Chuck -3x11 -"Chuck vs. the Final Exam"-Discuss/Grade <SPOILERS>

[the Dagman]

Here we are at yet another Chuckday, and another new episode of Chuck. After last week, this episode should prove quite interesting. Shaw is back, and I am hoping that Sarah dumps him to stay with Chuck in Burbank. And how long do you think Casey is going to be only working at the Buy More? A former Marine colonel with over twenty years of black ops special operative experience? Of course, he did just find out he has a ~20 y.o. daughter, so he may be thinking of other things than contacting Blackwater's HR department at the moment.

Spoiler: tonight's episode's official description

Chuck must use everything he's learned to avoid going back to his old life, as Sarah and Shaw observe his every move. Brandon Routh guest stars.

 

[elaithin]

Awesome - interesting way to resolve the issue of his test, although I kind of wish they'd gotten that over with. I did really enjoy the episode, and get the feeling several plots will be paying off very soon. (And there's still 8 episodes in the season, unless NBC has extended it to the full 22!)

 

[Sheep]

Well that one should shut up all the people who complain about too much Sarah cheesecake and not enough Chuck beefcake.

Great episode that really tied together the season's plotlines well and gave us even more questions. I'm almost certain Chuck's secret won't be kept for long, as that would be the predictable route and these writers have a knack at avoiding that (even if they fully don't stick with it).

I just realized this should be Brandon Routh's last episode, which is even more reason to give it an excellent rating.

 

[elaithin]

Hah! yes. "I'm a naked spy."

From the previews, it looks like Routh will be around next week - his role was expanded from 3 episodes, to 8, and then 'recurring'.

Also, the producers have said that the plotlines follow the original 13-episode are, since that was all that were initially ordered. It makes me wonder what the last six episodes of the season are going to consist of.

 

[Michael Chris]

I made my bunk and I'll lie in it! Hahaha

 

[auntiehill]

I give it a Big Mike. I saw Casey's role in the end coming from a mile away. As soon as Chuck said, "I passed my test," with such joy, you could tell from Casey's expression what was really going to happen. I kinda wish Chuck would understand that to REALLY be a spy means being brutal.

I LOVE seeing more of Casey. I'm hoping he inflicts some serious psychological torture on Jeffster.

Odd- with the intersect still in his head, I would think the government would be reluctant to let Chuck just walk away, but he's told, "pass the test, or you go back to your old life." Just like that? Seemed very odd to me.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Odd- with the intersect still in his head, I would think the government would be reluctant to let Chuck just walk away, but he's told, "pass the test, or you go back to your old life." Just like that? Seemed very odd to me.

Would you expect her to tell him the truth?

"Fail your test and we put a bullet in your head and dump you in the river!"

 

[FreezeC77]

I can't see how failing the test the CIA would let him go back to his normal life. At the very least wouldn't we be back to him being put in that underground bunker and kept a prisoner?

Hell that was when he had the original intersect, now he's got the 2.0 version in him.

 

[auntiehill]

I can't see how failing the test the CIA would let him go back to his normal life. At the very least wouldn't we be back to him being put in that underground bunker and kept a prisoner?

Hell that was when he had the original intersect, now he's got the 2.0 version in him.

^That's what I'm thinking. It seemed very odd for her to say that, and even more odd for anyone,even Chuck, to believe it.

 

[RoJoHen]

Also, the producers have said that the plotlines follow the original 13-episode are, since that was all that were initially ordered. It makes me wonder what the last six episodes of the season are going to consist of.

From what I remember reading, the writers said they had a mini arc planned for the final 6 episodes.

I made my bunk and I'll lie in it! Hahaha

I don't know if that was intentionally funny, but I thought it was hilarious.

 

[elaithin]

I've been wondering whether the original scripted line was "bunk" or "bed", and Baldwin just changed it.

 

[FPAlpha]

Didn't think the writer would be going this far, i.e. keeping up this storyline going like that.

