CHUCK: “Chuck Versus the Hack Off” – the recap

Chuck is fast becoming a completely different kind of show than it ever was before and I love it. It’s not same subtle kind of change to the formula the series has been doing every year since it’s inception, but rather it’s something more purposeful and apparent. Within the span of one episode, Chuck and co. went from down-on-their-luck entrepreneurs to on-the-run fugitives while managing to kill whom we thought was this season’s bad guy. We are five episodes in to this farewell season and already the game has changed. Where we go from here is anyone’s guess, but it feels good to have such solid forward momentum.

Getting to specifics from “Chuck Versus the Hack Off”: the entirety of the episode, including both the spy and the Buy More storylines, are motivated by what’s going on in prison. As we should all know, last week both Casey and Lester were arrested, Casey for murder and Lester for almost killing Big Mike and Jeff. I’ll start with the Buy More bit first, since it’s the shorter of the two. Jeff is willing to drop all charges placed against Lester as long he promises never to gas him again. Believing they’ll drop the charges because they need an Indian guy at the Buy More, Lester refuses. What follows is the best cameo of all time (on this show at least). In order to make Lester jealous, they hire an Indian model/actor (played by Community’s Danny Pudi) to pretend to be a new Nerd Herder. He comes in and completely demolishes the scene with his raw talent. Pudi is such a strong comedic force; he’s the only person who could have pulled this bit off. It’s been widely known Pudi would have this cameo, but I was completely shocked (and pleased) to see fellow Community star Yvette Nicole Brown pop in as well. It just made the cameo all the more sweet. The only way this could have ended better would’ve been to have the entire cast of Community sprinkled through out the Buy More, but that would have difficult considering Chevy Chase once played a villain on Chuck.

Moving on to the spy stuff. In order to free Casey from prison, Chuck and Sarah agree to do a mission for Dekker (Richard Burgi) to retrieve a computer virus capable of emptying the world’s databases in seconds. The whole idea of working for Decker is sketchy, but it’s the only way to legitimately get Casey out, so they accept. Casey’s imprisonment ends up helping the couple considerably when Gertrude Verbansky (Carrie-Anne Moss) agrees to help out on the mission. Ever since he went away, Gertrude has been wrestling with her feelings for Casey and what they might mean for her as a spy. Her confusion over possibly loving someone causes her to (quite hilariously) lash out as Sarah and Chuck’s lovey dovey nature.

Soon Chuck and Sarah are infiltrating a nudist cult, and the scenes get a touch blurry. No really, all the nudity had to be blurred out. Did you really think they would shoot everything from the neck up? They quickly locate Davis (Eric Lange), the man carrying the virus and make their getaway. The scenes here are typical Chuck fun, but the good stuff comes after.

This was a great reminder that, once upon a time, Chuck was a whiz with computers. And he still is, as he breaks out the chardonnay, a key component to “The Routine”. It’s been awhile, but Chuck still knows his way around a computer. It wasn’t until he was alone among a bunch of hackers, just hacking away, that I remembered there’s no more Intersect. It hadn’t even crossed my mind until this close to the end of the episode. I guess that means the show doesn’t need it anymore. They have Chuck and his already impressive skills. He’ll need every last one of them for the road ahead.

It was a pretty obvious move to have Decker double cross Chuck. He’s a sleazy guy, who turns out to not even be the guy in charge. He talks about this plan going above him to some shadowy figure before sending Chuck and Sarah to their fates as criminals. Too bad Decker wasn’t counting on Gertrude and her love for Casey, Pissed right off, she plants a bomb on Decker and just like that he’s gone. So where will things go from here? How will Chuck and his team work when they have nowhere to go that’s safe? Things are shifting into high gear. I just hope it doesn’t stall.