Chuck Versus the First Fight

"Chuck Versus the First Fight"
Chuck episode
Chuck, Sarah, Mary, and "Tuttle" take cover
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 7
Directed by	Allan Kroeker
Written by	Rafe Judkins Lauren LeFranc
Original air date	November 1, 2010
Guest stars
Linda Hamilton as Mary Elizabeth Bartowski Timothy Dalton as "Gregory Tuttle" / Alexei Volkoff Ana Gasteyer as Dasha Scott Bakula as Stephen J. Bartowski (voice) (uncredited)
Episode chronology
← Previous "Chuck Versus the Aisle of Terror" Next → "Chuck Versus the Fear of Death"
List of Chuck episodes

"Chuck Versus the First Fight" is the seventh episode of the fourth season of Chuck. It originally aired November 1, 2010. In the wake of his first fight with Sarah, Chuck Bartowski embarks on a rogue mission to prove his mother's innocence, ultimately colliding with her MI6 handler, Gregory Tuttle (former James Bond star Timothy Dalton) and Dasha (Ana Gasteyer), a nefarious Volkoff operative. Meanwhile, Ellie digs into her family's secretive past.

Plot

Main plot

Despite feeling betrayed by Sarah for capturing his mother, Chuck turns his attention to searching for clues from his father about his mother's true identity. He confronts Ellie about the matter and she reveals that she sometimes found secret messages from their father in the classified ads in the newspaper. Coincidentally, she unintentionally gives Chuck the idea to ask his mother (Linda Hamilton), who is locked in Castle.

Determined to prove his mother's innocence, Chuck charms his way through an agent-infested Castle and secretly meets with her. She tells him that Casey's findings on Project Isis were true and that she did leave the CIA during her mission to take Volkoff Industries down from the inside. Claiming she did it to protect her identity, she tells Chuck that she instead joined MI6 to complete her mission. She explains that Gregory Tuttle (Timothy Dalton), her handler at MI6, can confirm her story and tells Chuck to meet him at local bar in her place. Instead of bringing Sarah along as he did last time, Chuck brings Morgan Grimes with him to act as his back-up. While Morgan goes to restroom to fix his earpiece, Tuttle finds Chuck and they begin their meeting. However, they are both drugged and captured by Volkoff operative Dasha (Ana Gasteyer). Morgan returns from the restroom only to find Chuck's phone and earpiece left behind.

Chuck and Tuttle wake up on board a private airplane where Dasha begins to interrogate them using torture. Eventually a fight breaks out between Chuck and Volkoff's henchmen. Despite Tuttle's bumbling personality, the two are able to escape by parachuting out of the airplane. Chuck wakes up to find Tuttle has hitched them a ride back to Los Angeles in a truck loaded with sheep.

Morgan tells Sarah and Casey about Chuck's rogue mission and the three of them interrogate Mary Bartowski. In exchange for visiting Ellie, Mary agrees to tell them about Chuck and Tuttle's rogue mission. Sarah takes Mary to Ellie's house where the two of them talk about old memories including the old 1968 Ford Mustang that Ellie's father Stephen drove his family around in. Afterwards, Ellie searches the classifieds again and finds an ad for her father's car. She and Devon decide to go pick it up.

Chuck and Tuttle then arrive at a bank where Tuttle retrieves a package that will prove Mary Bartowski's innocence. Just as Sarah arrives with Chuck's mother, so do Dasha and Volkoff's henchmen. Confronting each other for the first time since the incident that spurred their fight, Chuck and Sarah argue while sneaking around the bank from the Volkoff henchmen. Chuck and Sarah resolve their fight while fighting off Volkoff's men. However, Dasha fires a shot at Chuck and Tuttle jumps in the way to take the bullet. Bleeding, Tuttle gives Chuck a triangular-shaped disk that requires a specific, defunct computer to use it, one of which is in London. Fortunately, Chuck's father has the same computer in the secret basement that contains all of his research.

Sarah, Chuck, and Mary head to the old Bartowski home to retrieve the files off the disk. However, when Casey and Morgan arrive at the bank, they find Tuttle has disappeared leaving behind only a pool of blood. Chuck inserts the disk into his father's computer, but the disk turns out to be empty. While attempting to ask why the disk is empty, Chuck is forced by his mother to view a video on her portable device that causes him to lose the ability to flash. Tuttle walks into the basement and reveals to Chuck and Sarah that he is really Alexei Volkoff, the mastermind behind Volkoff Industries. Mary ties Chuck and Sarah up and Volkoff lays bombs around the basement while explaining to Chuck that his father wasted his life and research on a woman who truly was a rogue agent.

