Monday, November 17, 2008

Chuck, "Chuck vs. the Fat Lady": What's opera, doc?

Spoilers for tonight's "Chuck" coming up just as soon as I comb my beard for secrets...

I knew it! As soon as they announced that they'd be doing a big story arc about Chuck's ex-girlfriend Jill, I thought that she'd wind up being a spy. After all, what are the odds, in this show's universe and logic, that only two-thirds of that Stanford love triangle would wind up in the espionage game?

But then the production team and Zachary Levi did such a good job of selling Jill as Chuck's best hope for something resembling a normal life that I got sucker-punched by the revelation that she's a Fulcrum agent. (Technically, I got sucker-punched when the computer started spitting out pictures of other Fulcrum agents, when it became clear that Jill's would be the final picture in the bunch.)

"Chuck vs. the Fat Lady" was probably my least favorite of the three Jill episodes, but at this point in "Chuck" season two, that's a little like saying it was the least chewy of the three Nestle Tollhouse cookies my wife just took out of the oven, you know? It was still damned tasty.

Until we got the last-second reveal, the episode was primarily about the Clark/Lois/Lana-style triangle between Chuck, Sarah and Jill. Chuck's fake girlfriend caused some problems with his potential real one during the Rachel Bilson two-parter last season, but this played out differently for a couple of reasons. One, Jill knows about Chuck's secret identity (albeit not the Intersect part) and knows, intellectually, that Sarah and Chuck have never really dated, even though it's hard to look at Sarah and not feel threatened. And, two, Sarah is much more attached to Chuck than she was last year, and also knows that Jill matters a lot more to Chuck than sandwich girl ever did. Her jealousy over Chuck finding, as Casey so eloquently put it, "a new piece of asset," was much greater this time. So the stakes felt higher, and the jokes -- whether it was Sarah showing up in her best hooker-wear, Chuck and Sarah having a very dirty-sounding conversation in the ventilation ducts after Chuck pocket-dialed Jill, or circumstances conspiring to make Chuck and Sarah shower together -- felt even sharper as a result. In particular, it's an impressive trick to do a scene where Zachary Levi and Yvonne Strahovski are soaping each other up in nothing but their underwear and not have it be the least bit sexy, but they pulled it off, to fine comic effect.

As with any "Chuck" episode, there were the usual plot holes you just have to grin at and ignore, like Casey turning his back on Chuck when the thumb drive was readily accessible, or the Fulcrum agent not bothering to make sure he had destroyed the right thumb drive. And, as with pretty much every "Chuck" episode this season, the jokes are so good that they do a nice job of paving over the plot holes -- in this case, Chuck making unexpected use of Morgan's illicit Canadian video game copier to decrypt and duplicate the Fulcrum list on the drive over to the opera house.

The writers are starting to figure out how to write for Tony Hale, meanwhile. Millbarge's attempt to gain Morgan's loyalty with the concept of "Buy More-ia" was amusing (particularly in that Morgan had himself thought of the concept and name years earlier), and Millbarge's oblivious tool-ishness was better done here, notably with his wine cooler bender.

(Other than that brief period in the late '80s when Bruce Willis thought he was a singer, have wine coolers basically always been funny? Come to think of it, they were pretty funny even during Willis' "My my my my!" phase.)

Millbarge's witchhunt, in addition to acknowledging that the whole "onsite install" alibi for Chuck's missions would get noticed sooner or later, also provided the usual set up for funny moments from the other citizens of Buy More-ia. In particular, I loved the dual interrogation of Lester and Jeff, with Jeff again going into prison mode and Lester sounding genuinely terrified while talking about the secrets in Morgan's beard.

And the rehabilitation of Morgan continues. The Millbarge stuff was largely separate from Chuck's story this week (though a thematic parallel, as usual), but Morgan's uhappiness at learning that Chuck was with Jill again -- and that Chuck hadn't told him -- was well-played by Josh Gomez. It makes sense that Morgan would have the same reaction as Ellie. And Morgan also got to achieve victory over Millbarge, while simultaneously invoking the name of the one, the only, Harry Tang. Nice.

Some other thoughts on "Chuck vs. the Fat Lady":

• Need a ruling: has there ever been a funnier John Casey moment than him unexpected hitting High C, then abashedly explaining that he was once a choir boy?

