Childhood's End: First Blood, First Fights on Chuck

Hmmm, did you see that coming?

While I teased some details about this week's fantastically serpentine episode of Chuck ("Chuck Versus the First Fight") in my advance review last week (which you can read over here), I was especially careful not to spoil that particular bait and switch, lest it ruin what was a rather masterful plot twist this week.

Morgan, here thrust into largely the same role that Chuck was way back in Season One, claims that first fights set the tone for the entire relationship and his rubric can be applied to relationships in general. In fact, the way that the final conflict in this episode plays out might hold the key to unlocking--or at least gaining some understanding--about the ways in which Mary Elizabeth Bartowski operates. Her frosty exterior belies a true emotional core, one that's not tied up in whatever elaborate ruse she's involved in at the moment.

So now that the episode has aired and I can get more specific with my thoughts without spoiling you, what did I think of "Chuck Versus the First Fight"? Read on. Just be sure to put down the tiny weapons first.

As I did in my original review, I again want to praise Timothy Dalton for some fantastic work in this week's installment. From the befuddled professor facade he created (I loved his glee in diving out of the airplane and his joke about there only being one parachute) to the final reveal that the man we've come to know as MI6 handler Gregory Tuttle is nothing more than an illusion, a cover story concealing this man's dangerous true nature: Volkoff himself.

I suspected as much when "Tuttle" began to ask Chuck about his relationship with Frost (during their sheep-laden trip back to Los Angeles) and when he got shot at the bank, it clinched it for me. It was far too easy to have Tuttle get shot and bleed out on the floor of a bank, but the mechanics of the plan were ingenious, a long con designed to get Chuck to take Mary inside Orion's headquarters, bypassing all security measures and allowing her to walk in freely.

Which is what it appears to have all been about: access to Orion's technology and the secrets that were hidden away underneath the Bartowskis' Encino house. Triangle-shaped discs, MI6 black ops, kindly handlers, they were all props in the end, a convincing slight-of-hand that distracted Chuck from what was actually going on behind the scenes.

For all of his training and his Intersect-derived skills, Chuck fell prey to exactly what Sarah had tried to steer him away from: he was felled by his own emotion, clouded by his unresolved feelings about his mother, and he was an easy mark for a spy as gifted and accomplished as Frost. Why? Because despite the evidence, he wanted to believe that his mother was as good as he wanted her to be. That underneath the posturing and the brutal iciness, she was the same woman that read him stories and tucked him in at night.

Did that woman ever exist? Was her whole life as Mary Bartowski just a convenient cover? Was her relationship with Chuck and Ellie's dad Stephen an assignment? Or is there something more to her? After all, she doesn't let Chuck and Sarah go boom when the explosives--rigged to destroy Orion's HQ--go off. And she does slip Sarah the means of escape. Plus, her scene with Ellie, in which they talk about little Ellie curling up between her parents in the blue leather seats of that classic car, did point towards some true emotion buried underneath that icy surface.

Better still, just what did Mary do to Chuck in the basement there? What was that that she showed him on that monitor. What was it that Orion never wanted Chuck to see? Given that we don't see Chuck flash on anything for the remainder of the episode, nor use any of his Intersect 2.0-derived abilities, it seems as though Mary has either deleted the Intersect from Chuck's head or somehow removed his access to the data.

Chuck has largely dealt with Chuck Bartowski's relationship to the Intersect program, so I can't see why the writers would decide to remove it altogether at this point in the game, but I also can't quite figure out just what Mary did to Chuck in this week's episode. It would be a huge game-changer if he lost the Intersect altogether, though it could also be a sign that the MacGuffin of those powers are replaced by real spy training and martial arts. And that Chuck becomes more proficient a spy on his own, rather than backed by any performance-enhancing technology.

But if Mary's actions aren't Intersect deletion- or alteration-related, could it be that she showed him something specific, a particular piece of intel, that could be hugely damning? Something that his brain hasn't yet processed but which is waiting to be analyzed by the Intersect? Something related to Mary's disappearance in the first place?

And, finally, was this action part of Volkoff's plan? Or a rogue personal mission for Mary herself? Hmmm...

And then there's the matter of Stephen's old classic car, the one with the custom-made blue leather seats... and whatever is going on underneath there. I'm not sure what to make of the glowing box underneath the driver's seat, nor why he specifically left this boon to Ellie rather than Chuck. Could it be that Ellie herself might be more important to the overarching plot than we realized? Did Stephen have a plan for his daughter that was separate to Chuck? Curious.

It's fitting that the Encino home where Chuck and Ellie grew up was destroyed by the end of the episode, an explosion that incinerates Orion's life's work as well as the closest symbol Chuck as of the family life that detonated when Mary disappeared all of those years ago. Everything that those years represented, those small moments that define a family, detonate with those explosives. What's taken down to the ground isn't just Orion's work, but the decades of secrets that the Bartowski clan kept.

And it's perhaps also a signal that there are no sacred cows in this show, that Orion's underground lair, with its vast caverns of knowledge, tech, and nifty gizmos, is able to be destroyed so casually. Volkoff is clearly playing for keeps... but what might undo him in the end is a mother's love for her son. At no point is it made explicit that Volkoff is aware of just what Mary and Chuck's true relationship is; in fact, it seems clear at the end of the episode that Volkoff orders Chuck and Sarah's execution without knowing who Chuck actually is.

Which is very interesting to me. While Mary went to great lengths to conceal Chuck's identity from Volkoff, it's that very relationship that could end up saving her. If she isn't completely evil, that is. But that moment between her and Sarah ("keep him safe") points towards some goodness in her heart, at least where her son is concerned.

Here's to hoping that the dastardly Volkoff and his kick-ass cohorts (including guest star Ana Gasteyer's hilariously scarred and scary indestructible woman Dasha) has more than a few tricks still up his sleeves. And that this season turns out to be just as twisty and complex as this week's episode. (Dare I say it: one of the all-time best Chuck episodes?)

What did you make of "Chuck Versus the First Fight"? Did you love Morgan's slapstick moment with the earpiece and him redeeming himself by suiting up and going into battle at the bank with John Casey? Is Mary Bartowski good or evil? What did she do to Chuck? And what's the deal with Ellie's new car? Head to the comments section to discuss.

In two weeks on Chuck ("Chuck Versus the Fear of Death"), Chuck tries to prove himself by going on a hazardous mission; Casey and Morgan try to cover when the Buy More staffers attempt to investigate the identity of the newest Greta (guest star Summer Glau).