I’m not sure why Sarah thinks that she can infiltrate Volkov’s organization, bring him down and return Mama Bartowksi home to Chuck and Ellie when their mother has had decades to do that and hasn’t succeeded.
I think this is the first time that I haven’t enjoyed a Chuck storyline. I’m just not getting it because it doesn’t make any sense to me. Why would Sarah risk everything to try and get Chuck’s mother free from Volkov? Frost has had decades to leave Volkov, but chose to stay. Supposedly she was working with the British, but in all that time, she couldn’t bring him down?
To me, this is just a ploy to keep Chuck and Sarah apart for now or to permanently split them up. And it had better not be the later; that is unacceptable and would really irritate me. Overall, there was nothing new tonight that I haven’t seen before on other shows, which is disappointing. Sarah’s interactions with Volkov and his with her were just odd. He tested her by having her kill Casey, yet didn’t even look at the body? Really?
One hopeful aspect of this story is that it appears to be a short arc if the previews are to be believed. I will be happy if it is all resolved next week. Then, perhaps, I will look at it differently.
I did love to see Sarah in her kick-ass black outfit. The hair, not as much. But the outfit … loved it!
Looking forward, I really don’t see how Chuck and Ellie’s mom fits into their lives — unlike their father, who showed he cared about them and was fatherly. I don’t see Mary Bartowski assimilating into their lives easily.
Other stuff:
Clacked by Carla Day 
on Jan 24, 2011 @ 23:15 EST5EDT
The black wig was awful. What was the reason for it again? If it was explained, I missed it.
Besides trying to visually differentiate “good Sarah” from “bad Sarah,” I really don’t know. She kinda looked like the character she played in the video game Mass Effect 2, so maybe the look was taken from that.
I agree w/ Stan. I think it was just to show a “different” Sarah. To symbolize a darker, evil Sarah, even if not in actuality.
They should have just used a black goatee… everyone knows that signifies an evil version of someone.
The hair wouldn’t of been so bad if it wasn’t so obviously a wig.
Once Casey is able to talk everything between Chuck and Sarah will be straightened out and fixed. I don’t get how Chuck and Sarah thought this plan was a good idea. If it took his mother this long, what the heck is Sarah gonna do?
I hope next week isn’t the end of Volkov. Timothy Dalton is great in the bad guy role.
Yes, the black wig didn’t look so great, but I’m such a sucker for women with dark hair that I kind of dug it. Had she actually died her own hair black I think I would’ve drooled on my TV. (Sorry…overshare).
We’ve seen this scenario many times before. Sarah’s going in to save Mary and bring down Volkov. Everything seems to be going according to plan and dear, evil Volkov seems to have a soft spot for Sarah’s newfound love of the dark side. What will happen next is we’ll find out Volkov was on to Sarah the whole time and it’ll be up to Chuck, Casey and Morgan to save the day.
I predict Morgan playing a pivotal role in making the mission of bringing down Volkov while saving Sarah and Mary a success. I really love what the writers have done with his character. He’s still that lovable goofball, but he manages to be competent in amazing ways in spite of himself. Hell, even Casey has warmed up to him and in earlier seasons everyone would’ve sworn hell would freeze over before that happened.
Sure, it wasn’t the best episode, but even a mediocre episode of Chuck is fun. The resolution will be predictable like they often are, but the point of the show is the fun they have doing those predictable things. And Subway gets our business every Tuesday night (we DVR for a day later)! I love it.