Chuck Episode Recap: "Chuck vs. the Sensei"
When Casey is confronted with a mentor from the past, he must contain his anger and use Chuck and Sarah to help thwart another spy plan. Will Casey find his calm center or just explode as usual? And what about the arrival of Awesome's parents? Will it be AWesome or AWful?
Casey's back-story comes into the forefront when we find out in 1994 Casey, just 23, was training with his sensei, Ty Bennett. A new mission has come to the team despite Chuck's reluctance to jump right in. He wants to take a little break after just experiencing the problems with Jill.
Their new mission is to infiltrate the Global Launch Agency (GLA) that does work with the NSA. Casey and Sarah need to bring Chuck to the facility to see if he flashes on anything. As a bored Chuck sits in the surveillance van and Sarah and Casey walk the premises, a masked spy, dressed completely in scientific white (except for dark sunglasses), drops in and steals an unknown object from a locked case. He subdues Casey who abruptly stabs him with a Buy More pen. This gives Casey just enough time to unmask said spy who, as luck would have it, is his old sensei. What a small world, right?
Back at the home front we finally get to meet Awesome's parent, Honey and Woody, played by Morgan Fairchild and Bruce Boxleitner. They surprise Ellie and Awesome by flying to red eye to meet them. In typical monster-in-law fashion, Honey has been planning their wedding and hands Ellie a book of cuts outs and clips of photos, lists, etc. We can certainly see where this may end up.
On the spy front, super-sensei-turned-rogue-spy Bennett stole an advanced inertia guidance system that becomes a weapon when put into a missile system. Casey, being unusually harsh, points out to General Beckman that perhaps Chuck should sit this reconnaissance mission out for fear of being a liability. The General agrees. Chuck is somewhat offended not being included.
Emmett at Buy More has decided to hold an Employee of the Month contest. The winner will get their 8x10 on the wall of fame and a special unnamed prize. The crew decides that this plan will only earn everyone else kudos so they decide to take customer service in the opposite direction — and get the worst customer survey points.
While Chuck stays back at Buy More, Casey and Sarah are off waiting for the potential buyer to rendezvous with Bennett for the secret info. Sarah tries to include Chuck by sending him a ubiquitous dark windowless van license plate photo. He doesn't flash on it. Once again Casey is annoyed at Chuck for wasting his time. Just then a limo drives up and Casey and Sarah converge with guns cocked. There's just a driver who nervously admits to nothing. The back door opens and there's a silver suitcase in the back seat. The bad news is it's got a beeping red light. Take note — red beeping light BAD. They all run for cover as the car explodes in flames.
Meanwhile, our newest bad guy Bennett is standing with a bloodless Buy More pen in hand asking Chuck where Casey can be found. Chuck, knowing exactly who this guy is, nervously smiles and tells him he'll check in the back room. As Chuck turns away he calls Casey but gets voicemail.
Feeling underutilized, Chuck takes it upon himself to follow Bennett and give Casey a blow-by-blow account of his whereabouts. He finally reaches Casey and with bravado, lets Casey know the scoop. Casey tells him to abort the mission, as he's no match for Bennett. Chuck disagrees and tells him he can handle the situation. Chuck suddenly loses Bennett in the parking area but Bennett finds Chuck, puts him in his trunk, and drives off with Chuck.
Back at Buy More, Honey and Woody are wedding registry gift shopping at the Buy More with Ellie and Awesome. Ellie is being very accommodating to her soon-to-be in-laws. Everyone at Buy More is under customer shut down, trying not to help anyone with anything.
In hot pursuit, Casey and Sarah get to the parking garage to find Bennett trying to escape. Playing a little game of car chicken, they both rev their engines and drive towards each other. Sarah protests to stop from potentially killing Chuck who is still in the trunk. Casey, unflustered, barrels head first towards Bennett. Bennett does likewise but turns off smashing into a parked car. Heading off on foot, Casey pursues him. Caught at a precipice, Bennett attempts to recruit Casey but he refuses. Just as Bennett exclaims he's not good enough to join his rogue team, he grabs a crane rope and swings down to escape.
They all go back to the Castle where Chuck innocently rats out Casey. General Beckman scolds Casey for potentially hurting Chuck. Their main objective is to guard the Intersect so Beckman recruits another team to clean up their mess. Infuriated, Casey practically threatens Chuck. The Casey teapot is about to suffer a meltdown!