• A nice joke, and the sort the show rarely had time for last year, when the scenes tended to work on one level at a time: while Sarah and Casey are arguing over what to do about the level of surveillance on Chuck, you see Chuck whining and whining on the monitors in the background.

• Now, when Millbarge says, "I have heard the loading dock is like a Five For Fighting concert," I'm supposed to take it that Five For Fighting is lame, right? But... the song about Superman's existential angst speaks to me as a comic book nerd! And my daughter loves the song about penguins that John Ondrasik did for "Dog Train"!

• Speaking of being a comic book nerd, I can't have been the only geek in the audience whose eyebrows raised when Chuck mentions the Culper Ring, the Revolutionary War-era spy organization that's such a key part of Brian K. Vaughan's sci-fi epic "Y: The Last Man," can I?

• Still more geekdom (if I can't nerd out while discussing this show, when can I?): Jill says that one of the late Guy LaFleur's passwords involved Vogon poetry, which is, of course, the third worst poetry in the universe.

• And yet another kind of nerdhood: the puzzle-bomb stops with the read-out at 007, just like in "Goldfinger."

What did everybody else think?

62 comments:

  1. Nice to once again see Chuck being useful as more than an I Spy. And I'm looking forward to the inevitable Chuck/Jill/Bryce/Sarah showdown more and more.

    Following up on the Y connection, I'm sure it was there before but tonight was the first time I noticed the Y: The Last Man poster over Chuck's bed.

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  2. On Y:TLM and the Culper Ring - You think Sarah is 355? Because that would be AWESOME!

    Anyway, I was a little worried that the Jill storyline was only there to provide ridiculous comic misunderstandings with Sarah and Chuck. I should have had more faith. Jill as a Fulcrum agent is far more interesting. Finally, the way that fruit punch shower went from absurd to sexy was just great.

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  3. Alan I'm curious if you've checked out the Chuck comic and if it's worth attention. If so do you know if it's written by the writing staff like the Fringe book is.

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  4. the fruit punch dust soapfest may have started out non-sexually, but chuck fingering sarah's bra strap towards the end of it struck me as quite sexy indeed.

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  5. Does anyone know what song they played at the end?
    I actually loved this episode

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  6. Adam Baldwin continues to be, IMO, the unsung hero of this show. Of course it wouldn't work nearly as well if Zach Levi and Yvonne Strahovski didn't have great chemistry together, but I think the scenes that involve all three of our spies are some of the best moments of the show. Casey hitting the High C may be the second-funniest moment I've seen on TV this year.

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  7. has there ever been a funnier John Casey moment than him unexpected hitting High C

    I don't know quite how to describe my face and body language at the moment this happened, but if "wheeeee!" could be personified, that's what I looked like. Not just the funniest John Casey moment, possibly the funniest moment of the series thus far.

    I'm not pleased about Jill being FULCRUM, although, as you said Alan, the chances of her not being so were pretty slim and Brewster's performance last week did make me think something was a little off there. But I'd have preferred Chuck to decide she was wrong for him for some non-spy reason; this feels like a bit of a re-tread.

    Also, good misdirection should make sense from both points of view. Jill showing up at the hotel makes sense if she's FULCRUM or if she's Chuck's suspicious girlfriend, but why did we see her on the phone, by herself, looking upset that Chuck and Sarah might be getting it on? Why, if she's so smart and knew all about Lafleur's puzzles, couldn't she have got the info herself? (And I think I missed this part: why did Lafleur have the list of FULCRUM agents to begin with?)

    I really do love this show and look forward to it every week, more than any other. The final slo-mo scene with Sarah and Casey gave me goosebumps, and I'm looking forward to the ass-kicking Sarah will no doubt be giving Jill next week.

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  8. Am I the only one that yelled "Brazil!" every time the Fulcrum agent's van pulled up with Tuttle on the side?

    Enjoyed the episode even though it was probably my least favorite of the seasons thus far. Missed all the Y: The Last Man references, which is sad because I just read the whole series.

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  9. There was a Harry Tang mention? I must have missed it. What was it and when did it happen?

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  10. oh, Alan, wait till you see HIMYM! too funny.

