Chuck Versus the Muuurder
Encyclopedia
"Chuck Versus the Muuurder" is the nineteenth episode of the fourth season
of Chuck
. It originally aired on March 21, 2011. Chuck Bartowski
is made the team leader and tasked with finding new Intersect
candidates, but must solve a murder mystery when his recruits start turning up dead. Meanwhile, the Buy More
and Large Mart staffs engage in mascot battle.
tasks Chuck Bartowski
to choose Intersect
candidates who think and act similarly to him, as he is the only one who truly knows what it is like to be an Intersect. Chuck creates an extensive psychological profile based on his own personality and the CIA
sends four appropriate candidates to the Buy More
. First is Lewis (James Francis Ginty), a technical operations specialist and star hacker by age fourteen; due to a semester abroad, Lewis has adopted an English accent. Second is Josie (Karissa Vacker), a psychological warfare
genius whose intuition makes her invaluable in interrogation. Third is Damien (Mousa Kraish
), a Greek American
agent whose "swarthy, bearded" appearance has led to him being embedded in one terror cell after another for the last ten years. Last to arrive is Brody "the Brodster" (Stephen Pollak), who is strikingly similar to Chuck. Chuck tasks John Casey
with the candidates' physical testing, Sarah Walker
with psychological evaluation
s, and Morgan Grimes
with testing their "cultural knowledge". Chuck ultimately chooses Brody. As Chuck informs Brody with a text message, Brody discovers someone planting an explosive at the door of Castle. Brody confronts the person, only to be stabbed to death and dragged away.
After Chuck and Director Jane Bentley (Robin Givens
) find Brody's body, Chuck begins to panic about his leadership abilities. Bentley and the Intersect candidates surrender their weapons to Casey, as Chuck has realized the murderer must be one of them. To determine who killed Brody, Chuck plans to review security tapes and interrogate everyone. However, Damien believes that he is being suspected because of his appearance and angrily leaves. As he opens the door to exit Castle, however, an explosive is triggered. Though he manages to shield himself with the door, Damien is injured, ruling him out as a murder suspect.
The explosive triggers three others, cutting the main power to Castle and locking everyone inside. Chuck and Sarah interrogate Bentley, who has the most motive of the group, still angry about the failure of the G.R.E.T.A. program in the previous episode
. Further investigation reveals that the candidates each had the motive and means to commit the murder, as Josie is emotionally unstable due to a recent breakup with her longtime boyfriend, Damien is angry about being typecast as a terrorist, and Lewis was Chuck's second choice for the Intersect. After the interrogations, Chuck and Sarah have come no closer to finding the killer than before. Suddenly, Chuck notices a bomb planted under the seat the interrogatees were sitting in, and he and Sarah barely escape with their lives. They regroup with Bentley and the candidates, though Lewis, the only bomb specialist in the group, is curiously missing.
With Damien unconscious after taking shrapnel to the back, the rest of the group decides that Lewis is the murderer and splits up to capture and interrogate him. Chuck and Bentley hear someone crawling in the air ducts, but Casey finds a pig (See "Buy More") instead of Lewis. Chuck and Bentley proceed to the NCS
-restricted Intersect room, which is bombproof and the safest place in Castle. When they see Lewis hidden on railing near the room's ceiling, Chuck and Bentley draw their guns and lower the railing. However, they find Lewis's body, with his throat slit.
Chuck, Casey, and Sarah to confront Bentley and Josie, the only remaining suspects, only to find them accusing each and holding each other at gunpoint. Chuck reviews the day's events in his mind and recalls finding a positive pregnancy test
in Josie's bag, explaining her emotions. He then accuses Bentley of being the murderer, as she was absent during every murder. When he moves closer to Bentley, however, he whispers that the actual murderer is Damien. As they draw their guns, Damien rises from his cot and threatens to detonate a boombox
full of explosives if they do not get him to a doctor. Had Brody not seen him planting the explosives, Damien would have escaped. When he was forced to murder Brody and "cover his tracks", Damien strategically detonated the explosive and shielded himself with the door. He also planted the bomb under the chair during his interrogation and used the distraction to hide Lewis's body. Just as Damien reveals that he came for Chuck, Bentley shoots him and retrieves the boombox. She runs to the Intersect room and uses a manual release to lock the boombox in with her and save everyone else. As the one-minute timer counts down, Chuck hacks the door's control panels to save Bentley and they evacuate. The explosion sends the Large Mart piglet flying into Chuck's arms.
