‘Chuck’ 5.01 Recap: “We’re Still Working Out the Kinks”

Team Bartowski is back in action for one last go-round. After a few previous false-stops and last-minute restarts, NBC has officially declared that Season 5 will be the last for ‘Chuck’. Given how uncertain and unstructured the past couple of seasons were, this sense of finality may be just what the show’s producers and writers need to focus on crafting a coherent story arc. As far as the premiere episode goes, the season is off to at least a promising start.

As the previous season left off, Team Bartowski had broken off from the CIA and started a new freelance spy agency (called Carmichael Industries) with the giant pile of money left to them by the Volkoffs. Chuck, unfortunately, had the Intersect removed from his brain by CIA jerkwad Decker (Richard Burgi), and Morgan inadvertently got programmed with it instead. As we quickly learn in ‘Chuck vs. the Zoom’, the Intersect glasses that Gen. Beckman left were one-time-use only. Chuck cannot get his Intersect back. This is a fairly amusing turn of events.

It seems that, in its start-up stages, Carmichael Industries is burning through money and having trouble finding clients to turn a profit. Casey wants to contract for the government, but the others resist the idea. Chuck and Morgan are also secretly conspiring to buy Sarah her dream house. They call this plan “Operation: Toes In The Sand,” the acronym for which is a little inappropriate.

In this episode, the team takes on a mission to infiltrate the home of a Ponzi-scheming corporate crook (Craig Kilborn), hack into his computer network, and redistribute all the wealth that he stole. Because Morgan is now the Intersect and finally coming into his own as a spy, Chuck feels a little lost about his place in the team. However, when everyone else gets captured, Chuck has to use his wits to devise a plan and save the day.

Lest things seem to be going too easy for them, just as they break into the computer network, the team discovers that they’d been set up by Decker, who not only freezes all of the crook’s assets, but all of Carmichael Industries’ assets as well. All of the Volkoffs’ money is gone, and Chuck can no longer afford to buy Sarah that dream house. The only thing they have left to support their spying endeavors is the Buy More, ownership of which was well hidden.

The episode is pretty fun, and sets up some interesting storylines. Morgan’s glee at discovering his new Intersect powers is very entertaining. Because he want to do his own thing rather than just copy Chuck, he’s decided to call it “zooming” when the Intersect kicks in, as opposed to Chuck’s “flashing.” But every time he says the word just rubs salt in Chuck’s wound. In a funny scene, Morgan needs to distract himself from “premature zoom” by talking about baseball when he’s not ready for the Intersect to turn on. The episode also has a shameless fan service scene of Sarah in lingerie, and there can’t possibly be anything wrong with that.

On the other hand, I’m a little disappointed that the team is broke again already. I was looking forward to seeing a well-funded Team Bartowski let their limitless resources get them into and out of trouble… for a few episodes, at least. This plot twist feels kind of like a cheat.

1 comment

  1. I feel sad to say this, but I haven’t seen a single episode of this show. I got the first two seasons on Blu-Ray, but I haven’t gotten around to opening them yet – they are in my stack of unwatched movies. I will probably work through the movies first, then start the animies, then continue to the TV shows (I also have Star Trek Seasons 2 and 3 and Terminator Chronicles to watch)

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