Last week, it seemed pretty clear for most of the episode that Jill was going to end up as a Fulcrum agent. When the episode ended I went out on a limb and predicted that Jill would ultimately betray Fulcrum to protect Chuck. But apparently that’s exactly what we were supposed to think. How wrong we (or at least I) were.
Don’t get me wrong, when Chuck went to talk to Jill alone, I immediately anticipated danger. But then her answers to her questions got me thinking that maybe, just maybe, she had no ulterior motives. Of course, the second that Jill asked Chuck to undo her restraints the previous danger alarm returned at full intensity. It wasn’t a surprise to see Jill’s answer labeled a lie. But up until Chuck went to talk to her all by himself, I was pretty sold on the idea that Jill’s feelings for Chuck had won out over her loyalty to Fulcrum (Looking over my notes, there was even one saying “See, Jill really DOES care about Chuck”). And even when Jill lied to Chuck and pulled a gun on him, I initially thought she had done it only as some sort of make good gesture to try and keep Fulcrum from coming after. I didn’t think she was devious enough to have created such an elaborate plan to fool Chuck.
I do have to say though that the Fulcrum plan seemed to depend an awful lot on luck. Yes, they knew that unlike a lot of spies, Chuck was willing to give up classified information/devices to save the lives of others, and that he had a soft spot for Jill, but there was no guarantee that Chuck would be able to talk to Jill alone, or that Casey would opt to take Leader back to the secret base instead of keeping him with the rest of the captured Fulcrum agents. A little too much reliance on luck to be considered a good plan, really.
I also did not see the way the Buy More and Fulcrum story lines would (literally) collide. Once Chuck said he was taking Jill and Leader to Buy More, it was clear the stories would intersect, but I was expecting Big Mike to come in once the action was over and everyone had cleared out. He’d find all kinds of destruction caused by the Fulcrum battle and then yell about how he shouldn’t have trusted Morgan and Friends. Did not see Big Mike playing such a pivotal role in stopping Leader. It was a nice (and humorous) twist though.
Another thing I didn’t see coming (though I probably should have) was Chuck’s capture of Jill. Even after all the crap she put him through, and the way she betrayed him yet again, I was expecting he would actually let her go. Which made his locking her in the car (and his accompanying speech about how he was going to help her escape until he saw that she was willing to kill Sarah) all the sweeter. Great stuff.
The whole Thanksgiving plot worked well. I think we’ve all been were Ellie was with stressing out over visiting relatives over a holiday (either as the stressee or as an innocent bystander caught in the stressee’s path). I do have to say that digging a day old turkey out of the garbage is a little low, even for Morgan, but Ellie re-inviting him to Thanksgiving was a sweet moment. In fact, the whole conclusion of the Thanksgiving plot (and the episode) with just about everyone gathered at Chuck’s for a Thanksgiving feast (except Anna. Apparently this was one of the weeks where the writers forgot about her for some reason) was a great way to end the episode. It was one of those things that can be cheesy, but when done well (as it was here) it ends the episode on a really nice note.
It’s amazing how Chuck’s past seems to bring about such great episodes. All the Bryce episodes, and now all the Jill episodes, have been quite strong. And Jill’s only in jail, not dead, so hopefully we will see her again some day to see if the excellent episode streak can continue.
Trevor MacKay is the sci-fi/horror/fantasy/cheesy/random geeky stuff guy. If something is geeky and/or unbelievably cheesy, he’s there.