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  11. With a lot of the action taking place at an opera house, did anyone notice the classic "What's Opera, Doc?" being shown on the TVs in the background when Chuck and Morgan are talking about Jill?

    Good detail work there.

    And that shower scene ended up being pretty damn sexy. Gave Chuck some second thoughts there, I thought.

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  12. Need a ruling: has there ever been a funnier John Casey moment than him unexpected hitting High C, then abashedly explaining that he was once a choir boy?

    Casey as the high school reunion DJ is up there for me, but the "high C" probably wins for pure absurdity.

    I've never been a "shipper" on any show, but I have to admit, part of my dark little heart broke for Sarah when I saw Chuck and Jill making out. And another part of it broke when those faces started flashing and I realized Jill was a baddie. So, now my question is ... will Bryce make an appearance next week to complete our Stanford triangle?

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  13. Two words: "Nerd code."

    God in heaven, do I love John Casey.

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  14. As an opera dork, I have to "note" that Casey sung something closer to an E than a C. That being said, Adam Baldwin can sing anything he wants to me.

    And I knew that Jill was not who she said she was when she pronounced the composer of La Traviata of Vurdi instead of Verdi, as in salsa verde, veritable, etc. Right about everything all the time? Hah! Imposter!

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  15. Kyle, I was alternately yelling "Brazil" and "Tuttle" whenever I saw that van. I loved that!

    Also, yet another hockey reference with Five for Fighting. Who's the hockey fan on this show?

    I'm absolutely loving this show. I look forward to Monday nights like my college roomies and I would look forward to Thursdays and L.A. Law. Appointment television.

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  16. Went back and watched the shower scene, since it had been a couple of weeks and I was going on both memory and my notes, and you're all right that there's a hint of sexy at the very end. But still, to get that far into a Chuck/Sarah shower scene and have it be entirely goofy until then? My point basically still stands.

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  17. John Casey's high C literally made me spit me drink out all over my carpet. Truly, the rethink the writers did after the strike has piad off in spades. Chuck is now my favorite show on TV (at least until Lost returns).

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  18. According to Wikipedia, the Culper Ring is real. But I did think of that.
    Plenty of nerd shout-outs in Chuck and Heroes tonight.

    But I personally don't think it makes sense for Jill to be a Fulcrum agent. She's not CIA (and the list is supposed to be of agents within the CIA, I believe) and she helped them get the list. And the reveal was drawn out way too much. As soon as the computer started flipping, I knew her face would come up.
    And personally, I didn't like the cliched "girlfriend catches boyfriend with other girl in comical misunderstanding." All he had to say was "poison gas!"

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  19. oh damn.

    I knew, when the music was playing and... the pictures were scrolling... I knew :-(

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  20. well, I was geeking out over on CBS first (I may have followed the geekishness there a bit better, but no matter)

    Anna was missing - again?

    I really didn't know Jill was a spy too (though, why, I've no clue) till they started flashing thru the agents.
    Sigh.

    Something in the music set off my duck. (but I couldn't replicate the problem)

    was there also no Awesome this week? I know there was a lot going on.

    Pocket dialing. My friends do that to me a lot. I've gotten calls from a friend in CO singing Scott Bakula songs to her grandson (though my favorite was un-phone related: two friends from two different fandoms, who I had never met, back in Boston, discussing me and realizing both of them knew me. they were sisters. One of them one pocket dialed their home phone and left a long recording of their lunch on their home answering machine. which is how I remember this)

    So sad about Jill. I'm still not sure what Fulcrum is (do they have an agenda other than "defeat the CIA and NSA? do they answer to someone, or just to the highest bidder?)

    I see there are no pigeons on the roof at the Buy More...

    the cameras in Chuck's room, oddly remind me of Penny's date with Leonard... especially the one on the roof, actually.

    Also, Morgan's locker (I think it was his) has a sticker from Comic Con

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  21. and figgsrock, thanks for the giggle

    I shall remind my brother not to drink while watching (we learned long ago not to drink while reading the email from certain lists - mostly House)

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  22. That song at the end was "Keep Yourself Warm" by Frightened Rabbit. They are a great Scottish indie rock band, as well as being some of the nicest guys in the world.

    Their album "Midnight Organ Fight" is one of the best of the year.

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  23. The High-C... I don't know the last time I've laughed that loud and long... and replaying it over and over... I may save the episode just to use that as a pick-me-up on a bad day.

