Chuck Versus the Leftovers

"Chuck Versus the Leftovers"
Chuck episode
Mary and Volkoff join the family for dinner.
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 10
Directed by	Zachary Levi
Written by	Henry Alonso Myers
Original air date	November 29, 2010 (2010-11-29)
Guest stars
Linda Hamilton as Mary Elizabeth Bartowski Timothy Dalton as Alexei Volkoff Monet Mazur as Barbara
Episode chronology
← Previous "Chuck Versus Phase Three" Next → "Chuck Versus the Balcony"
List of Chuck episodes

"Chuck Versus the Leftovers" is the tenth episode of the fourth season of Chuck. It originally aired November 29, 2010. Chuck Bartowski's mother (Linda Hamilton) comes over for "Thanksgiving leftovers" dinner the day after the holiday. Morgan Grimes and the rest of the Buy More crew deal with the busiest shopping day of the year.

Plot

Main plot

In Moscow, Russia, Alexei Volkoff (Timothy Dalton) informs Mary Elizabeth Bartowski (Linda Hamilton) that Chuck Bartowski is still alive. He tells her to use his top assassins to kill Chuck.

In Burbank, California, the assassins attack Chuck and Sarah with knives. After Chuck fights one of them with a "strip kick" he and Morgan Grimes learned, Mary arrives and kills the assassins. They take Mary to Castle. After Chuck begins arguing with Mary, Casey and Sarah lock him out while they interrogate Mary.

Meanwhile, Volkoff and several agents infiltrate the Buy More carrying AK-47s to "rescue" Mary. Morgan spots them and crawls into the ventilation system. Just after he alerts Team Bartowski, Volkoff cuts off the cell phone signal and demands Mary's return. Casey uses the facility's weapons system to lower several miniguns from the ceiling, but one of Volkoff's computer experts K.K. hacks into the system and disarms them. Volkoff threatens to kill everyone-starting with "the fat man" and "the Indian"-if he does not receive Mary. When he calls her "my love," Mary reveals to the team that Volkoff is in love with her.

Meanwhile, Casey and Morgan meet up in the vent and make a plan. Morgan goes to save Jeff and Lester, and Casey gives him a gun and goes to arm the miniguns. However, Morgan steps on tacks and is captured, but Casey saves him and locks him in a closet. Casey himself is then captured. Taking Sarah's advice, Chuck threatens to harm Mary if Volkoff and his men do not leave. Deciding that he would rather Mary die than live without him, Volkoff threatens to lower a thermite explosive in the elevator and incinerate everyone in Castle. However, he promises to leave peacefully if they deliver Mary.

Chuck and Sarah deliver Mary, and Volkoff uses Casey as leverage for them to put their weapons down. When Volkoff betrays Chuck and prepares to kill him as a romantic gesture to Mary, she reveals that Chuck is her son. As Volkoff forgives Mary for letting Chuck live, Ellie calls and tells Chuck to come to her "Thanksgiving leftovers" dinner (as she and Devon were working on the actual holiday). Volkoff deduces from an "employee of the month" plaque that Chuck's last name is Bartowski and Ellie is his sister. He decides to attend the dinner to prove that he can be part of the family.

As they enter Ellie and Devon's apartment, Volkoff threatens Chuck that if the dinner is not perfect he will "take it out" on the people Chuck loves. Volkoff explains to Ellie what happened with Mary, and in the process forces Sarah to grant Mary her freedom. Chuck informs Devon who Volkoff really is and convinces him to go back to Chuck's apartment, alert the CIA, and bring back a gun. After delivering the gun to Sarah, Devon pretends that he and Ellie are being called back to the hospital so they can leave and the dinner will end. Volkoff is aware that Chuck tried to trick him and Sarah holds him at gunpoint. After Mary holds Sarah at gunpoint to stop her, Volkoff brandishes a gun and prepares to shoot Sarah to punish Chuck. However, Mary informs Volkoff that if he harms her family in any way, she will not love him, she will not leave with him, and she will "end" him. Before Mary and Volkoff leave, Chuck tells her that he trusts her.

Back at the Buy More, Morgan prepares to rescue Casey, Jeff, and Lester by taping a gun to his back. He feigns surrender and tries to shoot the Volkoff agents, but finds that he cannot reach the gun. Volkoff informs an agent named Barbara (Monet Mazur) that the mission is over and they are free to go.