General Beckman congratulates the team for solving the mystery and saving Castle from destruction, with a special commendation to Chuck saying he is a true leader. Chuck humbly accepts and extends the credit to his teammates. Beckman then decides that it is too dangerous to upload the Intersect into a new recruit, leaving Chuck as the only Intersect for the foreseeable future. Bentley is reassigned to Washington and she apologizes for underestimating Chuck, relieving Chuck that he no longer has a nemesis. Later, as the team relaxes at Chuck's apartment, Beckman calls to inform them that Vivian Volkoff hired Damien. Chuck is dismayed that he has a nemesis again.
. Morgan confronts Jeff Barnes and Lester Patel, who lead him to the closet where they have kept "Kevin Bacon", a pig revealed to be the Large Mart mascot.
Morgan meets with the Large Mart manager, Marvin (David H. Lawrence XVII), and several other employees to negotiate a trade. Marvin allows Morgan to call Big Mike, proving that he is alive and being fed. Morgan leads Marvin to the closet where Kevin Bacon was being kept, only to find the pig missing.
Morgan questions Jeff and Lester about the location of the pig, but to no avail. They finally reveal that they have hidden the pig in the air ducts, just as Casey finds him in Castle. Later, an explosion sends the piglet flying into Chuck's arms.
Just as Morgan rallies the Buy More staff to rescue Big Mike, the latter walks through the main door, having easily escaped his "nerd" guards. But their victory is short-lived, as Large Mart employees bring the BM costume to the front door and light it on fire. Chuck then enters the Buy More with the pig, quickly deducing everything that's happened.
(Orion), having been given the laptop by Bentley in the previous episode. Ellie studies her father's research and praises his intelligence and creativity. Concerned about his wife's obsession, Devon Woodcomb asks if she should be digging through her father's work, to which Ellie simply replies, "What's the worst that can happen?". Devon calls Chuck, and they agree to keep Ellie out of the spy world. Chuck suggests replacing the computer's hard drive with a blank one, which would make Ellie believe it was simply broke.
Meanwhile, Bentley has taken extreme measures in salvaging her credibility by monitoring Ellie's activity on the laptop. Chuck confronts Bentley about interfering with his family, and discovers a surveillance video of Ellie. Bentley later comments that Ellie, is incredibly smart and that if anyone could figure out the Intersect it is her, though she cautions Chuck about taking Ellie into the spy world.
As Devon switches the hard drive with a blank one, Ellie arrives home, having realized the purpose of her father's research. Ellie reveals that Stephen was trying to upload knowledge into the brain without having to learn it. Devon still delivers the hard drive to Chuck; when he returns to Ellie, however, it is revealed that Ellie is still working on same research. Devon and Ellie have agreed to hide the truth from Chuck.
While Ellie is asleep, the laptop scans the room and identifies her, allocating her files and displaying the words "Agent X Files".
revealed to EW
.com, "We've always wanted to do a murder mystery, so we're working on an episode right now where something terrible happens to someone down in Castle and Chuck
and Co. are given the Sherlockian
job of figuring out who the murder[er] is... So we're working on our own spy version of a chamber piece."
The use of Journey
's song "Any Way You Want It
" as Brody's ringtone alludes to the pilot
episode, where Chuck had the same ringtone when receiving a call from Morgan.
gave the episode a C+. Though he criticized the lack of importance of the series' civilian characters (excluding Morgan) in the episode, he wrote that the episode was "decent fun." Heisler concluded, "'Muuurder' took on a lot, and to its credit managed to make some sense of it all, even if it did resort to cheap, repetitive BM humor (not that I'm above a good BM joke). It's just that, at the end of the day, nothing much happened."
