legit at the party, and Decker was able to track that back to their account. So basically, they have no more buckets of money. This is especially troubling to Chuck, who had been trying to secure Sarah's dream house for her throughout the episode, and had only just found it. Alas, they can no longer afford the cute white house with red door and picket fence. But, not to fear, if they can just get the Buy More to start turning a profit, they can still keep funding their spy business, which should then start turning a profit itself! Plans made!

And speaking of the Buy More, Jeff and Lester were up to their usual shady shenanigans, trying to raise money for Jeff's apparent possible paralization. Chuck and Morgan put a stop to it after Jeff totally outs himself as being perfectly fine. 

Back at Decker's lair, we find out that he has some kind of vendetta against Chuck, with some kind of plan to "not let him succeed." Not sure what this dude's agenda is, or why he has a haterade on for Chuck, but we'll find out soon I suspect.

Supposedly Mark Hamill was in this episode in some kind of cameo, but I totally missed it.

Choice Songs:

Ice Cream - New Young Pony Club

The Honest Truth - Typhoon

Quotes:

"He stole two million dollars from Rush Limbaugh."
"Tell me everything you know about this animal." - Casey

"Where's Lester? I can sense his evil little hand all over this." - Chuck

"They wouldn't! They couldn't! What am I talking about, it's Jeff and Lester, of course it's a scam." - Morgan

Previous Episode -- Next Episode

4 comments:

  1. Stumbled upon this via Livejournal, but for the record, Mark Hamill was the rich guy that Chuck and the team busted in the cold open.

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  2. Oh really? I couldn't even tell that was him!!

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  3. Wow a chuck fan too! Nice.

    I love this show. I loved this episode. Also did you know that this is the final season of Chuck? I'm sad, but also I'm glad that this will be the final season, and will be one of those few shows that actually ends on a high note and not before dragging out for two or more seasons.

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  4. Yep I'm aware it's the final season. As much as I enjoy the show, I think it's definitely time.

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