Although tonight's episode was titled “Chuck vs. The Sensei,” it really should have been “Casey vs. The Sensei” instead.  With Chuck just having endured the whole Jill saga (lasting a trio of episodes), the Chuck writers shrewdly gave Mr. Bartowski a number of things to distract him from what should have been a time of sadness and reflection.  We had our Sarah Walker episode earlier in the season – tonight was the John Casey episode.  And, as it turns out, Agent Casey is a former karate student who learned everything he knows from his sensei.  That sounds about right.

The team gets a tip that someone might be looking to steal a weapon from the Global Launch Agency.  They intercept the thief, and it is none other than John Casey's former sensei, Ty Bennett (played by Alias star Carl Lumbly).  Bennett, it turns out, has gone rogue and is now stealing weapons and selling them on the black market with other rogue agents he has recruited.  Casey makes the search for Bennett personal, is taken off the case by Beckman, but eventually tricks Chuck into letting him go after Bennett.  Meanwhile, the Awesomes finally come to town to help plan the wedding, and the Buy More employees try to rig the employee of the month contest.  

It was nice to see Carl Lumbly back on TV.  So, tonight's episode was supposed to give us some insight into the being of Casey.  We saw scenes from his past, learned about his beginnings, and watched as he fought the sensei who taught him everything.  He felt betrayed, and there were supposed to be real-life John Casey emotions pouring out.  However, I don't know Casey any better now than I did before the episode.  Oh, yeah, now we know he trained at a dojo.  So what?  The only time he opened up emotionally in the episode, it was just a ruse to get Chuck to come down to the secret lair.  He remained the bottled up tempest of anger he's always been.  Nothing in the episode changed that.  We know more of “The What” in regards to Casey's past, but we still have no idea what “The Why” is.  Why is he like he is?  Why did he go to the dojo?  Maybe the Chuck writers have more of Casey's past in store for us down the road.  Maybe not.  But, honestly, I'm OK with Casey always being a mystery.  

As for our man Chuck, it was a decompression episode after the Jill saga.  Nothing particularly new, just Chuck being Chuck, until the last couple minutes of the episode.  You'd think, at this point, Chuck would stop disobeying orders.  He still hasn't learned, and it's becoming an issue.  Chuck's a smart guy, he should be able to figure it out.  As for those final couple minutes, I think it's a good twist.  The writers have purposefully left the details of Chuck and Ellie's parents vague.  The assumption was that they were dead.  Now, I think we can assume his mother is probably deceased, and that his father bounced soon after.  Regardless, Chuck searching for his father could become an interesting story-line throughout the rest of the season, and maybe beyond.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of NBC)