Quick recap, then some thoughts.  In Chuck Versus the Final Exam, Chuck has to pass a final test before becoming a full-fledged spy.  In this final exam, he’s flying solo without support from the team.  Chuck’s objective is to trail a known agent to a meeting with a double-agent mole at a hotel.  He needs to visually identify the mole.

During the initial stakeout, Chuck expresses his feelings to Sarah, suggesting that once he’s a full spy that they could finally be together.  Sarah has mixed feelings but keeps them to herself: if Chuck becomes a spy they can be together, but if he does become a spy he won’t be the guy she fell in love with anymore.  Yvonne Strahovski does a great job of expressing Sarah’s torn feelings just with the wounded expressions on her face.

Shaw calls and interrupts just as Chuck and Sarah are about to kiss, and Chuck heads off to the hotel where he ends up in a steam room fight, and finally makes the visual ID of the mole.  Mission accomplished?  Chuck thinks so, but it’s not to be.

Meanwhile, Casey is adapting to civilian life at the Buy More, where he stands in for Assistant Manager Morgan while he’s out of town.  After Chuck’s mission, Chuck gives Casey a government issue handgun as a gift.  Casey reminds Chuck that doing so is a felony, but “a thoughtful felony.”

Chuck meets with Sarah, who asks him to dinner that night.  Chuck is so happy he doesn’t notice Sarah’s conflicted demeanor, nor does he notice she has an ulterior motive that doesn’t involve them running away together.  When she meets with Shaw, he tells her that his mission, which is not yet finished, is to kill the newly identified mole.  She wants nothing to do with it, but he tells her she has to give Chuck the order, because he’ll do it if the order comes from her.

Meeting for dinner, Sarah tells Chuck that his mission is to kill the mole.  Chuck doesn’t know if he can do it, and they discuss the ramifications: if he does it, he’ll be a spy and they can possibly be together.  If he doesn’t find it in himself to do it, they won’t be able to.  Sarah stresses to Chuck that it’s his decision and leaves him to carry out whatever that decision is.

Chuck locates the mole and they fight in a restroom, but Chuck isn’t able to finish him off when he beats the mole.  He decides instead to arrest him, but the mole escapes as Chuck walks him out.  Chuck catches him near the railroad tracks, and with the mole on the ground and a gun in his hand, Chuck isn’t able to pull the trigger.  As Sarah looks on, Casey shoots the mole from outside her field of view so that she thinks Chuck killed him.  Casey silently disappears, and later talks to Chuck in the courtyard.  He tells him that since he’s a civilian now, what he did was technically murder and that Chuck can’t tell anyone, not even Sarah, that Casey was the one that pulled the trigger.

Chuck tries to reach Sarah on the phone, but she doesn’t answer.  She tells Shaw that when she took her final test it changed her forever.  The episode ends as an agent arrives to escort Chuck to a waiting flight to DC to receive his final orders as a spy.

What was great about this episode?  Casey, of course.  Casey is a man at peace with his decisions.  He is paying the price for his actions in the last episode (Chuck Versus the Tic Tac, which I neglected to write a recap of), and he’s comfortable with it.  He deals with civilian life the only way he knows how, with a commitment to success, and an occasional inappropriate outburst.  His under-his-breath growls are priceless.

But Casey is also a man of loyalty to his friends.  Over the course of this season, Casey has grown to appreciate Chuck’s skills, and while he’s never going to be a traditional friend in the fuzzy sense, Casey has Chuck’s back.  He proves that by stepping in to do what Chuck couldn’t bring himself to do, to kill someone in cold blood.

What else was great about this episode?  The longing that Sarah has for a normal life with Chuck.  I’m still not convinced that there’s any real romance between Sarah and Shaw, and that it’s merely a substitute for what she really wants with Chuck.  Sarah’s dilemma: she can’t have a relationship with Chuck while she’s an agent and he’s not, but if he becomes and agent he will also lose what makes him unique.  In that scenario, they can be together finally, but will he be the man that she loves at that point?  Sarah knows that taking the final step of actually killing someone changes you, and she fears what that will do to Chuck.

When the show introduced Hannah as a love interest for Chuck and Shaw as a love interest for Sarah the fan community reacted, shall we say, unenthusiastically.  At the time I said I trusted the writers to continue to build tension in the relationship, and they have.  I’m excited to see where this leads, now that Chuck is a full-fledged spy and Sarah is cautious about what she thinks Chuck might have become.

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Previously, on 24…

As always, I’m liveblogging reaction to this week’s episode of 24.  In case that’s not enough of a warning, spoilers lurk beyond!

Chaos at CTU in the aftermath of the EMP explosion.  Arlo tells Hastings they’ve lost control of the surveillance drones.  Hastings tells Dana to get old school with report writing for their briefing in 10 minutes.

Jack is talking to some NSA guy named Bill about the drone surveillance situation and takes a quick shortcut.  For a guy that spent so much time in L.A., Jack sure seems to know his way around NYC.

Samir gets a briefing from some random terrorist about CTU.  Tells Tarin that using Kayla was a necessary sacrifice to get the nuclear rods into the city.  Terrorists are seen unloading rods from a van.

