Reviews

Chuck season 2 episode 6 review

Chuck’s life takes an unexpected twist when he meet his ex-girlfriend

By Billy Grifter | November 13, 2008 | | 0

What’s Chuck’s worst nightmare? Tooled-up warlords or professional assassins? Nah, they’re easy. But Jill, the girlfriend who dumped him for Bryce Larkin, now we’re talking scary! And she’s exactly the person that Chuck accidentally meets in the opening minutes of ‘Chuck Versus the Ex’.

We’ve heard her name plenty, but episode six of the second season finally puts a face to ‘Jill’, and it’s the same one worn so well by Jordana Brewster (Fast and the Furious). How does Chuck do it?

Unfortunately, any plans Chuck might have had to exit stage left are condemned when he ‘flashes’ on her co-worker, Guy Lafleur, who’s involved in biological warfare technology. That’s also the name of a Canadian professional hockey player, but I don’t think it’s the same person.

Chuck is given a mission to ‘get close’ and find out what she knows. But actually, he has his own plans to find out why she dumped him for Bryce and if she still cares for him.

So they end up on this entirely CIA-controlled date, where the entire restaurant is full of agents who all know and acknowledge ‘Mr Bartowski’. This goes well, even if Chuck can’t drive the Ferrari they provided him, right up to the point where they exit the venue and meet Lester and Jeff driving one of the Nerd Herd mobiles. Chuck’s credibility evaporates in an instant.

But after Jill’s colleague is killed by a rogue CIA agent, Chuck must re-engage with Jill to find out why.

It all culminates with the assassin releasing a deadly flu virus at a medical conference and Chuck riding to the rescue.

I can see that this show is turning, slowly from one where Chuck always mucks-up, to one where he’s now the hero, saving the day in his own unique way. Yes, he still ends up kissing Casey (no – that was not a typo) thinking that he can transfer an antivirus he’s carrying in his blood through saliva, but he does get Jill there, who can really cure the infection.

The bit where he convinces Jill, by telling her he’s an agent, is the best scene this week. She tells him she’s going to call the police, to which he replies “I’ve already taken the liberty.” In the corridor outside her hotel room are 20 people dressed as Police, FBI and Swat officers – that looked a lot like the film crew to me.

In terms of the overall Chuck plot development, this story reveals that Chuck still isn’t over Jill, and that Sarah might need to work harder if she’s to ever form a real relationship with him.

The Buy More sections this week are entirely unrelated to the main story, but involve Big Mike choking on a donut given to him by slimy efficiency expert, Emmett Milbarge. This triggers a health and safety training regime where all the Buy More staff must learn the Heimlich manoeuvre, and be tested by none other than Devon “Captain Awesome” Woodcomb. The highlight of this sequence is when Lester and Morgan convince Jeff to choke on a pen top so they can take notes on how to attend to someone in this predicament.