Devon orders Chuck to keep Ellie out of the spy world. He also gives Chuck Stephen's laptop and leads him to a new Intersect.

Buy More

After Big Mike and Morgan lock up after Black Friday, Barbara begs Morgan to let her in, offering to do anything for a Bondesen 7G smart phone, but Morgan refuses because he is already dating Alex. However, Jeff and Lester have already stolen a large pile of the phones from the store and given them "Jeffster!" labels to finance their demo. When they let Barbara in the store, she drugs them and lets Volkoff in.

Later, Morgan is locked in the closet and discovers the stash. After they are let free, Morgan and Casey put Jeff and Lester in the closet. When Big Mike finds them, he makes them remove the stickers and return the merchandise to the sales floor.

Stephen's legacy

Stephen's laptop presents Ellie a memory problem which she solves by doing MRIs on herself. She saw that Stephen was trying to store information in the brain but was going about it the way of an engineer, and not how the brain actually stores information. She uploads this information into the computer and it prompts for another password "1 or 11". She does not know the answer to this question. Later after they have had dinner with Mary and Volkoff, Devon gives the laptop to Chuck. Realizing the question is a reference to blackjack, Chuck inputs as a password "Aces, Charles" and the laptop activates again, and flashes (essentially repeating the original process from Bryce Larkin's email) Chuck with a version of the Intersect. Chuck falls on his back, but flashes on kung fu to jump back up.

Production

Series star Zachary Levi directed the episode.

Series star Zachary Levi directed this episode. This was the second time Levi directed a Chuck episode, after his television directorial debut in "Chuck Versus the Beard".^[1]

Continuity

• The final password to the laptop is "Aces, Charles". This line was first mentioned as a "dad quote" in "Chuck Versus the Intersect", first uttered by Stephen in "Chuck Versus the Dream Job", and several times since.
• Chuck says "I know kung fu...again" referring to "Chuck Versus the Ring" (which, in turn, referenced The Matrix). The music played is identical to that in the earlier episode.
• It is the first time since "Chuck Versus the Anniversary" that we see the Buy More as a CIA base with weapons.
• This is the first time Sarah and Casey have witnessed Chuck upload an Intersect, with the exception of the Fulcrum intersect
• Before passing the laptop to Chuck, Stephen's programming prompts Ellie to solve a neuro-biology problem. This could explain the negative effects the Intersect has on the brain, as she states that her father approached the brain "like a computer", which is why some of the information she saw is incorrect.

Flashes

• Chuck flashes on kung fu and jumps up off his back.

Cultural references

Morgan is inspired by actor Bruce Willis' performance as John McClane.

Much like "Chuck Versus Santa Claus", which was also centered around terrorists instigating a hostage crisis, the episode is largely presented as a homage to and parody of Die Hard. In an attempt to surprise Volkoff agents who have Casey, Jeff, and Lester held hostage, Morgan (shirtless and with bandaged feet) tapes a gun to himself and feigns surrender, repeatedly saying "Yippee-ki-yay", the first part of John McClane's catchphrase. The character K.K. is believed to be a reference to the Die Hard character Theo, repeating the line "And the quarterback is toast!".^[2]

The episode contains a number of other references. Mary says "Come with me if you want to live", a line first uttered by Kyle Reese to Hamilton's character in The Terminator and subsequently in every sequel, as well as the TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. In a game of charades, Chuck guesses The Bourne Identity and Batman Forever.^[2] After relearning kung fu from the Intersect, Chuck says "I know kung fu...again" in reference to The Matrix, where Neo says the same thing after "learning" kung fu in a similar manner.

Music

• "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga
• "Jingle Bell Rock" by Bobby Helms

Critical response

Eric Goldman of IGN gave this episode a score of 8 out of 10.^[2]

References

1. ^ "Interview with Zachary Levi about responsibility film". gamingangels.com. October 11, 2009. http://www.gamingangels.com/2009/10/interview-with-zachary-levi-about-responsiblity-film/. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} Eric Goldman (2010-01-29). "Chuck: "Chuck Versus The Leftovers" Review". IGN. http://tv.ign.com/articles/113/1137463p1.html. Retrieved 2010-02-30. 

External links

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