Back to CTU, Kayal is standing up for herself with Hastings.  The CTU Director helpfully explains the situation.  She seems surprised that Tarin would betray her.  Hastings wants her to help ID possible terrorists.

Back at the dock, Samir gets a report from a lookout about a black SUV with no markings approaching.  How did Jack know exactly where to find them?  That’s an awfully big guess.

Cole and Jack realize their cell calls are being jammed just as the shots start ringing out.  Silly terrorists don’t even know what kind of whoop ass they’ve unleashed.

Tarin IDs Jack.  Cole sees Samir and Tarin making their escape by boat while the other terrorists hold Jack and his team down.

4:16  Hastings gets a damage report and learns there’s an NSA team that just arrived.  The NSA engineer Frank has great people skills and instantly earns Hastings’ respect.  Hastings rallies the troops and announces the new shipment of cell phones that will make it convenient for Dana to have more conversations that distract her from her job.

Chloe offers to help Frank, which he politely declines.  She then plots to find a faster way to bring the systems back up.  She calls Renee to let her know Jack is nowhere to be found.  Finally! Renee looks sane now, but I’m sure a little stress will bring her back to fighting form.

4:28  Dana pulls Milton aside and breaks the bad news that the surveillance video of Kevin’s break-in has been erased the the EMP.  He looks really inconvenienced by the whole national emergency thing getting in the way of his pursuit of the on-the-lam parole violator.  He slinks away, but I suspect this is not the last we see of him.  Perhaps he will be satisfied with a new stapler?

Chloe barges in to show the NSA engineer how her workaround will allay his concerns.  Wait, what?  Chloe goes all Jack Bauer on the NSA guy?  Awesome!  Kicks them all out by pulling a gun, then locks them out and starts work on bringing the servers back online.

Back to the shootout at the docks, the CTU team is pinned down and desperate.  Jack talks them through the plan to use armor plating from the SUV to move across the open space.  The red shirts get nervous and break cover, with predictable results.  Jack, Cole and one of the red shirts make it to cover, but the nervous one lies in the open wounded, yelling for help.  The terrorists keep plinking him, trying to draw them out, which, of course, has the intended effect.  The other red shirt runs out to grab the dead guy, and gets hit too.  Jack lies to the wounded guy and tells him the first guy is OK, knowing the 2nd one will be dead soon too.

4:39  A tearful reunion of the Hassan family.  Kayla apologizes and tells President Hassan he was right about Tarin.  The Hassans engage in useless timefilling dialog about remaining strong or something.

Hastings and the NSA team are outside the server room trying to get in.  Inside the server room, Chloe is tapping into the trunk line, and getting nervous as she hears the team outside.  They break in, and Hastings hears her out.  She says she can get it done in 10 minutes.  Hastings gives her the time in spite of Dana backing up the NSA judgment that Chloe’s plan is reckless.  Hastings is interrupted by another CTU guy telling him that the probation officer is asking to see him.  Wow, didn’t think we’d see him again so soon.  That sure got Dana’s attention.

4:50  Chloe is working furiously to get the servers back online.  The systems start coming back online, with the NSA guy looking embarrassed.  Chloe tells Hastings that Renee is out in the field looking for Jack.  Hastings has Frank go help Chloe, asking him to “be civil this time.”

Jack and Cole are trying to keep the red shirt alive.  They discuss a suicide plan where Jack will draw fire so Cole can make it out.  Firefight on!

Jack is wounded, out of ammo and pulls his pistol.  Gets hit dead in the chest (in the armor, duh!), and a terrorist is about to finish him off when Renee shows up and gets the bad guy.  Renee runs over to help Jack while Cole calls for help from the emergency call box.

CTU gets the update from Cole and scrambles resources to intercept the boat.  Hastings pauses to tell Chloe what a good job she did when Chloe stops him with a curt “I’m not good with praise.”

Cole takes off in the CTU helicopter as Jack and Renee stay behind for the awaiting reinforcements.

Dana confronts Milton about why he’s going above her to her boss.  He tells her straight out he doesn’t believe her, and thinks she is covering for Kevin, and isn’t leaving until he knows the truth.  He threatens her, and she responds by choking him out with a garrote.    Wow, hiding a body is a little easier when there’s a lake nearby to sink it in, does she really think the “false wall” is going to work?  How’s she supposed to get rid of a body in the middle of CTU?

WHOA!  Dana is working with Samir!  Finally, some payoff for this lousy side storyline.  Dana tells Samir over by NSA-supplied cell phone that CTU is back online.  Samir says he knows, the CTU helicopters are searching for them.  He says he needs help getting away, and loads up his posse in a taxi and heads further into the city…

Next week:  Hastings telling the President he can’t guarantee the safety of Manhattan, Samir wants President Hassan handed over to him presumably as ransom for not blowing up the bomb, President Taylor: “Get me Jack Bauer!”, and Jack protecting President Hassan under fire.  Looks like it getting good.

