CHUCK 3.11 - "Chuck Versus The Final Exam"

WRITER: Zev Borow
DIRECTOR: Robert Duncan McNeill
GUEST STAR: Brandon Routh, Bonita Friedericy, Heather Olt & Andrew Kirsanov

[SPOILER] One downside to season 3 has been the fact it's constantly changing; not because the changes Chuck's made this year have been all bad, more because we haven't really been able to spend much time with the show in whatever new form it takes, before it's already contorting into something else. The prospect of Devon knowing Chuck's secret formed the basis of just two episodes; Sarah's (Yvonne Strahovski) relationship with Shaw (Brandon Routh) hasn't felt real since the episode they (rather inexplicably) became an item; and Chuck's (Zachary Levi) relationship with sweet Hannah didn't go anywhere, despite lots of promise and potential. "Chuck Versus The Final Exam" was another episode that involved shakeups to the show's foundations, and I hope we get to explore them properly before the writers seize on something else.

This week, Chuck was told by General Beckman (Bonita Friedericy) that he's about to undertake a "final exam" to determine whether or not he can become a full-term spy. Chuck's overjoyed that he'll perhaps achieve his career ambition, but finds he's a little distracted by a desire to get the recently civilianized Casey (Adam Baldwin) his job back, and make a last-ditch play for Sarah's heart before she leaves for a new life with Shaw in Washington D.C. Chuck's final test took the form of a solo mission to a hotel, where he had to visually identify a CIA mole who's been feeding secrets to Ring operative Anatoli Zevlovski, with the help of special glasses that fed video back to the Castle...

The main subplot was inconsequential filler, with Casey facing a reprimand for assaulting Jeff (Scott Krinsky) and Lester (Vik Sahay) at work, who later threatened to sue him. Big Mike (Mark Christopher Lawrence) stepped in to mediate between his warring workers, by arranging a meeting at the local Subway (ker-ching!) to nip things in the bud. Truly, this was a terrible storyline that seemed to exist purely to promote Chuck's major sponsor -- a food outlet whose support of the show I can't criticize too much (after all, Subway were a big reason NBC gave Chuck a third season), but the level of product placement in US shows can be rather egregious. Needless to say, "the sponsor" received a triumphant sting on the soundtrack at their store logo and the full endorsement of Big Mike, for what that's worth. So I guess this storyline made a few Subway executives happy.

The core storyline with Chuck was thankfully pretty good, even if we had to again swallow the idea that Chuck could ever become a proper spy. He's effectively a walking gadget, prone to malfunction without Sarah around to keep his temperament calm and quell his fears, so it's a bit of a stretch to imagine passing this exam would see him dispatched to Rome as a fulltime undercover agent. But that's the line Chuck wants us to tow right now (a few episodes before the original finale date, until NBC added another six episodes to their season order), so we'll have to go with it.

I'm still something of a sucker for scenes between Chuck and Sarah when they try to communicate their feeling for one another, which is something of a miracle considering how often the show plays that card, and how the writers continue to make Sarah react in the exact same way every single time. Still, Zev Borow's script at least gave Yvonne Strahovski a chance to smile and defrosted her ice maiden routine a little, making me remember how pleasurable Strahovski and Levi's scenes can be together. Their champagne, iPod and binoculars stakeout scene was very engaging.

I'm not a fan of poorly used in media res openings, which this episode employed, as they tend to spoil things because you know where events are headed from the off. That said, this episode's managed to work quite well in the end, with Chuck apparently shooting a turncoat CIA mole dead to complete his "Red Test" (proving he can kill the enemy), but knowing that it was actually Casey who took the deadly shot from afar (using a gun Chuck had given him as a present.) This setup the nice development that Chuck's finally been granted spy status, but knows it hasn't really been earned, and Sarah's just horrified that sweet Chuck went through with the kill, believing from her own experience (seen in flashback) that it'll forever taint his character. He's no longer the man she fell in love with, only... he is, but  can't tell her that because he'll lose his job.

Overall, "... Versus The Final Exam" could have been better (if only by omitting or improving Casey's subplot), but the episode ended in a manner that threw the Chuck/Sarah relationship into a fun direction. Would it have been more interesting, not to mention brave, if Chuck had actually shot that guy himself? Perhaps. Do we have a vague idea where all this is likely to go, knowing the show wouldn't be foolish enough to separate Chuck and Sarah? Definitely. But, hey, that's all part and parcel of this show – it's a little restricted by its own premise, no matter how far it tries to stretch the barriers, but it knows what it does best and generally managess to work to its strengths.

Asides

-- I liked seeing Shaw smile when Chuck went into kung fu mode in the steam room. It's good when the characters react as the audience do to things that happen on the show, plus it made Shaw look like less of an automaton.

-- A few fun pop-culture spots: an alias of Ivan Drago (Rocky IV), Casey shooting the villain on behalf of Chuck (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance), the steam room fight (Red Heat), and probably some others.

22 MARCH 2010: NBC, 8/7c