It seems they listened to the viewers who, by all account, were sick of the weekly reset button and now they have something going on. Where that leads remain to be seen but i'm positive that it leads to something good.

It's getting a bit serious for a show like Chuck but then i was also getting a bit sick of the juvenile humor Chuck had going for season 1&2 so this is refreshing.. makes Jeffster and Bymoria all the more funny when they are used.

 

[farmkid]

Odd- with the intersect still in his head, I would think the government would be reluctant to let Chuck just walk away, but he's told, "pass the test, or you go back to your old life." Just like that? Seemed very odd to me.

I found that odd too. Why not just back to the way it was before, with Sarah and Casey (or Shaw) doing the heavy lifting and Chuck going along as the intersect. As a team they've done some good things, why would Chuck not passing the test mean it all has to end?

 

[elaithin]

It's kind of a big hole, and one I hope they address soon. Because honestly, Chuck is a far greater risk now than he was in seasons one and two, particularly if they just cut him loose. Factor in the fact that Fulcrum and the Ring think that the Burbank Buy More is a CIA substation, and it would be very, very bad plan to just pull out and leave him on his own.

 

[Sheep]

I rationalize the CIA's willingness to release Chuck into the wild and be a full-on spy as their desire to take the next step in the intersect program.

I interpreted the earliest reveals of the intersect to mean that the government wanted a whole bunch of uber-agents with gigantic databases of information in their heads in the field (the first one intended to be Bryce). If that's the case, they need to see how these agents function in the field and whether it was worth pursuing this further. Sending Chuck into the field with the new and improved intersect in his head is the logical next step, as stupid as it may be to do so when you don't have a backup.

 

[elaithin]

Right - I don't dispute that at all. What I'm talking about is their statements that he will simply go back to his old life if he fails. Yeah, I'm not buying that one for a second.

 

[Starbreaker]

Excellent episode... but they really have trouble advancing the plot for some reason. They've got a pretty decent budget, apparently. What's wrong with actually letting Chuck go to Rome for a few episodes and have some solo missions? The preview for next week looks like everything is status quo.

 

[Chaos Descending]

Right - I don't dispute that at all. What I'm talking about is their statements that he will simply go back to his old life if he fails. Yeah, I'm not buying that one for a second.

Again, why do people think she was telling the truth?

Chuck still doesn't know that Casey came dangerous close to having to eliminate Chuck early on. Or did he find that out? I can't remember.

 

[the Dagman]

Excellent episode... but they really have trouble advancing the plot for some reason. They've got a pretty decent budget, apparently. What's wrong with actually letting Chuck go to Rome for a few episodes and have some solo missions? The preview for next week looks like everything is status quo.

I am thinking that Chuck goes to DC at the end of this ep, gets his paperwork done, then heads back to Burbank to wrap up his affairs and say good bye to his sister, possibly letting her in on his cover since Devon won't be able to keep it from her should he just up and disappear.

Remember, it was supposed to be a 13 episode season at first. Next week is episode 12, the second to last episode to what was at first thought to be possibly their series finale, seeing as they only barely cleared NBC's cancelation threshold last season.

Next week's preview showed missiles, an explosion witnessed by Sarah, Shaw captured and Chuck going to rescue him. So I am thinking Shaw bites it, but then not really as he turns out to be a Ring mole in the CIA. So first Sarah gets all angsty over him "dying" then angry from his betrayal, and she emotionally bounces back to Chuck. With episode 13 giving the fans something they think we want as they thought they were bringing the series to a close. Will Sarah and Chuck get together, go to Rome act as billionaire jet-setters? Maybe. They did make us think we went to Paris and Dubai this season too under the show's budget. It would have made for a great series ending for the two of them to go off spying "happily ever after". Selling a cover as a billionaire industrialist in Rome sounds like a fun thing to pull off. "First, I will need a Ferrari..."

 

[Starbreaker]

It's highly possible episode 13 will be the last one I watch if it will service as a series finale... I think I'll be devastated if I watch the whole season only to have it end on a massive cliffhanger and get cancelled.