Quintessentially Chuck: Day 5

Today marks the end of “Quintessentially Chuck”, which is going out with a bang. Today’s moment comes from the show-defining second season in which “Chuck” could do no wrong. After watching the season again over the course of the past few months, there isn’t a single episode that I’d consider of even average quality in the overall canon of “Chuck”; it’s all that good. A season of any show with 22 episodes as of the quality of “Chuck’s” second season would be good enough on its own (great, really), but the pacing of the season was remarkably well done too, with some nice standalones at the start, then the fantastic Jill arc, a few more standalones, and then a full tilt sprint to the finish with the best arc in the history of the show, namely the Orion/quest to remove the Intersect/Intersect 2.0 arc that capped it all off perfectly. From this paragraph of gushing acclaim, you can probably infer that it was tough for me to pick just one moment from season 2. In fact, part of the reason I opted to cover all the seasons of “Chuck” for this series was to ensure that it wasn’t top-heavy with season 2 moments. With that being said, there’s one moment from Season 2 that stands out in my mind as the defining moment. It’s the one point in the show’s history where every plot line, every story, and every character detail that had been built and established over the course of the season converged perfectly in a single moment to produce a cataclysmic eruption of awesome.

Today’s Moment: Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto

 

For the past 4 days, I’ve had no problem starting my discussion of these moments. In fact, I usually have the piece laid out in my mind before I even begin writing. Today though, I truly don’t know where to start (aside from telling you to immediately watch here). There is so much that’s great about this scene that starting with any one particular moment feels like an injustice to everything else. Since I’ve so outspokenly advocated small moments in my reviews, however, I guess I’ll start there. For a grandiose, go for broke, over the top scene like this, there are a number of really great small moments scattered throughout. My favorite is unquestionably Bruce Boxleitner’s line of “why are you letting Sam Kinison and an Indian lesbian ruin your wedding?”. From there, we get some great small comedic moments from Chevy Chase (how hard is it to picture him as anything but Pierce Hawthorne at this point?) as Ted Roark. His line about feeling peckish, his irritated reaction at Chuck not having the Intersect, and his line about the shotgun wedding pun were funny, but in a heelish way that fit the character. Other small moments I enjoyed were Morgan Fairchild taking a drink from the flask, the shocked audience reactions during the performance, and Ellie’s attempts to keep her calm as everything fell apart around her.

Of course, this is Jeffster’s big season 2 moment, so I’ll cover them next. We had seen Jeffster perform before, in “Chuck versus the Best Friend”, but the show had done nothing as over the top as this with the two previously. Just the outfits, Lester’s atrocious maroon and salmon ensemble and Jeff’s tuxedo shirt, were enough to get me laughing, but that thrown in with the two of them acting out their rock fantasies in spectacular fashion made this one of the funniest moments in the history of the show. Again, there are a lot of small things to like here. Jeff instructing a string quartet to “watch for the changes” is hysterical and Lester’s “moves” defy description. Just the idea of this band playing “Mr. Roboto” at a wedding service is so ridiculous that I laugh now even thinking about it. The main reason I chose this moment over any number of potentially awesome moments from Season 2 is how incredibly everything builds and climaxes, both in the context of the season as a whole and the episode individually. Jeffster’s performance is capped off in a suitably “low budget trying to be spectacular” way and their ruining of the ceremony feels like a suitably grand conclusion to a grand (in their own way) performance.

As a standalone comedic moment, Jeffster’s rendition of Mr. Roboto has to be a top 3 moment in the history of the show. What’s amazing about the scene, however, is how many non-comedic scenes are interspliced between the performance and how effective said scenes are. As I mentioned in “Quintessentially Chuck” Day 1, one of the things that the show did so well in its early years was conveying a sense of mortal peril. The scenes between Chuck and Roark are a shining example of that, as it truly feels that there’s no way out for Chuck, Sarah, and Bryce. Their initial attempt to fight it out and the rescue by Casey’s team was exciting, something I term I rarely use in talking about television. The carnage, mixed with Chuck’s dismay over the state of the reception hall, culminating with the destruction of the ice sculpture all built nicely over the course of the scene. A lot of what happens here is, on the surface, pretty implausible. Chuck would have almost certainly been shot, Sarah couldn’t take down anyone using only knives, and Casey’s arrival is a little too convenient, but the thing is, my sense of disbelief remains suspended each time I watch the episode because it’s so well done.

Speaking of well done, the producer of this episode deserves a lot of credit for putting this scene together in the most effective way possible. To again start with little touches, the song kicking into high gear upon Bryce Larkin’s arrival and the Casey’s team parachuting in is such a small thing, but it’s so effective in making those moments seem even more important than they already are and heightening the excitement. Similarly, the cuts between small character moments and lines are placed for maximum impact, perhaps best illustrated by Casey’s “you rang?” line.  The scene even manages to accomplish a significant amount of story development. We get the return of Bryce Larkin, the return of Casey, the destruction of the wedding, and Stephen J. Bartowski’s revenge on Ted Roark. When I started writing “Quintessentially Chuck” the goal was to find moments that captured what the essence of the show is. To me, this is the best example. Everything that’s been built over the course of the season climaxes perfectly in one incredible moment and, as with the best “Chuck” moments, each character’s story overlaps with the others’. In some ways, this series is also about finding moments that only a show like “Chuck” could pull off. Suffice to say, a fight scene involving wedding presents, paratroopers, and Morgan Fairchild drinking whiskey, all set to a live performance of “Mr. Roboto” is something only “Chuck” would even attempt. That it was done so spectacularly and effectively is a credit to the show and a big reason (in addition to everything above) that it’s your final quintessentially “Chuck” moment.

Thank you for taking the time to read these and be sure to catch the last new episodes of “Chuck” tonight, which will hopefully leave us all with the following expression. Enjoy.