Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Chuck vs the Tic Tac: Smart Alex

The back story for Adam Baldwin's John Casey has been a weird piecemeal of mystery and general badassery. We already knew that he was a soldier, but between the Sensei episode and now, there's only been hints as to his 'origin story.' Our Sopranos friend 'Paulie' thought he might have recognized him as an old army buddy named Alex, and "Angel de la Muerte" had him as a black ops assassin. Between the two lies Colonel Keller (Robert Patrick, Terminator II), who turned Alex into the John Casey we know and love (and fear).

It's worthy to note that Alex Coburn was a green, scrawny 20-something with love in his heart (a weakness that proves to still be intact) and lots of self-doubt, not unlike a season one Chuck. So perhaps it's no wonder that Casey has such a brutal paternal relationship with Chuck. He sees himself in the intersect, both what he was and what he could become, if given his own Colonel Keller. The parallels of seeing both nearly strangle their adversaries was not lost. It might be too late for Casey* ("what's dead is dead," he says, bringing forth Lost goosebumps), but for Chuck, his Colonel Keller was a pill that would wear off (or be counter-acted with one word from his Sarah). The only thing keeping Chuck from turning into Casey is, in fact, Sarah, and we're led to believe that she might not come back -- a plot device supposed to make us fearful, but rest assured, just like Ellie & Awesome taking up with Doctors without Borders, that isn't going to happen. Funny, though, that the writers thought that we'd believe, even for a second, that Chuck could continue on without Casey, Sarah, Awesome & Ellie.

*I have the feeling that if his ex-fiance had recognized him as Alex, it immediately would've been a different story for Casey. She doesn't see Alex, though, reinforcing Casey's belief that the Alex part of him is dead.

In the music department, Frightened Rabbit sprint into the lead in having the most songs appear on Chuck, this time with Winter of Mixed Drinks highlight "Swim Until You Can't See Land". The song asks, "Are you a man or are you a bag of sand?" Time will tell, but smart money's not on the emotionless bag of sand.

Chuck: Episode 3.10
1. "You Know You Want It" - Green Go (MySpace) - Chuck, Sarah & Casey do security sweep
2. "Black and Blue" - The Maids of Honor - Chuck battles Keller's team
3. "Swim Until You Can't See Land" - Frightened Rabbit - Chuck talks to Ellie

Previously: "Chuck vs the Beard"

1 comment:

Katelyn said...

I loved this episode and I agree that there is no way they'll leave Chuck on his own without his team for long. But I'm still holding my breath to see what actually ends up happening. They could leave us without them for at least a few episodes, which would be really tough to handle. I never would have dreamed that House would have had so many episodes before the original team was back in the picture.