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  24. For the anon that asked, that last song was "Keep Yourself Warm" by Frightened Rabbit.

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  25. jill being fulcrum has been pretty obvious since they revealed that bryce had screwed chuck over to save him from the cia. bryce must have "stolen" jill from chuck in another misguided effort to protect his best friend/a mission to infiltrate fulcrum.

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  26. Hey, are we ever going to see Julia Ling again? She was always the most entertaining of the Buy More geeks, but she seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. Alan, does she at least reappear next week?

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  27. This episode (though I agree on the "weaker" end as a whole) had a ton of great moments -- the aforementioned High C, the shower scene, Morgan taking it Tony Hale, etc. And at the gooey center was the "love triangle". YS brings it once again. She deserves some serious award recognition for her work this season.

    Best show on TV right now. Chuck is having the exact opposite of a sophomore slump. Amazing.

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  28. I was really hoping Jill would turn out not to be a bad-guy spy, just to confound our expectations. Everything else, though? Su-poib.

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  29. I could have done without the Three's Company mix-up on the phone, but I did love seeing Chuck struggle with that action-movie standard, crawling through a duct space.

    Series heights for Millbarge and Morgan, absolutely; but my favorite Casey moment will never not be the reveal of his secret decontamination shower. Which doesn't look so silly now, does it?

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  30. I know half the audience was pleased by the Yvonne Strahovsky shower scene (which was just hysterical), but I was quite pleased with Zach Levi. Thank you, producers. And thank you for being adorable, Zach Levi!!

    It's true--the core three are comedy gold. I don't really care about anyone besides Chuck and Sarah, so Jill's a fulcrum agent? Fine with me. Take her down, Sarah!

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  31. pamela jaye, not only was there a Comic-Con sticker on Morgan's locker, but there was a Comic-Con poster on the wall of Chuck's room, next to the bed. It was visible when he and Jill started going to it.

    I thought it was a nice, subtle re-affirmation of how Morgan and Chuck have done everything together for so long. Especially given Morgan's speech reminding Chuck of that fact.

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  32. Watching the drunk scene in Big Mike's office, I was reminded of Buster Bluth's first time drinking alcohol from what he thought was a giant juice box. Wish I could find a clip.

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  33. has there ever been a funnier John Casey moment than him unexpected hitting High C, then abashedly explaining that he was once a choir boy?

    No, Alan, never. I had to rewind that scene twice because I couldn't stop laughing as soon as he belted out that note. Funniest. Scene. Ever.

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  34. Bruce, I'm with you on that Casey moment. Is that the same one where we see his picture of Ronald Reagan?
    Alan, I took the Five for Fighting/loading dock comment as a drug reference. As in, the loading dock is where the drugs is at. But, as I have no drug experience, I could be totally wrong about the way it was meant.

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  35. Amity, it was definitely a drug reference. My point was that, by having the very lame Millbarge cite Five For Fighting, it suggested that the band was lame by association. (Sort of like on "Freaks and Geeks" when Millie said she knew what it looked like when someone was stoned because she'd been to a Seals & Croft concert.)

    I'm not saying that F4F is not lame, by the way. I'm just asking what I'm supposed to think about them, based on what the characters on my favorite TV shows tel me. (This is how I make all my pop culture decisions, really.)

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  36. I don't think this episode passes the Sixth Sense test. i.e. If you watch it again from the start knowing the twist does it all make sense?

    The main question I have is if Guy has a list of fulcrum agents and Jill is on that list, then how does Guy not know she's an agent.

    If fulcrum is rogue CIA then how does General Redhead not know she's CIA.

    For that matter why didn't Jill kill Guy?

    I think they screwed up badly here. People half suspected she was a spy because it's unlikely they would mess with the dynamic long term. So why work so hard to hide it to the point that it screws up the story?

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  37. I don't think this episode passes the Sixth Sense test. i.e. If you watch it again from the start knowing the twist does it all make sense?

    The main question I have is if Guy has a list of fulcrum agents and Jill is on that list, then how does Guy not know she's an agent.

    If fulcrum is rogue CIA then how does General Redhead not know she's CIA.

    For that matter why didn't Jill kill Guy?

