Chuck is back for what is expected to be its last season with the premiere, “Chuck Versus the Zoom.” Chuck and the team are no longer working for or with the CIA. Instead the CIA with Clyde Decker in the lead is working to bring them down.
Decker clearly doesn’t like Chuck Bartowski, but the question remains — why? What were the CIA’s original plans for Chuck? Was he an experiment? I really want to know if General Beckman was a part of or at least apprised of the top secret Project Chuck Bartowski. Given that she left Chuck the intersect glasses (that Morgan put on), either way, she seems to be on Team Chuck. Which leads me to the even bigger questions — is Steve Bartowski involved and is he still alive?
While those are this season’s or at least the first arc’s major questions, personally everyone’s going through a transition from their old lives to their new ones. Chuck is not only adjusting to life as a newlywed; he has to adjust to life as a spy without the intersect. The second seems to be much more difficult for him as the masseuse scene showed. Though, he does still have the intellect to get him and the team out of a difficult situation. That will hopefully be enough for him. I’m surprised that he doesn’t have at least a little muscle memory to get him through.
To make matters worse for Chuck, his best friend, Morgan is now the intersect and zooms instead of flashes. I love that Morgan wasn’t a natural with the intersect and still has a bit of his natural clumsiness in him. His gymnastics ability was quite impressive, despite his fumble fingers with the vase. In this final season, I’m looking forward to seeing this change play out. In the end, I wouldn’t mind if either Chuck gets the intersect back again or is satisfied with his life with Sarah sans the intersect.
Overall, this was a classic Chuck episode that will be enjoyed for years to come. I can’t wait to see what surprises are coming this season!
Other stuff:
Was I the only one that totally did not recognize Mark Hamill as the bad guy in the opening?
I’m not as hopeful for a season six as the actors are. I’m glad the show is actually going to have a planned out ending, but also sad that the show is actually after all the mediocre subs I consumed for it coming to a close.
*POST AUTHOR*
I didn’t recognize him either and I watched the episode several times.
I’m glad that Chuck is getting a planned ending. After so many stops and goes it is nice they can finish it out properly. I don’t think they really expected a possible 6th season, it was more of a reaction to their renewal history.
If I’m not mistaken, after the episode, they ran their usual “Look what’s coming up this season”, and during that they actually stated something along the lines of “Ahead on Chuck’s final season.” Sounds like a confirmation to me.
The NBC press releases have been saying “final season” for awhile now as well. The good news is, like you stated above, this means the writers can plan a proper conclusion. The Chuck writers have always done well by their fans and I expect that they won’t let them down with the ending.