As Volkoff and Mary leave the basement, Mary slips Sarah a razor and whispers to her to keep Chuck safe. After Volkoff and Mary leave, Sarah cuts herself and Chuck loose and they rush out of the old Bartowski home before the bomb detonates. Chuck watches in disappointment as he cannot use the Intersect and all of his father's research has been destroyed.

Meanwhile, Ellie and Devon pick up Stephen Bartowski's old Mustang. They read a letter from Stephen (Scott Bakula in an uncredited voice cameo) where he says he trusts Ellie will know what to do. As they drive away, the Mustang is revealed to have one of Stephen's laptops in it.

Chuck and Sarah

Feeling betrayed by Sarah for capturing his mother, Chuck tells Morgan that he is in his first real fight with Sarah. Despite being in his first fight with his girlfriend, Chuck turns his attention to searching for clues from his father about his mother's true identity.

Later, Chuck vents to Tuttle on the 123-mile drive to Los Angeles about his first fight with his girlfriend. At a bank in Los Angeles, Sarah and Chuck confront each other for the first time since the incident that spurred their fight, and they argue while sneaking around the bank from the Volkoff henchmen. Chuck and Sarah resolve their fight while fighting off Volkoff's men.

Morgan and Casey

When Chuck vents to Morgan about his and Sarah's fight, Morgan admits that he is experiencing the same thing with Casey. Morgan confronts Casey about lying to him about Project Isis. Later, their fight is apparently resolved when Casey allows Morgan to participate in the bank mission rather than wait in the van.

Production

Production details

• The safety deposit box Volkoff opens is labeled "407", which is this episode's number (seventh episode of the fourth season).
• The song that plays during the destruction of Stephen's hidden base is also played when Stephen was shot and killed by Daniel Shaw in "Chuck Versus the Subway".
• A TRS-80 Model 4 portrays the fictional Phalanx XR-12 computer in the episode.
• The "Eurybia" device Mary uses to suppress the Intersect is a Sony PlayStation Portable.

Continuity

• Stephen's habit of placing coded messages in the classified ads is referenced.
• "Tuttle" frees his hands from the ropes on the plane using a Swedish slip, then says "and I didn't have to break my thumbs!" This references "Chuck Versus the Suburbs" and "Chuck Versus the Ring: Part II", where characters are forced to break their thumbs to do so.

Flashes

• On the plane, Chuck flashes on martial arts to fight a Volkoff henchman.
• Chuck flashes on martial arts to help Sarah during the fight in the bank.

After being tricked into viewing a device shown to him in Stephen's base by his mother, Chuck loses his ability to flash.

Cultural references

• When discussing the fight with Sarah, Morgan tells Chuck he needs to "clear the [...] mechanism," a reference to For Love of the Game.
• As he enters Castle to interrogate his mother, Chuck greets two standby agents as "Tom, Jerry," referencing the classic cartoon.
• "Tuttle" compares his and Chuck's situation to "that great episode of Alias."^[1]
• In the fight scene in the bank, at approximately 32:23, the Wilhelm scream is played as Sarah uses a flag pole to knock over a shotgun-wielding henchman.

Music

• "Snake" by Frightened Rabbit
• "Ghosts n Stuff" by Deadmau5
• "We Don't Eat" by James Vincent McMorrow
• "Kiss With A Fist" by Florence + The Machine
• "One October Song" by Nico Stai

Critical response

Eric Goldman of IGN gave this episode a score of 9 out of 10.^[1]

Television Without Pity gave the episode an A grade.^[2]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Eric Goldman (2010-11-01). "Chuck: "Chuck Versus The First Fight" Review". IGN. News Corporation. http://tv.ign.com/articles/113/1131435p1.html. Retrieved 2010-11-02. 
2. ^ http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/show/chuck/chuck_versus_the_first_fight_1.php pages 10

External links

• "Chuck Versus the First Fight" at the Internet Movie Database
• "Chuck Versus the First Fight" at TV.com