    I think they screwed up badly here. People half suspected she was a spy because it's unlikely they would mess with the dynamic long term. So why work so hard to hide it to the point that it screws up the story?

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  38. Well, knowing Jill is a Fulcrum agent, don't we have to assume that everything she said was a lie? It was Jill who kept stating that Guy was a good guy and trying to create a cure. For all we know, Guy did create the germ with Jill's help and later got a conscience that required him to be killed. Or better yet, the germ and subsequent cure, murder of Guy, could have been an elaborate plan by Fulcrum to find out who the intersect is. After all, Fulcrum knew Bryce stole it and since Jill knows about Bryce's previous friendship and connection to Chuck, couldn't she have deduced that Chuck is the intersect now that she knows he's CIA and after seeing him in action? I know that sentence was the longest run-on sentence in the world but I'm too lazy to edit it!

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  39. I guess we're in the minority, but my wife and I pegged Jill as an evil spy the second she showed. We were actually a little surprised that wasn't revealed in the climax last week, but we were completely expecting it this week.

    I took the Five for Fighting reference as meaning Milbarge would think of their fans as potheads. (I have no idea if that's accurate.)

    I kept expecting Ellie to walk in on Chuck and Jill. It was a pleasant surprise that she wasn't in the episode at all, and thus we didn't have to deal with her shrillness. (I really hate Ellie.)

    While I think The Big Bang Theory has improved, it still isn't quite sure whether or not it has respect for geekiness. I like that Chuck is entirely pro-geek. It's nice that a Comic Con poster can be in Chuck's room without it being a joke or a sign of how pathetic Chuck is. In fact, among the inhabitants of BuyMoria, Chuck and Morgan are the only real geeks, and they're far better adjusted than anyone else at the store.

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  40. I have to give kudos to Josh Schwartz' music supervision - one of my favorite parts of the show every week is the inevitable slew of unconventional choices which makes for a nice contrast to the usually soppy pop on most network shows. Not only is the Frightened Rabbit album one of the best of the year, but the lyrics are ridiculously (and also obscenely) apropos.

    But you won't find love in a
    Won't find love in a hole
    It takes more than f**king someone
    To keep yourself warm

    See in the dark
    Can you see the look in your face
    The flashing white light's been turned off
    You don't know who's in your bed

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  41. Why did the reveal of Jill as a Fulcrum agent feel so telegraphed at the beginning of the musical montage?

    I don't have anything to add otherwise, except to echo the praises of Alan and my fellow commenters for Vogon poetry, Casey hitting a Hi-C inspired high-C (or facsimile thereof), Milbarge's Buy Moreia patriotism and Jeff in prison mode.

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  42. I thought Jill was going to be a spy last week, so when it wasn't revealed, I didn't think more about it until the montage. But as I said last week, she looks so much like Jennifer Garner, how can she not be a spy.

    I thought the pocket dial was cute, having done that before, and the high C was a riot too. I also agree with those who say that Buster was better used this week.

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  43. Well, I have to say that although the story was great, I really didn't care anymore after seeing Mr. Levi in his boxer-briefs. Who knew he was hiding that under his baggy Nerd Herd uniform? Yowza!

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  44. Wine Coolers are inherently funny because everyone knows they are Boone's Farm in a little fancy bottle. Nice hangover.

    Glad someone else noticed the classic Bugs Opera toon playing at the Buy More. Kill The Rabbit! Kill The Rabbit!

    Puff

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  45. Totally saw that coming. Somehow, Jill's mannerism screams "spy".

    Anywho, totally awesome episode, if not as good as earlier ones. Chuck is really ramping up to be the best show this seasone (of those I watch).

    Oh, does anybody else find Jill unatractive? She's supposedly pretty/hot, but there's something seriously off-putting about her face.

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  46. I'm a huge fan of Chuck, but I'm annoyed with how they wrote Jill's character. She seemed put off by him until she learned he was a spy. If her mission was to get him all along, how does that make any sense?

    And are there no records that she was an agent? I don't get it.

    I laughed at the High C moment, but I laughed even harder at his explanation... "What? I wasn't hatched."

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  47. Casey's high C did make me laugh. It also made me wonder, and freeze-frame, and walk over to my piano to confirm that he sang an E. Oh well.

