Chuck – Recap & Review – Chuck vs. The Push Mix

photo: nbc

Chuck
Chuck vs. The Push Mix

Original Air Date: Jan 31, 2011

Jeff L – Staff Writer
JeffL@thetwocentscorp.com

Chuck Bartowski, (Zachary Levi) it appears, is done screwing around. He’s done with waiting for Sarah (Yvonne Strahovski) to come home from her dangerous undercover mission to rescue his mother (Linda Hamilton) from the clutches of the evil Alexi Volkoff (Timothy Dalton).

He’s done screwing around trying to find the perfect place and time to propose. He’s even taking his sister’s pending labor into his own hands with his own “push mix” to play in the delivery room.

We open in Casey’s (Adam Baldwin) hospital room. He’s still in a coma after being thrown from a building last week. Casey manages to grumble though and somehow clue Chuck into the piece of the Hydra device Sarah slipped into his pocket before throwing him off the ledge. Chuck flashes on the device and sees the details of it’s invention and the doctor who created it.

Meanwhile, in Volkoff headquarters Sarah and Mary “Frost” Bartowski are sneaking around trying to find where Volkoff downloaded the Hydra data. Volkoff eventually phones Mary informing her that he’s taking Hyrda to the “Contessa.” Whoever that may be.

Chuck contacts General Grandma (Bonita Friedericy) explaining the details he’s garnered from flashing on the Hydra device. He warns her the mission is becoming too dangerous for Sarah and they should pull the plug and bring Sarah home. The general refuses. As she hangs up we see something in Chuck snap. He’s not going to take it anymore. He grabs Morgan (Joshua Gomez) and they start to hash out a plan.

Cut to Volkoff headquarters, Alexi enters but his technology fails to come to life as usual upon his entrance. A message flashes across his monitor “I want my wife back. — Orion” Orion, you’ll recall was the codename Chuck’s father Stephen Bartowski (Scott Bakula) used before he was killed trying to take down the Ring and get to Volkoff to rescue his wife. Volkoff sends one of his henchmen to track the transmission back to Orion’s hiding place as he busies himself getting ready to see the Contessa.

Over in the b-story, Awesome (Ryan McPartlin) is doing the usual television first-time father freak out. He’s comforted by Chuck at the Spy More as Chuck hands him the titular “Push Mix” for Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) to listen to as she gives birth. Of course, Jeffster! intercepts the CD from Awesome’s backpack before he can leave the store – vowing to welcome Chuck’s new niece into the world with a live performance.

Morgan tracks down the inventor of the eye device and it turns out he’s local. (Convenient). They snatch him from his campus office for interrogation. Well first they snatch a guy who looked almost exactly like him – before finally catching up with the real professor. While being interrogated in a bathroom on campus, the professor reveals that he was kidnapped by Volkoff and forced to create the Hydra eye. Chuck asks if he knows who the Contessa might be and the man informs Chuck the Contessa isn’t a who but a what. She’s a boat. The very boat Volkoff took the professor when he was kidnapped.

Volkoff, Mary and Sarah arrive at The Contessa – she’s a massive ship with missiles, stealth technology and for some reason: an ice cream parlor. As Volkoff climbs aboard Mary and Sarah agree to snatch the Hydra data as soon as night falls. On the other side of the ship, however Chuck and Morgan have climbed aboard. Chuck removes his wetsuit to reveal James Bond-esque clothing underneath. Morgan, however, didn’t realize he was supposed to wear anything under the wetsuit.

Both teams, Sarah and Mary and Chuck and Morgan wait for night to make their move. Of course, they run into each other immediately once they make their move toward the Hydra data. Morgan gets trapped by some lasers as they try to approach Hydra. Eventually he’s cut to ribbons or at least his wetsuit is anyway, leaving him in just his underwear as Chuck, his mother and Sarah finally get the door open. The team finally makes their way to the center of the ship and Mary begins uploading the Hydra data to an offshore CIA server.

Back home, Ellie goes into labor. I guess the Chuck team isn’t screwing around either. They’re not going to wait for February sweeps for the baby to be born. I guess they are saving that for Chuck and Sarah’s wedding. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Ellie gives birth to the dulcet tones of Jeffster! singing Salt-n-Pepa’s Push It over the hospital loudspeaker system – since they were, of course, denied entry into the delivery room. Casey, in the same hospital, it seems has been making a miraculous recovery and even finds time to provide awesome with a little of his own fatherly encouragement.

