Chuck and Tuttle sit in a bank. A customer service rep brings them a safe deposit box which contains the evidence needed to clear Mary's name. Meanwhile, Devon rushes home after a call from Ellie. She tells him about her meeting with her mom and how they spoke about her father's '68 Mustang. The ad for the car must be for a real car! Back in the bank, Sarah and Mary enter and find Tuttle and Chuck. Tuttle explains that although they have the information necessary to prove Mary is working for MI6, the triangular computer discs on which that information is contained can only be played on a computer in London. Chuck remembers the Phalanx computer in his father's basement. Sarah says that Mary has to go back to Castle and can't accompany them. Chuck protests, but their argument is cut short when Dasha and her goons enter the bank and start shooting up the place. Chuck, Sarah, Mary and Tuttle dive for cover.
Sarah wonders how they were found, and figures Mary led them there. Chuck says not to automatically blame his mother. Sarah wants to reply, but Tuttle sticks up for Chuck, saying that he and Chuck must have been followed, but she should just let Chuck explain. "It'll make this fight you're having seem like nothing, a little blip on the radar," Tuttle instructs. Sarah is flabbergasted that Chuck told yet another person about their fight. Outside in the van, Morgan informs Casey about Dasha and her men. Casey says that the plan will be to sneak in the back of the bank to surprise Volkoff's men. "Sweet. Goie 'em hell, sir," Morgan tells the Colonel. Casey looks at Morgan, sizes him up, and replies, "You coming?" "I figured you want me to stay in the van," Morgan says. "You're never going to learn anything if you stay in here," Casey responds, handing Morgan a tech vest. Morgan beams with the thought of his big spy break.
Inside the bank, the four spies move from hiding spot to hiding spot, all while Chuck and Sarah bicker about their fight. She can't believe he has told everyone about their fight except her. Chuck explains that he was nervous about this being their first fight, which sets the tone for all future fights. "Well, you may as well have just posted about our fight on Friendster," she says. "Honey, people stopped using Friendster like five years ago," Chuck geekily replies. "You know what I mean," Sarah shoots back before wondering why Chuck would tell Tuttle everything about them; how does Chuck know he can trust Tuttle? Chuck retorts that he isn't wrong to trust Tuttle just because Sarah can't trust anyone unless General Beckman tells her it's okay. Chuck says at least she could have told him that she was going to arrest Mary. Sarah is practically apoplectic, "What, and watch you commit treason and go to prison?!?" Mary ends the fight telling them that they need to stop the bickering and do something about Dasha and her men.
Sarah says she will take the bigger of the two guys, but Chuck says he wants to take him. He wills a flash of Chuck Fu, and the two lover spies jump out to take on Volkoff's men. As they fight the henchmen, Sarah tells Chuck that fighting is exhausting. "Maybe that's because you always take the big guy," Chuck replies. No, fighting with Chuck is exhausting, to which Chuck agrees. He needs Sarah to believe in him, not just try to protect him. Even when he's flat out wrong, he needs Sarah to believe in him. They successfully take out all the men, but Chuck doesn't see Dasha raising her gun. She aims at Chuck's chest and fires. Tuttle, however, leaps through the air and takes the bullet. Sarah takes out Dasha as they rush to Tuttle's side. He hands over the triangle disks to Chuck. Chuck orders a medical team to come take care of Tuttle, but Sarah says they need to leave Tuttle there and head over to Stephen's lab. She doesn't want to fight with Chuck anymore, so if Chuck trusts Mary, she will too. If they wait with Tuttle, the CIA is going to take Mary with them, so they need to go now.
At the old Bartowski home, Chuck and Sarah make their way to the Phalanx while Mary wanders the rows of case files and information Stephen had gathered through the years. Back at the bank, Casey and Morgan enter, with Morgan waving his guns around, much to Casey's chagrin. Unfortunately, they've missed all the action, bit something is strange...Tuttle is missing. As Chuck and Sarah wait for the first disk to be read (and yes, kiddies, it really did take that long for floppy disks to be read back in the day), Mary finds a file marked "Eurybia" (who was a Greek goddess with command of the seas, and said to have "a heart of flint in her.") and withdraws a device (actually a modified PSP) from its contents. The disk Chuck has been loading is empty, so he tries another. Sarah, wary of what is transpiring, draws her gun to search for Mary. The second disk is empty, too. Mary approaches her son and shows him the device. It springs to life as moving white and blue light up the screen. Chuck gets his "flash" face until it stops.