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  48. Honestly, I'm a little disappointed with Jill being a fulcrum agent and to me it feels cheap, like Star Trek and time travel. Hopefully they have some surprises in store to redeem using her this way.

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  49. Thank you, David Hanlon and Jon Delfin, for confirming that Casey sang a high E. While I snickered (I mean...seriously, John Casey, choir boy!), I kinda wish they got him to sing a C.

    Yeah, Casey had the great moments this week. His "nerd code" growl had me in stitches, because he of all the disgust he threw into it.

    I don't think Fulcrum!Jill is a supervillainess, and that we'll explore more of why she's in deep next week. Wasn't Bryce working to some extent with Fulcrum when he destroyed the Intersect, and just betraying them when he got shot?

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  50. What's the last line in the episode, the one that Chuck says to Jill in the car?

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  51. I can't believe I watched a show where an illegal chip to copy videogames served as a key device in the plot.

    Love it!

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  52. My only complaint about the whole Jill is Fulcrum plot line is that didn't the image of her mean that she was listed as a CIA agent that went over to Fulcrum? And if that is the case, doesn't that mean that General Beckman or someone should have known that she was a spy?

    I've sort of just accepted that as something that we are probably supposed to overlook along with many other little details.

    Otherwise I absolutely loved this episode. I watch with two friends who are equally obsessed with the show and went Casey hit the "Hi C" we had to pause and restart at least twice because we were laughing so hard.

    (btw, Alan this is my first post here and I just wanted to say that I truly admire your writing. I'm a starting writer for my campus paper at college and am looking into a career in journalism-hopefully as a tv critic. I look forward to reading your reviews after every episode that I watch, seeing as I watch many, many of the same shows. Just wanted to say thanks for all the reviews!)

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  53. One possible nerd complaint: The first puzzle-box is made up of roman numerals 1 to 15 or something, but Chuck says they're arranged in a Fibonacci sequence. Can anyone explain to me how you make a Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8...) out of those numbers?

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  54. I think Steve makes an excellent point. Not only is there respect for Chuck and Morgan's geekiness, but it is clear that their geekiness has imparted skills to them (or they had skills that made them geeks; it's kinda chicken-and-egg) that have genuine value both in the real world and in the spy world. That's lovely.

    Whereas in The Big Bang Theory, the science geeks are pathetic and can't get women. I mean, face it--both Chuck and Morgan have some pretty damn hot women in love with them.

    Just another reason for Chuck to make me so very, very happy.

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  55. Maybe it will be further explained next week, but my only idea on Jill popping up as a Fulcrum operative is that maybe the database they are searching also lists assets? So maybe they did a background check on her last week once she was brought into the know?

    Anyway, I read that Chuck had another nice ratings bump (an extra 600,000 over last week) even as Heroes continues to drop.

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  56. Can anyone explain to me how you make a Fibonacci sequence (1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8...) out of those numbers?


    Not sure, but it did remind me of Peter Stomare on "Prison Break."

    Not much to add except to agree with everyone who is delighted with this show. High-five to Casey's High-C!

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  57. Whatever happened to Harry Tang?

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  58. Geoff: Didn't he walk in on Casey and Chuck when they had an important meeting in the home cinema room and then got sent off to hawaii with his wife to work for the NSA?

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  59. As with any "Chuck" episode, there were the usual plot holes you just have to grin at and ignore, like Casey turning his back on Chuck when the thumb drive was readily accessible, or the Fulcrum agent not bothering to make sure he had destroyed the right thumb drive.

    Or how neither Casey nor Sarah suggest making a copy? Or how the Fulcrum agent assumed they hadn't made another copy. The data was encrypted, not copy-protected.

    Or how they somehow were able to crack a 512-bit key code in about 2 days. In other words, Casey has access to enough computer power to run at over 7*10^141 gigahertz. (2^128/(2 (days) * 24*60*60*10^9) assuming complete decryption attempt and testing in one clock cycle).

    But, like you said, it was so good, you can ignore the plot holes. (Except for trying to keep the copying a secret.)

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  60. ^Okay, you nerds are getting out of control :-D

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  61. I also want to give a shout out to the musical choices on this show, as I've now found several of my favorite new downloads because they were used at key moments in Chuck. And identified by all the great readers here on Alan's blog! :-)

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