Posted by Janie Logan Oct 27, 2010, 4:59 GMT
Mama Bartowski (Linda Hamilton) may have questionable motives, but she's certainly been a great addition to Season 4 of Chuck. Photo courtesy of NBC.
“Trust” is the watchword. It’s a hard thing to earn, even for regular people. Among spies, it’s even rarer. But for Chuck, trusting comes easily, which is both good and bad, as we saw in this week’s episode, “Chuck vs. the Aisle of Terror.”
After a long, emotional search for his mother, Chuck comes face to face with her for the first time in 20 years. She purports to have been working undercover against Volkoff this entire time, and now she is resurfacing to give the CIA a dangerous biochemical weapon.
Using her information, Chuck sets up a meeting with the doctor who invented the toxic gas that terrorizes the afflicted until they lose their minds. If ever there has been an episode that beats you over the head with its pop culture reference, it was having a Halloween episode in which "Freddy Krueger" causes nightmares. But thanks to a brilliant use of Jeffster (namely that Jeff is so twisted that what he comes up with to decorate the Buy More's "Aisle of Terror" would frighten even the fearless), plus all the Linda Hamilton awesomeness, it was too fun to have any real complaints.
Now, I don't want to punish Mary Bartowski for the sins of Irina Derevko, but I've been fooled by Spy Mamas too many times to believe anything they say without some solid proof. Let's look at the facts.
Mary left when Chuck was 9. She says the CIA sent her within Volkoff's organization, but she got in too deep and had to withdraw all contact with her former life or risk endangering her family. During her 20 year absence, Chuck's father never stopped looking for her. He, too, left his children because of all the bad people he encountered who might come after Chuck and Ellie. Smart (and paranoid) as he was, he couldn't find Mary before he died.
Since Chuck has been investigating his mother's whereabouts, he's had brief conversations with some of her associates but been unable to find her. Mary knew of his search. Suddenly she appears out of the goodness of her heart to prevent the dangerous gas from falling into the wrong hands. She knows all about the Intersect and Chuck's work as "Charles Carmichael."
On the mission, she shoots Chuck in the chest (although she supposedly knows that he is wearing a vest) in order to mislead Volkoff. Then she hands over the doctor and the toxin in secret. She's going to disappear again, but her good deed has won Chuck's trust and he tells her that Ellie is pregnant. Before Mary can meet up with Chuck and Ellie, Sarah and Casey abduct her because of their intel that she has really been serving Volkoff all along.
If that's true, then Mary probably married Stephen to spy on his research. Her return could be a calculated maneuver to manipulate Chuck and give Volkoff the Intersect. Being captured by Sarah and Casey is only going to cause a rift in Team Bartowski and in Chuck and Sarah's relationship. This will make Chuck far more likely to want to prove his mother's innocence.
I hope I'm wrong, but I have serious doubts that she could be innocent. Realizing that could send Chuck to a dark place, but if that happens, he will see what we already know--that as much as he would love to have his mother around, he's got a family in Ellie, Awesome, Morgan, Chuck, and Casey. He can trust those people because they love him and would do anything for him, as they've demonstrated by always being there for him.
Other thoughts on the episode:
-It made me so happy to see Casey accepting the fact that he's stuck with Morgan and that he might as well put him to good use--as "The Magnet." And of course Morgan would be thrilled by that.
-The pictures from Jeff's psych experiment were pretty hilarious. Black licorice does scare me, for the record. But best of all, "Is it a baby...or is it a snail? I don't know!"
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