Chuck – No Intersect? No problem. We have a BAMF.

An Intersect-less Chuck is still a good thing. After all, that’s always been the idea behind the show: that an ordinary guy (or gal) can be a hero. It’s been pointed out to us before (and echoed this week by Chuck himself) that the Intersect isn’t what made Chuck a good spy. “Chuck Versus The Business Trip” repeated the message yet again, and the show can say it another dozen times if it wants, because it’s a good moral to put out there.

Another statement that bears repeating: John Casey is a BAMF. (Google it.)

Spending most of the episode ticked at Morgan for dumping his daughter – including an oh so Casey threat to rip the other man’s face off – Casey gave us perhaps one of the coolest scenes in Chuck history this week. Confronted by the top flight assassin known only as “The Viper” (Catherine Dent from The Shield) and a few of her henchmen, he gunned them all down in quick succession and made it look easy. Which, for Casey, I suppose it was.

This later got him arrested for murder by Agent Decker (Richard Burgi, whose present career seems to be in playing smarmy jerks, between this, Desperate Housewives and 24), but do we really care? Do you think that’s going to stop John Casey? As if. This is the guy who’s already faked his own death twice.

He’s also played by Adam Baldwin, who has made a career out of the fact that he is himself a natural badass. Never mind that he’s also a great actor, he’s 6’4″ and his arms are huge. I was lucky enough to chat with him earlier this year, which I mention because I can personally testify that, having sat next to him, his biceps may have been bigger than my head.

And do you want to argue with that voice? I think not.

I still remember when he scared me so much as Knowle Rohrer on The X-Files that the first time we were in the same room, sitting across from each other during a press junket, I couldn’t even work up the nerve to talk to him. Then there’s his role as Jayne Cobb in Firefly and Serenity, which gave him a big gun to go with the two already attached to him.

He brawled with Taye Diggs in the short-lived but underappreciated Day Break, further creeped me out as Marcus Hamilton on Angel, and it shouldn’t surprise you that he’s one of the actors to have voiced Superman (in Superman: Doomsday).

Adam Baldwin is a BAMF. He’s also a talented (I even think underrated) actor and a complete gentleman, but I wouldn’t bet against him in a fight, either. He’s built a career on a combination of brains and brawn. No wonder why Josh Schwartz had him in mind to play Casey from the word “go.”

And because Casey is played by Adam Baldwin, I suspect that he’ll be just fine in the end.

“Chuck Versus The Business Trip” was Chuck‘s fanfare for the little guy. It reminded us that we don’t need an Intersect, or a Castle, or anything else like that to accomplish something significant. If we just put our minds to it, and a little elbow grease besides, we can probably do a lot more than we think we can. I wholeheartedly endorse and believe in that idea.

But I’d still like to have John Casey on my team. I’d be an idiot to pass that up.

Clacked by Brittany Frederick
on Nov 19, 2011 @ 01:41 EST5EDT