Chuck Versus the Fat Lady
"Chuck Versus the Fat Lady" is the 7th episode of the second season of Chuck and the 20th overall. It aired on November 17, 2008. Chuck and the team must break into Guy LaFleur's hotel room and find a list of Fulcrum agents. Meanwhile, Chuck is having trouble having a real relationship with Jill when his undercover life keeps getting in the way.
| "Chuck Versus the Fat Lady" | |
|---|---|
| Chuck episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 7 |
| Directed by | Jeffery G. Hunt |
| Written by | Matthew Lau |
| Featured music | "Libiamo ne' lieti calici" by Giuseppe Verdi "Buildings and Mountains" by The Republic Tigers "Keep Yourself Warm" by Frightened Rabbit |
| Production code | 3T7257 |
| Original air date | November 17, 2008 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
| |
Plot summary
Main plot
Chuck and Jill are enjoying the honeymoon stage of their rekindled relationship. However, Chuck's spy life interrupts when Casey and Sarah inform Chuck that he is needed for an immediate mission to recover a list of CIA Fulcrum agents that Guy LaFleur had apparently hidden in his hotel room before being murdered. Jealousy erupts when Jill finally meets Sarah and learns that Chuck and his handler must pose as a couple, especially when she learns that Sarah is posing as a seductively-dressed escort for the mission. Chuck does his best to reassure Jill that his relationship with Sarah is purely business but only finds himself in more trouble when Jill finds Chuck and Sarah in their hotel room in their underwear after trying to wash off a suspected bioweapon. Chuck desperately tries to explain the surreal situation that Jill witnessed, to which Jill responded with curiosity, revealing LaFleur's affinity to puzzles and vague references to safeguard his valuable information. The team recovers a music box in LaFleur's room, deciphering the clue with Jill's assistance, which leads them to the opera, where they recover an encrypted flash drive with the Fulcrum list. Chuck and Jill leave for a romantic getaway, during which Jill is kidnapped by a Fulcrum agent and held hostage in exchange for the list. Chuck agrees to the exchange, but first makes a copy of the list with Morgan's copying device (designed to copy video games, but apparently able to copy anything). Chuck and Jill embark on another romantic getaway, during which Sarah and Casey discover from the recovered list that Jill is a Fulcrum agent herself. The episode ends with Sarah and Casey rushing to Chuck's room only to find his watch and the next scene shows Chuck and Jill driving away with Chuck completely oblivious to her identity.
Buy More
Emmett is on a personal witch hunt for Chuck. He interrogates Morgan to get some dirt, but Morgan at first refuses. When Emmett threatens the Buy More after-hours poker game Morgan gives up some information and that night at the game Emmett decides to join in. The next day, Emmett has a horrible hangover and Morgan blackmails Emmett with footage of Emmett's drunken stupor.
Production
Flashes
- Chuck flashes on the puzzle box.
- Chuck flashes on the opera glasses
References to popular culture
- The title refers to the phrase "It's not over until the fat lady sings" and its connections to opera, which serves as a major setting for the episode.
- During a scene at the Buy More in which Morgan confronts Chuck with the knowledge he's seeing Jill again, the Bugs Bunny cartoon "What's Opera, Doc?" is playing on the televisions in the background.
- Jill notes, "The logon for his computer was a randomly selected word from a piece of Vogon poetry," referring to a race of creatures in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who are noted for having the third worst poetry in the universe. In the video game based on The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy the player also has to enter a piece of Vogon poetry to access a computer.
- The Fulcrum assassin drives a van for "Tuttle Electric". Tuttle was the name of the rogue electrical contractor played by Robert De Niro in the movie Brazil.
- Error: The "high C" that Casey sings is actually an E.
- The La Traviata puzzle was solved with 0:07 left on the countdown, a reference to super-spy James Bond.