Related posts:

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Probably the thing that’s been nagging at me most this season is the relationship between the characters in the sideways flash universe.  In the main timeline of the story, the Flight 815 survivors and other major characters were brought together through the intervention of Jacob at key points in their lives.  In the sideways flashes, no such intervention occurred (at least that we’re aware of), so you have to ask, why are these same characters running across each other?  In tonight’s episode, James Ford is a detective working with partner Miles Straum.  Charlie Pace’s brother comes to the police station looking for Charlie, and Sawyer (called Jim in this incarnation) catches Kate on the run from uniformed police officers.  Oh, and he also goes on a date with Charlotte Lewis, and Miles’s father apparently works at the museum.

Why is this happening?

TV Overmind made the following observation about tonight’s episode:

Charlotte’s appearance made me wonder one thing, though — how is Daniel Faraday coping with this timeline. Obviously, since the Island his gone, the purpose that his mother drove him toward no longer matters. So is he, perhaps, a concert pianist, or a musician of some sort? That’s what I’d like to see — a truly happy Daniel Faraday.

That’s an interesting thought – what happened to characters who had a deep relationship with the island prior to 1977?  Daniel could have turned out much differently, but what about his father, Charles Widmore?  What will his flash sideways persona turn out to be, given his long-term relationship with the island?  And what about Richard Alpert?  Next week’s episode promises to be very revealing, being centered around him.  I’d like to see what happens post-1977 with him.

As far as other observations from Recon, the most interesting aspects centered around Locke/Man-in-Black.  I’m puzzled by his gentleness with the children and his promise to protect the survivors, while at the same time lying to the survivors about what happened at the temple (“The Black Smoke killed them,” stated so matter-of-factly as if he was a third party observer).   Yet he had no problem with revealing his true nature to Sawyer and telling Sawyer he had killed everyone at the temple.  When he stopped Claire from attacking Kate, he acted like a disapproving parent (“That was completely inappropriate.”)  When he was talking to Kate at the beach, he revealed some interesting detail about his background: that he had a mother once, who happened to be crazy, and he ended up the way he did because of her influence on him.  I wonder what all we’re going to learn when MIB’s background is finally revealed.

Other questions from tonight’s episode:

• Who (or what) is locked up on the sub?  An off-island character we haven’t seen for a while (like Desmond, Penny, Aaron, Walt), or something/someone else?
• Did Locke/Man-in-Black kill the Ajira survivors, or did Widmore’s people?  For what reason?  If MIB killed them, did he WANT James to find their bodies? Again, for what reason?

Not the best episode, but solid nonetheless.  Really looking forward to next week’s Richard-centric episode.

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If you’re a fan of HBO’s Deadwood (as I am), or a fan of FX’s The Shield (as I am), you’ve undoubtedly seen the preview of FX’s new series, Justified, and have been anxiously awaiting its premiere.  Well, it starts tonight.

I’ve avoided most of the media and posts about the show, as I want my first reactions to be untainted by too much prior information.  But I’m pretty excited by the previews I’ve seen, and that it stars two of my favorite actors, Timothy Olyphant (Deadwood, Damages, Live Free or Die Hard) and Walton Goggins (The Shield).  Reactions tonight or tomorrow morning.

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Shutter Island Poster

In the new thriller Shutter Island, Leonardo DiCaprio plays US Marshal Teddy Daniels on a search for an escaped mental patient in 1954.  Mark Ruffalo plays his new partner, Chuck Aule.

The US Marshals come to the hospital for the criminally insane on Shutter Island to apprehend a patient who has seemingly disappeared without any trace.  They meet varying levels of resistance from the hospital staff, interacting most notably with Dr. John Cawley (Ben Kingsley) and Dr. Jeremiah Naering (Max von Sydow).  The arrival of a hurricane complicates their search and ensures that the marshals remain on the island.  Flashbacks reveal crucial information about Marshal Daniels’ family background and military service in World War II, as well as his ulterior motives for investigating this case.

Director Martin Scorsese effectively creates an atmosphere of dread and uncertain sanity as Marshal Daniels searches for the missing patient, Rachel Solando.  It becomes apparent early on that everything is not as it seems, and Daniels discovers evidence that suggests government conspiracy, cover-up of medical experimentation, and harboring of Nazi war criminals.  Leonardo DiCaprio plays a character obviously traumatized by events in his past, and as the film progresses his obsession with solving the mystery grows.  DiCaprio’s first scene with Max von Sydow is particularly good, as the characters size each other up and the marshal comes to an important realization.

My only complaint with Shutter Island is that the movie’s big reveal was telegraphed so early in the plot.  It’s an odd complaint, but Scorsese does such a good job of creating a foreboding atmosphere and DiCaprio does such a good job of portraying a haunted figure pursuing his obsession, that what should be a shocking finale is instead somewhat obvious.  It would also have been a more satisfying conclusion, to my taste, if the ending left one wondering what had really happened, rather that having it spelled out so clearly.

This is a minor complaint though.  The movie was thoroughly enjoyable, entirely due to Scorsese’s dark atmosphere and Dicaprio’s portrayal of diminishing sanity.  Shutter Island brought in an initial $40.2 million in its opening weekend, according to USA Today.

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