Co-creator Chris Fedak has promised us that next week’s thirteenth episode is a dramatic game-changer for the series, much like last season’s finale when Chuck first downloaded the Intersect 2.0. While it’s not completely clear what those changes might be, this episode certainly felt like a huge stepping stone toward a big climax.
You can usually tell when an episode is just a building block toward something bigger, but this one dropped some major revelations on us, leaving my jaw tightly clenched in anticipation of what’s to come. Could the greatest American hero throw it all away for revenge?
Plus, we got to see Morgan, Devon and Casey all working together to help Chuck out on a mission … of sorts. Civilian Casey actually has far more personality than government Casey ever did. It’s a great improvement for the character.
Casey and Morgan developing this odd friendship is actually a lot of fun to watch. I’m glad to see Casey open up just a little bit with these people who are the closest things he’s had to friends in a very long time. It made those scenes when he and the boys were trying to help Chuck win Sarah back all the more entertaining.
I was caught just as unprepared for Beckman’s revelation that Chuck could assemble his own team as he was. I have a feeling that underneath that gruff exterior, Beckman knows that Chuck and Sarah have such strong feelings for one another, and that she’d be just as happy for them to be together now that they’re both spies. Certainly they might be less distracted than they are now pining for one another.
The one week stay in Burbank for Chuck before shipping out to Rome looked like it was just going to be filler, or a way for him to walk away from this spy life for good, but instead it turned into major revelations about Sarah’s “red test” and Shaw’s wife. The Ring certainly put the intel they got to good use. I wondered why they suddenly didn’t want to kill Shaw.
It looks like instead they’re testing him right now. If he goes completely off the deep end now that he knows Sarah is the one who killed his wife, they can recruit him. And as good of an agent as Shaw is, that would be one hell of a recruit.
At the same time, as good of an agent as Shaw is, he may realize that his wife must have been a double-agent, and that Sarah was just following orders (hopefully his wife really was guilty). He could be setting the Ring up for a downfall by pretending to lose it and try to take out Sarah. Something similar to what Casey did, at the cost of his own status in the government.
I’m actually a little annoyed that we keep getting the “Let’s run away from spying together” scenario with Chuck and Sarah. He seemed to genuinely want to be a spy this season, and that had nothing to do with Sarah. Now that the option exists to have both, why is Chuck suddenly interested in throwing the spy-world away again?
He was brilliantly impressive, Intersect or not, when he infiltrated the Ring base and rescued Shaw single-handedly, mere moments before the air strike took out the place. Admittedly, a little credit for that rescue has to go to our favorite dimwitted duo: Lester and Jeff, who were in fine form. Jeff was especially creepy this week.
The closing moments with Sarah in the car with Shaw going who-knows-where, without her sidearm, and Chuck with no idea where to begin looking does set us up nicely for the craziness to come next week. It’s hard to imagine we have seven more episodes of this season to come. If ratings don’t pick up, that may be all we get.
If this is all Chuck gets, we can at least be satisfied in knowing that the series isn’t going to go quietly into the night; it’s going to kick ass all the way to the end.
Clacked by Jason Hughes 
on Mar 30, 2010 @ 13:00 EST5EDT
Really looking forward to next week. I’m assuming we won’t get another Chuck/Sarah relationship roadblock, though I’d bet some stuff happens so it’s not all peachy.
I thought Chuck’s “I love you” speech to Sarah really made the episode from a relationship standpoint. It was great to see him lay it all out there (with Ellie’s encouragement), and also to see Sarah choose Chuck before Casey’s admission. The way she lit up after she knew was great.
Ratings went up a little, hopefully that’ll continue next week.
Jeffster seems to be the lone remaining humor for me. Morgan is correct, Shaw is a stiff. The character may get interesting if he finds something to finally get animated about.
Chuck having control of a team is preposterous, even for this show.
I want more Casey, Jeff and Lester. Even Casey and Morgan. The Chuck/Sarah/Shaw dynamic is terribly boring for me and needs to move forward.
My thought is that Shaw will flip to the Ring, thus becoming the perfect counter agent to Chuck. Shaw’ll destroy Castle and possibly the Buy More – it seems like they’re hardly ever there anyway. Thus new sets, new scenarios for next year. Not sure if Sarah will live or not. I could see some storyline involving Chuck having to get over her death and would give him reason to make it even more personal against Shaw. This is all speculation of course. I think if they’re making it such a “game changer,” it might be along the lines of Allias when they blew up the offices so they could use new sets and move some relationships along.
Well, they need something because the Chuck loves self righteous Sarah story is as stale as month old bread.
Sarah doesn’t like Chuck because he’s acting like a spy. The same Sarah that jumps all over Shaw (who happens to be 10x more spy than Chuck). Sarah is upset with Chuck because he snuffed a mole, yes the same Sarah that has killed many in her role as a spy. Ugh…old and stale.
Wrap up the series unless you have something new to bring to the screen. It reminds me very much of Alias, that had a stunning first 2 years then sucked for the remaining run of the series.