Chuck Review: The Team Behind The Castle

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Although the episode itself left plenty to be desired, "Chuck Versus the A-Team" answered enough long-standing questions and created a couple new queries to make up for its lack of overall entertainment.

Morgan Grimes getting tranqed will always be humorous, but leaving him drugged on Casey's recliner for the entire episode really tied the show's hands. You can't expect a great hour of Chuck without the comedic stylings of Morgan Guillermo Grimes.

Chuck vs. GRETA

Even without Morgan for a majority of the episode, comedy was still the only aspect of the Chuck Triple Threat that even decided to show up this week. Between Morgan admitting that he drank no water so that he would not wet himself, Chuck making fun of CBS and all of their CSI-type shows, and the disarming of a nuclear bomb using just fruit juice... there were enough laughs to get by.

The only action scenes were the two times the Gretas took out the bad guys in five seconds, and then when Chuck disarmed the bomb. Not all that exciting. And heart? I found no moments worthy of mentioning as heartfelt. A really disappointing performance by the Chuck Triple Threat and the episode suffered because of it.

What "Chuck Versus the A-Team" did have, though, were answers to two major questions:

  1. What the heck is the point of these stupid Gretas? We finally found out that they were the agents trying out to be the next intersects, and if this is the last we see of the Gretas, I'm happy with how their arc unfolded. It made sense that there were so many of them coming in and out of the Buy More and it made sense why there were all so dry and robotic. Was all the confusion worth it in the end? Probably not, but at least it wasn't a disappointing conclusion, especially because most people thought there was absolutely no point to the Gretas whatsoever.
  2. What the heck was Casey up to behind that wall? We learned he had a new team handed to him by Robin Givens' character, and it was made up of the best Gretas. I completely agree with the Isaiah Mustafa choice, but I would much rather have seen Summer Glau or Olivia Munn return as the female Greta. It was also pleasing to see that Casey had been doing missions with his new team behind Chuck and Sarah's backs. That's worthy of a secret. The even bigger secret, though, was that these two Gretas were given Intersects of their own!

The fact that there were these two new intersects was great for this episode in that it helped show that Chuck Bartowski is more than just a computer in the brain.  

He proved that when the first Greta couldn't stop herself from shooting the target because her computer told her that was what she should do; then again when the second Greta stopped trying to disarm the bomb because his computer told him it couldn't be done. Chuck is more than just a computer, and knows how to use his Intersect so well, that he disarmed the bomb and saved the day.

It was awesome to see Chuck show up the other Intersects with his masterful apple juice strategy, but I really think they could have extended this story over a few more episodes. There was a lot of great material there with Chuck being jealous of the others with Intersects, along with fighting between the two teams. Instead, they dismantled the idea after one installment, and we are back to the status quo. Oh well.

So, as the episode ends with Jane giving Ellie the intersect computer, new questions arise: What did Ellie see on the computer? What, specifically, did she get so lost in while using the computer all day? And why did she have such a big smile? Is she going to be the new Intersect? Will Ellie know Kung Fu?

That would be quite the upgrade in material for Sarah Lancaster. I think she's up to the challenge, don' you?

Chuck Versus the A-Team Review

Editor Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 4.3 / 5.0 (35 Votes)

Dan Forcella is a TV Fanatic Staff Writer. Follow him on Twitter.

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Chuck Season 4 Episode 18 Quotes

Casey: You didn't wet yourself this time. That's an improvement.
Morgan: I didn't drink any water today.

Casey: Would you be willing to sacrifice your life to protect John Casey?
Morgan: My only regret is that I have one life to give.