Chuck 4.05 'Chuck vs. the Couch Lock'

By Janie Logan Oct 20, 2010, 6:08 GMT

Casey (Adam Baldwin) confronts his past to help Chuck find his mother in "Chuck vs. the Couch Lock." Photo courtesy of NBC.

Whoever decided that Adam Baldwin and Josh Gomez should be in more scenes together is a genius. The Casey-Morgan relationship has become one of the highlights of the show, and “Chuck vs. the Couch Lock” brought it to the forefront. That, plus the fun rogue A-Team element and the hilarious Jeffster moments, made for a highly entertaining episode.

Season 4’s guest-star bonanza continued with Eric Roberts, Joel David Moore, and Dave Batista as former US operatives who had been under Casey’s command until they tried to steal gold from Iranian terrorists. Chuck came across them in the search for his mother, and Casey was more than willing to do his part in drawing them out of hiding. In this case, “his part” meant faking his death so that his old team would come to his funeral.

To complete the ruse, Chuck asked Morgan to deliver the eulogy, whose ramblings were even more ridiculous than usual ("Well, he was a big man. Big biceps, big hands. I used to call him 'Mitts.' You know, they were like giant mitts that could fit all the way around my neck, anyway…"). He was rightfully anxious about telling Casey that he was dating his daughter, Alex (the adorable Mekenna Melvin). Casey was paralyzed by a drug that was supposed to make him a convincing corpse, but he could still open his eyes—he fixed Morgan with many a frightening stare throughout the episode.

Well, the mercenary trio did show up to the funeral, but they came prepared, rigging the floor under Casey’s casket with explosives so they could steal his body and cut off his arm to open the sealed vault in Iran with all the gold from their mission 15 years prior. Needless to say, Casey was having a rough day.

Given the number of situations Morgan manages to screw up, it's nice when he gets to be the one to save the day. He walks a fine line between bravery and foolishness (here, disabling the bad guys by sending thousands of volts of electricity through them and himself), but it was enough to convince Casey to allow Morgan and Alex to be together, with this caveat: "You break her heart, I break your everything."

The major development in the ongoing storyline was some unsettling news about Chuck's mom--she works for Volkoff. I'm sure it's more complicated than that (Mama Bristow, anyone?), but I'm glad that Chuck isn't blind to the possibility that his mom is a villain. After that phone call at the end of the episode, it looks like we're in for some big stuff next week on "Chuck vs. the Aisle of Terror."

And for those fans who may not have heard the news, NBC announced yesterday that it was ordering 11 more episodes, giving us a total of 24 episodes for Season 4! That's a whole lot of awesome.

My one concern is that the writers might be tempted to stretch the story out and slow down the exciting pace they have maintained over the past couple of seasons. I'm not accusing Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak of being particularly bad about this but merely pointing out a pitfall that I hope they avoid. I would obviously prefer to have more Chuck to look forward to--not, however, at the expense of tight, compelling stories.

If Season 3 is any indication, there's nothing to worry about. The additional 6 episodes beyond the initial 13-episode order (from "Chuck vs. the Honeymooners" to "Chuck vs. the Ring, Part II") were fantastic--some of the best work of the series. If Season 4 continues to maintain that creative energy, it's going to be a very fun 24 episodes.

Favorite moments from "Chuck vs. the Couch Lock":

--"Don't worry, Casey. I know that dumpster."

--“You’re blinking a lot. I hope you know I don’t understand Morse code.”

--“Was that a little girl?”

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