Sarah continues to look for Mary, but is knocked out by Tuttle. Chuck sees the scene and wants to know why Tuttle did that, and moreover, why he is there in perfect health. "There is no Tuttle, Charles. My name is Alexi Volkoff! I believe you were looking for me," Volkoff says before punching Chuck and knocking him out. Chuck and Sarah are tied up as they awaken. Vokoff plants bombs around Stephen's lab, and places one on Chuck's lap. He mocks Chuck because Orion (Stephen) spent his whole life searching for the wife he knew, but she wasn't that woman anymore. Volkoff wonders what Orion was to Charles that Orion entrusted his life's work to him. A mentor perhaps? Chuck responds that Orion was a good man. "He was a fool," Volkoff spits, "just like you, Charles."
Volkof continues, saying that Chuck (who he keeps referring to as Charles because he only knows Chuck as CIA spy Charles Carmichael) should have just let Mary go and listened to Sarah, as she was the only one Frost wasn't able to fool. He thanks Chuck for leading him to Orion's lab so he could destroy it. Chuck pleads with Mary, saying that he trusted her, but Volkoff says Chuck shouldn't die with regrets. He asks Mary to check their bonds one more time so they can escape. As she bends to look at Sarah's ropes, she places a razor blade in Sarah's hand and whispers, "Protect him," before leaving with Volkoff. Once the bad guys leave, Sarah starts cutting through her bonds. Chuck apologizes for not believing Sarah about Mary. He tries to flash, but can't. Sarah works her way free, and moves to free Chuck. He tells her that his mother used a device on him, but Sarah says that for some reason, Mary doesn't want them to dies right now. Chuck says that they need to save Orion's work, but Sarah says there is no time. They run out of the house and escape just before it explodes. Now safe, Chuck tells Sarah that the Intersect is gone, and now all of his father's research is destroyed. "Everything he ever created is now gone," Chuck ruefully says.
Elsewhere in L.A., Devon and Ellie acquire the '68 Mustang. Ellie finds a card with her name on it lying on the center panel. It's from Stephen, and it tells her that he knows their family had a lot of secrets, but they were kept to protect her and Chuck. This is the final gift he gives to her, and he figures she will know what to do with it. As Ellie and Devon drive away, the camera pulls down to the underneath the car. There, hidden, is a black device with green lights...another Intersect!
Commentary
Since I finish these recaps the morning after an episode airs, I often catch headlines and Tweets about how an episode is received by the critical community at large (including Brittany's reviews). Everything I read about "Chuck vs. the First Fight" said that this was the best episode of the season, by far, so my expectations going into the episode were high. I have to be honest, every one of my expectations were surpassed. This truly was the best episode of the season, so far, and is probably a Top 5 episode or higher for the series in general. How much did I love the episode? Let me count the ways (going from smaller to larger elements).
First, the script itself, from the dialogue to the staging, were in fine form. There was rather witty dialogue, and Sarah and Chuck's banter during the bank crisis was superb. Further, the direction of the Chuck and Sarah fight, Morgan's sunglasses/earpiece/gun-waving antics, and the final reveal were all well-directed. Second, any time we can have Morgan and Casey working together on a mission it is a treat. I appreciated that their partnership is moving forward, as evidenced by Casey purposefully including Morgan in the bank incursion. Yes, the duo could just be a laugh break each week as Morgan continually screws things up due to his amateur status, but it is much more interesting if Casey actually tries to improve Morgan's skills so he can be a productive member of the team.
