Chuck Versus the Ring: Part II
"Chuck Versus the Ring: Part II" is the 19th episode and season finale of the third season of Chuck. It was originally aired May 24, 2010 in a special two-hour block with "Chuck Versus the Subway". Team Bartowski escapes execution by Shaw, thanks to Morgan and Devon. Learning from an imprisoned General Beckman that the Ring Elders are going to be at a spy convention to take over the CIA and NSA, Team Bartowski prepares to capture the Elders and expose Shaw. Meanwhile, Big Mike receives some serious news about the Buy More.
| "Chuck Versus the Ring: Part II" | |
|---|---|
| Chuck episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 3 Episode 19 |
| Directed by | Robert Duncan McNeill |
| Written by | Josh Schwartz & Chris Fedak |
| Featured music | "On My Way Back Home" by Band of Horses "Sundial" by Wolfmother "La Cucaracha" "Blaze of Glory" by Jeffster! "Blue Beard" by Band of Horses "Don't Hide Away" by Bishop Allen "One October Song" by Nico Stai |
| Production code | 3X5819 |
| Original air date | May 24, 2010 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
| |
Plot
Shaw opens the door on the back of the truck. He orders Chuck, Sarah, and Casey to remove their handcuffs with his provided key. That way he can kill them and say they were escaping. Devon and Morgan sit in Casey's Crown Victoria a short distance away, pondering how to rescue the team. They realize that Casey's car is likely weaponized and accidentally fire a missile at the truck. The explosion knocks Shaw unconscious and allows the team to escape. Shaw recovers and fires several rounds at the Vic as they speed away.
Back at Casey's apartment, Chuck hacks into a remote interrogation feed on General Beckman's cell. She reveals that Shaw had her arrested so he could take her place at the Joint Security Summit, an intelligence conference whose attendees include senior leadership of both the CIA and NSA, and which the Ring Elders will also be secretly attending in order to take control of the US Intelligence Community in a coup d'état. The team concocts a plan to capture the Elders and expose Shaw. Chuck and Sarah go in disguised as part of the Russian delegation, and while Chuck (in disguise) meets Shaw, he slips a cell phone in Shaw's pocket. However, Shaw is quickly able to identify Chuck, and dispatches Justin and other Ring agents to come and capture them. Chuck suffers a painful Intersect malfunction when he attempts to flash, so Sarah defeats the agents on her own.
Meanwhile, Shaw gives his speech to the conference. Suddenly, he receives a phone call from Chuck (via the telephone Chuck slipped into his pocket), saying that he is in Shaw's room, and aware of the presence of the Elders. Shaw alerts the Elders with his Ring communicator that they must leave. This reveals their identities to Team Bartowski, allowing Casey and Morgan to capture them. Meanwhile, Shaw goes up to his room and confronts Chuck, in the process admitting his affiliation with the Ring, murder of Stephen J. Bartowski, and acts of treason in an attempt to compromise Chuck's emotions again. Chuck reveals that he had been taping the whole discussion and broadcasting it on a large screen in the auditorium. Chuck experiences another painful flash when attempting to recover the Governor, leaving Chuck helpless to defend himself from Shaw. Sarah barges into Shaw's room just as Shaw is about to kill Chuck, but Shaw throws Chuck into her line of fire, allowing Shaw to escape.
Sarah helps Chuck back to Castle to recover, but while she is tending to him Shaw arrives at the Buy More and begins planting explosives. Morgan sees him and attempts to warn the rest of the team, but Shaw intercepts him. Tied up in the back of the store, Morgan managed to call Casey while he is going to get Ellie and Devon. Casey tells Morgan to break his thumbs (which he does) and pull the fire alarm. Shaw nonetheless alerts Sarah himself of his plan, and demands she send Chuck out to face him. Sarah leaves Chuck and Castle and goes herself, but is soon apprehended by Shaw after Jeff pulls the fire alarm right before Morgan does. Chuck hears an alarm in Castle alerting him to the danger, and goes to face Shaw. The Intersect malfunction greatly hampers his ability to fight, and Shaw soon gains the upper hand. Once knocked unconscious, Chuck's brain reboots itself by going through Chuck's memories about his childhood and his father, and allows him to fight back, and soon has Shaw in a "tiger claw" martial arts grip. He spares Shaw's life, but Sarah knocks Shaw cold with the bar that she was handcuffed to. She removes the Governor from Shaw's wrist and returns it to Chuck, allowing him to recover from the damage caused by the Intersect. Morgan manages to recover Shaw's detonator, but drops it and triggers an explosion that destroys the store.
Morgan and Casey
During the team's assault on the Ring, Morgan and Casey sneak into the conference to hack into the mainframe and find Shaw's room. While Morgan calls Chuck and tells him which one he drops a piece of a paper with Casey's daughter Alex's phone number. This provokes an argument between the two.
Later, Morgan discovers Shaw planting C-4 in the Buy More. Shaw ties Morgan up, so Morgan calls Casey on the phone with his face. He alerts Casey to the situation. Casey tells him that he must break his thumbs to escape his binds, and then pull the fire alarm to clear the building. Morgan obeys, but when he finally gets to the fire alarm, it has already been pulled.
At the impromptu celebration and memorial for Stephen later that evening, Alex arrives to reunite with her father. When Morgan begins to flirt with her, Casey tells Morgan to back off before Casey breaks the rest of his fingers or Morgan blows up the apartment. He then directs Alex away and embraces her for the first time as a family.
