It's good to see Chuck back in fine form after last week's dip in quality. Having Gary Cole as guest star is always good for an automatic boost. Cole played Sarah's con man father (alias Jack Burton, a la BTiLC), setting the episode up as a tribute to the heist genre, and for those who watched the season premiere of TNT's Leverage the night before the feeling of deja vu was hard to ignore.

From the David Holmes-like score (Ocean's Eleven) to a subtle nod to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, all that's missing is a more believable victim (not that we watch Chuck for it's realism). Supergrass's "Diamond Hoo Ha Man" works well as the action music, keying on the line "got to get you in my suitcase!"

Besides the heist, though, the theme was one of transition to adulthood, which is also the theme of the final song in the episode, Blitzen Trapper's "Furr", the title track to their great 2008 release. The road to adulthood has a detour through some wild years (where flesh turns to fur), and both Morgan and Sarah's father are stuck in a suspended adolescence. Sarah and Morgan are asked to cross this Rubicon of fur in different directions. Morgan into adulthood (moving in with Anna -- she's back!) and Sarah into the fur-like con game of her father, to help with a case. Neither steps in whole heartedly: Morgan reacts by retreating with the purchase of the DeLorean, while Sarah reacts by assuming that her father will only disappoint her again.

One of the interesting points of Sarah's back story is that it illustrates that -- at least in the world of fiction -- there's really only a fine line between CIA agent and grifter. As hinted in Sarah's previous flashback ("Chuck vs. the Cougars") her early training as a pawn in her father's con games lines up well with her job as an agent.

Sarah sticks with the Burton family alias here, as it's the one Chuck already knows, but Jack also uses Guido Merkins, which is the name of a former backup quarterback from the late '70s who played for the Oilers and the Saints. It's another in a long line of great sports names from the past to be utilized by the Chuck writers, as television critic Alan Sepinwall has been pointing out this season. Previous entries include hockey great Guy LaFleur and '80s Phillies outfielder Von Hayes. The names remind me of the original hapless CIA agent named Chuck, television legend Chuck Barris. In his novel (and later the George Clooney-directed adaptation) Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, his alias was one of the all-time great sports names: Sonny Sixkiller. Who knows if this is where Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak drew inspiration, but the combination of the name Chuck, the CIA and great sports names like Sixkiller sure seems like a good place to start.

Playlist: Chuck - Episode 2.10
1. "My Party" - Plastina Mosh
2. "Oh Yeah" - Yello
3. "Diamond Hoo Ha Man" - Supergrass
4. "Furr" - Blitzen Trapper

Previously: Geek Greivance (Episode 2.08)

drake lelane
curator of the music/soundtrack blog thus spake drake

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