Chuck season 4 episode 18 review: Chuck Versus The A-Team
Anyone expecting a plan to come together might be surprised by what's actually in this episode of Chuck…
This review may contain spoilers.
4.18 Chuck Versus The A-Team
No, not what you might think by the title at all, was it? The latest Chuck introduced the enemy from within in the spritely form of Robin Givens as Jane Bentley, who first appeared in Chuck Versus The Masquerade, I think.
What’s inside Zone 6 is fully revealed, and Chuck gets to feel less special when he discovers that the CIA has two more Intersects at its disposal. This feeds the somewhat overly paranoid aspect to Chuck’s personality, where he’s continually questioning if he’s on the ‘A’ or ‘B’ team? Much of this part of the story was fun, but not as hilarious as this show can be on occasions.
Chuck, however, is not without a sense of playfulness, especially when it’s using other movies and TV shows to bounce off. The mock interrogation of Morgan was lifted directly from Alias, and Jeff and Lester’s delve into the paranormal was certainly inspired by Ghostbusters. There were also plenty of direct references to The Hurt Locker, when Chuck must disable a bomb, wearing the protective outfit that he knows won’t protect him.
But the highlight of the show was undoubtedly the Awesomes and Ellie’s attempt to get her father’s computer back. How this ultimately spliced into the main plot about Chuck and Sarah being demoted was quite clever, and opens up a new can of worms with which to roll out the end of the season.
I’ve always thought that Sarah Lancaster has never really got a decent slice of the screen time in this show, and she’s clearly quite good when they do give her things to do. She plays exceptionally well off Ryan McPartlin (Devon), and it looks like she’ll become a major component in the season end.
While we didn’t actually see it happen, the hint is that Ellie is now an Intersect, and if that’s the case, then I’d be expecting lots of Star Wars references in the last few episodes of the season, as the Force runs strong in the Bartowski family. My guess is that by the end of this, every character in Chuck, including Jeff, Lester and Big Mike will be a spy!
No Vivian this week, but she’ll be back, I’m sure. NBC have given themselves the leg room now to fully work out any plot issues, as the season has been expanded to 24 episodes with the season finale planned for May 16th. That would make it the longest Chuck season, although it’s no guarantee that it will be back for a fifth helping.
Overall, The A-Team wasn’t classic Chuck, but it was fun enough to keep the wheels of this show rolling.
Next week, Chuck must confront the nightmare scenario of a murder in Castle (or “Muuurder”, as the title spells it), in what looks like an homage to Agatha Christie.
Read our review of episode 17, Chuck Versus The First Bank Of Evil, here.
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