Sarah and Casey have a disagreement over Casey's emotional involvement in the case. Casey has a great couple of lines including:
"You're one to talk since you can't seem to keep your chocolate out of Chuck's peanut butter."
"It's always people that let you down in the end." — This one not being funny but more character revealing.
Sarah finds Chuck and tells him to leave Casey alone for now as she goes off to play his girlfriend at Ellie's pre-wedding food tasting get together. Casey tries to break into Orange Orange but the retina scanner won't permit him access.
As George Burns once said, "The most important thing in acting is honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made." I think that's what Casey had in mind when he calls Chuck downstairs and, faking sincerity, emotes what could be a human feeling. Chuck immediately responds and goes to meet him. Casey has other plans and immediately pulls him over to some surveillance footage of the accident to see if he flashes on it. He does and gives away Bennett's hideaway address. Casey, in full vengeance mode, gathers his artillery paraphernalia, and heads off to single-handedly confront Bennett. He leaves Chuck handcuffed in Orange Orange, separating him from his phone.
Tempers are also at a boiling point back at Ellie's apartment where the test tasting commences. Honey asks Ellie's opinion about the cake but immediately cuts her off saying it doesn't matter anyway. It's red velvet they will have! Finally, Ellie breaks admitting how she has agreed with the various parts of the wedding but can't say yes anymore. She stomps out of the room with Awesome chasing her closely behind. The most interesting piece of intel is that I always thought the Bartowski parents were both dead. It turns out that Dad is just estranged!
Meanwhile, Chuck continues to try to escape — even trying to use the "force" to will the phone into his hands. It all seems a failure until he arranges some straws tied together to pull the phone into reach. Chuck confesses to Sarah about what transpired and Sarah is on the move to Bennett's hideaway.
The sensei hideaway — part mystery, part Chinese themed restaurant, finds Casey subduing a gun-toting individual just as he enters the secret code to get in. Meanwhile, using some MacGyver techniques, Chuck super freezes his handcuff chain and breaks it off. He heads off to the hideaway in his Nerd Herd hybrid. All three converge on the hideaway. Chuck gets captured as Sarah finds Casey. Despite holding him by knifepoint, Casey tells her she'll have to kill him to stop him and she responds that she's his partner and will not let him get killed. This certainly hit what little humanity he deep inside. Notice the raised eyebrow that plays prominently this episode in all our characters — it's the universal code for huh?! Uh huh! And hmmm...
Unfortunately, because Chuck was captured Casey and Sarah gave themselves up and they all walk handcuffed to Bennett and his students in the big overly decorated gym. In a final showdown, Casey and Bennett face off to fight to the death. Bennett tells his students to watch as Casey is put down in a matter of moments. This is a lesson, he tells them, of how to kill a man with honor. A few punches later, Casey is just about beaten until Chuck gives him a little pep talk, sensei style. We all know Casey, having seen him in 1980's My Bodyguard, and he doesn't go down easy. Chuck manages to get him so angry by explaining that he must love Chuck and care for him. Casey, almost ready to kill Chuck, is instructed to turn his anger towards Bennett. He does and several kicks and punches later, Bennett is down for the count. Luckily, the FBI breaks in to disrupt the whole thing.
Back at Buy More, Emmett announces the Employee of the Month, Skip Johnson, who, until now, was the unnamed lanky fro-haired Buy More employee. Yes, he gets his photo hung next to the CEO's but more importantly, he wins a 65" flat screen TV. Now that's an employee incentive!
As Chuck retires back home with Casey, still bloodied from the fight, he almost inaudibly thanks Chuck for helping him. Chuck hears something but isn't sure what it was. Casey, being Casey, won't repeat such gratitude. Back at the apartment, Chuck apologizes to Ellie for missing the tasting. Ellie reveals to Chuck that the only thing she really cared about her wedding was her own father being able to walk her down the aisle. She knows that's just not in the cards. In one of the few tender sibling moments between Chuck and Ellie, Chuck commits to finding their Dad and having him walk her down the aisle.
This leaves an interesting open door for the Bartowski's. What really happened to their family and why is their dad estranged from the family? Who is your idea for dad casting? And what did you think of the TV as employee incentive? What good and bad incentive plans did you have as motivation? Also, what about Honey the mother-in-law-to-be? What monster-in-law stories do you have to anonymously share with the world? C'mon, we're all friends here...