Buy More
Moses, the founder of "Buy More", calls Big Mike and tells him that the Burbank store runs a great risk of being closed due to poor management. Lester Patel suggests that they have a "going out of business" sale, and raise enough money to keep the store open. Jeff pulls the fire alarm to evacuate the store when they spot "greenshirts" from the Beverly Hills branch, conveniently at the same time Morgan goes to save everyone from explosives planted by Shaw.
When the fire department arrives, Jeff and Lester suggest that they burn down the store and obtain the insurance. In the end, Shaw is defeated, but Morgan accidentally drops the detonator because of his broken thumbs. The store is destroyed, and Jeff and Lester are accused of arson. A news report reveals that there is a manhunt for them.
Bartowski Family
In 1991, Ellie is chasing Chuck because he broke his mother's necklace. Chuck goes to his father for protection. Stephen tells Ellie and Chuck that they must fix it together. Stephen tells Ellie that she must protect Chuck because she is his older sister. In 2010, this memory influences her decision that Chuck must retire from the spy world after defeating the Ring.
When Chuck is knocked unconscious by Shaw, he has a flashback from around the same time. A young Chuck walks into his father's office and uncovers several computers. He uploads a file of encoded images, revealed to be a prototype of the Intersect. Stephen walks in, shocked. Checking the computer, he realizes that it was a full transfer and Chuck did not feel any side effects. Chuck asks what the file meant. Stephen tells him that it means he's "special." This flashback "reboots" Chuck's brain and enables him to defeat Shaw in 2010.
After Shaw's defeat, Chuck tells Ellie that he is now a civilian, just like her. Chuck receives a posthumous, automated recording from his father, directing him to the family's old home. Chuck uncovers a secret room under the house, containing shelves full of files. Stephen reveals that he had been a self-hired spy for 20 years, fighting a threat that even the government could not handle. Chuck finds a part of the necklace he broke years before by a box labeled "Mary Elizabeth Bartowski: Missing". Meanwhile, a woman, whose face is not seen, possessing the majority of the necklace—worn around her wrist since it is broken—receives a phone call, telling her she needs to move immediately.
Production
Continuity
- The episode's title references "Chuck Versus the Ring", where the Ring was introduced.
- The use of "pineapple" as the code word for evacuating the Buy More was established in "Chuck Versus the Nemesis".
- Jeff suggests burning down the Buy More to obtain the insurance, a recurring theme since "Chuck Versus the Cougars".
- Casey telling Morgan that he must break his thumbs to escape handcuffs is a reference to "Chuck Versus the Suburbs" when Casey and Chuck were put in similar situations.
- Chuck says he played Perchik, a reference to a similar line in "Chuck Versus the Fake Name".
- When Chuck's dad dies, a message was sent to Chuck the same way his dad originally contacted him in "Chuck Versus the Predator".
- Chuck's flash on the Elders includes a note of Sydney Prince having been captured. She was killed in "Chuck Versus Operation Awesome".
- After capturing Team Bartowski in "Chuck Versus the Subway", Shaw sarcastically said "moohaha." After revealing Shaw's affiliation with the Ring in this episode, Chuck says the same thing.
Flashes
- Chuck painfully flashes on martial arts skills when Shaw pulls a gun on the team, leaving him unable to even use the skills.
- Chuck suffers a painful flash when General Beckman mentions the Ring Elders.
- After disarming Justin, Chuck painfully flashes on martial arts skills to fight the other Ring agents. A short time later, he again painfully flashes on martial arts skills to retrieve the Governor from Shaw. Both times leave him disoriented and fatigued, unable to even use the skills.
- Chuck painfully flashes on martial arts skills to fight Shaw.
- Shaw flashes on the same martial arts to fight Chuck.
- After being knocked unconscious by Shaw, Chuck's brain "reboots" with a flashback, and he flashes waking up.
When Chuck flashes on the Ring Hierarchy, next to the names of Miles and Sydney Prince are Bill Doane and Dan Curry. These are two members of the visual effects/special effects team on the show who are responsible for the production of Chuck's flashes and for the fight scenes.
Cultural references
- Chuck references Fiddler on the Roof by saying he played Perchik, and he later disguises himself as an elderly version of the character.
- When Chuck sees the message left for him by his father after his death, he mutters "Oh boy," the catchphrase of actor Scott Bakula's character Dr. Sam Beckett on the television series Quantum Leap.
- When Casey and Morgan apprehend the Elders, Morgan quotes the film Cobra with the line, "You're the disease, I'm the cure." Casey subsequently refers to him as Cobra.
- Casey's line "Let's go get some payback" is a reference to another Adam Baldwin role, that of Sergeant Animal Mother in Full Metal Jacket; Casey had previously quoted Animal Mother in "Chuck Versus the Crown Vic".
- During the flashbacks to Chuck's childhood, Chuck, as a child, is wearing a Superman t-shirt. As well as playing Daniel Shaw in Chuck, Brandon Routh played Superman in Superman Returns.
Critical response
Steve Heisler of The A.V. Club rated the episode grade B+.[1]
DeAnn Welker of Television Without Pity rated the episode A.[2]
References
- Steve Heisler (2010-05-24). ""Chuck Vs. The Subway"/"Chuck Vs. The Ring, Part II"". The A.V. Club. The Onion. Retrieved 2010-05-31. Rating A-
- DeAnn Welker (2010-05-24). "Chuck "Just Had To Reboot"". p. 12. Archived from the original on 2010-05-30. Retrieved 2010-05-31. Rating A.