Contessa: Volkoff is monitoring the Hydra data and as soon as Mary tried to offload it an alarm alerted the evil mastermind. Volkoff, gun drawn, enters. He’s very disappointed in Frost (Mary Bartowski). He silences the alarm with his secret code, a quote from his favorite poet Joseph Stalin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin) and is about to dispatch his former love when she grabs the gun and manages to take Volkoff hostage. She holds him at bay while Chuck, Morgan and Sarah run but she has to stay behind for them to escape. The doors seal shut and Volkoff and his men are alone with Mary Bartowski. One of Volkoff’s men knocks her to the ground and Volkoff shoots the man for touching his Frost. Volkoff shows Mary the Orion message and asserts that she’s known that Orion was alive and has been working with him the entire time. He grabs her and tells her he’s going to see her husband himself and when he returns he’ll bring Mary his body.

Volkoff arrives at Orions secret cabin hideout. He leaves his men outside, vowing to end this once and for all. He enters and sees a man sitting in the shadows. The man rises to approach Volkoff, but it’s not Orion, of course, it’s Chuck. He doesn’t wait for Volkoff to react. He just punches him – knocking him unconscious. Chuck ties him up and waits for him to regain consciousness. When he awakes, Chuck is holding a gun to his head. Volkoff dares Chuck to kill him. He knows Chuck isn’t that kind of person/spy. Volkoff continues to goad Chuck while he works on the bonds behind the chair he’s tied to. Volkoff then threatens Chuck telling him he has access to everyone Chuck loves. Elsewhere, we see one of his henchemen entering the hospital currently housing Casey, Ellie and Awesome.

Volkoff finally frees himself and grabs the gun. Volkoff starts to explain what Chuck did wrong. Classic bad guy mistake. At the hospital we see the henchman placing a pillow over Casey’s face and holding it there until the machines indicate he’s no longer breathing. The henchmen says “now for the sister” as we cut back to Volkoff and Chuck. Volkoff explains that his men have orders to kill everyone if they don’t hear from him personally. He assures Chuck that they will not hear from him. He turns the gun on Chuck telling him he’ll soon be attending a family reunion. Chuck starts laughing. “Gotcha,” says Chuck. The secret walls come down and somewhere in the house Morgan has recorded Volkoff’s voice. Chuck somehow managed to get Alexi to say all the words from his Stalin passcode – which Morgan has recorded and plugged into the Hydra device remotely using the Orion virus Chuck transferred to Volkoff’s ship. The data begins to transfer from the ship to the CIA.

Volkoff counters that Chuck’s loved ones are still in danger but Chuck already has that part figured out. Casey simply removed the finger sensor that was monitoring his life signs. He takes out the Volkoff agent as Sarah, aboard the Contessa takes out the guys holding Mary. Volkoff realizes what’s happening and points the gun at Chuck’s head, but it’s empty of course. Volkoff has one last move, he informs Chuck that his men are outside and it would take an army to take down those men. Chuck goes for the door, opens it and in steps General Grandma in full uniform as we pan outside seeing an actual army take all of Volkoff’s men into custody.

Having finally capture Volkoff and the Hydra data, Chuck wants to rush off to the hospital to see Ellie. He asks General Grandma if he and Morgan can borrow a van, but Grandma refuses. She informs Chuck that he’s just accomplished what the CIA has been trying to do for 20 years. “Get this man a chopper!” Grandma shouts.

Everyone arrives at the hospital. Ellie gives birth to Clara, Casey and his daughter (and Morgan) bond. Ellie hands the newborn to her husband who can only muster one word of amazement “Awesome.” The camera pulls away as we see Chuck and Sarah sitting outside Ellie’s room. A janitor mops the floor in the foreground but behind him we see Chuck slip to one knee and open the box with the ring (not the Ring – the ring) inside. We see Sarah smile and kiss Chuck as the scene slowly fades to black.

What did you think of Chuck vs. The Push Mix? When will Chuck and Sarah be married? Was it not awesome (not Awesome – awesome) that Chuck’s plan didn’t require him to flash and that it was his old-school Nerd Herd self that managed to take down Volkoff and not the Intersect? Was Jeffster! not amazing? Will we see more of Volkoff in the future? Is Yvonne not worthy of a Best Actress Emmy? Was Chuck proposal not amazing after all the horrible stuff he and Sarah have been through since the dreaded Big Mike ring incident back at Castle? Please leave your answers to these and any other questions in the comments section below and keep your browser tuned here for all your television reviews, recaps and discussion. I’m on vacation next week, but we’ll still be covering our friends from the Spy More at http://www.thetwocents.com.