Chuck, Grimm and Fringe - Last Friday Night...

"Chuck vs. the Bearded Bandit" 
The title specifically refers to one scene but by the end of the episode you realize it's probably the theme for not only this episode but probably the next one too.  Maybe more.  My hopes for a fun final season may be dashed as this episode didn't live up to past Chuck fun.

The episode starts with Chuck, Sarah and Casey pitching Carmichael Industries at a security conference.  Their PowerPoint presentation is amateurish and easily overshadowed by the pitch by the Verbanski team who swoops in and impresses even the Carmichael crew.  Verbanski is Gertrude Verbanski, played by Matrix maven, Carrie Ann Moss.  It's pretty obvious that Gertrude has a past with Casey which is kind of cute because they get a little goofy around each other. Verbanski also tries to hire Sarah but it's a no-go.  Sarah's way too loyal to Chuck and it's obvious that Gertrude has never seen an episode of this show.

While at the struggling Buy More Morgan zooms on Karl Sneijder played by Jeff Fahey (aka Frank Lapidus, aka Lawnmower Man).  Morgan manages to take him down but what they don't know is that he's there to hire Carmichael Industries to locate his kidnapped younger brother.  What's even worse is the wig on Fahey's head.  Not sure what that was about.  They locate the impregnable house where the brother is being held and Sarah impressively climbs a cliff to get up to him.  Turns out the elder Sneijder is after his younger brother, Wesley and not in a good way.  The Carmichael crew decide to flip and protect Sneijder the younger.  It's a good thing Sneijder the elder paid them half up front 'cause they won't be getting the other half of the money he promised them.

Morgan's been feeling reigned in even though he's got the Intersect in his brain.  He wants to stretch his wings and kick some ass.  Chuck, now his handler, is trying to keep Morgan pacing himself in order to survive these missions they inevitably screw up.  Morgan gets them caught in elder Sneijder's lair and I'm getting tired of typing that name.  Seriously.  Casey and Sarah come to the rescue but only because they hired Verbanski's team to help.  They realize they're in over their heads but Morgan's not getting it.  He does get how effective Verbanski's team is so he offers his services to their team, even going so far as to tell Gertrude that he's the Intersect.  Yeah, that'll go well.

Meanwhile at the Buy More...Big Mike is back and noticing shoppers are at a minimum.  He decides the best course of action is a commercial.  Yes.  He soon realizes the commercial should start Captain Awesome and I give Big Mike a "Hell Yes."


Grimm: "Bears will be Bears" 

I find myself having to Google and look up spellings of the supernatural types on this show.  As hinted at by the episode's title, up this week are bears or jager bar (sp?).  I get a strong Twilight vibe with the three hot guys running around in pants with no shirts and occasional phasing but I'll get to that.

The episode starts with a definite Goldilocks vibe.  A couple breaks into a house, eats their food, drinks their wine and gets frisky in their beds.  A large hummer with a freshly killed deer on the hood pulls up and the couple must make a run for it.  The girl, Gilda, makes it out the window but her boyfriend, Rocky (ugh), gets pulled in and growled at a lot by what we're guessing is a bear.  Gilda turns herself in to the cops in order to find out what happened to Rocky.  He's been dragged off to a cave and things aren't looking good for him.

Nick and his partner go to the home to investigate the girl's claims.  While questioning the couple who own the home he spots a face shift on the son and knows they're hiding something.  Eddie, our comic relief, tells Nick that what he's come across are the aforementioned jager bar or were-bears or something.We later find out that the son and his two friends had captured Rocky, and now Gilda, as bait so they could perform an old custom typical of their kind.  The mom knows about it but the dad doesn't and he thinks it's not a good idea.  The dad helps Nick locate the hunting party and the mom ends up falling in a trap and alls well that ends well.  Mostly.

Meanwhile Aunt Marie is dying in the hospital and there are folks out to get her.  Nick leaves Eddie to watch her but Eddie gets distracted and rips a dude's arm off in a scuffle.  Ooops.  Later Aunt Marie gives Nick some important pieces of advice before she leaves this mortal coil, "Remember who you are. Trust your instincts and nothing else."  Nick and his sketchy fiance (I don't trust her) say their goodbyes at Aunt Marie's grave and someone/something is watching them.


Fringe "Novation" 

All I wanna say is...WELCOME BACK, PETER!!!  I've missed you so much.  I even made up a song.  I'll sing it for you sometime but mostly you just need to know how happy we all are that you're back.  Even though no one on the show seems to know who the heck you are.

I promise not to make this whole thing about Joshua Jackson.  But seriously, how cute is he?  And I don't refer to him as Pacey anymore so that's something.

Ahem, where was I?  Oh, I'll take this moment to gush about how amazing John Noble is as Walter (aka Peter's dad).  The man is heartbreaking and it's truly a shame that he's not been awarded with something for his work on this show.  Seriously.  Sadly though, Walter wants nothing to do with Peter so now we have no idea what Peter will do with himself.

So the shifters are more advanced now and are impossible to catch except that Peter discovers they all have GPS.  Handy.  The shifter of note in this episode has tracked down the scientist who developed their cell abilities and she's trying to get him to fix what's wrong with her.  She mistakenly shifts into his wife and he gets the feeling this shifter isn't on the up and up.  So shifter of note gets away and finds one of those typewriters that communicates with the other universe.  She gets the message that they're sending 'the others' over to assist her in her mission.  I'm sorry, when someone says something about 'the others' I get Lost flashbacks.