TVSquad

(S02E09) This season we've met Sarah's high school nemesis, who turned out to be a rogue spy, Chuck's ex-girlfriend, who turned out to be a rogue spy, and we had a return of Bryce, who was a spy from an opposing agency. This week, we met John Casey's former sensei, who is now a rogue spy. This brings me to a few conclusions...

First, the CIA really has a horrible retention program for its employees (most likely due to the pudding cups being eliminated from the cafeteria). Second, other than Chuck, his immediate family, and the employees at Buy More, everyone else is a rogue agent. Therefore, this little trio of agents will be eliminating the bad seeds from California for the next 22 seasons. Well, at least there's the job security.

We never really knew much about Casey before this episode other than he was in the spy game long before the Intersect became part of Chuck. Also, beneath Casey's crusty exterior was an even crustier interior. So, getting a taste of his past helped give us a feeling of who he was in the past. Which, it seems, was not the person we know today. Currently, Casey's focus is laser sharp. Back then, he was as jumble-minded as Chuck.

Because Ty Bennett was such an influence on the person John became it was quite a blow to learn that he had turned rogue...just as Jill's betrayal was to Chuck. It was no surprise that he decided to take this very personally. Unfortunately, he took it so personally that he began to neglect his main mission: protecting Chuck. I mean, his patience with the Intersect is tenuous at best on a normal day. Having his mentor turn to the 'Dark Side' and having Chuck hanging around nearly made him snap. How ironic it was that Chuck ended up 'saving' Casey's life by focusing his anger in order to defeat his sensei in a final battle.

By the way, you had to know that a final confrontation was going to take place between these two. There was just so much anger in Casey that, if he didn't end it there and then, he would have regretted it for the rest of his life. It was also pretty inevitable that Casey would eventually succeed. Because, you know, this is Chuck after all. What wasn't written in stone was the small 'Thank you' he gave Chuck for saving his life. Could that be a small crack in Casey's armored exterior? Nah, couldn't be!

Over to the sub-plots of this evening's programme. First, the 'Employee of the Month' situation at Buy More. I have to differ with the opinion of Morgan in this episode. As a retail graduate I actually aspired to be Employee of the Month. Granted, I never was that person, but at least I worked towards it. Yeah, I'm a dweeb...so sue me! Anyway, as these guys don't do much work as it is, I wasn't too sure how they could do even less to garner poor customer comments. Morgan got his comeuppance at the end as the actual Employee of the Month won a 65-inch flat screen TV. I'm sure that this win by Emmett is an aberration, a flux, in the universe and Morgan will return triumphant next episode.

The other event that took place this week was the introduction of the Family Awesome, played by Morgan Fairchild and Bruce Boxleitner. They were just, well, they were just okay. If anything, they were a bit too overwhelming in their wedding plans; plans that Ellie didn't really want. Wedding registry at the Buy More? Is this the only retail outlet in the area? I was glad to see that Ellie decided to speak up at the very end about the plans, particularly about the part where Woody Awesome wanted to walk her down the aisle.

Before I go I want to mention the Geek Moment of the Week. If you happen to scan Chuck's room when his sister was waking him up in a panic you would have noticed a poster from the film Tron. If you happen to recall, Bruce Boxleitner was one of the stars of that film. This was neat, but I wonder why there were no references to Bablyon 5 anywhere. At least I didn't see any.

Next time on Chuck: another blast from the past as we meet Sarah's father, played by Gary Cole.