Eric Goldman of IGN
gave this episode a score of 9 out of 10, writing, "After an off episode last week, this was a much more enjoyable Chuck installment, that took a time-honored formula ('One of us is a murderer!') and ran with it in classic Chuck style... Some episodes do a better job with a Buy More subplot than others, but the one this week was pretty great... The way this plotline merged with Chuck's had a rather hysterical payoff. I loved seeing little Kevin Bacon running for his life and then being blasted forward by an explosion, in a classic action movie hero style."
The episode continued Chucks steady decline in viewership, drawing 4.23 million viewers, a series low at the time of the episode's airing.
Chuck (season 4)
The fourth season of Chuck was announced on May 13, 2010. Having initially ordered 13 episodes, NBC ordered an additional 11 on October 19, 2010 for a total of 24 episodes....
of Chuck
Chuck (TV series)
Chuck is an action-comedy/spy-drama television program from the United States created by Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak. The series is about an "average computer-whiz-next-door" named Chuck, played by Zachary Levi, who receives an encoded e-mail from an old college friend now working for the Central...
. It originally aired on March 21, 2011. Chuck Bartowski
Chuck Bartowski
Charles Irving "Chuck" Bartowski is the main and titular character of the American fiction television show Chuck on NBC. He is portrayed by Zachary Levi.-Character profile:...
is made the team leader and tasked with finding new Intersect
The Intersect
The Intersect is a fictional secret technology appearing in the television series Chuck. Within the series, it is used to house and analyze large quantities of encoded data...
candidates, but must solve a murder mystery when his recruits start turning up dead. Meanwhile, the Buy More
Buy More
Buy More is a fictional big box electronics retail chain in NBC's action-comedy series Chuck. The Buy More is a parody of similar chains, particularly Best Buy....
and Large Mart staffs engage in mascot battle.
Main plot
General Diane BeckmanDiane Beckman
Brigadier General M. Diane Beckman, USAF is a fictional character in the NBC television series Chuck. Beckman is a senior official of the National Security Agency, working within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She holds her rank of brigadier general in the United States Air...
tasks Chuck Bartowski
Chuck Bartowski
Charles Irving "Chuck" Bartowski is the main and titular character of the American fiction television show Chuck on NBC. He is portrayed by Zachary Levi.-Character profile:...
to choose Intersect
The Intersect
The Intersect is a fictional secret technology appearing in the television series Chuck. Within the series, it is used to house and analyze large quantities of encoded data...
candidates who think and act similarly to him, as he is the only one who truly knows what it is like to be an Intersect. Chuck creates an extensive psychological profile based on his own personality and the CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
sends four appropriate candidates to the Buy More
Buy More
Buy More is a fictional big box electronics retail chain in NBC's action-comedy series Chuck. The Buy More is a parody of similar chains, particularly Best Buy....
. First is Lewis (James Francis Ginty), a technical operations specialist and star hacker by age fourteen; due to a semester abroad, Lewis has adopted an English accent. Second is Josie (Karissa Vacker), a psychological warfare
Psychological warfare
Psychological warfare , or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations , have been known by many other names or terms, including Psy Ops, Political Warfare, “Hearts and Minds,” and Propaganda...
genius whose intuition makes her invaluable in interrogation. Third is Damien (Mousa Kraish
Mousa Kraish
Mousa Kraish is an American actor and director, who has appeared in several Hollywood films including Steven Spielberg's 2005 film "Munich".Kraish was born in 1975 in Brooklyn, New York to Palestinian parents from the West Bank city of Jericho...