Third, how awesome is Timothy Dalton? Seriously, I'm asking, because the answer is "Very awesome." Recapping, as above, makes it hard to truly describe the brilliant performance Dalton gave as the bumbling, yet joyous, Tuttle, nor the fantastic heel turn he made as Volkoff. Both roles, in different ways, played excellently off of Dalton's famous portrayal of James Bond. To see Bond as a dithering, unskilled secret agent was very funny, but to see Bond actually be a ruthless villain was a masterstroke of casting. Let me add, that I did not see the twist coming. I did notice that the blood from Tuttle's gunshot wound looked really fake, but I chalked that up to Chuck's budget. I should have taken that, and a few other pieces of dialogue I rewatched, as a sign. Kudos to the writers for surprising this Chuck fan.
Fourth, I enjoyed the parallels to the "early Chuck" that were at work in the episode because of where they led. Since Morgan was told about Chuck's spy life, and his addition to the team, Morgan has been a proto-Chuck. He bumbles, he has problems with firearms, etc. This angle was at work again in this episode, but it was brought into stark relief with the discussion about how he is always "left in the van," a common Chuck complaint in the first two seasons. This theme was moved forward, however, as Casey decided to let Morgan assist in infiltrating the bank; Casey is beginning to trust Morgan just as he did Chuck. Similarly, Tuttle took on a bit of a proto-Chuck role as he, too, bumbled through the mission, but was accidentally successful when he knifed the guard on the plane. Further, he showed his joy of spy work (parachuting from the plane) and bravery (when he took the bullet), just as Chuck had shown early as a spy. These parallels were made more interesting by the fact that Chuck ended the episode back where he started in the first episode of Season One...as a guy without an Intersect in his head.
Taking the Intersect from Chuck is a brilliant plot twist, and another I did not see coming (well, until Mary put the device in front of Chuck). This move resets the action to a time when Chuck wasn't a spy at all, but with a twist. He actually has learned how to be a spy over the past three-and-a-half years, Intersect or not. Will he be the bumbling, accidental spy he was before, or can he actually function deftly as a secret agent? Will he be a liability on missions, so that Sarah and Casey need to carry him, or will he able to protect himself? Can Chuck still be Chuck without the Intersect? These are very interesting questions that I think give the series, now well into its fourth season, a jump start.
Of course, we have no idea how long Intersectless Chuck will last, as it appears there was another Intersect device underneath the Mustang, but it will be fun to see if he can develop the confidence and skill necessary to remain an asset to the team. What is also interesting about the way this occurred, is the context in which Chuck lost the powers of the Intersect. Had this happened in any of the previous seasons, Chuck would have been pulled out of the CIA immediately, and Casey and Sarah would have been reassigned. Since Chuck is on the search for his mother (and the establishment of her and Volkoff as continuing enemies was well-executed), he has a reason to stay in the CIA, as his knowledge of Mary will be paramount to capturing her. This may be a small point, but having that dose of reality and reason will give the story proper footing moving forward.
Lastly, I don't think the show is going this way, but I really hope they don't turn Ellie into a spy. I know she has an Intersect device under the Mustang, but hopefully when she finds it, she will just hand it over to Chuck and Sarah. Chuck needs to have non-spy people in his life. Thankfully, Devon has been taken out of the spy world, but Ellie should remain there, too. He, and us, need that relief from the tension of being a spy, so it would be a shame if he lost that refuge in his sister.
Alright, so that's what I've got for "Chuck vs. the First Fight." What did you think of the episode? Did you enjoy it as much as I did? Was this the best episode of the season so far? How long do you think Chuck will be powerless? Does he need the powers of the Intersect to be an effective spy? How do you feel about Morgan becoming a more adept member of the team? Do you think the first fight sets the tone for all future fights? And I'll ask it again: How awesome was Timothy Dalton? Guest Emmy anyone? Please leave your questions, comments, and theories below. I'll be back in two weeks with another recap (the show is off the air next week). Until then, I'm off to get a decent Rice Krispie Treat.
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I'm thinking that Morgan will somehow get the new intersect installed in his head, and Chuck will be a spy on his own merits. Now that could be fun.
There were a couple of things during the last episode of Chuck season 3 which made me think that Ellie may indeed get the Intersect.
Excellent episode! Timothy Dalton was outstanding and Mary Bartowski remains an enigma who may or may not be a bad woman. When Chuck and Sarah were trapped in Papa Bartowski's own personal Warehouse 13, I was willing Casey and Morgan to come to the rescue!