It didn't surprise me that tonight's penultimate episode (perhaps ever) was a great one, but what did surprise me was the sheer volume of specifically awesome (and Awesome) things happening. I thought I'd take a moment and go over favorite moments—some have been a long-time coming; some provided a bit of one-off glee.
Um, Chuck and Sarah making out? Hell yeah!
As much as their relationship has felt ham-fisted in the past, everyone was waiting for this moment to arrive, and boy it does—early on, in fact. First, we have the accidental spooning, which is apparently what happens when two sleep-deprived spies go on the run. Then the knowing glances, the snap to the kiss, and Chuck pausing for a minute to smile, completely shocked that what is happening was, in fact, actually happening. The crescendo, so to speak, comes after (so to speak), when Chuck rushes to the bathroom to find the saddest "IOU one condom" note possible.
Casey makes colonel…
We've questioned his loyalties before, but come the beginning of this episode, Casey is a full-fledged asshole. Beckman has promoted him to colonel, and tasked him with bringing Sarah and Chuck back in. And despite what we know about Casey, including all the times he has embraced Chuck as ostensibly a friend, we also know that Casey is the kind of guy who follows orders, and it becomes fun to sort of hate him a little.
…but it's okay, because he's outed as a Chuck stalker in a moment of retribution
Casey needs a better hiding spot for his spy stuff at the Buy More, because it seems Lester and Jeff have discovered the secret compartment he's built into his locker to store a gun, a photo of Reagan, and a journal he keeps, logging every single tiny action Chuck does—including bathroom habits. They reveal all this to Captain Awesome, who decides to go all rogue in search of Chuck, and breaks into Casey's house to try and determine his whereabouts.
Back to Casey, he finds Sarah and Chuck, gets chained to a radiator by them, then freakin' breaks away from the wall, radiator in tow, and tries to take out Chuck, instead taking out the Fulcrum agents coming after our team
The limits of that man's physical prowess are astounding.
Now back to Awesome, he totally gets into the inner circle!
So he tries to break into Casey's house, see? But back at the Castle, Casey sees Awesome in his apartment, looking at the cameras pointed to Chuck's bedroom. So he confronts Awesome, who freaks out of course. But thanks to a fortuitous power outage (caused by Jeff and Lester, hoping to piss off Emmett), Sarah and Chuck escape the Castle and rush to Awesome's rescue. The man sees too much, though, so Chuck is forced to explain that, yes, he is a spy, and he needs Awesome's help to keep things under wraps. (The ensuing scene, in which Awesome tries to convince Ellie that Chuck is okay—but he can't say how he knows, or maybe he didn't see him after all—was pretty awesome too.)
More making out between Chuck and Sarah
The team, reunited (Casey was just upset he wasn't invited to help!), returns to the drive-in theater to rescue Chuck's dad, and a lot of stuff goes down in a twenty-minute span
Stephen Bartowski has completed the Intersect, so Roark gathers his minions—a bunch of bland looking men in convertibles—and has them watch the Intersect video, hoping to turn them into merciless, computer-less fighting machines. Hell, he'll be watching too. But Orion is a smart cookie, and he has actually created a program just for Chuck, as it removes the Intersect from his brain and does nothing for the others. The team escapes with Stephen, steals back the Intersect, and Roark is bombed by US fighter jets.
Ellie is reunited with her father and Chuck, and they go off to the rehearsal dinner together
As much as I don't usually like Ellie as a character, that was a nice moment.
Oh, before I forget, Morgan quits the Buy More
Remember how Emmett played our man last episode, using him to get Big Mike fired and Emmett promoted to manager? Well, he taps Morgan to be his Ass Man, which Morgan only accepts because Emmett promises to stop giving Big Mike lame job duties. But when it comes time for Morgan to get rid of Lester and Jeff, he snaps, quits in front of everyone, takes off his shirt, and whisks Anna away to a life of cheffing in sunny Hawaii. And Big Mike leads the slow clap to which Morgan exits. "You're free!" Lester shouts.
Then Chuck and Sarah hold hands, and it's a really nice ending to the episode—except the requisite finale set-up in which Roark is seen hitchhiking back to Burbank
That's one of the only two things I didn't like about this episode, actually. First, the action stuff at the drive-in was a little shmaltzy, and this from a show that has handled action stuff very well in the past. But in addition, so much happens during the episode, that I'm starting to wonder where the show can go for the finale, and if it will be satisfying enough if the show winds up being canceled. One things' for certain, though: It's going to be AWESOME.
Grade: A-
Stray observations:
- "I hate this whole family."
- "Can you be awesome?"