I have to admit, when I heard the title of this episode and saw the above picture on NBC's press site, I immediately thought of a very different episode–one involving Chuck seducing a pack of wild fortysomethings on their fifth flirtini at Tavern on Rush (Chicago reference). Hell, I'm sure I wasn't the only one. But what I imagined to be a gimmicky outing was actually a pretty fun, well-rounded episode, albeit slightly lacking the control of the last three.
For starters, we see a strong, confident Chuck a few weeks in the making. He's shown flashes (hey-o!) of it in the past–talking down Michael Clarke Duncan; stepping up his game to woo Melinda Clarke–but now that his relationship with Sarah is diving into the realm of total fantasy, it seems he's eager to go whole-hog into the secret world of spies. Thus he's eager to take credit for saving new pal Mark's life (Ben Savage, slummin' it a bit) and assume the role once again of Charles Carmichael/Mad Dog. Of course, Chuck talks a big game, but still betrays signs of himself–the worried look that crosses his face when Mark places his life in the protection of Chuck's hands; catching food in his mouth at the high school reunion. And in the end, Chuck manages to save the day (or at least be perceived to have done so) and bleed his newfound confidence into the rest of his life.
Then there's Lester at the Buy More, once again struggling to show authority over anyone or anything. He flails again tonight, desperate to prove to Big Mike that he's got the chops, and winds up implementing a flexible price plan that pushes a lot of merchandise, but leaves the store in the red. So everyone throws a party and charges an entrance fee, but when that gets predictably out of hand, Lester, who always skirts responsibility for failure, is at a loss. So he steps down. (Do you think the show's going to have each of the key employees–Jeff, Morgan, etc.–try their hand at managing?)
But we've seen all this Chuck and Lester stuff before, and done better; the real star of tonight's episode was Sarah. I've mentioned before that Sarah was never really given much to do in season one–other than protect Chuck and cast longing glances towards things. And just as much as I enjoyed seeing the inside of Casey's life in the first episode this season, so too was I eager to learn more about this beautiful spy.