), a Greek American
Greek American
Greek Americans are Americans of Greek descent also described as Hellenic descent. According to the 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimation, there were 1,380,088 people of Greek ancestry in the United States, while the State Department mentions that around 3,000,000 Americans claim to be of Greek descent...
agent whose "swarthy, bearded" appearance has led to him being embedded in one terror cell after another for the last ten years. Last to arrive is Brody "the Brodster" (Stephen Pollak), who is strikingly similar to Chuck. Chuck tasks John Casey
John Casey (Chuck)
Colonel John Casey is portrayed by actor Adam Baldwin on the television show Chuck on NBC. Prior to the episode "Chuck Versus the Tic Tac," he was partnered with CIA agent Sarah Walker to protect Chuck Bartowski....
with the candidates' physical testing, Sarah Walker
Sarah Walker (Chuck)
Sarah Lisa Bartowski is the alias of one of the main characters of the fictional television show Chuck on NBC. She is portrayed by Yvonne Strahovski and is one of two agents assigned by the NSA and CIA to protect Chuck Bartowski after he unwittingly downloads the secret government computer known...
with psychological evaluation
Psychological evaluation
A psychological evaluation or mental examination is an examination into a person's mental health by a mental health professional such as a psychologist. A psychological evaluation may result in a diagnosis of a mental illness...
s, and Morgan Grimes
Morgan Grimes
Morgan Guillermo Grimes is a major character on the television series Chuck. He is portrayed by actor Joshua Gomez, and is the best friend of Chuck Bartowski....
with testing their "cultural knowledge". Chuck ultimately chooses Brody. As Chuck informs Brody with a text message, Brody discovers someone planting an explosive at the door of Castle. Brody confronts the person, only to be stabbed to death and dragged away.
After Chuck and Director Jane Bentley (Robin Givens
Robin Givens
Robin Simone Givens is an American model and film, television, and stage actress. She is best known for her role as Darlene Merriman on the television series Head of the Class.-Early life:...
) find Brody's body, Chuck begins to panic about his leadership abilities. Bentley and the Intersect candidates surrender their weapons to Casey, as Chuck has realized the murderer must be one of them. To determine who killed Brody, Chuck plans to review security tapes and interrogate everyone. However, Damien believes that he is being suspected because of his appearance and angrily leaves. As he opens the door to exit Castle, however, an explosive is triggered. Though he manages to shield himself with the door, Damien is injured, ruling him out as a murder suspect.
The explosive triggers three others, cutting the main power to Castle and locking everyone inside. Chuck and Sarah interrogate Bentley, who has the most motive of the group, still angry about the failure of the G.R.E.T.A. program in the previous episode
Chuck Versus the A-Team
"Chuck Versus the A-Team" is the eighteenth episode of the fourth season of Chuck. It aired on March 14, 2011. Chuck Bartowski and Sarah Walker suspect John Casey is carrying out private missions. Chuck fears the CIA's new operatives , who have downloaded the Intersect, will render him obsolete....
. Further investigation reveals that the candidates each had the motive and means to commit the murder, as Josie is emotionally unstable due to a recent breakup with her longtime boyfriend, Damien is angry about being typecast as a terrorist, and Lewis was Chuck's second choice for the Intersect. After the interrogations, Chuck and Sarah have come no closer to finding the killer than before. Suddenly, Chuck notices a bomb planted under the seat the interrogatees were sitting in, and he and Sarah barely escape with their lives. They regroup with Bentley and the candidates, though Lewis, the only bomb specialist in the group, is curiously missing.
With Damien unconscious after taking shrapnel to the back, the rest of the group decides that Lewis is the murderer and splits up to capture and interrogate him. Chuck and Bentley hear someone crawling in the air ducts, but Casey finds a pig (See "Buy More") instead of Lewis. Chuck and Bentley proceed to the NCS
National Clandestine Service
The National Clandestine Service is one of the four main components of the Central Intelligence Agency...
-restricted Intersect room, which is bombproof and the safest place in Castle. When they see Lewis hidden on railing near the room's ceiling, Chuck and Bentley draw their guns and lower the railing. However, they find Lewis's body, with his throat slit.
