By Buzz Byrne
Can Chuck (Zachary Levi) save the country’s nuclear secrets from crazed tiny guy Reardon Paine (Kevin Weisman) who poisoned his sister? You bet. Can he save himself from the charms and advances of Rachel Bilson as the seductive sandwich maker Lou? Definitely not.
The episode begins with Paine torturing a guy who worked in the nuclear program and had codes that would act as a skeleton key to the entire system. Paine poisons him with a mixture that starts as a truth serum and ends with death. The guy, Mason Whitney, is freed to retrieve the codes and exchange them for the antidote. It is during this that he bumps into Chuck, Agent Sarah (Yvonne Strzechowski), Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and Captain Awesome (Ryan McPartlin) on a double date. During the “bumping into” the codes are dumped in Ellie’s pocket and Mason is rushed to the hospital where he dies.
Sarah sees there is a growing hole in her and Chuck’s cover as Capt. Awesome notes they rarely make funky noise at night. Sarah says she and Chuck need to spend the night together. Chuck needs to change his pants just at this thought. But that doesn’t stop him from being intrigued by the helpless sandwich maker Lou. Her cell phone/blackberry deal dies and Chuck fixes it up for her and she is flirty with the Chuckster…until she meets his “girlfriend.” That spoils it all. Morgan calls Chuck a “mind cheater.”
Paine figures Ellie has the codes so he poses as a cop to take her statement about her contact with Whitney. It is during this where he surreptitiously bugs her and poisons her. And then the fun begins. Accidental dose of truth serum? Come on, that is like taught in a class somewhere during freshman seminar at a third rate film school, right? Doesn’t make it any less funny, no matter how hacky the concept is.
Eventually Chuck, Sarah and Agent Casey all get doses, just in time for the big chase scene and the final showdown with Paine. As they knock on his door before kicking it in he asks sweetly who’s there. Chuck replies, “The NSA, the CIA and me…I’m a little tough to explain!” Stealthy! They capture Paine who offers up a round of antidote but before they drink Chuck calls it to a halt. “Did you have a flash?” Sarah asks. “No, I’ve just read a ton of comic books!” He wants Paine to taste the antidote first. It is then that they get the real stuff. Before they can take it this time, Chuck calls another halt and asks Sarah if they really have any shot of romance together. She says no and Chuck believes her. Ah, Chuck…
As they are wrapping the details up in their report to Washington, Assistant Manager Harry Tang (C.S. Lee) stumbles onto the group. Harry and Mrs. Tang are sent to Hawaii by the government instead of being “silenced”. I don’t know why Harry has been so quickly dismissed from the show, but there you go.
Chuck finds a quiet moment with Sarah and tells her they need to break up. He then runs right to the little sandwich maker. Conspicuously undersized co-stars this week…almost as odd as Tang being tossed. We do find out that agents have been trained to resist truth serum and Agent Sarah didn’t say anything under the influence that might have “Jeopardized the mission.” Guess what, she was lying to Chuck. As if we didn’t know that.
Maybe I’m a sucker for the love story. Maybe there was enough Capt. Awesome to mollify me. Either way, this week’s CHUCK was definitely fun.