CHUCK 3.8 - "Chuck Versus The Fake Name"

WRITER: Allison Adler
DIRECTOR: Jeremiah Chechik
GUEST CAST: Brandon Routh, Kristin Kreuk, Tony Sirico, Louis Lombardi & Johnny Messner

[SPOILERS] A common problem with Chuck is repetition. I've come to accept there's barely a half-dozen plots the show recycles for its spy missions (three at the Buy More), and that a certain amount of recurrence is inevitable in a show with a "will-they/won't-they" romance at its core, but "Chuck Versus The Fake Name" still frustrated me. It was particularly galling because the previous episode appeared to signal a change to the show's heartbeat -- as Chuck (Zachary Levi) and Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) agreed to date other people -- but by the end of this episode it's clear we're heading back to square one already...

This week, Agent Shaw (Brandon Routh) insisted that Chuck replace ace marksman Rafe Gruber (Johnny Messner), who's in town to offer his services to two hoodlums (Louis Lombardi and Tony Sirico) who need to assassinate someone on behalf of The Ring. Having tranquilized the real Gruber and detained him back at the Castle, Chuck had to approximate the ace sniper's personality -- by slicking back his hair, pulling on a leather jacket, and growling like Clint Eastwood. Strangely, there was no Intersect "flash" to confer skills of imitation, so Chuck essentially had to rely on his own amateur mimicry and support from Casey (Adam Baldwin) as a reticent associate.

As it sounds, the storyline was disappointingly slim, although seeing Chuck try to convince people he's a tough guy had its moments. He even had to extract a tooth from Casey, after he was recognized by gangsters, as part of an impromptu interrogation to protect his cover. However, "... The Fake Name" was more about watching Chuck continue to lose his own identity (with a heavy-handed parallel in the mission), which is something Sarah's still perturbed by. I may have enjoyed the exploration of this idea five episodes ago, but this season's already tackled the idea that Chuck's training as an agent is having a detrimental effect on him as a human being, and he's losing the naivety Sarah fell in love with. For that reason, this episode felt like it was hammering a point it had already made crystal clear.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment concerned Hannah (Kristin Kreuk), who's clearly head-over-heels in love with Chuck and was invited to a family dinner with Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and Devon (Ryan McPartlin) here, but Chuck eventually decides that his life's too complicated to involve Hannah and breaks up with her. This being Kreuk's final episode as a recurring guest-star, it would appear to be the end of the Chuck/Hannah storyline entirely -- just as it had started to get really interesting!

I'm glad Hannah wasn't revealed to be an undercover agent and was instead just a normal person with genuine feelings for Chuck, but this was a clear waste of the potential her character had. Even worse, Chuck's reasons for dumping her were vague and not unsatisfying, which gave me a feeling the writers knew Kreuk's contract was expiring (and assumedly couldn't extend it, as they have Routh's), and so were forced to ditch her rather unceremoniously. But if they knew they only had her guaranteed involvement until episode 8, they've still done a bad rush job with her arc.

There were some good moments, naturally. I especially liked the scene between Sarah and Shaw in his hotel room, where Sarah unburdened a lot of her feelings about how she barely remembers her pre-spy life, before daring to reveal to Shaw that her real name is Sam. She never even told Chuck that. Even better, their private moment was being eavesdropped by Chuck from a high-rise across town, as he sat behind a sniper rifle under instructions to eliminate Shaw, but couldn't help ear wigging.

Overall, "... Versus The Fake Name" wasn't a blithering mess, but it was resolutely average and a big disappointment if, like me, you were rather looking forward to seeing where the Chuck/Hannah relationship would go. There was enough fun on the sidelines to prevent this being a dud, but it was a worrying sign that Chuck's beginning to play the same notes so often that the music's starting to grate.

Asides

-- Casey was recognized as Alex Coburn by a gangster; is that an old alias he used, or his real name? Apparently this piece of information will form the basis of a future episode.

-- Brandon Routh; good actor or plank of wood? I change my mind nearly every episode, but he was bland beefcake here.

-- Look, I quite like Ellie as a character (mainly because Sarah Lancaster exudes congeniality), but her mother hen clucking around Chuck and keen interest in his love-life is beginning to grate on me. It feels like the writers don't really know what to do with her, beyond push the fact she's a wife and sister.

-- The Buy More troupe were excess baggage this week, but I appreciated hearing them note Chuck's ability to attract every drop-dead gorgeous girl who wanders into their store. Jeff (Scott Krinsky) even made me laugh -- wonder of wonders -- with his uncharacteristically perceptive comment that Chuck only really lights up around Sarah.

-- Louis Lombardi and Tony Sirico are alumni of The Sopranos, and both lent credence to the popular saying that comedy's harder than drama.

1 MARCH 2010: NBC, 8/7c