Chuck, Casey, and Sarah to confront Bentley and Josie, the only remaining suspects, only to find them accusing each and holding each other at gunpoint. Chuck reviews the day's events in his mind and recalls finding a positive pregnancy test
Pregnancy test
A pregnancy test attempts to determine whether or not a woman is pregnant.These markers are found in urine and blood, and pregnancy tests require sampling one of these substances. The first of these markers to be discovered, human chorionic gonadotropin , was discovered in 1930 to be produced by...
in Josie's bag, explaining her emotions. He then accuses Bentley of being the murderer, as she was absent during every murder. When he moves closer to Bentley, however, he whispers that the actual murderer is Damien. As they draw their guns, Damien rises from his cot and threatens to detonate a boombox
Boombox
Boombox is a colloquial expression for a portable cassette or CD player. Other terms known are ghetto blaster, jambox, or radio-cassette. It is a device capable of receiving radio stations and playing recorded music , usually at relatively high volume...
full of explosives if they do not get him to a doctor. Had Brody not seen him planting the explosives, Damien would have escaped. When he was forced to murder Brody and "cover his tracks", Damien strategically detonated the explosive and shielded himself with the door. He also planted the bomb under the chair during his interrogation and used the distraction to hide Lewis's body. Just as Damien reveals that he came for Chuck, Bentley shoots him and retrieves the boombox. She runs to the Intersect room and uses a manual release to lock the boombox in with her and save everyone else. As the one-minute timer counts down, Chuck hacks the door's control panels to save Bentley and they evacuate. The explosion sends the Large Mart piglet flying into Chuck's arms.
General Beckman congratulates the team for solving the mystery and saving Castle from destruction, with a special commendation to Chuck saying he is a true leader. Chuck humbly accepts and extends the credit to his teammates. Beckman then decides that it is too dangerous to upload the Intersect into a new recruit, leaving Chuck as the only Intersect for the foreseeable future. Bentley is reassigned to Washington and she apologizes for underestimating Chuck, relieving Chuck that he no longer has a nemesis. Later, as the team relaxes at Chuck's apartment, Beckman calls to inform them that Vivian Volkoff hired Damien. Chuck is dismayed that he has a nemesis again.
Buy More
Morgan learns from Big Mike that the Buy More is doing the same promotion as their competitor Large Mart. To promote the sale, Mike stands outside the store wearing a large "BM" on his chest in the Buy More colors, green and yellow. Suddenly, Large Mart employees drive up in a van and kidnap Mike. The Large Mart employees claim that the kidnapping was in retaliation for Buy More employees kidnapping Kevin BaconKevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
. Morgan confronts Jeff Barnes and Lester Patel, who lead him to the closet where they have kept "Kevin Bacon", a pig revealed to be the Large Mart mascot.
Morgan meets with the Large Mart manager, Marvin (David H. Lawrence XVII), and several other employees to negotiate a trade. Marvin allows Morgan to call Big Mike, proving that he is alive and being fed. Morgan leads Marvin to the closet where Kevin Bacon was being kept, only to find the pig missing.
Morgan questions Jeff and Lester about the location of the pig, but to no avail. They finally reveal that they have hidden the pig in the air ducts, just as Casey finds him in Castle. Later, an explosion sends the piglet flying into Chuck's arms.
Just as Morgan rallies the Buy More staff to rescue Big Mike, the latter walks through the main door, having easily escaped his "nerd" guards. But their victory is short-lived, as Large Mart employees bring the BM costume to the front door and light it on fire. Chuck then enters the Buy More with the pig, quickly deducing everything that's happened.
The Orion laptop
Ellie Bartowski-Woodcomb continues using the laptop left by her father Stephen J. BartowskiStephen J. Bartowski
Stephen J. Bartowski is a recurring character on the television series Chuck portrayed by actor Scott Bakula. Stephen is the estranged father of Chuck and Ellie Bartowski, and under the government codename "Orion" was the chief designer of the Intersect....
(Orion), having been given the laptop by Bentley in the previous episode. Ellie studies her father's research and praises his intelligence and creativity. Concerned about his wife's obsession, Devon Woodcomb asks if she should be digging through her father's work, to which Ellie simply replies, "What's the worst that can happen?". Devon calls Chuck, and they agree to keep Ellie out of the spy world. Chuck suggests replacing the computer's hard drive with a blank one, which would make Ellie believe it was simply broke.
Meanwhile, Bentley has taken extreme measures in salvaging her credibility by monitoring Ellie's activity on the laptop. Chuck confronts Bentley about interfering with his family, and discovers a surveillance video of Ellie. Bentley later comments that Ellie, is incredibly smart and that if anyone could figure out the Intersect it is her, though she cautions Chuck about taking Ellie into the spy world.
