Production
Although Chuck had referred to his experiences at Stanford, Bryce's betrayal, and their friendship several times over the preceding six episodes, "Chuck Versus the Alma Mater" was the first to explore this history in detail. Chuck and Bryce are shown meeting in the school quad in 1999 when Bryce notices Chuck's C++ textbook, and their mutual interest in computers and programming was apparent from the beginning. Zork, which played a key role in "Chuck Versus the Intersect," was also mentioned, and as mentioned in the pilot, Chuck and Bryce would go on to create their own special version of the game together. The episode also reveals that Jill was a friend of Bryce's, and that he was the one who introduced her to Chuck. No other details of the relationship between Bryce and Jill would be revealed until Chuck Versus the Gravitron in Season 2. The episode reveals Chuck was expelled in 2003.
Previous episodes vilified Bryce for getting Chuck kicked out of school. The revelation that he only did so to protect his friend, even at the cost of losing that friendship, was an unexpected twist. The purposes of Bryce's actions would be further explored in "Chuck Versus the Nemesis."
Professor Fleming mentions Chuck is an ideal candidate for the Omaha Project, however no explanation of what this project was given. Omaha also resurfaced in a quip by Bryce later on, which Casey offers could be a possible code word for Sarah. Whatever the nature of the project, Chuck's high retention rate of subliminal data made him an ideal choice by Fleming for the project to the extent that Chuck would not be given the option of refusal (basically a drafting as opposed to a recruitment.)
This episode is also the first to offer a possible explanation for how the Intersect functions. One of the images in Fleming's presentation to his class is a picture of a flower that also appeared prominently in the Intersect data in "Chuck Versus the Intersect." The picture of the flower is actually composed of hundreds of smaller images tiled together to create the main picture. As Fleming explains, the eye only sees the entire image, but the mind subliminally recalls the smaller pictures that make it up. Chuck's unprecedented recall rate would allow him to remember these images.
Also, Ellie and Awesome are revealed to have attended UCLA.
Read more about this topic: Chuck Versus The Alma Mater
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