Chris Fedak has Brass Balls and I Like It!

So the final episode of Chuck’s second season aired this week and it ended with the most optimistic line ever… “To Be Continued…” God bless Chris and Josh and those guys and girls down at Chuck HQ. However one little side note, I’m fairly sure that Gilligan, Shiban and Spotnitz ended The Lone Gunmen with the exact same optimism… I honestly have everything crossed for you that history doesn’t repeat itself.

It was none other than Bryce Larkin himself who said “It’s 1999, the next millennium belongs to the geek.” and its been too long since we’ve had a geeky hero on our screens and that’s Chuck! Since the death of the three nerds Byers, Frohike and Langley (played by Dean Haglund who i once had the pleasure of working with.) The nerd community at large have been without their representative in the TV world. But last year along came Zach Levi and changed all that. Long live Chuck!

So, the finale, Sarah and Bryce are reunited, John gets to rejoin his old marine unit and Chuck finally quits the Buy More… Oh and Ted Roark shows up and ruins Ellie’s wedding day!

So the episode opens with Chuck and Casey quitting the Buy More and the last scene for Tony Hale since it now seems improbable that the Buy More will feature in anyway in a new series should the show be picked up again.

(Sidenote: It could be that the produces are attempting to make the show more appealing to networks by cutting some of the expenses. Certainly the Buy More is the biggest set on the show and it also represents over 50% of the show’s cast. If the Buy More is cut the show is easier to pick up without taking on the entire cast. As it stands the cast of Chuck has 10 cast members on its season credits, cutting the Buy More, even if you keep Morgan cuts that to 6 and if you take Ellie and Devon out of it as they are now happily married and say, have moved to the suburbs, you can cut it to 4. Certainly not a prospect I relish and this is only a theory but if it means Chuck gets picked up… We can always have guest stars…)

So, Chuck bids Emmett goodbye and walks away for the last time, as Emmett calls after him, “What do you think you’re going to do for the rest of your life?” And that Mr. Hale is the question that this episode poses really isn’t it? Not only what does Chuck plan to do but what new direction is the series heading in?

With the Buy More out of the way, Chuck returns to Castle where Beckman offers him a job on the new intersect project. Chuck turns it down, claiming he’s not a hero, he’s just Chuck. However, to be honest, what does Chuck have to go to that is better than what he is being offered. His sister is getting married, his best friend is leaving and if he doesn’t stay in spy world he’ll lose Sarah too. This however seems to be a thought that hadn’t occurred to Chuck. Having declined the offer Casey give Chuck his pay packet and his own personal number for emergencies.

Meanwhile Sarah is informed she will be heading up the new intersect project with Bryce as the new Human Intersect. Its odd but throughout this episode you can see it in Sarah’s face that she doesn’t want to take this new job, least ways not without Chuck, so why does she agree to it? Is it the comfort of the devil you know, as opposed to heading into the unknown, trying to make a go of it with Chuck?

And so we come to the wedding day and Chuck takes Sarah aside and asks her to go on vacation with him and Sarah breaks his heart, not only by refusing but by doing it to be with Bryce. Chuck leaves to drown his sorrows which is when Roark falls upon him, demanding the new intersect cube. Seriously though, I’m not the only one who is fed up of this chase for the intersect and the whole human intersect project right? Seriously have the US Government not heard the proverb “Don’t put all your eggs in the same basket.” Roark threatens to kill Ellie should Chuck fail to bring him the cube.

Chuck gets Morgan to stall while he recruits Bryce and calls Casey. Which naturally leads to a shoot out in the reception room, set to the backdrop of Jeffster (Jeff and Lester’s band) warming up the wedding crowd. Roark is taken down but the reception is ruined, to which Casey replies accusingly “You called!”

To top it all off Jeff ignites a pair of pryos and sets off the sprinklers. Leading to a mass exodus and the rather forced line from Sarah Lancaster “Wedding Cancelled”. Agonising over ruining the happiest day of his sister’s life whilst trying to do the right thing Chuck uses his settlement money to give her the wedding day she really wanted.

As Ellie and Awesome tie the knot Bryce asks Sarah one last time if she is coming with him and tearfully she declines. That’s enough for Bryce and he walks away. Unfortunately the men who are going to download the intersect into him are traitors who have already neutralised Casey. Luckily Orion, who had experimented on himself with the intersect during his youth, flashes in time to warn Chuck and Sarah. They collect a battered and bemused Casey and head after Bryce.

The new non-fulcrum group use Bryce to access the vault with the intersect, where security is exceptionally lax I might add, before shooting him. Bryce topples inside and locks the door behind him. Chuck enters the vault through the roof echoing the opening of the series as Bryce broke into the intersect room in the same way. Bryce breathes his last telling Chuck to take care of Sarah and thrusting the device to destroy the intersect into Chuck’s trembling hands.

Finally faced with the decision of accepting his destiny or destroying it forever Chuck hesitates only moments before uploading the new intersect. The pictures flash and as soon as he has his wits about him once more Chuck uses the device, which although kinda cool looking lacked the explosiveness of Bryce’s last intersect destroying tool.

The door opens and Miles, new evil spy, brings in Sarah and Casey. Realising Chuck has downloaded the new intersect Miles and his cronies surround Chuck, Chuck however didn’t just download the computer this time, but he got service packs one, two and three as well and the mild mannered Nerd Herder deftly disarms the six or so trained assassins that surround him before brutally knocking them into the middle of next week. “Chuck me!” Casey breathes… “Guys…” Chuck murmurs, “I know Kung Fu!”

So i was right. Last week i predicted that Chuck would voluntarily download the intersect, however i did not predict that it would be Bryce’s death that would spark his decision. Although in terms of storytelling it makes sense, it was Bryce’s “death” that gave Chuck the intersect in the first place, against his will and finally when Chuck was able to forgive his friend on his deathbed it would be his death that would cause Chuck to become the hero, to take on the mantle of Bryce Larkin, a real spy.

So we can see a reassembly of Team Chuck, after all Casey’s team is all dead as is Sarah’s (although already in my own household there is debate that Bryce is not really dead and if he isn’t then he too is an intersect…as his eyes were open during the download!) but what about the members of Team Chuck? Big Mike, Jeff and Lester will be hard to shoehorn into a new series without the Buy More. As the only civilian to know Chuck’s identity Devon seems to be an idea candidate to come back next season, that and the fact that Chris and Josh know just how much the fans love him… And, well, how can you not bring Sarah Lancaster back…

But what about Morgan? Chuck cannot exist without Morgan, he is Chewie to Chuck’s Solo, except less effective in a fight. Perhaps Morgan and Anna are doomed to break up and so Morgan returns to become Chuck’s roommate after Devon and Ellie move into their own little love nest?

But of course, this is all speculation… Chuck deserves another season, another chance to win our hearts but for now all is done. So too is NBC’s other hit Monday night show Heroes (expect a blog on that soon.), in a weeks time the doors of Sacred Heart close for the final time as Scrubs finishes its eighth and final season, with Dollhouse finishing that week too and with Fringe, Lost and the Unit finishing the week after, all that will be left is Reaper, which really leaves one question… What DVD do i buy next?

This has been Chuck and that was My Two Cents… Come back soon :)