As Devon switches the hard drive with a blank one, Ellie arrives home, having realized the purpose of her father's research. Ellie reveals that Stephen was trying to upload knowledge into the brain without having to learn it. Devon still delivers the hard drive to Chuck; when he returns to Ellie, however, it is revealed that Ellie is still working on same research. Devon and Ellie have agreed to hide the truth from Chuck.
While Ellie is asleep, the laptop scans the room and identifies her, allocating her files and displaying the words "Agent X Files".
Production
Series co-creator Chris FedakChris Fedak
Chris Fedak is a co-executive producer of Chuck. He has also co-written several episodes with Josh Schwartz.Chuck is Fedak's first television credit.Schwartz says that the idea for Chuck originally came from Fedak:-External links:*...
revealed to EW
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
.com, "We've always wanted to do a murder mystery, so we're working on an episode right now where something terrible happens to someone down in Castle and Chuck
Chuck Bartowski
Charles Irving "Chuck" Bartowski is the main and titular character of the American fiction television show Chuck on NBC. He is portrayed by Zachary Levi.-Character profile:...
and Co. are given the Sherlockian
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
job of figuring out who the murder[er] is... So we're working on our own spy version of a chamber piece."
The use of Journey
Journey (band)
Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded...
's song "Any Way You Want It
Any Way You Want It
"Any Way You Want It" is a popular song performed by Journey released on the album Departure as the opening track, as a single in 1980 and was rerecorded with Arnel Pineda and Deen Castronovo for their 2008 album Revelation. The song was written by frontman Steve Perry and guitarist Neal Schon....
" as Brody's ringtone alludes to the pilot
Chuck Versus the Intersect
"Chuck Versus the Intersect" is the pilot episode of the American action-comedy television series Chuck. The episode was directed by McG and written by series co-creators Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak...
episode, where Chuck had the same ringtone when receiving a call from Morgan.
Music
Songs listed by Alan Sepinwall.- "I Need You" by The Blood ArmThe Blood Arm-Band Information:The Blood Arm were formed in LA in 2003 and were nominated for the LA Weekly Music Award for Best New Artist in 2004. They won the Best Live Act award at the 2005 South By Southwest Music Conference. Franz Ferdinand have often mentioned The Blood Arm as their favourite band in...
- "Any Way You Want ItAny Way You Want It"Any Way You Want It" is a popular song performed by Journey released on the album Departure as the opening track, as a single in 1980 and was rerecorded with Arnel Pineda and Deen Castronovo for their 2008 album Revelation. The song was written by frontman Steve Perry and guitarist Neal Schon....
" by JourneyJourney (band)Journey is an American rock band formed in 1973 in San Francisco by former members of Santana. The band has gone through several phases; its strongest commercial success occurred between the 1978 and 1987, after which it temporarily disbanded... - "Victim" by Win Win
- "Move to the Mountains" by Clock Opera
Cultural references
- Chuck continually mentions his failed leadership attempt the last time he played Dungeons & DragonsDungeons & DragonsDungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...
. - Chuck reveals that Lewis's World of WarcraftWorld of WarcraftWorld of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994...
guild pioneered in taking down Deathwing. - Morgan is tasked with testing the candidates' "cultural knowledge", asking the following questions:
- "RushRush (band)Rush is a Canadian rock band formed in August 1968, in the Willowdale neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario. The band is composed of bassist, keyboardist, and lead vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson, and drummer and lyricist Neil Peart...
's best album?"- Lewis answers Caress of SteelCaress of SteelCaress of Steel is the third studio album by Canadian rock band Rush, released in 1975. The album shows more of Rush's adherence to hard progressive rock, as opposed to the blues-based heavy metal and hard rock style of the band's first two albums. Long pieces broken up into various sections and...
.
- Lewis answers Caress of Steel
- "Charlton HestonCharlton HestonCharlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
sci-fiScience fiction filmScience fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
question for you. What's cooler: Soylent GreenSoylent GreenSoylent Green is a 1973 American science fiction film directed by Richard Fleischer. Starring Charlton Heston, the film overlays the police procedural and science fiction genres as it depicts the investigation into the murder of a wealthy businessman in a dystopian future suffering from pollution,...
or Omega Man?"- Damien identifies it as a trick question and answers "POTA" (Planet of the ApesPlanet of the Apes (1968 film)Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle. The film stars Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly and Linda Harrison...
).
- Damien identifies it as a trick question and answers "POTA" (Planet of the Apes
- "Favorite BondJames Bond (character)Royal Navy Commander James Bond, CMG, RNVR is a fictional character created by journalist and novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. He is the main protagonist of the James Bond series of novels, films, comics and video games...
: ConnerySean ConnerySir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
excluded?" - "Most important graphic novelGraphic novelA graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
ist: Grant MorrisonGrant MorrisonGrant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
or MooreAlan MooreAlan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
/GibbonsDave GibbonsDave Gibbons is an English comic book artist, writer and sometime letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries Watchmen and the Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything"...
?"- Brody and Chuck agree on Brian K. VaughanBrian K. VaughanBrian Keller Vaughan is an American comic book and television writer. He is best known for the comic book series Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, Runaways, and Pride of Baghdad, and was one of the principal writers of the television series Lost, during seasons three through five...
.
- Brody and Chuck agree on Brian K. Vaughan
- "Rush
- The Large Mart pig is named "Kevin Bacon" after the actor of the same nameKevin BaconKevin Norwood Bacon is an American film and theater actor whose notable roles include Animal House, Diner, Footloose, Flatliners, Wild Things, A Few Good Men, JFK, Apollo 13, Mystic River, The Woodsman, Trapped, Friday the 13th, Hollow Man, Tremors, Death Sentence, Frost/Nixon, Crazy, Stupid, Love....
. - In response to Chuck ruling out Lewis as the killer after finding his body, Bentley says, "Brilliant deduction, Sherlock", referencing the fictional detective Sherlock HolmesSherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
.
Reception
"Chuck Versus the Muuurder" received generally positive reviews from critics. HitFix writer Alan Sepinwall wrote that "the actual muuurder investigation of 'Chuck vs. the Muuurder' was the least interesting part of an episode that I enjoyed on the whole. It's such a familiar device that we know a lot of how it works, including the way that the first suspect or two simply can't have done it because we still have a lot of time to fill. The four Intersect candidates were all fairly cartoonish, even by 'Chuck' standards... and the Bentley character has suffered from one of the few real guest casting missteps this show has made in a while, so I didn't particularly care which of them did it, so long as most of them (with the ironic exception of our swarthy bearded killer) were off my screen for good by episode's end... Fortunately, the murder mystery had a secondary element to it in Chuck's need to prove himself as a leader, and that part of the story was very strong." Steve Heisler of The A.V. ClubThe A.V. Club
The A.V. Club is an entertainment newspaper and website published by The Onion. Its features include reviews of new films, music, television, books, games and DVDs, as well as interviews and other regular offerings examining both new and classic media and other elements of pop culture. Unlike its...
gave the episode a C+. Though he criticized the lack of importance of the series' civilian characters (excluding Morgan) in the episode, he wrote that the episode was "decent fun." Heisler concluded, "'Muuurder' took on a lot, and to its credit managed to make some sense of it all, even if it did resort to cheap, repetitive BM humor (not that I'm above a good BM joke). It's just that, at the end of the day, nothing much happened."
Eric Goldman of IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
gave this episode a score of 9 out of 10, writing, "After an off episode last week, this was a much more enjoyable Chuck installment, that took a time-honored formula ('One of us is a murderer!') and ran with it in classic Chuck style... Some episodes do a better job with a Buy More subplot than others, but the one this week was pretty great... The way this plotline merged with Chuck's had a rather hysterical payoff. I loved seeing little Kevin Bacon running for his life and then being blasted forward by an explosion, in a classic action movie hero style."
The episode continued Chucks steady decline in viewership, drawing 4.23 million viewers, a series low at the time of the episode's airing.